Read Rancher Bear: BBW Bear Shifter Romance (Bear Haven Book 2) for Free Online Page A

of relief. “You have a lovely cabin.”
    “Thank you,” he said, sinking onto a couch in disbelief that she was here. Then he realized it was rude and stood again, guided her to a soft chair across from him and then sinking onto the couch again with a groan. This little female was killing him.
    “I didn’t mean to bother you,” she said, twisting her pale hands in her lap as she spoke. Damn, that lap looked soft and inviting. She had the kind of killer curves that started fights in this territory. Wide, generous hips, a cute, curved stomach, and gorgeous breasts that would fill his hands and then some.
    And he had big hands.
    He bit the inside of his cheek to keep from saying anything stupid and told his body to wait and see what the little female wanted.
    No rush, boy.
    “Like I said, I didn’t mean to bother you. It’s just… I was wondering if you’d have sex with me.”
    His jaw fell open. Of all the things he expected to come out of that sinfully beautiful mouth, that was the last one. His heart thudded in his chest as he shifted position to hide the hardness rising between his legs at the thoughts that arose from her request.
    He was torn at this moment, between his want for her, the hot fantasies he’d been having ever since she came back, and the knowledge that she was still hell bent on going back to another man.
    “What about Seth?” he asked tightly. He couldn’t give his everything to her if she was going to leave. He just couldn’t.
    She shook her head, looking sad, and he hated himself for asking. But he felt honesty was always the best policy, and if they were going to do something so personal, so connected, he wanted to know everything was open between them.
    “He isn’t coming,” she said. “I guess I wanted him to. I wanted the whirlwind romance. But I’m accepting that’ll never happen.”
    “So you’re done with him?” he asked tightly, trying to keep his body reined in. The bear in him was roaring.
    Claim the mate. Claim her.
    “I want to be honest with you,” she said. “Things are complicated for my species. We… get matched at birth. There are rules.”
    “I’ll break all of them for you,” he said. “You’re meant for me. Can’t you feel it?”
    She shook her head. “I can’t. I don’t know how it works for bears, but we aren’t taught to listen to feelings like that.”
    “I don’t know,” he said, kneeling in front of her chair and tilting her chin. “There’s so much we don’t know about the wild nature that makes us who we are. But I know I want you. I know you should be mine, and I know I’d fight an army if they came for you.”
    She nodded. “But I want you to respect that I have to make my own choices.” She sighed. “But in all likelihood, Seth won’t come. He's always gone along with our pairing because it was convenient. Because his family liked it. But he hasn’t ever really wanted me. We haven’t even had sex.” She looked up at him, and the shame shining in her eyes distracted him from the shock of what she’d just said.
    “Wait, what?” he asked. “You’re a virgin?”
    She nodded shyly. “In my species it’s not necessary until we want to breed.”
    “If the rules are so stringent, then why doesn’t your ex-fiancé seem to care about them?”
    “He hasn’t had to,” she said, hanging her head. “He gets to live how he wants and get admiration at the same time. He probably assumes I’ll crawl back, afraid of my family.” She met his eyes with fire in their green depths. “But not this time. I’m not going back to him this time. Even if I go back to New York, it won’t be to him.”
    “That’s all I need to know,” Jesse said, picking her up and making her squeak in alarm before throwing her arms around his neck.
    “What are you doing?”
    “Taking you to my bed to do what Seth should have done long ago. And what I would have killed him for doing.”
    Her eyes widened, auburn lashes fluttering in shock just