ROMANCE: SHIFTER: Shifter to the Max Collection (Dragon, Bear, Wolf and Panther Shifter Romances) (Paranormal Fantasy Romance Collection)

by C. J. Ayers

  “I’m sorry. I look a fright.” She reached back into her car for the bag containing her wallet and ID.

  “No worries. I have sisters myself.” Officer Fisher smiled and unleashed the dimples again.

  The ten-minute trip to town passed in a blur for Amber. She had no idea what they had talked about or if they had talked at all. She had only been thinking that here it was, the moment of truth. She would be back in The Ridge after being gone for almost ten years.

  Something the officer said pulled her back to the present.

  “I’m sorry. What?”

  “Once you’re settled, would you like to meet for a beer? I could catch you up on everything important that’s happened here in The Ridge since you left, if you like?” he offered.

  “Oh. Uh.” Amber stuttered, “I hadn’t thought about getting caught up. I was just thinking of getting here. Officer.”

  “Call me Tim, please. Just think about it. I’m pretty easy to find. Here you are! Huckleberry Street’s very own Scentsibilities.”

  Going back to The Ridge. Amber Flynn never thought that would happen. When she left, man, she was going to go far and stay far away. Now, she was back. Like a puppy with its tail tucked between its legs. How would she be able to face everyone? With no more choices, she squared her shoulders, pulled her chin up high, and got out of the car.

  “Thanks for the ride, Offi…Tim. I can see Jade inside the store. I really appreciate all your help.” She turned, glanced up and down the sidewalk, and hurried to the store entrance.

  Tim Fisher admired the rounded curves walking away from him. He vaguely remembered this one from years before. Kind of a wallflower compared to her vivid and outgoing sister, but she would probably be worth a tumble or two. He’d see. Whistling a confident tune, he drove back to his patrol.

  ***

  Ryder Barrett closed his eyes and breathed in deeply. An oddly familiar perfume had just teased his senses, and he wanted more. His gold-flecked eyes snapped open and scanned the street. There! It was her! She was back! He felt the familiar deep ache her leaving had caused him; hurt flared quickly to anger. The happy jingle of Scentsibilities’s shop bells floated to his ears, and he quickly made up his mind. If he caught her off guard now, maybe he could keep her that way.

  His long legs ate up the distance in no time as he strode towards Jade’s store. He jerked open the shop door, and stepped inside to the peal of the bells. His eyes quickly adapted to the dimmer light, and he scanned the large main room.

  Jade and Iris stocked their store with crystals, wind chimes, and all sorts of scents: essential oils, incense, lotions, and candles- many of which Jade blended in her back room laboratory. They also had a massage therapy room where Iris worked her magic.

  Ryder ignored the stands and presentations and moved towards the large table that served Jade as a sales counter. Two women stood beside the table, both in tears, hand-in-hand. Their brown hair was almost the exact same shade, but there the similarities ended. Jade’s long hair was in dreadlocks with beads scattered throughout. Her Bohemian dress covered her long slender frame, and she had piercings in ears, nose, and eyebrows. The woman he was interested in was perfect, and finally back in front of him.

  He ran his eyes up her jean-clad legs and over her full breasts. Mentally, he licked his lips at the thought of getting his hands back on them. Her straight chestnut hair hung halfway down her back. She reached up with one hand and brushed an errant strand out of her eyes and spotted him. She froze.

  Brown eyes met gold. A spark jumped through the air between them. Amber gulped. She certainly was not prepared for this meeting this soon. Her stomach flipped once.

  “Ryder?” Amber whispered. Oh, Lord, he was gorgeous. All tanned skin and raven-black hair. Those golden eyes that mesmerized her. Even now she felt pinned in place by his gaze. Her eyes hungrily drank him in.

  Ryder leaned one narrow hip against the opposite end of the table where the ladies stood. He took slow deep breaths to purposely pull more of her scent into his nose, into his lungs. He cocked one eyebrow up mockingly at her stare, “Wanna buy me a drink before you strip me down?”

