Claimed By The Lion: A BBW Paranormal Shapeshifter Romance Standalone (BBW Romance, BBW Shifter Romance, BBW Paranormal Romance, Paranormal Shapeshifter Romance) (3 page)

VI.

They started eating lunch together every day after that. It felt like a nice escape from their normal day. Jackson tried to make a point to talk about work some of the time, but Juliet would throw him out of it. He enjoyed that she always brought a sense of fun to the workday. Rebecca had been fun enough, but she mostly just did her job and then went home. Plus, with her being his sister-in-law, he couldn’t exactly fall for her.

Juliet enjoyed watching Jackson open up. Where he had once been so reserved, he became open and funny. He still kept his general cynicism, but she realized more that he was actually quite sarcastic. Before she got to know him, it sometimes seemed like he was just being mean, but (most of the time) he was just making a joke, and it didn’t go well. She found out he had an “almost obsessive” love for Alfred Hitchcock movies that drove him to film school, which he later dropped out of after “pretty much copying” all of his favorite movies. He decided to get into medicine after his dad got sick (also at the urging of Adam, Jackson revealed a few days later.)

On the next weekend, they both woke up with the realization that the month was almost over. Jackson wondered if he could simply ask her to stay, but if he did, he’d have to tell her the truth about himself. He didn’t feel he could do that. On Juliet’s side of things, she started to fear where she could go next. She absolutely had no where to go.

She realized she’d have to tell him what had happened so he understood that she needed to stay. She didn’t realize that he desperately wanted her to stay anyway, but wasn’t ready to reveal himself to her.

              She made herself coffee, preparing to talk to him. He’d been awake for a few hours after being awoken by Adam, who’d forgotten about a conference he’d agreed to go to “many, many months ago.” Jackson worked it out, but it didn’t help with his morning. He decided he’d talk to her to see if she wanted to join him for the conference - it would certainly brighten his mood. When she noticed him crossing the grass, she took a big gulp of the hot coffee (as if that would help.)

              She opened the door before he could knock, “Good morning, Jackson.”

              “Good morning, Juliet,” he greeted. “You look lovely today.”

              “Thank you. Would you like some coffee?”

              “If you have some, that’d be wonderful.”

              She invited him in and poured him some coffee. “You seem to be in a good mood.”

              “I’m in an okay mood. I might be overcompensating.”

              “That’s okay. I wanted to talk to you about something, so it’d good you came over.”

              “I have to talk to you about something too. But you can go first.”

              She took a deep breath. He sat on a stool at the breakfast bar and drank from his coffee.

              “I think it’s time we talk about the night you and I met,” she said finally, trying to appear calm and collected.

              “Is this when you ask for a settlement?”

              “Har har. No, I mean… what I was running from.”

              He drank from his coffee and nodded, “All right.”

              “All right. Well, we talked the other day about my step-dad, right?”

              “We did.”

              “After college, he gave me a job at his car dealership as a secretary. I figured it would be a nice job where I could save money for grad school, but he had other plans.”

              “Were you running from your step-dad?”

              She shook her head, “No. He… he sold me to one of the mobsters he worked for.”

              “Oh my God, Juliet. Are you kidding me?”

              She shook her head again. “The man was going to… he was trying to… you know, take advantage of me, and he beat me when I wouldn’t let him. But I managed to hit him on the head with a lamp, and got away. That’s when you hit me.”

              “That is… the worst story I’ve ever heard,” he responded, pushing his coffee away. “Your step-dad and that man need to be in jail.”

              “I don’t know who the man was. All I know is that… since you took me in, I’ve felt safe. And I know that the month is almost over….”

              “Don’t worry,” he stood and hugged her. “I’ll make sure you’re safe. Maybe you can be my maid after all.”

              She laughed, feeling complete in his arms, “I’ll do whatever I can.”

              “Can you change the oil in my car?”

              “I can certainly try. Your car might not run after, but, you know.”

              He pulled away from her, looking into her deep blue eyes as she looked straight back, “It’ll be okay. Don’t you worry.”

              “You’re probably the best boss I’ve ever had.”

