ROMANCE: Forbidden Bear Obsession (Werebear Shifter Taboo Paranormal Romance) (New Adult Contemporary Paranormal Romance Short Stories) Read Free Page B

be back after the weekend.”
    The weekend was hot and heavy, with nights
weighed down with humidity and low clouds that only threatened with rain, but
nothing came of it. The entire time I was hot and bothered, and I struggled to
be the model wife around Lashan’s friends. I found their conversations boring,
pointless, self-centered. I found their company empty. And when I looked at
Lashan it was like I was looking at a stranger.
    When Monday finally rolled round, I was
relieved to see him walking out of the door. I felt like I’d been smothered.
    The moment he was gone, I walked to the
bedroom and went through the motions I’d gone through for four years. I got
dressed, did my make-up, changed myself into the woman they knew at the office,
and walked out the door to meet the shuttle on the corner.
    “Good to see you back,” the doorman said and
smiled at me. I was painfully aware of his lack of fangs. Sometimes I wondered
how so many predators could get along without a fight.
    I kept a sharp eye out, but to my relief I
didn’t see Donald anywhere. Charlene hugged me when I stepped into my cubicle
and handed me a stack of papers. She’d been covering my shift while I was gone.
    “Thanks for this,” I said. “What’s been
happening?”
    “Oh, the normal. Ring is out on to kill, as
always. He’s talking about taking down the next company. I don’t know how he
sleeps at night.”
    “What are the other directors saying about
it?” Mostly the directors didn’t really agree with Ring but he was the boss so
they let him dictate to them. But now and then there was a ripple when one of
them actually said something.
    “Oh, they’re okay about it. I think they’re
too scared to cross him, if you ask me. Only that new guy, Donald.” My skin
broke out in shivers at the mention of his name, and my stomach did an
involuntary flip. “He’s been a grumpy old bear.”
    I smiled at the analogy. Charlene had no idea.
The speaker on her desk went off and we heard it all the way across the hall.
Charlene rolled her eyes.
    “Better go, that’s Ring summoning me.”
    I nodded and watched her walk away.
    The day went on without much excitement, and
towards the end of it I fell back into my normal routine. I loved my job, and I
hated the idea that I would leave it soon. It was an escape from my life, and I
knew I needed one. The few days at home had gotten to me more than I thought.
Being back in the office was like breathing fresh air again.
    “I was wondering when you’d decide to crawl
out of your hole again,” a deep voice rumbled behind me. I was alone in the
copy room, trying to get the damn machine to work. I spun around, seeing Donald
in the door. He blocked the whole thing with his frame.
    “I have nothing to say to you,” I said in a
calm voice, even though my heart was going wild and I suddenly felt short of
breath.
    “Where were you?” he asked like I hadn’t said
that. I turned my back on him and focused on the machine again. A wave of heat
surged from him and circled me. In predator-prey relationship the lesser didn’t
turn its back. But I didn’t see him as my superior. That morning in the woods
he’d changed all that by making me an equal.
    I forced the thought out of my head. I wasn’t
an equal, not if I wanted this to go away. I closed my eyes and steeled myself,
and I turned around again.
    “I was home, doing my duty. As a wife .”
    If Donald had any kind of thought about the
last bit, he didn’t show it. In fact, he looked more amused than anything else,
and his eyes traveled slowly over my body. It made me feel exposed. And at the
same time it made me want him to reach out to me and touch me. My skin screamed
for him again.
    I pushed it away.
    “I am busy,” I said, hoping he would get the
hint that I wanted him to leave. He didn’t. Instead he leaned against the
doorpost and jammed his hands into his pockets.
    “Come out to dinner with me,” he said.
    I couldn’t believe he was being