Julia Robbins surveyed the run-down donut shop in dismay.

This is what I gave up my high-paying corporate job for? she thought to herself.

The room looked nothing like the pictures the real estate agent had sent her. She’d thought she was buying a pristine store, with all the necessary equipment to start baking and selling donuts right away. The room in front of her, however, had a layer of dust about an inch thick on every surface, with spiderwebs in every corner. The glass in the front display case had cracked in multiple places, and the cash register looked like someone had gone at it with a hammer.

Julia put her head in her hands, tempted to turn around and forget all about her plan to slow down and live a simpler life, selling donuts instead of trying to balance the books for major corporations.

But after a few deep breaths, she raised her head again and told herself to stop throwing a pity party. She could do this. She had to do this. Her former boss had made it clear that if she left, she would not be welcome back. Besides, she’d sunk her life savings into this place. She also had an industrial amount of flour being delivered in a few days, and it was too late to cancel the order. She’d just have to suck it up and work like a madwoman to get the place clean, hoping that the broken equipment wasn’t too damaged to bake donuts. She’d order new display glass and a new cash register, and hope that the rest of the shop’s equipment still worked alright.

The mountain of dust? She could attack that with elbow grease.

And that’s exactly what Julia did, working at a frenetic pace the entire day. She had planned to spend the day working on hand lettering menus, not on cleaning. But one did what one must, and by the time the hot June sun started setting below the western horizon, Julia had managed to scrub her little donut shop until it sparkled.

She definitely didn’t sparkle. Much of the dust she’d been cleaning had settled on her, leaving her in desperate need of a bath. Not to mention much of her hair was falling haphazardly around her face, escaping the ponytail she’d pulled it into that morning. It didn’t matter, though. She would take a nice hot shower when she got home to take care of the dust on her body. At least her store was clean.

Feeling much better, especially since she hadn’t found any more broken equipment in the donut shop, she decided to hang her hand-painted “Julia’s Donuts” sign in the front window to see how it looked. She stepped back to admire it, smiling at the bright, happy letters.

“Everything is going to work out,” she told herself aloud. The sign looked good in the window, and despite a few unexpected hiccups, she would be ready to open in a few days as planned.

“Do you have any chocolate glazed donuts?” asked a gruff voice behind Julia, startling her.

She turned around to see the largest man she’d ever laid eyes on.

The most handsome man as well.

His dark hair and intense, dark brown eyes gave him that dark and handsome look she loved so well. For a moment, she stared at him, speechless, forgetting to answer his question.

“Well?” he asked, his tone rough and deep.

“Oh, uh, no. Sorry. I’m not actually open. It’ll be a few days yet.”

The man gestured toward the sign in the window. “But your sign says open.”

“So it does,” Julia said with a small laugh. “I was just testing how the sign looked in the window.”

“Hmph,” the man said. He did not look pleased with her.

Julia smiled as brightly as she could. “Try again in a few days.”

“Hmph,” the man said again, then turned on his heel and stormed away, muttering something about false advertising.

Julia swallowed hard. That had not been how she wanted her first interaction with a potential customer to go. Still, she couldn’t help it if the man was a total grump.

A handsome grump, she thought. Even though his attitude had been less than stellar, she couldn’t tear her eyes from him as he walked away. His broad back hinted at strong muscles underneath, and his biceps strained against the sleeves of his t-shirt. He didn’t look like the type who ate a lot of donuts. More like the type who ate a lot of protein shakes. Julia could hardly believe anyone had muscles that big in real life.

“Stay away from that one.”

The voice behind her startled Julia, and she yelped and jumped, nearly tripping over the curb in front of her shop. She turned to see a woman with sparkling green eyes and fiery red hair standing on the sidewalk with her arms crossed.