              “Thanks,” he smiled, feeling a slight jolt of disappointment that she only thought of him as a boss. “Speaking of which, I actually have to go to a conference Monday. Would you like to come?”

              “Sure, I’d like that,” she responded. “I don’t remember a conference being on your schedule.”

              “It wasn’t there. Adam scheduled it then forgot. Now he has the baby and can’t do it.”

              “I guess we should cancel your appointments then.”

              “I guess so. I didn’t think about all of that.”

              “Don’t worry, I can help.”

              They finished their coffee, then went inside to work on canceling and rescheduling appointments. Both of them didn’t really expect anyone would answer, but a surprising amount did. And another surprising amount were also going to the conference as well, so it worked out to their benefit. Juliet and Jackson laughed and joked as they waited for their clients and business partners to get back to them.

              “Thank you for understanding and everything,” she said after they’d finished.

              “Of course. I do think we should alert the police about that though.”

              “I suppose we should. Just not now. After the conference, okay?”

              “Okay.”

              They smiled at each other, looking again into the other’s eyes. He felt himself leaning forward to kiss her, but before he could, his phone rang and startled them out of the moment.

              “I’m going to take a nap and pack,” she whispered as to not interrupt his phone call with one of the clients.

              He nodded and watched her go with a sigh. He wasn’t sure if she felt the same as he did, and it made him more self conscious than he’d ever been in his life. He both detested and loved how she made him feel, but he worried what her rejection would do to him. He wasn’t sure he could handle it.

VII.

              On Monday morning, they ate breakfast together, then headed off for the conference. It wasn’t incredibly far away, but Jackson insisted on getting a hotel room. He mentioned the last time he drove home late from a conference, he hit someone with his car.

              “Was this before me then?”

              “Yeah, I hit people with my car all the time. I have a fund specifically for the people that I hit.”

              “I knew there were some literal skeletons in your closet.”

              “If you tell anyone, I will have to kill you. Know that.”

              She shrugged, “Well, okay.”

              They both laughed and gave each other side glances throughout the rest of the ride. They each thought about grabbing the other’s hand, but thought against it. He figured if he had a manual car, he could have “accidentally” touched her hand as he changed gears, but he didn’t actually know how to drive one. She thought about if it would be sexual harassment to try to touch her boss’s thigh during a car ride to a business conference - she figured it would.

              The conference was like nothing Juliet expected - it was like the future squished into a hotel conference room. There were booths giving away knick-knacks and advertising things she didn’t expect for a medical business event. Jackson didn’t seem especially moved by anything, but gave his perfect smile and schmoozed with most of the people there. Many of them knew him already and seemed to be quite enchanted with him. Perhaps it was because of his general attractiveness, but she figured it was more his ideas.

              He also seemed much more personable when putting on the act. She could understand how the business had become so successful. For Jackson, he always wondered if his current and prospective clients, patients, and business associates could tell he was putting up a front. Sometimes he felt like an imposter in his body when he’d put on the smile and the charm. He didn’t feel himself particularly charming, though the smile was easier to come by with Juliet around.

              “I’m really loving all the free things,” Juliet whispered to Jackson after taking another Post-it set with some doctor’s name on it. “So many office supplies.”

              “That’s why we don’t have an office supply budget,” Jackson whispered back. “We get all the essentials from these things. We also write only on Post-its.”

              “That explains everything!”

              A gorgeous skinny bleached blonde woman walked up with a perfect smile to match her perfect body. “Hello, Jackson. Fancy seeing you here.”

              “Oh, hello Marsha,” Jackson gave his amiable, fake smile. “It’s nice to see you.”

              “I was actually hoping you’d be coming to this. I thought maybe we could do dinner?”

              Juliet immediately felt inferior. She tried to hide her curves behind her swag bag, but she figured it didn’t really matter - she was invisible anyway.

              “That sounds nice, Marsha, but I’m having dinner with Juliet here,” Jackson gently nudged Juliet forward. “We came here together.”

              Marsha turned her eyes onto Juliet and raised an eyebrow, looking her up and down.

Juliet held out her hand to shake, “Hi, Marsha. I’m Juliet.”

