The Right Bear's Arms BBW Paranormal Bear Shifter Romance
By: Nora Eli
Chapter One
Every Friday morning, like clockwork, the same rough old teamster would sit in Katie’s section and comment on her ass.
“Hey, sweetcheeks! Why don’t you walk that big ass over here and get me some coffee?” His big, hoarse, three-pack-a-day voice boomed across the diner, followed by a raucous laugh at his own cleverness.
Katie rolled her eyes and raised her index finger to him (instead of the finger she really wanted to raise), and tried to focus on the two customers sitting in front of her. The big one especially. When he’d walked in, he’d nearly filled the diner’s door frame, and he was gorgeous, like, “haven’t I seen you on a magazine somewhere before?” gorgeous: longish wavy chestnut hair, chiseled jaw marked with stubble. It was hard to keep from staring. She smiled at him, desperately wishing she had her camera with her. What a portrait he’d make. “Sorry about that, what can I get you?”
Tall-and-Beautiful gave her a once-over that traced her full curves like fingertips. Men looked at her chest and hips all the time—they were hard to miss in the pink rayon of her uniform, but no one had ever made her feel weak in the knees before. “Do you need somebody to talk to him?” He meant the teamster. God, even his voice was sexy.
“Nah, it’s okay. I can handle him.” She flashed him a grin despite the pulse racing in her throat. “Besides, he usually tips like a dream.”
“He better,” Tall-and-Beautiful rumbled.
“Jake, quit flirting and order, I’m starving.” The other man at the table looked starving, scrawny and pinched-looking, like a kicked dog. That’d be another great picture. Black and white, slouched in front of a grimy brick wall and—wait.
Was he flirting? Oh god, he was. Katie’s pulse hit triple-time.
“Yeah, yeah,” Jake said. Not only was he flirting, but he blushed when he got caught. Oh, he was going to be trouble. “I’ll take the special,” he said. “Rafe’s gonna order that awful garbage omelet you make, just watch.”
“I like it, it’s got everything,” Rafe whined. He was kind of cute, in a puppyish way. “And coffee,” he said to Katie. “Lots of coffee.”
“Got it. I’ll be right back with the coffee.” She glanced at Jake and their eyes met. Her breath caught in her throat, trapped by the warm brown depths of his eyes. There was something familiar about him, as if she’d met him somewhere before. No chance of that though, she’d remember those broad shoulders and big, capable-looking hands. Hands like that made a girl have dirty thoughts, thinking about what those fingers might be able to do. No, she hadn’t met him before, but she was glad she had now.
“Can’t wait,” Jake said. The way he looked at her made her mouth go dry and her palms go damp.
Instead of trying to say something witty, she turned to put in their order, conscious of Jake watching her walk away.
“Katie, order up!” That’d be for the teamster, ugh.
Mack, the owner and short order cook, pushed the plate across the pass. He’d had tried to speak up for her the first couple times the teamster had given her grief, but Katie didn’t need her boss to stand up for her. She could deal with a few fat jokes. Yeah, she was a big girl, always had been. It was in her DNA. She was built like a mama bear at the end of summer: tall and broad-hipped and plump.
“Come on, I want to see you move it, honey. Don’t send your scrawny little friend over here.”
Katie gritted her teeth. As far as she was concerned, anyone talking about the size of her ass was just stating the obvious. But talking smack about Anna? That was over the line. Anna was about the sweetest person Katie knew.
“Don’t kill him,” Anna whispered as Katie passed her carrying his food.
“Can I singe him a little?”
“Better not, he looks like the type who’s friends with the cops.”
Katie huffed a stray copper curl out of her eyes for about the tenth time that morning, and put on her best smile. She’d grown up dealing with men like him: loud, obnoxious, uncouth—smelly. At least she was willing to bet the teamster couldn’t turn into a nine-foot tall bear and maul her if she pissed him off. And her mother wondered why she never wanted to be the mate of an alpha bear. “Here you go.”
“Took you long enough,” he said as she got to his table. “Where’s my coffee, heifer?”
She kept smiling, and leaned over closer. “Listen, ‘sweetcheeks.’ I know you’re a big man who likes to talk big, and that’s fine. You can say whatever you want to say about me, but you leave my friend out of it.” She looked him in the eye. “Didn’t anybody ever tell you it’s a bad idea to piss off the people handling your food?” She walked away to get his coffee.
By the time she came back with the coffee pot, he’d thought up a witty response. “Hey girlie, you better—”
“I’m just saying.” Katie finished pouring the hot, hot coffee without spilling a drop. “This coffee is really hot, and accidents do happen.” She shook her head. “Floor gets slippery, especially over here. It’d be a shame if all this boiling hot coffee wound up in somebody’s lap.”
“You wouldn’t.”