The Bear's Hired Mate: A Paranormal Bear Shifter Romance Read online

  It was at this moment that Jane’s heart dropped. She thought she’d been doing so well with Xavier, but the way that Vincent was staring at her made her think that she was about to get the “not the right body type” speech. Jane sighed, she’d found those pin-up paintings so hopeful.

  Vincent walked into the room and nodded to Xavier. “How’s it going?” he asked Xavier by way of greeting.

  “It’s going great. Vincent I’d like you to meet Jane Arnold.”

  Jane extended her hand, but Vincent didn’t take it. Slowly lowering it down to her side she calculated how much an express bus ticket would cost her to get out of town ASAP, she really didn’t want to stick around to add insult to injury.

  Xavier’s eyes noted the rebuff and narrowed in response. Giving Jane an encouraging smile he again turned to Vincent to fill him in on the interview so far. “Jane is quite the candidate, to be sure. She’s over qualified having managed thirty different schedules at once, and keeping the office fully stocked and clean. She has a good record of customer relations and had some nice answers to our theoretical situation questions. Plus,” Xavier turned to Jane, “if you don’t mind me saying so, she’s got the perfect look for the front. Rockabilly is just our style.”

  Xavier noted at that statement that Vincent’s eyes hardened slightly and a deep growl emanated from Vincent’s throat. Xavier was pretty sure that it was only due to his werebear senses that he could hear it, but he wasn’t sure what had set Vincent off. Before he could pull Vincent aside to ask, Vincent himself took control of the situation.

  “Really, Ms. Arnold, the only thing I need to know is that you can read my email and sync my schedules. I’m going to leave you with today and tomorrow’s issues for twenty minutes and I’ll be back to see how you’ve done.” Both Jane and Xavier stared back at Vincent slack-jawed.

  Jane’s eyes bounced between Xavier and Vincent and Xavier thought that it might be too much for her. This happened sometimes with human women, too many weres in a small room and down they went. If that happened...well, then Jane wasn’t going to make it for the long haul anyway. Xavier started in to relieve the woman, “Listen, Jane I know that’s a lot to ask. We can finish the full first interview before moving on to the interactive stuff. Vincent, perhaps you can let me take this one…”

  “No.” Jane interrupted, her green cat eyes shining with force. “Lay it on me. Vincent is right, if coordinating his schedule is the most important piece of this job then let me prove that I can do it.” Her eyes flicked to Vincent’s with a challenge. “That is, if you feel comfortable handing over personal property to a stranger.”

  Vincent couldn’t help but admire the steel in her gaze; it was a turn on in a mate. Not that he had time to mate right now...he had to focus! The whole point of this exercise was to watch her fail so he could send her packing. Now, if he could just figure out how to leave the room without throwing her over his shoulder, cave-man style...

  “No need to worry about the personal stuff. I’ve already set up a business account where all of the scheduling emails need to go. Nothing you read will be personal or confidential.” Vincent took a few steps closer to Jane and handed over his iPad. “There are tabs up with both the email account as well as the tattooing schedule. I refuse to drop clients and their times are set based on their availability, not mine, so I need to make them fit.”

  Jane looked over the iPad and, without looking, responded, “In the future, I think you might want to consider setting some availability hours before taking clients, but those are stipulations I can set once you’ve hired me.” Jane looked up at Vincent with a confidence she didn’t really feel.

  His eyes were giving her shivers, he looked like he wanted to run but he couldn’t decide if he wanted to do it with or without Jane. Her reasons for being forceful were two-fold; first, she needed this job and something in her gut told her that Vincent would respect a strong voice. Second, and perhaps the driving factor, was that she needed a break from him for a second. The way he filled the room made it hard for her to breathe. She either needed him to leave or get very, very close.

  Jane closed her eyes as she felt her cheeks go pink. Where had that thought come from? Jane wasn’t even overly sexual. She hadn’t had a boyfriend since that new car salesman years ago, and that had been an outright mistake. Never again was she going to date in the office. But perhaps it was time for her to visit a bar or two...maybe join match.com or something. Her hormones were suddenly out of control.

  For a split second, Vincent wondered why Jane had gone pink but when her scent surged with sexual hormones Vincent decided to hightail it out of the room before his own body responded. “Well, then I shall leave you to the test.” Nodding to Jane he ushered Xavier out of the room and left Jane to organize.

  After the door had shut Xavier turned to ask Vincent what was up, “Vince? Man, what was up in there. She’s perfect and you know it. Jane has more experience than anyone else we’ve interviewed and her look is perfect for the front. I’d prefer it if she had a tat or two, but that never takes long once they’re in the shop. Remember Rick at the Mirage shop? It took him all of two months to invest in one…”

  Vincent knew he’d have to hire her, even if she failed the impossible test. He had been struggling with the schedule himself for two hours last night and he couldn’t mesh it all. But he knew he would be in trouble if he could barely make it to the front desk without having Jane in his eyesight. Vincent started to pull up the records for today’s incoming tattoos when he became aware of silence. Looking up, he saw that Xavier was looking at him expectantly.

