Later, he wished he had.
CHAPTER TEN
“Are you sure Sandy’s going to be okay alone?” Crystal asked as Chet led her out of Paulie’s by the hand. They’d met there and shared a small pepperoni, olive and mushroom pizza before heading out on their date, leaving Sandy behind.
“She won’t be alone,” Chet laughed. “There’s a whole gaggle of girls in there to keep her company. I’m going to pick her up outside at 10:30 so we can be home before 11.”
Forget the stomach, butterflies fluttered around inside Crystal’s entire body cavity. She couldn’t believe she was so nervous that she half-hoped Sandy would tag along with them. They’d been spending as much time as they could together since Chet started driving Pop-Pop home, but tonight was different. Those other times had been stolen moments, maybe an hour at the most. This was an honest-to-goodness date, and she wasn’t sure what was going to happen. She knew what she wanted to happen but Chet was adamant that they not make love until she was sure about her feelings.
If she was being completely honest, that’s what she was anxious about. That Chet would ask her — again! —if she’d realized he was her ‘fated mate.’ It was such a weird way to say ‘love of her life’ but she got his meaning. Still…how was she supposed to know that so soon? They’d only been going together for a week, plus she was all of eighteen. She hadn’t even been to a frat party yet! Well, not as an official college student, anyway.
Throughout the day, she would think of reason after reason why she couldn’t tell Chet what he wanted to hear, but the moment she saw him, she couldn’t remember a single one. Being with him felt so…right. Like when you’re falling asleep, that moment when your mind stops spinning and you’re aware that the soft warmth of slumber is about to take you. Like he was the missing puzzle piece to her soul. Like he made her whole.
But that couldn’t be…could it? It didn’t seem possible that she’d already found the man she was supposed to be with forever. She’d always imagined she’d do the career girl thing — what that career might be was still a mystery — before settling down with one guy, much less having kids.
The thing was, she ached for those things when she was with Chet. Little Chets running around pretending they were Crocket and Tubbs or little Crystals prancing around in tutus (black, of course). Her heart nearly filled to bursting at these silly school-girl daydreams. And was that so wrong?
She’d spent most of her youth fighting off the advances of her mother’s boyfriends and wondering why her dad didn’t come to her band concerts. Her life was a freakin’ after-school special, and she’d played her part perfectly: rebelling against authority, experimenting with sex and drugs, and hanging out with the ‘bad kids’. The realization struck as she was hosing out a tourist’s puke pile from the bottom of a whale watching boat, and it nearly caused her to add her own lunch to the smelly mess.
How could she, of all people, have become such a cliché?!
In that moment, the truth about life dawned on her. It is a bitch. And you die. So why spend so much of it trying to fix the past, which was totally impossible? It was time to fix her future!
Of course, she had no idea what that entailed but she knew what her heart wanted. Now her brain just needed to catch up. That meant spending more time with Chet — all of it, if she could. Aside from her grandparents, he was the only person in the world she could really trust. She knew in her heart that Chet would never hurt her. An inexplicable sense of safety washed over her when they were together, as if he would protect her from anything. Though what that might be in real life, she couldn’t imagine.
But his constant pestering about that ‘fated mate’ thing put too much pressure on her. Her stupid brain needed more time to get used to the idea, so when he brought it up tonight, as he undoubtedly would, she’d simply have to tell him to back off a little. That was easy to think about but the closer the moment came, the more nervous she got. She didn’t want to hurt him, and she most certainly didn’t want to end their relationship. All she really wanted was for him to shut up about it.
“M’lady.” Chet opened the passenger side door to his uncle’s massive brown Caddy and waved her in with a flourish, bending low as she climbed in. Her anxiety burst out of her in a stream of giggles. He gave her a funny look before closing the door and walking the mile and a half around the front of the car.
Climbing in next to her, he asked, “Where to?”
