A Slice of Honeybear Pie (BWWM Paranormal BBW Bear Shifter Romance) (Bearfield Book 1) (2 page)

The master bedroom of the A-frame was Pete’s office and the living room was Jolene’s. The sassy woman was Matt’s distant cousin, like half of Bearfield, and she ran the 911 board, the police station, and half of city hall out of the little house. The second bedroom was the holding room and jail cell, though it still had the ornamental rug and off-white walls of the pre-police station home. They never really needed to hold anyone and so hadn’t bothered putting in bars or even a door that locked.
 

“Matthew,” Jolene said, peering at him over her cat’s eye glasses as he entered the station. “Fresh pot on for ya. Got some leftover crullers from the Lodge, too.”

“No bear claws?” Matt joked as he took two of the stale donuts. Jolene was one of the few people in town who knew his secret.

Jolene rose from her desk with a serious expression and walked over to Matt. She was half his size and twice his age. “I thought Pete told you to dress nice?”

“Hey, this is my second best suit.”

Jolene sighed in exasperation and shook her head. She buttoned Matt’s jacket and stepped back, examining him.
 

“What’s going on with you two?” Matt asked.

“Straighten your tie.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Matt grinned.

“Would it kill ya to shave before seeing a client?”

“Pete said to hurry.”

“And shaving takes an hour?”

Matt shrugged. He thought he looked good with a little stubble.
 

“If your daddy could see you now.” Jolene’s wrinkled expression implied that he’d be less than impressed.
 

Matt wished his father had been able to express his disappointment, but the man had been hibernating for ten years now, stuck in bear form after a vicious hunter attack. He slumbered deep in the mountains, in a cave that stretched for miles underground, next to dozens of other werebears that were probably Matt’s extended kin. Matt and his brothers had carried his dad down there, sweating and straining under the weight of the big animal. They said that you couldn’t kill a werebear, that they were immortal. But do enough damage and the big men just went to sleep as their bodies and minds knit themselves back together. Every few decades one of the old bears woke up and had to be reintroduced to modern society. Matt’s dad could wake up tomorrow or in twenty years. There was no way to tell.

Matt didn’t like thinking about it.

“She give a name yet?” Matt asked, nodding at the interrogation room.

“She says her name is get me a lawyer.” Jolene pursed her lips in annoyance. “City girls.”

“Well, if I find out I’ll let you know, ‘kay?” Matt stuffed one whole donut in his mouth and washed it down with an entire cup of coffee. The bear wasn’t remotely satisfied, but it was a start. He’d have to swing by the Lodge after the client meeting to get the biggest spread he could find, otherwise the bear would be grumbling all day, putting Matt in a sour mood. He wiped the crumbs off his face and poured another coffee and one more for the client then backed into the room, using his butt to push the door open.

He turned, and nearly dropped both cups. Sitting at the table, with her hands folded politely in front of her, was the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen. She had warm brown skin like sunset shadows on the face of the mountain, and soft curly hair that framed her face perfectly. She wore a leather jacket over a red cotton dress that outlined her ample curves. Matt wanted to bend over and look under the table to see what kind of shoes she was wearing but he decided that’d be inappropriate. He was so used to the sporty, tanned, skinny tourist girls with their spandex or lycra or whatever leaving nothing to the imagination. Those kinds of women may have driven his brothers crazy, but they did nothing at all for him. Matt craved soft curves he could bury himself in, a woman with substance. And here she was.

His bear stopped grumping and sat up inside him and then roared.
This one
, it said.
This one is your mate
.

Chapter 2

Bearly Legal

Mina could not believe the police station. It was just someone’s home, with the furniture removed. There was no security. Hell, she didn’t even see a gun in the place. How could these people protect her? What use would they be if Harker came around?
 

The holding room was tidy at least, even if was just a rustic bedroom with a desk in the middle. The old cop, Pete, hadn’t even bothered handcuffing her. Mina was fairly certain she could have walked out whenever she wanted without him stopping her. But then what? She’d wrecked her car. It was a miracle she wasn’t more hurt from the accident. Aside from the bruising in her chest where the seat belt had caught her and a bump on her head, she was fine. But with no car and no money and the evidence she had on Harker still in the glove compartment, she was thoroughly screwed.

