Romance: My Bear Boss: BBW Paranormal Shapeshifter Romance (BBW Shifter Romance, Paranormal Shifter Romance) (2 page)

Chapter 3

Things continued to get easier, and soon she and Richard had a daily routine established. As she experienced more of his working personality, she could anticipate his needs.

Once he’d called her to say he’d be late and to delay the meeting. “Already done,” she said.

“I also took the liberty and ordered a sandwich platter as the timing interfered with lunch. They’re in the conference room now eating and discussing the Mansfield slides.”

“The Mansfield slides, huh?”

“Yes, sir. I know you were looking for investors, so I thought that having the slides on auto-play in the background while they ate could give them something to talk about.”

“I could leverage that into the plan summary.”

“My thoughts as well.”

“Thank you. Melody. Well done.”

After he hung up, it took her a full five minutes to realize he’d actually used her name. That was the first time, and after that, he never called her Tiffany again.

On another occasion when she’d returned with his dry-cleaning, she caught him staring at her as she hung it up.

At first she thought she was hanging it wrong, but when she moved to double check that the suits weren’t overlapping, she caught his eyes following her.

After that, she started dropping pens, or bending at the waist when needing to fetch a file folder. There was no doubt regarding how she felt about him, but she had no clue he might be attracted to her as well.

As time went on, however, he found the need to speak with her at her desk more often, instead of simply calling over the intercom.

More frequently, he called her back to ask a question he could’ve emailed her about, or claimed he needed her help fetching lunch. Anything to get them to spend more time together. He spoke to her as a person when he still treated the other employees like brainless minions.

As she handled his contacts, he asked her opinion on what she thought of different clients. She knew full well he didn’t need her advice.

A man like him didn’t get to be as rich as he was by being unsure. Still, it was sweet the way he showed interest in whatever she had to say.

Finally, they were working late one night. The building had closed down. As he compiled data and ran forecasts for the next fiscal year, he had her organizing the work he’d already done.

Melody finished another stack of folders and walked into his office to grab some more. There he sat, reading glasses riding low on his nose, his head rested on his palm, and his eyes squinted against the glow of his monitor.

“Staring at that screen with the lights out is bad for your eyes,” she said and set the folders down.

“I like it dark,” he said distractedly without looking up.

“Helps me think.”

“You look adorable with those glasses. Why haven’t I seen you wear them before?”

Richard blinked and looked up to her, as if coming out of a dream.

“Never show the enemy your weakness. Reading glasses could be perceived as a sign of aging. Aging equals weakness.”

“Or wisdom. Experience.”

Richard removed the glasses and folded the arms down. “Are you arguing with me?”

“Oh, no sir,” she said quickly.

“I was taught to respect my elders.”

Richard smiled, and then laughed. It was the first time she’d ever heard him laugh. He smiled before, sometimes politely, sometimes genuinely, but never a laugh. Not even a chortle. This was a full on belly laugh, and afterward he shook his head, a wide grin on his face.

“Well played, Miss Melody.”

Melody smiled, momentarily caught up in how cute and gorgeous he was.

“You have a beautiful smile. You don’t show it nearly enough.”

Richard arched an eyebrow at her. A hot blush rose to her cheeks when she realized she’d said that aloud.

“And you blush very prettily,” he said.

“Oh my God,” she muttered and grabbed a file to hide her face.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t, I mean, I don’t know why I said that.”

She heard his chair move and his footsteps come around the desk, but she turned and kept the file folder between them.

Soft fingers touched her hands and he gently made her lower the folder.

“That’s not the only thing pretty about you.”

Melody swallowed, her mind lost in the swirl of emotion.

Those eyes of his saw right through her, into her. Could he hear her heart beating?

“Pretty?” was all she could think to say.

“You’re beautiful, Melody. The first time I saw you, it took my breath away.”

“But you were so mean…”

“I have to be. A man in my position… I shouldn’t even be telling you this now.”

It didn’t slip past her attention that he hadn’t let go over her hands yet.

