PARANORMAL ROMANCE: Bear Naked Satisfaction (Fantasy Shapeshifter Alpha Male Romance Book 3) (Contemporary New Adult Billionaire Steamy Romance Short Stories) (27 page)

Chapter 2

When she woke up on Tuesday morning, Alana was still having a hard time deciding whether or not she had made the right choice. She had been lying in bed awake since four in the morning wondering whether it was a good move to accept Stefan’s deal. It sure was sweet and promising but at the same time, it was too good to be true. She could not help but wonder what was going on.

It was not until six thirty did she finally get out of bed. She took a quick shower before she put on a pair of black flare pants and a fitting white top. Her biggest struggle every morning was usually dressing her hips because she was a little bigger than most girls. Heck, she was a few sizes too large, but she had worked hard to reduce her tummy and firm up her butt, and so far, she loved what she saw every time she looked in the mirror. But after years of being ridiculed for being heavy, she was still not very confident about her body. Maybe that was why she always took an extra half hour to determine what to wear. She let her black curls loose and wore a pair of silver looped earrings before she put on a pair of brown strapped heeled sandals. After having a quick yoghurt cup breakfast, she walked out of her apartment and made her way to the elevator.

“First day of my new career,”
she thought as she climbed into her car.
“I wonder why I am not feeling as happy as ii did last time when this happened.”

                                                                     
*****

“Liking your first day at Titan Security so far?” Stefan asked when he walked into Alana’s office at around seven in the evening. “If I knew that you were going to dive straight into the overtime, I would have held back on the signing bonus.”

Alana looked up and sighed.

“Well, to be honest, it seems like my predecessor left a lot undone.”

“Stefan sat down in the chair in front of her desk and shrugged.

“So, what can you tell me?” he asked and she shook her head.

“I’ve had to literally introduce a new security system because the one you had was from the Stone Age,” she said. “Which I don’t understand…I mean for a leading security company and everything.”

“What are you talking about?” Stefan asked and she looked down at her cluttered desk. She looked down at a notepad and then typed something up on her laptop before she turned it around so that he could look at it. “What am I looking at?”

“That’s supposed to be the secure logs to the server rooms but according to this, your former head engineer or someone with his key log got in and got out ten minutes later.”

“Do you know what he did in there?” Stefan asked and Alana shook her head.

“No because for some reason, the cameras in the server room didn’t work for the ten minutes he was there,” she said. “The only sensible explanation is that he is the one who introduced malware to your system because your firewall suddenly came down when he walked out.”

“Why that…I should have known when he didn’t show up for work,” Stefan said leaning back in his chair. “He said he had a stomach bug or something.”

“And?” Alana asked. “How long has he been away?”

“I don’t know…a week maybe. HR tried calling him but apparently his phone is now disconnected.” Stefan ran his fingers through his hair.

“Don’t worry. Everything else is secure…and I don’t think your code was what M & M was after.”

Stefan shrugged.

“What would they possibly want if it’s not the code? I mean that thing alone is worth millions.”

“Yes, but your client dossiers are worth even more,” Alana said. “If anyone gets their hands on that…I don’t know what they would want with it but I can see that someone was trying to get into that particular server.”

“Yeah we keep that info backed up separately,” Stefan said. “We had a scare sometime back when some hacker tried to get into our system so we thought the best way was to have our most valued asset separate from the rest of the files.”

“And who has the login details of the private server?” Alana asked.

“Just me and your brother.”

“Elliott?” Alana asked, surprised. “Why?”

“He is the only person I trust in the world,” Stefan said shrugging.

“Clearly the two of you are closer than I thought.”

“But just between you and me, I have a dummy login for my HOD’s…you know rust issues but there is protocol to be followed before they even think of logging in. But no one has ever tried to anyway.”

“My predecessor?” Alana asked.

“Victor,” Stefan said, nodding. “He was one of the four people with the dummy code and…” his voice trailed off when he realized what had happened.

“In that case then it is safe to assume the theft of your code was aimed at covering up the bigger crime which was your client list.” Alana shrugged. “But I still don’t get it. It is public knowledge who your clients are.”

“Yes but the dossiers have…private information.” Stefan shook his head.

“So stealing the files and maybe leaking them?” she asked and he nodded.

“That would make my company lose credibility. And then my company would go down.” He forced out a laugh. “Is M & M really that desperate?”

“Are you sure M & M are responsible for this?” she asked and he shrugged.

“It’s the only logical explanation.”

“There could be more than meets the eye in this situation,” she said. “You never know.”

