Billionaire: Billionaire Boss Romance: What the Boss Wants, He Gets (Bad Boy Alpha Billionaire Boss Romance) (New Adult Contemporary Older Man Romance)

by Tia Siren

  “Whoa,” Eric said as he grabbed her by the arm. “Now what kind of talk is that? I watched you earlier; when you were serving those homeless people their meals. You had something nice to say to everyone you met. How come you don’t do the same for yourself?”

  “I do,” she replied quietly. “It’s just that other people don’t.”

  Eric felt both pity and something else towards Marissa as she stood there. “What happened to you?” he asked her. “Don’t you know people will only believe what you show them?”

  “Doesn’t matter,” she sighed. “I gotta get to work.”

  “Would you like to go out with me tonight? For dinner?” he asked. He had an inkling he had to stay close to her, or she would either do something stupid or sink further into depression.

  “I don’t know...” she said. Her voice trailed off as she tried to come up with a fitting response to his suggestion.

  “Come on, I know what will cheer you up,” he said and led her outside.

  “Where are we going?” she asked.

  “There is one sure fire way to get any woman happy; take her shopping,” he told her as he grinned.

  Marissa stopped dead in her tracks. “Look, Mr. Colburn, I really appreciate the gesture, but I like the clothes I wear just fine.”

  “Does that mean you can’t have any more?” he asked. “Come on, before the stores close.”

  “I can’t afford clothes,” she said to him.

  “Lucky for you, I can,” he said as he sunk both hands into his pockets and whistled as he walked off again. When he looked around again, she was following, but looking all around like she was fishing for an escape.

  Marissa seemed like a fish out of water in the store, and Eric found himself smothering her, just so she could feel better about herself.

  “Eric?” he heard someone call from behind.

  He turned and saw Amber standing there with a puzzled look on her face. “Hey,” he said as he scratched his head and looked towards the changing room.

  “What are you doing here? Into women’s fashion now?” she asked.

  Amber was the last person he wanted to find him here. She had a big mouth, as creative as it got in bed, but in other ways as well.

  “How about this one?” he heard Marissa ask.

  He closed his eyes and turned around to her. Then he gave her the thumbs up and bit his lower lip so hard he could almost taste the blood. Marissa saw the look on his face, and the scandalous one on Amber’s as her eyes widened with excitement. She took that as her cue to leave.

  “Well, well, well,” the woman said. “I didn’t know you like them chunky,” she said as she reached for her phone.

  Eric grabbed her hand. “Just shut up, Amber. I was just doing her a favour because she has had a rough day. You know she isn’t my type,” he said. The look on Amber’s face told him Marissa was standing right there. “Marissa,” he said as he reached for her.

  “It’s okay,” she said as she walked past. “I’m used to it.”

  Amber was chuckling then, and Eric knocked her on the shoulder as he moved past in a hurry to catch Marissa. “Marissa, wait,” he called. But she was already gone.

  ****

  For days, Marissa refused to talk to Eric, and the obedient and faithful puppy that had followed him around after he saved her was now as cold and distant as the Arctic. Never did he think rejection could feel that awful until it was meted out to him. And from someone like her at that.

  He lay in bed that night, tossing and turning as he kept seeing the hurt look in her eyes when the words left his lips. How did he get here? Eventually, when sleep refused to come, he threw the sheets back violently and got out of bed in a huff. He pulled on a robe and went onto the terrace. It was then that he realised it was a full moon. He only had two to go, and she was further away from being his wife than when they had just met.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  “I have something to show you,” Eric told Marissa when he showed up at the shelter the following day.

  “I’m busy,” she said, then deliberately ignored him and continued with her task.

  “I’m not leaving until you come with me,” he insisted. “Or I can talk very LOUDLY SO...”

  “Okay,” she responded quickly as his voice increased in pitch. “I’ll be leaving soon.”

  Eric smiled and leaned against the wall at the end of the line until she was through. “Now what?” she asked as she got to him.

