Billion Dollar Wolves: Boxset Bks 1-5

by Dee Bridgnorth

  “He wasn’t my lover!” Tisha shouted back indignantly. She lowered her hands from her mouth and suddenly seemed to be less in shock and more pissed off. “I never slept with that man in my life! Not that I didn’t enjoy flirting with him.” She actually looked as though she were considering this in her mind. “I think he probably wanted to sleep with me. But he was just a good flirt and a good dancer too, but still! And what are you talking about get closer to him right now? I’m not going near him. He tried to kill me!”

  “What are you talking about?” Orion pushed his way in behind Jason and Edward.

  Jason was done worrying about it. He grabbed Skye and pulled her to her feet and away from Tex Johnson—dead or alive. “Baby, are you all right? Oh my God, what are you doing here?”

  “I came to see you. I came to…” Skye shot a surreptitious look at the King brothers. “The whole city was talking about a wolf attack out on the King land. I wanted to make sure you were okay.”

  “You were worried about me?” Jason wrapped his arms around Skye’s body and held her close. She huddled in his embrace.

  It was almost as if the rest of the room had disappeared for the moment. There was nothing but the two of them and the feel of her body against his. Skye was perfect. She was athletic and lean and he wanted so badly to run his fingers through that silky strawberry hair. Every time she looked at him with her big green eyes Jason thought he might melt. He had no idea what he was going to do or how he was going to do it, but he knew that he wanted to do it with Skye.

  “Jason!” Tisha snapped. For one moment she stomped toward Jason and Skye as though she was honestly going to rip them apart. “I told you to stay away from that dumpster girl! No good will ever come of that girl being anywhere near you!”

  Skye did not loosen her arms from around Jason’s middle, but she did turn and glare at his mother. “Are you kidding me right now? I just saved your damn life!”

  “What?” Edward cranked his neck around so hard Jason could have sworn he heard the crackle. “Skye saved your life, Mother? What do you mean?”

  Tisha gingerly lifted her head so that they could all see what appeared to be two giant handprints just beginning to turn purple around her neck. The woman was going to have one hell of a bruise in a few hours, but for now the point remained that it was obvious that Tex had actually tried to murder her.

  “He tried to kill me!” Tisha moaned. She reached out and snagged hold of Zane. Then she pointed at Skye and Jason. “Tex tried to murder me and now the dumpster girl is stealing my son!”

  “Hang on just a second here.” Jason pointed at his mother. “Skye saved your life!”

  “That’s beside the point. She was put in a dumpster as a baby. That’s just ridiculous. I can’t have that nonsense in my family tree!” Tisha actually acted as though this were some kind of negotiation.

  Down the hallway Jason heard feet. Lots of them. Devon stuck his head out the office door. “Back here guys! But I think our man is dead.”

  “You brought the cops?” Skye asked hopefully.

  “Paramedics, police, the whole nine yards,” Jason assured her. Then he placed a kiss on her forehead. “I couldn’t take a chance that my girl was up here hurt.”

  “You dork!” Edward was chuckling when he smacked Jason on the back of the head. “You didn’t even know that she was here.” Edward winked at Skye. “So do you want to explain to me how you knew you’d need to keep her safe?”

  “Would you two shut up?” Tisha snapped at them and put her hands on the sides of her face. “Oh my God, is Tex dead?” She swung around and glared at Orion as two medics and a cop came bounding into the already crowded office.

  A medic knelt beside Tex’s prone body. Nobody had moved him and he still had his foot up in that strange position propped up on the golf trophy. The medic laid his fingers on Tex’s neck. “He’s dead. I think if he wasn’t and his heart hadn’t stopped beating there would have been a whole lot more blood on the carpet here.”

  “Dead.” Skye looked first at Tex and then looked up at the King brothers. “You guys don’t seem all that upset. I know he was suspected of some things, but he’s dead and he was your father’s best friend.”

  “He tried to kill us this morning,” Jason said flatly.

  “Oh!” There went Tisha’s hands back to her mouth.

