Bad Bear: BBW Bear Shifter Paranormal Romance (BRIDES fur BEARS Book 1) (2 page)

Staci hiccuped loudly,
feeling a little light-headed. She felt the sudden, urgent need to
pee. The beer seemed to have filled her bladder pretty quickly.

Sliding off her stool, Staci
wobbled her way across the crowded bar towards the washrooms.

She stumbled on a step and
would have fallen flat on her face if someone hadn't caught her arm
and steadied her.

“Easy now,” a
deep voice said.

Staci looked up and every
nerve in her body sizzled and came alive as though she had just
received an electric shock.

She had seen her share of
good-looking men, and the vampires in Shadow Point were all suave,
smooth and very attractive. Most of the shifters were naturally
strapping and athletic, and the fae folk were beautiful. But this
man was…

Staci lost her train of
thought as she stared into a pair of brilliant blue eyes.

She blinked, but that
handsome face didn't disappear. He wasn't a beer-induced
hallucination.

The man had short, sandy hair
and the corners of his sexy, kissable lips were curved up.

Hi handsome
, a voice
purred inside her head.

She saw laughter in his blue
eyes, and she clapped her hand to her mouth.

Oh shit, she had blurted the
words out loud.

C
HAPTER
THREE

“Hi handsome,”
the woman slurred.

With
a gasp, she covered her mouth and took a small step back.
She
seemed steady enough on her feet, but
Marcus
Beck
held the woman's arm for
a moment longer.

She was really pretty, with
wavy brown hair and deep chocolate eyes. Her long-sleeved blouse
flowed down her curves and was tucked into an A-line skirt which
reached past her knees. The navy-blue skirt hugged her rounded hips
snugly and Marcus had to suppress a growl as his eyes trailed down
her lush, curvy frame. The woman was dressed primly in neat office
attire. But she was mouthwateringly sexy.

“Ah, thank you,”
she managed.

Marcus smiled and forced
himself to release his grip before his claws sliced out.

“I...” She spun
round, looking a little disorientated. “I'm looking for
the...”

“That way.”
Marcus jerked his head towards the washrooms.

“Yes, yes. Thank you.”
She smiled. “I...I'll talk to you later,” she said,
half bashfully, half hopefully.

“I'll
be right here.”
After
a short pause, he said quickly, “I'm Marcus Beck.”

She smiled sweetly. “Staci.”

He watched her totter off to
the ladies' room and kept staring after her even when his two younger
brothers came up to his side and peered at him.

“Whacha
doin?” J
ax
asked,
frowning at him
.
“
Why are you staring
into space?”

“
He's
waiting for his lady friend,” Joshua answered.

“What's that?”
Jax inclined his head and leaned closer.

“I said, Marcus is
waiting for his woman,” Joshua repeated into his brother's
other ear. Jax couldn't hear so well out of one ear, but nobody made
a big deal out of it. Sometimes they even forgot that and whispered
to him in his bad ear.

“You mean the brunette
who tripped and almost landed in your lap?” Jax asked Marcus
with a cheeky grin.

Marcus frowned. “You
saw her?”

Jax tapped his ear and
pointed to his eyes. “I can't hear, but I can see!”

“She's coming out,”
Joshua said, elbowing Marcus.

Jax winked and said too
loudly, “We'll just disappear now. We were coming to get you,
but it looks like you won't be leaving with us.”

Marcus glared at the twins as
they chuckled and weaved through the crowd. Then he rolled his eyes
when they turned around and craned their necks, hoping to get a
better look at his mystery lady.

Brothers, he huffed.

He
and the Carlan twins
didn't
share the same blood and last name. And with their dark hair and
eyes,
Jax and Joshua
looked as different from him as night and day. But none of that
mattered. They were his brothers. He would kill for them.
And
he had
.

Marcus felt his bear pushing
against his barriers, the predator rising to the fore. The memory of
what he had done all those years ago pulled his bear to the surface,
and a sharp jolt of horror and pain lanced his heart. He had done
something terrible, but—he knew that even if he went back in
time, he would do it again.

Marcus took a deep breath and
shook away the memory. There's no danger now, he told his bear.

But his bear made it clear
that it wasn't happy to back down. It prowled agitatedly under his
skin, and Marcus scanned the bar quickly.

There was nothing here to
upset his bear. He had come to his favorite bar with his brothers to
chill after work. The atmosphere at The Round Table was usually lazy
and relaxed, but on Witchy Wednesdays, the cozy little bar
transformed into a madhouse.

The
witches provided great entertainment, but he couldn't even hear
himself think with their
endless
and mostly tuneless warbling
.

His
bear rumbled again and Marcus spun round to see Staci coming out of
the ladies' room. She glanced at the stage where the witches were
still having the time of their lives and walked towards him.

“Hi...Marcus,”
she said shyly. She looked more sober now.

“Can I buy you a drink,
Staci?” It was the lamest line ever, and his brothers would
never let him get away with it if they knew but he couldn't think of
anything else to say.

“Oh, I have free beer,”
Staci said brightly.

Marcus frowned. “I
didn't see you sing.”

“I didn't. And I'm not
a witch, so I don't qualify. But—newcomers get a free mug of
beer,” she beamed then frowned. “I think.”

“
I
came with my
two
younger
brothers, but they've abandoned me,” Marcus
told
her
.

