Taming the Beast: Eleven Paranormal Romances

by Alyse Zaftig

  She looked around the charming space. “This is just lovely. It’s enough to be remarkable and remind me I’m in a house that has its own name, but not so ostentatious that I feel like a child sneaking over to sit at the adults’ table.”

  It was only when they reached the table that she realized both men still held her hands. It had felt so natural to walk between them that she hadn’t even realized they had maintained contact long past the point when politeness dictated they could let go. As soon as they dropped their hands, she clenched hers at her sides, struggling with a sense of loss that swept through her. What was wrong with her?

  Her stomach growled as she sat down, allowing Nick to push in her chair for her, and she seized on that explanation. She was simply tired and hungry from her long day, and it was making her act irrationally. That was all.

  They had been seated only a moment or so when a curvy woman in her fifties entered the room, pushing a trolley. As she lifted the cloche from the first dish, the smell wafted to Baylee’s nose, and she almost sighed in pleasure. Whatever it was, it smelled delicious.

  A moment later, the woman placed a plate before her. She caught her eye and smiled her thanks.

  “Mrs. Farley, this is Baylee Edwards, who will be staying with us for a while. She’s tackling the library.”

  Mrs. Farley’s lips pursed lightly, but she nodded. “It’s lovely to meet you, Ms. Edwards.”

  “Please call me Baylee.”

  “Mrs. Farley is the genius who runs the household, so if you need anything, ask her. Of course you can ask us too, but we’re fairly incompetent when it comes to accomplishing domestic chores.”

  Mrs. Farley snorted. “Lord, ain’t that the truth.” Her tone was thick with affection, and it was obvious she enjoyed a close relationship with her employers.

  There weren’t extensive courses, and it was surprisingly just like a meal she would share with her friends or her roommate in her apartment in the city. Conversation was light, and she quickly discovered her employers were both charming and amusing.

  As Mrs. Farley cleared the remnants of their perfectly done roast and vegetables, Duncan asked, “So what do you think of the library?”

  “It’s amazing.” She suspected she sounded like a wide-eyed, gauche schoolgirl, but she couldn’t hide her enthusiasm. “You have books about everything. Every subject, every author practically… If I owned that library, I’d never leave it.”

  Nick laughed. “We do love it, but you can see why it needs help. It’s so disorganized.”

  She nodded her agreement with that assessment. “It certainly is, and it’s going to take me at least two weeks to organize, and that’s a conservative estimate. It could take even longer. I hope that’s all right?”

  Duncan and Nick nodded without consulting each other. It was fascinating to see how they sometimes moved as almost one person, like they were twins instead of just friends. Were they just friends? She had no idea what their relationship was, and she started to speculate that maybe they were closer than friends.

  That sent a slight surge of disappointment through her. She didn’t care about their orientation, but if they were gay, there was no way they would have any interest in her. That was for the best anyway, because she’d come to organize their library, not hop into bed with both of them.

  Her eyes widened, and she choked on the sip of water she’d just taken. When had her fantasies taken her to that point, that she was imagining sleeping with both of them? That wasn’t like her at all, and it certainly wasn’t like her to be imagining having both of them at the same time while seated at the table across from them.

  She hoped her coughing fit explained the sudden flush of color in her cheeks. It was attributable to her own embarrassment and lusty thoughts, but she was content to let them think it was lack of oxygen. Once she’d regained her breath again, she nodded to assure them she was fine when they asked.

  “You should stay as long as you need to. We want the job done properly, and there’s no need to rush.”

  Duncan’s assurance sent a wave of relief washing through her. It was nice to have job security, even if it was only for a few weeks. It was even nicer to have an excuse to stay away from the city for a while longer and let Sam cool down and finally accept she wasn’t going to marry him.

  As Mrs. Farley served them chocolate mousse in parfait glasses, she said, “I’m looking forward to getting started on my project.”

  There was an intensity in Nick’s eyes that was difficult to explain, along with an almost animalistic growl in his tone when he said, “As are we.”

  She dropped her gaze from his and focused on the chocolate, deciding it was probably better not to try to ascertain what he’d meant with his ambiguous statement. It seemed a little too eager to be related strictly to having their library in order, but she couldn’t read too much into it.

  As Sam had pointed out on more than one occasion, she was awkward in social functions, and she had a difficult time evaluating and reading people. He was a thoughtless ass for pointing that out, but it didn’t make it less true.

  She had enough difficulty deciphering the intents of the guys she knew, and they were nowhere near as sophisticated or complex as she suspected the two men who had hired her were. The smartest thing she could do would be to keep her head down, avoid their notice, and finish with her library project as quickly as possible. They were paying her enough for the project that it would give her at least six months to find another position, so the sooner she finished, the sooner she could sort out a more permanent future.

  Yes, that was the wisest course of action, and she wouldn’t allow herself to deviate from it.

  She woke in the middle of the night, her body shaking from the intensity of the orgasm that had overwhelmed her in her sleep. Baylee sat up, gasping for breath as the sensations coursing through her body gradually slowed. She’d never come in her sleep before, no matter how intense the dream.