  But Skye looked as though she’d just had a huge aha moment. “Oh my God, that’s what he was rambling on about with the retirement spiel!”

  “Retirement spiel?” Jason almost hated to ask. “Did he actually admit to trying to kill us?”

  “Yes!” Skye said excitedly. “He stood there and said that he should have put your mother in the house with you so that he could have inherited the whole company and sold it off so he would have the money to retire.”

  “What’s that?” A cop pulled his tiny tablet from his pocket and started typing. “So you heard a confession about the attempt to have the ranch house razed with the King brothers inside?”

  Skye began to tremble against Jason. She looked up at him and immediately her fingers tightened as they twisted into his shirt. It was like she was trying to hold onto him for dear life. “Holy cow, that’s what he was trying to do? He was trying to kill you guys in that house?”

  “Actually, ma’am,” the cop drawled. “The idiot put the entire demolition crew at risk by telling them the house had been vacant and the utilities were shut off.”

  “Oh my God,” Skye whispered. She pressed her face to Jason’s chest and hugged him tight. “I’m so thankful you’re all right!”

  Orion cleared his throat. Jason looked up from the woman in his arms and realized that his brother was pointing at their mother. “And you need to be thankful that you’re all right too.”

  “Well I am!” Tisha assured them all.

  Jason growled. “Then you need to apologize to Skye for being so rude to her and thank her for saving your life. Don’t you think?”

  “What?” Tisha actually plucked at her clothing as though she were trying to straighten it even though the outfit was nearly shredded in places and covered in what appeared to be dirt and blood in others. “Of course. Thanks.”

  “Seriously?” Edward shook his head at Tisha. “You’re a real piece of work.”

  “No, I’m not!” Tisha looked down her nose at Skye. “I don’t want anything to do with a dumpster baby. I’m grateful that she whacked Tex over the head with that hideous golf trophy, but that’s all I’ll say.”

  “Okay, I am sick and tired of this dumpster baby stuff!” Skye shouted suddenly. She pushed away from Jason and pointed at Tisha. “I was not dumped in a trashcan!”

  “Of course you were,” Tisha said airily. “I read it in the Dallas Star!”

  “Uh huh, after you got me fired for telling the truth about you!” Skye shot back.

  Tisha turned and propped her hands on her hips. “You said I slept with Tex! I never did that!”

  “I never said you did!” Skye snarled.

  Skye moved away from Jason and got right in Tisha’s face. All five of the King brothers were looking mighty impressed and the medics and cops were struggling not to laugh. It was all pretty macabre considering there was a dead body right there on the floor. Sometimes Jason wondered if life weren’t just a little too exciting for the King family on some days.

  Tisha started to shout back at Skye, but at the last minute she just abruptly closed her mouth. Then she started to open again but stopped. Finally she frowned. “You did too say I was having an affair.”

  “No I posited the question,” Skye argued. “I just pointed out that your behavior wasn’t very widow-like and did anyone else wonder if there was something else going on.” Skye pointed to the body on the floor. “Considering that asshole just tried to kill you, then I guess I was right. There was something else going on!”

  “Oh.” Tisha cleared her throat. “I suppose you might be right then.”

  “Yeah,” Skye snorted. “And you
know what else I was right about?”

  “Don’t be cheeky,” Tisha told her nastily. “I didn’t say I liked you.”

  “Yeah? Well, do you remember what I told you would happen if you got me fired from the paper?”

  Tisha frowned. “Something about lies.”

  “Unfortunately, I was the target,” Skye snapped. “Carolyn decided a big juicy lie about me would be the best way to get back at me for refusing to claim to the whole world that I had evidence you were sleeping with Tex Johnson.”

  “No!” Tisha’s gasp was so deep and so profound that Jason could have sworn the barometric pressure in the office actually changed. “Your boss punished you for that?”

  “Yes.”

  “Then I suppose I have to forgive you, don’t I?” Tisha made it sound like the world’s biggest favor.

  Jason was absolutely aghast and yet Skye seemed to take it all in stride. Skye just shrugged. “I think that you do. In fact, I think you owe me.”

