Romance: The Wedding Planner & The Endowed Cowboy Husband (5 page)

“I’ll think about it.”

“No, you’ll do it.  You’ll see.”

“Is this the only idea?”

“Only one we need.  This is sure to hook you up with your dream man.  I can sense it.”

“You’re a wolf, Scarlet.  Not cupid.”

“Same thing practically.”

Scarlet did her cute little shrug and smiled, taking a sip of her coffee and turning to ignore Hannah.

“So now that we have her taken care of, give me some juicy gossip.”

Chapter Two

Hannah left her friends at the coffee shop when it neared dinner time, stopping at a small sandwich shop on her way back to her empty condo.  Once she was home she kicked off her shoes and went straight to her computer desk, flipping on the television for background noise as she sat in her leather computer chair, propping her feet up on the desk and leaning back.  She pulled one of her sandwiches from the bag and began nibbling on it as she turned on her laptop, typing in the dating website, and stared at the home screen.

Dating for Animal Lovers.  Ha, this site is ridiculous,
she thought to herself.

Hannah took the site tour, browsing the profiles she was allowed to as a non-member.  The more she looked the more she was starting to be convinced that maybe it wasn’t a half bad idea.  Each profile was set up like any other dating website, lists for interests, hobbies, likes and dislikes, what you want in the perfect relationship. 

There was a tiny difference that Hannah noticed though; in each profile right above the profile’s main picture was a bold heading “Favorite Animal.”  Next to that was whatever animal the person chose in the same bold lettering, but the funny thing the average person wouldn’t notice was none of them are common house pets.  All of them were animals known in the shifter world, wolves, bears, lions, hawks, panthers, cougars, coyotes, eagles, the list went on.  Hannah had to laugh out loud at the cleverness of the owner, he had thought of everything.

Hannah decided to set up her profile, couldn’t hurt to just see who all was out there in the world.

User name?  Maybe I should be cliché: Honey bear Hannah.

Favorite Animal: Bear.

Age: 28 going on 80.

Date of Birth: June 22
nd
, keep hidden.

Location: Miami, Florida.

What do you I for in a partner? I want someone who is interested in a long lasting relationship, not just a one-night stand.  I would like them to be someone who would enjoy being in the company of others, rather than being isolated and alone.  They must enjoy long, adventurous walks through the wooded areas of Miami.  I want him to be honest, funny; being a good cook would be a bonus.  Favorite animal should be a bear, but open for other animal enthusiasts.

Hannah finished her profile off with uploading the most recent photo she had of herself, as well as a picture of her standing next to what looked like a bear at a zoo, when in reality it was a photo a friend took of her in bear form and then photoshopped as a joke.  She was holding back laughter as she clicked the create button, watching her profile pop online. 

She ate the rest of her sandwich while browsing through profiles of other users that were online, most of them wolves and cougars, and the few bears that came up in her search were exactly what she wasn’t looking for.  She was surprised to see that some female bears wanted the exact same, single night hook-ups and to not have to deal with the male bears again.  It made her think that she was some sort of emotional mutant, that perhaps bears weren’t meant to settle down, that she should give up on finding someone to spend the rest of her life with. 

Hannah began to shake her head, knowing all those thoughts were making her too depressed. She wanted commitment and she was going to get it, even if it had to come from animallovermatchmaker.net. 

After only an hour Hannah’s profile had been viewed 200 times, and she had received three dozen messages.  She scanned through them, seeing if there was anyone of interest; most of them had good comments left on their profile, but none of them jumped out as Mr. Right to Hannah.  She responded to a few, toying with the idea of setting up a few dates for the following weeks, and spent most of her night browsing through all of the profiles of users that weren’t online but considered her match. 

When the clock began to beep at Hannah that it was past her bed time, she stumbled across a very mysterious profile.  There was a picture of a gorgeous, well-muscled brunette male, with stunning mocha brown eyes, and seemed tall compared to the tree he was standing next to.  He was a bear according to the profile, but the rest of his profile was extremely empty.  Hannah didn’t know that you could leave so much empty, but the only other thing it had on his profile was a user name.