  Then again, she hadn’t dreamed about taking two men as her lovers simultaneously before either. She could recall with vivid clarity every detail of the dream, and just thinking about it was enough to make her already overheated body start to perspire and send a pulse of need through her despite her recent release.

  Feeling the need to clear her head before she cleansed her body, she slid from the bed and walked to the balcony attached to her room. It opened with glass-paned French doors, and she only bothered with one before stepping out into the chilly night air. There would soon be snow, especially in this part of upstate Maine, and she could almost taste it in the air. It was too cold to be out in the thin nightgown, but it was refreshing in a crisp way and helped clear the lingering cloud of arousal from her brain. Her body was still slick, but sated, and she could focus again.

  She wasn’t certain whether to be amused or appalled at her sexy dream and its unintended fruition. It was a sad commentary on her sex life that the fantasy/dream of her two employers taking her so robustly had given her a better orgasm than any sex she’d actually had with another person.

  Briefly, she wondered how reality would compare to the dream, but reminded herself that was the wrong line of thought. She couldn’t stop her subconscious from dreaming about them, or creating wicked fantasies, but she didn’t have to actively indulge in them when she was awake and alert.

  Movement at the corner of her eye caught her attention, and she swung her gaze in that direction. Midvale Manor was in the middle of a clearing, but surrounded by thick forest. It had been a little gloomy driving up the long driveway, and that had been in the middle of the afternoon, when there was still ample light out.

  At first, she wasn’t certain what had caught her attention, and she was about to look away when she saw movement again. The leaves rustled, and eyes turned in her direction. She gasped at the sight of them. They glowed faintly red in the illumination provided by the half-moon. She was even more startled to realize its gaze appeared to be focused on her, and the animal looked like it
was staring up at her, capturing her gaze with its own.

  She shook her head and looked away, moving from the balcony and back into her room. She locked the door after closing it behind her and drew the blinds so that they covered the French doors. A chill of fear, combined with a genuine chill from being outside in her thin nightgown, made her body shake. She returned to her bed and dove under the covers, pulling them up above her ears as she huddled into a ball in an attempt to get warm.

  It was an unsettling experience and definitely ended the night on a sour note. She made a soft sound of distress that she buried against the comforter when she recalled the eerie red eyes. They had been almond shape, and while not fiercely red like blood, they had still been the strangest thing she’d ever seen. She knew animal shine was common with all animals, but she’d only ever seen green or gold.

  Making a mental note to ask her employers about whatever might lurk in their forest in the morning, she finally managed to fall back asleep. After all, whatever that animal had been, it couldn’t get to her. She was safely on the third floor of Midvale Manor, behind locked doors. There was nothing to be afraid of, and no reason to let its presence on the grounds frighten her.

  When Baylee woke for the day, she made her way downstairs and went to the dining room first. Her plan was to seek out the kitchen, and perhaps Mrs. Farley, if there was no food waiting in the dining room. Her hunch had proven correct though, and she entered the room to find several dishes spread across the table in a tempting display. She also found her bosses sitting with empty plates in front of them. As she pulled out a chair to sit down, waving away Duncan and Nick when they both rose in an attempt to help her, she said, “This looks delicious. I guess I had perfect timing.”

  “We were waiting for you,” said Duncan.

  “Please don’t feel like you have to do that.”

  As Nick loaded bacon onto his plate, he grinned at her. “We’re certain you’re worth the wait.”

  The words were an innocent flirtation, at best, and completely meaningless at worst, so they shouldn’t have made her blush and squirm in her chair. Abruptly, she remembered last night’s dream, which only made her blush harder. In an effort to clear her thoughts and reduce the redness in her cheeks, she switched the subject. “Do you have wild animals in the forest around your home?”

  Nick and Duncan shared a look before Duncan nodded at her. “The usual, I’m sure.”

  Remembering the red eyes, she shuddered slightly. “I saw something I wouldn’t necessarily classify as the usual last night. It had glowing red eyes.”

  Both men stiffened, and Nick asked, “What else did you see?”

  She shook her head. “That was it. It was dark, and I wouldn’t have noticed the eyes if the moonlight hadn’t reflected off them. I’ve just never seen red eyes on an animal before.”

  “It was probably wolves,” said Duncan in an easy fashion. He appeared to dismiss the whole thing. “We have a small pack in the forest, so make sure you stay in at night. It isn’t safe out there.”

  Baylee took the plate of eggs Nick passed her. “Believe me, I will. I have no desire to run into a pack of wolves.”

  The rest of breakfast passed with light conversation, and she was in the library soon after. She immersed herself in books, quickly losing track of the time. It could have been minutes or hours later when the doors to the library opened, startling her from her perch on the ladder. Nick swept into the room with a silver tray in his hand bearing a teapot and cups. Her stomach rumbled abruptly, and she guessed it was closer to hours than minutes since she had begun work.

  He set the tray on the table near one of the couches before approaching. “I thought you could use some morning tea.”

  She grinned down at him as she started to climb down the ladder. “I could really use a Starbucks, but tea sounds fine too.”

  He grinned at her. “Sorry, but there aren’t any Starbucks within quite a distance. Mrs. Farley bemoans the fact as well from time to time.”

