Her inner dragon echoed her cry. At the sound, she saw a wolf rise up, a strong, shadowy image superimposed over him as he flung back his head and gave himself over to his own release. So he was Pack then. She’d known he was some kind of Shifter from his aura.
And then, and then, he pulled her close and held her, rocking her against him as if he found her infinitely precious.
Satisfied, sated, her body nevertheless stirred at his display of tenderness.
Lying there, knowing a satisfaction of a kind she’d never known, she finally slept.
Bright sunlight streaming through the windows woke her. For a second, discomfited, she realized she was still in bed with him, the wonderful, mystery man whose name she didn’t even know.
Slowly, she turned her head, to find him sound asleep next to her.
Her heart felt full enough to burst. She’d never thought she could feel this way, despite being aware that she must, if she wanted to accomplish her life’s purpose.
Determined to fulfill her destiny, she’d been actively searching for the right man for some time now. Until meeting this one, there hadn’t been any to whom she felt attracted. Not one single solitary one.
She’d actually begun to wonder if she was too picky, if her proclivity to know what she wanted was hindering her achievement of the fate that had been thrust upon her. She couldn’t count how many times she’d wanted out, wanted a different life, a different future. But then, all along, she’d known she really didn’t have a choice.
The choice had been made for her long before her own birth.
Destiny. And fate.
Yet such things were more difficult to find than they should have been.
Earlier tonight, she’d been fed up and tired of searching, half convinced her apparently overly selective nature would ensure she’d die alone and childless, a disappointment to her father for bringing shame upon her people.
And then this man had come along. Right now, lying so still in bed next to him, with every nerve ending in her body ablaze, she felt alive. More alive than she had in weeks, months. And hopeful, too. As if her destiny might not be unobtainable after all.
As she studied him, he opened his eyes and looked at her, his bright blue gaze compelling and magnetic.
“Mornin’ Maria,” he said, favoring her with that smile that made every nerve in her body thrum.
Entranced, she smiled back. “Good morning yourself.”
She thought about asking him if he wanted breakfast, but it was too soon to go all domestic. Her stomach growled in response to the thought, making his smile widen.
“Come here,” he told her. “I want to make sure what we shared last night wasn’t a dream.”
All thoughts of food were forgotten as she complied.
Later, after they’d both showered and dressed—she in the same clothes she’d worn the night before—he took her hand and lightly kissed the back of it.
Now, she thought, now would be the time to learn his name.
“Let’s go to breakfast,” he said, holding out his hand. “There’s a great little café within walking distance.”
She nodded, slipping her fingers into his. “What shall I call you?” she teased, since he hadn’t seemed inclined to give her his name.
Surprise flickered across his handsome features. “Ryan,” he told her. “Of course. You can call me Ryan.”
“Okay, Ryan.” She squeezed his hand. “Let’s go have breakfast.”
He locked up as they stepped out onto the porch.
When they reached the bottom of the stairs, a small crowd of people surrounded them. There were cameras and microphones, and despite Ryan’s attempts to shield her, bright lights were shone in her face, at her, blinding her as the people called out questions in rapid-fire sequence, each one trying to be heard over the other.
Paparazzi? “What the...?” Maria whirled, holding back an instinctive snarl. Her dragon tried to surge to the front, to take over, but she’d spent her entire life training and knew how to hold back her inner beast.
“Ryan?” She clutched his hand, hoping he’d have an explanation.
“Who’s the new woman, Ryan?” One man shouted. “Can you give us a name?”
New woman? Maria blinked.
“TMZ here,” yelled another. “Care to make a statement or answer a couple of questions?”
Ignoring them, Ryan shepherded her back up the stairs and into the house. Once inside, he methodically began closing all the blinds, one by one. He didn’t seem fazed or even bothered, almost as if he was used to this sort of thing.
Maria, however, could barely catch her breath. She stood frozen, shocked and stunned, watching him.
When he’d finally finished, he turned to face her. “I’m sorry about that,” he said, flashing that boyish grin. “I’d hoped that wouldn’t happen. Now that the paparazzi know where I’m staying, they’ll be staking out the place.”
Pulse still pounding, she held her hand to her throat, trying her best to contain her agitation. “Paparazzi? Why on earth were they here? What did they want?” She inhaled deeply. “Or maybe the better question would be, who are you, really? If you have paparazzi, then you must be someone famous. What did I miss?”
For the space of a heartbeat, he held her gaze. Once again she felt that tug of attraction. This time, she ignored it.
Finally, he dropped his gaze and dragged his hand through his hair. “You really don’t know who I am, do you?”
“No.” Wrapping her arms around herself, she tried not to despair. For once, just once, she wanted something to work out. “Who are you?” Hoping her expression didn’t reveal her nervousness, she waited for him to answer.
Instead of immediately answering, he got up and went into the kitchen. “Would you like a water or a glass of orange juice? Sorry, I don’t have any coffee. I haven’t had time to stock the house.”
“What I’d like,” she said, staying put between the couch and the door, wondering if the crowd of reporters still milled about outside, “is an explanation.”
