Billionaire Bear Shifters A Paranormal Romance Complete Series Boxset - Brittany White Page 0,72

on and he heard soft music. He found Michelle in the jacuzzi tub under a heap of bubbles, her hair piled up on her head as she sipped wine. “Have I got some news for you. This is good. This is very good.”

“Well?” Michelle snapped. “What is it? Get to the point.”

He was almost impressed at how impatient she could be even while sipping wine in a bubble bath.

“The girl Eric Strauss is seeing is named Lydia,” James reported. He sat on the edge of the tub and grabbed the still half-full bottle of wine, taking a swallow. “But it’s already imploding. His brother wanted Eric to talk to her. Sounds like some old bad blood. They definitely had sex but it didn’t end well. You totally have an in!”

“Hmm…” Michelle tilted her head, appearing to think it over. “That is interesting.”

“Hell yeah, it’s interesting,” James said, feeling especially smug. “She left him once! A long ass time ago.”

“Old flame…” Michelle pursed her lips. “He could be really hung up on her. Which means if she breaks his heart again, he’ll be especially weak. That’s good.”

“It’s great!” James insisted. “You should go to his suite tonight and seduce the hell out of him! Sounded like he was going to talk to her again. You gotta snap him up before he gets away!”

“No, no, no.” She squinted and stared out the window at the snowy peaks beyond. He could practically hear the click of the wheels turning in her head. She was scheming. It was the only time she wasn’t volatile. “No, he’s not broken down yet. I have to wait until they talk and see if he collapses. Things aren’t going well but they’re not dead yet. Gotta let it die. Or kill it. I’ll definitely kill it myself, if I have to.”

“Are you sure-”

Michelle gave no warning before her hands were around his throat. Her strength was a little unnatural, she was using magic to enhance. This occurred to James dimly and then he couldn’t think of anything at all because he couldn’t breathe. She was grimacing at him, her eyes wide with delight as she choked him, pulling him over the side of the tub so that he half fell into the bath with her.

“I’m...s-sorry....” James croaked, his eyes bulging out.

He’d fucked up somehow. She was finally going to kill him. His heart pounded with fear and the edges of his vision began to grow black. Michelle grinned in that crazy way of hers and her grip tightened, her fingernails breaking the skin.

“Don’t contradict me,” Michelle whispered in his ear.

Just as James was sure his life was about to be snuffed out like an old candle, Michelle let go and he fell back into the tub with a splash. She kicked him and he wheezed, coughing as he climbed out of the water and caught his breath, his throat throbbing.

“Sorry,” he rasped. “Okay, you’re right.”

He sat on the edge of the tub and felt both petrified and also very fortunate not to be dead as he composed himself.

“Um...anyway,” James said. “Uh, yeah. K-kill it.”

“Kill it,” Michelle said, nodding. She looked completely calm again. That was as unsettling as anything else.

“Or kill her, I guess,” James said, cringing and wondering if that was contrary enough for her to nearly kill him again. But she only sat back in the tub instead.

“If I have to,” Michelle said, taking another sip of wine. “Or, even if I don’t.”

24

Lydia

It was just sex; it was just sex; I need to get out of here. I need to shift and run...

Lydia sighed heavily and sank further into the bubbly hot water of the jacuzzi tub.

It was difficult not to feel a little pathetic. She’d come all the way down to Black Bear Lake just for Eric, who was seemingly perfectly fine. He wasn’t in any danger, that was for sure. After hearing about what his brother had been through finding his mate and fighting off some notorious gangster shifter from Utah, she was starting to think it was only that situation which she’d dreamed about. It was likely that the danger had already come and passed.

That meant she really had no further reason to hang around Black Bear Lake, except that Eric was letting her and it was difficult to resist.

There was also the unavoidable fact that if Eric came to her door again, she would let him into her bed. Even if it was just sex.

Besides all that, what did she have to