Dancing Bearback (BBW Shifter Cowboy Western Romance) (Bear Ranchers Book 3)

by Becca Fanning

  Wide-eyed, she looked back and forth between them.

  “So yeah…that’s the big secret. Is there anything you want to know?” asked Michael.

  “Yes,” Nesha said. “Do you validate parking here or at the front desk?”

  They all laughed at this, smiling and shaking their heads.

  FIN

  CHOCOLATE VANILLA SWIRL TITLE PAGE

  Chocolate Vanilla Swirl

  by

  Becca Fanning

  CHOCOLATE VANILLA SWIRL

  “Is this Iyesha Barnes?” a strange voice came through the phone. Barely conscious, Iyesha’s eyes tried to focus on the caller ID on her cellphone but it was all a blur. The light barely coming through the blinds told her it was still early. Much earlier than the 10am she normally rolled out of bed.

  “Yerth…” Iyesha mumbled. Her tried licking her lips but her mouth was a desert. She tried to sit up but any attempt to raise her head above her pillow caused crushing pain behind her eyelids. Oh yeah…margarita bowls. Those sounded like such a great idea last night. Now…not so much.

  “Excuse me, I’m looking for Iyesha Barnes…do I have the right number?” the voice now said. Pure exasperation came out of Iyesha’s phone. Whomever this person was, they’d already had a very long day.

  Iyesha swallowed, painfully. “Yes, this is Iyesha.” Her spare hand fumbled blindly by the side of the bed, hoping some kind of hydration was in arms reach. “Uhh…how can I…help you?” Satisfied with her professional businesslike response, her hand found a bottle and she brought it up to her face. Raspberry Vodka? Why would I buy this instead of clean crisp water?

  “Ms. Barnes, my name is Maxwell. We got your name from Aaronshire Assistants. We have an immediate need for someone with your qualifications. I have three questions that I have to ask, however.”

  “Ok, go ahead,” Iyesha said while trying to remember who the hell Aaron-whatever Assistants were. Ahh! That agency I gave a resume to when Dad threatened to cut off my rent money. That day began with an unexpected visit from Dad, which lead to a mad dash to clean up incriminating evidence around the apartment. Then she shoved the cute skater boy under her bed, where he had to keep quiet for two hours until her Dad left.

  “First, do you have any warrants for your arrest or reasons that would prevent you from air travel today?”

  “Uhhh…” Iyesha’s mouth hung open. This has to be a dream. What is even happening? “No, none that I know of.”

  “Is your answer no, or is your answer none that you know of?” Maxwell asked with a sigh.

  “My answer is no,” Iyesha said, sitting up in bed. Headache be damned, she needed to pay attention.

  “Second, do you have a valid passport?”

  “Yes.” Iyesha knew that well enough: she’d just gotten it renewed in expectation of a trip to Finland in summer. If she could afford it. Of course, there was the issue of where it was at the moment, but she would cross that river when she came to it.

  “Third, would you be willing to sign and abide by a non-disclosure agreement that prevented you from revealing any details about the activities or persons you might witness during your employment with us?” A heavy silence hung over the room as Maxwell finished his question.

  “Yes,” Iyesha said, her stomach fluttering. And that’s not the hangover. There was something…exciting and forbidden about this, she could tell.

  “Excellent, Ms. Barnes. We’ll be needing your services as a private attendant and assistant for the next four days. You’ll need to report to the Dallas Executive Airport in four hours. From there you’ll be flying to Tahiti, spend a weekend in a tropical paradise, then arrive back in Dallas Sunday night.”

  “Wow, a trip to Tahiti! Wait…wait,” she said, getting her bearings. “Who is this? Is this some kind of timeshare scam shit? Listen, asshole, have you ever heard of the Do Not Call List? I’m pretty sure I’m on it!” She knew she wasn’t. They wanted you to fill out a whole form for that. Who has that kind of time?

  “Ms. Barnes, this isn’t a timeshare opportunity. I’m the manager for an individual who will have to remain nameless until you’ve signed the NDA. And while this won’t be a vacation, it will be a very enjoyable and memorable experience. Your day rate will be fifteen hundred dollars, plus incidentals.”

  Fifteen hundred dollars a day! Holy shit! Alarms started going off in her head. Who would pay her this much? She had some experience interning for muckity-mucks at her dad’s firm, and she had completed both massage training and bartender certification. But no one in those fields earned this much.

  “Hello? Are you still there?”

  “Yes! I’m just a little shocked, that’s all,” Iyesha responded bluntly.

  “Look, Iyesha…can I call you Iyesha?”

  “Call me Iyesha. Everyone does.”

  “Ok Iyesha,” Maxwell continued, “I know this sounds unconventional, but I promise that it will all be made clear once you sign the paperwork at the airport. I just can’t divulge anything else until then. Can we count on you?”

