Bear Space_A Shifters in Love Fun & Flirty Romance Read online

  Cade’s fork stops midair for a moment before he sets it down still holding a piece of cake. He grabs his beer and takes a swig, and his behavior makes me think I hit a nerve. I say, “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to bring up a touchy subject.”

  “It’s fine. You’re right. True-mate love does make one feel as if they can’t think about anything else.” He smiles and gets a dreamy look in his eyes. “It’s wonderful and painful at the same time. When you think about the woman, you can’t help but feel a warm glow of love. Your mood improves instantly, and you feel as if nothing is wrong in the world. But when you can’t be with her,” he pounds a fist against his chest, “it hurts.”

  “Wow. You sound like someone who’s experienced it.” A terrible thought comes to me. “Oh no. You didn’t have a--”

  “No. I haven’t lost a true mate, if that’s what you were going to ask.”

  I blow out a sigh of relief. “Good. Because I would have felt awful.” I sip on my coffee as I gaze at him and imagine being that in love. I think the most wonderful part for me would be knowing that it’s forever. “I’m a little jealous,” I say. “Being with someone who could never cheat must be comforting.”

  Cade’s face clouds with concern. “Do men cheat on you, Bella?”

  I shrug. “I don’t know. I never get close enough to care.”

  A smile flickers on his lips before he adds, “That’s sad.”

  “Really?” The smile he just tried to hide gave him away, but I wonder why what I said made him happy. “Do you really think so?”

  He sighs. “No. I suppose it keeps you from getting hurt. But for me--” Cade shakes his head. “You should let yourself fall in love.” His expression is sorrowful. “You deserve it.”

  Suddenly, I feel depressed for both of us too. Cade might want love more than I do, though, so I reach out and place my hand over his. “You should too, Cade. Even if it’s just for practice.”

  He looks down at my hand and then flips his over to grasp my fingers and give them a squeeze before he pulls away. He takes his fork and scrapes it along the plate to get the frosting remnants. “Should I pick you up tomorrow night, or do you want to meet there?”

  His abrupt change of subject throws me, and I wonder if maybe Cade has already had his heart broken. I want to comfort him, and I notice I’m leaning toward him, and my arms ache to tug him close. I pull back, because we’re just friends and I shouldn’t send the wrong message.

  “I’ll meet you there,” I say. “The place on Church Street?”

  He nods. “At seven. I’ll bring the wine for us.”

  “Great. This will be fun.”

  “Bella?” Cade reaches out but stops before he touches me and pulls his hand back quickly. “Thanks.”

  “Sure,” I say, and it hits me that Cade must need our friendship. At least that’s what I’m telling myself, because the truth might be that I do too.

  Chapter 3

  “Too sexy,” I say as I look in the mirror, and a pair of red heels clunk on the floor when I kick them off so I can strip out of my black skinny jeans. Who knew getting dressed for a friend date with a guy could be so hard? I plop down on my bed and fall back to stare up at the ceiling. “I’m overthinking this.” While it’s true I might change my outfit a few times before going out with the girls, I never take this much time to get ready. I’ve already tried on more clothes than if I were going on a real date.

  “Cade and I are just friends!” I yell at myself and bolt up off the bed to grab a comfortable pair of faded jeans. I roll up the hem of the legs and slip on my red shoes again, purposely avoiding the mirror as I walk over to the closet for a slouchy top. I don’t know what I’m worried about. The electricity Cade and I have generated in the past couldn’t be doused if I wore a paper bag, and I shouldn’t be encouraging that with sexy clothes.

  I go to the bathroom to do my makeup and glance at the fake eyelashes on the counter. “Nope,” I say, and while my hand hovers over a tube of eyeliner I keep moving to grab my mascara instead. “Friends, Bella,” I remind myself. “Friends.”

  I don’t have to control myself when I get to the red lipstick, though. It’s kind of my thing, and I wear it with just about everything and for almost every occasion, so I smear a generous amount on my lips and make a duck face at myself in the mirror. I chuckle as I turn away to go grab my purse. And when my door slams shut behind me, I take a deep breath to settle my nerves.

