Naughty by Nature

  NAUGHTY BY NATURE

  JUDY ANGELO

  The NAUGHTY AND NICE Series

  Volume 1

  Copyright © 2012 Judy Angelo

  Lyons Publishing Limited

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form, electronic or otherwise (mechanical, photocopying, recording or stored in a retrieval system) without the prior written consent of the Publisher. Such action is an infringement of the copyright law.

  This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Author contact: [email protected]

  To get updates on new books by Judy Angelo subscribe at http://www.judyangelo.blogspot.com

  The BAD BOY BILLIONAIRES Series

  by Judy Angelo

  Volume 1 - Tamed by the Billionaire

  Volume 2 - Maid in the USA

  Volume 3 - Billionaire's Island Bride

  Volume 4 - Dangerous Deception

  Volume 5 - To Tame a Tycoon

  Volume 6 - Sweet Seduction

  Volume 7 - Daddy by December

  Volume 8 - To Catch a Man (in 30 Days or Less)

  BAD BOY BILLIONAIRES, Mega-Collection - Vols. 1 - 8

  BAD BOY BILLIONAIRES, Collection I - Vols. 1 - 4

  BAD BOY BILLIONAIRES, Collection II - Vols. 5 - 8

  (Two free stories in the Mega-collection;

  one free story in each, Collection I and II;

  purchase collections for yourself or as a gift - and save)

  The NAUGHTY AND NICE Series

  Now available:

  Volume 1 - Naughty by Nature

  Coming soon:

  Volume 2 - Sweet Charlotte

  Volume 3 - Miss Independent

  THE NAUGHTIER THE BETTER...

  Tessa Tyndale is known for her naughty nature. Although she's a high school teacher she's no angel. She's been guilty of a prank or two. And then she meets Wolf Spencer, gloomy and serious, the very opposite of Tessa's idea of the ideal mate. But, strangely enough, this is the man who makes her heart race. Now if only she can change him from grumpy to fun-loving...it's a challenge that she's willing to take on. With Tessa, anything is possible.

  Wolf Spencer is intrigued by the petite blonde pixie he meets at his friend's wedding. But when he tries to make friends he's surprised to find that she's not at all interested in him. And then he realizes that she's nothing like what he'd thought. Far from being demure, this woman is daring and bold and not at all afraid of playing tricks on him. Wolf soon finds out that around Tessa nobody is safe, especially not him...

  NAUGHTY BY NATURE

  CHAPTER ONE

  “Man, talk about a whirlwind romance. How did you pull that off so fast? I still can’t get over it.”

  Wolf Spencer crossed his arms as he stood by the huge mahogany desk, looking down at his friend and business associate. Stone Hudson sat relaxed in a high-backed leather chair and on his face was a broad smile.

  “Cupid was hard at work, that’s all I can say.” Stone chuckled as he waved Wolf over to a nearby chair. “Let me tell you something. The day you meet that woman who will make your life complete, you’ll know.”

  You'll know. The words echoed in Wolf’s mind. Stone had met the woman of his dreams and he’d known right away, it seemed. Was he falling under the same kind of crazy spell?

  He pushed the thought from his mind. He was here on business and, as far as he was concerned, business trumped pleasure any day.

  “We’ve got the series ready, Stone. All thirteen episodes.” He reached out and dropped a folder on the desk. "For this documentary series we made sure not to focus only on the people but also on their environment. We’ve included lots of shots of the landscape. I think you’ll love it.”

  Stone nodded. “I’m sure I will. Your production team never ceases to amaze me.” He picked up the folder and read the title. “The Peoples of Canada, Volume I,” he said aloud then he began to leaf through the pages, nodding every now and then, and raising his eyebrows from time to time. “You’ve got a lot of good information on the various First Nations groups and cultures. Good.”

  “Yes,” Wolf said, leaning forward. “It all starts there, then we move on to the first immigrants then early settlement then nation building. It closes with a look at twenty-first century immigration and its impact on modern-day Canada.”