Of course he wouldn’t have any idea where to go, since he only drove between Pearce Forestry and her grandparents’ house. She still didn’t understand why it was such a terrible thing for him to hang out with her. Some weird class thing, no doubt.
“Well…the tide’s about to change. Go down Seymour Street and take a left,” she instructed.
The destination wasn’t very far but it still took a good twenty minutes of careful maneuvering to get the big boat of a car down the rutted forest service road to the overlook spot. It would be light till nine, or even later, so they should have a good show.
“What is this place?” Chet asked, clunking the gear shift into ‘park’.
Crystal hopped out and waved for him to follow, leading him to a rocky outcropping overlooking a narrow channel. Patting the mossy granite next to her, she said, “Come sit by me. This is gonna blow your mind.”
Chet snuggled up close to her, his purely masculine scent wrapping around her like a tendril of warm smoke. It went straight to her core and wriggled its way to her most sensitive parts. He never failed to get her all hot and bothered, but it became so much more intense since he stopped wearing Polo. A carefully calculated comment about how his own musk was vastly more sensual than the cologne did the trick, and it wasn’t a lie. If she could only smell one thing for the rest of her life, it would be Chet.
Bacon would be a close second.
He loved to smell her, too, if his nuzzling of her neck was any indication. “You’re right,” he murmured huskily, taking a deep lungful of her and triggering a goosebump outbreak on her flesh. “My mind is definitely blown.”
He wrapped his arms around, drawing her back with him to lean against a spongy, mossy log. Every part of her wanted to lie there and bask in his love, but she’d brought him here for a reason. Drawing on the reserves of her self-control, she shook her head.
“No, you dork. Look there.”
It took him a moment to extract himself from the nook of her shoulder and follow the line of her pointing arm. He seemed unimpressed now, but in a few minutes, he’d be in awe.
“That’s Tremble Rock,” she explained, pointing at a small rocky island about 100 feet across and forty feet tall lying in the middle of the channel. “It’s named that because, rumor has it, the rock vibrates when the tide is at maximum current. Andy says he went out there once in a small dinghy and sat through a full tide change. He thought the island was going to break apart, it was shaking so hard.”
“I don’t get it. Why does it shake?”
“From what Andy tells me, millions of gallons of water pass through Hardy Channel during each cycle. There’s so much force, so much power in the water rushing through the channel that the island vibrates from it. Cool, huh?”
“No doubt. And it’s going to happen soon?”
The back of her head rubbed against his chest as she nodded. “Of course, we won’t feel anything up here, but it’s also pretty amazing to watch the currents go nuts. Whirlpools pop up all over the place, boats going with the current look like they’re flying, boats going against it either stand still or go backwards. That’s always fun,” she snorted.
“Hey, what’s that, a shark?” He was waggling a finger at a tall black fin that broke the surface of the water. His excitement was contagious, but she couldn’t help laughing at his ignorance.
“It’s an orca. Man, we need to get you out on one of Andy’s boats!”
“That would be totally rad. When?”
“Do you think you could find an excuse to get out of the h
ouse on Saturday? That’s really the best time, if you want to people watch as well as whale watch.”
“Oh, um, yeah…I can’t Saturday. I have a…thing.”
“What thing?” Suspicion rose like bile in her throat. What was he not telling her?
“It’s just… Remember that ceremony I came here for? It’s Saturday night and I can tell you right now, Uncle Max isn’t going to let me out of his sight that day.”
“Oh, wow. I know you’ve been waiting to hear when it was. They sure don’t give you much notice. What is it again, a baptism or something?” She twisted in his arms to look up at him.
Chet tilted his head one way, then the other, his face squinched up. “Um, sure. Close enough.”
“And you’re sure I can’t come?”
He pulled her tight to him reassuringly. “Totally.”
The waters below them swirled and rushed through the channel, a whooshing sound rising over the edge of the cliff and enveloping them in noise and light mist. The damp cooled her heated skin, but the violence of the rushing seawater agitated her more than she expected.
