Jade Crew: Outcast Bear (Standalone Paranormal Romance) (Ridgeback Bears Book 5) Page 2

  The same creamy-skinned redhead he had seen walk in with Raphael was standing less than two feet from him. Up close he was suddenly vividly aware of her curves and how dangerously close to bursting her shirt was as it tried to contain her breasts. She was short, thick around the middle, and she carried it with a grace that defied his belief.

  For a moment Corey forgot how to breathe as every fiber in his body warred with every ounce of logic in his brain. Locked in titanic combat, he neither moved nor spoke, though he did watch as she tested the beer for the first time. The delight that sparked in her eyes tugged harder at his skin, prompting an equal and opposite reaction from his brain.

  She was perfect.

  She’s Raphael’s!

  The two went back and forth inside him, like the pair of arm-wrestlers in the fifth and deciding match that he could see in his periphery. Neither side could overpower the other, and thus nothing happened.

  “This is delicious Mr…” she trailed off, smiling shyly at the bartender.

  “Ferro,” he said, his voice sounding dry and unused. “Just Ferro is fine.”

  “Well Ferro, you sure know what you’re doing,” she said, tipping her head in his direction, before turning to Corey.

  Uh-oh. Stay calm. Be polite. Do. Not. Flirt.

  “Hi,” she said at last, after waiting for him to initiate the conversation.

  “Hello,” he replied dimly, still coming to grips with the fact that he had control of his body once again, and that logic seemed to have won. He was determined not to intrude on Raphael’s relationship, no matter how stunning he found her.

  “What’s your name?” she asked.

  Dammit. Now he had to reply.

  “Corey,” he said, sticking out his hand. He didn’t look around the bar, doing his best to avoid any glances that might come his way, especially from Raphael. That was one shifter he didn’t want to mess with.

  “Jenny,” she said in return.

  Corey frowned. The name sounded familiar, but it took him a moment to place it. “Kierra has a friend named Jenny…” he said slowly.

  “One and the same,” she said cheerily. “That’s how I met everyone. Or at least, those I have met, which it seems was only a couple.”

  He nodded, forcing himself to smile. “Well, now you know one more.”

  Easy, tiger. Play it cool and extract yourself from here right now.

  “So I do,” she said. “Are you one of the Jade Crew?”

  He nodded. “I am, and I actually need to get back to them,” he said lamely, getting up from the barstool. “It’s been a pleasure Jenny, and I’m sure I’ll see you again.”

  “Most likely,” the redhead said with a smile.

  His gaze lingered upon her green eyes for just a second longer than was appropriate, and then he turned, fleeing as calmly as possible into the crowd.

  Where he ran right into Raphael.

  “Corey,” the other shifter exclaimed, clapping him on the shoulder.

  Oh come on. I didn’t do anything!

  Steeling himself, he forced another smile on his face. “Hey Raph, good to see you.” He looked around at the other Stone Bears. “Good to see all of you, actually. I didn’t know you had a mate,” he said before he could stop himself.

  Maybe Raphael would be nicer if Corey brought it up, instead of having to be told.

  Much to his surprise though, Raphael didn’t smile or threaten Corey if he didn’t stay away from Jenny.

  “What?” Raphael looked at Corey.

  Corey felt his cheeks flare up in slight embarrassment as he realized he had made a mistake.

  “Jenny isn’t your mate?” he asked slowly, turning to point her out. She was gone from the bar and he couldn’t track her down before Raphael responded with a laugh.

  “No, she’s just friends with Kierra. Nothing going on there. Why did you think that?”

  Corey felt like he’d just taken a hammer’s strike to the chest. Dammit, she had been single and trying to strike up conversation with him, and he’d blown her off. Good job.

  “No reason,” he said numbly, and went back to the Jade Crew area, finding the empty seat farthest from everyone and all but throwing himself into it. His chances weren’t completely ruined, but now he had to find a way to put himself back into a conversation with Jenny without looking like an idiot.

