A black Range Rover pulled into the parking area near the road, and Brad climbed out. He was dressed in dark blue shorts, running shoes, and a dark gray T-shirt. Even at this early hour, he looked good. His eyes were bright and clear. It seemed he had managed to get plenty of sleep last night, unlike Simone.
“Hey,” he said, waving as he approached. “I thought your methods worked on the mind, not the body. Are you trying to take Tony’s job?”
She smiled. “Don’t worry, you’ll have plenty of energy left for your training session later. What I have in mind involves some mental visualization and some physical activity. Is that your car?”
“I’m renting it while I’m in London. Since I won’t be drinking today, I thought I’d drive here. You didn’t mention to me before that your methods involve physical activity.”
“You told me that you trusted me, and that you were in my hands, remember?”
“Of course,” he said, nodding. “I also said I would go along with whatever you asked me to do.”
“Yes, you did. Now, before we begin, tell me something. When was the last time you were in a place of natural beauty?”
He thought for a moment. “I can’t remember. My life consists of living out of a suitcase, and flying from city to city. I guess the last time I was in the woods was when I visited my brother Cole in Silver Rock.”
“Uh huh. And since then?”
He shook his head. “I’ve been on tour for a long time.”
“Okay. So this will be good for you. You’re going to get to experience nature again, and make a connection with the world around you.”
He eyed her suspiciously. “What does a walk in the woods have to do with the game of tennis?”
“Oh, you won’t be walking.”
“Won’t I?”
“No, you’ll be running. I’ll be walking behind you, trying to keep up. I may be wearing sweats, but I’m not built for running so don’t get too far ahead of me, okay?”
He frowned. “What exactly is this going to do for me? How is it going to help me win tomorrow?”
She led him to the edge of the woods. “Didn’t you say you trusted me?”
“Yeah.”
“And didn’t you say you are in my hands?”
“Yeah, I did.”
“So let’s get started. See that trail there? Start at a slow jogging pace. Not too fast, now, because I have to keep up with you so I can give you further instructions.”
He nodded and started jogging along the path.
Simone increased her pace. At least he hadn’t said anything awkward about last night. He was probably trying to forget about it. Hell, it was just another notch on the bedpost for him, and she had to get over it. She knew what she was doing when she slept with him so she shouldn’t have expected it to be anything more than it was. They were just two people having fun. The fact that her emotions had suddenly been switched on was irrelevant.
Annoying, but irrelevant.
She shouted to him, “Brad, I want you to imagine that you’re running away from your fear of losing. Imagine that it’s on the path behind you. Give that fear a physical form in your mind. Maybe it’s a monster. Imagine it now, chasing after you.”
Brad didn’t say anything, but he quickened his pace. Good, that meant the visualization was working. He could see the imaginary monster clearly enough in his mind that it was affecting his physical actions and making him run faster.
Simone had planned this session with two things in mind. First, she wanted Brad to see the fear of losing as something bad, something he needed to run away from. He was using that fear to drive himself to win tennis matches, and that was unhealthy. He needed to find positive reasons to win; reasons that were strong enough to drive him hard enough to win tournaments. Fear was never going to do that.
Second, she wanted Brad to experience physical exercise in a natural setting. Shutting away his bear was bad for him. He was never going to play tennis, or even live life, to the fullest as long as he was denying a part of himself. Simone hoped that being in the woods, and increasing his endorphins through the act of running, would awaken a small part of his bear nature.
She wasn’t sure if this was going to work; it wasn’t as if she had ever worked with a bear shifter before, or had case studies she could read. As far as the field of motivational psychology went, she was breaking new ground here.
“It’s getting closer,” she told Brad. “You don’t want that fear to catch you. It isn’t a part of who you are. You need to leave it behind.”
Brad increased his pace and Simone had to jog to stay within earshot. She really wasn’t built for running. At least this trail was deserted, so nobody was going to see her huffing and puffing behind Brad. They’d probably wonder why a big, overweight woman was chasing an ultra-fit guy who looked good enough to be in an underwear commercial.
They’d never guess that Simone and Brad had made love last night.
We didn’t make love. We had sex.
So why had she felt such a strong connection to him?
She had to stop thinking about it; the ultra-fit guy was getting away. Thankful that she was wearing a heavy-duty sports bra, Simone increased her pace.
“Don’t let it catch you, Brad. That fear is a bad thing. It’s a monster that won’t do you any good. You don’t need it, and you don’t want it in your life.”
He broke into a run. There was no way Simone could keep up with him. Her lungs were burning and her legs felt like they were made of lead. She slowed down to a fast walk and tried to catch her breath. Ahead, the trail led into deep shadows beneath the trees. Brad was probably half a mile away by now, which meant the session had come to an end; there was no way she could shout any more instructions to him.
The visualization exercise had been a failure, all because she wasn’t fast enough to keep up with Brad. Maybe she should have thought of that before bringing him out here. She had been so busy creating the visualization that she hadn’t accounted for the fact that she was going to have to keep pace with a world-class athlete.
