Five Reasons to Love Her [Werewolves Wanting Love 5] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) Read online

  Werewolves Wanting Love 5

  Five Reasons to Love Her

  Sam Keegan, the owner of the Hanson Mall Steakhouse, and Taliesin Radley, who manages the cinema there, are determined to win Heather Wilton, the mall florist. They love her very much, but why does she insist on doing such dangerous activities? She runs down the stairs, leaping an entire flight on landing. She jumps on trampolines and bounces up to the top of a wall. Why can’t she just let them provide her with all the excitement and drama a person needs in the dungeon or in bed, and act like a mature, staid adult the rest of the time?

  Heather loves running and jumping and can’t bear the thought of being wrapped in bubble wrap, left on a shelf, and only being allowed out when the men want to play. She needs to enjoy life in all its richness. It might break her heart, but she won’t stay with them if they won’t let her be herself.

  Genre: BDSM, Contemporary, Ménage a Trois/Quatre, Paranormal, Vampires/Werewolves

  Length: 35,384 words

  FIVE REASONS TO LOVE HER

  Werewolves Wanting Love 5

  Cara Adams

  MENAGE EVERLASTING

  Siren Publishing, Inc.

  www.SirenPublishing.com

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  A SIREN PUBLISHING BOOK

  IMPRINT: Ménage Everlasting

  FIVE REASONS TO LOVE HER

  Copyright © 2014 by Cara Adams

  E-book ISBN: 978-1-62741-986-4

  First E-book Publication: July 2014

  Cover design by Les Byerley

  All art and logo copyright © 2014 by Siren Publishing, Inc.

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: This literary work may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic or photographic reproduction, in whole or in part, without express written permission.

  All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.

  PUBLISHER

  Siren Publishing, Inc.

  www.SirenPublishing.com

  Letter to Readers

  Dear Readers,

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  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  About the Author

  FIVE REASONS TO LOVE HER

  Werewolves Wanting Love 5

  CARA ADAMS

  Copyright © 2014

  Chapter One

  Heather Wilton, the florist at Hanson Mall, placed both hands lightly on top of the handrails to the stairs in the professional suites, and giggled as she started running down the steps. Her hands slid along the rails as she ran faster, jumping two or even three steps as she went, and leaping around the corners. Her brown curls flew around her face, blocking her vision at times, but it didn’t matter because she would hear anyone else coming up the stairs, and they couldn’t help but notice her feet pounding as she ran as fast as she could and still maintain her balance. Falling would spoil the fun.

  Heather hurtled around the corners, having to grab the handrail at one point, as she was moving so fast she almost couldn’t straighten up in time. Laughing louder, she whirled past the last bend and leaped down the entire flight of stairs, landing lightly, her weight evenly on both feet and her arms in the air in a victory sign at having accomplished the game.

  Standing at the foot of the stairs, his arms spread wide to catch her, was Sam from The Steakhouse, a look of stunned disbelief on his face.

  Oops.

  “You were doing that on purpose?”

  The stupefied look on his face made her giggle again.

  “Of course. It’s awesome fun.” She nodded vigorously and brushed some curls off her face. She seemed to have lost the clips from her hair somewhere on the way down. Too bad.

  He looked almost angry and she took a step back. She wasn’t used to being toe-to-toe with such a big man, and she’d never seen Sam angry before either.

  “I suppose you think it would have been awesome fun if you’d gone ass over tea kettle and landed in a heap at the bottom of the stairs as well.”

  “But I didn’t. I landed perfectly safely. And if I had fallen, that would have been my own doing and I’d have dealt with it. Gotta go. I was just delivering some flowers upstairs.”

  Heather ducked around him and hurried out of the professional suites and down the stairs to the first floor where her florist store sat, facing the main entry from the parking lot. It was an excellent situation, as a lot of guilty husbands and boyfriends bought flowers on their way home as penance for the other stuff they’d bought in the mall.

  She was still smiling at her success in the stairway and at the look on Sam’s face. He was such a handsome man and always so helpful to everyone in the mall. Unfortunately, he was wedded to his steak house and seldom seemed to leave it, working even longer hours than she did. That was a damn shame. He was a mighty fine piece of eye candy.

  Barry, the middle-aged werewolf who worked for her, was patiently sorting through greenery, laying the pieces into a neat row by size.