  “Yes. Four hours you said? That’s plenty of time to get to DFW,” Iyesha said, swinging her feet out of bed. Easy-peasy…even in rush hour, which it would be soon.

  A chuckle came through the phone. “Not DFW airport Iyesha. Dallas Executive Airport. Different place. When you get there just tell security who you are and they’ll direct you to the right hangar.”

  “Of course, Dallas EXECUTIVE Airport,” Iyesha emphasized, trying to hide her embarrassment. “I know where that is.” She didn’t.

  “Ok, then we’ll see you in less than four hours.” A click told her that Maxwell had hung up the phone.

  Shit shit shit! She prayed she still had enough time to get to the airport, wherever it was. She planted both feet on the floor and stood up. The room spun around her and she crashed into her dresser, her favorite bong bouncing off it and landing, mercifully, on a pile of dirty laundry.

  Iyesha held onto the dresser with an iron grip. She heard a cough behind her and looked back in alarm. A bunch of covers on the other side of her bed animated and a hairy arm came into view. Who the hell is this?

  “Umm…hey! Hey there! Wake up!” she yelled at the man, who began snoring. She took a deep breath and launched herself back towards her bed. Her face was the only part of her body that made it, her arms splayed out below her trying to reach the floor. She pulled herself up and climbed onto the bed. She put her feet up against the side of this sleeping person and slowly pushed him off his side of the bed.

  His body landed with a thump, and a loud groan came from the floor. Iyesha quickly laid back down and closed her eyes. As the guy got up, she pretended to wake up and stretched.

  “Oh hey…you,” she said.

  “Kyle,” he mumbled.

  “Right! Kyle. Kyle, I had a great time last night. That thing you did…wow. It was awesome. But now you have to go,” Iyesha said, hoping she sounded convincing.

  “Come on baby, let’s have some snuggle time,” Kyle said, crossing over the bed and leaning in for a kiss.

  Nope! Iyesha put a hand on his chest. “Hey, I’d love to, but I have to go to work now, so you have to leave.”

  “But you don’t have a job.”

  “Huh?”

  “You told me last night. You don’t have a job and your dad pays your rent,” Kyle said, wiping his eyes.

  Iyesha cursed her momentary onset of honesty. In vino veritas, as the Romans said. Summoning her best scared look, she grabbed Kyle by the arms. “You’re right, I don’t have a job. But my boyfriend is coming home.”

  Eyes widening, Kyle scrambled out of the bed. “Boyfriend? You said-“

  “Look I’m sure I said a lot of things but my boyfriend is coming home from third shift and his watch commander has been giving him hell recently.”

  “Your boyfriend is a cop?” Kyle shrieked, grabbing his jumble of clothes and making for the front door wearing nothing but socks.

  Iyesha heard her front door
slam and footsteps going down the stairs. She barely registered a lady screaming outside her window a moment later. She stumbled to the bathroom and hovered over the toilet. She peed for what seemed like a half hour, even standing up to admire her handiwork. She drank from the faucet, using a cupped hand because no glass was in reach. Toothbrush in her mouth she ran back to her bedroom and pulled out her laptop.

  She tried to pull up the website for the airport, but her computer said she wasn’t connected to the internet. Goddamnit, Clarissa must’ve changed the password again. Picking up her phone, she dialed her neighbor.

  “Hi Iyesha,” Clarissa said.

  “Hey Clarissa, real quick, what’s the new password for your WiFi?” Iyesha said, poised over her keyboard.

  “I’m not giving that to you, Iyesha. Carmelo said we got a cease and desist letter because you downloaded something,” Clarissa said.

  “Your boyfriend is so full of shit Clarissa. Maybe he was downloading something he didn’t want you to know about, you ever think of that?”

  “I…uhh…no. Wait, what do you mean?”

  “Clarissa I need the password: it’s an emergency. I think my dog ate poison and I need to rush him to the vet,” Iyesha said. She felt a little bit guilty at this degree of manipulation and deceit, but she was trying to get a job. Clarissa would be devastated if she knew she was the reason I was forced to live off my parents for the rest of my life.

  “Oh no! Here, the password is Carmissa, it’s like if you put mine and Carme-“

  Iyesha hung up the phone as her computer joined the network. It’d be a few minutes before Clarissa realized she didn’t have a dog.

  DING!

  The bell over the gas station door rang as Iyesha made a beeline straight for the coolers in the back. She grabbed a purple bladder buster jug of sugar water, unscrewed the cap, and drank it down. The freezing air from the open cooler made her nipples stand up in her white tank top. She spun around and walked up to the cashier.

  “Just the drink?” the portly man asked her breasts.

  “Yes and…you asshole!” she said, covering herself in faux humility.