“Sorry,” the woman said with a cheeky smile. “I didn’t mean to scare you. I just saw you talking to Andy and thought I’d come warn you that he’s not someone you want to mess with. And I don’t care how handsome he is. Don’t get any ideas of dating him. He’s a loner and I’ve never seen him go on a single date. He’s antisocial and nothing but trouble.”

Julia sighed. “Why are the good-looking ones always deficient in personality?”

The woman laughed. “I know, right?” She extended her hand. “I’m Emily, by the way. I own the bookstore across the street.”

Julia shook Emily’s hand. “I’m Julia. I just moved here to open this donut shop.”

Emily arched an eyebrow. “It’s been vacant a while. I hope it wasn’t too rundown inside.”

Julia sighed. “The realtor told me it was only vacant two months.”

Emily snorted. “More like two years.”

“Well, it was dirty, but other than that things weren’t too damaged. I’m hoping to open in a few days.”

Emily smiled. “That’s great! I could use a good place to get snacks during the workday! Maybe we can even do cross promotions! Donuts and books are a good combo!”

Julia suddenly felt better than she had all day. Was it possible she’d already made a friend? “That sounds great.”

“Awesome!” Emily exclaimed. “I have to run now to a book club meeting, but I’ll be in touch. And stay away from Andy! You’ve been warned!”

She winked at Julia, then waved and turned to go. Julia watched with a smile, but her smile faded as she turned back toward her store’s front window, where the “Open” sign still hung.

“I guess I should take that down,” she muttered.

As she took down the sign, she couldn’t help wondering more about Andy. A handsome man like him seemed like someone who could have had any woman he wanted. Why didn’t he date? And why was he so grumpy?

Julia figured she might never know. Even if Emily hadn’t warned her to stay away from him, Julia wouldn’t have been chasing him down. She didn’t have time for a man. Not with a donut store to get up and running.

Still, when she finally fell into her bed that night, exhausted, she couldn’t help thinking of a very intense, very handsome pair of dark eyes as she drifted off to sleep.

* * *

Andy Marrow had never felt so grateful for the fact that his kayak rental business kept him inhumanly busy during the summer. From nine a.m. in the morning until five p.m. in the afternoon, he was going nonstop, helping customers rent their kayaks, get outfitted in lifejackets, and choose the best routes to kayak along the wide Wood Canyon River.

He always felt grateful for the business, but especially today, when it helped him keep his mind off of her.

Julia, was it? He hadn’t actually introduced himself, but since the sign she’d hung in the window said Julia’s Donuts, it seemed a pretty good guess.

Whatever her name, he couldn’t stop her face from constantly running across his mind’s eye.

And he couldn’t stop his inner bear from its incessant roaring, insisting that he claim her.

He was in so much trouble.

He’d moved to Wood Canyon almost a decade earlier, looking for a country town where he could make a living out in nature. He’d kept to himself when he wasn’t running his little kayak shop, and that seemed to suit the townspeople okay. He knew they whispered about him occasionally, saying he was a weirdo. But he could handle a few whispers. As long as no one discovered that the reason he kept to himself was that he was a bear shifter hiding a bear within, he’d deal with people thinking he was a bit strange.

He’d never dated anyone in town, because how would he explain to a girl that he was part bear? How would he know if he could trust any woman not to betray his secret?

But not dating had been easy when no woman had ever really sparked any desire in him other than a passing interest.

Julia, he knew, was more than a passing interest.

Julia, whom he had met less than twenty-four hours ago, was already an obsession.

Yup. So much trouble.

He knew he’d been rude to her, and part of him regretted that. But a bigger part of him thought it was for the best. He’d flipped out when he realized his bear wanted her, and hadn’t meant to snap at her over something as ridiculous as not being open when a sign said she was. But snapping at her probably meant she thought he was awful and would stay away.

Good. If she stayed away from him, and he stayed away from her, then perhaps his inner bear would forget about her with time.

