Dating Agency Bear: BBW Bear Shifter Paranormal Romance (BRIDES fur BEARS Book 6) (4 page)

Penelope couldn't help
laughing. “You're a really nice guy, Damien,” she said
as she walked him to the door. “I'll make sure I find you a
great match and a wonderful mate.”

He opened his mouth but she
pointed to the sign on her front door and asked, “Why do you
think my agency is called 'Miss Hatfield's Dating Agency'?”

When he shrugged, she
explained softly, “Because I think I will remain Miss Hatfield
for a long, long time.”

“Penelope...”

She shook her head. “I've
had enough of relationships that go nowhere. It's exhausting. I can
spot the perfect match for others, but I'm just hopeless when it
comes to myself. So, I'll just be happy doing what I'm good at.”

Thrusting out her hand, she
smiled and said quickly, “Thank you for signing up with my
agency! I guarantee...”

Damien grabbed her hand and
yanked her to him. Penelope lost her balance and collided into his
chest.

Immediately, Damien's arms
closed around her waist and caged her in. Penelope began to squirm
and struggle, but he only held her tighter.

They were so close she could
see the stubble on his jaw and smell his masculine sweat and scent.
Damien's body felt hot and hard against hers, and she saw his eyes
turn feral for an instant.

Her brother, Graham, was a
bear shifter. He had inherited the shifter gene from their
grandfather. The gene had skipped a generation, so although their
mom was half bear, she couldn't shift and simply lived her life as a
human woman. Graham's bear only emerged when he was out of his
teens. Penelope couldn't shift at all. And she was perfectly happy
with her non-shifter status.

Damien growled low, and the
sound seemed to ignite all her nerve endings. Her breasts suddenly
felt full and heavy, and her nipples tightened and pebbled as she
pressed up against Damien's broad, solid chest.

Penelope could feel his
erection pushing and pulsing against her, and she gasped as moisture
pooled in her panties. She quivered when she felt his hot breath on
her cheeks and neck. “Damien...” she rasped, turning
feverishly from side to side.

She was fast losing her mind.
What was she doing, getting all hot and horny in Damien's arms?
They were standing in the middle of her office, caught in a maelstrom
of lust and conflicting desires and emotions.

She should be working. She
shouldn't be craving more. She shouldn't be digging her nails into
Damien's shoulders and silently, wordlessly begging him to kiss her.

CHAPTER
TEN

Damien loved the way Penelope
writhed and panted in his arms. Her ample breasts pushed against his
chest, and her hands clawed at his biceps. He could smell her lush
feminine scent, and the intoxicating scent of her fierce arousal was
fraying his restraint.

“Hold still,” he
growled. He was going to lose his fucking mind if she didn't stop
rubbing her soft, delicious curves against him.

Damien groaned. He should
have known. This was a woman who wasn't going to roll over and play
dead. Telling her to hold still was a sure-fire way of getting her
to resist and struggle even more vehemently.

He could feel her pebbled
nipples through her bra, and scent her sweet, sticky juices between
her legs. Her scent, her body and the heat between them was driving
him wild.

Tightening his hold on her,
Damien pressed her against the wall and stared into her blazing,
brown eyes. Plucking her glasses off her nose, he threw them on her
desk and crushed his mouth to hers.

She opened her mouth to yell
at him, and he took the chance to slip his tongue past her lips. She
let out a moan as he tasted her thoroughly. His kiss was deep, hard
and hungry. Her tongue moved to touch his, and she began to kiss him
back with equal hunger.

Damien cupped one heavy
breast in his hand and tugged at her erect nipple through her blouse
and bra. Penelope cried out and buried her hands in his hair.
Damien unbuttoned her top buttons and pushed down the cup of her bra
to expose her breast.

His mouth watered at the
sight of her dark, aching nipple. Lowering his head, he suckled her
furiously, pulling her hard nub deep into his mouth and tormenting it
with his teeth and tongue.

