Bearlebrity: (BWWM) Paranormal BBW Bear Shifter Romance Standalone

C
opyright
© 2015 by Terry Bolryder

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L
eslie didn’t know
when the night had turned to such utter crap.

Oh wait, yes she did. It was when Riley Hart’s ridiculous entourage insisted on flying in and taking over her small bar.

That’s right, stupidly rich Riley Hart could simply fly in a bunch of his frat boy clinger-ons and take them out on the town to distract himself from his brother’s upcoming wedding.

Leslie, however, as the owner of the only bar in town, ended up having to pay the true cost of entertaining them. And damn, if these Hollywood boys weren’t entitled.

“Oh come on, let a real man show you how it’s done,” the brute pushing up against her grunted. With his sweaty, limp blond hair and his smelly body and his smelly breath, it didn’t matter that he was a minor actor friend of Riley’s. That he thought he was hot shit.

Leslie shoved against his shoulders, testing his strength as he tried to reach her neck with his lips. “Get off me,” she muttered, leaning in close. “Or you’ll regret it in about ten seconds.”

“Ha!” the drunk muttered, daring to raise his hand in the direction of her breast. At 5’10”, she was taller than him by nearly an inch. In her stiletto heels, it was nearly comical.

Sighing that she had to make a scene in the hallway of her own bar, she made a quick move to swat his hand out of the way and then grabbed his shoulder and jerked him forward, placing her knee neatly and fiercely into his groin in one smooth motion.

The man let out a little squeak as he curled forward onto the dirty floor between the restrooms, and Leslie cursed him and his friends for trashing up the place.

Leslie brushed off her hands and turned to leave, pulling her tight, red dress back into place. It was ruched and hugged her lush curves, exposing curvy brown legs from the mid thigh down. Leslie was a curvy girl and proud of it. She used her hand to flip her dark curls over her shoulder in triumph as she walked away from the dirtbag on the floor.

Then she felt a yank on her ankle.

She gasped as her stiletto flipped to the side, rolling her ankle painfully, and she fell to the ground, catching herself on her hands on the sticky ground. Oh, Riley Hart would pay for this night, for his friends trashing her bar and this friend in particular trying to take liberties.

She was used to tourists coming on to her. Sometimes she even took them up on it. She liked a little taste of adventure now and then.

But not with douchebags like this.

He crawled toward her, anger and menace in his eyes. She swore as she tried to regain her footing and stumbled on what was probably a severely twisted ankle. She tried to catch herself with a hand on the wall but found herself tumbling forward again. Her arms flailed out in front of her, because she was sure she was headed for the floor, and then a pair of large, strong arms was around her.

She swallowed and looked down at the huge forearms braced under hers. At the chest that was much higher than hers. There weren’t a lot of men taller than her in this town, and most only by a few inches. There was only one man she knew of that would be at this particular bar, right now, that was tall enough to tower over her, to make her feel small.

She swallowed resentfully and looked up into surprised, concerned hazel eyes.

“Hello, Riley.”

He looked her up and down with a grin, and then helped her regain her balance. She leaned on the wall to pretend her ankle wasn’t screaming. She didn’t need or want this particular man’s help. Not when all of this was his fault in the first place.

It had nothing to do with the fact that he’d rejected her several times since meeting her, despite flirting outrageously. Yes, clearly Riley Hart thought he was better than everyone, and a local girl like Leslie would never be good enough for him.

Then again, he was a famous movie star. A heartthrob who’d been in too many chick flicks to count the past few years.

Still, Leslie didn’t think she was out of his league. And she had a firm sense of pride that wouldn’t let her keep putting herself out there only to be rejected.

“Try not to trip,” she said. “The floor is sticky.”

He eyed her carefully, noting the way she held the wall, and then tried to look over her shoulder at whomever was behind her. “Good thing I was just on my way to the bathroom. Not that I’m going to complain about you falling into my arms.”

“Please,” she said. “As if.” She jerked a thumb over her shoulder. “One of your entourage was getting rowdy and after I taught him a lesson he turned out to be a sore loser.”

Riley’s handsome, boyish face darkened in anger, and he rose to his full height as he looked past her. “Who?”

