Shiftr: Swipe Left for Love (Andrea) BBW Lion Shifter Romance (Hope Valley BBW Dating App Romance Book 4) by Ariana Hawkes

was confident that he’d be able to handle the situation. The reception was shabby compared to all the glossy, corporate receptions he’d visited over the years, but there was something pleasantly homely about it. It didn’t feel like a deliberate attempt to depersonalize and estrange. It felt like an extension of home. To add to the impression, the receptionist was drinking coffee from a mug with Is it Friday yet? printed on it in large black letters. Magnus grinned to himself at the sight. Corporate banks always had seriously hot receptionists, immaculately dressed and made up, but for all their individuality, he might as well have been speaking to robots.
    “Good morning!” the receptionist trilled. “What can I do for you?” Magnus flashed her his mega-watt, professional smile.
    “Magnus Adams, here to see – ” he broke off. Without thinking, he’d launched into his usual routine, but he wasn’t actually here to see anyone. And he only had Andrea’s first name, if she worked here at all.
    “What office are you looking for, honey?” the receptionist asked.
    “Hope Valley Echo,” he said, relieved.
    “First floor on the right.” She gave him a nice, warm smile that made him feel like he was welcome in the building any time. He followed her directions and walked up the stairs and into the office of the newspaper. But when he opened the door and the room was revealed to him, he froze. He’d been expecting to go into another reception, but there wasn’t one. Instead, he’d walked right into the newsroom, in the midst of a bank of desks. And everyone had stopped what they were doing and were staring at him with undisguised interest. He realized that he must look quite a sight, hurtling into the room like that, as if he was breezing into a boardroom. The staff were dressed casually, mostly in jeans and t-shirts. It was a cluttered, hectic, yet inviting room, with piles of newspapers everywhere –a world away from the clinical open-plan offices where he’d forged his career. As Magnus continued to stand still, looking around in confusion, a tall, auburn-haired woman strode towards him, extending her hand. She was more smartly dressed than the others, in a navy-blue tailored shirtdress and low-heeled ankle boots.
    “Hi there, I’m Kristin Pasternak, the editor of the paper. What can I do for you?” she said, shaking his hand.
    “Oh, I’m just looking for Andrea,” he replied, in a more hesitant tone than he’d ever used before. He breathed an internal sigh of relief as recognition registered in her eyes, along with a trace of curiosity.
    “Sure,” she said. “You’re new in town, aren’t you? I don’t think I’ve seen your face before.”
    “Yes I am. I just moved to Hope Valley. I’ve been moving around a lot over the past years, and I’ve decided to settle down here.” She gave him a big smile.
    “Well, I’m sure you’ll find that Hope Valley is a very nice place to live. People are very friendly here and it’s very family-oriented. But there are lots of single girls too, if you haven’t found that special someone yet.” Her large, dark eyes twinkled. She knew he was a shifter . He could feel her engaging with his lion, identifying it, trying to get the measure of it. His lion, in turn, knew when it was being watched. It leaped and frolicked behind his eyes, showing off to her. She must have a shifter mate. He was a lucky guy, whoever he was. She was very attractive, with a pleasant, incisive manner that left you in no doubt about her intelligence.
    “Anyway, I'm sorry. You said you were looking for Andrea?”
    “Yes, that’s right.”
    “I’m sorry, she’s not here now. She’s out running some errands.”
    “Oh, that’s ok, I just dropped in on the off-chance she’d be here. I actually met her in a bar the other day,” he said, thinking fast. “I told her that I was a businessman who’d just moved here, and she said she wanted to interview me.”
    “She did?”