Chapter 10

Olivia

“I don’t know why the hell you’re doing this,” I say.

He replies, “You said I can’t understand what it means to be different, for people not to understand a huge part of my life. I think I’ll change your mind.”

Yeah right.

I’m so angry! I’ve spent months now trying so hard to keep this place and this aspect of things out of my head. I’ve done everything I can to keep this out of my head so that I can… I don’t know. So, I can…

Wow.

So, I can keep screwing Clint.

What a damned crazy thing. I want to keep this land out of my head so I can keep screwing Clint with as little cognitive dissonance as possible. Of course, there’s cognitive dissonance involved even when this situation isn’t in the front of my mind. I sigh and say finally, “Let’s get this over with, then.”

We walk deeper into the project. No. Not the project. It would have been the project if this very particular strip of land hadn’t been taken out of consideration regardless of the premium I was willing to pay. The worst part about it is that the land has no value to him outside of the other part. It only worked to create open space for the whole development. It’s not developable on its own.

I’m getting angrier and angrier as we walk, which isn’t what I want at all. At some point, I’m not going to be able to hold back. When that happens, the fight might be too intense for us to back away from.

And then come back together.

And I don’t want to stop screwing Clint!

Damn it all, I’m so full of shit. This isn’t just about screwing him. Like it or not, I love Clint. Damn it, I love him. I do, and being here is risking the relationship. I don’t want to lose him even if the relationship will never be free of the shadow of the Franklin Meadow project. I just… “Clint, what the fuck is this?” I ask. “I don’t think we’re even still on your property!” I’m sure of it, in fact. We’re on a different lot now. Something beyond the scope of the project.

“Not the lot you wanted to buy,” he says, “but still my property.”

“Okay, fine,” I snap, “but answer the question. What the fuck is this?”

“This is my forest,” he says, turning around.

“What the… Clint, you’re just… Aargh! Are you into some silly new age shamanism crap or something? What the hell?”

“No,” he says. “Don’t freak out.”

“Why the fuck would I…” I stop talking as he pulls his tee shirt over his head and then drops it onto the forest floor. It’s shocking enough that I don’t think to respond until he has his jeans down to his knees. “Really? I mean, seriously?” If he wanted to screw me outdoors, he could have just asked.

He steps out of his jeans and I see he’s kicked off his shoes, too. “What the hell, Clint?”

He sighs and says, “Can I finish getting undressed, please?”

“What the fuck are you talking about?” I ask. “This is some bizarre place you like to fuck women? Seriously? You destroyed my deal so you could save your sex den, no, your sex… sex place… I don’t even know what to call it.”

“See, I couldn’t sell you this land because this is the only place I can do this without driving an hour and a half.” He gets one sock off while I grow angrier. He gets the other one off and stands there in just his boxers.

“Clint I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about but if you think this is helping me to…” I stop talking again. This time it has nothing to do with trying to figure out why he’s getting undressed.

This time it’s because I know exactly why he’s undressed.

I want to blink a thousand times or rub my eyes until I see straight again because what I’m seeing just can’t be possible. I’d think it was some kind of magic trick or optical illusion but the animal before me is just too big to be a normal bear.

That’s right. I mean it. I mean bear . Where Clint stood there’s now a very large (maybe even twice the size of a normal one) bear.

I can’t explain it. Granted, my mind is set in panic mode the moment Clint disappears and this bear appears. I want to scream, I think, and start running, but my mouth just gapes open and I just stand there shaking.

“Wha...what the fuck is going on?” I feel tears forming and get a bit angry. This is not what I think of when I think of the end of my life.

But the bear just keeps still and waits.

Okay. Clint was standing there and then, things seemed to get distorted and hazy, kind of like how on a hot day there seemed to be atmospheric waves coming off the asphalt. Then, where Clint stood was this bear.

My mind starts running again and I stare at the bear. It looks at me patiently.

“Clint?”

I breathe the name, no real voice, but the bear lowers its head and takes a step toward me.

I remember. Something about ....

My heart is pounding so loud I can’t really hear over the blood rushing in my ears, but the bear kind of snuffles and then, just lies down. Now, its head is right at the level of mine, which tells you something about its size because lying down flat on its belly with its head on the ground puts it at about my height.

But this isn’t a bear, is it? I mean, not a normal bear. It’s a ... “Shifter.”

The bear snuffs again, but keeps still, like its waiting for me to solve the puzzle.

“You’re a shifter? Shifters are real?”

My mind races. I had grown up with the vague knowledge that these things actually did exist, but they always seemed like stories. I mean, how crazy to think that anything like that could be real. Most people just talked about them like they were a joke.

But I look at this bear and I know it’s true. Simple as that.

I step closer. The bear doesn’t move. I feel like some cartoon character and the music is swelling right now, but I stretch my hand out and then, I touch its nose.