  He didn’t answer her on the way to his car, and she followed obediently in silence. She didn’t seem the least bit impressed by his Jaguar, and it only forced him to see her depth even more. She sat quietly next to him as he sped along, and when he pulled up outside the spa, her eyes bulged.

  “Are you sure you want to be seen in public with me? I’m not your type, remember?”

  “That was a mistake,” he told her as he slid from the car. Then he knocked on the roof and urged her to get out. “Come on now.”

  Marissa crawled from the car, and it leaned to her side when she did. “I know I’m fat, and apparently that doesn’t sit well with others. You don’t have to feel the need to babysit me or be nice to me. I can take care of myself.”

  “I’m not babysitting you. I’m treating you nicely for a change. Someone has to make a start,” he said and winked. “Plus, you don’t look so fat to me.”

  “Why are you doing this?” she asked him, and he could see the tears forming in the corner of her eyes.

  “Because you deserve it,” he told her.

  She was problem free after that, and Eric waited in the lobby while she got powdered and pampered in the other room. He was flipping through more magazines of more things he was hardly interested in when she walked out. He didn’t notice her at first, but when she stopped before him, he dropped the magazine and gaped.

  “Wow,” he said as he flew out of his seat. She had gotten a haircut, and where her hair was a tangled mess before, it was now a layered bob that fell to her shoulders. She had on makeup, and her skin was glowing under the sparse lighting.

  Marissa blushed as she witnessed his reaction, and she smiled then. But this time it wasn’t a defensive shield as she was prone to display before. Now it came from the inside and radiated around the room. It grew even brighter when she saw the admiring guests looking on.

  “Come on,” she said as she yanked him from the chair.

  “I think we have one more stop,” he told her and made a hard right that brought them to a department store. “Here we go,” he told her, and this time she didn’t protest.

  Eric no longer cared what others thought; he only cared about how Marissa felt. It seemed his joy was now hinged to hers as he accompanied her inside the boutique. The store clerk was friendly, and Marissa was unable to tell if it was just store policy or if it was to be attributed to her new look.

  A half hour later and she was lugging several shopping bags after her, and when Eric picked her up later that night, she took his breath away. He couldn’t contain himself any longer, nor could he resist the urge to stare at her.

  “Stop,” she said as she was made painfully aware of his staring.

  “I can’t help it,” he told her. “You look amazing. Would you like to dance?” he asked as he held his hand out for her. “I won’t take no for an answer.”

  Marissa went with him, and for the first time since he had bumped into her on the street, they touched. Eric held her to him, and he could feel her heart racing in tandem with his as they moved to the rhythm of the music and their adrenal rush. When Eric brought her home, it seemed inevitable that he would have the urge to kiss her. She stood there paralyzed as she realised what he was doing, but then she closed her eyes as she held him, and their lips danced to their own song right there on the front porch.

  When they separated, they both shared the same heady feeling, and her eyes fluttered open again. “Did you kiss me because I now look acceptable?” she asked as she indicated her new appearance.

&n
bsp; “Yes,” he told her matter of factly. Her face started turning bitter as soon as the words left his mouth and she hung her head. “But not because I think you look beautiful now. I did because now you believe you are. You are an amazing woman with a big and kind heart, and you hid your beauty away under faded jeans and baggy outfits. That’s not you, and you didn’t know that or didn’t show it. Now you allowed yourself to, and it warms me inside to see you do it. That’s why I kissed you because words escaped me.”

  Marissa was on the verge of tears when Eric was through. She quickly wiped the tear that was about to fall and averted her eyes. “I appreciate you doing all you did, and for seeing me for who I am, and not what I pretended to be. For so long...”Her words were cut short as she started sobbing.

  “It’s alright now, Marissa,” he told her and held her to him. “I’ve got you.”