  The man tore his gaze from her perky breasts and looked down at his register. Sweat began to stain the armpits of his shirt.

  “I’m trying to support a small American business and you eye rape me like a piece of hamburger! I want to talk to your manager,” Iyesha said, hoping she still looked offended. There are so many pictures of my rack on the internet there are probably websites devoted to them. But this guy didn’t know that.

  “Look, you just take the drink and we’ll call it even,” the man said, still not making eye contact.

  “I’ll take the drink and eight gallons at pump 2,” she said, hoping she didn’t press her luck too hard.

  “Fine, whatever. Just get out of here!”

  Turning to leave, Iyesha grabbed a packet of breath mints and put them in her pocket. She glared at the gas attendant, daring him to say anything. He sat behind his bulletproof glass, the small hand motions below the counter indicating either scratching or masturbating.

  Back at the car, Iyesha pumped gas and looked at the sad state of her car. It had been brand new four years ago when her dad bought it for her, but it was in serious disrepair now. It didn’t help that the backseat was piled with clothing and trash. She was sure people in her neighborhood thought a homeless person must be living out of it. Somewhere in that heap of detritus was a nice professional outfit still in dry-cleaning bags.

  Done pumping gas, she got into her car and turned the ignition. Her dashboard lit up in red lights, all of which stayed on. She knew these were all things the car needed. One little picture was oil, another one looked like waves. I guess that means it needs water. As far as she was concerned, her car only had to get her to the airport, then she’d earn enough money to fix all the problems it had.

  Iyesha pulled up to the security station at the airport entrance. Her car had been making some new and alarming noises the last few miles, so she was relieved when saw the place off the highway. She realized that this would be the real test. If this whole thing had been one of her friends pranking her, this would be where it all falls apart. She’d give her name, the security drone would look at her blankly, her car would die, and she’d have to hitchhike via hand jobs back to the city.

  Iyesha took in a deep breath and rolled down her window. “Hi!” she exclaimed to the guard, as perky as could be. Maybe if this was a sham, he’d take pity on her and pay for a cab. It’s never too early to start being nice.

  “Hello little Missy, may I have your name?” the guard said, his minty aftershave arousing something in Iyesha.

  “Iyesha Barnes?” Iyesha asked. Good job, idiot. You sound like you don’t know your own name!

  The guard gave her an odd look and scanned his clipboard. Without saying anything he stood up and walked out of his security station. His hand went to his hip.

  He’s going to pepper spray me! She rolled up her window as fast as she could and floored it, expecting to blow through the gate. She was already trying to think of what she’d tell her dad with her one phone call from jail. Instead of launching forward, her car engine just groaned loudly. She glanced at her gearshift, and a bright green “P” shone back at her.

  The knock on her window scared her half to death. A confused security guard stood next to her car, trying to yell over her engine. She took her foot off the accelerator and cracked her window.

  “Ok, you’ll want to pull forward and make your way to hangar four. Leave this hanging from your rear view mirror,” he said as he pulled a small hanging tag from a hip pocket and slid it sideways through the tiny gap of open window.

  “Thank you!” Iyesha said, putting her car into drive and going through the opening gate. She arrived in front of hangar four shortly thereafter. She saw a few very expensive imported cars parked nearby and pulled up next to them. Looking at her watch, she let out a small moan. Eight minutes late already! I don’t even know where my clothes are! She spun out of the drivers side door and dove into the backseat. Empty soda bottles, club clothes and more than a few hamburger wrappers were tossed into the front seat. Reaching the seats and floor, she realized with dread that they must be in the trunk.

  The trunk. The thought alone depressed her. Long ago she’d started using the trunk as a way to forget things. Bad grades, bad friends, bad breakups. Anything she never wanted to see again was piled into the trunk. She remembered that a year ago it’d been so full she had to practically jump down onto the trunk to close it. She went to the front seat and pulled the trunk release.

  She turned towards the back and saw the gas cap popped open. Not now! She bent down to pull the correct release and closed the gas cap on her way to the back of the car. The smell was like old gym socks and the cologne an old boyfriend used to wear. She must’ve thrown a bottle of it back here with his stuff, where it likely cracked open and now permanently soiled her trunk.

  Looking down at the task before her, she drew inspiration from the Navy SEAL training documentaries she would sometimes masturbate to. All those glistening muscular men who met any challenge head-on, no matter what. The one thing they didn’t do was quit. Come hell or high water, they had a mission and they did it or died.

  She lifted a large brown duffel bag from the top of the pile and lying right beneath it was a set of dry cleaner bags and a shoebox. She squealed in delight, thankful she didn’t actually have to dig through that dungeon of terrible life decisions. She pulled the dress and shoes out and closed the trunk. Looking around to make sure the coast was clear, she got into the back seat and wriggled out of her tank top and blue jean cutoff shorts.