ALIEN SHIFTER ROMANCE: Alien Tigers - The Complete Series (Alien Invasion Abduction Shapeshifter Romance) (Paranormal Science Fiction Fantasy Anthologies & Short reads)

by Tanya Jolie

  After staring at the paper for several minutes, Bridget told Mike that she was leaving for Dr. Frey’s office to go see how Gunther Jansen was doing. First, though, she stopped at Jared’s office.

  “Ah, it’s my beautiful wife,” he said cheerfully. “What can I do for you?”

  Bridget stared up at him when he came to a stop in front of her. Her heart broke at the thought that she could lose this man at any moment. He could be taken by a heart problem or an accident or any number of ways. She couldn’t bear losing him. She loved him, and could …

  She stopped mid-thought. She loved him! She didn’t know when it started, but it was true.

  “When I came over here, Jared,” she admitted, “I didn’t know why I wanted to. I just knew that I did. Have you heard about Gunther Jansen?”

  “Yes. It’s so sad to lose an arm like that.”

  “I was there to report his accident. It was very bloody.”

  Unable to restrain herself any longer, she hugged him tightly. His arms slid around her in response. Feeling him against her, having his arms wrapped protectively around her, gave her a sense of security that she hadn’t even realized she needed.

  “It’s all right now, sweetheart,” Jared said in a near-whisper. “I’m here. I’ll help you wash all of those unpleasant thoughts and images away.”

  “I love you more than life itself, Jared,” she sobbed, her emotions bursting forth in torrents of tears. “I never realized how much until just now.” She looked up at him. “But I do, Jared. I love you with all my heart.”

  “Thank you, God!” he exclaimed to the ceiling. “You’ve answered my prayers.” Then he laid his chin on her head, saying, “I can’t tell you how happy I am that you finally love me. I’ve done everything I can to show you that it’s safe to love me, and it finally worked.”

  “It did, darling. I don’t even know when I fell in love with you. I just know that I did.”

  “I don’t think you fell in love with me, sweetheart. I think you grew to love me. That’s why you don’t know when it happened.”

  “That’s very true. I did grow to love you. Jared, I wish we could be together right now, but …”

  She stopped speaking when he pulled away from her. Without a word, he went to the office door, locked it, flipped over the sign indicating that he was now closed, and went to each window to shut the curtains.

  “What are you doing?” she asked.

  “I’m going to show you the back room of my office,” he announced as he swept her into his arms. Opening the door that Bridget had always thought was a rear exit, he exposed a bedroom with a small bed, a nightstand with an oil lamp on it, and a washstand. “Your wish, my dear, is my command.”

  When he set her on the edge of the bed, her gaze fell upon his trousers and the tell-tale lump at his groin. Timidly, she reached out and touched his covered erection. It moved, and she cupped it with her hand.

  “Oh, God,” he sighed.

  If it felt that good to him, she wanted to do more; she wanted to caress his naked maleness. Unbuttoning his trousers, she discovered he wore nothing underneath. She pushed them over his hips and stared at his dancing organ. Unable to resist, she leaned closer to him and kissed it. His penis jerked with excitement. Suddenly, she wanted to taste him. Taking his erection into her mouth she licked the head while he moaned above her.

  Not really knowing what she was doing, she took her shaft in her hand and squeezed gently. The sounds he made as she did so convinced her that she was doing something that pleased him, and she dared to squeeze him again.

  His hands slid to the back of her head, where he pulled out the pins holding the chignon in place. Soon her hair cascaded from its confinement. He dragged his fingers through her tresses, over and over, as though he were combing it.

  Then he pulled her head away from his groin, and she stared up at his now-naked chest. He was the most beautifully built man she had ever seen, and she couldn’t take her gaze from his rippled stomach as she slipped her hands up it, through the hair on his bulging pectorals.

  Jared took her wrists and pulled her to her feet. After quickly unbuttoning her bodice, he searched for the buttons to release her skirt. Finding them, he let her skirt drop to the floor at her feet and finished removing her blouse. Now only her petticoat and pantaloons separated them. Taking each from her, he exposed her body.

