Touchdown Daddy (74 page)

              Recovering for the next few weeks left Clara with a lot to think about. Mostly, her relationship with Nathaniel, and the growing love she had for the life growing inside of her. The attack had left their lives in a sort of chaotic jumble. Their business life was put on hold in favor of pacifying the police, the media and their coworkers with an explanation of what had happened and how Jeremy had wound up dead on the floor of Nathaniel’s apartment.

              Fortunately, the majority of the scandal had wound up pushed under the rug in favor of an investigation into Jeremy’s motives. The police settled on some sort of crime of passion and determined that Jeremy was simply jealous of the relationship that Clara and Nate had. Clara honestly didn’t care what they thought. She just wanted things to go back to normal.

By the time that the investigation was over and done with, Clara had just reached her nine-month mark. Just before their child entered the world, Clara decided to resign from her position within the company.

              Of course, she didn’t have any intention of stopping her career forever. She had every intention of returning back to the hustle of corporate life but decided she would rather spend the first year or two of their child’s life at home. Nate had been reluctant to let her leave the business for so long but agreed that if he couldn’t be at home with the baby, at least she could be.

              “Riley, don’t put that in your mouth, hun,” Clara scolded, scooping her daughter off the ground with a frown when the baby snagged onto a stick she found on the grass of their back yard. At only six months old, the child was already completely mobile. Her father’s genes allowed her to progress far more quickly than an average child.

              This, of course, left Clara needing to give the child far more attention than the average baby required. She didn’t mind, of course. The little growls and squeaks that the child let out were endearing, and she couldn’t think of a single day that she didn’t wake up happy to hold her little girl in her arms.

              “How are my girls this morning?” Nate grinned, wrapping his arms around his lover’s waist and kissing their daughter’s face with a chuckle while she squealed and hid against her mother’s shoulder.

              “Just fine. We need to get her something a little sturdier than the baby teething rings, though. She keeps destroying them.” Clara chuckled as Riley chewed on her own fist with little razor-like teeth. “She takes more after you, I think.” Nate laughed at this, shaking his head.

              “Wait until she starts randomly changing shape,” he grinned, winking at his flustered wife with a laugh. “Nonsense, she’s got your eyes, your hair. She is very much your little girl,” he insisted, kissing Clara’s cheek and scooping his daughter into his arms. “How bout we start lunch, huh?” he asked Riley, who let out a babble of excitement and clung onto her father’s fingers.

              Smiling, Clara watched as her lover moved inside, her heart fluttering softly in her chest. She had never thought she’d be so happy living a life like this. She had insisted that she would never get married, let alone have kids, and yet there she was, watching her husband and daughter dance in the kitchen with a warm feeling in her chest.

              Of course, her life was still far from traditional, she mused, laughing as her husband let out a squeak of pain when the child sank her newly grown teeth into his finger.  Shaking her head, she moved inside. It looked like her husband needed her to rescue him, and she was more than happy to do so.

On her arm, she could feel the mark that combined her and her mate start to flood with warmth, her eyes sparkling as she moved up to her mate and scooped her child into her arms. Her world was a bit strange, but to her, it was perfect.

*****

THE END

Bonus Book 15: The Alpha Wolf's Baby

By:
T.S. Ryder

Description

A curvy secretary with a new job PLUS her hot shifting boss who is leader of his pack PLUS a deadly duel!

All Bianca Jamison was looking for was a job, but what she found when she entered
McKenna Enterprises
was danger, intrigue and the kind of passion she was certain would never happen to her...

Men never looked at her the way Eric McKenna did – and why should they? With so many fit and slender beauties out there, who would want to give her curves a chance?

Billionaire and Alpha of the New York Pack, Eric McKenna, is going through some rough times. The Law of his Pack states that an Alpha who cannot produce a son within the first year of his rule has to cede the position – and his year is almost up...

And then Bianca Jamison appears with her Rubenesque beauty and a scent he cannot resist, and the next thing he knows, he’s fantasizing about taking her in the elevator of his office building mere seconds after they’d met!

When Pack politics take the turn for the bloody and betrayal puts both his and Bianca’s life in grave danger, Eric knows he has to keep her safe.

The only question is: will he be able to restrain the powerful passion blossoming between them?

