Bear Pause (BBW / Bear Shifter Romance): A Billionaire Oil Bearons Romance (Bear Fursuits Book 6) (7 page)

* * *

Standing in the sunshine next to Miss Laura, smelling her lovely scent, was about as good as life got these days. Of course, it made it difficult to concentrate, and figuring out how to hold the line so that the horse couldn’t hurt himself was harder than it looked. But, hey, he was standing next to his mate and that felt just fine.

From the moment he had first scented Laura, Steve had known. Her personal fragrance was engraved in his brain. She was his mate. He had never truly believed that it could happen that fast and hard. Older members of his bear shifter clan had told him his destiny would catch him unawares, but he had not truly believed them. But Dad and Granddad had been perfectly right.

It was kind of a bonus to discover that Laura Bascom was one of the most beautiful females he had ever encountered. Scratch that. The most beautiful. Every single thing about her appealed to all that was male in him. From her lovely face to her lush figure, she was gorgeous.

When she smiled, she had two little dimples that winked like the flashers on a lightning bug and drew him just as surely. When she moved, the sway of her round ass and the length of her legs made him hard. He ached to touch her. He ached to taste her. And she acted like he was just another guy, and not a very interesting one. How could fate have dealt him such a hand?

Laura smelled like the world’s most enticing she-bear, but she acted like she was noseblind. And there didn’t seem to be one damned thing he could do about it. He had inveigled himself into doing work that put him in her path. She merely smiled pleasantly at him and moved on unhurriedly. She returned his greetings with cheerful neutrality.

He had been neglecting his original mission since he had gotten his first whiff of Laura. Not that it mattered. Saints or sinners, it didn’t much matter which the Bascoms were now. Laura Bascom was going to be his, and that meant he had better make up his mind to be part of her family. And as far as he could see, there was nothing to be ashamed of in Freddie Bascom and Laura. They were good people.

They must’ve spent a full hour with Buddha on the lunge line. Some of the time Miss Laura went and sat on the fence and called her comments to him. And some of the time she stood beside him, not touching him, but so close that he could feel her presence like arrows in his heart. All too soon, she decided that Buddha had had enough for one day.

Miss Laura went to the office, and he took Buddha back to his stall. He was brushing the yearling down when his pleasant fantasies about Laura were interrupted by loud voices three stalls over. Lance and Cory Saunders were arguing. At least Saunders was. Lance’s voice was cool and level as usual.

Saunders was about Prescott’s age. But there the resemblance ended. Lance was quietly competent and generally popular with the other stable hands, as well as Carlos and the Bascoms. Cory was a swaggering bully with a foul mouth. Steve had no sympathy to waste on a shirker who wound up spending twice as long on his tasks because he was made to redo most of them.

But what he really objected to was Saunders’ mouth. Steve was used to men who swore. Swearing was normal in the military. But he didn’t like it when men used coarse language in front of and around women with the plain intention of embarrassing them. This morning, Saunders was as profane as usual.

“Shit, I just said that I’d like to get me some of that sweet fucking ass,” Cory protested. “Of course she fucking wouldn’t look at you.”

Lance’s calm voice cut through Cory’s derisive bluster. “Teresita Delgado is only seventeen, and she’s Rosa Diego’s niece. If you can’t think of a better reason than that for leaving her alone, I’ll give you one. You say one more word to that young woman, good, bad or indifferent, and I personally will take you apart.”

“I’d fucking like to see you try,” sneered Cory. But Steve noticed he shut up. Smart man. Lance was quiet, and soft-spoken, and not terribly communicative. But if he said a thing he meant it. And he was stronger than he looked. Steve would not have challenged him unless he wanted a brutal fight on his hands. And he suspected that winning would not be a given.

He made a note, however, to keep an eye on Cory. He knew that Teresita was Carlos and Rosa’s niece, but hadn’t realized that Rosa’s helper was so young. But seventeen or seventy, no woman deserved to have an asshole like Cory Saunders talking dirty about her. But was Saunders just a jerk, or was he something worse?

