BEASTLY LOVE BOX SET: Romance Collection

by Lindsey Hart

  “I-I’m sorry, just one moment,” she stuttered.

  “Well, hurry up, I don’t have all day,” the cashier snapped.

  Stephane raised an eyebrow. That wasn’t an appropriate way to speak to customers; if any of his employees spoke to a client like that, he’d sack them on the spot.

  The mother, visibly flustered, looked over her purchases. She didn’t have much other than the baby food things. There was a single packet of candy in it all that she had obviously picked up for herself. There was hesitance in her eyes as she looked at it, but it was the only thing she had that wasn’t absolutely necessary.

  Stephane frowned and stepped forward. He could feel Mia stiffening beside him, but he didn’t look at her, not caring to know what she was thinking. He pulled out his wallet.

  “Here, this should cover the rest,” he said, putting a bill on the table amongst all the coins.

  The cashier and the mother gaped down at it. He frowned at them; it was only one hundred dollars, what was the fuss about?

  “I can’t take that!” the mother blurted. “It’s far too much!”

  “Well, it isn’t mine anymore,” he said with a shrug. He glanced at the cashier. “You have the money; ring up the purchases for her, we don’t have all day.”

  The cashier snapped his mouth closed and did as he was told. When he handed over the change, the mother tried to return it to Stephane, but he crossed his arms and looked the other way. Hesitantly, she tucked the money in her purse and, after a tearful thank you, left the store.

  Stephane huffed. He hated seeing people struggling; if he could do something to help, why wouldn’t he? It was hardly something to be thanked for.

  After they purchased their own groceries, he suddenly realized that he could feel Mia staring at him. The anger on her face was gone, as was every other expression.

  “What?” he snapped, fed up with this day; he just wanted to go back to his room and ignore the world for a little while.

  Then, all of a sudden, she smiled.

  It broke across her face like the sun coming from behind the clouds, bright and beautiful. Stephane felt his breath catching in his throat. She had never smiled at him like that before. Not even once.

  “That was a good thing you did,” she said, opening her door. The smile softened, but it was no less genuine or gorgeous. “Let’s go home.”

  Stephane stared at her. She had refused every one of his advances… had pushed him away whenever he had gotten near… had looked at him like scum.

  Yet he did one good little thing and she smiled at him like that?

  As he got into the car, handing the bag of groceries to her, he distantly wondered how he would be able to get her to smile at him like that again.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  The trip back to the resort was oddly comfortable. While Mia and Stephane both remained silent, much of the frostiness that had made the trip into town so uneasy was gone. Mia found she wasn’t as angry as she had been that morning, and it was easier to relax back into her seat.

  Who would have thought that Stephane wasn’t completely horrible?

  She might not have believed it if she hadn’t seen it with her own two eyes. He had helped that woman without even a single thought to the money that he was losing, and he had refused any thanks for the deed. When she had smiled at him, he had seemed stunned that she had reacted to such a small thing.

  Poor Stephane didn’t seem to know what to think; he kept shooting her suspicious glances as he climbed into the car and started the engine, but he had begun to relax when she hadn’t said anything else. There was a thoughtful look in his eyes, now, one that Mia didn’t know how to interpret.

  It didn’t take away from the years of trauma he had put her through, nor did it account for how much of an asshole he had been since she had seen him again. But Mia had glimpsed something in him today that she hadn’t thought would be there. She had seen an innate kindness and empathy that he kept well-hidden, for some reason.

  Could that part of him be drawn out into the open? Mia didn’t know why he insisted on pretending the softer parts of his personality didn’t exist, though she had the sneaking suspicion it probably had something to do with his father and his own, high-risk job. It was hard to forget that today she had seen a person she might have actually been able to get along with, had she had the chance.

  She swallowed, her throat suddenly dry, and rubbed her sweaty palms on her jeans. Why did Stephane suddenly seem several times more attractive now? There wasn’t just a core of evil hidden beneath his good looks… there was goodness, too, and she felt herself being drawn toward it inexplicably.

  No. She wouldn’t do this. A tiger couldn’t change its stripes, and Stephane would remain a bastard, no matter what. He did one good deed and she started to wonder if she had gotten him wrong? She had already seen how right she had been from the moment they had met thirteen years ago. Stephane was not going to change.

  Yet, there was still a part of her that very much wanted to see that spark of gruff kindness once more.

  These thoughts occupied Mia all the way back to the resort. Stephane didn’t try to strike a conversation this time, for which she was grateful, and she was more than ready to put the entire morning behind her. With a bit of distance, she would forget she had seen anything at the store, and he would probably make it easy on her by reverting to the awful person she knew she was.

  When they parked back at the cabin, Stephane nearly leapt out of the car. Mia rolled her eyes as she unclicked her belt and bent down to gather their shopping bags. It looked like Stephane wanted to get some distance, too.

  Then her door suddenly opened.

  Shocked, Mia straightened and stared at Stephane, who had just opened her door. She waited for him to say something, but he just quirked an eyebrow at her, patiently waiting for her to get out of the car.

