To Love a Shifter: A Paranormal Romance Boxed Set

by Marian Tee

  “I know, milady, and that is what I find most amusing.” He started to say more, started to feel that he could actually like this girl when a voice in his mind intruded, sharp and commanding.

  Ilie, why is she still not here?

  Ilie’s smile faded.

  For a fucking moment there, he had almost forgotten that this human girl could never be his.

  Chapter Five

  This photo features a secret passageway in one of the historic houses in Asphodel. It’s said that 8 out of 10 homes here have more secret doors than actual doors.

  #wtf #ibetdanbrownwouldlovethis

  Werewolves were so moody.

  One minute he was smirking, and then the next thing she knew his face had turned cold, and his voice was even colder when he said, “Milady.”

  Right now, he wasn’t looking at her in the manner where George had to worry about being his next meal. No, this time---

  George swallowed.

  This time, the werewolf almost looked like he wanted to kill her.

  What the fuck had she done?

  The werewolf ran his hand along the wall, stopped at some indiscriminate area, and tapped. The wall swung open, revealing a secret passageway that led into the dark. “Come, milady. There is someone I would like you to talk to.”

  Are you fucking insane? She didn’t want to say the words out loud, but George was pretty sure that was how she was looking at him even if she tried not to.

  He was a werewolf. He wanted her to be alone with him in a dark passageway. She might not have a fucking red riding hood, but she knew how this story would end.

  “I’m sorry, but no.” It was getting harder and harder to stay polite.

  Ilie raised a brow. “I beg your pardon?”

  “No.”

  They exchanged stares. He waited for her to back down. She didn’t.

  Jaw clenching, Ilie growled for the duke. We have a bit of a problem here, Your Grace.

  Again, Ilie?

  Ilie bristled at the duke’s exasperated tone.

  I specifically chose you to talk to her as you are supposed to be great with women.

  He shot back, I am in doubt she qualifies as a woman. A human, yes, but a woman? He expected Silviu to laugh his words off or even lose his temper, but instead the duke became thoughtfully quiet.

  I see.

  Ilie wondered how much the duke did see. Silviu had always been the most intuitive among them, being the son of an angel. You must come here. Her stubbornness has become tedious.

  He had barely finished speaking in his mind when he sensed Silviu’s presence, confirmed by the squeak of surprise from the human girl.

  “Oh.” It was softly spoken, with just a hint of breathlessness. It was definitely not the way she had spoken to him.

  Breathe, George – or at least pretend you’re breathing. It was a simple thing to do, but somehow she just couldn’t get her lungs to work. Like with the werewolf, her senses were still on riot – but this time, it was not out of fear. Right now, she was an absolute mess and it was all because he suddenly appeared at the doorway.

  Like the werewolf, his hair was also tied neatly behind his back and he was dressed in the usual Chalysian attire, with a midnight blue coat over his shirt and tight-fitting breeches.

  Everything about it screamed sexy, with the way his clothes molded to his hard warrior’s body. He was so…fit. He probably only had to move an inch and his muscles would start rippling and flexing and maybe cause her to drool, too.

  The way they gazed at each other was sickening. Or at least that was what Ilie told himself. He said brusquely, “I will be in the parlor.” True to their pretense, Ilie refrained from bowing to the duke, simply walking past Silviu as he walked into the passageway, the wall swinging shut behind him.

  Was he really here? Was he truly real? Was this indeed happening?

  George lifted her hand, but he was suddenly in front her, just a kiss away, his fingers wrapping around her wrist.

  Silviu didn’t know if he wanted to frown or sigh at her propensity for self-inflicted harm. “No more, milady,” he said finally. “You must stop hurting yourself. You are not hallucinating, you are not dreaming, you are not on drugs. This is real.”

  And then he took in her appearance, every bare inch of it. His expression hardened. Ilie, you motherfucking shit – why didn’t you fucking tell me she was dressed like this?

  Ilie’s tone was mocking as he replied, You did not ask, Your Grace.

  George was startled when she saw the blaze of fury in her captor’s eyes. What the hell – what was it with today? Was it Anger-Everyone-Just-By-Being-Yourself Day and no one had told her about it?

  “What?” she asked defensively before she could stop herself.

  Realizing that she assumed he was furious at her, Silviu made an effort to rein in his possessiveness and jealousy – two emotions that had been unknown to him until he met the woman standing so delectably before him.

  “I am sorry, milady. I am not furious with you.”

  Yeah right. The words were written all over her face.

  Silviu almost smiled. “I really am not, milady. It is only that I was unaware you would be…dressed…like this. If I had known---” He grimaced. “Never would I have let another man see you in such a state.”

