ROMANCE WARFARE: A Tigress’ Guide to NOT Secure a Mate
LIZZIE LYNN LEE
Summary:
Curvaceous secretary Eva Carey starts a new job only to find Adam Frost, the last cocky, self-centered weretiger she ever wants to see, is her new boss. Eve’s grandfather had promised Adam’s granddad that she’d marry his grandson when they came of age. Eva rejected the matchmaking. She grew up with Adam and he was quite a jerk as a kid. No way in hell she’ll become his mate.
Adam Frost is annoyed when he finds himself reunited with Eva. He was hurt when Eva refused to honor their grandfathers’ wishes. Eva was his first crush. His first love. And still is. Now, having her as his underling only opens old wounds. He swears he’s totally over her, and yet, the moment he sees her again, he wants her very, very badly. Damn!
Eva wants nothing to do with Adam outside the office, even when Adam turns out to be a hot, gorgeous, hunkalicious guy. Adam makes it his priority to avoid the sassy weretigress whenever necessary. And yet, fate keeps throwing them together, often in intimate, risqué situations. People say two negatives don’t make a positive. Eva and Adam find the math wrong this time. When they’re together, it feels so right, furs fly. But neither Eva nor Adam are willing to admit it.
When you play the game of love, you win or remain single forever…
First Edition 2016
©Copyright Lizzie Lynn Lee December 2016
Cover Art by (Lizzie Lynn Lee) ©Copyright (December/2016)
Edited by Amy Black
Proofread by Cassie Hess Dean
Galley Proofread by Lisa Bing
This book contains material protected under International and Federal Copyright Laws and Treaties. Any unauthorized reprint or use of this material is prohibited. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without express written permission from the author.
This is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents and dialogues in this book are of the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is completely coincidental.
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Summary
One
Two
Three
Four
Five
Six
Seven
About the Author
Join My Mailing List
Lizzie’s Bibliography
Special Preview from Tiger Speed Dating
Chapter One
It’s hard to enforce a no contact rule when she’s working for you. Totally ignoring her makes you look like a jackass.
“Who?”
“Eva….Eva Carey.”
“You are fucking kidding me.” Adam Frost slammed his hands onto his mahogany desk and kicked his chair back.
“There’s no way that’s happening. Eva Carey is not working for me.”
Adam stalked back and forth across his office, his legs lithe and muscular as he paced the length of the room. He stopped in front of the floor-to-ceiling window and peered down at the busy streets below, the cars and people all miniature versions of themselves from this height.
“Does she know?”
There was no answer from behind him. The mid-morning sun slanted across his chiseled features, picking out hints of copper in his deep chocolate hair. He spun and speared the man in the chair with his gaze. “Does. She. Know?” he ground out.
Dean Woolsey, VP of Frost Industries and, coincidentally, Adam’s cousin, was sprawled across a leather club chair parked in front of Adam’s massive desk. He chuckled at Adam’s discomfort, clearly he enjoyed torturing Adam. “Does she know you’re CEO of Frost Industries? Yep, pretty sure she does. Does she know she’s your new executive administrative assistant? I…I’m not sure.” He cleared his throat and developed a keen interest in the abstract painting dominating the wall to his left.
Adam stopped his pacing and dropped back into his chair, closing his eyes, and massaging his temples with his thumbs. He could feel disaster in the making. Big time. One that he couldn’t easily wish away. Anything related with Eva Carey always drained his energy and his sanity. Winter is coming, he thought sarcastically. “This was all you, wasn’t it?” he asked Dean.
Dean shrugged and gave him a half-cocked smile. “Listen, she needed a job. When the Carey clan alpha came calling, what was I supposed to tell him? ‘No way in hell am I hiring your gorgeous little heir?’”
Adam huffed his exasperation and for a split second, his sky-blue eyes flashed topaz at Dean. “This is a huge company, Dean. There must be another department where you could have put her. Mail room, perhaps?”
“Come on, mail room? You want to insult the Carey’s alpha? She’s more than qualified and she needed a position that pays well.”
“Fine, accounting, whatever. Just somewhere else. Away from me. Somewhere I don’t have to see her every day.”
“Oh-ho, don’t tell me you still have feelings for her?” Dean hooted with laughter. “This is going to be even better than I thought!”
Adam narrowed his eyes. Irritated. “You did do this on purpose.”
“Of course, I did, Adam. You need a little shake-up in your life. And I don’t think anyone can shake you up as much as your ex-fiancé, the lovely Miss Eva Lillian Carey, whom we all dearly miss.”
God damn it, Dean.
“Well, where is she?”
“Down in HR, filling in the last of her paperwork. I told them to send her up as soon as she’s finished.”
Adam jumped out of his chair and started pacing the room again. Dean watched him back and forth, a smile playing at his lips. Adam stopped in front of the window again, smoothing his hands over his thick, chestnut locks and fidgeting with his tie. Dean snorted, trying to hold in his laughter.
“You’re walking on thin ice, cousin.” Adam growled.
“How many years has it been?”
“I don’t know.”
“Five or six…”
“Eight.”
