Men Love Curves: BBW Romance

by Ruby Madden

  Toby laughed. “I wish you could have seen your face. If your eyes got any bigger they would have popped right out of your head.”

  “Thanks a lot.” She leaned forward and set her glass on the table.

  “You’re welcome,” he teased before chugging his drink. “I guess Scotch is an acquired taste.”

  “Must be.” She shrugged. It didn’t really matter. She had no intention of trying it again. She’d stick to fruity cocktails or wine coolers on the rare occasion when she wanted a drink.

  “Are you going to finish that?” He pointed to her glass.

  “No. Help yourself.”

  Toby picked up the glass and sucked down the contents. “That was just what the doctor ordered.”

  She scooted to the edge of her seat. “Can I use your bathroom?”

  “Of course. It’s the third door on the left past the kitchen.”

  “Thanks.” She rose to her feet, rested the afghan over the arm of the sofa, and followed Toby’s directions to the bathroom. She closed and locked the door and leaned against it.

  If someone had warned her of the strange turn of events the night would take, she would have laughed her generous backside off. Her life was spiraling out of control, and she didn’t know what she could do to reclaim command short of tracking Lou down and committing cold-blooded murder. As tempting as that sounded, she didn’t have it in her to kill anyone. All her hopes were pinned on Lou being arrested and thrown in jail. The chance of that happening was about as likely as her coming across a winning lottery ticket.

  Sophie blew out a frustrated breath. Being so pessimistic wouldn’t help anything. Neither would hiding in the bathroom and feeling sorry for herself.

  She glanced around the bathroom and was surprised by how nice it appeared. Everything was neat and in its place. The white tiled floor and marble countertop were both immaculate. Even the grout between the tiles was spotless. For two men, Rick and Toby were certainly tidy. It was a nice change from what she was used to. In her experience, most men were pigs. Lou hadn’t wanted to lift a finger to clean up after himself and the few boyfriends she’d had before him hadn’t been any different.

  She used the facilities, washed her hands, and then leaned across the counter to stare at her reflection. As she’d feared, she looked like crap. Damp, stringy hair clung to her scalp and clumped around her face and neck. Her eyeliner and mascara no longer lined her eyes or darkened her lashes. Instead, large black smears ran down her face in twisted, upside-down triangles. Although the last thing she should concern herself with at the moment was her appearance, she couldn’t help but be embarrassed by how rough she looked. She could only imagine what Rick must think of her after she’d shown up on his property resembling a drowned rat and dragging enough drama and baggage behind her to sink a battleship.

  Rick had starred in so many of her dreams and fantasies since they’d run into each other that she almost felt as if she knew him. Having him come to her rescue out in the woods had seemed too good to be true, despite scaring the shit out of her while in his animal form. As a bear, Rick had been huge and terrifying. As a man, he was huge and intimidating in an entirely different way. Seeing him standing naked and wet under the pale moonlight had shocked her, but it had also mesmerized her. His physique was flawless, all rippling muscles and hairy male perfection. Even though she’d been half out of her mind, her body had responded to him like a match to a candle wick. In the moment, she’d ignored her physical response, too concerned with her survival to worry about trivial matters like attraction. Now that she had a minute to breathe, she found her reaction to him peculiar. She’d never responded to a man the way she did with Rick. She didn’t form instant crushes on strangers or get hot under the collar from one glimpse of a naked man—no matter how hot he looked. Yet she couldn’t deny something about Rick drew her in like a moth to a flame.

  She wondered how he was doing outside—whether he’d found Lou where she’d left him or if the slimy SOB had slithered off to lick his wounds and plan his next attack. He’d be twice as intent on staking his claim on her and making her pay for her defiance. Until he was stopped, her life wasn’t worth the ink used to print her birth certificate.

  She looked away from her reflection, disgusted with herself and her train of thought. What she needed to do was clean up and get her tits in gear. She was strong. She was capable. She could do this.

