ROMANCE: SHAPESHIFTER ROMANCE: Dragon Baller's Bride (Dragon Shifter Alpha Male Romance) (Paranormal Romantic Suspense) (63 page)

“
Y
our name is Julia
? Why should that matter to me?” Mira asked as the beautiful woman before her swept haughtily around the room, fanning the sheer fabric of part of her skirt around her dramatically as she paced. Mira and Salvador had come back to the house early that morning, sleeping in Salvador’s room until Salvador rose to go take care of some business for the day. Mira could still feel his touch on her skin, the brush of his beard across her nipples, and she blushed just thinking about it.

Salvador had made her feel like she was beautiful for the first time in her life. No man had ever made her feel like that. Some had made her feel special for a moment or two but most wandered away when the next woman caught their attention. She’d learned to take men or leave them but Salvador was different. He was considerate, making sure she was comfortable and happy, he made her laugh, and he listened to her opinions. He appreciated that she was educated and they’d spent a lot of time discussing historical eras and occurrences. He really was the man of her dreams.

“Pardon me? Mira is it? Well, Mira I have some things you need to know if you’ll stop daydreaming about Salvador for five minutes.” The woman rudely interrupted. Looking at her, she was the kind of nympho Mira would expect Salvador to date but she had no idea who the woman was. She had that blonde hair color that was mixed with other shades that shouted ‘expensive, time consuming, and self-absorption’ to Mira. Her makeup was flawless and would have done a porn queen proud. The body revealed by what amounted to lingerie, that the woman apparently considered clothing, must have been a plastic surgeon’s crowning achievement with breasts and an ass that were not humanly possible but still somehow attractive.

“Let me guess? You’re Salvador’s lover and you’re here to reclaim him from frumpy little old me? Is this the part where I’m supposed to run off and turn into you so that I can win him back? Because I can tell you this much honey, if he wanted you, he’d be with you. Not with me. But just to be fair, how about I go home for a little while and we’ll see how this works out? I can tell you before you start, you can’t tell me anything that I haven’t told myself before and if Salvador wants me, he has to prove it. I know he’s the next pack leader and has to produce an heir; I know we were contracted to marry at an early age. I also know you’re the type of dream woman he deserves. But sometimes, sometimes honey, us fat chicks win, so if you don’t mind, take your hooker looking ass on out the door so I can pack, okay? And honestly, I hope you catch syphilis.” Completely and totally astonished at the venom she’d just unleashed on the woman, Mira showed her the door, and shut it quietly as the woman flounced out with a sour look on her face. I bet she looks like she’s 50 in two more years, Mira thought to herself as she smiled and walked out of another door that lead to her bedroom.

Sure, she could play the part of the broken-hearted fat chick and go home dismal and alone to eat herself into tighter pants, but not this time. She had a chance, an opportunity as one of the children of the Jaguar Clan, and she was going to make sure Salvador understood what this chance meant as well. They had a real chance at love here, a chance to do something for their clan, and she was going to walk away from it now to make sure they both had their cards laid out on the table where no mistakes could be made. She wasn’t going to live her life worrying if he was cheating, she was going to live it knowing he was happy with her or live without him altogether. He had to know the same thing about her.

With a smile, she walked into her bedroom and packed her bags, asking the maid to call a cab for her as she loaded the bags into the hallway before writing a note to let Salvador know where she was going to be. Last night had been wonderful, spectacular even, and she wanted more, but she also knew who she was now and knew she deserved better than a marriage of convenience, a marriage that suited their clan. She deserved his love and devotion, and Salvador deserved the same from her. She smiled as she placed the note on his pillow, knowing he might misinterpret her good-bye, but willing to take the chance. If he let her go that was his loss, she was still going to be the clan’s story-keeper, she’d just do it another way.

Mira fell asleep as the plane left Mexico, not realizing that it was Halloween, the night where the spirit world could cross into present reality. She hadn’t paid any attention to the signs, only wanting to get back to New York, to finish her job up, then head back to her new home. In her dreams, she found the people she’d missed the most her entire life; her parents.

Her mother, young when she’d had Mira and dead before Mira was two, was a beautiful version of her daughter, with dark-brown hair and the same brown eyes Mira had. Her blonde hair came from her father and she wished momentarily that she’d had his clear grey eyes. They hugged her and held her close, both wanting to touch the daughter they’d missed for so long. They took her to a room with a large mirror on the wall and smiled at her, imploring her to look into the mirror. In the mirror, she saw her life with Salvador as his wife, laughter, love, and children filled the mirror. She smiled, reaching out to touch the mirror but the image changed, becoming dark and clouded as her finger touched the rim. The picture showed Mira in a dark, dusty room this time, her hair silver; her features pinched and bitter looking between the lines. She knew from this picture what life without Salvador would be and knew what the right decision was. If he came to New York she had to take the chance because life with him was going to be far sweeter than one without him.

