She nearly jumped back away from him. He was hard; she could feel him against her thighs. He had an erection. Out here, on the side of a mountain, in the snow with a woman he didn’t even know, he was aroused.
And then she did something unexpected and totally out of character—she pressed herself against him.
He stiffened, his whole body going rigid, before he let out a long breath and rubbed himself, imperceptibly, against her. This was so wildly inappropriate, and yet thrilling beyond anything, she had ever experienced. She leaned into him, her breath on his neck, and she felt him tremble. With desire? No, she must have lost her senses with the cold. Still, she couldn’t resist letting her breath caress his skin, and then she inhaled deeply, letting his scent linger on her taste buds.
All man, all wild. She could smell the woods, pine, she would guess, and the snow, clean and cold, all wrapped up in a unique masculine tang. Her creative brain went to work and she knew if could capture his essence she would have a worldwide bestseller on her hands. But she would hate to share any piece of him. He was hers.
“And you are mine,” he murmured against her ear.
Could he really read her thoughts?
“I’m sorry?” she asked, knowing she had misunderstood him.
“We need to get going.” There was more than a hint of reluctance in his voice.
“Of course.” Yes. Of course, that was what he said. Because to say she was his was simply ludicrous. This man was out of her league on so many levels.
“Are you ready?” he asked.
“Yes. I’ll try to pull my weight. I know you practically hauled me up that trail.”
“I don’t mind. I am here for you, Maria.” I will always be here for you. The last sentence reverberated in her brain, although he hadn’t spoken it. Yes. Definitely the cold affecting her brain.
Shifting her pack, trying to relieve her aching shoulders, she prepared for the next part of the trek. Her mind turned to Jason. Was he cold? What if he hadn’t found shelter, what if he was lying on the exposed mountainside freezing to death?
Despite her cold and aching muscles, she took a longer, more assured step forward. Her new mantra became. We will find you. We will find you. And with Declan beside her, she knew that if anyone could, he would. Or he would die trying.
Her hand itched to find his, to place her gloved hand into his. Gloved hand...
“Hey, you don’t have gloves on?”
“Warm blooded.” He grinned.
“You must be freezing.”
“Nope, I like the cold. It stirs the blood and makes my heart pump fast.” The look in his eyes told her it wasn’t the only thing that made his heart beat fast. And she had to agree because everything about him made her heart thaw and race, thumping wildly in her chest. The knowing look in his eyes made her think he could hear her heart too.
Chapter Nine – Declan
The climb through the woods was a lot easier; still, he had to admire Maria’s determination. She must be feeling the cold. Although his bear blood kept him well insulated against it, the mist puffing from his mouth as he breathed told him the temperature was extremely low. He would have to take special care to keep Maria moving and keep her warm.
If she did get cold, he could always use his incredible body heat to warm her skin. While he walked alongside her, her scent filling his nostrils, he let his imagination wander; it pictured him in a nice cozy cave, a bear den, hibernating for the night with her. His hands would roam her body, feeling the way she responded to his touch, sensing her arousal shifting up a notch when his rough palms rubbed over her taut nipples.
She would sigh contentedly, and he would lower his head and lick the very tip of her nipple, sending shivers through her body that had nothing to do with the cold. Her hands would wrap around his neck, her fingers curling into his hair as she urged him on. His teeth would graze the hard bud, and then he would suck it into his mouth, her sharp intake of breath making his cock harden further.
“Declan.” Her voice broke through his sensual thoughts. He brought himself sharply back to the present, trying to put his sheriff’s head back on when his bear head wanted to pick her up in his arms and carry her off to the nearest cave.
“Sorry, I didn’t hear what you said.” His gaze dropped to her lips as she spoke, and he wanted to ram her up against the nearest tree and kiss her until they were red and swollen. Shaking his head, he tried to put his bear back in its cage. He needed to treat the weather and the mountain with respect or they would both be in trouble. He couldn’t do that with a lovesick bear in control.
“I asked how much farther we have to walk in the trees.”
She looked worn out, her shoulders sagging, the pack too heavy for her. Every so often, she reached out and grabbed the branch of a tree to hoist herself forward. They needed to rest soon, or he would be carrying her. This was a difficult climb on two legs when the weather was good. The snow and cold compounded the steep slopes.
“Not too much farther. We’ve been lucky, I think this side of the mountain has missed the brunt of the snow. When we hit a stand of tall pines, we turn back onto the open mountainside and then head across, almost horizontally. The caves are marked by an overhang. At least the start of them. There’s a number of them; we can shelter for a couple of hours in the first one. Then push on to where Jason should be.”
“We don’t have to stop on my account,” she said.
Yes, we do. But to Maria, he said, “We need to eat and drink. It’s important to keep our energy levels up.”
She looked relieved. “Maybe a brief stop might be good.”
“It will be. I’ll even show you my culinary skills.” He patted his pack. “You haven’t lived until you’ve tried reconstituted Boeuf Bourguignon.”
She giggled, despite the cold. “You know, I can’t remember when I last ate.”
