Billionaire Bear Brotherhood Box Set

by Lily Cahill

  She sighed in frustration. "Mr. Ingram ...."

  "I told you, call me Caleb."

  She bit her lip. "Caleb, you've spent the last ten years living a bachelor's dream life. And I don't fault you for it. You're rich, you're handsome, you're worldly ... frankly, I consider myself lucky that I even caught your interest."

  He gaped at her. Did she not understand how gorgeous she was? "Believe me, you've got my interest."

  "But," she continued gamely, even as a tinge of pink lit her cheeks, "now that I know who you are, it would be inappropriate for that sort of relationship to exist between us. It puts both of our ethics in question."

  "No, it doesn't. The money comes through the philanthropic wing of InTech, not from me directly. Your project has been receiving funding for years. That won't change, regardless of what happens between us personally."

  "Can I have that in writing?"

  Caleb sat back. He had never had to negotiate a relationship before. "Yes. Of course you can. It was my decision to increase the funding for your project, but from here on out Mr. Mancini will have complete autonomy."

  Her shoulders relaxed a fraction, but she still shook her head. "I would appreciate that. However, even if we have a legal agreement, people would still assume that there's a unsavory aspect of our relationship."

  "What do you mean?"

  "You accused me of sleeping with you for money."

  Her back was straight, like she was forcing steel into her spine to survive this conversation. Caleb swallowed. "Yeah, that was a dick move. I was hurt that you left so abruptly, and surprised when you came in, and ... well, sometimes I lash out like an inconsiderate asshole. I'm sorry."

  "But don't you see, other people would think the same thing."

  "Who cares about other people? Look, Kam, I feel something for you that I've never felt before." He wanted to tell her that they were fated, but her resistance was already so high. "I don't care what anyone else thinks. I want you."

  Her eyes flicked up to his, and he could see the yearning coursing through her. But she backed away. "No. It's a bad idea. I feel that continuing our relationship would only encourage the growth of certain feelings that can't go anywhere. Won't go anywhere. It's best if we just leave that night in the past. Logically, it's the only solution."

  Because of Dr. Winter, he realized. Her partner.

  He had always assumed that his mate would feel as certain about their relationship as he did, but perhaps that was wrong. Perhaps she loved this Dr. Winter. Not enough to be faithful to him, but enough to remain loyal.

  Or perhaps they had an open relationship, Caleb thought with a spark of fury. Was it possible that Kam was the sort of woman who wanted more than one man? If so, she would have to forego that practice once they were together. He would never let another man touch his mate.

  During the first few years after he had launched InTech, Caleb had worked day and night to get the company off the ground. He'd fought off competitors and wooed the market until all of his dreams came true. And he could damn well do the same now. With patience and determination, he could win Dr. Kamilah Hutchinson.

  When he didn't say anything, she cleared her throat. "I'm going to bed. Tomorrow, we'll go out to the site and I'll show you around."

  He nodded, soaking in the sight of her. She may not want to be with him now, but at least they were in the same place again. Maybe, with time and proximity, she would change her mind.

  She started to leave, then turned back. "Do you have everything you need? For bed," she clarified, realizing her words could be misinterpreted.

  "I'm all set," he said, gesturing to the pillow and blanket which sat next to him on the couch.

  "Okay." She was hesitating. Maybe she was as loathe to leave him as he was to see her go. She met his eyes, and for an instant he was sure he saw the longing that he felt reflected back at him. With her black hair and olive skin, her green eyes stood out like emeralds behind her glasses.

  Then she turned and walked up the stairs.

  "Professor." She stopped, but kept her back to him. "All the logic in the world isn't going to stop me from wanting you."

  He saw her back shudder with indrawn breath. Then she walked up the stairs and was gone.

  Caleb sighed. He was too stirred up to sleep any time soon. He waited until he heard Kam's door click shut, then went outside. Maybe if he let his bear take over for a while, he might be able to wear himself out.

  The night air smelled damp and green. A half-moon hung in the sky, casting the clearing around Kam's house in dim light. Cal crossed to the trees, waiting until he was under their cover to transform.

