Miss Matched: BBW Paranormal Shape Shifter Romance (Raging Falls Book 2)

by Milly Taiden

  TWENTY-NINE

  Carly felt like her feet were stuck in concrete as she walked away from Bastien and into her office. The weekend had been more then she had ever thought possible. Monday had creeped up way too quickly for her liking. They had made a quick detour by her place this morning so she could change into work appropriate clothes and they almost hadn’t made it out of the house.

  Seeing him in her bedroom had made her burn to tear his clothes off. Only by sheer force of will did she manage to refrain. She deserved a damn medal for that, she was sure of it.

  “Honey, no offense, but damn you look like you had a fantastic weekend.” Toni laughed as Carly’s caramel complexion turned a dark shade of red. “And by that reaction I would say I nailed it, or rather you nailed him.”

  Carly couldn’t help the blush, she had just been thinking of the wicked things Bastien had done to her body and then Toni came along insinuating the same thing.

  She was lucky she hadn’t whimpered at her thoughts or Toni would have even more to say. “You are so bad. I had a fantastic weekend and I will be happy to talk about it at lunch if you are free. Right now, I am late and I need to get to my desk before the clients start protesting. You know how Monday’s go around here.”

  “Lunch it is. The anticipation of hearing might just help me survive this day.” Toni said with a smile as she walked back to her desk.

  Carly glanced down at her phone to see the time and almost whimpered again, but this time in pain. She had only been away from Bastien for a grand total of ten minutes. This was going to be the longest day of her life.

  Two hours later Carly was finally able to take a quick break and call Bastien. She needed to hear his voice, her body craved him and it was killing her concentration. Bastien picked up the phone in a quick abrupt manner that threw Carly for a moment. Was she disturbing him? Maybe she shouldn’t have called. It was too late now though. “Hey, gorgeous, is this a bad time?”

  “Never a bad time for you, babe.” Carly instantly felt relieved and calmer. His voice was just what she needed to make it through the day.

  “I just wanted to say hey. I’m sitting here and counting down the minutes ‘til quitting time. It’s strange how far you have dug your way under my skin. I can’t stand to be away from you. I feel like it’s been forever and I just saw you two hours ago.”

  Toni walked up and leaned her hip on the edge of Carly’s desk. She didn’t even try to pretend to not be listening. Carly glared in mock anger, and Toni shrugged and winked.

  “I have something to do, but if I finish in time I’ll call and we can do lunch. Oh, Garrett is with me as well.”

  “That would be great. I will drag Toni along and we can all have lunch. She and I were planning on going out anyway. Send me a text if you can’t make it.”

  Toni perked up at the mention of her name. “Where are we going? I am not being the third wheel to your lunch date.”

  Carly rolled her eyes, pulled the phone away from her ear so she could respond without Bastien hearing. “Garrett will be there, now shush.”

  Carly returned the phone to her ear in time to hear Bastien’s next words, “Sounds like a plan. I’ve gotta go. I have another call beeping in. I love you.”

  “I love you too, Boo Boo.”

  “Did you just call him Boo Boo? Tell me I didn’t hear that right.” Toni laughed so hard tears were running down her cheeks. “I bet with their super shifter hearing Garrett heard that too. This is going to be so much fun.”

  “I know, right. I have been having so much fun coming up with different bear nicknames for him from the different shows and cartoons. Though I have to admit I haven’t been able to stump him yet and I am running out of names.”

  “This is just epic. I will see if I can come up with some for you to use. I think I am in love with your relationship. Is that weird?” Toni asked with a perplexed look.

  “Can I ask you a question, Toni?” Carly was hesitant to ask such a personal question, but knowing Toni and the questions she would be asking it wasn’t going to be an issue.

  “You want to know why I’m single, don’t you?”

  Carly nodded and winced in sympathy, “Get asked that a lot?”

