Page 1 of Lynx
1
Rachel
The forest is silent.I can hear the blood beating in my chest. It's Eerie. The soft, gentle sound of my engine cooling ticks beside me like a broken clock on cocaine. The wind rustles through the leaves. My footsteps sound louder than usual. The incredibly inappropriate high heels I’m wearing crunch through the leaves and the grass and the twigs on the ground.
“Hello?” I look around me. Nothing but trees and rocks and a beautiful wood cabin overlooking the valley. But somehow, I can’t quite shake the feeling I’m being watched. “Is anyone here?”
I lift my ear to the sky. Straining to detect the faintest of replies. But all I hear is a big fat nothing.
Straightening my back, and clasping onto the thick wad of legal papers beneath my arm, I start my walk towards the cabin.
And that’s when I hear it…
A dull, metallic click crashes through the air.
I might be a city girl, but I’d know that sound anywhere.
My whole body freezes.
Mid stride.
I turn my head ever so slowly. My eyes searching the shadows.
“Stay right there.” A deep, gravelly voice booms across the clearing.
“Please,” I say, my voice trembling uncontrollably. “I’m just here to do my job.”
“I know why you’re here,” the voice says. This time it comes from a different direction. Could there be more than one person? Or is this guy seriously trying to fuck with me? I’ve never felt so hopeless in all my life. Knowing that somewhere nearby there’s a person who could end my life with the pull of a trigger. “And I’m not interested, little girl. Just turn that pretty ass of yours around and get back in your car. Leave. And never come back.”
I wipe the sweat from my forehead with the back of my hand. It’s a cool Fall day, high up in the mountains, but I’m sweating like it’s midsummer in the desert.
A wave of courage floods through me.
Who the hell does this guy think he is?
Turning me down. Sending me home. Calling me little girl.
I’ve worked too damn hard to be treated so flippantly. There’s no way in heck I’m leaving here without what I came for.
“No,” I say, my voice more confident than I actually feel. “My name is Rachel Bower, and I represent Lawson, Taylor, Greene LLP. I have come here to acquire the signature of one Lynx O’Malley, in relation to the settlement and distribution of his father's last will and testimony. One, Calvin Patrick O’Malley.” The little modicum of courage I started with builds inside me as I fall back on my legal training. I may be in the middle of a frigging forest, miles away from the nearest fresh warm coffee. Completely out of my comfort zone. Wearing a plain white suit shirt that hugs my large round breasts, and a tight black pencil skirt that accentuates my curvy figure. But that doesn’t mean I’m gonna let some neanderthal with a shotgun push me around. I promised my bosses I’d get this damn signature. I pretty much stacked my career on it. If I turn around and slink back home with my tail between my legs I’ll never get the promotion I’ve been working so hard for. And that is not an acceptable outcome. “All I need is a moment of your time, and then I’ll be out of your hair. You can go back to roaming around the hills trying to scare women with your big, nasty gun.”
His laugh booms out through the air. Echoing off the stony cliffs that surround us. It sends a shiver of fear down my spine, but I don’t let it show. Instead, I turn to face him. My chin held high, and a well-practiced don’t-fuck-with-me look on my face.
But, instead of the gnarly, wizened old man I was expecting to see, the person before me is so devastatingly handsome I almost gasp.
“You’re a feisty one.” He steps out of the dark. The double-barrelled shotgun he’s holding is pointed at the ground. His huge arms and oversized hands make it look like a children’s toy. There’s a mischievous grin on his handsome, sun-kissed face. “But you’re wasting your time. You may have the body of a goddess, Rachel Bower, but you’re still a vampire. I don’t want anything to do with your legal bullshit, and there’s no way in hell I’m signing anything to do with my asshole of a father.”
“Fine.” He starts walking towards me. His eyes roam my body. My heart beats so fast and loud it feels like it’s in my throat. But, somehow, I manage to stand my ground. My panties are suddenly soaking wet. One half of my mind screams at me to turn and run, the other to jump into his arms and bury my tongue between his teeth. “Then I guess I’ll just have to stay here until you change your mind.”
“Aye.” He walks straight on past me, towards his cabin. I turn to look at his broad, square shoulders and his narrow, strong hips as he walks away from me. “It’s a free country. Do what you like. Although, this here is private property. And, seeing as how you’re a lawyer, I guess you know what that means.”
He gets to his front door and grips the handle. “Lynx!”
His body freezes. He turns his head slightly, so he can see me over his shoulder. “You still here?”
“I really need to use the restroom.”
“So?”