Maybe the visualization had done some good; Brad had seemed responsive to the few instructions she had managed to give him. Next time, she needed to rent a scooter so she could keep up.
“Brad, if you can hear me, you might as well stop!” she shouted. Her voice sounded faint in the deep woods. Surely Brad would realize he had run too far ahead, and wait for her.
She followed the trail, hoping to see him. It was gloomy beneath the trees, except for some places where the morning sunlight shafted through the thick oak branches overhead.
Something on the trail caught Simone’s attention. In a sunlit area ahead, it looked like someone had discarded a bundle of clothing.
She stopped when she reached it. Dark blue and gray fabric lay in the dirt, along with a ripped-up pair of running shoes. Simone frowned. The clothing looked like the T-shirt and shorts that Brad had been wearing.
A roar cut through the air, making her spin around. The grizzly stood in the trees on its back legs, baring its teeth. Simone froze. “Brad?”
The bear lowered itself onto all four paws and looked at her.
“You’re probably mad at me right now because you think I did this,” she said. “Yes, I thought that getting back to nature would get you in touch with your bear, but I didn’t know that you’d shift. I know that’s the last thing you wanted to have happen, but this is a good thing. Now that the bear has established itself, you need to reconcile the two parts of your psyche. You’ll feel much better for doing it.”
The bear became smaller and shifted back into human form. Brad stood before her, naked, and looking angry as hell. “What did you do to me, Simone?”
“I didn’t do anything. You’re the bear here. I only gave you a simple visualization.”
“So why did I shift?”
“I don’t know. We have a bigger problem right now. You’re naked, and your clothes are in tatters. How are we going to get you home?”
>
“My sports bag is in the Range Rover. My tennis stuff is in there.”
“Okay, well, you should stay in the woods while I go and get them. If anyone sees you out here with no clothes on, you’ll be arrested.”
He nodded. “I’ll wait here. The car keys are in the pocket of my shorts.”
She found the keys among the shredded clothing. “I’ll be back soon.”
Hurrying back along the path, she wondered if Brad was going to fire her for this. She had hoped that being in nature would reconnect him with his bear, but she had no idea he would shift involuntarily. Maybe, because he had tried to lock the bear away, Brad had very little control over it.
* * *
Brad found a large oak tree that would hide him from the path, and leaned against its thick trunk. He couldn’t believe what had happened. One moment, he had been running along the path, trying to visualize a monster behind him, and the next, he had shifted. He had thought he was more in control than that. But the bear was close to the surface all the time now, and he knew why.
Because Simone’s presence made it stronger.
He felt suddenly dizzy. The woods around him seemed to tip and spin, as if he were drunk. Leaning back against the tree trunk, he became hyper aware of his surroundings. The morning breeze was cool on his skin, the moss on the tree trunk soft against his back. The woods smelled earthy, and the soil beneath his bare feet was dry. He could hear birds singing in the trees, and squirrels foraging amid the undergrowth.
The bear part of him was emerging even stronger than before.
He gritted his teeth and willed himself not to shift. The bear had taken him by surprise earlier and he had shifted before he knew what was happening. This time, he was ready for it and could fight it.
But he wasn’t ready for the sudden stream of images that flooded his mind. Each image was a memory of a moment he had shared with Simone, from meeting her on his balcony to sleeping with her last night. And as the memories played in his head, a surge of emotion welled up within him. Simone was his mate. He had to be with her and protect her. He had been hiding his real nature from the world, but now he knew who he truly was, and who his mate was.
This was The Call, and it hit Brad like a lightning bolt out of the blue.
The world stopped spinning, the hyper-sensual awareness receded slightly. Brad breathed deeply and tried to stay calm, leaning heavily against the stout oak tree. Now that he had experienced The Call, he wondered why he had ever tried to fight against it.
He had been living his life out of fear, just as Simone had said. He had to tell her everything, had to get his life on the right track.
He had to tell Simone about what had happened in Paxton Falls.
Naked, and trembling from the adrenaline rushing through his system, he waited for his mate to return.
7
When Simone returned to where she had left Brad, she veered off of the trail and went looking for him in the trees. There were more people on the Common now, taking strolls along the trails and enjoying the summer morning. She couldn’t call to Brad because there were families and couples in the area who would be surprised to see a naked tennis star come walking out of the woods.
Simone found him leaning against a big oak tree. She handed him his white tennis shorts and T-shirt and placed his tennis shoes on the ground.
“Thanks,” Brad said. Something about his demeanor had changed.
“You okay?” Simone asked. “Nobody saw you, did they?”
“No, I’m fine.” He pulled on the shorts and T-shirt and began putting on the shoes. “Your visualization technique worked.”
“Yeah, I know. You grizzlied-out all over the place.”
“I don’t mean that. I mean…I’m not sure what I mean. That fear thing you were talking about—it all makes sense now.”
“Does it?” If she’d known he would come to some sort of epiphany standing naked in the woods, she would have gotten him naked immediately.
