The Right Bear's Arms BBW Paranormal Bear Shifter Romance(5)

“Wildlife management.” He said it without batting an eyelash, and she still seemed oblivious. Was it possible she didn’t know she was kin? “What about you?”

Katie smiled faintly, and took a bite of her sandwich before answering. That was fine by him. He could watch her eat all night, the way her lips moved, the little glimpses of her tongue when she opened her mouth... He was getting distracted again. Finally she said, “Colorado. Similar story, actually. My mom has some... pretty definite ideas about what I should do with my life, and I just wasn’t interested.”

“What did she want you to do?” he asked.

She paused. “Well, I come from one of those little towns like you see in the movies, you know? Where there’s one family that’s in charge of everything, and everybody bows and scrapes to them? Like, can you believe that actually happens?”

Jake thought about his own family network and smiled faintly. “Sounds crazy.”

“More than anything, my mom wanted me to marry into that family—speaking of things that sound crazy. But they were all a bunch of gross... alpha male types. And way too old for me.”

Her mother wanted to marry her off to a local alpha. He felt a growl rising at the thought of someone else claiming her, and fought to keep it in. “That’s awful.”

Katie nodded around another bite of sandwich, then said, “I just want someone nice and normal, you know? So my grandma helped me leave town, and here I am.” She smiled at him, and his stomach dropped.

Normal. The very thing he wasn’t. He should just take her home right now and forget the whole thing. She’d all but told him flat out that she didn’t want a bear. If she knew he was not only a bear, but a potential alpha, she’d never talk to him again. No. She was his, she was meant to be his. He just had to wait until she realized it, that’s all. “Lucky me,” he said.

“Maybe we’re both lucky.” She leaned in close and he closed his eyes and followed suit, ready for a kiss, only to open them again when she brushed her thumb over his lower lip. “You had some mustard, right there,” she murmured, still close enough to kiss. Then, oh then, she slowly licked off her thumb and he thought his heart was going to stop.


Jake couldn’t stand it anymore. He reached up and curled his fingers around the base of her skull and gently tugged her the rest of the way in, finally claiming her lips. She tasted as sweet as she smelled. He took the cup of wine from her and put it aside so it would spill, then pulled her into his lap. She started to protest, but he silenced her with his mouth. The weight of her against his body was intoxicating. He wanted nothing more than to lie back and pull her with him, but in the interest of public decency he stayed upright, instead just holding her around the waist and savoring the taste of her.

She put her arms around his neck and parted her lips, teasing with the tip of her tongue until he followed it into her mouth. Shock waves rippled through him, red warning lights flashing behind his closed eyelids that he was dangerously close to losing control. His bear, caged and pacing, rattled the cage bars and roared to be set free. No matter what it took, no matter what it cost him, he was going to have her. She was his, and he was going to prove it over every inch of her luscious body.

Katie broke the kiss and took a deep breath, catching his hand where it was creeping up toward her breast and putting it firmly back on her waist. “Wow, um. We should probably stop.”

“Do you want to stop?” Jake leaned in with a growl and nipped at the side of her neck.

She laughed shakily and wriggled away from him. “No, but I don’t want to get arrested either.” Her face was flushed and her green eyes brilliantly lit with her heat. He imagined he could smell her arousal, and fantasized briefly about whether she was wearing panties or not. What he wouldn’t give to slide a hand up her thigh and find out.

Once she was settled demurely across from him again, she nibbled at her sandwich and picked up her wine. “So, wildlife management—are you guys park rangers or something?”

Was she kidding with this? He stared at her for a moment, trying to recalibrate from “ready to f*ck” to “having a conversation” as fast as she had. “Wha—er, yeah. Sort of?”

She laughed at him. “I’m hungry! I want to finish eating before we do anything else.” Then she fluttered her eyelashes at him. “Maybe after, we can go to my place for dessert.”





Chapter Three





“I don’t think I’ve ever wanted dessert so badly in my life,” Jake said, and Katie had to fight a shiver. This was really going to happen. She was going to take this tall, incredibly hot man home to her bed.

Damn, but he could kiss. Katie wasn’t kidding about not wanting to get arrested. Any more kissing in his lap and she would’ve started pulling some clothes off. It was bad enough that she was eying the public restrooms across the sand, wondering if they could manage a quickie in one of the stalls before someone called the cops. She had a sudden mental image of herself pinned against the wall with Jake f*cking her hard, just about to come and then yelling, “We’ll be out in just a second, officer!”

The way Jake had manhandled her into his lap, she had no doubt he was strong enough to lift her and pin her against a wall. Her face flamed hot and she ducked her head. This wasn’t like her at all. This was some out-of-control version of her, and all she could do was hang on.