  “Thanks, Barry. I’ll get right onto making the wreath now.”

  “It’s okay. I like working with the plants. I don’t miss the backbreaking weeding from the days when this mall was a farm, but sometimes I miss the plants.”

  She smiled at him sympathetically. “I can understand that. You have exactly the right touch with the flowers. I couldn’t run this store
without you.”

  “Except when I can’t tell the difference between the aqua and the turquoise ribbons?”

  Heather giggled. “But, Barry, it’s easy. Aqua is in the middle of the blue-green spectrum. It’s cyan. But turquoise is right over at the blue end of the blue-green scale.”

  “Which is why it’s called green cyan.”

  Heather set her hand on her hips and laughed. Barry’s face split into a grin as well.

  “I’ve got that problem licked now.”

  “How?”

  “I just tell them to point to which ribbons they want.”

  Heather snorted, bent to the work table, and started assembling what she needed to make the wreath while Barry finished sorting the greenery. Maybe she hadn’t found a wolf to mate at the interspecies mating party a few months ago, but life here was pretty good. Barry was a gem to work with and she loved her store.

  As her fingers busily braided the flowers in among the greenery, Heather remembered the day more than three years ago when she’d stopped at the mall to do some shopping. She’d never been inside before as it was just newly built, and she was shocked to find it had no florist. After that, she’d been excited and had marched right into the professional suites and demanded an interview with the managing director. She’d recently graduated from her training, was working with a major chain of stores, and was saving every penny to buy her own franchise.

  Fortunately her appointment with the CEO was made for a week later, so she’d had time to think about what she wanted to say and fine-tune a business plan. The actual interview was held at a café in the zoo and they’d spent most of their time walking around the animals. It was the weirdest interview anyone could ever have imagined, but she was given a six-month trial, which extended to a year, and three years later she was still there, her store was thriving, and she knew all about the werewolves whose pack home the mall was and on whose traditional lands it had been built.

  Over the past year several of her friends had mated the werewolves in ménages, which had made Heather realize that now her dream of owning her florist store was fulfilled, it was time to get with her life. There were plenty of delicious bachelors here, almost all of them werewolf shape-shifters, but the only ones she’d ever looked twice at had scarcely even spoken to her, so she’d sat for the registration tests and gone to the DADISP—the week-long interspecies mating party.

  It’d been a lot of fun. Heather, a human, had loved the morning dance classes and enjoyed the parties every evening. She’d gone in her role as a florist, and spent many hours arranging pretty posies for the other women. She was possibly one of the few women who’d spoken to almost every bachelor there, but not one of them had dampened her panties or made her pulses pound. Not one out of two hundred. Either she was destined to be a spinster or else she must be way too hard to please.

  Sam Keegan from The Steakhouse stirred her senses, but even today he hadn’t so much as touched her hand. His best friend, Taliesin Radley, who managed the cinema here in the mall, was another man she found mighty enchanting. But he was as bad as Sam. He never seemed to leave the cinema. Both of them were still working hard at midnight when the last of the patrons left the mall. By then Heather was invariably tucked up in her little bed, sound asleep. The chance of her ever dating either of them was a big fat zero.

  * * * *

  Sam Keegan stared at Heather Wilton’s delightful ass as she vanished through the double glass doors of the professional suites. He caught a last glimpse of her mop of brown curls gleaming in the sunlight shining down through the glass dome of the mall roof, and then she was gone.

  Holy fucking hell. His heart was pounding so hard it was a wonder she hadn’t heard it. Yet she’d giggled at him and given him such a cheeky smile he’d been sorely tempted to turn her over his knee and paddle her ass. She’d scared the shit out of him jumping down those stairs. He’d had about half a second to picture her lying in a pool of blood at his feet, and then she’d laughed at his fears and run off.

  Sam leaned against the wall and crossed his arms. He wanted Heather. He’d wanted her for the best part of a year now, but the time to date her was never right. When the Supreme Alpha of North America had announced that interspecies marriages were acceptable and that ménages were acceptable, he and Taliesin had agreed to look for a woman. Of course, they hadn’t actually done anything. Neither of them had been free to leave the mall because of their businesses. Surely a man’s most important role was to build a secure income to provide for his woman. Except that he would never have time to claim that woman the way he was going. And he no longer wanted some mystical, in-the-future, to-be-located woman. He wanted Heather. Even if she did have a tendency to jump down staircases and frighten him rigid.