I wish I could say that this part was romantic and life-altering and beautiful, but only one of those things is truly descriptive of this moment. I touch the nose and I see its eyes and I know its Clint in there, and that part is beautiful, yes, all the relief and joy and understanding flooding me at once.

I heard about them, of course. “I didn’t think they were real.” They officially announced themselves and every now and then, there’s something on television but with CGI before and AI now, it’s just… “It’s not all fake.”

In an instant, I’m not touching a huge mind-bending example of a bear. The air shifts again and then, Clint is there, my hand pressed against his face. I pull it back, red-faced faced but he smiles. “I like it on my skin as much as I like it on my fur.”

The wave of relief floods me and I start laughing and crying all at once. “You’re a shifter! You’re a ...a bear! And you… Oh, Clint. You had to keep this land because if we built the development there would be kids all over these woods."

He nods and wraps me up in his arms, pulling me tightly to his still naked body.

I jabber as all my pent-up fear and worry and anger and, well every kind of emotion I guess, rushes the floodgates. “I never, I mean, I knew, I know that shifters have officially been declared real and all but, my… I ... I’m sorry.”

Clint just holds me as I babble. “It’s okay. You didn’t know. As far as you knew, I was a stubborn, backwards asshole who just didn’t want to sell.”

I shake my head. “No, it’s not okay. You were keeping this land as your safe place and I was such a horrible bitch about it and ...”

And then, he just kisses me.

It’s long and sweet and when we finally come up for air, my thoughts have settled.

“I love you.”

I say it like I’m declaring a very obvious fact, like saying the sky is blue.

Clint just smiles and kisses me again. “I love you, too, Livvy.”

“And you’re still naked.”

He laughs harder. “I am.”

I smile and kiss him back, and finally, I feel no restraint to it, no worry, no strings. This is the man I love.

I wrap my arms around him and press closer. “So, ever do it with a girl in these woods?”

He doesn’t really answer. Who knows if he ever does it with a girl in the woods before now, but I can promise you that he does it with a girl now.

And from now on!

Did you enjoy reading Age Gap Bear's Enemies-to-Lovers Mate ? I hope so. I really enjoy writing about the Company 417 firemen shifters. You already know that if you’ve read any of the other books I’ve written. I’m definitely a shifter-loving girl. I don’t just have book boyfriends. I have a menagerie full of them! Bears, wolves, lions, tigers, and those giant majestic dragons!

I loved writing about Clint, and I hope you found him as sexy as I did. I think any girl can go for a sexy fireman, of course. When you’re also looking at a brooding, introspective bear, you’ve got even more reasons to love him, right?

Naturally, I fell in love with Clint while I wrote the book. That isn’t going to surprise any of you out there who’ve read my other Company 417 books. At the end of all of them, I whine and moan about how much I love the men I wrote. Well, maybe I fall in love with every sexy shifter leading man I write. I can’t help myself! I always imagine I’m the lucky girl involved, and I did it this time, too, even though I’m not as young as Olivia and not nearly as brilliant when it comes to real estate.

Olivia got herself a sexy man, an incredible firefighter, and a strong and powerful shifter. She got the real deal, I think! I have a feeling that she’s going to spend the rest of her life head over heels in love with Clint but without any confusion and guilt like before. I love that she’s still going to have the same fire and power that she’s had from the beginning, too. Aren’t you?

Do you love these two together like I do? What do you like about the characters?

Let’s face it. When it comes to shifters, I’m a hopeless romantic!

Anyway, I really hope you enjoyed reading about Olivia and her bear shifter lover. These two have a really tender and sexy life together ahead of them, don’t they?

If you enjoyed this story, then I think you’ll love the next tale of paranormal romance in the Company 417 Fireman Shifters series.

Samantha Bradley’s life hasn’t gone the way she expected. She thought she’d be going to a nice four-year university but, of all things, it was hit hard by a tornado. Her particular school of study was the school that got destroyed. So, instead of heading to the Midwest, she goes to a local community college. There, she realizes she wants to go into business for herself instead of getting a bachelor’s degree. The problem is by then, her parents’ home is already in escrow.

She ends up finding a room to rent, and since the homeowner is an incredibly sexy single dad, she can actually have the room for free by being a nanny for his kids while he’s doing his overnight shifts at the firehouse. It’s a perfect situation because she only has to work for seven days out of every fourteen. That takes care of all her living expenses and she can spend the other days working on her business.

Of course, she has no idea that Daniel is more than just a man. In fact, he’s a tiger shifter, part of a firefighting company of shifters. One night, Daniel’s sister has the kids, and the two of them are left alone in the house. Before she knows it, she and Daniel are right in the middle of powerful passion. Now what will happen?

Find out all about it in Deadly Tiger's Single Dad Crush , the next exciting tale in the sexy, steamy age gap shifter firefighter romance series Company 417 Fireman Shifters !