ROMANCE: Bear Naked Passion (Billionaire Bear Trio Book 2) (11 page)

Chapter 14

“You're safe now,” he said, caressing her forehead. Jenna was laying in bed smiling weakly at Liam.

“How did you know I was there?” she asked. Liam rose from the bed and turned his back to her.

“I am ashamed to admit it but I have been following you. I know it's not right but I couldn't stop thinking about you. So many times I wanted to reach out to you, but I stopped myself. I hoped that if you thought about it more you would change your mind and come back to me, but I wanted you to do so of your own volition. But when I saw what he was planning I knew I had to intervene. It reminded me of something a long time ago...there was another person I cared about.”

“You'll have to tell me about them sometime,” Jenna said. Liam turned around and knelt down, clasping his hands around Jenna's.

“I know what I told you must have taken you by surprise but I have been waiting for so long and when I met you I knew that you were the one I had been waiting for. Forgive me for rushing you. I should have given you time to process things. I fear that all this time alone has made me forget that other people do not think in the same manner as I do. Can we go back to the end of our first date and replay it, this time without me telling you what I truly am?”

Jenna examined him, a thousand thoughts going through her mind. For an undead creature there was so much passion in his voice, and from the look in his eyes when he had rescued her from Tony she would have argued anyone who said that he didn't have a soul. In that moment she knew that he was the one for her, no matter whether he was a man or a vampire or something else. But more than that, she didn't want to feel the fear again, she only wanted to feel him beside her. She smiled coyly at him and then leaned forward, plucking a kiss from his lips. It became longer and deeper and she pulled down the sheets, making room for him. He slid in beside her and their hands roamed about each other’s bodies, exploring forbidden places and giggling softly. His chilled hands made her tingle as he cupped her breasts and squeezed, teasing the hardened nipples by twisting and massaging them. Their tongues danced together and she pushed her hips into his, feeling the bulge in his pants harden.

They stripped each other of their clothes and started to stroke each other, she curled her fingers around his shaft and pulled the tight skin up and down, enjoying the feeling of his body tense under her control, and in turn he played with her, making her gasp and shudder. Their naked bodies pressed against each other, melting into each other, their lips were locked and she buried himself in his neck, tasting him and breathing in his ethereal scent. It was strange when she left a trail of kisses and didn't feel a beating heart, but she gazed up at him with wide eyes and she knew that he loved her. She slid over his body, her blonde hair falling over his chest, as she lowered herself on his erection, feeling the thick girth stretch her lips. When it was inside she leaned back and his hands came up to play with her full, round breasts. Her hands lay at her side and she started to rock back and forth, guiding the rhythm of his hips, and her mind popped with orgasmic delight.

Liam's hands fell to her hips and squeezed tightly as he took more control and started thrusting harder and deeper, bringing Jenna falling forward. Her breasts pressed against his chest and his hands grabbed her ass, getting stronger and harder and bringing her closer to that sweet climax. Her breath washed over him and her hair splayed out over his face. He blew it away and then she felt his kisses on her neck.

“You're mine,” he said, and she delighted in those words. Her eyes squeezed shut as pleasure sang through her body, and then she felt the sharp tips of his fangs sting her skin, and the warm flow of blood poured out as her body convulsed with ecstasy. 

“I love you,” she said, and those were the last words she uttered before she was reborn.

THE END

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A Mate for the Billionaire Dragon

A Mate for the Billionaire Dragon

Chapter 1

It was just another Monday at the office.

Already I had fended off three mid-level executives who wanted my boss’s time. I’d responded to a dozen emails, answered a half-dozen phone calls, and been asked about my weekend more times than I could count. Of course, I had little to report. I never had much to say when it came to that. Whenever the other girls from the office gathered together around the coffee maker and gossiped about their parties and dates and nights at the club, I’d stand there and smile and nod. I might even inject the occasional giggle. But I had nothing to share.

All this, and it was only 10:30.

Of course, Jonathan wasn’t yet in for the day. He demanded that I be seated behind my computer monitor by 8am at the very latest, yet he never walked through the door before 11.
Just one of the perks of being a billionaire CEO
, I thought wryly.

“He in yet?” I looked up from the pile of paperwork on my desk to find Taylor, one of the biggest butt kissers I’d ever known. Somebody must have told him back in business school that he needed to be the first person in the boss’s office every morning if he ever wanted to get ahead. Little did he know that Jonathan was hardly impressed with his ardor.

“Not yet,” I replied, smiling brightly. “It’s still early for him, don’t forget.”

He leaned against the doorframe to my little office. “How was your weekend?” he asked.