  He looked down at her body again, desire flaring into life even as possessive jealousy burned within him. He welcomed all of it, every fiery sensation – they were the only ones that could literally drown the pain that continued to wrack his body.

  Unable to help it, Silviu let his fingers drift on her bare neck before slowly letting them move downwards in a tender caress. She shuddered but did not resist his touch, actually swaying towards him.

  Resist him, George! Resist him! Her chaste side cried out the words.

  No! Let’s enjoy our first orgasm! We won’t ever have this chance again before you have to marry a rich old nobleman!

  The two sides continued to war with each other inside her, giving George a mighty headache. His fingers were moving lower and lower, making her body ache as well, but in a different way.

  How the fuck am I going to survive this? George wanted to move away, but her limbs had become his to command.

  He was holding the thin cover now, his fingers dipping underneath them.

  “No.” She choked the word out.

  “Yes.” He growled.

  And without another warning, Silviu unknotted the cover, the thin sheet immediately giving way and dropping to the ground.

  George froze. And then she recovered, the cold air caressing her naked body allowing her to snap out of the hazy cage of desire he had created within her. She tried to scramble away.

  “No, I don’t---oh my God, don’t touch…no…don’t kiss…no…noooo----” What started out as a shriek of protest ended in a long moan as the blasted gorgeous and damnably sneaky bastard was able to twist her back into his arms, his lips moving over her cheeks, her neck, and finally, trailing down her chest until he reached one nipple.

  He sucked. She moaned.

  He sucked harder and she moaned louder, her body arching. One arm went around her waist to support George and she leaned against it gratefully, her dazed eyes looking down at the head on her breast, the sucking noises dominating the room only serving to intensify the lust heating her skin.

  George’s hands crept to his broad shoulders, gripping them, savoring its hardness. He bit her nipple and she gasped, her fingers dipping into his skin.

  “Please.”

  “Please what, milady?”

  George tried to make her vocal chords work but they just couldn’t produce the right words to say. As he switched to her other nipple, suckling it passionately, George could only whimper.

  Her hands moved up on its own accord, tentatively touching his long hair. When he bit her other nipple, longer and harder this time, George gasped again, her fingers instinctively gripping his hair.

  “Yes,” Silviu rasped, his coc
k nearly bursting out of his breeches at the way his heartkeeper tightened her hold on his hair. Without another word, he swept her in his arms and with his powers they were standing beside her bed in the next blink.

  “Wha-how---“George sputtered again as she found herself bouncing back on the bed. He followed her right after, easily locking her wriggling naked body underneath him as she again attempted to escape.

  She hissed her anger at him like a hellcat, and when it was clear she couldn’t break free, his heartkeeper took another deep breath ---

  And then she started trying to bite him.

  “Stop struggling!”

  George struggled harder, lifting her head so she could try to bite – and bite hard – any part of his body she could reach. Her legs also twisted underneath him, trying to find that one good angle to knee him. This man was just too hard, too strong, too beautiful, too fucking mesmerizing for her own good; she had to get away before he completely destroyed her defenses.

  Silviu reared back from his lady’s bites – which were clearly not meant to provide pleasure – but did not let go, amused, exasperated but even more impressed at his heartkeeper’s tenacity. A duchess after his own heart indeed.

  “I am not here to harm you, milady.”

  “The fuck you say!”

  He winced. “We really need to do something about your language.”

  “The fuck you say.”

  Silviu sighed, but his tone was serious when he said, “I am not lying, milady. If you swear one more time, I’ll take you here and now.” He could always seduce her another day. He had asked Maricha explicitly about this and in spite of her embarrassed blushes and mumbles, Mihail’s sister had been able to tell him that his heartkeeper did not have to be a virgin at the time of consummation. It only had to be at her instigation.

  Well, that was good – and this could serve as the most delicious test run.

  He looked down at her.

  She glared up at him. “The fuck you---”

  Silviu bent down to catch her lips.

  George managed to wrench her head away.

  The way she just did not stop fighting him only heightened his desire, making Silviu imagine how harder she would fight for him – maybe even for his kingdom – if he ever managed to earn her trust.

  “Fucking bastard---”

  Silviu clasped her head with both hands and this time, there was no escape from his lips, his tongue pushing in.

  Sensations that were beginning to feel terrifyingly familiar hit her all at once. Mind-numbing, heart-thumping, toe-curling – it was exactly how she had felt last night every time this man – this creature – took her lips for a kiss.

  With his hands holding her head imprisoned, her lips captive under his, George managed to sneak her fists between them. She tried to beat his chest with her fists, but she was fast losing her strength – no, if George had to be ruthlessly honest, she was fast losing the willpower to fight him off.