  Bridget stood before him unashamed. He was her husband, and he deserved to see her body. Laying his hands on her hips, he drew them up her sides until his thumbs touched under her moderately full breasts. He cupped them, bent over and kissed each nipple. Moving her out of the way by the shoulders, he dropped onto the bed, which was really only big enough for one person.

  His hand went between her legs, and he caressed her excited womanhood. Languidly sliding across her opening, his finger dipped into her body. Then it hit the spot that increased her excitement every time he touched it. He taunted her clitoris gently for a second or two then slid his finger into her vagina again. Even she could tell that she was hot and wet with desire.

  With his hand behind her knee, he draped it over him and brought her down onto his lap. He held his organ out so she could sit down on it.

  She didn’t need verbal explanations as she had before when they’d had sex. She knew exactly what he wanted even though they’d never done it this way before. He wanted her to sit on his hard penis. And she did exactly that.

  A heavy sigh escaped from her as she impaled herself on his manhood—slowly, quietly except for their moans of ecstasy, inching down on him until she encased him fully. At last, his lips caught her nipple, sucking gently and increasing her enjoyment.

  When his hands grasped her buttocks, she wanted to cry out in joy, but without breaking their union, he stood with her and laid her on the bed. He came down on her, grinding against her pelvis as he never had before. The pitch of their mating grew. Her body ached and arched to meet his thrusts. She wanted to wait for him, but her excitement was so strong that she couldn’t hold it back. Then her body exploded into the throes of release so strong that she couldn’t help but grab his back and hold on while he bored into her with a lusty growl of fulfillment.

  Finally, he collapsed against the wall against which the bed sat and pulled her into his arms. She laid her arms over his and let him toy with her nipple, which was still hard from her orgasm.

  “I didn’t come here for that,” she admitted. “I didn’t even know I was going to tell you that I love you. But I do, Jared, with every ounce of myself.”

  “And I love you just as much,” he proclaimed. “Don’t you ever leave me, or I don’t know how I’ll go on.”

  “That reminds me. I want you to go with me to see Dr. Frey and find out what he thinks about Gunther’s injury. I need to know if he’ll survive, so I can have Moya notify his kin.”

  Chapter 16

  “Hi, Doc,” Jared said as he opened the doctor’s office door for Bridget.

  The physician looked up from his desk and smiled. “You two look like newlyweds.”

  Bridget’s face heated again. She could only hope that the doctor didn’t mean that he could tell that they’d had intercourse a while ago.

  “What brings you two here?” Dr. Frey asked.

  Bridget didn’t think she could open her mouth to explain because of her embarrassment, and thankfully, she didn’t have to. Jared took over for her.

  “My wife and I need to know what happened to Gunther—her for the newspaper, but me out of concern. There have been too many accidents in the last few months for it to warrant being a coincidence. First, it was my good friend Moya who suffered a near-fatal injury. Then it was Rollie. Now Gunther has lost his arm.”

  Dr. Frey frowned. “I don’t know if Gunther will make it. I gave him some of my blood, but …”

  Startled by the statement, Bridget asked, “You gave him some of your blood? How can you do that?”

  “It’s called a blood transfusion. I took a few syringes filled
with my blood and put them into his arm. I’ve heard it will work, but I’ve never tried something like that before. And I’m certainly not sure I gave him enough blood. He lost an awful lot.”

  “Has he regained consciousness?” Jared asked.

  “I’m afraid not.”

  “This man he was working with when the accident happened,” Bridget inserted, “this Lars Olson.”

  “Lars Olson?” Jared repeated in shock. “He was working with Gunther?”

  “Is that important?” Bridget asked.

  “It’s absolutely important. He’s the one who found both Moya and Rollie. Now he was working with Gunther.”

  “You have a point, Jared,” Dr. Frey said. “All of those incidents could be connected. And before Moya was injured, there was another accident—one involving a prostitute. Guess who found her beaten in an alley.”