“Boring,” I laughed, glancing through the papers on my desk. “Laundry, movies, some wine. In my jammies.” I smiled up at him again, and he frowned good-naturedly.

“That’s it?” he asked, a look of disbelief on his face. “I can’t believe you didn’t have plans for something exciting.”

I bristled inwardly. I told myself, as I always did in situations like this, that he wasn’t trying to make fun of me. Those days were long past.

“Nah, that’s pretty much how I roll. I’m a homebody.” I shrugged. “How about you?”

“A friend of mine just opened a restaurant in town, so there was a party there to celebrate on Friday night,” he told me. “I played handball with some friends, went out for sushi for another friend’s birthday, watched the game at my brother’s house yesterday.” He rattled off these facts like it was nothing, and I guessed to him—or anybody with a social life—it wouldn’t have seemed like a big deal. To me, however, the queen of binge-watching Netflix in her pajamas, it sounded like a full, interesting weekend. I couldn’t help feeling a stab of envy.

“Do me a favor? Give me a call when he gets in?” Taylor walked away, leaving me feeling even lower than I already had.

I told myself to focus on my work, but the question of whether or not Taylor had been teasing me wouldn’t leave my head. I told myself, again and again, that just because the kids in the schoolyard had been cruel to me throughout my youth, and just because I didn’t date very much because my self-esteem was low, didn’t mean that everybody saw me as somebody to make fun of. Being plus-sized wasn’t a death sentence in adulthood the way it was in childhood.

I heard a familiar voice coming down the hall. As always, Jonathan was calling out instructions for me long before he even reached my office. I was expected to be waiting for him, notepad in hand; lucky for me, my notepad was nearby. Always.

“…then call the Schwartzes and tell them I won’t be able to make it to the Hamptons this weekend; they’ll understand. Have the house in Malibu opened up for me, I’m flying in on Wednesday evening and will be there for a week. Make sure the plane is ready. Call Lola and thank her for the invitation to the gala at the Met, but I’ll be out of town. She’ll have to find somebody else to show off on her arm. Don’t tell her that part, of course.”

“Of course,” I murmured as I trotted along behind him, the two of us walking into his office. I remembered a time when the floor-to-ceiling windows along two walls of the room took my breath away; actually, they still did, leaving half of Manhattan at my feet. I also remembered a time when Jonathan Harding intimidated me. Actually, he still did.

One of the city’s, if not the world’s most powerful and influential billionaires, my boss owned much of the hottest real estate on the East coast. He could snap his fingers and get just about anything he wanted. This included having an entire household and staff up and running in two days, and having his private plane gassed up and ready to go.

He turned to face me and handed me his coat. “That’s a nice color on you,” he said, distractedly. I couldn’t help feeling warm all over. He had that effect on me.

I smoothed my free hand over my deep purple sheath dress and reminded myself to buy a few more pieces in this color. I couldn’t imagine that he thought I looked pretty, not really; I’d seen the sorts of women he spent his time with. If I added all four of his latest ex-girlfriends together they wouldn’t add up to my size 18.

“I cleaned up your inbox, and I’m nearly finished with those contracts you gave me on Friday evening,” I reported.

He glanced up at me from the chair behind his mahogany desk. “Already?” he asked, one eyebrow raised. “You were on your way out the door when I handed them to you. Don’t tell me you spent the entire weekend on them,” he said.

I shrugged, playing it off as though it was little concern. “I wanted to start the week off with as fresh a start as possible,” I said. “Besides, you know me. I work too much anyway.”

I was rewarded with one of his half-smiles, one corner of his mouth going up. “That’s why you’re still my assistant after all this time,” he reminded me. “What’s it been? Three years? You broke the record around two-and-a-half years ago.”

Three years, two months and three weeks
, I thought to myself. But who was counting?

I went back to my office—a much smaller office than the one I’d just left, of course. But seeing as how it served as the gateway to the CEO of Harding Enterprises, it was likely the second most important office in the building.

It also had the best view. Yes, Jonathan’s office might have had the windows. But I had the view of Jonathan. From my desk, when our doors were open, I could see straight into his office; he was seated at his own desk, going over the revised contracts I’d handed over.

He wasn’t here often; much of his time was spent all over the world, making deals and attending major events. But when he was here it felt like the sun was finally shining. I made it a point to dress, do my hair and apply my makeup in a way that pleased him. Of course, I was certain that he’d never pay attention to me, not in the way I wished he would. But I couldn’t help wanting to present my best version of myself whenever he was around.