“Well, this is all too much to take in for one day.” He pushed his chair back and stood up. “You should go home.”

“I still have a lot to do here and…” she started before he pushed the laptop screen down to the keyboard, shutting it down. She looked up at him and shook her head. “What do you think you are doing?”

“Trying to set the pace. You’ve already put out enough fires for a first day.” He flashed her a smile.

“D’Angelo…” she started again and he shook his head.

“Would it kill you to call me Stefan?” he asked. “I mean I have known you longer than my oldest employee.”

Alana took a long deep breath and grabbed her purse before she stood up.

“Old dog new tricks, D’Angelo.” She stood up and walked round her desk to where he was. “I called D’Angelo back when I was in high school and I am still going to call you that now.”

Stefan smiled and shrugged.

“I was going to grab something to eat on my way home. Would you like to join me?” he asked and she frowned.

“What happened to keeping the relationship strictly professional?” she asked as she looked into his eyes.

“A CEO having dinner with his HOD is very professional. Ask around. A lot of people are doing it nowadays,” he said and she shrugged and forced out a laugh. She stuffed her laptop in its bag and smiled.

“Good night, D’Angelo,” she said before walking out of her office.

“If you change your mind, I will be at Delia’s,” he called out after her but she never turned around or even acknowledged that he’d said something. As she rode the elevator down to the parking lot, all she could think about was her past with him…

Twelve years ago…

It was a Friday night and Alana and Elliott were home alone for yet another weekend. The two of them had gotten used to spending time alone since their parents were always travelling. And as usual, Elliott was having his friends over to hang out. Alana had just walked into the house when she bumped into Stefan, who was holding a cup of what she guessed was beer. She felt a chill down go her spine. She had been harboring a crush on Stefan for a long time but she had never acted on it. Keeping her cool around him was always a struggle and she had never really known how to do. The best she could do was simply ignore him because he had to be the biggest playboy she knew. And she was most definitely not the blond-haired, blue-eyed girl she was used to seeing him with. She was the complete opposite. He liked them skinny and white and she was curvy and black. Definitely not his cup of tea. She knew that the only way she could avoid being hurt was never giving him a second thought even though he was always flirting with her.

“Hey Alana,” he said, smiling at her.

“D’Angelo,” she said as she walked past him to the kitchen.

“You know what? I always wonder why you never come downstairs to hang out with us,” he said as she made herself a sandwich. She looked up from the bread she was slicing and shook her head.

“Why the hell do you think I would want to hang out with you guys? All you do is discuss the cheerleading squad.”

“Maybe if you were there we would discuss something else? Something intellectual, even,” Stefan said. Alana grabbed a soda from the fridge and opened it.

“I rented Scary Movie 3 and I truly hope it’s actually going to scare me. So, I’ll just go upstairs and fry my brain.”

“That’s a first,” Stefan said.  “You don’t have some science project you are working on or something? Because that is all you ever seem to do when I’m around.”

“No, I actually have a social life,” she said as she struggled to carry the sandwich, soda and her backpack.

“Here,” Stefan said as he grabbed her backpack. They both knew that she was too proud to ask for help.

“You do realize that if you had asked to see my room, I would have let you, right?” she asked as they went up the stairs.

“Oh come on. I have to prove to you that chivalry is not dead, right?” he said as he closely followed her. What she didn’t know was that he was eyeing her every move as her hips swayed. When they got to her room, she opened the door and looked at him.

“You know this is as far as I can let you come, right?” she asked.

“After I carried your bag up the stairs? You do know it’s not exactly light, right?” he asked and she rolled her eyes.

“It has three books and a movie,” she said matter-of-factly.

“Okay, a guy has to try,” he said. She opened the door and walked in. She put her sandwich and soda on her nightstand before she walked back to the door and took her bag from him, but he held on to it, stepping into her room.

“What are you doing?” she asked in a low voice as he let the bag drop to the floor. He kicked the door closed and quickly slipped an arm around her waist pulling her close to him. She gasped when she felt his body warm against her own. “D’Angelo…” she said as she looked into his eyes.

“You and I both want this to happen,” he said and she shook her head.

“I can’t play this game, D’Angelo,” she said in a soft voice, but he was already lowering his head. She still wanted to say something else, but the next thing she knew, he had his lips on hers, claiming her. She exhaled into his mouth as he ran his hand down her back to cup a feel of her perfect, rounded ass. She pulled away from him and looked at him.

“I don’t want to stop,” he said.

“Is that what you tell Georgia and Chloe and maybe even Vanessa?” she asked as she pushed him away.

