Quarterback: Bad Boy Sport Star Romance. (12 page)

Paranormal Alpha Male Romance

Emma Jones

Copyright © 2015 by Emma Jones.

All Rights Reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, or by any information storage and retrieval system without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of very brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. This book contains mature content, including graphic sex. Please do not continue reading if you are under the age of 18. All characters in the book are 18+ years of age, non-blood related, and all sexual acts are consensual.

Jade eyes. Bright, expressive jade eyes that she can’t stop looking at. Not that Adelaide Miller has a choice. It’s finally the much-awaited company outing, and as part of the four-day excursion, everyone must participate in the trust building activities. She’s not complaining. Adelaide can look into Grant Montclair’s luminescent jade orbs all day.

As part of the exercises, employees who work closely together are paired up to participate in partner exercises. Since Adelaide is Grant’s executive assistant, there is one of the most obvious pairings.

“Eye contact is extremely important during meetings and presentations…especially in closing deals,”
Adelaide remembers Sharon, the HR manager, saying.

It’s not like Adelaide is in the frontlines of the job. Grant, CEO and Founder of M-Tech International Corporation, is the one who does the meetings and pitches between the two of them. Ade doesn’t understand why she has to torture herself with this staring game…until she remembers Sharon’s words.

“
Eye contact demonstrates confidence.
”

There’s a twinkle in Grant’s eyes, and Adelaide’s trying her best not swoon. Grant’s staring at her like he’s undressing her with his eyes. The man is a master when it comes to eye contact, and it isn’t long before Adelaide fumbles and looks away. A second longer and Grant’s going to know she has a hopeless crush on him.

Adelaide’s starting to think Sharon has a personal vendetta against her. It’s as if the woman wants to humiliate her in front of Grant. The staring contest is more than enough, but now Adelaide, while being tied to Grant, has to cross a plank of wood without falling into the mud puddles.

Grant and Ade eye the plank of wood before them. As Sharon explained earlier, the task aims to build trust among pairs. Partners must cross the planks of wood successfully without falling into the mud. There’s a catch of course.
What game doesn’t?
And that’s, that one partner has his or her arms around the other’s neck while the other around the partner’s waist. Not only that, but their hands have to be bound together.

Adelaide finds herself flushed up against Grand’s chest. His white t-shirt barely does anything to hide the muscles underneath, and Adelaide’s trying to focus on the task at hand without having non-work related thoughts about Grant.

Muscles. Abs. Green eyes. Muscles. Abs. Green eyes. Muscles. Abs. Gree-

Ade shakes her head and tries to focus. She knows this is hopeless – her crush. Grant’s the whole package; he’s extremely handsome, has an amazing body, is driven and successful, and has a great personality to boot. Ade knows he’s way out of her league, so it stresses her out that she has to keep everything in. No one can know she’s lusting over her boss, especially not the man himself.

After a whole day of team building activities and getting down and dirty, everyone’s more than ready to clean up and party the night away. The whole camp site has been turned into an outdoor events place complete with hanging lanterns, a towering bonfire, tables of food and liquor, and music blasting from the portable speakers. With the party in full swing, tonight is only one of a handful of nights wherein Adelaide and the rest of the employees can dare upper management to look stupid and foolish. They make sure to maximize the opportunity.

“Body shot! Body shot! Body shot!” the crowd cheers.

With the continuous prodding, Nathan, CFO of M-Tech and Grant’s best friend, stands in front of Melissa, an account executive from the marketing department. With auburn hair and luminescent azure eyes, Melissa’s the most gorgeous woman in the whole office, and Ade knows a number of men who have a crush on the redhead. She also knows, thanks to working directly under Grant, that Melissa and Nathan are an item.

As people gather around the center to cheer for Nathan and Melissa, the woman carefully lifts her shirt up just right below her breasts, while Nathan pours a line of whiskey on her skin. With her back against the sturdy table, he pours the whiskey from the middle of Melissa’s ribcage and further down until the lower part of her stomach. He then places a shot glass in her mouth before he licks the whiskey off Melissa’s body then takes the shot glass and drinks the alcohol in one go.

“You guys are going to pay for this!” Nathan shouts to the rest, obviously teasing, before he offers a hand to Melissa.

She sits up from the table, and Melissa and Nathan walk away before another couple is called to the center for another round of body shots.

“Playing cupid’s exciting!” shouts Lianne, a colleague from the administration department.

“More couples!” exclaims Dennis, one of Lianne’s teammates.

As more people are being paired up to take body shots, Adelaide’s busy drinking and maximizing the unlimited supply of alcohol with Sophia and Cameron. Even though, the two are part of the Special Projects department, they’re two of Ade’s closest friends in the office, along with Trent and Marie, representing marketing, who are nowhere in sight at the moment.

“Grant, you have to join the game!” shouts someone from the crowd.

At hearing his name, Grant Montclair tips his head over to the center of the party. There are two tables standing side by side with two rows of red cups filled halfway with beer. More than ten people have already volunteered, and the rest are asking Grant and a few other big bosses to join.

“I don’t even remember the last time I played flip cup,” Grant says with a laugh as he walks over to where the rest of the participants are.

“We just drank tons of alcohol a few days ago,” says Alex, COO of M-Tech, as he taps Grant on the back. “You’ll be good, man!”

When the referee starts the countdown, the participants, all 20 of them, have their game faces on. Their hands are stretched out and ready to grasp the cups. The surrounding people cheer and holler, and Adelaide, Sophia, and Cameron join the rest of the crowd in cheering.

