“Did you hear me? Explain yourself. What kind of person comes into someone’s house and accosts them? Not a sane one that’s for sure.” She folded her arms over her breasts and eyed him.
It was her unique hazel eyes that clued him in to who she was, after all these years. “It’s you.”
She frowned. “What? Of course I’m me. The question was, who the hell are you?”
“You don’t remember? Remember me?” He banged his head back against the wooden wall.
Staring at him, she allowed her gaze to travel along his body from head to toe. Her perusal was causing the heat that had lowered to a simmer to spike again.
He stifled a growl.
Evidently, not enough, he thought as he watched her head lift sharply.
Tilting her head, she looked into his face. “What’s wrong with your eyes?” She sounded breathless, as she said, “They’re gold.”
Better to see your lust with, my dear.
He pushed the bold words away and considered the female before him. Not as unaffected by him as she was trying to make him believe. However, he hadn’t been convinced anyway, not only from the passion in her kiss earlier, but by the scent of her arousal that was still teasing him from the three-foot distance.
Lowering his head, he closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He inhaled two more times, trying to think calming thoughts instead of the female before him. Once he felt a little more at ease and less like he wanted to pounce across the floor at her, he opened his eyes.
When the pucker in her brows deepened, showing confusion in her features, it was a declaration that his eyes had returned to black. Instead of answering her last question, he said, “I’m Cord. Cord Bjorn, Rena.”
The lids around her hazel eyes stretched wide with shock. “How do you know my name? Did my grandmother tell you I was here?”
“I have never forgotten a thing about the last time I saw you. Or you.” He confessed. It was the truth. Over the years his memory of her had begun to fade, but not how he felt about her. Not about the experience of the first time his eyes had shifted to gold. It had been when he kissed her.
They had been so young then. She had blossomed from the girl she was into a real beauty.
“You don’t recall.”
Pushing off the wall, she moved into the kitchen. Standing by the sink she kept her back to him. “I’d only come for a week or two in the summer and it’s been too many years since the last time I was here. How could I remember?”
Hearing those words was like a weight crushing on his heart. However, he wouldn’t give up, not this time. She was his.
Now that the heat had cleared his mind, some, he was able to have more lucid thoughts. Something was wrong. As a Were-female she should not have been able to resist the mating lust once it was upon them. Her return kiss had been passionate, desperate and fierce, yet still restrained.
Inhaling deeply, wanting to capture her scent, imprint it on his soul, he became more aware of the problem. Under the floral honey notes of her scent, there should have been marking of her species—Were-bear markings. Rena’s was faint. Almost as if she was a young Were. One just coming into maturity.
However, she had to be close to thirty and that change took place around their sixteenth human year. Like how old he was the first time he’d kissed her.
“Why have you stayed away so long?”
She glanced at him over her shoulder then turned to face him, slowly. “I don’t know what business that is of yours. I’m still trying to figure out how I can get you out of this house and off my grandmother’s property.”
A single corner of his mouth kicked up, she was a bold saucy thing. He liked his women with backbone. “You can’t. I’m here to do a job for Genma while she’s gone.”
She lowered her head, dropping it into her hands. “Oh, goodness, that’s right…the landscaper was coming.”
“In the flesh.” Widening his stance, he folded his arms over his chest.
Raising her head, she gave him a small smile. A false smile that didn’t reach her eyes. “Look, you’re here to do a job. So, we will just keep out of each other’s way and chalk up the kiss to a mistake.”
“It wasn’t,” he declared.
The smile slipped some. “Okay, we will say…you were expecting someone else.”
“I wasn’t.”
The smile on her mouth was only held in place because she was clenching her teeth. “Would you prefer that I radio the sheriff and tell him you accosted me?”
Laughter rumbled through his chest and exploded into the room as he tipped his head back letting it free.
“I’m not sure what you see is so funny.”