Once security cleared her, Bianca Jamison ran towards the elevator, desperate to catch it. If she didn’t reach the 11th floor within the next five minutes, she’d be late for her job interview. It was the first one she had been invited to in the past three months, and she wanted to do everything in her power to make the best impression possible... which, for her, was difficult enough to begin with. People usually took one look at her 230 lb. body, and everything else about her – the fact that she had graduated at the top of her class, the excellent references she had got from every internship she did during college, the two foreign languages she spoke – immediately became invisible.

So when McKenna Enterprises called, Bianca knew she had to come in all guns blazing, decked up in her most professional duds, determined to make them see her, and not her weight... but then her bus had got caught in a traffic jam, and now all her efforts would go to waste if she didn’t catch the damn elevator.

She could see the door beginning to close and frantically called, “No! Please, stop!” To her immense relief, a hand extended from inside to stop the door from closing, just in time for her to reach it. Her shoes slid against the marble floor as she came to a sudden halt.

Taking a moment to regain both her balance and her breath, Bianca looked up to thank the kind stranger who was still holding the door open for her...

...only to meet a pair of pale blue eyes observing her with unbridled interest.

Bianca gulped, suddenly understanding how prey felt when face-to-face with a predator. There was nothing inherently frightening about him. He was a handsome man in his early thirties, about half a foot taller than her, cut lean but strong, dressed in clothes that were understated but obviously expensive – a russet suit and crisp white shirt, unbuttoned at the top, and no tie. His sandy hair was cropped into a Caesar cut and he had the kind of tan that spoke of hours spent in outdoor activities.

But that look in his eyes like he was wondering what she tasted like... yeah.
That
made her shiver.

“Well?” he asked, his brow raised quizzically, as if he was daring her to step inside. His voice, a little on the rough side, fit him perfectly, and Bianca thought that she wouldn’t be surprised if she found out women were lining up at his bedroom door – they’d literally just met and she could already feel the heat rising under her skin. He had a presence that went beyond attraction, something almost primal that she could not help but respond to.

But then she remembered the reason she was there and mentally slapped herself for losing her concentration so easily. She nodded and stepped inside, scurrying off into a corner of the elevator. The man smirked and moved his hand, letting the door close.

“Which floor?” he asked.

“11th, please,” she replied.

A wolfish grin appeared on his lips as he pressed the button, his eyes not leaving her even once. Bianca had a feeling that she should be afraid... and yet, instead, she felt heat pool between her thighs, making her frustrated with herself. He was dangerous – he
looked
dangerous – but, for some reason, that realization only made her want him even more.

Meanwhile, Eric McKenna was exercising more self-restraint than he had thought was possible for any werewolf enclosed in such a small space with a woman at the peak of her monthly cycle, let alone for a fully-fledged Alpha on the first day of the full moon.

Granted, her pheromones weren’t the only thing wreaking havoc on his control. In fact, he was wondering if there was a man alive who could see how beautiful she was and not want to take her on the spot.

She had a sweet, heart-shaped face with large brown eyes and small, full lips. He was already fantasizing about them being wrapped around him while she was on her knees. Her chestnut hair was bound in a tight French bun, and both her makeup and her nails were well done, using only natural tones. She wore no perfume, for which his highly sensitive nose was very grateful.

And her body... the charcoal sheath dress that encased her from neck to knee did nothing to hide the generous curves of her voluptuous figure. She was built like a pinup, though with much thicker padding, with large breasts, a pronounced waistline despite the roundness of her belly and wide hips with a juicy bottom stacked on top of thick, strong thighs.

The wolf in him whispered to the most primal of his desires, demanding he take her, but the man forced himself to stay where he was. The only thing on the 11th floor was his own company, which most likely made her a potential client – and, more to the point, she was a complete stranger. He did not need this complication... though his Beta would probably disagree.

“You know your year is almost up,” Brian had reminded him just last night, for what seemed like the millionth time, “Might and issue, Eric. Those are the requisites, and you’re stalling on the issue part.” Eric had argued him out of his house not even a full hour later, but for all that he hated to admit it, Brian was right. In his pack, an Alpha had as many duties as he had privileges, but even the worst Alpha could still legitimately hold a claim to his title if he met two conditions – defeating any pretenders to the position who issue a formal Challenge, and proving his fertility by having a healthy son. For the previous Alphas of the pack, who had already had families before they assumed the position, this had not been a problem, unless they had only daughters. In that case, they had three years to produce an heir.

A childless Alpha had one.