  With a goal in mind, she searched through the vanity for what she needed to make herself presentable. The cabinet beneath the sink contained clean washcloths and towels. The second drawer down held an assortment of toiletries. She grabbed what she needed and got busy.

  The face wash smelled masculine and sporty, but it would do the trick. She scrubbed the makeup from her face, dried off, and then turned her attention to combing the tangles out of her hair. Although her thick mane fought the comb every inch of the way, she managed to work out all the kinks without balding herself in the process. The dampness couldn’t be helped since she didn’t see a hairdryer anywhere. Not that it made much of a difference. Her clothes weren’t any dryer than her hair.

  Acting on impulse, she strode to the door and popped her head out. “Hey Toby! Can I still take you up on that offer for dry clothes?”

  “Sure,” Toby hollered back at her. “I’ll grab something and be right there.”

  “Thanks!” She closed the door. While she waited, she returned the supplies to their proper place, folded the dirty washcloth and towel, and left them sitting on the edge of the sink.

  A knock sounded on the door and Toby called out to her. “You decent?”

  “Depends on who you ask,” she replied and opened the door.

  Toby handed an empty grocery bag and a stack of folded clothes over to her. “Here you go. The bag’s for your wet things. I’d offer to dry them for you, but I’ve been banned from the laundry room since the last time I tried to help out and ruined Rick’s favorite chenille duvet.”

  “That’s okay.” Sophie smiled. “You’ve done more than enough for me already.”

  “It’s no problem.” Toby turned to go, then stopped and glanced back at her over his shoulder. “Hey. How do you feel about action movies? I’m in the mood for fast cars and explosions. We could watch something while we’re waiting on Rick to get back.”

  “That sounds good to me.” She could use a little mindless entertainment. Maybe it would take her thoughts off her problems for a few minutes.

  “Cool.” He nodded and walked away.

  She closed the door, stripped out of her wet garments, and pulled on the dry ones. There was no way the T-shirt and drawstring shorts belonged to Toby. They were way too big. The sleeves came down to her elbows and the hem hit her at mid-thigh. Thanks to the drawstring, the shorts weren’t a terrible fit around her waist—probably because of how narrow Rick’s hips were—but they were long enough to be considered capri pants. She imagined she resembled little kid playing dress-up, but at least she was dry. Going without a bra and panties in someone else’s clothes felt weird and a little risqué, but couldn’t be helped under the circumstances.

  She left the bathroom and joined Toby on the sofa in front of the television. As hard as she tried to watch the movie, concern for herself, Rick, and the future weighed heavily on her.

  * * * *

  Even in the light rain, Rick picked up Sophie’s scent trail easily enough. It would be hard to miss her sweet honeyed smell. He’d never come across a more delicious aroma.

  He quickly discovered the scene of Sophie’s skirmish with her ex. Two sets of footprints were submerged into the wet ground, along with one long, wide depression where someone who’d smelled strongly of alcohol and aggression had landed. The strong scent of copper stained the earth on the upper end of the depression. Sophie really must have whacked the bastard hard. Good for her. He only wished he could take a turn alone with the asshole. He’d show him the error of his ways real quick.

  To his
utter disappointment, the path back to Sophie’s wrecked car was devoid of life. Human life anyway. He bypassed the wreckage and continued up to the edge of the highway where the scent of asphalt, rubber, and gasoline drowned out everything else. Catching sight of headlights off in the distance, he started the transition from beast to man. By the time he stood upright on two legs, Sheriff Stuart Watson was pulling off the side of the road.

  Comfortable in his nudity, Rick leaned against a tree and waited for Stuart to come to him. He and Stuart went back a long way, all the way to middle school when they’d been the only two brown bears surrounded by black bear shifters indigenous to the area. They’d taken a lot of flack for being different, despite living in an area where new and exotic shifters settled all the time. The humans avoided them, the black bears shunned them, and the prey animals feared them. Their adolescence had not been easy, but it would have been much worse without a friend like Stuart.

