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Authors: Tamara Hoffa
9781631054747HerstoBearHoffa
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A
Secret Cravings Publishing Book
Erotic Romance
Hers to Bear
Copyright © 2015 Tamara Hoffa
E-book ISBN: 978-1-63105-474-7
First E-book Publication:
January 2015
Cover design by Dawné Dominique
Edited by Ariana Gaynor
Proofread by Renee Waring
All cover art and logo copyright © 2015
by Secret Cravings Publishing
ALL
RIGHTS RESERVED:
This literary work may not be reproduced or transmitted in
any form or by any means, including electronic or photographic reproduction, in
whole or in part, without express written permission.
All characters and events in this
book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is
strictly coincidental.
PUBLISHER
Secret Cravings Publishing
Dedication
Hers to
Bear
is dedicated to all of the paranormal authors in the world who have given me so
many hours of reading enjoyment. I couldn’t possibly name them all, but I’d
like to mention a few who have touched me greatly. I love humor mixed with shifters
and the queens of this, in my opinion are Eve Langlais, Celia Kyle, Shelly
Laurenston and Dana Marie Belle. Second are the plot weavers, I envy the evil
minds of these Diva’s and wish I had their dark and twisted muses, mine is too
busy happy dancing to create terrible evil plots!
Lol, Carrie
Ann Ryan, Laura Kaye, Sherrilyn Kenyon, Lora Leigh, and Jennifer Ashley.
There are so many more, but if I named them all it would fill up the whole
book!
I hope you enjoy the Animal in
Me Series, creating this world was a wonderful journey for me. Bern, the hero
in book 1, Hers to
Bear
is loosely based on my own
real life hero, a big, gruff man, with a huge heart, hidden behind a wall of
stone, and a hilarious sense of humor. My husband, Michael Hoffa, I love you
Pookie Bear.
Happy
Reading!
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Trouble
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Trouble With a Cowboy
, a western, erotic romance:
18 wheels had her heart until one hard-up cowboy found her
kickin' up her heels and propositions her to take his bull to Vegas.
Jacie Hawkins drives big wheelers for a livin'. Something not
a lot of women do. Littleton Oklahoma is just a dry stopover for a few hours of
rest and relaxation at the nearest bar. Jacie needs to find a hot cowboy to
release some of her pent up frustrations on for the night, but wannabe's aren't
her style.
Tucker Marshall needs a big-rig driver to haul his prize bull
to National Finals Rodeo and he needs one fast. Who would have thought he'd
find one shootin' pool at the local bar dressed to kill and takin' numbers?
Can some slashed tires and an ornery bull bring two
hard-headed people together for some fun in the sun and a little more?
**
Blood Kisses
(Nightwalkers 1)
, paranormal erotic romance:
Ashleigh
Brown, the author of the popular Nightwalkers series, lives a quiet life free
of the limelight.
She keeps her
real identity secret by writing under the pen name, Victoria Allure.
She soon finds herself in a bind when
she's kidnapped by a group of handsome vampires seeking Victoria.
She then agrees to meet their Master,
who's a huge fan of her books.
But
instead of meeting him, she accidentally crosses paths with her rock star
crush.
He is the sexy muse behind
Nightwalkers and the man she based the hero in the series upon. She would do anything
to meet him but little does she know her crush has a secret...
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HERS TO BEAR
Tamara Hoffa
Copyright © 2015
Sunlight
filtered through the leaves of the maple trees lining Main Street. The light
sparkled on the dark red cobblestones, yellow and white sprinkled between dark
shadows like stars twinkling in a night sky.
The air
was clear and cool, not quite crisp yet, as fall was on the horizon, but had
not arrived fully. September brought the promise of autumn leaves blossoming
with colors and falling to the ground to be raked into piles for the children
to jump and roll around in.
Jenna
smiled as she thought about her kindergarten class. She needed to come up with
some fun projects to do with the falling leaves. Sarah had been so cute today
at nap. She had curled into a little ball when Jenna tried to wake her up and
growled at her.
Shifters
had “come out” to the human world five years ago, and there was still a lot
Jenna didn’t know about them, but she was learning more every day. Who would
have thought her first teaching job would be at a school where over half the
children were shifters?
When
she applied for the position in Honey Corners, West Virginia, she hadn’t really
expected a response. She had heard that shifter communities tended to keep to
themselves and rarely hired outsiders. But, less than a month after she sent
her resume she received a call asking her to come for an interview, and the
rest, as they say, was history.
Honey
Corners was a bear shifter community.
Mostly grizzly bears
and some black bears.
