Soon he pulled at her clothes, which were nothing more than a dress. He pulled it away from her, and despite the mist, the bright red dress shone through. It was nearly blood red, and it tapered at the checkered black design wrapped around the waist. Had he been able to see his mate’s body, he surely wouldn’t have noticed the dress, but it was the only color in this dream world, so it stuck out to him.
But only for a brief moment, as his mate was pressing her naked body against his own. His clothes had simply disappeared, or perhaps he had never been wearing anything at all.
His dick steeled itself as she cupped his balls, and he drank in her ample breasts. She moaned as he nibbled on her ear, and soon his hard cock found her dripping wetness. He began to rub his head—dripping with precum—against her ready hole, and then suddenly the mist cleared and she was gone.
Seth’s eyes shot open, and he found himself on the couch. No mist. No mate. Just his hard dick and his blue balls. Dammit! He should have tried to see her! He stopped and ran every detail through his mind. She had large breasts and was full of curves...but that didn’t help him. Seth had no interest in tiny little girls with little stick legs. There had been something that would help him, he knew, and he struggled to remember.
The red dress shot across his mind like fire, and he knew it had to be some kind of sign. He filed it away and sighed as the ecstasy of the dream—which had felt so real and immediate—melted away like morning fog in the rising sun.
It was still dark outside, and the sun wouldn’t begin rising for another hour. Since it was still fall, Seth didn’t need to sleep much. He only needed about three hours of sleep in summer, and a few more in fall and spring. It was great to have so much extra time, but the drawback was winter. In winter he needed a minimum of eleven hours of sleep, and preferably twelve or thirteen. In winter he barely had time to eat before and after work, and in summer he had all the time in the world. In a month or so he’d be transitioning between his fall and winter sleep schedules, which would make him need just about eight hours. This was lucky, because if Lily was still here, she wouldn’t suspect anything. For now he’d need two or so fewer hours than normal, which meant he’d be able to get the bread going before Lily woke up.
He had the dough made already. He always made dough in the morning, and then he left it in the fridge overnight, which made it taste even better. He preheated the oven and took the dough out of the fridge so it could get closer to room temperature before he baked it. Then he grabbed his big bag of flour and got to work making the dough for the next morning.
He loved the smell of the flour and the smooth feel of it on his hands. Kneading the dough was almost like meditation, but more physical. He really pushed hard on it, kneading it by hand, but—thanks to his shifter strength—with the force of a hydraulic press. He’d daydreamed of making some kind of crazy shifter baking company. Shifters could do everything with the strength and speed of industrial machinery, but still with all the advantages and care of handmade bread. And while most bakers said that baking was a science—that you had to measure everything meticulously—that was true only for human bakers. Depending on air temperature, humidity, and all kinds of factors, you had to adjust the ratio of dough, water, and salt. Humans were guessing at best. Seth could smell the dough and just know.
He took a whiff of the dough and knew it needed just a tad more water. He wet his hands and let water drizzle onto the dough, and then he kneaded more. He took another sniff. Perfect.
He left it out so it could rise, and then he put the dough from the previous morning into the oven.
It took about twenty minutes to bake, and this was usually when he shifted and went for a romp through the forest. He wouldn’t risk doing that now though, not with Lily here. He loved coming back in from his run and smelling the bread from the oven, but now he’d have to settle for the scent slowly building up as it baked.
Just as the bread was almost finished baking, he heard Lily’s feet shuffling inside her room. Of course he could hear her with his shifter senses, but he had to remember that she didn’t know he was a shifter. He shouldn’t be able to hear that she had woken up already, and so he got the bread out of the oven and went on with his normal routine as best he could. Except his normal routine had already been disrupted since he didn’t get to shift and run.
His legs felt stiff and restless. He wanted to move, to do something, but it was already too late. Lily would be up soon, and he wanted to help her through this day. He didn’t want her to walk into an empty kitchen and eat alone.
So he waited in the kitchen. He got plates ready, and he started brewing some coffee. He checked his fridge for juice, and he had just enough orange juice left for one glass. Fine; he’d put it on the table and offer her some. He’d pour it for her so she wouldn’t have to know that she was finishing it off.... She probably would be hesitant to drink it if she knew it was the last glass.
He had just laid everything out when she walked in. She was wearing one of his shirts, and it was way too big on her. It hid nearly all of her curves...all but two of them. Nothing could hide those, Seth thought. Why? Why are you thinking about...those?
Because! a voice boomed inside his head—a voice he hadn’t heard in ten years. They can hold so much milk!
“Shit!” Seth said aloud. Lily was still in the hallway, but she stopped and looked down at herself.
“What?” she asked. “Should I not have worn your clothes? I didn’t want to put on my old stuff from yesterday and—”
“No!” Seth said. “It’s totally fine. Please, take whatever you need! I can take you shopping, or you can just borrow my truck, and you can get some new clothes once we’re done eating.”
