“That’s more spunk than you bargained for, huh? I think you need to change tactics.”
“I’ll take any advice you have.”
“A honey trap. Use your Wright charm on her.”
“That’s not a tactic, and I’m a little disappointed you can’t come up with something that doesn’t include hooking up.” Carter rifled through his center console in search of a toothpick.
“Grant sexed up a Taylor, and now he’s got Bobbie under his thumb.”
“That’s not true. Bobbie owns Grant, and we all know that. And I’m not talking about sexing her up, either. No need to make my life complicated. But maybe I could take the edge off with a little charm. I just need something to give me the upper hand. I’m itching to get out of here already.” He couldn’t take it too far with Samantha, it wouldn’t be fair to hook up with the opposing side of a feud. But he trusted his instincts to know how far would be enough.
“Didn’t you date her years ago?”
“Yeah, but she’s changed since then. This isn’t the same girl from high school.” He’d really liked the girl he’d known from high school, but he’d be stupid not to admit this version of Samantha turned him on as well as kept his instincts in constant bear mode. Challenging.
“Well, good luck. Keep me posted.”
“Yeah, thanks for nothing.” Carter grabbed his shorts from the passenger seat and pulled out a T-shirt he found behind the seat. The alarm on his phone chimed. The mediation meeting started in five minutes. He rolled to the side to shove his legs into his shorts. The room key Lisa had given him earlier fell out of his pocket and onto the floorboard.
Carter scooped it up. No more childish pranks.
Chapter Four
Samantha spread out two surveys, a couple of land descriptions, and the deeds in question on her side of the table. Dr. Holland cleared his throat and tapped his pen. Carter had three minutes to get his butt into a chair, or their meeting would be postponed. House rule number four required every mediation participant to be on time with zero room for excuses.
The medical tape across the bridge of Dr. Holland’s nose reminded her that they were already treading on shaky ground. She smiled, and he didn’t reciprocate, so she busied her hands with rearranging the order of the legal descriptions. Her dad wanted the entire five acres, yet he would allow the Wrights to keep an easement from the main road to their adjoining land. But he wanted them to pay for it. Hopefully, Carter’s agitation over the past few hours would make him want to head back to whatever rig he’d been hiding on before getting wrangled into the land feud. She had the documents prepared, and all he had to do was agree.
Samantha wanted the conflict between their families to be over so she could get back to focusing on the café. Donuts were so much more enjoyable than men.
Her mind wandered back to Carter emerging from the woods naked. The inner she-bear whose opinions she usually trusted had pushed forth a growl of approval. Traitor. Regular humans could never understand the dualities of a shifter. Two forces of nature trapped in one shape-shifting body. The past few months, she’d begun to wonder if her bear was off-center because all her other shifter friends were settled down and having cubs. The urge to mate and reproduce was a quality that the bear and human side of her definitely shared. And both were urges she planned to ignore. Being near a man she’d obsessed over as a teen didn’t help matters much.
With thirty seconds remaining, Carter sauntered into the room. Instead of taking a chair across the table from her, he sat beside her and scooted closer. Right before their elbows touched, he stopped.
“Shouldn’t you be on the other side?” she asked. The table had been set up with two chairs on her side, two chairs on the other, and Dr. Holland at the head. The placement of chairs couldn’t be more obvious. The opposing side sat on the opposite side.
“I figured it’d be easier if we shared the paperwork instead of passing it back and forth.” He reached for one of the pens sitting in a coffee cup, and his forearm brushed against hers. “Just like sharing the room.”
“But we aren’t sharing the room. You are going to sleep in the truck-house.”
“Ms. Lisa said you were fine with giving me a key, so I figured why not enjoy the comfort. Has something changed?” His raised eyebrow challenged her to disagree.
Dr. Holland cleared his throat. “What’s this about you two sharing a room?”
