ROMANCE: SHAPESHIFTER ROMANCE: Dragon Baller's Bride (Dragon Shifter Alpha Male Romance) (Paranormal Romantic Suspense) (21 page)

S
he wasn't
sure how long she sat there, curled in the darkness, staring at the door he'd left through, but when she finally pulled herself up to clean out the tea mugs and the plates where the fruit had been, she hadn't thought her legs would be nearly as shaky as they were. She also wasn't expecting to feel so empty inside when she walked around her loft, now bereft of company. And yet, she didn't feel abandoned; he would return, in time, and she would rise to the occasion when she got his next message. As she went about straightening her loft to remove any evidence of their time together in the space, she struggled to stay focused; the constant movement of her legs was rubbing her labia together, and her quim was beginning to trek sluggishly down her thighs.

With a huff, she shed her chemise and pulled on some cotton pajamas to sleep in. Bundling the seductive evening gown with her discarded silk robe and tucking them into their original drawer. Padding back to her bed and slipping under her covers, she was startled at how quickly exhaustion crept up on her. Try as she might, the weight on her eyelids grew too heavy for her to keep them open. Even as her jaw extended in a wide yawn and she snuggled deeper into her blankets, she noticed the bed felt just a little less empty, and smiled to herself for it.

W
ith morning came dressing
in more than her dress from the previous night (thankfully she kept spare clothes here for when she would stay the night,) gathering up her discarded clothes from the night before, and getting her car from the garage to drive home. The whole time, she felt as though she were floating, and was only certain that the events of the last night were real because when she woke, her phone had a message from him –
'I hope you slept well, and dreamt of me.'
She still felt like she was floating on a cloud when she pulled her car into her house's garage, and began to walk to her front door.

Upon reaching her front door, something out of place caught her eye: resting upon the door to her house was a white box, wrapped with a red ribbon. She frowned as she approached, not remembering expecting anything to be sent to her. Then again, perhaps her mother wanted to send a gift of some sort. As she neared, she saw a note tucked into the ribbon, folded.
'To my Goddess most Divine'
was scrawled neatly on the top. Her lips thinned into a wry smile. There was sure to be gossip amongst her neighbors, if there wasn't before, even if all anyone might have seen was a gift box. She arched a brow, but brought the box in her house nonetheless.

Setting the mystery package down and hanging her keys up on her key rack, she opted to ignore it in favor of unpinning her hair and setting the pins in her jewelry box. Next came her necklace, and it soon joined her ornate pins in the menagerie of baubles and finery. But even as she sat down to brush the tangles out of her hair once it was freed of its intricate hairstyle, she found it difficult to pull her gaze from the mysterious box. With a sigh, she set her hairbrush down. With nothing left to use as an excuse to keep ignoring it, she plucked the card from the top of it, and opened it to read what message she could see scrawled there.

'Clara – I couldn't find golden roses to match your eyes, so please accept these blue ones that matched mine – Daryl P.S. No, I don't know your address, your brother promised he'd get these to you!'
She tamped down on her excitement and pulled the ribbon free so she could lift the lid of the box. She gaped at the contents, lifting them for inspection. Tucked safely inside was a vase of beautiful bright blue and gray roses. The vase itself was an intricate gold swirled thing, clearly expensive. She eased them out of the box tenderly, her cheeks hurting from how wide her smile was.

Going to the kitchen to fill the vase with water for the roses, she was struck by how very much like Daryl these flowers and this vase were. No, Daryl may not fit perfectly into her life, much in the same way that these roses and vase looked positively clashing against both each other and literally everything in her house, but even still, she could make it work. She could appreciate the way that the roses looked on her kitchen table, even though they didn't fit with her posters, or her rugs, or her walls in any way shape or form, because it was something she chose to have in her life in spite of that. She pulled her phone out to call Daryl immediately, to call him and thank him for the flowers.

“Hello?” She heard him say after a few minutes of just hearing the dial tone.

“You're no doubt going to be leaving soon,” she said softly, fingertips touching the petals of the roses, enjoying their soft texture.

“I was actually about to gather my things to check out of my hotel, and go to the airport. Is everything alright?” He sounded so concerned, her heart hurt from how happy she felt.

“Everything's fine,” she reassured him. “I just wanted to thank you for the roses. They're lovely.”

“Ah,” he coughed, clearly embarrassed. “I wanted to send you something nice, but I didn't know what. Charles actually gave me the idea. I hope they aren't too out of place?” She could sense the double question, the implication of him being fearful of having no place in her life, of their relationship, still in its infancy, having no place in her busy schedule.

“Not at all,” she decided on both counts, smiling so much that her cheeks were sore. “I think they're perfect.”

