Reid Ken was polishing off his stack of pancakes when his front door slammed open and his cousin, Damien, burst into his house. Reid sipped his black, bitter coffee and made a mental note to keep his front door locked even when he was at home.
No one would invade the home of a bear shifter unless they wanted their heads ripped right off their shoulders. But at least a locked door would keep his nosy cousin out. On second thought, maybe it wouldn't.
Reid glared at Damien as the guy sauntered to the kitchen and poured himself a big cup of coffee. Scraping a chair back, Damien plonked himself down and stared at the empty plate in front of Reid.
“You didn't save any pancakes for me?” Damien accused.
“Breakfast for one,” was Reid's curt, pointed answer.
Damien shrugged and took a gulp of his coffee. Immediately, his eyes watered as he exploded in a violent coughing fit. Still spluttering, he grimaced and spat out a string of curses. “Good God! Do you drink this stuff every morning? No wonder you're always in such a foul mood.”
After pounding himself on the back, Damien settled down and picked up his cup again. He eyed Reid and his coffee suspiciously. Sniffing the thick, dark brew in his cup, Damien stirred the coffee with his finger and mused, “I bet I can strip paint with this.” His expression was a mixture of both awe and disgust.
Reid waited for his cousin to leave, but Damien simply pushed his cup aside and continued sitting at the kitchen table. He twiddled his thumbs and stared around Reid's small single-story house. Reid knew what was coming.
“You know what this house needs?” Damien began.
“I know what this house doesn't need,” Reid growled.
Damien ignored him and sang, “It needs a woman's touch!”
Reid didn't dignify that statement with a response. Lately his cousin seemed to get a kick out of throwing women at him. Either Damien was thinking of moonlighting as a matchmaker, or he was tired of living.
But it was no use telling Damien not to do something. The rascal didn't know the meaning of the word “no”.
Reid finished his coffee and glanced at his bare, starkly furnished house. He used to own a much bigger house, and a thriving plumbing company. He even had a shop selling plumbing supplies and he had a few good employees. But he had to let them all go. He'd had to sell his shop, his business, his house, everything he'd worked so hard for. He was now worse off than he had been before his fiasco of a marriage. That marriage and divorce had ruined him.
“Why are you still here?” Reid snapped at last. “Don't you have some place to go?”
“Nope,” Damien answered cheerfully. “It's Saturday. I don't have to work.” Damien worked for Beck's Builders, a reputable renovation and remodeling company. Reid did a few plumbing projects for them and had gotten to know the bosses and crew of Beck's Builders pretty well. They were a rowdy, fun-loving bunch, and Damien was always trying to get Reid to hang out with them. But Reid preferred to just go home after work and get some peace and quiet. It was quiet in his small, empty house all right, but he hadn't had peace for some time. He was too bitter and angry at all that he'd lost. He had been too young and foolish. Marriage was nothing but a bloody booby trap. The divorce settlement had cost him everything.
Reid got up and took his plate to the sink. “Well, you can't stay here. I'm going out.”
Damien perked up and peered at him curiously. “Where are you going? You never go out.”
When Reid ground his teeth, Damien huffed and folded his arms. “You're just trying to get rid of me.”
Reid threw up his hands. “Why are you really here, Damien?”
Damien chewed his lip and glanced away. Reid recognized the look. Damien looked guilty as hell.
Reid pinched the bridge of his nose. “What have you done this time?”
“What makes you think I did anything?” Damien huffed indignantly.
Reid merely raised a brow.
“Okay, okay.” Damien cleared his throat. “I, um, I came to tell you something.”
“Go on.”
“I got you something.”
Reid narrowed his eyes. “What did you get me?”
Damien rubbed his hands gleefully, looking like he had just pulled off the ultimate prank.
“I got you a mail-order bride!”
CHAPTER SIX
“You did what?” Reid roared.
The windows shook with the force and ferocity of his roar, but Damien was unfazed.
“You heard me. I got you a bride,” Damien said sulkily. “I thought you'd be happy.”