Samantha chewed the inside of her cheek. She didn’t want to out herself or Lisa for lying about the rooms. Carter’s demeanor suggested he was unruffled from the earlier prank, and it appeared he’d changed tactics. He wanted to make sure he looked like the good guy in front of Dr. Holland. Fine. She would out-nice him.
“Of course I don’t mind sharing with you. After all, our families are soon to be connected with Bobbie marrying Grant. You’re practically a cousin-in-law.” She sweetened her smile and turned it on Dr. Holland. “There was a little mix-up about the rooms, but it appears we’ve just settled it. That’s how easy this entire process is going to be, I promise. By tomorrow morning we’ll be signing the mediation agreement.”
Dr. Holland nodded, and, apparently satisfied this meeting wasn’t going to end in a barroom brawl, he placed a digital recorder in the middle of the table. “Let’s get started. I’ll state the requirements again. Everything during this mediation will be recorded. Both representatives have been given full permission to settle the matter at hand. The matter is the settlement of the five acres of property located on the legal description described therein that will be entered into the final mediation agreement. The mediation agreement will be legal and binding.
“Any disagreement that ends in an unruly argument will cost each of your families another day in mediation and additional boarding fees. No exceptions. Now let’s get started. I believe there is a proposal prepared by the Taylors.”
Samantha placed a copy of the proposed deed and outline of terms in front of Carter and Dr. Holland. Carter took the terms and leaned back, placing his free arm across the back of her chair. The warmth from his arm radiated and caressed her back. His thumb made a small circle on her shoulder.
“Um, yes.” She willed her heart to stop beating erratically. Carter’s enhanced senses would be able to pick up on her reaction. All the yummy things he could do with his thumb raced across her mind. “As you can see we are offering the Wrights an easement across the front part of the property in exchange for a payment of two thousand dollars.”
Carter withdrew his arm, bumping her forward in the process, and turned in his chair to face her. His stubble-covered face was inches from her own, and his bear scent spiked her senses into mate-with-me overdrive. The lazy smile from earlier vanished. She felt his calm churn into anger.
“You want my family to pay to drive across land that we already own?”
She kept the sweetness in her voice along with the forced smile. “You don’t own the land. That’s why we’re here.”
He leaned in even closer, and Samantha’s breath hitched.
Gold flecks sparkled in his dark brown eyes. “I thought we were here to stop dicking around and come to a reasonable agreement about how to split the land. Your dad is an asshole if he thinks we’re going to pay him for an easement.”
Samantha stood and placed her finger milli-inches from his nose. “You’re an asshole.”
Dr. Holland stood and slapped his hand on the table. “I warned both of you about this type of behavior. No exceptions. See Lisa about a reschedule. You’re welcome to use the conference room to finish this argument, but you’d better not break any of my furniture like your fathers did, or I’ll charge your family for that as well.”
He lifted the digital recorder from the table and rattled off the date and time before stomping out the door.
“What the hell is wrong with you, Carter? My dad is retired. I just opened a business, and we’re in the red for at least six months. We can’t afford the legal fees to take your family to court. That’s w
hy we’re at mediation.” She grabbed the paperwork she’d carefully placed on the table and shoved it into her dad’s worn briefcase. “We can’t afford to keep dragging this mediation out either. But I guess you don’t have to worry about that since Pops Wright is footing your bill. Must be nice living in the land of no responsibility. Selfish jerk.”
Carter leaned back in his chair and propped his boots on the table. “What the hell is wrong with me? I came here in good faith, and you’ve done nothing but sabotage any chance of our families finding common ground. This argument is over a lousy five acres, and you and your dad keep making it out like we’re trying to steal something that doesn’t already belong to us.”
She pulled the survey back out and slapped it down on the table. Anger coursed through her body, causing her hands to shake wildly. Tears burned behind her eyes, but she held onto them with the might of a bear holding onto fresh salmon. “I know this land doesn’t belong to the Wrights.”
“The surveyors screwed everything up. How do you know for sure that land belongs to your family?” he asked.
