Paw Letter Word (Paranormal Dating Agency Book 72)
PAW LETTER WORD
PARANORMAL DATING AGENCY
BOOK 72
MILLY TAIDEN
CONTENTS
About the Book
Paw Letter Word
1. Mila
2. Cyrus
3. Mila
4. Cyrus
5. Mila
6. Cyrus
7. Mila
8. Cyrus
9. Mila
10. Cyrus
11. Mila
12. Cyrus
13. Mila
14. Cyrus
15. Mila
16. Cyrus
17. Mila
18. Cyrus
19. Mila
20. Cyrus
21. Mila
22. Cyrus
23. Mila
About the Author
Also by Milly Taiden
ABOUT THE BOOK
“Cyrus Bechtel, allow me to introduce Miss Mila Dillon.” Gerri’s voice sounded far away.
Everything moved in slow motion. Not that Cyrus was complaining. He could stand there and watch Mila all day. When her hand slid into his, the sparks that ran through his body made the hairs on his arms prickle.
There was no doubt. Mila was his mate.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Bechtel. I am honored for the opportunity.”
He shivered when he heard her voice. The sweet harmony made his heart thunder in his chest. He and his bear were eager to hear more.
“Oh no, Miss Dillon. The pleasure is all mine. Please, call me Cyrus.”
Her smile grew and a need like no other pushed him to get closer to her.
“Okay. Cyrus.”
Mine.
PAW LETTER WORD
PARANORMAL DATING AGENCY
NEW YORK TIMES and USA TODAY BESTSELLING AUTHOR
MILLY TAIDEN
This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are fictitious or have been used fictitiously, and are not to be construed as real in any way. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locales, or organizations is entirely coincidental.
Published By
Latin Goddess Press
Winter Springs, FL 32708
http://millytaiden.com
Paw Letter Word
Copyright © 2023 by Milly Taiden
Cover: Willsin Rowe
All Rights Are Reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
Property of Milly Taiden
March 2023
Created with Vellum
—For my readers,
Thank you for still loving the PDA.
ONE
MILA
Another day in paradise. Sort of.
Mila Dillon walked up to the boarding gate with a nod to the attendant. She sipped her coffee slowly, knowing she’d need it for the long day ahead of her. She straightened her uniform and prepped for the false smile she needed to put on. It was a good thing she loved her job.
“Well, not on days like today …” she grumbled to herself as she made her way through the covered ramp and onto the plane docked at the gate.
The conversation she had a few days prior with her manager still rang in her ears. It was the third time that month she had tried to vent her frustrations, but they had, once again, seemed to fall on deaf ears.
She had begged Julia, her supervisor, for some time off. Even just a few days. She was overworked and overwrought, and it was long past time for her to have a chance to decompress.
The response had been the same as always. There were too many flights and not enough attendants. Julia was working the schedule the best she could, but there was always a new wrecking ball. That day, it had been the three employees who called in sick and two more who just gave their two weeks’ notice.
Mila had just sighed and nodded. What else could she do? Her commitment to her job was becoming a curse.
“Where are you off to after this one?” a new trainee asked, bright-eyed and excited. Mila remembered when she used to feel like that.
But she had been on back-to-back flights for the majority of the last four months, traveling everywhere from the United States to Europe and to China. She usually only had a single night to prepare for the next adventure.
She loved seeing the world. It was a huge perk of the job. All the different places, unique cultures, and people. She had the opportunity to spend the night in different cities most nights, try new things, and eat new foods.
But she was beginning to feel the pull to make another kind of change.
“After this flight, I’m hoping for a comfortable hotel room,” she mumbled, setting her luggage in the overhead bins in the back.
“Oh, how nice.”
Her family has supported her desire to travel the world over the last several years. She never thought she would want the domestic life, and no one had ever pushed her in that direction. But recently, she’d begun to find her brother’s settled life very appealing.
Tommen had a little piece of land, a beautiful wife, and three spunky children. Much like the three rushing aboard now. A smile pulled at her lips as she watched the tired parents try to corral them before the other passengers boarded.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” the dad shouted as they jumped into various seats.
But Mila didn’t mind. This was the kind of excitement she was looking for now. She even found some spare pamphlets and crayons in the back.
“These might help,” she suggested as she passed them to the dad.
“You must be a veteran at this.” He chuckled.
Mila laughed as she went to the front of the plane to prepare for the next group of passengers. She was experienced as a flight attendant, but not at what he implied … being a mother.
She almost lost herself in the thought until a particular passenger caught her eye. She had startling white hair, and Mila could have sworn she saw the woman’s eyes flash gold.
“Did you see that?” she murmured to the trainee.
“See what?”
