Batch (Paranormal Shapeshifter Romance) (Desired by a Dragon Book 2) Read online

  My eyes shifted to Scarlet in time to see a shiver from her brother’s suggestion slip along her spine. Her tongue snaked out to moisten her plump lips before nibbling along the bottom one. The sight alone had me throbbing against the seam of my jeans.

  “Thanks, I’ll take you up on that offer,” I said, knowing I was in trouble as soon as the words left my mouth.

  Three

  Scarlet

  Music blasted through my bedroom at what felt like an ungodly hour. I reached out and blindly searched for the cause of the noise on my nightstand. Once my fingertips brushed my cell, I pulled it beneath the covers with me and pounded my thumbs against the screen to turn off the alarm. Blissful silence filled the room and I exhaled a deep breath. I flung the blankets off me, knowing I needed to get out of bed now or else risk falling back asleep and being late for work.

  After slipping my fuzzy slippers and silk robe on, I headed downstairs to make a pot of coffee. The moment my feet touched the final step, I froze, realizing Batch randomly showing up hadn't been a dream. He was here. In my house. Sleeping on my couch… in nothing besides a pair of black boxer briefs.

  Holy Hades, I couldn’t breathe.

  I held my breath as my hand squeezed the banister and I allowed my eyes to roam over his body. His muscular torso glinted in the early morning light, causing my fingertips to itch with a sudden desire to trail along the contours of his chiseled abs. He shifted around on the cushions, revealing more of his beautiful body to me, and I grazed my teeth over my lower lip while taking in the bulge in his underwear on display. My thighs quivered as I continued to stare, remembering how large he’d been. Sensations surged through me I hadn’t felt in months and I knew it was all because of him. No one could make me feel the way he did. Lust clouded my thoughts, and before I knew what I was doing, my feet were propelling me toward him.

  Dear God, I wanted to do bad things with him.

  The floorboards creaked beneath my feet and I froze in panic. Batch stirred on the couch and my heart beat triple time as I worried he’d wake and spot me salivating. He folded his arms across his solid chest and shifted to lay on his side still facing me. My eyes closed and I tipped my head back as the breath I’d been holding released.

  “What are you doing?” His voice was low, a deep rumble in his solid chest tinged with sleep.

  I could feel the blood rushing to my face as the realization I’d been busted pinched through my stomach.

  “I noticed the light shining in your eyes and figured I’d close the blinds for you.” The lie was quick to form. Damn, I was good. “I didn’t mean to wake you. The floors are creakier than I thought.”

  “You didn’t wake me, darlin’.” He moved to sit up on the couch and ran his fingers through his long hair. “I’ve been lying here awake for a while.”

  I wrapped my arms around myself, pulling the edges of my robe tighter while wondering if he’d noticed me staring at him. A heavy pause saturated the air as both of us waited for the other to speak.

  “Coffee?” I offered.

  “Sure.” He reached for a pair of dark jeans that had been folded and placed on the coffee table. The second he stood, I turned around and started toward the kitchen, knowing I wouldn’t be able to handle the sight of him tugging clothes on. It hurt my heart.

  “I’m making my coconut crap. Hope you’re okay with that.”

  I could hear the rustling of his jeans as he pulled them on. “Coffee is coffee. I don’t have a preference, as long as it’s not decaf.”

  “That’s one thing you’ll never find in this house. Decaf is an abomination.” I grabbed the coffee pot and moved to fill it with water, thankful my hormones were now back in check.

  “I can agree with that,” he yawned. His arms stretching above his head drew my attention to him as he entered the kitchen. My skin tingled while I watched his muscles shift and ripple beneath his skin from the movement. God, he was muscular. “So, what are your plans for the day?”

  “Work.” It was the only word my brain could form. I needed to stop staring at him.

  Shifting back to the task at hand, I stepped to the coffee machine and poured the water into it. I reached for the coffee and scooped out a few heaping spoonfuls. Movement behind me caught my eye and I glanced back unintentionally. Batch stood a few feet away from me, looking sexy as sin. I hadn’t remembered him having such defined muscles. He’d always had muscles, but never ones this chiseled.