Knowing that he had no choice, Eric had done his part and, ever since he obtained his title, had knocked boots with pretty much every willing she-wolf he could find, even though the forced nature of those couplings bothered him greatly. Sex was supposed to be fun and emotional; what he had been having for the past year could only be called clinical.

And he couldn’t blame the ladies, either. It wasn’t their fault that the same magic that gave werewolves their heightened senses, the ability to shapeshift and many other perks made werewolves far less fertile than humans – which
was
a loophole he could’ve taken advantage of if the idea didn’t make him sick to his stomach. He had too much honor to knock up some poor woman who had no idea what she’d be getting into and convince her to keep the baby he would then have to take away. Even when one parent was human, a child of a werewolf was always a werewolf.

To prevent any accidents, Eric had stopped having sex with human women altogether. It was a decision he was currently very tempted to revoke, especially when he caught the sweet, sweet scent of arousal from the woman across from him. The beast inside him fought to take control with a vengeance.

With a stifled growl, Eric closed his eyes and let his head fall back against the wall of the elevator, praying that whatever business this woman had in his firm had nothing to do with him...

With a loud ding, the elevator stopped, and Bianca fought the urge to flee as soon as the door opened. The fact that the man in front of her made her feel both aroused and apprehensive was no excuse to be rude, especially since, for all the teasing, he hadn’t actually
done
anything that would justify her nervousness. He had just stood there and... watched her, without blinking once, until he had closed his eyes and rested the back of his head against the elevator door a few seconds before they reached the 11th floor. And, when they did, he was courteous enough to politely gesture for her to exit the elevator first. She nodded and stepped out, doing her best to hide her relief.

She’d heard him step out as well a moment later, but she didn’t dare to look to see where he went, heading straight to the reception desk instead. A glance at the clock behind the receptionist’s back told her that she’d arrived just in the nick of time, which took some of the nervousness away, and moments later a secretary arrived to take her to meet with the head of HR.

The interview went much better than she had anticipated. Faster, too, since the woman Bianca was going to temp for had left abruptly, and they needed someone to jump into her shoes as soon as possible. “Mr. McKenna’s personal assistant broke her ankle and will be out for two months,” Ms. Fonseca explained, “His secretary will be taking over for her, but we need someone who will aid her since she’ll basically be doing two jobs at once. She personally handpicked the candidates, so you’ve come pre-approved, and if you can start right away then the job is yours.” Bianca was a little disappointed. The original job posting did say that this would be a temporary position, but only two months? That was far too short a time.

But she was desperate, and a good reference from McKenna Enterprises could potentially open more doors for her, so she decided to accept the offer. An hour and a mountain of paperwork later, Bianca had the pleasure of being introduced to her new (albeit temporary) boss, Janet Hutchinson.

Ms. Hutchinson was a kind but firm woman in her 50s, and Bianca spent the next few hours running through the ins and outs of her new job with her, taking notes and trying to memorize as much as she was able to in such a small amount of time. “I’m so happy you’ve decided to take the position,” she told Bianca, once they were done and making the necessary plans for the next day. “You were my first choice on the list.”

Bianca felt her cheeks redden a little. “Thank you,” she replied, and was just about to ask about the minutes she’d be taking during one of the next day’s meetings when Ms. Hutchinson looked somewhere behind Bianca’s shoulder and exclaimed, smiling, “Hello, Mr. McKenna.”

She turned around to see a handsome young man with a cheerful look on his face. He looked around thirty and had those classically handsome features often favored by the fitness modeling companies: manly, but well groomed. He was tall and cut a fine figure in impeccably tailored attire, with a gold Patek Philippe glinting on his wrist and his entire pose that of a man confident in his style. Bianca found herself envying him; he had the air of a man who was always satisfied with what he saw in the mirror, something she was sure she’d never achieve.

“Janet, please.” He smiled to the secretary, and took her hand for a kiss. “You know you don’t have to stand on ceremony with me. That’s Hector’s gig.” Ms. Hutchinson chuckled.

“In the office, you are Mr. McKenna,” she told him, in a motherly tone that told Bianca Ms. Hutchinson had probably known Jason McKenna since he was a boy.

“So strict,” he sighed dramatically, before his eyes moved to Bianca. “And who is this lovely lady?” Mr. McKenna asked, sizing her up. Despite his charm, she couldn’t help feeling uncomfortable about him, which struck her as strange. Jason McKenna was a very handsome man, even more handsome than the man she had met that morning, and yet she didn’t feel the least bit attracted to him.

