“Thanks.” I passed the bottle back to Nathan, who drank deeply. “What did you mean when you said that anyone who stayed here was welcome to treat it like home? Isn’t this your parents’ place?”
“Not exactly,” Nathan replied. “Nobody lives here permanently, although Caleb stayed here for quite a while when he first came back to the area. People tend to come and go round here depending on what’s going on. Mom and dad have a place a bit further up the highway, but they come down here quite a lot for family business.”
“What kind of business?” I asked, curious about what had made the family fortune. The Loves were clearly wealthy, but I had no idea what they’d done to get so rich.
“Shifter business,” came the reply. I waited for Nathan to elaborate, but that was clearly all the answer I was going to get. Fine. So much for us getting to know each other better.
He took another sip of wine and passed the bottle back to me. “You really are cold, aren’t you?” he observed.
“What gave it away?” I snapped, as I shivered again, tired and grumpy. The truth was that although I was cold, it wasn’t just the temperature that was affecting me. Sitting so close to Nathan, feeling his body next to mine, made it difficult for me to shake the image of what he looked like naked. It wasn’t a sight a girl would forget in a hurry.
“As a gentleman, I couldn’t possibly say,” he said, glancing down at my chest.
I gasped and pulled his jacket tighter around me to cover up my erect nipples clearly poking through my blouse, despite my bra.
“Here. Sit closer,” Nathan advised, reaching up so that I could scoot up next to him and he put his arm around me. Instead, I clung tightly to his jacket, glaring up at him.
“I’m not going to do anything,” he told me. “But mom and dad would kill me if I let a guest freeze to death in their wine cellar. Disposing of bodies is such an inconvenience.”
“Do that a lot, do you?” I raised an eyebrow.
“I’d answer you, but then I’d have to kill you,” Nathan deadpanned.
“All right,” I sighed, snuggling up to him. As Nathan put his arm around my shoulders, my head naturally nuzzled against his chest. I closed my eyes and for a moment, it just felt… right.
“Woah!” I jerked away from him, realizing that there was a level of intimacy developing between us that I really didn’t want. “No. I’m not doing this.”
“Not doing what? Abi, what on earth are you talking about?” Nathan looked at me with an expression that was angry with a touch of something I couldn’t quite identify. Hurt? Longing? “All I was doing was trying to keep you warm. Nothing more, I promise.”
“Oh yeah, that’s all it was,” I sneered. “I know how it goes. First you put your arm around me, then we start talking, sharing our innermost secrets. Talking turns to kissing and before I know it, I’m another one of your conquests.”
“Another one of my what?” Nathan shook his head. “Geez, Abi. Some guy must have done a real number on you in the past, but I promise you that you’re completely safe with me. You’re just-”
“If I’m wrong, then let me guess what you’re about to say,” I interrupted bitterly. “I’m just not your type?”
“What?” Nathan really did look shocked. “You’ve really lost me now, Abi. I don’t know what kind of men you’ve been dealing with in the past, but I don’t play games. Believe me when I tell you that you are most definitely my type. What man wouldn’t want a woman like you? You’re gorgeous from head to toe. From the moment I saw you, I knew that you were trouble.” He put a finger to my lips to stop me saying anything. “NOT because I thought you were a bad person but because you were stunning and under different circumstances, I could fall and fall hard. Look, I know that I can come off as a bit of a jerk, but it was worse when I first met you because you’re exactly my type. I’ve just come out of a bad relationship and the last thing I need is another woman in my life, so I needed to make sure there wasn’t any chance of that, especially after your assistant – what’s her name?”
“Haley,” I whispered, struggling to take in what he was saying.
“That’s right, Haley. After Haley started trying to flirt with me. Maybe that works with some of your other clients, but it made me think that you were going to be just like her and I wasn’t in the mood. Flirting leads to talking, talking leads to kissing and you know how it goes.”
He grinned and I couldn’t help but match his smile.
