Second Chance Bear and a Baby: BBW Bear Shifter Baby Paranormal Romance (Who's the Daddy? Book 3)

by Harmony Raines

  Flexing his hips, he moved to pull out of her. This time he slid back in harder, his rhythm quicker, as his arousal grew. Slowly, he increased his momentum, pulling out to leave the head of his cock inside her, and then thrusting in hard, fast, a cry from Carla letting him now she was getting close to coming. He slowed again, letting her hang on the precipice, before bringing her back down again.

  Oh, yes, condoms did have their uses.

  In and out, slowing, then speeding up, he brought her to the edge, until he was so close to following her over, he knew he could not hang on. He moved his right hand, placing it between her thighs, touching her clit, and taking her with him, to float above the Earth in ecstasy. An ecstasy he didn’t want to come down from.

  Making love was easy. What would come after, the getting to know her—and more importantly, telling her he was a shifter, something that was bound to take her by surprise—that was going to be difficult. But he had faced difficult before and survived.

  Chapter Seven – Carla

  She woke in the morning feeling sore, and he was right, she didn’t know what day of the week it was. It felt as if two days or more had passed while he made love to her: he was all kinds of insatiable. Carla had had more sex since she brought Liam home than she had in the last two years. He was the kind of lover a woman could only dream of, always wanting to please her and satisfy her, and oh, had he satisfied her, over and over again.

  Rolling over to face him, she stared at his long dark eyelashes that fanned his tanned cheeks. He looked so peaceful, so unlike the man she had first seen only last night. Really, more days hadn’t gone by? She sighed, she could spend an eternity in his arms, in this bed, and never grow tired of him.

  Life, however, didn’t work that way. The sound of her phone ringing made her get up and pad naked over to where her robe hung on the back of the door. Pulling it on, she went downstairs to where she had dumped her purse as they came through the door. Her lips stung at the thought of how he had kissed her so thoroughly, and her insides heated, until a pool of arousal settled between her thighs at the thought of him.

  Retrieving her phone, she pressed the keypad to accept the call. “Mike.”

  “Hey, Carla, it’s not Mike. It’s me, Tammy.”

  “Hi, Tammy,” Carla said, a frown settling on her forehead as she went to the kitchen and began to make a fresh pot of coffee. “Is everything OK?”

  “I wondered if you had heard from Mike.”

  “No. And since you are calling from his cell, I’m not sure how he would ring me.”

  “He left last night. The baby was crying, I got upset and we had an argument.”

  Carla sighed, her hand dragging through her hair as she tried to work out what she was supposed to do when she was so far away from them. “Is there anywhere you can think he would go?”

  “I tried his friends, I mean it’s not as if he has many, so I don’t know where he would go. That’s why I thought I would phone you, just in case he got on a bus to come see you.”

  “No, I don’t think he would leave you, Tammy.”

  “Really? I thought he was always ringing to tell you how miserable he is.” Her voice sounded close to breaking.

  “No. He tells me he’s worried about you. I know you don’t like to hear it, Tammy, but why don’t you go and see a doctor?”

  “I’m fine.” Her voice cracked a little more.

  “Are you?” Carla said gently, and her sister-in-law erupted into tears.

  “I’m scared they’ll take the baby away if they think I can’t cope.”

  “Tammy, that is not going to happen. Listen, why don’t I come and see you? I can look after Sophia while you two sort yourselves out. Just for a couple of days. You can go see the doctor, maybe see if he can prescribe you something. Lots of women have trouble adjusting, it’s hormonal, not an illness. And certainly not something to be ashamed of.”

  “Everyone else seems to cope just fine.”

  “That is not true.” The smell of coffee filled the kitchen as she got two cups down and set them on the counter. “Tammy, it will get easier. You two are just so young. And alone out there. Why not move back here?”

  “I don’t know, Carla. I’m not sure Mike wants to move anywhere with me right now. It was all so perfect until I had Sophia. I love her so much, but everything else seems to have gone wrong.” She sobbed down the phone and Carla’s heart broke for her.

  “One thing I know for sure, and that is Mike loves you.” She poured the coffee, trying to figure out the best thing to say to Tammy. “Look, I’ll drive out to see you in the next couple of days, if you want. Then we can talk, but maybe moving back here would be the best thing. Both me and your parents could lend a hand.”

  “It seems as if we’d be giving up,” Tammy said, her voice thick with emotion. “So many people said we couldn’t make a new life here, and they would be right. You know how Mike is about these things.”

  “There’s nothing wrong with doing the right thing. If it is the right thing, you and Mike need to talk about this. It’s your choice, no one else’s, and no one else’s business. But Broken Creek is a good place to raise a child, she’ll be surrounded by people who love her, and when you are ready, you can move away again, if that’s what you want.”

  “I don’t know what I want,” Tammy said.

  “Which is why you need to talk it over with Mike.” She heard the sound of someone coming down the stairs. Liam must be up and about; she really didn’t want to involve him in any of this. It was Tammy and Mike’s private affair. “Listen, I have to go. Ring me later if Mike doesn’t come home, and if he does turn up here, then I’ll ring you.”