  “Have you been working out more?” I asked.

  I didn’t miss the smirk cutting across his beautiful face as he crossed to the table and situated himself in one of the chairs. “Serves as a good distraction.”

  I shifted around to face him and leaned against the counter. “From what?”

  Batch’s eyes raked over me. An intense, almost agonizing expression twisted onto his face. It wasn’t until then that I questioned if what happened between us might have haunted him this whole time as well. My heartbeat grew sluggish as I worried our two types of hauntings might be different. What if he wished it never happened, while I was standing here wishing it had never ended?

  Charged tension suddenly occupied the space between us.

  “Everything I wish could be different,” he murmured in a deep, rich tone that sent warmth streaking down into my middle.

  “And what would that be?” I knew I was playing with fire by asking, but I couldn’t help myself. It was as though my words had a mind of their own.

  It took Batch a few moments to respond, but when he did there was a wild note whirling in the pitch of his voice. “The way things happened between Silas and Vanessa. The way we had to run. Mainly, though, the way I wish things could be different between me and you.”

  Lust and need kindled hot through my veins. I knew Batch could feel the pull too, because his eyes darkened with a heavy determination I wasn’t aware he possessed as he pushed himself away from the table and stalked toward me. The motion made every single cell inside my body go off in a frenzy. This was what I’d been waiting for, a repeat of the passion that had haunted my dreams and tortured my hormones.

  Batch paused when only inches remained between us. I felt my bones become liquid as his steely gray eyes penetrated mine. A wiry hint of a smile curled at the corner of his mouth as though he could feel my reaction, and taste it in the air. I lifted my eyebrows up in silent question while waiting for him to make a move. A breath of amusement escaped him at my gesture, sending delicious tingles to slip up and down my spine. Seconds passed as we remained locked in one another’s gaze. I leaned into him, hoping to propel whatever was happening between us in the right direction. He stared down at me with an intense, almost torturous expression that had me thinking he was holding back. Something within him shifted and his face grew blank. When he moved, it was to reach above me and pull down two mugs from the cabinet behind me.

  The breath in my chest stilled. He was toying with me. What an asshole.

  He leaned forward and pressed a gentle kiss against my forehead. “How about that coffee now, darlin’?”

  Even though every part of me wanted to push past him and rush straight to my room to hide, I remained where I was, holding my ground. I grabbed one of the mugs from his hand and twisted around to fill it with coffee, placing my back to him. My hands were steady even though my insides trembled as I poured the coffee. I sidestepped him and added generous amounts of both cream and sugar before reaching for a spoon to stir with. Then, I started for the stairs.

  “I need to get ready for work. Help yourself to whatever is in the fridge,” I called from over my shoulder.

  The sound of Batch chuckling filtered through the walls to my ears as I started up the steps. He seemed to find my reaction to him amusing, which did nothing besides piss me off. If that was how he wanted to behave, I was fine with it.

  Two could play that game.

  Four

  Batch

  Willow Vale was tiny. It didn’t take a genius to figure out why the town
was such a shifter haven. The swamp near Silas’s house mixed with the small-town charm seemed as though it would appeal to both sides of a shifter—the human and the animal. Add in that it was one of the few places in the states not corrupted by shifter territories and you had yourself a winner.

  My eyes trailed over each face as I walked the sidewalks of the little town, judging whether they were a shifter or human. I thought I’d pegged a couple shifters, but it was difficult to know if I was right based off their human form. As I studied a woman and her three children standing outside a restaurant, movement within the window behind them caught my attention. Dark hair pulled tight into a ponytail, a white t-shirt, and a pair of the shortest denim shorts known to man was what I zeroed in on.

  It was Scarlet.