But when Mila looked back, the woman was gone, and she couldn’t find her anymore. I really must be losing my mind, she thought.
Once the passengers were loaded, securely fastened, and the plane had safely taken off, Mila was ready for the routine duties.
But that was when everything got interesting.
Many people feared a plane crash when on a flight, but Mila feared the passengers from hell that were crowded around her for the next two hours.
She tried to keep her fake smile in place as she made her way around the plane, taking drink orders. She stopped at the middle row, looking at an older man and a lady she thought was his wife. “Hello, sir,” she said with a smile. “Can I get anything for you?”
His eyes trailed along her form, lingering too long on places they shouldn’t. “Are you on the menu?”
She forced a smile and laughed it off before moving on to the next row of passengers.
“Hello, sir, can I get … whoa!” A child barreling down the aisle nearly took her out. The seat belt sign was off, so she couldn’t reprimand anyone for the lack of supervision.
She gracefully evaded the collision, stepping back slightly. She still had the smile plastered on her face, always the professional.
After she managed to finish passing out drinks and snacks … without incident … she was hit with a terrible odor as she passed down the aisle. Immediately she spotted a pair of boys who had taken off their shoes and put their feet up on the back of the chairs in front of them. The expressions on the faces of the couple seated in front of the boys were all she needed to see to intervene.
“Excuse me, boys. I have to ask you to put your feet back on the floor. Regulations.”
“‘Regulations,’” one of them mocked as she turned away, but she ignored it. Especially when a new problem was already stumbling toward her.
A man from first class had made his way back to economy, and even from half the plane away, the smell of whiskey wafted off him. Deftly, Mila directed him back to his seat and signaled to the other attendants not to serve him anymore.
But that was not the end of her problems.
A young couple tried to join the mile-high club, and she had to chase them out of the lavatory.
A couple of teenage girls had taken their phones off airplane mode to text. She had to tell them off.
A mom tried desperately to get her baby to stop screaming. Nothing she could do.
Somehow, she made it through the entire trip, miraculously unblemished by the flight from hell.
“Have a nice day,” she repeated over and over as they ushered the guests off with a smile and started to clean up.
“I have a connecting flight to catch,” the trainee told her as they made their way into the airport. “I’ll see you around.”
“See you.”
Mila finally powered up her phone to see where she was off to next and was pleasantly surprised to see she wasn’t scheduled on another flight.
“Yes!” A much-needed break.
“Good news?”
She hadn’t noticed another female attendant had taken a seat next to her and jumped at the comment. “Oh, ha. I didn’t know you were still here. Yes, I finally get a little vacation. I have been begging Julia for some time of
f.”
“Yeah, it has definitely been rough these last couple of months. Anything fun to do here? Gonna do some sightseeing?”
Mila didn’t have an immediate answer as she hadn’t planned for this. She did a quick search on her phone to look at what activities this city had to offer.
“I don’t know,” she replied, even as her eyes scanned the search results. “Maybe I will just catch a flight home and see my folks. I don’t know how long I have until the boss comes to her senses.” Mila winked, and the women laughed.
“All right. Have a good one, and be safe out there.”
“You too.”
Mila sent her sister Rhoda, who she tried to check in with regularly so her family wouldn’t worry, a text to let her know she had landed safely.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a lock of white hair, and curiously, she turned her head. It was the woman from earlier.
With blue eyes … not gold, the woman smiled widely at Mila. She really was losing it.
“Hello, again.” The woman watched her with a piercing gaze that Mila didn’t know how to read. She assumed the woman recognized her from the flight. “Can I help you with anything?”
“Oh no, thank you. Your name is Mila … Mila Dillon, right?”
Her shock was quickly diminished when the woman gestured to Mila’s name tag. When Mila nodded, the woman stuck out her hand with a surprising amount of energy.
“Nice to meet you, Mila. My name is Gerri Wilder. I just wanted to compliment you on your customer service.”
Mila felt her cheeks heat at the praise. “Oh, thank you. It’s my job to ensure that everything goes smoothly.”
“Well, you do your job very well. That particular flight just happened to be a madhouse, so I was very impressed with your ability to stay calm and collected.”
Mila smiled with a chuckle. It was nice to be noticed. She did try very hard. Apparently encouraged, Gerri smiled as well.
“Sometimes a madhouse is just the name of the game. I am used to it by now.”
“Used to it …” Gerri echoed hollowly, raising an eyebrow. “Why do you put up with it?”
“I don’t know,” Mila admitted, not bothering to explain that Gerri had voiced the very question that had been troubling her lately. “I guess it’s just because I have been doing it for so long now. I really got into this business because I wanted to travel, and I love seeing new places. I figured I could get paid to travel and see the world this way.”
