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  Between Good and Evil

  Shifter Dating Service: Book Two

  A Paranormal Romance

  by Jasmine Wylder

  Contents

  Dedication

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Epilogue

  Thank You!

  Also by Jasmine Wylder

  About the Author

  Dedication

  To my loved ones B & B, who encouraged me to fly toward my dream:

  Let’s soar.

  Chapter One

  Dane enjoyed the sight of women dressed to the nines and hanging on his arm. It didn’t matter to him what they looked like; he found beauty in every face he looked at. Some, perhaps, had more beauty than others, but what he liked most was seeing the confidence and pride on their faces. The way their eyes sparkled, feeling like the loveliest woman in the world. Their confidence in life also made them more confident in the bed, which was a side effect that he quite enjoyed.

  Rune Reid was a little different. As they left La Lune Bleue, the most expensive restaurant that Dane could actually afford in New York City, she held herself with the utmost confidence. She’d had that look ever since he had met her. The happiness that sparkled in her eyes, the smile that said she knew exactly who she was and what she was doing.

  The dress she wore with its low-cut neckline and tight skirt hugged her figure in all the right places. It emphasized her flared hips and large breasts, making it so Dane had a hard time keeping his eyes off her body. She was perfection, all curves from head to toe.

  Ever since they’d been matched by a dating agency, Dane had wanted her. The agency was meant for paranormal creatures, vampires and shifters and the like, to find their one true mate. Dane wasn’t all that interested in finding a mate simply for the sake of finding a mate, but he enjoyed being matched up with human women who wanted to be wined and dined and weren’t just after sex. The sex was good, he wouldn’t say no to the majority of women who asked, but he did want more of a relationship than just booty calls.

  Tonight was the tenth date he was going to have with Rune, though, and so far, they hadn’t done anything besides kissing. He knew she was interested, he could smell it on her during their make-out sessions. But whenever he tried to coax her into more, she cut him off and made them do something else. He wasn’t sure what was holding her back; she had enough self-confidence that being shy wasn’t a problem.

  “That was delicious, thank you,” Rune said after they were in the car and driving off. “I hadn’t even heard of half those dishes. But it was really expensive, wasn’t it?”

  Dane laughed. “Last week you said that you had always wondered if those expensive dishes were worth the money. So? What do you think? Worth it?”

  Rune hummed as she patted her stomach. “You know what? It was worth it. I don’t think I’d go there every week, there is something to be said about a simple hamburger, but it was worth it. Next time, though, I pay. I’m going to win the lottery next week, so I’ll have plenty of money to splurge on you for once.”

  “Is it the universe telling you that?” he teased with a wink.

  Rune frowned at him, which only made him grin wider. She was a psychic, or at least she claimed to be. He wasn’t entirely certain how much of it he believed. On their first date, she had read his tarot cards and declared that they were compatible after all. It was one of her strange ticks, something that had weirded him out at first. After ten weeks, though, he had decided that it made her quirky.

  “As a matter of fact, yes. You see, I had a dream the night before I bought my ticket. I was sitting at the television wishing I had bought a ticket with the numbers of my mother’s birthday. So, the next day, I went out and got my ticket.”

  “And what does the universe say about the possibility that you’ll come spend the night at my place?”

  Rune’s shoulders tightened. She quickly buckled her seatbelt, her head ducking. He knew that look well enough and repressed a sigh. Why was she so reluctant? He knew that she wasn’t seeing anybody else that she needed to save herself for. He wouldn’t have been dating her if she was that serious with someone else. They’d talked about it a little, and she claimed she didn’t see any problem with casual sex.

  Then why didn’t she follow her desires when it came to him?

  He leaned over, brushing her silky hair off her shoulder and kissing her neck. Rune let out a pleasant sigh and leaned into his touch. He continued with that, one eye on the road, until she gently pushed him away.

  “Pay attention to driving.”

  “We could always pull over.”

  “That won’t be necessary.”

  Dane started to grin, thinking that meant they could pick it up at his place. It was almost ten, around the usual time when Rune said she had to get back to her place for the night. If she was agreeing to come over to his place, then maybe he would have the chance to finally pull her into his bed and—

  His hopes were dashed when she spoke again. “It’s pretty late and I have a really early morning tomorrow. I’ve been hired to read palms at a senior’s living center. You wouldn’t think that seniors would be into that sort of thing, but they are. It’s a birthday party. The birthday girl is almost a hundred years old. I can’t miss that. In fact, if I have to announce any deaths, I think I’ll waive my service fee. After all, that’s the sort of thing that brings a party down.”

  Her shoulders were still tense, her words tripping over each other. And she wasn’t looking at him, which was the big giveaway. Dane tightened his hands on the steering wheel. He didn’t mind waiting. He got the sense that Rune was worth waiting for. But what he didn’t like was being lied to.

