Shifters, Inc. The Bear Who Loved Me (A BBW paranormal romance) Read online

  He bit his lip, a look of intense concentration on his face. Then he said, “I want you to ride me.” His words made her clit swell and throb, and she threw her arms around his neck and drank in the blissful electrical sensations shooting through every nerve ending as he strode over to an overstuffed armchair, still firmly inside her. He sank into the chair with Tonya straddling his hips and let his head fall back, chest rising and falling in a rapid rhythm and his fingers white from clutching the arms of the chair.

  Then he lifted his head and looked at her. His pupils were wide and black, his rich brown irises dancing with golden flecks that seemed to add a playful element to the dark intensity of his gaze. He quirked a smile at her, then raised his hands to her breasts, stroking and teasing the generous flesh. Heart thudding, Tonya began to move, raising herself until his dick almost left her slick, needy flesh, then sinking back down. He filled her deliciously, completely. She sighed and wriggled, and the crisp curls of his pubic hair rubbed against her clit. A bolt of sensation shot to her womb and her pussy clenched. She whimpered as she drew back again, feeling the slide of his cock inside her. His skin radiated warmth, almost fever-hot, and a bead of sweat rolled down his temple as his face contorted into a look of fierce concentration. She leaned forward and licked at the droplet, allowing the salty taste to blossom on her tongue. She kissed the crease between his brows and he gave a long, guttural groan as she took his full length back inside her again.

  To have this kind of control over the huge, powerful shifter – to have him trembling beneath her and fighting to stave off his orgasm – was heady. It was hot. She had never felt so strong, so beautiful, so desired.

  She began to move faster, feeling excitement coiling in her belly. As she rode him, she milked his cock with her internal muscles, swiveling her hips to vary the friction. With each movement he moaned and clutched her hips, muttering desperate encouragement under his breath. She watched his beautiful lips shaping the words. “Oh God… Oh yes… Oh Tonya…”

  Then he tensed beneath her and held his breath, and Tonya pumped furiously against him, thirsty for his cries as her orgasm wound tighter and tighter inside her, then broke, sending shockwave after shockwave through her and over her.

  Heath shouted, his biceps bulging as he wrapped his massive arms around her and pumped his hips. His cries were desperate, urgent, trailing off into long, hoarse moans as she felt him spurting inside her. Her pussy throbbed around him, clenching and spasming again and again, and she heard her own voice, wild and unfamiliar, rising above his.

  * * *

  It was a long time before they managed to disentangle themselves and, on shaking legs, stagger to the bed.

  Heath pulled the covers over them and Tonya snuggled against his side, exhausted and utterly content.

  “So…” Heath tangled his fingers in her hair, playing with the fiery strands. “What did you think of my groveling?”

  Tonya drew idle circles on his pecs with her finger. “I think…I’d like to see you grovel a little more,” she said, smiling wickedly at him. “Another orgasm or two…”

  She yelped as he rolled her over and pinned her beneath his large body. “I think that can be arranged,” he rumbled, and kissed her again as his nimble fingers got busy in a variety of deliciously naughty ways.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Tonya was wrung out and exhausted, wrapped in Heath’s arms and wishing she never had to move from that spot, when a heavy pounding on the door jerked her from her dreamlike state.

  “What, damn it?” Heath groaned.

  Heath climbed out of bed, naked. Before he had a chance to walk towards the door, there was a clicking sound and the door opened and swung inward. A dozen security guards poured into the room, including the Beast and Jake. Pierre was with them as well.

  Heath glowered at them, claws shooting out from his fingertips. “What the hell are you doing in my room?”

  Pierre’s expression was grim. “We have some new information. Mr. Hooper found out, and we verified, that the day before leaving for this cruise, Tonya created a new bank account and one million dollars was wired into it. We’re working to identify the source of those funds. We also discovered that she is a newspaper reporter, and came on this boat using forged papers.”

  Tonya scrambled out of bed, clutching the sheet to her naked body. What would Tom try to pull next? What a grade-A pig.