Could she open up to the old cop? He seemed nice enough. But the last thing Mina wanted was to drag anyone else into her mess. The last person she’d gone to for help was already dead.

Just as she was about to give in to despair, the door opened and
he
walked in.

Dressed in a rumpled brown suit with a matching necktie cinched too tight around his neck, the man wasn’t dressed well, but it didn’t matter. He was so big he had to duck to clear the doorway and so wide that he had to turn sideways to fit. He was muscular and lean and massive and looked like he was built on a different scale than the rest of the world. And he was gorgeous, with wavy brown hair, deep brown eyes and a face that belonged in a museum, with a strong nose and high cheekbones and a square jaw dusted with stubble.
 

Mina took one look at him and lost her breath. Men didn’t really look like him. Or at least, not outside of the movies they didn’t. She wondered what he looked like naked and then immediately felt embarrassed. There was too much at stake to get swept away by a pretty face and a perfect body. Closing her eyes, she forced herself to breathe. She thought about Harker and his beautiful blue eyes, the way he kissed her, the sight of him holding a smoking gun. You couldn’t trust a pretty man. You couldn’t trust your heart. The fire inside would warm you, it would drive you crazy, but it’d burn you up as well.

The big man sat down across from her, the chair groaning under his weight. He smelled like pine trees and sugar with a hint of animal musk that made her knees so weak she glad she was already seated.

“I’m Matt,” he said, his voice clear and calm like a mountain stream. “What should I call you?”
 

“You’re my attorney?”

“I am. So anything you have to say is protected. Attorney-client privilege.”

“You don’t look like a lawyer,” she said, trying to keep her voice neutral but the lust she felt was there, a swift undercurrent.

“With this suit? Who else would wear this?” He flashed a relaxed and boyish grin at her. And inexplicably, Mina felt like everything would work out. If you looked up reassuring in the dictionary there’d be a picture of this guy’s smile. He produced a yellow legal pad from a battered satchel and clicked a pen to life. “Tell me what you’re running from, maybe I can help.” Mina liked the way he’s eyes sparked when he said
help
. She liked it a lot.

No, she couldn’t do this. Begone hormones! She was a grown-ass woman. She’d opened her own business. She wasn’t some fifteen-year-old to get swept away by a pretty face.

“I can’t tell you my name. I can’t be in the system. There are men looking for me. Dangerous men.”

# # #
 

Matt leaned back in his chair and tossed the pen onto the pad. “Tell me about these men.” The thought of anyone threatening this beautiful woman made his man and his bear both very angry. The world was tough enough by itself, it didn’t need evil men preying upon innocent, curvy, voluptuous, cocoa-skinned women with lips that were made for kissing.

“You’re a big guy. You live out here in the forest or whatever so I’m sure you think you’re tough. But you don’t know the men who are after me. You don’t want to know them.” The woman’s voice shook with fear as she spoke. She was trying to hold it together and failing. She was strong—she’d have to be to get through a car accident and not end up a sobbing mess—but there were limits to strength.

Unless you were Matt.

Matt took off his suit coat, it was always too warm in the station, especially for him. Being a shifter meant his blood ran hot anyway. He unbuttoned his shirt cuffs and rolled up his sleeves, revealing his thickly corded forearms as large as saplings.
 

“Please trust me when I tell you I can take care of myself,” he said, putting a hint of a growl into his voice. If he didn’t know it would drive her stark raving mad with terror, he would have shifted right there to show her. Well, maybe outside. He was pretty big as a bear and he’d hate to smash up anymore furniture.

“Can you get me out of here? The men who are after me, they want me gone. They’re undoubtedly searching every inch of Northern California for me right now.” Her eyes were wide, her breathing shallow. Matt’s enhanced shifter senses could hear her heart hammering in her chest. He could smell the sour tang of fear wafting off her, mixed with the sugary head-spinning scent of lust. She wanted him. He knew it.
 

“Did you bring your cell phone?”

