Primal Desire: a BBW Bear Shifter Paranormal Romance (Shadowlands Bear Shifters Book 5)

by Olivia Harp

  “Are you ready?” Audrey asked him.

  He took a brief glimpse at her, her dress had a v-neck that just barely showed her cleavage. He casually put a hand in his pocket, trying to hide his bulge and finally spoke again.

  “Sure, I’ll arrive at five in the morning to set everything up—”

  “Do you need help?”

  He smiled, “Nah, thank you, a friend of mine will come, Larry said he’d be here too, so it’s cool. Just make sure you bring the best cupcakes in town.”

  “Oh I can’t promise you that,” she replied, “Darcy told me Becca and Lynn take a lot of pride in their pastries, I wouldn’t want to beat them so soon, wouldn’t be fair.”

  He laughed.

  “I understand, you do it for them.”

  “Yes, being awesome at everything is very difficult.”

  “I can only imagine.”

  She smiled and bit her lower lip, looking at him sideways. His bear roared inside, every muscle in his body hardened. He used all of his willpower to keep control.

  Her who body called at him. He had been with women in the past, of course, but this was different. This was a primal need, an instinctive necessity to take her, to make her his.

  And it wasn’t just her body, it was everything about her. Avoiding her was a mistake. I should have known. But it was too late now. He liked her too much. Life used to be good. Great even. But she was extraordinary. She cared about everyone around. She was a boss.

  He knew right then that there was only one thing to do. I’ll make her mine.

  The hallway was empty now.

  “All right,” she said, “nice seeing you.”

  He sighed, but did not look away. A soft growl escaped his throat, I’ll make you mine.

  CHAPTER 8

  That was a mistake. Audrey tried to work the rest of the morning but every time she saw Enzo, her brain turned into chaos.

  “Be efficient,” she ordered out loud.

  “Be. Efficient.”

  She rubbed her forehead.

  You’re here to work, not to flirt with anyone. What’ll happen when he rejects you?

  She turned around to see the damn picture he’d complimented just a few days before. She even framed it. Yeah, keep pretending you did it because you want to remember how it felt to be in High School.

  She snorted at the thought, snatched the picture and hid it in the desk’s drawer.

  ***

  The remaining days of the week went by fast. She’d managed to avoid Enzo as best as she could, just keeping him updated on fundraiser changes or news.

  It was Friday, at last. One day left for the event. It had been a crazy week, but finally, most of the school’s finances started to make sense. That was a good start to put everything in order.

  She opened the door to her apartment. It was big for what she paid. An apartment like this in Portland or Seattle (or worse, the Valley) would’ve cost her what, ten times more?

  Audrey dropped her keys on the entrance table and headed to the kitchen. She was tired and really didn’t want to do anything, but if she didn’t start with the cupcakes right now, she would regret it. I’ll end up baking until past midnight.

  She needed her beauty sleep, tomorrow was going to be a big day, time to work.

  She took out a couple of cupcake mix boxes from the cupboard and read the instructions.

  “Okay, first, preheat the oven...”

  She dialed the wheel up to 325° Farenheit and started getting nervous. She cooked her own meals of course, but she wasn’t the best at it, and baking was a whole different beast.

  Just follow the instructions, don’t be such a wuss.

  It was easier than she thought, she had everything ready in five minutes and mixing the ingredients together took her less than twenty minutes.

  Easy peasy.

  She put the pan in the oven and set the timer on her phone. She was eager to lay down and chill for a minute, so she ran to her sofa, turned on the TV and left it on a crime show. She’d already seen this episode but there was nothing else playing.

  Audrey took a deep breath and put her phone on the floor, took her shoes off and laid there like a champ.

  Finally!

  She lowered the TV volume and kept on watching, just a few more minutes and she would be done.

  ***

  A maddening beeping noise woke her up. Shut up, She thought, still half asleep, but then a sudden realization washed over her.

  “Oh my God,” she said out loud, springing from the couch and bolting to the kitchen.

  She imagined she’d face a huge fire, her walls devoured by the heat, her floor engulfed in flames.

  But she was lucky.

  She covered her nose with her inner elbow, holding her breath to avoid the stinging scent of burnt bread.

  She turned the oven off, stepped away from its door and opened it. The smell was overbearing.

  “Shit!”

  She opened the kitchen’s window, located above the sink, but she knew it would take a while for the smell to dissipate.

  “God damn it!” she said, finally opening the oven to see the burned out mess she’d made.

  “What the hell happened?”

  There was nothing she could do there, she had to wait for the pan to cool down, then she’d throw it in the trash can, it was ruined.

  She ran to the living room, turned off the smoke alarm and found her phone. What happened to the alarm?

  She opened the app to see she hadn’t done anything wrong. What? She tapped on the screen and set the timer for five seconds.

  She waited for the countdown to end and then realized the blinking, vibrating phone was set on mute.

  Of course.

  She didn’t want a personal call to interrupt her during work hours, and she forgot to unmute it.

  “What a fucking idiot, Audrey!”

