Naughty But Nice: A Bear Shifter Christmas Romance Read online

  I’ve been blessed to be able to spot it instantly. Sometimes I wondered if this was a gift from the bear in me, that I could read things in people that others did not get.

  I was just getting into the work and about to get yet another cup of coffee (I’m a caffeine addict) when I heard a knock at the door. Who the hell would be visiting me? Not many knew I was back (and most of them I’d hung out with last night) and even fewer knew that I was renting this house.

  I opened the door and was a bit shocked at who I found standing there. Brad Stewart, my old high school History teacher was standing there. I hadn’t seen him in almost five years and I hadn’t been in his class for about six years, but he was standing there at my door with a big smile on his face like he was some vacuum cleaner salesman. He had barely aged at all, except a bit more grey in his hair. Still he had held up pretty well for being in his early fifties. I wondered how much longer he would teach.

  “Tyler!” Brad said with a big, booming voice as if we were old friends. I aced his class (as I did every class in high school) but I always had the impression that he didn’t particularly like me. It was probably because I knew he was full of shit half the time and I knew more about history than he actually did. And I often called him on his stuff. That could piss off a teacher really fast.

  “Hey…” I replied cautiously. This was unexpected and a bit weird.

  “How are you?”

  “Good… how are you?” I wanted to just point blank ask him what he wanted.

  “Good…good…Listen, you are probably wondering what I’m doing here.”

  “Kind of.”

  “Well, I heard you were back in town and I wanted to talk to you about something.”

  “Ok. I’m all ears.” I had no idea how he heard I was back. Who did we really know that would have told him? He must have still kept in touch with his former students. That was a little odd. Wasn’t there some rule against that type of stuff?

  “Well, I was hoping you might be free sometime this week before the kids go on break to come by my class and talk to them. You are one of our most successful alumni in recent years, and I think coming from you some words of advice and wisdom might really hit home.”

  I wasn’t sure how to respond. I doubted half of those kids really even knew who I was. I had caught a bit of a buzz in the tech world and I was branching into real estate and other things, but I wasn’t sure any of them really wanted to hear me speak.

  “Well,” I said. “I suppose I could do that, but I’m not sure how much help I’ll really be with them. Do they even know me or what I do?”

  “Not really, but I kind of gave them a brief overview. They know you quit college early because you were making so much money and are now poised to make even more. Yeah, I follow you in the tech and business journals. You’ve started out quite the career. It’s been very interesting.”

  “Ok, sure. When would you like me to stop by?”

  “Um, could you come by tomorrow? The kids leave for vacation in three days.”

  “Sure,” I said. “I’ll be there. What time?”

  “How about you come to the nine o’clock class?”

  “Sounds fine.”

  “Great,” he replied. He reached out his hand and I shook it. His hands were soft and a bit oily. I imagined he moisturized (how lame) and his hands felt a bit delicate under my strong grip.

  “Ok.”

  “I’ll see you tomorrow then. Thanks again.”

  I watched him get into his little sedan and drive away. That guy was too perky. I didn’t understand people who were that happy when they had no real reason to be. From what I remembered about him, he was divorced twice, he had been driving the same twenty year old car for about six years, and he was about forty pounds overweight. There were also rumors going around the student body that he was a bit of a pervert who leered at his female students. I’d never noticed this and high school gossip hardly ever held much merit, but it was something to consider when you realized the guy was a little strange. I had always tried to give him the benefit of the doubt, though. People back then said all sorts of stupid things about me, too.

  I closed the door and went back to work. I had several hours to lose myself in before I went to visit my grandmother and then came back home to get ready for my date with Angie.

  It was actually here. The day I’d been waiting for.

  Chapter Eleven

  Angie

  “This place is amazing,” I said. “I’ve always wanted to come here. I’m surprised it actually stays in business, though. There can’t be that many people around here who can really afford to eat here.”

  “Oh, you’d be surprised,” Tyler said. “I’m not sure you know too much about the history of this area.”

  “Not much, no. I’ve heard all the ghost stories and the legends, but I’ve never put much stock into it.”

  He smiled. “Well, I don’t want to creep you out, but I’ll tell you if you want to know.”

  I was really intrigued now. “Sure. Why not.”

  Tyler looked amazing. He was wearing a sexy sports coat with a black t-shirt underneath it to dress it down, over top of designer jeans and a pair of comfortable, but dressy loafers. His hair was immaculate. His smile amazing, even better in the light of the restaurant, and he had this happy twinkle in his eye that told me that tonight was definitely going to be something special.

  I’d waited all day for this. When I woke up that morning at my mother’s insistence, I was still a bit tired. I was also mildly hungover, but some over the counter pain meds, and a few glasses of water seemed to do the trick. I could not stop thinking about Tyler and how he’d changed. It was so much fun talking with him last night and then watching the way he’d handled that goon Oren. I’d wanted to see someone punch his lights out for so long.

