Edward (BBW Western Bear Shifter Romance) (Rodeo Bears Book 1)

by Becca Fanning

  “Karina?”

  There was a voice in her pocket. Her heart raced weakly at the sound. She tried to reach down for the radio, her hand clumsily feeling the shape of it in her pocket. It was wedged tight against her body, too tight to free it.

  “Karina? Are you nearly here? It’s been over an hour, and I’m worried. Please, answer me. This isn’t about pride. I… I know you can handle yourself, okay? But just let me know where you are.”

  Reinicke’s words were fading, even as Karina continued to struggle for the radio. She couldn’t do it. Weakness had overcome her from the shock of the fall, and her eyes fluttered shut of their own accord. She didn’t want to give in, but there was no more fight in her, not a flicker of energy left to struggle with. Slowly, reluctantly, unconsciousness took her, and she lay in a rain-soaked heap, totally alone in the wild.

  When Karina Vasquez next opened her eyes, the sight that she awoke to convinced her that she wasn’t awake. She had to be dreaming, for what she could see was utterly ridiculous to behold. Before her, clambering through the bushes near the foot of the hill, was a bear carrying a satchel in its mouth. The little white canvas bag was marked with the big red cross of first aid, and the bear was swinging its head to and fro, sniffing at the undergrowth about six feet away.

  “Well,” Karina managed to murmur, “Either I’m hallucinating, or I was right about you being a very weird bear.”

  He heard her. She watched with droopy, pained vision as the bear’s head cocked to one side at her whispered words. At once he found her, sticking his massive head into the bush where she’d become buried in a slew of mud. He put a paw out, feeling the terrain around her, padding into the gloopy mess.

  “Geez, don’t dig me out!” Karina pleaded weakly, eyeing his fearsome claws.

  She flinched at the prospect, and suddenly a shockwave of agony rocked her whole aching body. Karina cried out, and in the same moment she felt a shift in the air beside her. Something funny was happening in her immediate vision, where the bear’s furry head should have been. It seemed to be receding, yet the creature wasn’t moving away. Was he shrinking? Karina was now certain that she had to be dreaming, for this whole moment seemed impossible. She watched on, enthralled by the sight of the fur that was slowly sinking back behind flesh, the strong bare limbs emerging where clawed paws had been just moments before.

  A perfectly cropped head of brown hair followed, and when the man looked up at Karina with his glittering golden eyes, she felt that little jolt in her gut again. Reinicke’s face was a picture of deep concern, his hands reaching out to scoop the mud off of her. He felt her forehead, then pressed against her neck and felt around the joints there. He moved around, checking her arm gently, then moving to the place where her foot was caught to try and break her free of the roots. Karina’s eyes wandered over the curve of his strong, bare back.

  “You’re naked,” she whispered.

  “Really?” Reinicke replied. “That’s the first thing you say?”

  “Gimme a break,” Karina answered weakly. “I just fell off a mountain. A girl needs something to distract her.”

  Reinicke did not reply. He had managed to break apart one of the roots trapping her foot, and Karina felt a sudden surge of relief as her ankle came free. She felt the ranger lay her leg down gently, then his hands were on her hips, turning them ever-so-slightly in his grip.

  “How’s your spine? Any damage?” he asked.

  Karina moved to test it at once. Reinicke had put his hands up to stop her making the sudden shift, but he was too late. Karina hissed at the faint agony of moving after a considerable time lying unconscious, but there were no major problems in her back.

  “It’s just my arm,” she said, “Broken. Definitely broken.”

  The words were suddenly hard to get out, for a sob had clogged her throat. Quite unexpectedly, Karina felt a surge of panic race through her as the tears came racing down her cheeks. She heard the storm rumble overhead as if it was right in her ear, fear and agony overcoming her in one fell swoop. Reinicke took one arm and wrapped it around her shoulders, lying beside her as he reached behind him for the medical bag. Inside there was a radio, much larger than the one he’d given her.

  “Hart, get your ass to the north outpost now,” he demanded in a powerful, almost snarling tone. “I need full paramedic. Broken arm and deep shock. I don’t care what you’re doing. Drop it. This is important.”

  If she had not been in the throes of shock, it might have occurred to Karina that she had a gorgeous naked man lying beside her, trying to comfort her out of the uncontrollable sobs that wracked her body. Eventually, Reinicke managed to persuade her onto her feet, half-carrying her as they began a slow, loping pace back towards the outpost. How he came to be carrying her in his arms, Karina couldn’t remember. She shifted in and out of the moment as her battered body came and went from reality. Later, all she could remember were a few words of conversation from one of her more lucid moments.

  “So, you’re a shifter? That’s something.”