“Just a sec.” When he returned, he brought with him two bottles of water. “Here,” he handed one to her. Though the feeling of dread intensified with every second he delayed answering, she accepted and took a small sip.
“Well?” she prompted. “I’m beginning to think I might have made a terrible mistake.”
Beginning to think might have been an understatement. In fact, the longer she sat there, the more every instinct screamed at her to leave. As one of the last remaining female Drakkor, two things had been drilled into her since childhood. The first had been her destiny. The second had been the need for anonymity. Whoever he was, Ryan appeared to embody the opposite.
“A mistake?” The small lines at the corners of his bright blue eyes crinkled when he smiled. Where before she’d found his assured self-confidence attractive, now it worried her.
Every movement casual, he perched on the edge of the couch, looking even more handsome.
“Here.” He handed her a magazine from under a stack of several on the coffee table. “This will do a much better job of explaining than I can.”
Stunned, she stared. “Your face is on the cover,” she said faintly, feeling sick. Now she understood why he’d seemed vaguely familiar. Even though she generally avoided pop culture, she’d have to have been living under a rock not to recognize this face, this man. Especially with the words Ryan Howard—America’s Most Eligible Billionaire Bachelor emblazoned across the front.
“Thank you.” She put the magazine down without reading it and swallowed hard, avoiding his gaze. “I’m sorry. I’ve made an awful blunder. Don’t worry about escorting me back. I can find the way. In fact, I’ll just let myself out.”
And she did just that, feeling both relieved and perversely peeved when he made no move to stop her.
When she reached the bottom of the stairs, more flashbulbs exploded and the paparazzi materialized, shouting questions, asking her name. Instead of answer
ing, she kicked off her high heels and, barefoot in the sand, began to run.
Heart pounding, Maria ran, easily settling into the familiar rhythm. Before long, the paparazzi fell behind, abandoning the chase. Though she missed her running shoes, and the heels she carried kept bumping her leg, she kept on until the reporters were completely out of sight before she slowed to a walk. She’d lucked out; she hadn’t hit anything sharp or dangerous, like shards of glass or the jagged edge of a broken seashell.
Stopping long enough to slip her shoes on, she strode back toward the now closed bar. Instead of going inside, she located her car, a vintage turquoise Corvette, and got inside. The engine fired up with a satisfying throaty roar, and she heaved a big sigh as she headed home.
Disaster averted. While she had to admit that Ryan Howard appealed to her more than any other man she’d ever met, he was also a public figure—and a known playboy. She didn’t have time to waste on a man like him. Not with the clock ticking. In fact, the kind of man she needed to find would be his polar opposite.
Chapter 2
As usual, the throaty purr of the Corvette’s engine soothed her. One finger at a time, Maria loosened her death grip on the steering wheel. That done, she squared her shoulders and inhaled deeply. She wished...
No. If wishes were fishes, this dragon would eat. She’d made an error, plain and simple. Her foolish, rose-colored glasses had made her see something that hadn’t been there. One hot man and she’d nearly melted. There’d be someone else. There had to be. She had a destiny to fulfill. And soon. She couldn’t permit herself to make this type of mistake ever again.
Not only had she allowed herself to believe a notorious playboy might be The One, but she’d risked becoming a public spectacle, and there was a certain person who could not know where to find her. Even though Doug Polacek had been imprisoned, no one knew if he had people working for him on the outside.
For right now, she’d consider herself safe unless she learned differently. She thought of the life she’d built here in Galveston, the business she’d started and loved. She’d worked hard to make her wedding chapel successful, and she knew if she had to leave the area, leaving her business would feel like ripping out a big piece of her heart. Not to mention her need to live near the ocean.
But just as she always did, she’d continue to do what she had to do. This thing with Ryan Howard would blow over quickly so she could go back to her simple and quiet life.
Pulling into her driveway, she sighed. Her tidy frame house on a quiet residential street seemed the opposite of everything she’d just endured. After clicking the opener, she pulled into her garage, killed the engine and closed the door.
One more deep breath. As she removed the keys from the ignition, she realized her hands were shaking. Of course they were. She never, ever gave in to impulse like that. Until last night, she’d had her lists and her reason and had lived her life accordingly. Responsibility had always been her hallmark. How awful to think the one single time she’d veered from this course and acted spontaneously, she’d made such a horrible mistake.
Mentally berating herself, she got out of her car. High heels clicking on the concrete, she headed inside.
She dropped her keys onto a dish on the kitchen counter, headed into the bathroom and eyed herself in the mirror. With her color high, her normally smooth olive skin looked flushed. Her eyes were suspiciously bright, making her appear as if she might be on the verge of tears, even though she wasn’t. Maria never cried if she could help it. Crying was for wimps.
Shaking her head, she washed her face, pulling her wild mop of dark hair back into a semitidy ponytail. From now on, she’d go back to ticking things off her list.
Despite her resolve, her thoughts kept returning to the night before. The lovemaking had been...sublime. And Ryan had been just as gorgeous and sexy as he appeared on TV or in the tabloids. A Shifter too, part of the Pack, which put him a notch above a simple human, at least in her book.
