Billionaire: Billionaire Romance: Billionaire Tiger (A Billionaire New Adult Shifter Contemporary Romance)

by Loretta Devine

  “I’m in one piece,” Jenna repeated faintly. “Who’s going to help me with the equipment?”

  Mr. McKendrick glared at her. “Don’t tell me you actually found something?”

  She shrugged. “Didn’t get a thing. Why?”

  “No reason,” he grunted. Before she could stop him he began tipping over the monitors. “No one’s going to see anything.”

  “What are you doing?” she shouted, trying to stop him. “Stop it!” He growled and shoved her aside.

  There was an odd gleam in his eyes. It was something evil, almost as if he wasn’t Mr. McKendrick anymore. “Who are you?” she whispered. “What are you?”

  He began to laugh. A high, maniacal giggle that she’d heard on one of the cassette recordings. “You’re not very smart, are you girlie?”

  Jenna backed away from him and headed for the stairs. But he caught her halfway and tossed her back down. “Get down there!” As she struggled to get up, she heard Max growling in a high rage and stared in disbelief as he lifted McKendrick up by his collar and flung him across the room. But it didn’t stop him for long. “Maxim Ravencroft,” he sneered. “Pity I didn’t kill you the first time.”

  “Silas McKendrick,” Max spat angrily, his voice a ghostly echo in the empty hall. “You mercenary bastard! Touch one hair on her head and you’ll answer to me.”

  “Don’t tell me you’re in love with her?” McKendrick began laughing. “I’ve heard it all. My ancestor would have loved that one. But more to the point, I want the castle.”

  “It’s mine!” Max growled. “I’ll rip out your heart before you snatch it from me.”

  “I don’t think so,” McKendrick said softly, grabbing Jenna and putting a knife to her throat. “How about I gut her like a fish so you two lovebirds can be together? I get the castle. Everyone’s happy.”

  Jenna gasped as the blade cut into her flesh drawing blood. Max was nowhere to be seen and she was afraid he’d expended too much energy being with her. “Max, don’t give in! This is your home.”

  “Shut your gob,” McKendrick snapped, yanking her hair. “It belongs to me. His family stole it from mine! That’s all they were, a bunch of thieves and whores, like his sister.”

  “Say that again!” Max barked as McKendrick was shoved aside, the knife dropping to the floor. “Run, Jenna!”

  She scrambled to her feet and ran towards the stairs. Jenna was nearly at the top when she heard a loud POP!

  A searing pain filled her body as she glanced down to where a small dot of crimson was slowly spreading over her chest. Jenna reached up, her hand filled with blood. She thought she heard McKendrick scream as Max hurled him from the ceiling, his body falling into a crumpled heap and twitching as he died.

  Her feet slid out from beneath her and she felt herself falling into the abyss below.

  Epilogue

  “I can’t believe she’s gone,” Carl lamented. “I should never have let her go by herself.”

  “Hey, man!” Brad said, working a piece of gum to death. “You said she was good. On her first investigation she gets offed by some nutjob? It’s not our fault she couldn’t hack it.”

  “Aren’t you sorry she’s dead? She didn’t even have family for crying out loud!”

  “Win some, lose some,” Randy said, struggling with the video cables. “She’s better off. “

  “Says who?” Carl muttered. “We better get something this time, dad’s losing his patience with us.”

  “Keep your knickers on,” Brad grumbled.

  “Well, if you guys want me, I’ll be in the kitchen,” Carl told them and went off in search of a midnight snack. He was in the midst of a jelly sandwich when he heard a scream. He raced out of the kitchen just in time to see Randy being lifted by the scruff of his neck and tossed outside. Brad was halfway down the road, tearing at his hair and shrieking like a madman.

  Carl felt a chill just then and a tap on his shoulder.

  “Boo!”

  “Wait, you guys!” he shouted, scrambling after them. “Wait for me!”

  “That wasn’t very nice.” Jenna chided her companion. “For shame!”

  Max turned around and grinned at his wife. “They deserved it, love.”

