Passion For the Bear (Series 1, 2, 3 Compilation): White Spirit Bear Romance: Shifter, Erotic Romance, Suspense, Paranormal, New Adult Romance (Shifters Book 5)

by Michelle Hart

  Even though Jenna had an affair with Joel, Violet knew in her heart that Jenna was as passionate about her career, as she herself once was about her own. She knew that Jenna was more than capable of running the Manhattan branch. She was looking forward to meeting with Jenna and getting everything laid out on the table so to speak, deciding where they could go from here. She even found herself feeling sorry for Jenna as it must have been awful having a dead man lying on top of you—not a pleasant experience for Jenna or any woman to go through.

  Joel had taken advantage of Jenna's passion for wanting to advance in her career within the company. Violet was sure of this, as Joel had done it in the past with other young female employees. Violet figured that Joel probably approached Jenna in such a way as to invite her to join him for a business dinner or something similar, which would then move to a hotel room at some point. Joel would have assured Jenna that he would convince Violet to agree to give the Manhattan position to Jenna. Even though Violet and Joel had both already decided that she was the right candidate for the CEO position in the Manhattan branch. It had not yet been offered to Jenna officially. But Violet felt sure that Joel would have put it to Jenna in such a way that he would reap some added benefits from the deal that would involve them getting naked together. Violet understood how tough it was being a businesswoman, the struggle to reach the top was a hard steep slippery slope indeed. It may seem strange to you that Violet wants to hire the woman that slept with her husband—in-fact was the last person to see him alive. But, Violet knew that Jenna has suffered enough, the whole experience was indeed punishment enough for her. Violet already knew that Jenna had felt bad enough about what happened—it was terrible when she had to tell Violet—and not only tell her that her husband was dead, but how he died.

  Violet respected the fact that Jenna flew back to San Francisco arriving at Violet's home to tell her in person what had happened in Manhattan six years previously. It was not an easy thing for the girl to do, it must have been awful for her getting up the courage to confront Violet face-to-face with her ill tidings and confession of her involvement in Joel's untimely death. She could have easily left it for others to handle, but she felt that Violet deserved to be told the truth face-to-face. The day that Jenna knocked lightly on the front door of the large lilac colored Victorian home, was the day that Violet's life changed, in an instant. Violet was confused when she opened the large front door to see the pale tear stained face of Jenna starring back at her—she knew right then and there that something bad had happened to Joel. She invited the shocked looking Jenna inside, just as Jenna began to burst into a bout of crying. She escorted Jenna into the front drawing room and sat down beside her on the couch in front of the big bay window. The sun was shining down through the window upon the two of them. Jenna finally exploded and told all—Violet fell back on the couch in shock staring in front of her in a daze—she felt like she could not move—she was frozen—was this even real she wondered—it must be a nightmare!—it can't be true!—what was she going to do now!—millions of crazy thoughts whirled through her confused mind.

  Her mind drifted thinking about how she was going to tell her son and daughter that their father had died—she couldn't tell them the true circumstances surrounding his death. She and Jenna would have to make up a story and stick to it. Violet's mind was in a haze—nothing seemed real—she broke down crying when the reality hit that she was a widow! The next few weeks were filled with much sorrow due to Joel's passing and how they were going to have to rebuild their family dynamics. Both children came back to the family home in San Francisco, they stayed with Violet for three weeks, after their father's funeral. They had been told that Jenna went to check on their father at his hotel room when he didn't turn up in the restaurant for their business meeting. Eventually the hotel staff unlocked his hotel room door to find that he had passed away in his hotel room bed.

  Both Morgan and Brian went back to their universities, Morgan to Arizona State where she is in the third year of studying in pharmaceutical sciences, and Brian is back at the University of California, where he was in the second year of engineering. Neither one of Violet's children had an interest in getting involved with the family business. They both had interests of their own that they pursued. Brian is now an engineer at a plastic molding company in New Hampshire, married to his sweet wife, Eve. Morgan is also married with a one-year old daughter. She and her husband Ryan, are pharmacists, running their own pharmacy here in San Francisco. Violet never tried to push either of them into the family business, but she instead has always encouraged them to pursue their own dreams in life.

  She has feelings of regret, for not being around enough when her children were growing up—she spent too many late hours at the office. So, she did not have a really close connection with either of her children, when they were growing up. She instead accomplished what she set out to do and made the company a great success, along with her husband and business partner. But now things had changed, Violet started to find that with her husband's passing—it had made her stand up and take stock of her life. Violet wants to learn to live beyond her office walls. Starting with handing over the responsibility of running the Manhattan branch to Jenna. Violet jumped into her beige BMW and headed off to her business lunch with Jenna, this was to be the start of new beginnings for Violet.