  “How about if I just say that you can marry my youngest son?” Tisha tilted her head and acted as though they were negotiating an arms deal or something.

  “Wait a second!” Edward held up his hands and shook his head. “No way. No freaking way!” He pointed at their mother. “So you’re going to welcome Skye with open arms because she didn’t ruin your reputation, but a few minutes ago when the only thing she’d done was save your life that wasn’t enough?”

  Tisha actually reached up and patted Edward on the cheek as though he were a silly little boy. Jason cringed. He absolutely hated that treatment. Then Tisha put the icing on the cake. “Oh honey, don’t be silly! I’m glad to be alive, but when you die you die. That’s just it. But having your reputation ruined is far worse. It means you have to live your life knowing that all of those people are laughing and pointing at you. Being killed is final and hopefully quick, but a ruined reputation can be like dying very slowly.”

  Tisha actually held her hand out to Skye. The two women shook over the body of their fallen foe. It was all quite—well, it was damned disturbing. But Jason was a guy who spent half his life in the body of a wolf running around and howling at the moon. So who was he to judge?

  “Women are weird,” Edward murmured to Jason.

  Jason could not argue with that point. He just had other goals at this point in his life. “I don’t really care how weird they are. I just want to convince Skye to go out on a real date with me.”

  “Whoa, a real date?” Skye looked at him over her shoulder. Then she glanced down at Tex Johnson’s body. “If I say yes do you think this will be some kind of bad luck? You know, to say yes to a first date while there’s a dead guy in the room?”

  Orion snorted. “More like should Jason worry about asking out a chick who is currently standing over the last man she killed?”

  Jason wanted to throttle his brother for the crass comment, but Skye only turned and shook her head at him. “I didn’t kill Tex Johnson.”

  “You didn’t?” Jason was dumbfounded, but at the same time it wasn’t like they had heard the whole story yet. “I guess I just assumed…”

  “Oh, I can see why,” Skye told him. She turned to stare at the body and Jason could see the regret on her face. “He was trying to strangle your mother with his bare hands. I smashed him in the face with that golf trophy thing, but it didn’t kill him. I fell into the chair and flipped over. When I came back up I hid behind the chair and pushed it into his legs.”

  “He tripped,” Tisha offered. “On the stupid trophy. It was on the floor and he tripped. Then he fell over backwards and smashed his head on the edge of the desk.”

  The cop was already looking at the edge of the huge solid wood desk. “The evidence would concur. I have to say that you two ladies are pretty lucky. Tex Johnson is an older guy, but he’s in good shape and he was pretty strong. It would not have gone well for the two of you if he’d gotten the upper hand.”

  “Am I going to have to go to trial or sit before the grand jury?” There was a definite note of fear and apprehension in Skye’s voice. Jason reached out and took her hand. He was going to stand with her no matter what.

  But the cop was already shaking his head. “No, ma’am. I think we can most definitely call this self-defense. We’ll document Ms. Olivares-King’s injuries to her neck and I cannot imagine anyone arguing with us about the circumstances.”

  “Whew!” Skye said with relief. “Because I have no doubt that Carolyn Phillips would add that to my dramatic repertoire and turn me into the most dangerous woman in Dallas.”

  Jason almost wanted to point out that Skye might not be the most dangerous woman in Dallas, but that she was the most important one because she was the one holding the key to his heart. But maybe that could wait for a little bit later. He didn’t want to get all sappy in front of his brothers after all. That never ended well.

  Chapter Thirty-One

  “Four weeks and what?” Skye asked Jason. “Has it been a hundred dates? Two hundred?”

  “I don’t know.” His smile was so handsome that for just a moment Skye was utterly dazzled by it. She was pretty sure that this man had the ability to smile her stupid. Then he leaned down and nuzzled her neck. “I’m thinking it’s been enough dates now that I should be able to entice you into my bed.”

  Skye felt her entire body shiver with delight as Jason wrapped his arms around her waist. She put her hands on his forearms even as he lightly kissed her neck. Tilting her head to give him better access, she thought about how lucky she was to have found a man who was willing to exercise patience. So many guys would have completely given up on her after dating for four weeks without sex being on the table.

