A Date For The Bear: BBW Paranormal Shape Shifter Romance (Bear Brides Book 2) (3 page)

“Don't
worry,” Abby was telling Terri. “Tony is a very
responsible and careful
driver. He'll take good care
of you and get you back to the city in one piece.”

Abby
and Cole rose from the dining table. Cole was driving Abby back to
her apartment in the city to clear out her things and terminate her
lease. Abby would be moving to Moonstone Creek for good. Tony saw
Terri smile a little wistfully as Abby kissed her on the cheek.

Terri would miss her friend
for sure. Taking a two-hour bus ride to visit your friend every
weekend just wasn't the same as hopping into a cab and turning up at
your friend's doorstep with boxes of takeout after work.

Tony watched the two women
hug each other and talk softly for a moment. Once Cole and Abby left
the kitchen, Terri sat back down at the dining table and poked
absently at her half-eaten sausage and eggs.

“Want more coffee?”
Brad offered.

Terri shook her head and
stood up. “M-maybe I should ask Cole and Abby to give me a
lift back to the city. I...I'll just go pack up quickly and...”

“I said I'll drive
you.” Tony surged to his feet. “I promised Abby I'll
take care of you. And I will. You can take your time to wash up and
pack. There's no rush.”

“Look, I don't want to
trouble or inconvenience...”

“No trouble,”
Tony snapped with a note of finality.

Terri
opened her mouth, then shut it before she could say whatever she
'd
really wanted to say.
Instead,
she flashed him a wide, forced smile. “Oh-kay.
No
trouble you say,
n
o
trouble we'll have.
I'll
just go shower and pack up. Then we'll hit the road, Tony-boy.
”

For good measure, she gave
him an eye-roll before flouncing out of the kitchen.

Tony stifled a growl and sat
back down heavily. Dalton and Brad exchanged looks and chuckled.

Skewering a sausage, Tony
snapped, “Don't.”

“Don't what?”

“You know, I like her,”
Brad mused. “I think she'll be good for you.”

“You're attracted to
her, aren't you, little brother?” Dalton nudged him.

In reply, Tony bit the
sausage viciously in half.

“You volunteered to
drive her back to the city,” Dalton pointed out.

“I wanted to help Cole
out. I'm sure he would like to enjoy a leisurely, romantic drive
into the city with his new bride. Having a loud, talkative third
wheel in the backseat would seriously ruin the mood,” Tony
deadpanned.

“Is that the only
reason? The real reason?”

“Maybe you want to
enjoy a leisurely, romantic drive with Terri yourself.”

“Yeah, in fact I
think...”

Tony
glared at his brother and cousin, but those two were on a roll.
And
to his horror, they seemed to have hit the nail on the head.

His
bear was already prowling restlessly under his skin, roused and
excited at the prospect of having Terri all to himself on that
two-hour drive.

Tony cursed and swore to
himself that he would not let his bear get the better of him. He
would not let his horny, hungry beast get to the woman, and he
definitely would not let that human woman get to him.

Terri
kept her arms folded across
her ample chest.

She wasn't going to be the
first to start a conversation. Tony was glaring at the long stretch
of highway in front of them, never taking his foot off the
accelerator or his fists off the steering wheel.

Terri
pursed her lips and looked out the window. The silence was killing
her. She was chatty and bubbly by nature, and she had no trouble
talking to anyone. She could strike up an animated conversation with
a stranger in the checkout line, a little old lady at the bus stop or
a bookish young man in a cafe. She just wouldn't be talking to
him
.

She
could hear Tony grinding his teeth as he drove, and a muscle was
pulsing violently in his jaw. They were sitting barely an arm's
length apart in his BMW Roadster, and they were
certainly
doing a swell job of keeping each other at arm's length.

Terri
couldn't stand it anymore. She jabbed at the radio controls, hoping
to fill the tense silence with some cheery, bubblegum pop.
Tony's
hand shot out and caught her wrist firmly.

“What?” Terri
jerked, shocked at how warm and intimate his palm felt on her bare
wrist. His touch seemed to burn through her skin, igniting an
inexplicable, impossible spark of desire. Her breath hitched as she
struggled feebly in his grip.

Tony released her suddenly,
his eyes widening a fraction as if she had burnt him. His scowl
deepened as he shook his head hard.

“What? You don't like
music?” Terri huffed.

“I don't like noise.”

“It's just some pop
music on the radio,” she protested.

“Same thing.”

“Fine. It's your car,”
she muttered. And a very nice car it was. But she wasn't going to
tell him that.

Terri
looked up just in time to
catch Tony stealing a glance at her. They both turned away quickly
when their gazes clashed. Terri had to
put
a hand over her chest to
steady
her breathing and quieten her
thundering
heart.

That look in Tony's deep
brown eyes was unmistakable. It was a look of raw hunger and want.
There was anguish and conflict in his eyes, and if it had been any
other man, Terri would have been sure that he wanted her, was
undeniably attracted to her. But this was Tony Jameson, the big,
grizzly grouch.

Terri
s
wallowed hard
.
She must have misinterpreted
his
look.

To
her chagrin and mortification, her traitorous body responded to Tony.
Just one look from him and her body pulsed and ached maddeningly.
Her skin tingled, longing to be touched by those long, rough fingers,
and a simmering heat spread through her belly, flowing unstoppably to
her core. Terri squeezed her thighs together and closed her eyes at
the sudden, powerful wave of desire surging through her body.