“I know, I know,” he continued. “I went too far to keep you at a professional distance and I’m sorry. It seems that every time I try to talk to you, I get it wrong. It’s easier to hide behind rudeness sometimes, especially when you meet someone you think could-”
He broke off and I waited in vain to hear what he was going to say.
“Someone you think could what?” I finally prompted.
“It’s not important.” He shook his head. “Let’s change the subject. This isn’t exactly the kind of conversation I’d planned on having with you tonight.”
“You only wanted to talk about your parents’ vow renewal,” I guessed.
“That’s right,” he confirmed. “I know that I made a really bad first impression, but I was hoping that there would be some way that I could talk you round. I can assure you that money’s no object.”
“Which is good, because I’ve already decided that I’m going to charge what I call my Annoying Client Surcharge,” I told him.
“You decided?” Nathan’s smile lit up his face. “Fantastic! Mom will be so happy.”
“She already is,” I laughed. “I hate to break it to you, but much as I appreciate your apology, I’d already decided to take the job after your mom came to talk to me herself earlier. She’s a lovely person. It would be my pleasure to cook for her and your dad – who is equally lovely, by the way. I have no idea how a family as nice as yours could produce someone like-” It was my turn to break off.
“Someone like me?” Nathan finished.
I blushed. “I didn’t mean it like that.”
“It’s okay.” He waved away my embarrassment. “After the way I spoke to you, you’re perfectly entitled to feel that way. And you’re right. My folks are good people. Like I said, I’ve only recently come out of a bad relationship. I haven’t exactly been myself. If you’d have met me under different circumstances, you’d have a completely different opinion of me.”
“Tell me about her. What was the woman who broke your heart like?” I surprised myself with the bold request. Nathan’s love life was none of my business, yet I had a strange compulsion to want to know more about him.
Nathan thought for a moment. “All right. But on one condition.”
“What?”
“That you come back here and let me keep you warm. My mom brought me up to be a gentleman and it’s killing me sitting here, watching you shiver like that. It might not be literally freezing in here, but that doesn’t mean that there isn’t a chance of you getting hypothermia if we don’t get your core body temperature up.”
“All right.” Truth be told, I was getting so cold that I wasn’t going to argue with him anymore. I could put up with a bit of assholery if it meant that I could get warm again.
I crawled over to sit next to him again, taking the bottle of wine for another drink as he put his arm around me and rubbed up and down to try and get my circulation going. Passing back the bottle, I put my arm around him, resisting the urge to wrap my legs around him as well to soak up his warmth. Maybe it was a side effect of being a shifter, but he didn’t seem to be affected by the chill and I envied him his ability to ignore the cold.
“So what was her name?” I prompted when Nathan didn’t seem to be forthcoming with details about his ex.
“Brooke,” Nathan told me. “But I’m beginning to think that this wasn’t such a good idea after all.”
“Really?” I lifted my head up to look him in the eye. “I thought you said you were a gentleman?”
“Oh, I am,�
�� he assured me. “But it doesn’t seem right that you get to enjoy my body heat and learn about my ex-girlfriend without a little quid pro quo.”
“Quid pro what?”
“Let me put it another way. I’ll show you mine if you show me yours.”
“What?!”
I was about to move away again when Nathan laughed. “Not that. Although now I come to think about it, you have seen me naked and it would be only fair… No, what I meant was that if I tell you about Brooke, you should tell me about your past.”
I buried my head against his chest so that he wouldn’t see my anguish.
“I don’t know,” I bit my lip. “It’s not really all that interesting a story. I’ve never had a long term relationship, at least not since I dated Dustin in high school for a couple of years before he dumped me when he went to college. We were young and he wasn’t exactly the best boyfriend even before he left. Since then, there’s just been a string of losers, but nobody special. In fact, there hasn’t been anyone at all, special or not, for a long time.”
I hoped that Nathan’s super shifter senses wouldn’t be able to tell that I was lying. I hadn’t told anyone what had happened with Corey and I didn’t think I ever would. It hurt too much to even say his name.