  Giggling, she materialized and hugged him. “You’re right.”

  “Let’s go to bed.” He lifted the candle and took her hand.

  “Catch me” she laughed, backing away.

  He leered at her. “You know what will happen to you when I catch you.”

  Jenna smiled and twirled about in her gown. “I’ll race you across the moors!”

  Max’s eyes lit up as she hitched up her skirts. “What’ll you give me if I catch you?”

  Laughing, she darted outside and fled into the night. Max followed behind and caught up with her. She squealed with glee as he lifted her high, swinging her about.

  Their happy laughter rose and floated in the air mingling with the soft whispers of the wind.

  The Viscount’s Desire

  An Erotic Regency Romance

  CHAPTER ONE

  Used

  I squeezed the letter tightly. I wanted to tear it to pieces. I spent so much time reading it over and over. I needed to let it go. It had been three years since this letter was written by my then fiancé, Robert. He wrote it the morning of our wedding, when he left me at the altar. It was a moment I couldn’t forget. It destroyed me, and my reputation forever. In a time where a woman’s only hope was to be married off, being jilted at the alter made me look like I was worth nothing, and I was as far as a dowry went. My family had little money and my dowry was only a hundred pounds a year. It was no enticement for any man of money, so I could only marry for true love. I thought I had found it, but I was wrong. I tried everything to get over it, but the whispers of people never let me forget it and it was complete torture. I was just going through the motions. I buried myself in my needlework. I stayed home a lot and helped my father with his garden. That’s what I planned on doing, but I had not planned to be lured into a seductive escapade with a Latin lover. It was the last thing I thought would happen to me.

  “Okay Charlotte, you can let go of this. It’s been three years.” I turned to the ocean and asked it take the pain away. I grabbed the letter and read it one last time, even though it was already branded into my mind. I wanted to give myself one last experience of reading it. The way I read it the morning of my wedding day. It read,

  “Charlotte, I’m sorry. I can’t do this. I thought I could, but something just feels wrong. We are good together. Not good enough though. We’ve lost the sparks and I think you know it too. We are so comfortable with each other that it no longer feels the way it once did. I don’t want a lifetime of that, and you don’t deserve a lifetime of mediocrity. I will always love you and I hope one day you will see that us not getting married today as a good thing. Sorry, Robert”

  That’s it. With those words he had ruined my life. Not just for that moment, but for three years. He had moved on, or so I heard, half a year later. That fact made me realize he truly didn’t love me. Yet, I still loved him. That last thought made me so angry. I grabbed the letter and I tore it to pieces. I tore it until it couldn’t be torn anymore. Tinier and tinier the pieces got with my escalating anger. Then I leaned over and placed the pieces in the water. It went out with the rush of the small creek. There it was done. I was symbolically letting go. Enough is enough. I was a smart person, and being a a woman destined to be a spinster, I saw the world as it was. I didn’t sugar coat it. I didn’t expect fairy tale endings. I knew there was real happiness and the illusion of it. I thought I had the real thing, but I had the illusion. That I couldn’t tell the difference between the two shook me to the core. If I didn’t know then, what makes me think I would know next time, if there ever were a next time. The way I had been living, shut off to everything except my family, I feared I didn’t know how to be with a man, yet alone be in love. Tears poured down my face at these last thoughts. The self-pity ma
de me very angry. I turned toward the trail stomped back to my family’s estate. Kicking up dirt with each step.

  I was so lost in my thoughts I didn’t realize that I was not alone. I fumbled with my purse and in my haste I dropped it. Actually I hurled it across the trail. A hand reached out and picked it up and handed it to me. I looked up, and into the striking face of a gentleman. He was not a local, he was a gorgeous and exotic Spaniard, a Latin man.

  He had long dark hair that swept to the side and over his eyes. He looked up at me from his kneeling position with large green eyes. The lining around his eyes was a darkish hue, almost like he was wearing eyeliner. That look that made his eyes really stand out. He had an outdoorsy look and feel to him, like a pirate. I swallowed hard.

