Dating the Panther: A Shifter Dating Agency Romance

by Ruby Forrest

  “Oh, like you,” Emily said. Raelyn made a startled noise, indignant, but she shut her mouth just as words came to her tongue.

  She’s right, Raelyn thought, ignoring Emily’s smug expression. Raelyn had done the exact same thing after her breakup. She’d stopped looking for long-term relationships because of Christian. She’d stopped imagining that someone could love all of her and she’d instead settled for men that could be infatuated with her for short bursts of time. None of Raelyn’s dates after her breakup had lasted longer than one month. They’d never gone far, and she’d been content to just have company and attention while they lasted.

  “So, maybe he’s like me,” Raelyn admitted. “But wouldn’t that make us the worst couple ever?”

  “Such a pessimist,” Emily joked, but her gaze was understanding. “You can’t know for sure. That’s what dating is. Trying to figure things out. Anyway, you don’t have to marry the guy, and it’s not like you ever have to see him again.”

  Wrong, Raelyn thought, but she let the conversation end and shift to something else. Raelyn was certain that she would see Blake again. She just wasn’t sure what she would feel about him then, or even what she felt about him at the moment. There were too many questions that were unanswered, and she had a feeling that Blake wasn’t going to give up any truths without a fight.

  “You did what?” Aaron stared at his brother, hand pausing over a skillet that was crackling quietly. Blake tried to take a deep breath and repeated himself.

  “I shifted. At the party.”

  Blake tried not to feel resentful. He’d always expected Aaron to be the one to slip up, or even purposefully show someone. Aaron had always been the soft one in Blake’s mind. He was the brother that insisted they couldn’t isolate themselves forever, and that they had to trust others to survive. Blake didn’t believe Aaron could think that way, especially after what had happened with Blake, but here they were.

  “Right. So, who saw?” Aaron asked, jumping right in. His hands were moving again, tossing pasta and seasonings in olive oil. He would have looked perfectly normal if it weren’t for the agitated twitch of his fingers and the way he was working too fast.

  Blake felt angry. Guilt teased him, but he pushed it away. “Just a woman.”

  “What woman?” The way Aaron said it, Blake knew that his brother already knew.

  “Raelyn.”

  Aaron shook his head briefly. Blake walked away to pour wine into a glass. He needed to take the edge off. He kept replaying the way Raelyn had followed him around the apartment, thinking he didn’t know her hand was brushing a baseball bat. The way Raelyn had stood up to him and had the audacity to look sorry for him when he was the most powerful person she’d ever meet.

  Blake took a swig from his glass. “I made sure she won’t tell.”

  “Blake,” Aaron said shortly, alarmed. He turned away from the stove. Blake bared his teeth, anger mounting another inch.

  “I didn’t hurt her,” Blake said, spitting the words out like teeth pulled from his mouth. Aaron just stared. “I didn’t. She’s stupid, you know—she wasn’t afraid of me. She just listened and looked sorry.”

  “Stupid, or kind?” Aaron asked, his tone dry.

  “Same thing.”

  Even his responses felt hollow. Blake hated the way he’d lost everything in just a short time. Three days, and Blake was suddenly feeling the pitfall that was waiting for him. He knew how things would play out—Raelyn would get scared, or she’d get angry. She would threaten to expose him, and he would say no one would believe her. Things would fall apart and either Raelyn would be carted away kicking and screaming, or she’d push just too far and there would be an accident.

  This is why I keep things short, Blake thought, filling his glass and swallowing it at once again. It was easier to manage when relationships lasted a week or less. It was easier to switch between women but always change them out, making sure no one got close enough to even think something was different about him. Blake was an expert at not being known. He’d just have to do better than Raelyn and keep her curiosity at bay.

  Chapter Eight

  Raelyn didn’t want to be interested, but she was. She spent the day after Blake’s visit browsing the internet, trying to find any scraps of information she could on him. She had lost track of time when Lucy called, Raelyn’s hand shooting out to answer the phone while her eyes stayed glued to her computer screen.