  “Good stuff and right on time as usual. It’s always good working with you, man.” He reached out a hand.

  Wolf smiled. “Same here.” He took Stone’s hand and gave it a quick, firm shake.

  Wolf had been doing business with Hudson Broadcasting Corporation for over six years, producing video materials and television programming season after season. Over the years he and Stone had become much more than business associates. In fact, they were so close that Stone had invited him to attend his wedding all the way in South Africa.

  He’d gone, of course, without hesitation. He would have gone to Timbuktu if Stone had asked. He loved and respected him that much.

  But what had floored him wasn’t the fact that Stone was getting married so far away from Canada. It was the sudden announcement of the wedding that had knocked him back on his heels. As far as he knew, Stone hadn’t been seeing anyone. If he’d been in a relationship Wolf would definitely have known. That wasn’t something his friend would have kept secret.

  Then Wolf traveled to India for a few weeks to visit friends there, and the next thing he knew he arrived back in Canada to hear a message on his machine – “Get that tux out of the closet, Wolf. You’re going to be my best man.” And within five days of receiving the message he was on a plane to South Africa to stand by the side of his friend.

  And it was there that he’d seen her. The woman who made his cold and cynical heart lurch inside his chest. A little blonde pixie who looked at him with eyes dancing with mischief. She was the chief bridesmaid and she’d been introduced as Miss Tessa Tyndale.

  “You still with me, man?”

  “Huh? Yes.” Wolf dragged himself back to the present.

  “You look like you’ve got something on your mind.” Stone frowned at him. “What’s up?”

  Feeling like a fool, Wolf shrugged casually. “I’m cool. Don’t worry about it.” He must be going soft in the head, sitting there daydreaming about some woman he’d only met once.

  “No, you’re not.” Stone’s tone was adamant. “You’ve got something on your mind. Now give.”

  Wolf almost glared at his friend but then he shook his head. Stone knew what a stubborn ass he could be sometimes. He’d felt something that day in South Africa, that rose-colored evening when he’d met Tessa Tyndale. And he’d been denying it ever since. Now it was time to be honest – with Stone and with himself.

  “Okay, I will.” He leaned back in the chair and crossed his arms. “Tell me about Tessa Tyndale.”

  Stone frowned and looked confused. “Tessa? What do you want to know?”

  “Everything you can tell me about her.”

  As Wolf expected, the confusion lifted from Stone’s face and in its place was a look of gloating. “Ahh, now I understand. Good old Cupid has struck again.”

  Wolf snorted. “You know me, Stone. I don’t believe in that crap. Love at first sight and all that mush.”

  Stone cocked an eyebrow. “No? So why the questions about Tessa?”

  “I didn’t say I wasn’t interested. Yeah, she piqued my interest, but that doesn’t mean I’ve gone and fallen in love with her.”

  “Mmhmm,” Stone murmured, nodding slowly and looking like he knew something Wolf didn’t. “M
aybe not, but just maybe…”

  “All right, you’ve had your fun.” Wolf uncrossed his arms and leaned forward. “What do you know about her, Stone? Where can I find her?”

  Stone chuckled. “Okay, I’ll put you out of your misery.” He leaned back in the chair and clasped his hands behind his head. “Her name is Tessa Tyndale and she’s Indie’s best friend.”

  “I know all that,” Wolf said. "Of course she’s your wife’s friend. Why else would she have been chief bridesmaid? But where is she? And how can I see her again?”

  Stone shook his head and in his eyes was a look of mock pity. “You amaze me, Wolf. It’s been three months since the wedding and I know this thing has been burning you up yet you’re only now asking me about Tessa? You obstinate fool, you’ve been fighting it all this time? Why didn’t you ask me before?”

  Wolf glared at Stone. “Because I wanted to see if it was just one of those passing things. I wanted to see if I’d forget her.”

  “But you didn’t. Instead, it got stronger.”

