Sassy Shifter Brides: Complete Series - BBW Paranormal Shapeshifter Mail-Order Romance

by Anya Nowlan

  “Deacon, explain,” she finally said, wearily. Aubrey took off her headband and unbuttoned her jacket a bit as the heat began crawling back into her body. She laid the mittens and fluffy headband on her lap and looked expectantly to Deacon, who was keeping his eyes squarely on the road. How had he managed to take charge so easily again? Between stepping out of the airplane and being on the way to Deacon’s ranch, Aubrey could hardly pinpoint the moment where she’d lost all control. The question was, did she mind?

  “Alright. It’s simple, really. My friends Warren and Rake kept telling me about SassyDate. There’s not a lot of women around these parts, so I was curious,” he said, a hint of red rising to his cheek. Aubrey blinked. Was she seeing what she thought she was seeing? Was Deacon blushing? “Anyway, at one point, I came across your profile. Your pictures, seeing your face again… It wrecked me. I couldn’t think of anything else. I’ve missed you badly, Aubrey. I know you might not believe this, but I’ve always thought that we belonged together. That you were my mate. I couldn’t help myself. I created a new profile, used a muddled picture of myself and messaged you as Dale. I just wanted to know how you were doing, but we hit it off so easily that…“

  “That you thought it would be okay to trick me into coming to see you in Idaho?!”

  “Yes. Essentially. I’m sorry for surprising you like this, I know it isn’t fair towards you. But I wasn’t going to let another chance with you slip through my fingers. I wanted you here so I could show you that there could be a future for us. I wouldn’t have done it if I didn’t think you felt the same for me. You can’t deny that we had a connection, Aubrey.” Deacon glanced at her, and his gray eyes took her breath away. As always, he seemed to gaze straight through her. She hated and loved it at the same time. Now it was her turn to blush. Aubrey averted her eyes, staring steadfast out of the window. She couldn’t see anything but white, but it was better than letting herself get sucked back into their long lost love.

  Aubrey worried her lip, her teeth gnawing at it without her noticing. Deacon chuckled softly, and she threw a glare at him from under her lashes.

  “Oh, don’t look at me like that. I think it’s adorable that you still chew on your lip when you get worried about something. Makes me want to kiss your sorrows away, every time,” Deacon said. God, that voice. It rumbled right through her, igniting every little spark that she’d fought so hard to extinguish. Flashes of their past, happy and full of love, came flooding back to her, threatening to overwhelm her. A curious tingle went down her spine, and she stole another glance at the man, her stomach twisting in knots. He’d never failed to sweep her off her feet, and even now, when she had good reason to be furious with him, Deacon was working that country boy magic on her. She fell silent for a long time, trying to compose her scattered thoughts into a coherent sentence. Still, nothing much came from it.

  “So, you’re saying there’s no way to get out of here?” she finally asked, passing by another sign post on the road that was completely covered in snow. She knew her folks lived about a 6 hour drive away from the airport, but in the opposite direction. By the struggling way that Deacon’s powerful truck waded through the fresh snow, she got the sinking feeling that the man really was telling her the truth. He’d played his cards well. Now, it was left for Aubrey to figure out whether or not she minded it all that much.

  “Not unless you possess a keen ability to decipher where one snow pile starts and the road ends, and you’ve got your hands on a serious snow plow. We’re pretty much boxed in by the mountains and the storms. The plane is the only reliable way out, and it hasn’t exactly been reliable in this weather.” Deacon shrugged lightly, but Aubrey caught the twitch at the corner of his mouth. The damnable man was enjoying this far too much. Aubrey sighed, wrapping her arms across her chest. On the one hand, she wanted to strangle Deacon with her bare hands. On the other, being stuck with a hot polar bear shifter in the middle of a snowstorm wasn’t exactly the worst thing in the world. Especially when that shifter was responsible for the most mind-blowing sex she’d ever had.

  Guess I’ll have to suffer through it somehow, Aubrey thought wryly. She chose to ignore the twinge of excitement that went through her at the thought of being in close quarters with Deacon.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  Deacon cradled the whiskey glass in his hands as if it was going to be his salvation. The white wine Aubrey liked best (he’d checked with her over a chat once) was sitting in a bucket on the granite counter separating his living room and kitchen. He glanced at the watch for the umpteenth time that night, waiting and hoping that she’d come and join him for dinner. He raked a hand through his hair, cursing himself under his breath. Why had he thought that this would be a good idea? Sure, he knew that they were supposed to end up together, but Aubrey didn’t. And it really wasn’t fair to spring this on her the way he had, conniving and plotting to get her back to Idaho. Deacon sighed and took another sip, steeling his resolve. No, it was too late for doubts. He and his bear had been in agreement for once and damn it, he was going to see things through.

  Deacon had just got off the bar stool by the counter, determined to coax Aubrey out of the bedroom she’d barricaded herself in since they got to the ranch, when she appeared in the doorway. The sight of her was like a solid punch to the gut, kicking the wind out of him and taking any semblance of intelligence along with it. His bear growled with satisfaction, and he took a long, rolling look up and down that magnificent body of hers. She was wearing an emerald green sheath dress that hugged her curves just right and made a compelling contrast with her fiery hair. Her lush hips and thick thighs, that soft curve that tucked in just right and then swelled into her generous breasts and then that lovely swan neck... It was enough to make a man lose control.

