Wanted by the Alphas (An Extremely Sensual Paranormal Shifter Romance) (4 page)

The red top has too much of a plunging
neckline. Nope.

The green strapless dress is too tight at the
bust, and can only be worn without a bra. Nope.

The blue blouse with the sparkly neckline has
too much bling and probably looks too cheap for the likes of Lucien
Walker. Nope.

In the end, she settles for her most
expensive piece – a lavender dress with an asymmetrical hemline for
its skirt. It brings out the violet of her eyes and the blackness
of her hair. She clips on some of the very few pieces of costume
jewelry she brought with her – a pair of sparkly amethyst earrings
against a cluster of small diamante stones.

She appraises herself in the mirror. She has
to admit she is beautiful. But her looks have never been a problem.
It is . . . the other thing.

A knock comes on her door. Her heart
leaps.

So soon?

But I’m not ready!

“Coming,” she says frantically. Why is she
all a-flutter? Why is her pulse suddenly tapping at her neck like a
persistent, excited drum?

She opens her door without peeking through
the peephole.

“You’re early,” she begins, and is deflated
to see Jared standing out there.

“All prepared for your date, huh?” he drawls
as he saunters in.

“Jared, I have to go soon.”

“Yeah.” He flops his long body on the couch.
“Nice suite, courtesy of your boyfriend.”

“He’s not my boyfriend.”

Jared lifts her feet and plunks them on the
long glass table in front of the sofa. “The way he looks at you . .
. it’s like he wants to eat you. Which mightn’t be a bad
thing.”

He gazes at her out of narrowed eyes. He
grins wolfishly.

“I remember the way I used to eat you.”

Her cheeks burn.

“That was a long time ago and it was a
mistake.”

“Not from what I remember. I remember you
moaning and begging me not to stop.”

“It was experimental and we were very young.
Please don’t refer to it anymore, Jared.”

“Why ever not? Just because you don’t want to
talk about it doesn’t mean it never happened. You don’t have to
feel so embarrassed about it. It isn’t as if we are blood related
or anything. And even if we were – ”

He lets it trail as his gaze lingers on her
breasts and curves under the pretty lavender dress which shows them
off so elegantly. She squirms under his watchful gaze.

“Don’t do that, Jared. You know you agreed
not to do that ages ago.”

“Doesn’t mean I won’t be tempted from time to
time, especially when the time of the month gets me.”

Another knock comes on the door.

Lucien!

Flustered, she tries to temper her walk to
the door. She does not want to show Jared her seeming haste to
answer it.

Lucien stands out there this time. He is in a
casual blue shirt with the top two buttons undone and a pair of
brown slacks. He is so tall that he almost fits into the entire
doorframe.

“Hi,” he says, staring at her.

His blue eyes are as startling as ever, and
her stomach does a little fluttery hop. She has not been
appreciated by such a handsome man in a long, long time, and the
sensation is simultaneously enervating and empowering.

“God,” he says, “you’re beautiful.”

“Thank you.” Her cheeks have not stopped
burning since five minutes ago. She wonders how she will get
through this night.

“Good evening to you too,” Jared calls from
the couch.

If Lucien is disappointed to see him, he does
a great job of masking it. “Well, hello, Jared. How did you find
the suite?”

Jared doesn’t get up, which itself is a
telling message to Lucien that he considers the hotelier lesser
than he is. Shannon is disappointed at her adopted brother’s lack
of manners to whom she considers a very gracious host.

“Not too shabby, Lucien,” Jared says.

Shannon grabs her purse and her jacket. “I’ll
be leaving now. You plan on staying here?” she says pointedly to
her brother.

He grins. “Of course not. I’ll be cruising
the town myself.”

“Be careful,” she says with a hidden
meaning.

Be careful not to antagonize anyone . . , and
be careful to stay under the radar.

“Of course I will, sis. Aren’t I always?”

“I’m going,” she says again.

“OK, OK, it’s not as if I’m going to rifle
through your lingerie.”

She stands there until he uncurls his body
from the couch and makes to leave. Lucien stands there, watching
this exchange with a slightly amused look of understanding.

