Vega Brothers: Hannibal: BBW Paranormal Romance Pretend Engagement (The Bear Shifters of Vega Ranch Book 4) (5 page)

five

“What are you doing now?” Hannibal asked, trying not to sound too eager. “Want to get some lunch?”

Mikki smiled. “Sure, as long as my husband pays.”

Hannibal chuckled. “Of course.”

He was glad that she was smiling again. They were having such a great morning and then she just started acting all weird in the jewelry store, like something had upset her. He went over every word that he had said multiple times but he couldn’t figure out what it was.

He took a breath of relief as she skipped across the street to the restaurant with the brown paper bag tucked under her arm with the engagement ring inside. He had bought her the expensive one with the huge diamond after she had left the store. Another nineteen grand later and she still hadn’t even opened it.

“I’ll put it on after,” she said when he encouraged her to take it out of the bag.

They sat down in the restaurant and Mikki hummed as she read the menu. Hannibal peeked over his as he pretended to read it and watched her lips. They looked so soft and subtle. His cock stirred as he remembered how they felt when he stole a kiss. She had tasted so sweet and he wanted seconds.

It’s just an act. She’s not really interested.

But Hannibal was. He liked having her on his arm. She was fun to have around and he was attracted to her soft curves in a strong way.
She can’t be that good of an actress. Can she?

The waitress took their orders and then dropped off their drinks. Mikki bent over and bit on her straw, leaving her glass of lemonade on the table as she drank from it. Hannibal swallowed as he stared at her lips wrapped around the pink straw.

“So what kind of shifter are you?” she asked as simply as if she was asking what his favorite color was. “Bear? Lion? Wolf?”

“Uhhh,” Hannibal said with his mouth hanging open in shock.

“Bunny rabbit? Chipmunk?” she continued with a grin.

“How did you know?” he asked in a whisper.
Smart and beautiful
. No wonder he was falling in love.

“It doesn’t take a genius,” she said, breaking open a bread roll. “Huge animal prints all over the ground, claw marks on the trees, long fur in the grass. Plus your animal doesn’t shut up every time I touch you,” she said, pointing at his chest. “Not to mention your brother lifted up a car like it weighed nothing. So? What is it? Unicorn? Sasquatch?”

“Bear.”

“Cool,” she said, smiling. “What kind?”

Hannibal felt another weight lift off his shoulders. He had wanted her to know that he was a shifter but it wasn’t an easy thing to tell a human. “Brown bear.”

She smiled at him with sparkling eyes before sipping on her lemonade again.

“How do you know about shifters anyway?” Hannibal asked, wanting to know everything about her.

She shrugged. “I was friends with one when I was a teenager.” Her eyes dropped to the table. “And my father works with shifters.”

“Oh,” Hannibal said, tilting his head. “What does he do?”

Mikki ran her hands through her black and blue hair and turned away, looking out the window. “I don’t want to talk about him.”

“Okay,” he whispered. He could tell that talking about her father would be off limits.

“So what do you think our wedding would be like?” she asked, wrapping her hands around her glass. Hannibal gulped as he tried to stare into her eyes. Her arms were pressing her breasts together showing off more cleavage than usual.
Just business. Just business.

“Romantic,” he said, staring in her eyes and picturing her in a beautiful wedding dress. She would look incredible with flowers in her dark hair and just the right amount of cleavage showing to be in the range of sexy yet classy. His bear purred thinking about it. “We would probably get married on the ranch. Good food, dancing.”

She smiled as she looked up over his shoulder with blank eyes. He could tell that she was picturing it, but what was she thinking? “Would we have the chicken dance?” she asked.

“Of course,” he said. “I’d love to see Alexander and Khan doing the chicken dance.”

She laughed out loud. Hannibal sighed. Her laugh sounded better than any song that he’d heard before. It was music to his ears.

The waitress brought the food and they chatted and laughed as they ate. Hannibal hadn’t enjoyed a woman’s company like this in, well, ever.

“Well,” she said when they had finished and walked outside, “I should get going.” She held up the brown paper bag from the jewelry store, which she still hadn’t opened, and smiled tightly. “Thanks for the ring.”

Hannibal couldn’t let her go. He’d be thinking about her all night.

“Maybe it will be better if we stay together,” he blurt out. “For the show.”

“Right,” she said, looking at him sideways. “For the show.”

He cleared his throat. “You can stay with me.”

She grinned as she watched him. “If you want to pay me for
that
you better be ready to write
a lot
of zeros on the next check.”

“Just for the show,” he repeated.

“Okay,” she said with her eyes glimmering. “But
only
for the show.”

Hannibal felt his stomach swirling with nerves. It would be a show alright. But now he had to put the show on for her instead.

He had to hide his feelings.

This is so fun!

It had been so long since Mikki had a night out with friends. Lately, she either spent her nights with her best friend Netflix or at the bar covered in sticky beer arguing with Jack about the stupidest things while a bunch of drunk guys tried unsuccessfully to hit on her.

It was a gorgeous night and she was eating on the balcony with Hannibal, his brothers, and the girls, under the fiery pink sky as the sun set behind the snow-capped mountains in the not-too-far distance. There was a gentle breeze and the air was crisp and clean mixed with the mouth-watering scent of whatever Khan was cooking up on the barbecue.

“So, have you read all of Hannibal’s tattoos?” Julius asked with a smirk. “I started to once but I stopped about three hundred pages in.”

