The Dragon's Mail Order Mate: A Paranormal Menage Romance (6 page)

“If you’re going to win this, Will,” she said softly to him, her voice low and comforting as they both held on to the bowl, “then you’re going to have to let go of your fears and dive in." She leaned in and pressed her lips softly to his cheek that was prickly with his fresh shade of stubble from the day. When she pulled back, she looked at his wide eyes and smiled at the expression that was on his lips. He was blown away by this. He was absolutely stunned and completely floored by the fact that she had just kissed him. “You paid a lot of money and it was your idea to make sure I came here. I’m not going to forget that ever. I hope you don’t either.”

She turned from him and headed back to the stairs and climbed them slowly, feeling his absence and wishing that he would've followed her up those stairs. In the depths of her mind, she could picture the two of them kissing in the darkness of her room, his hands exploring her body for the first time, reveling in the new things they both were experiencing for the first time. She could see all of it. Truthfully, she wanted it. It was a confusing set of emotions that were running through her, taking hold of her and making her feel like she had no idea what was happening in her life. How could she be so lucky? How could she ever get so lucky?

Both of them were so incredible, so amazing that she didn’t know what she was going to do. She liked the mystery, excitement, and forwardness of Mike, but also that it was tempered by a heart that was better than he wanted to let on. On the other hand, Will had a genuine honesty that made him transparent and beautiful in his vulnerability and his clear intentions. Sure, there might not be much of a dance to the beauty of Will, but there was a pureness there that was so refreshing and so inviting. She didn’t know which was better? She didn’t want the pressure of choosing. She already knew she was going to hate this.

As she walked into her bedroom, looking at her reflection in the glass, she knew she had put forward all the effort she could to make herself attractive and alluring. There was nothing more she could do. The rest was up to them. The rest was going to be in their hands to see how they liked her and could wow her. If they were both interested, then that was all that was left for them to do. It was time for them to make their moves on her. She relished the anticipation, but there was something extremely terrifying about all of it. She wanted to smile and to fade away into their romance.

Tomorrow was going to be an interesting day. She wanted to see how Mike would recover from what he had done today. Would he adjust his approach and try to be less passive and disinterested or would he try harder to seem like the cool guy who just didn’t care all that much? No matter what he chose, she was going to be excited to see him nonetheless.

* * *

Oksana could hardly sleep for the rest of the night. In fact, she’d mostly just slipped under her sheet and looked up at the ceiling, feeling the whole world consuming her. The thoughts of the day were something she couldn’t escape; there was just far too much excitement in her life for her to actually close her eyes and feel sleep settle in her mind. It was like she found herself as a child again on the eve of Christmas, waiting for the hours to pass until she could throw off the covers, rush down to the presents, and spend the morning with her family. She felt all giddy. It was a strange feeling she didn’t quite know how to handle.

When the clock read four in the morning, she was certain both Mike and Will were asleep, softly snoring in their rooms, enjoying what she could never have. Throwing off her sheet, she threw her legs over the side of the bed and opened her wardrobe, which held all the clothes she had right now, except for her underwear and socks that were in the chest of drawers.

One of the few sets of clothing she had now were her workout clothes and she pulled them out, deciding since she didn’t have a gym membership yet, she could always go running. That was something she could do no matter where she was. Pulling off her tank top and standing in only her panties in the cool of the room, she grabbed her sports bra and pulled it on. It was like everything was getting squished and constricted by the tight, familiar cloth. It was the feeling of security. She changed into underwear was more appropriate for working out and pulled on her tight workout pants. Pulling her pale blonde hair into a ponytail, she looked at herself in the mirror and decided it was fitting. She looked cute enough to turn heads, hopefully Mike or Will’s, if they ever woke up.

She pulled on her socks and put her shoes on, standing up and stretching as she tried to get the cramps and stiffness of lying in bed for too long out of her body and to get limber for the jog. She quickly made her way out of the bedroom and closed her door softly, not wanting to wake either of them while they were sleeping. Making her way downstairs, she grabbed a banana and peeled it, sitting in the silence of the down stairs and pondering its quiet beauty.

The house was more than she had expected and honestly, it was the thing she loved most right now. Sure, Will and Mike seemed like good guys, but she wasn’t too thrilled about having to decide which of them she was going to spend the rest of her life with as a mate. In fact, it was gnawing at her, terrifying her, wondering what she was going to decide was the final factor for her. Was there going to be one thing that really made up her mind for her or was it going to just be a coin toss in the end?

As she thought about it, pondering with every chew of her banana, she thought it was still probably too dark to go running, but she noticed that there were other people out and about this early in the morning. There was a couple walking quickly and a woman walking her dog. There were several joggers that passed by the house and she smiled at the activity of this city. It was like no one actually slept here. She was going to love this more than she had ever loved Ukraine. She hadn’t even really gone to the beach yet. What was she going to do when she finally got the chance to start exploring everything?

The thought of everything she needed to do was starting to overwhelm her. The first thing she needed to do was to figure out how to get a job as a model in this city. It was really the only skill she had or experience she knew. Sure, her agent and manager had made the offer to help her out here, but they hadn’t talked to her yet and she thought they were probably still a little resentful about the whole fact that she had left them and gone to America on such short notice.

They had seen it coming though, she had warned them up front that her dream was to go to America and to get away from Ukraine where her talents were wasted. She wasn’t going to sleep her way to the top of anything and she wasn’t interested in doing anything that compromised her occupationally. Sleep with one guy and you go to the top, but when he loses his job or moves on, then the next guy will expect the same or you’re back on the bottom. It was a slippery slope and she was excited to be in the land of opportunity trying to start her career again. Thankfully, her experience was no doubt going to help her with that, but she didn’t know just how much it was going to help her.