He hummed as he closed down the shop for the day. He could probably have continued to rent out kayaks long past five p.m., but he’d decided long ago that he’d rather live a simple life and not have as many material things than work himself to the bone. Getting his business established had taken some time, but now, he could schedule his own hours a bit better, and he liked that.

He would have liked it better if he had someone to share his free time with, but he’d given up on that long ago.

And Julia was not changing his mind on that, no matter how hot she was.

And damn, was she hot. Those long legs of hers kept popping into his mind, along with her sleek brown hair and honey-brown eyes. Eyes he thought he could stare into forever…

With a start, Andy realized he was staring off into space, and he forced himself to return his attention to the task at hand. He forced himself to focus on counting the bills in his cash register, and then on sorting out receipts. He’d already checked all his equipment and put it away. With luck, he’d be home within the hour, grilling a nice big steak and downing a giant beer.

He smiled at the thought, but his smile froze on his face when he glanced out the front window of his shop to see a tall, darkhaired woman making her way slowly down the large riverbank where he normally launched kayaks.

Julia.

Even from a distance, and even though he’d only seen her once before in his life, he knew exactly who she was. His inner bear roared, and he let out a low growl.

What was she doing here?

He felt a sudden urge of anger. Couldn’t she leave well enough alone? His grumpy attitude surely could not have encouraged her to seek him out!

Then again, she had only moved to Wood Canyon. Maybe she didn’t know yet that he was the one who owned the kayak rental store. Or maybe she didn’t even know this was a kayak rental place. She might just be checking out the river. She might be…

Andy frowned. What in the actual tarnation was she doing?

He walked toward the front window and pushed his face against the glass, trying to see better. He watched with a mixture of amusement and astonishment as Julia proceeded to use an air pump to blow up a large inflatable kayak.

“Amateur,” he muttered, feeling smug as he watched her struggle to get the thing properly inflated. It took her quite some time, and if it had been anyone besides her, he might have headed over to try to lend a hand. But he feared getting close to her, and somehow, feeling smug about her lack of kayak-inflation skills made him feel like his bear had indeed made a mistake in feeling attracted to her.

After all, how could he, Mr. Water Sports himself, be destined for a woman who couldn’t even inflate a kayak?

For that matter, how could he be destined for a woman who would use an inflatable kayak in the first place?

“Amateur,” he muttered again, then forced himself to turn away and stop watching, shifting his attention instead back to closing down his store.

To his surprise, when he looked over again fifteen minutes later, Julia had not only managed to inflate her kayak fully, she had also apparently managed to launch it, because she was paddling about twenty yards away from the shoreline.

“Well, I’ll be,” Andy said under his breath. His rational mind screamed at him to stop staring, and that ogling her was only going to make his little crush on her worse. But he couldn’t stop himself from staring. Her inflatable kayak might have been ridiculous, but she herself was perfection, her curvy outline silhouetted against the brilliant late afternoon sunshine.

Just then, a large goose suddenly let out a loud honk and took off from the spot where it had been lazily swimming in small circles. The sound startled Andy, and apparently it startled Julia as well. She shrieked, and threw her hands up in surprise, which meant that she threw her oars into the water as well.

A moment later, she must have realized what she’d done, because she cursed loudly and tried to reach for her paddles, which now floated several feet away from her kayak. Her arms weren’t long enough to grab them, even when she leaned over the side of the boat, and she resorted to trying to paddle herself toward the oars with her hands.

Andy would have laughed, except he realized with horror that it was going to fall to him to go rescue her from her predicament. Only an asshole would leave her to her oarless fate when he had the means to help, and Andy was no asshole—despite the fact that he’d acted a bit like one at the donut shop the day before.

“Just my luck,” he grumbled as he went to grab a kayak and an extra set of oars. He grumbled the whole time he was climbing into his kayak, pushing off, and paddling toward Julia.

His inner bear, however, was not grumbling. Rather, it was roaring with desire, that desire growing stronger with each stroke of Andy’s oars. Blood pounded in his ears so loudly he felt sure anyone within a ten-mile radius must be able to hear it.

