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

Damien growled low. Every
male would be staring at her plunging neckline and getting a hard-on
at the sight of those soft, creamy thighs. He had to muscle his
possessive instincts down and fight the urge to rush over there and
cover her up from head to toe. She wasn't his. Yet.

Damien clenched his jaw and
got his bear and libido under control. This was war, remember? He
couldn't afford to be rash. Everything had to go according to plan.

Count to ten, deep
breaths.

“Good evening,
Penelope,” he managed as he walked up to her. “You look
lovely.”

She whirled round. “Oh,
hi Damien. T-thank you,” she stuttered and blushed. Her eyes
moved down his face and lingered at his mouth. Swallowing hard, she
took a shaky breath and gravitated towards him. When she leaned in
to adjust his tie, Damien stabbed his claws into his palms to stop
himself from grabbing her.

“You look very
handsome,” Penelope said, stepping back. “Your date will
be impressed.”

“I dress to impress,
and I aim to please,” he answered with a wink.

“Oh, here she is!”
Penelope looked over his shoulder and waved to a pretty lady in a
red dress. The woman came up to them and Penelope greeted her with a
hug and an encouraging smile. “Damien, this is Scarlett
Washington. Scarlett, this is...”

Damien bowed and raised
Scarlett's hand to his lips. Scarlett blinked at him and gasped. “I
know you,” she exclaimed suddenly. “You're Damien Ken.
Gosh, it really is you! I remember you, Damien, but you don't seem
to recognize me.”

CHAPTER
SIXTEEN

Damien stared at Scarlett,
completely baffled. “I'm sorry, but...” He frowned.

“It's me, Scarlett!”
she squealed. “We went to school together. You put a spider
in my lunchbox once. Don't you remember?”

Damien blinked twice, his
eyes bugging. “Scarlett? Scarlett Washington! Yes, yes I
remember!” He burst into laughter. “I used to pull your
pigtails. Gosh, you've changed so much. Look at you! You were such
a crybaby in school, if I recall correctly.”

She swatted his arm
playfully. “And you were such a prankster!”

“I still am,” he
grinned.

Damien turned to Penelope,
who was staring at them with her smile frozen in place.

“You went to school
together. Of course you two know each other,” she whispered
with a pained expression.

“Yep!” Scarlett
said cheerfully, linking her arm through Damien's. “I haven't
seen Damien in a long time though. I went to college and worked in
another town for some time. I only just got back to Shadow Point a
few months ago. It's great to see you again, Damien. You're such a
hunk now!” Scarlett giggled.

Penelope forced air into her
lungs and managed to regain her composure. “Your table is
waiting,” she said stiffly. “I think you won't need me
to break the ice, so I'll leave now. I'm sure you have much to catch
up on. Have a lovely evening!” Her voice was too high-pitched
as she waved and clattered hurriedly down the restaurant steps.

Damien turned and watched her
go. Penelope looked hurt and embarrassed as she left, but Damien dug
in his heels and warned his bear to stay put. He was not going after
her.

“Patience,” he
growled softly.

“What?” Scarlett
stopped chattering to peer at him. “Did you say something?”

Damien shook his head and
flashed her a charming smile. “Shall we?” He offered
her his arm and led her gallantly into the restaurant. The waiter
showed them to their table and Damien glanced towards the windows as
he pulled out the chair for his date.

He caught his own reflection
in the window as he sat down opposite Scarlett and resumed their
animated conversation. There was a steely glint in his eye. He was
a man on a mission. Failure was not an option.

Damien nodded adamantly to
himself. He was on a date.

And he was going to make the
most of it.

CHAPTER
SEVENTEEN

Penelope half-walked,
half-ran to the parking lot. She was out of breath and dizzy by the
time she reached her car. Her heart was beating too fast and her
hands felt cold and clammy. She could hear nothing but the
persistent roar in her head. Was she going to have a heart attack?

Gulping, she fished out her
car keys from her bag but she didn't unlock her car door. She glared
at her car accusingly as if her car were to blame for this galling
state of affairs.

Snarling, she took a step
towards her car, but she just knew she couldn't drive away.

She couldn't leave. She
should, but she couldn't.

Penelope shook her head,
annoyed and angry at herself. There was no reason for her to linger.
She should leave Damien and Scarlett alone to enjoy each other. Her
job here was done. She had made a great match. Damien and Scarlett
knew each other as kids. They would have a lot to talk about, and
after dinner, Scarlett would probably invite Damien over to her place
for a drink, and one thing would lead to another, and they would end
up in bed together.

Penelope let out a menacing
growl. She wasn't going to let that happen.

The thought of Damien having
sex with another woman was unbearable.

She remembered how his lips
had felt against hers, how his touch had ignited every nerve in her
body. She didn't want him to hold another woman in his arms. She
didn't want him to kiss and touch any other woman. Ever.

On the way to the restaurant,
she had secretly wished that Damien would find Scarlett unattractive.
She had even chosen a sexy black number, hoping that Damien would
find her more delectable than his date. Penelope swore at herself.
She was such a shitty matchmaker!

Penelope scowled and threw
her car keys into her bag. Her mind wasn't working too well, so her
hormones were in control at the moment. Which was never a good
thing.

Without realizing it,
Penelope had stormed right back to the restaurant. She charged
mindlessly forward before her brain asserted itself and wrested back
some semblance of control.

Skidding to a halt, she
staggered to the side of the restaurant and leaned against the wall.

She couldn't let Damien and
Scarlett see her.

They would think she was
spying on them. Which, of course, she totally was.

“I'm not spying,”
she hissed defensively.