A
pril Thornton has a problem
. One of the major shareholders being in town would be manageable, but two is going to be almost impossible—mostly because of which two it is. Dave Hines and Nathaniel Bryan hate each other’s guts, and both of them have very strong opinions on how the company should be run: precisely
not
how the other one says it should be. April stocks up on antacids and grits her teeth, just hoping not to come out of this week with a migraine.

What April didn’t expect? Dave is absolutely, positively the most gorgeous man she’s ever met…until Nathaniel shows up, that is. Which is kind of sad, because no matter how much April loves her curves, she’s learned that hot executives don’t go for the chubby secretary.

Or do they? Arriving in town to start a war over the shareholders meeting, Nathaniel and Dave are soon embroiled in a very different war: one for April’s heart. And it’s about to end in a way
none
of them expected…

S
he was already running late
, and today was not the day for things to start going wrong so early. April clutched her coffee mug and ran as fast as she could in stiletto heels, trying not to let the coffee spill onto her cream blouse and pencil skirt. Whistles sounded from a nearby construction site and she flashed them a smile. It seemed like everywhere she turned, someone was telling her that she needed to be stick-thin and pouty-lipped, but the fact of the matter was that her curves and her smile drew appreciative grins wherever she went.

She slowed her run as she approached the doors of the Zenith Tower. Home to Houston & Co., her employers, it was a vision of glass and steel, modern and sleek, and sometimes April wondered exactly why she was working here. Sure, the pay was good and her coworkers were nice, but the fact was that the majority of the employees were snappish and her bubbly, romantic-comedies-and-wine personality didn’t exactly mesh with people whose idea of casual Friday was a navy suit instead of a black one.

And today, as she slipped into the elevator and punched the button for the top floor, she especially wondered why she was here. She could be a secretary absolutely anywhere—her recent promotion to the CEO’s secretary had given her a resume a lot of people would kill for—and she didn’t exactly need to be putting up with bickering shareholders. The idea of three days spent smoothing egos and defusing fights left her exhausted, and the men hadn’t even shown up yet.

“April!” Jane, the CFO’s secretary, smiled as April strode off the elevator. “Wow, you look gorgeous.”

“Thanks, Jane.” April smiled. Five foot eight, slim, and stunning, Jane was one of the girls April would just have written off a few years ago. In fact, when she first showed up at Houston & Co., she’d thought Jane’s compliments were insincere, meant to make her feel ugly and incompetent. But Jane was a real sweetheart, somehow managing to survive as secretary to the meanest person at Houston, and her blue eyes were alight with envy as she looked over April’s outfit.

“I wish I had the courage to wear things like that,” Jane said, heartfelt. Her usual black suit was offset with a crisp white blouse and a pink bracelet April had only just persuaded her to buy. “But I don’t think I’d look very good in it.”

“All you need is confidence and a smile,” April reminded her. Someday, she promised herself, she would help Jane realize how pretty she was. “You’ve got the smile. Now you just need to fake it ‘til you make it with the confidence.”

Jane laughed.

“You’re sweet.” Her voice dropped and she craned to look down the corridor. “Are they here yet?”

“Oh, crap!” April had managed to forget that she was late. “Probably. Wish me luck.”

“You’ll need it. And if you need a drink, we’ll take you out at lunch.”

Jane disappeared and April walked down the hallway, heart pounding. Now that she was here, she didn’t have any desire at all to go into the CEO’s waiting room. Nathaniel Bryan and Dave Hines were trying at the best of times, and that was when there was an entire table full of board members between them and a team assigned to run interference. Now, the two largest shareholders were going to be in town alone, and the CEO had asked April to show them around town. He’d even asked pleasantly, as if he wasn’t throwing her into a pool full of hungry piranhas.

“Hello?” she called as she came around the corner of the room.

For a moment, she thought it was empty, and a weight lifted from her heart. Then:

“Hello.”

April turned around, and dropped her coffee.

“Oh, my God—I’m—I’m so sorry.”

“Not a problem.” The man stooped to pick up the cup and throw it away, and retrieved a handful of napkins from the sideboard. A few he threw into the puddle of coffee, and with one or two, he dabbed at her blouse.

“Ah, um…I can get that.”

“Let me.” His voice was like velvet, and he looked up from his task to flash sapphire-blue eyes at her.

April tried not to faint. He was hands-down the most gorgeous person she had ever met. His hair was a deep brown, his features looked as if they had been chiseled from stone by a master sculptor, and he had a dimple on his chin. Tall and slim, he nonetheless had broad enough shoulders to taper elegantly under his suit jacket, and the hands presently wiping at her blouse had long, elegant fingers and the faint calluses of someone who played guitar.

And no wedding ring. Interesting.

April told herself not to be ridiculous. She was gorgeous and sexy and utterly charming, but the fact of the matter was that executives never went for women like her. They preferred women like Jane, and frankly, she was fine with that. Executives didn’t make great boyfriends.

Only, it was difficult to breathe around this man.

“So, uh…are you…” Her voice was coming out too high.