  Eric held her in his arms this time, as she cried and released her pent up emotions, and he realised then that for all the time he had spent trying to make her feel better about herself, he was exposing himself more to her beauty. It was then that he realised it was another full moon, and he smiled inwardly and out. Three moons would work after all.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  Several dates later and Eric was growing devastatingly in love with Marissa Evans. He could be seen everywhere with her, and she was not the same woman since. It was after dinner one night that she finally decided she would spend the night at his apartment. Eric’s heart raced like he had never been with a woman before, and she did the same for she couldn’t remember the last time she was with anyone.

  She trembled each time he touched her, and when his lips found her bare skin, it was like electricity coursing through her veins. Eric ran his hand along the length of hers as he pressed himself against her. His lips began tracing the outline of hers, and his hands moved from hers to places on her long forgotten by a man. Her body was firm and taut, and she smelled like a sunny day as he drank in her warmth, making it his own. Her breasts lay bare before him, and he cupped one while sucking the other.

  Marissa twitched when she felt his icy cold tongue, still chilled from the champagne, as it covered her peaks, and she moaned. Her legs started sliding up and down the silky sheets, and she grabbed a handful when he lowered his head and began licking the tender spot at her throat. She held onto him now as he made his way south, carving out a path on her with his tongue, or rather, making abstract art as his head bobbed and weaved as he moved. His thumb found her pulsating centre, and as he strummed her like a guitar, he suckled her breast and slid his middle finger inside her.

  Eric started moaning when he felt her juice flowing over him, and he stroked, gently at first, and then more vigorously after. Then, when she started screaming, begging him to take her, he lost control. She held his manhood firmly in her hands, impatient for him, and guided him inside her. Eric bellowed as her walls closed in on him, and then he grew wild. He pressed her legs apart, and then drove into her, directly, then side to side, gyrating as he did. She started moving beneath him, welcoming him, and, at the moment, she gripped him with her walls, he pressed further into her.

  Then he rose up and drew her closer to the edge of the bed, planting himself firmly within her again as the beast was released. He howled as he felt his body tense and the liquid racing inside him, and he grew weak as it spilled inside her.

  Their chests heaved when it was over, and he plopped down on the bed next to her. Her hand found his and she clasped it with her own. He smiled as he looked over at her, and wiped a trail of sweat from her face. And then they slept.

  “There is something you need to know,” he told her in the morning as he got dressed. They had spent the night in blissful slumber. But that was just the first part. Now Eric was anxious about how she would feel when she knew what he was. “Better yet, there is something I want you to see.”

  “What?” she asked, a panicked look now etched into her features.

  “Not to worry, dear. It’s just that, you haven’t met my family as yet,” he told her. “Get dressed.”

  An hour later they were standing in the clearing that separated them from the rest of the bears. “Where are we?” She looked around as she tried to discern her actual location.

  “I may look like this sometimes, but this isn’t who I truly am.”

  “What do you mean?” she asked as they got to the trees.

  “Just keep walking, and listen,” he told her. “For centuries we have lived here, protecting the humans, and we will do so until time is no more.”

  “What do you mean, humans? What are you talking about, and where are we going?” she asked. Then she turned and saw a great black bear resting on four paws before her. Marissa almost tripped as she backed away, and she had every intention to flee until she saw the clothes on the ground. “Eric?” It was then that she stopped and looked into his eyes. “What? I don’t understand,” she said as she looked at him in disbelief. “You’re a bear?”

  Eric grunted then and moved his head from side to side. Then he made a purring sound as he walked up to her. He stared into her eyes and then lowered his head as if he wanted her to touch him. Marissa felt no fear as she did, and then she started laughing. Eric cocked his bear’s head to one side while trying to determine the source of her laughter.

  “And I thought I had issues,” she laughed. She stroked his head when he began rubbing it against her. “I’ll take you in any form you come,” she whispered.

  Eric grunted, and, before her eyes, he resumed his human shape, and it fascinated her to watch him do it. “You aren’t afraid of me now?”

