by Jade White
“I had the fortune of dating one of them,” she said with a shrug.
She didn’t really want to talk about it, not right now, not when she knew so little about either of them. She didn’t feel like sharing and she knew they probably weren’t interested in hearing about it. Who wanted to hear about the exes of the ones that they were dating or interested in? If there was one thing Oksana hated more than anything about a new relationship, was telling the other about their past. She hated that part. She hated the looks in their eyes and the whole feeling she got when she let them into the intimate past of her life. That wasn’t necessarily their business, not at this point, not yet. Maybe a little later, she would owe them that much. But, thankfully for her, she was going to have to deal with that a lot later on down the road.
“Seems like that was one of the most common ways of meeting them,” Will said with a smile. “I saw that most of the people on there claimed they had heard about Shifters from other Shifters whom they had dated. But you, you didn’t list how you knew about Shifters, so I was curious. I know we’re not that common out there.”
“No, it was through dating one,” she assured him. “He was nice, and sweet, and wonderful, but we just weren’t meant for each other. In another life, you know?”
“Lucky for us,” Mike said with a devious grin.
She looked at his grin and knew he was definitely the one that she was going to fancy first. There was something cold and direct about him that made her think of an arrow. He hit his marks without remorse or regret. She was going to easily work with him. She didn’t like timid boys or people who were afraid of what they wanted. Sure, Will seemed like the nicer and the kinder of the two, but she hoped he stepped up his game soon, or she was going to be very bored with the whole affair.
“Well,” Will said nervously. “I’m going to head off to work. I’m sure that Mike will show you to your room and he’ll get you settled in. Go ahead and feel free to ask Mike to show you around town. Or, you could stay here if you’re interested in just getting the lay of the land here. I know there’s a whole new world out there for you and I wouldn’t want to overwhelm you. So, whatever really, just do what you’d like. Mike’s here if you need him.”
“Thank you so much,” she said, stepping toward him and wrapping her arms around him.
She didn’t want him to be nervous or to feel uncomfortable about this later on. She wanted him to look back with fond memories at their first meeting and she was going to make sure he was happy. As she hugged, him, she felt his lean body against hers and she was delighted that he didn’t feel boney. He didn’t feel like he was skinny, but rather that he was just a lean man, with muscle that hadn’t really been built up or developed. That was something she could work with. That was something she liked.
He hugged her tightly and she knew he was the kind of guy who knew how to hug people. She liked that he was a hugger and he had definitely had practice with it. So many people are just so uncomfortable when they hug for the first time that it sours and ruins the whole situation. Not with Will though. He was an expert hugger and he knew what he was doing. She smiled and held him close. God, she wanted more of that. She missed this kind of contact.
“Thanks for coming,” Will said, pulling back from her and smiling. “I’m very happy you’re here.”
“I’m so happy to be here,” she said with a beaming smile to match his own. “I’m so grateful for the opportunity to be a part of your life. I’m going to make such a wonderful friend and mate.”
“I’m excited,” Will said, turning and looking at Mike who had crossed his arms and was leaning against the stainless steal fridge, watching the two of them and having a look of mild jealousy in his eyes. “Be good now,” Will warned him. “Don’t scare her off.”
“I’ll try my best,” Mike said with a rather ominous tone that made her feel like she was in the thick of a game that she wasn’t really aware of playing right now.
Two could play it that way. She was going to give Mike everything he wanted and more, but she was definitely going to give it to him on her own terms. She wasn’t going to just roll over and let him have everything he wanted. He was going to have to work for it and that was what she was excited about most right now.
Chapter 2
When Will left, she was standing on the steps of the porch, watching him across the sunny world of San Francisco and smiled as she watched him drive away in his little orange car that looked like it was dangerously close to dying on him. He seemed like a very happy person and she was glad to be a part of his life right now. Standing in her short shorts and heels, waving to him, she noticed there was a man jogging by who hadn’t taken his eyes off of her since she came into view. The man nearly ran into a fire hydrant and she laughed, shaking her head at him before turning and walking up the steps and across the porch.
Inside, Mike was leaning on the island, checking his phone, as she closed the door and looked at him. It was cool in the house and she could feel her nipples starting to get harder, get more excited about the silent static that was in the air. She was definitely going to give them everything they wanted, but it was the two of them that had built the competition.
“So what’s the plan?” she asked Mike who looked up from his phone and ran his hand through his great hair.
She smiled at the look on his face, like he couldn’t care less and that she was nothing in particular. She knew this was an act he’d built specifically for girls like her and she wasn’t going to fall for it. She wasn’t going to try harder or get desperate for him. No, she knew she was stunning and that he was going to want her more than anything else he’d ever wanted in the world, it was just a matter of time before he showed his true colors and dropped this ridiculous façade. As she walked toward him, she could feel his eyes burning against her.
“Not sure,” he said with a shrug. “What do you feel like doing?”