  You always look like an idiot, his brain told him.

  He gave his brain a mental middle finger, and then reached for his phone as it buzzed.

  Chapter Two

  Jenny

  “Everything okay Jenny?”

  “Oh yeah,” she said dejectedly, sitting down in the chair next to Kierra. The two of them, along with Caia had appropriated seats somewhat in the middle of the bar. Darren spent a lot of his time these days with the Stone Bears. He had once been in training to become one, and with the increase in attacks on the Valley, had been visiting them a lot to refresh his training and pass it on to the rest of the Jade Crew. As such, Kierra had spent a lot of time with Caia, who was mated to the leader of the Stone Bears, Gabriel.

  Jenny wasn’t overly social on her own, so she just tagged along with Kierra. Consequently the three of them had become extremely close in a short period of time.

  “What did I miss?” Caia asked, joining the conversation for the first time.

  “Kierra put me up to going and starting a conversation with Corey. Said she saw him looking at me at one point.”

  “And?” Caia asked excitedly. She and Kierra had been on a mission to set Jenny up with one of the single shifters, much to their friend’s horror.

  Jenny raised an eyebrow in Caia’s direction. “Really? Do I look like it went well?” There was no malice in her voice, but she did want to temper the expectations of the two of them.

  The pair considered her to be highly attractive to a shifter, and insisted that one of them would go absolutely nuts for her. She considered herself overly thick and lacking in sexual experience for the tastes of a shifter. As it turned out, the haste with which Corey had fled only served to help prove her point.

  “He got up and left almost right away,” Kierra explained to the confused Caia.

  Caia frowned. “That seems odd, no?”

  “Not if he isn’t interested in me,” Jenny said with a polite roll of her eyes. She loved her friends, but they were intent on finding her a mate, and from what she understood, it just didn’t work like that. “Besides, I don’t know if I like this idea. A bear shifter? You know I’m not like the rest of my family in that aspect, but don’t you think they’re a bit,” she hesitated, looking for the right word, “dangerous?”

  The two girls sitting with her exchanged glances, and then giggled.

  “Of course, silly!” Kierra told her after Jenny crossed her arms and put on her “I’m being patient with you but you need to hurry up and explain” face.

  “That’s part of the fun,” Caia added. “Don’t get me wrong, the whole part where we’ve been threatened is terrifying.” She and Kierra both sobered up quickly as they recalled the harrowing events that had happened during their courtships. Whoever was attacking the valley had made a habit of attempting to use the newfound mates against their shifters.

  “But it’s what happens afterward that’s just so lovable,” Kierra added.

  “What do you mean?” Jenny said, looking back and forth between the two of them.

  “After a fight, the only thing they want is to be with you. And when they do, they’re just these big, cuddly bundles of muscle.” Caia swallowed hard as one memory or another rose to the surface.

  “Oh come on,” Jenny said, making a disgusted face. “You mean they just want to get in your pants.”

  “Exactly,” Kierra said. “And don’t make a disgusted face at me. Just because you made the choice not to sleep with any of the guys that have chased after you doesn’t mean that I have to act like I don’t enjoy sex.”

  Jenny tried not to blush as the subject changed. It wasn
’t that Jenny was afraid of sex; she just hadn’t found the right person to have sex with. At first it wasn’t a problem. She was in high school, and so what, she could wait until college where she would find a more worldly and educated man.

  Except there she had been too focused on her studies. It had spiraled out of control, until she was now in her late twenties and terrified of the prospect of losing her virginity. It was an embarrassing subject, and one she would prefer not to discuss. Which was of course impossible around her two friends, who were too busy getting it on with their mates every chance they could.

  They two of them didn’t share intimate details—at least, not while she was around—but it was still very clear that they were having sex. A lot of sex.

  Part of Jenny wanted in on the club, but she had waited this long. She wasn’t just going to go and lose it to the first person that offered to take her home for the night. Which, she forcefully reminded herself, Corey had not offered to do.