  “Hello?”

  “What gives? You haven’t been answering my messages,” Lucy said as soon as Raelyn answered.

  Raelyn sighed, blinking to rest her eyes from the bright screen before her. “Sorry. I’ve been busy.”

  “Busy how? With Blake?”

  “No,” Raelyn said, but her answer came out harsher than she’d meant it to. She immediately winced, trying to come up with something nicer to say. “I told you I wasn’t into him.”

  “Aha! Wasn’t! So, you are now?”

  Raelyn fought the urge to hang up. She truly loved her sister, but Lucy tended to push when Raelyn didn’t want to be pushed. Lucy was the type to try to get Raelyn dating three days after a breakup. To anyone else, Lucy would have seemed uncaring and brash, but Raelyn knew her sister cared. Being a twin was difficult. Lucy had never been bothered by it, but Raelyn had constantly dealt with the fact that her sister was a model and Lucy was only a personal assistant, trying to make her way through life and find someone that didn’t like her for her beauty—something she shared with another person.

  “It’s complicated,” Raelyn said, shrugging. The computer before her had half a dozen tabs open, each one with less and less information about Blake. “I…what do you know about him? I can’t really see much. On his profile, or anywhere else.”

  Lucy hummed thoughtfully, and Raelyn tried not to feel like a creep for stalking Blake online. I only did it to find out more, she told herself. Preferably before Blake came back and decided what he was going to do.

  Lucy finally answered after a short silence. “I don’t know much. All I know is that the dating service told me he liked short-term relationships and classy women. That he was one of their top users and there was a strict vetting process, visually and compatibility-wise.”

  Figures, Raelyn thought. She hadn’t expected any help from her sister, but at least she’d tried. Raelyn only wished there was more for her. Blake was different in an obvious way, but Raelyn also felt like maybe he wasn’t as bad as she had thought. She was interested, not just in knowing about his ability but in knowing about him. Part of her ached for the thought of a person going through life alone and unable to share a secret that made them who they were.

  Even if Raelyn couldn’t commit to him long-term, she thought maybe it would be interesting to talk to Blake more. To try and be his friend, if he needed one. It would be a hard sell, but she was willing to try. He told me to stay away, she thought, but I can’t do that. She knew where he worked. Raelyn could go see him—if not to talk to him, then at least to see what he was like at work. To see if she was right about him faking indifference.

  More than anything else, though, Raelyn just wanted to see Blake again. He was dangerous, but he was also fascinating. There was something about him she couldn’t help being attracted to. At one in the afternoon, Raelyn gave up on pretending she wasn’t interested and left her apartment. She was going to see him, and if it was a bad idea, at least she’d have ended their stalemate on her terms.

  Blake couldn’t concentrate. He watched a swish of black fabric out of the corner of his eye and turned to see just another office worker pass by in a skirt. The image was still in his mind, though, and thoughts of an ugly black dress turned into memories of the purple one Raelyn had been wearing at the party. The way she’d looked beautiful and sexy but hadn’t walked like she owned it.

  What if she doesn’t run? Blake wondered. He never indulged pointless fantasies—especially at work—but he didn’t stop the intrusive thought. He wonde
red what it would be like to have Raelyn agree to being with him. To ask, even, to be with him. He imagined what she would say to promise she’d never be a problem. He wondered if Raelyn would treat it like a business contract, or if she’d come to him with those pitying eyes and a soft voice. He knew he’d hate the latter, but he wasn’t sure he was strong enough to say no.

  Sometime after lunch, Blake left his office. He was on the ground floor—he had other offices and rooms in the skyscraper, but he liked staying low when he could. It was easier to leave, that way. A hallway stretched before him and in the distance, was the lobby with its glass panel walls and shining white reception desk. Blake was about to walk in the opposite direction, but then the revolving front doors swished and a breeze of air—nearly imperceptible, even to him—caught his attention. It carried something familiar with it.

