by Zoe Chant
"I guess we'll find out?"
"Your feet are going to drag on the ground!"
Ryan laughed. "Maybe. Oh, man, I'll flatten you. Um, who goes first, you or me?"
"I'll carry you first," Missy said, not at all sure it was the right choice. "That way you can make up for lost time on the second leg? Oh, thank goodness." The first-stage riders were climbing onto the wooden fence behind them and the carriers were backing up to them, instead of having the riders jump on the carriers backs. "Okay, I can probably do this for at least a little while, if you don't have to jump on me."
Ryan climbed on the fence and Missy leaned back against him, not wanting to pick him up until she absolutely had to. He was warm and still smelled good, even after a day in the sunshine. She had the body-heating thought that there were probably much better things they could do leaned up against a fence, and hoped she wasn't blushing too obviously.
He put his arms over her shoulders, then said, "Um," in a low voice by her ear. "I don't mean to be rude, but I also…don't know where to put my hands…"
Missy blushed harder, although she also laughed. "Um. Okay. You…let's see, what do you do, I haven't had, or given, a piggy-back ride in so long…right, I think basically you strangle me with your arms? And I hold on under your butt? Isn't that how it works?"
"You know," Ryan said, his voice still low and warm and conversational, "I feel like this is going to end well for me no matter how it turns out."
"I said under your butt, not on your butt!" Missy turned her head a couple of inches, her nose almost bumping against Ryan's cheek. "Although, yeah, it seems like you're not wrong," she added more softly. "This seems kind of nice."
"More than kind of," he agreed, and turned his face toward hers a little more. Enough, she thought with a leaping heart, for a kiss.
"Racers, take your places! Which, in this case, is with your partner on the fence and you ready to pick them up! Ready?"
A shout of agreement went up, although the shout's enthusiasm ranged from very excited to extremely nervous, depending on the makeup of the team. "On your marks!" the announcer called. "Get set! Gooooo!!!"
Missy hitched Ryan onto her back and nearly fell, more from laughter than anything else. "Oh my God. You don't weigh a ton, but…!"
Ryan, clinging wildly to her collarbones, whispered, "Imagine how much I weigh as a seal," and Missy, staggering with both effort and laughter, stumbled toward the far, far distant finish line. Ryan's feet bounced around her knees, and she tried to imagine carrying him as a seal, which didn't have feet. Or a butt to wrap her hands beneath. He would just slither off her back, as a seal.
Actually, he'd probably just squish her flat, because he seemed much larger as a seal than as a human, but never mind that. She didn't dare stop, and even more, she didn't dare drop him because she would never, ever be able to pick him up again. By halfway to the finish line, she was bent double, with his legs wrapped around her waist and her hands on her knees to support his weight as she took one. step. at. a. time.
"You're doing great!" Ryan said perkily by her ear. "A bunch of other people have dropped their partners! Mabs Brannigan is super fast, though, wow."
Missy almost made the terrible error of looking up to see if she could find Mabs. Then she realized if she lifted her head that much she would fall over, and that would be the end of it. "Just make sure I'm pointed the right direction!" she grated, and step by slow step, made it to the finish line.
She was sweating and panting and almost too tired to even hold on when Ryan hitched her up onto his back in turn. "This," she wheezed, "is the worst idea ever. Remind me to kill Becky later."
"Nah," Ryan said. "We've still got a chance. Ready? Hang on!"
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Ryan took off down the race course at a full run, partly to make up for lost time. More, though, because he thought if he spent very long with Missy Clark all pressed up against him like that, he might end up forgetting they were in public. He bet he could slide her all the way around to his front without ever letting her go.
And then he could kiss her thoroughly. He could tell her that it didn't matter how ridiculous she might think it was, he knew she was his fated mate, and ask her if she could possibly forget about that other guy who had caught her attention.
Missy, bouncing on his back, squealed with laughter and held on tightly, although she did keep trying to move her arms down so she wouldn't choke him. "Slow down! I can't hold on without strangling you!"
Ryan did slow down, his breath suddenly coming in heaves, and he said, "Running that fast with somebody on your back is hard!" between panting. He settled into a jog, or maybe a really fast walk, and Missy giggled against his shoulder.
"I'll take your word for it. Although Mabs seems to be doing pretty well."
"I bet she's got a lot of practice." Ryan was definitely no longer jogging. He wasn't even sure he could call it a fast walk anymore. He was still moving forward, though. That would do. "I'm glad we didn't do this during the hot part of the day," he panted.
"People would have been dropping of heat exhaustion," Missy said. A minute later they lurched across the finish line and Ryan barely had time to put Missy down before he collapsed. She thumped onto the straw-covered earth with him and they both lay there, gasping and giggling between the gasps. "Think we're gonna win?"
"I think Noah was right. Kid's got it in the bag. Do you think they train for this?" Ryan pushed up on one elbow, looking down toward where Noah and Mabs Brannigan were guzzling water and hugging each other, then flopped back down. "She makes parenting look easy."
Missy blurted a giggle. "I've seen her trying to keep up with him. It's not easy." She rolled toward Ryan, throwing an arm over his chest and mashing her nose against his shoulder. "You seem like you'd make a good dad, though. You're up for anything."