  “Here you are Senora,” he said with a thick accent.

  “Gracias,” I said in my poor Spanish that only came out as a whisper. I already had tears streaming down my face and I had to fight back the opening of the floodgates. I could burst into a tear storm at any second. I grabbed my purse and ran away. Behind me, the gorgeous Latin man called out to me.

  “Senora, can I help?”

  I kept running and didn’t look back. It was not right for a woman to be alone with out a chaperone in the woods with a stranger. It could further damage my reputation. I picked up the skirt of my long empire waist lavender dress. I opened my door and slammed it behind me. I didn’t even notice if the man had followed me. I took a look at myself in the mirror; my dark brown eyes were bloodshot from crying. I was suddenly embarrassed that I had let that sexy man see me like this. The circles under my eyes were dark. I needed rest. Long hours of sleep. I brushed my hair out. It was very long, all the way down to my waist. It was a chestnut brown color, but got lighter the more time I spent in the sun. I tied it into a thick braid before I spread out on the bed determined to sleep for ten hours. I wanted to wake up to a brand new day. It would be a future with out being haunted by that letter.

  I fell asleep. Into a deep sleep full of strange dreams where I was running from something that I could never see. The next morning I woke up early. I felt refreshed and almost like a real person again. I was determined to not cry anymore. I had got it all out of me like a toxin. It was sunrise when I woke up. I opened the terrace windows and watched as the sun sat on top of the horizon. I breathed in the fresh air. I loved the way the grass smelled after the rains. It was as if you were truly breathing in the energy of your surroundings. My stomach grumbled and I realized I hadn’t eaten since I lunch yesterday. I was too upset to eat then. Now I was famished. I needed tea and a large breakfast. I got dressed and went down to breakfast with my father and mother.

  It was a quiet breakfast and they didn’t even bother to ask why I had missed dinner. We ate ham and a boiled egg with tea and milk.

  Later that day I decided to go on a walk around our property. It was a very small amount of land, but it did have beautiful woods on it.

  “You look better,” a voice from behind me said.

  I turned to see the man that picked up my purse the day before. It was the sexy Latin man that stopped my heart with one look from those green eyes. I turned to him. My eyes were wide. I didn’t know what to say. Wasn’t it custom to not bring something up like that, especially for a gentleman.

  He smiled and his whole face lit up. He stared at me for a second and said,

  “Senora, your key for you,” he handed a key to me.

  I gasped as I realized it was the key to my journal. It must have flown out of my purse yesterday when I dropped it.

  “Oh thank you,” I was confused. Was this normal? I welcomed it. It was nice to be talked to by an attractive man. It had been so long since I had even been to a party or a ball, I forgot what it felt like to be in the company of an attractive man. But after last yesterday’s run in, it felt really strange.

  “There you are Senora. I do anything else for you?” he asked.

  Oh, the possibilities, I thought. “No, Thank you. I must go.”

  He gave sort of a bow, which seemed unusual and not at all the English way, but he wasn’t English. His gaze went from my feet all the way up to my face. It was such an obvious sexual advance I felt the need to slap him. Instead I waited until he was done looking and moved his eyes to lock with mine. I breathed in deep. I thought at any second he’s going to come to me and kiss me. He’s going to take me. That’s how obvious the energy exchange was between us. There was something happening here. He stood up right and said,

  “Bien, I leave you.”

  Then he stepped vanished. I turned and walked the other way. What the heck was that? What just happened? I had never had a man do that to me. How did he do that? This must be what the whole Latin lover thing is all about that I had read about in books.

  I was intrigued. I continued my morning walk and then went back to my house.

  “Charlotte? Is that you?” my mother’s voice echoed down the hall.

  “Yes mother.”

  “Come in. An invitation came today. You must see it.”

  An invitation? That was odd. I went into the sitting room where my mother sat holding an elegant paper. I took it from her hands. It was an invitation to a ball. It was to be held at a grand estate by a Spaniard, the Vizconde de Seville, or the Viscount of Seville as it was in English.

