“We could make it work, I know you’re not a country girl, Zoe. I wouldn’t ask you to be. As long as I could find some place where I could shift, some place where I could roam once in a while, I’d be content. There’s nothing more important to me than being with you.”
She hated herself for asking, hated herself for being so weak willed and desperate that she’d even consider it. “So how does this whole mate thing work? Is there some sort of mystical rite that has to be undergone? Do we dance naked under the full moon together?”
He laughed at that. “No, baby. We’re bears. We’re not much for standing on formalities of any kind. I would have to bite you. But it’s just a little bite, and it doesn’t hurt.”
“There is no such thing,” she protested. “If you bite me it will hurt!”
“There might be a little bit of magic in that part of things,” he said sheepishly. “It’s a mating bite. I have to do it while I’m inside you.”
She paled. “Are there witnesses?”
He laughed. “No, baby. No. It’s just me and you in my bed. Just like before.”
Zoe shook her head. Of course, not. She felt like an idiot. “I don’t know much about bears, not real ones. I write about them. About people who can do what you do,” she admitted.
His eyebrows arched up in question. “You’ve been writing romance novels about bear shifters?”
“Bears, wolves, lions, tigers—pretty much any animal you’d never want to run into in the wild,” she said.
“And now you know we’re not fiction. That’s a game changer for you,” he surmised.
Maybe. I can’t think when you’re this close to me. She didn’t say it. Admitting that would put her at even more of a disadvantage than she already was. What Zoe needed was time to think. And maybe a good stiff drink.
“It’s a lot to process, Logan. I thought I was writing fiction for heaven’s sake! Turns out I was—” She stopped there. She’d been about to say it, to admit that she’s been predicting her own future. But that would imply she could accept everything she’d seen and heard, that she could tie herself to a man who wasn’t a man at all. Zoe knew she’d cave, knew she’d be unable to walk away from him. But for once in her life, she wanted to at least pretend she wasn’t an idiot and act like she was thinking it through.
“I need to go back to my cabin,” she said.
“Zoe, don’t—please, baby, just talk this out with me!”
“I can’t, Logan. I need to wrap my head around it and then we can talk…tomorrow. When all this is a little less fresh and terrifying. Okay?”
He moved toward her, stalking, his long legs eating up the distance. She didn’t back down and she refused to even take a step back. Part of her urged her to, part of her reminded her that underneath that hot body he was an actual-honest-to-god animal. Another part of her knew that, no matter what happened, he’d never hurt her. So when he was on her, his chest touching hers, forcing her to tip her head back to look up and meet his fierce gaze, it wasn’t fear that had her heart pounding. It was something else altogether.
“Don’t pretend you don’t want me,” he said. “That you don’t want us!”
“I won’t. But just because I want you doesn’t mean I should have you. I’m trying to be smart, Logan, when I have a long history of being a total dumbass about men!”
“Can you postpone being wise long enough for me to kiss you goodnight?”
Zoe shook her head. “We both know that’s not how it would go. If I let you kiss me, I’ll let you do other things.”
“That’s what I’m counting on,” he admitted.
There was no chance to protest, no chance to utter even a single sound before he swooped in. God, that mouth! He kissed like no other man had ever kissed her in her life. He kissed her like he was inside her head and knew her every thought and desire. Gentle when she craved it, forceful and strong when gentle just wasn’t enough. He swept her away and there was nothing she could do about it. The second his lips had touched hers she’d been a willing participant in the insanity.
Within seconds they were up against the wall. Her legs were wrapped around him and it wasn’t because he’d done that. She’d climbed him like a tree and still wanted more. Kissing him was like a drug. One hit and she just wanted more. It was like her inherent stupidity about relationships and always falling for guys that were bad for her had kicked into overdrive.
“I knew this was a mistake,” she said, dragging her lips away from his.
“It doesn’t have to be a mistake,” he said softly, before kissing his way down her neck.
Reaching down, she tugged at the hem of the t-shirt she wore. It was too much between them, too much keeping his skin from hers. She didn’t get very far. He just grabbed the shirt from her and ripped, shredding the material until her breasts were crushed against his naked chest and it felt so amazing she couldn’t do anything but moan.
If she was going to make a huge mistake, she was taking it all the way damn it. Whether it was the leftover adrenaline or the stark, biting fear of having found something wonderful that she’d have to walk away from for the sake of her own sanity, Zoe needed him in that moment. She needed to feel hot, sexy, and alive. She needed to feel that perfect connection for him one more time…even if it was the last time.
Reaching down, she closed her hand around the thick, hard length of his cock. He’d been inside her. She’d known he was big, but the very tactile reminder of it when her fingers wouldn’t close around him made her shiver with anticipation. Having experienced the glory of that earlier, she was eager for it again. Zoe urged him forward, feeling his hot flesh parting her own, then sinking inside her. Inch by glorious inch, he filled her. She sobbed with the perfection of it.
“Tell me if it’s too much,” he said.
She met his concerned gaze with a challenging one. “I can take all that you have to give me.”