“Of course, it’s right here.” The woman slid the phone across the table. Matt picked it up and shattered it in his hand with one quick squeeze, letting the glass and plastic and printed circuits rain to the table with a clatter.

“If these men are half as dangerous as you say, they’re already near. Probably tracking you via your phone.”

“Then maybe you should have tossed in onto a truck headed out of town instead of smashing it here like a caveman?”

Matt sighed. She was right. It’d been an impulsive move. He was trying to impress her with his strength but instead she now thought he was an untrustworthy meathead who didn’t plan ahead. It was closer to the truth than he was comfortable with. The bear inside him wanted to claim her as his mate, it didn’t understand why there was so much talking still happening when they both clearly lusted for each other. He should just sweep her off her feet, carry her back to his den, and spend the next fifty years mating and eating and mating until they were surrounded by so many cubs they couldn’t even count them all.

“Is there anyone you can call?” Matt asked. But what he meant was, “do you have a boyfriend?”
 

“No,” she shook her head, a darkness sliding into her eyes. “Not anymore.”

“No one? Not parents or friends or siblings?”

“I don’t want to drag them into this. The last person I told about all of this ended up dead at my feet. Do you think I want that for my sister?”

“Where does she live?”

“I can’t tell you that.”

Infuriating woman! How could he help her, how could he protect her, if she wouldn’t tell him anything? He had to earn her trust, to show her that he wasn’t some backwoods hick with sawdust between his ears.
 

“If I can get you out of here—get you to a safe place—will you tell me what’s going on?”

The woman thought about it, chewing her plump lip in a way that made Matt’s bear groan and roll over. He wanted to chew her lip. He wanted to tear her dress off to see what her nipples looked like. He wanted to hold her breasts in his hands and bury his face in their softness, licking and chewing her sensitive buds until she begged him to mate her.

“Okay,” she said. “I don’t know how else I’ll get out of here alive. Take me someplace safe and I’ll tell you everything.”

“Fantastic,” Matt said and grinned at her like she’d just agreed to go to prom with him.

“But first we need to find my car. I need to get something out of the glove box.”

# # #
 

“Good thing for you my brother runs the only wrecker around. He towed your car to his shop. Just tell me what you need and he can bring it to us.” The big man, Matt, said in a reassuring tone. He wasn’t taking this seriously. Why did men never take Mina seriously? They saw her curves, her breasts, or maybe the color of her skin and assumed she was overreacting about everything. Mobsters killed her business partner while she watched. She was not overreacting.

“I can’t do that.” Mina placed her hands on the table and stood up, the effect would have been more intimidating if Matt wasn’t the largest single person she’d ever seen. What would it feel like to have him wrapped around her? If you spooned with him, he’d be the whole silverware drawer. Mina never felt like a small woman—genetics and a wicked sweet tooth had seen to that—but next to Matt she felt positively petite. Not for the first time since he’d walked in the door, she wondered how it would feel to be under him, to kick her heels to the sky for him.

The longer she was near him, the more intense the heat in her belly became. Just smelling him was making her ache with need. If she licked his skin, she might just melt. There was no time for thoughts like these. Keeping her phone had been a stupid mistake. She’d thought she needed it for maps and GPS to get to Oregon, but really it was probably a giant flashing dot telling Harker and his goons where she’d gone.

It was a miracle they weren’t already there.

“Get me to my car. Take me someplace safe. And put some hot food in my belly, and I’ll tell you everything.”

Matt leaned back in the chair, lacing his fingers behind his head and showing off his massively muscled arms. Did he bench press trucks for fun? How did a county lawyer get built like that? “Hot food? Trying to sweeten the deal when I wasn’t looking?” He smiled at her again, as if she was on a first date and not being hunted by killers. It was soothing and sexy and maddeningly inappropriate.
 

“A girl’s got to eat,” Mina shrugged.

“I should warn you, I’m a terrible cook. I can make three things.”

“Microwave dinners, plain spaghetti, and toast?” Mina guessed.

When Matt laughed his whole body shook and his face filled with light. Mina really wanted to see that again. “You are not far off,” he said. “I can make pancakes, omelettes, and a fantastic venison stew.”