  She’d only taken a couple of steps down the ladder when she felt his hands on her hips. Baylee froze, uncertain what to do. A moment later, he lifted her off her current rung to set her on her feet. As he did so, he brought her close to his body, sliding her down with excruciating slowness. She shivered at the contact, and when she felt the full press of his arousal, her eyes widened with shock.

  When he set her on her feet, she couldn’t bring herself to meet his gaze, so she stumbled away from him and toward the couch. Her heart was pounding when she collapsed to the velvet cushion. She glanced up through the veil of her lashes as Nick sauntered closer, seemingly completely comfortable with what he had revealed, or perhaps oblivious to it. That didn’t seem likely, so she had to guess perhaps he was trying to put her at ease. It wasn’t really working—a fact established by the way her hand trembled when she accepted a saucer and teacup from him a few moments later.

  With a frown of concern, he took it back just as quickly before taking her hands in his. “Are you all right? Do you feel ill?”

  She shook her head, incapable of speech. The feel of his hands around hers was only making her reaction to him that much stronger, which served to further throttle her ability to speak.

  His voice dropped an octave, taking on a smoky edge. “You look flushed. Are you overheated?”

  Slowly, she nodded.

  In response, he slid closer, releasing her hands with one of his to put his arm around her shoulders instead. He took advantage of the fact she had unthinkingly chosen the middle cushion to press against her.

  Baylee knew she should pull away, but she seemed incapable of moving. From the way he’d position them, she knew Nick was about to kiss her. His head was descending, and his lips were softly parted. In response, she licked her own and still didn’t move. She couldn’t have if she wanted to, and she definitely didn’t want to. She wanted him to kiss her with every fiber of her being.

  The sound of the library door opening made her jump, and she finally broke the paralysis enough to jerk away from him slightly.

  With a sigh, Nick pulled back and turned more fully to face the table with the tea.

  Duncan came to sit on her other side, his hand casually on her knee. It did nothing to help clear her head or decelerate her heart rate.

  “Sorry I’m late. I was wrapping up a call.” As he spoke, he took a cup of tea Nick offered with a nod of his head.

  After a couple of deep breaths, she leaned forward to take the tea cup and saucer Nick had set aside when he had taken it from her hands a few minutes before. She was proud that it didn’t rattle this time, though it required more strength of will than it should have to simply hold on to a teacup. She took a moment to sip, hoping to regain some of her equilibrium. “What is it that you do, Duncan?” she asked after finishing the sip of tea.

  It was Nick who answered. “We manage our inherited wealth.”

  It was a vague answer, but she had no wish to learn the finer economic intricacies of maintaining a vast sum of wealth. She was certain her employers had to be wealthy to live in this home. “Are you two brothers?”

  “Friends,” said Nick.

  “Former enemies,” added Duncan with a grin.

  She couldn’t imagine that, so she rolled her eyes. “Of course you are. That’s why you share a home together.” After another sip of tea, she asked, “Does your business take you into the city very often?” As she uttered the question, she realized her motivation for posing it wasn’t strictly casual conversation. She was trying to determine if she’d ever have an opportunity to see them again after her assignment ended.

  “We never go into the city,” said Duncan with an air of finality that suggested the topic was closed.

  She wanted to ask more, but she didn’t dare from their suddenly serious expressions. She wondered how they could manage to avoid going into the city completely, but their postures made it clear they wouldn’t entertain questions about that.

  She searched for another
topic of conversation, but drew a blank. It was a relief when Nick asked about her progress in the library, and she was able to relax in her seat. As she was talking to them about organizing their first-edition collection, she abruptly realized Duncan’s hand was still on her leg, having moved higher up her thigh, and he was twirling strands of her hair around his other hand. Her mouth went dry, and she stopped speaking in the middle of her sentence. Her throat was too dry and made it impossible to speak.

  She barely stifled a moan when Nick put his hand on her other thigh. Baylee was certain she wasn’t imagining the changed atmosphere around her, and she didn’t think she was reading the wrong thing into their intentions. It felt like they were trying to seduce her, and she was honest enough with herself to admit they wouldn’t have to try very hard.

  A surge of disappointment filled her when instead of continuing, they both withdrew and stood up. Looking regretful, Duncan said, “Our break is over.”

  She licked her lips and cleared her throat. “Yes, mine too. I need to get back to the books.”

  As they departed, she watched them leave and continued to stare at the door for a couple of moments after it had closed behind them. Eventually, she returned to the ladder and the books she had been sorting, but this time, she couldn’t lose herself in the task. She still went through the motions and performed her job, but her thoughts were focused heavily on her employers rather than the books she was being paid to restore to proper order.

  Chapter 2

  Three days passed before she knew it, and it was almost a surprise to realize time had flown by. She was enjoying the assignment, but she was enjoying her employers’ presence even more. They were funny and charming, and they were treating her like a friend rather than an employee.

  That wasn’t entirely true though. They were treating her as more than a friend. With their casual touches and obvious flirtation, she’d grown convinced either one of them would have been happy to take her as a lover. She could have taken either one of them as well, but she couldn’t bring herself to choose, so she couldn’t find any bravery that would allow her to move forward.