Romance: The Tiger's Hired Mate: BBW Tiger Shifter Romance Standalone (Spicy Shifters Book 2) by Ashley Hunter Page B

escaped from her lips and she clapped a hand over her mouth, trying in a failed attempt to make it go back. This was ridiculous. She was a grown woman who was comfortable with her body. All it took was one man to come along and ruin her enough so she didn't have the self-esteem she once had.
    "You okay?"
    Jumping, Amanda's eyes snapped open and she leapt away from her car with a squeal. She collided with a very solid body. Arms went around her to steady her. She looked up and met dark eyes the colour of rich chocolate that twinkled down at her.
    For a moment, she couldn't speak. Those eyes...they sucked her in. Warmth wrapped around her body and heated her from the inside. That heat went straight between her legs and tingled. Amanda whimpered and stepped back, the strong arms falling away.
    "Yes." She squeaked. She coughed and tried again. "I'm okay. Everything's fine."
    The eyes that had captivated her changed. The twinkle dimmed somewhat and took on an expression that said the owner of the gorgeous eyes didn't believe her.
    "Right. And you normally end up crying for no reason."
    "I wasn't crying!" Amanda snapped. She swallowed back her annoyance and tipped her chin defiantly. "I'm just exhausted. It's been a long day."
    The eyes looked her over, taking a gentle perusal of her body. The minute their eyes broke contact, Amanda took the chance to see who the owner of these delicious eyes was.
    He was tall, well over six feet. Lean but full of corded muscle which seemed to fill out without overdoing it. He seemed to be sculpted in all the right places, from his broad shoulders down to his long legs. And the white t-shirt and tracksuit pants he wore certainly didn't hide anything.
    She looked back up at his face. He was clean-shaven with slightly rugged features. His lips were thin but looked soft and his nose was a little disjointed as if it had been broken. His jet-black hair had a hint of curl and fluttered in the slight breeze.
    To put it mildly, he was gorgeous. The sort of man Amanda would love to have as hers. But this type of man would never be seen with her. And after Tommy's desecration of their relationship and her, she didn't trust herself not to fall into the same situation again.
    If only her body would get the message. Her breasts were beginning to feel heavy and she had to shift to stop the persistent ache between her legs. Her body wanted him but she didn't want it to.
    He finished his perusal of her body and looked back up at her. His look wasn't one of disgust. It was of interest. Pure male interest. And that had Amanda's pulse rocketing.
    "You sure you're okay?"
    Amanda realized that he had spoken and it took a moment for her brain to function enough to form an answer.
    "I'm sure."
    "Anything I can do to help?"
    Amanda heard one thing and her body heard another. It screamed that it had a number of things he could do to help. Amanda mentally shut this down and concentrated on thinking about boring things. Her body's insistence that it needed help died down. But not much.
    "You could always take my place in my fitness class." She joked.
    His mouth twitched.
    "I think the instructor might notice that you've changed gender."
    Amanda giggled.
    "I guess he would."
    "Is that what's got you so worked up?"
    Amanda didn't know what she was doing anymore. Somehow she had ended up talking to the most delicious-looking man she had met in a long time and he didn't seem bothered. He didn't seem to mind that she had stopped him from his business. She decided to be blunt.
    "I thought it was a good idea at the time, having a personal trainer instead of a group class. But now I'm actually here I'm not sure if I have all my brain cells together."
    "You seem well put together to me." Amanda caught the innuendo behind the sentence and silently told her brain to behave. He grinned. "Don't worry too much about it, Amanda. I'll go easy on you and I'm not that scary."
    "How did...?" Then Amanda realized what he had said. Her heart