  I sat down with my mouth agape. I couldn’t believe it. It had to be the man in the forest.

  “I know you no longer want to go to balls after the whole thing with Robert dear, but it’s been three years. You should have some fun,” my mother said. I knew that was her way of convincing me because she too wanted to go. No doubt it would be a very much talked about ball because we didn’t get Spaniards around here. She would not want to miss out on it.

  “I’ll go,” I said abruptly.

  “She was startled by my response. I think she was ready to spend a great deal of time convincing me.”

  “Yes? Are you sure?”

  “Yes.”

  Then I left the room. The ball was in two weeks. I was actually excited about it.

  I walked to my room fondling the thick paper of the invitation. Then something fell out of it. It was a smaller note. I was completely in shock at what was inside. It was a folded note and inside it was a pressed flower. The letter read,

  “Senora, I want you to come to my estate tomorrow for lunch at noon.”

  CHAPTER TWO

  Dangerous

  That was it! That’s the only thing the letter said. I plopped down on the bed. It was the mysterious Spaniard. I couldn’t do that. I would not go do something so out of character and so dangerous. It was not like me at all. There was no way. It was too dangerous. Not just dangerous physically, but dangerous for my reputation. I couldn’t take that risk. This man already made me feel something with one look and a few words. I couldn’t image what spending time alone with him would do to me.

  I crumpled the letter ready to throw it in the wastebasket. Then I stopped. It reminded me of the day before when I had another letter in my hand. That one letter that had destroyed my life. The writer in me thought, how romantic would it be if this man turned out to be more. It was uncanny that yesterday I held a letter that broke me into pieces, and now I held a letter with so much promise and intrigue. Was this a sign? I uncurled the letter and placed it on the bed. I would force myself to think this through. My life since that fateful wedding day had not been a real life at all. I was bored to death with what I had been doing. It was a routine of work and sleep, and I was ashamed that I had wasted three years doing nothing. This was an opportunity to explore. To have a new experience out of my ordinary routine, and to have a life less ordinary, and if anything else it would make a great story.

  I paced the room for the next few hours. Talking myself into and out of going. What was the harm? He would open the door, I would see him and turn and walk away if I was appalled. As rude as that might seem, it was an option. I owed this stranger nothing. I made a pros and cons list, as I oft
en did, but that didn’t help either.

  When noon came around the next day, I found myself walking in the woods to his estate. It was close by, which was why I ran into him in the woods so often. I told my mother and father that I was out walking as I always did. They never paid attention to me anymore. I had already had my reputation ruined by being jilted at the altar. What more could happen to me?

  My curious nature had gotten the best of me. I needed to answer it, or it would forever bother me. This mysterious Latin man was a question that needed to be answered. An enigma. I was halfway there when I stopped and turned around. I only got a few steps and then changed my mind again and turned around going toward his estate. I knocked on the door. I was not expecting what happened next.

  The door opened and the gorgeous exotic man stood there. His dark hair spilled down to just above his shoulders. He had a five o’clock shadow of a beard. He was tall dark and exotic. His skin was a beautiful tanned color that made his green eyes stand out even more. I was shocked that he was answering the door himself and not a servant. He looked at me and smiled.

  “Hola Senora, I am glad you came. Come in.” He stepped back away from the door and continued, “My name is Emilio. Will you come in?”

  I could scarcely speak. “I’m Charlotte,” I said in barely a whisper. I was excited and scared at the same time.

  “Charlotte, it is beautiful name,” he said as he maneuvered to let me in.

  “Thank you.”

  “Let’s eat. Yes? I looked in the direction he pointed and there down the hallway was a massive dining room. There was a large table that sat almost fifty people. There was a candlelit lunch waiting for us. This was not what I was expecting. This was so polite. I was expecting to be aggressively ravaged when I came in the door. I didn’t expect conversation; I just expected sensual talk to lure me into bed. This was sort of refreshing, and was the first step in me realizing that I don’t know it all.