  Aubrey cracked a smile, and Deacon scrambled to compose himself. He cleared his voice and squared his shoulders. She looked devastating, and it was all he could do to keep from crossing the living room, throwing her across his shoulder and taking her to his bedroom to show her just how much he wanted to worship every little bit of her.

  “Wine?” he asked finally, and Aubrey padded across the soft carpets towards him. She looked more at ease now, which was a small relief. No fury on earth like an Idaho woman angered, after all. He didn’t wait for an answer. Instead, he plucked a glass from the tray, filled it and offered it to her. She accepted, and a dry clump formed at the back of his throat when watching her swallow the first sip, the liquid wetting her upper lip. His bear grumbled with anticipation. It was almost inhumanly hard trying to keep his paws off of her when she looked like… Well, like she did.

  “You look stunning, Aubrey,” he said, cutting the tension in the air and the excitement forming at the pit of his stomach. She gave him a knowing smirk. Could it be that she wore that dress just to get his blood boiling? Not that he minded one bit.

  “You don’t look so bad yourself, cowboy,” she offered with a teasing smile. He glanced down at himself, studying the dark slacks and blue button-up shirt he was wearing. He hadn’t looked that decent since Warren’s wedding.

  “Well, I need to impress the lady somehow. Dinner?” Deacon showed Aubrey to the dining table and helped her take a seat. He’d kept the food covered but he couldn’t hide the growl of his stomach as he lifted the lid on Aubrey’s plate, revealing a prime cut of steak with some rosemary potatoes, green beans and sauce.

  “This looks good! When did you learn to cook?” Aubrey asked as Deacon took a seat. He welcomed the chit-chat. Maybe if he could keep it going long enough, she would forget all about how boiling mad she had to be at him? One could hope.

  “Oh, you know. Had a bunch of time on my hands after you left,” he said with a casual grin, and froze immediately after the words had left his lips. Crap. There went that hope. Aubrey’s eyes narrowed, and Deacon reached for his whiskey, eager to wash down the stupid that was apparently taking over his senses.

  “I see,” she noted. What was that? Did he note a hint of
amusement in her tone? Praise the shifter gods! “I had a lot of free time after that too,” Aubrey said, taking a bite of the dinner. Her face lit up as she swallowed the first mouthful. “And this is delicious!”

  Deacon beamed. He’d remembered what she liked to eat and had gathered the groceries with painstaking care, practicing more than once to make sure that the meal would be perfect.

  “Thanks. What did you do? I know you’re in Los Angeles and working some desk job. How does a girl who wanted to become a biologist get so far from nature?”

  “Well, I… I couldn’t really stand being in Idaho after what happened. So I caught a plane to the furthest place the money in my wallet would take me, which was LA. I went to school there and transferred my credits and decided on accounting as something to pay the bills until I figure out what I want to do with my life instead of saving the world. I think I’m still trying to figure it out, really. You?” The way she blushed a little when talking about herself made the room contract around him, his focus solely on her. She anchored all of his attention and eating seemed like an impossible chore when she was so close, even if the food was delicious.

  “I did what I always said I would,” he began, pausing for a moment. The night when he’d scared Aubrey out of her wits and that also marked the end of their relationship still hung like a noose around his neck. It had taken him a long time to struggle out of the darkness that weighed down a bear when his one true love flees from him, and he has little to nothing to do about it. After Aubrey left, he did things that he wasn’t proud of. Dark things. Fearsome things. It took a long time to fight his way back to the light and only now that she was sitting across from him did he feel like he had finally stepped into the sun again. It was balm for his soul. Deacon wiped the gloom from his expression and swept a hand around himself, capturing the ranch house in his motion.

  “I made my own way. You never got to learn much about my clan, but the Snowbound clan was never made for this place. Half of us wanted to go back North, at least to Alaska, even if there was little in the way of work or future there. And half wanted to stay here. I ended up leaving in the midst of the struggle to try and strike my own path, and luckily I found friends looking for the same thing. So we started Shifter Grove. It’s been tough but I think there’s light at the end of the tunnel. As far as I can make sense of the books, anyway.”

  The little shifter town filled his heart with pride. He had done his best to help put a start to a place that would accept humans and shifters alike – no judgement. So far, despite some bumps and bruises, things had been going okay. None of them were supremely wealthy or without their share of problems, but that was country life for you. Deacon’s ranch was doing well enough (though he was no accountant and he’d rather focus on the animals and the chores), and his friends were all doing decent as well.

  A wry smile crossed his lips when thinking about the accounting side of it all. It may as well be Chinese for how much it made sense to him. He knew his animals, he knew what they were worth and whether or not he had money on the account, but other than that, he had fumbled through it so far. Still, it was more of a nuisance than anything else. What he was truly missing, was Aubrey. The hope of patching that one hole in his heart warmed him like no fire could, and the thought of spending days in the sun with her seemed a lot more appealing than toiling alone in the snow ever had.