  “Did you hear any of that?” Xavier asked.

  Vincent sighed. “Sorry man, it was that committee call. I’ve just got too much on my mind.”

  “I know you do Vince, but that doesn’t mean that you need to act like an ass. Please don’t turn into your father yet, give the girl a chance.” Xavier finished this glorious bit of advice with a slap on Vincent’s back and then left to prep his station for his first client of the day. In an attempt to distract himself, Vincent searched the day’s roster to see who the client was and what they wanted. Vincent guessed it was a young woman who wanted the stereotypical tramp stamp of a butterfly above her ass.

  Vincent had been tattooing for far too long to still find that sexy. Now, Vincent was well known for his pin-up art. It was a difficult style to get right. Many people had trouble figuring out how to get the impossible curves to look lifelike and not to mess up the face. If you’d ever watched those reality tattoo competitions you saw that they always messed up the face. Vincent continued to scroll through the clients and art for the day. The schedule was jammed and Vincent was a little worried that he was going to be staying late, yet again, to finish his last tattoo of the day. It was a back piece and he’d forgotten how large the dude was.

  The buzzing of his cell took him out of his mental worries and reminded him to relieve Jane of the impossible task and give her the job.

  Vincent entered the conference room and saw that Jane had about ten tabs pulled up on the iPad. He opened his mouth to tell her to just stop trying; he knew that there was more than one conflicting appointment in his schedule. But he was stopped by one finger topped with a cherry red nail. “Just give me one second.” Jane requested tapping between screens. “There. Done.” Jane looked up at him with a victorious smile on her face.

  “You’re current through next week. I could even find you at least twenty minutes free time every day to keep to yourself.” Jane was positively gleeful. At first she’d thought the task impossible but once she realized that when she emailed what she was calling the “bear contacts” other assistants and managers emailed her back and she worked with them to shift and coordinate. They were more than happy to oblige when they could. Apparently, Vincent was well liked.

  Vincent stared at the screen, his mouth gaping. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d had free time, much less twenty glorious minutes a day. Now he could kiss her
for a variety of reasons. None of which were overly appropriate at the moment. Instead, he looked up and simply said, “The job is yours. Come on, I’ll head out front and show you the ropes.”

  *

  The last week had flown by. Vincent threw her into the job and Jane had to hit the ground running. By the end of her first day, Jane had her own iPhone and iPad and she’d completely taken over the bear email account and had a cheat sheet of the names and contact info for the other wranglers, as she thought of them. The women kept a Google chat open to more easily shift schedules, as well as gossip a bit about the men. Jane was so happy to have found such a fiercely funny group of women right off the bat. She thought it was a good sign for her new life here in Las Vegas.

  Her bank account was a different story. She was working in the lap of luxury but she couldn’t go another week living at that fleabag hotel. The problem was, Jane couldn’t find an apartment within her budget. Her biggest issue was that she didn’t have a car. Yes, it was ironic that her previous job had been for a car dealership and yet she didn’t have a ride herself. But no wheels meant she had to live fairly close to the strip and everything close to the strip was uber expensive. But with her savings rapidly dwindling, Jane admitted it was time to play the apartment game fast and loose. She was going to have to turn to Craigslist and pray she didn’t decide to room with a serial killer or something. Jane double-checked the bear email and chat group as well as her own email and text messages for new info before really diving into the Craigslist ads.

  Vincent walked out to the front of the parlor. It was about twenty minutes till they opened for the day and he wanted to make sure that Jane had everything on point. He started by looking around the rotating gallery and noted that Jane had switched out the art according to the schedule. They used the wall as a way to showcase the shop’s artists’ work that wasn’t inked on skin. Besides its decorative value, they sold the pieces right off the wall. His eyes then skimmed over the deep gold brocade wingback chairs and long leather couches, and he spotted nary a piece of lint. Vincent also noted that all of the artist's portfolios were straightened and ready to be flipped through. Finally allowing his eyes to move to the massive piece of black marble, which was the parlor’s front desk, he was greeted by the sight of Jane bent over the countertop, her ass pushed back, inviting Vincent to grab her by the hips and ease those full hips toward his own; ease the ache that started the moment he was within the same room as her. Jane shifted her weight and her pinstripe pencil skirt swayed in response. Vincent almost groaned. Turning around, Jane greeted him with a smile that showed innocence.

  Vincent had to remind himself to speak like a normal person and not like the savage bear he felt like. “Hello Jane.”

  “Oh, hello Vincent.” Jane quickly straightened up and put the iPad to sleep. She felt herself going pink at the idea of her boss finding her browsing the internet during work time. Jane felt the need to redirect his attention fast. “Do you like the new art?” Jane gestured at the gallery wall. “I asked Carrie for some more of her organic stuff, we sold three this weekend alone. They seem to be a hit at the moment, especially when they’re paired next to Xavier’s harder stuff.”

  Jane watched as Vincent looked at the wall and nodded in response to her explanation. The last week had been weird with him. As far as bosses go, he was good. Jane liked that he was clear in what he expected of her and any time she hit an issue, Vincent did what he could to help her troubleshoot it. But if they had to spend more than ten minutes together unoccupied by immediate work concerns he seemed to tense up like a statue and wanted to run for the hills.