  When she’d blithely gone away to the mating party he’d tried to forget about her. She was so bright and enchanting he knew she’d either go somewhere far away with the men she met at the DADISP, or else bring a mate or two, or even three, back here. Instead, she’d returned as vital and energetic as ever with no man to be seen. That’d been several months ago and he’d slipped back into his same old routine of running The Steakhouse and being on call twenty-four-seven.

  But he couldn’t continue on like this. The devastating sense of loss he’d felt when she’d gone away still scared him whenever he saw her. And that was without him picturing her lying dead at the bottom of a staircase. No. This couldn’t go on any longer. He and Tally needed to meet now, today, and work out how to show her they loved her. He pulled his cell phone out of his pocket to call Taliesin right away. But before he could bring up his contacts, the cell phone rang.

  “Sam? Where are you? I’ve got four big orders I need help with and the line is halfway out the door. All the tables are full and the waitstaff is as busy as hell. I need you here right now, man.”

  Oh yes. That’s why he was here. He was on his way up to his apartment to get the phone number of the new kid he’d hired to offer him a shift tonight. Forgetting about taking the stairs, Sam hurried across to the elevator and swiped his key card. Fortunately the elevator was right there and he stepped in, swiping his card for the eighth floor, where he had an apartment, and punching the button as he spoke.

  “I’m getting the number of that new kid to call him in to work. Get one of the staff to set up some extra tables on the dance floor. That’ll take a bit of the pressure off and the band doesn’t come in for a couple of hours yet. I’ll be back in a minute.”

  Sam raced out of the elevator and down the hall to his apartment. Most of the single managers had apartments right here in the professional suites, which made commuting much easier than from the downtown apartment building the werewolves owned.

  He’d thrown the card the new kid had given him into a drawer, and of course it’d drifted right down near the bottom, but soon he was heading out of the professional suites and over to his steak house. It was on the entry level to the professional suites, level four, and so was the cinema, the fitness center, and several other restaurants.

  Will, the new kid, was a wolf and eager to work, so Sam told him to come straight in, and headed back out into the kitchen to help speed up the food service. But he hadn’t forgotten about Heather and he would talk to Taliesin soon. Tonight.

  * * * *

  Taliesin Radley always stayed until the very last member of the cleaning crew finished tidying up the cinema which he managed. There were four theaters, with number four a smaller one used for art films, films near the end of their run, and small private parties. Tonight number three was the problem. Someone had spilled soda and the carpet had to be steam cleaned, which took a hell of a lot longer than just vacuuming or sweeping it. Still, the cleaning crew had done a great job and by the time the cinema opened in the morning, the damp section would be dry and look as good as ever.

  He’d checked cinemas one, two, and four, the concession stand, and the bathrooms to ensure all the patrons had left, and had locked their doors. So he was waiting out
front for the man using the steam cleaning machine to finish when his good friend Sam appeared.

  “Hey, Sam. How’s it going?”

  “Pretty good. We need to talk.”

  “We do?” Taliesin was surprised. It was after midnight and he was looking forward to a hot coffee, a hot shower, and about seven hours’ sleep. In that order.

  “You know that joint project we talked about a few months ago?”

  Taliesin was tired and just stared at Sam for a while. Why couldn’t he speak plain English? There was no one around to overhear werewolf business. But Sam just gazed straight back at him, his dark brown gaze peering into Tally’s blue eyes. Actually, his own were probably red and bloodshot he felt so tired.

  But finally his brain made the connection to Heather. Sam was talking about the attractive florist, who made his cock stand up and sing and dance, just by walking past him. “Yes, sure. What about her?”

  “We need to make some concrete plans and move forward on that project before it slips right out of our hands.”

  “Why should it? I thought we’d lost our chance a few months ago, but we didn’t. Why now?”

  “Because I’m tired of waiting. Because we can’t rely on it to still be available when we finally get around to doing something.”

  Actually that was true. She was so damn lovely it was a miracle no one at the mating party had snatched her away from them. “Okay, I get the point, but not tonight. I’m too tired to think. How about tomorrow? I open at ten but apart from the first rush to the children’s movie it should be quiet by ten thirty or so.”