It took Salvador two days to find her and then he was there before her, a smile on his face, and his hair in that incredible bun that made her itch to touch him. Something about it just made her crazy for him. She opened the door wide, spreading her arms out to him. He gathered her up, carrying her into the tiny apartment.

He soon found her bed and had her naked beneath him, face-down in the bed as he stroked his cock in and out of her. “Tell me you’ll never leave me again, Mira. I can’t take being without you.”

“I won’t leave you again, Salvador, ever. Please, faster my darling. I need to feel all of you.” Mira felt as though the world was spinning, and she did not want to get off of it for a change. Salvador had her body begging for him the moment he appeared at the door, and she was helpless to refuse it. Mira moved with him, confident in herself because Salvador loved her, loved her body and soul. He loved the soft curves of her body, the way her skin glowed, and that when he pushed into her he didn’t bruise his hips. He loved feeling her beneath him and feeling her softness, not hard bone. Skinny girls were okay but he preferred bigger women, and Mira most of all.

Mira didn’t hide herself, didn’t hide her longing for him. She felt no shame in begging him to fuck her, or in pushing his head between her legs. She knew he enjoyed pleasuring her just as much as she enjoyed pleasuring him and as the sun sank down into night, she finally pushed him over the edge. He’d had her in every room of her apartment, in the bathroom, on the couch, the floor, but he hadn’t allowed himself a release yet. He wanted only her pleasure, but now she was tiring. She needed to feel him cum; she needed to know he’d had his own release or she’d have him in every room of the place. Their love pushed them; their delight in each other’s pleasure drove them to seek the depths of that pleasure out but now Mira needed rest, but she would not rest unless he came.

She got down on her knees, with him before her on her bed, and took him deep into her throat, moving her head up and down. His hands slid into her blonde hair, not controlling her movements but allowing her to move to her own rhythm. She moved her head quickly, sucking him to the tip of his cock before sliding back down again. Mira’s hands moved on him as he slid from between her lips, encouraging him to let go. She smiled as she felt the first hot drop on her cheek, then licked up the one that landed on her lips, grinning up into his eyes as the rest landed on her chest.

His breath came in short, harsh cries, his release so powerful he shut his eyes and let his head fall back. He loved the sight of her covered in his cum but he couldn’t hold his head up as she stroked more of his juices from his cock.

They fell into bed together, whispering of their plans for the future. Mira remembered something just before she fell asleep and spoke the thought aloud to Salvador.

“Babe, when I was in the trance and we made love for the first time you said something about a baby. That we were making a baby. Was that true?” Mira hoped it was, she really did. She’d like to have more time with him without a child, but she’d also love to have a child of her own as well.

“Yes my love, you’ll be able to take a test in another week or so to confirm it but that’s what we were doing. We were creating the next generation of were-jaguar. They’ll have both of us there to love them as well; it won’t be like your life, alone and lonely. We’ll both be there for our children and they will know nothing but love from us.” He said as he kissed her one more time.

A year later, Mira laughed as she watched Salvador making funny faces at their daughter on the fertile green lawn of their back garden. Her husband was as much in love with their child as he was with her mother. He’d never seen anyone so fascinated with a baby before. Already Isadora’s eyes were the same green as her fathers, and her baby fine hair was the color of her mother’s blonde hair. Isadora’s birth had brought them even closer together somehow. Each new stage of their relationship, of their lives as leader of the Jaguar Clan and as keeper of their stories brought them closer together.

A year ago Mira would not have ever dreamed this much happiness was possible. She still had no idea why her grandmother had been so unloving, so unkind to her but after Isadora’s birth she thought she might have an idea why. She so loved the child that the thought of losing her made Mira go cold. Perhaps the loss of her own daughter had made her grandmother too numb, too cold, to love the child of that daughter. Isadora would never know that pain of being unloved if she could help it, and she lived each day as if it was the last she’d get to spend with either of the two people she loved the most. If anything happened to her she did not want them to ever doubt just how much she truly loved them.