Staci laughed. “I know
how it is. I came with Melanie and Claire, but Claire snared herself
a dark, brooding vampire and Mel...” Her jaw dropped. “...has
just taken off her bra!”

Marcus followed her
unblinking gaze and saw that the witches had snapped their bras off
and were swinging them jauntily above their heads like lassos.

Ne-ma was the first to hurl
her bra at a beefy, tattooed wolf shifter. “He's mine!”
Ne-ma hollered gleefully and scampered off to claim her prize.

The other witches cackled and
began to aim their bras at their targets.

Gramma's sharp eyes landed on
Marcus suddenly and she gave him a knowing, warning smirk.

Panicking, Marcus gulped
audibly and mumbled, “We should get out of here. Fast!”

To his surprise, Staci
giggled and tugged at his hand. “Yes. Let's!”

C
HAPTER
FOUR

Staci
saw Melanie wink and grin
approvingly at her
as she
made her way to the door with Marcus.

Emboldened,
Staci winked back.
She
had never slipped out of a bar with a big, handsome stranger before.

S
taci
had never,
ever
picked up a stranger in a bar. She just wasn't the type. She wasn't
confident enough, flirty enough, carefree enough. And she knew that
men didn't go for chubby chicks like her.
But
tonight, she was
feeling
uncharacteristically bold, reckless
and...horny
.

Staci
was of average height and she was curvy, not thin and toned.
Her
ex-fiance, David, had dumped her for the ultra-skinny,
ultra-fashionable new colleague. Staci knew that nobody was perfect,
but after that fiasco with David, h
er
self-esteem had taken a beating.

Staci
wanted to feel good about herself again, and this man, this handsome,
sexy stranger made her feel...beautiful and desirable. He looked at
her with undisguised want and longing, and he
allowed
her
to
see herself through his eyes.

She
saw that her
wild
,
frizzy brown hair was adorable, and that she looked
sexy
as hell in figure-hugging
skirts.
David had said something about her skirts once. What was it? Oh,
right. He said that her skirts were too tight and they showed her
bulges in all the wrong places.
Well,
to hell with David!

She was here, in a new town,
with new friends. And she had met a nice, sexy man. She was going
to start anew, and she was going to start having fun.

She could have some naughty
no-strings-attached fun with Marcus. She was thirty years old, but
she had always lived her life safely, bookishly, according to the
rules. It was time to live a little dangerously.

Marcus was so tall and broad,
and he felt so solid, hard and real under her hands. Staci purred
and pulled him closer. Nope. She wasn't dreaming. She was really
pressing up against a sinfully handsome man, who looked at her as
though he wanted to eat her up...in a very good way.

“Marcus...”
she
moaned his name
,
as he pressed her against the wall
and
worked the buttons of her blouse
.

They
had slipped out of the bar and tumbled into a side alley. A stray
cat yowled and bolted from the top of a trash can but they didn't
even raise their heads. They were too busy with their hands and
mouths.

Marcus's kisses were hot and
hungry. His lips and tongue drove her out of her mind with lust.
His erection ground into her belly as he pressed his body against
hers.

Staci clung to his neck and
she gasped at the raw, feral hunger in his eyes. His skin was hot to
the touch and she sensed there was something dangerous inside of him.
She could feel it.

“Wh—what are you,
Marcus?” she asked breathlessly when she came up for air.

His brows furrowed.

“I mean, I'm just
human,” Staci said. “I'm not like Melanie and Claire,
who are half paranormal.”

“You
are not
just
human,”
Marcus growled. “You are human, and you are perfect.”

Her breath hitched. No one
had ever told her that she was perfect.

“I'm a bear shifter,”
Marcus said.

“
A
bear,” she murmured, pushing her fingers into his
soft,
sandy hair.

“Do I scare you?”

“No.”

“Have you ever...”
His eyes darkened.

“Been with a bear
shifter before?” she finished for him. “No. I've only
been with one man. He was human and he was a jerk.”

Staci fisted Marcus's collar
and pulled him down to her. “I want this,” she hissed.
“I want you.”

She had been living such a
safe, sheltered, structured life. She should live more, love more,
have sex more! For once, her body and her brain were both in
agreement.

They both said yes to Marcus.
Yes, yes and yes!

Staci's eyes rounded when she
realized that she had just muttered her thoughts out loud again.

CHAPTER
FIVE

Staci
moaned when she felt Marcus's large, calloused hands against her bare
skin. He had unbuttoned the buttons of her blouse and was running
his hands up and down her curvy torso.

Biting her lip to keep from
crying out, Staci gave up trying to think and just felt. She felt
what Marcus was doing to her, and it felt so damn good.

Marcus had his mouth on her
breast, and he was doing crazy things with his tongue and teeth. She
felt her nipples harden and throb as Marcus teased and tormented them
with his mouth and fingers. When he straightened up, he cupped her
breasts with his huge hands and kissed her passionately on the mouth.

Marcus was breathing hard
when he broke the kiss. His eyes were burning with desire as he
dragged his gaze hungrily over her quivering body. Staci swallowed,
unable to speak. She was sure she looked a mess. She was half
undressed, with her breasts exposed, and strands of hair were
plastered to her face and neck. She was sure that her lipstick was
smudged and her makeup thoroughly ruined, but—she had never
felt sexier.