“Meet Bianca Jamison,” Ms. Hutchinson said. “She’ll be assisting me while I cover for Mrs. Jackson. Ms. Jamison, this is Mr. Jason McKenna, head of the company’s financial sector.”

Bianca nodded and took the hand Mr. McKenna offered for a shake. “How do you do, sir?” she said politely, “I look forward to working with you.”

Jason McKenna laughed.

“Oh, I’m not Janet’s boss,” he replied, amused. “Though not for the lack of trying. I’ve been trying to sweet-talk both her and Susannah into leaving my brother for me for almost a year now, but they’re just too darn loyal... even though I know I’m their favorite.”

Ms. Hutchinson chuckled, wagging her finger at him playfully. “Not for long, if you keep teasing that way,” she chided him, but her heart was clearly not in it; she was too obviously fond of the man. “It’s bad enough that she’s in such a position that she had to take the job of a glorified errand girl for just two months even though she’s more than qualified to take over for me if she had to,” Ms. Hutchinson told him, “She doesn’t need you playing around with her as well.”

She then turned back to Bianca. “As you know, the company was started and run by Richard McKenna up until his death last fall,” she explained patiently. “His three sons now run the company together, though each of them continues to work mainly in the sectors they were responsible for before Richard passed away. I’ve already told you Jason here runs the finance, but his brothers, Hector and Eric, run IT and marketing respectively.”

Bianca nodded. “And we work for…?” she asked, not hazarding a guess out of fear of appearing silly.

“That would be me,” a familiar voice chimed from behind, and a hot tremor shot down Bianca’s spine.

She turned around to see two men standing before her. The taller one of the pair was built like a linebacker, with huge, bulging muscles, enormous hands and a rough, square face that had a decidedly unfriendly expression. Nothing, not even the clearly expensive tailored suit he wore, could make this man look like anything other than a mob enforcer.

The man standing next to him was the same man from the elevator.

“Hector, Eric,” Jason greeted them merrily, “This is Bianca Jamison. She’ll be helping Janet while she’s filling in for Susanna. Ms. Jamison, these are my brothers. The man-mountain over there is Hector, and the beach bum over there is your boss, Eric.”

Eric McKenna rolled his eyes, but it was Hector who spoke, his voice low and rough as gravel. “That kind of language is rude and unprofessional, and has no place in the office,” he said, his attitude just as formal as his attire, and Bianca now understood Jason’s earlier comment much better.

Eric, however, didn’t seem amused by either of his brothers at the moment. “Leave it be, Hector,” he told his brother, before turning to Bianca. “You’ll have to excuse my brothers, Ms. Jamison. Hector is a stickler for protocol and Jason thinks anyone who doesn’t wear the full Klein Epstein & Parker regalia is a hobo.”

Bianca wasn’t sure whether or not she should say something on the subject, or even if it was expected of her to do so, so she decided to rely on non-committal politeness to get her through this unexpected snag. “I understand, sir,” she replied, nodding first to Eric and then Hector before adding, “Pleased to meet you.” Not terribly eloquent of her, but at least she knew she wasn’t stepping over any lines.

Hector McKenna nodded, but when he spoke again, he was addressing his brother Eric. “I’ll see you later,” he said simply and, after nodding a goodbye to Ms. Hutchinson, left without much ceremony.

Jason snickered but went instantly quiet when Eric shot him a sharp look.

“I should get going too,” the dandyish McKenna brother announced. “I just came by to drop this off.” He then pulled a thumb drive out of the inner pocket of his jacket and handed it over to Eric. “I don’t know why you need it, but I’d like to,” he said, suddenly sounding... serious, almost. But the change in his expression was gone as soon as it appeared, mirth returning to his features. “Ladies.” He smiled at them and nodded before leaving, and Bianca could not help but think that there were probably no three brothers more profoundly different from each other than the McKennas were.

Hector McKenna was terrifying and cold, Jason McKenna irreverent and suave, and Eric McKenna... knowing who he was did nothing to lessen the effect he had on her, but it did change the way she felt about it. Earlier, it was just embarrassing. Now? Now it was downright unprofessional, so much so that she felt awkward just looking in his direction.

Whether or not he could sense her unease, Bianca couldn’t tell, but she was grateful nonetheless when he said, “I’ll leave you to your work now,” and began to walk past them towards his office.