  Blake turned on his heel and walked to the desk. The closer he came, the more obvious it was. Raelyn was there. She was standing at the directory by the desk, considering the panel of office numbers. Her hair was loose, and Blake could smell the remnants of some kind of soft shampoo. Raelyn was in heels again—he didn’t think he’d ever get used to the way they looked so good on her—but she was in jeans and a white t-shirt, a jacket hanging over her arm.

  “What are you doing?” Blake asked. Raelyn jumped a little. When she turned, her eyes were wide, but not with fear. She should be afraid, he thought. He wasn’t sure whether to be suspicious or exasperated by her reaction to him.

  Raelyn ran a tongue over her lips. Blake followed the movement, watching her blush. “I just—I happened to be near. I thought—”

  “Thought what? That you would just come see me?”

  “I didn’t—”

  “Think?” Blake interrupted again. He caught the first spark of fire in Raelyn’s eyes. She finally wheeled around completely to face him.

  This was what made him want to go back to her, at the party. Even if Raelyn lacked the finesse of the women he was used to, she certainly had all the right sharpness. Raelyn wasn’t the type to back down without a fight or take insults lightly. Blake wondered how she’d managed their first date at all, but from her comment at the party about her glasses, he thought maybe she had been testing him.

  Raelyn crossed her arms and stared back at Blake. “I thought I’d see whether you stalk your office employees, or if you keep your secret from everyone.”

  Blake growled. He couldn’t help his instinctual reaction; the words screamed that she was a threat, even if the primal voice in him was saying she was something else entirely. Blake took her elbow in hand, firm enough to direct Raelyn but light enough to give her room to move and led the way into his back office. No one was around—he’d been insistent of that, when he’d first organized the office. Blake liked to have the comfort of privacy, just in case. Not that he’d ever shifted at work. It was too dangerous.

  Raelyn was looking at everything. Her eyes wandered as Blake closed the door behind them. Blake tried to think of what he was going to say, but she was so close and the smell of her was surrounding him like a cloud. I won’t be able to ignore it, he thought. He wasn’t sure that he should. If Raelyn could hold her ground, why not? She wouldn’t tell, and no one would listen.

  “What did you think was going to happen?” Blake asked. Raelyn turned away from the bookcase in the corner to look at him once again. There was guarded interest in her eyes.

  “That I’d see more,” Raelyn said, shrugging fluidly like she was stepping out of a bathrobe. “That I could figure out what you want.”

  Blake paced closer. He was curious, now. “What I want.”

  “Yes,” Raelyn said. Her voice was quieter the closer he came. She wasn’t moving away. “I want to know. What you’re planning—what you think I’ll do.”

  “I think you’ll run,” Blake said immediately. He spoke before he could stop himself and hated the way his answer sounded vulnerable, so he continued, “I think you’re scared. You don’t know what I can do.”

  “Maul me, I guess,” Raelyn said, without missing a beat. Blake stared at her. “But that would leave a mess. I have a sister. Friends. You’re a businessman. You’d probably just blackmail me, or pay me off, if things got bad. Am I wrong?”

  Blake wanted to laugh and push her at the same time. He couldn’t reconcile the swirl of emotion in his chest. The animal instinct was telling him Raelyn was perfect—that she was strong and willing to fight. That she would make the perfect mate. The human part of his mind was telling Blake that Raelyn was a liability; that she’d put herself in danger without a second thought. And for what? Does she want me, now? She hasn’t even touched me.

  “Maybe you’re not,” Blake said, reaching out. He traced up her arm with a finger and watched Raelyn’s eyes. She didn’t break away, but he could see a swirl of desire she fought off. “But can you really handle me?”

  “There’s only one way to find out.”

  Raelyn tilted her head—she was probably going to kiss him—but Blake caught just a small scent when she moved and then her neck was exposed. Blake couldn’t ignore her anymore. He dove in, closing the small gap between them and biting at her neck. Raelyn gasped but didn’t push him away. Blake bit until he knew he would break the skin and then stopped, sucking on the salt of her skin. He was going to leave a mark where it mattered.