  “He’s here. Thanks for the chat, Carla,” Tammy said, suddenly sounding brighter down the phone. “Mike, honey, where have you been?”

  Then the line went dead.

  “Everything OK?” Liam asked walking into the kitchen, looking incredibly sexy in his pants and shirt, which was unbuttoned, revealing his hard abs, and she wanted to run her fingertips over them and forget all about her brother and Tammy. That was not going to happen, though; she felt far too responsible for Mike and his family.

  When her mom and dad had split up, they had learned to depend on each other, their dad was often missing from their lives for months on end, and their mom had boyfriends, which meant more often than not her two children were not her main concern. The new relationships never lasted, and between being on a high at the prospect of new love, she came crashing down to desperate lows when things never worked out.

  She was going to have to go over there and try to fix them. The thought of her brother going through more pain was almost too much. She wanted to shelter him from it. Even if that was almost impossible. People had to experience the lows to see the highs. That bit of wisdom came from Eloise, surprisingly, who was one of the quickest people to bounce back from her lows.

  “Yes, thanks. A family matter,” she said evasively, and handed him his coffee. “I wasn’t sure how you liked it?”

  He raised an eyebrow. “I thought by now you knew exactly how I liked it.” He took the coffee, and after sipping it, said, “Perfect.”

  Her stomach clenched. She was sure he meant her, not the coffee, and she longed to drag him back to bed so he could show her perfect all over again.

  “I should shower, I’m on an early shift today,” she said, not knowing what they were supposed to talk about; she only knew his first name and that he was a cop. Apart from that she knew nothing of him, not where he lived, or who he hung out with, or whom exactly it was he had lost.

  He looked so happy and relaxed, she figured now was not the time to interrogate him. But soon she would have to. If he was interested in her for longer than one cup of coffee in the morning.

  “I should get going too,” he said, drinking his coffee down, even though hers was too hot. “I didn’t realize it was so late. Not that many of the boys will turn in early for work today, I’m sure there will be more than a few han
govers after last night.”

  “They certainly had a good time,” she agreed.

  He came towards her and placed his cup down on the counter. Then he wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her close. “I had a good time too, Carla.”

  “So did I.” This was where she should ask him if he was going to see her again, but she bottled it.

  Liam kissed her on the cheek and then pulled back, buttoning his shirt as he headed for the door. “What time does your shift end?”

  Her heart lifted, and she smiled. “Four.”

  “Can I see you after? I should be finished by five.”

  “Sure.” She just about stopped herself from grinning like a moron. “I’ll cook you dinner.”

  He came back to her, gathering her to him one last time, “I think we should go on a proper date. I’ll take you to dinner.”

  “OK,” she said nodding.

  He leaned down and kissed her on the lips, his tongue gently pressing for entry, when she allowed him in, their tongues danced around her mouth, leaving her longing for five o’clock to hurry up and come around.

  “Thank you, Carla.”

  “For what? Sex?” she asked, bemused.

  “No, for bringing me back to life.” With that he turned and left, pulling the door closed behind him.

  “You are welcome,” she said to the empty hallway.

  Chapter Eight – Liam

  He went outside of her house and breathed in the fresh air. What a difference a day made. He laughed at the cliché, but then felt a twinge across his chest as he thought of Louisa. Had he betrayed her memory? By taking Carla as his mate, had he lessened what he had felt for the woman who was his first true mate?

  He shook his head. It didn’t matter: Louisa was dead, and this second chance was a gift, even if it was given him by the thing that had been responsible for taking Louisa away.

  The damn investigation. Louisa was getting close to a man know at the time as Connell, although he went by varies other names. Gable O’Donnell and George O’Dowd were two of many names he used after he killed Louisa, always moving, always covering his tracks. Slippery like a snake, a snake he would have loved to wrap his hands around and choke the life out of.

  Liam still remembered the dreadful morning when Louisa didn’t report to the office the team was working from. She had refused to wear a tracking device, saying she was so close to getting Connell, to trust her. That night she was confident the case would be cracked and they would be able to finally get Niq It off the streets.

  It turned out she was wrong. Connell had known she was a shifter; how he had come by that information, Liam wasn’t sure. Only three people on the team knew, their boss, Liam and Joel. He trusted Joel with his life. That left their boss, Detective Michael Stanhope.

  Yet only Joel knew Liam and Louisa were mates, they had kept it secret. The Niq It case had been the first time they had worked together; Liam’s squad had been drafted in to help. The attraction, the mating bond, had been immediately apparent. Neither of them wanted to be transferred off the case, so they had hidden their feelings, knowing that if their relationship was revealed, one of them would have been moved. Probably Liam, since Louisa had already been set up with an undercover identity to infiltrate the drug ring.

  For Liam, not being there to watch over her had been unthinkable. He wanted to stay on the case so that if she needed him, he would be close. If anything happened, all she had to do was pick up her phone. When Connell made his move and took her prisoner, and tortured her, he had given her no time to do that.

  The guilt he felt at still not being able to save her was incredible. He had promised her he would keep her safe. She had told him she couldn’t hold him to that promise, but he had given it all the same, and failed.

