Scrooge's Bear (Erotic Shifter Fairy Tales) (7 page)

“Not that I see it as any of your
business, but I’m from…well I was a division president at JP and Rickland
Insurance Investments and Consulting. Until I discovered the head of the
company was embezzling from our middle-class client. I resigned and threatened
to call the FBI if he didn’t resign as well and see that all the money was
return—”

“I don’t give a damn about your
business pedigree.”

Her mouth dropped open.

“I’m more concerned with
who
you are…not what you do. Your family. Your kind. Is your sleuth
located in the city?”

“What? My
kind
.
I’m an African-American. And the only
sleuths
I know about are the group
of bears at the zoo.”

The growl broke from him. He gripped
the mattress at his side. None of his kind cared anything for zoos or any other
animal exhibits. Even if there weren’t other Were’s that were being held
captive, they were still a type of genetic descendants of them, just as much as
humans were.

She held her palms out to him and he
noted the fear in her scent.

“I’d never hurt you,
Ebony.
Never
. I’d give my life to protect you.”

Dropping her hands loudly against
her side, she asked, “Don’t you think that is a little extreme for a woman you
just met?”

“Doesn’t matter. It is the truth of
our situation.”

“What situation? You’re leaving as
soon as I can get your large ass out my suite.”

“This would all move a lot quicker
if you just told me who your family is.”

She rubbed her hands over her head.
The tight bun she’d been sporting earlier had come completely undone during
their lovemaking. The dark brown, ebony locks hung wild and wavy around her
shoulders.

Remaining silent, she moved toward
the window beside the small kitchenette on the other side of the room. Staring
out of it, into the still parking lot, she stood there with her back rod
straight and quiet.

For a moment, Dainton thought she
wouldn’t say anything and that she’d wait until he couldn’t take her stoic
display any longer and leave. She didn’t know Were-males around their mates
very well if she thought that.

He rose and crossed the room until
he stood behind her, not touching but close enough that he was sure she could
feel his presence. That close, it allowed him to pick up on the tension in her
body. If he’d have given her the third bite he would be able to connect with
her on a more open mental level and know what she was thinking, feeling.

“Ebony, talk to me. Please.”

Still, she was reserved. Finally,
she spoke. “I don’t know who I am. Or where I come from.”

“How is that possible?” Reacting, he
reached out and spun her around to face him.

That’s when he saw the water glaze
over her eyes.

He went to pull her into his arms,
but she stepped back.

“Don’t.” There wasn’t even a quiver
to her voice.

He could tell she was used to
keeping her emotions under a tight leash. “Then explain.”

“I’m an orphan. Literally from birth
you can say.” She moved back toward the other side of the room and collapsed
onto the bed as if some weight was pressing down on her.

He picked up a chair from the small
table and placed it before her and sat. He yearned to be close to her, but he
didn’t want to crowd her. The woman before him was struggling with some
internal safe where she’d locked up all her pain and it was hurting him to see
the anguish on her.

“What happened to your parents?”

She shrugged as she stared down at
her hands. “I don’t know the story. What was in my file, when I took it from
the orphanage director’s office, said my parents were shot in the woods outside
of Yosemite Park. Some rangers heard the gunfire, a truck was speeding off by
the time they arrived to find my father dead from a shot to his head and my
mother struggling to stay alive with a bullet in her chest.

“One of the rangers reported the
last thing my mother said was baby.” Ebony glanced up at him. “You see my
mother was pregnant with me. Instead of trying to save my mother and get her to
a hospital, they cut me out. My mother died during the process. They took me to
the nearest hospital.”

“What about the rest of your family?
Did they come looking for you?” Dainton could not imagine as close as the people
in Den County were that they didn’t go on a hunt for whoever had committed such
an act. And knowing that the female Were was breeding they would have searched
every hospital until they discovered where the child was. It never went well
for Were-bears to be raised outside of a sleuth.

“In my records it stated that my
parents were naked and without identification or any means of transportation
around them. The authorities had no clue where they came from or why they were
around the park area. Vagabonds are how they were characterized. Until I was
sixteen I was moved from one foster home to another. I had a lot of problems
fitting in and was labeled a troubled child. Frequently running away into the
woods no matter the distance I had to travel to get there. At thirteen I was
placed in an orphanage. It took me three years to get free of that place and
this time I went to the city and never looked back. Put myself through school
by falsifying my records and changed my name to some ‘most likely to succeed’
girls name from a yearbook I found left at a fast food restaurant. She must
have been really smart because the state school gave me a full scholarship.
Once I’d graduated and got my entry-level job at JP, I had my name legally
changed and to this day I give an annual scholarship to the college for an
at-risk youth. So, have I given you enough of my soul to leave now?”

“What’s your real name?” He ignored
the sarcasm and recognized it as part of the shield she kept around herself.
Taking her hand, he kept his gaze on her face.

She tried to pull it away, but he
held firm.

“Rhonda Parks is the name I was
given by someone at the hospital. Ebeneza Scrooge was the girl in the yearbook.
I preferred Ebony.”

“I like Ebony as well.” He traced
her delicate fingers as he continued to look at her and tried to gather his
words.

“There is only one other person in
my life who knows the truth about me.”

“Thank you for confiding in me.”
Raising her hand, he kissed the palm. “There’s something I need to tell you,
but I don’t want you to freak out.”

“Let’s see…I’ve discovered that I
took the wrong man to my bed and had said man pull out all the horrid tales of
my life, I’m beyond freaked.”