“They don’t mean anything to me,” Stefan said in a soft voice as she walked over to the bed. She sat on the edge and looked at him.

“I’m sure you’ve had this same conversation with the entire cheerleading squad and maybe even the swim team. But one thing you don’t get, D’Angelo, is that I am not one of
them
and I never will be.”

“And I don’t want you to change either,” Stefan said.

“I’m sorry, D’Angelo, but I really can’t get into this.” She walked over to her door and opened it. “Please leave?”

“What if I don’t want to?” he asked.

“This is
my
room, not yours. It is not about what you want.”

Stefan took a long, deep breath.

“Alana, I don’t just come out here because I am Elliott’s best friend. I also come here because I want to see you,” he said in a soft voice.

“How about we just pretend everything didn’t just happen and just…” her voice trailed off as Stefan began walking towards her.

“The problem, Alana, is that I can’t pretend that I didn’t kiss you. Because I did, and you kissed me back.”

He walked out and she closed the door and exhaled loudly as she leaned against the door.

“Fuck,”
she thought as she sunk to the floor.

Chapter 3

Present Day…

Working for Titan Security turned out to be more rewarding than Alana had ever thought. Not just monetary wise, but also socially. Back at M & M, Alana never really had a life. To be honest, she never had the time to socialize because she never had the time. Every free minute she had was committed to her work because it was always about getting ahead for her, progressing her career. She had not dated in years because the few times that she had tried she had ended up being heartbroken. After being let down by men four times in a row, she thought that her time was better invested in her career rather than a relationship. But after a few weeks at Titan Security, she had made more connections than she ever thought possible. She never even pictured herself as one of the people who would be invited to go out for drinks with anyone from work. She had never considered herself one of
those
people.

It was on a Thursday evening when she left the office and for the first time, she had actually pulled a perfect eight-hour workday. She was actually excited to be going home while the sun shone for once. She had done all the necessary damage control at Titan Security and she could finally rest easy, quite literally too. She had just put her stuff in the back seat when she noticed that she had a flat.

“Damn it,”
she thought as she looked at the wheel. She ran her fingers through her curls and sighed loudly.

“Problem?” she heard Stefan’s voice approaching.

“Yeah, I have a flat,” she said in a soft voice.

“Yes you do, but I can help,” he said as he took off his jacket and carefully placed it on her car. He loosened his tie and took it off before he rolled up his sleeves. “Where’s your spare?”

Alana shrugged.

“That
was
my spare.”

Stefan raised an eyebrow at her and she rolled her eyes at him.

“Don’t give me that look…I’ve been a little too busy lately.”

“And I have been telling you that you need to take a break,” he said as he took his jacket. “I can take you home and have someone pick up your sedan.”

“You don’t need to do that,” Alana said but he shook his head.

“I usually wouldn’t pull the boss card because I know it probably wouldn’t work but it seems in this case I will have to.”

She looked at him as she rolled her eyes.

“Really? Pulling rank?” she asked.

“This is what I have been reduced to obviously,” he said.

She took a long deep breath and grabbed her stuff from the back seat.

“I am only doing this because I was really looking forward to spending my evening in front of the TV. No other reason,” she said as he slowly led her towards his car.

“Hey, I won,” he said smiling. “The reason doesn’t really matter right now.”

He opened the car door for her and waited for her to get in.

“Are you always this nice or are you still trying to work some kind of angle?” she asked when he got in. “Because I did accept your offer. I mean, I am at Titan Security now.”

“Yes you are, thank heavens and like I told you once, chivalry for me is still very much alive.” He looked at her as he secured his seatbelt. “Safety first. Buckle up.” She pulled her seatbelt and buckled herself in as he began pulling out of the driveway. Her heart was racing as they began driving off. She had not been in the space with him alone for a very long time. In fact, they had not been alone in the same space in twelve years.

“You’re being awfully quiet,” he said as they drove and she shrugged.

“I don’t really have much to say.”

“But you have always been so chatty,” he said as he looked at her.

“I seem to remember you as the chatty one, D’Angelo.” She looked at him and crossed her arms over her chest. “Maybe that was why you were always so friendly with the cheerleaders.”

“And here I thought it was my boyish charm and ruggedly good looks,” he said smiling. She looked at him and forced out a laugh.

“Well, there was that too.”

Stefan looked at her through the rearview mirror and smiled.

“So you admit that I do have amazing boyish charm and rugged good looks, huh?” he asked and she sighed.

“I’d like to plead the fifth on that,” she said as they approached her building. He laughed as the car slowly came to a stop.

“Come on. I’ll walk you up,” he said and she shook her head.