  They had searched for her for two days. At last they got a tip-off, that a body had been found. He had been there when they confirmed the ID, but he had already known. A hollowness had bloomed inside him the day before. That was perhaps the worst part: for the first two days he had known she was alive, and he held onto hope that they would either find her or she would escape.

  Then he had felt her death like a shockwave through his system. His hope was gone, and in the place of his love for Louisa, revenge had spawned. It was that revenge, that need for justice that had carried him forward.

  A couple of months ago karma had caught up with Connell. He was now in a shifter prison; the drug, Niq It, he had used on Louisa had been used on him. He was bonded to Louisa’s brother, left to rot in a world without his mate for the rest of his life. Liam wasn’t sure it was enough of a punishment. He had thoughts of getting his hands around the man’s neck and twisting it clean off his shoulders, before taking his own life.

  But that was before Carla. She really had saved his life.

  Or at least Joel had.

  He jogged down the street to the diner where he had left his car the night before. Even if Carla hadn’t asked him to walk her home, he wouldn’t have driven, he had drunk too much. Now he was grateful to slide into the driver’s seat and start the engine. He drove home, trying to clear his head, trying to put things in perspective, trying to accept what Joel had done.

  His emotions were all over the place. At one moment he was grateful for the second chance, the next he experienced some degree of revulsion that he had been poisoned by the drug they had worked so hard to clear off the streets.

  It was a peculiar drug, unique in the way it affected shifters. It made them imprint on the first person they saw after it had been taken. That would have been Louisa’s fate, they later found out. But it never worked. Because she had already found her mate, the chemical reaction didn’t take place.

  In some ways this truth made Liam feel so very guilty. If they had never met, if he had never known Louisa, she would have imprinted on a man, and lived her life. Instead, Connell had killed her, after torturing her to find out the reason she was immune.

  Strangled and tossed in a ditch. That was not the way Louisa should have died. Slipping painlessly from this world, surrounded by their children, that should have been her fate.

  Liam’s knuckles were white as he gripped the steering wheel. His anger bubbled over; he couldn’t help it. Then Carla’s face came to him, and he let the anger go.

  Would it ever get any easier? Or would he live this double life, one of regret, one of hope, neither of them being complete, always stuck between the two?

  Heading home, he showered, dressed in clean clothes and went in to work. He wanted to talk to Joel, to get some perspective on things. Although he understood Joel’s reasons: as a shifter himself, he knew the pain Liam would be experiencing. However, Liam couldn’t help but blame him for these incredibly mixed-up feelings.

  Liam only hoped he wouldn’t feel compelled to rip Joel’s head off when the next wave of guilt swept over him.

  “Hi there,” Joel said as soon as Liam walked through the door.

  “I’m guessing you’ve been waiting for me,” Liam said coolly, breathing in deeply and then letting it go slowly in an attempt to keep his temper under check.

  “I was worried. I thought about trying your cell, but then thought I might be interrupting something.” There was no innuendo in his voice, only concern.

  “What were you thinking?” Liam said, his hands balled into fists at his sides.

  “That I didn’t want to lose you too.” Joel frowned. “I don’t know. I thought you were going to do something stupid.”

  “I probably was,” Liam conceded.

  “I couldn’t let that happen.”

  “So you gave me Niq It,” Liam stated.

  Joel shrugged. “I don’t know of anything else I could have done. Remember, I’ve been at your side every day through this. I’ve watched you hold it all together. And then I watched you unravel. Last night, it was obvious I had to do something.”

  Liam dragged his hands through his hair. “It’s done now. I suppose I’m going to have to make the best of i
t. I only hope I can make Carla happy.”

  “You will.” Joel looked down at his shoes. “There is one more thing.”

  “What?” Liam asked.

  “This came for you.” Joel passed him a letter.

  “It’s unopened.”

  “Because it’s addressed to you.”

  “But you know what it is?”

  “I know who it’s from. Has a name and address on the back.” Liam looked at the envelope, still not comprehending. “Louisa’s surname was Branson. Right?”

  The world spun around Liam. “How do they know about me?”

  Joel shrugged. “I didn’t tell them. I didn’t tell anyone.”

  Liam ripped the letter open. “Well, someone did.” He looked up at Joel. “They want to meet me, they want to give me some of her things.”

  “Shit, man.”

  Shit was right. He knew he had to go, he had to try to gain some closure, but he didn’t want to hurt Carla. He didn’t want her to think he was running out on her. Yet that was exactly what he felt he was doing.

  Chapter Nine – Carla

  “So how did last night go?” Howie asked as soon as she entered the bar.

  “Was a busy night, good tips,” Carla said, avoiding his eyes; they both knew that was not what he was asking.

  “Eloise said you went home with the party pooper, you sure upped his mood,” Howie said, coming around the counter to stand in front of her, arms folded across his chest. “You OK?”

  “Yes.” She nodded.

  “You sure? Because if you need me to have a word with the guy…”

  “Howie, he is twice the size of you. Anyway, it was me who asked him to take me home.”

  “That’s what Eloise told me, I could hardly believe it. She’s passing on her bad ways.”