The Billionaire Shifter's Second Chance (Billionaire Shifters Club Book 3)
Page 30
Impossible.
“This better be important.” Edward didn’t bother to sit, planting his hands on his hips, one foot already out the door metaphorically.
“We have located Tomas.”
Edward reached out for the back of a chair, the leather pillowing under his fingertips as they dug in. “I take back my resentment. This is important.” A flash of nude Molly, all alone in his cabin—their cabin—made him nearly sprint out the door to protect her.
“He’s not in the United States.”
A rush of breath poured out of Edward. “Where? Romania?”
“Russia.”
“Russia?”
Asher shrugged. “We know very few details. It’s possible the people who hacked into Gavin’s company’s networks are the very same who give him shelter now. Or perhaps the Nagys have more money than we realized and own property. His exact location is not certain, but we do know he’s somewhere in western Russia.”
Edward sighed. “And the serum?”
“If he could develop a variant that turned Webb into that… thing,” Asher said, nostrils flaring, eyes narrowing, his gaze torn away from Edward and focused on the flickering fire before him, “then who knows what else he has done in terms of biological weapons?”
Biological weapons.
The man turned Molly’s blood into a weapon.
“How do we move forward, Asher? This feels surreal. Frightening. As if the very core of our world has been shaken.”
“Yes, it does.” Asher’s voice held a tone of deep sorrow. “Because it has been shaken. I have pored over the old texts and gone through every memory possible. Father’s stories, my mother’s tales—and I cannot think of any event like this. Even the hunts in old Europe centuries ago, when we fled, were solved by disappearing. Leaving. Once we were away from people who knew about us—once we could hide in plain sight and find our own secret world, living two lives—we were reasonably safe.”
Were reasonably safe.
“But now?” Asher shook his head sadly, the firelight illuminating a long, fresh scar on his face, tracing from eyelid to earlobe. He looked rakish, like the Hollywood version of a pirate, with his long, loose black hair and narrowed sapphire eyes. “Now the enemy is one of us.”
One of us.
“I’m going to find him,” Edward said. “And kill him.”
“No. Not until we know what he knows, what he’s done, and who he’s working with. And then”—Asher’s voice fell to a growl—“he’s my responsibility.”
Edward swore under his breath, using the only words in the ancient language his mother had taught him, words that had been passed down through the generations when the rest of the language was lost. Words that were mild to wolf and bear, and so were unknown to his non-cat-shifter siblings.
Submerge me in water, he’d said. To a cat, it was truly a curse.
“Go to your woman,” Asher said, turning to look at Edward. The bleak loneliness in his expression made Edward hurt for him. “We have security teams that can track Tomas. The question is—how extensive is this betrayal? Who is he working with, and how many are helping him? We cannot know.”
“But can’t Gavin and Dr. Sam outsmart him? Surely LupiNex has superior research facilities and a head start.”
Asher’s face changed with the mention of Dr. Sam, softening, his eyes unfocused suddenly. “Yes. We have that on our side. But we cannot predict what happens next.”
“This feels like an era is over,” Edward said sadly, his hands itching to touch Molly, his body pulsing for her.
“You feel that way for a reason. I feel it too.” Asher took a sip of a drink from a mug on a tea tray beside him, his mask returning, face hard. “Go. Be with Molly. It is more important than ever, in fact, that you stay by her side.”
“Even on the grounds of the estate?” Alarm shot through him.
“Oh, no. We are absolutely safe here. But outside the ranch? I would be careful. Until we can shut down Tomas’s operation, consider all shifters to be on high alert.”
“We’ve never lived this way before, Asher.”
“Oh, we have,” he said sadly. “The shifter world has, indeed. You and I just weren’t alive back then.”
Chapter 30
Molly could tell from the look on Edward’s face that Asher’s news had not been good.
“You’re in luck,” Edward said, closing the door behind him. And then turned the dead bolt. “I won’t be pressuring you to launch that boutique in Boston after all. Poor Eva will be seriously disappointed.”
Molly hurried over and snaked her arms around his waist. “You locked the door. I’ve never seen you do that before.”
He lowered his head and nibbled the pulse point below her ear, then opened his mouth along her skin for a deep and slow kiss that made her knees tremble. “Just didn’t want Adriana to interrupt us again.”
She didn’t believe him, of course. His heart pounded too closely to hers, in perfect sync with her own; he couldn’t hide the truth from her. “Asher told you something important. It’s Tomas, isn’t it?” She leaned away, fear rising in her gut. “He’s nearby?”
“Not at all,” Edward said quickly, arms tightening around her. “He’s on the other side of the world. Hiding. We’ll know if he tries to return.”
She released the breath she’d been holding. “Thank God.”
“I’m simply… upset that someone I know, one of my own kind, could do something like this.” Tunneling his fingers through her hair, Edward tipped her head back and kissed her tenderly on the forehead. “We’ll stop him. Don’t worry.”