My phone rang; I rolled my blue eyes when I saw who it was. “It’s Taylor,” I called out. “He’s been looking for you all morning.”

I heard Jonathan groan. “I’m on a call,” he said without looking up.

“Sorry, Taylor,” I said when I picked up. “He jumped on a call as soon as he came in.”

“Damn,” he replied. “I guess you’re the only person who can really bend his ear. Wish I had that special something you have.”

I hung up the phone, unsure again how to feel about Taylor’s little insinuations. Besides, there was no way he’d ever have that “special something”—because I was the only person in the company, not to mention most of the world, who knew Jonathan’s secret.

Chapter 2

I’d been working for Jonathan for around six months at the time. This job was unlike any challenge I’d ever faced before; even after half a year I was pulling late nights, just trying to keep up.

Jonathan was working late, too; he’d been in his office, with the door closed, for hours. It was nearing 9pm, and I was waiting on him to give me a clue as to when it would acceptable to go home. Even though it was obscenely late and I was yawning non-stop, I didn’t feel comfortable leaving before the boss did.

When 9 came and went, I took my courage in hand and knocked on his office door. “Mr. Harding?” I said, tentatively. I got no answer. For a moment I felt like a total idiot; what if he’d been sleeping in there all this time? I would have stayed for no reason.

I knocked again, a little more loudly this time. I pressed my ear to the door; there wasn’t a sound coming from inside the room, not even snoring. Nothing. I thought back; I remembered seeing him go in hours earlier, and I knew he hadn’t been out since. I saw light filtering out from under the door, so he certainly hadn’t left for the night when I was away from my desk.

I heard a noise on the roof, right above my head. I was suddenly terrified; there was nobody here to protect me in case of emergency, I realized. Maybe there was a cleaning crew somewhere in the building but I had no idea where they’d be. It was just me…or so it appeared.

I heard another noise, and this time it freaked me out enough to get me to open the door to Jonathan’s office. If he was in there, he needed to know that there was somebody—or something—on the roof.

But the office was empty. Everything appeared to be in place…except for one of the bookcases along the wall to the left of the doorway. It was ajar, pulled away from the wall. My instincts told me to leave, to pretend I hadn’t seen anything out of the ordinary…but my curiosity got the better of me. Even with the noises I’d heard, I was now too intrigued to go without getting to the bottom of this.

There was a set of stairs behind the bookcase, as it turned out. A narrow stairwell, which I climbed on tiptoe so as to avoid notice. Once I was on the roof, the wind whipped my long dark hair into my eyes; I brushed it out of the way, and once my vision was clear I was rewarded with an unbelievable sight: A dragon.

I screamed, then threw my hands over my mouth. The wind carried the sound away, but not enough to keep the dragon from hearing me. Its head swiveled around, its bright yellow eyes zeroing in on me. For what seemed like an eternity but was probably more like a few seconds, we looked at each other. It was huge, at least 20 feet tall, and its scales shimmered grayish green. I saw its nearly invisible wings outstretched, and its claws glinted in the light from the moon.

The shock wore off in moments, for both of us. It moved toward me, and I screamed again. I practically fell down the stairs and back into Jonathan’s office, then threw all of my 200 pounds behind the bookcase to slam it shut against the wall. I was just about to turn and run, but what I heard from the other side of the bookcase stopped me in my tracks.

“Elizabeth? Elizabeth, please. It’s me. We need to talk.”

I froze. Was that… “Jonathan?”

A pause. “Yes. Yes, it’s me. Please. Open the bookcase.”

“How?” I looked around, unable to find a switch or something to unlatch the shelves.

“There’s a crystal figurine on the third shelf. A…a dragon. Lift it from its base.” I saw what he meant; an intricately detailed crystal dragon, its wings outstretched as if just about to take flight. I ran my fingers over it, then reluctantly picked it up. Sure enough, as soon as it left its wooden base a latch popped somewhere and the bookcase began to swing toward me. I stepped back to allow Jonathan into the room.

He was stark naked, his perfectly sculpted body covered with a thin sheen of perspiration. His emerald green eyes were downcast, his dark brown hair sticking up in tufts all over his head. He looked like a man who had been through a great physical exertion.

My knees went weak, the adrenaline now wearing off. I sank onto the leather sofa which sat along one wall of the room, my eyes never leaving the sight of my boss. I could hardly register the fact that he was naked, or that his body was the most perfect thing I’d ever seen outside a museum. All I could think about, in my haze of utter shock, was the implications of what I’d just witnessed.

He didn’t speak at first, instead reaching into a closet beside the bookcase and pulling out a silk robe. “Do you need anything?” he asked. “Tea? Something stronger, maybe?”