Username: Matchmaker Bear.

Hannah wondered what it meant, was he on there to help friends out and not himself, maybe.  After she finished staring at his picture and scrolling through the rest of his collection which included several professional took photos of a giant grizzly, she left his profile and continued browsing through profiles that seemed to actually want to meet someone.  Suddenly there was a ping on her profile messenger, clicking it open she realized that it was Matchmaker Bear:

Matchmaker Bear: Fellow Insomniac?

Honeybear Hannah: Just tonight, usually I sleep like a cub.

Matchmaker Bear: What makes this night different?

Honeybear Hannah: New website, full of potential.

Matchmaker Bear: Any luck so far?

Honeybear Hannah: Maybe, we’ll see.  What about you?

Matchmaker Bear: Not usually, but tonight seems lucky.

Honeybear Hannah: Why so lucky tonight?

Matchmaker Bear: Because I found someone that is awake as I am.

Honeybear Hannah: What makes you think I'm that awake? Could be my bedtime.

Matchmaker Bear: Call it intuition.

Honeybear Hannah: Good intuition. I'm strangely wide awake.

Matchmaker Bear: Excitement of endless possibilities. Lots of people become addicted for at least a couple of weeks on this site.

Honeybear Hannah: Then what happens?

Matchmaker Bear: They meet someone, or lose hope.

Honeybear Hannah: What about you?

Matchmaker Bear: I have no hope to lose.

Honeybear Hannah: That's a depressing thought.

Matchmaker Bear: That's life.

Honeybear Hannah: And on that note, I think I'm going to go to bed.

Matchmaker Bear: Wait.

Honeybear Hannah: Yes?

Matchmaker Bear: Care to go for coffee?

Honeybear Hannah: Right now?

Matchmaker Bear: lol. No, tomorrow.

Honeybear Hanah: What the hell, why not.

Matchmaker Bear: Starbucks on street?

Honeybear Hannah: yeah, I'll be there around 1. Goodnight.

Hannah crawled into bed that night with a smile on her face and a set date for tomorrow night with a very good-looking, mysterious man. Her friends would be so proud of her, or tease her about going after bad boys because she's gone too long without sex.

Chapter Three

Hannah sat in the coffee shop the next day, tapping her fingers against the table and sipping on her coffee while she waited for Matchmaker Bear.  She was distracted with people watching when a large figure holding a coffee cup sat down at her table, when her eyes scanned her new company a smile grew on her face, it was matchmaker bear in the flesh.

“Honeybear?”

“Hannah, and you are?”

“Matchmaker bear.”

He was grinning at her and gave her a charming wink, taking a sip of his coffee before extending a hand out to shake hers.

“I’m Tyson.”

“Nice to have a name to put to the face.”

“Nice to see the face is as real as the name.”

“Meet a lot of fakes?”

“Some.  You’d be surprised how many people would lie on the internet.”

“Probably not.”

Tyson smiled and Hannah, and she found that they were contagious, she had been smiling since he sat down and she couldn’t stop herself, she was unable to even tone it down to a grin.

“Is that why you have an empty profile?  Because of the fakes?”

“No, it’s because I’m not looking for anything.”

“Then why have a profile at all?”

“Because If I didn’t have a profile on my own website, what would people say?”

“Wait, what?”

“What?”

“You are the owner of the website?  That’s yours?”

“Yup, that is my baby.”

“Wow.  So wait, then why message me?”

“Because you seemed very unique.”

“Unique how?”

“A bear wanting monogamy, long-term, that’s odd.”

“I don’t think so.”

“That is what makes you unique.  I enjoy meeting unique people, so I had to meet you.”

“Oh.”

Hannah looked down at her coffee, of course Mr. Rich and perfect wasn’t looking for a relationship; he probably had a million girls begging for his attention every day.  Tyson noticed the change in Hannah’s body language and moved his chair enough that he was sitting next to her instead of across from her.

“I’m single, by the way.”

“Oh…ohhhh.”