  Stuart climbed out of his SUV and strode toward Rick. “Hey man. Toby tells me you’ve had some excitement out here tonight. What’s going on?”

  “Well…” Rick quickly filled Stu in on the situation and led him to Sophie’s car. “And that’s what led her here to me.”

  “That is just fucked up enough to be believable. Are you sure she’s your mate?”

  “I think so. She smells right and my bear is possessive as hell.”

  “Well, you know just as much as I do about mates.” Stu walked around Sophie’s car, inspecting it. “What does she say about it?”

  “She doesn’t know. She’s human and doesn’t need the added burden of being mated to a monster right now.”

  “Yes, it would be terrible to be cherished for life by a good guy with an ugly mug like yours and more money than Midas.”

  “Fuck you, buddy. You have no idea what this feels like. It’s like knowing the winning lottery numbers, but not speaking the right language in order to buy a ticket.”

  “That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard.” Stu pulled a flashlight out of his pocket and shined it in the windows of Sophie’s car.

  “No, it isn’t. Sophie’s not a shifter. She doesn’t know anything about mates. To her, I’m just some weirdo who happened to save her from being murdered tonight.”

  “Whose fault is that?” Stu started typing something into his phone.

  “What are you doing now?” Rick asked. “Texting your momma?”

  “I’m taking notes, asshole. Or did you just call me out here to hear about your pathetic love life or lack thereof?”

  Rick glanced in the passenger side window. “Hey. Is that her purse? She’s going to want that.” He reached for the door handle.

  “Leave it,” Stu said. “It’s empty anyway. Her ex must have come back for her wallet after she ran off.”

  Rick dropped his hand. “Shit. She’s not going to be happy about that.”

  “The good news is we might be able to get his prints from it and place him here at the scene. Right now it’s pretty much her word against his since no one witnessed anything that happened.”

  Rick stood tall and frowned at Stu over the hood of Sophie’s car. “She’s not lying.”

  “I never said that, but there’s a big difference between knowing the truth and being able to prove it in court.”

  “Fine.” He didn’t like the insinuation that Sophie was anything besides completely truthful, even though he could see where Stu was coming from. He wanted Sophie’s ex to pay for what he’d done. Granted, he’d rather tear the asshole limb from limb and then dump his corpse in the deepest cave he could find in the forest, but letting him face trial for his crimes would work too. “What can I do to help?”

  “Nothing. I’m going to take a few photos and then I’ll text Ian to come and haul the car back to the shop. We’ll document the damage and take prints there. You can bring your mate to the office in the morning to give an official statement.”

  “She’s not mine. Not yet.”

  Damn, if he didn’t like the sound of it though. His mate. He didn’t know much about Sophie, but he liked what little he did know. She was beautiful, curvy in all the right places, sharp as a tack, and one hell of a fighter. As far as he was concerned, she was the perfect woman. If anything, she was too good for the likes of him.

  Stu waved off Rick’s comment. “Semantics. Just bring her by first thing in the morning. In the meantime, keep an eye on her, keep her safe, and let me do my job. I’ll head back to the station and pull the guy’s DMV information. We’ll put an APB out on the perp’s vehicle and see if we can track him down and drag his ass in for questioning.”

  “Just do what you can to nail the bastard to the wall. I can take care of Sophie.”

  He wasn’t sure how she’d react to his desire to protect her, but he would cross that bridge when he got to it.

  Stu’s phone rang, playing the theme from Jaws, and he turned to answer. “Sheriff Watson here.”

  Rick listened to Stu’s side of the conversation, which amounted to a lot of mm-hmms and uh-huhs.

  Stu disconnected the call and stuck the phone in his pocket. “I have to go. You get back to Sophie and Toby and I’ll see you in the morning.”

  “Yeah, all right, man. You watch your back out there.”

  “You know it.” Stu headed back up the bank to his truck.

