Page 1 of Secret Shifters Next Door

NEXT DOOR DRAGON DADDY

TATE AND HARLEY

Flirting with my hot neighbor is like playing with fire...

Tate is not the sort of neighbor you can ignore. Especially when he walks around half naked for all the world to see. I can't help that I got a weak spot for bad boys. But that was before I became a single mom, and I’m not so weak anymore.

Besides, Tate lights my temper without even trying, and I swear he enjoys teasing me. Well, two can play at that game, and I think it’s time someone teaches him a lesson.

My friends tell me that I’m playing with fire, that I don’t know how dangerous Tate truly is. But I’m not scared of a little heat between neighbors. But there’s something different about Tate that I can’t put my finger on, and I’m determined to find out what it is. Even if it means getting burned...

PROLOGUE

HARLEY

The best part about living in New York City was that there was always somewhere you could go to get your mind off things—clubs, restaurants, theaters. It was all here, damn near everything was open twenty-four hours, too. Of all the spots I could have chosen, this bar was the only one that appealed to me. It wasn’t exactly a dive, but it wasn’t a trendy hipster spot either. It was caught somewhere in-between––the perfect place to have a few drinks and wallow in my misery.

A couple of hours ago, I found out my boyfriend of six months had been cheating on me. Just to rub a little salt in the wound, he had been cheating with multiple women. I still wasn’t sure how to feel about the whole situation. Luis was the first man I’d dated or slept with since I’d lost Sam three years ago. It ashamed me that I hadn’t waited longer after his death, but the loneliness had started to eat at me. Luis had come along right at my lowest point and filled that empty space inside me. Even then, it had been forced, like I was trying too hard to move forward. So desperate to put the most painful part of my life behind me.

I should have felt rage, shame, sadness—that entire range of emotions people felt when they had been betrayed. But allI could feel was humiliation. That was the one emotion that seemed to be trying to tear its way out of my brain every ten minutes or so. Knowing that I’d been fooled so completely and thoroughly overwhelmed me. The drinks were helping with that, though.

I smiled to myself and lifted the glass to my lips. Jack and Coke—just what the doctor ordered. I’d decided not to hang out with any of my friends. They would have supported me, called Luis a douchebag and bashed his character, talked about setting me up with guys they knew, and all the other things friends were supposed to do in these situations. But all I really wanted was to be alone. At least, that was the case until I set eyes on the man across the bar.

The guy was gorgeous. He’d caught my eye, and he seemed to have noticed me, too. When his eyes locked on mine, he didn’t look away—he continued to look straight at me. Most men, even the overly confident ones, would look away for at least a second if they’d been caught staring. A nervous, thrilling heat built in my stomach, and my cheeks went red. He smiled and nodded to me, raising his glass in my direction. Despite myself, I smiled back and raised my own glass in greeting.

Finally looking away, the stranger glanced down at the bar, the smile still playing on his lips. He looked like he’d made a decision. He stood, grabbed his drink, and walked toward me. My eyes widened in surprise. Was he actually coming over to sit with me?Oh shit.I hadn’t anticipated having to make small talk. My whole plan for the night had been to have a couple of hours of lonely drinking, maybe a long hot shower, some crying, and sleep. But it seemed things had rapidly taken a new and interesting turn.

As I watched him move around the bar, I could see that his body was ripped, even with the tailored dress shirt he waswearing. One word leaped to the front of my mind.Intimidating. He practically oozed confidence as he took a seat next to me.

He took another sip of his drink before he spoke. “You look like you could use a friend.”

I grinned and quirked an eyebrow. “Well, that’s pretty bold of you to assume.”

He shrugged. “Fortune favors the bold. Isn’t that what they say?”

Who was this guy?It was like he’d walked out of a movie or something. So fucking smooth. The ball of heat in my stomach moved lower. I already knew what I wanted. I wasn’t sure how it was possible, but I suddenly needed more than a few drinks tonight.

“I won’t ask why a pretty lady like you is drinking alone. I think I can figure it out for myself.”

I downed my drink and waved to the bartender for another. “I’m a walking cliché. Is that what you’re saying?”

“Not at all. I just recognize the signs.” His gaze swept lazily over my body before locking on my eyes again. “Looks like he’s a fucking idiot to me. Dude didn’t know what he had.”

My cheeks were on fire, and I had to look away. The intensity of his gaze was too much for me to handle. We spent the next forty-five minutes chatting and flirting back and forth. After a while, his hand was on my lower back, my leg, then brushing a hair from my face. It was all I could do to hide that I was hornier than I’d been in forever. Each time he touched me, the wetness between my legs grew until I was almost dripping. I knew exactly where this was going, and as much as the logical side of my mind protested, the rest of me was already thinking about the feel of his sweaty, muscled body above me, the way I’d groan when the pleasure surged through me.

I forced myself to stop imagining and took another drink to calm my nerves. The stranger was pursuing me, and I hadn’trealized how much I wanted that. Luis and I had sort of fallen in together, without any romance or courting per se. This? This was what I craved. To be desired, to be chased, to be wanted. The lust in the stranger’s eyes lit a fire inside me that I thought had died with Sam.

There was a slight pang of sadness in my heart when I thought of him.Was this a betrayal?Those words always flashed through my mind when I looked at another man, when Luis had taken me to bed, when I downloaded dating apps. It wasn’t a betrayal. If things had been swapped and I had died, I would have wanted nothing more than for Sam to find a lovely woman to spend his life with. I would have never wanted him to mourn and pine for me the rest of his life and live like a celibate monk. No, this wasn’t a betrayal. This was life, and life was worth living.

The stranger pushed his glass away and said, “I’m only in town for one night.”

I knew what he was saying, and I was fine with it. I wanted a night, a single night, to forget all the shit going on in my life. To forget what Luis did, to feel free and desired. Just one night. “That works for me.”

Glancing sideways at me, he smiled faintly. “If it works for you, it works for me.”

He stood, pulled two hundred dollar bills out of his wallet, and handed them to the bartender. “Keep the change.”

The young man behind the bar took the bills, his eyes wide. “Sir, it was only five or six drinks.”

---