“What’s wrong then?” she asked. “You just yelped out ‘shit!’ and sounded totally shocked.”
His inner bear was back. After a decade, it had broken its silence to comment on how Lily’s boobs could hold so much milk. Of all the things in the world, Lily’s boobs woken up his inner bear?
“Uh,” he said, “I just realized I don’t have any eggs, but I thought I did.”
“Ah, come on, Seth,” she said. “It smells like you just baked fresh bread. Do you do that every morning? Fresh bread always beats eggs.”
She smiled from ear to ear when she saw the table setup. How could she smile like that just hours after her house had burned down? Hours after Seth’s had burned down, he was ready to kill, and he had. But Lily was excited about bread. Bread he’d baked. That felt good, at least.
You’re providing for her! the inner bear said. She’ll see how you’d handle cubs, and then she’ll go into heat.
“She’s not a bear, you idiot!” Seth hissed. “She doesn’t go into heat.”
“What?” Lily asked, turning to him, eyebrows raised.
Dammit. He needed to recover, and fast.
“I can’t bear to wait,” Seth said, “but there’s too much...heat. The bread will get all mushy and soggy if I cut it now. So we’ve gotta wait. It’s the hardest part...when the bread is all hot and smells so nice but you can’t dig in.”
She shot him a forlorn look. “Yeah,” she said. “I know that feeling. I’m good at waiting though. No problem.”
Seth grabbed the coffee cups and filled a cup for Lily. Then he handed it to her. “Coffee helps though.”
“Mm,” she said, sipping at the cup. “Sure does.”
He couldn’t help but stare at her full lips as they touched the white porcelain. Why had he never noticed how nice her lips were before?
“So,” she said, “I definitely will want to go shopping when we finish eating. I’d take the truck...but I don’t want to leave you stranded here.”
“I don’t have to work until late afternoon,” he said. “It’s fine, really. But I’m happy to go with you, if you’d like.”
She’d drive by her house on the way, and she shouldn’t have to do that alone. He needed to have a look anyway to make sure it was an accident. He couldn’t forget what he’d seen just
before he had rushed into the fire. He didn’t want to worry Lily about that, but if it wasn’t an accident, then she was in danger. More reason to stay with her and not let her shop alone.
“Uh,” she said, “there’s like, no chance you actually like going shopping. Why do you think all the women’s clothing stores at the mall have benches full of men sitting outside, bored out of their minds?”
“We haven’t spent a lot of time together lately,” he said, “and I have to work tonight. We can get lunch or something afterward. It will be fun.”
CHAPTER SEVEN
Lily
She was in a dressing room, and nearly a dozen outfits were piled on hangers beside her. She’d chickened out and looked the other way when they had driven past her house. She promised herself she’d face it on the way back. But right now her most immediate need was to get at least five outfits she could wear for work. She had to dress business casual, so her first instinct had been to get dress pants and stuffy blouses. Clothes she’d had before. But once she started shopping, all of the pencil skirts, sleeveless blouses, and other things she’d normally never wear caught her eye. She’d never have dared even trying them on, but Seth was by her side, and he’d been smiling at her. And that smile, God, it was something else. It was framed by the strongest jaw she’d ever seen, and though he’d just shaved hours before, he had such a hot stubble thing going on already. His teeth were white and shining and perfect, of course. That wasn’t it though. Something about his smile toward her had changed. The friendliness and genuineness was still there, but she sensed something else, and it made her want to dress hot as fuck.
So she tried on a skirt that was barely long enough to still be professional, and she put on a blouse that made her big breasts look even more pronounced. She looked hot, she really did. She needed the perfect pair of shoes to go with this kind of outfit, and not boring, brown flat ones like she normally wore. She wanted some heels.
She tried on outfit after outfit, and it was as if, in payment for her house burning down, some kind of fashion God had blessed her with all the perfect outfits. Everything she tried on looked amazing, and she couldn’t wait to see Seth’s reaction to all of them.
Seth. Shit. How long had she been in the dressing room? She checked her phone. Two hours? No way! God, he must be laid out on one of those benches outside the store, passed out and nearly dying of hunger.
She kept the latest outfit on, a red dress—she was not going to put back on her dirty clothes—and rushed out of the dressing room with the rest of the clothes piled in her arms.
Seth was standing near the entrance to the dressing room. He stood tall and straight, and he was wearing a full suit and tie. The suit was gray, and he had on polished brown dress shoes, and his thin tie was bright blue. It matched his eyes. Jesus, he looked good.
“God,” she said. “Seth, I’m so sorry—”
“Don’t worry,” he said. “It took me a while to pick out this suit. I wasn’t waiting long.” And without a word he took the whole pile of clothes from her hands.
As soon as he looked up at her, his mouth hung open.
“That dress…”
Her face flushed, and she felt so embarrassed. She thought she had looked good, but who was she kidding? Dressing like this was for skinny girls. It wasn’t for her. And guys like Seth were for skinny girls too.