There were also a few wolves in town and,
surprisingly, a fair number of humans. While many people had been shocked at
the great shifter reveal, Jenna wasn’t. Maybe it was all the paranormal
romances she had been reading for years, but she just accepted the existence of
shifters. Secretly, she was titillated by the thought. Often wondering if the
stories she’d read held any grains of truth.
Jenna
had only moved to Honey Corners three weeks ago. Just in time for the start of
the school year. She loved all her students, but the little cubs in her class
held a special place in her heart. Maybe she would make some honey cakes for
snack tomorrow. The kids and cubs would love that. She had almost everything
she needed at home to make them. She could pop into the store and pick up some
butter and, of course, some fresh honey.
One of
the things Jenna loved about this community was that she didn’t feel out of
place here. She was a big girl, almost six feet tall and as her momma said, big
boned.
Which was a nice way of saying fat.
She had
suffered all through high school and college. Always feeling like a wallflower.
Twenty-five years old and she’d never even been kissed. Who wanted to kiss a
girl who looked like a football player?
But
bears were big. Like really big. All of the male bear shifters she’d met were
well over six
feet,
some were closer to seven feet
tall. It was wonderful to actually look up when speaking to someone. Even the
women were tall, most close to her height and build. She no longer stuck out
like a sore thumb.
Walking
down the streets of Honey Corners was like stepping back in time. Quaint shops lined
the street, no big box stores here. Family owned businesses were the staple of
the community. The shops were neat and clean.
Built in an old
world style, with gabled roofs and colorful shutters.
It reminded her of
a picturesque German town.
She
passed the bakery and the smell of the fresh baked bread made her mouth water
and her stomach grumble. Maybe she’d stop in and pick up a loaf of sour dough
on her way home. Still warm from the oven and slathered with melted butter. Her
stomach growled again and she placed her hand over it to stifle the noise.
The
candy shop was next, and the chocolates in the window were enough to make her
roll her eyes in ecstasy. It was a good thing she did a lot of walking or she
would gain twenty pounds just from smelling all the food on this street.
Finally
Andy’s Market came into view. She loved this store. Andy carried everything you
could possibly need and more.
Most of it locally grown or
made.
The jams and jellies were to die for, and the honey…well, there
were about twenty different kinds and all of the ones she’d tried so far were
delicious.
The
bell over the door tinkled merrily as she pushed inside. Andy raised his head
from the fishing magazine he was reading and waved at her.
“Hi.
Miss Jenna.”
She
loved that he called her by name. She’d lived in Chicago for four years while
in college and gone to the same convenience store every day for coffee. In all
that time the clerk had never called her by name.
“Hi, Andy.
How
are you today?”
“Fine,
miss, just fine, and you?”
“I’m
great, thanks. Just want to pick up some honey.”
“Well,
you know where it is.”
“Yes, I
do. Thanks.” Jenna headed to the middle of the store and perused the selection.
What kind should she choose today? The bell above the door tinkled, but she
didn’t pay it any attention. Hmm, orange blossom honey, that sounded good. She
reached for the jar and a huge paw engulfed her hand as it closed over the
container.
“Mine,”
a gruff voice said, and she looked up and up. No other way to describe it, but
a bear of a man stood next to her.
At least seven feet tall,
with shaggy brown hair and a delicious looking scruff of beard across his chin.
Deep brown eyes, like melted chocolate stared into hers with a possessive gaze.
Somehow she didn’t think it was the honey he was proclaiming ownership of and
electric shivers shot down her spine.
* * * *
Bern
had come into the store for his daily honey fix. He admitted
it,
he was addicted to the stuff. He had just bought two dozen biscuits at the
bakery and he was going to drown them in honey, along with a nice piece of
salmon for dinner.
When he
stepped through the door he stopped in his tracks. His nostrils flared and his
heart began to race. What was that fabulous scent?
Like honey
and vanilla, but something else too.
Something that was making his cock
stand
up and do a happy dance in his pants.
Mate.
Oh my God and goddess, his mate was in this store. He couldn’t think. Instinct
took over and his legs carried him to the source of the tantalizing scent that
had his libido raging and his bear roaring.
He was
beside her before his brain had caught up with his body. He had to touch her.
She was his. His hand covered hers as she reached for a jar of honey on the
shelf. “Mine,” he growled. When she looked up at him with crystal blue eyes he
thought he’d fallen into them and drowned.
Flawless
porcelain skin covered a face that could have been painted by Botticelli. Pale
blonde lashes framed her startled eyes and her cheeks were flushed an enticing
pink. She bit her bottom lip and he wanted to kiss away the sting her torment caused
the luscious flesh.