CHAPTER SEVEN

It was still cool, but this early May morning promised to be a scorcher. Steve didn’t think Colorado was quite done with spring yet, but today was heading for summer. Steve knocked on the back door of the Diego’s ranch house. From inside, Rosa called a welcome. She waved him to the large kitchen table where Carlos was already eating hominy cooked in milk. Steve exchanged greetings with the foreman and sat down. He prepared himself for another excellent meal and another installment of the Bascom family saga.

It seemed he couldn’t sit down to a meal without Rosa starting in on yet another story about the Bascoms. It was natural that she would think her employers people of importance, but he was beginning to think there would be a pop quiz soon. Neither Carlos nor Rosa had ever directly referred to his being Kenneth Bascom’s son. There had to be a reason he had not been spared a detail of his birth father’s glorious career as a quarterback at the local high school, or his twenty seconds of ignominious failure as a barrel rider.

He had heard all about the terrible highway accident that had led to the death of both Laura’s seventeen-year-old twin sister Bethany, and their mom. He had heard Carlos’s opinion of the official explanation for Captain Luther Bascom’s death. “Training exercises,” snorted Diego. “Fellow smart enough and tough enough to earn himself the DSO twice, wasn’t going to crash a helicopter.”

Unfortunately, tough and smart didn’t count when it came to handling helicopters. Given the wrong weather conditions, and enough bad luck, anyone could crash a chopper. But Steve didn’t try to correct Carlos. He nodded and listened.

“Mr. Clive he had it in his head that when Luther got the military out of his system, he would come back to the Double B and take over.” Diego shook his head sorrowfully.

“Well, he might have,” opined Rosa. “But I doubt it. He was never like Laura and Bethany. All those girls ever wanted was to be rodeo riders like their mom.” And then she was off telling some story that proved Brenda Bascom had earned every silver buckle she had worn and that Laura and her twin sister Bethany could have done the same as their mom.

Even though he thought both the Diegos knew his secret, Steve still didn’t want to come right out and announce it, because he was sure that would be the end of his job in the stables. He hadn’t figured out how else to stay close to Laura Bascom. She was nice to him. But she was nice to everyone, even that petulant brat Piper Belington, so he couldn’t take that personally. He needed a strategy that would get his ring on her finger.

It was starting to seem as though his plan to spy on the Bascoms had blown up in his face. He couldn’t think of a single way to announce to Laura and her father that he was a long lost cousin come to claim his inheritance without looking like a fortune hunter. Especially if he then segued into courting Laura. It would also be easy for them to think that his reluctance to offer his DNA, was a tacit admission that he knew his Y chromosome came from someone other than Kenny Bascom.

Rosa filled his coffee cup and put a bowl of hominy in front of him and handed him the pitcher of milk.

“Thank you.” he said, tucking in. The corn porridge was as good as everything else Rosa made.

Carlos glanced up from his food. “Did you have any trouble with Winnie last night?”

“No, sir. I checked on her around two and she was standing up looking like she had nothing urgent planned. At two-thirty she had a perfect little foal wobbling at her teats.”

“Should have called me,” grumbled Carlos. “Colt?”

“Filly. I had Dr. Bascom come out to check them both. He said they were fine and we both went back to bed.”

“Did you clean her up?”

“Yes, sir,” Steve assured him. “We did. Winnie had mostly taken care of herself, and Doc didn’t want her moved, but I made sure there wasn’t anything for the foal to roll in. And we disinfected them both. Winnie was wanting her food when I looked in on her on the way here and I gave her another scoop of the mixture and her hay.”

Carlos grunted and went back to his bowl.

Rosa brought the coffeepot over and put a basket of her flour tortillas on the table. “You don’t need to be going out to the stable every night,
mi
viejito,
” she said. She winked at Steve. “At your age, a good night’s sleep is important.” She rubbed her husband’s shoulder tenderly.

Steve had long since realized that while Rosa was within a year or two of his mother’s age, she was twenty years younger than Carlos. He interpreted her wink to mean that she approved of his summoning Freddie Bascom instead of her husband. And as both Freddie and Laura had told him to call them before he woke Carlos, he figured everyone was trying to spare the foreman.

“Mr. Cal is coming for the weekend,” Rosa said seating herself. “Bringing some of his friends with him again.”

Carlos laughed. “Think she’ll cotton to one of those city boys?” he asked his wife.