“You thought...” Reid sputtered in fury.
“You've been moping around since...you know.”
“I've not been moping...”
“Yeah, but you've been storming around, scowling and glowering at every woman in town. Not every woman is like Shelly.”
A muscle ticked violently in Reid's jaw at the mention of his ex-wife.
“It's been three years since your divorce, Reid,” Damien went on. “I know Shelly cheated on you and took you to the cleaners, but not all women are like that. You haven't touched a woman in three years. Three...years!” Damien shook his head vehemently. “That's not healthy. Your bear has needs, Reid. So do you...”
Without waiting for Damien to finish, Reid yanked his cousin up by the collar and growled, “You'd better make this go away.”
“You mean make her go away,” Damien deadpanned, showing not a hint of remorse.
He shrugged out of Reid's grip and glanced at his watch. “But...I think it's too late now. She should be on her way. In fact, she'll be arriving very soon. You'd better start sweeping up those crumbs on the floor and straightening those cushions.”
Reid's eyes widened. “You...invited her here?” he shouted. “You sent for her?”
“Uh-uh. I didn't send for her,” Damien corrected. “You did. She's coming to your house.”
Reid was done playing games. His cousin was always pulling pranks and tricks on him, but this time, Damien had gone too far. Reid stalked up to Damien and grabbed his collar again. But this time, his claws were pushing against Damien's stubbornly set jaw.
Reid growled, his anger making his bear peer out of his scowling human face. His bear glared at Damien for an instant, before chuffing in annoyance and receding. His bear would never hurt Damien. Damien was family, and a Ken bear would spill blood for another Ken bear but they would never draw blood from each other.
Reid loved his only cousin like a brother. But at this moment, he could have made a bear rug out of his cousin's hide.
“Get. Rid. Of. Her!” Reid ground out.
“Give her a chance, Reid. You've got to let someone in, some time...”
“I am not letting her into my house.” Or my heart.
“Don't be an ass, Reid.”
Reid opened his mouth to yell, but forced himself to take a deep breath instead.
“I did it for you,” Damien snapped. “Sometimes I don't know why I even bother. Geez, I even had to pretend to be you. Who wants to be a bitter, grouchy old bear?”
When Reid spoke again, it was in a dangerously low voice. “So let me get this straight. You put in an ad for a mail-order bride, pretended to be me and wrote back and forth to the women who responded to the ad...”
“Not women. Just one. Only one woman answered the ad,” Damien pointed out. “But she seems real nice.”
“...and you gave her my address and asked her to march straight up to my door,” Reid plowed on, his restraint fraying. He was going to rip his pompous, presumptuous cousin to shreds!
Damien raised a finger as if he had just remembered something, something else he had conveniently forgotten to mention. “Oh, one more thing. She has a four-year-old son.” He pulled some papers from his pocket and placed them on the table. “Her letters.”
“What…?”
“Well, you like kids, don't you?” Damien reasoned, looking eagerly at
the door. “They should be knocking on your door anytime now...”
Damien must have sensed the danger he was in, because the rascal almost tore the door right off its hinges as he wrenched it open and barreled out.
“Her name is Lauren Sanchez! Her son's name is Eddie. Be nice to them!” Damien yelled over his shoulder. “And you're welcome!”
CHAPTER SEVEN
Lauren held her nephew's hand and shouldered the large backpack that held all their worldly belongings and what was left of their lives and dreams. Eddie looked up at her with large, worried eyes and swallowed.
“Y-you're coming here to get married, Aunt Lauren?”
Lauren nodded. “Yes. We'll have a new home, and we'll be safe from those wolves. And you have to call me Ma,” Lauren reminded gently.
“Oh.” Eddie looked down. “Because you told this guy that I'm your son.”
“Yes,” Lauren said guiltily. If she told the truth, then Reid Ken would probably probe deeper and ask her how Eddie's parents had died. She would have to explain that Eddie's deadbeat dad had not only gambled his life away, but theirs as well.
