Billionaire Bear Shifters A Paranormal Romance Complete Series Boxset - Brittany White Page 0,70

cities with good theater and symphony and sometimes dance. Black Bear Lake had dinner theater, some art galleries, and several festivals throughout the year.

Eric dutifully rambled off the spiel he had memorized, sounding a little shorter than he’d intended. He saw the guest’s smile waver. He sounded rude.

“Um, if you do decide to go out to Denver or Boulder I’ll be happy to find you excellent tickets for a reasonable price.” Eric took a deep breath and summed up an almost genuine smile. “Black Bear Lake also has escape rooms, wine and painting nights, and a few other fun events-”

“Let’s look at Denver!” the guest said, brightening up. “We have a driver.”

Eric complied, and he went about his business, feeling inexplicably agitated about the whole thing.

Lydia had really wormed her way into his head. And the worst part was, he didn’t want her to leave.

When the guest was gone, Connor came sidling up next to him. His older alpha brother had been in an unusually good mood lately. Eric suspected Connor was happy for Nathan who had found his mate and had a baby on the way. Connor liked the whole alpha uncle thing. Eric suspected he had already covertly bought some onesies and toys for the incoming cub and they didn’t even know what the sex was yet.

“What’s wrong with you?” Connor said. He was eating sunflower seeds. That alone was surprising, to say the least. Eric had never before seen Connor snacking in the lobby on anything other than peppermints. It had never happened once.

“Nothing,” Eric muttered.

“Have you locked Lydia down yet?’ Connor said.

“What do you mean, locked her down?” Eric snapped. He leaned on the counter, watching all the guests in their designer parkas and faux fur snow hats walking around. They all looked so happy.

It pissed him off a little.

“Well, we always kinda thought she might be your mate,” Connor said.

“Lydia left me,” Eric snapped.

He flushed and pursed his lips. He hadn’t meant to say it like that. He hadn’t been in a relationship with Lydia at the time, after all. All she’d really done was take off without letting her friend know where she went. It was rude, kind of a dick move. But she hadn’t abandoned a mate or a boyfriend.

“She’s here now,” Connor said.

“Haven’t you talked to Cody?” Eric said. He had to imagine that all the brothers were discussing this privately. “She only came because she thought I was in danger because of some weird nightmares. She cares about me, sure. But just as a friend. She came down here to make sure I was safe.”

Connor was laughing at him. He was cackling, his eyes bright and merry. He slapped Eric on the back and shook his head. “Bro, at the risk of being gross, I can smell the sex on you.” He said it quietly, glancing around to make sure nobody was hearing them. “You’re not fooling anyone. You just got down.”

Connor was hunched down, a bag of sunflower seeds resting on the counter in front of him. But he still looked huge, his broad shoulders bowed as he leaned on his trunk-like arms. He had taken off his suit jacket and rolled up his sleeves, looking slightly more relaxed even in his tie.

Yet he was still the big, hulking alpha. And worse, he was the oldest. As much as Eric sometimes hated being the baby of the family, he had always looked up to Connor. If there was advice or consolation to be had, he supposed he would take it.

Still, it was strange to Eric to talk to his brother about such personal things right there at the front desk. Bear shifters had great hearing, though he supposed nobody gave a shit about his sex life.

“Yeah?” Eric muttered. “So what? Just sex.”

“I doubt that,” Connor said. “If it was just sex you’d be in a much better mood. Cody said he told you to talk to her. Have you talked to her?”

“I was a dick and I apologized. One thing led to another…”

“That’s not what I’m talking about and you know it,” Connor said. He tossed seeds into his mouth, cracking them with his teeth and looking sort of funny as he separated the meat from the husk while he squinted at Eric. “You need to really talk. Clear the air. Find out exactly where you stand. I remember how you were when she left. You were a mess. Don’t wait till she leaves again.”

“I don’t want to hear whatever