Mira watched the pair, certain that life could get no better than it was with the man and child who made up her entire world. She knew the future only held more love for her and for the rest of her life, she would remember that cold grey image of her alone in the library as a warning of what her life could have been if she’d made the wrong decision. Staring up into the brightly lit sky, she knew she’d made the right choice, for her, for Salvador, and for the future of their clan.

L
ily doesn’t get
into these sorts of situations. She’s always been a good girl, the kind who kept her clothes clean and got straight As in school, and she’s spent the years ever since working dutifully as a secretary. Kind and gentle, Lily is the sort of person everyone wants for a friend.

Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of her boss. Intelligent and successful, James Dominick has always craved success—and when possible, he makes sure other people bear the cost of his actions. So it’s hardly a surprise that when hit-men show up to take him out, James has disappeared…and the only person in his house is Lily.

Kidnapped and terrified, Lily has become determined to talk her way out of this. The gang that’s captured her can’t possibly be so ruthless as to kill an innocent woman, can they? In fact, she’d bet that Liam and Cameron, the ringleaders, are a lot nicer than they want to admit. She’s pretty sure they don’t want to kill her.

And Lily is exactly right. Liam and Cameron
don’t
want to kill her. Not at all. What she doesn’t know? They’ve both fallen for her…and Liam and Cameron have always shared
everything.
If she’s not careful, Lily is about to discover just how good it can feel to be bad.

“
J
ust a few more things
, I promise.” Lily flashed a smile up at James as she filed the last handwritten correspondence. She would type them up and send them tomorrow, early, before anyone was in the office.

“Don’t apologize.” James Dominick’s voice was deep, tolerant, amused. “You’re the one who had to go out of your way to finish things up. You should be home.”

But he sounded pleased as well. As far as she knew, he never stopped working. The lunches she brought him were often uneaten when she came to check on him a few hours later. He often beat even Lily to the office, and he stayed late. She knew from the emails he received that even when he went home, he was still thinking of his business ventures. He might tell her to take time off, but she knew he was glad to have someone as devoted as he was himself. She sensed that he got lonely sometimes.

Not that he would ever admit it. James was one of the premier businessmen in the world. His reach stretched into energy, food, and cloud computing, commodities…anything and everything she could imagine, he did. He thrived on his success, and he was far too stubborn to admit anything else might be lacking. Too stubborn, and too ruthless. James never hesitated to sacrifice anything that would ensure his success—and until he could, Lily knew he would never be able to have a relationship.

She had never told him, but she liked to think that she was slowly changing him. When she first came to his office, she’d been a secretary for one of the most junior staff, and everyone had been terrified of him. So terrifying was Lily’s boss that
she
was often sent to be the bearer of bad news; seeing how scared they all were, she couldn’t bring herself to insist that they do it. And when James yelled at her and told her just what to say to them when she went back, she’d done the inadvisable: told him that they were scared of him, that it wasn’t good management policy, and that he should be nicer to them all.

She’d been his secretary ever since, and if a few cynical people complained that it was just to make his image better without having to change at all, she liked to think that he saw the value in it. He’d even wished her a Merry Christmas this year, which was something she couldn’t even imagine when she began working for him. He was making progress.

And she…well, Lily didn’t like to think about her own life. Everything had been going so well lately: business contracts falling into place with eerie precision, her apartment clean and cozy, a new satin nightgown…

…That no one ever got to see. Lily tried to shove the thoughts away, but for weeks now she had been looking around at her neat little life—well-packed lunchboxes, pretty work clothes, perfectly-worded emails—and wondering if something was missing. She’d always done everything perfectly. Wasn’t it supposed to feel…better than this? She found herself dreaming, over a glass of white wine, about doing something reckless, something poorly-behaved.

Something like daydreaming while at a one-on-one meeting with her boss, perhaps? She shook her head to clear it, realizing he’d been staring at her while
she’d
been staring off into nowhere.

“Lily?”

“I’m sorry. I don’t know what came over me.” She opened up the next folder. “All right. I got a very strange email earlier today from a…Kenneth Watts.” She looked up and saw him go still.

“What did it say?” He asked, and his voice was tight.

“That he knows what you did. Frankly, it seems very much like some of the other emails you get. People are always angry about successful business deals, you know.” She tried to tempt him into a laugh or a smile, but he was having none of it.

“Why didn’t you tell me about this earlier?” He demanded.

“Because you were in meetings all day,” Lily protested. “You told me to interrupt you only if the transnational trade bill went through.”

“And it didn’t occur to you to look this man up?”

“No,” Lily said firmly, recognizing the downswing of his temper. “It did not. There was no reason for me to do so. Whatever you think I should know about this man—”

“When did the email come in?”

