Romance: Mills and Boon Romance: The Boss's Proposal (Billionaire Bad Boy BBW Romance) by Amanda Horton Page A

eyes clear blue. She was dressed in black leather too and had a set of guns holstered at her hips.
    Boy they do kick it old school, Claire marvelled.
    “And who is this vision of loveliness?” Amsel said looking at her.
    “My name is Claire Underwood” Claire said before anyone else could say anything.
    “Well, Claire I’m pleased to meet you. This is Klaus my right hand, and Elsa my daughter. Now we are all introduced. Isn’t this lovely?” Amsel said spreading his arms wide and turning a little side to side.
    “What do you want?” Lance asked in a rumble that barely hid his anger. “All this standing around is tiresome.”
    “I agree. So let the girl go and we will arrest you. You have so many crimes to answer for, don’t add her death to them,” Amsel said his eyes boring into Claire.
    “I don’t think so” Jed said and moved like lightning grabbing Claire around the neck, using her as a shield. He dragged her a little to the left, toward the darkness. For a moment she was shocked and scared. Is this what she meant to him? But his voice came soft in her ear as his grip lessened.
    He said, “Trust me.”
    “Now, now Jed, you don’t want to hurt her” Amsel said his hands up in surrender, “Do you? Just come quietly and we need not spill any blood. You know you deserve to be punished. You killed humans. The Brotherhood has very strict rules about that sort of thing.”
    “The Brotherhood be damned” Lance said and flung something at Amsel and his crew.
    Smoke rose up around them. Claire felt Jed’s hold on her disappear as a sound like bones crunching filled the air. A big black bear ran passed her and somehow Claire knew it was Jed. She watched him go until the smoke consumed him. Then she heard terribly sounds, shouts, gunfire and the thud of a sword on brick.
    A moment later a bigger black bear stepped up to her. It had blood dripping from its jaws where it held Lance’s bag. It looked at her and she saw the piercing eyes. Lance. Claire touched the thick black fur and felt its silkiness. She slung the bag in front of her and hauled herself up onto his back.
    Lance ran and Claire hung on for dear life. She had ridden a pony once in her life at a petting zoo when she was about five years old and there were still things like that. This was nothing like how she remembered that experience. This was raw and primal, a beast panting and straining under her as he ran up the tunnel and out into the sunlight.
    ***
    The alleyway was full of garbage and the smell of rot. Lance burst out of a round hole and cannoned down the alley, garbage flying in his wake. Claire, still clinging onto his fur, risked a moment to look back over her shoulder for Jed. But he wasn’t there.
    “Lance!” she yelled. “Lance, he’s not out of the tunnel! We have to go back.”
    Lance hearing her skidded to a halt and turned panting. He stood for a moment unsure than sniffed the air.
    “So now what?” Claire asked sliding down off his back. “We can’t have you looking like that and running through the streets. You’ll cause panic.”
    The bear seemed to consider this. The change back to human was also accompanied by the sounds of bones crunching and Claire looked away not able to watch that horrific transformation. Lance stood before her once again in his jeans and black t-shirt. He took his and Jed’s bags from her and then clasped her hand in his.
    “We have another hideout we can go to” Lance said. “Jed will meet us there.”
    Claire nodded and let Lance lead her out of the alley, across the street and into another alley so fast she barely had time to see anything around her. She still had no idea which part of the city she was in. Lance moved in fits and bursts, and she was moved along with him. They were keeping to alleyways, and the back entrances to hotels and apartment buildings. Everywhere they went people like him opened the doors for Lance. Eyes glinted golden and emerald green, there was the hint of a