  Tears welled up in her eyes, you could’ve died, people could’ve been hurt! She was stupid. So freakin’ stupid.

  But tears didn’t run down her face.

  She took a deep breath, calmed down and then saw she had four missed calls.

  “What?”

  They were all from Enzo.

  They exchanged numbers just in case they needed anything for the fund raiser.

  He’d sent a text here and there, all strictly professional, but this was different. He never called her.

  She opened her text app and lo and behold, there he was.

  “Hello, there,” it read, “are you busy? Need to know if Larry has the gym keys for tomorrow.”

  Then a few minutes later.

  “Never mind, he just replied. He does.”

  Then half an hour later, “hey, everything all right?”

  Her phone rang again. It was him. She swiped right and answered.

  “Hello?”

  She tried to hide the cracks in her voice as much as she could.

  “Oh, finally! Hello.”

  “Hi, Enzo, just read your messages.”

  “Yeah,” he said with a big sigh of relief, “I was just checking on you.”

  “What do you mean?”

  Silence on the other side of the line.

  “I... just... I wanted to talk to you,” he finally said.

  She smiled.

  “You sound weird,” he said, “are you okay?”

  Did he notice it in my voice?

  “Yes,” she replied, “all good...”

  Silence, this time he waited for her to speak.

  “Well... I just burned the cupcakes, if you can believe that.”

  “What happened?”

  “Fell asleep, I’m an idiot.”

  “Don’t say that,” he said in a firmer voice, “it happens to everyone, do you need help?”

  She looked around her apartment. It was late, but there were still some threads of sunshine on the horizon.

  “Well, I... I don’t know... I made a mess, it’s gonna take me a while to clean everything up, and I still
have to go to the store to get more cupcake mix.”

  “Your legendary Cupcake Mix recipe, I get it.”

  “Stop it,” she said, trying to hold her smile back, “it’s not funny.”

  “I’ll bring the mix and help you clean, if you want to.”

  She wanted to. And she had no other choice, right?

  Right. She snickered.

  “I’ll start cleaning up, okay? Bring two boxes one vanilla, one peanut butter, I’ll pay you when you arrive.”

  “Perfect, send me your location, I’ll be there in half an hour.”

  They hung up and she was surprised at how nervous she was. It wasn’t because she just had a big accident.

  It was the thought of seeing him after school that was dangerous.

  And wait. The guy can bake? Not only was he incredibly hot, he was kind and cool and was going to help her with the cupcakes? Who did he think he was, Mister Perfect?

  It doesn’t matter, she thought, but she was on the verge of trembling.

  This was going to be the first time she saw him outside of school... wait. Her place was a mess.

  She barely had enough time to make it presentable, get on it, you dork!

  CHAPTER 9

  The doorbell ding-donged, making Audrey jump up from her sofa. She looked around for the umpteenth time to see if anything was out of place, but no. She dried her hands on her jeans and opened the door.

  Stop being nervous, just stop being— The moment she saw him all her plans went out the window.

  She planned on being cool in an “I-don’t-care” kind of way but she didn’t have it in her. She’d never been able to pull that off, that’s ‘cause you’ve never been the cool one.

  He looked jaw-droppingly handsome, even with simple, dark jeans and a semi-tight sweater.

  He towered over her even higher than before, now that she wore flats instead of high heels.

  “Hey there,” Enzo said with a couple of plastic store bags in each hand, “sorry for being late.”

  “Don’t worry,” She said with a smile, “you didn’t take that long.”

  They stood at the doorway, awkwardly smiling for a brief moment. Enzo raised the bags.

  “Should I come in?”

  “Oh! Yes, sorry! I’m not used to having anyone here.”

  He walked in and waited for her to lead him to the kitchen.

  “Over here, you can put the bags on the bar over there.”

  “So, you had an accident?” he asked, nonchalantly.

  She shrugged, “I’m an ass.”

  Enzo took everything out of the bags, he brought a bunch of extra stuff.

  “What’s that for?”

  “Frosting, where do I put this?”

  He rolled up all the bags into another one.

  “Just give them to me.”

  The whole ordeal was too... mechanical, too business-like. Almost as if they didn’t know each other. Just like having a blind date and wondering what to talk about without being too obvious.

  “I’ve already pre-heated the oven, we should be done with this super quickly.”

  He smiled, “cool.”

  Another awkward silence, he leaned on the small bar beside the kitchen, looking at her.

  “Is it just me or this is super awkward?” He said with a smile.

  “Isn’t it?” she replied, almost laughing.

  “Yeah! I mean, why?”

  “I know! What do we do?”

  “Sing me a song or something.”

  “What?”

  “Seriously, let’s just do something silly to get this part of the da—,” he stopped, coughed and corrected himself.

  He didn’t mean to say that word.

  “This part of the night over with,” he finished.

  “I’m not singing anything to you.”

  “Come on, what other plan do you have?”

  She thought about that, “I have no idea.”

  “Remind me to take you to a karaoke.”

  “Take me?”

  “It’s just a manner of speech, you know that.”

  “Perfect, ‘cause you ain’t taking me nowhere.”