  And the way he held his breath while he was doing it...well, Jane had taken more than a few surreptitious sniffs at her armpits this week. She’d even bought a new deodorant and everything. Jane hadn’t been so concerned about body odor since middle school.

  To top it all off, Jane was attracted to Vincent in a way she’d never been attracted to any other man. In the past week, Jane’s sleep had become flustered. She was waking up in a knot of twisted sheets and panties and Vincent was always the star of the show; his deep voice rumbling in her ear coaxing her to let go, his broad body pushing her into the mattress with just the right pressure. Yet, without fail, Jane would flail herself awake just as she was on the cusp of giving into the fantasy. She blamed it all on her limited sexual experience. Jane wondered if only she had more memories in her arsenal perhaps she’d be able to complete the act from memory alone, but her physical memories had never been fulfilling, in general, and they were dusty with disuse and age.

  Now, it was daily torture working around this giant of a man. Jane felt herself getting warm just standing close to him. Then Jane heard the sharp intake of breath and felt, more than saw, Vincent tense. Jane sighed audibly and moved back to the counter to continue perusing apartments. She didn’t even bother to turn around, she knew that Vincent would be heading toward the hills after he sucked in air like that. Calling up the rental website, Jane settled back in to skim the listings until the parlor opened for the day, too frustrated with the dream and the real man to care that she was totally wasting the next fifteen minutes on Midnight Ink’s dime.

  Jane barely paid attention to the heavy footfalls of Vincent’s boots until they stopped just behind her. She gasped and spun around only to find herself a mere breath away from his chest. Jane gulped in as a flashback of last night’s dream ran through her head. In it, Vincent had lifted Jane up on the counter and leaned forward over her, starting to place kisses along her collarbone…

  The sound of yet another sharp inhale from Vincent broke Jane’s train of thought. Her body cooled by a few degrees as she took in his serious stare. Remembering the iPad, she reached for it but Vincent was quicker, grabbing it before Jane could put the device to sleep again.

  “What are you so quick to hide from me?”

  Jane’s covert actions and attempt at distraction had perked up his protective instincts, but as Vincent scanned the screen he only saw apartment rentals. He noted that they weren’t in very good parts of Las Vegas, but he noted that there were other tabs open. With no regard to personal property, Vincent scanned that page too. It was craigslist, specifically the page for roommates wanted. His eye caught on a starred ad that required said roommate to be OK with open fire. Vincent huffed and raised an eyebrow.

  “First things first, you should not have a roommate,” the very idea was too much for the alpha bear in him to take, “Second, you should not be using Craigslist. Wasn’t there a serial killer who used Craigslist?”

  Jane had thought the very same thing not an hour ago but hearing it come from Vincent’s mouth made her defensive. “Well, Vincent, I’ll have you know it’s the way all the cool kids are getting roommates now. It’s a socially acceptable way to find a roommate.” Jane felt herself stand taller in her sky high mary janes. Unknowingly, the stance threw her ample chest out and far into Vincent’s personal space. It only strengthened his resolve that Jane would be living alone. Not that alone was safe in the areas she had flagged on the first site.

  “I insist, there must be something more traditional available. Pacify an elderly man like me, let’s double check the rental list.” Jane harrumphed as Vincent took one large paw of a hand and manipulated the screen with surprising dexterity. She watched as his large caramel colored eyes swiftly moved up and down the screen. He changed a few settings and swung the iPad back around to Jane.

  “There. Here are three options that are acceptable.” Vincent crossed his massive and tattooed forearms across his chest and looked smug. “Plus, they all happen to be within walking distance of the shop.”

  Jane didn’t bother clicking on the listings, her eyes were trained to locate the monthly rent and she rejected all three in under a second. Narrowing her eyes, Jane looked up at Vincent accusingly. “No offense Vincent, because I love this job and I’m very thankful to have it -- more thankful than you’ll know – but that being said, you also write my paycheck twice
a month...did you not notice that the average monthly rent for each of these apartments is double what I make a month?” Jane was just about done with her sexy beast of a boss. He was not being helpful on so many levels right now. When Jane saw Carrie’s first appointment for the day approach the locked doors of Midnight Ink, she used it as an excuse to break off a conversation.

  Waving Vincent off, Jane pulled out the keys to the parlor. “Listen, Vincent, thanks for your help, but I think I’ll figure it out on my own. That’s Carrie’s one o’clock and it’s a first tat. I want to get her in and pamper her a bit before sending her back to the actual tattoo. And you need to skedaddle, you’ve got a phone meeting in five.”

  Vincent couldn’t fault Jane’s escape route. She was turning into a damn good shop manager, even if she had no experience with ink herself. And she was keeping his schedule in line with aplomb. Vincent watched her hips sway as she sauntered off to open the door for the client. No doubt her full red lips were split into a giant and welcoming smile. Vincent enjoyed the view for a moment or two before quietly walking toward the back of the shop himself, all the while turning Jane’s problem over and over in his mind.