by Thorne, Elle
“Oh, no.” Mae’s voice sounded so distressed that Marti felt guilty.
No. No. No. Guilt worked too well on her. Not the guilt thing. You’d think I was Catholic.
“Tanner has the keys to the truck. He’s bringing it back tomorrow, and he’ll need a ride back. You could bring him to the dinner. That would work out so perfectly, Marti, don’t you see?”
No. What I see is that you’re a client. Sure, you’re a friend, but you’re a client. And a lot of my future business will hinge on your recommendations. So like it or not, she needed to suck it up, didn’t she?
Furthermore, why why why why did I leave those damned keys in the truck?
Could be because you were so caught up in kissing and making out with Tanner that you forgot?
God, I’m a total idiot. I take a deep breath and dive in to my refusal. “Mae, I don’t know…”
“Oh, Marti. You just gotta. First off, we can’t imagine you not being a part of this. Truly. And second, well, Tanner, he’s doing us a favor by bringing the truck. He’s helping us out. He needs a ride back.”
Marti knew that when Mae said, “He’s helping us out,” she really meant, “He’s helping you out.” And what about Tanner? What did he think about her being his ride? He didn’t seem to like her too much by the time he’d dropped her off.
Oh, and whose fault is that? Marti wished she could shut her internal dialogue off.
“Does Tanner know you’re asking me to give him a ride?”
Mae paused.
Marti wondered if that meant no, or if it meant that he did and wasn’t willing. She could second-guess herself to death with this. It was one ride, one meal, one evening. She’d get her car back. She’d go to the wedding the day after. Then by Sunday, the wedding would be over, Tanner would be a memory, and he’d have gone back to wherever he came from.
Then her life could begin again. And hopefully she’d be on Mae’s good side and get some more business.
Marti exhaled. “I’ll do it.”
Mae squealed so loud at the other end of the line that Marti had to pull the phone away from her ear.
“He’ll be there at two tomorrow afternoon to pick you up to go get your car. You’re wonderful. Oh, Grant said he wanted to get you started on some projects at his house as soon as they get back from the honeymoon.”
Sure, dangle that carrot in front of me, just to be sure I don’t forget.
Okay, that was bitchy. Marti brought her attitude back a notch or two. “Thank you, Mae. I appreciate everything you’re doing.” And she did.
Mostly.
Chapter Seventeen
Marti was ready early. She was waiting on the front porch by 1:55 p.m. while Heather was inside with Dominic. Marti couldn’t risk Tanner coming to the front door to knock. Tanner was a shifter; his sense of smell would pick up Dominic. That wasn’t a complication she needed.
Four minutes later, the big truck she’d driven to Bear Canyon Valley pulled up in front of her house. She steeled herself, stiffened her back, set her shoulders straight, and headed toward it.
May as well get it over with. Call this the price she’d have to pay to keep her business in the black.
It’s probably cheaper than advertising on the radio. Money-wise. Certainly not heart-wise.
The truck’s door opened, then closed. Why was he getting out? Did he want her to drive?
Tanner stepped around the front and she almost gasped at the sight of him. Pain pierced through her like a lance. He cleaned up way too well. His dark eyes looked at her, and into her.
She licked her lips. Her mind went to the way he’d looked in that soaked white T-shirt that clung to every muscle yesterday, hugging his pecs and abs, emphasizing his body and tempting her desire. She didn’t believe in love at first sight, or first day, or any of that shit. There was no way. That wasn’t possible. But she couldn’t explain the instant connection with him. She shook her head. Couldn’t explain it, couldn’t understand it.
She took the sight of him in, absorbing every bit. The trimmed beard, the tight, clean shirt with rolled-up sleeves, the scrubbed-clean look on his face, the tight pants that emphasized a package she knew would fit right in with the rest of his sexy, super-sized self.
She chewed on her lip. What could she even say?
