Once Upon a Shifter (10 page)

“Only one bathroom,” Grace whined as she inspected the place.

“If you think that’s bad wait until tomorrow,” Angie said. “There’s no bathroom in the woods.”

Grace’s face dropped. “I didn’t even think of that. Becca what did you get us into?”

“You didn’t seem so upset when Edwin gave you a full frontal welcome,” Angie said, with a giggle.

Grace’s face turned red. “Did you see how hot he was? I would like to wash my clothes on those abs.”

“You mean have Alfred wash your clothes on his abs?” Rebecca said with a laugh. “What do you think your Dad would do if you brought him home?”

Grace shook her head. “I’d be more worried about what my step mom would do. Did you see how…equipped he was?”

Rebecca shook her head. “Connor was blocking my view.”

Grace turned towards her. “That guy is totally hot for you.”

Now it was Rebecca’s turn to blush. “Who? Connor? No.”
Was he?

“I guess that leaves me with the football player,” Angie said, shaking her head. She hugged her textbook and kissed the cover. “I’ll always have you.”

Grace ripped the textbook out of her hands and tossed it across the room. It hit the dresser with a thud. “I’ve seen your wall of shame,” Grace said. “I bet you that guy would fuck you harder than you’ve ever been fucked before.”

Angie shook her head. “I like my guys nerdy.”

“That’s because you’ve never been fucked by a jock before.”

“Ladies,” Rebecca said. “We’re here for kayaking. Not for picking up men.”

Grace crawled onto Rebecca’s bed. “No. You’re here for kayaking. We’re here to help you get over Mark.”

“I don’t want to get over Mark,” Rebecca said.

Grace frowned. “He cheated on you Becca.”

Angie shook her head. “With your wedding coordinator. You have to get over him.”

Rebecca looked at her hands. She knew they were right.

“And there’s nothing that will help you get over him like a nice rebound,” Angie said, crossing her legs on her bed. “A nice hunky, sexy, mountain man rebound.”

Rebecca looked at her fingernail. “I don’t think so.”

“Why not?” Angie asked.

“Yeah why not?” Grace echoed.

Rebecca bit her fingernail.

Yeah. Why not?

four

Connor opened the door of the stove and checked the three honey-mustard, glazed ducks. They were browning nicely and almost ready.

“You have to roast it at five hundred degrees for an hour,” Sidney said, leaning over his shoulder. “Give it a nice blackened taste.”

Connor closed the door of the stove and turned the asparagus on the frying pan. “How many times did you get hit in the head in those two NFL games?”

“I don’t remember.”

“Figures,” Connor mumbled. He sprinkled some salt into the sizzling pan.

“Put triple that amount. Let me do it,” Sidney said, pushing Connor to the side. “You’re not messing up my girl’s dinner.”

“Those are clients,” Connor said pushing him back. “You are not going to be hitting on them.” Rebecca’s smile was still haunting him. Was he going to be able to follow his own orders?

Sidney stepped back from the oven with his hands up. “Fine. But it won’t be my fault when they all hit on me.”

“I’m going to ask the skinny, yellow haired girl to mate with me,” Edwin said, from behind Connor. He was sitting at the table sticking his finger in the bowl of chocolate mousse that Connor made for dessert and licking it.

Connor snatched the bowl from his hands. “No you’re not. You’re going to act professional.”

Female voices traveled in from the dining room and the three boys froze up with tense bodies. Edwin’s shoulders hunched over and his face started to twist in pain.

Connor leapt over next to him and grabbed his ear. He squeezed it and yanked his head down. “Stop it!”

Edwin’s shoulders straightened back out. “Stop phasing every two seconds,” Connor said, punching him in the arm. “What is wrong with you?”

Edwin shrugged. “I got nervous.”

“Do what I do when you get nervous,” Sidney said. “Just say out loud whatever comes to your mind.”

Edwin nodded as he listened.

