by S. E. Smith
Taking on Tory
by S.E. Smith
Magic, New Mexico Book 2
Acknowledgments
I would like to thank my husband Steve for believing in me and being proud enough of me to give me the courage to follow my dream. I would also like to give a special thank you to my sister and best friend Linda who not only encouraged me to write but who also read the manuscript. Also to my other friends who believe in me: Julie, Jackie, Lisa, Sally, Elizabeth (Beth) and Narelle. The girls that keep me going!
—S. E. Smith
IMPRINT: Paranormal Romance
Paranormal Romance
TAKING ON TORY: MAGIC, NEW MEXICO BOOK 2
Copyright© 2014 by S. E. Smith
First E-Book Published December 2014
Cover Design by Melody Simmons
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: This literary work may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic or photographic reproduction, in whole or in part, without express written permission from the author.
All characters, places, and events in this book are fictitious or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, actual events, locales, or organizations are strictly coincidental.
Synopsis
Twenty-four year old Tory Carson is dying to get out of Magic, New Mexico and explore the world. She has spent her whole life cocooned in the protection of the close-net community. When she finally gets a chance to go somewhere for three weeks, she would be crazy to say no. Even if her father is screaming it!
Simon Drayton is a reclusive billionaire who has reinvented himself over and over again through the centuries. He has temporarily settled his headquarters in the beautiful city of Charleston, South Carolina.
He is used to taking what he wants. He has learned that wealth and power are potent motivators for those who are greedy. Confusion reigns when he sets his sights on a beautiful, young female who is oblivious to his power. After centuries of getting what he wants, he is shocked, and just a little bit fascinated, when he discovers that not all things are for sale.
Things heat up when the irritating, young ‘human’ woman refuses to play the game by his rules. She isn’t impressed with his wealth. She isn’t impressed with his looks. In fact, she acts like she isn’t impressed by anything he does, even when he flashes his teeth!
Find out what happens when a centuries old Werewolf discovers he isn’t the only creature who loves to bite.
Taking on Tory
Magic, New Mexico, Book Two
S.E. Smith
Chapter One
Simon stared out the large, arched windows of his beautifully furnished office. The unobstructed view of Charleston Harbor along the picturesque coast of South Carolina did little to soothe the beast inside him. He could feel the creature he had become centuries before moving under his skin, straining to break free.
He had been called many things over the years. Bastard was just one of the words used to describe him. While correct, it was not the only one that could be associated with him.
He had been born in 1709 to an unmarried servant of a Lord in Worcester, England. By the age of eight, he had learned well at his father’s hand what it truly meant to be called the bastard son of a Lord. But, that was nothing compared to the other word that could describe what he would later become…. Werewolf.
His lips curved upward as he stared out at a passing yacht. Only a handful of trusted people knew what he truly looked like under the sleek, sophisticated exterior he showed the world. He often wondered what the men and women he had associated with over the centuries would have thought if they had known the truth about his identity.
Simon didn’t bother turning when the door to his office opened after a soft knock sounded. He could see Youssef briefly bowed in the reflection of the tinted glass before he stepped into the room. While Youssef and he had many similar characteristics, they were also vastly different.
Both men were tall, muscular, and deadly, but in different ways. Youssef was still human where Simon was not. Simon bore the light coloring of his English ancestry. He was tall, elegant, wealthy and handsome with his shoulder-length blonde hair tied at the nape of his neck, dark blue eyes, and aristocratic features. Youssef, on the other hand, had the dark features of his native homeland of Morocco. His family had served Simon for the past three hundred years, passing down his secret from parent to child.
He turned as another knock echoed through the room. This time it was the new clerk his personal assistant had hired. She smiled seductively as she stepped into the room and handed him the papers he had requested an hour before. A brief glanced showed him that she would not last long, the calculating look proved she would be a liability
He would have to speak with Colin, his personal assistant, again. The last thing he needed was complications. It wasn’t like he had difficulty finding female company if he wanted it. Unfortunately, Colin thought a little eye-candy, as he called it, made the office more interesting. He preferred his distractions in the bedroom, not the office.
Simon had grown used to women swooning when he cast his attention upon them, while men cringed and fought for obscurity. Both could sense what he wanted from them, the women to slake his lust and the men to quench his need to hunt. He made sure he kept both desires away from his business life.
“Do you need anything else, Mr. Drayton?” Amy Ashton asked as she stopped in front of him and looked up. “Anything at all?” She whispered, taking a step closer.
Simon took the folder from her hands. “No, you are dismissed.” He replied bluntly with a glance at Youssef.
A slight pout formed her perfectly outlined red lips, but she didn’t say anything else. Simon watched as she turned on her high heels and slowly walked toward the door. He knew she paused before she opened it to see if he was watching her. He waited until she quietly shut the door behind her before he looked up from the contract he was reading.
“Get rid of her,” Simon ordered.
