Alpha's Second Chance_Shifter Nation_Werebears Of The Everglades

by Meg Ripley

  Resa felt her back sink into the seat. “Oh. Well, it’s nice.”

  They drove on in silence as he took the ramp for the highway and left the city behind. The skyscrapers were brilliant in the orange light of the sunset. If she squinted her eyes and tilted her head, Resa could just imagine the form of a dragon flying in front of the clouds. Turning away from the window, she studied the dashboard. Resa took in every gauge, every button. She studied the subtle texture of the plastic and leather around her, memorizing the colors and the way the upholstery felt against her skin.

  “What are you doing?” His sharp voice interrupted her thoughts, startling her.

  “Nothing. Why?”

  “No,” he argued. The sunset made sharp shadows on his face, bringing out the brassy, natural highlights in his hair and accentuating his cheek bones. “You’re doing something. I can tell.”

  “Oh, you mean cramming my head with every detail of this experience so I can write about it later? I’m sorry if my thoughts were too loud for you. It would be a lot easier if you’d just let me have my bag back so I can jot this all down.” She reached around him toward her case, which he had tucked between his body and the door.

  Ethan batted her hand away with ease. The car didn’t even veer out of its lane. “Yeah, right. I don’t know what you have in there.”

  “Nothing more dangerous than a pen,” Resa teased. Ethan had the upper hand here by a long shot. She knew that it would only take one quick movement of the wheel and he could kill her with a car accident. If he wanted something more interesting than that, he could simply shift and slash her jugular with a claw. Even as a man, he was far stronger than her. But she couldn’t seem to keep her tongue in check. Resa could only hope that it didn’t get her in even bigger trouble, and that she lived long enough to eventually write about this whole thing.

  Exiting the highway and winding through some back roads, Resa was starting to wonder just where this man was taking her. “You’re not some serial killer that likes to dump bodies in the woods, are you?” It would make sense, really.

  He glared at her before turning back to the road. “Is that really what you think of me? That just because I’m a dragon, I must be vicious and evil? What are you grinning about?”

  “You said it,” Resa replied breathlessly. “I mean, I’ve been saying it in my head all along, but this time you said it. Out loud. And that makes it count more than anything.”

  “Said what?” The irritation in his voice was clear.

  “That’s you’re a dragon.”

  “Well, I am, aren’t I?” He turned off the road and onto a narrow lane surrounded with woods on either side. The sun was nearly gone now, and it was like driving into a black tunnel of trees.

  “You sure look like one—or at least, you did. You know what I mean. Are you going to tell me where we are yet?” Resa needed to know all the details if she was going to turn this into a book at some point. It would start with her as a little girl, move on to her search for dragons and climax with her actually discovering one. It remained to be seen what happened after that.

  Ethan sighed. “I couldn’t just let you go. Nobody else can know what you’ve seen. So, you’re going to stay at my place for a while until I figure out what else to do with you.” The lane of trees opened up suddenly into a circular driveway in front of a massive house that Resa could only classify as a mansion.

  With numerous gables and stone siding, it was impressive. A rounded segment on the east end created a tower with a steeply pitched roof, almost like something out of a fairy tale. The entry way waited behind an archway under an overhang, just at the top of a flight of wide stairs. French doors looked out over a second-story balcony, and even the openings for the garage doors were arched and lined with stones.

  The McLaren hummed to itself as Ethan touched a different controller on the sun visor and glided into a large garage. He let her out of the car, but he once again held onto her arm as he guided her into the house proper.

  The floors were a dark hardwood, and the walls a warm coffee color. Resa only had a few moments to glance at the décor, which included various statues, suits of armor and coats of arms, since Ethan was hurrying her along. “So, this is your place?”

  “Stop looking at it like that, and yes.” Ethan threw open a large wooden door and pushed her through it. He followed her, let go of her arm, and shut the door behind him. “You’ll be staying in this room. Don’t bother trying to get out the windows or pick the locks. Everything is electronic, of course, and it’s all on a monitoring system. You can’t disable it or cut the power system without me knowing.”

  “That makes sense, but I’m surprised at your décor,” Resa remarked as she spun in a slow circle and took it all in. They were in a large bedroom with wide windows and a Turkish rug that took up most of the center of the floor. The wooden posters on the bed were hand-carved with ivy patterns, and the comforter was thick and fluffy. “I would have thought you would be more into modern stuff, with concrete construction and flat screen TVs everywhere.”

  “Don’t worry, I have plenty of those.” Ethan took a remote from a side table and pushed a button, and a large television dropped down from the ceiling on silent hinges. It turned on automatically, displaying the Cobalt Computers logo.

  “Great, so I can watch soap operas while I wait for you to figure out if you’re going to roast me or lock me in a tower.” She craned her neck to peek into the adjoining bathroom, noticing the corner tub and its jacuzzi jets.

  “You don’t seem scared.” Ethan watched her with interest.

  “I haven’t really had time. I’ve been too busy processing the fact that I’ve seen a dragon.” She noticed the solid wood bookshelves that lined two of the walls, each of them packed tightly with volumes. There was a large variety, with some of them relatively new paperbacks and others old, battered hardbacks. “You said you were a reader, but this is something else.”