  As always, shifting into a bear caused all his tension to dissipate. He couldn't second-guess himself when he was a bear, couldn't doubt his own perceptions. Kam was his mate. They were fated to be together. Maybe the path wouldn't be easy, but he would get there.

  He wandered through the trees around her house, enjoying the way leaves crackled beneath his giant paws. He was careful not to be seen. Caleb's bear was a grizzly, and it would terrify anyone who happened to come across him.

  After he had made a circuit of the land, he went back inside. As a bear, he could almost feel Kam's presence in the house, and he didn't want to wander far from her. It was the same presence that made it impossible for him to sleep.

  Well, if he wasn't going to sleep, he could start learning. He settled himself at the kitchen table and began to read one of the books Kam had given him.

  Chapter Eight

  Kamilah

  The day dawned bright and early, the exact opposite of Kam's mood. She'd spent most of the night tossing and turning.

  Gods, how was she going to keep her hands off of Caleb? When she'd seen him dangling from his seat in the crashed RV, she'd been nearly frantic to touch him, hold him, make sure he was okay. It had taken all of her willpower to keep from checking every inch of him herself.

  And that was part of the problem. There were so many inches of him, and she could feel each one like an electric current. Every second that they'd been down in the basement, her skin had prickled with desire. She'd hardly been able to concentrate over the thrum of her imagination. The things she could do to him ... and him to her ... that was what had really kept her up all night.

  She knew that keeping their relationship professional was the right choice. So why did it feel so wrong?

  She, Marley, and Alex usually went down to the dig around seven. Normally, Kam liked to sleep until the last possible minute. Now, there was nearly an hour before they needed to leave and she couldn't lay in bed anymore. She crept downstairs in search of coffee.

  She expected to find the kitchen empty, so she jerked to a stop when she saw Caleb sitting at the table. The dawn light caught in his honey-colored hair. A T-shirt was pulled tight over his neck and shoulders. And his face was plopped flat in the middle of one of the textbooks she'd loaned him.

  He was fast asleep.

  The books spread around him attested to his late night. She saw that he had a tablet under one hand, which he'd been using to take notes. Seeing him there, in her humble and temporary kitchen, made her heart thump hard.

  She was about to scamper back upstairs when his eyes blinked open. It took only a moment for him to focus on her. He slowly lifted his head from the table, and Kam became highly aware that she wasn't wearing a bra under her ancient college T-shirt.

  "Is this a dream?" he asked quietly.

  "If it is, we're having the same one," Kam said.

  She'd meant it as a joke, but it came out tinged with yearning.

  She inhaled sharply as he rose to his feet. His hair was pasted sideways, and he had a crease in the side of his face from the page he'd slept on, but he was still the sexiest thing she had ever seen.

  It took him only two strides to reach her at the base of the stairs just outside the kitchen. "In a dream, this is what I'd do," he said, lowering his mouth to hers.

  The kiss was light, soft, mor
e a question than a statement. And Kam melted beneath it, beneath him, all her tensed limbs going liquid at the heat of his body against hers.

  Her hands lifted to his chest, needing the balance. His hands stayed at his side, as if he wanted to absorb the feel of only her lips. In the silence of the morning, she could almost hear his heart beating faster.

  He ended the kiss when she would have dragged him closer. Instead, he gathered her up in his arms and buried his face in her hair. "Better than a dream," he murmured, and Kam closed her eyes in pleasure.

  He stepped away before Kam could summon the willpower to move back. He didn't look at her, simply walked back into the small kitchen and started the coffeemaker.

  Kam was left standing next to the stairs, holding the wall for support. Some scientific part of her mind cataloged her reactions. Elevated heart rate, check. Rush of dopamine, check. Stress hormones spiking, inhibitions dropping. Classic symptoms of falling in love.

  Which was absolutely unacceptable, she reminded herself. Falling in love with Caleb Ingram was a recipe for utter heartbreak. The man was synonymous with Lothario: a billionaire bachelor who could have anyone, anywhere, any time he wanted. Scratch that--had had anyone he wanted, anywhere, anytime.

