by Jessie Lane
Douchebag’s eyes glazed over a bit and he started panting a little. Chloe could guess that jerk-wad had a serious thing for what he thought might be crazy pussy.
“What does that mean?” he panted.
Sticking her bottom lip out, she playfully pouted. “It means I have to do something that gives me a rush before I can get off. I saw that beautiful Ferrari you drove here. If you let me take it for a spin around the block, I bet my panties would be soaked by the time I got back.”
“Really?” he squeaked.
Chloe nodded. “Really. I’m getting excited just thinking about your car. The engine purring, and when it revs up, how I’ll feel the vibrations between my legs. God, that’s just so sexy. So hot, even, that I’d be willing to park the car around back and let you bend me over the hood and fuck me fast and hard. Can’t you just picture it, baby?” Chloe pressed her body tighter into his and put her lips against the shell of his ear to whisper. “I’ll get out of the car and you can push me down all rough-like on that hot hood. The warmth from the motor will burn my nipples a little through the fabric of my dress, but that’s okay because it’ll feel sooooo good. Then you can push my dress up over my hips, rip my thong off and slide right in because I’ll be wet and hungry for you. You’ll be able to fuck me nice and hard. What do you say, sexy?”
Douchebag had his keys out of his pocket and in her hand so fast it was laughable. He started physically pushing her down the hallway, back into the bar’s main room.
“You go for that spin, honey. Hell, take it around the block twice just avoid a speeding ticket or wrecking it. I’ll be waiting for you around the back when you’re done.”
Chloe turned around and put a hand on his chest to stop him for a second. “I don’t want to go by myself, though, so I’m going to take the other girl with me. We’ll be right back, sexy. Have your dick out and waiting for me.”
Douchebag stood there with his jaw hanging open while she grabbed his stilted date’s hand and dragged her towards the bar’s entrance.
Before she walked out the door, she turned her head to look at the bar, finding Kent’s eyes on her. She waved the keys in the air and gave him a finger wave before walking out with the other woman.
“Are you fucking listening to me, Chloe?” Kent snapped through the phone, bringing her back to the present. “You and I both know that I had to go above and beyond walking into that meeting and accepting my family’s seat to get Lulu the time and reprieve she needs. You’ve got to admit that my debt has more than been paid and now I’m stuck in the very situation I’ve been avoiding for years, dealing with uptight, sniveling politicians. You owe me for this, Amazon, and you owe me big.”
He was right, however that didn’t mean she was going to admit it.
Heaving a bored sigh, she asked, “What exactly do you want to even the score, demon? Depending on what it is, I’ll consider it, even though I technically don’t owe you a damn thing.”
She waited for Kent’s response, but he didn’t say anything right away. Thinking perhaps he’d gotten mad and hung up on her, she pulled the phone away from her and checked the screen. The call was still active, so she called out his name.
When he answered, his voice was a seductive croon that sent tingles down her spine. “I want a night with you. Dinner, wine and more.”
Chloe felt the sting of disappointment. She didn’t know why she’d been hoping Kent would be different from any other guy she’d dealt with, yet for some odd reason, she had. Why did all men think that just because you had a pretty face paired with a body that had all the right curves that you’d just fall into bed with them? She was sick and tired of men thinking she didn’t have anything to offer besides what was between her legs.
And she wasn’t a whore. She’d never once slept with a man to get something and she never would. Mr. Douchebag had learned that the hard way when his stilted date had driven his Ferrari back after dropping Chloe off at her house. Chloe had asked the girl to pass on the message that neither him, nor his car, had been hot enough to get her excited at all. Then Chloe had firmly told the woman that she was young, beautiful and intelligent and she didn’t have to settle for dickwads like him. If she didn’t treat herself with respect, no one else ever would.
Reeling in her disappointment over Kent’s request, Chloe mentally placed him in the ‘Just another Jerk’ list in her head.
“Not happening, demon. You come up with a reasonable request that doesn’t involve trying to get me on my back and I might consider it. ‘Til then, keep Lulu’s ass off the Ninth Circle Council’s radar. Elena and Gage are still working on getting the evidence they need to fully clear her. Besides that, we have nothing else to talk about.”
Chloe hung up and tossed her phone on the bed with a discouraged sigh. One day she would meet a man who was good looking and had a heart of gold; someone who would see her for who she really was and not what the outer packaging looked like. It’d just be nice if that one day would hurry the hell up and get there.
WALK ON THE STRIPED SIDE PLAYLIST
Apocalyptica – End Of Me ft. Gavin Rossdale
Papa Roach - I Almost Told You That I Loved You
Halestorm – Bet You Wish You Had Me Back
Save Me by Hinder
Say You’ll Haunt Me by Stone Sour
Papa Roach – Forever
In The End by Black Veil Brides
Ed Sheeran – Give Me Love
BOOKS BY JESSIE LANE
The Star Series:
The Burning Star
The Frozen Star - (Coming Soon)
***
Big Bad Bite Series:
Big Bad Bite
Walk On The Striped Side
***
Ex Ops Series:
Secret Maneuvers
Stripping Her Defenses – (Coming Soon)
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jessie Lane is the writing team of Crystal Leo and Melissa Pahl. The two sisters-in-law share a passionate love of naughty romance, cliff hanging suspense, and out-of-this-world characters that demand your attention, or threaten to slap you around until you do pay attention to them.
