Geek Bearing Gifts (BBW Paranormal Shape Shifter Romance): A BBW in search of love + A sexy shifter who secretly loved her = Smokin' Roaring Romance (Paranormal Dating Agency Book 2) Read online

  After a few years, she finally learned to love her body. Once she did, it was so much easier— and fun —to be sexy and sensual. It stopped being uncomfortable for her to wear the sparkly short skirts and some of the tops that plunged and showed off her abundant cleavage. She was a new person. All because she stopped hiding behind what others thought and allowed herself to be Nita Islas, curvy Latina.

  By the time she had found herself, learned to love Nita and stop letting haters take her self-esteem, she’d moved away from Ky. Her heart ached for her old friend. She could only hope he found some way to outgrow his own shyness and embrace the handsome geeky guy inside.

  It was already dark by the time she reached the cabin. She hoped her host hadn’t waited too long. A peek at her dashboard clock said she was only half an hour late. Damn it. A stickler for time, she hated being late. Especially when she knew how much of an impact keeping correct times made in her life. She glanced down at her wrinkled ankle pants and pretty but not overtly sexual purple top. Then she lifted her arms and sniffed to make sure she didn’t stink. Nope. All was good there. Since she knew how sensitive shifter senses were, she had decided to opt for a light perfume.

  She pulled out a tube of cherry lip gloss out of her bag and popped two breath mints. It wasn’t a shower and toothpaste, but that’s as good as it was going to get. With a quick, deep breath, she hopped out of her Prius and hiked to the cabin. Fall fast approached and that meant the temperature was just perfect for being outside without sweating bullets. She hoped her date liked walks.

  Her heart started to hammer hard in her chest the closer the got to the door. What if he wasn’t right with her? What if Mrs. Wilder had made a mistake? Fuck it. She kicked the kernel of insecurity in the ass and knocked on the door. The knock pushed the door slightly open.

  “Hello?” she called out into the homey interior. She wasn’t trying to get into the guy’s life, but he had a place built for comfort. Large brown leather sofas with pretty gold and yellow decorative pillows sat in the living room.

  She pushed the front door open some more. Maybe he couldn’t hear her. Did she really want to date a shifter that was hard of hearing? Tally had told her they were known for their wonderful sensitive hearing. Figured, she snorted. Her date would probably end up being an old, hard-of-hearing shifter who probably couldn’t shift. Now Mrs. Wilder’s words made sense about having preconceived ideas of him. Dear God! What if he couldn’t get it up?

  “Oh, hell no!” she said through gritted teeth. The guy wasn’t home for their date. He probably forgot her. Her temperature rose with her anger. How could he not be home and leave his door open? Nobody in the city did that. Curiosity made her take another step inside and call out again, “Anybody home?”

  She wasn’t really breaking and entering since she’d been invited there. At least she hoped using that as an excuse when her date showed up worked.

  She moved deeper into the large cabin. It smelled delicious. Like someone had been cooking all day. That calmed her some. The cabin was big. What if he couldn’t hear her from wherever he was? Pitchers filled with fresh wild flowers sat at every table. Still no sign of her host. Maybe he’d gone out to run an errand. If that was the case, why was there a massive Jeep parked in front? It made no sense to her.

  She strolled through the cabin with caution, but still managed to ogle every beautiful piece of carved furniture.

  His dining room table was gigantic with enough chairs to sit her entire family and then some. She started making up a story in her head about her date. He had so many children and grandchildren that he had to have a big table. He had to be really old at this point. Like ancient. Nita tried not to giggle, considering her date had clearly forgotten she was coming. It was obvious between the two of them that she’d been the only one excited for their date.

  “Hello?” she yelled louder. Nothing.

  The scent of food drifted from the open kitchen. She strolled into the space and bit back a moan. Christ. If there had ever been a kitchen made with lots of cooking in mind, this was it. Whoever picked the cabinets had done an amazing job. They were made of a beautiful wood that blended the inside with the outdoors. It was the huge stove and two double ovens that made Nita’s mouth water. She loved baking. It helped her relax. Not that she was as good as Tally or Mrs. Wilder, but she hadn’t killed anyone so far. Seeing this kitchen was heaven. Her date had already earned brownie points in her book and he wasn’t even there.