She turned to look, being gentle on her ankle. “He was right there. Probably scampered away when he saw you. Blond, skinny. Short.”

“Short compared to normal, or short compared to us?” he asked, sharing a cocky smile with her.

Damn, that smile could melt cold butter,
she thought. “Short. Compared to me.” She folded one arm over her waist, trying to look strong when she felt anything but. Leslie’s mother, a strong, single mom, had taught her to stand on her own and not rely on men. They couldn’t be trusted.

They were delightful, sexy creatures, but they couldn’t be counted on to stick around.

Especially men like Riley Hart.

“Hm. Might have been Ben? What did he do?” Riley leaned against the wall opposite her. He looked exquisite as usual tonight, his tanned, taut body on display in a fitted gray tee and designer jeans. An expensive watch accentuated his fine wrist and drew attention to long, strong fingers. She’d heard that movie stars usually looked smaller in person, but Riley Hart was definitely larger than life.

She had to look up at him, and he seemed smug about this fact. His golden-brown hair with natural blond highlights was thick and windswept, the kind of hair that men probably took hours to tousle into place, but looked like he’d just gotten up that way.

And that face, that unfairly handsome, rakish face that had gotten him discovered at a simple college party and led to him being on the big screen where women across the nation could lust after him. A sharp, straight nose with a hint of a bump on the ridge. Dark brows that arched over delicious hazel eyes flecked with green and gold. A slight cleft in his perfectly masculine chin. A jaw one could measure with a straight-edge. High, prominent cheekbones. He was Hollywood royalty and he knew it.

Or at least, he was well on his way there, already a household name, at least in his genre.

“Like what you see?” he asked, arching slightly as he leaned against the wall, giving her a clear view of luscious pecs, abs that strained against his shirt, and, as his shirt lifted slightly, a light amount of golden hair, that would trail down to…

She snapped her gaze back to him, remembering to be the fiery person she always had to be. “I’d like to see you take your entourage out of here. They’re trashing my place.”

He shrugged and put his hands in his pockets. Well, tried to, since his jeans were too tight for him to hook more than his thumbs. Damn those thick, powerful thighs. How she wanted those thighs wrapped around her. Wanted to wrap her thighs around him.

She bit her lip and looked away, afraid he could read her mind if he caught her gaze.

“It’s not like Ben to act that way. Was he drunk?”

She frowned. “Does it matter?” She was a little irked that he didn’t immediately take her side.

“I’ll pay for anything he broke,” Riley said, following her as she tried not to limp her way back to the bar. There was a stool there and she sat against it. Talia, one of her waitresses, came over to put a hand on her shoulder and asked silently with her eyes if Leslie was all right. Leslie nodded and gestured toward the tables. Talia smiled and went back out with a tray of drinks.

“He didn’t break anything,” Leslie said, removing the heel that had twisted, to give her foot some relief.

“You said he was rowdy. And a poor loser.”

“I should have rephrased that. Apparently, he thought that I came with the bar.”

Riley’s always light-hearted face went completely serious, completely still.

“Whoa,” she said, waving her hands in front of his thunderous expression. “Hey, it’s not that big a deal. I took care of it. If he hadn’t tripped me after…”

Riley put a hand up over his face, taking a deep breath and hissing it out like someone was about to die. “So he assaulted you, and then he tripped you after?”

Leslie bit her lip, wondering if she should answer. She hadn’t thought the cocky, always-grinning Riley would react like this. She guessed he really had taken her literally about the rowdiness before, because he was definitely reacting differently now that he understood the rest of the story.

“He didn’t assault me, because I got him right in the—”

Riley cut her off with one large hand held in her direction; then, with a dark expression, he headed for the hallway they’d just come out of, taking his watch off as he went.

Shit, Riley Hart couldn’t do stuff like this. Anyone in the world would just be waiting for a chance to sue him. She made to go after him but even after she took her other heel off, she still had to limp, and it was getting worse.

“Wait, Riley!” she called, holding the wall and trying to follow.

