By the Tail by Marie Harte Read Free Book Online

Quince didn’t know the asshole would take kickbacks and skim rent off the top.
    “Sure, right.” Ellis and Jace exchanged a glance.
    Oliver, a CPA with a brain like a calculator, took a step inside the office, took a good look at Quince, then turned around and left the room, shutting the door behind him.
    “What?” Quince growled. “Who’s next?” He normally disliked the open office time on Wednesday afternoons, when the pride could bring him their concerns and requests for assistance. But lately it seemed no one wanted their due, just more than they needed. How the hell could he get the pride back to running smoothly if the same selfish dickheads wasted his time on trivial matters? “And why the hell aren’t you two dealing with this shit instead of me?” he asked Ellis and Jace, who continued to stare at him in concern.
    “See, we’re thinking you need a break,” Jace said.
    “I need to get us back on track. Where’s Dana with the spreadsheets? I need to see how our real estate assets are sitting. Is Rain out there?”
    Ellis shook his head and spoke calmly, slowly. “Rain is probably in his office handling the stuff you gave him to work on last night. And Dana and Willow are with Joy, remember?”
    He glared at Ellis. “I’m not senile. I just forgot.” Not that it should be any great surprise Joy wasn’t around.
    Jace snorted.
    “You have something to say?” he asked, more than ready to tear someone apart. Quince wanted to hunt something down and kill it. For the past week, he’d seen Joy sparingly while she watched him from a distance. She’d spent time with his lieutenants and Dana and Willow touring the pride, seeing it from the inside out, gauging the politics and dithering that normally soaked up all his free time.
    So much for the grand seduction he’d had planned. The woman continued to steer clear of him, even sitting ten feet away at last night’s dinner in the estate commons where he and his council took meals.
    “Joy has been asking questions and listening to everything we tell her,” Ellis said.
    “Yeah. And?”
    “And I get the impression she’s still not too sure of you,” Jace answered. “I thought you had this handled.”
    By
handled
, Jace meant securing the woman’s attention. The pride leader was expected to take a mate. Michael’s had died years ago during his tenure as leader, so he’d been excused. Now that Quince had returned and the pride seemed in order, there’d been noise about having a more stable influence in charge. Namely, a pride leader with a female by his side.
    On the one hand, not having a mate would solve his problems. He didn’t want to be in charge. But not having a suitable replacement nixed that idea. He’d step down in a heartbeat if a better candidate appeared. Instead, he had Lex’s groupies and sniveling idiots like Leonard who wanted the position. And none of his lieutenants had asked for the job. No, all the smart ones knew how thankless and time-consuming being pride leader actually was.
    Yet, needing a mate gave Quince the perfect opportunity to approach Joy. He’d intended for her to realize how wrong she’d been about him and Lex. See how stellar a job he was doing, then be seduced by his manly prowess in bed. He knew he could thrill her body, but the stubborn woman had eluded him to such an extent he wondered if she even remembered their lovemaking. Or had it just been incredible in
his
mind?
    He snarled, experiencing a deep need to turn feline and rake the palm trees in the courtyard once more, as he’d done last night.
    “Easy there, oh great pride leader.” Trust Jace not to back down when he should. “I’m just saying maybe you need to step it up a notch. You need a mate, and the one you apparently want isn’t around enough to get things started.”
    “I thought you’d nailed it.” Ellis’s eyes grew large when Quince stood from behind the desk and advanced on him. “Nailed
it
. Nailed
it
, Quince,