“No, I’m talking about the plan between the two of you,” she said with a grin and chuckling. “There’s two of you and one of me. You don’t seem like you’re the sharing type, so what’s the plan here?”
“Honestly?” Mike grinned like this was all part of a joke that she had no idea she was in the middle of. No, she wasn’t going to let him play with her like that. She knew what she was getting into and she wasn’t a fool. “I’m surprised you even showed up. I thought you were going to show up and be someone’s old grandmother who was catfishing Will.”
“But you still helped to pay for me to come over,” she said, standing just a foot away from him, her hands on her perfect hips.
She looked him dead in the eye and made sure he knew she had dealt with boys like him a million times in her life. If there was anyone here who was a mystery to her, and going to be difficult, it was going to be Will. She knew exactly what to do with Mike.
“Yeah,” Mike said with a shrug. “I figured that if you were real, you’d be worth having around.”
“Worth having around?” She arched an eyebrow and looked at him, accusing him of the crime of that comment without saying a thing.
Already, she could see Mike wasn’t nearly the player that he wanted her to think. That was better for her. She would probably have hated him if he were the player he pretended to be. If he was someone else under this hard exterior, then she was going to be much happier. All she had to do was break the shell and see who Mike really was. As she looked at him, she could feel the tension growing and Mike getting more and more nervous about how close she was standing to him.
“So if I did show up and I was some ugly woman, what was your plan then?”
“Make Will take you,” Mike said with a shrug. “He would pay me back and that meant you would spend the rest of your days with him and I wouldn’t have to listen to him whine about being so alone.”
“You’re pretty cruel to your friend,” she said with a disapproving look on her face. “He seems to care about you a lot.”
“Yeah,” Mike said with another shrug.
“He’s a good guy, but we’re both aware of the stakes now that you’ve arrived. We both know what it is we’re playing for.”
“And what’s that?” Oksana asked him.
“Whoever wins you over, gets to keep you,” Mike said with a certain amount of assurance that made Oksana feel like he was going to be a little disappointed at how hard this was going to be.
There was no way she was going to make this as easy as he thought it was going to be. No, she was certain that it was going to be much more difficult than Mike thought it would be. She was going to make him work for every inch he thought he was going to take from her. She smiled at him and shook her head.
“Do you think you’re going to win?” she asked him.
“Of course I do,” he answered, shaking his head. “Did you see Will? He’s the kind of person that girls like to practice on. Every woman he’s ever dated has used him as practice for whatever guy they’re actually interested in. In fact, I’m pretty sure he’s nothing more than a springboard for any woman he’s ever dated.”
“I don’t understand,” Oksana shook her head. “He’s very nice—very sweet even. Why would anyone try to take advantage of him?”
“Because he’s nice and he’s sweet,” Mike laughed at the expression on her face. “Haven’t you ever been interested in a guy after you’ve just gone through a break up or something like that? Haven’t you wanted just a little confidence after losing out on the relationship that you had? So, in order to get a little more confidence, you go out with a nice guy who compliments you and works for you and makes you feel like you’re worth all of that attention. That’s Will. He’s the springboard to give women the courage to go after what they’re really interested in. I usually tend to be the guy that they’re actually interested in.”
“So, you’re confident you’re going to win this little competition?” she said with a smile.
“Oh yes,” he answered.
“Well, we’ll have to see what you bring to the table,” she said with a teasing grin.
Truthfully, if she didn’t feel like things were going to work out with Mike, she knew now she could always turn back to Will and Will would be a perfectly acceptable replacement for him. That was the danger that Mike was in right now. He’d already set up his own defeat if he didn’t play his cards right. She wouldn’t even feel bad about it if she ended up falling for Will.
“I’ve got it all planned out,” he assured her.
Looking at him, she wasn’t sure he did. He looked like the kind of guy who let his confidence in his old plans play out and do the work for him. As far as she had seen of men like Mike, they had a repertoire of skills, places, and date ideas that they just recycled. They might be extremely good, but they’d worked extremely well on other people before her. That was something she had learned to spot early on. She could see it all over Mike. She had seen that Mike was the kind of guy who saw women as a system to figure out. She’d dealt with men like him before. They were fun, but they weren’t substantial. She was really looking forward to seeing what it was that he had up his sleeve though. It was usually a good time.
“You’re very sexy,” Mike said rather straight forward and she grinned.
“Yeah?” she asked with a smile. “You aren’t disappointed?”
“How could anyone be disappointed with you?” Mike asked, laughing. “I’m just glad you’re the real deal. I was totally expecting you to be something else.”
“An old hag?” Oksana giggled, walking around him to her bag.
“Pretty much,” he said with a shrug.
“Do you mind showing me to my room?”
She was tired and definitely ready to see what it was going to be like living here with him. She didn’t want him to get too cocky downstairs. She didn’t want things to go there just yet. She smiled at him as he pushed himself off of the island and gestured for her to follow him. Walking down the hallway, he pointed at the laundry room and the office that was downstairs with the living room, dining room, and the kitchen. She looked at them and saw that they were nicely decorated as well. It had the fingerprints of Will all over it. It was something she was beginning to recognize all around this place. There was nothing about this home that didn’t scream of Will’s involvement. She wondered what exactly it was that Mike brought to the table.
