by Zoe Chant
Suddenly the ground dropped away beneath her. Isabella stumbled headlong down a steep slope. Loose earth shifted beneath her feet. She wind-milled her arms, trying to catch herself. Her foot caught on a root, twisting painfully. Isabella screamed, crashing to her knees. For a moment, the pain was so bad she could hardly think. Isabella sat, gasping. White-hot agony pulsed up from her ankle.
She looked around, trying to catch her breath. She was waiting for the sound of the bear crashing out of the woods in pursuit. But everything was quiet. The rain was coming down fast and hard now. The wind whipped it sideways into her face. Her thin summer dress was soaked through within seconds.
Isabella drew a deep breath and let it out in a sob. What was she going to do now? Her ankle hurt so bad she doubted she could walk on it, and she had no idea where she was. She'd gotten completely turned around during her headlong flight. How was she supposed to make it back to town like this?
But she couldn't just sit here. She'd freeze to death. Isabella slowly, painfully dragged herself to her feet. Her ankle almost buckled beneath her when she put her weight on it. She yelped.
At least the bear seemed to be gone. But the storm might kill her just as easily. The trees were quaking with the force of the winds, branches breaking like matchsticks and crashing to the ground around her. She needed to find shelter.
There was a sturdy branch lying on the ground couple feet away, about the right length to be used as a crutch. Isabella limped over to it. She gritted her teeth, but she couldn't stop the little whimpers that escaped every time she put any weight on her foot. At least with the makeshift crutch bracing her bad side, she could manage to move around in slow, hobbling steps. If she could find shelter for the worst of the storm, she might be able to make it back to town afterwards.
She made her slow and painful way towards the little cliff rising up a couple hundred feet away, where she was hoping to find some kind of shelter. There weren't any caves like she'd hoped, but she finally found a little hollow where a big rock and the exposed root system of an old fallen tree formed a space just big enough for her to curl up inside.
Isabella huddled in on herself, wrapping her arms around her knees, shivering. The little hollow was filled with dry old leaves. She piled them up around her, burrowing into their warmth. A storm this powerful couldn't last forever. With any luck it would be over soon, and then she could try and find a way back home.
Now that the pain had subsided and she was out of the driving rain and wind, she could think a little more clearly. She had to be north of the town. If she simply headed south, she had to hit the road eventually. Of course "south" was a little hard to determine with the dark clouds covering the sky and hiding the sun. But moss always grew thickest on the western side of trees around here, because that was where the wind and rain came from. Isabella looked out at the swaying trees. That meant west had to be there, and then south had to be there. She'd have to head straight towards that old gnarled tree. Isabella fixed the landmark in her mind.
The storm was already subsiding. The wind had slowed down to not much more than a breeze. Unfortunately, the rain was still coming down in a thin, steady drizzle, and it didn't look like it was going to stop anytime soon.
Isabella knew she'd have to brave it. Her ankle had mostly stopped hurting and wouldn't get any better from her sitting around in the cold and dampness, and she was already frozen through to her bones. Staying here any longer would mean risking hypothermia. And it wasn't like anyone knew she was out here. No one would even miss her until she failed to show up to market tomorrow, and even then they might not immediately realize something had happened to her. Darn it, if only she'd taken her cell phone… But that was probably lying on the kitchen table, as usual. Isabella had never quite gotten used to carrying the thing around.
There'd be no rescue party for her. No, she had to save herself.
Isabella ripped several long strips of fabric from the bottom of the dress and wrapped them firmly around her ankle. She slowly got to her feet. Her ankle still hurt if she put any weight on it at all, but at least with the wrappings giving it some stability, it didn't buckle beneath her anymore. She picked up her improvised crutch, gritted her teeth, and began to hobble south.
***
Ryan's bear had been restless for days. He'd spent too much time cooped up inside, hammering out business deals, and now his bear was desperate to get out and stretch his legs. He didn't usually go out into the woods this close to town, too much risk of people seeing him, but the thought of spending an hour in the car after today was unbearable.
Shifting into his bear form felt like finally being able to breathe again. Ryan trotted out into the woods, feeling the fresh air on his pelt and the springy moss beneath his paws. It was beautiful outside, although he could already smell the upcoming storm in the air.