Youssef’s lips quirked in amusement. “Colin is going to be disappointed. This one didn’t even last a full day,” he said, folding his arms across his chest.
“I’ll have a talk with Colin,” Simon replied, turning back around to stare out the window again.
It was growing late and the early evening shadows were beginning to dance along the sidewalk. The beast inside him moved restlessly, needing to run. Once again, Simon cursed the Werewolf that changed him.
At eighteen, he had finally escaped the cruel control of his father only to have it replace by his Master. For the first twenty years, Sir Winston Boatwright had been his alpha. Simon was barely a man the year he was changed and discovered while Werewolves aged, they did so at a much slower rate than a human.
What Boatwright had not expected, though, was for his pupil to learn as fast as he had, or to be so deadly. Simon had no regrets for killing his former master. Boatwright had enjoyed the years of torment and torture too much for him to have feelings for the old Werewolf.
Boatwright lived to create more monsters in the image of himself. He pitted his creations against each other in a hellhole where he invited unsuspecting human aristocrats to come place their bets. It made Boatwright a very wealthy and powerful man, while at the same time giving him more victims for his sadistic games.
Simon rubbed at the faint scars around his left wrist. He had been kept chained until the fateful night he escaped. Boatwright had made a lethal mistake that had given Simon the chance for freedom.
He had invited a few wealthy human females to partake of the savage beast’s lust. Boatwright enjoyed watching as the women took advantage of the raging desire that drove him almost to insanity.
A Werewolf’s sexual craving was a powerful and dangerous thing.
Lady Mary Quincy didn’t listen to the careful instructions given to her before entering his chamber. The stout pin holding up her thick hair was the tool he needed to pick the locks binding him. As she rode his body, he used his teeth to capture the loose pin. He slipped it into his mouth and held it tightly against his cheek until she and Boatwright were through with using his body for their pleasure.
Three nights later, he had escaped after killing his handlers. Boatwright had chased him through the streets of London, but the fighting had hardened his body until he was the ultimate killing machine. He had quickly defeated his former master and left his body in the burning remains of a hut on the outskirts of town.
After killing Boatwright, he had gone after the second man responsible for his captivity. It had taken him three weeks to work his way north to the country estate of the man who had sold him to his Master in exchange for wealth and power. He had taken his time killing his half-brother, Henry Manning. That was another death that he had no regrets over.
At almost three hundred years old, he had seen the best and worst of humanity. At first, it had been difficult for him to control the beast that moved inside him. It had taken him almost a quarter of a century to harness it. Youssef’s great-great-great grandfather had been instrumental in helping him.
“You should let the past go, my friend,” Youssef said in a quiet voice, watching the figure standing in silent readiness. “You need to hunt.”
Simon pulled away from his reverie and nodded. “Tonight,” he replied. “My quarters are ready?”
“Yes,” Youssef responded.
“Good…,” Simon’s voice faded as a figure on the street below his office suddenly caught his attention.
A low rumble escaped him in surprise. The figure was of a female. She wasn’t very tall and had curves that made him want to run his hands over them. Her dark brown hair was pulled back into a high pony tail that swung as she twirled on the sidewalk to laugh up at the tall male next to her.
Even from this distance he could see the excitement on her face as she replied to the man. Her arms flung outward, pushing the heavy mounds of her breasts upward. He could feel the beast inside him respond to the unintended invitation.
The female was the exact opposite of what he was normally attracted to, yet he couldn’t pull his eyes away from her. His hand tightened on the papers in his hand, crumpling them, when the male suddenly pulled the female into his arms and hugged her close before releasing her.
“What is it?” Youssef asked, walking over to stand next to Simon so he could look out of the window. “Do you sense a threat?”
“Yes,” Simon muttered under his breath. “But, this one is from the beast inside me. He wants that female.”
Youssef stared down at the two figures. The male was still talking to the female. Whatever he was saying, she was enthusiastically nodding her head up and down as she listened to him intently. She was a short, slightly plump, curvy woman who might have been mistaken as rather ordinary if not for the glow in her face.
“Do you want me to find out who she is?” Youssef asked, turning to look at Simon. A slight curse escaped his lips when he realized that his friend had disappeared. “Damn it, I hate it when you do that!” He muttered, turning and heading for the door that was still in motion.
Chapter Two
Tory released a short scream of frustration and twisted away from the tall, stately man stubbornly standing in front of her. It was the same argument over and over again. This time he was giving her all the reasons she shouldn’t be going to a Graphic Design and Computer Animation convention in Phoenix with some of her online friends. If he had his way, she would be kept in a gilded cage for the next century.
Knowing she needed to leave before she said something she would regret, Tory shifted. One second, the figure of a young woman with shiny shoulder-length dark brown hair and matching chocolate-colored eyes was standing in front of the pale green house, the next a small, plump bat flapped upward toward the second floor roof. It landed on the peak and angrily glared down at the exasperated male watching her.
“Charlie,” a soft voice reproached.