“Shall we go?” Lucien proffers his arm to
her.

She takes it. His clothed arm is warm to her
hand.

“You ready to go?” Lucien asks, smiling.

“Yes.”

This exchange is noted sourly by Jared.

“Should I be waiting up?” he says to
Shannon.

She tears her gaze away from Lucien and eyes
him squarely in the face. The two of them cannot be more different
as night and day.

“I shan’t be waiting up for you, for sure,
brother.” The challenge is unmistakable. But sometimes she is so
tired of always having to cater to his demanding ways.

“Fine then.”

“Fine.”

“Have a good time,” Jared says as a parting
shot.

“We will,” Lucien says, turning her to face
the other way and to walk down the short corridor of suites to the
elevators which will take them downstairs.

THE DATE

You will never see this man again after
tonight
, Shannon tells herself.
You are a conquest to him,
nothing more. A body for him to toy with and discard. So it’s up to
you. You can put out and have a good time, or play it coy and leave
both of you wanting.

Either way, he is not for keeps and you both
know it.

So does she want to go all with the way with
him tonight and just take it as it is – a treasured experience with
a very handsome and charming man who would never want to take it
further?

But she is entitled to a good time just like
anyone else. So she lifts her chin and tells herself to stop
overthinking things and to not have an inflated ego of her own
charms. After all, he might not want you
that
way.

But the protective warmth she feels from his
arm is nice, and from the way his blue eyes light on her now and
then – with interest and desire – she doesn’t think so.

He leads her out of the reception. A mustard
yellow Mustang awaits them outside. Lucien opens the passenger door
for her.

“After you, beautiful lady.”

“You have two cars?”

OK, of course he has more than one car. His
family owns the hotel, right? Once again, she feels as if she is in
over her head.

It’s just a date. Don’t make it more than it
really is. By tomorrow, he won’t even want to know you.

She gets in, and he closes the door behind
her. He goes around to the driver’s side and enters the Mustang.
Thank goodness it has stopped raining.

“Do you like Italian?”

“You mean food?”

“I’ll take that as a yes. Sorry I don’t
fulfill your wet Italian dreams, but I assure you I can whip up a
mean rigatoni.”

She flushes. She is acting like a schoolgirl
around him, and she does not quite know why he does that to her.
Maybe it’s because he’s so huge. She feels positively tiny compared
to him.

Then she remembers the darkening of his eyes
and wonders if there is much more to his size than meets the
eye.

They drive down the hill, the Mustang
circumnavigating the bends on the road as if it is glued to the
asphalt.

“Do you always drive this fast?” she
asks.

“Always. You scared?”

“No.” Then she remembers the white Merc
swerving onto their lane and she says, “I’ll take that back.
Yes.”

“Don’t be. So what are you and your brother
doing in a town like Dolphin’s Bay?”

She replies cautiously, “We came here to
start a new life, make ourselves a home.”

“Where do you come from?”

“Arizona.”

“Why did you decide to leave?”

She glances at his perfect profile. “The
usual. Fell out with my family. Jared lost his job in a downsizing
exercise and so we decided to start afresh.”

Her voice trembles slightly. She is not very
good at making up stories. But that was what she and Jared had
agreed on as a cover when the locals asked them why they left.

“In Dolphin’s Bay?” He eyes her quizzically.
“You’d be better off in Arizona.”

“Jared wants to try something new. Maybe
something to do with forestry. He has always loved the forest. He’s
taking a break now, but he will find something eventually.”

“If he’s interested in forestry, he has come
to the right place. We are surrounded by nothing but forest. And of
course, the ocean.”

“I know. We did our research on Dolphin’s Bay
before we drove here.”

“What about you?”

“Me?”

“Yes. You look as if you’ve left college not
too long ago. Do you work?”

She hesitates, wondering how much to tell
him. “I trained as a physiotherapist. I work with people.”

“Physio. Cool. I could use a little physio
myself after racquetball. You do massages as well?”

“Yes.”

“Wow.” He seems impressed.

She blushes again.
Stop being a
schoolgirl! You’re twenty-four years old!

