Bought for Christmas (2 page)

She
didn’t need any
boys
in her life, and she might never get rich working
as a midwife, but she loved her job, and how many people could say that?

“You
should smile more, kitten.”

Hunter’s
cool words shook her out of her internal musings, and her heart missed a few
beats under his intense scrutiny. Standing sideways, so that his scars weren’t
visible, Hunter watched her from under hooded lids with a curious tilt to his
full lips. They were surrounded by several days’ worth of scruff that extended
along his square jaw and disappeared into the neckline of his shirt—a pink one,
much to Emilia’s amusement. His very presence pulled her under his spell. So
much so that she must have missed something, if the way both her father and
brother scowled at her was anything to go by.

“Have
you lost your brain completely?” Leo said, and grabbed the wall for support.
“Go get some coffee, thunder thighs. I need some, and no doubt our beast here
will want some, too.”

Emilia
winced at the look of utter disgust and hatred both her father and brother
threw toward Hunter, and he seemed to grow taller in front of her eyes. Hands
balled into fists by his side, jaws clenched, a rumble emanated from Hunter’s broad
chest, and Leo blanched and put his hand up in an act of surrender. Emilia was
half expecting her lily-faced brother to lose control of his bodily functions,
and Papa, too, looked pale under his tan.
Pale and very old,
as he glanced at her and jerked his head to the kitchen in a clear demand.

“You
heard your brother.
Coffee.”

“Please
don’t trouble yourself on my account, Emilia.” Hunter gave her a grim smile,
and the almost growl in his voice had every feminine cell in her body sigh in
submission. She could listen to him talk all day.

“And
you, pup, don’t talk to her like that in front of me. Not if you’re fond of
your own teeth, that is.” Hunter took a step toward Leo, and Emilia knew her
mouth had fallen open in astonishment at hearing Hunter come to her rescue.

“I
talk about her any which way I fucking want,
beast.
She
ain’t
yours yet. Fail to see why you’d want her anyway.”

“Leo, enough.
Let me handle
this.” Papa’s stern words brought Leo’s head up, and he stuck his bottom lip
out in a sulk so reminiscent of the brother she used to adore as a child that
emotion clogged up Emilia’s throat. She swallowed past the lump and focused on
what her brother had actually said.

“What
do you mean, I’m not his yet?” The earlier snatched bits of conversation she’d
heard came back to haunt her, and she looked among the three men in dawning
terror.

“What
did you do, Leo?” she asked.

Her
brother stuck his hands in his pockets, and that sulk grew. Right now he looked
like a petulant child who hadn’t gotten the toy he wanted for Christmas.

“He
cheated, I’m sure.”

Again
that menacing growl rumbled from Hunter, and Emilia clenched her thighs
together, as he stepped close enough to her that his scent drew her in again.
Waves of heat seemed to come off him, and chased away the
goosebumps
that had broken out on
her own
flesh at the underlying
tension in the room.

“Watch who you’re calling a cheat, pup.
I’m not the one
who cannot hold his drink and threw his own sister to the wolves.”

Leo
gave a humorless laugh and shrugged his shoulders.

“Says the guy who can’t get a woman to
fuck unless he buys her.
Have you looked in the mirror lately, beast?
You …
umph
.”

Hunter
moved so fast that Leo couldn’t even raise his fists. One well aimed punch to
his solar plexus had her brother doubled over and gasping for breath, and then Hunter
pinned him against the wall. Hand around Leo’s throat, he had the younger man
dangling several feet off the floor, and Emilia dropped the coat she was still
clutching and pulled at Hunter’s arm to get him off her brother.

“Let
go, please. You’re going to kill him.”

Hunter
paid her no heed. Over the rushing of blood in her ears, and the outraged
shouts of her father, Leo turned blue. His legs made futile attempts at kicking
Hunter,
and with both hands on a death grip on
Hunter’s wrist, Emilia still couldn’t shake the much taller man off. In a last
act of desperation, Emilia ducked under Hunter’s arm, earning herself a painful
kick in the ribs from her brother in the process, and reaching up framed
Hunter’s face in her hands.

Her
breath stalled at the different textures under her fingertips. One side had
smooth even skin, covered by his stubble; the other was a mass of corded,
scarred, raised flesh, which felt rough and tight under her hand.

A
shudder went through Hunter at her touch, and he turned his head to look at
her. Emilia gasped at the inhuman eyes staring back at her until he blinked,
and they were once again the deep chestnut brown she was used to.

“Please,
let him go. He’s my brother, please.”

Hunter
shook his head and then let go of Leo. Her brother fell to the floor, and
Emilia let go of Hunter and scrambled to Leo’s side to help him up. Dazed as he
was, he still pushed her help away and let their father pull him up instead.
The rejection stung, and Emilia was dimly aware of Hunter’s deep sigh behind
her. He bent to pick up his abandoned coat, brushed the dust off it, and
stepping closer to her, nudged her chin up with his knuckles.

“They
don’t deserve your concern, kitten.” The ghost of a smile kicked up his mouth,
and then he stepped away from her and looked the men in her family up and down.

“I’ll
be outside. Let me know what your decision will be, and I’ll have my lawyers
draw up the contract one way or the other, though I fear I know what it will
be. Know this, however. I need to hear it from her, or the deal is off.”

With
those ominous words he stalked off. The quiet thud of the front door sounded
too loud in the room, and Emilia squared her shoulders and faced her father.

“What
does he mean by that? What deal?”

The
lights of the Christmas tree danced across her father’s tired features, adding
another layer of weird to this whole scenario. Papa at least looked slightly
chagrined, but that just made Emilia’s apprehension grow.