  Deacon hoped she wouldn’t notice the way he glazed over far too often, not saying a word. She’d already seen a glimpse of the rage that used to live in him, he didn’t want to dwell on it for too long now. For a while, the conversation stalled. Still, it wasn’t an uncomfortable silence, like Deacon had feared. No, they fell easily into the silence of their shared meal, and a glimmer of hope sparked in Deacon again. Hell, if he could be so comfortable around her, maybe things would work out alright.

  “What made you decide to contact me?” Aubrey asked finally, breaking the silence.

  “Like I said, I couldn’t stand being without you anymore. I missed it too much,” he replied evenly, locking eyes with Aubrey. She didn’t look convinced.

  “But you never came after me after… after I left,” she stammered, her teeth biting into her gorgeous, plush lower lip again for a second. Deacon exhaled, willing his bear to quiet. The beast was pushing him forward again. Telling him to throw caution to the wind. But hadn’t that got him into trouble once already?

  Screw it, he thought, brushing the indecision off. Her presence drove him wild and he could never dance around with words long or well enough to make her see how much she meant to him. To apologize for everything he had done wrong. To show her that he would go to any length to make her understand how much he loved her and how strongly he knew that they were meant to spend the rest of their days together. A low growl sounded from his throat as he stood up abruptly, his polar bear nodding his approval. Aubrey’s bright green eyes went wide as Deacon rounded the large oak table and stood in front of her.

  With playful ease, he pulled her up into his arms, his hands snaking behind her back and locking her in a decisive, warm embrace. Her lips were so close to his. He could feel her heart beating like a swallow caught in his palm – nervous fluttering that rippled through him. Just the touch of her made him go hard, and all the passion they had shared and that he had missed over the years had formed a tight knot in him, ready to burst free. When he spoke, his tone was lower, with an edge of the animal to it. The animal that had driven her from him so long ago and the one that was determined to bring her back.

  “That was a mistake, Aubrey. I failed you. But I promise, I’ll never fail you again,” he said in earnest, his grey eyes steely with conviction. Her lips parted in a gasp, and he took the moment, kissing her deeply. He was never going to let go again.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  Sitting across from him at dinner had been like a ride on a rollercoaster, full of ups and downs and highs and lows. Now, though, it was all highs. His lips were perfectly soft against hers but firm in their wanting. Aubrey couldn’t help herself. The moment he kissed her, she fell into it again with reckless abandon. All the dark thoughts that had been swirling so cruelly in her head since realizing that Deacon had played her for a fool evaporated in the wake of their shared passion.

  I’ll worry about it later, she thought to herself, a scant moment of lucidity between Deacon’s hungry kisses and her own hands shamelessly exploring his hard, muscled body.

  When she kissed him back, Deacon’s hands cupper her ass, drawing a small moan from her. He growled in turn, and the sound reverberated through her, making her tingle all over. Damn that man. Just one touch from him and she was reduced to her basest desires. She remembered well how good he had felt, how well their bodies worked together. Presenting her with the opportunity of reliving that, even if only for just one night, was just too good to pass up. Aubrey’s fingers tied behind his neck, and she responded to his kisses with equal enthusiasm. It felt like he couldn’t possibly be close enough to her, like she couldn’t have enough of him no matter what she did.

  Not a word of protest sounded from her when Deacon hiked up her dress and pulled her into his arms, her legs wrapping around his waist. Deacon carried Aubrey through the living room before depositing her on the big leather couch in front of the fireplace. She fell on the soft leather with a sigh, her hands reaching for him as soon as her back hit the cushions.

  “You’re so incredibly hot,” Deacon growled. His eyes blazed, and Aubrey couldn’t imagine any man looking at a woman with more admiration and lust in his eyes. She felt like a goddess, worshipped and wanted. And she knew it could only get better. She could barely tell where she ended and he began as she tore the clothes from him and he from her. A few buttons on his shirt popped loose, marked by giggles from Aubrey. She fumbled with his belt as Deacon pulled down her dress to reveal one shoulder and then her breast, scarcely covered by flimsy, delicate lace. He kissed a trail down her neck, and where he touched her, excitement spread like flowers. His weight
on her, his muscled thighs against hers, the heavy rise and fall of his chest… Damn, what a man.

  She managed to get his shirt off just when Deacon tugged her bra to the side, swirling his tongue across her nipple. Her breath stuck in her throat, and all that remained from her anger and irritation was the urgency with which she had gotten his shirt off with.

  “Oh, Deacon,” she murmured, the words slipping from her lips as he sucked on her rosy nub, perking it into a tight peak in his mouth. Her hips bucked against him, and the need within her coiled tight like a snake, ready to be released. No man had lived up to the task of exciting her quite the way Deacon did. That was why she had tried SassyDate, in hopes of finding a shifter who could match the vision of a man she had in her mind. It was a small miracle that instead of a shadow, she had found the real man. And he felt better than ever.

  Her lips yearned for his taste. She tugged him up by the hair, but Deacon grabbed her wrist and pinned it down beside her.