  “I most certainly did not open up a new bank account, and nobody wired me a million dollars,” she said indignantly. “And Tom Hooper got me those forged papers because he thought he could trick me into serving as his companion.”

  “We will ask him about that, but it doesn’t change the fact that you boarded the ship under false pretenses,” Pierre said, his tone stern.

  This was absolute madness, Tonya thought, stunned. A million dollars? She wished!

  Heath went bear, fur rolling over his skin, towering over the other men. He let out a low, rumbling growl that threatened anyone who came near his mate.

  “Heath!” Jake snapped at him. “Don’t. Shifters, Inc. has already independently verified the million-dollar deposit. If she’s innocent, she won’t object to us searching her belongings. And her.” At Heath’s warning snarl, he added “We’ll have a female operative do the searching.” He gestured at one of the women with him.

  “I have no problem with it at all,” Tonya said, exasperated. She glanced at Heath. She didn’t want him to get hurt; he was a big bear, but they were up against a group of shifters who included a lion, a bear, numerous wolves… “Shift back. It’ll be fine. We’ll clear this up,” she pleaded.

  With a growl of rage, Heath shifted back to human form.

  Security agents swiftly searched Tonya’s luggage and purse, then two of them took everything she had brought with her back to their office. The rest of the people from Shifters, Inc. and the ship’s security crew stayed behind. At least there wasn’t anyone there from Hammersmith, Tonya noted with relief.

  A female agent went into the bathroom with her and walked around her, checking her out visually from front to back after she dropped her sheet. She confiscated all of Tonya’s jewelry, dropping it into a plastic bag.

  “Hey! That necklace was a gift from a friend!” Tonya complained.

  “We’ll keep it safe,” the woman promised her.

  Then Tonya quickly put on a pair of pull-on pants and a shirt – after the agent had searched them to make sure they didn’t contain weapons.

  Tonya rejoined Heath, who immediately threw a protective arm around her and glared murderously at the security personnel before leading her off to the other end of the huge cabin. All the security agents were standing in front of the door, Tonya noticed. As if she’d try to make a break for it. What was she going to do – jump over the side and swim to shore? She was a fox, not a dolphin.

  “We’ll be fine,” Heath reassured her, his face flushed with anger.

  “Why would someone do this?” Tonya asked, bewildered. “I understand that Tom would try to frame me. He’s turning out to be a grade-A pig. But he wouldn’t have put a million dollars in my account. Not only that, from what they’re saying, the account was created during the day – and he didn’t call me and ask me to come on this cruise until the evening. And the account was obviously created to frame me – by somebody with very deep pockets. So if it’s not him, then who?”

  “Very true,” Heath agreed. He frowned unhappily.

  “What?” Tonya demanded.

  “It’s just…when you disarmed that attacker the other day. Are you sure that you never had any other fight training? Because I’m telling you, your moves were far too fast and too professional to come from one self-defense class. That’s amazing natural ability combined with at least a decade of dedicated training.”

  Tonya was stunned. “You still don’t trust me?”

  “It’s not that!” Heath protested. “I believe in you. I just know what I saw. I’ve seen and been in every kind of fight. I’ve see
n every level of fighter. I’m a professional. And from the way you took out that waiter – so are you.”

  Tonya shrugged Heath’s shoulder off her arm as mingled hurt and anger rushed through her and threatened to choke her. He was looking for an excuse to break things off with her. Of course he would be; since when, in her entire life, had anyone picked her?

  “I’m going to handle this on my own,” Tonya said, with tears in her eyes. She turned and walked back towards the security guards with Heath following her.

  “Tonya, wait! I am one hundred percent with you! I’m just trying to understand!”

  She folded her arms across her chest and stood with her back turned to him.

  Pierre touched his Bluetooth earpiece, listening to a voice on the other end, then looked at Tonya. “You’ll have to come with us,” he said.

  “Why?” Heath demanded.

  “There are explosives concealed in some of her cosmetics containers, and poison in some of the others,” he said. Tonya felt a ripple of dizziness sweep over her. The cosmetics. Something about the cosmetics… She couldn’t remember.