  His jaw was tight when he looked at her, but he nodded. “I’ve made it my business to see what the public thinks about dragons. I buy every dragon book I can get my hands on. This is actually overflow from my library.”

  Since he had finally let go of her arm, Resa slowly crossed the room to touch a book. It was a deep green, the leather cracking at the hinges and the words barely visible. “But why?” she asked quietly. “If you are a dragon, then you already know everything about them. What do you care about what anyone else has to say?”

  “I’m really not interested in answering any of your questions,” Ethan repeated. He didn’t seem to be nearly as angry as he had been back at his office, but he was still firm. “Consider yourself my prisoner until further notice. I’m the only one who gets to ask any questions around here, and I’ve got plenty of them for you.”

  Resa put her hands on her hips, irritated. “And why should I tell you anything?”

  “Do I have to remind you yet again that you were in my building without my permission, and that you were the one spying on me? You got yourself into this mess, Miss Robinson.”

  “Are you sure about that? I came to you on a professional level from a legitimate newspaper. You were rude as hell. Don’t think I didn’t hear you trying to figure out if you could get out of it. Then, you purposefully gave me short, boring answers just to ruin my article. What did you expect me to do? Just give up and walk away?”

  “That’s what most people would do, yes!” he roared. “How the hell did you find me up there, anyway?”

  “I told you, I’m not going to tell you.” Her face was flushed, only an inch from his. Once again, Resa could feel the heat emanating from him. It pulled her closer, and she dug her fingernails into her palms to remind herself that she was supposed to be angry with him.

  “Be that way,” he whispered. “But until I get every last bit of information out of you that I want, you aren’t going anywhere. You’re going to stay right here, and there’s nothing you can do about it.” His pale eyes were full of fury. He looked
like he was going to say more, but he turned and left, slamming the door behind him.

  “Fine, confine me to the lap of luxury! That’s just the sort of punishment I deserve!” she yelled at the door. Panting, she marched to the bed and sat on the plush bench at the foot of it.

  She put her head in her hands. Okay, just think this through, she thought. He’s probably not lying about the locks on the doors and windows. He’s a tech mogul, and he’s likely to have something like that. He’s not going to kill me, at least not yet. If he was, then he would have done it already. He didn’t even leave a bruise. She looked up at the room around her; it really was gorgeous. Might as well make the most use out of this situation.

  Resa began looking through the books one by one. She wasn’t sure what she was searching for, but she hoped to find some sort of evidence. Ethan was too smart of a man to have left secret drawings or maps inside an old book, but she had to start figuring him out.

  18

  There was no getting rid of his anger now. Ethan positively boiled inside as he retreated from the west wing of the house. He knew he never should have brought Resa home; it was a mistake on so many levels.

  He had anticipated that she might be a little difficult. He had known she was argumentative and brash. What he hadn’t expected was to see her standing there in the guest room with the big bed behind her. He had instantly envisioned himself pinning her to the mattress and stripping her clothes from her body. He would make her pay for all the stress she had put him through. He would punish her for staying in his building, for spying on him, for making him feel as though the entire world knew about his secret now. She was nosy and obnoxious, and too damn sexy.

  Still, he had a whole new problem on his hands right then, and he wanted to kick himself as he headed out the back door. When Ethan had the place built, he’d paid extra for a massive backyard fence. It wasn’t enough to allow him to fly, but it provided just enough privacy for him to shift without risk of anyone seeing him. His home rested on several acres in an upscale Manhattan suburb, so his neighbors weren’t close, but they might be just as nosy as Resa was.

  He shifted quickly. It was more painful than it had been at the office, but the agony somehow made him feel better. Maybe he deserved it, for being such an idiot. There was no moon in the dark sky, and only the stars could see him. Ethan got down on all fours and charged toward the backside of the fence, running as quickly as his reptilian legs would carry him before turning at the last second and heading toward the next corner. He needed the physical distraction to get his mind off Resa, but no matter how fast he ran, he could see her face.

  Exasperated, he shifted back and went inside the house. His stomach growled, reminding him that he hadn’t stopped for dinner. Ethan headed for the kitchen, grabbed a sandwich out of the fridge, and put it on a plate. At the last minute, he grabbed a can of soda to go with it. His stomach lurched as he stomped to the other end of the house and opened the door to the guest bedroom.

  Resa looked up at him casually as he set the plate and the drink on a side table. She was curled up in the window seat with a book in her hands, looking as comfortable as if she owned the place.

  It only made him angrier. Ethan slammed the food down on a table and left, heading upstairs to bed.

  After an exhausting night of tossing and turning, Ethan threw a packaged cinnamon roll in the reporter’s room and left for work. Normally, it was a long drive to work, but one that he enjoyed in his McLaren. Today, though, the sun was too bright, there was nothing good on the radio, and when he got closer to the city, the traffic was too thick. He felt as though something was constantly pulling him back to his house.

  There were several meetings at the beginning of the day, and he sat through them grumpily. It was impossible to pay attention to anything his designers and engineers told him; he could only think of Resa, trapped in his house. He didn’t know if she was comfortably curled up reading a book or desperately looking for a way out, but neither idea sat well with him.

