Billionbears' New Honey: BBW Paranormal Shapeshifter Mail-Order Bride Menage Romance (4 page)

What? Dude. Focus. No funky business!

Easier said than done.

“I’m Rush.”

Hesitantly, she took his hand and her little palm disappeared in his. He hadn’t even thought about it when he said it, but he’d told her he was a werebear in the first few sentences he shared with her. Must have been the Shifter Grove air getting to him, making him feel loose and comfortable.

Her hand was warm, and holding it sent a pleasant shock through him, his bear murmuring happily at the touch. Another first – his bear never liked anyone, unless they were a shifter and provided a good challenge. She, though, was most decidedly a human, and a sexy as fuck one at that.

“Danni,” she said, smiling meekly.

That blush on her cheeks was maddening. He had to wonder if it would stay just there or travel further if he spread her out on the ground and found out what her honeypot of a pussy tasted like.

There went his focus again. He reluctantly let go of her hand and tried to think on his feet. What does a bear say to a sweet as candy looking beautiful belle in the middle of the woods? Wanna go and see my cave? Probably not.

“Are you sure you’re okay? It wasn’t the gentlest collision.”

She nodded her head, smiling, and some locks of hair fell on her forehead. He wanted badly to reach out and brush them aside, if for no other reason than to touch her again.

“I’m okay, I swear. God, I’m such a klutz! I’m not sure how I managed to run into you in the middle of a deserted forest!”

“I was the one doing all the running, mind you,” he said, laughing.

She looked a bit lost for words, and Rush knew he was moments from losing her. It was now or never – dazzle her with his charm or just ask her if he could see her again. Either would probably work. But being all sweaty from the run and heaving for breath – both from the run as well as from being so close to her without being able to let his hands do all the things his body was telling him to do to her – the whole dazzling option seemed somewhat out of reach. So, the classics were going to have to be enough this time.

“I think I better be going. Let you continue with your run,” she said, angling past him.

Rush reached for her hand and his fingers locked around her wrist gently. She gave an almost inaudible gasp as he spun her back to face him.

“I’m sorry if I’m being forward, but could I see you again? Maybe for dinner? Maybe run into you again?”

He winked and her blush deepened. Good. He’d know what to expect when he got her where he wanted her – on her back, screaming his name as he fucked her straight into the peaks of ecstasy.

She looked like she was thinking about it and it seemed to be taking a bit too long. Rush Dean was used to women literally throwing themselves at him, so meeting one who wasn’t entirely keen on falling right into his lap was a change. A pleasant challenge, if he did say so himself.

Maybe these small town girls are exactly what I’ve been missing…

“Okay. Um… You can find me in Shifter Grove. I have a hair salon there – Danni’s. You can’t miss it. It’s the only one. But I really have to be going now. It was nice… running into you,” she said with a smile and he let go of her.

“I’ll find you, DannI!” he called after her, watching her hurriedly retreat behind the bend of the curve.

Damn. I hate to see her leave but I love to watch her go. That ass…

Shaking his head and grinning, Rush turned around and broke into a run. It was as if he’d been reinvigorated, the life breathed back into his limbs. So what if he and Rhett didn’t have a lot of time – with women like Danni around, they weren’t going to need that much of it anyway. If Rush had any say in it, he was going to nominate Danni as a main contender.

If she’d have it, of course... But two sexy as all hell werebears could be awfully persuasive if they wanted to be, right?

Beneath all that bravado was his bear, and though Rush could put on a show and claim that he was a real tail-chaser, both he and the bear knew that when he found the right woman, he’d never let go of her. His bear had the peculiar feeling that they’d just met that exact girl.
 

CHAPTER FIVE

Danni

Daniela Weaver, or Danni as everybody in Shifter Grove knew her, was having one hell of a weird day. First of all, she’d woken up early in the morning and her rich head of hair was
exactly
the way she wanted it to be – like, Farrah Fawcett level of super effing fabulous, blowing-in-the-wind, took-three-hair-stylists-to-maintain-that level of flawlessness kind of awesome. She honestly had to stare at herself in the mirror for far too long to even be convinced that it was still her, plain ol’ Danni, eyeing her back.

Must be something about the Idaho air,
she thought with a grin, grabbing her morning coffee and setting off towards town.

Then, of course, her day had got only better. Though Cerise had managed to make her groan, cringe and wail with embarrassment the night before, Danni had to admit that the shifter diner owner knew what she was talking about. It felt oddly liberating to give herself the permission to flirt again, starting off by answering a text on SassyDate. It was a small step towards having a bit of fun, even if it might not have meant much in the long run.

And all those feel-good sensations got verified when she got a reply from a very special werebear shifter who’d taken a central role in her dreams the previous night – all good ones, too! None of that nightmare crap about dying sad and possibly alone with 25 cats! No, sir, not for her! Now it was all SassyDate flirting, all the time!

She still giggled a little when she thought back to their impromptu chat in the morning:

HoneysuckleStyle:
Are you the kind of guy who would save me from the marching enemy troops or would I have to get my own horse and carriage with you?

GoneWithTheBear:
Oh, I’d save you, alright. But only if you promise not to pine after your best friend’s man. I can’t abide by sharing your affections.