Julia, apparently , did not hear it. She didn’t hear him at all, likely due to the fact that she was too busy desperately splashing at the water, trying to make herself move. As Andy drew closer, he could hear the constant stream of curses coming from her mouth, and he had to stifle a laugh. This woman had a mouth like a sailor when angry.

He cleared his throat loudly, not wanting to take her completely by surprise. But she gave no indication that she had heard him. She continued to curse and paddle at the water, so he cleared his throat even louder.

She looked over at him, her cheeks almost instantly turning bright red when she saw him.

“It’s you,” she said in a shaky voice. “Donut man.”

Andy raised one eyebrow. “Donut man? Shouldn’t you be nicer to someone who is rescuing you?”

Her face turned even redder. “I’m sorry. I wasn’t trying to be rude. I was just, uh, surprised to see you. To see anyone, really, but especially you. We, uh, didn’t get off on the right foot, so I’m a little surprised you’re rescuing me.” Her eyes traveled down to where the extra set of oars he’d brought lay across the front of his kayak. “Are you rescuing me?”

“Of course.” He paddled closer, his heart pounding. He held out the extra pair of oars to her, and she took them, looking overwhelmingly embarrassed. He wanted to tell her not to feel badly. She wasn’t the first person who’d lost a set of oars in this stretch of water, and she wouldn’t be the last. But when he opened his mouth, he found himself incapable of words.

She looked so damn beautiful, sitting there in the brilliant orange sunlight. Her hair, lit up from behind, seemed like it was aflame as it framed her face. Her eyes glowed with life and energy, despite the fact that she found herself in a less-than-perfect predicament. For several heartbeats, both of them just stared at each other, the air crackling between them with some sort of pent-up energy.

Did she feel what he felt? The unmistakable electricity that sizzled all around him when he was close to her?

He cleared his throat again. “Look, uh, I think I may have given you the wrong impression about me yesterday. I don’t normally act like such a jerk, and I’m sorry. I’d had a bad day and, uh…seeing you was unexpected and I sort of overreacted.”

“Seeing me was unexpected?” she looked confused. “Why? You didn’t expect to see someone in the donut shop? Emily did say it’d been empty for two years but…”

She trailed off, looking even more confused.

Andy sighed, and looked up at the sky for a moment, feeling like he was standing on the precipice of something very big. His mind screamed at him to paddle away, but his heart—his inner bear—told him to seize this moment.

To seize the chance for true mate love.

He made a decision in that moment, determined not to let his fear hold him back any longer. He might have vowed to stay away from women, but he’d never expected to meet a woman whose soul called to him the way this woman’s did.

Exceptions had to be made.

He looked at Julia through lowered eyelashes, his expression dark and serious. “I didn’t expect to see someone who drove me crazy with one look. Whose smile would be on my mind the rest of the day. Whose body made every atom of my body tingle with desire.”

She stared at him, her jaw dropping. “I…I thought you didn’t like me.”

“I like you too much,” he said huskily. “That’s the problem.”

She stared back at him, her mouth still agape. She didn’t say anything, and Andy tried to decide whether the fact that he’d rendered her speechless was a good thing.

He leaned closer toward her, wondering how far he should push this. He didn’t want to scare her off, but now that he’d laid his feelings out there for her to see, he didn’t want to stop at just telling her how he felt. He wanted to show her.

“May I kiss you?” he asked. “There’s nothing in the world I’d rather do right now.”

Beads of sweat were showing up on her forehead. “You haven’t even told me your name,” she whispered, leaning closer toward him as she spoke.

“Andy,” he whispered back. “And I’m guessing you’re Julia. Now, may I kiss you?”

She didn’t answer right away, and Andy started to fear he’d overstepped his bounds. What had he been thinking, asking a woman he’d just met, a woman he’d been a jerk to at their first meeting, if he could kiss her? She must think he’d lost his mind, and she was probably right.