  Mortified at her behavior, Amber closed her eyes and felt the blood rush to her cheeks. Lord help her, she had been doing just that in her mind. Pulling that tucked –in, button-down shirt out of his jeans and yanking it open to reveal the muscular chest and lean waist underneath. Running her hands down his ribs to his waistband, as she had so long ago, and… She bit her lip, and squeezed her sister’s hands tightly. Jade was attempting to pull away. Under her breath, Amber hissed, “Don’t go anywhere.”

  Jade, with a watery smile, spoke in a normal voice, “I’m not going anywhere except to get some hot water for tea. Chamomile, lavender, and a touch of orange, I think. We all need a bit of calming.” She released the viselike grip Amber had on their hands, and walked towards the back of the shop where a small kitchen area was set up. Pulling out a teakettle and cups with an inordinate amount of noise for a usually graceful woman, Amber wondered just what her sister was up to.

  A very distinctly male throat clearing snapped her attention back where Ryder wanted it – on him. Lying neatly on his chiseled jaw was the smug smile she’d fallen for when she was sixteen. Today, in her state of frustration, it suddenly pissed her off. The blush in her cheeks turned to a flush of anger.

  “What?” Amber snapped sharply. “What do you want? Here to make a purchase from the store? Here to be smug because I am back? Well, here I am. Make your snide comments or make your purchase, and then go away.” Cups and saucers rattled against their tray. Amber shot a quick, disgusted look that direction. “Please.”

  Instead of irritating him, her show of fire ignited something he thought long dead. A soft burn began in his belly. His eyes glittered with their golden flecks. Challenge? Accepted.

  “I have a standing order that Jade delivers every other Thursday.” His deep voice held an amused note, but his eyes held that spark of desire. “And once a week, Iris comes to the house for my massage therapy appointment. Sweetheart, I’m in here because I saw you.”

  “Now you’ve seen me. Turn around and go away. Wait for your delivery to come in tomorrow.” Amber said, a bit spitefully.

  The tea tray rattled again behind them, and they turned. Jade had plastered a large smile across her face. She gracefully set the tray down on the counter-table, and captivated their attention with her routine of pouring the tea into the fragile cups.

  “Chamomile is soothing and calming. One of my favorite teas at the end of the day. Ryder, Amber will be staying with me and Iris for a little while.” With a quelling glance, Jade stifled Amber’s protests. “We have the little garage apartment we never use. It’s full of mice and dust, I’m sure. I know she’d rather be out there in her own space than upstairs in our hippie love nest.” Jade smiled beatifically and shook the bangles on one wrist. “Right now, however, she needs gasoline and a ride back out to her car. Iris has the van on an appointment. Can you take her?”

  Amber mumbled displeasure at her sister.

  Ryder leapt at his chance to get Amber alone. “I have a gas can in the truck bed. My pleasure, I assure you.”

  The look in his eye didn’t assure Amber of anything. It did, however make her insides flip one more time – but this time it was a bit lower than her stomach doing the flipping.

  CHAPTER 2

  Ryder’s truck practically roared a challenge of masculinity to any passersby. When Amber followed Ryder down the street to where he’d parked in front of the feed store, she’d pointedly rolled her eyes and made soft gorilla noises under her breath. Instead of irritating Ryder, her open mockery seemed to delight him. He grinned broadly as he opened her door and held her hand to give her extra leverage to step up into the truck cab.

  They drove the hundred yards or so it took to get to one of the two gas stations in town. While Ryder filled up the little red gas can he stored in the bed of his truck, Amber smoothed her hair back in
to a ponytail, and quickly checked her appearance in the visor mirror. Yep. She looked wretched. She breathed a quick, silent prayer for deliverance, and looked over as Ryder pulled himself into the driver’s seat.

  “Ready?” He asked. Amber replied with a brisk nod. He reached his arm over and handed her a cold bottle of water. “You look tired and thirsty. I always keep the cooler stocked.”

  “Thank you.” Amber mumbled, feeling just a bit ungracious at the less than kind thoughts that had been running through her mind for the last twenty minutes.

  The silence in the truck cab grew overbearing and a bit deafening. At the same moment, they both decided to break it.

  “So, what have you been doing?

  “Where did you go?”

  Silence again.