“There’s
more than one jar,” she said, and her voice was husky and sweet.
He
released her hand and skimmed his along the velvet softness of her cheek. She
shivered.
“I am
Bern, and you are mine,” he said.
She
took a step back and a low growl escaped his throat. His bear didn’t like their
mate backing away from them.
“I beg
your pardon?”
“You
are mine. You are my mate.”
Fear
sparked in the woman. He could scent it, but along with the fear was a slight
perfume of desire too. She looked around frantically and Bern could sense she
was about to flee. He placed a hand on her arm.
“Do not
run from me. Please.”
“I need
to sit down.” She was shaking now.
Bern
put his arm around her to steady her. His bear liked that. It wanted their
scent to surround her. He started to lead her out of the store.
“Where
are you taking me?” She hesitated.
“There
is a bench outside where we can sit. It’s not far.”
She
blinked up at him like an owl. “Okay.”
Bern
led her to the bench and urged her to sit. He knelt down in front of her
running a hand over her soft blonde hair. He couldn’t stop touching her. She
sat, still as a statue, staring at the ground between her feet.
“What
is your name, my sweet?”
She
looked up like a startled doe. “Jenna Raynes.”
He
caressed her cheek again. “I am Bern Helms.”
“I’m
kind of in shock here. I’m your mate? What exactly does that mean? How do you
know? I mean, I’ve read about it in books, but I didn’t think it was true.”
“It is
true, my sweet Jenna. Shifters mate for life. We have one true mate and when we
meet, we know immediately.
By scent.
Instinct.
You are mine.”
“But,
what if I don’t want to be? I don’t even know you. You could be mean or creepy
or a drunk or something.”
Bern laughed.
“The goddess would not pair us together if we were not meant to be. I assure
you I am not a drunk. I rarely drink in fact, and shifters have a very hard
time getting drunk anyway, very high metabolism. As for mean or creepy, that
you will have to judge for yourself, but my nieces and nephews love me.
Children are said to be good judges of character.”
“Yes,
they are. How many nieces and nephews do you have?”
“Twelve
at last count.”
“Twelve?
Really?
How many brothers and sisters do you have?”
“No brothers,
five sisters. They are all mated. Perhaps now they will leave me alone. They
have been hounding me for years to find a mate.”
Jenna
laughed, though it sounded a bit forced.
“How
about you, my sweet Jenna?
Do you have any brothers or sisters?”
“No, I’m
an only child.
Just me and my parents.
They live in
Nashville, well a little town outside Nashville.”
“What
brought you to Honey Corners? You can’t have been here long.”
“I’m
the new kindergarten teacher. I just moved here three weeks ago.”
“One of
my nieces is in kindergarten. I wonder if she’s in your class.”
“What’s
her name?”
“Sarah
Keller.”
“Sarah
is your niece? She is adorable!”
Bern
smiled, score one for him, Jenna liked his niece. “She is my sister, Julia’s
youngest.”
Jenna
seemed to be relaxing now. She was less stiff and she was smiling. He eased onto
the seat beside her and laid his arm along the back of the bench. Jenna leaned
into him
slightly,
he didn’t think she realized she
did it.
She
looked up at him with those incredible eyes and said, “So, what do we do now? I
know you sniffed and bam we’re mates, but it just doesn’t work that way for
me.”
“We can
take it as slow as you need. I’ll court you like a human man. We can date, get
to know each other, but I warn you my bear is greedy and possessive. He wants
you, wants to touch you, kiss you, love you,” the last came out as a growl.
A blush
flared across her cheeks and the scintillating scent of her desire perfumed the
air. He couldn’t resist and leaned in for a kiss. He meant it to be just a gentle
brush of lips, but the moment his lips touched hers she exhaled a sigh and
melted against him.
His
tongue slipped inside her mouth to mate with hers, twisting and twining in a
dance as old as time. Her arms crept around his neck, toying with the hair that
curled at his nape and his bear stretched toward his skin, seeking the feel of
his mate’s hand.
He
pulled her closer, enfolding her in his arms, one hand resting between her
shoulder blades and pressing her as close to his chest as possible, the other
thrust into the silky mass of her hair, holding her mouth captive for his kiss.
Time
stood still as he drank in the taste of his mate. He explored every nook and
cranny of her mouth, slid his tongue across her smooth teeth and tender palate.
He pulled away and pressed his forehead to hers. His breath came in pants and
his cock was hard enough to pound nails.
Jenna
was breathing hard too. “Wow,” she said.
Yeah,
wow. If a kiss could do this to him, what would happen when they made love?