  If he told her that he knew she was lying, how would she respond? Would she continue to try to dodge it, or would she finally fess up as to what exactly was going on? But he didn’t want to be pushy. He liked hanging out with Rune, and this was clearly a sensitive issue with her. If he pushed too hard, he might end up scaring her off. He didn’t want that.

  Besides, it wasn’t like they were exclusive. He had other places to go if he wanted to satisfy his needs. Maybe not tonight, that would only end up being a booty call, but Jessica was usually free on Wednesday nights, he could take her out to a movie or something the next night. He hadn’t seen her for a while.

  Come to think of it, he hadn’t seen any of his girlfriends for a while. Not that they were girlfriends in the committed sense of the word. It was more that they were all in a casual relationship, where they got together, had fun, sometimes had sex. Everybody involved knew his policies about keeping the relationship open.

  Could that be why she was holding back?

  “I think you should just take me home,” Rune said.

  “Rune, you know you can trust me, right? If you don’t want to, you can just say so.”

  She let out a strangled-sounding chuckle. Shaking her head, she turned to him. “Stop t
he car.”

  Surprised, Dane found a place to pull into a parking lot and shifted into park. He turned toward Rune, arching a brow at her. Maybe they were going to get to the bottom of this finally. He only hoped that she was willing to fully talk about this.

  Rune tapped her fingers against each other for a moment before meeting his eye. “What are we?”

  “Well, I’m a dragon shifter and you’re a human psychic—”

  “Dane.” She narrowed her eyes. “This isn’t a time for jokes.”

  His fires flickered at her tone, recognizing that she wasn’t happy with him. Just for the joke, or because of his suggestion? It had been a mild one, not like he’d suggested that they start ripping off their clothing right now. His jaw tightened, struggling to keep himself from snapping back at her. This wasn’t the time to lose his cool.

  “What is our relationship to you?” Rune asked, tightening her hands on her seatbelt.

  So, it was about his other girlfriends? Dane struggled to keep himself calm. He had told her about them, had been very frank and open about what he liked and what he did with his time and the type of company he kept. She had agreed on their first date that it was fine with her. Had she changed her mind? Had things gotten too serious for her to continue to accept him sleeping with other women?

  “Are you asking me to be exclusive with you?” he asked, his mind going to the first possibility.

  Rune’s head jerked, almost recoiling from him. “What? No, that’s not what I’m asking. You said that you didn’t want to be exclusive so I’m not asking that.”

  His fires flickered with annoyance now. Why didn’t she just come out and say what was going on in that head of hers? “Then what do you mean, ‘What is our relationship?’ We date. We have fun. We make out. If you want to be my girlfriend, I can be your boyfriend, as long as it remains an open relationship.”

  Really, he could see someone like Rune being his mate, someday. Not any time soon, he had no desire to settle down and raise a family just yet. He was only twenty-one, after all, Rune twenty; there was plenty of time to think about having kids later down the line. They’d been matched by the dating agency as highly compatible and he knew several people with scores as high as theirs that did end up being mates.

  Whatever they were, though, they couldn’t be it when she was holding herself back. Okay, maybe sex wasn’t that important, but the lack of communication… that was what was getting him.

  “I don’t want to be your girlfriend.” Rune’s brows furrowed. “Okay, maybe I do. I don’t know. It’s all just confusing. I haven’t dated a guy this long since I was in high school, and that was only because he didn’t get that I was trying to break up with him for a month.”

  “Are you trying to break up with me?” he was finally able to tease again.

  “No!” Rune glared at him, as though his suggestion had been offensive. “I just don’t know what to call us. I don’t know where we stand… or really, where you stand. How many times can I tell you no before you get fed up and stop calling?”

  Dane ground his teeth together, his earlier annoyance flaring back up. “I don’t take you out to dinner and spend time with you just because I want to get into your pants. Doesn’t the universe tell you that?”

  Rune’s eyes flashed; he’d insulted her. “I can only trust the universe to tell me so much. Not everything is as predictable as winning the lottery, you know. I know it’s important to you, otherwise you wouldn’t have brought it up on our first date. So… I guess I don’t want to lose what we do have because I’m not… ready.”

  “It’s not the ready or not ready that is frustrating,” he bit out, continuing to struggle to keep his temper in check. This wasn’t something that he wanted to fight about! Women liked men who respected them. Who only pushed when it was something that they needed to be pushed about. “It’s that you’re not telling me the why. If you don’t know why you’re not ready, then that’s fine. But just tell me. Don’t lie to me.”

  Rune turned her face away and dug her hand into her hair. She quickly released herself, smoothing her hair down. That was answer enough, though. She knew why it was that she was hesitating. And she didn’t want to tell him. Dane faced forward, his knuckles turning white as he gripped the steering wheel tightly. The hard plastic bent under his fingers, but he didn’t care.