  “How could I be afraid of the man, the bear, who braved the odds to be with me? You saved my life, so now you get to keep me,” she said and reached up to kiss him tenderly on the lips.

  Eric had never felt such joy as he did at that moment. Well, except at the ceremony a week later just before the third moon rose. Marissa walked down the aisle to meet Eric in his native form, and she was almost sure she saw him smile. Michael performed the ceremony, and at the end, he shared a knowing look with Eric.

  “Works every time,” he said as he patted him and walked off.

  Marissa had taken to the bears like she had always belonged, and they received her in the same way. Now she touched the garland hanging around Eric’s neck, the only accessory he wore, as he followed her to his secret place. Once there, he resumed his human shape, and she stared at him as he lay there like a Roman God.

  “So, do you think you can do that thing where...”

  “Not here, Eric,” she said as she looked around for onlookers.

  “It’s the honeymoon spot, my love,” he said and pulled her on top of him. She squealed with delight as she landed on him. “No one will come around here anytime soon.”

  “Ooh, in that case...” She started removing her bridal dress, and he laid there patiently waiting for her to complete her task. “You can get it as long as you like.”

  Eric caught her as she rolled over onto him, and as he held her and their lips collided, he knew he was complete.

  *****

  THE END

  PARANORMAL SHIFTER Romance – The Tiger’s Temptation

  Chapter 1

  Weddings are usually happy celebrations. Usually, they celebrate two bodies coming together into one soul, of a happy uniting of two families. Usually, they celebrate two people starting the rest of their lives together.

  The wedding of Lara Salazar and David Bennett, however, was not a typical marriage. Instead, the bride and groom were strangers to each other. They had met for the first time only moments before the church ceremony. Now they were doing all that they could to avoid each other at the reception.

  Their wedding was arranged and maybe that accounted for the amount of tension in the room, but that wasn’t all. David Bennett, the son of a well-established Shifter family, did not like the wife his parents had chosen for him. As a spoiled son of billionaire parents, he was used to dating models and act
resses. This woman, big-boned girl with pale skin seemed out of his taste. Plus, her strawberry blonde hair looked outdated.

  He wanted to stay away from her as much as possible. He couldn’t come to accept that he was now married to this woman. She didn’t seem too thrilled about it either, but she was more subtle about her aversion. Lara Salazar was the daughter of another wealthy family who ran the town’s casino. Lara had been single for her whole life and her parents felt like she would never find someone on her own. So they thought they would help her by signing her up as an elite mail-order bride. At least this way she would find someone.

  They were surprised when the Bennett family chose their daughter, but nonetheless they quickly accepted the offer. The Bennett son was extremely handsome and they thought he would be a good match for their daughter and so the two sets of parents set up an arranged marriage for their children.

  The children, however, were not at all happy about the arrangement. Lara could see it in David’s eyes. He didn’t like her. Like everyone else in her life, he was judging her based on her looks. They never bothered to know who she really was, they only saw her plus size figure and ran away. Lara hated it. She hated it more than anything.

  But she would show them. For a few months now Lara had barely eaten. If they hated her size, so much she would become skinny one way or another, and so Lara had avoided food for three months now. She even avoided food at her own wedding even though she was surrounded by all her favorites.

  Lara was feeling light headed as she sat down looking at all the food. She wanted to grab a plate and satisfy her stomach, but she wouldn’t. She wouldn’t allow herself to fail. She would become thin, one way or another even if it ended up killing her. She didn’t want to admit that she was struggling with anorexia, but it wasn’t like anyone would listen. They would probably push her to continue.

  Lara hated this world that focused so much on figure and size. It wasn’t her fault that she was this size. Why did the world see it like that? But Lara had never been strong-willed. She had never had the courage to stand up for herself or she would have protested this wedding altogether. Instead, she sat down miserably, wondering what the rest of her life would bring her. Would she ever be happy?