Billionbears' New Honey: BBW Paranormal Shapeshifter Mail-Order Bride Menage Romance (5 page)

“So, what should we do?” she asked, cocking a brow at him in the mirror.

Rush smirked, and she just about swooned. His copper hair was perfectly lush, somewhat on the longer side and with a bit of a wave to it. She could easily imagine him being a surfer somewhere, just enjoying the day by the beach. And she could just as quickly see herself sitting right next to him, loving the surf and the wind.

“Just a bit shorter,” he said, shrugging mildly.

Danni nodded and grabbed for her scissors. All the while, her phone still bleeped and vibrated on the table, demanding the attention that she was none too willing to give. Her nose crinkled slightly as she heard it go off three times in quick succession, but no force on earth would have made her go and see what Taylor was telling her.

“Do you need to get that?”

Danni shook her head a bit too hard, a bit too eagerly, “Nope, not at all. All yours.”

The moment she said that, she realized what she’d just uttered. A blush immediately sparked on her cheeks and Rush chuckled, his blue eyes twinkling with mischief. Danni couldn’t help but laugh along with him. It was good to laugh, even if it was a little bit at herself. She hadn’t done it anywhere near as often recently as she should have.

“I’m sorry. I meant… I don’t know what I meant.”

“No worries. I don’t really need a haircut either. I just came to see you,” Rush said, tilting his head back and flashing her a brilliant smile.

Her blush got deeper again. Damn him all the way to hell.

“Um… thank you,” she muttered, clipping his hair back just a little.

It was so perfect she didn’t want to ruin it anyway and wouldn’t have cut much to begin with.

“Don’t be thankful. I felt bad about disrupting your morning like that. And I wanted to see if I could talk you into that dinner we already agreed upon.”

Oh, such a bad boy. Danni’s teeth grazed over her lower lip and she crept a look at him from under her lashes, meeting his gaze in the mirror. Butterflies fluttered in the pit of her stomach, and just as she was about to reply, the damnable phone beeped again. Danni groaned audibly, tossing a glare at it. Taylor couldn’t stop screwing with her life even when they were in different states!

Rush stood up and took the sheet off of him. Standing so close, he seemed impossibly large and impossibly… present. She looked up at him and her throat went dry. That playful smile he tended to wear was there again, soothing her frazzled nerves.

“I’ll take that as a yes. Give me a chance to get your mind off of whoever that jerk was. Forget about him completely, hmm? For me? I’ll come pick you up here tomorrow, seven sharp.”

He leant into Danni before she could utter a word of disagreement (or agreement) and pecked her on the cheek. The warmth she’d felt tingling at the edges of her being now came crashing down and the foul mood that had been falling upon her lifted again.

“Okay,” she said to Rush’s already retreating back.

Somehow, he’d been there to brighten her day twice in a matter of less than eight hours, and she couldn’t have been more thankful if she’d tried.

You’re not going to say a word to that asshole Taylor. Don’t let him ruin your mood!

And why would she? She had a date to look forward to.

Danni walked over to her phone to get rid of the irritating flashing notifications and was about to turn it off when the last message caught her eye.

TheREALLionKing:
Shifter Grove, huh? Guess I know where I can find you.

Danni’s stomach dropped.

This can’t be good.

CHAPTER SIX

Rhett

If there was one thing Rhett Dean wasn’t good at, it was waiting.

He leant back on his mother’s wide porch swing, trying to find a comfortable position. As predicted, Mama Dean had done her best to stuff her boys full of food, and Rhett was still feeling last night’s dinner. While Rush had decided to work it off with a run and then a mysterious disappearance into town, citing a cookie craving, Rhett had decided on the more boring option of getting some work done.

Of course, what it actually meant was that he’d been hanging on the edge of the swing, waiting for
HoneysuckleStyle
to reply to him. It was getting a bit ridiculous, really.

You’re not the kind of guy to pine after some girl you haven’t even met in person. So what’s so different about her?

Rhett silently pondered over this most important question, scrolling through her pictures on SassyDate. No matter how hard he tried, he always ended up back on her profile soon after opening his work email or trying to check the online task boards to understand whether his companies were faring well without him.

He wished he could adopt Rush’s laid back take on this whole mate business, and also forget about his work while he was all the way up in Idaho. But it didn’t come quite as easily to him. He had got everything in life thanks to his iron work ethic and he wasn’t about to put himself to shame now that he might just need it the most.

Not that being in Idaho, getting both pampered and yelled at by his mother, wasn’t fine and all… It was good to see Mama Dean again, as well as spend more time with Rush, but still, there was something forcing Rhett forward, telling him to grab the moment by the horns, take control, all that good stuff.

So, this time on purpose, he opened up
HoneysuckleStyle
’s chat window and stared at his last message. They’d been discussing the pros and cons of 50s U.S. cinematography when the conversation came to a lull, and it was damn near killing him to not hear back from her in several hours. He hadn’t thought himself the clingy kind, but this woman made his head spin in all sorts of ways that no other woman had before.

Pondering it over for a moment, he typed a few words into the chat.

GoneWithTheBear:
I want to meet you in person. Do you think that could happen?

To his great surprise, she responded immediately this time.

HoneysuckleStyle:
New York and Idaho aren’t very close together.

That got his attention. Idaho? He checked her profile again and saw a status update that included her location – Shifter Grove, Idaho.