  “Well, it’s not like Corey was interested in taking me home anyway,” she said, taking another drink of the beer that she quite liked. “At least the beer’s good,” she said with a small laugh, and her friends joined her.

  Silence reigned for a moment, and Jenny’s mind and vision took in the bar. As if by fate, the lone shifter sitting off aloof from the others caught her eye. It was Corey.

  “He’s clearly not doing anything else,” Caia said, confused.

  As they watched, the shifter’s face contorted through several emotions, until his hand reached for his pocket, pulling out a cell phone. He seemed to read something on it, because his fingers didn’t move. The look on his face was decidedly unhappy, however. He put the phone down and shoved it back into his pocket after another moment of contemplation.

  “I wonder what that was all about?” Jenny wondered aloud.

  “Probably some lame groupie after him for the evening,” Caia muttered.

  Jenny knew she had meant it as an insult, that she thought Jenny was a better choice than any woman who would sleep with Corey just because he was a shifter. But it hurt more than she cared to admit that he was talking to someone else, someone that would go home with him and give him what he wanted. Even if Corey had talked to her all night, Jenny knew deep down that she wouldn’t have gone home with him. Not after just meeting him.

  That was just something that she couldn’t provide for Corey. She looked down through the long skinny neck of the clear bottle of her drink, and into the golden-amber liquid below. She swirled it gently, watching as the bubbles raced around the edge of the bottle, slowly popping as they did. Kind of like her chances at a normal life, they were vanishing quickly.

  “Uh, Jenny?” came Kierra’s voice, sounding odd.

  She thought about looking up, but at the moment, she didn’t want to see her friend’s face. The beautiful face that had snagged her an amazing shifter mate. A face very unlike Jenny’s.

  “What?” she asked glumly, giving the beer yet another swirl.

  “Jenny, you need to look up,” Kierra urged.

  Frustrated, she raised her voice at her friend. “Why? It’s not like there’s anything to look at. The only thing appealing in here already blew me off to go sit over there,” she said, flicking a finger in the direction of Uriel.

  “Ah, yes, I do apologize for that,” came a deep, rumbling voice from somewhere in the sky above her.

  Jenny froze.

  “He’s right there, isn’t he?” she hissed to her right, the far side from where the voice had come.

  “Yes, he is,” came Caia’s amused response. “Maybe you should look up?”

  “Right,” she muttered and jerked her head up so fast the muscles in her neck cramped. “Ow, dammit!” Her hand flew to her neck and gently massaged the tissue there as she blinked rapidly, trying to clear the pain from her vision and focus on the sight in front of her.

  “Are you okay?” Corey asked, worriedly looking down at her.

  “Yeah, just dandy,” she got out. “My head just isn’t used to having to crane so far upward to look at someone.”

  She heard shocked gasps from her friends, followed by what sounded suspiciously like snickers of delight as they quickly excused themselves.

  “We’ll be right back, Jenny,” Kierra said, ignoring Jenny’s hand as it clutched at her, begging her to stay.

  “Traitors,” she muttered after her friends as they all but squealed with delight to leave her alone with Corey.

  “Pardon?” he asked, though the look on his face told her he had actually heard every word.

  Probably that extra-sensitive hearing they’re supposed to have.

  “So, what are you here to apologize for?” she asked guardedly, looking out at Corey from behind the walls she built, hiding the emotion in her eyes.

  He was hot. Several inches above six feet, a shock of blond hair on his head, and a several-day-old wash of scruff across his face. Brown eyes looked at her as he sat down. He took a chair that kept the table between them, as if understanding that Jenny was rather skittish.

  “I blew you off earlier, after I believe you came to talk with me,” he said bluntly, much to her surprise. It was an interesting tactic, being upfront and straightforward with her. She wondered how it would play out. “I was under the impression that you were already mated to the shifter you had arrived with, and I did not want to appear as if I was being inappropriate.”