T
he door
to the men’s bathroom made a crashing noise as it was slammed open. Yelling came from inside, and then Leslie saw her attacker, pushed bodily out of the restroom where he’d been hiding by Riley, who was holding him up with one hand grasping his collar. Ben’s feet scraped the ground as he struggled to get loose, and Riley simply slammed the man against the wall, holding him even higher.

The little guy was turning purple. Leslie bit back a smile. Had she simply left without being tripped and walking into Riley, she would have called the police and enjoyed watching them take this douche out.

But watching world-famous, absolutely gorgeous Riley Hart defend her honor was sort of okay, too.

“Apologize,” Riley said in a cold voice, looking back toward Leslie.

Ben mumbled an apology. Then he said something sulky and mildly defensive that she couldn’t hear. Riley did, though, and he slammed the man against the wall again and whispered something in his ear that made the man cringe. She bet the other dude was wetting himself about now.

Riley let the man down and then hauled him into the room and took him to the table where his entourage sat. He flung Ben into the booth and sat down to argue with the other man. She heard the smash of a beer bottle and then Riley and Ben were standing, looking eye to eye. Well, eye to chest, in Ben’s case. At 6’7”, there weren’t a lot of men who could go toe to toe with Riley Hart.

Then Ben smashed a glass on the floor, shot Riley an evil look, and gestured for the others to follow. They trailed out sheepishly, and Riley simply folded his arms and watched them go. All three booths of them. He followed them out, and she hoped he made sure they left. There was nothing else to do in the town at night.

And now she could close up, because there was no one else in the bar. The other patrons had left when Riley’s party came in.

By the time Leslie had settled back on the stool by the bar, Talia was walking over with the black leather folder that held the check.

“Of course they didn’t tip,” she said resentfully, tossing the folder on the counter. Leslie opened it and sighed.

It wasn’t uncommon for the bar to have large groups that felt entitled to service without tipping for it. But she’d make sure and take it out of the till so that Talia wasn’t the one to suffer for it. She should have turned away Riley’s party, but there’d been nowhere else in town and Riley had begged her. Janna had seconded it. Janna was one of her closest friends in the town, and she’d said that Riley really needed some party time to cope with his brother’s pending nuptials. That his entourage would behave or Riley would manage them.

Well, that had only been partially true.

She took the check Talia had brought so she could start closing out the register. Then she’d have to clean up. Her ankle ached, and she wondered if the town’s urgent care was still open. Probably not, seeing as it was nearing midnight.

The door to the bar jingled as it opened, and she looked up to see Riley walking back in. Alone. He stopped by Talia, who was putting on her coat to go out, pulled out his wallet, and put an impressively large bill in her hands. Then he gave her a quick hug (Riley seemed to be just a big teddy bear that way) and held the door for her.

“I’m going to walk her out, okay, Les?” he called.

Talia flushed and looked over at Leslie like she could barely believe
Riley Hart
was walking her to her car. Leslie grinned and tried not to roll her eyes. Sure, when she’d first seen Riley Hart walk into the Bearstone Lodge with two of his brothers who were each as hot as he was, her mouth had watered. She’d wanted her friends to go meet them, and when her friend Janna had gotten involved with Ryder Hart, the billionaire tech mogul who also happened to be Riley’s brother, Leslie had gone up to the lodge for a private dinner with them.

It had been her, her friend Kylie, and Janna paired with Ryder, Riley, and their snowboarding, X Games–winning, not-that-interested-in-dating brother, Ryan.

And that night hadn’t ended well.

She’d thought it would. She and Riley had flirted throughout the night, played footsie under the table… She could still feel the ticklish caress of his shoe as it drew gently up the inside of her leg. Ah yes, she’d thought she’d be bedding a movie star that night.

But somehow, though she had stood right there, making herself available after all of that chemistry between them, he had stood her up. Well, not exactly stood her up, because they didn’t have any set plans. But he’d stood up the plans she’d been making in her mind when he’d been teasing her with those hot hazel eyes.

She sighed as she slammed the register shut and started wiping down the countertop. She couldn’t do the cleaning with her hurt foot, so she’d have to pay for extra cleaning crew to fix the place up tomorrow. The bell over the door jingled again. She didn’t have to look up to know it was Riley, so she kept her attention on the counter, wiping at a stain that was clearly gone by this point.