  I can’t stop thinking about Cade, and it’s making me crazy. It’s as if I’m like the guys who get clingy when I tell them I don’t want anything serious. Somehow, the fact Cade and I agreed to be nothing more than friends makes me want to be so much more. I’m experiencing firsthand what it’s like to want what you can’t have. I shake my head at myself as I climb in my car. Even though I understand why I suddenly care about Cade liking me, I can’t seem to stop the feeling.

  As I turn over the engine, my phone rings, and I glance at it to see it’s my friend Tally in Canada. I pick up the call and put her on speakerphone. “Hey, Tally, I’m in my car, on my way to paint night. What’s up?”

  “Paint night? You?” She laughs.

  “Hey, I can be creative.”

  “Uh-huh. Are you going to use magic?”

  “Not unless I have to.”

  “I want to run something by you,” Tally says, and then she describes a spell she wants to create but is struggling to get right. We discuss different options to achieve it before the conversation returns to me. Tally asks, “Who are you painting with?”

  “Cade.”

  Tally and I became close friends about ten years ago when she would spend time at the LeRoux medicine woman’s house with her grandmother. The two of us did a lot of training together and had a lot of fun. She’s witnessed a few of my drunken indiscretions in bars and on dance floors with Cade, and she knows he’s the one thing I can’t resist. She says, “Paint night my roly-poly round butt. I thought you refused to date the werebear in your clan.”

  “We’re getting together just as friends.”

  Now Tally cackles. “Oh, Bella. That’s a good one. Don’t they have wine at those things? You don’t expect me to believe you two can keep your hands off each other if alcohol is involved. This idea spells trouble with a capital T.”

  I scowl as I flip my blinker on to turn into a municipal parking lot across from the art center. “For your information, I’m turning over a new leaf. I’m tired of meaningless relationships, but I’m not sure how to have a serious one. So I decided I need to have a guy friend to help me figure out how to relate to a man on more than a physical level.”

  “Huh. That’s actually pretty smart. But Cade? He’s like your crack. Oh.” She pauses for a second. “You know what? Good for you,” says Tally. “I’d love to see you settle down and have kids of your own. You’re really great with mine.”

  “What was the ‘oh’ for?”

  “It’s nothing. I got distracted by the fact you might be growing up,” she teases.

  “Very funny,” I say. But I smile at her praise and think about her adorable children, who are shifting prematurely into cubs because of their mixed breed. Tally’s alpha let her marry a werebear, which has never happened before. But it’s clear to everyone she and Marcel have a relationship that defies the true-mate bond between werebear only. “Thanks.” I glance in the rearview mirror to make sure I don’t have lipstick on my teeth. “I’ve got to go, but let me know if you need to tweak the spell more. I’m happy to help.”

  “Will do. Have fun tonight.”

  “I will. Bye, Tally.”

  As I climb out of my sedan, a jacked-up truck pulls into the lot, and I grin when I notice Cade behind the wheel. I wave at him as he drives by me and into the spot next to mine. He gets out, and I see he’s wearing an open flannel shirt over a tight T-shirt, loose jeans, and work boots that are untied. He has a backpack over his shoulder, and I notice his hair is damp when he combs his fingers through it as he greets me.


  “Hey, I was afraid I’d be late, but it looks like I got here right on time.”

  When he gets closer, I detect the pine scent of his soap, and my knee-jerk reaction is to want to lean in to smell more as I kiss him. As my body begins to warm up, I throw up a mental shield between my libido and my brain. No wonder Tally laughed at me. I really don’t know how to be a guy’s friend. “So,” I say. “Please tell me you’re not artistic and going to blow me away with your creativity.”

  Cade chuckles. “Not even close. How about you?”

  “Nope. I was just talking to a friend of mine, who teased me about using my magic to pull this off.”

  “Don’t you dare. I can’t be the only whose painting looks like a kindergartener did it.” He tugs the door of the shop open for me.

  Once we get inside, I say, “We can sit in the back and be the bad kids that get sent to detention.”

  “No detention here,” says an older woman as she approaches us. She’s human, and as I glance around the room, I notice most of the people here are except for two werebear girls in our clan who are eyeing Cade. “Every painting is a work of art in my eyes. Go find an easel. I’m Joy, your teacher tonight.”