  She didn’t have to turn around for me to be certain. I could tell from her backside, because just like her face, I’d memorized every curve of her body. I knew she was a waitress when I saw her leave the house gripping a little black apron along with a pad and pen, but she hadn’t been forthcoming about where she worked. Victory burned through me from figuring it out myself. The sensation didn’t last long, though, because the second Scarlet bent over to retrieve a napkin she’d dropped from the plates she was gathering, my inner dragon rumbled to life with a hunger that was hard to ignore. Her shorts rode up, revealing the sweet curve of her ass. My arms folded across my chest as I continued to stare at her, tormenting myself with thoughts of how much I’d love to possess her body. An image of her lying face down in a bed with that sweet ass high in the air, waiting for me to touch her, powered through my mind. I pictured all her long, dark hair spilling across the mattress, begging for my hands to tangle within it and tug.

  After having sex with her months ago, I knew being around Scarlet would be difficult, but I hadn’t known it would bring about something so powerful or primal within me, and cause such an instinctive response from both my dragon and my man.

  “Batch.” Sebastian’s familiar voice startled me, and I shifted to face him. “Silas mentioned you were in town. How have you been, brother?”

  I unfolded my arms and crammed my hands into my front pockets to hopefully hide the high excitement stirring in my crotch. The last thing I needed was for one of Scarlet’s brothers to catch me ogling her through a window with a boner.

  “I’ve been good,” I nodded. “How about you?”

  “Good, good.” A shit-eating grin formed on his face. “So, are you standing out here because you’re hungry for some food or just for my little sister?”

  All the blood left my face and my heart skipped a few beats.

  “Joke. I’m joking!” Sebastian tossed his hands up in surrender as his head tipped back in laughter.

  “Funny,” I muttered through a clenched jaw.

  “Although, I do have to say I’d probably be happier about seeing her date you instead of some of the schmucks she has been lately. I know Silas would, for sure.”

  His words threw me off, but not for long. “Yeah, yeah. Whatever.”

  “I’m serious, man. You should see some of the douchebags she’s dated recently.” Sebastian reached for the door to the restaurant and stepped inside.

  I followed after him. The scent of savory burgers floated to my nose, making my mouth water. It was nothing in comparison to the sight of Scarlet bent over as she wiped down the counter, though. Her ample cleavage was on display and all I wanted to do was bury my face between her voluptuous breasts. A young guy strode up to her and wrapped his arms around her waist. Rage blistered my insides at the sight of someone else’s hands on her. He bent to her ear and whispered something that made her chuckle, and I thought I would lose it.

  “Speaking of, here’s the latest douchebag.” Sebastian’s words drew me back from the brink of insanity.

  “And you’re okay with this?” I had to ask. How could I not?

  “She does what she wants. Even if I wasn’t, she’d still date him anyway.”

  I didn’t know what irked me more, the fact that Scarlet was dating this punk or that her brothers seemed to be letting her.

  “For how long?” I asked as I followed Sebastian toward the cash register.

  “I think they’ve been on a couple dates. It’s nothing serious.” He paused in front of the register and started talking with the older woman behind it.

  I tuned him out, my eyes zeroing in on Scarlet and her boyfriend. Anger surged through me, causing fire to simmer beneath my veins. I would break this guy’s hands if he didn’t get them off her soon. There was no doubt in my mind.

  As if she could hear my thoughts, Scarlet glanced up and her eyes locked with mine. Her jaw went slack as though the sight of me threw her off, but she gathered herself quickly. Her head tipped back and again she laughed at something the kid said. Kid, yeah, because now that I looked at the guy, I realized he couldn’t be more than nineteen years old.

  What the hell was Scarlet doing with a nineteen-year-old?

  Maybe this was why Sebastian and Silas didn’t seem worried—because they thought it would fizzle out soon due to the age difference. For a split-second, I found myself wondering if Scarlet and I had continued what we’d started months ago, would that be how her brothers viewed our relationship? After all, I was twenty-eight. I had a good five years on her.

  Scarlet placed her hand on the kid’s cheek and tapped it as she said something to him. Through all the chattering surrounding me, and the distance between us, I couldn’t make out her words. The second he released his hands from her waist and backed up, I knew it had to be something along the lines of her needing to get back to work. I rolled my neck, finding relief in seeing his hands back where they belonged—at his damn sides.