She whispered, “Then why are you?”

When he leaned in, his mouth only an inch from hers, she sucked in a sharp breath.

“Because I just can’t help myself anymore. I want you.”

“You’re the boss.”

Just like that, his lips pressed to hers. The file folder fell from her hands. His body pressed against hers and he pushed her backward toward his desk.

With a single sweep of his arm, all of the files he’d been working on were thrown to the floor. After all of the work they’d been doing, the fact that he didn’t care, that he needed her
that
much aroused her more than the kissing.

She moaned with desire, grabbing him by the shirt and kissing him deeper. Their tongues both explored the mouths of the other, massaging against one another.

As she unbuttoned his shirt, he pushed her up onto the desk. Fed up with the buttons, she just ripped his shirt open, the remaining buttons flying in random directions across the office.

When he put a hand on her chest and pushed her back, she didn’t know what he wanted until he dropped to his knees.

She felt his stubbled cheeks brush her inner thighs as he pushed her skirt up, and she gasped.

“You’re not… you can’t…”

“I’m the boss. You don’t tell me what to do.”

“Oh my God. Yes sir. Whatever you say sir.”

Suddenly, his hot mouth was around her pussy, his tongue licking her soaked panties. Melody moaned loudly, mouth open, and had to lean back on her elbows. It always felt better through the fabric.

“Yes, just like that,” she breathed.

His hands gripped her thighs, feeling the flesh of her legs. Heat deep in her tummy washed through her, and it only intensified when he pulled her panties to the side and sealed his lips around her clit.

The pleasure was so powerful that her arms slipped out from under her, and she flailed about to grab onto something for stability.

He licked wildly, made more enthusiastic by her reactions. Out of reflex, her hips moved up and down as if trying to get him deeper inside her, wanting to feel his tongue and his lips against her clit even more.

Strong fingers grasped her at the hips, holding her in place, and he worked his tongue around her clit. An orgasm swelled inside of her, and before she could think of what to do, it released.

Her back arched with the force of it, and knowing no one else was in the whole building, she let herself scream.

That amazing tongue of his somehow covered all of her, licking her from bottom to top. She reached out and grabbed his hair, forcing his face against her as she bucked against him.

When she’d finished, her body collapsing against the desk again, she didn’t even have a chance to breathe before she felt his thick, hard shaft stretch her open.

Richard had her legs held against his shoulders as he thrust deep inside of her. It was everything she could do to reach above her head to the edge of the desk and hold on.

They’d both wanted this for so long. Now that they were finally having one another, neither held back. Richard thrust deep into her, his skin slapping as it struck the back of her thighs.

Holding onto the desk, Melody pushed back against him. Finally, Richard groaned, thrusting wildly as his orgasm filled her, his erection pulsating raw heat inside of her.

She thought he’d be done, but instead he reached out, sat her up, and kissed her. In that moment, she knew this wasn’t just some fling. This was real.

After they’d cleaned up, he gave her a kiss and said she could go home for the night. Of course, there was no way she was going to leave him to organize the files all by himself.

Giggling and sneaking kisses in to one another, they set his office straight and got everything ready for the next day.

After a brief make-out session that turned into another quick lovemaking session in his office chair, Melody drove home.

Chapter 4

That night, as she settled in, she realized not only had she slept with the most gorgeous man she’d ever met. She’d slept with her boss.

For a quick, frightening minute, she wondered if she’d been wrong. What if it had just been a one-night stand for him? The intimacy they shared had meant something to her. Did it mean the same for him?

No nightmare haunted her that night, and she woke the next day surprisingly refreshed. It didn’t last long, unfortunately.

The memory of what had happened just the night before came back in a flood of images and hot sensation through her body. If she closed her eyes, she could still feel him down there. His tongue. His hands.

Melody swallowed and forced herself out of bed lest she lose an hour in bed reenacting the events in a solo performance.

After a long, hot shower, she felt better, yet still anxious.

How would he react?