“Dave Hines.” He stood and gave a regretful look. “I’m afraid that blouse may not be able to be salvaged.”

And he would know, because he had been very, very thorough. April tried not to blush as she shrugged.

“I think I’m more upset about the coffee, really. Not a great start to a Monday.”

He laughed. He had a wonderful laugh, one that made awareness flare all down her spine, and his teeth flashed white as he smiled.

“Well, let me get you another cup.”

“Oh, no, that’s all right.” Having one of the top shareholders get coffee for the secretary would be exactly the sort of gaffe the CEO had warned her to avoid. “I’m April Thornton, by the way—Mr. Jeffries’s secretary. We’ve touched base over email.”

“
You’re
April Thornton?” Surprise rang in his voice.

“Yes.” April looked over her shoulder from where she was stirring sugar and cream into her coffee. “Why?”

“You seemed…” He waved his hands, searching for the words. “I guess I would have figured you were farther up the ladder than that.”

“I will have you know,” April said loftily, “that secretaries run all companies.” She grinned at him.

“Oh? Do tell.” He folded his lanky height into one of the leather chairs by Mr. Jeffries’s door and raised his eyebrows, taking a sip of his own coffee.

“I,” April informed him, “am the gatekeeper. I control who sees Mr. Jeffries, who he knows is in town, and whose teams get first pick for the conference rooms.”

“A pity I couldn’t bribe you to keep Jeffries from knowing about Mr. Bryan,” Dave said with alacrity.

April paused. This was the sort of slight she had been expecting, and she wasn’t good at dealing with it.

“Ah, don’t worry—I’m joking.” Even though the look in his eyes said that he clearly wasn’t, he was, just as clearly, trying to set her at ease. He leaned forward with that sparkling smile. “So, tell me. Do you ever abuse your power?”

“Sir, I would
never
.” But April leaned forward as well, looking down the hallway first to make sure no one was coming. “Maybe once. Or twice.”

“I have to know. I promise I won’t tell.” He held up one hand in a mock oath.

“Well, a few years back, one of the executives was planning to run off to our competitors with a whole bunch of secrets. He kept asking his secretary to get him information for projects he wasn’t on, that sort of thing. When she asked why, he fired her and pretended it was for the same thing he was doing.” April raised her eyebrows. “His last months here were…not pleasant. Somehow, Mr. Jeffries was always busy when he wanted to meet. He kept getting dropped from projects. For
some
reason, he didn’t know his phone number had changed, and—
such
an embarrassing mix-up—his company cell phone got cancelled.”

Dave was laughing silently.

“You really did that?” he asked, when he recovered.

“Oh, not only that.” April grinned. “Somehow, in amongst all the other paperwork for the day, Mr. Jeffries signed a piece of paper acknowledging that the secretary had been wrongfully terminated. That’s the sort of thing that would sit in his inbox for six months waiting to be signed while she had to go get a different job. You know, if he had a different secretary.”

“Ms. Thornton, you are a treasure.” Dave lifted his coffee cup. “I won’t even ask what happened to that executive.”

“You don’t want to know, it’s too gruesome.” April sipped her coffee. “I’ll just tell you he doesn’t have a vacation house in the Hamptons anymore.”

Dave gave a guffaw, endearingly out of place with the rest of his well-maintained image, and April found her face softening as she looked at him. She’d read his bio: she knew he was young, successful in business at an early age, a skilled negotiator, strongly in favor of Houston & Co. branching out into the international business community. The secretaries had even whispered that he was gorgeous. But April hadn’t expected anything like this—a man who took her breath away, who was flirting with her as if she was some svelte society beauty, who was laughing as she told him the exploits she’d sworn she would never, ever admit to.

Down the hallway, the elevator dinged, and April craned to look.

“That may be Mr. Bryan. I should go check.”

“Oh, God.” Dave settled back in his chair with a sneer. “I suppose you have to, don’t you?”

“Yes, I do.” And before she could stop herself, April added, “Behave yourself.”

She froze, but Dave held his hands up in mock surrender.

“As you command, my Lady.” He managed a cheeky smile. “I wouldn’t want to offend the woman who runs Houston & Co. from the shadows.”

April laughed and headed down the corridor, grimacing at her blouse. It was going to be ruined, Dave was entirely correct, and she hadn’t exactly hoped to meet Nathaniel Bryan with coffee all down her front.

“Mr. Bryan?” she asked, peering at the blonde man who was looking into one of the conference rooms.

“Ah. Are you April Thornton?” He turned and stuck out his hand. “How are you today?”

And April found that she had no words at all. For the second time this day, she was standing within inches of a man who made her knees go weak. With the muscles of a professional athlete and the blonde good looks of a J. Crew model, Nathaniel Bryan might just rival Dave Hines for the most gorgeous man April had ever met.

Her week had just got a
lot
more interesting.