Except it was so much more complicated than that. She’d be bringing Hercules into the world he’d dreaded. He’d never expressed an interest in being a part of her life in that way. In his mind, he’d wanted them to run away together.
He’d always kept so much from her, even when they’d been lovers. Hopefully, now that they were working together, he wouldn’t be able withhold so much.
But the fact still stood that the rough and tumble ex-Special Forces soldier would have a hard time blending into her world. He’d looked professional today. But just like his calm appearance didn’t hide the heat that flared in his eyes as he saw her, the casual clothing he wore didn’t hide the virile, strong, and dangerous man beneath it.
A man who’d been to hell and back, like most of the operatives she’d known.
But Hercules was special. Of all the men she’d worked with, he was the only one who’d been hers. At first, the quietest. But as he’d slowly opened up, she’d discovered a warm, funny man who could be incredibly loving.
Unless you pushed him too far.
She didn’t know how this was going to work out. She’d seen the hesitancy in Herc’s eyes. The way he shifted uncomfortably as he realized they’d be working together. He hadn’t had long to process it. Most men would have looked even more shocked, but not Herc. He’d just calmly agreed, even if she knew he was anything but calm.
Still, she needed to go back to her hotel and get on a conference call with her brother about the family business. Then she needed to prepare for her conversation with Hercules, which she didn’t think would go well.
They came from different worlds, and she’d need to help him fit in as much as possible if she wanted to keep everyone from catching on long enough to get familiar with him again.
Mmm, familiar. A shiver travelled up her spine at that thought. A single touch could set her on fire. He was an animal in the bedroom, and she wasn’t talking about him being a shifter. No, he immersed himself in sex like he was drowning in it, making it an intense, immersive experience she’d never be able to forget.
She snapped herself back to reality as she started the car. She needed to slow down. They’d only just seen each other again. They had hard conversations in front of them. Who knew if he would want to give things a second chance?
She’d just have to take it one day at a time. One hot, slow day with the love of her life at a time.
Chapter 2
When Hercules showed up for their lunch date, he wore the same outfit he’d had on that morning. Dark jeans that were tight on his thick thighs, a worn leather black belt on his slim hips, and a flannel button-up in blue plaid that emphasized a powerful torso, stretching over huge pecs and shoulders and tapering down over a tight abdomen.
His hair was pulled back into a tight queue, but a few strands were loose as usual, a rich brown highlighted with gold in the sun as he stepped into the bistro, looking as out of place there as he would at her family’s estate.
But it didn’t matter. She was tired of being away from him. She no longer cared if he was a picture-perfect match. She had to show him it didn’t matter.
His warm-brown eyes went cold when they landed on her. She supposed she deserved that, showing up out of nowhere, disrupting his life. Disrupting his work. But if he’d been half as miserable as she’d been in the years they were apart, she had to try for it.
Hopefully, behind that calm façade, he was just as aware as her that something was missing from their lives as long as they weren’t together.
He sat in the chair across from her, making the elegant black wire thing look impossibly small, leaning back and folding his powerful arms. His golden tan glowed in the sunlight, his handsome jaw was pulled taut, and one dark eyebrow laced with blond arched upward.
She tried not to let images of that gorgeous body in bed cloud her thinking. They needed to talk about what was coming. For now, he had to just think there was a mission.
There sort of was.
“What do you want, Hera?” he asked, ignoring the menu in front of him as she grabbed hers and began looking it over.
She peeked at him over the top of it. “You’re gonna need to call me Valerie from now on, okay?”
He nodded stiffly. “I get it. You need to hide the past from your parents.”
“I just told them I had a fiancé. I didn’t tell them it was someone who knew me from the service.”
“Do they even know that’s what you were called?” His eyes twinkled slightly. “Do they even know how much of a badass you were? How many lives you saved with your intel?”
She shook her head with a laugh. “They have no idea how dangerous it was, either. They don’t need to know. That’s over now.”
“Yeah,” he said. “Not something anyone can do for life, right?” He put his hands behind his head, feigning casual boredom. “Good thing I found a place with Bear Claw.” He raised an eyebrow again. “I guess you just went back to work for the fam?”
She hesitated and then nodded slowly.
He sat forward and picked up the menu.
“Is everything here fish?” He shook his head, strands of his hair catching the light. She could never forget that beautiful hair. In the sunlight, in the firelight… in the moonlight. Like molten bronze. He caught her looking at him. “You had to go all fancy pants on the restaurant choice.”
She laughed lightly. “Have to watch the figure.”
His eyes moved over her appreciatively. “More curves than before. I like it.”
She felt a blush move up into her face. “That’s not a polite thing to say.”
He shrugged. “Were we ever polite, Hera? I always thought we were honest.”
“We were,” she said. “With what we actually told each other.”
He flinched slightly at that, as if acknowledging he’d always been good at holding back things from her. “Yeah.”
She went back to looking at the menu. “Hmph. So you’re saying I’ve gotten fat?”