Dean howled with laughter again. “This just gets better and better.”
“I don’t know what you think is going to happen. Or just what is so damned funny. That was a long time ago. Yes, I loved her. Then. But now, this is going to be strictly professional. She needs a job. Fine. She can work for me. But that’s it. She has her office, I have mine. Keep the correspondence electronic. No reason for any contact beyond the job.” Adam sank into his chair and started rummaging through a stack of paperwork, trying to distract himself from thoughts of Eva Carey. The girl, now a woman, who haunted his dreams and waking moments long after she walked away from him. “Yeah, I think I’ll do just that.”
Dean snorted derisively. “It’s hard to enforce a no contact rule when she’s working for you. Totally ignoring her makes you look like a jackass.”
Before Adam could retort back there was a soft knock on the office door. Dean cocked his eyebrow at Adam. “You wanna get that?” Adam’s eyes flicked back and forth from Dean to the door. The knock sounded again, louder this time.
Adam cleared his throat. “Come in,” he said loudly.
The door swung open and his past stepped over the threshold.
***
Eva Carey was standing in the doorway, the office lights behind her silhouetting her curvaceous body. She was staring down at a sheaf of paperwork and
stepped forward, still studying the papers.
“Hi, I’m Eva. HR told me come on up to this office when I finished.”
Adam watched as she strode forward, luscious hips outlined in her black pencil skirt, sky-high stiletto’s making little dents in the plush office carpeting. Adam was entranced by every sway her body made. She threw out her hand when she reached the chair Dean was sitting in. “It’s nice to meet….” she looked up, her voice trailing off faintly.
Her mouth dropped, forming a little O of shock as she shifted her gaze back and forth between Adam and Dean.
“You.” She finally croaked out.
“How’s it going, Evie?” Dean grinned at her. “You’re looking lovely these days…very, very lovely.” He winked at her.
Adam shot him a look that said knock it off.
Eva ignored Dean. She stopped in the middle of offering her hand and was staring across the desk at Adam.
He saw the confusion and the anger move across her face.
“Eva. Hi.”
“Hi? Is that seriously what you’re saying to me after all these years? Hi?”
She crushed the papers she was holding in her hand into a crinkled bundle. She lobbed them across the desk at Adam. “Is this a joke? Because it’s a really bad one.”
Adam wasn’t sure whether to be amused or pissed. She was still a fiery little tigress. She’d swept her cinnamon-colored curls up into a prissy bun, but tendrils of hair escaped and were brushing over the nape of her neck, right where it was burning red with her anger. Adam wondered briefly what it would be like to nibble over the soft skin. He wondered if she still smelled like peaches. His gaze drifted over her, her buttoned-up silk blouse couldn’t hide her firm, upturned tits any more than that knee-length skirt could hide the generous curve of her ass, pushed out even further by the heels she was wearing to make herself taller. A picture of her in nothing but the heels flashed across his mind, his thoughts interrupted by Dean’s not-so-subtle cough.
“I’m afraid it’s not a joke. Your clan called, we answered. We’ve always been allied, no reason to start breaking alliances now. If you need this job, we can help with that.” Adam pushed back and crossed his arms over his chest, almost daring her to turn him down.
“I can’t work for you.”
“Why not?”
“You’re an asshole.”
Dean dissolved into choking laughter and almost slipped out of his chair.
“Dean, would you get the hell out of here?” Adam barked.
Dean grinned again and settled back into his chair. “And miss all of this? I don’t think so.”
Eva had her arms crossed and was staring at both of them with fury in her eyes. Adam thought it was sexy as hell, but he had no intention of telling Eva that. He’d forgotten she always looked prettier when she got mad. He had no idea if this would work or not. He’d forgotten how beautiful she was and how intensely he was attracted to her. Eight years had stunted his memory, but it was all flooding back now. She’d broken his heart when she left with no warning, but he still loved her. He wasn’t sure he could work with her—not because he didn’t want her around, but because he wanted her around too much.
“Eva…” he started.
“So,” she said, voice icy, “are you still a cheating asshat?”
“I…what?”
Eva studied her surroundings, cynical smile on her lips. “I bet the panties start dropping when you say ‘CEO, Frost Industries.’ Worked your way through the entire office yet?”
A muscle twitched in Adam’s cheek and he clenched his jaw tightly. “Yeah, that’s why I needed a new secretary; I keep running through them.”
“I hate to disappoint you, Mr. Frost, but I won’t be sleeping with you.”
Dean chortled to himself and earned another icy stare from Adam.
“I haven’t asked you to.”
“Yet.”
“What makes you think I want you, Ms. Carey?”
“I can smell it.” Eva inhaled deeply, nostrils flaring as she caught the testosterone-laden scents of both virile males in the room.
“I assure you, I can control myself.” Adam wasn’t sure, but he deigned not to admit it.
“First time for everything, I suppose.”
Adam turned to Dean. “This isn’t going to work. Get her out of here.”
“Whoa, whoa.” Eva stepped back and raised her hands in defeat. “Wait. I…I really need the job. I need the money. Bella’s tuition isn’t cheap.”