He let out a harsh groan and then sank deeper, surging inside her. With her back against the wall, her legs locked around his hips and most of her weight resting on his massive thighs, Zoe could have just let him take her. But she didn’t want to be just a passive participant. This time, she was determined to give as good as she got. Arching her hips against him, grinding their bodies together, she felt the shudder that rippled through him. It altered something between them. His response allowed her to feel, no matter how limited, that he didn’t have all the power. She still had plenty of her own.
“You’re playing with fire,” he warned.
“I thought I was playing with a bear,” she shot back.
His eyes flashed a strange golden color, and then he drove into her so hard and so deep that everything shattered. Her whole body trembled with the force of her orgasm, one spasm fading into the next until she was weak, breathless, and panting. But he was nowhere near done with her.
As he drove into her again, a sharp cry erupted from her, but transformed into a shattered gasp as he lifted her legs higher on his hips. The slight change in angle changed everything else. That first seemingly endless orgasm rolled into another one, even more powerful than the last.
Zoe clung to him, her nails digging into his back as he pumped his hips furiously against hers. Her body still quaked with pleasure even as he found his own release. When he stiffened against her, every muscle stretched taut, the power of it was stunning. The force of his release triggered an answering surge of pleasure in her. Contracting around him, the rhythmic pulses of her orgasm drew the pleasure out for him as well.
In the end, he collapsed against her, his head on her shoulder, his muscles trembling as he held them both there against that wall. The power of what had just happened between them, the undeniable magic of it, was more than she could even begin to understand. But it did solidify one thing in her mind; she’d never be able to walk away from him, and she’d be a damned fool to try. Even then, she still needed time to think. The logistics of a relationship with him were a hell of a lot more complicated than whos
e house do we stay in or when to meet each other’s families.
8
Zoe had walked away, but she hadn’t walked far. Not to mention it had taken a good amount of time for her knees to stop shaking enough for her to be able to walk anywhere. Back in her own cabin, she sat down on the couch and stared at the empty minibar. What she wouldn’t give to have saved at least one of those tiny little bottles for a time like this! But no one in hell could have anticipated a time like this, she thought.
In slightly more than twenty-four hours, she’d fallen head over heels in love with a shapeshifter. A hotter than hell, sweeter than sugar, half-man, half-bear who could pick her up and toss her over his shoulders without a thought and who could make her come until she literally thought she’d die from it. And she was still debating. That was progress on the impulsively leaping into relationships front, at least.
Leaning over, putting her head between her knees, Zoe tried not to think about the fact that her whole life had just turned upside down and that the book she was contractually obligated to complete, that she was financially dependent on for her survival, was still not done. On the upside, the whole trip could legitimately be written off as research.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” she whispered.
Her litany of curses was interrupted by a knock at the door. Getting to her feet, she trudged toward the door and opened it without even looking up. She was more than a little put out that she’d told him she needed some space and he was already there, crowding her and clouding her already for shit judgement even further. “Logan, I told you I needed a few minutes to clear my head!”
“Who’s Logan?”
Zoe opened her eyes and found herself looking down at a pair of very expensive high heels. High heels that she recognized because India had borrowed them from her a month earlier. They also had a nasty looking scuff on the toes. Another battle for another day, she reminded herself.
“It’s complicated,” Zoe said. Like paranormal shit happening in real life kind of complicated, or maybe I just need hard core psychotropic meds until the episode passes. Either or, Zoe thought as hysterical laughter bubbled out of her.
“Tell me about it,” India said, flouncing into the cabin and settling her ample bottom onto the sofa. “I’ve left Greg.”
“Again?” Zoe tried but failed to keep the skepticism out of her voice. India had left Greg so many times it was practically on her daily to do list.
India glowered at her. “For good. He’s cheating on me with my trainer.”
“The trainer he hired for you because he said your butt was too big,” Zoe reminded her. “And that is when you should have dumped him…for the last time. Or you could have dumped him and left him dumped after the first time when he stood you up for your sister’s wedding and made your whole damn family think you had made up a boyfriend. But you know, whatevs.”
India didn’t respond to that. She did however arch one perfectly bold brow and asked, “Whatevs? What the hell has gotten into you? And are you drunk?”
“No. I’m not drunk. I need to be drunk. I wish I was drunk. You don’t have any liquor in that steamer trunk of a purse, do you?” Zoe asked, once more on the verge of hysteria.
India wagged her finger. “It’s a Louis Vuitton. And I wish I had a steamer trunk. I’d sell it in a heartbeat and finance one heck of a vacation. As for booze, you’re already insensible enough. Now, who’s Logan?”
Zoe sighed heavily and sat down beside her. “He’s the love of my life, and I met him twenty-four hours ago.” When he was standing outside that door in bear form. Holy fucking hell.
“Oh, Zoe! No. No. No. They lie, they all lie. Men are dirty, dirty liars!” India protested. “We are going back to the city and getting you the hell out of these mountains until you are cured from whatever insanity this is!”
But he’s not a man. She couldn’t utter that protest. It wasn’t her secret to tell. “It’s different, India. He’s different. That’s all I can say about it.”
