Behind the Eight Ball Read Online Free PDF

passed out in here?” Smirking, Janelle leaned a little closer to me. “Well, hold on to your ass, Lawson. I believe he’s your mate.”
    After her grand announcement, she sat back up, a smile on her face while I waited for the punch line to the joke because I knew, just knew she was kidding. She had to be. Because if she wasn’t….
    “No.”
    Janelle swung her leg back and forth, grinning like mad. “Yes.”
    “Fuck!”
    “There’ll be plenty of that too.”
    I glared at her. “Not helping.”
    “Sure I am. Look, you know mates are a big deal. We all want that person who’s perfect for us, a cherished life companion. They’re our balance—the other half of our souls. Finding a mate is a gift.”
    “Gift?” I waved my hand at the shop beyond the closed door. “That man ran from here, Janelle. Ran.”
    “True, and I don’t like that.” Janelle sniffed. “That was a tacky thing to do. Honestly that’s outside what a normal shifter would do, and that’s worrisome.”
    “Worrisome? Janelle, he ran out of here. I mean, he acted like the hounds of hell were after him.”
    “If they had been, he’d have never made it to his truck.”
    “Whaaaa—yeah, just never mind. Really. I don’t want to know. I really, really don’t want to know. I know too much as it is.” I closed my eyes, buried my hands in my hair, and gave it a good tug. A good, hard one. “Jesus.”
    “I know since you’re human, you might find this hard to believe.”
    I opened my eyes. “I passed ‘hard to believe’ close to ten years ago. I know there are paranormals.” I slumped in my chair and waved in her general direction. “I mean…. Hello? I know you and Marshell. It’s not that. I just never thought the man I’d spend my life with would be anything but human. I’ve never really thought about this man much at all.”
    “Well, you will now, trust me. You’ll be thinking about him and all the sexy things he can do to you a lot.”
    “Would you stop already?” I was getting hard just from talking about the man who might be my mate. I wanted to scream. Actually I wanted to toss Janelle out of my office, jack off, and then scream. “Just hold up a minute. This is too much. I, ah, need to think for a second. Just… hold on.”
    “Holding on.”
    I glared at her. She always said that when I said “hold on.”
    “You can think all you want. It’s not going to change a thing, but you go right on ahead. Have a good think, sweetie.”
    “Gee, thanks.” After getting in another glare at her for good measure, I sipped my coffee, trying to get my scrambled thoughts together. Guess I needed to start with the most obvious. “Okay, first off. Why do you think he’s my mate?”
    “From the amount of pheromones he pumped into the air.”
    “So he found someone attractive in the shop. That doesn’t mean it was me, or that I’m his mate.”
    Janelle just shook her head at me. “Don’t be dense.”
    I gave her my best “Are you kidding me?” look.
    “Fine.” Janelle rolled her eyes. “Tell me what happened. I mean, go through it and don’t leave anything out. Everything, Lawson. Every word, twitch, and smell you noticed.”
    I started with the first moment I saw the guy, my impressions, and went from there. Yes, I found him sexy—all that long, wavy black hair, pale skin, and those slightly slanted dark sapphire-blue eyes. His face was angular with sharp cheekbones and a somewhat pointed chin.
    I remembered he had stubble along his jawline with a mustache and goatee. Oh, and that body of his. I was willing to bet he was sleekly sculpted and streamlined. He had to be around my age: thirties, I’d guess. Who wouldn’t find that sexy? But it was more than that. The guy looked a little lost, a little awkward.
    He stared at the store items we carried as if they were dangerous. Like they might jump off the shelves and bite him. I’d found it cute in an endearing sort of way. That changed when he started acting funny. I