  Wolf gave him a rueful grin. “Yeah.” There was no use denying it. Tessa Tyndale had gotten under his skin, a thorn that would not let him rest until he had seen her again.

  “Sorry to tell you this, Wolf, but you’ve got it bad.” Stone was grinning openly now, looking like he was enjoying Wolf’s dilemma. But then he wiped the smile from his face and gave Wolf a serious look. “But let me warn you - Tessa and you are like oil and water. That rigid, stick-in-the-mud personality of yours won’t fly with her, I’ll tell you that now. She’s a handful, Wolf, and I don’t know if, with your surly style, you can handle her.”

  “Let me be the judge of that,” Wolf said, although inside he was wincing at Stone’s harsh but accurate description. “Just give me the girl’s number.”

  “No can do.” Stone reached up and began loosening his tie, and he was laughing at Wolf. “But I can give her yours. I’ll have her call you.”

  “Fine.” Wolf shrugged and got up. “Make sure you give it to her tonight.”

  “Oh, anxious, are we?” Stone was still chuckling. “You’ve waited three whole months. You can wait a few more days. In fact…” he pulled the tie from around his neck and threw it over onto the sofa in typical messy-Stone fashion, “…I’ll do better than just giving her your number. I’ll have Indie invite her over for dinner on Sunday. Consider yourself invited, too. Then you can give her your number yourself.”

  “Sounds great.” It was a damn good idea. His usually cranky mood was lightening at the thought. “What time?”

  “Around six. And come with your game face on. I’m warning you, Tessa won’t take kindly to a grump asking her out.”

  “Yeah, yeah,” Wolf said, dismissing him. “I can handle her.”

  “I don’t know, she can be a challenge…” A look of concern crossed Stone’s face. Of course, it was fake. “If she gets to be too much, don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

  Wolf could only laugh as he headed for the door. “I’ll be all right,” he said over his shoulder.

  After all, who couldn’t handle a pretty little thing like Tessa Tyndale?

  ******

  “I’m telling you, Manuel, get down off that desk before I take you down.” Tessa’s voice was firm as she stood at the front of the classroom. It didn’t matter that the boy she was addressing was, at eighteen years old, already a man and twice her size. He was disrupting her class and it was going to stop. Right now.

  “He’s drunk, Miss Tyndale.” Jackie’s voice piped up. “They dared him to drink three beers and he did and look at him now.” The girl stared at her classmate with huge eyes as if the whole scenario was just too much for her.

  “Drinking while under age and getting intoxicated on the school grounds is bad enough, but acting like a lunatic-”

  Tessa was cut off when Manuel jumped off the desk...and fell on his behind at Jackie’s feet. She shot up with a shriek that made the class erupt in peals of laughter.

  “Quiet! Or else you’re all staying one extra hour after school.” That shut them up fast, and except for a few titters from the girls at the back, they were good as gold.

  Tessa walked over to where Manuel still sat looking dazed. She grabbed his arms. “Now, come on. You and me, we’re going to the principal’s office.”

  “You and I, Miss Tyndale,” came a whisper. “That’s what you told us.”

  Tessa gave her a nod as she continued to pull on the boy's arm. Yes, Jackie, that’s the proper way to say it but now is not the time. She beckoned to the boys sitting close by. “Come on, help me get him up. I’m strong but not that strong.”

  Two of them hopped up immediately and helped Manuel to his feet then she draped his arm over her shoulder and headed for the door with her charge leaning heavily on her.

  “I’ll be right back, guys,” she squeaked, gasping under Manuel’s weight. “Start reading chapter eight till I get back.”

  And so began her second session for the day at Princess Diana Memorial High School. A typical day in the drama that was Tessa’s life.

  She’d been teaching at the high school since leaving York University three years earlier and she’d never had a dull day since arriving that rainy September day. She loved teaching, molding young minds and motivating her students to always being their best but goodness, every day brought a new challenge. She suspected that part of the problem was the simple fact that she was so small. Only five foot two, most of her students, and especially the boys, towered over her. She guessed sometimes her diminutive size made it harder for them to take her seriously.

