by Yvette Hines
Scrooge’s Bear
Erotic Shifter Fairy Tales
Yvette Hines
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved. The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. No part of this book may be used or reproduced electronically or in print without written permission by the author.
Scrooge’s Bear
Copyright © 2013, Yvette Hines
Cover Artist: Kellie (Covers by K Designs http://coversbykdesigns.blogspot.com/)
Editor: Bernadette Schane
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Dedication
To my author friends and friends that have stood beside me through this year of trails. To my readers who are always patience, long-suffering who are there to encourage with the right reviews as the right time.
Table of Contents
1. Chapter One
2. Chapter Two
3. Chapter Three
4. Chapter Four
5. Chapter Five
Chapter One
Cloves and apricots. The scent drew him from the lobby of the elite hotel into the bar. He’d just completed a dinner meeting with a new fertilizer supplier and was on his way toward the front door when the delicate sweet and warm woodsy blend tickled his nose and tightened his core.
Where is it coming from? His bear nudged him on. It was late and he really needed to begin the three-hour drive back to Den County. However, he moved one step after another in the direction his animal nature guided him. Crossing the threshold of the bar he was bombarded by the multiple colognes and perfumes of the many women and men milling around. It was a Tuesday night, he doubted it normally was so packed with people, however, it was Christmas Eve. He assumed most were in town visiting family or on their own getaway, possibly part of an office holiday party. He supposed for most Sacramento was a great place to be for Christmas, but not for a Were-bear like him. He and his kind enjoyed quiet time hibernating in their cabins with their family.
Even with all the other scents swirling through the air, the clove and apricot overpowered them all. Glancing around the room, he searched for the source disregarding one woman after another as they huddled around in groups at tables or on the dance floor swinging their hips before men to upbeat holiday tunes. Then his gaze glided over a woman sitting alone in a corner booth, far away from the source of music and revelry. A chestnut-brown-skinned Black woman, dressed in a dark emerald-green pantsuit, as she were attempting to pay homage to the holiday, but not. Her hair was long. He didn’t know how long since she had it pulled back in a bun. A classic, elegant and professional look. She was on her cell phone, but he could tell she was searching for someone by the shifting of her gaze as she inspected and rejected one man after another.
Was she meeting someone, or just hoping to catch someone?
The growl that rumbled low in his chest shocked him. It wasn’t like him to be territorial over a female. He didn’t lack for female companionship. Since he traveled in and out of the county conducting various business ventures, he met more than his share, and enjoyed them.
She shifted slightly in her seat and turned her head toward the door and met his gaze. And he was practically rocked back on his heels by the impact of the contact. What seized his breath in his chest was the vibrant gold tinge on the peripheral of his vision. Shit.
Damn. Heat bloomed in his core and began to spread out through his body.
Fuck. The hair on the nape of his neck began to rise.
The last thing he needed was to go feral in a group of non-shifters and wind up on the eleven o’clock news as a special report. That would bring unwanted attention to his community. They lived under the radar and liked it that way. It was probably best for him to execute an about-face and hightail it back up to Den.
However, he’d never been one to do exactly what was expected of him. A wild card among his friends and family, he danced to his own beat too often. And if this business trip opened the door for him to get a little hot sheet action, he was all for it.
Knowing he took a risk, he moved forward—in part because he wanted to, but more importantly, because he had to.
Holding her gaze he moved toward her. His vision became more of a tunnel and his hearing distinguished between the music and other people and zeroed in on all things of the woman before him—her slight elevated breathing and heart beat.
It wasn’t beating in full excitement or arousal mode but it was definitely headed there.
As he drew closer, he noticed other things like the wide strip of gray hair that blended into the dark locks being held back. Also the tension at the corners of her mouth, making her appear to be a woman who didn’t smile often.
Arriving at the table beside her, he held his hand out. “Hello, I’m Dainton.”
~YH~
Ebony stared down at the hand offered to her—a strong, large, wide hand. The question of whether or not she should take it never crossed her mind. It wasn’t that she was some germaphobe. But, taking heed of her reaction to him since she’d spotted him at the door, she wasn’t taking any chance.
She’d never been one of those women who believed the hype of Hollywood movies where the girl got a million butterflies in her stomach at the sight of a handsome man and dreamed of romance. She categorized them with the fools that had faith in Santa Claus. Even with the experiences of her past haunting her, she still found herself unable to slow down the quick pace of her heart, which had increased with every step he had taken toward her.