“Sophie,” Charles Alexandru Carson grimaced at the look of disapproval on his wife’s face. “She is just a baby!”
“She is twenty-four years old,” Sophie pointed out.
“That’s just a baby,” Charlie insisted before he released a loud sigh as Sophie raised her eyebrow at him. “Well, it is,” he grumbled.
“She is a beautiful young woman,” Sophie said, reaching up and cupping her husband’s stubborn face between her hands before she tenderly smiled up at him. “If you remember, I was only twenty-three when we met.”
Charlie’s face relaxed as he stared down at his beautiful wife of over a hundred years. They had been gifted with three gorgeous children, two boys and a girl over the years. Tory was the youngest and had been a surprise to them both. She was also the most beautiful thing Charlie had ever seen next to her mother.
“Why do you think I want to protect her?” He asked in a husky voice as he slid his arms around Sophie’s waist. “She is as beautiful as you at that age.”
Sophie laughed and shook her head. “You sound just like my father,” she said with a sad smile. “There must be something about Vampires and their daughters.”
“Well, if you ask me, I think she is in as much danger here as she would be anywhere else,” Nonny said from behind them. “It looks like she has a couple of admirers who are willing to console her.”
Charlie glanced over his shoulder at his mother with a confused frown before he turned his gaze to the roof where Tory was sitting with her knees drawn up to her chin. Two males sat on either side of her, one had his arm around her shoulders while the other was tilting her chin toward him. It looked like he was about to….
“Charles!” Sophie called out in exasperation when her husband suddenly disappeared in a puff of dark gray smoke. “Nonny!”
“What?!” Nonny Carson said, grinning up at the roof. “I just said Tory looked like she had someone to help distract her.”
“You are no help,” Sophie told her mother-in-law.
She turned back to stare up at where her husband had re-materialized next to Maverick, the handsome young Werewolf, who had been leaning in to give Tory a kiss. She shook her head when the young pup yelped in surprise. Ever since Tory had been born, Charles had been overly protective of his only daughter.
“He’ll let her go,” Nonny said, looking up at her middle son.
“How do you know?” Sophie asked, biting her lip when Charles tossed the boy off the roof before turning on Tory’s other admirer who was scrambling down the drainpipe. “He is so protective of her. I’m afraid he’ll never let her spread her wings.”
“Oh, he’ll let her go,” Nonny promised with a grin. “Topper asked the Fates.”
Sophie turned in surprise to look at Nonny. “The Fates! I thought they were on vacation. When did they get back?”
“Oh, they’re not back. Topper and I went to see them last night in Vegas. They were on a winning streak, imagine that,” Nonny replied with a sigh. “I swear Vegas has the best shows in the world.”
“What are you two up to? And what did the Fates have to say?” Sophie asked, watching as Charles sat down next to Tory. “Is she going to be alright?”
Nonny rolled her eyes. “Of course Tory is going to be alright! She has the Fates as her Godmothers and they love her to bits. They did happen to mention that Alexandru is coming by for a visit.”
“Alexandru!” Sophie exclaimed in delight. “When?”
“Tonight,” Nonny said, nodding up at where her son and granddaughter were quietly talking. “He is going to take Tory with him on the business trip he has to make to Charleston. You know as well as I do that he is just as protective of Tory as Charlie.”
“What else are you
not telling me?” Sophie asked quietly, turning to stare at Nonny with a suspicious look. “What are you and Topper up to?”
“Me? What makes you think any of this is my idea?” Nonny asked innocently.
“Okay, what is your older sister up to?” Sophie asked in resignation.
Nonny laughed. It was true. Topper, her older sister by only a few years was the wild one of the bunch. Topper’s personality was as colorful as her hair, which had a habit of changing colors several times a day.
She and Topper were descendants of the famous Warehausen witch family. Topper had yet to marry, whereas, Nonny had fallen in love with a handsome vampire almost two hundred and fifty years before. They had three handsome sons, though only Charlie had married and had kids so far.
Alexandru, their middle son, was an established entrepreneur who dealt in custom made furnishings and restorations of historic buildings all over the world. The fact that he had lived through some of the different time periods was a bonus. Unfortunately, he was a very busy man and they only got to see him once every few months, usually when he was traveling from one side of the world to the other.
“Tory might have mentioned that she’d like to take a little vacation to someplace other than Magic,” Nonny admitted. “Topper just happened to run into Alexandru on one of her trips and mentioned that Tory would like to see a bit of the world.”
“Just happened?” Sophie asked with a shake of her head. “You know Charlie won’t like it.”
“I know my son very well,” Nonny replied with an amused smile. “Why do you think I asked Topper and the Fates for help?”
Sophie chuckled as she looked up in time to see Tory rest her head on her father’s shoulder. She shook her head. Poor Charlie. He didn’t stand a chance against so many women.
“You are an evil woman, Nonny,” Sophie laughed. “Does Charlie have any idea how manipulative you are?”