His eyes went over her again and a slow grin lit his mouth. “I’m saying you were a little too lean in the service. You had to be. Now you’re perfect.”
She squirmed uncomfortably in her chair. He would say that. Hercules, shifter men in general, liked their women as curvy as they could get them. More to hold on to. She was still taller and more muscular than many other females probably, due to her pure bear blood and love of working out. But she’d definitely been getting more attention since adding to a few of her… assets.
“I suppose you’re right,” she said. “I have noticed most like it more.”
He sat up a little straighter in his chair, and she grinned. That had gotten his attention. He looked like he was going to ask who had noticed and then thought better of it, slumping his big body back into the seat and looking petulantly at the door.
“Anyway, I have to get back to Bear Claw soon. Just tell me what you need from me and when we’re taking off, and I’ll go get prepped.”
Her heart stung a little that he was so eager to get out of her presence when she never wanted him to leave. But truthfully, just having him there, so close to her, was a bit hard on her heart, not to mention her senses. So she’d tell him what she needed to and then leave.
There would be plenty of time to be together.
“My parents are inviting several suitable men out for the weekend at our estate. They did it without telling me, and I acted outraged. Told them I was already engaged secretly and they shouldn’t have done it.” She rolled her eyes, and Hercules simply listened, sipping a lemon water the waitress had brought.
Hera waited until the woman came back and placed her order for a lemon and caper salmon. Hercules said he’d go eat some real food, like a burger, later.
She looked over his outfit. “And not that I have any problem with how you look. I think it’s hot, but…”
He squinted. “You need me to be fancy?”
She nodded, rolling her lips together. “Is that okay?”
&nb
sp; He sighed, looking slightly defeated. Or pissed. It probably rubbed up against those old issues they’d had back when she’d been trying to figure out who he was and he’d been unwilling to share anything, thinking she was simply trying to measure him against her blue-blood past.
“Is that okay?”
“Fine,” he said.
“Do you want me to shop with you? I’d pick out some things, but I don’t know your size. Anymore.” She felt her face go red again but put a hand to her cheek to hide it just as her fish showed up.
The waitress asked again if Hercules wanted anything, her eyes lingering on his powerful chest and gorgeous hair just a little too long, even after he tersely told her he wouldn’t be eating.
She’d need to work a little on his manners, too.
The Hercules she’d known had always been polite with others, but the tension between them was clearly obliterating that. If he didn’t act in line, he’d blow their cover before she even had time to introduce him to her world, which wasn’t at all like he thought it was.
He waved a large, refined hand. “It’s fine. I can have Bronson do it. He knows what rich dudes like. Or Mark, even. Yeah, probably Mark.”
“Bronson’s twin?” she asked.
“Yeah.”
“Yeah, that’ll do,” she said. She was a little jealous that she wouldn’t be the one helping pick out Hercules’s clothes, simply because it meant she wouldn’t get to see him in the dressing room. But Mark and Bronson came from another old money family like hers, and they would know what to choose. Herc would be well equipped. She could hardly wait to see him.
She reached into her purse and pushed an envelope across the table. “Here’s the payment and your plane ticket. We’ll be flying first class and then taking a private plane over to their island.”
“They own their own island?”
“Just a small one,” she said. “I mean, there’s a small town there, but yeah, they own it.”
He shook his head. “We really would have been from different universes, wouldn’t we?”
She looked up into his eyes. “Not if one of us was willing to shoot across the sky.”
He frowned and opened the envelope. He tucked the plane ticket in his pocket and then pushed the envelope back to her. “No payment needed. Bear Claw is doing this for everything you’ve done for us.”
She hesitantly took the envelope back. She didn’t know anything about Hercules’s financial situation, but she felt a little bad that she was taking him away from paid work here to come with her.
Then again, if he settled with her, he’d never have to worry again. Not that Hercules would ever be happy being supported by a woman. But they could work that out later.
All she knew was, after being with him again for only a short time, she was more sure than ever before.
He was her mate.
She just had to make him see nothing else mattered.
His eyes met hers, softening meaningfully as they stared at each other for a long moment. Then he broke away and stood. He pulled out a chair and reached out for her hand, lifting her gently to stand, catching her when she stumbled forward.
Tension crackled as she looked up into his eyes, inches from his lips, tingling wherever his hands touched her. No, not tingling. Burning.
He set her on her feet and quickly stepped back, his handsome face looking as confused by the situation as she was aroused by it.
“I’ll… see you at the airport.”
She stepped back as well. “Sure. The flight.”
Then he walked forward, held the door, and watched her walk to her car. When she was safely in, with the seat belt latched and the door locked, he finally walked down the block toward his own truck.
She watched him get in and then realized he was waiting for her to leave first. That was so like him. Always so protective. She missed having someone looking out for her like that. He was always the only one she’d let do it.
But the sooner she left and got other things done, the sooner the time would pass and she’d be seeing him again, on the flight. Two hours together in first class.
