by Elle Thorne
“Yeah, that’s a skill I need to work on.”
“You and so many others.” Gavin’s mind went to his own father.
Layla and Mikhail Romanoff approached. The smile Mikhail had on his face made Gavin nervous.
He looked at his lovely arctic fox with an expression that said, “What gives?”
She smiled a cryptic smile.
A Cheshire cat came to mind.
“Take care, sir,” Gavin said to Mikhail.
“Glad you’re in the family, son. She deserves someone at least as good as she is.”
Gavin nodded at the compliment, though compliments made him ill at ease.
“Gavin.” Mikhail’s face grew serious. “I’d like you to possibly consider a position with the Romanoff organization. It would mean a move to New York, where Layla can be with her family.”
Gavin frowned. No pressure, was there?
“Just a thought. That’s all.”
“I appreciate the offer.” Gavin watched Layla’s reaction. She didn’t seem too disappointed.
Now, kindly get on the road before you give my mate any ideas.
Of course, he couldn’t say that out loud. Too bad.
Maia strode by, small duffel bag in hand, a suitcase rolling behind her.
He tilted his head toward her while he looked at Layla for an answer. He never talked to Maia. She’d kept to herself since the day she, Lila, and Layla were rescued from the Raffertys.
Gavin knew she’d talked to Vax about leaving the country, and Vax had arranged for her to talk to Rafe about a position somewhere in Europe. Either Italy or Greece if Gavin remembered correctly. But he never really knew what was up with her. And Vax told him not to worry about it, that she wasn’t anything to raise any alarms over.
“She’s leaving,” Layla told Gavin then strode toward Maia.
He shook his head at her for stating the obvious and smiled at Layla. She really was a hostess, in and out of After Dark. She liked to make others feel good.
Layla wrapped her arms around Maia and wished her a safe journey.
Gavin heard Layla whisper to Maia to reach out if she needed anything. The dark-haired, exotic leopard shifter paused, looked Layla in the eyes, and thanked her.
Women.
Gavin didn’t understand them.
A cab pulled up next to the limo the Romanoff clan would be riding in.
“We could have given her a ride to the airport,” Mikhail said.
“She’s taking a scenic route,” Layla said. “She’s not flying direct.”
“Why didn’t she just fly with Sophie?” Gavin asked. “Sophie’s flying to Rome tomorrow. Rafe’s picking her up at the airport. Wouldn’t that make sense?”
“She didn’t want to,” Layla said, as if it made perfect sense.
“We better go.” Mikhail gave his teary-eyed daughter a final hug and lowered his muscular bulk into the limo.
John hugged his sister and followed suit.
* * *
The next day…
Layla and Gavin sat at a table in After Dark, enjoying a quick meal of appetizers. Veila and Mark, Lila, and Cy all sat at the table with them.
Callie and Vax strode in, holding hands.
“We bought our tickets.” Callie was exuberant, with one hand on her belly which was slightly swollen.
“We leave for Italy next week,” Vax added, though it seemed he had a trace of trepidation.
Gavin didn’t blame him. Vax was going to meet with the European Tieros. They still had to iron out the ways of the newly formed American Tieros.
The old regime was extremely resistant to change, and Vax’s attempts to change codes and mindsets would be no easy feat.
“But first, Mae and Doc are going to stop by to check on the baby.” Callie beamed. “Doc’s going to be my own personal obstetrician.”
Vax smiled at his beautiful curvy mate. “It’s not like we want anyone running an ultrasound on a shifter baby. Who knows what they might see?”
“Want to share Doc?” Lila asked Callie.
“What?” Callie squealed. As the only human at the table, she hadn’t figured out Lila was expecting.
All of the women stood and started to chatter about Lila’s baby. Would it be a boy or a girl? Would it take after her and be a white tiger, or would it take after Cy and be a deep orange Siberian?
Gavin gazed at his mate. Layla’s face glowed with excitement, happy about her sisterhood with the white tigresses and Vax’s human mate.