  My mother had kept me and Nia busy all day long shopping and hanging out. I was pretty sure that she wanted to adopt Nia. The two of them were becoming fast friends. Nia had never really had that kind of closeness with her own mom, or either parent since they both travelled for work so much. It was fun letting her borrow mine for a bit.

  Tyler leaned in a bit closer. “Well, this area used to have that mental hospital, The Ridges. You’ve heard about that?”

  “Oh, yeah,” I said.

  “Well, many of the doctors there did all sorts of crazy experiments on people and they got really rich running that place. They did some gruesome things with people for profit. And a lot of it is also old money as well from the early settlers. That money was pumped into that horrible place, and there was money put into the real estate and development of the town. Plus all the money that is put into the university and the investors in that. They are all profiting from that as well. If you want to get rich, just open up a good college. You’d be surprised what they get away with not paying for as a business, and plus the exorbitant costs of tuition just for information you can read out of textbooks, which you have to pay a bunch of money for anyway. Why not just pay for the books and then read them? You don’t need some professors telling you what the books mean. It’s an elaborate scam, it really is.”

  I was trying not to laugh. “So, you are anti-college? Got it. Is that why you dropped out?”

  “I didn’t drop out. I bought into something much more financially lucrative. College was a financial burden on me. It was a liability, and I built a wonderful asset instead. So, yeah. I think college is a silly scam. A big part of the education system itself is a scam, but don’t get me started on that.”

  I shook my head. “Wow, I didn’t realize before that you were so opinionated,” I said.

  “Well, I was very shy before and I would never say anything about how I felt. I mean, what if you disagreed with me. Then you might not like me, and I couldn’t bear that. Never mind you were out of my league and wouldn’t have considered dating me anyway.”

  “Wow, I had no idea you felt that way about me then,” I said.

  He looked at me cy
nically. “Come on. You must have had some idea.”

  I shrugged. “No. Not at all. I was dealing with some stuff back then and I just never considered you that way. But I should have.”

  “It’s understandable. You ran with the cool kids and I was considered a nerd.”

  “I’m sorry. People were pretty mean to you. I never thought you were a nerd.”

  “I don’t care. I embrace being a nerd. I should never have felt like I had to apologize for who I was or what I loved, right? I think that is the biggest thing I’ve learned since leaving high school. It was that realization that led me to create my first software. After that I was addicted to it and I was off and running.”

  “So, any special ladies back home? It’s hard to believe that you are unattached.”

  He smiled. “I really just don’t have the time. I work so much that right now I just need to focus on that.”

  “I see. Well, it is important to work hard, but you need that work-life balance, right?”

  “Yeah. But it wouldn’t matter in the romance department. I’ve never met anyone that I felt that connection to but you.”

  When he said that he stared deeply into my eyes. I felt that every single word was true. He meant what he was saying and it was almost overwhelming. This man actually cared for me. And when I thought about it, I was really starting to care for him. What was happening here? I felt myself being pulled to this man, as if we never should have been separated. I had never believed in fate, but at that moment I was starting to really think about it. This felt so right. I felt like we belonged together and it was insane to think about how long we’d been apart.

  “Wow, thank you, but surely there had to have been someone. I mean, we are just now having a dinner date. You’re bound to have met other women who really connected with you. That is, if you ever get up from the computer.”

  He laughed. “I do get up sometimes. But yeah, it is true. I have never felt closer to anyone than I did to you during that last year of high school when we finally started to become friends. I was so close to thinking I had a shot at the end of the year. I was going to make my big move after the graduation party. But when it came crunch time, I chickened out. I’d bought this nice necklace that I was going to give to you. I used the money my grandmother gave me for my eighteenth birthday to buy it.”

  I felt tears coming to my eyes. This story was so sweet and touching.

  “Wow, you were really going to do that?” I asked. He’d been so courageous to do even that.

  “If I’d gone through with it, and asked you out, what would you have said?” Tyler asked. “I know the answer is no. But you explained the reasons already behind that. Say, circumstances were different. If we were friends as we were, and it had been before you got caught up with that shit with Oren and his asshole friends, would you have ever said yes? And don’t lie, or I will know.”

  I thought a moment and realized that I had to tell him the truth. I hated myself for it, but I knew it was what he wanted to hear and it was actually what he needed to hear. I sighed before I finally answered. This was not easy to say. “I would have said no.”

  He nodded and smiled. “Any reason why?”

  “Well, we were friends. And I would never want to ruin a friendship because of that.”

  “So, the friend zone is a real thing? I thought that was made up.”

  We both shared in some laughter. I was relieved that he was not making this awkward. It had been so long ago that it was able to be funny. And Tyler was so confident that I could tell he truly did not care. If I walked away from him right now, he would be saddened I believed, but he would quickly bounce back and respect my decision. And I realized right then that this was the biggest deciding factor in how then was different than now. Tyler did not need me. He did not reek of desperation and loneliness.

  “No, the friend zone thing is absolutely real,” I said.

  “Wow, I’m impressed that women have that. Men don’t have that at all. If there is a hope of turning a female friend into a sex partner, men will almost always jump at the chance.”

  “I can’t imagine you being that way.”