  Toni shrugged, “A bit. I don’t want a womanizing player. I want a man who can be loyal and dependable. Every time I meet a guy, he either quickly shows his true colors for being a total douchebag or he is surrounded by women and flirting. How can you trust guys that behave that way?”

  Carly nodded in agreement. Toni was right. It was hard to find single, straight men who weren’t total assholes and knew how to treat a woman right.

  “Anyway, do you have a few since it looks like we will have company for lunch? Can you tell me what happened after I talked to you on Friday night?” Toni inquired with a hopeful smile.

  “Pull up a chair and I will fill you in on everything. It’s a bit of a tale I am afraid and starts before Friday.”

  Carly spent the next fifteen minutes filling her friend in on all that had transpired, from the first kidnapping attempt, to the details of the date, the second kidnapping attempt, the escape of their prisoner and the FBI’s appearance. By the end of her story, Toni was speechless and Carly suspected partly in shock.

  “First let me just say holy shit, you have one amazing boyfriend or mate, I guess I should call him now. That has to be one of the most romantic things I have ever heard. Second what in the hell is going on in your life. Two kidnapping attempts and Bastien is letting you out of his sight?”

  Carly couldn’t help the groan that slipped at her words. “You have no idea how hard it was to convince him to let me come to work this week. He only agreed because I said he could stay at my place with me until this was resolved. To be honest, something tells me he is out doing something stupid to try and end this quickly. My bear has a protective streak a country mile long.”

  Toni sighed. “I’m half in love with him myself,” she said with a wink as she returned the chair back to its spot. “I guess I need to get back to work. Let me know when they are ready to meet us for lunch.”

  Carly returned to her ringing phone and mentally prepared herself for round two of the hell that was Monday mornings. Nothing ever went easy on these days, and add in that Kira was on her honeymoon still and their clients were not happy to speak to the top when they were already irate for some perceived injustice.

  “Earth to Carly, are you listening?” She was pulled abruptly from her study of the documents in front of her to see a receptionist from the lobby standing at her desk impatiently.

  “I am sorry, what did you say, Sheila?”

  Sheila rolled her eyes and smiled. “It’s been a rough one. You have a guest out front. I didn’t want to send him back without checking with you first. Your phone,” Sheila reached over and tapped the ‘send to voice mail’ button on the phone, turning the ringer back on, “is sending all calls to voice mail for the last thirty minutes.”

  Carly blushed in embarrassment. “I didn’t realize I sent all the calls to voice mail. I swear it wasn’t on purpose. I should have known something was wrong, I’m actually getting work done.”

  “No worries, things have calmed down a bit anyway. So your visitor…” Shelia said with a questioning look, “can I send him back?”

  “Oh, right. Did he say who he is? Or what he wanted?”

  Shelia’s eyes twinkled and she smiled, “he said he was your boyfriend. He has flowers with him too. I didn’t know you had a boyfriend, or I would have sent him right back.”

  THIRTY

  Butterflies danced in Carly’s stomach. Bastien had come to see her. Maybe this was going to be a fantastic day after all. “We just became official this weekend, please send him back.”

  Was it lunchtime already and she had missed his call while she had inadvertently had her phone of the hook? Didn’t matter he was here and that’s all she cared about at this point. Her body hummed in anticipation for seeing her mate.

  “Hey, l
ove, I hope this isn’t a bad time. I was hoping you could go to lunch with me.” Carly’s hopes deflated in an instance. That was not Bastien’s voice, or his scent she could smell from twenty feet away.

  “What are you doing here, Ralph? And how do you know where I work?” Carly couldn’t believe her eyes, this had to be some cosmic joke. “Wait, more importantly why did you tell Shelia you were my boyfriend?”

  “Like I said, I came to take you to lunch. I missed you and wanted to surprise you. Your father told me where you worked. He said it would be fine for me to stop in. Is this a bad time?” Ralph asked with confusion clearly evident on his pinched face.

  “Yes, it is, as a matter of fact. I already have lunch plans with Bastien, for one. For another, it’s not my father’s place to say you can stop by unannounced like this. Thirdly and most importantly, you are not my boyfriend. I said we could be friends, but I am starting to rethink that notion as well.”