He froze when he heard steps in front of him. He always tried his hardest to avoid being seen. His enormous bear form tended to scare the hell out of people. But the woods were pretty sparse around here, and there wasn't much cover. Ryan ducked behind a big tree, which didn't do as much to hide his big bear form as he would have liked.
A woman was walking down the path. Her loose sundress flowed around her body, emphasizing the soft, feminine shape of her breasts and hips. Her hair fell in honey golden curls down her back. She was humming softly to herself. Ryan tilted his head to listen, charmed. He recognized her now. It was the honey delivery woman, the one who'd seen him swimming in the pond.
He'd only gotten a glimpse of her at the time: a small, curvy figure with wide blue eyes in a round, rosy face. When she'd seen him watching, she'd shied away like a startled deer. He'd been able to sense her sweet honey smell in the air long after she had left.
His bear recognized that smell now, and was straining towards it. Before he knew it, Ryan had taken a step towards her. He stopped himself immediately, but it was already too late. The woman turned around at the sound of the leaves rustling. Her eyes went wide with terror when she saw him.
Ryan sat very still, trying his best to look as nonthreatening as it was possible to be while wearing a form that was essentially a solid wall of muscles and claws. The woman slowly, carefully backed away from him. She had a lot of sense, Ryan thought approvingly. A lot of people started running at the sight of him in his shifted form, which, if he had really been a wild animal, would have triggered an attack for sure. She clearly knew better than that.
But then she slipped on a stone, and her feet almost went out from under her. Ryan lunged towards her, instinctively preparing to catch her, before he realized that while he was in this bear form, she certainly wouldn't appreciate the attempt.
The woman made a terrified sound, whirled around, and started running. For a moment, the bear's instincts almost overwhelmed him. Don't let her leave! Go after her! Protect her! He took two great, pounding leaps after her before he came to his senses and got the bear under control. He couldn't follow her like that; he'd scare her half to death.
The woman ducked into a thicket, and again Ryan admired how well she thought on her feet. If he'd been hunting her, he wouldn't have been able to follow her into the dense brush.
He looked after her in mingled worry and regret. He really would've liked to talk to her. He hoped she'd gone somewhere safe. The wind was already picking up, and the storm was close.
At least she'd run in roughly the right direction towards town. He hoped she'd make it back safely, before the rain started.
Fool! Why did you let her get away? his bear grumbled at him.
Ryan trotted back to his house amidst the first drops of rain, and had barely ducked inside the door when it started really coming down. The rain pounded loudly on the roof. He thought of the woman again. He hoped she'd gotten home in time.
Look for her! Find her! his bear urged him. Ryan gritted his teeth and ignored him. His bear had been lonely for a long time now, that was all.
Two hours later, Ryan was just settling
down in his armchair in front of the fire when the crack of a bough started him upright. The woods had been noisy with the sound of the storm all evening, so he wasn't sure why this particular sound felt so important.
It's probably nothing, just the wind or some kind of animal, he told himself. But his bear was urging him to investigate the sound, and the bear's instincts were rarely wrong. Ryan pulled on his thick leather jacket and headed out into the driving rain.
A woman was staggering out of the woods, bracing heavily on an improvised crutch. With a jolt, Ryan recognized her as the honey woman. Her thin summer dress was soaked through and almost entirely translucent. She was limping badly, barely keeping herself upright. Ryan hurried towards her.
"Are you all right?"
"That's a bear in the woods!" Her voice was shaking. "A huge grizzly—I swear I'm not making this up! I got lost running away from it."
Ryan cringed inside. Oh no! Bad enough he'd scared her at all, but apparently he was responsible for her getting lost in the storm, too. He hated to think that she'd gotten hurt because of him.
"You're soaked through. Here, take this," he said, handing her his leather jacket.
She wrapped it around her shoulders with a sigh of relief. "Thank you," she said.
"I'm Ryan Steele," Ryan said, holding out his hand.
"I know," she said, and then blushed fiercely. "I mean, um. Isabella Starling. Nice to meet you."
She looked around. "Oh, I'm so sorry, did I walk onto your property? I know this is private ground, I'm sorry. I got really turned around."