  When the meetings were over, he stepped out of the office. Kira was at her desk on the computer, but she looked up at him with her catlike eyes and smiled. “What can I do for you, Mr. Beaufort?” she purred.

  “Cancel any remaining appointments I might have for the day. Take messages for all my phone calls. I’m going home.”

  “Oh!” She rose from her seat and came around the desk, putting her hands delicately on his shoulders. “Are you sick? Is there something I can do for you? Maybe make you a cup of hot tea or get you an aspirin?” Kira fawned over him, her body only inches away.

  He pushed her aside firmly, but gently. “No, thank you. I just need to go home.”

  Kira’s lower lip pushed out in a dark red pout. “Are you sure? I hate to think of you all alone in that big, cold house with nobody to take care of you.”

  “I’ll be fine.” He charged toward the elevator.

  When he came in through the garage door, he stood for a moment just to listen. The hum of the refrigerator provided an underlying, monotonous melody for the other appliances in the house. The icemaker made a low rumble of welcome as it dumped another batch of ice cubes into the freezer. He held his breath as he listened, waiting to hear the sound of breaking glass or quick footsteps as they made their way across the property to the neighbor’s place. Even worse than that, he listened for the sound of nothing at all.

  But the one thing he was waiting for was still there: the steady heartbeat of Resa Robinson in the guest room.

  That was all he needed. Ethan flung open the cabinet doors and the fridge, pulling out random ingredients and arranging them on the counter. Some of them he put back while he went searching for others in the pantry. Then, it was time to cook.

  When he had the table set, he knocked on her door and then stepped back, puzzled at himself for such an act of politeness towards his prisoner.

  “Yes?” Resa asked sweetly. “I’d open the door and welcome you in, but I’m afraid it’s locked.”

  He growled softly to himself, irritated that she could still be so sarcastic after spending the night locked in a stranger’s house. He unlocked the door and stepped in.

  Resa was sitting at the foot of the bed, her back propped up against one of the posters and her feet stretching toward the other one. She had a book in her hand, and she glanced at him casually over her shoulder. Instead of the blouse and khaki trousers she had been wearing the day before, she wore only a long, button-down shirt that came down to the middle of her strong, creamy thighs. His button-down shirt.

  “I hope you don’t mind,” she said with a small smile. “I found some clothes in the closet, and I really didn’t want to just keep wearing the same thing for days on end.” She looked down at herself, at the cuffs she had rolled up just below her elbows. “I’m not sure navy blue is my color, but I had to make do.”

  He wanted to argue that it suited her quite well, but he cleared his throat. “You can come to the dining room and having dinner with me. I’m sure you’re hungry. But remember, I can move far faster than you can. If you try to get away, I’ll lock you in the closet. Or maybe the basement.”

  Resa shrugged and put the book down on the bedspread, face down to keep her place. The covers had been slightly rumpled from her sleeping there, but she had pulled them back up toward the pillows. “I have a feeling any closet in this place is still going to be bigger than my entire apartment, so I think I can handle that. Can I have a few minutes to put some pants on, or does that fit into your agenda?”

  Ethan scowled at her, trying not to think about what she must have looked like while she slept or what she might—or might not—have worn while doing so.

  “Yes. I’ll wait outside.”

  Once he was safely on the other side of the door, he clenched his fists as he berated himself. It had been a long time since he had stopped thinking about his work long enough to care about his physical needs, and there were very few women whom he could say he was genuinely attracted to
. Unfortunately, Resa was one of them. But he had to keep his head clear. She was practically the enemy, and even though she was in his own home, he had to treat her as such.

  “I’m ready.” Resa had changed back into her own clothes. Her hair was tousled, but she had run her fingers through it and arranged it around her shoulders. She had removed her makeup, but Ethan found that it made little difference to her looks. “I hope there’s not a dress code.”

  Ignoring her remark, he led her to the dining room. The table was far too large for just the two of them; in fact, he rarely ate there himself. Though he enjoyed the arched doorway, the long mahogany table surrounded by upholstered chairs, and the built-in bar surrounded by stonework that was a repeat of the pattern on the outside of the house, there wasn’t much point in him even having a dining room. Still, he had their places across from each other at one end of the table, with the food he had made at the center.

  “I think it’s time we talked,” he said quietly. “I know that you have questions for me, and I have plenty of questions for you. I propose an exchange.” Ethan pulled out a chair and gestured for her to sit down.

  She did so, and she watched him as he went around the end of the table and sat across from her. Her face looked troubled, an expression he hadn’t seen there before. She had been scared when she had first seen him as a dragon, but she had quickly gone back to being sassy and bold. It seemed odd, especially since he had let her out of the guest room.

  “What is it? Are you no longer interested in finding out more about me?”

  Resa pressed her lips together, her brow slightly furrowing. “It’s not that. In fact, finding out more about you is almost all I’ve been able to think about. But I was supposed to be at work today.”

  “A day off doesn’t sit well with you?” Ethan poured them each a glass of wine. He hadn’t asked her if she liked wine, but he figured they could both use a little buzz.