“Great, then let’s get to the cave and eat.” It wasn’t exactly what he had in mind as their first date, but it was going to have to do. For Declan, this was the beginning of their courtship. Dinner for two, alfresco-style. Romantic, if Maria could just stop her teeth chattering. He longed to pull her into his embrace and hold her close to his warm bearskin. Maybe when this was all over...
But he knew it was hands off until her nephew was found and they had healed their relationship. He only hoped this adventure was going to end in a happy-ever-after for everyone.
Chapter Ten – Maria
The light had completely faded as they came out of the trees. The snow had almost stopped, but the temperature was plummeting. What if Jason was out in this? Don’t think that. There is nothing more you could have done.
She reminded herself of this as they made their way over a precarious trail, if you could call it that. Stones toppled down the mountain, and every time her feet slipped, she was sure she was going to follow them. The rope, still tied to her waist, was comforting. Declan wouldn’t let her fall.
“Nearly there. We can rest for a couple of hours, and then make the next ascent. But after that, we need the light.” He brushed against her, and she longed to lean into him. “So don’t feel bad about stopping. We need to time it just right. This way we can rest and then go on further, find the cave with Jason in it, and then make the descent before Santa leaves the North Pole.”
She had almost forgotten it was Christmas. Maybe because since she was a kid, it had meant little to her. She never admitted it to anyone, but out of the last five Christmases, she had spent three of them alone and two of them wishing she was alone.
What a sad, lonely fool she was.
In some ways she was very much like Declan.
“Here, let me,” Declan said. He lifted the pack from her shoulders; she was relieved by the weight disappearing, but was unhappy at being made to feel inadequate.
“I’m OK with it,” she said defensively, reaching out to take it back.
“No, you’re not,” he said, hitching it onto his left shoulder. “I was watching you. For
the last ten minutes you have been looking as though you have the weight of the mountain on your shoulders.”
Maria looked up at him through the blur of snowflakes landing on her eyelashes. “Do you ever wish you’d done things differently?”
He was taken aback by her sudden question. Taking a step towards her, he looked down at her and said, “Honey, you can’t change the past. And you can’t let the past ruin your future.”
“But if I’d have done things differently, been more of a part of Jason’s life... Well, he might not be stuck up there in some cave on his own in a blizzard.”
“Listen, Maria. Jason has lost his parents. Parents who he always thought would be there for him, ready to explain things to him...” He hesitated. “There are things about Jason you can’t understand, can’t help him with. And it wouldn’t have mattered if you had lived in the same house as him all his life.”
“Because he’s a boy? You mean that he needs a man in his life? A man like you?” Was that really where he was going with this? Was it some kind of line, a come-on—if it was, then she was going to take back all the thoughts she had about him being a good man.
“Not in the way you think.” Those were the only words he said before he abruptly turned heel and walked off, his feet dragging through the deep snow.
She watched him take two steps and then followed. If she didn’t, the rope that bound them together would pull tight, and there was no need to guess who would win this tug of war. All the same, she was left confused by what he said. Did he think she was totally unsuitable as a parent to Jason, that there was nothing she could offer him? That he would always need someone else other than her?
Shaken and confused, she trudged along behind him, grateful when he turned and headed uphill towards the great shadow that loomed above them. She had never been more relieved to see a large lump of rock in her life. This was the overhang they had been heading for.
He expertly guided them towards the mouth of a small cave. How he found it in the gloom she couldn’t guess. What surprised her more was the stash of dry firewood waiting to be made into a blazing fire.
“It’s always kept this way. So that if anyone is desperate and it’s cold and wet outside, they know they can light a fire.” He shone a flashlight onto the wood and the separate pile of kindling next to it.
“So we just use what we need?” she asked. It was good to know the people in Bear Bluff and the surrounding area worked together.
“Yes, and when it’s dry I’ll come up here and replace it. The forest is a great place to find enough firewood, especially after a storm. The wetter stuff is placed over there, so the draft coming in dries it out. Then it gets transferred here.”
“Wow, you have a good system.” She was impressed.
“We work together here. You should know that, Maria. No one in Bear Bluff wants you to fail, in anything. We’re more than just a town.” There was that hidden meaning again; she couldn’t quite work out what the underlying message was.
“That might work for those who have lived here all their lives, but what about outsiders like me?” she asked. In the city, people came and went so often she couldn’t keep up with the neighbours in her apartment. But didn’t small towns had a reputation for excluding newcomers?
“It’s not like that. Especially now.” He looked up at her, his hands working to build the fire, while his eyes warmed her insides until they were liquid fire. Nothing would inflame her senses more than the looks he gave her.
“What do you mean especially now?”
“You are not an outsider anymore.”
“Why, because of Jason?”
Again, she thought he was about to tell her something personal. But whatever it was he didn’t seem confident in her enough to share. Yes, that was the effect she had on people: she didn’t open up about herself and her feelings, so why should she expect others to do the same? Although she dearly wanted to know what this man who knelt before her, striking a match to the tinder, was thinking.
“It was a brave thing you did to give up your life in the city to come look after Jason. The people of Bear Bluff understand that. Only they don’t interfere. If you ask for help, they will give it. But they won’t want to offer in case they offend you.”