“The
bastard has cleaned your brother out. With Leo’s shares he’s now the majority
shareholder and we’re finished unless—”

“Unless
what?” she asked.

“Unless you agree to his terms.
You see he’s
bought either you or the company.”

Chapter Two

Hunter
took a deep, cleansing breath of the chilly air, and braced his hands on the
roof of his car. That had been too damn close. Even now his bear prowled under
his skin, ready to tear the pup to shreds who dared to insult his mate.

He
was so damn fucked. This, right here, was the reason he kept his distance from
Emilia. His bear was a volatile fucker at the best of times, but this close to
the object of all of his desires there was no controlling him.
 
His beast wanted to sink his incisors into
her soft flesh, and mark her as his. He wanted to see her ample curves bound in
ropes, her body covered in the marks of his possession, while he sank his
aching cock deep into her sweet pussy and pumped her full of his seed, leaving
her to scream his name, as she gushed all over his prick.

Groaning
he shook his head and adjusted his dick. Fat chance of any of that happening
now, after the stunt he’d pulled in there. Emilia was loyal to a fault, and
despite the appalling way her father and brother treated her, she loved them,
and always stood by them. Over the years, he’d watched her grow from the shy
little girl, who used to spy on him through the banisters, to a gangly, equally
shy teenager, and then a beautiful young woman who seemed unaware of her
appeal. Emilia had curves to die for, not that the men in her father’s circle
seemed to appreciate them. Hunter had scared many a potential suitor away from
his kitten with a few quietly spoken words, until Emilia herself had grown wise
to the gold diggers and told them all to take a hike.

Hunter
smiled to himself. She might be all soft womanly curves, but his girl had teeth
and hidden claws, just like a kitten, and he had no doubt he would get the
sharp end of her tongue when she found out what he had done.

The
sound of the door opening made him turn around slowly, just in time to see her
bunch her hand into a fist, before it connected squarely with the side of his
face, and he saw stars briefly.

For
such a little thing she sure packed a punch.

“You damn … oh,
ow
.
Shit, damn it.
What’s your fucking jaw made out of, concrete?”

Tears
sprang into Emilia’s expressive green eyes, and she waved her abused hand up
and down, her lips pulled together in a thin line.

“Here,
kitten,
let me see what you’ve done to yourself.”

Hunter
reached out to her, but she snatched her hand away and glared up at him.

“Don’t
you fucking touch
me.
”

Hunter’s
bear roared at the rejection, and Emilia went even paler, as though it had just
dawned on her that they were very much on their own out here. No help would be
forthcoming from her menfolk, and he had no doubt that his bear showed in his
eyes.

Taking
a deep breath to calm himself he ordered his beast to stand down, and once he
could be reasonably sure that he wouldn’t shift the minute he touched her, he
held out his hand.

“Let
me check you haven’t broken anything. Your hand is already swelling. You’ll
need to put ice on it at the very least.”

Emilia
continued to glare up at him, but she did give him her hand after a moment’s
hesitation. A jolt of recognition went up his arm at the touch of her flesh on
his, and Emilia gasped, as though she, too, felt the connection between them.
Then again it could have been a gasp of pain, and Hunter examined her fingers
as gently as he could.

Her
unmistakable whimper of pain made his guts twist in on
themselves
,
and acting on instinct and the desperate need to taste her, he bent his head,
and gently kissed each swollen knuckle in turn.

Emilia’s
pulse sped up under his lips, and she tried to pull away, but
he wouldn’t, couldn’t, let her
. For once his beast was
content, drinking in her scent, her taste, the very perfume of her skin.

“
Wha
-what are you doing?” Her breathless question shot
straight to his groin, and he tightened his hold on her and smiled.

“Taking
care of what’s mine,” he said, and she rolled her eyes and tugged again. This
time he let her go, satisfied that nothing was broken and she would heal.

“Why
did you do this?” she asked and wrapped her arms around her. Hunter would have
thought it was a defensive gesture, were it not for the blue tinge to her lips
and the way she shivered. Her eyes widened when he took his coat and wrapped it
around her shoulders.

“Here,
you’ll freeze otherwise. Perhaps we should take this discussion into the
warmth.”

Emilia
shook her head with so much force more of her hair came out of her up-do, and
Hunter fisted his hands to stop himself from reaching out and tucking her hair
behind her ear.

“I’m
not going back in there, until we’ve hashed this out.” She jerked her head back
toward the house and blinked away tears. “Besides, I won’t be welcome unless I
agree to this crazy stunt of yours.”

Hunter
swore under his breath, and she looked up at him and gave him a watery smile,
while putting her arms into the coat sleeves. They hung over her hands, so
Hunter stepped up to button his coat up for her.

“You
don’t have to do that.” She whispered the words, but he paid her no heed, and
carried on, mentally thanking the designer for the double breasted buttons
which meant he had the perfect excuse to linger. His knuckles brushed her erect
nipples as he did up the last few buttons, and Emilia gasped. She didn’t pull
away however, and it wasn’t fear or disgust he sensed from her, but
arousal,
and he inhaled deeply to pull her scent into his
lungs. The action calmed his bear, but did nothing for his own state of
arousal.

“Why?”
she asked again, when he’d finally done up the last button, and leaned back
against his car.

Hunter
shrugged his shoulders, all ready to give a flippant reply, but the expression
in her eyes as she looked up at him stopped him. The light was fading fast out
here, the temperature dropping, and Emilia pulled his coat tighter around
herself, as their breaths frosted in front of their faces. As a shifter Hunter
didn’t feel the cold like humans did, but without his bear’s fur for protection
he, too, started to feel the cold creeping up his legs. He stomped his feet to
get the circulation back into them and stuffed his hands into his trouser
pockets. It had the added advantage of being able to adjust his dick somewhat.