Penelope groaned and arched
her back. She was fully aroused, and when Damien ground his rock
hard erection against her core, she made a wordless pleading sound.

“Penelope...”
Her name came out on a harsh, ragged breath.

Damien thumbed her nipples
and claimed her mouth again. God, the woman was all fire, and she
was one hell of a kisser. Her red lipstick was slightly smeared
across her full, plump lips. Her bun had loosened and tendrils of
wavy brown hair framed her heart-shaped face. She was looking up at
him with hooded, bedroom eyes and her skin was hot and flushed.

He wanted to tear off her
clothes and take her hard against the wall. On the carpet. Bend her
over her desk and…

Damien was undoing another
button when he heard approaching footsteps outside the door.
Snarling, he buttoned up her blouse swiftly and gave her one last,
bruising kiss.

Just as he released her, the
door opened and a bespectacled man poked his head meekly into the
office.

Penelope straightened up
immediately and smoothed her hands over her blouse and skirt. She
tucked her hair behind her ears and stammered, “G-good
afternoon.”

“Hi.” The man
smiled uncertainly and stepped into the office. “You're a
dating agency, right? I...” he stuttered and glanced at
Damien.

“Oh, of course,”
Penelope said, hurrying to her desk. “Please, take a seat.”

If the man noticed her
disheveled state, he gave no sign at all. Instead he simply pulled
out a chair and sat down as Penelope snatched up her glasses from the
desk and put them on.

“I, um, I'll like to
sign up,” the man said, fidgeting in his seat. “I don't
know if you'll be able to help me. You see, I've never gone on a
date in my life. I just...I can't seem to work up the courage to ask
a woman out.”

“Don't worry, Mr...”

“Doe, Ben Doe,”
he mumbled.

“Well, Mr Doe, you've
come to the right place,” Penelope said brightly. “Here.
Just fill up this form, and I'll do the rest!”

Damien stood and watched
Penelope and her new client for a while. From the man's scent,
Damien could tell that he was full human. Mr Ben Doe was nervous and
courteous, and he didn't stare at Penelope's impressive bosom.
Instead his eyes flitted restlessly all over her office, darting from
corner to corner.
Like a Doe caught in the headlights
, Damien
thought.

Penelope kept her attention
resolutely on her new client, refusing to even look at Damien. The
color was still high in her cheeks, and she was quietly fuming. He
had seduced her, and she had allowed herself to be seduced.

Damien backed out the door
and Penelope glanced up when the door chime sounded. He winked and
blew her a kiss.

Damien was whistling as he
strolled to his car. He had just proven that she wasn't immune to
him. He could get under her skin, and he would get her under him.
All it took was patience, and a few tricks.

And he, Damien Ken, had quite
a few tricks up his sleeve.

CHAPTER
ELEVEN

Penelope released the breath
she had been holding once Damien left her office. Her entire body
sagged and she simply deflated like a balloon. She glanced at the
door again and felt a sharp pang in her heart. Was she...missing him
already?

Penelope gave her head a hard
shake. She clearly wasn't thinking straight.

Her mind told her that Damien
was trouble. But her body had other ideas. With just a stolen kiss,
he had set her entire body on fire. Imagine what he could do to her
if he had his mouth and hands all over her naked body…

Penelope bit down a whimper
and crossed her legs tightly. She had to stop thinking about Damien.
That rascal could yank her chain and get a rise out of her with just
a word or a look. And he seemed to enjoy getting her all hot and
bothered. Maybe he was just making fun of her. He was just amusing
himself with her and wasn't really that attracted to her. She had a
brother. She knew guys could be real dickheads and men like Damien
Ken with their rakish good looks and devil-may-care attitude were
heartbreakers.

Penelope gave herself a
mental slap upside the head and straightened up sharply. She should
be focusing on her new business and nothing else. She had a client
in her office, for God's sake. Stop thinking about Damien already!