It’s a close fight, and most of the participants are able to flip the cups at the first try. The last ones are Nathan and Alex, and they’re chugging the contents of their beer. Alex finishes first, but he’s having a hard time flipping the cup to land on its base. At the other side of the table is Nathan who just finished his beer. He then places the cup at the edge of the table and flips it. He’s successful, and the cheers grow louder.

“Fuck this!” shouts Grant, who’s on the losing team with Alex. “Pay cut for the winner!” he then teases, and everyone who’s not part of the game hollers in simultaneous rounds of laughter.

“Yo, I’m the CFO,” teases Nathan back with a sly wink of the eye. “So I handle the finances.”

That gets the rest of the crowd laughing as another round of flip cup is about to start. The night carries on and when Adelaide has had too much to drink, she excuses herself from her group of friends. Cameron tells her to come back soon, and she answers with a quick nod and wave before she walks over to the cooler to get herself a new bottle of beer. She wanders into the forest. With the noise everyone’s making back in the camp site, she can hear them perfectly, and there’s no way she’s going to get lost.

When Adelaide Miller opens her eyes, it’s only then that she realizes she’s fallen asleep behind a cluster of bushes. She has no idea how much she’s drunk until she tries to move and a throbbing headache greets her. Her arms and legs feel numb, but she tries to stand up slowly.

“Holy shit,” she says, when she manages to stand up.

Before her is Grant. Her boss. And naked. Ade tries not to look, but her eyes quickly glide over his lower region before they fly back up to meet his eyes. That’s not even the most surprising part. His dark mahogany hair has grown in length to resemble a mane. The hairs on his limbs have grown in similarity to a lion’s coat. Behind him, just right above his buttocks, protrudes a meter long tail with a ball of fur at the end. Her jaw goes slack and her eyes widen into saucers.

“What the-”

“Fuck,” Grant says, in perfect timing with her, and in an instant, he’s back to looking like the Grant before, without the mane, and the tail, and the fur.

“What the fucking hell are you doing here?!” Grant says, obviously shocked and angry. “Sierra,” he then says, pertaining to one of her cabin roommates. “Said you were back in the cabin. You’re the only one out here!”

Adelaide looks at him with a raised eyebrow and then says, “Obviously, not the only one.” She’s trying to keep her eyes above his neck even though she’s very tempted to sneak another peek. “I took a walk and ended up falling asleep…and when I woke up…” The memory of earlier flashes through her mind once more. “What the hell just happened?!”

“You were dreaming…” Grant answers, adding an eye roll. He walks over to a pile of rocks where he’s hidden his clothes and dresses up.
Bummer
, Ade says when Grant’s dressed. “You need to go back…everyone’s sleeping now.”

Adelaide looks at him with a furtive expression. Her lips are shut tight; her arms are crossed over her chest, and her eyes trail him from head to toe.

“Not until you tell me what’s going on,” she says, her voice taking on a daring tone.

“Then I’d have to kill you.”

Adelaide waits for Grant to laugh and to tell her he’s just joking, but there’s no sign of amusement in his face. He’s completely serious, and for a minute, a wave of fear washes over Adelaide.

“Seriously, Grant,” she says, walking closer to him. “I can’t just unsee
that
. You looked like you were turning into a lio-”

In an instant, Grant’s hand flies up to cover Adelaide’s mouth as he pulls her flushed against his side. Adelaide stares at him wide-eyed, and it’s only when he says, “Shut up, and I’ll explain,” that he takes his hand off her mouth.

When she doesn’t say anything, Grant leads her to a pile of logs, and he gets one and makes a seat out of it. Adelaide follows suit and takes the space behind him. Being flushed up against Grant’s side, Adelaide’s trying her best not to think of the fact that she’s just seen him naked a few moments ago.

“Where do I even start…?” he says. “What do you want to know? After I tell you everything…I’ll kill you.” 

Adelaide lets out a nervous laugh. Again, Grant remains serious and cold as ice.

“What did I see back there?”

“Uh…” he begins, trying to find the right words. “I was in the middle of shifting…”

“Shifting?”

“You saw what you saw…I was shifting into a lion…”

When Adelaide stays silent, Gran then continues, “Don’t even ask how it happened. I was just born like this.”

“So werewolves and witches…” There’s wariness evident in Ade’s voice. “All those paranormal shit is real?”

When Grant gives her a nod, Adelaide’s trying her best to keep her jaw from going slack. She’s read stories of fantasy creatures back when she was younger and had time to pore over fiction. She’s always been interested in the paranormal since anything imaginary is much more interesting than anything normal and real.

Guess she was wrong about those things being imaginary.

“Are there more of you…in the company?” Ade then asks, making a mental note to never get into a fight with Grant and others of his kind.

Grant then tips the edge of his lips up into a sideways smirk before he says, “That’s something you’re not entitled to know.”

After a few seconds of looking up into the night sky, where the stars twinkle ceremoniously, Ade turns back to face Grant.
God those eyes,
she swoons inwardly. This, her crush, is definitely hopeless, and it doesn’t help that she knows a part of Grant no else knows. It makes her feel special in her own little world where she stands a chance with Grant.

“Is this the part where you bite my head off and leave me here to die?”

Grant shakes his head, and he looks like he’s on the verge of laughing.

“As long as you won’t tell anyone, you’ll be alright.”

With that, she gives him a quick nod before they switch the conversation into a lighter and more normal topic. After a while and when sleepiness washes over them, they head back to their cabins and try to pack a couple hours of sleep.