Bad Bear: BBW Bear Shifter Paranormal Romance (BRIDES fur BEARS Book 1) Read Online Free Page B

called out
their phone numbers as they left.
    Marcus heard high heels
click-clacking their way determinedly towards the work site. The men
grew more excited and exuberant at her approach.
    “Hey, beautiful!”
    “Lookin' for me, Hon?”
    “Shut up, Damien!
She's obviously not looking for you! Which girl in her right mind
would look for you?”
    Marcus took a deep breath and
his entire body jerked. His bear rumbled to life and almost ripped
out of his skin at her scent.
    He knew that scent. He would
know her anywhere.
    “Staci.” He
turned around with a low growl.
    Armed with a file and a
mobile phone, Staci was striding resolutely into a seething, swirling
pool of testosterone. The men winked at her as she came nearer, and
openly ogled and propositioned her.
    “Excuse me, I'm looking
for Mr Marcus Beck,” she said in a clear, no-nonsense voice.
    All eyes swiveled to him.
“Mr Beck will see you now,” Joshua said, bowing low and
opening an imaginary door for her.
    Once her eyes lighted on him,
she sucked in a quick breath and swallowed. He heard her mutter an
oath under her breath.
    “Mr Beck, I'm Staci
Castillo,” she said. “I'm the new financial consultant
from Bronze Bank.”
    There were audible oohs and
aahs from his men. “I never knew financial consultants came in
such pretty packages,” someone said.
    “I'm going to visit the
bank more often.”
    “Get in line, Nick!
Hey, Miss Castillo, I need to consult you about my finances. How
about meeting tonight, at my place?”
    “Don't go to him. I'll
come to you, Miss Staci. Give me your address. We can have a
consultation all night long...”
    Marcus's eyes flashed as he
walked past his men. His brothers saw the look on his face and began
to shush their mates.
    “Shut up, dickheads!”
Joshua snapped.
    But of course, no one did.
    “Come on, let's find a
place to talk,” Marcus said, putting his hand possessively on
the small of her back and steering her away from the hooting, leering
males.
    “Miss Castillo!”
    They turned around to see
Damien pointing at himself with a paintbrush. The dork had painted
his phone number across his bare chest and was strutting around like
a peacock.
    Staci chuckled and whispered
to Marcus, “Friends of yours?”
    He gave a long-suffering
sigh. “Unfortunately, yes.”

CHAPTER
TEN

    Staci concentrated on
putting one foot in front of the other without falling over. The
background shouts of Marcus's work mates faded and she was only aware
of Marcus's huge hand against her back.
    “Marcus Beck,”
she said with a soft laugh. “It had to be you.”
    Marcus raised a brow at her.
“You were expecting someone else? I don't think there's
another Marcus Beck in this town.”
    Staci narrowed her eyes at
him. “You know what I mean.”
    He smirked at her. “I
thought Pamela was coming out to meet me,” he said when they
reached a bench under a tree.
    “She had another client
meeting, so I'm handling your file.”
    Marcus grinned. “Lucky
me.”
    Staci smiled and opened the
file. On the way here, she had mentally prepped herself and told
herself to remain cool and professional at all times. Nothing would
faze her. At the back of her mind, she already knew that Marcus Beck
would turn out to be that hunk from the bar.
    She had managed to keep a
pleasant, unaffected smile on her face when Marcus's work mates were
wolf-whistling and propositioning her. But when Marcus turned around
and she met his eyes, her smile cracked and she stopped breathing for
a moment.
    She had thought that perhaps
it was the beer that had made Marcus look hotter than he really was.
But out here, in the bright sunlight, Marcus was even more gorgeous.
He looked solid, broad and real. There was a light sheen of sweat on
his arms and his paint-spattered shirt stretched nicely across his
chest under his work vest. As he strolled towards her, thumping one
of his men on the chest as he passed, she realized that he was even
taller and bigger than he