  We wander toward the back of the room to pick our easels. The two werebear girls turn to glance at Cade before they break out into giggles.

  I say, “I believe you’ve been made.”

  He rolls his eyes and whispers because of the humans present, “It’s the warrior thing. Great for the ego, but it gets annoying.”

  “That’s not all they’re interested in.”

  He gives me a smirk as he sets his backpack down with a thud. “You think I’m hot.”

  Now I roll my eyes. “And you think the same about me. I believe that’s been established.”

  “I do,” he flashes me his sexy smile before he expertly opens a bottle of red with a wine key.

  A rush of pleasure runs through me at his compliment. After Cade hands me my drink, Joy claps her hands and says, “Let’s get started.”

  She demonstrates a few techniques and then shows us the first step to complete. I steal a glance at Cade as he works. His face is scrunched up with concentration, and when I look at his painting, I can tell he’s trying to make it be exactly like the sample. I whisper, “I think this is supposed to be relaxing.”

  “Shush. I’m trying to focus.”

  I can’t help myself. I reach over with my paintbrush and swipe across his nearly perfect gradient of color. Cade lets out a small noise before he stares at me with his jaw wide open and then says, “You didn’t just do that.”

  I grin. “Yes, I did.”

  “This isn’t going to end well for you,” says Cade.

  “Sure it is.” I flick my fingers and erase the paint streak with magic. “See?”

  “Let’s see you fix this,” Cade says as he reaches out and dabs the end of my nose with his paintbrush.

  I gasp and reach up to wipe the paint off, but he grabs my wrist. “Don’t make me hex you,” I say.

  Cade’s eyes are full of mischief when he leans in and wipes the paint off my skin with his thumb. He freezes, and I swear sparks between us crackle with the electricity. Neither of us moves. It’s as if we’re both trapped in each other’s gaze. I shouldn’t be feeling this way after only a few sips of wine, but apparently, I don’t need alcohol to want Cade to keep touching me. This is the Cade who invades my dreams. The one I can’t keep my hands off when I see him on a dance floor. I glance down at his full lips, which I’ve kissed many times, and they’re tempting-- Bella! I jerk back. “Friends,” I mumble as I stand up quickly, and my stool topples over. “I’m going to go--“ I point off in the distance since, for some reason, the word I’m trying to find escapes me. “Clean up. I’m going to go clean up.” And maybe take a cold shower too.

  “Right,” says Cade in a husky voice. He clears his throat and doesn’t make eye contact as he gets up to retrieve my stool. I walk away, and when I glance back at Cade, I notice he’s furiously stabbing at his canvas with a paintbrush. Tally was right. I’m in trouble. Only it’s spelled with a capital C.

  Chapter 4

  I chant to myself as I walk to the bathroom. Just friends. Just friends. We’re just friends. I push my way in and shut the door before I thud back against it and close my eyes. What the hell was that? I’m used to feeling overwhelmingly attracted to Cade when my inhibitions are set free by a few cocktails, but I haven’t got any excuse for what just happened out there.

  I get up and go to the mirror to wipe the rest of the paint off my nose. It’s probably a good thing that Cade has never come to me for help, because I might have stripped him naked and had my way with him instead of offering a potion or performing a spell.

  Spell. Oh god. If Cade felt anything like I did right now, he probably thinks I spelled him. “Great.” I let out a sigh. “Just great.”

  “You okay in there?” calls Joy through the door.

  “I’m fine!” I call back, and I take a deep breath before I walk out.

  Joy squints at me. “Are you sure you’re all right?” She glances nervously at Cade and whispers, “I can split you two up if he’s bothering you.”

  “No.” I paste on a smile. “It was nothing.” When she appears as if she doesn’t believe me I say, “Really. We were teasing each other and I just needed to clean up a bit.”

  “Okay.” But as I move toward my easel, Joy says, “Everyone, let’s take a short break and check out each other’s progress.”

  Cade gets up and fills his wine glass as I approach him.

  “Hey,” I say. “I’m sorry about earlier. I’m committed to just being friends, and flirting like that was uncalled for.”

