Island Stripe Pride - Chapter 57: Chapter 57

TIGER REJECTED
Can a Tiger with a bad rep learn to take no for an answer?
Ever since Mara Casabella’s sister mated a Pride Enforcer, it’s been nothing but Tigers running around her once quaint hometown. These felines are furrociously ill-mannered and conceited to boot. Mara doesn’t have time for their games.
But what’s a Bunny to do when a cocky tomcat starts sniffing around her cutesy cottontail? Run, that’s what! And if that doesn’t work, rejecting him in front of his whole crew should.
Bruno D’Italia is a smooth-talking Tiger with no problem notching his bed post at home. When he’s assigned to the security detail at the Island Pride Mountain Resort, Bruno assumes it’s going to be easy pickins with the local ladies. He’s set his sights on one smexy kit, but this female wants nothing to do with him.
Can Bruno handle the rejection, or will he use every trick in the book till this little Bunny says yes?
PROLOGUE
“I think we need a new name for the restaurant, or maybe just a new sign.”
Mara turned to see if her sister had heard her, but was Toni listening?
Nope.
The recently mated Bunny was too busy rubbing her enormous belly and making goo-goo eyes at her Tiger Shifter mate. Sure, Carter was a throwback from when they were kids, but Mara could not fathom how the small Rabbit inside her sister felt safe with the behemoth.
Maybe it had something to do with the fact the guy was all rock hard muscle and smoldering looks whenever he gazed at Toni.
Barf.
She peeked to see what her bro-in-law was doing and rolled her eyes. Toni sighed. Her sister was just watching him while he did some testosterone laden manly Tiger thing, like lifting stuff or telling his security team what to do. So typically male, and yet, Mara’s big sis just ate it up.
Double barf.
Whatever Toni saw in the overgrown furball was anybody’s guess. Mara had neither the time nor the inclination to figure it out. She was too busy picking up the slack while Toni grew her kit, er, cub, or whatever her niece or nephew was going to be. From what she knew, the babies could be one or the other when both parents were Shifters.
Hybrids existed, but that was a rare phenomenon. Didn’t matter. Toni and Carter’s babies would be very much loved, and that was all that counted in Mara’s book. Personally, she could not wait to have a niece or nephew to spoil.
True, but what you really want is a baby of your own.
Mara growled softly and ignored that pesky voice in her head. She was genuinely happy for her sister, and not about to ruin the mood by crying over her single state.
“What do you think of The Bunny Bar, or Good Eats Big Feets,” she said jokingly.
“That’s fine,” Toni mumbled, a dreamy smile on her lips.
“Toni! You’re not paying attention!”
“What? Oh, Mara, I am so sorry. Being pregnant just seems to take up all my headspace,” Toni murmured apologetically and turned her big blue eyes on her sister.
Her sister was very similar to Mara in some ways. Same eyes as hers. Same chin too. But something about Toni had grown warm and soft ever since her mating with Carter. She constantly had this faraway look in her eyes that Mara secretly hoped to achieve one day. That was the look of someone who loved well and was loved in return.
“It’s fine,” Mara replied with a sigh.
“No, really, I am sorry.”
“Alright, I forgive you. So, what’s it like carrying that pussycat’s baby?” she asked cheekily.
“Ha ha,” Toni replied with a grin. “Remember when you were a kit, and you used to call stomach butterflies tummy-flies?”
“Yeah.”
“It feels like that, only I have to pee like every three seconds.”
“Sounds terrible,” Mara teased and giggled. “Alright, I’m gonna go.”
“Not yet. Come on, let’s talk.”
“About what?”
Mara heaved a great big sigh. She was exhausted with all the hours she was putting in at the diner. Even finding steady new employees had been a chore after the last cretin had developed an unhealthy crush on her sister, well, they were taking some serious precautions. As in, Carter, her sister’s mate, was using every connection he had to run background checks, and Mara had also been coordinating with the Flock’s Alpha, Julius, to ensure he started screening their members.
The Cottontail Flock was growing by leaps and bounds, and with the new and hip leadership, things had gotten a little lax. She could not blame the Alpha, though. Who would have expected a Rabbit Shifter to go all Fatal Attraction on one of their own? Totally creepy.
“Earth to Mara, I asked you what you are doing tonight?” Toni repeated with a big, goofy grin on her face.
“Nothing. This,” Mara replied and gestured between the two of them.
She loved sister time, really, she did, but tonight she just felt blah. For once, she wished she had plans. Like smexy time, ooh la la, get down and dirty plans. But Mara was decidedly alone, and she really did not want another date with Mr. Roboto—her rechargeable nighttime friend.
Sad whine.
“But it’s almost the weekend!” Toni gasped. “Don’t you have wild parties to go to? Clubs to shake your booty at? A hot date where you will be responsible and use condoms,” Toni added with a snarl, and Mara grinned.