Adam studied her. Watching her chew on the inside of her lip was making him want to chew on it, too. He wasn’t sure this was the best idea, but he didn’t want to turn her away.
“Fine.” He exhaled loudly. “I think we can make this work. We’re all adults, all professionals, and we’ll all act like it. Do your job and stay out of my way.”
Eva was still staring at him, an unreadable expression in her eyes. “Right. I’ll stay out of your way.”
“Actually,” Adam added, “let’s keep the fact the we know each other between us.” He gestured between the three of them. “I think it would make your transition into the company smoother if everyone else didn’t know that we’re old, uh, friends.”
Eva raised her eyebrows at Adam’s words. “Sure. Old friends. Got it.”
Dean jumped up and put his hand on Eva’s shoulder, steering her towards the door. “And I’ll help her get settled into the outer office, cousin.”
“And then get your ass back in here,” Adam ordered.
Dean gave him a mocking salute and grinned before following Eva through the office door.
Adam settled back into his chair and twisted around, not seeing the skyline spread out before him. He never thought he’d see Eva again and he wasn’t sure how to feel about the fact that she just showed up in his office, in his life, again. They’d been engaged, a marriage arranged by their grandfathers when they were still cubs, but he’d fallen in love with her over the years. She’d been beautiful, smart, and sassy even as a teenaged girl. She was even more so now. She’d broken his heart though, when she stopped talking to him after her junior year homecoming dance and then disappeared a few months later. All he’d been told was that the engagement was over. Nothing had ever crushed him more.
He never thought seeing her again would bring all those feelings rushing back. He’d thought he was over her. He’d certainly tried to crush out the image of her face over the years the only way he knew. With other women. But over the past couple of years he’d mostly sworn off women all together. He didn’t want a woman who only wanted him because of his family name and connections or because of his money, he wanted a woman who wanted him.
Just him.
Adam ran his fingers through his hair and sighed, exasperated at the thoughts tumbling around in his mind.
He finally figured out two things. First, he’d have Dean’s head for a midnight snack for pulling this frivolous little stunt. And second, Miss Eva Carey was still heartbreakingly sexy and still a massive pain in his ass.
***
Eva was still in shock from her unexpected encounter with Adam.
After Dean showed her to her new office, she dropped into her desk chair and stared at the computer without really seeing it. How did that happen?
Adam was her boss.
Her ex-fiancé Adam was her boss.
Her cheating, heartbreaking, ex-fiancé Adam was her boss.
I should leave, there’s no way for this to turn out okay, she thought impulsively. She grabbed her bag and pushed back her chair before she realized there was no way she could turn down the job. The pay was too good. The benefits were too good. Now that her little sister, Bella, was going to attend NYU this fall and was living with Eva, she felt the added pressure of responsibility. Another mouth to feed and an apartment in New York City were no small things. The weretigresses of the Carey clan took care of their own. Their parents were retirees and had done a lot over the years for her. Eva felt that Bella was her responsibi
lity now.
Eva sighed and dropped her bag back into a desk drawer. There was no way for her to get out of it. She had to stay and make the best out of it. She’d never find another job that would pay as well as being Adam Frost’s executive assistant. For the time being, she was stuck.
She turned on the computer and started to familiarize herself with the company system and set up her email account when she noticed two women standing just outside the glass doors that led into her office. They were giggling like schoolgirls and talking behind their hands. Eva huffed, annoyed at what she knew was coming. Still, she felt like she needed to make friends in the office so she lifted a hand and wiggled her fingers at them. That was all the invitation they need. They pushed open and tripped into the office.
“Hi!” a bleached-blonde chirped. “I’m Irena.”
“Hello. Eva.” She gestured to herself.
“I’m Andrea. Nice to meet you, too,” said the brunette with steely blue eyes as she offered her hand to Eva.
“Eva,” she said again, and gave Andrea a polite handshake.
Irena perched on the edge of Eva’s desk, grinning at her like an overly perky cheerleader. “Soooooo, you’re the new girl, huh?”
Eva eyed her new co-worker carefully. “I guess I am.”
“You meet the boss yet?” Andrea joined Irena on the edge of the desk. They were both staring at her, anticipating her response. Eva fought the urge to roll her eyes. No need to alienate her officemates just yet.
“Yes. I’ve met him,” she said, keeping her voice as neutral as possible.
Eva did roll her eyes when she saw Irena nudge Andrea’s foot with hers. “Is there something I can help you with?”
“Yeah, how about your boss’s social calendar? I’d love to know where I can ‘run into’ him,” Andrea snickered.
“I don’t think I can do that. And I should get to work. Don’t want to make a bad first impression.”
“Oh, come on! We just want to know what you think of Daddy McHotpants.”
“Excuse me?”
Irena giggled. “Just one of our many names for Mr. Sex-on-a-Stick. Along with Stud Muffin, Honey Lips, and Tiger.”
Eva raised her eyebrow at the last nickname.
Romance Warfare: a Tigress' Guide to NOT Secure a Mate: BBW Tiger Shape Shifter Paranormal Romance Page 1
