Bearly Hanging On (A Werebear Shifter BBW Romance) (Laid Bear Book 3) (17 page)

Jason, ever the forgiving soul, sniffled and pulled his brother into a deep hug, the small scratch on his arm already forgotten.
 

“It’s okay, Sammy. I still love you.”

Veronica’s heart almost broke at the affection they had for each other. Sam was a bit of a hothead, and he was having trouble learning to control his shifting, but he loved his twin more than anything. Almost before she could blink, they were back to playing with their toys, Sam offering Jace his jet to play with.

Returning to her seat, she held down the delete key and turned off the computer.

~ * ~ * ~

Jess Slade scrubbed a hand across the brown stubble on his chin as he sat in front of his laptop, waiting rather impatiently for Veronica’s reply. Figuring she’d gotten distracted by her boys, he checked his work email, checked the weather forecast, checked on the bean stew in the slow cooker, fed his chocolate lab Fred. A couple of times he thought he heard the tell-tale ding of her response and went running to the computer only to find his question still sitting there unanswered.

Finally, he logged off, his stomach in knots. Why was she ignoring him? After sharing so much with each other, he thought they were beyond superficial wariness. It wasn’t every day that you found someone who got your offbeat sense of humor.

But he had. Right from the start, when he’d spotted her quirky profile on an online dating site six months earlier, he had a suspicion they would have a lot in common. Aside from the usual profile junk — all of which jived with his tastes and interests — her dark chocolate eyes reflected a shadow of loneliness, one he could relate to.
 

He’d signed up for the site at the urging of his nosy but devoted sisters. Growing up in a house full of women had taught him a lot about the opposite sex, but not enough to prevent his marriage to his high school sweetheart from crumbling.
 

It didn’t go unnoticed that Hannah was pulling away emotionally during the final months of their marriage, but he didn’t want to rock the boat by confronting her about it. Every couple goes through rocky periods, he told himself, and this was just one of those times.
 

When she told him she wanted a divorce, he was devastated. He wanted to work it out, to try counseling, but Hannah had refused.
 

“I’m sorry, Jess. It’s too late for all that now.”

Too late. He’d waited too long and she’d drifted away…right into the arms of another man, as it turned out. She was in love with someone else and there was no winning her back. There was nothing else to do but let her go.
 

It took months for Jess to get over the loss, then even more time to stop blaming himself. If he’d only fought harder for her, maybe things would have been different. Maybe if he’d given her a diamond tennis bracelet for her last birthday instead of the juicer she’d been eyeing. Maybe if he’d let her redecorate their apartment instead of insisting on saving for retirement. Maybe, maybe, maybe.

Finally the Slade sisters had told him it was time to get back in the saddle, that a year was too long to grieve, so he’d registered on the dating site. It took another couple months to actually start browsing profiles, and the first woman he’d contacted was the only one he’d contacted: Veronica Muir.

The photo on her profile was of a pretty, young woman who was thin and fit. A little too skinny for his tastes, but very attractive. But it was those eyes that drew him in. So he sent her one of the site’s silly Cupid-grams — complete with a sappy instrumental rendition of ABBA’s ‘Take a Chance on Me’ — and held his breath.
 

He still remembered the flutter in his stomach when she responded. They started corresponding more frequently, sharing the safe bits of their lives and ever-so-slowly opening up about the bigger things.

As their friendship developed, she admitted that her profile photo was old, that she looked different now. He’d insisted on seeing what she looked like so she set up a webcam show.
 

What he saw was much more to his liking: a tall, stately woman, with a drool-worthy hourglass figure. Her auburn hair tumbled in loose waves around her shoulders, framing breasts large enough that her tank top could barely contain them. Her waist tucked in under her bosom and her hips flared deliciously, just begging for hands — his hands — to caress them. When she did a little pirouette for him, showing off her round bottom in a pair of tight black yoga pants, he nearly passed out from blood loss as it was all redirected south of the border.

When she was done with her little show, her huge mocha-colored eyes looked in the camera and asked for one from him, but there was no way he could stand up anytime soon, so he begged off.
 

A few days later, when he was perfectly in control of himself, he reciprocated. He didn’t consider himself some kind of hunk or anything, but he was pretty fit from all the backwoods trekking he did for work so he quickly whipped off his shirt. He desperately hoped she would be impressed by his tight abs and athletic build.

When asked what she thought, she responded that his physique reminded her a little of her late husband. That was the first time she’d really opened up to him, and it marked a turning point in their relationship. From that point on, they shared every little detail of their lives, from his failed marriage to how she hated artichokes but loved asparagus. Nothing was off-limits.

Except when he would hint at meeting. Then suddenly there was an important phone call she had to take, or she just happened to be out of town for a couple of weeks, or she would simply stop chatting, like tonight. Even though they’d both admitted they were falling in love, she clearly didn’t want to meet him.
 

That hurt.
 

Something he’d shared must have turned her off. Maybe it was the fact he was a pescatarian — a vegetarian who occasionally eats fish — or that he lived in a cabin in the woods, or that he studied fish for a living. Or maybe it was all of it.
 

And if that was the case, why had he taken a summer job beneath his pay grade just to be closer to her? More importantly, why was he wasting his time and energy on someone who didn’t want him?

As a marine biologist, Jess was endowed with a tremendous amount of patience. But he would only wait so long before giving up hope. If Veronica didn’t agree to meet soon, he’d have to break it off. Then spend the rest of his life trying to forget her.

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About the Author

New York Times
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Bestselling Author Marina Maddix is a romantic at heart, but hates closing the bedroom door on her readers. Her stories are sweet, with just enough spice to make your mother blush. She lives with her husband and cat near the Pacific Ocean, and loves to hear from her fans. Connect with her at:

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Copyright 2014 Marina Maddix

www.MarinaMaddix.com

All rights reserved.
 

The characters and events portrayed in this book are a work of fiction or are used fictitiously. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.

This story contains sexually explicit material, and is intended only for persons over the age of 18. All of the characters involved in the sexual situations in this story are intended to be 18 years of age or older, whether they are explicitly described as such or not.

The cover art for this book makes use of licensed stock photography. All photography is for illustrative purposes only and all persons depicted are models.