  “Yeah.” His brow knits for a moment, but he shakes it off as he lifts up the wine bottle. I grab my glass and hold it out to him as he says, “It was my fault. I shouldn’t--”

  “Are you Cade?” asks one of the werebear girls, who is obviously too clueless to realize she’s interrupting. She tilts her head, and her blue eyes are big as she peers at him over the top of her wine glass.

  “I am,” he says as he suddenly loses interest in filling my glass.

  The girl and her friend giggle. “I’m Nikki.” She holds out her hand. “I think what you do is so brave.”

  Her friend, clearly not one to hide in the shadows, reaches over and places her free hand on Cade’s bicep. “I’m Desiree.” She lowers her voice to what I assume she thinks is a sexy tone. “You know, desire with a little extra.” I swallow back my nausea and might let out a little noise of disgust.

  Cade glances at me and raises his eyebrows before he turns back to Desiree. I grab the wine bottle of out his hand and fill my glass as I watch the show.

  Desiree squeezes his muscle, and to my horror, Cade actually flexes it as she says, “You are so strong.”

  “Well,” says Cade as he moves so that he’s slightly in front of me and effectively blocking me out of the conversation. “I do have to work out hard for my job.”

  I step back in shock. Am I really watching Cade flirt with these two girls? In front of me? Me! That is so not okay. Anger rises up in me, and I gulp down a mouthful of wine with the hope I can keep nasty words from exploding out of me. I swallow hard, but I can’t do it. I can’t just stand here and watch these two girls try to pick up my--my friend.

  Cade clearly can’t handle himself around these two man-eaters, because they’re effectively pulling him into their trap as they continue to put their hands on him. So I do what anyone would do to save a friend in need. I conjure up my magic and fling a little disturbance vibe to Nikki’s drink.

  “Oh!” cries out Nikki as liquid splashes on her jeans.

  Desiree gasps in shock as she gazes down at red wine on her white pants. “Nikki!” A low growl comes from her, and for a moment, my heart stops as I wonder if Desiree’s about to shift in front of humans. I prepare a shield in my mind to hide her in case she does. I may not like the girl, but above all
else, it’s my duty to protect my clan. I’ll never let a Robichaux be seen as a werebear by humans if I can help it.

  When Desiree lunges at Nikki, Cade steps in and yanks her back against his chest.

  “Ladies,” he says, “it was an accident.”

  Nikki glares at Desiree with fire in her eyes, and I notice her bear is dangerously close to the surface too as a low rumble comes from her chest. She opens her mouth, and I’m afraid it’s to roar, so I quickly throw a silence spell at Nikki, and while her jaw is open wide, no sound comes out.

  “What is going on over here?” asks Joy. The woman has a stern look on her face as she stands before us with her hands on her hips. “Release her,” she barks out at Cade.

  He lets go of Desiree and steps back. “Sorry, ma’am. I was just trying to break up a fight.”

  “It seems you’re the one who is trouble, young man.”

  I say, “It’s not what it looked like, Joy. I swear.”

  Joy takes in the two girls covered in wine and then looks back at me. “I think I know exactly what is happening.” She looks at Cade as she says to me, “I suggest you get him out of here.”

  “What?” I ask in disbelief.

  Cade grips my arm lightly. “It’s okay, Bella. We should go.”

  “No,” I say, and I glare at Nikki and Desiree. I’m ready to let them both have a piece of my mind about trying to score another’s girl’s man when it hits me I’m not with Cade in that way, yet I’m acting like a jealous girlfriend. And what’s worse is that I can’t think of a single guy I’ve ever dated who could have made me this upset. I shake my head and do my best to speak calmly between clenched teeth. “Actually, yes. Let’s go.”

  Cade grabs his backpack and slings it over his shoulder before retrieving our glasses, and I grab the wine and lead the way out of the art center. I’m still angry, and I stomp my way over to my car. But I’m not sure who to be mad at, because I know Cade isn’t to blame for what just happened. Especially since, minutes before the scene, I reinforced the fact we’re supposed to be just friends. And if I’m truthful with myself, considering the way Cade was so receptive to their advances, Nikki and Desiree didn’t do anything wrong either.