  “Well, I’m a very special case. But if you went out and did some poll with a bunch of guys, I’m sure they would tell you that. I think I saw something online where they had a guy walk around on a college campus and ask random women to sleep with him. Every single woman said no. But they reversed it and had a woman ask the same question to men and almost all of the men said yes. That is the differences between the sexes, right there. And where so many complications between the two reside.”

  “Why do I feel like I just listened to the Dr. Drew podcast or something?”

  “Because he would agree with me. Dr. Drew is good people.”

  The waiter arrived just then to take our order. We’d been sitting and chatting in this beautiful private room for a few minutes. I was actually beginning to wonder when we were going to be served. But judging by the way that Tyler greeted him, I had a feeling that he had set it up that way on purpose. Did he want this to be a long lasting, really relaxed dinner like Europeans were said to have?

  “Hello,” the waiter said. “My name is Joe. I will be taking care of you this evening.”

  “Hi, Joe. You are right on time.”

  “Thank you, sir,” Joe said. He nodded to me. “Madam. Can I get you started on a bottle of wine tonight?”

  Tyler ordered quickly and chose what sounded like an expensive bottle of wine.

  The waiter left and I sat there watching Tyler, still amazed at how sure of himself he was. He was a guy who was clearly used to being in control, but he did it in such a suave and sophisticated way. It was fun to watch.

  And I found myself growing more turned on by him all the time. I kept remembering the dream I’d had the night before. I really hoped to bring that dream to reality tonight. I wanted him so badly. I just wanted to get the dinner over with and go home where he could ravage me. That would have been the perfect night for me.

  “I was a bit surprised that you reserved this entire room for us,” I said. The room was usually rented out for parties.

  “Sure. I wanted you all to myself,” Tyler said.

  I liked the sound of that. “And what did you want to do to me, all by ourselves?”

  The question just rolled off my tongue. I’d put no thought into it and the second it was out I wondered if I should have taken it back. But it was there. I decided to roll with it.

  He smiled at me. “Well, I guess you are going to find out.”

  I could hardly wait.

  Tyler pressed me against the bed. His hard, heavy body was on top of me as his arms wrapped around me gently holding me to him. His mouth was on mine, kissing, caressing my lips with his and injecting every ounce of his lust into me.

  We’d started getting very flirty at the restaurant and then it got even better when we got to the car. By the time we got back to his rental house, we were all over each other, kissing, hugging, until Tyler scooped me up and carried me up the stairs to the bedroom.

  The second we were through the bedroom door and closing it behind us, it was on. I was so turned on. I’d never been this horny before. I needed this man inside of me more than I ever could recall needing anyone. I thought I might go certifiably insane if it didn’t happen.

  Tyler’s mouth kissed me harder on the lips, pressing his sweetness against mine and his tongue wiggling and sliding up and down my own. I could feel his hard cock through his pants against me as he pressed his hips down on my own. I wrapped my legs around him and held on tightly as he hugged me. He was so strong, but I could tell he was being extra gentle with me. The way we were going was full of the most passion I’d ever experienced, but at the same time I could tell that Tyler was fully in control of himself. He was going at the pace he felt we should be at.

  He pulled his mouth from mine and held it closely, but without kissing. Then he stuck his tongue out of his mouth slowly. I met his tongue wi
th mine and we pushed back and forth just gently, tip against tip, until he slowly began to engulf my mouth and lick against my tongue. It felt so sexy. The sweetness of tingles was rolling up and down my whole body. It was like my whole being was on fire with this insanity of pure lust.

  I was so wet. My pussy was practically screaming out for sweet relief. I was actually going to fuck Tyler, my old friend from high school. He was the one I used to rely on, the good shoulder to hear me crying about things, and now he had erased that person. I could tell that he cared deeply about me and would always be there if I needed him, but he wanted me and he made no apologies for it. That kind of hard, animal lust from a man was infectious. And I wanted that lust to fuck the living shit out of me.

  Tyler unbuttoned my blouse and pulled it from my body. His eyes widened at the sight of my breasts being held up by a bra. He put his face against the chest and licked the inner sides of each breast slowly, really enjoying the access to my body. And I wanted to let him have whatever he wanted. Any idea he had, I felt sure that it was going to be a good one. I needed him badly. So badly… It was an actual need by now. I was going to go insane without this man inside of me.

  He reached behind me and unhooked the bra. Then he removed it over my shoulders and tossed it to the side. His eyes were wide and a smile was creeping over his lips. He was seeing my breast for the first time. I wondered how often he might have imagined seeing me naked. And now it was really happening for him.

  He held my breasts with his large hands, pushing them up and together before putting his face between them and moaning with pleasure. Then he took the nipple of my right breast and began to lick around it, moistening the areola and moving towards the actual nipple. His mouth was on it now, sucking it, putting it between his teeth and biting it softly before engulfing the entire nipple in his mouth. The warmth and his soft tongue felt Heavenly against my skin. My nipples were so sensitive. I couldn’t help gasping as he went to work on me.