  Bridget and Jared looked at each other and chorused, “Lars Olson.”

  “Who is this Lars Olson, anyway?” Bridget asked. “His name sounds familiar, but I don’t know why.”

  “He courted Elise in Illinois,” Jared explained. “He’s the reason she came here. He asked her to because he wanted to marry her.”

  “That’s how I know the name. She wrote of him in her letters.” She paused, hesitant to voice the next sentence. “He brought her here to marry him? But she fell in love with Moya and married him instead. Then Moya received an injury about which he can remember no details. And Dr. Frey, you found his injury to be something other than an accident.”

  “I’ve been suspicious of that from the moment I cleaned the wound,” the physician admitted. “I even asked him who did it to him. To this day, he insists it was an accident, but I think he was attacked. I also think Rollie was attacked. Unfortunately, I’m not sure about Gunther.”

  “I’m not, either,” Bridget agreed. “But I have my suspicions. Dr. Frey, Lars told me that he turned around and saw Gunther with his arm under the wheel. But another logger told me that one man guides the horse team from the right front while the other man does so from the left rear of the team. If that were the case, Lars couldn’t have turned around and seen him.”

  “It’s time to go to the sheriff,” Dr. Frey declared. “That prostitute, Moya, Rollie and now Gunther. Something’s going on in this town, and I think he needs to be informed.”

  Jared shook his head, saying, “I doubt it will do any good. The sheriff is on Harris’ payroll. He’s not going to investigate these things. I either know these people personally or know of their character. Any one of them wouldn’t hesitate to find somebody to tell the truth to, just as I wouldn’t. From everything Bridget and her brother have told me, this town has a real corruption problem. We need to bring in somebody we trust to handle what’s happening around here.”

  “And I,” Bridget said emphatically, “think Lars Olson is behind everything, but I also think he’s working for Harris. And Harris is in town right now. He came with a new contract for William Wessel, which doubles Mr. Wessel’s profits. I believe that could be called hush money. We must get to the bottom of this.”

  “You, my dear,” Jared announced, “will stay out of it. Mike and I can handle this.”

  THE END

  Stina and the Decision

  A Mail Order Bride Western

  Book 3

  (Can be read as a standalone book)

  By: D.D. Boone

  Stina and the Decision

  Prologue

  “I know what you did, Lars,” Stina Bengtson told Lars Olson. “I heard Elise and Moya talking about it.”

  “You know nothing,” he replied.

  “I’m sorry if you don’t believe me, but if they ever decide to tell Sheriff Douglas, I can testify at trial.”

  “Your English,” he said, “is awfully good when you want to bribe somebody.”

  Stina smiled. She was proud of the fact that she knew a great deal of English. Swedish was her native language, but Elise Anderson Sten had taught her well in Bishop Hill. Granted, she still had an accent, but she pronounced most of the words properly. That didn’t concern her conversation with Lars, though, and he was just stalling.

  “It’s not a bribe,” Stina said. “It’s blackmail. And I’m not doing either. I’m just warning you about what I know.”

  “You would choose their side of the story over mine.”

  “I don’t know your side, and it doesn’t matter. I only need to know what I heard.”

  Lars stalked out of the washhouse he’d helped other men in the town build for Stina so she wouldn’t have to go from one house to another for her job. The blond for whom she’d left Bishop Hill, Illinois, was furious with her, but she didn’t care. He would eventually come to realize that she’d only told him for his protection.

  When Elise had received the letter from Lars to come to Forestville, Stina had basically invited herself to join Elise on the trip. She’d been interested in Lars for months before he left, but he’d been courting Elise. Maybe, she’d thought, Elise would find a different man, and she could have Lars. Then again, maybe she could find a better man of her own than the one who had been courting her in Bishop Hill.

  That man, whose name she refused to even think, had ruined her faith in all men, except Lars. Lars had always treated Elise with respect, and Stina had loved watching them court.