  “Please take me home,” Rune whispered.

  Without a word, he started the car again.

  ***

  Dane didn’t offer to walk her up to her apartment, which was strange. Rune repressed a sigh as she slipped out of the car, bid him goodnight, and headed in on her own. He waited until she was inside the building before leaving. He hadn’t promised to call her like he usually did. Rune kicked the wall in frustration. What was wrong with her?

  Over the past ten weeks, she had gotten to know Dane well. Her body sang for his, and being near him whittled away her self-control, a little more every day. She couldn’t remember the last time she had had this much fun with another person. He was charming, funny, generous. So why wouldn’t she just give him her everything?

  “Do you want to be exclusive?”

  If she had said yes, would he have called up the other women and told them that he could no longer see them? Or would it have been her he could no longer see? It didn’t matter, anyway. Exclusivity was a huge commitment, and she wasn’t ready to take that step. No, there was plenty more that had to be said and done before she asked that of him.

  Instead of going to her apartment on the fourth floor, she took the elevator up to the seventh floor, where the hot tub was. There were a few little lockers in the room, where she kept a bathing suit and towel at all times. She didn’t want to go back to her apartment just yet. So, she got changed and slipped into the water. As per usual, the tub was empty. For a building as big as this, it was funny that she rarely met anybody else in the tub. It made it nice and quiet, though, without being lonely like she knew her apartment was going to be.

  Both of her roommates were gone, spending the week with their boyfriends on some romantic retreat. Then again, it might be better they were gone at this point. Otherwise, they’d just start teasing her about not spending the night with Dane… again.

  It wasn’t that she didn’t want to. She did, more than she knew how to express. It was like her body was on fire for him. And when they kissed? More than once, she came home after a make-out session to find her panties completely soaked. The thing was… she was afraid.

  Not of Dane. No, she couldn’t be afraid of him. He might be a dragon and breath fire and all that, but he wasn’t dangerous. What she was afraid of… was getting pregnant. Her mother had died in childbirth, after four consecutive pregnancies that ended in miscarriages. It had been so hard on her body, and her father had begged her to ensure that she never got pregnant again. He’d been devastated when she died, left alone to care for a five-year-old girl.

  She knew that the chances of it happening again were slim, but what if it was from some genetic disorder? Something that hadn’t been given a name yet? Her grandmother had died in childbirth, too, and her great-grandmother. Was that just a coincidence?

  The problem was, Dane couldn’t understand that. Sure, he could talk about birth control and condoms and all that. But they weren’t foolproof. And if she did get pregnant? Rune had been around enough recently-pregnant women to know that even an embryo was alive. She didn’t eat meat, she couldn’t even bring herself to crack open an egg because it had the potential, once, to be life. How could she possibly choose between terminating a pregnancy, ending that life, or risk her own death?

  No, it was best to avoid it altogether. Make sure that there was no possibility of pregnancy. Which meant sex could only happen for a brief window every month. Could Dane possibly understand why she would limit him that way?

  She sighed as she leaned her head back against the side of the hot tub. The water smelled heavily of chlorine, making her want to gag. It also reminded her that she ne
eded to take her bathing suit back to her apartment tonight, to wash it out. It wasn’t easy to find a suit that flattered her curvy frame. Most of them were cut in such a way that either her stomach looked wider than it was, or her breasts barely stayed within the fabric. Being a curvy girl, it wasn’t as easy as all that to find clothing that made her feel good in her own skin. Of course, since she had helped the seamstress who lived in the apartment above her, she’d been getting tailored clothing. It made a big difference.

  Swimming suits were a different matter, but she didn’t want to leave the hot tub’s warm embrace just yet. Not when she still had so much tension in her shoulders.

  She did need to tell Dane about her fears of childbirth, and the sooner the better. When she was with him, she could almost hear the stars sing. She hadn’t ever felt this way before, but in the letters her mother wrote her about her gift, it was how her mother had known her father was the one for her.

  What if this was her only chance at real happiness? And what if Dane, after hearing what she had to say, decided that she wasn’t worth the trouble? Or worse… what if he didn’t? What if he decided that he was willing to give up his dreams of kids and only have sex once a month? There were other ways they could please each other, she knew that, but in her experience, it never felt like enough. If she did fall in love, how was she going to stop herself from making love to him every day?

  “Well, aren’t you a sad little possum,” she told herself sternly, the way her grandfather used to when she would have a meltdown in the store for whatever reason. “Stop wallowing and think about what you can do.”

  Well, the only thing she could do was come right out and say it. Deal with whatever happened afterward. As for the universe, it was sending her strong signals that she could be happy with Dane… but something was missing. She could feel it in the pit of her stomach. Something was missing and she didn’t know what.

  Just as she decided it was time to get out, the door opened, and the lights went off.