Ryan, with Missy smooshed against his side and with her arm across him, thought he was up for more than she bargained for, right then, and decided he'd better sit up before that became too obvious. "I hope so, someday. I'm gonna grab a lemonade before the last leg of the race. You want one?"
"Please!" Missy sat up too, straw in her hair, and Ryan took a piece out and smiled before going to the other side of the fence to get lemonades. He opened Missy's and gave it to her, watching with pleasure as she swigged it, and drank his own almost as fast.
"Okay. Now I think I can defeat a six year old in a three-legged race. Or at least give him a run for his money."
"You have more confidence than I do." Missy climbed to her feet and wobbled around, laughing. "My thighs are like jelly. I can't believe I didn't fall down, carrying you. Thanks," she added to someone who came by with a length of soft cloth and offered it to her. "I guess this is to tie our legs together with."
"I can think of worse fates." They sat down again next to each other so they could wrap their ankles with the cloth, tying it tightly. Getting up was easy enough. Walking to the start line was less so, even after Ryan put his arm around Missy's shoulders, and she put hers around his waist.
She was laughing helplessly again by the time they reached the start line. "I told you I'm terrible at this."
"That's okay. We'll just go right, left, ri—oh, no that won't work. That's just my right and left. Inside outside inside outside?"
Missy grinned up at him. "We can try." A moment later the announcer had everybody lining up, and in a flash, they were off.
They made it about five steps before the difference in height sent them falling for the first time. Missy landed almost on top of Ryan, eyes bright with humorous apology. "Short steps! You have to take short steps to make up for my little legs!"
"Right. Got it. Ready?"
They got up, clinging to each other for support, then tried again, both chanting, "Inside! Outside! Inside! Outside!" until Missy had to say, "Slow, slow! Small steps!" just before they fell again.
It was possible, Ryan thought, as Missy thumped on top of him, that he would be perfectly
happy to lose the race and stay right here, like this, forever. "You okay?"
"Clumsy but otherwise perfect," she assured him. "Think we can get up again?"
"Maybe, although I was just thinking this is actually pretty good."
"It is, isn't it?" She smiled at him, then looked across the running field. He followed her gaze, watching people staggering and falling and laughing. Most people, at least. A few looked fiercely determined to actually win, and as before, Noah and his mother had apparently been training for this, because they moved in amazing synchronicity. "Better get up, though," Missy said. "Noah's gonna beat us, otherwise."
"Can't have that. Shamed by a six year old." Ryan heaved to his feet, pulled Missy up, and started out again. They went more slowly this time, getting into the rhythm, and by the time they reached the turning point, they were moving very well together.
Too well. So well that Ryan kept thinking of other rhythmic activities they could be doing, and how well they'd move together in those ones, too.
I can't stand it, he said to his seal. I have to tell her she's my mate. Maybe it'll take her mind off that other guy.
Do you really think there's another guy? his seal asked disbelievingly.
Ryan, startled, said, "What?" out loud. Missy looked up to see why, and they lost their footing again, going down in a tumbling heap. Just ahead of them, a roar of congratulations went up from the crowd as Noah and Mabs Brannigan crossed the finish line.
Ryan, beneath the roar of the crowd, said, "What?" again to his seal, and then, since Missy was in his arms again, an armful of warm, laughing, happy woman, he said, a bit desperately, "We've had fun today, haven't we?"
Missy's nose was about three inches from his, and her smile was the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen. "We've had a great time, yeah. Why?"
"Good enough to give me a chance? Like—like, a relationship-sized chance? Even if there was that guy you know who you were waiting to see if you'd get together with him?"
Missy pulled back far enough to frown at him in amused bewilderment. "What?"
"The guy. You said earlier when I was telling you about fated mates, you said there was a guy you knew that you'd been starstruck by and you were waiting to see if you'd get together with him and I know it's crazy to tell you this but I really think you're my fated mate, Missy. From the first second I saw you, like, boom! So I thought if I was cool and funny and nice enough today maybe you'd give me a chance, despite the guy?"
The most amazing array of expressions slid across Missy's face as he spoke. Disbelief was a major one, but also laughter and surprise and confusion and happiness and—everything, it seemed like. Missy Clark was feeling everything right then, and Ryan didn't know if any of it was good, or at least, good for him.
"There is no other guy, you big goofball. I meant you." She pushed up on an elbow, making sure he could really see her, and spoke very clearly. "You are the guy I saw that knocked my socks off and I was waiting to see if I'd get together with."
"Me?"
"I thought I'd been so obvious! But you blew it off, and you'd just finished telling me that you'd know right away when you met your mate, so I thought—well, I thought it couldn't be me."
"I—you meant…me?"
His seal yelled, I told you so!!! inside Ryan's head, and he suspected he was starting to blush.
"Of course I meant you. I can't believe you didn't understand that. Espe—wait! You think I am your mate?" Missy's voice dropped, not that anybody could hear them over the general good cheer going on a few feet away at the finish line. "And you still thought I meant somebody else?"