“I can’t believe that,” Nathan said and I held my breath as he gently tilted my head back so that he could see my face. “Someone like you deserves someone special. I can’t believe that you’ve never had a serious relationship. With your looks, I’d have thought you could have your pick of men.”
“Yeah, well, believe it or not, that’s the truth,” I shrugged. “Sorry to disappoint. But you still have to tell me about Brooke. We had a deal, remember?”
Nathan nodded slowly. “All right. Well, Brooke and I first met a few years back at a fundraiser she was organizing. My mom knew that she was looking for someone to host the event and suggested that I help out. I wouldn’t say that it was love at first sight between us, but we started dating and after a couple of years, I decided that she was The One or at least the one I could marry and not be miserable. I went out and bought an engagement ring and arranged a romantic night out that would have culminated in my proposing, only I never got the chance. Brooke decided that I wasn’t rich enough for her and ran off with the heir to the St. Clair billions.”
“Wow. Talk about being money motivated. It sounds like you’re better off without her,” I observed.
“Yeah, probably,” Nathan shrugged. “It wasn’t the first time I’d found out that a woman was with me because of my bank balance. I guess it hurt all the more this time because I thought that Brooke was different. She came from a wealthy family herself so I thought she didn’t care about that and was genuinely interested in being with me. It’s a lesson learned the hard way I guess.”
“Hang on.” I suddenly remembered something Shelby had told me. “I thought shifters mated for life? If she was really The One, shouldn’t you be with her?”
“You don’t believe that nonsense, do you?” laughed Nathan cynically.
“Well, yes, I do,” I admitted. “After all, you just have to look at what happened to Caleb and Shelby. They were apart for years but fate brought them back together because they were destined to be with each other and now nothing could get between them. And what about your parents? They’re renewing their vows because they’re still head over heels in love with each other even after all those years. Surely that must prove that your mate is out there somewhere?”
“If she is, I would have met her by now,” Nathan countered. “It’s not as though I haven’t dated plenty of women. By the time I met Brooke, I’d already given up on romantic fairy tales. If I’m honest, I was going to propose to her because that’s just what you do when you hit a certain age and you’ve been dating for long enough. There was nothing inherently special about Brooke. Don’t get me wrong – she was an attractive woman and great company. But I could just as easily have been with someone else and it wouldn’t have made any real difference. People like Caleb and my parents are lucky. The rest of us just have to deal with what we can get and in my case that seems to be women who are only after one thing. Sometimes I think it would be easier not to bother with romance.”
“You and me both,” I muttered.
“It sounds like we’ve both had it rough,” said Nathan, hugging me tightly.
“Yeah, well, that’s life,” I shrugged. “You get used to it or you go under.”
“When I was younger I would have violently disagreed with you,” Nathan told me. “But now I’m beginning to think that you’re right. I used to be one of life’s optimists, believing that everything would work out in the end, but Brooke taught me that I couldn’t have been more wrong. I really thought we could make it work, but it takes two to make a relationship successful and Brooke just wasn’t interested.”
We both sat there in stark silence, lost in thought about past lovers.
“And on that note, I think I’m going to try and get some sleep.” I finally broke the awkward pause. “Although I don’t know how easy it’s going to be given how cold it is.”
“Let me shift,” Nathan offered. “You can curl up next to me and let my fur keep you warm. It’ll be like wearing a big fur coat.”
“I don’t know…” I bit my lip. I was tempted, so very tempted.
“Come on, Abi,” he urged. “There aren’t any blankets down here and even with my jacket around you, I can’t see you getting comfortable on your own lying on the floor. You can use my clothes as a pillow and I promise I won’t scratch or bite, so you’ll be perfectly safe. There aren’t many women who can say they’ve got a grizzly bear to keep them warm at night.”
“All right,” I eventually nodded. What he was saying made a lot of sense. We were stuck here, so I might as well make the most of it and I had to admit that I was curious about what bear fur felt like.