Tonight must be the night of firsts, since she’d never utilized the service of an escort, but here she sat with one towering over her in what must be six-five plus of “oh my god” maleness. Where did people find men so striking and imposing? The man could have had a career in the NFL. Or been some corporate tycoon. She’d been around more than her share in the business field and none of them wore a suit like this man. At his astounding height and girth, he had to have them tailor made. With what she was paying the service for his company, they could afford it easily.
Still aware that he waited for her to accept his proffered hand, she spoke into the phone. “Nikki, I’ll call you tomorrow.”
“You better,” her best friend began. “I want every detail.”
“You know that is not my style.”
“Hey, with my husband in Afghanistan working for the last seven months and having to live vicariously through your hot, high-dollar adventure, you’re going to tell me about it with every T and I that was performed dotted and crossed. You got that, Ebony Scrooge?”
Ebony felt the corners of her mouth twitch a little. She only had one friend in the world, and that was Nikki. Over the years, it had been hard for her to connect with people and believe that they would stick around for her. However, Nikki Tiglen had borrowed a pen from her during freshmen orientation at the state college and been in her life since then. “Fine, I’ll see what I can do.”
Laughing, Nikki said, “You better. Take care of yourself. You need this.�
��
With her escort standing so close, Ebony wasn’t in a position to question or comment to her best friend. It had been Nikki’s idea to contact the service as a sort of liberation and celebration of starting a new life for Ebony. She had allowed Nikki to convince her that restarting her life by revitalizing her nonexistent sex life was the key. Ebony wasn’t sure if she was convinced.
The man drew his hand away and slipped both of them into the pockets of his slacks, disturbing the lay of his coat.
“I guess. Talk to you later.”
“Nightie Night.” Nikki’s sing-song words came through the line moments before the call was ended.
While she took a moment to drop her cell phone into her purse, Ebony gathered her thoughts and tried to use the seconds to take a deep breath. Big mistake.
The man had the most alluring cologne she’d ever smelled—a robust woodsy scent with a hint of cinnamon. Just the small whiff made her toes curl in her shoes and created a strong desire to lean in and bury her face in the curve of his neck.
Clearing her throat she looked up at him. “Please sit. I don’t relish having a crick in my neck when I wake up in the morning.”
As he lowered himself to the booth seat across from her, she noted the frown on his face at her tone. She purposely maintained a crisp and direct speech, the same she’d used for years at the investment firm. A job she held no more. However, she wanted this giant of a man to know she’d hired him and to her it was business—sex—but business.
He maneuvered his bulk into the booth, settling across from her. Once he was situated, squeezed into what appeared to be a tight space for him, she felt the heat of his knees on the outside of hers. Maybe because she was a tall woman, and he was a huge man, their legs met in the center below the table. It felt intimate with her knees pressed together between his. She crossed her ankles and pulled her feet back, trying to give herself a little space, even if it didn’t change much.
Staring across the table, she was seized by the intensity of his gaze on her. She swallowed a few times, finding it difficult to have those unique eyes on her. His eyes were so dark they were black, which was impossible since no one technically had black eyes. However, the other fascinating part was that it appeared that his irises were tinged at the edges as if traced by a gold thread.
“My name is Ebony. There’s no need for last names since we will not be acquainted for very long.” Licking her lips she swallowed again. She needed to take control of this evening. She was the one paying for him to be here. “I’m glad to see that the service believes in punctuality. I hope they’ve also trained you all to follow instructions of the client. To the letter.”
His brows bunched together over the bridge of his nose. “Trained me? Is that right? Like a bear in a circus or something?”
Was it her imagination or did this man appear a little bristly. “Well, I would not have used those terms.”
Linking his hands together on top of the table, he leaned back against his side of the booth and slid down a little further causing his knees to now reach the sides of her thighs.
Damn. Ebony felt trapped. There was nowhere for her to scoot to so that she could escape the heat radiating from his body and crawling up her legs to the apex of her thighs. Pressing her hips down into the bench seat she stifled the ache that was growing there. She knew that sexual attraction to this man was a plus and would aid in what she needed to do with him tonight. However, it was the power of it that shook her inside.
“Look. I don’t want this to start off on the wrong path. Before we head upstairs—”
“Upstairs?” A single eyebrow rose.
Biting the inside of her cheek she kept herself from rolling her eyes. Why was he acting like a mockingbird? As if he was clueless to what was going to happen. Maybe it was their cover so they wouldn’t seem like prostitutes. However, no one was really fooled by what the real purpose of an escort service was. Even though Lady Salista had made Ebony sign an agreement that she was only expecting company and companionship for the evening and that she was not paying for anything sexual. After the eContract was signed, Lady Salista called her and said if anything physical happened between her and the escort it was mutual agreement between Ebony and the escort. But a nice tip was expected to the escort for the contractual service.