“Shut up,” Hannibal said, frowning at him.

“I like them,” Mikki said, rubbing his forearm. She loved to touch his arms and did it any opportunity that she could. “They look sexy.” She really did like the tattoos. It was fun every time his shirt raised up or his sleeve moved and she saw a new one.

She grabbed his wrist and turned it over tracing her fingertips on the tattoo on his forearm. His hair raised as her fingers traced the ink letters. “The fool doth think he is wise,” she read, “but the wise man knows himself to be a fool.”

Hannibal chuckled. “I got that one for Julius.”

“Who wrote that?” Mikki asked.

Hannibal slid his hand over hers and gently squeezed her fingers, making her blush. “Shakespeare.”

“Do you have a favorite author?” Ava asked Mikki.

“I do,” she answered. “Kim Fox! I love her!”

“Never heard of her,” everyone at the table said at the same time.

Mikki groaned.

Khan closed the barbecue and walked over with a huge platter full of baby back ribs that were slathered in barbecue sauce. Mikki’s stomach growled as she licked her lips. She was staring at the sticky brown sauce and fall off the bone tender meat like a hungry dog staring at a cookie.

“Dig in you bunch of animals,” Khan said, slapping the tray on the middle of the table. They all dove in, laughing as they fought and elbowed for the juiciest pieces. It was all for fun, though, there was more than enough food to go around, even with four huge bear shifters at the table.

“So, we have an announcement,” Alexander said, as everyone silently ate their ribs. He hadn’t touched anything on his plate.

“Yeah, so do I,” Julius said with his face full of barbecue sauce. “These ribs are amazing!”

Everyone agreed, complementing Khan on his cooking.

“This is a little better than ribs,” Alexander said, with his hand shaking.

“Impossible,” Hannibal mumbled as he chewed.

Alexander’s smile was as long as a canoe. “Elena is pregnant!”

The whole table cheered and jumped up to congratulate them. Even Mikki, who barely knew them, was jumping up in excitement. “Congratulations,” she said, giving her new friend Elena a kiss on the cheek.

After a few minutes of hugs and nice words the ribs started calling and everyone was sitting back at the table with their hands and mouths full of smoky barbecue sauce. Everyone except Ava and Julius.

“I don’t want to steal your moment,” Ava said, smiling shyly.

“No!” Elena squealed, covering her open mouth in delight.

“Yup,” Julius said with a proud smile on his face.

“We’re pregnant too!” Ava screamed.

Elena leaped up and swallowed her sister in a bear hug. “Our kids will be the same age!”

They all celebrated the good news again and Mikki watched with a permanent smile on her face. She glanced over at Hannibal who smiled at her warmly. She sighed, wishing that she was here under different circumstances. It would have been nice if they were really engaged and the ring in the trunk of her car, which she still hadn’t opened, had been real. Then she could have enjoyed the night without that nagging empty feeling in her stomach that she currently had.

“What a month!” Bailey said, running her fingers through her chestnut hair. “An engagement and two pregnancies. That’s amazing.”

Khan wrapped his arm around her and pulled her in close. “Are you ready to have another baby too?”

Bailey grinned as she watched Liam who was playing in the corner of the balcony with his trucks. “I think I have my hands full already.”

Khan smirked at her. “Play your cards right and you’ll have your hands full again tonight.”

“Khan!” she said with reddening cheeks as she smacked his arm. “What did I tell you about talking dirty when we’re in public?”

“Oh, right,” he said, his smirk widening. “You only like me to talk dirty to you in private.”

Bailey shook her head as her cheeks turned as pink as the sky overhead. “You’re horrible.”

“That’s why you love me,” he said, kissing her blushing cheek.

“No, I love you because you make amazing ribs.”

Khan grinned. “No, you love me because I always ki-”

“So, what do you love about Hannibal?” Bailey asked Mikki, desperate to stir the topic of conversation away from herself.

Mikki turned and smiled at her pretend fiancee. “He’s smart and funny. I love talking to him and spending time with him.” Hannibal lowered his eyes to his lap as a look of sadness washed over his face. “He’s sweet and caring. And sexy as hell.”

“Hannibal?” Julius asked with his nose scrunched up. “Alright, no more wine for you,” he said, reaching over the table and pushing her wine glass out of reach. “You’re obviously drunk.”

They all laughed and then Ava and Elena took over the conversation, fighting over potential baby names. Mikki glanced at Hannibal who was sitting beside her with a tense, stiff body. His lips were pinched closed as he stared at his plate.

She had forgotten to mention some of the things that she liked about him. He was sincere and honest, fun and full life. He had a thirst for knowledge that she admired and of course, she loved his hard muscular arms. She watched the side of his face and the cut line of his jaw. She wanted to tell him that she wasn’t pretending when she had said those things. There was a lot that she liked about him and the list was growing every minute that they spent together.

But he didn’t want to hear any of that. It was just a business arrangement for him. He was paying her to act this way. Developing feelings wasn’t part of the deal. Actually, it was probably somewhere in the fine print that she wasn’t allowed to develop feelings. That had been the whole point of this.

Mikki wanted to reach under the table and squeeze his hand. Give him a little sign that there was more to this for her than just acting and money.

But this was supposed to be business. And only business. She had a job to do.

Mikki folded her hands on the table and listened to the two sisters argue over the name James.

Mikki sighed. She thought this was going to be an easy twenty grand. But it was starting to be really hard.