Chapter Thirteen
Axel
Axel cleans up his office. It’s not messy by any means, but he wants it to be presentable, nice for Chloe.
He pulls in another chair so they can sit next to each other.
He’s nervous. He knows he does a good job running the business.
Knows he can’t take care of everything, which is why they have Maury, their accountant, to help.
He hears her before he sees her. Her voice is soft and carries down the hall to his office. Sweet and calming to his nerves. He stands to greet her, and his face splits into a big smile when she walks through the door. Gunner smirks at him before leaving Chloe and heading back.
“Good morning,” Axel says, walking around the desk to greet her.
“Morning,” she responds. Her smile is bright and she looks awake for it being early still.
He motions towards the desk for her, and she sits down in front of the computer. He can scent her, honeysuckle. It will fill his office and linger for a long time; he loves it. Loves having her in his space.
As she sits in front of his computer, he feels proud of his mate. She’s smart and hardworking, and if anyone can help him, it’s her. Many bears would feel shame at having a human outsider help them, but not Axel, he couldn’t be prouder.
Chloe spends a long time looking through spreadsheets and files.
She asks questions at the beginning, and then it's just her moving through things on her own. Axel sits quietly. He doesn’t want to interrupt her, but the quieter she gets, the more nervous he becomes that something’s wrong.
Could he have messed up somewhere? Is this all his fault?
He tries not to worry and waits for Chloe to tell him something.
He’s just fetched them another cup of coffee when she clears her throat. She’s been quiet for two hours now, and he can sense her anxiety.
“Axel, I’ll have to look over things some more before I know anything for sure.”
“But you think it’s something, right? You think something’s wrong?”
She worries her bottom lip with her teeth like she doesn’t want to say anything. For a moment, she just clicks around on the screen without talking.
“Like I said, I don’t know anything for sure yet. But...it looks like you make a lot of payments to someone named Maury?”
“Yes, he’s our tax guy. He tells us how much we owe in taxes for the land and the lodge, and we send the payments to him, and he takes care of it.”
“I don’t know much about property taxes, but this seems like an awful lot.”
“I thought so too, but he showed me the payment stubs. About a year after my dad died, our old accountant moved to Idaho and referred us to Maury. He’s been doing the accounting ever since. Should I call him?”
“No, don’t,” she says quickly. “I want to look into things myself first before we involve him. I should be able to access some public records and match them up with the figures Maury gave you.”
“How long do you think that will take? This is your vacation and you’re my guest. I don’t want you working while you’re here. And I can’t...money’s tight right now. I can’t afford to pay you.”
She stands and walks around the desk to where Axel’s standing, still holding two coffee cups. He sets them down on the desk as she comes closer. For a moment, she just peers up at him, her eyes on his. He feels warmth in his chest looking at her.
“It’s ok,” she places her arm on his forearm, rubbing slightly back and forth. “We’ll figure it out, together.”
Her smile is so bright he can’t help but lean down and press a soft kiss to her lips.
She moans into his mouth, and he walks her back the short distance to the desk, letting it hit her bottom before he picks her up and sets her on it.
She immediately spreads her legs for him to fit in between them, and he feels his cock thicken in his pants.
His perfect mate, opening up so sweetly for him, trying to help him with the business.
Her hands are on his shoulders, in his hair, sliding back down to grip his biceps.
He feels fire blaze on his skin everywhere she touches, even through his t-shirt and flannel.
He can’t get enough. Her one hand slides down his chest, and he shivers at the contact.
He’s fully hard now and straining in his jeans.
Chloe reaches the top of his jeans and pops the button.
Immediately, he pulls away from the kiss, still keeping his body close.
“Chloe, as much as I love this, we should go slow.”
Her bottom lip juts out in a pout, and he can’t help but smile at how adorable she looks.
“But I’m only here another week or so. Are you worried someone might walk in?”
He’s not worried, he knows his brothers would hear them and stay far away. But he wants things to be special with her. And he knows she’s leaving soon, whether or not she chooses to come back to him is another thing. But he doesn’t want to rush this.
“I want to go slow with you. I don’t date, and you’re...special. This is…” He doesn’t want to tell her he’s a virgin, that he’s never had a relationship. He doesn't want to scare her off. “This is important to me,” he tells her.
It seems to be the right thing to say because she immediately brightens, and her pout is gone. He loves that he can make her smile like this. He kisses her chastely on the lips.
“Thank you for understanding.”
Chloe goes back to work, muttering to herself and taking notes in a notebook she borrowed from him.
He lets her be. Going back to the front of the lodge and manning the desk.
He wants to stay by her, sit next to her, and wrap his arm around the back of her chair.
Breathe in her sweet honeysuckle scent and just be with her.
But he gives her space. He knows what it’s like to work with someone hovering, and he trusts her implicitly, so he doesn’t care if she’s in the office without him.
He’s organizing the various brochures when Jack strides over.
“How’s the lucky lady?”
Axel frowns at him and goes back to what he was doing.
“Seriously? How is she? She’s helping you out with the books, right? Anything turn up?”
Axel’s not sure what he should say. Chloe hasn’t found anything definite, and the payments to Maury are legitimate, he has no doubt about it.
“Nothing yet. She’s working, though, looking through everything.”
“Cool, cool. So did you guys hook up yet?”
This time Axel growls and steps towards his brother. How dare he ask about Chloe that way? Like she’s just some girl, some woman Axel is getting with.
“Hey, man,” Jack puts his hands up and steps back from the desk. “I didn’t mean anything by it. I know she’s your mate.”
Axel nods his head at his brother in understanding.
“It’s just you have the opportunity to sleep with her. None of us has had that before,” Jack scratches the back of his neck. “I’m just wondering what it’s like.”
“We haven’t...we’ve only kissed. Nothing else. I told her I want to wait.”
“Isn’t she leaving soon? I mean, are you going to go to New York to be with her?”
Raif stomps over from around the corner carrying pruning shears, clearly having heard what Axel and Jack were talking about, if the look on his face says anything.
Axel huffs out a big breath. He’s not in the mood to deal with Raif and his attitude right now.
“Raif,” he begins.
“If she’s really your mate…” Raif looks at the ground like he’s angry at it. “If she’s really your mate, do anything you can to keep her. If that means leaving Montana to be with her, that's ok, we’ll get by.”
Axel is floored. He never expected this reaction from Raif, especially after he stormed out of the kitchen the other night.
He thought Raif would be angry. Angry that Axel got a mate first, angry that she plans on leaving, and angry that the lodge is failing.
But instead, he’s being supportive, even if he is scowling at the ground like it physically pains him to tell his brothers these things.
“Thanks, Raif.”
“No problem,” he grounds out before taking the pruning shears and stomping outside.
“Lovely guy, our brother,” Jack says, leaning his forearms on the front desk.
“He’s just had it rough since Dad died.”
“We’ve all had it rough,” Jack replies, meeting Axel’s eyes with a hard look on his face. “He’s always been an ass, he just chose to become more of an ass after Dad died.”
Axel nods. He can’t deny that Raif has always been different from them, always angry at the world. When their Dad died, he shut everyone out. It’s amazing he hasn’t gone feral yet.
It’s Axel’s responsibility to look out for his brothers. His responsibility is to take care of the lodge and make sure it succeeds. And now his responsibility is to be the best mate he can be to a woman he barely knows. He doesn’t know if he can do it all.