ROMANCE WITH ALIEN: Gifts of Darkover (A SciFi Alien Romance Collection) (Fantasy Anthologies & Collections)

Some of your favorite authors present 7 all-new stories told through the looking glass—including a new The Ghost novella!

*** Praise for GIFTS OF DARKOVER***
"
The Author 
knows how to pull a reader into the minds of her well-crafted characters."
 
~Night Owls

"An absolute delight to read" ~Amazon Reviewer

"This writer never disappoints."
 
~Christine Arness

"The Author creates characters that seem to jump off the page."
 
~Amazon Reviewer

"With a captivating style, writes a compelling story..." ~Long and Short Reviews

"Amazingly good!"
 
~Romantic Times

GIFTS

OF

DARKOVER

PoseidonPublishin
g
, California

An imprint of Joyce Random House LLC

373 Hudson Street

A POSEIDON Publishing Book / Published by arrangement with authors

Copyright 2016 by POSEIDON Publishing Random House LLC

POSEIDON Publishing supports copyright. Copyright fuels creativity, encourages diverse voices, promotes free speech, and creates a vibrant culture. Thank you for buying an authorized edition of this book and for complying with copyright laws by not reproducing, scanning, or distributing any part of it in any form without permission. You are supporting writers and allowing us to continue to publish books for every reader.

PUBLISHING HISTORY

Version_1

JR mass-market edition/2016

Cover Images: “Landscape” by Petra Rasmussen

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Introduction

This collection includes over 6 best-seller Romance fiction novels from best seller authors. It’s been a long journey for us as a publisher to bring together the best authors in the industry to create the best collection currently available at Amazon. We have no doubt you will enjoy every single novel as much as we enjoyed the process of bringing this invaluable collection to life.

Table of Contents

MILITARY BILLIONAIRE: THE MATCHMAKER

MILITARY BILLIONAIRE: THE MERCHANT OF DEAD

SHAPESHIFTER ROMANCE: THE WRONG TURNSHIFTER

SHAPESHIFTER ROMANCE: THE WOLF AND HIS WITCH

GAY BILLIONAIRE ROMANCE: IN LOVE WITH A HACKER

GAY BILLIONAIRE ROMANCE: LOVE IN VEGAS

ALIEN ROMANCE: WANTING TO BELIEVE

-The lonely cutie-

Damaris was probably the cutest girl in the office. But from the look of things, the most lonesome too. There were plenty of guys who apparently liked her and wanted to take her out. But it seemed as though they were a little bit scared to ask her out. For a moment, she thought that maybe she wasn’t pretty enough, or maybe the guys just didn’t want to have a problem with the cutest girl.

And the latter was just too unfortunate since Damaris always wanted to be taken out on dates. She also wanted to turn up to work one morning only to find a banquet of flowers on her desk with a note to her so that she could make her colleagues a little bit jealous. But it just wasn’t happening for her. Every morning she would turn up to a cold, empty desk and the old faces in the office always reminding her of the importance of coming to work early.

Damaris had some serious punctuality issues, and she attributed this to the fact that she didn’t have a love life or anything that closely resembled it. And needless to say, it did make her sad for a bit. But that aside, she thought that it would be an excellent idea for her to keep the faith since she believed that maybe one day, a handsome price will come to her rescue and make sure that everyone else in the office was jealous as hell when that time came.

Her friends also didn’t give her a piece of mind with the fact that she was settling for being single. Of course, she was the prettiest girl of them all and the fact that she was still single and not dating some rich guy just didn’t seem to make any sense to them.

“Come on girls, you know it's all about love and not anything materialistic. Just make sure that you mind your own damn business and let me work on my personal life. I will let you guys know when I am unable to pay my bills so that you can get me hooked to a billionaire or a politician. But until then, just know your girl is beautiful!” Damaris would laugh

But her friends weren’t going to take that bluff. They were dead serious that she needed to have a husband and not just any other guy, but a guy who would match up with her class as well as looks.

“The last thing that we do want our girl is for her to get hitched to some good for nothing bastard. And I entirely agree, you need to have a guy who is in a position to get you all sorted out financial but also a beast who will ensure that you come to work glowing like a child in a Vaseline ad.”

Everyone at the lunch break laughed at Florence’s joke. Yes, she could afford a couple of jokes here and there, but in the end, she also knew that the most important thing at that moment was getting to find a man who will complete her best friend. Damaris just sat there, not knowing what to tell her friend at the moment.

But she knew deep down that they were right. It had been a while before she had the opportunity to have a man to love her for who she was. And now that she had just turned twenty-seven, she was starting to get a little too old for being single, and Damaris thought that maybe, just maybe, she should start listening to what her friends were telling her because they were right.

It was a little bit tricky because when her friends had started something, it was very hard for them to lay off. And now that they had decided to gang up against her, it seemed as though nothing could be done to make things better. And so all that Damaris could do at that moment was to watch and hope that they were going to drop the subject and just let her be.

But as they were discussing how much they loved her and how they wanted for her to get to enjoy life, Damaris thought of the men who were always giving her the look around the office. Of course, they were all charming and seemed as though they had something going on in their lives. But eventually, it seemed as though she had a copy of each and every one of their reputation and that reminded her of the main reason she didn’t even consider them.