He rounded the truck to her side, opened the door and put a hand out to help her into the cab. She took his hand, trying to keep the electricity that passed from the heat of his fingers from affecting her whole body.
Fail.
Epic fail.
Starting from where his fingertips touched her hand, heat bubbled throughout her body, leaving a trail of molten desire in its place.
She got into the seat, trying to climb in as gracefully as the dress she’d worn that she’d also wear that evening would allow.
He walked around the front of the truck, got in, then put it in gear.
The only giveaway to anything he might be feeling was the vein throbbing in his neck that matched the one in his temple and the way his jaw was working under his beard.
Chapter Eighteen
Tanner cursed Mae for pulling this shit on him. Marti had someone at home. Why she’d come without bringing him was beyond Tanner. Totally beyond him.
What man in his right mind would allow his woman to go anywhere unescorted? Tanner wouldn’t want to be anywhere without Marti if she were his woman. Especially not a wedding or a rehearsal dinner.
Mae had said she was single, but all that meant was that she wasn’t married. Clearly she had someone at home who made demands on her time and her life.
He’d see this through. Get her to her car, get a ride back. He’d let her be Joe’s plus-one.
Then he’d have to see. He didn’t plan to stick around longer than he needed to. He’d see if Teague needed anything to get himself set up for a life here, then he’d go. Even knowing that she was in a neighboring city would be too hard for him; he’d need to get out of state. Quick.
Seeing her this afternoon, fresh-faced, her eyes a bright blue (though the whites had a bit more red than he liked seeing), her lips with a hint of gloss, catching the sunlight, begging for a kiss…
Was it him or were her lips a bit swollen from his kissing her yesterday afternoon?
Unless she’d…
The thought of another man kissing her had him clenching the steering wheel so tightly his knuckles turned white. The leather-covered wheel squeaked a protest.
“Thank you for the ride.” Her voice broke the anger that reigned supreme in him, covering him with a soothing element.
“You’re welcome.” He breathed out. He’d do this., somehow.
He glanced sideways at her profile. Her pretty nose, the way it turned up at the tip. The way her breasts were made perfectly for his hands. Shit. That made him think of the way she’d looked when he’d helped her into the truck’s cab. Of course he’d checked out her ass. That ass could make a grown man beg for mercy. He wanted to take that perfectly lickable ass. He’d spread it wide…
Fuck if his johnson didn’t jerk to attention with that thought.
“Do you need to know the name of the place? The address?”
He cleared his throat to set the lust back a little, to put the bear’s desire in check. “Got it off the paperwork in the glove compartment.”
There. He’d managed to sound somewhat normal. At least his voice didn’t crack like some prepubescent boy’s.
“Not just good-looking, but brainy, huh?” Her voice was light, but it was a strained kind of light, as if she was fighting to maintain normalcy, to avoid looking at the elephant in the room.
He let out a breath he’d been keeping trapped in his chest. “Not rocket science,” he muttered under his breath, then instantly realized he sounded like a dick. Hell, he was a dick. It wasn’t her fault she had someone else.
Well, yeah, it was. She had no business kissing him and leading him on if she had someone else. Then again, Tanner chastised himself, It�
�s not like I asked her straight up, is it?
“So, who is he?” Oh, shit. He really did that. What the fuck. He’d really just fucking thrown it out there.
She glanced at him, her brows drawn into a vee, her lower lip tucked under her teeth. “He?”
So she was going to play it that way? Fury blazed through him. He wanted to tell her to drop it. He wanted to tell her to go to hell.
No. That wasn’t what he wanted to do at all. He wanted to kiss her and take her and claim her and make her his. He wanted her to forget whoever it was that she cared for and to grab on to that feeling she had when she was with him.
But that wasn’t how things worked, was it? He couldn’t go around grabbing women by the hair and being caveman-like with them.
Both of them were clearly saved by timing.
“We’re here.” He pulled into the lot, parked the vehicle near the sign that read, ‘Office,’ and helped her out of the cab.