India shook her head and clucked her tongue like a mother hen. “That’s what I said about Greg the Asshole. Isn’t that what you call him?”
Zoe put her head in her hands again. “Yes. I call him that. But he earned that title! Logan is different, India… Not just in what he says but in what he is.”
“Honey, when you’ve had a magical dick you will believe that man can literally pull the moon right out of the sky, but that doesn’t make it true.”
A magical dick. Zoe started to laugh again. “You have no idea how magical it was. Really. No idea.”
Sam walked out of the cabin and watched his older brother strolling down the hill. Barrett was dressed in just a pair of sweatpants with no shirt and no shoes. He had a good five days growth of beard on him, which for Barrett was considerable. He looked just like what a he was… a wild man. And with the way he was stalking toward the house, he was in a hell of a temper too.
“Slow your roll, brother,” Sam said when Barrett was close enough that he didn’t have to shout. “You’re not going in there to start World War III with him.”
Barrett’s eyes flashed gold. “You’re not the boss here.”
“Last I checked none of us were. We’re brothers. And partners. He owns as much of this mountain as either of us do, and he’s in there packing a bag right now because he doesn’t think he’s welcome. I didn’t help matters much, by the way. I walked in, smelled a strange human, and shifted immediately. I likely the scared the ever-loving hell out of that girl.”
Barrett growled under his breath. “She saw you?”
“She did,” Sam answered. “She saw Logan too. But that’s not what this is about, is it? You don’t want him getting hurt and you don’t want him leaving the family, but you’re too damn bullheaded to recognize that that’s what you’re going to drive him to do if you don’t accept her!”
“Accept her? What if she won’t accept us?” Barrett fired back. “What if they have a kid and she watches it every day waiting for it to turn into a monster? Are you prepared to raise the babies she’s going to walk out on?”
Sam sighed heavily. They were all a little fucked up by that. Somehow, Logan had managed to shake it off better than they had. Maybe it was because he’d grown up in a more human part of the world than he and Barrett had. Whatever the reason, their mothers walking out on them seemed to be the hardest on Barrett.
“If we have to then we have to. It wouldn’t be the worst thing to happen, but if you want her to stay, to see us as we are and not as the monsters Logan’s mother called us, then you’d damn well better shave your face, cover your ass, and speak like you’ve got some damn sense. You come at her like this? Hell, she’d be a fool not to run!”
Leaving Barrett to gape after him, Sam turned and went back into the house. He could hear the sound of Logan moving around in his room, likely packing his things. His whole family was going to fall to pieces in mere minutes if Barrett didn’t remember that he was at least part human, too. Damn it all.
Taking matter into his own hands, Sam left their cabin and headed up the hill to the one that had been rented by Zoe Hawkins. He needed to figure out what the hell she intended to do about his baby brother. If he knew, he might be able to do a better job of damage control.
9
Barrett didn’t enter the house immediately. He stood on the porch, taking in deep calming breaths and trying like hell to get his anger under control. After shifting into bear form for days on end, coming back down was never easy. It was all instinct and action with very little reasoning involved. He tried to do one of the things he’d learned from his father—figure out his goal.
It was easy enough. Don’t let Logan leave. Don’t let the family be split up, no matter what. Those things were like a mantra for them. When he was ready to face his brother, he stepped inside. The damage was pretty extensive. There was hardly a stick of furniture left intact. Under other circumstances, it would have pissed him off, but at the moment, he had bigger things on his
plate.
Following the sounds in the house, he found Logan in his room throwing clothes into a bag.
“You’re not leaving here,” Barrett said abruptly. “You’re not leaving this mountain.”
Logan looked up at him, his expression harder than Barrett had ever seen it. “I kinda thought that was what you were after.”
Barrett sighed. “You don’t have to leave this mountain. That might be a better way to say it.”
Logan paused then. “I want to be with Zoe, if she’ll have me. And even if she won’t, I’m not gonna stay here and be treated like a kid by you. I get that I’m the baby brother, but the days of any of us being babies is long gone.”
“You’re not a kid. I know that. But you are my little brother. I got used to telling you what to do for so long that I don’t know what to make of it when you don’t,” Barrett admitted gruffly. “Don’t go.”
“Are you telling me or asking me?” Logan demanded.
“Asking,” Barrett stated firmly. “This family was split up for too long. I don’t want to see that happen again.”
“And Zoe?”
He was like a damn dog with a bone, Barrett thought grimly. “If she wants to stay, she’s welcome. If she doesn’t want to stay… I still don’t want to see you go.”
Logan stopped packing. He didn’t unpack, but he paused in the act of gathering his belongings, which Barrett took to be a good sign.
Hands on his hips, Logan looked back at him and said, “This isn’t a dictatorship. Yes, you’re the clan leader, but I’m not some kid for you to order around anymore. And you don’t order Zoe around either. No barking at her, no yelling and cussing and scaring the piss out of her. Hell. Sam did enough of that already.”
Two Tickets To Bearadise (Bearadise Lodge Book 1) Page 6
