BEARedtoYouBBWShifterEroticRomanceARe by Tawny Taylor Page B

figure him out. A part of her wanted to take up that challenge, to discover all his secrets. His wants. His fears.
    She spent the entire trip out to the cabin telling herself why that was such a bad idea even considering starting a relationship with Tarik. There was no way she’d ever live out in the boonies. If it took longer than ten minutes to reach the nearest mall, it was too rural.
    Not to mention the cold!
    Living in Michigan, she’d seen her share of snow. There were some years when the state didn’t dig its way out of the dreaded white stuff until the end of April. Spring was cold and soggy at best. Fall was a mixed bag of hot, humid weather and frigid cold. Her energy levels dipped in the winter when daylight was brief.
    She needed sunlight. Living in a place where three months of the year it was dark was out of the question. No way.
    Which made the possibility of a long-term thing with Tarik all but impossible. He lived in Alaska. He worked in Alaska. And she assumed there was no way he’d leave Alaska.
    Sooner or later he’d get this thing with Omega straightened out and he’d go back to whatever he was doing before he’d found out he was a part-time grizzly bear. Besides, it wasn’t like he could roam around her subdivision in bear-mode without calling attention to himself. Wasn’t every day there were bears trotting around suburbia. Some moron would probably shoot him or have him hauled to the zoo. And then she’d have to go there to visit him.
    Not much of a life, no matter how she looked at it. Poor guy.
    When she was a kid, she loved watching The Incredible Hulk. But she always felt sorry for Bill Bixby at the end. He usually made friends with someone but had to leave them behind and move on. Even at eight years old, she could see how terribly lonely his life must have been.
    “No welcoming party. Better hurry, though. I have an idea.” Tarik parked the truck behind the cabin, out of sight of what little traffic made it down the rutted, barely passable dirt road leading from the main road at least a half-mile back. When he shut off the engine, he turned to look at her. “You’ve been quiet. Are you okay? You’re not hurt, are you?”
    “I’m fine. Just thinking. There’s a lot to think about, you know.”
    He nodded. “Let’s get inside. Then we can talk about some things.” He shut the door after she climbed to the ground—those trucks were not made for short, curvy girls with legs the length of your average junior high-school student.
    Before she had turned around, he was heading around the side of the cabin. He went for the gun first, checked to see if it was loaded then went on a hunt for the bullets. He found a box in one of the kitchen cupboards. “Ah, here we go. I knew the ammo had to be here somewhere.” He put the gun and bullets on the table then went to the refrigerator.
    “What’re you going to do with the gun? You’re not going to shoot anyone? Are you? I mean, for some reason it’s kind of okay for you to do that bear-whooping-ass thing when we’re in danger, but shooting people…” She let the words trail off. This was for real! People were chasing her. And someone could end up shot. That someone could even be her, if they weren’t careful.
    “I’m taking it as a precaution.” Still staring into the fridge, he grimaced. “I see we’re going to need to stock up on a few things before we head out of town.”
    “What’s wrong with what I bought? Can’t we take this stuff?”
    He frowned. “Soy milk? And what’s this?” He pulled a prepackaged meal out of the tiny freezer. “Lean Cuisine? First, I won’t touch soy milk. If it doesn’t come out of a ranging animal, it’s unnatural.” He tossed the Creamy Basil Chicken dinner into the freezer and slammed the door. “And these meals wouldn’t satisfy a guy half my size. The portions aren’t big enough for a child.”
    “Well they’re big enough for me.” That sounded wrong.
    He grinned as he