An office affair regretted the next day couldn’t be gracefully managed. He’d fire her. There was no reason for him not to. He had what he wanted, and he owned the company. It’s not like he’d quit or anything.

That realization followed her as she dressed. As she drove to work. As the rode the elevator up to his office. When the elevator dinged, and the doors opened, she held her breath, unsure what to expect.

There, on her desk, sat a coffee cup from the local shop. Narrowing her eyes, but amused, Melody approached her desk. As she got closer, she saw there was a note under the coffee.

“Thought you could use the pick-me-up. I’ll be late. Push back my 8 o’clock.”

Melody laughed and picked up the coffee. It was still warm.

He was going to be late, but he found the time to bring her coffee? Shaking her head, she chided herself for being so paranoid and settled in for the day.

Over the next week, their relationship only blossomed. He found reasons for her to stay late. They took special meetings to discuss business. Meetings, of course, that required the door to be closed and locked.

For fear of a scandal they had to keep things under wraps, but she was fine with that. Melody was quickly falling for him hard, and was pretty sure he felt the same.

She was satisfied being this happy with someone. To feel this way, and to know they felt the same.

After a few days, they started going on actual dates. They spent nights at his lavish apartment, watching movies and ordering takeout on the weekend. An entire week passed, and she was once again snuggled with him on his couch.

It’d been a long day at work and they were both grateful for the time to just be calm in the company of one another. That night they weren’t watching anything in particular. A sitcom, the news, whatever was on.

When he’d flipped the channel and landed on a documentary about bears, flashbacks from that night in the alley came screaming back.

Melody closed her eyes and turned her head away.

“Change it please.”

“What’s the matter? You don’t like nature shows?”

“No it’s fine, just please change it.”

“All right, all right,” he said, and changed it to some obscure cooking show.

“What’s the matter? You’re shaking.”

Melody hugged herself, rubbing her arms to try and calm herself down.

“Before working for you, I saw something. Now I have nightmares almost every night.”

Richard adjusted himself on the couch so that he could see her more clearly. “What’d you see?”

Melody shook her head. “You won’t believe me either. No one does.”

“Won’t believe what?”

“Forget it, okay? I tried to tell a couple people, but they just laughed. Said I was drunk. I wasn’t drunk though. I wouldn’t have been driving if I was drunk.”

“Melody, what did you see? I’ll believe you, but you have to give me something to believe.”

Melody sighed and fixed her eyes on the cooking show without watching it. She couldn’t see the look of disbelief come over his eyes. Not him.

“You remember Kristi? That friend of mine I said threw great parties? She had one. This was before I started working for you. This is actually
why
I got the job working for you.”

“Oh, well, I should be grateful,” he said and kissed her shoulder.

Despite her anxiousness about telling him, she couldn’t help but smile.

“I’m trying to tell you a story.”

“Sorry,” he said, and she could hear the smile in his voice.

“Anyway,” she continued.

“I was driving home from one of her parties, and my car stopped. When I went to check it out, I heard noises coming from an alley. You’re not going to believe me, but I know what I saw. A man turned into a bear.”

“A bear?”

“Yes, okay? A bear. I saw it happen right in front of me. And then he chased me, and I was barely able to get back in my car in time before getting away. It almost ate me.”

“Hmm.”

That was it. She expected skepticism, or dismissal, but this wasn’t even mild interest.

“That’s it? That’s all you have to say?”

Richard shrugged. “What do you want me to say?”

“I,” she started, but didn’t know how to finish. When he didn’t say anything else, she let it drop, but the comfortable peace that had existed now felt like a crushing silence.

The rest of the night was spent in an awkward lack of conversation and his normal affectionate playfulness was gone.

The plan had been for her to stay the night, but with how things developed, she didn’t want to be there any longer. The cold way he treated her made her think maybe he thought she was crazy.

She knew how it sounded, claiming to see a man turn into a bear. But it was true! She knew what she saw.

Excusing herself, she left and went home. He didn’t even put up a fight about it, but just wished her a good night and saw her out.