Mila shrugged. She honestly hadn’t ever seriously considered quitting despite the way her frustrations with the position had been growing. She loved traveling so much. She couldn’t imagine killing that wander bug in her system.
A part of her pondered on why she was spilling the tea to a perfect stranger. She hadn’t even voiced her doubts to her own sister, the one person she was closest to. But for some reason, it felt very easy talking to Gerri.
Gerri narrowed her eyes, looking like she was considering something. Mila cocked her head to the side, wondering what was going through Gerri’s mind.
“Have you ever considered a different line of work? I happen to have an acquaintance looking to hire a personal assistant. The gentleman flies a great deal, so essentially, you could be a personal flight attendant.”
Mila thought for a moment. A personal assistant would be more rooted than what she was doing now. And likely less demanding. She’d make one person happy instead of hundreds.
“Who is your acquaintance?”
“A prominent figure in the tech industry. He has a private jet and his pilot’s license, so you two would be working relatively alone and in close quarters.”
Mila couldn’t believe that she was actually considering this. It was a far cry from anything she had done in the past, but it would be a chance to settle down yet still travel.
“I suppose if the pay were comparable and my vacation time was more flexible than my current job, it would be something I could consider.”
Gerri’s face lit up like fireworks. The flash of gold Mila thought she had seen in Gerri’s eyes before was definitely there this time. Mila tried to remain expressionless even though she was bewildered by this petite woman who had crash-landed in her life.
“Excellent.” Gerri took Mila’s hands in her own. “I think this would be an excellent opportunity for you, my dear. I would love for you to come out to Oregon and meet my acquaintance. His name is Cyrus Bechtel.” She gave Mila a bright smile. “And he’s a polar bear shifter.”
The name Cyrus Bechtel rang a bell in the back of Mila’s mind, and she made a mental note to look him up later. Working for a shifter certainly did sound interesting.
“It sounds like a plan to me. When would we leave?”
“I just have some quick business here in town. What do you say we leave tomorrow morning? I will look into the tickets tonight. Shall I treat you to something to eat for lunch? It would be my pleasure.”
Mila agreed, relieved she would get to speak to Gerri a bit more before she sprinted off with her to a strange place and unknown potential boss.
Over lunch, Mila realized the bubbly personality she had seen from Gerri was just the tip of the iceberg. Mila believed wholeheartedly that Gerri did not stop talking for the next hour and a half that they were together, and that included the need to breathe as well as put food in her mouth.
“I often find myself flying all over as well. I don’t tend to stay in one place for very long.” Gerri was not shy about personal details, be it hers or that of her companion.
“So, was there anything in particular that pushed you to get out and see the world? I have known a great many people who are content to never leave their hometown,” Gerri queried.
“Well, I grew up in a small hometown, and I have always been fascinated with other places in the world. I had a map of the world on my bedroom wall with tiny push pins in different places I wanted to visit,” Mila revealed.
“It used to drive my sister crazy. We shared a room growing up, but all she had on her walls were boy bands. I aspired a little higher than that. But she ended up traveling a lot, too, so what do I know?”
Gerri’s eyes smiled again. Mila squirmed a bit, feeling uncomfortable with how easily she had just spoken about her personal life.
“And what is it that you do for a living, Ms. Wilder?” Mila asked, trying to shift the focus back onto Gerri for now.
“Oh, darling. Call me Gerri, please. I … like to help people. I’m a philanthropist, mostly. Occasionally, I’ve been called a matchmaker.” She grinned in a way that made it seem like it might be more often than not.
Mila nodded slowly. She couldn’t help but wonder just who Gerri might be meeting here and who she was trying to match.
“Mila, may I ask you a personal question?”
“Uh, sure. What’s up?” Mila flinched inwardly.
“Are you seeing anyone right now?” Again, Mila’s cheeks heated. It was getting so that she was almost used to feeling uncomfortably warm as she had spent most of their lunch in this state. She looked down at the table, unable to meet Gerri’s eyes.
“Well, no … I mean, the job doesn’t really lend itself to a dating life ….”
“I see. Have you ever considered dating a shifter?” Gerri winked.
“Oh.” It was the only noise she could make, temporarily speechless. Why did she say she was okay with personal questions? She was beginning to feel super self-conscious. “I mean, I hadn’t really thought about it, but I don’t really have an objection to the idea. I mean, it sounds kinda sexy,” she finally stammered.
Gerri let out a low chuckle. “Oh, it is.” Gerri winked. “Think you’d ever date a boss?”
What was she getting at? “Definitely not. I believe in professionalism in the workplace. There is some conflict of interest in engaging in that behavior.”