  “Good or bad?” Reinicke asked her.

  “Undecided,” she mused. “Say… you know my name. On the radio, you said it. How… How…”

  “Shhh now,” Reinicke soothed. “Save your breath. I’m sure you’ll want it for yelling at me later.”

  ***

  Her arm was cast and in few days, with a lot of medication, Karina began to feel better. A lot of the trauma of her fall had been lost amid the haze of that night’s events, and her only focus once she was back at her hotel was Reinicke. He came to visit every day and, though he didn’t say a great deal, he held her hand at her bedside. And sometimes, when she was well enough to get up and look out of the window, she saw the outline of a bear sitting waiting below. Even from three stories up, his golden eyes gleamed at her as if they were smiling.

  “So, your great adventure is over, I guess?” Reinicke asked.

  It was an unusually somber tone for him. Karina’s forearm was still covered in plaster, but the rest of her was feeling pretty good. The fall aside, the trek in the wild had enriched her body and strengthened a lot of her muscles. She was packing her suitcase when he came to her room, and she hadn’t even noticed him standing in the doorway until he spoke those strange, sad words. They cut deep into Karina’s heart when she heard them, and she dropped the clothes she was holding into her luggage.

  “I… I guess so,” she replied. “That was always the plan. Back to work. Back to life.”

  “Back to the dating agency?” he questioned.

  She turned, raising a brow. He was staring at her intensely, that stare that made her tummy jolt.

  “How do you know that?” she said.

  “My name is Reinicke Best,” he explained. “Four of my cousins used to be on your books, before they found their happily ever after. You interviewed me once, two years ago at your office in LA.”

  “What?” Karina asked in shock.

  She looked him over. He was dressed in jeans and a polo shirt, muscles rippling. Reinicke was gorgeous, casual and placid, less argumentative than she had ever seen him before. Sure, she saw hundreds of people, thousands even in a year, whom she met and interviewed to decide if they went on her dating profile database or not. But Reinicke couldn’t have been on that list.

  “No,” Karina said firmly, “I would have remembered.”

  “Well, I remember,” Reinicke said. He stepped towards her, a ghosting smile playing on his lips. “You told me that I was the most miserable beast you’d ever met, and that you wouldn’t inflict me on the ladies on your books for all the tea in China.”

  “Hmm,” Karina said thoughtfully. “That does sound like me… and it definitely sounds like you.”

  He laughed then, a glorious sound.

  “I’m a very misunderstood man,” he countered.

  “That’s what all jerks say,” Karina teased.

  Reinicke made another lunge forward. He rested his hands on Karina’s hips, towering over
her as he broke into the first true grin she’d ever seen him wear. He could be an ass, sure, and he was very good at it, but there was indeed more to the man than Karina had realized. As a bear, he’d followed her and protected her, watching over her in the woods. He’d given her that radio without a moment’s hesitation, after only meeting her twice. Three times, if she counted the interview that she couldn’t recall.

  “What are you doing?” she asked him, her breath hitching in her throat.

  His hands were warm, and they slid round her hips to her back, fingers toying with the small, sensitive patch where her shirt ended and her shorts began. Karina let her arms travel up his body, fingers feeling the definition of those impressive muscles. She wished she hadn’t been so out of it during the fall. She could have had such a good view of him then. Yet, something told her, if she still wanted that view, it was waiting. She leaned on her tiptoes, tongue darting out to wet her lips.

  “If I asked you to stay, would you?” Reinicke said softly.

  “No,” Karina whispered with a wicked grin. “I’d consider it if you begged me, though.”

  He returned her grin, and took her chin in his hand to guide her into his kiss. It was deeply passionate from the first moment, nothing false or tentative. Reinicke’s lips grazed hers with something akin to desperation, his tongue snaking out to toy with her own. She felt the smooth, strong mass of his tongue, another excellent muscle, pushing against hers as if he was fighting for supremacy. She let him win, allowing him to plunder her mouth as his hands began to wander all over her body.

  As the kiss went on, Karina threw all caution out the window. She wanted Reinicke more than she’d ever wanted anyone, and the moment was there waiting for her to grab. She fumbled with her shorts, the cast on her arm making it tricky to get them down. When Reinicke realized what she was up to, he broke their kiss and stripped off her shirt for her. Then he dropped to his knees, unbuttoning her shorts and pulling them down with a sudden sharp tug. He held her legs, his chin resting just above the line of her panties. His breath was warm on her abdomen, coming in short pants.

  “This is me begging you,” he explained, his gaze intense once more. “I… I think I might have loved you that very first time I met you, when you kicked me out of your office and told me never to come back.”

