Billionaire Bear Shifters A Paranormal Romance Complete Series Boxset - Brittany White Page 0,20

slightly, and she moaned into him as his tongue tasted hers. But that was just before she pushed him away, breathless.

“I’m sorry,” she said, panting a little. He felt his heart break a little as her eyes brimmed with tears. “I’m so sorry. That was…” She looked downright terrified when Dorine appeared in the doorway at the end of the short hall. “Don’t tell anyone, please. Please!”

“I-I won’t,” Nathan said. “But—”

“Please go!” Alanna disappeared into her dressing room again and the door shut in his face. “I’m sorry! Please go!”

Nathan started to leave and turned back to say, “If you need help, if you need anything… I’m in A-3, it’s like a penthouse way out on the edge of the east wing. Third floor above the gym. You can call it too if…if you need anything.”

Alanna didn’t reply and Nathan sighed, turning to go.

Dorine swatted his shoulder as he passed her. “What did you do, Nate? You heartbreaker.”

Nathan only snorted at that and said, “I don’t think I’m the one breaking hearts here.”

6

Alanna

That kiss felt too good.

The kiss had felt like setting herself on fire and also like crawling under a warm blanket after being caught too long in the harsh cold. Nathan’s mouth was hot and it knew what it was doing, but his touch was gentle too. She’d wanted those strong arms to stay wrapped around her. She’d wanted to hide in them.

Then immediately, even as she’d been losing herself in his embrace, she’d thought: You’ll get him killed.

“Did you decide on a dress, dear?”

Alanna only shook her head. She’d changed back into her clothes (Rawley’s clothes, she thought) and left the dresses in the changing room. She’d slipped on her boots and she all but ran past Dorine.

She thought she’d done a pretty good job of not falling apart since her freakout in John’s trunk but now she wanted to pound the walls and scream. Instead, she only cried, which felt pretty good really. She cried all the way back to her room.

Once back inside room 27, Alanna shut the door behind her and slumped against it.

The problem with Nathan, the warm-hearted and sexy handyman, was that he was too good and too sexy at the same time. He made her want to run to him, but that wouldn’t be fair.

“Where’s your dress?” John snapped. He sat at a small dining table that looked out on the ski slopes behind with a tumbler full of vodka in front of him. Alanna tensed up at the sound of his voice, but she summoned her courage and went to the mini bar, taking out one of the airplane bottles of Grey Goose for herself. She didn’t bother with a glass, instead draining it in one shot. “Thought you went down there to get some dresses to wear for Mr. Rawley? Where are the dresses? Did you have them delivered or what?”

Alanna glared at him, her mouth a tight line. She had been so well-behaved so far. Much too well-behaved, in her opinion. It was a survival mechanism and then there was her brother’s safety which hovered in her thoughts constantly. But Nathan made her want to be a little less well-behaved. Nathan made her feel alive.

She bent down and grabbed another airplane bottle and drank it. “Hey!” John barked at her. “Go easy?”

“Why?” Alanna said. “Trust me. I’ll be way more pliant drunk. I’ll be a good little girl. That’s what you want, right?”

“Where are your dresses?” John snapped again. “Christ, I thought women loved shopping. They got a million stores down there. What were you doing if you weren’t shopping? Who were you talking to?”

“I wasn’t talking to anyone.” Alanna rubbed her eyes. She had been on high alert every second she spent in John’s presence. It was exhausting. “I found some dresses, okay? Just didn’t decide on them yet. I…I mean I can’t go spending all his money, right? I just want to make sure I, ya know, pick dresses he’d like.” She looked at him, feeling exhaustion creep up on her like an ache.

John got to his feet, glaring at her. “You’ve been crying.” He said it like it was some major accusation, as if there was any reason she shouldn’t be crying. “Why are you crying?”

Alanna just stared at him and John said again, “Why are you crying? What’s the matter with you?”

Alanna burst out laughing. She didn’t mean to. She’d felt it creeping up into her mouth from her throat and suddenly she stuttered