The Boss's Proposal (Billionaire Bad Boy BBW Romance)(8)

Suddenly the door to her right opened and Claire's head whipped around  on an instruction from her hindbrain so fast, that her thoughts were  left hanging on their own. A glimpse of pink skin and black fur, a  growled word and then the door shut again. But standing in the room,  looking at her and smiling, was Jed.

"You?!" she managed, fear pulling anger up behind it for backup. "What  the hell is going on here? Why have you brought me here? Where am I?"

Jed, his smile never wavering, raised both his hands palms out. "I mean you no harm."

Claire sneered, "Right, you just decided it would be fun to bring me here for what … ?"

"You were unconscious, we couldn't't leave you there" he said walking  slowly around the bed. Claire swung her feet out of the covers.

"Well thanks and all, but I'm leaving." She stood up and began to walk to the door.

But Jed got there first. He moved like lightning.

"Now, now Claire, we need to talk. I promise I won't hurt you, but you  really do need to listen to me before we do something foolish, and  someone gets killed," Jed said. "You are my guest, well mine and my  brother's. Please promise you will hear us out. You must have so many  questions." His blue eyes bore into her green ones and something inside  Claire began to melt. She let her bag slide down on its strap until it  hit the floor. Jed nodded.

"Good," he said. "I'll get us some food. You must be hungry." Jed  reaching behind his back turned the door handle and opened the door that  Claire had meant to go through in her dash to freedom. It opened onto a  sitting room furnished with two sofas, chairs and a table, a mini  fridge and small coffee station.

"Can I offer you coffee?" Jed asked gently escorting her into the room  to one of the sofas so that the window was behind her. "You Americans do  love your coffee don't you?"

"I guess," she said sitting on the cream colored fabric and running her  fingers over it. Right now she needed to touch something that was  undeniably real and sturdy. Something that wouldn't surprise her, change  and suddenly be something else and in this space the sofa was it. The  fabric was soft but rough, and smelled of hotel, which was to say of  dust and other people's Parfüme.

Jed busied himself at the coffee station putting a pot on to perk.  "Lance is a coffee nut" he said, his back to Claire. "Sometimes I think  he would never get up if he didn't have at least one cup."







"Where is Lance?" she asked edging along the sofa. Looking around the  room, she spotted another door right in front of her. It was perilously  close to where Jed was making coffee. She would never make it to the  door before him, not with him moving so terribly fast.

"He is changing" Jed said not looking at her. "He took a bullet last  night, so I was patching him up. He should be out in a moment."

And the previous night came flooding back to her.

Jed turned, two cups of coffee in his hands, to find Claire pale and  shaking on the couch. He moved towards her but she flinched, pulling her  legs up on the sofa trying to get away from him. Tears ran down her  cheeks.

"You stay away from me!" she cried.

"Claire please, let me explain" Jed said.

The door to the bedroom opened. Claire turned and saw the huge black  bear standing in the doorway. Her breath caught in her throat and she  tried backing away from the creature, through the sofa, until her voice  came back and then she screamed and screamed.



It was a story of sadness and loss. Claire listened as Jed and  occasionally Lance, spoke for hours about their past. They told her the  story of how, as young children, their parents were killed and they were  taken into the service of a Russian drug lord called Sergei.

Raised by this mad man to enforce his law in his drug empire, Lance and  Jed killed on command. Their shape shifting ability was an added bonus,  harnessed by Sergei to make them feared all through the European  underworld.

It had been a fine life for the two as they had the compulsion to hunt  in their veins. So Jed and Lance never asked why, never doubted that  this was the life for them, until one day. That was the day that Jed  found out that he had inadvertently gotten Sergei's youngest daughter  pregnant. When he found out about it, Jed was thrilled. He was excited  to be a father, something he had never had. He and Olga had gone to  Sergei to get his blessing. They could never have predicted his  reaction.

In a rage more terrible than they had ever seen, Sergei slit his own  daughter's throat and let her die in Jed's arms, calling her and her  newly conceived child abominations. Jed went mad too, transformed and  ripped Sergei's throat out. And then he went on a killing rampage  through the compound. Lance was forced to kill to save his brother and  together they fled Europe to England, and then finally to the USA.

"We had no choice" Jed said. "I loved Olga and her death was more than I could take."

"So, now we are hunted, as you saw last night" Lance finished off  draining his whiskey glass. He stood up and went to the minibar, pulling  two small bottles of Bells out and pouring them into his glass. Happy  with the refill he went back to his seat opposite Claire.

"Woah, that's quite a story" Claire said shifting on the sofa. "So those  people you were fighting last night … the guy in the trench coat? He  followed you all the way from Russia? What is he, like a van Helsing or  something?"

"Yes" Jed said smiling. "You see Lance, I knew she would get it."

Lance grunted and took a swig of whiskey. "Dieter Amsel, is his name. He has been … persistent."

"And the others? There were others there but I don't know where they  came from," Claire said trying to recall the previous night. "Damn! I  just … It's all so fuzzy."

"That would be the bump," Jed said smiling and gently laying a hand on  the back of her head. "There, one of Amsel's men missed me and hit you. I  can't explain their lack of professionalism."

"Ah ha" Claire said reaching up to her head and finding Jed's fingers  still lingering. For a moment, a shock ran through her making her heart  beat faster. Then he pulled his hand away and she gently probed the back  of her own head, wincing.

"So now what?" she asked. "You've told me this frankly unbelievable  story … what are you hoping I'll do with it? Don't get me wrong. I'm  really sorry that life has been shitty for you guys. It's just, I'm only  a bartender with a broken home of her own to deal with. What do you  want me to do for you?"

Lance sighed. "I told you this was a mistake brother."

Jed shook his head and stood up. "No! It's not a mistake. We couldn't't  leave her there," then turning to Claire he said, "If Amsel gets his  hands on you, you'll wish you were dead before he's finished with you.  You're safer with us."

"Right" Claire said and stood up. "So if I try to leave will you stop me?"

Jed stood still, his blue eyes boring into hers. He was so close to her she could feel the heat coming off him.







"You kill people for a living" Claire said feeling her heart race in her  chest. Was it fear? Was it anger, adrenalin, lust? Jed was far too  close to her and she was feeling strange. There was something about him,  about them both that was making her say and do things she would never  normally do. She felt wild and free with them, and she knew with freedom  came trouble. Isn't that what her mother had always said? "Whirlwind  romances never last Claire, never. So keep your feet on the ground and  you will be safe." But she'd run off with a man named Patch, who'd been  the lead clown from a traveling circus so Claire doubted she could trust  anything her mother had ever said.

Jed and Lance were a whirlwind and with every moment she spent near them  she was being swept up higher and higher into the air. She had to get  out. She pushed Jed out of the way but he refused to budge.

"Let me go!" she yelled at him.

His hands clasped on her arms, "No," he said and his mouth came down over hers.

At first she fought him, but he smelled of something exciting, and his  body was strong and contoured against hers. His arms wrapped around her,  closing her in a world of their own. She couldn't't fight him, she had  no resistance at all. Her mouth opened to his gentle insistence and she  tasted him, while fireworks went off in her head.

A sound. It was harsh and repetitive, insistent. Lance swore and she  heard him get up. Had he been sitting there on the other couch the whole  time? What must he think of her? She felt Jed pull away, his lips  leaving hers in slow motion as though they would rather never go. He  turned then, releasing her from his embrace.

Claire wiped her mouth on the back of her hand and found Lance looking  at her. He had a look on his face that spoke more to hunger than the  embarrassment she had expected. His eye roved over her and she looked  down, feeling naked in his gaze.