She stared at him, as though confused by the very fact of his existence. But still, he held out hope. She hadn’t said no, after all. And the electric current between them still thrummed.

“Yes,” she finally said, so softly that he thought at first he’d imagined it.

“Yes?” he asked, his eyes widening.

“Yes.” She nodded. “You may kiss me.”

Joy bubbled up from deep within Andy’s core. He could hardly believe she’d just given him permission to put his lips on hers, but he wasn’t going to question it or waste the opportunity.

With a low growl, he leaned forward, and kissed her.

The electricity between them seemed to ignite. He lost all sense of time and space, only able to concentrate on what was right in front of him: the most beautiful, most intoxicating woman he’d ever met.

So much for staying aloof and away from women. He’d fallen hard for Julia without knowing so much as her last name.

It didn’t matter. He would learn it, and learn everything else there was to know about her. Their souls had connected, and that meant she was meant for him. His inner bear had known it before his conscious mind had known: she was the one he’d been waiting for all his life.

He pulled back from the kiss, reluctant to break contact, but wanting to see if Julia had the same fire of desire in her eyes that he felt deep within himself.

To his dismay, she looked terrified.

“Hey…” he said softly. “I’m sorry if I scared you. I don’t want to move too fast, or do anything you’re not ready for.”

Julia only shook her head, and started trying desperately to paddle away. “I can’t,” she said flatly. And then, with more urgency, “I can’t!”

“Can’t what?” Andy asked, trying to keep his voice gentle as she started rowing even more frantically.

She started muttering under her breath, clearly speaking to herself and not to him. He caught a few phrases like “can’t trust any man” and “not getting hurt again.” But her rowing became more frantic and her muttering more incoherent as she started paddling away.

“Hey!” he called after her. “Calm down! You’re going to lose another oar or something. If you’re not ready to kiss, I’m not going to force you. Just…slow down before you—”

His pleas were interrupted by a loud splash. She had somehow managed to tip her inflatable kayak over, and she’d disappeared beneath the water.

Cursing under his breath, Andy didn’t think. He only reacted. His protective instincts kicked in, and he jumped in after her. She hadn’t been wearing a lifejacket, and he didn’t know if she could swim. One would hope she could, since she had gone out kayaking by herself, but he wasn’t going to take chances.

It took him only moments to reach her and pull her close to him. She was sputtering and thrashing, but she didn’t seem to be in any real physical danger.

“Calm down,” he urged her. “Just breathe.”

She stopped thrashing for a moment, and glared at him. Despite the angry look on her face, his heart caught in his throat. She looked like a water goddess, with the blazing sunlight making her wet hair glisten.

“I am breathing,” she fumed, finally finding her voice. “Let me go!”

“Can you swim?” he asked.

“Of course I can,” she sputtered. “Just…I have to go. Let go of me!”

Every fiber of his being wanted to hold onto her. The last thing in the world he wanted was to let go of her, and his bear roared in protest at the very idea.

But he wasn’t a wild animal. He was man, a gentleman. He would not hold her against her will, and if she wasn’t drowning, he had no choice but to honor her wishes. He loosened his hold on her, and watched with a heavy heart as she swam away as fast as she could.

When she reached the shoreline, she ran to her car and hopped in, not seeming to care that she would be getting her car interior all wet. She peeled away, leaving a cloud of dust in her wake.

Andy watched, treading water, until the dust settled, then with a sigh, he started swimming toward the abandoned kayaks and oars to drag them back to shore.

He couldn’t resist one last glance over his shoulder at the spot where her car had been moments before.

“This isn’t the last you’ll see of me, Julia,” he promised. “I’m not that easy to scare off.”

And with that, he turned and kept on swimming, already formulating a plan for how and when he could see her again.

Click Here for Hot Bear Summer, Part Two!