She would if she were fully Were. Sheriff Smokey would walk into the house and take one whiff of the heat boiling between them and Cord’s golden gaze and know what was going on. The law man would turn right around and leave. In Den County the law didn’t interfere in life mate issues. The mates were expected to work it out or die trying.
Composing himself, he said, “It would take too long to explain and as you said, I have work to do.”
“Well, then you should get to it.” Grabbing both ends of her belt, she pulled it tighter then moved to the bar. “Now, you have already made my breakfast cold, so if you will excuse me.”
“How about I cook dinner for you tonight?” He moved closer to her and noticed the pulse in her neck leap at his nearness. Definitely not unaffected like she wanted him to believe.
It was her turn to laugh. “You’ve got to be kidding me. After the kiss in the pantry, I’d be crazy to think I’d be safe at a strange man’s home.”
Lifting his hand, he caressed the side of her face with a finger, sweeping it down under her plump bottom lip. He felt the quake that rocketed through his body as the small contact caused a shudder in her body, but thankfully she didn’t draw away from him or slap him again.
“You will always be safe with me, my hazel-eyed beauty. I will give my life to protect you.”
There was a small intake of breath as she stared at him with her innocent gaze.
Moving away, he headed into the living room. Spotting the list on the end table, he grabbed it then exited the house by the patio door. His mate needed time. Time to accept what was happening between them. Time to see what was going to happen.
He needed to sort out what was going on with her and her bear. More than he did this morning, he wished he had caught Genma and his grandmother before they had left. He had so many questions. Things it didn’t seem that Rena could answer.
But no matter what he discovered, one day soon the moment would be right for him to claim her.
Mine, his bear growled as Cord closed the door.
“Yes, she is.”
~YH~
Rena put her cold breakfast into the microwave. Right now her throat was so tight with emotions and her mind was twisted with so many thoughts and questions that she couldn’t eat. Cord Bjorn had walked into the cabin and turned her world upside down.
She wasn’t a novice to lust or sex. Over the years she’d had boyfriends. Hell, just eight months ago she would have been willing to settle for a guy she liked well enough, had even thought maybe he was the one. However, he broke it off with her once she started getting sick and could barely drag herself out of bed. Then she’d seen clearly that he was not the man for her.
But none of those past men had prepared her for Cord. An intense male, so devastating in presence and body that she felt restricted on all sides. She’d never encountered a man so…big. That was the only word that came to her mind. He wasn’t only a tall man–he had to be close to six eight—but the width of his shoulders was massive. He had the height of a basketball player with the girth of a linebacker and just as many rippling muscles. However, the way his shirt and jeans conformed to the contours of all those bulging muscles she didn’t see an ounce of fat. Thank goodness her grandmother’s doors were wider than normal, because Rena was sure he would not have been able to f
it through them without turning sideways. Shockingly, his large size didn’t cause fear to race through her blood. Actually quite the opposite. His overwhelming presence made her feel feminine and protected.
I’d love to have him at my back…or front…or underneath— She put a halt to the wayward thoughts tripping around in her head.
Unable to stop herself from thinking of the tall, bulky frame again caused shivers of heat to run rampant in her body. Her nipples were still tight and her sex was throbbing, all from a kiss. No matter what she had said to him, she had no apprehension, but something else. Lust and overpowering desire to tear his clothing off and have his massive body thrusting deep inside of her.
Oh, damn…
Seeing something move beyond the window, she stepped to it and stared out taking in the man. He was busy digging into the earth, almost wrist deep as he set bulbs and plants into holes he created with his hands. Those hands had been all over her, caressing her.
Just like the rest of him, they were big—wide strong hands—that knew how to touch a woman. The white v-neck t-shirt he wore clung to the landscape of his torso. Those broad shoulders would provide a place for a woman’s legs to rest as he pounded into her sex.
Your legs. She ignored the low voice inside of her, proof that she was truly losing her mind.