Tyson was smiling at her, moving his hands up to cup over her knuckles.  Hannah looked up and gazed directly into his eyes, her smile returning at once.  After that was cleared up Hannah and Tyson spent several hours getting to know each other, from basic things like their favorite colors, to their dirty, embarrassing secrets that they couldn’t even tell their friends. 

There was definitely a connection that sizzled between them; they agreed that it must be some sort of shifter magic that made them feel so perfect for each other.  Their animal instincts were to run away to the woods and mate like the bears they were, but Hannah denied Tyson anything but a kiss, she didn’t want to rush into anything, she talked to him about all the times she had been burned by rushing. 

Tyson was the most understanding man she had ever met thus far; he was perfectly content to get to know her better and to wait until she was ready for the next step.  When their coffee date turned into an all afternoon date, Tyson decided to take Hannah out to his favorite hole in the wall restaurant.

“Their burgers are to die for.”

“That is what I love about shifter men.”

“They eat burgers?”

“No, they like their women to eat meat.  Can’t imagine how many funny looks I get when I order anything other than a salad at a restaurant.  If I wanted to be a rabbit, I’d dress like one.”

“I wouldn’t mind seeing you in a bunny costume.”

Tyson winked at her as they grabbed their seats and ordered, their hands reaching across the table to lace their fingers together, their chemistry causing sparks throughout the restaurant.

“This isn’t weird, right?”

“I thought you said you’ve been when shifters before.”

“I’ve only ever been with shifters, but Tyson…our skin is sizzling.”

“That’s an alpha thing.”

“An alpha thing?”

“Yeah, when an alpha of the species is with a compatible mate, the animal takes over, creates the sizzle.  It’s to ensure the alpha legacy.”

“Wow, I’ve never been told that before, you’d think that would be common shifter knowledge.”

“Only with alpha families, everyone else doesn’t know, because it never happens to them.”

“So what does being an alpha mean?”

“As a bear, very little.  Most of us are so isolated; we don’t really have a need for an alpha anymore.  It used to be the alpha controlled which territory belonged to who, and the alpha owned the largest territory.  Now I just make you sizzle.”

Tyson winked, concluding Hannah’s lesson for the day.  Their burgers came shortly after and the ate while continuing to chat about each other, sharing a chocolate dessert to complete the night on a perfect note, and when Tyson was gentlemanly enough to walk Hannah home, he didn’t even ask to come in.

“Well, I hope this isn’t the last time I see you.”

“And give up my newly discovered sizzle.”

Hannah was the one to wink, tilting herself up on her tip toes to kiss Tyson on the lips.  She had meant it to be a simple chaste kiss, but as soon as their lips met, Tyson had her pressed up against her door, dragging his tongue along her lower lip.  Her fingers were combing through his hair and pulling him closer against her, her moans echoed against his tongue as his taste invaded her mouth.  Their embrace carried on for more than ten minutes, leaving them gasping as they pulled away from each other.

“Well, you have my number.  Goodnight, Tyson.  Call me.”

Hannah quickly moved inside of her house and locked the door, still gasping as she pressed her back against a wall in her hallway.  Tyson smiled at her locked door and set out down the street, already pulling his phone out to send her a text.

Chapter Four

A few weeks and several dates later…

Tyson led Hannah by the hand into his condo on the penthouse floor of his building.  Leading her into the large living room and spinning her around to press her against a large pillar, leaning in and dragging his tongue along her lips, nibbling on her lower one as his hands explored her curves.  Hannah had asked for him to take her home and ravage her like the bear he was, and Tyson had wasted no time to get her back to his place. 

Her hands were rubbing along his large arms, tugging away at his shirt until he stopped touching her long enough to raise his arms, pulling his shirt off to reveal a delicious six pack.  Hannah caressed her fingers along his toned stomach, kissing and nibbling on his bare chest as he went back to working on her.  Tyson nibbled on her neck as he unzipped her dress, letting the fabric fall into a pool on his floor, kicking it out of his way.  He turned her to one side and forced her to walk backwards as the continued to explore each other, biting and kissing every area of exposed flesh as the moved.