The Bear Prince: A BBW Bear Shifter Billionaire Paranormal Romance Novella (Seattle's Billionaire Bears Book 3) Read Online Free Page B

warm and bright as a freshly baked sugar cookie. There were little amber glass light bulbs on a string, with glowing orange filaments. As Crystal looked through the curtains, she found herself getting lost in her imagination, before the smell of delicious food pulled her out of one fantasy and into another.
    Crystal turned. Yes, the sausage in a bun was on the tray, as well as a drink she presumed was hers, but in addition to the fries and onion rings, there was every last dang thing she’d seen on the menu. There were jalapeño poppers, breaded, full of delicious ricotta and mozzarella cheese she would’ve been able to smell a mile away. There were broccoli cheese bites, the broccoli crowns peeking through the crispy golden batter. There were the regular fries, golden and straight and long as straws, but there were also salted and peppered potato wedges, as well as bright orange curly fries dusted with brown fragrant spices that almost transported her to an exotic land. There was a pair of corn dogs, with little zig-zags in yellow and red of mustard and ketchup, as well as a large pretzel with big grains of Kosher salt and dipping pots of cheese, mustard made with real mustard kernels.
    “Whoa, you leave any food for the other people?” asked Crystal. “This is really quite the spread.”
    “I’m glad you think so,” said Damien.
    “Where’s the cotton candy?” asked Crystal.
    “Trust me, you’ll wanna wait until after to see it made, up-close,” said Damien.
    Crystal and Damien made short work of the food. Although Crystal was hungry from a long day running around Seattle chasing the hottest scoop, Damien actually ate way more than her. “Where is all that food going?” asked Crystal.
    “I’m a bear,” said Damien. “Don’t tell me you forgot.”
    “Okay, but what’s being a bear got to do with it?” asked Crystal.
    Damien grabbed Crystal’s hand, and then, turned it over so that his hand was beneath hers. “Feel that?” asked Damien, gripping her hand tightly. “That heat? Mammal shifters are hot-blooded, and we bears burn energy like nobody’s business. You think this dinner’s big, you should see what I had for lunch.” Damien let go of Crystal’s hand, exposing his large palm to Crystal. The palm, and the undersides of his fingers, were marked with what looked at first like dark brown tattoos, but which, on closer inspection, were natural dark callus-like marks, forming the shape of a bear’s paw.
    “I guess I don’t know that much about shifters,” said Crystal. “They didn’t have a lot of them in the town I grew up in.”
    “Where did you grow up?” asked Damien.
    “Some small town in the middle of nowhere,” said Crystal. “Well, to be more specific, in the middle of Idaho. I visited Seattle when I was little, with my parents, to see the Space Needle...and now, I visit Idaho to see the stars.” Crystal looked up, past the sheer canopy and lights. Even though they were a few miles outside the city limits, the sky wasn’t clear enough to see any of the stars in the night sky. The closest thing to glistening stars were the blinking lights of planes passing overhead.
    “You know, I’m not from around here either,” said Damien.
    “Really?” asked Crystal.
    “Really,” said Damien. “But my town...well, it’s kind of the opposite. Ever heard of Port Jameson?”
    “I can’t say I have” said Crystal.
    “It’s a shifter town, down in Oregon, on the Willamette River,” said Damien. “And trust me...you can see the stars from there.”
    “I’ll have to visit it sometime,” said Crystal with a smile. “Now...you did promise me some cotton candy, Mr. Michaels.”
    For a second, Damien was confused. Who the heck was ‘Mr. Michaels’? Oh, wait. It was that pesky identity he had half-made up. He could tell her the truth later, but for now, he had to satisfy her sweet tooth.
    Damien led Crystal over to a cart where an elderly Chinese man had a variety of flavors