Desire? Did she really
desire this grumpy, snarky bear?

Terri
frowned and bit her lip. Why was she responding to Tony like that?

Her mind flashed back to
Silas, the nice, well-mannered werebear she was currently dating.
They'd been going out but it was nothing serious. Their dates were
pleasant enough but she sensed that Silas wanted to take things
further.
Terri wasn't sure she was
ready for that. Silas seemed like a nice guy. In fact, compared to
Tony, Silas was an angel. He was always smiling, polite, eager to
please, unlike Tony. Yet she wasn't sexually attracted to him.
She'd always managed to squirm away when
he
wanted to get closer, and she could feel him getting impatient. But
she just didn't want to
have
sex
with him, for reasons
unknown even to her. Silas was smooth, decent-looking, not rough,
gruff and smoldering like Tony.

Terri
never went for the silent, brooding type.
She
liked her men witty, funny, smart. She sucked in a breath and held
it. Tony was exactly that. His incisive comments and sarcastic
comebacks showed his quick wit and dry humor. And he was a very
attractive male. Tall, broad, tanned and muscular, with strong,
handsome features and intelligent eyes. She suspected that he would
be even more handsome if he smiled more.

If he smiled at her, Terri
wasn't sure her heart could take it.

As
it was, she was already panting and hyperventilating in his car.

“
Terri...”
Tony's voice was very low and quiet. It seemed to reverberate in
the confined, enclosed space, brushing against her skin like a
caress.

Terri blinked, feeling her
heart hammer against her ribcage.

“Yeah,” she
croaked.

There was a long pause, but
she didn't turn to look at him. She sat on her hands to prevent her
twitchy fingers from making a grab at her hot, handsome, grouchy
driver. She couldn't trust her body right now. She was feeling all
hot and bothered, and to be honest, very horny.

Her brain was waging a losing
battle. Every cell in her body was disobeying her stern, rational
mind and doing a mad, lusty dance under her skin. She'd never felt
like this before, so out of control and out of her mind.

“Would you...”
Tony began, then swore under his breath.

“What?” Terri
prompted, turning her head to peek at him.

She saw his throat move as he
swallowed repeatedly. His veins throbbed on his arms and neck.
There was the glint of claws at his fingertips, and his eyes were
dark with conflicting, tormenting passion.

He had been about to ask her
something.

Terri gulped. It must be a
really scary question.

He looked like he was about
to let his bear out. And if it was at all possible, he looked even
angrier than before.

She was trapped in a speeding
car with an angry, deadly bear.

She
should be afraid, very afraid.

But she wasn't.

She was...aroused.

And that, to her, was the
very worst part.

Tony
growled. This was a very bad
idea. His
horny, sex-crazed
bear had
zeroed in
on
Terri, and the stupid man
had just gone along with his animal and volunteered to drive Terri
home. He should have just denied his bear. Being alone in the car
with her, being so near her, was sheer, exquisite torture.

Her
very scent, her voice, her laugh soothed him and maddened him.
She
was like the sea, rich and deep, calming and dangerous. He wanted to
plunge into her and drown in her, enjoy her and
own
her.

Tony
turned sharply away so she would not see the unrelenting animal
hunger in his eyes. The sudden, violent scent of her arousal wasn't
helping matters. Things were getting from bad to deadly. The scent
of her need was drawing his bear from him, and
Tony
could feel his body burning up as instinct and reason clashed and
battled in his fevered mind. He wanted to just pull over to the side
of the road and take Terri in his car, on the hood, on the ground, in
the dirt, everywhere.

The instinct to take her,
mark her, mate with her was threatening to overpower what was left of
his mind. Tony snarled and fought against his raging bear.

Her scent, her need, her
proximity was driving him wild. If she touched him, his beast might
rip right out of his skin and maul her. He had never felt like this
before. This hunger for her was primal, feral, beyond his control.
He had always been in control of his beast, but this time, his bear
seemed crazed with lust and want. He had tried to fight his
attraction to her because she was human, but his bear didn't seem to
care. His bear wanted Terri. And now he found himself in the
bizarre, unenviable position of having to protect Terri from his
beast. From himself.

“Tony, you okay?”
Terri's hand landed lightly on his arm.

With a snarl, Tony jerked his
arm away.

“Don't touch me,”
he snapped.

Her mouth and eyes rounded.
Hurt and confusion were quickly replaced by anger.

“You're a jerk.”
Her gray eyes flashed but she couldn't hide the tremor in her voice.
“I should have gone with Cole and Abby. It would have been a
much nicer drive.”

Tony didn't bother to deny
it. He had been a fool to listen to his bear. His bear deserved to
burn. Tony shook away the harrowing memory of the fire that had
wiped out his entire clan twenty years ago. He would have burned in
his bed with the rest of their clan if not for Cole. He owed his
life to his cousin. The four of them were the only surviving Jameson
bears. The rest of their family had been slaughtered and burned to
ashes that night.

Terri sniffed and swiped
angrily at her eyes. The sight and scent of her tears sent a sharp
pain slicing across his heart. It was as if his bear had taken its
claw to his chest, and was slashing savagely, mercilessly at his
heart.

Tony clenched his jaw
tighter.

No, he wouldn't comfort her.

He wouldn't lean across the
seat and touch her, hold her, kiss her.