Up the stairs to the second level was where all the bedrooms were and Oksana was pleased to see that Will’s room was the first that they passed. The door was open and she could see the modern, beautiful design and cleanliness of the room. She was very pleased to see he wasn’t the kind of person who just built his home to look nice and then used his own space like a pig. No, he was the real deal. He wanted everything to look nice and he did his work to make sure that his own room was clean and decorated. They passed the bathroom that looked like it had hardly been used and that made her smile. That must have been Will’s doing as well. When they walked past a closed door, she knew it was Mike’s room. There was something about the mystery of what was lurking beyond his door that made her feel excited.
When they passed another bathroom that Mike told her would be hers, she looked at it and smiled at the opportunity and the potential that it had. There was very little that was done to make it look claimed and it was eager and awaiting everything that she needed. She would get a job and decorate it herself. She didn’t doubt for a second she was going to pull her own weight here.
“This is your room,” Mike said, gripping the handle to her room’s door and twisting it, opening it up for her and showing her this was the room that they had so gladly saved for her.
When the door opened, she looked inside at the décor of the room, watching the light stream in from the windows, golden and radiant. As she looked at the room, she saw everything was fresh and new, begging for her to make her own additions to things. As far as she knew, there was nothing about this room that gave an idea as to a personality or a preference in anything. It was the kind of home that people would be eager to make their own, eager to put new things in and make fresh. She was eager for all of this.
The bed looked comfortable and inviting, begging for her to come and lie down on it. She looked at the wardrobe, the closet, her vanity, and a small table. It was a lovely place and it was all so inviting with its whites and gray colors, all of them begging for her to choose a color to pop among all of it. She knew she was going to choose turquoise. She’d always been in love with the icy luminance of turquoise. She turned around and looked at Mike who was standing in the doorway, staring at her and watching as she reacted to everything she was looking at. He didn’t seem too impressed or too interested in how she liked her room. As she dropped her bag and sat down on the bed, she looked at him and smiled.
“Is your bed as comfortable?” he asked him with a crooked smile on her lips.
“No,” he answered with a returned smile, but a missed opportunity.
She was pleased he wasn’t as witty as he thought he was. He could have invited her to find out or a dozen other one-liners but he’d missed his chance at.
“Yours is new,” he said after a moment. “Will went crazy getting ready for you to come. He wanted everything to be perfect for you. So, we made sure to get you a new bed.”
“That was very sweet of him,” she said with a smile.
“Yeah, he’s a good guy,” he said with a voice that didn’t really seem that impressed by him.
She liked that. She liked the idea he was getting uncomfortable and nervous about his chances with her. He hadn’t really done anything to prepare for her or to show what kind of person he was. She was starting to see him cracking. Maybe he was going to give up and this stupid competition would be over. If not, then she was going to have to play the game. She was going to have to see what came of all of it.
“Are you a good guy, Mike?” she asked him with a grin.
“I can be anything you want,” Mike assured her.
“You know what to say for everything,” she smiled and lean
ed back, bracing herself on her bed and staring at him. “I like that about you,” she said with a smile. “I think I’m going to really like you,” she said, building his confidence.
She looked at him and watched as he stared at her, a grin starting to spread across his lips as he watched her. It was a good sight. If he stopped trying so hard, she could really see that there was something available for them here. She wanted him to just let his guard down and to be a normal person for once.
“When was the last time you were around someone like me?” he asked her and she wasn’t really sure what that meant.
She looked at him and wondered the same thing. When was the last time she was around someone who was so cocky and self-assure of themselves? She looked at him and saw a man who thought very highly of himself or at least wanted her to think highly of him.
“What do you mean?” she asked, pressing against him.
“I can transform into a dragon,” he said to her confidently. “When was the last time you met someone who could do anything along those lines?”
She stood up from the bed and looked at him. She wasn’t interested in rehashing the events of her past and she wasn’t interested in talking to him about Rowan. All she wanted to do was to make him want her and make him interested in her. All she cared about was him liking her or having Will like her. As she approached him, she could feel the gravity of his body. He was a powerful man, hiding among those who were his lesser. There was no doubt in her mind that at another time in the history of the world, he would have been a god. How hard must that have been to understand and to come to terms with? She could only imagine how hard it was for him.
It was incredibly alluring to her. She looked into his dark brown eyes and his dark brown hair, wondering what it was that made him confine it all in, lock it all in and not let it out. That took some strength she didn’t have. She would have broken ages ago. She looked at his strong shoulders and his defined chest, the result of purpose driven hours at the gym, no doubt. She took a step toward him and smiled, feeling his eyes all over her. He wanted respect. He wanted her to know he was strong and wanted her to know that he was a god in hiding.