“I never thought of it like that.”
“You never thought that you are as much an enigma to them as they are to you? You come from the city, shut yourself away most of the time from what you say. Hell, you must. I’m the sheriff and I get around town, a lot. But I never saw you before.”
She laughed, “I’m sure we must have crossed paths at some point. Maybe you are only focused on damsels in distress and those committing a crime.” She said it lightly, but his eyes darkened. “Sorry. Of course you look out for everyone.”
“It’s not that, Maria,” he said as the first spark lit the dry tinder and burst into life. “I need you to understand that my body is particularly attuned to yours.”
“It is?” she squeaked, realising she was cornered here in a cave with a man who wore a sheriff's badge, but who at this moment looked more like a man who was about to steal something. Her.
“Yes. I don’t want to pile any more stress on you. But we have to talk.”
“We do?” Still that same squeak of a cornered mouse.
“Yes. But first we need to eat.” With that, he broke the spell binding her eyes to his. As the flames licked at the wood, casting their warm cheery glow across the walls of the small cave, he placed his backpack on the floor and began to remove things.
She stood by, frozen in place by his words and what he conveyed through his looks. Was there something between them? She would be lying if she said she hadn’t felt something. But she had put that down to being needy, and scared for Jason.
Yet it went deeper than that. He stirred up feelings inside her, sensations she had never known. Despite not dating too much, she had been attracted to her fair share of men. Usually she crushed on men who were out of her reach, either by position or because they were spoken for. There was nothing like fantasizing about a man who was unavailable. Was that why she was crushing on the sheriff? A man in uniform, out of her reach.
But his face said she was very much in his reach. And that reach was getting closer to grabbing her and pulling her to the ground so he could make love to her on the floor of a cave, just like two beasts.
Chapter Eleven – Declan
She needed to quit looking at him like that. If not, he would be stripping her body and making love to her here in the light of the fire. He could imagine the warm glow illuminating her curvy body. Damn, how he wanted to take all those layers of clothing off, unwrapping her like a gift on Christmas morning.
“Why don’t you go to the cave entrance and fill this with snow?” He passed her a tin mug. Although, he thought, he should be the one going to fetch it, perhaps diving into the snow face first to help him cool off.
“Sure,” she said, taking it and rushing off as if his bear was snapping at her heels.
But his bear didn’t want to snap at her heels; instead, he wanted to nip her neck and then graze his teeth across her nipples, so taut with the cold.
“Fill it real full, it will melt down to almost nothing,” he growled, his emotions spiralling out of control.
Maybe it was being here in an old bear den. It made him feel closer to his animal, and that animal wanted to be closer to his mate. No, that wasn’t fair. All of him wanted to be closer to their mate.
“Here,” she said, passing it back to him.
“Thank you.” He reached for it, taking it from her, his fingers brushing hers. She had taken her gloves off, and this first contact of skin against skin made him fall back with shock. Her eyes flew to his; she felt it too. He knew she did.
But she backed off, going to the other side of the fire and sitting down on the ground, looking exhausted. He needed to get himself under control. He was making this harder for her, when as bonded mates, he should be making it easier.
But he wanted her more than the air in his lungs and the blood in his veins.
“Sorry, I don’t know what’s come over me,” he said when he took in the hunted look in her eyes. She had sensed the predator in him. Could she feel his bear, so close to the surface now? He had no idea how these things worked for those who couldn’t change, who didn’t have another, more primal side to them.
“It’s OK. I appreciate what you're doing for me and for Jason.” She stared at the flames and he was sure she was going to go to sleep on the spot. Looking at his watch, he realised why. They had set off from his office mid-afternoon, but now it was late, and the cold had depleted her energy.
“Here,” he said, throwing her a chocolate bar. “Eat this, while I make our dinner. Here’s some coffee too.”
“Thank you. I was OK until we stopped. Now I’m exhausted.” She unwrapped the chocolate and took a bite. “Oh, sugar rush.”
“Good, I hope you can keep your eyes open to eat something warm and then we can sleep for a few hours before making an attempt to reach the caves.” He watched the snow melt in the pan and then added the powdered food.
“That smells wonderful,” she said.
He grinned. “Told you I had impressive skills in the kitchen.”
“Do you have specialist survival training?” she asked, as she slowly ate the sugary bar, which was already perking her up.
“Only what’s passed down from generation to generation.” He stirred the pot, happy to see it thickening, and had to agree the smell was pretty good. Although he was so hungry after the climb, he would have been much happier tucking into a nice juicy rare steak, with french fries.
“Your family has lived here for a long time?” she asked.
“Yes, my ancestors were founding citizens of Bear Bluff,” he said proudly.
“That’s what Yvonne said about Matthew’s family,” she said.
“There are a lot of old families in Bear Bluff,” he said, wanting to tell her why, but still not sure she was mentally or physically strong enough. The news would be shocking. There was no way she would see it coming. How could she, it wasn’t every day that someone admitted they could change into a bear, and that was why the original families had settled here in Bear Bluff: to hide away, and have the privacy to turn bear when they wanted.
Bear Humbug! Page 4