A warmth spread through her body. “I’m not worried. I know you will.” And she realized that she believed it. Like she’d seen Jess’s aura, like she’d seen Lilah’s baby and the shadows of every shifter, she could see a happy future. Not every moment from this one onward, but soon. After a struggle. A struggle they would win.
“I hope you understand I’m going to have to keep my eye on you from now on,” he said, peeling away the front of the robe she wore. He gazed at her breasts, trailing a fingertip down her body from throat to navel to her mound and thighs. “A very close eye.”
“I thought…” She gasped as he pushed the robe off her shoulders.
“Yes?”
His tongue was drawing circles around her left nipple, but his lips hadn’t made contact yet. It made it hard for her to think. “I thought… you were… going to… going to do some… cooking,” she managed to get out.
“Mmm.” He’d moved to the other breast. And was licking.
The man was talented. “Dessert, to be specific,” she choked out.
“You do make me hungry. My delicious woman.” He lifted her in his arms and carried her into the bedroom, where he placed her gently on the bed.
Again.
Finally.
“I don’t see why I should get my hopes up,” she said, sinking into the mattress with an exaggerated sigh. “The moment Asher wants to talk to you again, off you’ll go, leaving me high and dry.”
He slid his hand up her thigh and buried it between her legs. “Not so dry,” he growled.
Her mind splintered. What this man could do to her. My God. Those long, unsatisfying weeks without her O were a dim memory. Now she nearly came when he glanced at her.
Or pressed his thumb against… right there… and around…
She closed her eyes and let her knees fall open. His open mouth came down on hers for a deep, silky kiss while his hand stroked her.
“Hold that thought.” He jumped up and left her alone—panting and frustrated—for thirty seconds that felt like thirty years, finally returning with his sensual culinary items. He set two containers on the bedside table and held up a third.
“Chocolate,” he said.
“You really don’t have to—”
“Oh I do. I really do.”
She sprang on him and pulled him down with her onto the bed. Laughing, he struggled to keep the jar upright—and failed. Cho
colate dribbled onto her chest.
“Oh dear,” she said, holding his gaze as she licked her lips and smeared it around her nipple with a fingertip. “What a mess I’ve made. We’d better clean it up right away.”
Never looking away from her, he set the jar of chocolate sauce on the table and climbed on top of her. Capturing her wrists, he pinned them above her head and began licking her with more care and precision than she thought possible.
First her chin and the trail of chocolate that led to her collarbone. Then the swell of the side of her breast. Her sternum. Her nipple, which must’ve been quite affected by the spilled chocolate, because he had to suck and lick those two areas for a long, sweet time. When he’d licked her breasts adequately, leaving her in a puddle of whimpering need, he turned his attention to her belly, caressing her curves with his nose, cheek, beard, tickling her as he kissed and licked lower and lower.
“Please, Edward. I’m ready. Please,” she begged. His fastidiousness was going to drive her insane. The disadvantages of a cat shifter: he was going to lick her to death.
She couldn’t stop herself from bucking her hips away from the bed to get closer to him. He released her wrists to move lower, finally, where she ached for his mouth to get to work.
“This area could use some whipped cream,” he said.
“No, no, not necessary,” she cried.
He didn’t listen. In moments, she was covered with it.
And then the licking resumed. She came, of course, far earlier than she’d intended and without any decorum or self-control whatsoever.
“You look happy,” he said after she’d returned to earth and could open her eyes.
She reached out to him. “I’ve always loved dessert.”
“Then we’ll be sure to eat it every night from now on,” he said, right before moving on to the main course.
:)
If you’ve enjoyed reading Edward and Molly’s story, please check out the other books in The Billionaire Shifters Club Series:
THE BILLIONAIRE SHIFTER’S CURVY MATCH (Lilah and Gavin)
THE BILLIONAIRE SHIFTER’S VIRGIN MATE (Jess and Derry)
And yes, there are more books. Follow Diana Seere on Facebook to learn about 2017 release dates for the next book!
The Billionaire Shifters Club Series
Loved Derry and Jess’s story? Go back and read about Lilah and Gavin and enter a whole new love story…and watch for new books in the series!
THE BILLIONAIRE SHIFTER’S CURVY MATCH
THE BILLIONAIRE SHIFTER’S VIRGIN MATE
THE BILLIONAIRE SHIFTER’S SECOND CHANCE
About the Author
Diana Seere was raised by wolves in the forests outside Boston and San Francisco. The only time she spends in packs these days is at romance writing conventions. In truth, Diana is two New York Times and USA Today bestselling authors who decided to write shifter romance and have more fun. You can find “her” on Facebook at Diana Seere’s Facebook Page: http://www.facebook.com/dianaseere
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