  She stalked closer to the huge refrigerator and almost tripped on something. A pair of feet. She gasped. “What the hell?”

  Rounding the corner in a flash, she lost her breath at the sight of the large man sprawled on the shiny wood floor of the kitchen. He was so big that she stood there for a second, unsure what to do. Something clicked in her head and she moved closer. Once she reached him, she kneeled beside the man’s face, which was turned to the side. She tried not to gawk, but it was impossible.

  He lay there, in nothing but a towel, his muscled body displayed for her to view. And touch...if she dared. That was so wrong. So very wrong. But he was passed out. One tiny feel of his six pack wouldn’t really be so bad, would it?

  “Bad Nita! This guy needs your help, not for you to drool over his passed out body.” She gently turned his head to face her. Air caught at the back of her throat. He was frickin’ gorgeous. The hair on his chest wasn’t so thick that she could still make out the muscles underneath it. Her throat went dry. Her palms itched to touch him and see how smooth he’d feel. She imagined running her nails over him and grazing them down to his innie belly button. Even that was sexy. Her gaze shot down to where the towel hung precariously over his hips, the sides having slid over to reveal his muscular and slightly hairy thigh.

  Dear God! Without a doubt she was going to hell. If not hell at least somewhere she would be punished for lusting after a passed out, possibly dead, mountain man. How long had it been since the last time she had had sex that she was now mentally licking this poor man while he lay there needing help.

  She raised a trembling hand to his neck to feel for a pulse. He was alive. Thank you God! This was probably the first time she’d ever given a silent prayer that a first date wasn’t really avoiding her.

  “Hello?” calling softly to him, she cupped his face in her hands. There was a large gash on the other side of his head and blood matted his hair. She should call 9-1-1 and stop feeling on the guy. Darn it, but she couldn’t help herself. She tried to tap his face, but ended up sliding her fingers over his scruffy jaw. Yep. She was a pervert. Taking advantage of a man down. That ticket to hell was now first-class on the fastest jet known to man.

  A soft groan sounded from the big guy.

  “Wake up, sleeping beauty.” She couldn’t help herself. Should she kiss him? That would probably only add to her list of infractions in the book ‘What Not to Do with a Passed out Stranger’.

  She was dying to see his eyes. She knew they’d be spectacular. Sure enough, a few blinks and his long thick lashes fluttered open to a piercing stare. He lifted a hand to the one she had on his cheek and covered it with his own.

  Oxygen froze in her lungs. His eyes might be hazel, but there was something about him that told her she knew him. She couldn’t know him. She’d never have forgotten someone this big. This sexy. This— Shit! This naked!

  She swallowed hard at the nerves knotting in the back of her throat. “Hi.”

  Sexy man licked his lips and winced. Fuck. For someone who worked in the medical field she was acting like an amateur. His head probably hurt and there she was feeling on him like a sex-starved maniac. Probably breaking some laws in the process.

  Ky Stone’s bear rumbled for him to wake up. The soft, sexy scent of the mate he’d long ago given up filled his lungs. Another rumble from the bear and the fog slowly dissipated. The scent of his mate grew stronger still. The bear pushed for a shift, but even though he wasn’t fully awake, Ky was in control. Another rumble and the bear made his muscles
ache with the strength of his power. He wanted out. Now.

  Hold on.

  He’d let the bear roam soon. Right now he needed to open his eyes and deal with the world. Except, he couldn’t find it in him to let go of the scent growing more powerful by the second. Nita.

  So he lay in the half-aware state if only to hold on to her scent a little longer. Only problem was the bear’s loud roar inside was hard to tamp down.

  The animal was angry. So was Ky. His head hurt and he knew someone had come in and hit him from behind when he’d been arguing with his sister over her matchmaking ways. She’d called to tell him she’d set him up on a blind date. Without his knowledge. Knowing Jess, she must have thought he’d hung up on her, angry over what she’d done when the call had gotten cut off.