  She glanced around the office to see the faces of her co-workers pretending not to listen in as they found reasons to venture from their desks and closer to hers. “Come with me. I don’t want to discuss this out here. We can go in the conference room.”

  She stormed past Ralph fuming at his ridiculous notions and ideas and that he dared show up and tell lies to her co-workers. The idiot. She opened the conference and moved so Ralph could come in. She was tempted to slam the door, but thought better of it when she saw nosy eyes watching her every move. She wasn’t going to give them any more to gossip about than Ralph already had.

  “Now, explain again why you told everyone you were my boyfriend?” Carly stalked to one of the chairs set around the table and dropped into it and stared Ralph down. She dared him to provide a reasonable explanation before she ripped him a new asshole.

  “Well, you see, I was talking to your father and he mentioned that you said we had gone out to dinner and that you had fun. He told me he was glad we were dating, and that he really hoped our relationship would work out. He might have been the one to suggest I stop by with roses and take you to lunch. Your father said you wouldn’t mind.”

  “You didn’t think to set him right? We aren’t dating. I told you we could be friends. I am not interested in you as anything more than that.”

  “I think if you just give us a bit more time, you could see how perfect we are for each other. I can give you everything you could possibly want. Your father has even promised me a top position in the company to make it easier to provide for you. The kids we will have can go to a private school or you can home school them.”

  “You aren’t listening to a word I am saying. We don’t have a future together. I am in love with Bastien.” She watched the color drain from his face. “I’m sorry you thought you could change my mind, but it’s not happening. End of story.”

  Ralph growled and stormed closer to where Carly sat. “You listen to me. When we get married you will not be allowed to socialize with those nasty shifters. That includes anyone associated with them. I won’t have you teaching our kids, shifters are okay to have around us in this society. They are nothing but animals and should be kept locked away from the rest of the civilized world.”

  Carly couldn’t believe the words coming out of his mouth. “Are you fucking crazy?”

  “Furthermore,” he went on as if she hadn’t just yelled at him. “Since we are on the subject of what you will be allowed and not allowed to do, you will be put on a strict diet, and be monitored by a physician. You will lose weight to a normal healthy level before you will be allowed out of our home.” Ralph’s expression softened as he peered at Carly. “You have the potential to be so beautiful, if you could just lose the extra weight.”

  That was the final straw for Carly. She pulled herself to her full height and let her inner Latina bitch shine through. No man was going to talk to her like that and get away with it.

  “Listen to me, you limp dick bastard. I am not now, nor will I ever be your property.” She felt her voice rise along with her anger. “You could never in your puny excuse for a brain, honestly believe you can tell me what I will be allowed and not allowed to do.”

  She took a quick breath and let her verbal assault continue. “If for one second you thought with your, few chromosomes short of a Neanderthal brain that I would ever allow a man, any man, to talk to me that way, then you are sadly mistaken.

  “I am more woman then you could ever hope to handle. I have curves, and bumps and some extra cushion, but that doesn’t define me.” She curled her hands to fists at her sides. “I am beautiful, and I don’t care what you think of me. I have a man, a real man and he loves me as I am, flaws and all. You are just a sad pathetic excuse of a man who has to belittle woman to make yourself feel better.”

  With each word out of her mouth she took a step closer to Ralph as he slowly edged away, fear blossoming across his face.

  The conference room door opened. “Ms. Toblan, are you okay?” Carly looked to see the company security guard standing in the open door.

  “Actually you have perfect timing, Chris. Could use do me a favor and escort this…..man from our property.”

  “Of course, right away.” Chris moved forward and grasped Ralph by the arm and started to lead him away.

  “One last thing, Ralph. If you want to act like a dick, you should wear a condom on your head so you can at least look like one.” Chris coughed trying to hide his laughter at her words. “Oh, and, Ralph, if I ever you see you step one foot on these premises again, I will have you arrested for trespassing.”