  Wondering if this was some sort of trick, Mia carefully slipped out of the car. All Stephane did, however, was shut the door once she was out, give her a small smile, and then stride back to the house. She was left gaping at his retreating back.

  What was that?

  ⁂ ⁂ ⁂

  The next day, Mia ran into Stephane, despite her best efforts to avoid him, at the front door of the manor. She tensed, gearing up for another attempt at seducing her, but, instead, he opened the door and stepped aside.

  “After you, milady,” he joked.

  She waited, but he didn’t say anything more, just smiled and waved her inside. Was this a joke? It threw her off balance, because she had thought she had known what to expect from Stephane, and this wasn’t it.

  “Uh, thanks,” she said, scurrying passed him, and relieved when they parted from there.

  Unfortunately, she ran into him in the cafeteria at lunch. She almost bumped into him, not even seeing him as they both headed for the only free table. Mia opened her mouth to say something, but snapped it shut when Stephane put his own food on the table and pulled a chair out.

  “Here,” he offered, gesturing to it.

  She eyed it with a narrowed gaze. “Are you going to pull it out when I start to sit down?”

  “That would be counteractive to my plans to seduce you, wouldn’t it?” he snorted. “Just sit down already.”

  Mia sat gingerly, but he just pushed the chair in and stepped back. He didn’t try and touch her, nor did he offer another stupid pick-up line. Instead, he gathered his food up and winked at her.

  “Enjoy lunch,” he said before striding off, obviously intending on finding somewhere else to eat.

  At dinner, however, she had finally had enough when he glanced at her and told her that her hair looked nice tonight, not even looking down the admittedly very low-cut top she had worn just to test him.

  “You’re doing this on purpose!” she accused, almost shoving a finger in his face. “What are you playing at here?”

  He looked amused. “Are you getting upset at me because I’m being nice to you?” he asked. />
  When he said it like that, it did sound rather stupid. Mia flushed, suddenly realizing how close she was standing to him, and took a step back just before Lisa rushed up, quipping about the parents being late for once.

  Mia glared at Stephane’s back as he turned away, not even flirting with surprised Lisa. Something was going on, and she needed to get to the bottom of it.

  ⁂ ⁂ ⁂

  She had honestly thought his behavior wouldn’t last, that he was just playing around. To her surprise, however, he was still acting like the perfect gentleman three days later.

  Even more surprising was the fact that she was beginning to bask in his kind attention.

  She still didn’t know what to make of it. Had she somehow made this happen by wishing she could see more of the softness that had led to him saving that woman in the shop? Had he seen that she was impressed by that small act and decided to try and live up to it?

  He didn’t act like this in front of anyone else. He still flirted with Lisa and he still laughed loudly and obnoxiously with Tim and Robert. But, in the moments that he found Mia on her own, his entire demeanor softened, his smile seemed to become more genuine, and he dropped all the sleazy pick-up lines that she had hated so much.

  He wasn’t seducing her anymore… at least, it didn’t feel like it. Mia honestly couldn’t tell, and it was making her confused for several different reasons.

  She just couldn’t figure out what he was doing. She didn’t know why he didn’t touch her more than brief brushes of his hand against the back of hers or against her elbow, nor did she know why it made her feel so special to know that she was the only one that saw him like this. A small part of her mind scrambled desperately to remind her that this was the man that she hated and for good reason, but it was becoming easier to offer him smiles rather than glares.

  She had even giggled at him last night when he had opened the door for her yet again and bowed ridiculously low, tipping an imaginary hat. Mia had been absolutely horrified at her reaction, but the pleased look on Stephane’s face had made something warm and content curl up in her stomach.

  She didn’t know why he was being so nice to her. But she did know that she liked it and didn’t want him to stop.

  Distantly, she knew that this had to be another ploy of some sort. But even some of her suspicions had started to fade; Stephane hadn’t made a single move on her since they had returned from their shopping trip, nor had he made her feel uncomfortable in any way. He maintained a respectable distance from her… in fact, more often that not, it was Mia that found herself sidling a little closer to him, so they could brush hands.

  If this was a form of seduction, then it was either the poorest attempt she had ever witnessed… or the greatest.

  She wasn’t immune to her own reactions to him. She really liked this side of Stephane, and she wanted it to stay. She wanted him to continue paying attention to her. She wanted him to keep being kind.

  She just wasn’t sure where that left the two of them in this game they were playing.

  Mia was so deep in thought, that she almost didn’t notice as the object of her musings crossed right in front of her as she made her way to the stables. Startled, she stumbled to a stop; he was carrying golf clubs and discussing something with his father. As he passed her, he gave her a quick smile and a wink before he was gone, heading toward the golf course. It was only after he had disappeared that she realized that she was smiling back.

  It took a moment before Mia noticed that she was blushing to the roots of her hair. Shocked at herself, she patted her heated cheeks; she was blushing worse than she had the day Stephane caught her at the spa! She tried to kick her brain into gear and remind it that this was all just some stupid game, a bet that she still intended on winning. None of this was real, not even the kindness that he was showing her.