  He didn’t need or want any female. The one he’d known long ago belonged to him. Back then he’d been a gangly teen with braces. He’d also had a massive case of shyness around Nita. Her beautiful smile and sparkling brown eyes had made him tongue-tied more times than he could count.

  “Wake up, Sleeping Beauty.” He heard her voice now. Shit. He must have been hit hard enough that he was hallucinating.

  Why would the world be so cruel as to do that to him? He hadn’t seen or heard from her in almost seventeen years. Not that he hadn’t had women in that time. He was no saint. But he knew as well as his bear that Nita was the one for them.

  He took a deep breath and her scent, sexy and warm, along with some flowery perfume, filled his lungs. If this was a hallucination he needed serious help. Fuck help, he wanted to savor every second of it.

  Then he felt the slight touch of her fingers over his jaw, caressing him so lightly he thought he might have imagined it too. Except the bear wouldn’t imagine it. He roared under his skin. The animal pushed to get out and be near her.

  Quiet!

  His bear wouldn’t listen, though. Another rumble sounded from the animal. If she wasn’t a hallucination, she’d hear his bear soon.

  TWO

  Ky opened his eyes to an older, much more beautiful Nita. She leaned over him. Her hair, long ago, held in a curly ponytail, now fell straight in a long mass. He met her gaze and watched her pupils dilate. Arousal. A slow smile crept over her full lips. A stream of light from the kitchen lamp covered her head in a halo.

  “Hi. I’m Nita Islas.”

  Jesus. He wasn’t hallucinating. She was real flesh and blood. She was in his house touching him. What the fuck had he missed?

  He tried to sit up, but she pushed him down.

  “Don’t move, there’s a gash on the side of your head. You’re Kyer Ash, right?”

  Why was she using his full first name and half of his last name? Nobody called him Kyer, Ash-stone or Ash. He was Ky Stone since he was a ten year old that got sick of being picked on because of his slim weight and name. “Yes, that’s me. Just call me Ky.”

  A pretty rose color swept over her cheeks. “Hi, Ky. I’m sorry I’ll call 9-1-1. I just got distracted...trying to make sure you were alive.”

  “No. No need to call anyone.” He couldn’t figure out why she was lying about making sure he was alive, but when she bit her bottom lip he realized he didn’t really care. It was his Nita. And she was there.

  “What are you doing here?” he asked, dying to know.

  Her brown eyes went wide. “Oh, my gosh! Maybe that hit to your head was worse than I thought. Did you forget our date?” She lifted a perfectly manicured hand and held two fingers up. “How many fingers am I holding up?”

  “Two.”

  “Times what?” she asked, a worried pitch in her voice.

  If she hadn’t appeared so concerned, he’d have laughed at the ridiculous question. “One?”

  She blinked in clear shock. “You don’t know your times table or were you guessing?”

  Jesus. She of all people knew that he knew his times table backward, forward and squared.

  He pushed up to a sitting position but didn’t push away her hand. In fact, he moved closer to her. The bear rumbled softly. He liked what Ky had done. Sly bear.

  “We had a date.” It wasn’t a question. It was a statement. Now he knew why his sister had been so excited about his date. She’d found Nita.

  Nita nodded. One thing bothered him. She wasn’t looking at him like she knew him. In fact, why wasn’t she saying anything about their past?

  “Yes. But under the circumstances. I am more than happy to postpone.” She grabbed his arm and helped him to his feet. He leaned closer to her, bringing his body flush against her soft curves and then faked a flinch.

  She curled her arms around his abs in an effort to offer more support. He might feel like an ass tomorrow, but right now he’d take her touch and enjoy it.

  “Don’t go,” he rumbled. The bear, so close to the surface, made his voice deeper.

  She offered her physical support to help him to the breakfast table he usually ate his meals at unless someone from the clan showed up with a problem. Being chief of the Stone Clan meant he dealt with issues all the time. Mainly over other clans in the area wanting to feed at their lake.

  “Don’t worry, big guy. I’ll stay until I’m sure you won’t pass out again,” she whispered the words, her breath caressing his neck. It was hard to think past the pain in his head. To make matters worse, she inhaled, brushing her nose over his jaw. His cock went rock-hard.