“No,” Connor said shaking his head. “That is terrible advice.” He peeked into the other room. The three women were walking around the dining room looking at the pictures on the shelves. “Just relax. They’re only girls.”

“I think I bonded with all three of them,” Sidney said.

“No you didn’t,” Connor snapped. “That’s not even possible.”

“Yes it is,” Sidney said. “One of my uncles bonded to over two hundred women.”

Connor was about to retort, a werebear could bond to one and only one mate in their whole life, and then thought twice about it. “Just watch the ducks.” He headed towards the exit and looked back. “And don’t touch anything.”

Rebecca and Grace were looking at an old picture that they had picked up off of the table beside the fireplace.

“That was me as a kid,” Connor said proudly. It was a picture of him with his cousin Beckett on vacation.
She must be interested in me if she’s checking out pictures of me as a kid.
“I’m the one on the right.”

“Actually we were just looking at the frame,” Grace said.

Ouch.

Rebecca flashed her a dirty look. “I could tell by your dimples,” she said.

Connor tried to hide his grin. “Is everything satisfactory with your cabin?” he asked.

Rebecca smiled and some of the tension melted away from Connor’s shoulders. “It’s great.”

“Great?” Grace said, butting in. The tension crept back in. “We only have one bathroom. What kind of place only has one bathroom for three girls?”

Connor’s throat tightened.

“A cabin in the woods Grace,” Rebecca said, rolling her eyes. “Excuse my friend. She is a little bit of a snob.”

“A little bit?” Grace said, raising her chin in the air. “Show me some respect. I am full snob.”

Sidney burst into the room followed closely by Edwin. “Hello beautifuls,” Sidney said with his deep, loud voice. He walked right up to Angie and leaned over her. She looked like an oompa loompa next to a Sasquatch. “You smell wonderful,” he said. He leaned over, his nose a centimeter from her neck, and inhaled long and hard.

Connor flew over and grabbed his arm. He tried to pull him away but the giant wasn’t moving.

“Mmmmm,” Sidney moaned. “What is your perfume?”

“Bug spray,” Angie said, shrinking away from him.

“Well it smells wonderful on you.”

Connor jumped between them. “What did I tell you about smelling the guests?” he asked.

Edwin was moving in on Grace. “Shit,” Connor cursed under his breath.

“Oh look,” Grace said. “He has clothes on. Isn’t that nice?”

Edwin’s face started to twitch and his fingers were curling up.

Connor gave him a look that would freeze the grim reaper. Edwin got a hold of himself and shook out his body. He stopped phasing.

For now.

Sidney walked over to him and whispered in Edwin’s ear. Connor could hear with his enhanced shifter hearing. “Remember what I told you,” Sidney said.

Connor gulped.

Edwin cleared his throat and stared at Grace. “I want to see you naked,” he said.

“Wow,” Grace said, with her hands on her hips. “You really know how to talk to a woman.”

Edwin looked around the room, confused. “Should I not have said that?”

Rebecca groaned beside him. “Maybe Ibiza is a better idea.”

Angie inched towards the exit. “Maybe a restaurant is a better idea.”

Sidney followed her to the door. “Great! Which restaurant are we eating at?”

Angie giggled. “It’s thirty miles down the road that way. We’ll meet you there.”

Sidney nodded. “I know that place. The owner is a big fan of mine.”

The three girls backed out of the door.

The guys tried to follow them out. Connor placed a hand on Sidney’s chest and a hand on Edwin’s. “Stay here,” he snapped. He exhaled. “Just, go in the kitchen and finish dinner. And don’t fuck anything up.”

Connor ran out the door. The girls were heading to the car. “Wait,” he called out.

He ran up to them. Grace was watching him with her arms crossed; Angie with her hands on her hips. Rebecca was the only one that seemed approachable.

“I’m so sorry,” Connor apologized, for what felt like the hundredth time. “They’re harmless guys. They just don’t meet a lot of women.” He motioned to the trees with his hand. “We don’t have a lot of pretty ladies coming through here.”

