She ran to the back of the building and thanked her cousin for pushing her to get a shower put in by her office. After taking the quickest shower in the world, she put on a spare sundress from the clothes she kept there and headed for Striped.
The casino was amazing. Unlike the tons of lights in other hotels, Striped was decorated in earth tones. From dark-brown carpeting and tiles with specks of gold, to tree trunks being used for columns all over the lobby, the hotel felt like being out in the wild. It was awesome.
She met Zander by the VIP area. Her breath came faster. She wasn’t sure what to say, but didn’t get a chance to figure it out. He grabbed her by the waist, pulled her in, and dropped his head down to hers. The kiss was fast, intense, and hot. For a second there, she forgot all about being in the middle of a public area. He hugged her into him, pressing their bodies close and sucking the breath out of her lungs. There was an invasion of his tongue into her mouth. Hunger broke free in her chest. She wanted more. Wanted him. Then, he was gone. His lips separated from her, and she almost cursed at him for stopping.
“Come on,” he said, grabbing her hand and engulfing it with his much larger, hotter one.
She blinked and nodded. Sure. Pretending to be fine worked too.
They got into an elevator, and he used a card to press a P button. She wondered if he’d changed his mind about staying in and was taking her to the parking area. The elevator opened, and she gasped. She’d swear they were outside, but they weren’t. There were trees everywhere. It was like suddenly opening the door, and the forest was inside. She could hear birds chirping, and glancing up, she noticed the roof was glass, which allowed the sun to shine in but gave the hotel the ability to control the temperature from the horrific Vegas heat.
“This is amazing!” She watched the floor change from tile to dirt and grass. “I had no idea this hotel had this inside.”
He laughed and motioned for her to follow. “The park is in the furthest area back of the hotel while still keeping both connected. We are actually right above the parking area.”
“This is unreal,” she said, glancing all over the place and trying to figure out how there was a forest in the hotel. “Do people know this is here?”
He nodded. “Guests do. Shifters are the only ones allowed back here.”
She gasped. “Wow, you must have pulled some strings to get me in here, huh?”
“Yes, yes I did. And I expect to be rewarded handsomely,” he joked.
They reached a sectioned-off area with a metal door. He put in a security code, and they got to go across. On the other side, she stopped in her tracks.
“That’s not really a waterfall, is it?” She squealed.
“It is.”
“Holy shit!” She gazed at the clear water with amazement. Heck, she wished she could throw herself into the inviting water and cool off from the crazy heat. “This is just... Wow.”
“Do you like it?” He guided her to the left, where a big fluffy blanket lay on the floor set up with a bottle of something in a bucket of ice. Plastic containers of what looked like food and utensils had been wrapped in napkins.
She glanced from the floor to him. “You did this?”
“I didn’t necessarily do it. I just made a few calls and hoped you’d like to enjoy a nice meal by the water.”
She threw her arms around his neck and gave him a hug. The pitter patter of her heart sang with joy. This was beyond dangerous. Her emotions were all over the place when it came to him. He was being incredibly romantic and thoughtful.
“Thank you so much,” she said, gazing into his bright, golden eyes.
“I’m glad you like it.”
He led her to the blanket and even went as far as helping her sit on the cushions someone had laid out for them. He sat down next to her and immediately set on opening the bottle of wine and pouring her a glass.
“I’m really impressed with this spread.” Shit. She was ready to toss her panties at him and hopefully have him realize she wanted to get her freak on as soon as possible. The longer she stared at his sexy grin, the more she wanted to lick her way up his body. She took a sip of her wine and licked her lips, tasting the smooth light flavor of the white. “You must have some pull in this place. I can’t even imagine what it would take to get permission to do this.”
“It’s not pull.” He shrugged and handed her a plate with chicken, a roll, and some salad. She took a bite of the Caesar salad and almost came on the spot.
“This has to be the best Caesar salad ever. It’s so light and perfect.” She moaned as she ate another bite of her food. “You cannot tell me you don’t have pull. I bet the owner has to like you.”
He lifted his own wine to his lips and winked at her. “He kind of does, but he’s known me for over thirty years, so he might be biased.”
She raised her brows in surprise. “Wow. You’ve known the owner that long?”
He frowned and then laughed. “That’s right. We never did get around to last names. Zander Tigris,” he said, lifting her hand to his lips. “At your service, gorgeous.”
TEN
“Wait, what?” She blinked, yanked her hand back, and frowned. “You’re a Tigris? You’re one of them?” She knew her voice was rising with anger, but she couldn’t help it. He was one of the people who had taken her dream of owning Charlie’s out of her hands.
Zander took the plate before it flipped on her lap. “Do you have something against the Tigrises?”
“As a matter of fact, yes. You suck!”
His brows drew down in a frown. “Why do you say that?”