  Why was he bothering with her?

  "Fresh," he said, handing her a mug of steaming coffee. "How about we pretend we were both asleep until this moment?"

  She studied him. There was none of the naked hunger she'd seen in the moment after he woke up. Still, she thought she saw a hint of guile in the tilt of his mouth. She was irritated to note that it made her heart beat faster.

  "Waking up right ... now," she said, clinking her mug with his.

  #

  When Marley came downstairs twenty minutes later, he found Kam reading aloud from a textbook while Cal stood over the stove, manning three pans at the same time.

  "I thought I smelled breakfast," he said. "Does this mean we aren't hitting a drive-thru on the way to the dig?"

  Kam shot Marley a look. Caleb didn't need to know about her penchant for fast food hash browns.

  "It's the least I can do," Caleb said, pouring batter into a hot pan. "Thanks for letting me stay last night."

  Marley nodded, but kept a suspicious eye on Caleb. "I wouldn't have suspected that a man of your stature would be such an early riser."

  Kam kicked Marley lightly, shooting him a look. The way he had said "stature" made it sound like a slur.

  But Caleb didn't seem offended. "I'm up at five most days. My empire won't run itself, after all," he said, shooting Marley a grin. "Hand me that plate, will you?"

  Kam handed him the plate. Their fingers didn't brush, but she wished they had.

  She frowned. She was supposed to be a disciplined intellectual. And here she was, fawning like a schoolgirl.

  But maybe, if she could get this desire under control, they could be cautious friends. While he cooked, Caleb had asked her questions about the books she had given him to read. She found that he had a quick and clever mind. He absorbed concepts like a sponge, and seemed genuinely interested in her field. If all her students were this vibrant, she might have spent more time teaching.

  From the depths of her memory, his smooth voice rose up, saying "Teach me, Professor." She shuddered and looked down at the textbook in front of her, trying to hide the heat that had washed over her face.

  "If you need to go into town to deal with that fancy vehicle of yours, you'll have to drop us at the dig first," Marley said. He patted his pockets, looking for his gum. "We share the van, and we can't afford to lose another day's work."

  "Already done," Caleb said cheerfully. "I talked to the repair shop first thing. They've got to order a part, so it will be a few days before it's ready. But I won't impose on your hospitality again. I've booked a hotel and rented a car."

  "Don't be silly, you can stay here," Kam said, before she thought about it. Wasn't it her plan to spend less time with him? It had all seemed so logical in her mind. Then he'd kissed her this morning, and for the first time in her life logic had seemed unimportant.

  "That's not a good idea," Marley said, turning to Kam with a pointed look.

  "The nearest hotel is over an hour from the dig," she said to Marley as much as Caleb. "That's why we rented this place, remember? There's no sense in Mr. Ingram spending three hours in a rental car every day."

  "I'm sure Mr. Ingram wants his privacy," Marley said.

  "His name is Caleb, and he's right here," Caleb reminded them as he poured beaten eggs into a greased pan. "I'm good anywhere, as long as there's wifi. But to be honest, it would be easier to stay here. I'm not a huge fan of hotels. Too many people around, you know?"

  Caleb shot Kam a look. He was all but echoing her opinions from the night they had shared in Seattle.

  The truth was, Caleb could afford to stay anywhere. He could have rented an apartment, a house ... hell, he could probably just a buy a hotel if that's what he wanted. But for some reason, he was willing to stay here.

  And, to her surprise, that was where she wanted him.

  "You can stay here," she said firmly. "It makes the most sense. We do a lot of work here in the evenings, and you'll want to observe, right? And that way, Marley or I will be able to help you if you have questions."

  It was thin, Kam knew. She should have been trying to find a way to shove Caleb out the door so she could get back to her work. But she didn't want him to go, and she couldn't convince herself that she did.

  Marley sniffed. "Well, if that's the way you want it, I suppose that's the way it is."

