Bearlebrity: (BWWM) Paranormal BBW Bear Shifter Romance Standalone by Terry Bolryder

over. “What if I wanted to make promises?”
    Her eyes widened and she leaned back against the pillow. Her long, curvy body looked relaxed, but he could tell there was a lot going on in that sharp mind of hers as she thought it over.
    She bit her lip and looked at him with what looked like regret in her eyes. “I don’t know, Riley. I’m not looking for that right now.”
    He frowned. He didn’t understand it. “Is it because I’m a celebrity? You think I’d cheat?”
    “Come on, Riley, where do you think this would be going? Eventually you’ll have to go back to your life, and you’ll be leaving me here with mine. Are you honestly saying you could promise to stay?”
    “No,” he said reluctantly. “But I don’t see why we can’t be exclusive and see where it goes while I am here.”
    She squeezed her eyes tight and shook her head. “No, that doesn’t work for me. I’ve had too many guys leave. And that’s fine with me, as long as we both know where we’re going and that that’s going to happen. What makes it not fine is when it’s unfair. When it’s up in the air like it’s something I should hope for, when really the man just wants me all to himself and slobbering all over him, while he can get up and abandon me when he wants.”
    “I’d never abandon you, Leslie,” he said, wishing he could promise more. “I can’t…be with someone like that. But we’d always be friends.”
    “Be with someone like what?”
    “Marriage. Commitment, long term. You know.” He rolled his shoulders and stretched out on his back on the bed. “I’m just not cut out for it.”
    “Yeah, that sounds like the type of bullshit men usually say. I don’t get why any of you thinks you’re so unique with this free bird shit. I get it, you don’t want responsibility. That’s fine. But you also don’t get to claim me, and you also don’t get to tell me what to do.”
    He fought back another growl. She was right. He was asking the type of things he’d ask as a husband or fiancé or boyfriend. And he was none of those things. But damn, did he want to be.
    Could he possibly overcome his fears surrounding that, if it meant being with her? No, he couldn’t risk hurting her like that. Couldn’t risk letting her pair up with a monster like him without even knowing what he was.
    Lately, he didn’t seem to be able to push his bear back. He could feel it in his mind and body, urging him toward her, telling him she belonged to him, roaring at the thought of her being with any other man ever again. The thought was impossible.
    But how to get what he wanted without being able to offer her marriage?
    If only she was a bear, it’d be so much easier. But he’d never even heard of a female bear, let alone met one. He’d wondered about it as a kid, wondered if that was the only type of woman he’d be able to show himself to. But as he’d grown, he’d realized what an impossible dream that was.
    And then he’d pushed his bear aside, and then he’d stopped being able to smell or sense other bears.
    He looked over at Leslie, who was humming as she put bobby pins in to keep her hair back while sleeping. She was unlike any woman he’d ever met. They usually tried to get something from him. An audition, an introduction, a commitment. She was happy to just take her pleasure where she wanted. Something he loved when it came to him, but hated when he thought of it applied to other men.
    “Leslie?” he said, scooting over to her, wrapping his arm around her.
    “Yes?”
    “I don’t know what this is between us,” he said, curling a lock of her hair around his finger. “But it’s making me consider things I’ve never considered before. I never thought I’d feel this possessive. I never thought I’d be thinking of being with only one woman.”
    Her eyes glowed and she bit her full lower lip as she listened to him. He could tell she wanted it to be true. She wanted to believe him, but she’d been hurt by other men.