  Ryder rolled his eyes and heaved a put-upon sigh. “I took over the ranch. Took business classes at nights; days if I had to. Mom and Dad moved to The Cottage, which she’s always liked better than the main house anyway. Rachel, married – two kids, is going to find out you’re in town soon. You might get in front of that by calling her yourself. And, believe it or not, the twins are in college. There… All caught up on the Barretts.” Then his voice became serious. “Your turn. Where did you go?”

  Amber tried for nonchalant. “Here and there. I did a lot of traveling. Never really stayed too long in any one place.”

  “Try again.”

  Okay. So nonchalant wasn’t going to cut it. “I travelled. All over – from relative’s house to relative’s house. Met cousins I never even knew I had. Then I went for the wacky tourist attractions in each state. Like the Airstream Ranch in Florida and Ralphie Parker’s house in Cleveland and the Neon Museum in Nevada. Oh! And the Great Stalacpipe Organ in Virginia was the very meaning of the word awe-some.”

  Ryder looked at Amber askance.

  “No, I never intended to be a wandering tourist. I contacted Jade every week or so. She always knew where I was and where I was headed next. My most regular income comes from the occasional travel article I write that gets picked up by travel mags. Otherwise, I’m homeless.” Her voice cracked, and her eyes grew distant. Ryder strained to hear her next words. “Since the fire, I’ve had no home.”

  A bit of the anger Ryder was carrying slipped away with that sentence. They sat for a moment in a different kind of silence, this one more poignant than oppressive.

  “The fire was a tragedy. A terrible, terrible tragedy, Amber. You didn’t have a house, but we could’ve made a home.”

  On that note, Ryder performed a tight three-point turn and parked behind Amber’s car. He shifted around to look at her squarely.

  “Even then, I wanted my home to be where you were. You knew this. And you left without a word to me. It’s a damn good thing I get on well with Jade. She let me know you were alive. You didn’t even do that.”

  He climbed down out of the truck and retrieved the gas can from its bed. Amber sat for a minute. A tear trickled down her cheek. She shoved open her truck door and scooped up her bag. Tumbling down from the cab as gracefully as possible, she decided to just get this moment over with. She shoved her arm deep into her bag to fish for her keys. A Kleenex made her search worthwhile, so she grasped it in one hand, and continued rummaging.

  “I really appreciate your help. Goodness, I didn’t even ask how much the gas was so I could pay you for it back there. I am so scatterbrained. When I get back to Jade’s, I’ll get settled in and make you dinner or maybe lunch to say thank you. Or maybe brownies. Brownies would be a good thank you – better than cookies, I’ve always thought.” Knowing she was babbling, and hating herself for it, Amber just kept on stumbling toward her car and fumbling for her keys. She stopped when she ran into a wall. In confusion, she blinked through her watery eyes and looked up and up.

  Straight into Ryder’s gold-flecked eyes. He was angry. She could feel it thrumming through him where their chests connected. Keeping their eyes locked, he wrapped one arm around her waist and drew her in a bit tighter. He leaned over and gently set the now-empty gas can on the ground. As he straightened back up, he ran his hand from her calf up her jeans-clad leg to her hip.

  Amber’s breath caught in her throat. She couldn’t move. His eyes mesmerized her. She thought she could almost see… something there. A wildness running through his soul. Had she seen that before? When they were young?

  “I don’t want you to make me dinner…or lunch… or brownies.” He growled his words low in his throat. “I don’t want to be paid back or told thank you.”

  Amber wasn’t sure it was possible, but he pulled her closer. She felt her bag slip from her slack fingers and vaguely heard it land with a rustle on the leaf-strewn ground.

  “All I want, all I’ve ever wanted since I was fifteen and smelled the sun on your hair, is you.” With that, he pressed his lips to hers.

  Her keys joined her bag, and the tissue was whisked off by the wind. Amber’s arms flew up to either side of Ryder’s head, and her fingers threaded through his thick black hair. Her heart beat wildly, and her eyes drifted closed. Suddenly all her other senses seemed heightened. She could feel his heart beating up against her breasts. His body heat was soaking through their clothes and seeping into her skin. Her breasts tingled, and her nipples tightened into hard, achy tips.