“Yeah,” she said. “I should put these all back.”
“No!” he said. “Lily...you look fantastic. If all the outfits look this good, you should get all of them. But...that dress...it’s something else. Checkered black around the waist...”
His face was flushed, and his eyes were wild. Could her appearance really put such a perfect specimen of man so on edge?
Her blood ignited, and her heart raced. You look fantastic. Seth had said that. Seth.
“You really—” she started, but he cut her off.
“Really. Totally amazing,” he said.
She caught his eyes wandering around in a way she’d never seen him do with her. They probed up and down her body, lingered on her breasts, ran along the curves of her hips, and when he looked back up at her eyes, there was a grin on his face.
“Well,” she said, laughing nervously, “I guess I am going to buy all of them.”
Seth took her out to eat as promised. He ate a massive cut of steak, explaining that since he usually just had bread and fruit for breakfast and dinner, he needed to pack on the protein at lunch. He was, after all, a firefighter. He needed to keep up his strength, keep those massive muscles fed—muscles that Lily had seen gloriously naked last night. Lily had soup and salad, mostly because it was one of the cheaper things on the menu. Seth was offering to pay, and Lily had already taken over his bed. She wasn’t going to make him buy her expensive meals on top of waking up before dawn to bake her fresh bread. Not that these things didn’t feel so nice coming from him.
It was a lentil soup and a nice salad with roasted pine nuts. The best thing, though, was eating with Seth. And the second nicest thing was wearing her hot new outfit while eating with him. The table they were at was small, and a few times during the meal, she’d crossed her legs, and her bare calves had accidentally brushed up against his leg. She’d expected him to pull away or awkwardly apologize, but he didn’t move, and he just kept smiling as she spoke. It felt so natural to touch him, and she had half a mind to just reach over to him and take his hand in hers. That would be crazy, of course, but it was nice to think about.
“I’m ready,” she said after Seth had paid the bill. “Thanks for the meal. It was great.”
“Okay,” he said. “Pat said they’re done for the day, so it will just be us and the house.”
“What’s left of the house,” she said.
He nodded, not correcting her. She prepared for the worst.
“Why did you buy a suit, by the way?” she asked.
“Does it look goofy?” he asked.
“No!” she said, blushing. “It looks great, of course. I just wasn’t sure why you bought it.”
“I’m expecting something important to happen soon,” he said, “and I wanted to have a nice suit ready for when it did.”
“Oh,” she said, not really understanding. “When do you think it’s going to happen?”
He bit his lip and said, “Maybe it already has…”
They drove mostly in silence toward the ruins of her house, and Lily had the feeling similar to driving to the dentist. She needed to go, but she had no desire to do it. She just wanted it over with. Until she saw it, it wasn’t quite real. Yes, she’d seen it burning, but she hadn’t seen it burned down. It was almost as if not seeing it meant it could still be there. It meant she hadn’t lost her family’s legacy, as well as her most valuable financial asset. Once she saw what remained, however, it would all be irrevocably gone.
Blood drained from her face even as her heart pounded in her chest, and Seth slowed down. They were here. She kept her gaze fixed on the window as the lot coasted into view.
When she saw it, images flashed into her mind of World War II. Blackened husks of buildings with debris littered across the ground. It looked like something more destructive than a fire had hit, like a bomb or a tornado. Or a tornado full of bombs. She could make out only vague hints of where the walls had been. One stone corner remained, but it was mostly just a giant pile of rubble.
“More of the walls were still standing this morning,” Seth said, “but it’s dangerous to leave them up—”
“It’s like how when you light paper on fire,” she interrupted, “it consumes the white and leaves behind black, and it looks almost like the fire is just changing the color of the paper, but as soon as you touch it—even the lightest touch—it crumbles into dust and blows away.”
“Right,” Seth said. “That’s what the remaining walls were like. They don’t want them crumbling like that onto the investigators.”
“Investigators?” Lily asked.
“Yeah,” Seth said. “A
fire of this size...they want to figure out what happened.”
“My insurance doesn’t cover fires at all,” Lily said.
“It’s standard procedure either way,” Seth said. “They just want to rule out any criminal possibilities, and once they have, they’ll drop it.”
“Why would I burn my own house down if I don’t have insurance? How can they suspect me of being a criminal when I’m the victim?”
“Look, Lily, I don’t want you to worry too much about this. It’s probably nothing, but I was the first one to call in the fire. No one else called it in at all, but when I got to the scene, I saw someone in the distance. He was just watching the flames.”
“Oh, God,” Lily said, and she felt her stomach churn. Could this get any worse?
“It’s probably nothing,” Seth said. “Most people are hesitant to be the one who calls. He probably assumed someone had already called it in, and he saw me there. If he arrived at the same time as me, he’d have seen me on the phone and then seen me step up to the gate.”
Unbearable Heat (The Grizzly Next Door 2) Page 5