A man came storming out of the office door, holding a clipboard, his face red, his hair unwashed and in a scrawny ponytail that was no thicker than a rat’s tail. The top of his head was bald, shiny from oil, and streaked with grime.
“Where have you been? I needed that truck—” He drew up short when he saw Tanner behind Marti. After glancing at Tanner, he looked back at Marti, then at his clipboard. “I’ll have to charge you for having it overnight. It’s made us late for other deliveries.”
“No way.” Marti planted her hands on the hips that Tanner had come to adore.
“What do you mean, no way? You owe me…”
Tanner shook his head.
Derek, which his name tag said was his name, looked at Tanner.
Tanner shook his head again, stopping when Marti glanced back to see what Derek was looking at.
“I—well, I…” Derek petered out.
“The keys,” Tanner said, holding them out to Derek. When Derek reached for them, Tanner pulled his hand back. “I believe you owe the lady an apology.”
“What? I…” More sputtering from Derek.
Tanner closed his fist over the keys, keeping his palm down, knuckles up.
“I’m sorry.” Derek’s apology sounded more like a two-year-old’s petulance.
Tanner tossed the keys toward Derek, a good, solid toss that Derek shouldn’t have missed, but did. The keys dropped, and Derek squatted to scoop them up. As he did, Tanner walked Marti off the wooden steps that led up to the trailer office.
“Thank you,” Marti whispered under her breath. “He’s such a…”
“A-hole,” he finished her sentence for her.
She laughed. A hearty, from the belly, genuine laugh that made everything go away for a moment.
Chapter Nineteen
“Do you want to drive?” She held the keys out to Tanner. Her hands were shaking with anger from that idiot Derek’s attitude and his attempt to make her pay for his screw-up. She was hoping she could relax in the passenger seat and make some of the stress go away.
Plus, she didn’t know how to get to Grant’s place. The rehearsal dinner was supposed to be a catered affair at Grant’s, and she hadn’t been there yet. He’d mentioned some work for her but that had yet to transpire since she’d been so busy at the B & B.
“Thanks for that,” she told Tanner after he’d pulled out of the parking lot. She knew Derek wouldn’t have been as willing to let the matter go if Tanner hadn’t been there.
“I bet you’re glad this job’s over. It’s quite a drive, having to go to Bear Canyon Valley all the time.”
“It wasn’t so bad. It got intense near the end there.”
“So how’d you end up learning how to drive a truck that size?”
“I used to drive horse trailers.”
He looked over at her, a surprised expression on his face. “What’d you do?”
She didn’t want to talk about that life. “Trained for shows.”
“And now you do interior design, or decorating, or whatever?”
She laughed at his question—such a guy. “Yeah. Pretty much.”
“Those seem like opposite career choices. What prompts a change like that?”
Here we go, the place I don’t want to be. “Guess it was time for something new.” Like a baby. And avoiding running into the baby’s father. Ever.
“Do you like the choice you made?”
God, would they ever get there so he could quit probing?
“I like parts of it a lot. Love them.” Like Dominic. Okay, time to take the spotlight off herself. “What about you? Do you like what you do? Have you always done it? How did Tanner end up traveling from so far away to do work for Mae? Aren’t there equally qualified contractors in the area?”
He gave her a sideways glance. “Mae needed him. So he came.”
“Just like that?”
He shrugged. “Just like that. She’s Mae.”
She felt a twinge of something. Was it jealousy? Or was it uncertainty? “Are you related to her?”
“Mae?” He chuckled. “Hardly. Though she does like to call us her nephews.”
Hardly. Did that mean there was something there? Mae was beautiful. Marti fought the instinct to look at her reflection in the mirror.
“And now you’re here,” she told him, hoping to find out why.
“Yup.”
That was it? Really? Just a yup?
“Here we are.” He pulled into a driveway, a long one, and it seemed she waited more than a minute before they pulled up in front of a house.