Maybe she’d be happy here in Dallas and wouldn’t ask him to consider her father’s offer.
Just maybe.
“You’ll take care of everything while I’m in Europe?” Vax put his hand on Gavin’s shoulder.
“Absolutely.”
“Lézare will be stopping by to help out if you need anything.”
Lézare Arceneaux. Vax’s cousin. Gavin liked the rogue white tiger. He’d enjoy visiting with him.
“I’ll be here,” Gavin said. “You take care of the old timers in Europe.”
“Hopefully, Rafe can help with some of that.” Vax looked at Callie.
Gavin knew his face mirrored Vax’s. They loved their mates and would do whatever was necessary to protect them from harm.
“I don’t plan on being there long,” Vax added. “Dallas is home now.”
Gavin raised his glass. “To a safe and productive trip in the Old Countries.”
Vax joined him in raising a glass, followed by Mark the lion shifter, and Cy the Siberian tiger shifter.
“Hear, hear.”
Keep reading for an excerpt from the next Shifters Forever Worlds.
Forbidden
This swoon-worthy paranormal romance takes place in Europe, the original home of the Tiero shifters.
Rafael “Rafe” Tiero has it bad for Callie, his half-brother’s woman. He thinks that’s the kind of woman he needs, sweet and mild-tempered. How did that potty-mouthed barista called Jax, with her funky ways, nails, and attitude get under his skin?
Jaclyn “Jax” Vasquez has a problem. Her parents are in town for a surprise visit. If they see her boyfriend, Scotty, the proverbial $h1t will hit the fan! She needs help and chooses the first—and only—option, the indigo-eyed stranger in the corner.
What could possibly make this worse? He’s a white tiger shifter, and she’s got a secret.
Sparks and fur fly!
Chapter One
Rafe had thought he’d be past this by now. There was no reason he should feel like someone had shoved his heart into a meat grinder. No damned reason at all.
His tiger snarled.
The thought of her shouldn’t rip him apart this way. The sight of her shouldn’t throw him into a vortex composed of totally fucked up, a dose of screw this shit, and a whole lot of damn it all to hell.
The idea of the woman he wanted being with another man should be something he’d stopped torturing himself over.
The fact the man was his half-brother, Vittorio—whom everyone called Vax—didn’t help. Nor did it help that Rafe and Vax had a fucked-up relationship.
What made it worse?
She was pregnant. Belly swollen with Vax’s child, face flushed from the heat…or maybe from love.
Rafael Tiero—Rafe to his friends and family—pushed the thought aside.
No. None of this should be happening. And yet, it was.
His tiger snarled again.
Rafe frowned. His dark blue eyes lit up with a shade of gold in their depths.
I know. She’s forbidden. That forbidden fruit thing, I get that. So why do I want her?
Was it that he wanted what Vax had? Sometimes Rafe wondered about that himself. It was something their father Gio had always fostered: an unhealthy sibling rivalry.
And yet, Rafe had agreed to be the one to pick up Vax and Callie at the airport.
Rafe had been having a fine day, until then.
Or so he’d thought.
Then he saw Callie.
Bam.
Day fucked. Fucked straight to hell.
Rafe had sucked it up when he saw Vax and his pregnant mate. He’d put on his big boy pants and had the stiff upper lip and all that shit they’d tried to teach him in the dozen or more boarding schools his father had sent him to while he was growing up.
After they got off the plane, Vax had given him a shoulder hug. Callie had given him a hug, too, which had been awkward, what with the baby-belly pushing out like that.
With a smile he hoped wasn’t too tight-lipped, Rafe drove his brother and his beautiful, curvy woman to the Tiero Villa.
The whole drive there, of course, Callie oohed and aahed about the beauty of Rome. This was the first time his brother’s American mate had visited Italy. Vax smiled at her enthusiasm and turned to Rafe for conversation.
“Is Sophie at home?” his brother asked him.