  Except, it had been real at the shop, and there had been something about his smile in the last couple of days that had seemed different…

  Mia shook her head and took a deep breath, willing the blush to disappear and her heart to slow to a normal rate. Then she spun on her heel and headed back to the cabin, deciding not to go to the stables after all.

  She needed to lose herself in a good book, so she could pretend that the world wasn’t going utterly mad around her.

  CHAPTER NINE

  Stephane tried to tune back into what his father was saying, but all he could hear was his thumping heart. It had jolted as he looked up and saw Mia standing only a few centimeters away, close enough to touch. He had managed to smile and wink at her without his father noticing. But then she had smiled back, looking just as startled to suddenly see him, and his heart had sped up without his permission.

  He’d turned away immediately and lost sight of her, but the memory of yet another of those smiles was already searing itself into his brain. What was with Mia’s smiles? His mind was intent on carefully cataloguing each one, and it was becoming impossible to think about anything else.

  The only thing better than her smile had been her laugh, which he had managed to surprise out of her yesterday. A part of him was still yearning to find some way to hear it again.

  Stephane wasn’t stupid. He knew, somehow, that he had stepped into a game that was more dangerous than the stupid bet between him and Mia. A game that had started on that fateful shopping trip.

  It had surprised him to see Mia acting so well to such a small act of kindness. He hadn’t known what to think at first, but then his brain had finally clicked the pieces together. Mia was not like other girls. She was not someone who could be seduced by force. Yet, on that day, he had stumbled on the one thing she could be seduced by. If he played his cards right, he could seduce her with kindness.

  So, of course, he had set out to do just that.

  Only, at some point over the past few days, that plan had started to backfire on him. He wondered if it was because of those damnable smiles; more and more he found himself forgetting about the bet in his effort to pull yet another one out of her.

  He liked her reaction to him when he was kind to her. He liked her smiles when he complimented her or pulled chairs for her and opened doors so she could walk through first. He liked her laughs when he acted silly just for her amusement.

  He was attracted to Mia. Stephane had known this from the start; he had proposed the bet with the intention of sleeping with her, after all. But he felt like his attraction to her was changing and burrowing its way even deeper into his mind.

  Maybe he needed to stop this before it was too late. He felt strangely out of control, and he did not like that sensation. Perhaps he should just return to his original plan; surely, he would wear her down eventually.

  As Stephane lined up his ball, he nodded to himself. Tonight, he would forget all about this stupid plan and act the way he had before. It might make it a little harder to seduce Mia, but it would be worth it in the end if he managed to take back the reins.

  ⁂ ⁂ ⁂

  When everyone met up for dinner tonight, Stephane fell into step beside Mia. He opened his mouth; he had thought of the perfect pick-up line for his opening act, even if he knew he was liable to get an elbow in the stomach for this one.

  But before the words could escape him, he felt his hand brush lightly against Mia’s. He half-expected her to jerk away, but to his rising delight she didn’t. Instead, she glanced at him and gave him a small, genuine smile.

  He gulped back the words that were about to escape and tentatively smiled back. Her smile simply got wider before she was directed to sit some distance away from him. Stephane found himself sitting between Lisa and Josie, but, for once, he wished that he had Mia on one side of him.

  She hadn’t sat next to him once the entire trip. In fact, Stephane was suspicious of the way that her parents and his parents consistently separated the two of them. Did they know something he didn’t?

  He would be the first to admit that he didn’t remember much of his first meeting with Mia; it honestly ha
dn’t been that important to him. At seventeen-years-old, he had been more focused on simultaneously trying to live up to his father’s ideals and escape them, so a meeting with a ten-year-old kid had been low on his list of things to be concerned about.

  He did remember that that meeting had not ended very well. He had argued with the smaller Mia, which his father had scolded him fiercely for as they left; he was almost an adult, so what had he been thinking getting into a screaming match with a child?

  He hadn’t told his father that he didn’t really care. Instead, he had just sulked in the passenger seat, hand clamped over the vicious bite mark on his leg.

  Oh yes… he might not remember exactly how that meeting had gone, but he definitely still remembered how fiercely she had bitten him.

  “Are you okay?”

  Startled by Lisa’s question, Stephane realized that he was ruefully rubbing the place where Mia had bitten him all those years ago. The mark was long gone, of course, but he still remembered where she had gotten him.

  “Yeah, I’m fine, some of my muscles are a little sore,” he explained.

  He snuck a glance at Mia; there was an oddly amused look on her face, as though she had seen the place he had been rubbing and was amused by it. Maybe she remembered that was the place where she had bitten him, too. In fact, he wouldn’t put it past her to remember, considering she was still holding something from back then over his head.

  “If you’re sore, you should go have a massage,” Lisa suggested. Then she leaned in, her voice lowering to a sultry timbre. “Or, I could take care of you.”

  Several days ago, Stephane might have jumped on the suggestion, bet or no bet. He felt interest stirring in his gut, but then he chanced a glance behind Lisa and saw Mia staring at them with a frown. As he watched, she rolled her eyes and looked away, obviously used to seeing such scenes and not do anything about her sister’s behavior.

  “Maybe another time,” he found himself saying, his mouth moving before he consciously gave it permission to.