“We need sustenance before we go
further.” Releasing her hand, he stood and walked to the other side of the bed
to the phone resting on the nightstand.

“I don’t recall telling you that you
could stay.” She turned and faced him.

“I don’t recall asking.” He winked
at her.

She rolled her eyes.

When the line was picked up by the
room service attendant, he placed his order. “I would like two orders of your
honey and walnut encrusted salmon, with a side of asparagus and a whole pecan
pie if you have one.”

“Hey, I don’t eat sweets and I
always eat poultry over seafood.”

He thanked the man on the line and
hung up. “Not eating salmon is a crime in my county and why don’t you eat
sweets, especially honey?”

“When you’re a foster child or in an
orphanage, there aren’t a lot of sweets that get handed to you. When there was
time for it, it was never worth defending myself against the bullies that
wanted to punch you for it. So, I just learned to skip it altogether. With my
curves it didn’t seem to make a difference.”

“I love your curves, first of all.”
He reclaimed his seat as he stared at her body. When he met her gaze again, he
allowed her to see the hunger there.

Ebony placed a hand on her stomach
and caused the gown to press tight against her breasts. He could see the points
and shadows of those blackberry-colored nipples through the material. She was
just as turned on as he was.

“Second, I think you will have a
different outlook on sweets when you get a taste of honey. Now, tell me you
don’t want a slice of pecan pie.”

Her eyes lit up, he knew he had her
there. He’d seen the vision in her head when his tongue was buried inside of
her.

She licked her lips. “I’ve never had
it before. I don’t even know if I’d like it.”

It saddened him to hear how
underprivileged she had been in her youth and how deprived she’d kept herself
in her adulthood. He figured it had more to do with her fear of needing
anything or anyone too much.

“Well, it is one of my favorites. My
grandmother makes me two every year for my birthday.”

“Two of them?”

“Hey, if you haven’t noticed, I’m a
big guy.”

The chestnut color of her cheeks
darkened to show off a cherry undertone. Oh, yes, he was sure she had noticed
quite a bit about him.

A knock came to the door and he
rose.

“Um, Dainton, you planning to put on
some pants or shock the hotel staff?”

He glanced down. Were’s weren’t
modest at all and he was so comfortable being in the buff when he wasn’t in his
bear form he hadn’t even noticed he wasn’t wearing clothes. He smiled. “For
your modesty, I’ll put something on.”

She shook her head, but he did see
the corner of her mouth twitch.

Swiping his pants from the end of
the bed, he stepped into them and had them zipped part way before he opened the
door.

“Room serv—”

The woman on the other side of the
door holding the tray gaped at him. First she looked up to his face then down
to ogle his chest.

Flipping her blond hair
over her shoulder she gave him a sultry look. “You ordered
service
?”

Before he could respond
the door was ripped wide and Ebony was standing between him and the flirty
server. Her hands were balled into fists as she gave the woman a hard stare.
“Yes we ordered food not floozy.
Which
did you come to deliver?”

The woman shuffled back twice. “Umm.
Y-y-your food.” She stretched her arms as far as they would go and held the
tray toward Ebony.”

Swallowing down his chuckle, Dainton
wrapped one arm around Ebony’s waist and lifted her as he grabbed the tray with
his other hand. “Thanks,” he told the scared woman as he kicked the door closed
behind him and ushered the fierce she-bear back into the room.

“The nerve of her. I have a mind to
find her and give her a dressing down that I’m sure her boss should have given
her a long time ago.” Ebony was fuming and pacing as she waved her hands wildly
around her body.

He wasn’t put off by Ebony’s
aggressive action to the server, he understood it for what it was…a mate
challenging someone she assumed was encroaching on what was there’s. Ebony’s
bear, no matter how suppressed it had been in the past, was starting to change
her.

Dainton didn’t know the full process
or how long it would take for Ebony’s bear to show herself, but he knew time
was of the essence, especially once he began providing her body with the
nutrients it had lacked. Honey and salmon, the two most important factors of a
Were-bear’s diet. Berries and nuts also provided additional vitamins they needed.

“Sit. Eat.” He pointed to the small
table. Grabbing the chair from the bed on his way to carry the tray to the
kitchenette area.

Still upset, she plopped down in the
seat at the table.

Getting everything set up, he picked
up a fork and broke off a piece of the salmon special and held it before her
mouth.

She twisted and scrunched her face,
a recalcitrant child. However, as he began to wave the bite beneath her nose
her face relaxed some and she leaned in to smell it again.

“Just one taste.” He knew the bear
buried extremely deep inside of her picked up on the syrupy delight and
detected the honey notes. He waited and remembered what Cord, Den County’s new
Mayor, had gone through with his mate Rena. Rena’s bear had been suppressed as
well. Dainton only hoped he would be as successful as Cord in coaching her
through the coming days and weeks.

“Fine.” Parting her lips, Ebony took
the forkful into her mouth and closed her lips around it.

Gently sliding the utensil out, he
watched her take in her first taste of honey.

She moaned, closed her eyes and
stopped chewing for a moment and just allowed the food to rest in her mouth.
Groaning, she consumed the food in her mouth fast then snatched the fork form
him and began feeding herself. Bite after bite, she ate and moaned. Ebony let
go of all etiquette and decorum.

Her face remained less than two
inches from her plate as she demolished everything there.

Chuckling he started on his food.
His laughter ceased when she snatched his plate and finished off what he had
left.

“Hey!” he growled.