Nathan stood and started getting undressed. Once again, I turned away, much as I would have enjoyed seeing his naked body again. Corey had worked out, but Nathan was in a totally different league.
I could hear the strange sounds of a full shift and a few moments later, a gentle growl let me know that he’d changed.
I turned to see Nathan in bear form padding around in that way animals have to find the most comfortable spot before slumping onto the floor. I picked up his discarded clothes and as I approached, Nathan held up one paw so that I could curl up next to his belly, wrapping his legs around me as I made myself comfortable.
My heart pounded as I tried to get my head around the fact that an enormous grizzly bear was lying beside me as if it were a large teddy. I had to fight the urge to turn around and bury my face in his fur just to see what it felt like. I didn’t want him to feel as though I was being disrespectful. I didn’t want to cross the line into a level of intimacy that went deeper than anything I’d ever experienced. As it was, I felt as though this was meant to be, something I was struggling to make sense of, given that Nathan and I had been bickering from the moment we’d met.
Still, I managed to restrain myself, contented with lightly running my hand up and down his paw, marveling at the sensation of his fur underneath my fingertips. It was surprisingly similar to a dog’s fur, if a little coarser. The only real difference was that Nathan was larger than any dog I’d ever met and could rip your throat out with a swipe of his paw.
Yet for all that I would have thought that it would be natural to be frightened being this close to something so potentially lethal, I’d never felt more protected.
I could hear Nathan’s breathing slowing down into the gentle rhythms of sleep. It had been a long day and I couldn’t keep my eyes open any longer. At last, I drifted off to sleep, soothed by the reassuring presence of the were-bear.
Chapter Five
I rolled over in my sleep, my eyes lazily blinking open as I rediscovered that I wasn’t alone. For a second, I’d forgotten that I was down in the wine cellar until memories of last night came flooding back.
However, instead of the large grizzly bear I’d fallen asleep with, I found myself in the arms of a very naked, very aroused Nathan.
“Good morning, beautiful,” he grinned, propping himself up on his elbow to look at me. “You’re adorable when you sleep. Did you know that?”
“No… err… um… I guess?” Flustered, my first instinct was to back away from him, but there was something about the way that he looked at me that held me where I was.
“Oh, Abi,” he laughed. “I never thought I’d see you lost for words.”
He leaned forward and lightly kissed me, running his hand through my hair to hold me in place. He didn’t need to. I wasn’t going anywhere, as I returned his kiss, moaning as his tongue lightly ran across my lips, growing in passion. It had been too long since I’d been with any man, let alone someone as drop dead gorgeous as Nathan.
“I wanted you from the moment I saw you,” Nathan told me, as he skilfully undid the buttons on my blouse with one hand, pushing it open to reveal my bra. He ran his hand over my breasts, as I strained to push my body towards him. Although the wine cellar was cold, what he was doing to me was hot and as he moved to pull down my skirt, I wanted nothing more than to be naked with him.
I sat up, pulling my blouse off and reaching behind me to undo my bra, but Nathan put out a hand to stop me.
“Oh no.” He shook his head. “Wait. I want to undress you myself. I’m going to take my time and enjoy every single inch of you.”
I giggled nervously, lifting my hips to make it easy for Nathan to take off my skirt, leaving me in my underwear. He put out his hand and helped me sit up, grabbing me round the waist so that I was straddling him.
“You’re incredible,” he told me, as he reached behind me to undo my bra clasp. He ran his hands round to the front of my chest, cupping my breasts and running his thumb over my nipples to make them even more erect than they already were as I slipped the bra straps off my shoulders, tossing it to one side.
I leaned forward to kiss him, pressing myself against his bare chest as I ran my hands down his torso. I loved the feel of his skin against me and Nathan growled as he wrapped his arms around me, as if to drink all of me in.
Healing Bear: A BBW Paranormal Shape Shifter Romance (Love Laid Bear Book 3) Page 4