  He sat down and drank in the vision of his mate. The sole woman to make his bear and the man he was, whole. The aching gape in his chest filled with hope. Then it occurred to him, she didn’t remember the geeky teen with glasses, bad haircut and braces. The image of him as a super skinny kid with clothes that fell off his gangly body wasn’t really going to get in his way. He could seduce Nita as the man he was now. Bigger. Stronger. Self-assured.

  He was the Chief of the Stone Bear Clan. He knew his body had changed. He knew women wanted him. Hell, watching lust flare in Nita’s eyes while he’d been on the floor had been unreal. He didn’t have the self-esteem issues now that he did back when he wanted to ask her to the movies but ended up offering to tutor her instead. Though that had been one of the best mistakes he’d ever made.

  The time they’d spent together had been better than any single date. Going to the movies wasn’t going to tell him how much she loved watching TV with her feet curled under a blanket. It didn’t matter what they saw, she’d always hide her feet. Nor would he have found out that she moaned when she ate her favorite brand of ice cream. Much to his discomfort.

  He would have never seen the smile of happiness when she told him of the latest book she read and how much she loved it when the hero and heroine ended up together and happy. All those and dozens of other regular everyday things he’d learned from tutoring her and spending a lot of time as her friend.

  She glanced around his kitchen then back at the right side of his face. “Let me get something to clean that with.” She rushed to the sink and wet a dish towel before returning back to him to wipe blood off his head. He didn’t bother telling her the wound was almost healed. Nor did he explain he wasn’t so much in pain as he was angry over the hit. Whoever had done it would be found out. Then they’d regret it.

  They’d knocked him out at the worst possible time. He’d been arguing with Jessica over setting him up. Now that he thought about it, his bear had been agitated right before he was hit. If he’d paid attention to his animal’s anger, he’d have known something was going on. But instead he’d been angry over Jess’s matchmaking. How could he ever find the words to thank her for bringing Nita into his life again?

  He reeled back when her hand caressed under his ear.

  “I’m sorry, did that hurt?”

  Hell fuck no! It felt damn amazing and he wanted her to do it again. She thought he moved back from pain. It had been a pure jolt of pleasure that blasted him and caught him unaware.

  “No. It’s okay,” he mumbled the words out.

  Curling his hands into fists, he tried to
stop the urge to pull her over his lap and kiss her. To finally touch her lips to his and see how it would feel. He’d been dreaming of that day for almost seventeen years. Knowing she was there now was a shock to his system.

  She moved back and forth in his kitchen like she belonged there. Who was he kidding? She did belong there. With him as his mate. He was having a hard time keeping the tongue-tied teen out of his mind and figuring out how to talk to her like the man he’d become. A leader. A chief. Someone who knew his own sex appeal. This was Nita. His Nita. He didn’t want to sweet talk her like any other female. He wanted what he’d always wanted from her. Her love.

  “How’s your head?” she asked, rinsing the towel for the third time, her hips swinging with her movements. She was so sexy. So sensual. That outfit, though proper, had fueled every dirty fantasy he had ever had and multiplied it. The tight pants molded to her curvy hips and showed off her ass beautifully. Her purple top was cut low up front for a mouth-watering display of her breasts.

  “Um...”

  She’d never dressed this way as a teen. All her clothes had been so large and covered her up, he’d never really had a chance to lust over her like he did now. All those curves. Wide at the hips and narrow at the waist with enough to grab on to when he drove deep into her. Fuck fuck fuck! He should not be thinking of sex now. Not now.

  “Still hurting, huh?” She scrunched up her nose and gave him a sympathetic smile. “I’m sorry. So what happened? Did you slip and fall or something?”

  “Something all right.” He cleared his throat. He couldn’t go into details with her. Not when he didn’t know what the hell happened. He’d definitely be finding out soon though. Growling sounded from where she stood.

  “Tell me you didn’t hear that,” she said, her cheeks tinged red with embarrassment.

  “I did.” He scrubbed a hand over the back of his neck. “Your stomach is trying to tell me what a horrible host I am.”