  And Manuel, her burden to bear right now, was one of those who had a big problem with accepting the fact that she was in charge. He reminded her of another student who had been a real trial her very first year in the classroom. Ivan Fisher, or Ivan the Terrible as she’d begun to think of him. She’d been only twenty-two then, not much older than her students, and at six foot three and almost three hundred pounds her first view of Ivan had been scary, to say the least. But a good dose of Tessa Tyndale had him – not right away but by the end of the semester – eating out of her hand. You just had to know how to handle these giants.

  So Manuel thought he could do what he wanted and disrupt her class? Little did he know she’d had to handle worse than him and before this second semester was over he would be as calm as Lake Ontario. She would make sure of that.

  “I’ve been cutting you a lot of slack, Manuel,” she grunted as she struggled under his weight, “but no more. This time you’re getting it.”

  Manuel only moaned and rested even more of his weight on her. Great.

  By the time Tessa and Manuel finished their impromptu meeting with the principal – which lasted only five minutes since she had to get back to her class – Manuel was mourning and Tessa was rejoicing.

  Getting drunk on campus was grounds for suspension but Tessa had a better idea and one that she was sure would be far more effective with a boy like Manuel. Instead of suspension he would be her teaching assistant until the end of the semester. Tessa never saw a boy apologize so fast. But no, he would not get out of it so easily. She was looking forward to having Mr. Manuel Pryce under her wing. And as she walked back to her class, leaving her student in the care of the principal, she had a huge smile on her face.

  That night Tessa was pleasantly surprised to get a call from her best friend, Indie, just as she was getting ready for bed.

  “Oh, so now you call me back?” she said in the toughest voice she could muster. “I left you a message a week ago.”

  “I know, Tessa. It’s just been crazy around here. I had to fly back to South Africa to do some follow up work with the project manager who replaced me, but I’m back now and I want to see you.”

  “Yeah, yeah, throw poor old Tessa a pity bone,” Tessa said, rubbing it in. She loved making Indie feel guilty. There was no telling what she could get from her friend when she felt guilty. She decided to rub it in some more. “Now that you’re a m
arried woman you don’t have time for li’l ole me, your spinster friend. But it’s okay. I expected it.”

  “Tessa Tyndale, don’t make me come over there,” Indie said in her big bad girl voice. And then she spoiled it with a laugh. “Seriously, we need to connect. Can you come over for dinner on Sunday?”

  “Hmm, let me see. Sunday, Sunday…I may already have an engagement.”

  “Yeah, right. You get your butt over here Sunday evening at six o’clock." Indie’s tone was adamant. “And it’s not just me saying that. Stone wants to see you, too. He was the one who suggested we have a special dinner and invite you over.”

  “Oh, so it was Stone’s idea, not yours?” Tessa tried to sound offended but it didn’t come off as great as she’d hoped. It was hard to sound mad when you were grinning.

  “Look here, girl, I’m not going to debate with you," Indie said sternly. "When you get here on Sunday I’ll give you a big, fat hug and it will be all from me. Okay?”

  “Okay,” Tessa conceded, “but I want two.”

  “You’ve got it.” Indie was chuckling now. “Oh, and Tess, Stone said to dress pretty. Apparently, he’s also invited one of his friends over.”

  “Darn, and there I was planning to wear my sweatpants and a hoodie.”

  “Not this time. We’ll be having company so make sure you look decent.”

  “So, who’s coming?” Tessa asked, her curiosity getting the better of her. “Somebody from the TV station?”

  “He won’t say. All he told me is, it’s a surprise.

  “Hey, I like surprises.” Tessa twirled a lock of her hair as her mind raced. “What if it’s a movie star? Do you think it could be Brad Pitt?”

  “I doubt it,” Indie said drily. “It’s probably one of the executives or a major investor or somebody like that.”