“You people and your money. You got Charlie to give you the rights to opening up my club. My club,” she snapped watching recognition light his eyes. “That’s right. I was supposed to open up Charlie’s Deux, but got bypassed for you!”
She shoved the glass into the holder in the empty basket and jumped to her feet. “You should be ashamed of yourself. I worked damn hard to get that club. I’ve been working sixteen-hour days to make my mother’s dream come true, and instead you get it because of your last name.” She curled her hands into fists at her sides. “Thanks for stealing my dream.”
She stormed off, fury riding hot in her veins. She had no idea where she was going. They’d walked a while, and all she saw was trees, but as long as she got away from him then she’d be fine.
A hand shot out of nowhere and grabbed her arm. She screeched, and he whirled her around to face him.
“Emi, wait!”
“Let me go, you asshole! You and your dad ruined my life!” Her throat started closing, and her eyes welled up. She wasn’t going to fucking cry in front of him. No way in hell. She should have known this was too good to be true. Him, with all his romance and amazing sex. It was all a façade.
“I didn’t know. I had no idea it was you,” he said, pulling her into his arms and holding her immobile.
“Who cares who it was? I had a contract that was ignored, because you people wanted the club and had more money than me. Do you really think that’s fair?”
He stared at her for a long, quiet moment before shaking his head. “No. It’s not fair. You’re right. Whether it was you or someone else, this was yours first.”
“It doesn’t matter, because Uncle Charlie told me he’d given you all the go ahead,” she said, losing some of her steam. She couldn’t be fully angry at just them. Charlie was in charge. He had taken things out of her hands, too. She glanced down, pushing back the need to let the tears flow. “Let me go. This wouldn’t work anyway.”
He raised a hand to her face and cupped her cheek, lifting it in the process, for her to look at him. “Why not? We have something. A connection. You feel it, and I do, too. I didn’t want to scare you with talks of mating, but you’re the one I want.”
She knew very well how shifters worked. Mating meant forever. The idea should have terrified her, but instead it excited her. An hour ago she’d have been over the moon, but now she knew he was the one who rippe
d her heart out. The club didn’t feel like it had in the past. The sole dream. Since talking to him, Zander had somehow wormed his way into her heart so fast she’d been caught unawares by the flood of emotions choking her at that moment.
“It just wouldn’t, Zander.”
“We can work. You know we can. Before the talks of Charlie’s, there was just us, and you know you want me as much as I want you. I want to be with you, and nobody else. Does it sound crazy? Probably to a human to hear a man say that after a few days it does. But I know for a fact there will be nobody else in the world I will ever want to be with besides you. No one.”
She gulped at the knot in her throat. “Charlie’s...”
He shook his head. “No. Charlie’s is not even a project. We can work together on this.”
She licked her lips and tried to figure out what he meant. “Together?”
“Yes. Mates. Business partners. We can both have Charlie’s Deux and see our dreams made into a reality. We can make it exactly what we want. As long as we do it together.”
Hope pushed hard at her chest. She wanted to agree, to say yes so bad, but she had worked so hard, for so long, on making that dream a reality.
“The reason I want to open a second Charlie’s is because of the women.”
She frowned, no longer fighting to get out of his hold. “The women?”
He grinned. “Yes. My mother taught a class once to humans about positive body image. When I went to Charlie’s and saw how revered curves were in there, I realized we needed more of that in the world. More men showing love to women’s bodies, instead of making them feel insecure and upset.” He caressed her cheek, down to her neck, and hooked his hand around the back of her head. “Charlie’s is a place to worship curves. Women feel good working there. Men love being there. The atmosphere is about a new level of sexy. Beauty. Not society’s standards. The personal one.”
She nodded. “My mother worked there. She met my dad at Charlie’s. It was one of the things she loved to talk about. For a long time, she felt unhappy with her body, until she went there and saw how special her curves were.”
He smiled softly. “In a society of perfection, Charlie’s did something no other club did. It embraced curves, large hips, big asses, and any rolls women usually felt insecure about. It brought sexy back to being about what shines from within with a love for real women. I wanted to be a part of that.”
She curled her lips up in a small grin. “I do too.”
“We can do it. Together. Be my mate. My partner. Let’s teach more people to love their curves.”
Her smile widened over her lips. “When you put it like that, it’s kind of hard to say no.”
“Good,” he said, cupping her face with both hands and tugging her to him. “Don’t say no. Say yes.”
His head lowered to hers, followed by a quick, almost non-existent brush of his lips on hers.
“Yes,” she said. “I’ll be your mate and partner.”
Their lips meshed in a rubbing of tongues. Lust sparked bright inside her. She clung to his shirt and allowed him to take control of the kiss, to brand her with his lips, and she even sucked his groan in with her breath, her chest quaking with the rumble.
Life was all about taking chances. She looked forward to a lot more time with Zander. Thoughts of a long-term relationship with him filled her heart with joy.