  “Already mated?” she asked in confusion.

  He grimaced slightly. “I saw you come in next to Raphael, and made an incorrect assumption.”

  Jenny snorted. “You know what they say about assumptions.”

  “I do indeed,” he said with a smile, unfazed by her attitude.

  And she was giving him attitude, Jenny realized with a start. Why? He had blown her off, true, but his point made complete sense. She had come in here next to Raphael, with two other mated pairs. It was a logical thing to assume, and he had only been trying to respect someone else’s mate. Not only that, but after he had realized his mistake, he had actually come to apologize for it.

  So stop being an ass to him!

  Taking her own advice, she sat back and forced herself to relax and smile at him. She wasn’t very good at flirting, but she would give it her best shot. Both because he deserved it, and because of the way his shirt tightly hugged his chest and threatened to rip as his arms flexed.

  Jenny might be sexually inexperienced, or unexperienced, but that didn’t mean she was blind to gorgeous men when they came up and their hotness slapped her in the face. Or in this case, sat down at the table with her. She was no more immune to his good looks than her friends were to their mates. Shifter or no shifter, physically, his body just rippled with muscle and she liked it.

  “So, Jenny, I never did get your last name,” he said, pushing the conversation forward for her.

  Perhaps this wouldn’t be all that hard after all…

  “It’s Hardwick,” she said, sticking out her hand yet again.

  “Well Jenny Hardwick, my name is Corey Baleski, and it’s a pleasure to meet you,” he said, taking her hand and—before she could react—brushing his lips softly against the back of it. There was a slight prick from his stubble, but the combination of his soft lips and fuzz sent a shiver down her spine.

  “You know, I always did appreciate greetings like this much more than when people go running from me in terror,” she teased.

  What was she doing? Making fun of him for running away from her? He was going to get pissed and leave her for a second time that evening. Jenny’s heart beat frantically and she fought to keep any sign of a blush off her face as she scrambled to catch her brain up to her mouth before it did any more damage.

  “Terror?” Corey asked, his eyebrows arching in surprise.

  “Well of course. Although I suppose if people kneeled before me and chanted my name, I wouldn’t totally object to the terror part.” Jenny surprised herself with a giggle at his shocked reaction. Then, as real
ization spread through her of just what was going on, she did feel her face begin to burn as she undoubtedly flushed red.

  “Well, my queen, may I fetch you another drink?” he asked politely, his hand spreading out to encompass the now-empty beer in her hand.

  She had drained the last of it to try and hide her blushing. Unfortunately, the lighting was likely too good for that in the bar. Another beer did sound good, but now that he was back in her grasp, Jenny didn’t want to risk Corey becoming distracted by something else. She wanted to talk to him for a while longer.

  “You may escort me there, yes,” she said loftily, holding out her hand.

  With a flourish he took it, his big fingers all but wrapping around her chubby palm. There was a slight shock at the contact from a member of the opposite sex as her body reacted to that. But there was also a searing moment of pain as the sheer warmth of his hand melted her skin into a puddle.

  That’s what it felt like, at least. She wanted to check her hand for burn marks once he let go. The heat was so intense she swore he was on fire! As the shock of it subsided, she blinked and realized she was still sitting as Corey waited for her to stand.

  Idiot. He’s been waiting patiently for a good three or four seconds now. Are you going to get up off your ass anytime soon?

  Clamping her mouth shut to avoid saying anything she might regret, Jenny let herself be assisted to her feet.

  “May I?” he asked, holding out his elbow.

  It was close to her shoulder height, but she accepted nonetheless. Instead of linking elbows though, she simply grasped his forearm instead, as that was at a much more comfortable height level.

  “To the bar!” he announced with a laugh and they set off.

  She ignored the looks of her friends, not wanting to have anything to do with them. They would make fun of her later she was sure. For now though, she was going to have fun with Corey. She was quickly coming to realize he had a quirky sense of humor, and that was completely endearing to her.