Marsha gave a slight smile, shook her hand, and sauntered away with her model-esque body. Juliet still felt inadequate next to the woman, but now she felt like she had the upper hand. She gave Jackson a shining smile, which he reciprocated.

“Should we see what else we can get for free?” he asked, leaning in to whisper in her ear and moving her with his hand still on her back.

“That would be lovely,” she answered, her skin tingling from the warmth of his breath on her neck.

She felt as if she was floating for the rest of the conference, and then at dinner. He had made reservations at the fancy restaurant in the hotel. She felt like she was Cinderella, suddenly pulled from the ashes to the Prince’s royal world. She wondered if it would all turn back when the clock hit midnight. Maybe his car was a pumpkin the whole time.

              With Marsha approaching him at the conference, Jackson realized he wanted Juliet to be on his arm. Of course, Marsha had been chasing him for some time - always trying to get him to go to dinner with her or go back to her hotel room - so it was nice to see her face fall when seeing an adversary. And Juliet handled it so beautifully, not even acting like she cared at all. It made him even more attracted to her.

              “So, I could only get us one hotel room with the late notice and all,” he said as they walked down the hall to their room after dinner. “But there is a couch as well, so I can sleep there.”

              “Oh, I couldn’t make you sleep on the couch,” she answered. “You paid for the room. I can sleep there.”

              He slid the keycard in the door and opened it, “Let me be gentlemanly, won’t you? I don’t do it very often.”

              “Fine, fine,” she laughed. “You can have the extra pillows though.”

              “You’re so kind,” he grinned while holding the door open for her. He watched her go, admiring the curves of her body, and decided to take a romantic risk for one of the first times in his life. “Juliet, I would like to discuss something with you.”

              “Man, I have to get these shoes off. I really should’ve worn some of Rebecca’s shoes that were already worn in, but they were a little too small.” She sat on the couch and took off one of her new pairs of shoes. “What did you need to talk to me about?”

              He walked into the room, attempting to look as stately and manly as possible. “I have found myself… drawn to you since you arrived. I realize I’m not the easiest person to get along with…”

              “That is true.”

              “And you have been a superb secretary to me so far.”

              “Are you going to fire me?”

              He sighed, “No. I…. What I’m trying to say is, I’ve grown quite fond of you. In fact, I’d say I am,” he paused, then looked up at her waiting, patient face, “falling for you.”

              She stared back at him, her eyes growing with shock, “I… never expected you to say that.”

              “I’m sorry if it’s a bit too forward.”

              “No,” she stood and strode to him (seemingly in slow motion). “I am falling for you too, Jackson.”

              He smiled, taking her into his arms as she wrapped her own around him, “Well, that’s simply wonderful.”

              He leaned in and kissed her in a fluid, natural movement. They had started to get to know each other so well it was as though they knew how their respective bodies would react. It felt as though the room became warmer as they kept kissing, moving from the threshold where Jackson stood into the bedroom area.

              “I hope you will consider sharing the bed with me, at least,” Juliet whispered as he laid her down onto the bed.

              “I think I can consider that,” he answered, kissing her again.

              She ran her hands across his body, unbuttoning his shirt as he took off his jacket. He stood to unbutton his pants and, sensing her discomfort, turned off the light. It felt more mysterious to her as she took off her dress. His shadow moved back into the bedroom, and he crawled onto the bed toward her.

              “Do you want to do this?” he asked tenderly.

              “Very much,” she answered, kissing him and bringing him closer.

              He slid her underwear off while still kissing her. His hands trailed up her body, stopping at her breasts. He had a tender, sensual way of touching her that her light up with desire. With every kiss, with every touch, she wanted him more any more. He took his time exploring before finally entering her.

              She felt electric as he moved inside her. Both of them had never felt so close to someone before - they’d both hidden themselves away from others for their own respective reasons, but now they were ready to finally connect. As they both came together, they both felt content and complete. Yet, as Jackson held Juliet in his arms, he thought of his secret again, and whether he should tell her.

              Perhaps he could wait a little longer for that. She didn’t need to know quite yet.