EPILOGUE
Vincent stood to greet his guest. “Thank you for coming, friend.”
“You’re welcome,” Charlie grinned.
“You know, we are very good, working as a team.” Vincent walked to his bar and poured himself and Charlie some whiskey.
“When you first told me about your crazy idea to get your sons mated, I had serious doubts your plans would work.”
Vincent nodded. “I know. Ye of little faith. But I showed you, huh?”
Charlie nodded and took the glass from Vincent, clinking it with his. “You sure did. Now my lovely Vanessa is mated. My sweet Gabriella, who’s like a daughter, is finally doing what she wants with that dance studio. My niece Emilia is getting Charlie’s Deux and a protector.”
Vincent took a sip of his drink and sighed. “Those kids were a handful, but we showed them who’s boss. And Suzanne didn’t think I could pull it off.”
Charlie snorted. “I hate to admit it, but I didn’t think we’d pull it off.”
“You know kids nowadays are too busy with stuff to realize we parents know what’s good for them.”
“That’s right. Every time I tried to explain to one of them they needed a partner, they gave me some excuse about not finding the right men. Took me and you to find them the right people for each other.”
Vincent shook Charlie’s hand. “Too bad I don’t have any more kids.”
Charlie raised his brows. “I’d really like some grandkids, though.”
Vincent nodded slowly, a plan already forming. “Yes. I agree. Let’s see what we can do about making sure they all have plenty of time alone together.”
Raising three tigers had been no easy task. Finding them mates had been harder than he’d thought. Getting the grandkids he wanted? That would require the big guns. Time to get his wife to help him out.
THE END
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Paranormal Dating Agency
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TWICE THE GROWL
GEEK BEARING GIFTS
HER PURRFECT MATCH
CURVES ‘EM RIGHT
TALL DARK AND PANTHER
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A New Werebear Romance Series
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FUR-BIDDEN – BOOK 1
FUR-GOTTEN – BOOK 2
FUR-GIVEN – BOOK 3
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FUR-OCIOUS LUST SHORTS (TIGER)
New WereTiger Paranormal Romance
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STRIPE-TEASE – BOOK 4
STRIPE-SEARCH – BOOK 5
STRIPE-CLUB – BOOK 6
The Sassy Mates Series
And Fall for Girls with Curves and Guys with Fur
Humor. Heat. Romance.
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Scent of a Mate - Book 1
A Mate’s Bite – Book 2
Unexpectedly Mated – Book 3
A Sassy Wedding – Short 3.7
The Mate Challenge – Book 4
Sassy in Diapers – Short 4.3
About the Author
New York Times and USA Today Bestselling Author Milly Taiden (AKA April Angel) loves to write sexy stories. How sexy? So sexy they will surely make your e-reader sizzle. Usually paranormal or contemporary, her stories are a great, quick way to satisfy your craving for fun heroines with curves and sexy alphas with fur.
Milly lives in New York City with her hubby, their boy child, and their little dog “Needy Speedy.” She’s aware she’s bossy and is addicted to shoe shopping, chocolate (but who isn’t, right?), and Dunkin’ Donuts coffee.
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If you liked this story, you might also enjoy the following by Milly Taiden:
Sassy Mates Series
Scent of a Mate Sassy Mates Book One
A Mate’s Bite Sassy Mates Book Two
Unexpectedly Mated Sassy Mates Book Three
A Sassy Wedding Short 3.7
&
nbsp; The Mate Challenge Sassy Mates Book Four
Sassy in Diapers Short 4.3
Federal Paranormal Unit
Wolf Protector Federal Paranormal Unit Book One
Dangerous Protector Federal Paranormal Unit Book Two
Black Meadow Pack
Sharp Change Black Meadows Pack Book One
Caged Heat Black Meadows Pack Book Two
Paranormal Dating Agency
Twice the Growl Book One
Geek Bearing Gifts Book Two
The Purrfect Match Book Three
Curves ‘Em Right Book Four
Tall, Dark and Panther Book Five
FUR-ocious Lust - Bears
Fur-Bidden Book One
Fur-Gotten Book Two
Fur-Given Book Three
FUR-ocious Lust - Tigers
Stripe-Tease Book Four
Stripe-Search Book Five
Other Works
Wolf Fever
Fate’s Wish
Wynter’s Captive
Sinfully Naughty Vol. 1
Club Duo Boxed Set
Don’t Drink and Hex
Hex Gone Wild
Hex and Kisses
Hex You Up (coming soon)
Hex with an Ex (coming soon)
Alpha Owned
Bitten by Night
Seduced by Days
Mated by Night
Taken by Night
Captured by Night (coming soon)
Match Made in Hell
Hellhound Needs a Mate (coming soon)
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Stripe-Club: BBW Paranormal Shape Shifter Romance (Furocious Lust Shorts Book 6) Page 4