By: Shelly Laurenston
Releasing June 30, 2015
Kensington
Blurb
There’s nothing like a
good ol’ boy wolf. And ace security expert Ricky Lee Reed serves,
protects and seduces with all the right moves…
Sure,
Toni Jean-Louis Parker has to be the responsible oldest sister to a
crazy-brilliant clan of jackal siblings. But now she’s cutting loose for some
hot, sweaty, no-commitments fun—and the sexy, slow-talking, swift-moving
predator assigned to keep her family safe is just the right thing to shapeshift
her love life into overdrive. Trouble is, he’s starting to get all obsessive
wolf on her every time he looks in her direction…
Getting
serious about anyone isn’t in Ricky Lee Reed’s plans. Hell, even now he doesn’t
really have a plan—outside of catching whoever is threatening
this dangerously brilliant family. But the more he sees of Toni, the more he’s
howling for her. And whatever it takes to convince her that what they have is
everything, well, this wily wolf is down for the sizzling chase…
Link to Follow Tour: http://www.tastybooktours.com/2015/05/wolf-with-benefits-pride-8-by-shelly.html
Goodreads Series Link: https://www.goodreads.com/series/45074-pride
The
bobcat sighed and picked up the phone to call the wolf they’d come to see.
Oriana
re-focused on her cell phone but said to Toni, “That wolf was cute.”
Toni
blinked, confused. “What wolf? Ulrich?”
Rolling
her eyes, Oriana replied, “No. The one you were talking to outside the skating
rink. With the baseball cap.”
“Oh. Him.
Yeah. He was cute.” But just a wolf. It wasn’t like wolves were something
special or unusual. Their mother was best friends with fellow former-prodigy
Irene Conridge Van Holtz. A brilliant scientist and full-human, Aunt Irene was
mated to Niles Van Holtz. Alpha Male of the Van Holtz Pack. And because the
Jean-Louis Parkers were as close to family as Irene had, that meant that they
spent a lot of time around the wolves. A lot
of time. Not that Toni minded. Uncle Van and his
Pack were fun and most of the direct bloodline Van Holtzes were amazing chefs,
which meant the Jean-Louis Parkers always ate well. But bringing more wolves
into her existence was not something Toni felt was necessary at this stage in
her life.
“Tall,”
Oriana continued. “Nice shoulders.”
He’d been
unnaturally wide in Toni’s estimation. Shoulders that wide with hips that
narrow just didn’t seem right.
“Nice
smile.”
All those
teeth. Bright white teeth that he kept showing when he constantly smiled at
her. Personally, she found his smile oddly threatening. As if every person he
met was a potential meal.
Still,
although Toni might not be susceptible to most males, she wasn’t blind, either.
He was a handsome wolf, but not like the Van Holtz wolves, who always reminded
her of European cover models. He was too big. Too wide. Too . . . American. All
those muscles and dark brown hair that just reached his massive shoulders.
Amber eyes and a flat, wide nose that only barely helped to make the constant
smirk on his face a little less annoying.
“Plus,”
Oriana went on, “he seemed to not mind your average looks and that
uncontrollable mane of yours.”
Slowly
Toni looked at her sister. “Thanks, Oriana.”
Her
sister smiled without looking up from her phone. “You’re welcome.”
Toni
seriously considered ripping that phone out of Oriana’s hand since she had yet
to learn the meaning of sarcasm, but Ric Van Holtz walked into the lobby before
she could bother.
“Hey,
guys. Sorry I couldn’t really meet with you earlier. Last-minute meeting with
investors.”
“No
problem,” Toni assured him, handing Zia over to him as soon as he stretched out
his arms. Ric was great with kids, no matter the breed or species, and he
adored the Jean-Louis Parker pups.
“How did
it go at the rink?” Ric asked, gently brushing his free hand over Zia’s hair as
her head rested on his shoulder.
“Fine.”
“Except
for that fight,” Oriana muttered.
Ric’s
nose flared. It was a rather narrow nose, but it could flare quite dramatically
when he was angry enough. “Did Novikov hurt you? Should I have him killed?”
“That seems
extreme.” Toni cut a warning glare at her sister, but with the brat’s attention
focused on her phone, there was no guarantee that she’d seen anything. “Mr.
Novikov was just fine.”
“He
wasn’t fighting with us,” Kyle clarified.
“Oh.” Ric
quickly calmed down. “That was probably Reece Reed he was fighting then, since
it’s the middle of the day and Reece seems to be the only one who continues to
fight that idiot.”
“Novikov
signed my shirt, just like you said he would.” Kyle held up the shirt for Ric
to see.
“Good.
I’m glad he did as I told him to.”
“Yeah,”
Oriana said, “it went great until Kyle here asked to see him naked.”
Ric
briefly closed his eyes. “Again, Kyle? Again?”
Horrified,
Toni demanded, “Oh, my God, Kyle! Did you ask Ric to—”
“I
will not be held back by society’s mores!”
“It’s not
society’s mores we’re concerned with, Kyle,” Ric kindly explained. “It’s
society’s creeps.”
“So
you’re saying that Bo Novikov is—”
“No,”
Ric said quickly and firmly. “That’s not
what I mean. And although you might be safe with
Novikov or with me, that doesn’t mean the rest of the world is a safe bet. You
have to be careful.”