She looked at the opulent ranch house that looked more like a hotel. Or a mansion.
Wow. Doing some work for Grant could keep her in the black for a year or more.
Suddenly, she was thankful that she’d gone the extra mile yesterday and played delivery man with Tanner. Every bone, every muscle in her body ached from the furniture unloading and moving, but it was worth it when she thought of the results that would come from having solidified her reputation with Mae.
Tanner parked the car and came around to her side to open the door.
“A girl could sure get used to this kind of treatment.” The words were out of her mouth before she could stop them.
“This is exactly how you deserve to be treated, and better.” He stepped closer.
His body was a mountainous wall of muscle that blocked an escape she didn’t want to make anyway.
She inhaled the scent of him, all man. She looked up into his eyes. Was that pain she saw there? It was raw emotion, sucking her in. She looked away after a millisecond.
“Marti.” The word was a soft growl that came from his chest.
She knew that was his bear. She knew the bear in him was taking over. His dark eyes glowed amber. She looked directly at his bear, reflected in his eyes. She saw the bear’s desire, and it matched her own feelings.
A look crossed Tanner’s face. “You know,” he said.
She didn’t respond, casting her eyes away from his, looking at his lips, because as crazy as it seemed, right now his lips were safer than his eyes.
Chapter Twenty
Tanner tried to wrap his head around this. She knew about his bear. Knew about shifters. But she’d never said a word. And Mae hadn’t told him.
He leaned forward, driven by his bear, and lowered his head, but didn’t touch her lips with his. He watched the way she licked them, nervously, but all it brought to his mind was the idea of her lips, that tongue on his body, on his cock.
That move did it.
He lunged forward, propelled by his bear’s conviction that she was the one, regardless of circumstance. His bear needed answers. His bear needed affirmation. If she didn’t want him or his bear, she would have to be damned clear about it.
He took her mouth hostage, branding it with his tongue. Possessing it with his bear. Owning it with his passion. His body and his bear were overwhelmed by the power of their arousal. Only it was far more than arousal—he and his bear both knew undeniably that she was the one. Now he had to fi
gure out how to make her see it. And he had to figure out what was going on with whoever was waiting at home for her.
Her moan, drenched in passion, devoid of self-control, drove his lust to the next level. “Tanner.”
Her voice sent him there. He pulled her to him roughly, cupping her ass with his hands, enjoying its fullness, bringing her against his erection. It made his cock pulse with greater need.
“I want you, Marti. I want every bit of you. All of you. I want to bury myself in the core of you while you give me that part of you that you keep from everyone else.” He whispered the tortured words into her hair. “You belong to me. You just need to see it.”
“Maybe I do.” Her words were torn from that brambled, thorny wall, ripped from the place where she didn’t trust anyone.
Chapter Twenty-One
Marti tried to catch her breath. She tried to pretend she hadn’t just uttered the words that would give him complete power over her. She had no right to do that. She owed her life to Dominic, to keeping him safe from shifters, to keeping him a secret from shifters. The claws of a pain so sharp it cut into her soul rendered her speechless.
She tore herself from his embrace. “They’re waiting for us, I’m sure.” She covered the words with steel, reinforced with the strength of a mother who had to protect her baby from the world. From everything bad—both known and unknown.
She held his gaze for the longest, most silent moment of her life, fighting both him and the bear with her blue gaze. A jackhammer couldn’t have gotten through the tension between them as Tanner stared at her in disbelief.
She couldn’t blame him. She couldn’t believe this herself, that she would find love, and that she would have to deny it.
And even more unbelievably, that it would come from a shifter. A bear shifter, of all things.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Tanner nodded and walked her into Grant’s house. Everyone was already there. They were the last ones to arrive. He walked around in a daze, not really paying attention to the talk that was going on. He was in a daze. Smiling a fake smile, laughing a fake laugh.