“I just know. The landmarks, the places I used to run as a kid, the picnics we took together when Mom was alive. Mom taught me how to control my shift out there. I know that land. My dad proposed to my mom not five hundred feet from where we’re giving you that stupid freaking easement. You aren’t just trying to steal our land, you’re stealing our memories. And all because of a wedding that didn’t happen and shouldn’t have happened anyway. Your family is motivated by pettiness.”
He shook his head. “Well, if you hadn’t slept with my sister’s fiancé, that wedding would’ve happened, and there’d be no talk of our warranted pettiness.”
Low effing blow. The Wrights could all go to hell. She swiped at a tear that made it to the top of her cheek. The Wrights had so much family. So many people to depend on if trouble beat on their doors. All she had was Dad and Bobbie. And they were going to steal Bobbie from her too. “I don’t care how long we have to stay here, or how much I have to take out of Total B.S. profits to pay for it. Your family is not getting that land. Screw the easement. It’s now off the table. It’s all or nothing.”
Samantha didn’t give him a chance to respond. She walked past him and out the door. On her way up the stairs he called her name, but she didn’t look back. He was lucky she had a tight handle on her bear. He deserved a swat across the face with full claws. She glanced down at her hands, realizing that was the second time in two days she’d thought about hitting him. She couldn’t recall any other man who’d ever pushed her to think of violence. Well, other than Caroline’s crappy fiancé, Gregor. But she chose not to mentally rehash that story of woe.
Damn Carter.
She needed a native run, but because of her earlier prank she couldn’t trust her clothes would be where she left them. The clock on the bedside table reminded her she had too much time before dinner. Too much time on her hands, and still no clear solution how to win this battle. Their argument really screwed up the timeline.
She flopped on the bed but sat back up again knowing Carter still had a key. A regular, non-bear hike through the woods might calm the anger and anxiety. There would probably be a stream somewhere nearby, and she could dip in her toes and pull herself together. Dad would be disappointed in her for not getting this resolved in the first meeting. The entire point of her being here was because of her ability to keep a level head. She wanted to call Bobbie but thought better of disturbing her happy cousin.
Samantha slipped on her hiking boots and headed out to the trail she’d followed Carter down earlier. She kept her eyes focused on the ground so she wouldn’t see Carter’s face if he were nearby. Who was she kidding? She’d know if he was there without looking for him. His scent and his ability to throw her off her game rattled around the back of her mind. Perhaps if she hadn’t seen him in all his naked glory, she wouldn’t have lost her train of thought when he’d wrapped his arm around her. The gesture had come with a small amount of comfort. But the comfort was as short lived as any truce she’d ever be able to have with the Wrights.
Five minutes on the trail, and she could feel her chill attitude returning. The deep, heady scent of the woods filled her nostrils. She closed her eyes and breathed in again to make sure she was alone. Not another person within smelling distance.
Before long she came upon a small, slow-moving brook. She removed her boots and let her bare feet dangle in the brisk water. Shifters adjusted quickly to the cold in Alaska, and it didn’t take long before the water licking her feet felt no colder than a hot tub in her cousin’s native Florida.
The rustling leaves behind her and the familiar scent of Carter renewed the earlier tension. Why did he bother coming after her? “I don’t want to talk right now, Carter.”
He didn’t answer, so she turned her head in the direction of his steady breathing and found him shucking off his T-shirt.
She stood, locking her hands against her hips. “What now?”
He dropped his shorts. “You said you didn’t want to talk.”
When he grabbed the edge of his boxer briefs, she averted her gaze to the tops of the nearest trees. Her neck muscles strained in protest. My entire chill right out the effing door. “Put your clothes back on. What are you doing?”
“I’m going for another native run. You can join me or not, but I think it will be good for us to clear our heads. And if we’re both shifted, we don’t have to worry about the other stealing our clothes.”
She could hear the grin in his voice, and didn’t want it to sway her. “I don’t know.”