HoneysuckleStyle:
Well, it depends. Are you man enough to keep my attention? I love a man in uniform!

GoneWithTheBear:
I can wear any uniform you like. I won’t promise I’ll make it historically accurate, though. Those Civil War era uniforms aren’t really made for a werebear’s shoulder width.

She’d been deep in thought, happily imagining the way his shoulders would bulge out under a tee, when someone ran right into her. Just her luck, he was just as damn cute as the guy on SassyDate! The heavens were really smiling down on Danni all of a sudden! The way he looked at her made her all tingly inside – the right kind of tingly, the I-wonder-where-this-is-going kind of tingly. Against better judgment, she was really hoping that the cute man would come and find her in town. And if he asked her out, there was no way she was saying no!

So, by the time Danni made it to her salon, she thought nothing could ruin her day. Not the fact that the electricity sometimes went out. Then she’d find Warren grumbling about bears up power lines, which she never understood. Not that she’d just packed up and left all her life behind, and not even the fact that her ex was a giant asshole and completely not worthy of her time.

But of course, things couldn’t be so good.

Danni had just taken a seat in the one and only chair meant for clients waiting for their turn. It was a slow morning, but she’d come to expect those in a town as small as Shifter Grove. She began texting
GoneWithTheBear
, when another text popped up.

Her face twisted in anguish when she recognized the sender – Taylor, her good for nothing fiancée, or
TheREALLionKing
on SassyDate.

Danni glanced around herself for a moment, as if expecting someone to walk in and smack that phone from her hands, and then opened the message.

TheREALLionKing:
Hey, baby. How are you? Miss me?

Danni stared in abject disbelief. Did this guy really just do what she thought he had? Text her like nothing had happened at all? Like they were still together, happy as could be? Danni bristled, half at the fact that Taylor was being such a twit, and half at the fact that a tiny, miniscule part of her was actually glad to see him acknowledge the fact that she existed.

They had met over SassyDate all those years ago, and for the duration of their time together, Danni had forgotten the app had even existed. Now, she realized that she had been the only one who had set the app aside – she was sure Taylor had been hitting on other curvy women that caught his eye if not for the whole entire time, then at least for big chunks of it.

The little green light saying that he was online was blinking, and Danni fought with the urge to just throw her phone down the toilet and never look at it again. But if she did that, she couldn’t chat with
GoneWithTheBear
either.

Should I just ignore him? I should just ignore him, right? Oh my god, why now… I was having such a nice day!

Worrying her bottom lip, Danni shifted in the chair. Finally, with a sigh that could have shaken the whole salon, she hit the reply button and typed a few words, deleting them far too many times for her own liking. She wanted to be secure, confident and happy in her decision, and here she was, worrying like a teenager about what this jerk of a man would think about her.

HoneysuckleStyle:
I’m not your baby, Taylor. What do you want?

TheREALLionKing:
I just wanna know how you’re doing. Where are you? I miss you.

HoneysuckleStyle:
I don’t miss you. I’m in Idaho. And don’t go lying to me. If you missed me so much, you would never have cheated on me!

TheREALLionKing:
C’mon, baby, you know how we big cats are. We need more than one woman to keep us happy and sated. You were always the most special, I swear!

Danni snorted at that. Sure, special. Special in the way that she was home, waiting for him with dinner, while he was probably out screwing some girl. And sated? Sheesh. Danni had never been the kind of woman to be shy about her body, and she loved sex – she was sure there was nothing she wasn’t giving him in that field.

He was just a player. And Danni had loved him so much that talking to him still hurt.

TheREALLionKing:
Where in Idaho? I wanna come see you… For old times sake.

HoneysuckleStyle:
I don’t want to see you, Taylor.

Danni was just about to launch into a long tirade about how he was an impossible jackass (something that she had never had a chance to get off her chest when she packed up and left after finding out), when the little bell on the front door rang. Danni whipped around in the chair and almost dropped the phone from the surprise of seeing
him
there.

Rush.

It was both his name and what she felt when she saw him. For a moment, her legs trembled like she had just run ten miles uphill, and her breath caught in her throat. Danni tucked the phone on a table next to the chair and ignored the beeps it made as Taylor was undoubtedly sending her more placating words of bullshit.

Rush smiled, kicking his sunglasses up on his forehead. If he hadn’t been damn tasty before, he certainly was now. He cleaned up
good
.

“Hey, Danni. I need a haircut. Can you help a brother out?” he asked, throwing her a devilish wink.

Danni opened and closed her mouth like a fish out of water, and then nodded quickly, painfully aware of how awkward she was being.

“Sure! Take a seat!” she said, trying not to ogle too much.

He was built as hell and the casual clothes he wore showed it off so well. A grey tee and blue jeans made him look like every cowgirl’s dream, and even though Danni was no cowgirl yet, she would gladly wrangle that hunk of a man for herself.

Rush plopped down on the seat and Danni draped a sheet around his neck. He even smelled delicious – all pine and peppermint. He really wasn’t helping Danni’s desperate attempt at getting her head out of the clouds. Damn him. Rush took his sunglasses off and set them on the table before him. She pulled a brush through his hair and gave it a quick look, channeling the professional instead of the giddy girl inside.