Her big sis always got growly like a mama bear when it came to taking care of her. But there was no reason for it. It was just another night. Just another weekend coming up. Did Mara have any big plans? Sadly, the answer was no.
Nope. No. Nada. Zilch. Zero.
She had no boyfriend. No besties. No one wanting to hang out with her. No one asking her for dates. She had zero prospects—period.
Every guy she met seemed to friend-zone her on sight. Was it her ample curves? Her forthright personality? Her volunteer work? Her nerdy hobbies? Was it her work ethic that turned them off? She really didn’t know.
Whatever.
In a nutshell, all this meant was that this Bunny had zero social life. What had the last guy she’d dated called her? Oh yeah. Boring. Mara was just plain boring, predictable, unexciting, a total bummer. And that was from a man who was an accountant, for fuck’s sake.
“I don’t want to talk about this, Toni. Look, I just stopped by to drop off the minestrone you wanted.”
“You did? Oh my gods, thank you, sis! I am starved,” Toni growled, rubbing her tummy in wide circles.
Mara giggled. Toni was always starving. More so since she’d been knocked up by her Tiger mate. And yes, true to form, her sister had been having cravings again. Soup being the biggest one so far. She could not get enough of the stuff and Mara was running out of ideas. She’d been through six varieties of chicken soup this month trying to satisfy her sister’s cravings.
And that wasn’t all her big sis wanted. Toni had a pretty gnarly sweet tooth as well, proven by the midnight texts from Carter begging Mara for everything from lemon bars to snickerdoodles. She’d wised up and started leaving tubs of starter cookie dough in the fridge, where she could easily add cinnamon sugar or chocolate chips and nuts, depending on what Toni wanted.
Mara grinned as she thought of the kit or cub, depending on which beastie won out, her sister was growing inside of her, wondering what it was going to be like to be an aunt. Their own childhood had been marred by an overbearing father, and both Casabella women were determined to do better than that for their own young. Not that Mara had to worry about that right now. Or ever.
Sad sigh.
“Wait. What’s wrong with the name of the diner?” Toni asked, arriving late to the party, yet proving she was paying attention despite appearances.
“I don’t know. It’s just so, so big. I mean, Any Time Eats Diner & Catering is a mouthful. I was thinking we should just change it. What do you think?”
“Mara, what’s really bothering you?”
“What? Nothing. Business is good, but new branding can be good for marketing. Why?”
“The restaurant is doing well, and we have a brand that is recognizable. You said yourself, business is booming. We hired three new employees this month alone. I know you, sis. You always get antsy around this time of year,” Toni said, and Mara’s mouth went dry. “Do you want to talk about it?”
“There’s nothing to talk about, Toni. Um, it’s getting late, and I have to run. The soup is in the kitchen.”
“Toni, wait!”
“Gotta go. Love you. Tell Carter I said hi!”
Mara hightailed it out of her sister’s mate’s office, not bothering to look up as she raced down the hallway towards the bright red exit sign. That was a mistake—one she wished she hadn’t made the second she collided with a brick wall, er, correction, not a wall but a man who just so happened to be built like a brick wall.
“Ooof!”
Mara grunted as her face smashed against the stone hard chest of the giant male. A heady mix of man and fur with overtones of fresh cut grass and daffodils, clean soap like he’d just stepped out of the shower, and bad boy cologne that spoke of his city boy ways wrapped around Mara and her Bunny perked up.
Sniff sniff. Smells good.
“Easy there, little one. I gotcha,” mumbled the enormous, dark-haired brute.
Mara closed her eyes and inhaled again, greedy little thing that she was. It was her second mistake in as many seconds. Her ovaries were going into hyper-drive and her pink bits were jumping up and down for some attention.
For fuck’s sake, why did he always smell so damn good? Her inner Bunny was doing somersaults inside that metaphysical plane where the beastie waited to swap skins with Mara. She was practically purring to get closer to the big brutish male, wanting to rub herself along his skin, get some of that musk on her own snow white fur.
If she were being honest, she’d admit that was not all her animal wanted from the man. She’d worked for months now on avoiding him. Hoped by now she was cured of her silly beastie’s fixation on the highly inappropriate male. And yet, every time she saw him, it was the same old mantra, playing on repeat inside her brain.
Kiss. Lick. Nibble. Bite. Mine.
No. NO. NO! Bad Bunny!
Mara tilted her head back, back, back till she couldn’t go any more—and even then, it was difficult to see all of him. The man was enormous. At almost seven feet tall, and half again as wide, the Tiger was covered in thick ropes of sinewy, mouthwatering muscle.
He had chiseled features, a straight Roman nose, ridiculously sexy, brown hair that always seemed to fall just right over his broad forehead, and a killer smile. Bruno D’Italia was just too damn hot for words. Even worse, the man knew it.