  “Look at that, I didn’t know you were so street.”

  “Oh, you wouldn’t believe how street I am.”

  “Really? You are?”

  “I was born and raised in Hyde Park, Los Angeles.”

  “Are you kidding me? That’s like, Crime City, California, right?”

  “Not everyone there is a bad person, you know.”

  “Totally right. I know a few people there.”

  “Have you?”

  He nodded, “Never been there personally, though. So what made you want to be a teacher?”

  She sighed, leaning back on the sink, her hair swaying with the evening breeze.

  “I guess I wanted to make a difference.”

  He nodded, “I get it, so it was either this or joining the Bloods.”

  “Yeah, and I don’t have a lot of experience in drive-by shootings, so...”

  “Their loss. You woulda been a great gangbanger.”

  She was the first to crack, it was the dumbest conversation she had in months. They busted out laughing, a wall had been brought down, they were finally comfortable with each other. Nothing like talking about killer gangs to release the tension.

  CHAPTER 10

  It took them zero time to prepare the mix and get everything ready.

  “Okay,” Audrey said closing the oven door, “I’ll set the timer for eighteen minutes, then we’ll check.”

  “Sure,” Enzo said, washing the bowls and dishes they used, “what do we do in the mean time?”

  Audrey’s stomach filled with butterflies. She could think of a lot of answers to that question, none of them appropriate.

  He didn’t turn around, his eyes stared out the window, she saw his reflection, then their eyes met.

  Every hair in her body bristled, the way he looked at her, no one looked at her like him. The intensity in his eyes gave away much more than any words could ever do.

  She leaned back on the fridge, trying to look away. The cold, metallic doors brought her down from her fiery thoughts.

  “We could...” she began mumbling, without a real answer. She just needed to break the silence.

  Enzo nodded and turned to the bar.

  “Let’s make the frosting, it shouldn’t take us very long.”

  “I have canned frosting.”

  He looked at her, his eyes incredulous.

  “Really, Audrey? You’re gonna use that?

  She laughed, “it’s good enough!”

  “Let’s make it great.”

  By the time they were done with it, the timer went off. She checked on the cake.

  “Are they done?”

  “Nah,” she said, “just a couple more minutes.”

  He finished beating the frosting and put it in the pastry bag, “this thing here is ready.”

  They were just a few feet apart, but she felt a sort of magnetic pull, something indescribable that she never felt before.

  Enzo turned to her and smiled. He looked from the bar out to her small living room; she leaned on the fridge, blocking his way out of the small kitchen.

  Her skin filled with goosebumps.

  “So,” she said to release the tension, “what were you doing in town?”

  “Nothing,” he said, “just errands.”

  “What do you mean just errands?”

  He shrugged, “I have to buy my groceries in bulk, I can’t just come to the store whenever I need something.”

  “Really? Why?”

  He looked at her, pressing his lips.

  “Coming down here from the mountain takes a while, and—”

  “Oh yes, of course. You live kinda far.”

  “About thirty minutes away, taking the highway.”

  “And you just called me out of the blue?”

  “I—”

  “I mean, four calls, Enzo? You’re not
a creeper, right?”

  He laughed, putting his hands up, “you got me!”

  “I knew it!”

  “What?”

  “You couldn’t be so perfect.”

  Her face turned bright red, the smile on her lips disappeared in an instant.

  Ping!

  Time to check the cupcakes again. Phew. Relief washed over her as she opened the oven door and verified that they were finally done.

  “We need to let them cool off.”

  Enzo placed them on a thin wooden board on the bar. After letting them cool off for a few minutes, they began decorating them.

  It was fun, actually. They didn’t say anything but “okays” and “oh’s and ah’s” and she was fine with that.

  She needed an excuse, what happens after we’re done? Is he going to leave? I need an excuse to make him go away. If he doesn’t, this will end up badly.

  “Don’t worry,” he said as he decorated the last cupcake, “I’ll leave as soon as we’re done.”

  She turned to him and nodded.

  “It’s getting late, anyway.”

  She kept on nodding, then she felt her skin rise up with goose bumps again, shivers ran from head to toe as she turned to him, standing right there next to her.

  He froze. His muscles tightened, the veins in his wide neck bulged. He sighed deeply and turned to her, half smiling.

  How did he know...?

  No. He didn’t read her mind. The whole idea was so stupid she was at the same time relieved and embarrassed.

  “And... done,” he said turning to her. She looked at their work, the cupcakes didn’t look half bad.

  Darn, they do look incredibly tasty.

  “Want one?” she asked.

  “All right, half and half?”

  “Sure!”

  “Which one do you want?”

  She took one out from the forty-something they baked and took a bite, passing it to him afterwards.

  He tasted it and nodded, “I guess we killed it, huh?”

  He was right. The vanilla flavored frosting combined with the spongy cake turned out awesome.

  “Yeah,” she said, covering her mouth, not wanting him to see her chew.

  “You have a—”

  He pointed to his nose, she didn’t understand at first but then looked at her reflection in the window and saw a speck of frosting on her face.