Angie dropped her hands. “They’re not that bad. If you forget about the fact that Edwin showed us his junk and the big guy smelled me like a dog.”

Grace and Rebecca chuckled. Connor sighed in relief. Perhaps he could save them yet.

Rebecca looked back towards the kitchen. “It does smell good in there,” she said. Connor stole a glance at her lips as she spoke and his stomach fluttered.

She turned towards the girls. “What do you think?”

Grace rolled her eyes. “Let’s just go eat. I’m starving.” She pushed past them back into the guest house.

Rebecca sat at the table with Grace on her left and Angie on her right. Edwin was sitting in front of Grace staring at her with an intense stare and Sidney was in front of Angie watching her eat with a big, dumb, grin on his face.

Connor was running in and out of the kitchen every two minutes and kept asking if everything was okay. Every time she smiled and nodded at him his shoulders would slump down in relief. It was really cute the way he was trying to make everything perfect for them and failing miserably.

“More wine?” he asked, raising the bottle and his eyebrows at her.

This wasn’t as bad as they let on. Rebecca could tell that Grace was into Edwin, even if she would never admit to it and she noticed that Angie kept glancing at Sidney’s arms.

“Sure,” Rebecca answered and Connor’s face lit up in a heartwarming smile. And this guy sitting across from her was definitely not hard to look at. She was excited for the nice scenery up here but this was way better than what she had in mind.

He leaned over and filled her glass. His face was focused and concentrated and Rebecca couldn’t help but smirk. His eyebrows were furrowed and his lips were tight as he was careful not to let a drop of wine fall on the tablecloth. She always liked a man that paid attention to the little details. That was the opposite of Mark who had two different color candles that were different lengths, the one time that he had candles at dinner. He would serve dessert forks for dinner and dinner forks for dessert. He would just shrug whenever she pointed it out. And it drove her nuts that he would always serve himself first. It wasn’t a big deal but she always found it sexy when a man had the little details taken care of. But still. She would take Mark back even after what he did to her.

“You have beautiful teeth,” Edwin said to Grace.

He might have had the little details taken care of but the big details, like his employees, needed some work.

Grace stared at him with her fork frozen in the air. A piece of asparagus was sliding off. “Thank you,” she said with a hint of sarcasm.

It was lost on Edwin. “Are you happy with them?”

“They’re great,” she said, rolling her eyes. “They help me chew my food.”

Edwin smiled, showing his own perfect teeth. “Well they’re beautiful.” He sat up in his chair, looking encouraged by his perceived successful interaction.

Where did this guy come from?

Edwin glanced down at Grace’s breasts. “You’re breasts are-”

“Edwin!” Connor snapped.

“Did you know that teeth are the hardest bones in a human body?” Sidney asked, nodding his head.

“Teeth aren’t bones,” Angie said, wiping the side of her mouth with her napkin.

“Yes they are,” Sidney said. “I read it in a book.” He looked from face to face nodding his head.

“Well your book was wrong,” Angie said. “Teeth are made up of four types of tissue. Teeth are teeth and bones are bones.”

“Exactly,” Sidney said. “That’s what I said. They’re the same thing.”

Angie lowered her fork. “They’re not the same thing.” Angie always knew the answer to everything and she always had to prove it.

“Are there any other instructors that can take us?” Grace asked. “Like maybe a former convict or a serial killer?”

Connor laughed nervously.

“Who is touching my leg?” Angie asked.

Sidney was grinning.

“Maybe we’ll have our dessert in the cabin,” Rebecca said. Connor nodded. “I think we need some girl time.”

“I’ll bring it over,” Connor said.

The three of them left the dining room. Rebecca glanced back before she walked through the door. Edwin and Sidney were staring at their asses and Connor had his hands on his slumped over head staring at the untouched duck and asparagus on his plate.