Kyle
motioned to Toni. “But that’s what I have her for. To protect me from society’s
creeps.”
“Really?
Is that what I’ve been reduced to?” Toni asked. “Your bodyguard? Is that my
life? Is that going to be my life?”
“I
wouldn’t worry about you having that job for long,” Oriana told her.
“Why?”
“How good
could you be at protecting him with those stick legs of yours?”
Toni
looked down at her legs, then quickly realized she was involved in a ridiculous
conversation. Again.
“You know
what,” Toni said, getting to her tiny stick legs. “As fascinating as this is,
we have to go. We’ve got to make that flight.”
Ric
blinked. “Make your flight?”
Yeah.
Nothing worse than trying to get this group on the same flight once we’ve
missed our original flight. We’re going standard air.” Toni’s term for flights
that catered to full-humans.
Yet when
Toni looked up at Ric, she saw that he was watching her with a mix of humor and
pity. “You haven’t talked to your mother, have you?” he asked.
Toni
immediately began rubbing her forehead. “No. Why?”
“I think
there might have been a change of plan.”
“No,” Toni said, shaking her head. “No. No
change of plan. No wacky, last-minute ideas. No.” She was adamant about it. No!
Toni
pulled her cell phone out of the back pocket of her jeans and took a quick
look. No calls. From anyone. Her parents would have texted her, right? Called
her? Something?
Unless .
. .
Slowly
Toni looked over at Oriana.
The
younger female lowered her cell phone, gave one of her annoying smirks. “Oh.
That’s right,” the brat said carefully. “I forgot I have a message for you from
Mom.”
“Really?
You forgot?”
“Don’t
make this into a big deal,” her sister warned, sounding bored. “You know how
Mom is.”
“Mom’s
not really the issue here at the moment.”
“Look,
it’s not my job to get messages back and forth between you and our mother.”
“If
that’s true, then I guess you won’t be needing this.”
Toni
snatched Oriana’s cell phone from her hand and threw it down the hall and into
the wall. She took great satisfaction at the sound of something on the device
breaking from the impact.
“Now
go fetch, bitch!” Toni screamed at her sister.
“You
are such a ridiculous child!” Oriana screamed back.
“And
you’re a spoiled twat!”
Ric
quickly stepped between them, facing Toni. “My car can take you to your
mother.”
Panting,
her fangs burrowing into her bottom lip as they grew from her gums, Toni
nodded. “Fine.”
“Great.
Great.” He turned and took Oriana’s arm, Zia still asleep on his shoulder.
Fights between her siblings never really bothered her or her twin. “Let’s go
get what’s left of your phone and I’ll call my driver.”
He led
Oriana down the hall, giving Toni a few seconds to calm down.
“Wow,” the
bobcat muttered from his desk. “Your sister’s right. Your legs really are
skinny.”
Toni
briefly thought about swiping all the cat’s crap off his desk, but that wasn’t
something she’d do to anyone who wasn’t one of her siblings. But that was the
beauty of being one of the Jean-Louis Parker clan . . . sometimes you didn’t
have to do anything at all, because there was a sibling there to take care of
it for you.
“It must
be hard,” Kyle mused to the bobcat. “One of the superior cats. Revered and
adored throughout history as far back as the ancient Egyptians. And yet here
you sit. At a desk. A common drone. Taking orders from lowly canines and bears.
Do your ancestors call to you from the great beyond, hissing their
disappointment to you? Do they cry out in despair at where you’ve ended up
despite such a lofty bloodline? Or does your hatred spring from the feline
misery of always being alone? Skulking along, wishing you had a mate or a pack
or pride to call your own? But all you have is you . . . and your pathetic job
as a drone? Does it break your feline heart to be so . . . average? So common?
So . . . human?”
Toni
cringed, which helped her not laugh.
And
although she’d normally stop one of her brother’s ego destroying rants long
before he got to the “so human” part, this time, with this particular bobcat .
. . she just couldn’t. Yet what she could do was get her baby brother out of
here before he had to witness a bobcat male sobbing softly into his Starbucks
coffee and egg salad sandwich lunch.
Because
that’s what was coming. Her brother might have the hands of a true artist, but
his brain . . . his brain was like that of a sadistic psychiatrist who liked to
see if he could force his patients to gouge out their own eyes during therapy
appointments.
Lifting
Denny into her arms, Toni grabbed Kyle’s hand and pulled him out of the office.
She’d wait for her sister and Ric down the hall.
“You
going to yell at me?” Kyle asked her once they were away from the office and
the bobcat’s sniffling was the only thing that could be heard by their keen
jackal ears. She smiled at her brother.
Sure.
They were typical black-backed jackals, which meant they fought amongst
themselves whenever the mood struck them, but they were also family. And one
messed with a jackal family at one’s own risk.
“Nah,
little bro.” She winked at him. “Not this time.”
Author Info
Originally from Long Island, New York, Shelly
Laurenston has resigned herself to West Coast living, which involves
healthy food, mostly sunny days, and lots of guys not wearing shirts when they
really should. Shelly is also the New York Times bestselling author G.A. Aiken,
creator of the Dragon Kin series. For more info about Shelly’s books go to
www.shellylaurenston.com. Or to check out G.A.’s dangerously and arrogantly
sexy dragons go to www.gaaiken.com
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