She didn’t know what to say to him. He was a total mystery.

“You don’t have to worry about my friends anymore,” he said, saying the word friends like it was distasteful. “I’m sorry.”

She shrugged. “It’s okay. It’s not the first entitled gang of losers I’ve had around here, and it won’t be the last.”

He grinned and leaned on his elbows on the counter, coming uncomfortably close. Her brow quirked as he took a maraschino cherry from behind the bar and pulled it off the stem in one fluid motion, catching it between perfect white teeth.

“Hey, you’re going to pay for that,” she said, putting her hands on her hips as well as she could from her spot on the stool.

“Of course I am,” he said, biting down on the cherry slowly, watching her with eyes that seemed to glow with some unknown emotion.

She crossed her legs tight. “Good.”

He waved a hand over the bar. “I’ll pay for all of it, and I’ll get a crew in here tomorrow. Who do you usually hire?”

She pulled a pen from behind her ear and wrote a number on the back of a Post-it note. She handed it to him, trying to ignore the heat of his fingers as they intentionally brushed against hers.

He looked down at the number. “Got it.” He folded it and stuck it in his pocket. “Again, I’m sorry.”

She went back to wiping, trying to keep her long curls back and out of her face as she did. Her only hairband was in the back office, and she didn’t think she could make it there. And she’d be damned if she admitted to the great and powerful Riley Hart that she didn’t know how she was even going to get home tonight. She just hoped he’d leave before she had to try it.

“Anything I can help with?” he asked, sitting on one of the stools across from her.

She frowned at him. “No, just go home. I’m closing up. It’s past the posted hours anyway, and your party scared the rest off.”

He swiped another cherry and grinned at her when she failed to stop him. “Again, I’m sorry. I didn’t call them, you know. Ryder thought I was depressed and called my friends. He doesn’t get that a celebrity doesn’t really
have
friends. Not that I minded having a party. I like people around. The more the better…but well…” He swallowed the cherry and looked thoughtfully at the stem. “All I can say is that you won’t see them again.”

“Hm. Good,” she said.

“Want to see a trick?” he asked, twirling the stem between his fingers.

She put her hands on her hips. “Sure.”

He put the stem in his mouth, smiled, and took it out a few seconds later, tied in a perfect knot. Damn, that was hot. Her body ached to see what else that tongue could do. But now that she knew Riley Hart was just a great big tease, she wasn’t going to fall for it. Hollywood men like that didn’t go for girls like her.

He held out the stem, but when she didn’t take it, chucked it in a nearby garbage can. “Can I have more cherries?”

“I thought you were going to be useful.”

“You wouldn’t let me,” he retorted.

She handed him a small bowl. “You have a sweet tooth, don’t you?”

He grinned, grabbed a cherry, raised it to his lips and then paused, looking her slowly up and down. “Yup.”

She felt flushed, felt heat run up into her face. Yup, Riley Hart needed to leave
now
. “Are you going to go?”

He shook his head. “Nope, I’m going to walk you home. Janna would kill me if I didn’t.”

“I’m fine. I go home alone all the time.”

“Not after being attacked,” he said. “And not when I’m around to walk you. Come on, my party got ended early, thanks to you. Entertain me a bit longer.”

She rolled her eyes at his spoiled request, but she also knew this was his own unique way of cheering her up. “Fine, you can sit there while I close the till.”

So he did, bantering while she counted and wrote totals.

“How did you end up owning a bar?”

“My mom was a waitress here. She wanted more for me, so she saved up and put me through college. I came back and bought the place from the owner.”

“Admirable,” he said, playing with another cherry. They were starting to stain his lips. She wanted to see how they’d taste.

“Thanks.” Her ankle ached and she poured herself a drink to deal with it. A little liquid courage couldn’t hurt, right?

A few more servings of liquid courage later, the till was dubiously settled, Riley Hart was still sitting across from her doing sexually suggestive things with cherries, she was crazy aroused by him, and she still had no idea how she was going to get home without hurting or embarrassing herself.