She was using a lie to enter into this marriage. This was a terrible, ominous start to any relationship, but she didn't come to Shadow Point expecting to find love. She was a mail-order bride, and she would be a dutiful wife to Reid Ken. She would clean his house, cook and wash for him, and...bear his children.
Lauren gulped. Could she take a stranger to bed? She had never taken a man to her bed, yet she was supposed to be a mother to a four-year-old boy. Would Reid be able to tell that she was a virgin?
Her head was beginning to pound. If she lingered any longer, she might just chicken out of the whole deal.
Squaring her shoulders, Lauren held Eddie's hand and gave him a bright smile.
“We'll be all right. As long as we're together, everything will be all right. And—we'll always be together. Right, son?”
Eddie gave her a crooked smile. “Right, Ma.”
Glancing at the torn piece of paper in her hand, Lauren asked for directions from a passer-by and started making her way determinedly towards Reid Ken's house.
She couldn't tell much about Reid from his letters. She had received only two letters from him. One was to thank her for replying to his ad, and the second one informed her that he would like to meet her this weekend. He had given her his address and sent two bus tickets with the second letter. He hadn't said anything about getting married right away, but maybe he didn't want to scare her off. But he did want to get married, right? Why else would he advertise for a mail-order bride? Lauren nodded resolutely to herself. She would have to convince him to marry her as soon as possible. One month was almost up.
Reid's letters had been short and to the point. Maybe he's a very busy man, Lauren concluded. So busy that he didn't have time to date and court a woman. But he had been married before. The man was divorced, didn't have kids but wanted a family.
Lauren swallowed hard. He would accept Eddie, wouldn't he?
“Are you scared, Aun...Ma?” Eddie asked softly.
Turning to her nephew, Lauren tried to turn her wince into a smile. “I'm just...”
“I'm scared.”
Lauren sighed. “So am I, Eddie. I've never done this before.”
Eddie giggled suddenly. “Yeah. I don't think you've gotten married before. I've never seen you in a big, white dress.”
Lauren chuckled and ruffled his hair. His hair was jet black, like hers and her brother's.
“I don't know if I'll be wearing a big, white dress for my wedding,” she said. Or if I'd be getting married at all. What if Reid took one look at them and saw her for the fraud she was?
As they neared a simple, single-story house, Eddie tightened his grip on her hand and whispered fiercely, “I'll protect you, Aunt Lauren. We can leave. You don't have to marry him if you don't want to.”
Lauren's smile didn't reach her eyes. “But I want to get married, Eddie,” she said very softly.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Reid flung the door open as the woman raised her fist to knock. “Oh!” She stumbled back a step but recovered quickly. “I'm looking for Mr Reid Ken.”
“You're looking at him,” Reid growled.
She seemed taken aback at his terse, hostile tone. Forcing a pleasant smile to her face, she continued bravely, “My name is Lauren Sanchez, and this is my...son, Eddie. We corresponded. I have your letters here.”
Reid scowled. Not my letters. My interfering, intrusive, infuriating cousin's letters.
“Pleased to meet you, sir. It's...real nice of you to invite us to your home. We've traveled a long way,” the boy said, holding out his small, trembling hand.
Reid reached out and took the boy's outstretched hand. It was just common courtesy, he told himself. In truth, he had seen the fear and hope in the boy's eyes, and saw how the boy had inched in front of Lauren so that he stood between his mother and Reid.
The little man was protecting his mom. Reid admired the boy's guts.
“Come in,” Reid said gruffly. He started to take Lauren's bag from her shoulders but she held on to her belongings. “It's okay, Mr Ken,” she said politely. “I'll carry my own things. Thank you.”
Reid stared at her pretty, flushed face and felt his body react to her instantly. Reid growled. A sweet, curvy, young woman was standing in his home, just inches from him. Any red-blooded, virile male would respond to this ripe, beautiful female. It didn't mean anything.