  With a sigh, Stina took some hot water from the stove and poured it into the washtub. She needed to get back to work. Actually, she didn’t mind the work nearly as much as she’d thought she would. If she was having a bad day or was angry about something, she could scrub the heck out of the denim material the men wore for work, and it was almost always men who used her services.

  She’d met many nice men in town, but none of them came up to her expectations—only Lars. But then again, she’d wanted to be with him for a long time, she could be a biased because she had loved Lars from afar for so long.

  Then a new man came to town.

  Chapter 1

  Exhaustion overwhelmed Stina as she opened the door to the home she shared with her sister Karin and Elise Johnson. Elise was getting married soon, though, and then it would be just the sisters.

  She opened the door and strode into the house. Across the room, a redheaded woman glanced at Elise.

  “Hi, Stina,” Elise said. “How was work today?”

  “Tiring,” Stina replied, her gaze going from the flame-haired woman to the red-haired man. “I guess you’re Bridget, but I’m afraid I don’t know your name.”

  Rising, he took three long steps to stand before her. “Michael O’Riley. And you are?”

  “Stina Bengtson,” she replied with a shy smile.

  “I’m please to meet you, Miss Bengtson.” He took her hand, bent over as he lifted it, and pressed his lips against her dry, cracked hand.

  His soft lips against her rough skin caused her to wonder how he could possibly want to do that. All the lye in the soaps she used had taken its toll on her skin to the point that even she didn’t like to touch it. Thankfully, his gentle kiss lasted only a moment before he released her and stood erect.

  “Yes, it’s nice to meet you,” Bridget said. “You live here with Elise, right?”

  “Ja,” Stina replied, ready to get away from everybody, “and I should go clean up and change for dinner. I saw Karin headed this way with Jared and Emily, Elise. They should be here soon.”

  And Stina escaped into her room. She was so embarrassed by her appearance she could scarcely bear being in everybody’s company. Coming home from work with Moya there was bad enough, but in front of company, she felt as though she was a street urchin breaking into the house.

  Staring into the mirror, she shook her head. Her light blonde hair was coming from her chignon; her dress, although damp on the skirt, was covered with dirt from the men’s work clothes. She was more embarrassed than she’d ever been.

  As she took off her dress to change her clothes, she thought about how nice Michael O’Riley seemed. He was qu
ite attractive with that red wavy hair and those bright green eyes. In fact, she’d never seen such green eyes. And Michael was tall, shorter than Moya but taller than Lars.

  Pulling the pins from her hair, she released her chignon and let her nearly waist-length hair cascade down her back. After putting on a clean dress, she picked up her brush and ran it through her hair until all of the snarls were out of it.

  She washed her face off with the warm water Elise put in her room every night just before she got home. Had she ever told Elise how much she appreciated that? If not, she should.

  After drying her face on the nearby towel, she studied herself in her mirror. At least, she looked presentable now. Turning to leave the room, she hesitated.

  Michael O’Riley seemed like a very nice man, and he actually appeared to be a bit interested in her. If she could get him to court her, maybe Lars would want her, just like he had wanted Elise more once Moya had started courting her.

  With a thought, she returned to her mirror and took her rouge from the dresser beneath it. She applied just a little bit of color to her cheeks and lips. Then her gaze fell on a larger jar on the dresser. Picking it up, she opened it. She hadn’t used this mixture for several weeks, but it might be time to begin using the concoction again. Glad that she still had a little left, she dipped her fingers in to the lotion and worked it into her hands. They started to feel better already.

  Finally, she put the lid back on the jar and left the room. By now everyone had assembled in the sitting area. Almost the moment she joined them, Mike scrambled to his feet. Elise announced that they were just waiting for the biscuits to be done and dinner would be ready. Then Elise and Karin went to set the long table they had borrowed from Jared’s house.

  “Here, Miss Benson,” Mike said extending his arm toward the Victorian chair he’d abandoned, “you take my chair.”

  “Thank you,” she replied, sitting down before he sat on the arm of the chair, “but my last name is Bengtson.”