Mail-Order Bear: BBW Bear Shifter Paranormal Romance (BRIDES fur BEARS Book 5) Read Free

picked up his cup again. He eyed Reid
and his coffee suspiciously. Sniffing the thick, dark brew in his
cup, Damien stirred the coffee with his finger and mused, “I
bet I can strip paint with this.” His expression was a mixture
of both awe and disgust.
    Reid waited for his cousin to
leave, but Damien simply pushed his cup aside and continued sitting
at the kitchen table. He twiddled his thumbs and stared around
Reid's small single-story house. Reid knew what was coming.
    “You know what this
house needs?” Damien began.
    “I know what this house doesn't need,” Reid growled.
    Damien ignored him and sang,
“It needs a woman's touch!”
    Reid didn't dignify that
statement with a response. Lately his cousin seemed to get a kick
out of throwing women at him. Either Damien was thinking of
moonlighting as a matchmaker, or he was tired of living.
    But it was no use telling
Damien not to do something. The rascal didn't know the
meaning of the word “no”.
    Reid finished his coffee and
glanced at his bare, starkly furnished house. He used to own a much
bigger house, and a thriving plumbing company. He even had a shop
selling plumbing supplies and he had a few good employees. But he
had to let them all go. He'd had to sell his shop, his business, his
house, everything he'd worked so hard for. He was now worse off than
he had been before his fiasco of a marriage. That marriage and
divorce had ruined him.
    “Why are you still
here?” Reid snapped at last. “Don't you have some place
to go?”
    “Nope,” Damien
answered cheerfully. “It's Saturday. I don't have to work.”
Damien worked for Beck's Builders, a reputable renovation and
remodeling company. Reid did a few plumbing projects for them and
had gotten to know the bosses and crew of Beck's Builders pretty
well. They were a rowdy, fun-loving bunch, and Damien was always
trying to get Reid to hang out with them. But Reid preferred to just
go home after work and get some peace and quiet. It was quiet in his
small, empty house all right, but he hadn't had peace for some time.
He was too bitter and angry at all that he'd lost. He had been too
young and foolish. Marriage was nothing but a bloody booby trap.
The divorce settlement had cost him everything.
    Reid got up and took his
plate to the sink. “Well, you can't stay here. I'm going
out.”
    Damien perked up and peered
at him curiously. “Where are you going? You never go out.”
    When Reid ground his teeth,
Damien huffed and folded his arms. “You're just trying to get
rid of me.”
    Reid threw up his hands.
“Why are you really here, Damien?”
    Damien chewed his lip and
glanced away. Reid recognized the look. Damien looked guilty as
hell.
    Reid pinched the bridge of
his nose. “What have you done this time?”
    “What makes you think I
did anything?” Damien huffed indignantly.
    Reid merely raised a brow.
    “Okay, okay.”
Damien cleared his throat. “I, um, I came to tell you
something.”
    “Go on.”
    “I got you something.”
    Reid narrowed his eyes.
“What did you get me?”
    Damien rubbed his hands
gleefully, looking like he had just pulled off the ultimate prank.
    “I got you a mail-order
bride!”

CHAPTER
SIX

    “You did what?”
Reid roared.
    The windows shook with the
force and ferocity of his roar, but Damien was unfazed.
    “You heard me. I got
you a bride,” Damien said sulkily. “I thought you'd be
happy.”
    “You thought...”
Reid sputtered in fury.
    “You've been moping
around since...you know.”
    “I've not been
moping...”
    “Yeah, but you've been
storming around, scowling and glowering at every woman in town. Not
every woman is like Shelly.”
    A muscle ticked violently in
Reid's jaw at the mention of his ex-wife.
    “It's been three years
since your divorce, Reid,” Damien went on. “I know
Shelly cheated on you and took you to the cleaners, but not all women
are like that. You haven't touched a woman in three years.
Three...years!” Damien shook his head