I was stunned, speechless. My mouth opened and closed, no sound coming out. He looked me up and down with an appraising eye. “Yeah, you need something stronger.” He walked over to the bar cart by the window and poured amber liquid into two crystal glasses. He walked over to me and handed me one of the tumblers; I shrank back without thinking about it.

“Don’t be afraid,” he murmured, then sat beside me; to his credit, he perched at the other end of the sofa, giving me some space. I took a sip of the bourbon he’d handed me, wincing as the dark liquid scorched a trail down my throat. It warmed me from the inside and gave me a little courage.

“What was that?” I asked, my voice a tremulous whisper. “Tell me I’m only seeing things, please.”

He smiled into his glass. “Seeing things? No, Elizabeth. You’re not just seeing things. What happened on the roof, that was me. The real me. Or at least a part of me.”

“Part of you? What are you saying?” I stuttered, certain I was losing my mind.

“It’s not insane.” He got up, then, and began pacing before the window. He sipped his exquisite bourbon, looking pensive. “There’s an entire world you know nothing about, Elizabeth. It exists beyond what you think of as ‘normal,’ but for those of us with the power inside of us…it
is
normal. You’re the ones who don’t know what life really is.”

He turned to me, his body framed by the skyline beyond the glass. “I come from a long line of dragons, Elizabeth. Long ago, far back across the centuries, my clan ruled what is now Europe. We’re now all over the world, in smaller numbers but no less powerful. You saw me, just now, in my dragon form. I had no intention of revealing myself to you this way; it was an accident. I thought you were long gone.”

A dragon. Was I really hearing this? “How is this possible? How is there a whole world beyond the one I know? How can you exist in secret like this without the rest of the world knowing? I mean, nowadays, with the internet and iPhones…you mean to tell me that nobody has revealed this?”

He smiled, his white teeth shining against his tanned skin. “There’s something to be said for power and money, Elizabeth. Everybody’s got a price.”

I felt a chill run up and down my spine. “What about me?” I asked, all questions of how and why now wiped away by this much more pressing concern. “What will you do to me? Now that I know, I mean.”

He looked at me, his eyes now narrowed. “If you were anybody else, and I mean anybody, I would probably toy with you right now. Make you wonder if I was going to pay you off or dispatch with you.” I gulped, hard; he continued. “But you’re not just any other woman. You’re smart, you’re capable, hardworking. You’re the best assistant I’ve ever had. I believe you’re intelligent enough to appreciate the value of discretion.”

I knew what he meant, of course. He expected me to keep his secret for him. “Just like that?” I asked, skeptically. “You trust me?”

He shrugged. “I would insult you with the promise of a raise and a company car, even a vacation home if you so choose. But like I said, I think it would be an insult. You’re too substantial a woman to be swayed by possessions.”

I bristled at the word “substantial”, and he picked up on my shift in energy. “There’s one thing you need to know about a dragon if we’re going to keep working together, Elizabeth,” he said, his voice full of wry amusement. “We sense things. And I sense that you’re unhappy with my choice of words. Do you think I was making a crude reference to your figure? As though I was some stupid, careless bully?”

I couldn’t deny it, so I lifted my chin and looked him straight in the eye. “Yes, I did,” I said. “Sue me. Old habits die hard.”

He smirked. “Give me a little more credit than that,” he said. “By substantial, I mean you have a strong character. You’re a real person. You’re not easily fooled or easily put off. And by the way, I happen to enjoy thick, luscious figures.”

I blushed, hard, and he noticed; he smiled, one corner of his mouth curling up. “So let’s just say this, instead: I want us to keep working together. I couldn’t replace you if I tried. Whatever you need, and I mean whatever it is—money, a car, vacation time, debt erased, a nasty ex-boyfriend taken care of…” I snorted, and he smiled again, “it’s yours. Just say the word. All I ask for us that you continue the good work you’ve done for me thus far, and that you remain discreet. Agreed?”

I thought about it. It was a pretty large order, but then again this was the best job I’d ever had. It definitely paid better than I’d ever hoped. And strangely enough, finding out that my boss wasn’t entirely human somehow humanized him in my eyes. He wasn’t simply a powerful billionaire who didn’t suffer fools easily. He had a secret. He was vulnerable. And he was trusting me to keep him safe.

That was probably the moment I fell for him.

“Okay,” I said. “It’s a deal.”

I stood, leaving the tumbler on the desk. Before I left the office, I turned back.

“And by the way,” I said, “you can call me Libby from now on.”