Ebony clearly understood the meaning of that to be ‘pay the man for the sex so it doesn’t get traced back to her company’. Ebony wondered if this was how the NY Madam hoped to keep her name clean.
“This is supposed to be a meeting over drinks.” She definitely needed one. Lifting her hand she started to wave a waitress over. “What would you like to drink? Bourbon, wine, beer…”
“Nothing.” Reaching up, he pulled her hand down. “I’m more interested in our discussion about upstairs.”
She couldn’t keep her eyes off his hand covering hers. It was sheer will that kept her from pulling her hand from beneath his much larger one. It was as if her hand was encased in a heating kiln. A feeling began to spread through her body, itchy, tingling…chills, she couldn’t put her mind to describe it accurately because it was something she’d never experienced before.
The contact between them gave her thoughts of the two of them bare, curled around each other in the forest. Her lungs began to squeeze and release rapidly as if some invisible fist was working them, leaving her feeling more breathless than when she ran ten miles daily on the treadmill.
“Umm…um...” She wanted her lips to form the words move your hand, but her voice seemed stuck in her throat for the second time that night. The urge surfaced to grab her purse and coat and walk out of the bar, not stopping until she was sealed in her car racing down the road to nowhere, anywhere but here feeling discombobulated and unlike herself.
Thankfully he moved his hand.
Raising her gaze as she filled her lungs with an excessive amount of air, she looked at him and wondered if he had sensed her discomfort. She shook that thought away.
Pulling her hand beneath the table and covering it with the other, she rubbed it slowly trying to stop the wicked sensation.
“Miss, did you need something.”
Ebony snapped her head toward the waitress who arrived at the table. Evidently the young black woman must have caught her signal anyway.
The waitress looked between Ebony and Dainton as if trying to assess if there was a problem.
“Yes. Water, please.”
The server set a small white napkin with the name of the hotel bar and logo on the bottom corner in front of Ebony. “You, sir.”
Looking back at her escort, she saw that he had not even glanced in the direction of the young woman standing next to their table.
Are his eyes more gold? Impossible.
“Nothing. I have everything I need already.”
Tapping the table with her long acrylic nails, the worker said, “I’ll be right back.”
Not willing to waste anymore time of the night, Ebony began to enlighten her “date.” “Were you briefed about my expectations?”
“I’d rather hear from you what you want…desire tonight,” he said without missing a beat.
Lifting her chin, she gave him one of the stares she’d perfected in her many years of being a department head, the kind that had always clearly shown those on her staff that she was disappointed that they hadn’t fully researched something before they presented it to her. “I would have hoped that there was some sort of required briefing before the scheduled meeting. Evidently I was wrong. Let me explain my request and requirements for this evening.”
Unlike her staff, this giant of a man didn’t appear to be fazed one iota by her frosty glare.
The fact he didn’t cower before her sent a frission of heat along her spine. No other man had stood up to her. The main reason she had been without male companionship for too many years for her to count. What woman wanted a man in her bed who couldn’t give back as good as he got?
Licking her lips, she reminded hers
elf that this man was not an option any further than sex. One night. This was not a long-term set up. So a growing admiration for him was for naught—worthless.
The waitress silently set down the tumbler of ice water and moved away.
“I will give it to you straight and short. I’m looking for something beyond drinks tonight, company. Of the physical kind.”
Still silent, he did nothing but tilt his head, a testament that he understood her meaning.
She went on. “I know per my contract with Lady Salista’s agency, the service you agreed to isn’t physical in nature. That if we are both mutually attracted to each other anything that progresses beyond the assigned date is exclusively between us. Are we both on the same page so far?”
“Definitely. The attraction between us is strong and powerful.” His eyes seemed to brighten even more.
Ignoring them, she reached for her water and sipped from it several times. She was feeling so heated she would have preferred to tip it back and finish it off in one gulp or pour it over herself. But she resisted.
She set the glass back on the table, but kept her hand around it, absorbing its coolness.
“I’ve rented a room in this hotel for the night. However, I think what I need shouldn’t take more than an hour.”
“Really?”
The fire coming from his gaze made her nipples draw up and the seat of her panties become drenched. This man most likely had no problem giving it to a woman good all night long. Things she had only heard about from her friends. Her past experiences were dismal at best. In her youth all the men were jackrabbits in the bedroom but little pleasure for her. Her desire for this night was for a great mind-blowing orgasm, she just hoped for what she had to pay for this man he could deliver. After that, she would put him out, shower, sleep, and be on her merry way to somewhere in the morning.