“I’m sorry about earlier. I didn’t know all that about your mom, and I shouldn’t have thrown the thing with Caroline in your face. I was losing the argument, and sometimes I’m quick to react without thinking.”
“Sometimes?” she asked. His throaty laugh reminded her of the carefree boy she’d known in high school.
“C’mon. Join me. Nothing’s getting signed today anyway.”
Did she trust Carter in bear form? No. Did she trust herself? Hell no. Was that going to stop her from saying yes? Damn. “Okay, but it has to be short because we can’t miss dinner. I’m not sure you’re worth missing a meal.”
∞∞∞
Carter shifted and jumped into the middle of the stream. He adjusted to the creek’s temperature quickly, enjoying the water’s caress over the rough pads of his paws. He chuffed at Samantha before using his claws to splash in her direction. She turned her back to him and removed her clothes. A little disappointed he wasn’t getting a full-frontal view, Carter turned and splashed out of the creek, ready to explore the different scenery full of new smells. He’d never understood his family’s need to settle down in the crowded area of Foxhollow. Even with a population of a couple hundred, claustrophobia settled in his gut every time he visited.
Didn’t they know a bear was meant to roam? Since he’d graduated high school he’d worked different rigging and pipeline jobs across the state. He’d crabbed and volunteered to find missing and misguided adventurists from the lower forty-eight. He’d met people and shifters from every walk of life. Challenges suited his nature. It never once occurred to him to settle down with a mate like Ray or Grant had, or fight over a piece of land like his parents and the Taylors.
Samantha rushed past him in bear form with a graceful lope not often seen in shifter bears. He thought about that single tear that’d escaped her golden eyes. He hated causing that tear. He’d been a jerk. Not to mention, with his entire family banded together, they must come across as a bunch of bullies. Not their intent, but perceptions could be damaging. Samantha’s hurt opened up a part of himself he didn’t think existed.
When they returned to mediation, he’d take the chance to make things right in a way that mattered. Even though he barely spent any time at home, he still had all those lugs to fall back on if he needed a break from all the roaming. They’d forgive him for giving up a measly five acres.
No more games. No
more pissing match between the Taylors and the Wrights.
Samantha stopped her run in front of a tall hemlock tree. The lower branches full of green needles pointed toward the ground. She dropped to her back beneath the branches and rolled back and forth using the ground as if it were scratching post. She stopped long enough to chuff in his direction.
A bear welcome for him to join her.
A small stirring rumbled low in his gut and soon took on a life of its own in a way that engulfed his entire body. Hunger. Need. Want. A challenge. Holy shit. A definite wrench thrown into all his big talk about never settling down with a mate. When he’d come up with his earlier plan to distract Samantha with what appeared to be an attraction to him, he’d never thought he’d feel an equal attraction to her this fast or this strong.
Carter moved forward to join her in the back rubbing, but he caught the scent of nearby humans. He lifted onto his back feet and tilted his nose in the air. Two humans, one male and one female. Samantha caught on to his stance and stood beside him. They quietly lowered to all fours and pushed through some of the brush to a view of a clearing. A man and woman unfolded a blanket and began some heavy over-the-shirt making out. Soon the man talked the woman out of her shirt and bra.
Samantha shifted back to human and poked him in the shoulder. He shifted beside her but couldn’t take his eyes off her full breasts. Rosy-pink nipples were centered in the middle of the two perfectly shaped orbs. Her long blonde hair draped wildly over her shoulders. All his restraint flew out the forest. He had to have her.
“Eyes up here,” she whispered.
The corner of his mouth lifted and, after a last wistful look, met her gaze. “We should get out of here before they notice us.”
“That guy is Bob or Bill or something. I heard him arguing with his wife earlier. Their room is next to ours.”
“And now they are making up. What’s the problem?” The man kept the compliments flowing once he got the woman lowered on the blanket. Carter appreciated the man’s effort.
Bearly Loving: Foxhollow Den #2 (Alaskan Den Men Book 10) Page 3