The fact that she was standing at her grandmother’s kitchen window admiring the landscaper was just more verification.
However, she couldn’t pull her gaze away. When he had been in the house, she could have sworn she could count the ridges of the six-pack on his abs. Now, as he squatted in the dirt she could see how the black jeans he wore hugged his thighs and ass. Only her mind flashed a picture of him leaning against the wall by the pantry and how the denim had cupped his cock.
I shouldn’t have looked. But, she could not stop herself then just like she was unable to resist the view of him now.
More than his body and what her thoughts told her he could do to her with it, it was his face. A kind face with dark eyes so astounding that they seemed to see into her heart, mark her soul. The two-day stubble that covered the lower half of his face and the long wheat-blonde hair that she had fisted in her hands made his look. A wild man that could not be tamed.
Evident in the kiss he had given her, it had been unleashed and demanding.
As if feeling her gaze, he looked up and stared directly into the window. Gasping, she quickly stepped to the side hoping that the bright light of the sun outside had hindered him from seeing her inside.
Damn it.
Peeping back out, she saw that he was not only still looking toward her, but smiling as well. When he winked, she turned and rushed to her room.
In the room, she stood before the mirror over the dresser and observed the woman staring back at her. The same woman who had come to the woods in hopes of restoring her health, instead she had stumbled into the arms of a man who in one kiss had showed her a passion like she’d never known.
How could she feel so different inside since the last twenty-four hours, but still be the same on the outside.
What she really expected to see was evidence of the lie she had told Cord. She had said she didn’t recall her time in Den County when she was younger. Had alleged that she didn’t recall him. Everything else may be fuzz in her head, trapped in storage her mother had created, but when Cord had kissed her everything about him had been revealed in bold, brassy color.
Both the minty, heady taste of him and the gold tone of his gaze had bared the memory to her. Even standing there in the room she could see the two of them sitting on the dock, him teaching her how to fish and then the kiss. Even at thirteen she had noted the small ripples of desire she felt being around Cord. Their kiss had been brief but earth shifting, until her mother had screamed her name as if she’d committed a cardinal sin.
When her mother dragged her away from him, Rena had glanced back and was captured in his confused golden gaze. She didn’t understand the meaning or the reason for his eye color change, then or now, but she knew she needed to keep far away from the intense man.
“You just have to make it through the week, Rena. Then once your grandmother comes home you can be on the first plane speeding out of California.”
Chapter Six
“Well, look who finally remembered where they live.” Changing from animal to human, Cord called out to the big brown bear coming down the path toward him.
The other bear shifted and became a man just as big as Cord. “Kiss my ass.” Theo laughed at Cord’s ribbing. “One sec and I’ll get you a pair of pants to put on so you can come in for coffee and biscotti.”
“I see how it is, you don’t want to tempt your wife with a more virile Were-male.” Cord followed his good friend to the Kodiak family cabin.
“Keep dreaming.” Theo entered his house by the laundry room then tossed out a pair of jeans to Cord.
After he got the pants on and fastened, Cord took the steps two at a time.
“Well, hello, Cord.” Riley, Theo’s life mate of a year, moved from her husband’s arms and crossed the kitchen to Cord.
He gave her a fierce hug and received the same in return. “It’s good to see you, Riley. How are your parents?”
“Wonderful.” She stepped back and smiled. “They could not get enough of the boys and their newest granddaughter.”
“I bet.” He took one of two mugs of coffee Theo was carrying. “Where are the little ones now?” Except for their conversation, Cord noticed the house was quiet.
“Thankfully, they are sleeping. They were out before we crossed into Den.” Theo sat at the head of the long wooden table.
Cord claimed a side seat and reached for the jar in the center of the table, an abundant staple in all Den residents cabin home. Adding a large dollop of honey into his coffee he then pushed it toward Theo.
“Well, I will leave you bear males to yourselves.” Riley placed a plate of her homemade mixed-berry biscotti on the table between them.