She wished Chet would just do her already. Her entire body quivered with need for him all day long, every waking moment. Anytime something touched her — a branch, a customer, a fly — her sensitive skin screamed out for Chet to take her. To make her his woman. The only thing stopping him was her refusal to admit what her heart already knew. That she already was his woman, forever and always, till death do us part.
Her gasp of awareness caught his attention. “What? What’s wrong?”
No, she was just horny. She didn’t believe in love at first sight. This was just a summer fling, if you could even call it that since they weren’t having sex.
“Look,” she finally managed to croak out, pointing a shaking finger at a developing whirlpool near Tremble Rock. It was spinning as fast as her emotions, sucking any stray bit of reason down its eternal black vortex.
The shudder that wracked her body must have made Chet think she was chilly because he tugged his jacket around so it partially covered her, but all that did was make her want him more. Not only for his thoughtfulness, but because she was now literally wrapped in his scent.
“Awesome,” he said, oblivious to what she was going through. How could he not notice how worked up she was? He always seemed to have a sixth sense when it came to how she was feeling, but tonight, when she wanted to say things to him she couldn’t have imagined an hour earlier, he was focused on a fucking whirlpool.
“I can feel it,” he breathed into her ear, his thumbs stroking infuriatingly erotic circles on her forearms. The tips of her full breasts tightened to the point of pain, her inner muscles clenching in response. She’d never known this kind of need before, this excruciating, painful, delicious need.
Giving her head a jerk in a pathetic imitation of a shake — it was all she could manage, in her current state of arousal — she whispered, “Impossible.” There was no way he could be feeling the vibration from the current way up here. It was only Tremble Rock that…trembled.
And her. She was trembling plenty.
Chet tucked two fingers under her chin and tilted her head up until their gazes locked. “I’m not talking about the rock, my love. I’m talking about you. You know. You finally understand, don’t you?” His voice was soft but with an undercurrent of excitement, anticipation.
He knew! How…oh, hell, she didn’t care. Relief washed over her that she was no longer lying to herself. Ever since that night at the swings, she’d felt like a boat pushing against the current of his love. Her stubborn nature was getting her nowhere fast, but if she turned around and went with the flow, there was no telling where their lives might lead.
The only thing she knew with any certainty was that she would rather die today in his loving arms than spend a lifetime without him.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Crystal had barely finished nodding before his lips were on hers, claiming her as his own fated mate. He’d waited so long — a lifetime, it seemed — for her to realize what he’d known all along, and now the moment of their coupling was here.
He could barely control himself, and his bear was frantically tearing at its cage. A fine layer of dark fur sprouted on his arms and he could feel himself growing larger, as his bear fought for control. Moving his body so he had Crystal pinned under him, he hoped she wouldn’t notice the outward signs of his inner turmoil.
He kept her mind otherwise occupied by brushing his lips across hers, his tongue lightly skimming as they went. Her breathy moan and the way she pressed her hips into his, into his desperate need, made his head spin, and he nearly lost control.
He couldn’t do that. He couldn’t allow his bear free rein until Crystal knew the truth. It would be too shocking, too frightening for her. But keeping it from her was killing him.
The pang of guilt he felt at keeping her in the dark about his true nature subdued his bear somewhat, giving him full control of his body again. More than anything, he wanted to come clean with her, to tell her what he really was, but he was terrified of her response.
For the moment, he reveled in the feel of her luscious body. Slowly, deliberately, he unbuttoned her shirt until she burst free and lay bare beneath him. His hands burned trails of fire down her soft curves and wondrous mounds of flesh, his mouth never far behind. His whispered name floated around them like so much vapor, dissipating in the roar of the current below.
“Oh, Chet,” she moaned as one ripe berry of a nipple disappeared into his hungry mouth, her fingers fisting in his hair. “I love you so much!’