  “Got my order.” Sebastian waved a white paper sack in front of my face. Whatever was inside smelled awesome. “Gotta head back to the shop, but I’m sure I’ll catch up with you later.”

  “Yeah, sure. See you later.” I didn’t look at him because I couldn’t pull my eyes away from Scarlet. Maybe it was wrong of me, and maybe it was too obvious, but who the hell was this clown, and how could she be seeing him? How could she be seeing anyone? I couldn’t think of another woman, let alone touch one. Scarlet was it for me. She teased me in my damn dreams just as much as she did while I was awake.

  “Would you like to place an order?” the older woman behind the register asked.

  I wasn’t hungry, but I wasn’t about to walk out of this place without food in hand either. I didn’t need Scarlet thinking I’d been searching for her for any reason. I wanted it to seem as though the prospect of a good meal had been the only thing on my mind when I stepped through those doors.

  “Can I get a menu?” I asked.

  “Sure thing.” She pulled a laminated menu from the stack beside her and handed it to me.

  I glanced at Scarlet before letting my eyes drop to the menu. She’d moved on from the counter and was refilling someone’s sweet tea. Whoever the kid was who’d had his hands all over her was still perched at the counter, waiting for her to finish. His eyes were soaking in her backside, same as I had earlier. I wanted to snap his neck. He wasn’t allowed to look at her that way.

  Soft fingertips ran across my shoulders as someone stepped to my side. Cheap perfume saturated the air and I knew whoever was touching me was definitely female.

  “I can help you place an order if you like.” A soft-spoken southern voice filled my ears.

  I glanced over my shoulder and noticed a dark-haired sex kitten speaking to me. She toyed with a strand of her long hair and smacked her lips together as she chewed on a wad of bubblegum while eying me.

  “You seem like a meat and potatoes kind of guy.” She reached up and squeezed one of my biceps as though she couldn’t help herself. “I recommend any of the burgers, except for the Patty melt. It’s too greasy for my personal preference.” She winked as her hand dropped back to her side.

  “Good to know.” My lips quirked into a smile, partly because I could fee
l Scarlet’s eyes boring into me and partly because I didn’t mind being flirted with. It had been quite a while. “I think I’ll have the—”

  “Manhandling the customers again, I see.” Scarlet wove her way between my waitress and me.

  “You know me, Scar.” The sex kitten grinned. “I can’t keep my hands to myself when they look this good.”

  “I’m sure Batch’s ego appreciates the strokes.” Scarlet narrowed her eyes on me and I swore I saw jealousy flaring through them.

  “You two know each other?”

  I shifted to read the name tag glinting in the fluorescent lights on the sex kitten’s white t-shirt. “Oh, we go way back, Becky.”

  The woman’s eyes flashed to mine at the sound of her name passing from my lips and something animalistic shifted through them. She was definitely a shifter, I just couldn’t be sure as to what kind.

  “Unfortunately.” Scarlet rolled her eyes.

  I tipped my head to the side and narrowed my eyes, trying to decipher the expression on her face and tone in her voice. Was she pissed at me for something? Because I was the one who should be pissed, especially after seeing that douchebag’s hands all over her.

  “Oh, Scarlet, honey, look at this man.” Becky squeezed my bicep again and released a sound that reminded me of a cat purring. Maybe she was a cat shifter. “There is nothing unfortunate about knowing him.” She drew her bottom lip into her mouth and grazed her teeth over it as she eyed me up and down one final time before walking away.

  I couldn’t help the wide grin that sprang onto my face. Becky was a piece of work. She was bold and went after what she wanted without being afraid, which kind of reminded me of Scarlet and sort of turned me on.

  “Are you planning on ordering something, or are you just gonna stand there holding the menu and drooling after Becky all day?” Scarlet leaned against the counter, blocking my view of Becky.

  “What’s the matter, darlin’?” I erased the remaining few inches of space between us. “Did you not enjoy seeing someone else with their hands on me? You’re looking a little pissed off.”