Ramirez, the man she’d come here to marry? They’d exchanged emails, of course, but they were still mostly strangers to one another. Carla’d had to cross her fingers and hope for the best, but now it seemed as though all her prayers had been answered. Because in person? Diego Ramirez was the most handsome man she’d ever seen.
She swallowed against a suddenly dry throat, and realized that she was frozen to the spot, staring straight at Diego. She forced herself to move, hoping that he hadn’t noticed her acting like she’d been struck by lightning, hoping that she would manage to behave normally and not immediately throw herself at him.
She was newly aware of her own body, and how much she wanted him to touch her, how much she wanted those big hands to map her curves and those full lips to kiss her breasts. She wondered if his cock was as big as the rest of him, and then shoved that thought away, at least until after she’d introduced herself. She wasn’t normally so forward, but she was reacting to Diego in a way she’d never experienced before.
Carla decided that signing up to be a mail-order bride might not have been such a bad idea.
2. Diego
Diego Ramirez stood by the entrance of the airport, watching the new arrivals walk past. One of the people coming off of this plane would be his future wife. His bear stirred impatiently, wanting to know which of these women it was, eager to smell who they would be taking home.
Diego would have liked to go into the building instead of having to wait out here, but his bear was too excited to take that risk. He had never been quite comfortable around crowds, and the confusing smells of jet fuel and strangers and metal, not to mention the anticipation he felt at finally getting to meet this Carla Jenkins, meant that he might not be able to control his bear. Changing into a massive grizzly before he’d even said hello was not the sort of first impression he intended to make. It would be hard enough to explain the whole shifter thing to her without terrifying her right off the bat.
Maybe a mail-order bride company wasn’t the best way to find a wife. If he had waited a little longer, let his parents set him up on a few more blind dates, maybe he wouldn’t have had to explain the shifter thing at all. He would have found a girl who already knew all about it, maybe even who was a shifter herself.
But Diego had been waiting for years and still hadn’t met his mate. He was tired of date after date that didn’t work out, of raising his hopes only to have them disappointed, of women who wouldn’t make a commitment if he wasn’t their mate.
Diego liked the idea of true love, of seeing someone and instantly knowing she was The One, but it looked like he was never going to find her. Some shifters wasted their whole lives waiting to encounter their mates, and ended up dying alone and dissatisfied. That wasn’t going to be Diego. Fate hadn’t given him his mate, but hell, he wasn’t giving up. He’d just found a new way to get what he wanted.
Diego might be a shifter, but that didn’t mean he had to do everything the shifter way. If humans could find spouses and make happy lives without their true mates, so could he. Even if it meant he had to go through the extremely embarrassing process of writing down all of his secret hopes and dreams for a company called Ranch Romeos... what a name. But it would be worth it to find a woman who understood him and his goals, and who was willing to work hard to build a relationship without the lightening bolt magic of being mates.
The rush of people coming out of the doors slowed to a trickle of one or two, and then finally no one else came out at all. No one had even glanced at the sign he held up, and Diego slowly lowered it to his side.
His feelings were a mix of relief and disappointment. None of the women he’d seen had stood out to him, and his bear hadn’t noticed any particularly appealing scents either. He wouldn’t
She swallowed against a suddenly dry throat, and realized that she was frozen to the spot, staring straight at Diego. She forced herself to move, hoping that he hadn’t noticed her acting like she’d been struck by lightning, hoping that she would manage to behave normally and not immediately throw herself at him.
She was newly aware of her own body, and how much she wanted him to touch her, how much she wanted those big hands to map her curves and those full lips to kiss her breasts. She wondered if his cock was as big as the rest of him, and then shoved that thought away, at least until after she’d introduced herself. She wasn’t normally so forward, but she was reacting to Diego in a way she’d never experienced before.
Carla decided that signing up to be a mail-order bride might not have been such a bad idea.
2. Diego
Diego Ramirez stood by the entrance of the airport, watching the new arrivals walk past. One of the people coming off of this plane would be his future wife. His bear stirred impatiently, wanting to know which of these women it was, eager to smell who they would be taking home.
Diego would have liked to go into the building instead of having to wait out here, but his bear was too excited to take that risk. He had never been quite comfortable around crowds, and the confusing smells of jet fuel and strangers and metal, not to mention the anticipation he felt at finally getting to meet this Carla Jenkins, meant that he might not be able to control his bear. Changing into a massive grizzly before he’d even said hello was not the sort of first impression he intended to make. It would be hard enough to explain the whole shifter thing to her without terrifying her right off the bat.
Maybe a mail-order bride company wasn’t the best way to find a wife. If he had waited a little longer, let his parents set him up on a few more blind dates, maybe he wouldn’t have had to explain the shifter thing at all. He would have found a girl who already knew all about it, maybe even who was a shifter herself.
But Diego had been waiting for years and still hadn’t met his mate. He was tired of date after date that didn’t work out, of raising his hopes only to have them disappointed, of women who wouldn’t make a commitment if he wasn’t their mate.
Diego liked the idea of true love, of seeing someone and instantly knowing she was The One, but it looked like he was never going to find her. Some shifters wasted their whole lives waiting to encounter their mates, and ended up dying alone and dissatisfied. That wasn’t going to be Diego. Fate hadn’t given him his mate, but hell, he wasn’t giving up. He’d just found a new way to get what he wanted.
Diego might be a shifter, but that didn’t mean he had to do everything the shifter way. If humans could find spouses and make happy lives without their true mates, so could he. Even if it meant he had to go through the extremely embarrassing process of writing down all of his secret hopes and dreams for a company called Ranch Romeos... what a name. But it would be worth it to find a woman who understood him and his goals, and who was willing to work hard to build a relationship without the lightening bolt magic of being mates.
The rush of people coming out of the doors slowed to a trickle of one or two, and then finally no one else came out at all. No one had even glanced at the sign he held up, and Diego slowly lowered it to his side.
His feelings were a mix of relief and disappointment. None of the women he’d seen had stood out to him, and his bear hadn’t noticed any particularly appealing scents either. He wouldn’t
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