  "Suppose so," Cal said, raising an eyebrow at the older man. Then he offered him a plate piled high with eggs, flapjacks, and bacon. "Breakfast?"

  Chapter Nine

  Caleb

  Caleb sat in the back of the van, craning his neck so he could take in as much scenery as possible. They had driven west from Pasco, and were heading to a site that Kam explained was near the Yakama Reservation. The rolling hills, prairie grasses and stands of tall trees made his bear side want to come out and play. It had been far too long, he realized, since he had indulged in a vacation to the woods. "The site is pretty remote."

  Kam was sitting in the front passenger seat, but she twisted so she could face him. "Yes. That's very lucky. Most people in my field don't get the chance to do true research archeology."

  "How do you mean?"

  "Most of the time, we're doing rescue archeology. A construction worker finds some bones, or a new highway project unearths an ancient structure. The archaeological team has to get in and out as quick as possible."

  "Like that dig in Mexico City," Marley put in.

  Kam scoffed. "Two months to excavate an Aztec tomb system that hadn't been opened in nearly a thousand years. We might as well have been tossing artifacts in a sack."

  "Doesn't the government protect those kind of sites?" Caleb asked.

  "Not always. Some people think that commerce is more important than culture," Kam said archly.

  "The world can't stop for us to study the past," Marley said, and Caleb got the impression this was an ongoing argument between them. "Besides, it's better than it used to be."

  "How long have you been working on dig sites?" Caleb asked Marley.

  "Since before either of you was born," Marley replied. "In fact, I was working for Kam's parents before they were parents."

  "Your parents are archaeologists too?" Caleb asked. That tidbit hadn't been in her official bio.

  Kam smiled nostalgically. "They are. They're working on a dig in Kenya at the moment. I grew up chasing them around dig sites all over the world."

  So that's why she had done so much traveling. "That sounds like an amazing way to grow up."

  "It was," she said. "Although, of course, my parents were considered to be a fairly scandalous couple. My father is British, and his family is wealthy and titled. He wasn't supposed to marry a lowly Iranian grad student who wanted to spend her life digging in the dirt."

/>   Cal smiled back at her. "But he did it anyway, for love?"

  "Yes. He whisked her off to a dig in Mongolia and they've been wandering the world ever since."

  Her face was lit with pleasure as she spoke of her parents. Sunlight gleamed in her black hair, teasing out the shades of color. He hadn't meant to kiss her that morning, in the kitchen. But now, looking at the way her soft lips turned up slightly when she smiled, he wanted to kiss her senseless.

  It was also the first time she'd seemed completely relaxed with him since the Seattle steakhouse where they'd met. He loved her like this--at ease, telling stories, comfortable in her own skin. "You didn't want to wander the world with them?"

  She shook her head. "When I went to college, I discovered that staying in one place for more than a year does have some appeal. Alex feels the same way, so we try to find digs that allow us to spend more time really delving into a culture."

  "And I'm along for the ride," Marley said. "Somebody's got to look out for this girl."

  Kam rolled her eyes at Marley, then smiled at Caleb. "This is the problem with working with a guy who's seen you in diapers."

  "I can't say I have that problem with my coworkers," Caleb said. He hadn't missed Alex's name, nor the fact that Kam seemed to make decisions with Alex in mind. Despite the fact that she had cheated on this Alex, Kam seemed to care for him deeply.

  A wave of guilt washed over Caleb. Before he met Kam, he would say it was despicable to intentionally break up a relationship. But know that he knew her--now that they were mated--he couldn't fathom a future where the two of them weren't together. He reasoned that if he and Kam were fated to be together, then Alex's fate lay with someone else.

  Still, guilt nagged at him. Could he be mistaken about Kam being his mate? The bear inside him roared its denial. Every instinct said that he and Kam belonged together. But Kam seemed to genuinely care for Alex. What was it going to take to convince her to break the other man's heart?

  #

  "We're nearly there," Kam said, shifting in her seat so she could check the dashboard clock. "The rest of the volunteers should be here in about an hour, so I'll have a chance to show you around."