She could hardly wait.
Hercules watched Hera—no, Valerie now—make her way through the crowds at the check-in counter to the front desk.
As always, she was the personification of elegance, looking crisp and fresh in a tailored white cotton shirt with short sleeves and loose linen pants that nevertheless hugged her generous hips and rounded butt.
His mouth watered, and he once again told it to calm down. They were here to work together, not get together. They’d tried that; it hadn’t worked. And even if he were still carrying some remnants of that years later, he wasn’t sure he ever wanted to try it again.
She met his eyes as she finally checked her baggage and headed over to him in the security line. Her short blond hair bounced as she jogged over, and he tried to avert his eyes from her firm breasts. He cast a quick, jealous glance around to see if anyone else was looking.
A part of him knew it was inappropriate to feel that possessive, but the other side of him said he was her bodyguard; it was his right to watch out for her. At least for now. He rubbed the back of his neck, knowing that was a dangerous slope to start on.
Her blue eyes widened as she saw him and then looked over him appreciatively. There was her scent again, fresh like spring roses in a warm garden. She still wanted him.
That made resisting twice as hard. But Hercules hadn’t served on two different shifters-only Special Forces squads to not have a lot of self-control.
Even if just the sight of her was making him weak in the knees. And weak was an adjective that wasn’t normally ever applied to him.
“How are you feeling?” she asked, still looking him over as she pulled him over to a special line for first class. “You look great. Like a European model or something. I almost didn’t recognize you.” She grinned and walked forward as the line moved. “Except, who couldn’t recognize that hair? And that bod.” She grinned, and he saw her blush again. She’d always done that around him a lot. It had always made him hot. He tried to make an exception for it this time and failed.
“I tried,” he said. “But if you approve of this outfit, I suppose we’ll be good for the weekend.”
“Mark picked it all out?” she asked.
“Yes.” He lied. In fact, he’d wanted to do it on his own. Prove to himself that anyone could fit into her world if they wanted to. And yes, show her just how good he could look if he wanted to. He knew he was being stubborn, but he was secretly pleased she approved.
A part of him still needed her to.
“So we get our own line?” he asked, moving forward, keeping his body between her and anyone around him who tried to bump close. He hated the way men’s eyes followed her and how totally unaware of it she seemed to be. She drew everyone’s attention with her height.
Well, he did, too, at over six feet six inches tall. All the better to scare off the other men. He’d always enjoyed doing that for her. Of course then she’d been his.
Maybe in his heart, she still was. Or at least they could pretend, for now. It would probably just make him a better bodyguard. As long as he was appropriate.
Which was hard, because as she talked to him about first class and frequent flyer miles, all he could think about was her hypnotic scent and memories of her gorgeous body and long nights talking alone and keeping her away from any of the other men who were looking at her—
“Earth to Herc? You okay?”
He blinked at her, searching for an appropriate topic to hide his real thoughts. “Should we still call me that around your family?”
“What’s your real name?” she asked.
He froze at that. Wrong subject. He’d carefully kept his past from her when they’d been together before. Kept it from basically everyone. Even though it was one of the things that had pulled them apart previously, he hadn’t been able to tell her. He didn’t want to see how she’d look at him. Her, with t
he perfect background and history.
And he wasn’t sure how to tell her he didn’t have a real name. Not like she or anyone else did.
Just a number.
Her body sagged slightly and she cocked her head. “Not this again. You’re still not going to tell me?”
He shook his head. “Just give me a name.”
She looked hurt, and he hated that she was, but he wasn’t going to give up his past just for a mission. Because if he could have given it up, it would have been to save the relationship before. Except he’d known nothing could save the relationship. Because even if he’d told her, she’d just have realized he could never fit in with her perfect family.
It was never going to work anyhow. Might as well preserve her image of him as someone normal who deserved love.
Love he’d only ever felt with her.
Sure, he’d had friends and teammates he’d cared about. But nothing like that all-encompassing acceptance he’d felt when he was with her.
“I guess we’ll call you John, then,” she said, shrugging. “As vague a name as possible. John Watson?”
“The fictional character?”
“Oh, good point,” she said, pursing pink lips. “John Olsen?”
“Shouldn’t I have a fancy pants name?” he asked sardonically.
“John Bentley?” she asked.
He shook his head. “A car? Isn’t that a little too obvious?”
She nodded, her short, blond hair bouncing. “I guess so. Plus, I know a Bentley. He might be coming this weekend.”
“Okay, then what?”
“How about Ryan? John Ryan?”
He finally nodded. As good a name as any. Though he liked the name Hercules. Especially coming from her lips. In the dark. “John Ryan it is.”
They reached the security checkpoint, and she went first, placing her purse on the conveyor belt and taking a small laptop out of it. Hercules followed suit with his wallet and backpack.
He took a deep breath. One step at a time.
Bear-ly Human (Bear Claw Security Book 4) Page 2