“She arrived last week.” Rafe kept his voice level, his pulse under tight rein so Vax wouldn’t notice his reaction to Callie. “I picked her up at the airport, brought her home, we had lunch, then, right off, she called a cab.”
“Let me guess,” Vax said. “She did all that before Gio came home.”
“Exactly,” Rafe responded. “I told her Gio wanted to see her. She said, ‘Tell Papa I’ll see him in a couple of weeks.’”
“Where’d she go?” Callie asked.
“She went on to Athens,” Rafe answered, looking at her in the backseat through the rearview mirror.
“Is she safe?” Callie’s forehead creased with worry.
Rafe went silent for a moment. Her voice still could affect him, even though he hadn’t seen her in weeks. He reflected on the time they’d spent together in Dallas before she and Vax… He wrestled control of his thoughts and pushed them away.
Vax glanced at him. “We have cousins in Athens, so she has somewhere safe to go.”
“True,” Rafe said. “Plus, I sent someone to keep an eye on her.”
“Who?” Vax asked.
Rafe smirked. “I called Gavin. Asked if he had anyone he could recommend in Athens who would freelance.”
“Shit.” Vax laughed. “If Sophie figures it out, she’ll come looking for your ass.”
“She needs to be protected from herself sometimes. You know her penchant for getting into situations.” Rafe couldn’t resist joining his brother in laughter.
“Amen,” Vax added.
“She may hate me after this. Gavin said Niko has a way of rubbing people the wrong way. Women, specifically. Gavin also said Niko’s one of the best at what he does.”
“She’s avoiding Gio?” Callie asked, her voice laced with worry.
“Like the plague. Pretty sure she’s figured out he’s going to try to get at least one of his kids to side with him on the ‘issues.’ And since most everyone else is either rebellious or being held hostage—his words—she’s his last option.”
Callie sighed. It was no secret Callie was one of the “issues” Gio wanted to see dealt with.
“So, she ran away. Typical Sophie.” Vax laughed.
Rafe bit back his response. He didn’t want to remind Vax what he’d done could be called running away, since he had slipped off to America. Vax had departed Rome for America, and the one left to follow in their father’s footsteps was Rafe.
It was now expected that Rafe run the Tiero family’s European interests. All this because his older brother, Vax, had left town and violated the Tiero shifter code by taking a human as a mate.
Long ago, Rafe had been the favorite. And then he’d started to act up. Rafe had spent so much time in and out of the favored position with Gio he’d given up on making anyone happy but himself.
He couldn’t even do that now, since what he wanted was forbidden fruit. Can’t be happy when you want the forbidden.
“How’s Maia?” Callie asked. “Did she make it in?”
Rafe frowned. The attractive, curvy leopard shifter whom his family had saved from a terrible fate in an underground shifter death match was quietly elusive. She kept to herself, her dark eyes intense and holding secrets he didn’t want to begin to uncover. “She’s here. She took a job. She stays in one of the upstairs bedrooms.”
“Is she private? Pretty much solitary?” Vax asked.
“That’s how she was in Dallas,” Callie said. “She didn’t seem to be interested in making friendships or anything. She just did her job then went to her apartment.”
“Same here,” Rafe told them.
He didn’t add that Maia seemed to have developed feelings for him. She would come downstairs and have a cup of coffee with him or an occasional meal, but, for the most part, she stayed in her room. And even when they were together, she didn’t talk about herself. She simply sat there, more often than not silent, poised as if ready to bounce up and make a quick escape.
Rafe applied more pressure on the gas. He was ready to be away from Callie. The wound was still there.
He raced to the Tiero family home as fast as he could drive in Rome’s hectic traffic, skirting around drivers who thought they were a part of NASCAR. Sharp turns down narrow cobbled alleys, street vendors, and tourists—all of these contributed to making Rafe’s drive longer than he wanted it to be.
As soon as they’d stepped out of the car, Callie begged off, claiming her feet were swollen, her head ached, and her stomach was churning.
