Animalistic (Tiger in Her Bed)

Trent shoved the paper into Frank’s hand. “Frank Darbo; you have been served.”

Arielle took out her phone and snapped a picture.

For the first time since Trent had met her, Arielle was smiling.

Frank was flabbergasted, his face dark with fury. He looked as if he was going to say something rude to Arielle but changed his mind when Trent glowered at him. The cowardly man couldn’t do much without his bodyguard. “You’ll be hearing from my lawyer.”

“Yeah, I look forward to it,” Trent snapped back. He grabbed Arielle’s hand and escorted her out to the lobby, then made their way to the front entry. “Did you drive here?”

“I don’t have a car.”

“Taxi?”

“Yeah.”

“You look as if you could use some ice cream.”

“Ah. I’d love to. But I have to get back to the office. Rain check?”

Trent was happy to hear that. Friends for now was more than he could ask for. “Sure.”

John followed them outside.

“How did you get Frank to go with you?” asked Trent.

His brother waved his hand dismissively. “You know I have a superb power of persuasion.”

“Yeah, okay, and in the real world?”

“I told him I had some good coke, uncut, pure Nicaraguan, and asked if he wanted to party. Easy.”

“I bet he was pissed at you.”

“Yeah, he was. He took a swing at me. I knocked him out.”

“Are you kidding?” Arielle chimed in.

John patted Arielle’s shoulder like a doting parent. “There, there, little sis. I was only returning the favor for the misery you endured while trapped in the fireplace, and gave him a solid black eye. He won’t be getting up for a while.”

Arielle joined in their grins. “Best news I heard all day. But you do know, he can sue you for assault or even have you arrested, right?”

“Self-defense. I also have a very expensive lawyer on retainer. Don’t sweat it. How about we drive you home? You didn’t drive here, did you?”

“I need to get back to the office.”

“Then we’ll drive you back to the office to make sure you get there safe and sound.”

Chapter Four

The day didn’t end as badly as it had started, Arielle mused as she rode shotgun in the black Lexus. After everything that went wrong since the morning, she was looking forward to unwinding after work. God, she really needed it. A hot bath and the bottle of wine, she didn’t finish yesterday were definitely in order. She had earned it. She’d been exhausting herself at work all week. She had been handling three-person workloads since she returned to the firm six months ago, courtesy of Sabrina.

Arielle allowed herself to relax a little and found she wasn’t as tense as before. She was able to serve Frank Darbo, and get that one thing get out of the way; then she could start getting her life back on track tomorrow morning.

It really was nice of Trent and his brother to help her.

Without them, she’d probably still be stuck in the fireplace, and the hotel would probably have had to call the fire department. There’d be a dramatic rescue while some reporters that covered the silly incident would explain why a woman masquerading as Santa got stuck in a chimney.

Arielle would have died if that had actually happened.