With a huff, she turned her
attention to Mr Ben Doe, studying the man quietly as he scribbled and
scratched frenziedly on his form.

Nondescript was the only word
that came to mind. Mr Doe had bland, non-expressive features and he
was wearing a brown jacket that did nothing for his sallow
complexion. His black hair was neatly combed back, and he kept
pushing his rimless glasses up his nose.

Sensing her eyes on him, Mr
Doe glanced up at Penelope and smiled sheepishly. “I'm sorry
I'm taking so long,” he muttered, wiping his sweaty palms on
his pants. “I've never filled up a questionnaire for a dating
agency before.”

“Take your time,”
Penelope said kindly. “There's no hurry.”

He winced and picked up the
pen again. Penelope thought that he might be more comfortable if she
wasn't sitting opposite him and watching him fret over his answers.
She should give him some space and privacy to pore over the
questionnaire. The poor man looked like he was sitting in an
examination hall, sweating over a major paper instead of just filling
up a standard form.

“I'll get you a cup of
coffee, Mr Doe,” she said, standing up. “No, no, it's no
trouble at all. I was going to get a cup for myself. Take your time
answering the questionnaire. You can write as much or as little as
you want. There are no right or wrong answers,” she added as
the man gulped and mopped sweat from his brow.

“Okay. T-thank you,
Miss Hatfield.”

Penelope moved to the small
pantry at the back of the office and made two cups of instant coffee.
As she walked back out with the steaming cups, she heard some
shuffling and rustling sounds and glimpsed a blur of movement at her
desk. Frowning, she quickened her steps and called out, “Is
everything okay?”

Mr Doe jerked his head up
when she appeared at her desk. He was sitting right where she had
left him, looking even more flustered than ever.

“I...I've just
completed the form,” he stammered, folding the paper in half.

Penelope glanced at her
swivel chair and saw that it was still rolling. It looked as though
someone had vacated it in a great hurry.

“Here's your coffee,”
she said, placing the cup carefully in front of her client.

“Oh, thank you.”
Mr Doe jumped a little and dropped the piece of paper. He hurriedly
bent to retrieve it and when he reached out to hand her the completed
form, he knocked the cup over with his elbow and sent the coffee
spreading all over her desk.

CHAPTER
TWELVE

“Oh, oh, oh!” Mr
Ben Doe cried, pulling out a handkerchief from his pocket. “I'm
so sorry, Miss Hatfield. I...” He tried to mop up the spilled
coffee with his handkerchief but ended up making a bigger mess.

Penelope ran to the pantry
and grabbed some paper towels. She contained the spill quickly and
was relieved to find that only the corner of a file had been stained.
The rest of her documents and more importantly, her computer,
escaped unscathed.

“I am so sorry,”
Mr Doe squeaked. “I'm just so clumsy and awkward. I'll pay
for any damage...”

“There's no damage,”
Penelope assured him. “Really, everything's fine. There, all
cleaned up.”

He gripped his briefcase
tightly and started edging towards the door. “I better leave
now, before I make a bigger mess,” he said with a grimace.

“It's okay, Mr Doe.
Don't worry about it, please. I'll take a look at your form and we
can discuss...”

But the man shook his head
rapidly and exited her office in a stumbling run.

“Wait! Mr Doe!”
she shouted.

With a sigh of frustration,
she snatched up the piece of paper which had fluttered to the floor
and took a look at what her rather strange, skittish client had
written about himself.

Her eyes widened.

Mr Ben Doe hadn't written
anything on the form at all. Not anything that made sense. There
were just meaningless lines and squiggles, and he had ticked and
crossed all the boxes.

“What the…”

She shook her head. The man
had appeared so normal. Well, he did seem a little awkward and too
excitable, but some people were just shy and uncomfortable around
strangers.

Crushing the paper into a
ball, Penelope hurled it straight into the bin. She went to tidy up
her desk, all the while muttering stern rebukes to herself.