Then there were the men that her friends had been trying to introduce to her. There was Mike, the biker who turned out to be a bisexual rock star after Damaris thought that maybe something incredible could get to happen between them. And just like that, she decided to ditch him like expired milk.

Then there was Peter, the pastor who always turned every situation and conversation into an opportunity to sneak in Jesus. Which left Damaris wondering how Jesus was going to help him last a minute longer during sex. And just like that, she decided to ditch him as soon as she refused an invitation to co-pastor in her church.

That was about three years ago. And that was also the time that Damaris decided to stay celibate for all she cared. Yes, she missed the dating life.

But that said, it also seemed as though it was best for her just to kick back and wait for some amazing miracle to happen to her. As a matter of fact, that was the last thing she believed in, but as long as it kept her friends shut, she thought she might as well tell them that she was confident that her miracle was around the corner. But sadly, it seemed as though that excuse wasn’t going to hold that much.

“So Florence, since you look like a person who knows what she is talking about, what do you propose we do to find our good friend here a man worth her salt?”

“And here I thought you guys will never ask. Well, I think I just know the right man for Dee here!”

-The war hero-

Denis had just retired from the military and was still sitting at home, wondering whatever the heck he was going to do with the billions that his father had left him in his will. His family had invested heavily in pharmaceutical industry and from the look of things, it was giving them incredible returns.

But since an experienced board was running the business, it seemed as though the only good thing happening to Denis would be to take a couple of billions and start something of his own.

And since he was a fitness freak, he thought about starting a world class gym which would offer all sorts of services to their clients and also make sure that the people were having the time of their lives getting fit. At first, Denis wasn’t that good with people because he was so used to the army that he dished out orders more often than not.

But with a little bit of training, he started doing things the right way and needless to say, the clients were more than happy with the kind of services that they were getting which was more or less an amazing thing. Thankfully, most of the people who came to his gym were the elderly who were rich and were more or less associated with his family, and so they were a little bit tolerant.

But then after he got better at this, more people started flocking in and without a doubt, it became an incredible place to be. And just like that, Denis made sure that he was making millions on the side thanks to his family funding him. But the problem was that he had a womanizing problem. He just couldn’t get to settle down no matter how hard he tried, and that was why he chose to get busy with the gym.

Despite the fact that he liked taking different women out, he knew that he was turning thirty-one the following year. And now that he was crossing over to the wrong side of thirty, he knew that Denis was going to be laced with lots of responsibilities and getting to settle down was going to be a prime move that he had to do. He had seen fellow billionaires screw up their lives, and now they were languishing in a dreadful place in life just because they went too far with being bad boys.

And just as he was cleaning the gym after a long day of helping the elderly get in shape, someone paid him a visit.

“Hey, didn’t you read the sign? We are closed woman. Go back from whence you came!” he smiled right before dropping the broom and hugging his longtime friend.

“I know you want me gone. But I am sure after hearing what I have to tell you, you will be begging me to stay.” Said Florence with a smile on her face.

“I see you are still sly as you have always been. So tell me, what you have in mind. And I do hope it's something very constructive or else I will have to kick you out.”

“Jesus! Can you stop with the threats and offer a girl something to drink? Jesus Christ man! Ha-ha.”

Denis and Florence had a very long history. It all began when Florence had an idea of starting a television show, and Denis was about to fund it when Nine-eleven happened. After losing his father to the terrorist attack, as they decided to call it because it wasn’t, Denis was so appalled to the point that he decided to join the army, dropping everything else including the project that they had with Florence.

Florence was such an incredible opportunist. And so the moment when Denis left, she quickly jumped in bed with another billionaire who offered to sponsor the show. Denis only got to see her show from the war and was glad that Florence had made it to TV. But Florence wasn’t happy, and so she refused to see him when he got back from the war.

She even didn’t want to pick his calls since she said that he sold her out, which wasn’t the case. And the next time that they got to see each other was at that moment.

“So, what brings you here woman. Oh, and first of all, you look good.”

“Thank you. And please, don’t flirt with me. I came here to give you a girl since it seems like you need a woman to help you take care of this dump.”

“Dump? Come on! Look at how the gym is, state of the art is the word that came to your mind when you stepped through those doors. Don’t hate, appreciate!!!”

They laughed and clinked their glasses in a toast and sipped on the vodka that Denis was already sipping on. And without further ado, Florence continued selling her manifesto without waiting for any more. Denis smiled as it reminded him just how they all started with their venture.

“I know this girl, trust me, she is your type. And if you just get to know more about her, then you will be one helluva happy guy. Just take your time and get to meet her. And if you happen not to like her that much, then it's all good. I will be the first person to apologize and take it all back. I know what you want. So what do you say?”

“Ok Florence, now that you know my life much more than I do, what do you propose? Where do you think I can find this incredibly amazing woman that would complete me and make sure that I am not a player anymore?”

“And here I was thinking that you were never going to ask that question. Well, she is out there in the car waiting for you.”