Damn. That’s some luck,
he thought, grinning to himself.

If that wasn’t a sign, he didn’t know what was.

GoneWithTheBear:
But imagine if they were. Would you be game?

The wait was excruciating, but he felt more at ease the moment he saw the screen prompt him that she’d started typing. He was sure he could talk her into meeting. They’d had such great chemistry over chat, how could he not?

HoneysuckleStyle:
I don’t know. Maybe? I sort of have a date with someone tomorrow… I don’t know if it will work out.

Rhett stared at her words for a minute, his eyes narrowing. His bear growled deep within him, bringing a rumbling hiss to his lips. His bear didn’t like the idea of this scrumptious, intelligent, special woman getting involved with anyone but a Dean, and the immediate response he got to that idea surprised even Rhett himself. He hadn’t expected to be quite so possessive of someone he barely knew. But there it was.

Another sign? His bear certainly thought so.

GoneWithTheBear:
I bet he won’t be as well versed in all things debonair as I am, though.

HoneysuckleStyle:
Oh, I have no doubt about that. He seems to be more on the wild side. But isn’t that how it always is? You can’t have both? The good and the bad, the wild and the sophisticated. I wish you were closer, it would be lovely to meet you.

That sealed the deal. Rhett didn’t particularly care who it was she was going to go on a date with, but he knew that unless he was competing with his brother, he could outshine any damn shifter in this town of… well, fine shifters. At least he thought he could, and confidence was half the battle, right?

With determination, Rhett slammed the screen shut and fell back against the cushions of the swing. He rubbed his chin, feeling the slight stubble and enjoying the way it rasped against his skin. Yes, this was going to take some planning, but fate had smiled on him and brought the woman who had captured all of his thoughts right to his doorstop, and he wasn’t going to miss out on a chance to meet her.

She could have her date. Then, it was Rhett’s turn, and he was going to sweep her off her feet like a billionbear
should. 

He put the laptop down next to him and jumped up. Suddenly, he saw the wisdom in his brother’s plan. Sitting still was driving him batty with anticipation. Now more than ever, he needed to diffuse the energy bubbling up inside of him. It had been easier to deal with when he thought the curvy woman who looked like the perfect treat for him and Rush was far away, but knowing that she was just a few miles from him, he really couldn’t pretend to be in charge of his faculties anymore.

Rhett took one look at himself – he was wearing loose sweatpants and a tank (a far cry from his usual polished look) – and decided his current outfit suited his needs well enough. He burst into a run, jumping smoothly over the porch’s railing, and took off for the woods.

The green grass softened his step, and it wasn’t long until he reached the protective shadows of the thick forests surrounding his mother’s ranch. He and Rush had bought her a big piece of land and a house to match, just like the one they’d had in Mississippi, and it wouldn’t have been complete if it hadn’t been at least a bit away from all the nosy neighbors.

At least in Shifter Grove, no one would give them odd looks for wanting some privacy – it was the shifter way, after all.

As soon as he disappeared into the shadows, the shift took him. His form elongated and widened, starting from his torso and moving out rapidly. Thick fur sprouted out across him and the clothes seemed to melt into him as he grew around them, as if bulging at the seams. His strong chin turned into a wide, powerful jaw and his blue eyes turned dark brown, the animal being given control instead of the man.

In New York, there was hardly ever a chance to run free. Sure, the local billionaire shifters had pooled their resources to buy large areas of land as close to the city as possible, but that still meant impossibly long drives and the possibility of freaking out a random hiker or local. In Idaho, he wouldn’t have to worry about that. Anyone he met in the woods would be a shifter like him or at least expecting to see one.

The air always seemed purer to his bear than it did in his human form. All his senses seemed to be heightened, and his power brimmed and boiled, looking for a way to be let out, to be let loose. It felt fantastic. Rhett ran like the wind, giving himself free reign to go and do as he pleased. Nothing was going to hold him back, and he wouldn’t worry about a single thing other than enjoying the feeling of the forest in tune with his bear and his ancient powers being allowed to come forth in full force.

He never felt quite as good anywhere as he did in the forest, surrounded by nature. Though each generation of shifters had become more and more urbanized, something still brought them back to the arms of Mother Nature. None of them could reject the call, not really, not entirely. They might have tried – like Rhett did – by hiding himself away in the concrete jungle, focusing on building his empire and sparing no attention to anything else. But the moment they were given a chance to embrace their wild side, their animals took over.

Rhett had learned to enjoy the process, not fight it – though it had been a long and troublesome road. At first, after his father died, he had done his damndest to be nothing like him. To stray away from the simple life, to build, to accomplish, to conquer. But the older he got, the more he saw the error of his ways.

His father had been a handyman, a bear with golden paws. He could build or fix anything, and he’d been known for just that – a dependable man who would always come to one’s aid if it was needed. Somehow, Rhett had mistaken that kindness for weakness, and he was ashamed to admit that it had taken him far too long to understand his father’s wisdom.

He had despised the man for forcing a potentially unwanted marriage upon him and Rush. For years, he had lamented that they are nothing like the previous generations, that they are the new shifters – the better, more modern version of the ancient beings. That they don’t need a triad, that they could be more powerful and more in tune with themselves without it. Of course, the folly of youth was thankfully a thing that passed, and Rhett had begrudgingly come to admit that there might be something to this whole love and happiness thing.