Crystal lives in Kentucky with her husband and her two little Rock Chicks in the making. Melissa lives in Minnesota with her husband and two fur babies, Yuffi and Lolo. Crystal is now trying to talk Melissa into “polar bear” swimming in Lake Superior, but so far Melissa is adamantly telling her no.
They write YA/NA & adult paranormal romance as well as adult contemporary romance. They’re currently working on their next two novels, Stripping Her Defenses (Ex Ops Series #2) and The Frozen Star (YA/NA Star Series #2).
For more information on Jessie Lane:
http://jessielanebooks.com
http://www.goodreads.com/jessielane
Follow us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jessie.lane
Follow us on Twitter: @JessieLaneBooks
Check out what’s new from our friends
Soul Of A Man
By
Jamie Begley
Scent Of A Mate
By
Milly Taiden
Taunting Destiny
By
Amelia Hutchins
Soul Of A Man
By
Jamie Begley
Prologue
Fate stood in the corner, invisible to the three adults entering the room filled with children of varying ages. A couple seeking to adopt a child and the social worker eager to find a good home for one of her charges. Fate’s lip curled into a sneer, some loving home. The woman seeking to adopt would be no loving mother, but a monster in hiding. Her weak husband knew the evil she hid, yet he sought to appease the monster and turn her viciousness toward a new victim.
“How old is this one?” Susan Greer stood over a small, delicate blond girl.
The social worker looked at her notes. “She is seven-years-old.”
Fate waved her hand. Susan Greer frowned. “Too old.” She moved toward a boy with brown hai
r quietly playing with blocks on a small table.
“This one?” she questioned.
“Ten.” The social worker began to tell her about the boy, “Sam is a quiet child. He loves attention and is quite affectionate.” Fate again waved her hand.
“Again, too old. Don’t you have any that are younger?” Noticing the frown beginning to form on the social worker’s face, Susan Greer—a master manipulator—forced an insincere smile to her lips. “I just believe the adjustment will be much easier for a younger child.”
“I see.” Looking at her notes, she walked to a dark haired boy who was trying desperately to hide behind a toy box.
“This young man is Jericho; he is four-years-old. His father is deceased and his mother recently signed over parental rights. She has a drug addiction and could no longer take care of him. Children services had been called in for neglect.”
“How sad.” Susan reached down to touch the boy, but he shrank back further against the wall. ”Would you like to come home with us?”
A mutinous pair of dark eyes stared back at the woman. “No! I don’t wanna go.” He turned toward the social worker pleadingly. “Please, I don’t wanna go with the mean lady.”
“Now, Jericho, this nice lady and her husband want to adopt you and make a nice home for you. Wouldn’t you like a bedroom to yourself?”
“No!”
“He’s the one. I can tell he desperately needs us. Don’t you agree, Frank?”
“Whatever you want, dear.” Susan Greer turned her beady eyes towards her husband, who began to visibly shake with her attention turned to him.
“Fine, let’s go to the office. Your paperwork has already been approved by the State. We’ll set up a visitation schedule and a home visit when Jericho knows you better.” The social worker was excited by the prospect of a potential adoption. There were so many children to place and too few people willing to adopt. Any doubts she personally had about the Greer’s she suppressed. After all, the State had approved their application after a thorough background check. With over a hundred children to supervise, she was too busy to second guess the State’s decision.
“That sounds wonderful. I can’t wait until we’re one, big, happy family.” She stared down at the little boy who stared back at her with eyes that seemed to see the evil inside her. She couldn’t wait until his training would begin. She bent down to the small boy.
“I’ll be seeing you soon, my dear.” As they left the room, Jericho knew the scary woman would be back for him.
Fate watched the boy as he bravely fought his frightened tears, his trembling lips firmed, and she barely heard his whispered words, “She don’t scare me.” She stiffened when she realized he had spoken directly to her.
Fate was invisible to human eyes, yet the child could see her.
“Sometimes my job just sucks!” Fate muttered before she disappeared.
Scent Of A Mate
By
Milly Taiden
Chapter One
Please?” Jordan leaned forward on the sofa and gave her best imitation of what Ellie called “puppy eyes.” A soft squeaking protested Jordan’s wiggling on the leather. She knew her enthusiasm probably rivaled that of a four year old at Christmas, but she was so close to cracking Ellie, she didn’t care.
“No.” Ellie’s voice didn’t sound as sure as it had the first five times Jordan had asked the same question.
“I thought you wanted me to write this book on shifter mating rituals? Don’t you think I need to watch it? I mean, I can’t just write a book on your history, for your family’s records, based solely on what you tell me. I have to see it.” Not really, but she was not telling Ellie that and messing up her chance of watching something so cool.
Ellie frowned. “Well—”
“Come on.” Jordan huddled closer to the edge of her seat, almost falling off in the process, once again rubbing the leather and making it whine. “Look, I swear to you, I will be on my best behavior. I won’t do anything to call attention to myself. I will just observe from the sidelines. Heck, I’ll observe from the distance with binoculars.”