The woman was very pretty with smooth, bronze skin and long black hair which she tied into a ponytail. Her figure was full and curvy, and she had a sweet, innocent look. In fact, she looked younger than her stated age of twenty-five.
Reid shook his head. She might look soft and sweet on the outside, but she could have a heart of stone. He had learned that the hard way. He wasn't falling for a pretty face. Never again. A pretty face could hide the most devious, coldest cheating heart.
Lauren and Eddie stood awkwardly beside the door, staring around his little house. They looked so vulnerable, and their eyes were tired, scared and sad. Reid knew that he should just send them away, but he didn't have the heart.
Reid blew out a rough sigh. “This is the first time we're meeting,” he began.
Lauren nodded earnestly. “I know we're strangers, so...”
“So if this doesn't work out, you'll have to go home.”
“We don't have a home,” Eddie interjected and hung his head. “Not any more.”
With a grimace, Lauren explained, “We terminated our lease.”
“New people have moved into our apartment now,” Eddie mumbled unhappily. “And Aun...Ma quit her job at the shoe shop.”
Reid watched Lauren nudge the kid. Eddie was probably not keen on moving. He probably didn't want to come to Shadow Point at all. Reid didn't blame the boy. His mother had answered an ad for a mail-order bride and uprooted their lives to come marry a man they had never met. Eddie would have a stepfather, and soon, step-siblings. It was a lot for a four-year-old to take in.
Reid had read through the letters that Damien left on his table. Lauren mentioned that Eddie's dad passed away when he was a baby. So the boy never had a father. Maybe Lauren had boyfriends, but the boy had never had a permanent male presence in his life. Having a stepfather must be a daunting prospect.
With another sigh, Reid gentled his tone and said, “I'll show you to your rooms. There are only two bedrooms in the house, the master bedroom and the guest room. The boy will take the guest room down the hall, and you...” He stared at Lauren and his body hardened. She was supposed to be his mail-order bride, wasn't she?
It was only right that he had his bride in his bed.
His bear reared up inside his head and roared in victory.
Lauren turned and saw the way he was looking at her. A deep blush crept up her face and her breathing quickened. “I'll help settle Eddie in his room.”
Swallo
wing, she continued in a quavering voice, “Then I'll come to the master bedroom.”
CHAPTER NINE
Lauren heard Eddie make a small sound of surprise and delight when Reid opened the door and showed Eddie his room. “I'm sleeping here?” Eddie gasped as he gazed round the neat, cozy bedroom.
“This is your room,” Reid answered simply.
“Wow! I've never had my own room before!” Eddie squealed.
Reid glanced at Lauren, but made no comment.
“Eddie sleeps with me,” Lauren began.
“There's only one bed in our room,” Eddie prattled on, putting down his backpack and clambering onto the bed. “Aun...Ma lets me sleep on the bed, and she sleeps on the floor.”
Other than a crease between his brows, Reid's expression remained unreadable.
“I'll show your mom to her room. Do you want to explore your room?” Reid asked the boy.
“Yes! This room is amazing! It's so much bigger than ours!” He came to Reid and looked up at him. “Thank you, sir.”
“You're welcome.”
Reid turned and walked out of the room. Lauren glanced at Eddie over her shoulder, but the boy was running his hands over the desk at the corner of the room and switching on the reading lamp.
Lauren shook her head with a mirthless laugh. Her nephew had boasted that he would protect her, but here she was, about to step into the bear's lair and the little man was busy opening cupboards and drawers.
Lauren took a shaky breath and forced herself to walk into Reid's bedroom.
She would be sleeping with him.
Well, she was his bride. Or rather, she hoped that she would be his bride soon. If they were about to be married, there was no reason why they couldn't sleep together. They had to make sure they were compatible and sexual compatibility was important in a marriage, right?
But—she had never had sex before. And taking a man like Reid into her body…
Would it hurt?
Mail-Order Bear: BBW Bear Shifter Paranormal Romance (BRIDES fur BEARS Book 5) Page 2