  What was happening to her? She wasn’t an assassin, she wasn’t a skilled martial artist, and she wouldn’t even know where to find explosives, much less how to disguise them as cosmetics. And who had sent her a million dollars?

  “You’re not taking her. I will rip every last one of you to shreds,” Heath shouted. He tried to block them, but Tonya yelled, “Stop!”

  She turned to him, blinking away tears. “You don’t even believe a word I say. I want nothing to do with you. I will deal with this myself.” She had no idea how, but she didn’t want Heath to try to help her out of some misguided sense of obligation. He clearly had no faith in her.

  “Heath, don’t interfere, for God’s sake. You know we need to investigate this.” Jake and the Beast moved to block Heath as Tonya was escorted out of the room between two security guards.

  She could hear Heath following, bellowing in rage as Jake and the Beast and the other Shifters, Inc. operatives swarmed around him. As they marched down the walkway, she saw Tom up ahead, smirking.

  “How’s it feel, you ungrateful bitch?” he yelled at her gleefully. “You’re going to prison for the rest of your life!” Heath shifted again and lunged for him, but his fellow shifters also went animal, and blocked him.

  “I told you to stay out of the way,” Pierre snapped at him.

  “Well you made it very clear we don’t work for you anymore, so I can do whatever the hell I want,” Tom taunted.

  “So can I,” the Beast snarled, lashing out with a single punch to the jaw that sent Tom spinning, then collapsing into a heap on the deck.

  Tonya was quickly hustled to the security office and into an interview room. When the door slammed behind her, a sense of hopelessness settled over her like nothing she’d ever felt before.

  Chapter Fourteen

  “Keep it together, and stop pacing,” Jake snapped at Heath. “You’ve literally worn a hole in the carpet. Once we get back to shore, we can do a better job of investigating this.” The internet had been shut down again, they were totally cut off, and Heath couldn’t decide who he’d kill first.

  Heath glanced at the carpet of Jake’s floor. Yeah, he’d worn a hole in it, because he kept shifting and his claws were ripping it to shreds. It was one-thirty in the morning, she was still being held in her cell and insisting she had no idea where the money or the explosives had come from, and Heath wanted to kill everyone who wasn’t Tonya.

  He met Jake’s gaze with a challenging glare. “She can’t stay in a jail cell all that time.”

  “Heath, with the evidence they have, it’s understandable that they would insist on holding her.”

  “That’s my mate they’re holding!” Heath went bear again, for about the dozenth time since they’d taken Tonya, and for the dozenth time all the other Shifters, Inc. employees shifted, dove on him and pinned him to the ground until he shifted back.

  They weren’t even bothering to get dressed anymore. Too many shredded articles of clothing.

  They all climbed to their feet, grumbling and muttering.

  The Beast snapped his fingers at Heath to get his attention. “You want to help your mate? Use your brains. Normally, and it causes me actual pain to admit this, your strength is that you know when to use your brain and when to use brute force. Brute force isn’t going to accomplish shit here, so if you want to help her, start thinking and figure this out. If you’d rather show what a big tough bear you are, keep on shifting and we’ll keep on knocking you down. I’m here all night.”

  Heath hated to admit it, but the Beast was right. He wasn’t one to lose control in an emergency; it was his feelings for Tonya that were summoning the animal within him.

  “All right,” he said evenly. He took a deep breath and ignored the part of his brain that was screaming, Rescue your mate! Kill! Destroy! “Tonya could easily have gotten very close to Reshef or Benedetta – they both invited her to be their companion. For that matter, Duncan’s been out and about on the ship – it wouldn’t have been hard to get close enough to assassinate him. Tonya hasn’t made a move, which to me indicates that she isn’t the assassin.”

  “To play devil’s advocate, she could have been waiting until the boat was almost at port,” Jake said. “More chance to escape.”

  A brief surge of rage flowed through Heath and he forced it down. “Very risky,” he said. “Waiting until the last minute like that would mean there was a good chance her target would be doing something else, indisposed, whatever, and she wouldn’t be able to get to them.”