It was right there in his shiny golden eyes. Conceited men did not play well with others, she should know. Her last boyfriend was the worst kind of rounder, and Bruno seemed much the same.
The dude was a total player with more numbers in his little black book—yeppers, he had one, Mara had seen it with her own eyes—than any male had a right to. He was a tomcat. A Shifter gigolo. Bottom line—he was no damn good for Mara.
Of course, that didn’t stop her pink bits from pulsing like crazy and going all lovey-dovey whenever the tall, smexy man was nearby. Stupid traitorous body. And just like he could read every thought inside her inner fluffy pervert’s mind, the fucker grinned at her, wide as a Cheshire cat.
“How you doin’?” Bruno asked, sounding way too much like Joey from Friends than she was comfortable with.
He placed his big, warm hands on her hips, steadying her after crashing into him. Of course, he was no worse for wear. He just stood there, grinning, smelling more delicious than any male had the right to, his fingers doing awful, wonderful things to her insides as he kept them snug against her body.
The telltale growl rumbling from his chest as he bent down and sniffed delicately along her neck meant he knew it, too. He could smell her arousal, taste her need on the air, and fuck it all, Mara was so damn tempted to give in. To stretch that half a millimeter and press her lips against his warm, tan skin.
What? No!
“Watch where you’re going,” she snapped, and pushed out of his embrace abruptly.
Dammit. She’d used too much force, almost falling in her haste to break contact. Bunny or not, she was still a Shifter and caught herself on the wall before she could slam to the floor. So much for being graceful.
It was like Mara had two left feet whenever she was around the big, rumbly Tiger. She hadn’t even seen his animal yet and often wondered what he looked like in his fur.
No, no, no.
She closed her eyes, shook her head, and tried not to be pissed off at herself for entertaining her weakness for him. Mara was far better off not mooning over the likes of Bruno D’Italia.
The man drove her crazy, and not in a good way. She needed to get out of there, and fast. Without looking back, she strode towards the side door that led to the employee parking lot and got in her car.
“Hey, wait a second. Mara? Mara!” Bruno called after her, but she was determined not to turn around.
She knew what she would see. Confusion, hurt, and determination in his golden gaze. Running from a predator was a mistake, but her fight-or-flight instincts seemed broken around him. Mara didn’t know whether to hit him or jump his bones.
The fact his rumbling growl only increased as he watched her skedaddle down the hall did nothing to stop her Bunny from wishing the man would take the decision right out of her hands and pounce.
What? Hell. To. The. No. Mara didn’t want that! She wasn’t doing this so the tomcat would chase her. No way. She just wasn’t doing this at all. Not with him. The man had every one of her inner warning alarms going off. Had since the second she’d first met him a few months back.
Danger. Danger.
Mara had a plan for her life, and Bruno D’Italia was a plan wrecker. He was bad for her—period. How was she going to become as good a chef as her sister, and help their business take off if she was busy playing second fiddle to his flavor of the week?
Mara just could not function like that. She was a one man woman, and she needed to be with a one woman man. And that was just so not him. She did not do one-night stands, not that she judged anyone who did. That was fine and good for some people, and more power to them. But Mara was built differently. She just couldn’t give her body without giving a piece of her heart. Something she instinctively knew the big man wouldn’t want.
Sad. Sad. Sad.
She would not let herself dwell on it, though. Bruno was simply not in her realm of possibilities. Nope. Someday, when she had her career where she wanted it, Mara was going to go to one of her Flock’s Meet and Mate parties.
There she would find a sturdy young Buck to father her kits, someone who would agree to a non-romantic coupling and a joint custody agreement to raise them. Romance wasn’t for everyone. A nice, uncomplicated mating.
Yep. That was what she wanted.
No mess. No complications. No wondering if she’s enough.
Mara hated that constant, gnawing feeling in her gut whenever self-doubts arose. That horrible sensation plagued her the last time she’d been dumb enough to follow her heart. Sure, that was high school, but Mara had been in love. Taylor Humphrey had been her whole world, and she thought they would be together forever. Of course, the young Buck had thought otherwise.
So, here she was now, planning her future mate with none of the things she’d wanted all those years ago. An arranged mating could not be all that bad. If it was, people would not do it, right?
No mess.
That was a plus, wasn’t it? Sure it was. But deep down, Mara wondered what else it might mean. Her Bunny sure seemed to have an idea as she pushed thoughts into her head.
No mess. No fun. No smiles. No love. Hiss. Grunt. Growl.
Oh, whatever. Her Bunny could whine all she wanted. Mara refused to get her heart broken by some big city Tiger, even if he looked good enough to eat with a spoon. Her way was better. Career first, followed by Meet and Mate and a bucket load of kits. Sounded outstanding, if by outstanding she meant boring.
Grrrrr.