Free The Bear's Hired Mate: A Paranormal Bear Shifter Romance by Amy Star Page A

doors down, I’m sure he’ll have something for me in the back.”
     
    As Jane and Vincent walked out of the store, he paused to sign a bill that Jane did not manage to catch a glimpse of and then they headed down to a tailor with the least showy sign in the entire Vegas strip. Jane was a little concerned that they were headed for the wrong place. What store even carried suits to fit a seven-foot tall man? That had to be a special order.
    Walking into the shop, Jane smelled the rich scents of good tobacco and leather. From the back came an understated man whose clothing was obviously cut from the finest cloth. His eyes brightened as he saw Vincent and he gave a booming welcome in an Italian accent. At Vincent’s request, he was ushered into the back and, as promised, exited in a sleek black suit. Only a handshake was exchanged, no bill was signed, but both men appeared to be happy with the deal.
     
    From there, Vincent whisked Jane off to a dinner at the top of the Mirage Hotel. They had a private table in front of floor to ceiling windows with a view of all of Las Vegas. Jane didn’t know how Vincent had swung it, but he’d managed to get them the VIP treatment in less than three hours lead time. As she sipped the expensive cocktail and watched Vincent chat about his love of art and tattooing, Jane wondered how important this man was; to both his clan and the general public. She thought he was far more powerful than she’d given him credit for.
     
    After dinner, Jane assumed they’d be headed home, it was almost eleven and Jane didn’t think Vincent was the type to take her into a club. But their taxi stopped at the New York, New York Casino and Vincent exited, offering his hand to help Jane out of the taxi. They walked to box seats at Zumanity. The people in the seats that had the general admissions tickets were looking up at them with cell phones and binoculars. She was pretty sure a woman with a song in the top ten of the pop charts was in the box next to them.
     
    The show was a feast for the eyes. Jane had heard of the performance, it was Cirque de Soleil's adults-only show, sensual and sexual and everything that Jane didn’t need to put her over the edge. By intermission, Jane was crossing and uncrossing her legs in a vain attempt to satisfy or stop the need that was forming there. She could feel the warmth of Vincent in the seat next to her, his large thigh pressing into the short hem of her dress. Vincent sat coolly watching the show with rapt attention. At the end of the night, when Vincent ushered them back to his suite at Mezzanotte, Jane wondered if perhaps the show had had the opposite effect on him and she felt as though the night was going to end anticlimactically after all of the romantic build-up. Chapter 8
     
    Jane and Vincent rode the main elevator in silence. Since Zumanity, Vincent had been mysteriously quiet. He didn’t seem angry exactly...it was more like he was shut off emotionally. Vincent had managed to get her out of the theater, into a taxi, and on an elevator without once having to physically touch her. It felt odd after so many hours of intimacy. Heck, they’d even made out during the taxi ride to Zumanity. What in the world had happened to Vincent during the show to shut him down?
     
    As they walked toward their suites Jane started to get angry. It was Vincent who had planned the entire evening. If the show or her dress or his dinner didn’t meet his expectations, well then, it was no fault but his own. Jane felt herself getting riled up and at their doors she turned toward Vincent to tell him exactly what she thought of his mood at the moment and instead she found herself pressed up against Vincent’s door.
     
    Jane’s breasts, already boosted to towering heights, were pushed to the very edges of decency as Vincent’s chest added pressure to the corset system. Briefly, Jane was worried about breathing until Vincent took her mouth with his. The kiss was urgent and