But beyond that, there was still a ton she needed to do before then. She needed to figure out what she needed to do in order to get a driver’s license so that she could actually drive here. Heck, she would be satisfied if she could just get her hands on a bicycle to ride around. She needed to explore this place and it was eating at her. She wanted to look at all the sights and see what there was to see in her city.

She had made a vow that she wanted to see all of America, but she wanted to start out local and then to slowly expand her circle of knowledge. She wanted to know San Francisco intimately and she wanted to truly know every street and where all the best places were before she moved out to the other places in California that were waiting for her. She longed to see all of it and then she would check out Nevada and Oregon, then Washington, Utah, Arizona, Idaho, New Mexico, Wyoming, and all the other states that were waiting to the east of her. She wanted to know it all. But, in order to explore, she needed a mode of transportation and that meant getting her license eventually. After all, she wouldn’t be able to ride her bike everywhere.

More importantly, she was going to need to get a gym membership, which was going to cost money, but her fitness was going to be crucial in her ability to show off in a bikini or to model a new line of dresses. So, she was going to need to seriously get into the habit of working out often, in fact, most of her days. Her diet was no longer a diet, but a way of life, so she wasn’t really worried about that. The only thing she was worried about was how she was going to get a membership. She didn’t really have a place of residence yet and there was no mail to show that she lived here, no bills, nothing like that. Somehow, she was going to have to prove that she was living here and that she could pay for a membership.

Then came everything else that she could think of. She was going to need to get more clothes, decorate her room and her bathroom, and start meeting new people to build a life here. She knew that mates were usually the doorway and the gatekeepers to a Shifter’s life. They were the ones who found people to introduce them to, knew how to keep their secrets, and were able to help them function in society and show them how to act. Shifters needed their mates for more than sex and to have an heir, which she was going to inevitably have to prepare for. That was okay, she was ready for it.

Part of her preparation for this whole endeavor was studying and reading up on how to stay fit while pregnant so that her body wouldn’t be totally destroyed by the inevitable pregnancy that would be expected of her. Sure, she was going to have a hard time modeling while pregnant, but there were jobs for pregnant women and she would work as long as she could. She wanted to make sure that she could take care of everything that was dependent upon her.

She pushed herself off the stool and knew she wasn’t excited for the whole idea of getting pregnant, but that was part of the deal. Shifters didn’t want roommates that they could fuck on the side. No, they wanted people who would help them carry on their legacy and would make sure their line survived. It was going to be a day Oksana wouldn’t be able to avoid. As she opened the door to the house and stepped outside, she knew it was better to just accept what was coming and being ready to go through it as gracefully and successfully as possible. After all, she loved children and it wasn’t going to be terrible. In the end, you ended up with a child and that was a pretty great reward for a year of struggling.

She walked down to the edge of the yard where the sidewalk was running along the side of the house and watched a man pass her, listening to music, his eyes never deviating from the running path that he had chosen. She admired his conviction and the fact that he had a wedding ring on his finger made her even more proud of him. She liked it when men were able to control themselves around her, especially when they already had a committed wife waiting for them at home. It gave her hope in the goodness of men, especially when they were always throwing themselves at her when she went anywhere.

That was something that worried her about Mike and Will. They had selected her, but there was a reason why so many Shifters had avoided her like the plague. They knew that there were going to be a lot of men around her that would flirt with her and jealousy was a problem that all of her exes had to deal with. Mike and Will were going to realize very quickly that men were brazen animals and they were going to be coming up to her all the time. If a Shifter couldn’t control his anger, then they were going to get into some situations they weren’t going to enjoy. That was something that had hindered her on the forums and on the Shifter websites. Most of them knew their limits and realized certain women were high maintenance, requiring they went out a lot and Oksana definitely looked high maintenance. It wasn’t an insult to her. She just liked what she liked.

As she jogged down the streets, passing men who whistled at her or women that glared at her with envy and jealousy, she realized she was at home here. There were more people who simply ignored her or smiled at her than there were in Ukraine.  She liked feeling like she was just another beautiful women among the multitude that were already out, enjoying the day that was waiting for them. That was part of the life that she had desperately wanted for herself.

Making her way back toward the house, she took in the sights and the sounds of the city waking up, or at least the neighborhood. It was somewhere she had never been before and for the first time since she was here, she felt like she was getting a chance to see what life was like in America. Honestly, people were pretty much the same no matter where you went in the world, but the way of life was always different, no matter where you went. Customs and decisions people made were always unique and different. She liked getting a chance to see all of it. She liked seeing the world through different eyes at different places. It was a whole new experience. This was the world that seemed like she was meant to be a part of.

When she made it back to the house, it was a little after six and she watched as people got ready, walking out to their cars or opening their garages as they headed off to their plans or to their jobs that were waiting for them. She smiled at anyone who waved to her or even looked at her. She wanted to be friendly with people and she wanted to see what the world was like for the average American.

She remembered hearing people tell her that Americans were rude or mean people. But, as she was making her way to her home, she noticed the exact opposite. People were nice and they were friendly here. Most of them weren’t even flirting with her or being nice to her just to get a chance to check her out. No, they seemed like they were genuinely interested in her. As she stopped in front of the house, her hands on her hips as her chest heaved up and down, trying to catch her breath and cool down, she knew she should take another lap around the block, but she didn’t want to. She paced back and forth in front of the house and looked at it, seeing that it was still dark, full of sleeping souls. She didn’t want to go back in there right now. She could feel the sweat covering her body and slowly trickling down her arms and back.