But Rafe could see it in her eyes. She knew he still had feelings for her. And she felt pity for him.
Fuck. I don’t need pity.
“Take care of your woman. We’ll visit later. I’ve got some things to tend to,” Rafe told Vax, and headed out as quickly as his Porsche would take him.
Chapter Two
With his brother and his mate safely deposited at the house, Rafe sat in a mostly empty little café, with too much on his mind and found himself wishing he could drink, but of course—damn the luck—alcohol had no effect on shifters.
Can’t even get a good drunk on.
Rafe glanced around the café. Could he have found a more hole-in-the-wall place? The barista was spending more time with her boyfriend than with the customers.
Okay, if he had to be honest, he was the only customer.
This wasn’t the same barista who had waited on him when he first got here. Had he been here long enough for a shift change? Maybe he’d come right before shift change. He hated to think he’d blown a whole lot of time in here. Though, who gave a damn? It wasn’t like he was in a hurry to get home to Vax and Callie.
He locked gazes for a brief second with the barista. All curves. She gave him a cursory, who-gives-a-damn look and turned her attention away.
And what did he care if the pretty brunette with the hellacious curves paid him no attention? He wanted Callie, he reminded himself. And the barista clearly had a boyfriend.
He ran his gaze over her boyfriend at the counter. The guy was busy playing with the gaping holes in his ears created by some sort of disc earrings.
Rafe didn’t get the fad. He didn’t fault anyone for their fashion taste, but he just flat-out didn’t get it.
He took another sip of his espresso. Not a bad cup, for a dive on the outskirts of the tourist part of Rome.
A set of hips entered his view. Sashaying, swaying, tempting. They flared upward to a smaller waist. A fist was planted on each of the luscious hips. He let his gaze trail down over her mound, not allowing himself to linger there, then over her legs in tight, black, painted-on pants, finally ending up at feminine feet tipped with no-shit, blood-red crimson nail polish. Then he noticed that every other toe had been painted pitch black. Two of the petite digits were garnished with silver rings.
And damn if the weirdest thought didn’t cross his mind—he wondered how they would feel against his tongue. And he wasn’t even the kind to get into feet.
The hands came off the hips, and fingers snapped, practically in front of his face.
The fingernails were the same color red as the toenails. No black polish,
though.
“Well?” The voice was sultry.
His tiger rumbled.
The voice was low.
His tiger snarled in agreement.
The voice was sex.
His tiger roared in his head, drowning everything out.
Pure sex.
Chapter Three
Jaclyn Vasquez was called Jax by everyone but her parents. Never her parents. Never, ever her parents. They hated the name Jax.
She glanced up from her textbook and studied the dark-skinned, dark-haired, delicious, brooding stranger in the corner. She took the opportunity to watch him while he was looking away.
Something was on his mind. The way his jaw muscle was working overtime, yes, something definitely had his mind tied up. Probably a woman. What else would it be?
A guy that gorgeous in a coffee shop not far from the university, on a Thursday night—a dead Thursday night, to boot. A warmth rose to her cheeks as she watched him. It was almost like she couldn’t tear her eyes away from him.
What the hell is wrong with me? I have a boyfriend.
Some boyfriend. She glanced at Scotty, who was fingering his ears.
He plays video games all day long, burps and farts, drinks beer, and wants to have sex while he’s watching other people play games online.
She wished she could close up early and go. She needed to write that paper and submit it before nine o’clock tomorrow morning. She shoved a pencil into her hair, using it to hold her curls in a sloppy bun.
The sexy stranger turned his head. She glanced down quickly, not wanting to be caught watching him.
Sexy? No, she didn’t think that. She couldn’t think that.
A burp, loud, disgusting, and vile, caught her attention. “Seriously,” she muttered and gave Scotty a dirty look.
“What, babe?” He gave her that grin that made panties drop. Used to make hers drop.
Wait. What? When did the “used to” part come in?