He nodded and walked to the trail that led to the parking area. “Can we meet later tonight and talk about it? I have to go and meet Tony for my training session now.”
“Okay, sure.” She wasn’t sure what had affected him so much, but something definitely had. There was something about Brad that seemed different.
“I’ll drop you at your hotel,” he said, taking her hand as they walked along the trail.
Well, this is nice, Simone thought. Leave a guy naked in the woods and suddenly he becomes all affectionate.
He was silent the rest of the way to the car, seemingly lost in his own thoughts. Simone let him be. If she had done something to help him, then she was pleased. If he had to work it out in his own head, then that was fine. He could tell her all about it tonight.
He was quiet during the drive to Simone’s hotel, looking ahead as if he were concentrating on the road. But Simone could tell he was thinking about something other than the traffic.
When he parked outside her hotel, he said, “How about seven thirty? We can get something to eat.” He grinned. “No expensive restaurants, I promise.”
She hesitated. Was he expecting a repeat of last night? Not that she blamed him if he was; she would like a repeat performance herself. But she wanted to know the situation between them before she met him again.
“Just so I’m clear on what’s happening here,” she said, “are you intending the night to end the same way as last night?”
He smiled. “Yes…well, no. I mean, yes, I’d like what happened last night to happen again. But I don’t want the night to end with you leaving my room in a bad mood.”
“I wasn’t in a bad mood,” she said.
“It seemed that way.”
“I thought…well, I don’t know what I thought. You have a reputation, Brad. I had the crazy idea that what happened between us might have meant more to you than just another one-night stand.”
He looked into her eyes. “Last night meant everything to me.”
He seemed to genuinely mean what he was saying, but Simone knew that people who had experienced a strong psychological event sometimes said things that were the result of a scattered mind trying to express itself. And Brad had certainly experienced some kind of psychological event. If he was still saying the same things later tonight, then that was fine, but for now she decided not to imply any meaning behind his words.
“Seven thirty,” she said, getting out of the car.
“See you then.” He waved and pulled out into the traffic flowing past the hotel.
Simone realized how tired she was as she walked across the lobby to the elevators. She had hardly slept at all last night, and today’s early morning journey to Wimbledon Common had exhausted her.
When she got to her room, she put the Do Not Disturb notice on the door, and decided to try and get some sleep.
But after an hour of tossing and turning on the bed, she knew it wasn’t going to happen. Even with the curtains closed, the room was too bright. And through her windows, which she had to keep open because the AC in the room sucked, she could hear traffic and people on the street below.
Sighing, she climbed off the bed and opened the curtains. Might as well let the sunshine in, since she wasn’t going to sleep anyway. By the time she met Brad tonight, she was going to feel like the walking dead.
She hoped that whatever had happened to him this morning wasn’t affecting his training session in any adverse way.
* * *
“What the hell was that supposed to be, Brad? A backhand? Because it looked like a sack of shit to me,” Tony bellowed from the other end of the training court.
Brad took a deep breath and let it out slowly. He couldn’t do anything right. Every shot he played missed the mark. “I think the sun got in my eyes,” he shouted to Tony.
“Bullshit. You need to get a grip. Get your head in the game. Your mind is somewhere else right now.”
Brad nodded, waiting for Tony to serve to him. The ball came sailing over the net an
d Brad returned it with a forehand that sent it spinning out of the court.
Tony shook his head. “If you play like this tomorrow, you can kiss this tournament goodbye. You’ll be out of Wimbledon. You know that, right?”
“Yes, I know that,” Brad said. “I’m just having a bad day, that’s all. I’ll be fine tomorrow.”
Tony came to the net and waved Brad over. “Look, I wasn’t going to say anything before, but Victor and I are worried about you. It’s that woman, isn’t it? She’s in your head, and you can’t concentrate on your game.”
“I’ll be fine,” Brad said. But he knew Tony was right. He couldn’t stop thinking about Simone. Something inside him had changed. It was bound to affect his game. He couldn’t concentrate on tennis when he was thinking about seeing Simone later.
“You want to call it a day?” Tony asked. “There’s no point in continuing if you’re going to send every shot out into outer space.”
“Yeah, let’s leave it for today. I’ll be fine tomorrow, I promise. I just need to sort out a few things in my head.”
“Okay, but don’t take too long about it. You need to be in top form to face Dremel tomorrow.”
Brad nodded. Igor Dremel was ranked in the top fifty players, and was rising through the ranks quickly thanks to his devastating serve and unerringly accurate forehand.
Beating Dremel would be difficult under any circumstances, but if Brad was as distracted tomorrow as he felt today, he had no chance. He would lose and be out of Wimbledon.
It was ironic that the woman who was here to motivate him to win would probably be the reason for his downfall.
8
By quarter past seven that evening, Simone’s tiredness had faded away and was replaced by excitement for her date with Brad. She was calling tonight a date in her mind because, even though he was going to tell her about his reaction to the visualization technique in the woods, she knew the reason he had asked her out was not purely business-related.
McClintock Bears Box Set Page 14