Ellie rolled her gorgeous blue eyes and ran her fingers through her short blonde bob, making the strands glimmer under the light of her sitting room’s lamp. “I don’t remember a single time you have ever been on your best behavior.”
That was true. Jordan’s mouth always got her into some kind of trouble, especially with the other faculty at the school where she taught.
“Okay. I pinky promise.” She lifted her hand, curling all her fingers until only her wiggling pinky stood.
Ellie bit her lip and groaned, still unsure.
“I know shifters are not exactly common knowledge with most of the world. But you have to admit that with more human-shifter interaction, it’s only a matter of time before you guys lose a lot of your history. I promise to write a specific detailed account. Nothing but the history behind this event.” Her heart pounded so hard. She wanted to shake Ellie and order her to agree already.
“Jorda-a-an!” With the way Ellie said her name, in that soft sigh of defeat, Jordan knew she had her. “If I agree to this insanity, you have to swear not to do anything to let anyone know you guys are there! You will get me in so much trouble.”
Jordan struggled and failed to stop the smile from splitting her lips. “I promise! I promise! You know I am dying to see this whole scenting ritual.” She rushed to say. “Now why is it such a big deal to keep this all quiet?”
“Because,” Ellie leaned back on her sofa and stared at the ceiling, “this is an old tradition. Males and females from all over will come together to meet each other, some for the first time. Kelly and Marco are going to see if they are compatible.”
“But they’ve met once, right?”
“Yes, at a family gathering some months back. They didn’t even get a chance to talk. From what Mom said, their eyes did the talking for them. Apparently, it was instant. It’s why we’re having this ceremony. Tradition dictates we have it yearly, and the family is hoping it works out for Kelly and Marco.”
Jordan frowned remembering Ellie’s cousin Kelly and the guy they’d kept referring to as her potential mate. She tucked a long strand of dark hair behind her ear. “I still don’t understand. How can you guys just allow some tradition to tell you who your mate is?”
Shit. Jordan had a hard time with anyone telling her what to do to begin with. It was why she loved being an independent woman.
Ellie’s smile was weak. “We are part of a pack, and my father is Alpha. As such, I need to follow rules like everyone else. You’re lucky you’re human and don’t have to worry about any of this. And we don’t allow the tradition to tell us who our mate is. This is like a first date.”
“In front of a whole bunch of people.”
“Right.”
“Who happen to watch to see if you hit it off?”
“Yes.”
“And who’ll know who she has sex with at the end of the night.”
“Correct. Wait. What?”
“Sounds like the perfect date.” She snickered and almost choked on her wine.
“This is why I didn’t want you there. You, Emma, Nicole, and Karla are so going to get caught.”
“We won’t! We won’t. We’ll be super–spy, research ninjas. Quiet, but sexy smart.” She grinned.
“Oh brother,” Ellie groaned.
“Speaking of brothers. Are, um, your brothers going to be there?” What she really wanted to ask was if one particular brother was going to be there. God, she hoped not. The first time she’d seen Aric Wolfe, she’d been a thirteen-year-old with a crush the size of Alaska. One look was all it took, and her poor teenage heart had been in puppy-love for years. And though it’d been a crush for a long time, it had never gone away. In fact, with years, it had grown. She’d tried to date other men and rid herself of the idea that he’d ever look at a non-shifter for more than a friendship, but it was useless. With time, her attraction for him had g
rown deeper, into something she didn’t want to think too much about or it would make her hyperventilate.
Blue sparkles lit in Ellie’s eyes. “Yes, all my brothers will be there.”
Oh hell. “Then, yeah, I will hide off somewhere and never move a muscle. I promise.”
Ellie’s laughter, filled with unabashed delight, made her smile. “I still don’t understand why you’re so afraid of being around them.”
Yeah well, Jordan knew all about that super smelling-power shifters had. The last thing she wanted was for Aric to know how one glance at his body and those damn sexy muscles got her so turned on she’d likely start a fire. She could probably melt butter on her skin. “I think it’s best to keep my distance. I know your parents weren’t fond of their only daughter hanging with so many humans.”
Ellie shrugged. “It was either send me to regular school, or deal with packs of horny wolves hitting on their baby girl.” She grinned, grabbed her glass of wine, and sipped. “They knew humans don’t have our scenting or go into heat, so they decided to take the chance.”
Jordan drank her own wine, letting the fruity flavor slip and slide over her tongue. “Yeah, but I bet they didn’t think you’d end up bringing home an annoying, fat Latina for your new pet.”
Ellie rolled her eyes. “Who’s the wolf here, you or me?”
Good point. Ellie’s parents had cared for Jordan. A lot more than Jordan herself could ever understand. Even after all those years being so close to them and Ellie, she still couldn’t make any sense of why they done so much when her parents hadn’t cared at all. What was it about them that made them different? And there had to be some resentment in there. They’d practically adopted her.
“Alright. I’ve become like a second daughter since we became friends. That has to be annoying for them. I mean if they wanted more kids, they’d have had more the old fashioned way.”