“So what do you do?” she asks.

She doesn’t expect him to reply with an
affirmative profession, being in a family of multimillionaires, and
so she is surprised when he says, “I’m in real estate.”

“Selling properties?”

“Yeah, buying and selling properties and
stuff. My family owns a real estate agency. We buy houses and
buildings, refurbish them and sell them for a profit. Or else we
rent them.”

Figures.

“That sounds interesting.”

“Not really.” He laughs. “But it’s what keeps
the Walkers going.”

And they are kept going very nicely, she
thinks.

“And you run the hotel as well?”

“We have a manager to run the hotel and the
other hotels we own in Oregon State.”

“Where do you live? In a hotel?” she
teases.

“Actually, I do. It’s called the Chatterly,
and I live in a suite pretty much like yours. I like the
convenience and the room service.”

Yes, she can quite see him living the
bachelor life in a hotel where he can come and go as he
pleases.

“What about your family?”

“They live in their own little house on a
hill. It’s just my Dad and my sister, Margarete. My Mom died when I
was in my teens.”

“I’m sorry.”

His handsome face clouds for a second.
“Yeah.” Then it passes as soon as it appeared. “The Chatterly is
where we are going now.”

“Oh?”

He wants to get me into bed so soon? she
thinks, disappointed.

“Yes. It has a killer Italian restaurant
called ‘Figo’s’. The best in the state, quite honestly, or maybe
I’m biased. I hired the chef myself from Sardinia. He does the
meanest fish soup I have ever tasted outside of Italy.”

“Fish soup?” She wrinkles her nose. Being
brought up in the desert, fish is not that appealing to her
tastes.

“You’ll see what I mean.”

The rest of the ride is filled with amiable
‘getting to know you’ banter. Shannon is completely at ease. She
has not enjoyed being with a man in such a long time.
Maybe it’s
because he’s so handsome and personable and he is flattering you
with so much attention.

They arrive at the Chatterly, which is
another old-style mansion with multiple branching wings which has
been converted to a boutique hotel. Again, the gardens are
resplendent with lush blooms.

“It’s beautiful,” she says in wonder.

“I have an excellent horticulturist. We grow
our own flowers in our own greenhouses.”

Is there nothing his family doesn’t own?

He parks the car in a reserved parking lot
amid the other cars in the crowded parking area. Then he comes
around again to open the door for her. He has amazing manners, she
decides. He probably uses them to charm a lot of girls into his
bed.

He escorts her into the hotel, whose
reception area is crowded tonight with a whole lot of well-dressed
people. The air rings with their chatter and occasional
laughter.

“We are hosting a wedding party tonight, but
that would be in the ballroom.”

He steers her into the direction of a
restaurant done in white, green and red colors – the colors of the
Italian flag. A sign in gold lettering says ‘Figo’s’.

He makes a face. “Tacky, I know, but this is
a small town and sometimes you have to practically beat folks here
over the head to let them know this is an Italian restaurant.
Subtlety just doesn’t do it.”

Inside, the restaurant is filled with
patrons. The tables are lined with white paper instead of cloth,
and Shannon sees some people scribbling onto the paper with
provided crayons. The low bustle of dining chatter fills the dimly
lighted atmosphere.

“It’s full,” she notes, disappointed.

“No worries.” Lucien smiles at the maître ‘d,
who is hastening through a path between the tables to come to him.
“Full house tonight, Gino?”

“Indeed, Mr. Walker. But there is always a
table for you and your lovely lady friend.” Gino appraises Shannon
as though to say,
Good choice
. Or he might have been
thinking,
Poor girl will be dumped after tonight.

They follow Gino to the back of the eatery
behind a screen. Here, some discreet tables have been set up. Oak
paneling separate these into booths, and the plush red berth chairs
are affixed to the dividers. The same paper covers the tables.
Neatly folded paper napkins are placed for two persons per
table.

“It’s more private here,” states Lucien.

They take their seats on the farthest table,
which is situated right against a wall. The folded ‘napkins’ are
actually menus, Shannon discovers.