"Well," Ryan said feebly, "like I said, I didn't know if it was exactly the same for the human partner…"
A delightful giggle erupted from Missy's chest, and she leaned down again to bump her nose against his. "It's not. I didn't have a seal voice telling me this was destiny. But I did try to tell you. Starstruck."
"I was too nervous to listen," Ryan said, embarrassed. "I thought…I thought I'd have to win you over. So I've been trying."
"Oh, so are you telling me you won't be this charming and delightful for the rest of our lives?"
"No! No, I will be! I promise!"
Missy's smile was the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen. "That's the kind of promise that needs to be sealed with a kiss."
Ryan crunched up, sliding his hand into her hair, and began to draw her down for a kiss. Their lips were about to meet when he froze, withdrew, and said, "Sealed with a kiss…?"
Missy began to laugh so hard that Ryan fell back into the dirt and stared up at her accusingly. She caught her breath, caught a glimpse of his expression, and started laughing even harder. Between gales of giggles, she said, "I actually didn't mean to do that, but oh, man, I wish I had, because your face…"
Then, still laughing, she dipped her head and kissed him. It started out as a smile, which wasn't the best for kissing, but just as it began to soften into something more serious, Ryan heard an "OoooOOOOooooh," beginning around them.
Missy broke away and they both looked up to find an entire gathering of racers crowded around them, all with enormous smiles on their faces. Noah Brannigan squirmed through to the front of the circle, said, "Toldya I'd win," and squirmed out again as Ryan met Missy's eyes.
"He's right," he murmured. "We lost the race."
"But that's okay," Missy murmured back, "because we found each other, and now we get to live happily ever after."
Ryan said, "Yeah," and pulled her down for another kiss, and this time, neither of them cared at all when the crowd began to cheer.
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A Note from Zoe Chant
Thank you for reading Sealed With A Kiss! I hope you enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed writing it. Please consider leaving an Amazon review, even if you only write a line or two. I appreciate all reviews, whether positive or negative.
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If you liked Sealed With A Kiss, please turn the page to read a sneak preview from Timber Wolf, the first in the Virtue Shifter series!
* * *
More Paranormal Romance by Zoe Chant
Virtue Shifters
Timber Wolf * Librarian Bear * Sealed With A Kiss
Green Valley Shifters
Dancing Bearfoot * The Tiger Next Door * Dandelion Season * Bearly Together * Broken Lynx
See Zoe Chant's complete list of books here!
* * *
Paranormal Romance by Murphy Lawless
If you enjoyed Librarian Bear, you might also enjoy The Gladiator Shifters, written by the Virtue Shifters author under the name Murphy Lawless. Please turn the page for a taste of Gladiator Bear!
The Gladiator Shifters
The magic that birthed shapeshifters in the Roman arenas has ruled the gladiator shifters for thousands of years. But now five shifters and their fated mates are not willing to accept that what has always been, must always be. Whether they must travel to the edge of death—or even beyond—they will defy history and change the world they've always known....
Gladiator Bear * Gladiator Cheetah * Gladiator Hawk * Gladiator Wolf * Gladiator Tiger (pre-order)
Alaska Totem Shifters
A stand-alone (so far!) Alaskan paranormal romance with a guaranteed HEA!
Raven Heart
Sneak Preview: Timber Wolf
Renovating a farmhouse and living off the land wasn't nearly as romantic as Mabs Brannigan had thought it would be.
She'd inherited the house from a great-aunt she hadn't even known existed. It dated from the early 19th century—the house did, not the aunt, although apparently she'd been pretty old, too—and it looked like Aunt Doris had only lived in two rooms of the rambling old house for..
.a long time now. And neither of those rooms, it turned out, was a bathroom. Mabs had used an outhouse more in the past four months than she had in her entire life, including that one unfortunate summer camp when she was thirteen.
Aunt Doris had apparently kept the place running on hope and a smidgen of rent from a couple of acres where a neighbor kept her horses. But that wasn't enough to renovate on, and Mabs wouldn't have jumped at the chance for a falling-down farmhouse in upstate New York if she'd been flush with money. Until the beginning of the summer, when she and her son had moved to the farmhouse, she'd been waitressing in the city.
Now she was waitressing in Virtue, the small town a few miles away from the house, which was—honestly, it was better. The people were nice, and she'd made enough friends already that usually someone was willing to mind four-year-old Noah while Mabs was at work. It helped, of course, that he was mostly an outrageously charming kid, which definitely wasn't just her biased-mommy opinion on the matter.
One of those friends—Sarah Ekstrom, who effectively ran a daycare out of the local library—was on her way over to the house right now to watch Noah for a while so Mabs could get some renovation work done without a small child's 'help'.
Standing alone in the kitchen, Mabs pushed down a stab of panic and tears. Think about the good parts, she told herself. There was so much good about the old house. If she could just get it renovated....
Which she never would now, because the contractor had just skipped town with the last of her money.
She should have known better than to pay him in cash. She should have known...she didn't even know what she should have known. Mabs clutched her phone, trying not to think about the call from the hardware store, asking when she was going to pay them for the new copper fittings for the sink. A wave of dizziness had come over her as she'd whispered, "But I sent Chad over on Tuesday with the payment."