  Rick shifted and started the long walk home. On the way, he thought about the woman waiting at the cabin. Sophie had been through hell and back tonight. She’d been stalked, run off the road, and assaulted by a man she used to care about. Now was not the time to break the news to her about her being his mate, no matter how much his baser instincts screamed for him to run home as fast as his legs would carry him and claim her as soon as possible. Ignoring his bear wasn’t easy, but he would manage.

  He picked up the pace and arrived home in good time. To his surprise, the lights were off inside. Worry crawled up his esophagus and lodged in the back of his throat. He transformed and ran up the stairs, skipping half of them in his haste, and burst through the door ready to wage war. The door slammed into the wall with a bang and bounced back toward him.

  Toby jumped off the couch. “Jesus, Rick. Dramatic much?”

  “What the…” He darted a look around. The lights were off. That much was true. A movie played on the flat screen TV over the mantle. Toby stood by one end of the sofa. Sophie was slumped over the other opposite side, wrapped in the same blanket she’d had earlier, and wearing a shirt that looked more than a little familiar. “Shit,” he said, quietly. “I saw the lights were out and overreacted.” He shut and locked the front door.

  Toby came around the couch and met Rick. “No kidding. You scared the crap out of me.”

  “I’m sorry. Her ex was long gone and could be anywhere right now. We need to be on high alert until he’s found.”

  Toby exhaled. “All right. What did Stu say?”

  “Basically to sit tight tonight and bring Sophie by the station in the morning.” Rick crossed into the kitchen and grabbed a bottle of water out of the fridge. He looked over at Toby, who’d followed him. “Do you want one?”

  Toby shook his head. “Is it safe for her to be here?”

  “Don’t worry. I’ll make sure it’s safe. For you and for her.”

  Toby studied him quietly. “What’s going on between you and her? This feels like a lot more than some random rescue attempt.”

  “I don’t know what you mean.”

  “I mean, you’ve never brought a woman home. Not even when you were dating someone. Now you run into her in the woods and bring her back here to stay without even knowing her name. Don’t you find that more than a little odd?”

  “No.” Rick sighed. “Listen, kid—”

  “I knew it,” Toby interrupted.

  Rick rolled his eyes. “You don’t know anything.”

  “I knew something wasn’t right. That’s enough. Now tell me what’s going on.”

&nb
sp; “I ran into Sophie at the grocery store at the beginning of the week. We didn’t talk much. I didn’t even get her name. But I’m pretty sure she’s my mate.”

  “What!” Toby exclaimed.

  “Shh!” Rick cast a glance toward the couch. Sophie hadn’t budged an inch.

  “She’s your mate? Are you sure?”

  “As much as I can be. It isn’t like we have a manual.”

  “I guess not.” Toby stared in Sophie’s direction. “How do you know?”

  “It’s hard to explain.”

  “Try.”

  “There was this feeling, almost like we’d already met. Then I caught her scent and it took everything I had in me not to pull her into my arms and carry her off, caveman-style.”

  “Why didn’t you?”

  Rick looked down at the bottle of water in his hands. “She deserves better than being stuck in an instant marriage because of some whim of fate.”

  “What I deserve,” Sophie said, from her seated position on the couch. “Is to be trusted enough to make my own decisions.”

  Chapter Five

  “Oh shit.” Toby looked from Rick to Sophie and back again. “I’ll just um…go to bed. Yeah. I’m going to sleep now. I’ll see you both in the morning.”

  Sophie waited until Toby disappeared and then turned her attention to Rick. “I’m your mate?”

  “Yes.” He nodded. “You’re my mate.”

  “Oh.” She looked him over, trying to gauge his feelings on the matter, and failed. His expression was unreadable, like a blank slate. “I didn’t even know shifters could mate with humans.”

  “It happens more often than you’d think.”

  Sophie considered that. It made sense. There did seem to be a lot more male shifters than female. Not that she was an expert or anything. “If I hadn’t stumbled onto your land tonight, were you ever going to track me down and tell me about this?”