He choked back a sob of joy…and despair. He couldn’t do this. He couldn’t make love to his fated mate without her knowing what he was. She would find out sooner or later, and he couldn’t bear to have her think he’d deceived her just to get her in the sack.
Inside him, the struggle for dominance resumed, but his bear’s heart wasn’t in the fight. Even it knew this was the right thing to do.
Shivers rippled through Crystal’s body as he kissed his way back up to her neck. Pulling her shirt closed, or kind of closed, he cuddled her into his body, breathing in her scent, as if it might be the last time he would have the chance. And that’s what he was really afraid of.
“Crystal, there’s something I need to—“
“Get off her, you freak!”
Chet spun his body so Crystal was hidden behind his back, protecting her from this new threat. It was Derek, the stalker redneck from the swings. He was standing between them and the Caddy, slowly thumping a baseball bat into one giant hand. Thwap!
“I told you to get off her,” he growled. Thwap!
This was bad. This was very, very bad.
“Derek!” Crystal screeched, clutching her shirt to her chest and popping out from behind Chet. “What the fuck are you doing here?!”
“I’m here to save you, Crystal. You don’t know what you’ve gotten yourself into. This guy is bad news.” Thwap!
“What are you talk—“
“Why don’t we all just calm down, whaddya say, Derek?” Chet interrupted. This asshole knew about him and the last thing he wanted was for him to spill his secret to Crystal before he could.
He smiled broadly and held up his hands to show how defenseless he was, moving his body to once again shield Crystal. Derek’s eyes narrowed and his lip tipped into a sneer. Thwap!
“I’ll calm down when you get away from my girl, douchebag.” Thwap! Thwap!
Before Chet could stop her, Crystal was on her feet. “I’m not your girl, motherfucker!”
Time slowed to a crawl but it all happened in between heartbeats.
“Crystal, no!” he cried out as she stormed toward Derek, but it was too late.
Derek snatched at her wrist and yanked her into the prison of his arms. Staring hard into Chet’s eyes as she struggled against him, the lunatic said, “Shh, baby. I won’t hurt you…much.”
“Get your disgusting stalker hands off me, Derek!”<
br />
Good lord, the girl had a mouth on her. Chet loved her spunk and strong will, but right now she needed to shut up. This guy was one card short of a full deck and it was anyone’s guess what could set him off.
Chet carefully positioned himself so he could launch directly at the brute, if necessary, but he still had hope he could diffuse the situation. “You don’t want to hurt her, Derek. You love her, remember?”
Derek’s crazy eyes practically glowed with hate. “You don’t tell me, freak! I love her more than your kind ever could. But she needs to be punished for cheating on me. Bitch is trippin’ if she thinks she can do me like that!”
Chet could smell the desperation and hate and insanity rolling off Derek in stomach-curdling waves. At first he thought the stupid hick was trying to trick him into shifting in front of Crystal but now he knew the dude was a real-life nutjob. Even she had stopped struggling, her wide eyes pleading for Chet to help her.
There would be no peaceful resolution to this situation. Derek was going down tonight. Chet just needed to pick his moment carefully or Crystal might get hurt. He tried to communicate with her silently but he had no idea if she understood.
His question was answered in a flash of teeth as she bit down hard on the arm Derek had wrapped around her neck. Screaming with pain and fury, he pushed her away from him and dropped the bat so he could clamp a hand on his arm to staunch the bleeding. He was so focused on the blood slicking down his arm that he didn’t notice the giant bear hurtling toward him from where Chet had been crouching only an eyeblink before.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Crystal was still in shock, Chet could smell it on her. She huddled herself into the farthest reaches of the passenger seat, as far away from him as possible. Her shoulders shuddered uncontrollably but Chet wasn’t sure if it was from shock or if she was crying. Probably both, he decided, his gut twisting in shame and regret.
Bearly Hanging On (A Werebear Shifter BBW Romance) (Laid Bear Book 3) Page 6