  “Keep talking,” Skye whispered to Jason as she let her fingers trail up and down his bare forearms. “You might just convince me this time.”

  They had gone out plenty of times. He wasn’t exaggerating about that. And Skye had enjoyed each and every date. Jason was a lively conversationalist and a passionate man who actually enjoyed hanging out at the coffee shop talking to Lou, Marvin, and Tom. He was handsome and polite and she had even gotten over the weirdness of the fact that he still lived at home with his mother—more or less—but she was still worried about one thing.

  Skye squirmed in Jason’s arms and turned to face him. Locking her arms around his neck, she stood on tiptoe to ask for a kiss as she had done a million times since they’d started officially dating. He obliged her willingly, letting his tongue slide sexily into her mouth and rub right up against hers. She gave a soft little moan and tangled her fingers into his silky hair.

  They were on the balcony outside his bedroom. The private space was small, but lush with potted plants and trees. Skye had long ago decided that this was her favorite place in Jason’s suite to hang out. A light breeze ruffled Skye’s hair as she stood just a little more on her toes and lightly nipped Jason’s lower lip. The things that this man could make her feel!

  “Jason,” Skye whispered. “Jason, I have to ask you something.”

  He dragged his mouth away from hers as though he were having difficulty emerging from the haze of lust that seemed to be covering them both. “What, baby? What do you need to know?”

  “Do you mind that my background is so”—she struggled to find the right words—“so embarrassing? I wasn’t found in a dumpster, but I was dumped at a fire station. I lived in a group home all my life. Nobody wanted me. Ever. Are you sure that you really think you do?”

  His expression went soft. She reached up and lightly brushed her fingers over the dark stubble on his swarthy cheeks. The man looked like a pirate or maybe a hero from some old book. He was handsome and virile and wild. For goodness sake, he could turn into a wolf!

  “Baby, I’m sure that I want you.” His fervent tone of voice was enough to send frissons of excitement through her body. “I’m not exactly normal either. Look at me!” He lifted her hands to his lips and kissed her knuckles. Then he cupped her cheeks and kissed her nose, her lips, and mov
ed down to her neck. “I turned into a wolf. Did you know that?”

  “Of course I know that, silly.” She whispered the words but her mind was so tangled up in the feelings of desire coursing through her veins that she almost could not think straight. “It doesn’t matter to me.”

  “Then do you honestly think that something like the decisions made by your biological parents before you had a say in anything would make a bit of difference in the way I feel about you?” He kissed her lips again.

  She could not think or speak or do anything but feel and right then when he said it like that, there was no doubt in Skye’s mind that she was doing the right thing. If Jason King wanted her, then Skye would be crazy to turn him down for one more second.

  “Take me to bed,” she whispered to Jason. “Please take me to bed and make me yours.”

  He paused as though he weren’t really certain she meant what she said. But one pause was all he waited. Jason swept Skye right off her feet as though she had been picked up by a wind and tossed back inside the house. The balcony door slid closed behind them and within only moments Jason had put her in the center of his big bed.

  The bed had always sort of fascinated Skye. The suite was enormous. It was probably larger than Skye’s whole apartment. She had never seen anything like it. There was a flat screen television hanging on the wall and plush rugs on the floor. The bed was a monstrosity of pillows and cozy blankets that occupied the center of the room. Everything was made of dark wood and the style was heavy and masculine thought not ornate.

  As Skye sank into the center of the marshmallow mattress, she tried to calm the butterflies spinning in her belly with the thought that she had been on this bed before. They’d laid here and watched television on several occasions, but that wasn’t exactly the same thing, now was it?

  Jason drew off his T-shirt and tossed it aside. Then he carefully unfastened his jeans and shoved them down his legs. He was just wearing a pair of red bikini briefs now and they really didn’t leave much to the imagination.

  “That was awfully fast,” Skye said, trying to lighten her nerves with a bit of teasing. “I was expecting a show!”