“What makes you think I will let you into my house?” she asked.

“Well, I drove you here so the logical thing to do is to come up, make that call to my guy to pick up your sedan from the company lot and maybe set you up with a temporary vehicle.” He unbuckled his seatbelt and she shook her head. “Don’t try to fight me on this. You need the car.”

“I’m not trying to fight that, I mean, I know I need the car. It’s you coming up to my place I’m fighting,” she said and he climbed out of the car. She looked at him as he walked round to her side. He opened the door and put his hand out to hold her hand as she got out. She unbuckled her belt and then put her hand in his. She was looking right into her eyes as he helped her out of the car.

“I’ll help you with that,” he said, taking her laptop bag from her.

She held her coat and bag tightly as she led him into the building. When they walked into the building elevator, she watched as he reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone.

“Miranda, hi…Alana Rivers’ car is in the parking lot. Call my guy at the garage and have them take the car in. Maybe do a full detail while they’re on it, right?”

Alana looked at him and shook her head.

“I don’t need my car detailed,” she said.

Stefan put his hand over the earpiece and smiled at her.

“It’s on the house,” he whispered. “Yeah, thanks Miranda oh and have HR send a car over to her place ASAP…yeah she is more of a sedan girl.”

The elevator doors opened and she quickly walked out, almost running to her door. She fished for her keys inside her bag and opened the door. She could not help but feel a weird sense of déjà vu when he stood at the door holding her laptop bag.

“So are you going to invite me in or are we going to replay this again,” he asked.

“What do you mean?” she asked, pretending not to know what is happening.

“Last time I was at your door like this was on a Friday night and your brother was throwing a party and we stood like this right at your door…” he started and she shook her head.

“Stop it,” she said in a soft voice as she walked into the apartment. She threw her bag on the couch and he closed the door before he walked in after her. She looked at him as he walked up to where she was. Her heart was racing as she looked into her grey eyes. He placed the laptop bag next to her handbag on the couch before he stood in front of her.

“You need to leave,” she said in a whisper and he shook his head.

“Why? Do you want me gone?” he asked. Her lips were slightly parted but she just couldn’t talk.

“This is not going to work. You and I both know it,” she said as he slowly began walking towards her. She took a step back but he was faster than her.

“And why not?” he asked.

“For starters I’m the wrong skin color,” she started in a soft voice.

“What?” he asked, looking a little confused.

“And I don’t have blond hair or blue eyes…and I am not a size zero…I’m in fact far from that. I am a freaking sixteen and you…” she shook her head. “Please, D’Angelo, just leave.” She took another step back but it was as far as she could go. She was now standing against the wall and he was right in front of her. She gasped when he slipped an arm around her waist.

“No, I won’t.”

“Please…” she said in a soft voice but he shook his head.

“That first night I kissed you, you would have pushed me away but you kissed me back. And don’t pretend you didn’t know that I always wanted you.”

Alana put a hand on his chest and tried to push him off.

“Don’t. I am not going down there again just because you want to get laid,” she said shaking her head.

“If that was all I wanted I would have bent my secretary over my desk a long time ago. God knows she has been begging for it,” he said in a soft voice. “But Alana Rivers. I. Want. You.” He was whispering as he paused after every word to stress just how serious he was.

“No you don’t,” she said in a soft voice. She could feel her eyes welling up.

“Why don’t you think I want you? After all these years?” he asked as he pinned her against the wall.

“I have seen the kind of women you are normally with and they are most definitely nothing like me, D’Angelo. I can’t do this…” she never got a chance to finish what she was saying. He lowered his head and kissed her deeply, his tongue seeking hers out. She moaned into his mouth as his hand ran down her body gently brushing against her breast.

“Tell me that was not what you wanted me to do,” Stefan whispered when he pulled away. She had her eyes closed as he held her waist with one hand and the other hand was resting gently on her breast. She knew that he could feel her nipple getting hard against his palm.

“But I am not the kind of woman you normally…” she started before she shrugged.

“I couldn’t have the woman I wanted so I needed a placeholder,” Stefan said. “Sometimes more than one.”

She shook her head and he looked into her eyes.

“I can’t do this, Stefan. You need to go.” She pulled away from him and walked to the door.

Stefan forced out a laugh before he walked up to where she was.

“When you finally realize that I am not pulling your leg, that I actually need you in my life, you know where to find me,” he said in a soft voice. He held her cheek and lowered his head to kiss her other cheek. “I will never get tired of waiting, Alana.”

He walked out and she gently closed the door, her heart pounding in her chest.