  He sat down, racking his brains. “The money was deposited before Tonya even knew she was coming on this ship. Jake, from what you tell me, you can’t tell where the money came from.”

  “Not yet,” Jake said. “By the time we’ve landed, our IT team will probably have been able to track it.”

  “Somebody, somehow, knew Tonya was coming on this trip before she did. Tom was the one got her on board. It’s likely he took a bribe.”

  “From what we’ve been able to determine so far, the money actually went into that account shortly before Interpol contacted the Shangri-La owners to warn them,” Jake said. “Somebody was already arranging for her to come on the ship before Hammersmith was contacted. So it would probably make sense to take the Hammersmith operatives into custody as well, until we’re on shore.”

  “The question is, how and why did they target Tonya to take the fall for this?” Heath growled, pacing the floor. “And when did they meet her? I need to talk to her, ask her if she’s met anyone new or if anything unusual has happened in the past few weeks.”

  “I’ll go,” Jake said evenly. When Heath started to protest, he said, “Pierre and his crew won’t let you in. I’ll be right back.”

  Before Heath could protest, he got up and walked out.

  Fifteen minutes later, he strode through the door.

  “She wouldn’t talk to you?” Heath said.

  “She was sleeping very heavily,” Jake said. “She wouldn’t wake up. The guard went and checked, and she was okay, she was just asleep.”

  Something about that… Heath shook his head.

  “She fell into a slumber like that on the first day we got here, where she couldn’t be woken up,” Heath said. “But that isn’t normal for her. Other times she slept normally. This was practically like a coma. To me, that says some kind of magic control.”

  “We could consult the ship’s wizard,” the Beast suggested.

  “We could, but I want to talk to Antonia first. The wizard works for the cruise company – he’ll be representing their interests. She’ll want to help Tonya, and from what I gather, she’s got at least some magical ability.”

  Jake asked for Antonia to be sent to their room, and the shifters quickly got dressed in the extra clothes that Jake always kept on hand for them. Shifters went through a lot of outfits.

  It took about half an hour, but Antonia
came marching in, looking sleep-rumpled and angry.

  She stomped up to Heath and slapped him in the face, hard. Then she kicked him in the shins. Everybody tried not to snicker. She was human; Heath would barely feel it.

  “You arrest my friend? You son of a bitch! She is good person!”

  “Yes, I know,” he said, exasperated. “I had already come to that conclusion.”

  She stared at him, narrow-eyed. “Then why you are not get her out from jail?”

  “I’m working on it! My understanding is that there is some magic in your family,” Heath said. “Is that true?”

  “Yes. Our particular talent is charms that repel the black magic and protect from curses. Why?” She looked puzzled.

  “Like the charm you gave Tonya.” Heath turned to Jake. “This deep sleep that Tonya’s falling into…the first time it happened, it was before she wore that charm necklace. And after the ship’s security took her necklace off, it happened again.”

  Antonia went pale. “Deep sleep? That sound like, how you say, mind-control spell. You must put necklace back on!” She pulled her own necklace off and shoved it into Heath’s hand. “Use this one. Go now, go!”

  Heath headed for the door before Jake could say anything. Jake and the Beast hurried after him.

  * * *

  The Chameleon, lying on Tonya’s cell bed, opened Tonya’s eyes. It was two a.m. and, even on a party cruise like this one, most people would be in their cabins by now. It would be easy to get into Reshef’s quarters.

  The Chameleon felt around Tonya’s throat. Thank God they’d removed that cursed necklace; it had nearly ruined everything. Reshef should have been dead already, and Tonya should have been blamed for it.

  With that necklace on, it had been impossible to control Tonya or see her thoughts – for days. Of course, there had been secret communications from the traitor in Reshef’s camp, the bodyguard Tabari. Tabari had pointed Tonya out to Reshef, had done his best to lure Tonya into Reshef’s room, but with that stupid bear hanging on Tonya’s every move, there had been no way that would happen.