To spy on someone means to
secretly observe an enemy or a competitor, a prim, pompous voice in
her head recited.

“Scarlett is not an
enemy or a competitor,” Penelope muttered under her breath.

But she is
!
Her libido roared in frustration.

“Okay, just a peek,”
she said firmly to herself. “Then I'll leave.”

Crouching, she scurried round
the restaurant and peered through a side window.

She saw them at once. Damien
and Scarlett were seated in the middle of the crowded restaurant.
Their food was just arriving, and they were chatting and laughing.
They looked like they were having a great time.

Scarlett giggled as she
struggled with her chopsticks. Damien immediately leaned forward to
hold her hand and position her chopsticks for her. Grinning,
Scarlett attempted to pick up a piece of sesame chicken but the
morsel slipped and fell back onto the plate.

Penelope's eyes widened and
blazed when she saw Damien pick up the bite-sized piece of chicken
and pop it into his date's mouth.

The sound of gnashing teeth
was growing too loud to ignore, and Penelope saw a few diners turn
towards the window as her nails scraped down the window pane.

Shit, she was drawing
attention to herself. Quickly, she turned away and ducked her head.
She had to leave. Right now.

As she spun away from the
window, she was pretty sure she saw a smirk on Damien's face.

He had turned and looked
right at her. And smirked.

CHAPTER
EIGHTEEN

Damien hid a very satisfied
smile as he glanced towards the window again. He'd seen Penelope and
she was in a state. Her eyes were blazing with fury and she looked
half insane with jealousy.

His plan was working. He
felt bad provoking her into a jealous rage, but he was getting the
reaction he wanted. Graham was a bear shifter, so he knew that
Penelope had some shifter blood in her, even though her animal was
dormant and she couldn't shift. Most females with shifter blood in
them were almost as possessive about their mates as full shifters.
He guessed that Penelope would have the territorial and possessive
instincts of a she-bear. He just had to get her mad enough to
unleash that ferocious instinct.

He had succeeded. He was
sure she couldn't ignore him now.

Penelope might want to kill
him, but he could live with that. He just couldn't have her
pretending that there was nothing between them. Their intense, fiery
attraction and connection was undeniable.

She was his match.

It was fun catching up with
Scarlett. She had a lot of interesting, funny stories, and she was a
good-looking woman. She was also pretty sharp, and she noticed what
he was doing at once.

“Are you using me to
make Penelope jealous?” she asked him point-blank.

“Wha—?” He
feigned shock and outrage. “What kind of man do you think...”

“Come on, Damien. I
know you. I knew you as a kid, and you haven't changed, much.”

Damien laughed and raised his
hands in surrender. “You're right. You do know me.”
His expression turned solemn when he said, “I'm sorry,
Scarlett. I shouldn't have wasted your time. I shouldn't have
agreed to this date when...I already know who I want.”

But Scarlett merely shook her
head and grinned. “Actually, I'm enjoying myself. I never
thought I'd see a woman bring the notorious Damien Ken to his knees.”
She raised her teacup and said, “I'm rooting for you, Damien.
And this isn't a date. It's just two old friends catching up over
dinner.”

They clinked their cups
together. “To my partner in crime,” Damien declared.

Scarlett wagged her finger.
“No, no, no. I'm not your partner in anything. I'm just an
innocent bystander. I'll look and I'll laugh, but I'm not doing your
work for you. You get your woman yourself, Damien,” she said
sternly.

Damien huffed. “She's
a hard nut to crack.”

“Penelope? Why, she's
a sweetheart,” Scarlett said, heaping more fried rice onto her
plate.

“She's going to kill me
when she finds out, you know.”

“You fully deserve it,”
Scarlett said, munching contentedly.

“Some kind of partner
you are,” Damien sniffed. “You don't have my back at
all.”

Scarlett laughed. “Penelope
has your back. She's been standing outside in the cold, freezing
wind for an hour now. She's never taken her eyes off you the whole
time.”

Damien started. “You
noticed?”

“Well, when you used
your chopsticks to feed me earlier, she raked her nails down the
glass. I think most of the diners in the restaurant heard her.”

Damien shook his head and bit
the inside of his cheek to keep from laughing. “I've never had
a stalker before,” he said in a mock whisper. “What do I
do?”

Scarlett laughed. “I
think it's the other way round. You've been watching Penelope and
planning your moves for some time now.”

“You're one smart lady,
you know that?” Damien said, grinning.

They finished the rest of the
food and Damien insisted on paying for dinner. He drove Scarlett
home and walked her to her front door.

“I had a great time.
You are a great gal, Scarlett,” he said sincerely.

“A great gal pal?”
she teased.

“The greatest gal pal a
guy could ask for,” he answered and gave her a chaste peck on
the cheek.

“Good night, Damien.
And good luck!” She winked and went into her house.

CHAPTER
NINETEEN

Penelope sat in her car and
stewed. Oh she was mad, all right. She was mad at everything and
everyone, but most of all, at herself. She should have gone straight
home after seeing Damien and Scarlett having the time of their lives
at Wong's Wok. She had seen enough, hadn't she?

Instead, she had waited in
the parking lot like a damn fool until she saw Damien and Scarlett
strolling out of the restaurant, all smiles and affectionate banter.

She should have left then.
But noooooo.

She had to continue being
this crazy, obsessed stalker and follow Damien's car all the way to
Scarlett's house.

She saw Damien give Scarlett
a kiss at her front door. They seemed to really like each other.
Penelope tensed when she saw Scarlett open her front door wider as
she stepped into the house. Was she inviting Damien in?