  Ryder parted his lips and let his tongue trace the curve of her lips. As her soft gasp parted those lips, Ryder swiftly used the advantage and stroked her mouth with his tongue. His hands began moving. One tracing her hip and rounded buttock, always pressing her curves closer to him, closer to his heat. His other hand pulled from her waist and up and over her waistband, and under her t-shirt to the gentle arch at the bottom of her ribcage.

  Amber let out a small groan when his thumb grazed the underside of her ample breast. She breathed in deeply and smelled…Ryder. That strange musk of man and outdoors that had meant Ryder to her ever since they were kids. It had always had a strange effect on her senses. On her self. This time it released the hard little knot that resided deep in her belly. It uncoiled and unwound and stretched. She pulled Ryder’s head closer to hers and let her tongue explore his mouth.

  Ryder felt the shift in her and smiled to himself. He could smell the need in her. He felt the need to mark her as his own, to take her, to show her and the world she still belonged to him. Without releasing his hold on her mouth, he stroked both hands over her hips and buttocks. He cupped his hands right at the curve where her butt met her thigh, letting his fingertips touch one another on the inside curves of her legs, and lifted.

  Amber squeaked. She was startled out of her lust for a moment. She’d never allowed herself to be picked up before. She’d never dreamed it’d be so easy for anyone, to begin with. Ryder, however, hadn’t grunted or strained. He’d just seemed to pull her closer to him, and suddenly, she was up, legs wrapped neatly around his narrow hips, arms resting on broad shoulders, face even with face. Ryder took a couple of steps forward, then, and jostled her a bit. Amber’s dark brown eyes widened in shock. The shifting had rubbed her center against his hips. She hadn’t realized how thin and threadbare her favorite jeans must’ve gotten. It sure felt like there was nothing between herself and his hard body than a lightweight cloth. She burned, moaned, and plunged her mouth down for more of Ryder’s taste.

  Right then, a car horn blared at them.

  “Get a room!” Some jokester laughed.

  Their lips broke apart. Both of them glanced around, a bit dazed at their surroundings. Ryder gripped Amber’s hips tighter and leaned in for more.

  “No. Wait.” Amber pushed back from him.

  Maybe she pushed a bit too hard. Or maybe her resistance caught him by surprise, but when he let go, she fell. Right on her tailbone beside the only road leading directly into the main street of the town where they’d each been born and raised, she sprawled. Laid out like Da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man. Or like she was making a snow angel here in March, when there was no snow. She closed her eyes in mortification.
r />   Ryder groused, “What’d you do that for? Here, let me help you up.”

  “No! I’m fine.”

  Still she lay there for a heartbeat more. Then she drew her arms up behind her and leaned on them. Ryder thought the look quite fetching, as it arched her back slightly and pushed her breasts impudently his way.

  She blew that errant strand of hair out of her eyes. “I’m fine. Really.” She tipped over onto her hands and knees, which made Ryder grin broadly, and pushed herself to standing. When she used her hands to brush dirt and grass off her clothes, Amber realized her nipples were still hard and standing up. Easily seen through the material of her t-shirt. She scurried over to her car and grabbed a hoodie out of the front seat. Snapping it over her head and flipping her hair out from underneath were done in a single motion. She glanced back to where Ryder still stood, smirking her direction.

  “I’m fine.” Telling herself that this would become her mantra if it needed to be, she checked over her car to make sure everything was as it should be. Oddly, there was a piece of paper under her windshield wiper. It looked like a parking ticket? What?

  She reached for it, but wasn’t as quick as Ryder was.

  “What the hell is this? You got a parking ticket? How long were you here? An hour? Maybe two?” Ryder’s voice was outraged.

  She snatched the piece of paper out of his hands.

  “It’s my ticket. Let me see it.”

  Sure enough, it looked to be an official parking ticket from the County of Ridge, Montana. Abandoned Vehicle. She looked at it in confusion.

  “But I was picked up by a county officer. They knew it wasn’t abandoned.” She turned the ticket over in her hand, trying to make sense of it. Her eyes caught the scrawl across the back.