“You’re leaving and sticking me with this guy’s company?” Cord aimed a finger at Theo.
Laughing, Riley walked to her mate and kissed him. Cord noticed that Theo didn’t want to be out of his wife’s presence, by the thick arm surrounding her waist.
“I’ll make him promise to be on his best behavior. Or he won’t get any more treats tonight.” She wiggled out of her husband’s arm then blew him a kiss and headed out.
“No fair. I don’t even like this guy. Now, how I treat him is weighed against my life mate privileges.” Theo growled.
Riley just shook her head at both of them and left the kitchen.
Cord chuckled.
After his wife was completely out of sight, Theo grabbed a biscotti stick and said, “Thanks for keeping an eye on our place while we were gone last week.”
“Hey, it’s nothing. You did the same for me when I left last year.”
“I was glad when you told me you didn’t have plans to vacate the county this year.” Theo dipped his stick several times into his coffee before biting into it. “So, have you decided to claim an available female this year and take your rightful place over the residents?”
As he took a big bite of his dry stick, Cord thought about his friend’s question, and allowed his mind to drift back to this time yesterday. So much had changed. Rena had come back into his life.
“Well, you look like the bear who found an empty hive of honey.”
Unable to hold back the smile that pulled at the corners of his mouth, Cord looked up at his friend. “Do I?”
“Hell, yeah. What’s up?” Theo lifted his mug and drank.
“I plan to claim my life mate.”
Frowning, Theo lowered his coffee back to the table. “Well, you’ve always told me that you don’t believe Marcella is your mate, have you changed your mind?”
Cord took a healthy swig of his coffee. “No. Not at all.”
“Damn it, don’t keep me in suspense, bear, who is it? And what the hell happ
ened in the week I’ve been gone?”
“My mate showed up.”
“Showed up? A new family come to Den or something?” Theo leaned back in the chair and stared at him.
Slowly shaking his head, Cord considered dragging it out or leaving and making his friend wait until Theo found out himself. However, Theo was too good of a friend for him to do it. Not to mention Cord needed someone to talk to about it.
“Do you remember Genma’s granddaughter, Rena?” Cord took another bite of his stick.
Staring off into the distance, Theo’s features scrunched as if he were attempting to dig into an old memory.
“Genma’s daughter Lillian had a little girl that would come up during the summer when we were younger, right?”
“Yes.” Cord confirmed.
“So, what does that have to do with you? The daughter nor the granddaughter have been seen in Den for maybe fifteen years.”
“Well, Rena is back, now.”
Lifting, both eyebrows, Theo stared at him. “Really? Why after all this time?”
Cord shrugged. “There’s a lot I don’t know. But, I’m sure Genma has most of the answers, but she went with my nana on some secret trip.”
“Well, that’s damn convenient.”
“Hell, yeah, it is. So, Rena is staying at Genma’s and I’m contracted to do some work out there this week.” Cord ran his hand over his head, frustrated. “You could have dragged me out to the lake and drowned me and I would not have been more shocked then when I walked into Genma’s house and was doused by Rena’s scent.” Remembering the impact of her intoxicating scent on him and his response to it, Cord’s hands began to shake. Even now he wanted her. He balled them into tight fists. There was no way he could allow himself to go to her tonight. He’d already assaulted Rena once today. The next time he touched her, he knew his bear would not let him stop until he had marked her.
Theo nodded slowly. “Ah, I see. Trust me, if anyone knows what it is like to have an unexpected encounter with not only an available Were-female, but one’s life mate, I do.”
Cord and Theo had gone out for a run one night months ago and Theo had filled him in on what had happened between him and Riley when she’d crashed her car down the road from Theo’s cabin. They had discovered that they’d met previously and Theo had unknowingly marked her, causing Riley to carry Were-bear markings in her scent. “Well, my situation is not so different from yours.”
Red's Bear (Erotic Shifter Fairy Tales) Page 7