  Only after he’d watched the bruise start to color did Blake turn to Raelyn’s lips. He was curious what she’d taste like, since her smell was so intoxicating, and he wasn’t disappointed. Raelyn was earthy, like almonds, and there was something sweet like roses on her tongue. Blake couldn’t categorize everything, but he pushed at her and took as much as she gave. Raelyn moaned into his mouth and a stab of lust hit him in full force. Blake took Raelyn’s wrists and pinned her arms above her head.

  It wasn’t until Raelyn started twisting, her hips rolling away from the wall, that Blake’s common sense went through to him. He was in his office and Raelyn hadn’t promised anything. He was still in a weak position and he’d let just the smell of Raelyn take over his thoughts and entice him into acting. It felt like a defeat to have kissed her, even if he’d been the one in control. Blake backed away but held Raelyn’s hands in place. Raelyn was out of breath, chest rising quickly as she watched him. There was a trace of confusion in her violet eyes. I could look at her like this all day, Blake thought, and then he squashed the feeling and focused on the woman before him.

  “You’re going to have to agree to some things,” Blake said. He meant it as a warning, but Raelyn looked like she was taking it as a challenge. She lifted her chin and stared right back at him.

  “Oh? Like what? A contract?”

  Blake laughed. It was more amused than joyful. He could imagine what she’d thought up in her spare time—some sort of high-end waiver or a functional slave agreement. Blake wasn’t worried about anything that would require legal papers. What he was, wasn’t even recognized by most people in the world.

  Raelyn tried to sound confident, but it was hard to know if she’d succeeded when Blake was laughing. I anticipated this, she told herself, but she was still dizzy from what they’d just been doing. Raelyn had not anticipated that Blake would bite or even kiss her. She hadn’t expected to be pushed against a wall, and she certainly hadn’t expected to enjoy it. Yet there she was, her hands above her head, and she was doing nothing to break free.

  “No. Contracts are paper,” Blake said, shrugging. Even the movement reminded her of the way he’d stalked around the roof, all muscle and purpose. “Your word.”

  “My word for what?” Raelyn asked. She didn’t understand why words were better than paper, but she wasn’t Blake and she didn’t know what he did. If there were others like him, and if they had rules that were different than other people’s.

  “If you agree to this, you do what I say. You will be vulnerable. I don’t enjoy being tied down. You will wear very specific things if we go out, and you will learn very
specific things if I bring you somewhere with me.”

  Raelyn licked her lips again, wondering where to start. “Things like what? Am I going to be your prey?”

  Blake smirked, like he knew what she was worried about. “I only have the best. You will be the best.”

  It clicked for Raelyn after a moment. She almost laughed. He thinks I’m the girl from our first date. She would have corrected him, but she didn’t think it made a difference. Blake was ready to have a relationship with her—even if it would be a short one—and Raelyn wanted to know more about him. If she was close to him, she knew she’d have the chance to figure out more. Maybe she’d even change his mind about the way he was living. His loneliness.

  “Then I’ll be the best,” Raelyn said, as if there was no question. Blake’s smile grew, more teeth than lips, and Raelyn felt a shiver run up her spine. What have I got myself into?

  Chapter Nine

  Despite telling her he didn’t like paper, Blake gave her some, anyway. Raelyn went home with a file in hand, the folder impossibly soft beneath her fingers. Blake had stopped their meeting after Raelyn had agreed, to Raelyn’s disappointment. He’d claimed something about work, but Raelyn suspected he was just trying to distance himself from her for a while.

  The paper was…interesting. Raelyn ran through the neat type, each section lined up with military precision. She realized how absurd the paper was about halfway through and wondered, amused, how Lucy would act if she found it laying around. Everything on the sheet was warning. Raelyn wasn’t allowed to try and hold Blake down. She couldn’t show up at his workplace uninvited. She would wear what he dictated on dates. If he brought her to an event, she would keep as quiet as possible and act more as arm candy than a real person. She wasn’t allowed to tell anyone about her relationship with him beyond the moment—this wasn’t going to be long-term.