“10 AM.”

He swore.

“James, what on earth is going on?”

“That
man
,” he said savagely, “has taken it upon himself to police the business world. He doesn’t like my deals. He wants to punish me for them.”

“It’s hardly wrong to make business deals everyone agrees to,” Lily said gently. It was the refrain he used in such situations, and she felt confident that it would calm him. When he only looked at her bleakly, she felt the bottom drop out of her stomach. She
knew
. She knew he’d done something terrible, she just didn’t know what. “James, what did you do?”

“Nothing,” he hissed.

She met his eyes, and he grimaced at her.

“Nothing you need to concern yourself with.”

“I’m your secretary! I send all of your emails. I know your secrets.”

“Not all of them.” His voice was clipped.

“What on earth wouldn’t you be willing to tell me?”

“I—” But his phone buzzed, and his face went white when he looked at the screen. “I have to make a call.”

“But—”

He was already gone, taking the stairs to the second floor two at a time. Lily slumped back in her chair, thinking furiously. Something about this email
had
seemed off to her. People normally railed at James in their emails, telling him that karma or God or luck would come to get him for what he’d done. She was used to ignoring those. This one, so short and chilling, had gotten her attention.

The door behind her opened so quietly that she almost didn’t hear it at all. The key had been turned near-silently, and the door itself swung inwards with only the faintest creak. But a creak there was, and a faint swirl of cold air, and Lily felt the back of her neck prickle. Heart suddenly pounding, she turned, telling herself that it was the settling of the building and nothing more.

Three men in black stood there, heavily armed, staring her down.

Lily screamed. She was running for the kitchen, for the exit at the other end of the house, knowing that she could not possibly outrun them and knowing she had to try anyway.

“James!” Her voice echoed up the stairs. She looked back and felt another prickle. They weren’t following her, the men with guns. They were just watching her go. Why?

The next second, she knew. She collided with a fourth as he stepped out of the shadows of the kitchen, a scream hastily covered by one black-gloved hand, her arm twisted behind her and her body locked against her captor’s. She struggled, wishing like hell she’d worn heels with points on the front of them, and wishing as well that she had started doing all of that strength training she’d planned on this year. She was no match for this man; his muscles might well have been iron, for all he was moved by her struggles.

And it occurred to her, with a kind of hysterical clarity, that she had not been pressed up against a man like this in years. She could feel the rock-hard muscles of his thighs, the flatness of his stomach, and the bulge of his bicep where he held her in place. Ice-blue eyes met hers with piercing clarity, and something stirred in their depths. A deep breath moved that hard chest…

“Search the house.” He spoke over her head, and then he turned her forcibly, picked her up, and carried her back to the couch, his hand still pressed over her mouth. Lily made a strangled noise that was supposed to be,
why
? And his muscles tightened. “Don’t. Make. A Sound.” His breath stirred the hair by her ear.

She shivered with awareness, telling herself not to be stupid, that he was a hired thug, a man who would likely kill her sooner than bargain with her. It didn’t matter: her body was on fire, and she could not stop shaking. She was very aware of where the buttons on her blouse had opened, and cold air caressed the heated skin of her breasts. She was very aware of his touch on her stomach where his arm kept her locked in place, her back pressed against his body.

The rest of them came down the stairs a moment later, and Lily blinked. There were four now. More than one of them must have come in windows, getting into James’s highly protected house so easily that she could barely breathe for terror. They had been talking and these men had been coming for them, implacable and deadly…

“Well?” Her captor asked, and one of them shrugged his shoulders angrily.

“Safe room,” he said, muted anger running through his voice. “It’d take hours to get in there, and our call block will run out soon. We need to be out of here quick.” His gaze traveled over Lily.

“Who’s that?”

“Good question.” Her captor took his hand away. “Don’t scream.” The threat in his voice made her tremble. “Who are you?”

“Lily McDermott. I’m Mr. Dominick’s secretary.”

“Think she could talk him out?” One of the thugs asked, and the ringleader gave him a look.

“No. But I think she could give him a good reason to change his mind on certain issues. Come on.” He started moving, dragging her toward the door.

“
What?
”

“You’re coming with us,” the man said, as if it was simple. He released her, making her stagger—making her traitorous body yearn for the touch of him again—and thrust her toward his second-in-command.

“But why?” Lily whispered. She twisted to look up, and the second-in-command looked down at her with melting brown eyes. His voice, a pleasant alto, was almost regretful.

“Mr. Dominick will need to change his mind on a few things before he gets you back.”