She wasn’t used to admitting weakness. And now she had a bad ankle
and
was mildly drunk. She grabbed a bottle and he took it from her and put it back down.

“I think I’m cutting you off,” he said quietly.

“No one cuts off the bartender,” she retorted, trying to take the bottle back. He held her off easily. Despite being a tall, curvy woman, she was small compared to him. She leaned over the counter helplessly, trying to take the bottle back while keeping her hold on the stool. She didn’t make it. She toppled off with a squeak and dragged various pens and notepads down with her as she fell.

“Damn, am I really so hard to deal with that you have to get dead drunk just to be around me?” Riley asked, giving her an affectionate scowl as he came around the bar to help her up. He reached out his hands and she took them. “Now stand up,” he said.

She just sat there.

“Come on, that floor can’t be clean enough for that. Maybe we’ll have to bathe you when you get home.” He smirked, and that galvanized her into action. She tried to stand, but her ankle flared and she squeaked and sat back down, this time flat on her butt.

“I wasn’t getting drunk because of you,” she said, hoping it wasn’t too slurred. “I was getting drunk because your friend messed up my ankle when he tripped me.” She gave him a stubborn glare as if daring him to try and do something about it.

Instead, his expression fell and he immediately got down on the ground with her. “Which one?”

She pointed.

“May I?”

She nodded. Wow, he was so respectful all of a sudden. Almost caring. Maybe being drunk made Riley Hart more bearable after all. Then his gentle hands touched her foot and she sucked in a breath. Dammit, never mind, he was completely intolerable. How dare he touch her when she was already aroused and fighting her attraction to him? Riley Hart was the biggest tease in the whole damn world!

“I think it’s sprained,” he said. “Do you have a doctor?”

She rolled her eyes, clinging to her sarcasm so she didn’t fall into the abyss of opening her heart to him. “No. If someone gets sick here, they just die. Natural selection.”

He laughed. “No, I meant do you have a doctor you prefer personally?” He pulled out a cell phone. “I’ll call and offer him whatever he wants to come down here.”

She frowned. “Just because you’re a celebrity, it doesn’t mean you can make everyone do your bidding.”

“Yes it does,” he said frankly, with just a hint of wryness in his smile.

She groaned. “But no, I don’t have a preference. The town doc is fine. Just get me home so I can rest it off until he opens in the morning.”

Riley frowned and ran a hand through his thick, tousled hair. Leslie wanted to do that. She bit her lip and pulled her foot away from him, but he grabbed it and brought it back. He opened a mini fridge next to them and pulled out a bag of ice. He placed it on her ankle. “You know how to get in trouble, don’t you?”

“I didn’t get me in trouble,” she said. “You did.”

He sighed. “Fair enough.”

She hissed at the cold of the ice, and he smoothed a hand up her leg as if to soothe her. It didn’t. Instead, she felt another thrill of arousal surge through her and she bit her lip harder. Much harder and there’d be blood. “Stop that.”

“Stop what?” he asked, a wicked glint in his eye as he drew one fingers slowly back down to the tip of her toe. “I’m just trying to distract you from the pain.”

“You know what you’re doing,” she hissed, trying to pull away, but not very hard due to her injury. “You’re taking advantage, trying to tease me. You love teasing—”

He looked up at her, hazel eyes green and thoughtful. “I what?”

“Love teasing,” she said, turning her head away from him and leaving him with a black cascade of curls to stare at. He reached forward and she felt a gentle, strong finger touch her chin and tilt her face back toward his. Damn, he was dazzlingly handsome. Too shiny to be real.

“I don’t love teasing,” he said slowly, keeping her captive with that one finger, and with his gaze on hers. “I don’t know why you’d say that. You’re the one who has been teasing me for weeks.”

“Hmph,” she said. “You played footsie with me under the table for about an hour when we were up at the lodge, and then you didn’t even ask for my number.”

“I already had it, from the first time we met.”

“Well, you didn’t use it.”

He frowned. “What if I told you Ryder told me off, made me swear not to make a move on any of Janna’s friends until he had her in the bag?”

She scowled. “That’s an unpleasant way to put it.”