STORY EXCERPT

Halfway across the lobby, his stepped faltered as he inhaled a glorious scent. Closing his eyes, he sniffed the air again. An enticing combination of vanilla, cinnamon, and honey wrapped around him and cut through his negative emotions instantly. From one heartbeat to the next, he was hard and horny and anxious to claim his mate.

It was her. His woman. The mate he’d been looking for since puberty. He didn’t have to go looking for her as he’d promised his mother just twenty minutes before. She had found him. But how had she known?

Opening his eyes, he swept the lobby. Which one? Three women and a man waited for appointments. Adam dismissed the man immediately. No way would the fates mate him with a man. But which one? He couldn’t just go up and sniff each woman’s neck. Not only would it get him slapped, but what would he do once he singled her out? Fall on his knees and beg her to mate him?

No, he had to be more discreet. Filling his lungs again with the sweet smell of his mate, he finished crossing the room and passed through the frosted glass doors that separated the lobby from the inner workings of the office. He stopped in the open doorway to the first office he came to. Sarah would know what was going on. Sarah knew everything that happened in the company, even if he didn’t.

“Who are the people in the lobby?” he asked the older woman who looked harried as she piled several files together.

“Candidates to be the personal assistant you promised me.”

Adam frowned. “Why are they all here at once?”

“Like you, I’m running late. How is your mother?”

“She’s demanding I find my mate.”

Sarah smiled her “indulge the boss” smile. “And?”

Sarah Hansen had been the first employee of Thomasson Enterprises seventeen years before when Adam started the company in the shed in his parents’ backyard. As such, she knew all of Adam’s secrets, including that of his true nature. She was also like a second mother to him as well as a trusted advisor. She and his mother talked daily and were of the same mind that he needed to find a mate instead of dating an endless parade of beautiful, but shallow, arm candy.

“Finding one’s life mate isn’t as easy as you might think.” Adam turned toward his office, but he changed his mind when Sarah followed him into the hall. When she went into the conference room, he followed and took a seat in the corner. Sarah frowned at him but did not order him out of the room.

Once seated, Adam opened the file she offered him and looked over the contents. His photographic memory came in handy as he scanned the pages, which held everything he might want to know about one Margot Jackson. Handing the folder back, he nodded. He was ready. Sarah picked up the phone and dialed the receptionist.

* * * *

Margot flipped through an old copy of a woman’s magazine she thought was offensive. She’d seen the magazine before at the store, and every week it touted a new diet that would blast off the pounds as well as new ways to keep a man hot and horny and other nonsense. And each issue seemed to contradict the week before. She’d already gone through several old issues of business magazines and one on health and fitness. It had been an hour since her arrival, and no one had bothered to explain what the holdup was. Instead, every fifteen minutes another much younger, better-dressed businessperson walked in, gave their name to the receptionist, and took a seat.

She was ready to leave when he stalked through the room. His faded jeans, cowboy boots, and a black leather jacket looked like he’d worn them around the world and back. Except for the clothes, he looked like he’d just stepped off the cover of one of her erotic romance novels. She snapped her mouth closed and discreetly wiped the corners of her mouth to make sure she wasn’t drooling.

Her fingers itched with the need to run through the curly, black hair that hugged his scalp. His bright turquoise eyes were full of anger. He looked like a thundercloud ready to explode. Halfway across the room, he stopped. A look of surprise crossed his face before he closed his eyes and took a deep breath. When he opened his eyes, the anger was gone, and he swept the room with a sharp, assessing gaze.

When she met his bright blue-green eyes, her stomach flipped and she stopped breathing. He was gorgeous.

Her panties grew damp just looking at him. No man, not even her ex-husband, had ever turned her on just by walking in the room and looking at her. Before she could throw herself at his boots, he spun on his heel and disappeared through the frosted glass door behind the receptionist’s desk. That was when she recognized him. That gorgeous man was Adam Thomasson.

A few minutes later, a phone rang. After a short conversation, the woman manning the front desk looked up. “Margot Jackson?”

“Yes.” Margot picked up her purse and stood.

“Through that door and down the hall, second door to the left.”

“Thank you,” Margot said as she crossed to the frosted glass door the man had just walked through. She thought she smelled him, earthy, musky, and male, then chided herself for being fanciful.

She paused for a moment before the second door down the hall to the left.

“Be smart, be cooperative, and do not bend,” she murmured to herself as she lifted her hand. Knocking twice, she winced when it sounded too loud in the silent hallway.

“Come in.”

Opening the door, she swallowed when she saw him sitting off in the corner.

“Good morning, Ms. Jackson. Please sit down.” The woman sitting at the long conference table waved her forward.

Once seated, Margot folded her hands together in her lap so they wouldn’t see her fingers nervously twisting together. Could she get through the next few minutes without making a fool of herself by drooling on the table or throwing herself at the sex god sitting in the corner?

ADULT EXCERPT

Taking a deep breath she turned back, prepared for rejection. When he walked away she would pull on her skirt, blouse, and jacket before leaving. She didn’t need bra and panties to drive home. She wrapped her arms around her middle, trying to hide the extra inches.

 She blinked several times to clear unshed tears from her eyes before trying to read his expression. She blinked again, surprised by what she saw there. He had not turned away in disgust. Nor had his lust-filled expression cooled. He still looked very hungry. His gaze traveled up and down her body as if trying to commit every inch of her to memory.

“You’re beautiful.” He closed the distance between them.

“No, I’m not,” she countered.

A hard hand landed on her left ass cheek. “What the hell?” She lifted her head to glare at him.

“Yes, you are beautiful,” he assured her as his hard cock pushed against her lower belly. “You’re beautiful and all mine. I don’t want you tempting anyone else from now on. I’m the only one who gets to see this lush, beautiful body.” His deep voice dropped even lower as he wrapped his arms around her back and pulled her to close the final few inches between them.

* * * *

Adam sucked in a breath as skin met skin. Closing his eyes, he moved, reveling in the feel of rubbing against his mate. Their combined scents of lust filled the room with a heady aroma that made his need overwhelming. All at once, he was out of control. He had to claim her.

Lowering his head, he brushed his cheek against hers before licking the spot where neck flowed into shoulder. His bite mark was going to look so good there. “Need you now. Right now.”

He blinked when Margot pulled back to look at him. Her amber eyes glowed with a lust all her own. “Take me.”

He wrapped his hands under the cheeks of her ass and lifted her easily. Walking to the desk, he laid her down then lifted her legs high and wide. The tip of his cock brushed against her slick entrance. With a single push of his hips, he was inside her, merging their two bodies into one. She gasped as he pushed deeper and deeper until he could go no farther.

He guided her legs around his back and leaned over until he looked directly in her eyes. “So tight. You feel so damn good, baby girl.”

Lowering his head, he licked a hardened nipple as he slowly pulled out until only the head remained inside.

“More, Adam. Fuck me,” she breathed as she reached up to pull his chest down to cover her. Licking her nipple, he gave up trying to stay in control. Holding her hips steady, he began to fuck her. In seconds his lust spiraled out of control and the beast’s need to claim his mate took over. His canine teeth had already dropped in preparation for this moment.

Hot, wet tissues tightened around him as she rode her lust to its peak. A moment later, he felt her orgasm begin, her cunt caressing him in rippling waves. He thrust deep twice more before lowering his open mouth to her neck.

“My pretty, pretty mate. All mine,” he growled. A heartbeat later his teeth entered her skin, and he claimed his mate.