Ah, well. Best to put him from her mind and continue her search. If she wasn’t successful in finding a man to father her child on the island, she might have to broaden her parameters.
Never again would she allow lust to overrule reason. Too much was riding on this for her to make another mistake.
* * *
Up until the moment the sultry temptress bolted, Ryan Howard hadn’t been entirely sure what to think of Maria’s declaration of ignorance. In his experience, ever since his face had been plastered over numerous magazines and television interviews, women had been dreaming up increasingly inventive ways to get into his bed. There were, according to his research, only 513 billionaires in the United States. He figured he was part of a tiny percentage of them who were single. Women, usually attracted by his money, flocked to him. He’d grown so weary of the tall tales they told to get close, he’d begun to use the quality of the story as a criterion to send the woman away.
Maria’s beauty combined with her lack of guile had ignited a slow burning fire inside him. He’d actually allowed himself to think that once, just once, he could enjoy a casual relationship with a woman without artifice or deviousness.
When she’d recoiled at the sight of his face on the cover of Persons Magazine, he’d realized she’d been telling the truth. She really hadn’t known who he was. She’d based her decision to leave the bar with him on something else, and the idea so astounded him that he understood how truly jaded he’d become.
He’d known immediately from her aura her true nature as Shape-shifter, though he hadn’t been able to tell what kind. All he knew was that whatever she might be, she wasn’t Pack. When the flashbulbs had gone off, for a split second she’d fought her inner beast to keep from shifting. Watching her instead of the paparazzi, he’d been curious to see what manner of creature she’d reveal.
At the last minute she’d gotten herself under control, of course. This mechanism was one of the first things all Shape-shifters learned as soon as they were able to change. Living among humans, secrecy had become paramount. The last thing any of them needed was to be caught on television morphing into something else. In fact, to do so was a sentence punishable by a swift and violent death.
Shaking his head, he drained the last of his water and picked up her still-full bottle. Why had she run away? What exactly had scared her the most—who he was or the attention he garnered?
Briefly, he considered going after her, but the knowledge that the reporter-wannabes would have a field day stopped him.
Hopefully, once she’d gotten over the shock and calmed down, everything would be okay. He definitely planned to give her a call. Because, despite the mind-blowing sex they’d shared the night before, he still wanted her. Craved her, in fact. The knowledge that she’d wanted him, too, until the paparazzi had ruined it, made his blood boil with frustrated desire. They could have gone to breakfast and then returned here. Right now, they should have been wrapped in each other’s arms, making love again.
Instead, he found himself alone in his new vacation house, a virtual prisoner of the paparazzi.
Which meant he’d either need to get used to it or find another place, which would be stupid since he’d just paid cash for this one. So he’d adjust, like he always did. Still, being located so quickly was pretty damn disappointing.
When he’d bought this house, he’d been careful. Everything had been done under the name of an LLC he’d formed for real estate investments. Only he or his personal assistant Timothy had dealt with the Realtor and title company. Accordingly, he’d been pretty confident he could live here for a few weeks completely under the radar. He still had no idea how they’d found him.
Walking into that nightclub with the cool name—the Sea Dragon—might have been a mistake. Since he’d been recognized there, someone must have alerted the media. He and Maria had one peaceful night. Those damn flashbulbs and video cameras had been waiting here in the morning. Pacing the length of the living room, he considered how they’d found him. His office onl
y knew he’d gone to vacation at the coast—he hadn’t even told them what city. The only person who knew the details, his personal assistant, was someone Ryan trusted with his life. Timothy had worked for him since the beginning. These days, Ryan made sure Timothy was well compensated for keeping his life running smoothly.
He cursed. That meant there were now two mysteries to be solved. He called Timothy, even though the clock showed it wasn’t yet eight, and filled him in on what had happened. A sleepy sounding Timothy promised to take care of everything that morning once he got to the office. Ryan knew he would.
Satisfied, after ending the call, Ryan focused on deciding what he wanted to do about Maria. Ever since his meteoric rise to fame, there had always been women wanting something from him. Maria Miranda was the first one who’d taken off as soon as she learned who he was. This was unusual enough to give him pause.
Why? Why had she run away? One thing he knew for sure. He would find out. He knew her name and she’d told him she owned a wedding chapel here in Galveston. It wouldn’t be that difficult to find her.
After getting another water and aching for coffee, he clicked on the TV and tried to relax. But he couldn’t stop thinking about her. Puzzles had always intrigued him. Figuring out where the pieces fit had enabled him to develop the software company that had made him rich. The apps and games his talented designers developed had made his business into a billion-dollar enterprise, especially when his company had gone global. Recently he’d turned down offers from both Microsoft and Apple. Even Google had approached him, especially once he’d branched out to Europe and Australia. But he’d refused to even consider selling. He loved his company, had a great staff, and wouldn’t know what to do without it if he sold. Plus, he had enough money. What would he do with even more?
Billionaire Wolf (The Pack 17) (Nocturne) Page 2