  “I’m glad you did,” Karina told him. “God, I’m so very glad.”

  “I’ll take that as a green light, shall I?” Reinicke replied in what was almost a growl.

  He didn’t wait for an answer. He lifted Karina from her legs into a fireman’s lift, carrying her over his shoulder to the bed. Once there, he laid her down and took a step back, admiring the sight of her in her underwear before he stripped off his own clothes. The polo shirt went first, revealing that massive chest with its tempting trail of soft brown hair, then he shrugged out of his jeans and let his boxers go down with them. His cock was solid, springing forward eagerly and sending a sudden damp sensation into Karina’s groin. He was long and thick, waiting patiently for her. She watched him throb for a moment.

  Slowly, she rose and unhooked her bra, letting it fall away to reveal her breasts. Reinicke’s golden gaze glowed brilliantly, burning into her skin as he watched her eagerly. Karina reached down, using one hand to tease her panties off, then she lay back on the bed and let her legs fall apart just a little. There was another long pause, the heat in the air palpable.

  “Ugh,” she sighed playfully, “do I have to boss you around again?”

  “’Fraid so,” Reinicke admitted, gently climbing onto the bed towards her. “I figure I might as well get used to it. Once this happens, I won’t be letting you go.”

  “Is that a shifter thing?” Karina asked him.

  “It’s a me and you thing,” Reinicke said, his face coming level with her own. “I always knew that I would know when I met ‘the girl’. You’re it, Karina. You’re mine.”

  “You’d better claim me then,” she said, reaching up to pull his face down for a kiss.

  Reinicke entered her whilst their tongues were fighting, his thick shaft filling her so sharply that she felt her whole body shiver. He was quick and precise in his movements, thrusting deep then pulling back to tease her clit with his fingers. His tongue snaked down her neck and round her earlobes, his hips pushing her legs wide apart. Karina let them rise, wrapping them around his muscular back as he pressed deeper still into her waiting body. She was panting, the burn of orgasm already making her abdomen ache. She knew what he meant about just knowing. Perhaps she had known all week, trying to hide the truth from herself.

  After so long making other people happy in love, Karina had almost forgotten what it felt like.

  But Reinicke was there to remind her. He let his thumb flick over her swollen clitoris until she moaned with ecstasy, then he really went in to show her what he could do. He held her hips firmly and made his thrusts as deep as he could, sending shockwaves of electric pleasure into every nerve. Karina felt herself arching, her eager body pushing against him as she begged inwardly for release. She looked up at him, her eyes pleading, asking for what she knew he could give her. Reinicke grew faster still, harder and sharper as he rocked their bodies together.

  “Oh!” she exclaimed as the first throes of the orgasm reached her, making her body tense up and shake.

  Karina felt the rush and the pleasurable pain, knowing her climax would be a big one. When it came, she felt it shake her whole body, forcing her to make sounds she didn’t even know were in her throat. Her quivering legs fell back down when Reinicke let them go, and she was still riding out the tingles of her own breathless pleasure when she felt him shudder and push those last few thrusts into her. He kissed her neck, his voice low and growling when he whispered to her.

  “Mine,” he reminded her. “Mine forever now.”

  And she wouldn’t ever have it any other way.

  One month later.

  “Reinicke, where on earth have you been?” Anina demanded.

  Karina had been forewarned about the Best clan before she met them. Reinicke was accurate in his descriptions, and she recognized his elderly grandmother at once by her milky amber gaze and admonishing tone. Her gaze snapped to Karina, then down to the place where she and Reinicke were clasping one another’s hands. Anina appeared to relax a little at that.

  “Oh, I’m sorry,” she said politely. “I didn’t realize you, uh… Reinicke, who is this lovely girl?”

  There were other people assembled in the room, and Karina had never met any of them. But she was pretty sure she could guess who they all were. There were two brothers, Reinicke’s older cousins, who were named Dietrich and Ben. Dietrich was cradling a girl called Elise in one arm, and she held their little baby boy, Isaak in hers. Ben had a baby on his lap too, a girl with beautiful cocoa-colored skin named Lily, and his wife Layla stood with one proud hand on his shoulders. That left the two blonde cousins, Kurt and Hart, with their partners Stacey and Jane. In front of Stacey there was a buggy with two tiny twins sleeping peacefully, and Jane had a fully round belly that made her look as though she was due to give birth at any moment.

  Clan Best was a quite a family to join, but Karina, as in all things, was confident that she could make it work.

  “Sorry, we’ve been in Vegas,” Reinicke explained.

  “No,” Dietrich said at once, his voice hitching in shock. “You don’t mean…”

  “May I introduce Karina Best, my wife,” Reinicke said with all the pride in the world.