Scrooge's Bear (Erotic Shifter Fairy Tales) by Yvette Hines Page B

tight space for him, she felt the heat of his knees on
the outside of hers. Maybe because she was a tall woman, and he was a huge man, their legs met in the center below the table. It felt intimate with her
knees pressed together between his. She crossed her ankles and pulled her feet
back, trying to give herself a little space, even if it didn’t change much.
    Staring across the table, she was
seized by the intensity of his gaze on her. She swallowed a few times, finding
it difficult to have those unique eyes on her. His eyes were so dark they were
black, which was impossible since no one technically had black eyes. However,
the other fascinating part was that it appeared that his irises were tinged at
the edges as if traced by a gold thread.
    “My name is Ebony. There’s no need
for last names since we will not be acquainted for very long.” Licking her lips
she swallowed again. She needed to take control of this evening. She was the
one paying for him to be here. “I’m glad to see that the service believes in
punctuality. I hope they’ve also trained you all to follow instructions of the
client. To the letter.”
    His brows bunched together over the
bridge of his nose. “Trained me? Is that right? Like a bear in a circus or
something?”
    Was it her imagination or did this
man appear a little bristly. “Well, I would not have used those terms.”
    Linking his hands together on top of
the table, he leaned back against his side of the booth and slid down a little
further causing his knees to now reach the sides of her thighs.
    Damn. Ebony felt trapped. There was
nowhere for her to scoot to so that she could escape the heat radiating from
his body and crawling up her legs to the apex of her thighs. Pressing her hips
down into the bench seat she stifled the ache that was growing there. She knew
that sexual attraction to this man was a plus and would aid in what she needed
to do with him tonight. However, it was the power of it that shook her inside.
    “Look. I don’t want this to start
off on the wrong path. Before we head upstairs—”
    “Upstairs?” A single eyebrow rose.
    Biting the inside of her
cheek she kept herself from rolling her eyes. Why was he acting like a
mockingbird? As if he was clueless to what was going to happen. Maybe it
was their cover so they wouldn’t seem like prostitutes. However, no one was
really fooled by what the real purpose of an escort service was. Even though
Lady Salista had made Ebony sign an agreement that she was only expecting
company and companionship for the evening and that she was not paying for
anything sexual. After the eContract was signed, Lady Salista called her and
said if anything physical happened between her and the escort it was mutual
agreement between Ebony and the escort. But a nice tip was expected to the
escort for the contractual service.
    Ebony clearly understood the meaning
of that to be ‘pay the man for the sex so it doesn’t get traced back to her
company’. Ebony wondered if this was how the NY Madam hoped to keep her name
clean.
    “This is supposed to be a meeting
over drinks.” She definitely needed one. Lifting her hand she started to wave a
waitress over. “What would you like to drink? Bourbon, wine, beer…”
    “Nothing.” Reaching up, he pulled
her hand down. “I’m more interested in our discussion about upstairs.”
    She couldn’t keep her eyes off his
hand covering hers. It was sheer will that kept her from pulling her hand from
beneath his much larger one. It was as if her hand was encased in a heating
kiln. A feeling began to spread through her body, itchy, tingling…chills, she
couldn’t put her mind to describe it accurately because it was something she’d
never experienced before.
    The contact between them gave her
thoughts of the two of them bare, curled around each other in the forest. Her
lungs began to squeeze and release rapidly as if some invisible fist was
working them, leaving her feeling more breathless than