The PlayBear Billionaire: A Bear Shifter Romance Read Online Free PDF Page A

wonders for his equilibrium—re-connecting him with the animal essence that lived deep inside of him, alongside his humanity—but he felt all the benefits evaporating as the woman who plagued him the most stood up in the waiting area outside of his office proper.
    “What brings you to my office, Daphne?” he asked, struggling to keep his voice as pleasant as possible. He knew it wasn’t her fault; in Daphne’s position he would probably do the same thing. But the mixture of her frustrating persistence and the alluring perfume of her body were enough to drive him absolutely insane.
    “Can we speak in your office?” Daphne asked. Alexander raised an eyebrow. His gaze shifted downward from her bright eyes; she was biting her bottom lip, the first look of true uncertainty he had ever seen on her face before.
    “Certainly,” he said, wondering at what was making the woman so jumpy. Underneath the enticing scent of her body, and the faint perfume she wore, he could scent the undercurrent of fear—a sharp, not entirely pleasant wash of pheromones that awakened dual instincts to protect and to seek out prey. Alexander shook his head to clear it, letting Daphne precede him into the quiet of his office. He closed the door behind them and hit the button that indicated he didn’t wish to be disturbed.
    Striding to his desk he sat down and watched Daphne. She was tense—more than just the tension that came over her when she normally came into his office expecting an argument. “You’re upset, Daphne. Care to tell me what’s going on?” Daphne hesitated and sat down across the desk from him, taking a deep breath.
    “Mr. Oberon, I get a really strong impression that you are trying to do everything you can to avoid me.” She crossed her arms over her chest, and Alexander tried not to look at the way the movement brought her full breasts to greater prominence, deepening the subtle cleavage that showed above the neckline of her blouse. “I have to ask why.”
    Alex shifted in his seat as imperceptibly as he could. He couldn’t tell her the entire truth—that her scent, her personality, something deep and essential about her made him conflicted between wanting to devour her, wanting to strip her naked, and wanting to drive her out of his life for good. He took a deep breath.
    “You’re stubborn,” he said firmly. “You’re annoying.” Color rose up in Daphne’s cheeks, staining her face a brilliant pink. “If I’d had a choice in who handled me, I would definitely have gone with a handler who would let me slack off.”
    Daphne pressed her lips together and Alexander saw her nostrils flare as she inhaled quickly. Alexander swallowed against the sudden dryness in his throat. “I let you convince me to sign up to become a spokesperson thinking that I’d brush everything off, and you won’t let me.”
    “That’s my job as your handler,” Daphne said, her voice slightly shrill.
    “I know that, but it doesn’t make it any less annoying.” Alexander smiled slightly. Daphne’s fear-pheromones were dissipating, replaced by the scent of rising anger. “There are other reasons as well. I’m doing enough for you to keep your job, aren’t I?” Daphne sputtered, and then took a deep breath. He watched the color receding from her face slowly, her chest regaining its normal color, and when she opened her eyes, she was once more composed—at least on the surface.
    It was a side of Daphne that Alexander hadn’t seen; she had always been so in command of herself, so confident and poised, every time he had ever been in her presence. To see her flustered, even angry—Alexander felt a low throbbing hum of arousal, his body reacting to the scent of her, the heat he could see rising in her body.
    His normal sense of annoyance at her persistence dissolved in the beginning flare-up of his lust, and he was torn between the need to get her out of his office as quickly as possible, and the desire to keep her there, to feel her