  The business meeting with Jenna had gone well, they had agreed that Jenna would have the Manhattan branch up and running by the end of May beginning of June. It was February 18th this would give Jenna plenty of time to wrap things up here in San Francisco, and move to Manhattan, hire a new staff for that branch etc... Both women were pleased with the results of their business lunch, they parted on good terms.

  Looking back Violet was so glad she had that meeting with Jenna that day because she turned out to be great in her position as CEO at the Manhattan branch, it was running at a great profit. She recently informed Violet that she had met a man who was a librarian, she was sure that Tom the librarian might just be that special one for her. Violet had been to visit Jenna at the company, she usually went twice a year for business meetings. But she was happy with the way that Jenna was running the company, she certainly had the energy and good communication skills that were certainly needed to keep things running smoothly.

  Chapter 2. Violet Joins “Golden Dates”

  Violet felt herself feeling lost and lonely as she wandered around her big Victorian home, she wanted to find companionship—she pulled out her laptop and began to search for dating sites. One caught her eye called “Golden Dates,” she decided it was the dating site for her. She remembered her neighbour, Anne McTavish had joined this site about two years ago, where she met her companion Dan, both of them are Scottish and seem to make a great couple. “Golden Dates” caters specifically to people in the 50+ age bracket, so Violet joined. She spent the early part of the evening setting up her profile in “Golden Dates,” then headed off to have a nice long bath, sprinkled with some lavender oil to help her relax. She felt excited about venturing out and moving on with her life—she had a feeling of excitement of the prospects of finding a companion that she could share her life with. She sunk back into her tub with the aroma of lavender floating around her. It felt so comforting to be able to relax and soak in a soothing warm tub. As she soaked in her tub she thought about hiring a personal yoga/meditation trainer that she could have come here to the house. Violet was interested in learning how to practice yoga and meditation, but she did not want to go out into group sessions. She preferred performing her workouts in the privacy of her own home gym.

  After she changed into her comfy night-shirt and pyjama bottoms she headed down to the kitchen to make herself a nice cup of peppermint tea, with honey and lemon. She had a touch of a sore throat and knew a nice cup of herbal tea would do the trick in soothing her throat. While she waited for the kettle to boil she took a peek into her “Golden Dates” account to see if there were any messages—not yet, she felt a bit disappointed, b
ut she had to remember that she just joined the site a couple of hours ago. She took her tea into the front room and curled up on her favorite big chair, looking out the big bay window that faced out to the street. She watched people walking by, all of which seemed to be in a hurry to get somewhere—perhaps to meet up with their lovers at a secret meeting place—how exciting that sounded thought Violet as she quietly sipped her tea. She saw her next door neighbour, Anne McTavish walking past with her miniature Schnauzer Pip. Probably heading up to the dog park for a bit of ball throwing and socializing with the other dogs and their owners. Anne McTavish was a Theatre arts teacher at Picton High School, just three blocks from home. Anne herself was a widow of going on eight years. She has two twin daughters that run an art supply shop together, Jane and Mary. Both of them are married with children, they live here in San Francisco, and are very close with Anne.

  Anne's daughters got her to join “Golden Dates” about two years ago, she met her male companion (Dan) through the website about a year and a half ago. He too is Scottish, like Anne, he owns a “Scottish shop” where he sells all kinds of things from British foods, to kilts. Little did Violet know that two years later she too would be joining “Golden Dates” looking for companionship that might lead to an exciting romantic relationship—something she had missed out on in her life the past ten years or so.

  She thought back to when she visited Brian and Morgan at their universities and how she loved the surprised looks on their faces when she bought them each a new car, two Volvo SUVs, she had a good price on them from a client. They both were doing well in their studies and she wanted to give them an extra special gift. She had surprised them with first suggesting taking them for a birthday lunch, and then she took them to shop for a car—she wasn't going to tell them what they were shopping for, until they pulled into the car lot. She was excited about giving each of her children these great surprise gifts.

  The passion in her marriage had disappeared about ten years previous to Joel's passing, all her passion and energy was pretty much invested in her company. She had made it a great success, she was at a point in her life where she needed more in her life besides big profits in her company. She couldn't believe that it had actually taken the death of her husband Joel for her to realize how precious life is and how at any moment we could depart from this world. No matter how much monetary wealth we obtained it would not give us everlasting life here on earth. So the main thing to do is to make sure that what precious time you do have, invest it in doing things that will give you immense pleasure and satisfaction. Violet wanted to find someone that she could spend some intimate time with to experience that special feeling of bonding with another person in the heat of passion, this was something she wanted to rediscover.

  She was surprised to realize just how much she missed making love. Violet had buried her personal physical and mental desires down so deep within her that she had almost completely lost touch with them. Instead, she had spent the last decade of her life putting every ounce of her energy into developing her business to a point that it was a company that was one of the top 10 of graphic design companies within the San Francisco area. When they had conquered the San Francisco area, they moved forward to take on Manhattan, New York as their next place to conquer in the world of graphic design, which they were also taking by storm. This largely due to Jenna Todd and her skills in successfully running the Manhattan branch. It was all very exciting and exhilarating when Violet and Joel had planned the Manhattan expansion together over seven years ago. But Joel's unplanned death was like the wrench being thrown into the working machine that ran their company, it all came to an abrupt halt.