“Not a chance. Not if they don’t ride any better than the last batch.” Rosa turned to Steve. “Did I tell you how Mr. Clive’s will says Miss Laura has to get herself married and have a baby if she’s to keep the ranch?”

“Yes, ma’am.” Several times. Steve didn’t comment. What could he say? From the moment he set eyes on her, he had been willing to step up in Laura’s time of need, but she kept her distance. Hard to court a female who acted like she had a force field around her. And his present situation made it more than ordinarily awkward.

“Laura will be thirty-four on her next birthday. She had better find herself a feller if she don’t want to see them Belingtons ruining this ranch,” Carlos said.

“She won’t see it,” Rosa said. “She’ll be dead, and so will we.”

“Still be a right shame. Those two city slickers will run the place into the ground in a week.”

CHAPTER EIGHT

Laura picked up the handwritten form Steve had turned into Rhonda. She had been thinking about this step for too long already. Another weekend had gone past, wasted with yet another of Cal’s city friends.

The only good thing that come of that visit, was that Calvin had gone over the report made by the security experts she had hired to look at the ranch computers. The IT people had not found any sign that they had been either hacked or downloaded a virus. Which meant that she had to either find two thousand head of cattle, or explain what had happened to them to the executors of the estate.

This was exactly the sort of invidious position that she had hoped to avoid. Rustlers were not something any ranch could claim never to have. That the Double B had lost ten times as many animals as was usual. They certainly couldn’t blame the missing stock on predators. There weren’t enough black bears, cougars and wolves left in Colorado to account for so many missing cows.

What she needed to do was get married. It looked more and more as if Steve Holden was her best chance to solve her problem. It was past time to check his references. She picked up the phone and called Yakima Ridge.

“Jenna says her cousin Will met his wife on bearmate.com.” Even though he was in his own house, and his cell was encrypted, Zeke Bascom lowered his voice to a raspy growl.

Laura understood. They had both been raised never to discuss their bears in public.

“Which one?” she whispered back.

“Will Enright. The Navy SEAL.”

Laura thought back to Zeke and Jenna’s boisterous wedding celebration in French Town. The church had been full of bear shifters who all seemed to be relatives of Zeke’s bride and keen to meet the Colorado Bascoms who were their distant relatives. The reception at the community center had been even more of a joyful muddle. Between the introductions, the hugging and laughing, and all the dancing, she hadn’t kept all those big men straight.

“Enright sounds familiar. But I don’t remember a Will,” she confessed.

Zeke chuckled. “Lot of Enrights,” he conceded. “Almost as many Enrights around here as there are Bascoms and Benoits. I knew Will in the service. Anyway, Jenna says Will and his Martha are happy and well matched, and they sure do seem to be. You might as well give bearmate.com a try.”

“I’m not marrying some dude I met on a website, Zeke Bascom! I can attract all the fortune hunters I want all by my lonesome.”

“Aw, Laura, there’s a guy out there that’s gonna love you for yourself,” Zeke’s rumble assured her. “And this place matches bears with other bears. I gotta tell you, it makes a difference.”

Laura knew that before Zeke had met his Jenna he had been depressed and lost. He had confided that he and his new wife spent a lot of time playing in the woods as bears. Or at least they had before their twins had been born. Laura couldn’t imagine it. Suppose someone shot them? Or the non-bear neighbors found out? The couple of times she had turned had been painful and scary. Doing it on purpose seemed foolish and dangerous.

“Cal and Pat are trying to fix me up.” she said as cheerfully as she could.

Zeke made a rude noise. “Puleeze,” he said. “What the devil are you going to have in common with those slick golfers they hang around with?”

“It doesn’t have to be forever,” she said. “Just until I have satisfied the conditions of the will.”

“You can’t marry intending to divorce, Lauralee. That’s no way to behave.”

Laura’s chuckle was hollow. “You’re adopting small town, bourgeois values, Zeke. How many wives has your daddy had?”

“Too damned many,” Zeke growled. “He and Diana just filed. Did I tell you?”

“Oh, Zeke, I hadn’t heard. I’m sorry,” Laura said. “But I don’t aim to deceive my husband. I plan to be straightforward and have Trevor Carmichael draw up a watertight contract – with a bonus for hanging around until after the baby is born. A sort of sperm donor and prenuptial agreement combo.”