  Once they’d left, Carly stumbled back to the vacant chair and sat. Could this day get any worse?

  “Carly, are you okay? The whole office heard the two of you. I called security when I realized who was in here with you.” Toni’s soft words unleashed a torrent of emotion in Carly. Anger, hatred, sadness and self-doubt.

  “Why is it the first thing they go to is our weight? I’m not society’s standard of small, I know, but I’m healthy and I exercise. I’m a big girl, that doesn’t make me a bad person. I don’t understand why they attack us for it, we don’t do anything to them.”

  Toni walked over and pulled Carly up into her arms. “They are stupid men, who haven’t learned the value of a true and good woman. Our size doesn’t make us less. It makes us more.” She hugged Carly tighter. “More to love, more to cuddle with and more to hold as they rock our worlds.”

  She sighed and rubbed a hand on Carly’s arm. “Men like Ralph are too insecure in themselves to see anything else. The one thing I learned long ago though, is that it’s not just us. They do the same thing to all women. They need something to focus on, to belittle and control with so they can hide behind it.”

  Carly leaned back and stared into Toni’s eyes. “When did you become so smart?”

  “I’ve always been smart, just most of the time it comes across in the form of a smart ass.” She grinned.

  “Ah, yeah. There’s the Toni I’ve come to love.”

  “By the way, Bastien called the main line and they sent him to me by mistake. He couldn’t reach you on your phone so he let me know instead. They got tied up and won’t be able to make it to lunch after all. So why don’t the two of us take a long lunch and have a drink. I think we deserve it. Besides I have to live vicariously through your love life and I have questions,” Toni said with a wink as she headed out of the conference room.

  THIRTY-ONE

  Bastien had been hoping to talk to Carly, he needed to hear her voice to know she was safe and everything was okay. Logically, he knew she was in her office and she had promised to stay there unless he was with her, but logic sometimes wasn’t enough.

  He headed back into the diner and what he hoped was some answers. Missing lunch with his mate for nothing was not going to end well for Greg. For his sake this better be worth it.

  “Hey, Bastien, everything okay?” Greg asked as Bastien slid into the booth next to Garrett.

  “Yes, no problem. Just had to cancel lunch plans
with my mate.” Bastien glanced to Garrett for any signs of distrust or uneasiness. He looked relaxed or at least as relaxed as they could be knowing the cartel was watching them.

  “Here you go, boys, three specials,” Betty said as she placed the plates down and moved away again without another word. Conversation after that was stilted as the men dug into their meals. Bastien and Garrett pleasantly surprised by how good their food was.

  “Told you. The food here is out of this world. The old guy who owns it is an institution around here. This is neutral ground for any and all. No one messes with anyone while here,” Greg said conversationally in between of bites of his lunch.

  Bastien was surprised by that news. Since the cartel had picked this spot and they were watching, he assumed it was under their control. Maybe when things blew over, he could bring Carly here. The food was definitely worth it.

  “Any word on how long this is going to be before we get to talk to your bosses?” Garrett questioned.

  “Enjoy your food gentlemen, we have dessert too. My boss said this was his treat by the way. As to when, I don’t know. It’ll happen when it happens.”

  Bastien was getting tired of Greg’s cryptic non-answers. How did he know they weren’t jerking them around and this was all a wild goose chase? Maybe they were using this as an excuse to make another grab for Carly while she was alone.

  “Greg, how do we know what you told us is true, that the cartel isn’t behind this. How do I know you aren’t using this to your advantage and going after Carly while I sit here and get jerked around by you at your boss’s request?”

  “I can prove it if you like it. Call your mate right now, find out where she is,” Greg said with confidence ringing in his voice.

  Bastien pulled out his phone and dialed Carly, three rings, four, five and voicemail. “Hey, Carly, can you give me a call when you get a minute. Love you.” He hung up and raised a questioning eyebrow at Greg. “What did that prove?”