  Violet knew she had to get it up and moving once again, it was time to oil the machinery and get it running smoothly. Once this was set up Violet decided that she was going to train “Jim Thatcher” another executive of “U-PIC Designs Inc.” to run the main branch of the company in San Francisco. She first wanted to make sure that both branches were running smoothly before she would hand the reins over to Jim Thatcher. Now she was preparing to totally hand over the reins to Jim Thatcher, and thinking about stepping down, she only shows up for the occasional company meetings in Manhattan once in awhile to see how things are going there for herself. Eventually she would completely step away, and sell company shares, but keep enough shares of the company, until she decides otherwise. Violet got up to pour herself another cup of tea, and checked to see if there are any messages for her on her “Golden Dates” account—there was a message waiting for her—she felt a level of excitement as her mind buzzed thinking 'could this be her future companion that has left her this message?'

  Chapter 3. Violet & Neil's Night at the Opera!

  Violet jumped out of her cab nervous and excited about meeting Neil for the first time after chatting with him for the past two weeks by phone, she had met him through “Golden Dates” they finally decided they needed to have a proper date. They had arranged to meet outside the War Memorial Opera House on Van Ness Avenue. Neil had made reservations for them to dine at the Café at the Opera before they went to see the opera “Carmen.”

  Violet had gotten a new dress, it was a lovely light lemon color that had a bit of a silver shimmer to it, she had also gone to her salon and had a whole new makeover for the occasion. She felt such a rush to be out on a date—involved in something that was not somehow work related felt so good and almost foreign to her. She spotted Neil walking towards her, he was tall with pepper colored hair and lovely dark blue eyes and clean shaven. When he smiled down at her, two dimples appeared at the sides of his cheeks. Violet thought they looked so adorable and sexy. Neil complimented Violet on looking so lovely and ravishing as he escorted her towards the Café at the Opera.

  After the opera, Violet and Neil went into the bar at the Opera House, to enjoy a nightcap together. Neil was a marine biologist, his research ship and personal yacht were both parked at Berkeley Marina in San Francisco Bay. He asked Violet if she would like to join him for a day of sailing on the following Saturday. He was leaving for a week on the research ship, but he would be back next Thursday. Violet was delighted at the offer to go for a day of sailing on Neil's yacht. They continued to chat and have a couple of drinks, then they called it a night and Neil dropped Violet off at her door. He even got out of the cab and walked her right up to her door. Violet had asked Neil to come in—but he had an early morning, he was heading out on his research ship for a week. He thanked her for the invite, and complimented on her lovely home, said he would love to take a rain check. They said their goodbyes, Neil stating as he headed down the stairs looking back “until next Saturday” he said with a wave. “I will give you a ring to make the arrangements tomorrow, good night Violet” called back Neil as he stepped into the cab. “Thanks for the lovely evening Neil” called out Violet to Neil. She walked into her living room and twirled through the room with a dance in her step, thinking of the tall and dashing Neil and those sexy deep blue eyes of his. It had been literally years since she had such an enjoyable evening, where she was getting compliments and attention from a handsome man all evening—Violet hadn't realized just how much she missed getting treated like a Queen by a man. She certainly loved the feeling of pleasure that it gave her. She couldn't wait to see Neil next Saturday, it will be so romantic sailing out of San Francisco Bay with Neil, heading out into unchartered waters, so to speak. Her possible future prospects with Neil left her full of excitement.

  The next day she spoke to her daughter, Morgan that called to see how she was doing. She told Morgan all about her date at the Opera, and how she had a second date lined up for a day of sailing, on the following Saturday. Morgan was happy to hear her mother with an air of excitement in her voice. It seemed to Morgan the only time she remembered hearing her mother sound this excited was when her profit margin was going through the roof with the success of “U-PIC Designs Inc.” Violet was relieved to hear that her daughter was supportive of her decision to move on with her life, and
getting out of the confines of her office. Morgan and her brother Brain were not blind to the fact that their parents had been more business partners than husband and wife. They had even got used to the fact that their father was having affairs for many years. Brian had told Morgan about a time, about eight years ago that he went to meet their father for lunch and walked into his father's office where he believes he caught their dad in the midst of some kinds of sexual behavior, with one of the girls that worked in the office. When he walked in the girl was leaning across the desk facing their father. When Brian walked in the two jumped up, in a startled manner. The woman rushed out the office past Brian with a look of shame on her face. With their father announcing that he wasn't expecting Brian so early, Brian looked at the retreating woman stating “apparently not, I hope I wasn’t interrupting anything important father?”