  It was the drugs, she thought dizzily. The drugs, just the drugs making her respond to him this way.

  He was sucking on her neck now, so forcefully that she could almost imagine he was biting into her and marking her. Again, her body arched, curving against him on its own volition, her arms going around his neck.

  “Bastard.”

  He growled, moved down, and squeezed her breast tightly, almost to the point of pain.

  Even as George strained against his hand, her attention focused on the way his hand was once again completely able to cup her entire breast, she couldn’t stop herself, some little devil inside her prompting George to provoke him even more.

  “Fucking rapist!”

  Silviu took her nipple, sucking hard before biting and biting and biting, knowing that each time his sharp teeth closed around it he was bringing her closer and closer to the edge of ecstasy.

  When he bit her nipple again, this time he also pinched her other nipple, hard. The combined sensations rocked her world, prompting George to scream, needing a way to release the dam of pleasure that was near to exploding inside her.

  And then he was snaking his way down her body. By the time she realized where he was heading, it was too late. “No!” She tried to push his head away, but he only laughed at her, a dark taunting laugh that felt like an exquisitely tormenting caress on her body, making George tingle all over.

  He pushed her thighs open, so widely they almost formed a horizontal line.

  George pulled his hair hard, trying to dislodge him.

  But it was no use, his head only continuing to descend, and then---

  “AAH!”

  She nearly came off the bed as he started licking her folds, wetness pooling in that region in seconds. But he didn’t stop, licking her faster and faster until George fell against the bed, her fingers tightening on his hair only to push his head closer to that intimate part of her body.

  It was so good, so fucking good that she just didn’t…oh…ah…his tongue, the way he kept licking, ah…she just didn’t want him to stop.

  “Please,” George moaned, her head moving restlessly left and right against the pillow.

  He parted her folds.

  “Oh God, oh shit, aaaah!”

  He had thrust his tongue in, and now he was fucking her with his tongue, fucking her so sweetly, so roughly, she just…shattered, her legs stiffening as she reached her first orgasm, and the strength of it nearly took her under.

  Digging his hands underneath her buttocks, Silviu lifted her up so he could thrust his tongue in deeper, savoring the way her tight beautiful little pussy worked around his tongue like a vise. Her orgasm was so fucking beautiful, her desire for him so goddamn fierce that Silviu nearly exploded himself.

  As her body shuddered her release, he didn’t stop eating her, didn’t stop tasting her because he just could not get enough.

  “No more, please, no more.”

  She was begging him now, and it turned him on, the way his hellcat had turned into the most adorable kitten. Again, he did not hesitate to use his powers, wanting to feel their naked bodies come into contact right this very moment.

  One moment he was fully clothed, the next he was naked, the heat of his bare skin making George’s head whirl. When he finally rose, moving up, his arms braced against each side of her face, she had totally given up.

  Her arms went around his neck.

  He smiled down at her, a smile that was dangerous, possessive, all-consuming – and it was a smile that showed his fangs.

  She whispered, “You’re not a werewolf or a vampire, are you?”

  His smile faded, his eyes narrowing.

  George swallowed. “Tell me. Tell me what you are.”

  “I’m not something you would want.”

  She could see that he believed every word, and somehow that did it for her. She was notoriously slow to trust people but...he had tried to save her life at the cost of his.

  He hadn’t drugged her. She accepted it now. It sounded so fucking crazy, even in the sanctity of her mind, but George knew that what really happened was that he had taken one look at her – and he wanted her. The same way that she had taken one look at him, and oh dear God, she wanted him so much she had even contemplated using a BOB after seeing him.

  Lust at first sight.

  And not only that, she was in lust with…

  “What’s your name?”

  He relaxed perceptibly at the question, as she had known he would. He looked down at her, his strange-colored yes gleaming. “Why do you ask, milady?”

  She liked this playful side of him – she liked it a little too much that it wasn’t good, but even knowing that, she couldn’t help it.

  “Is it because you want to know what name to scream when I finally take you?” Before she could answer, Silviu pressed down, his cock nestling against the still-wet folds of her flesh, throbbing so hard with unfulfilled desire that it vibrated against her pussy.

  The unexpected contact, the strange but incredibly arousing vibratio
n, the hardness of him – George gasped, her arms wrapping around his neck more tightly. 25 years she had never tasted this, she thought in a daze. It was only right that after waiting so fucking long sex would feel this good.

  His head bent and then he was taking her lips for a short hard kiss that seeped to her very soul. After, he demanded roughly, “Is that the reason you want to know my name, milady?”

  It was such an arrogant question, so arrogant that even though she wanted him so badly, George found herself snarling, “No!”