Obsession by Bonnie Vanak Page B

need to feed you.”
    Absorbed with the idea of sneaking in time with his laptop, she shook her head. “I’ll stay here and finish. I’m almost done and I’m not hungry.”
    “You haven’t been hungry since your arrival. I need to feed you.”
    Sighing, she closed the file folder and accompanied him downstairs. Jessica glanced around the gleaming kitchen. “Where do I start?”
    He blinked. “Start what?”
    “Lunch. You’re hungry, you want me to make you something to eat. What do you like?” She opened the fridge and glanced at the contents. “Bachelor wolf. Nothing much in here. No matter.”
    “I do not expect you to…”
    Jessica looked at him, really looked at him. Fatigue smudged his dark eyes, and bracketed his wide mouth. She felt a sudden pull of sympathy.
    Taking his hand, she guided him to the kitchen table and pulled out a chair. “Sit. I’ll make us lunch. I’m a pro at this. Is there anything you don’t like?”
    Raphael tilted his head, as if he couldn’t figure her out. “I never waste food. I eat everything.”
    “That’ll work.”
    In the pantry she found a large can of mushroom soup, packaged chicken and a small bag of white rice. Jessica bustled around the kitchen, talking about her family and her foster siblings as she cooked. When she told him about the time when little Russ wanted to help bake a little cake for her and put toothpaste on it instead of icing.
    “And you threw it out,” he guessed.
    She found two bottles of green iced tea, opened them and set one before Raphael. “I ate it. The little guy went to all that trouble, I couldn’t hurt his feelings. It was just a small cake. At least it was mint toothpaste.”
    His gaze softened. “You have a kind heart.”
    Embarrassed at the praise, she scooped up the chicken, covered it with the gravy she’d made and dished out servings of rice and set both plates on the table with silverware.
    Raphael picked up his fork and cut his chicken into neat, precise pieces. He ate one and sighed with pleasure. “Delicious.”
    Judging from the luxurious furnishings in his home, the Lupine had plenty of money and could hire a cook to make gourmet meals. Jessica shook her head. “It’s just a simple meal I make for the kids when my foster mother asks me to cook.”
    “Sometimes the simple meals are the best.”
    She dug into the chicken with zest. Raphael was right. She liked this kind of impromptu meal.
    Watching him eat, she wondered about this Lupine. He had the dominance and power of an alpha, yet served as J.J.’s beta. He knew a lot about computers and appeared extremely organized, as if he’d run his own business.
    “How did you learn about computers?” she asked.
    He took a deep swallow of tea. “I’ve always had an affinity for technical matters, and writing software programs.”
    Interesting. “You worked as a programmer before you came here to the ranch?”
    His mouth quirked upward. “Enough of me, Jessica. Tell me something. My background checks indicate you’ve hacked at least twice into your alpha’s system. Why do you do it?”
    She lifted her shoulders.
    Leaning back, he lifted a finger. “Once, you hacked once into your alpha’s system to change the time on an important pack meeting. Quite benign.” Raphael held up a second finger. “The next time, you did it for a friend. You tried to find out if I was Jeremiah Jackson Taylor, the one Alexa had sold her virginity to. Had you dug deeper, you would have discovered I am J.J.’s business manager, not J.J. himself.”
    Feeling a flush heat her face, Jessica lifted her shoulders. “I was trying to help out my girl. I didn’t have much time to investigate you further, because my alpha keeps an eye on me.”
    “Why do you hack?” he repeated. “You have a solid job, for a college graduate. And yet you have the skills of an experienced hacker. You haven’t done it for profit or personal gain.”
    She ate more chicken, ruminating over the answer. How could