"Don't worry about it," Ryan said. "Come on, let's get you inside and out of those wet clothes."
He could've bitten his tongue off the moment the words came out of his mouth and he could hear how they sounded. The last thing he wanted was to make her uncomfortable.
But Isabella didn't seem to take it the wrong way. "Thank you so much," she said. "I'd just walk home, it's not that far from here, but I twisted my ankle pretty badly…"
"Don't worry about it," Ryan said, wincing. After all, it was his fault that she'd gotten hurt, and he couldn't even apologize for it. The least he could do was make sure she got warmed up and home safe.
"Here, let me help you. Put your arm around my shoulder."
She was much smaller than him, so he had to duck down quite a bit to get his arm beneath her shoulders to support her. It was an awkward angle. It would have been easier to pick her up and carry her. But that would probably freak her out.
They staggered awkwardly inside the house. He helped her into one of the armchairs in front of the fire. Ryan took a moment to stoke the flames into a blazing roar and then knelt down in front of her.
"Let me take a look at your ankle. Do you want me to call an ambulance?"
"I'm pretty sure it's just twisted," Isabella said. "I don't think it's bad enough to need a doctor."
Ryan unwrapped the strips of fabric around her ankle. She must have torn the fabric off the bottom of her dress. He carefully cupped her ankle in his hands. It was slightly swollen, and she'd probably have one hell of a bruise there tomorrow, but he didn't think it was broken. He ran the tips of his fingers along the lines of her bones, letting the bear's sensitive senses guide him. No, he couldn't feel a fracture anywhere.
"I think it's fine," he said. "Can I try something? There's a little trick I know that might help with the swelling."
"Of course," Isabella said.
Ryan carefully set his thumbs on her shin, just above where the worst of the swelling began, and gently started stroking upwards towards her knee in smooth, even strokes, encouraging the swelling to dissipate and the aching muscles to let go their tension.
"Oh, that feels good," Isabella said, sounding slightly breathless.
He looked up at her, and suddenly became aware of how close they were. Her soaked-through dress clung to every millimeter of her luscious curves. The torn, ragged hem only came down to the middle of her thighs.
God, how beautiful she is, he thought, and his bear roared in approval. His cock was swelling in his pants. This close to her, her sweet scent seemed to surround him. She smelled of honey and flowers and sunny summer days. He desperately wanted to bury his head in her lap and inhale her.
Ryan gently set her foot back down, but remained crouched in front of her for a moment, urging his body to calm down before he had to stand up and his raging hard cock would be obvious.
She's wet and cold and in pain and you already scared her half to death once today, he admonished himself sternly. Behave.
"Why don't you go take a shower to warm up while I find you something to wear?" he said. He really needed a few minutes alone to calm down.
***
Isabella stared around with wide eyes. This was only a guest bathroom, but it was big enough that her entire college apartment could have fit inside with room to spare. The shower would have had space for five people at the same time.
The walls were made of a beautiful pale marble with shimmering blue veins running through it. The fixtures on the shower were complicated enough that she suspected they probably came with an operating manual. She pushed buttons at random. Hot water started pattering down onto her shoulders like a tropical rainfall, warming her icy skin.
Isabella moaned with pleasure. She could have stayed in this shower forever. The only thing that could possibly make it better was if Ryan were to join her.
She blushed at the thought. Up close, he was even more gorgeous than she'd thought in the quick glimpse she'd gotten of him in the water. The pictures of him she'd seen in the celebrity magazines couldn't hold a candle to the reality. When he'd knelt down to look at her ankle, she'd looked down at the broad span of his shoulders, outlined to perfection by his expensively tailored shirt, and felt like a queen looking down at her knight.
She shook off the fanciful thought, ducking her head back under the spray of water. Ryan was a good person helping out a silly woman who'd gotten herself lost in the wilderness, that was all. He was a billionaire, for God's sake. He could have a different supermodel on his arm any day of the week. What reason would a man like that have to ever look twice at a plain girl like her?
You don't even want him to look twice, she reminded herself sternly. Falling in love only got you hurt.
And yet, every time she thought of the way he'd been stroking her leg, she felt a tingle between her thighs. It had been a medical massage designed to ease her pain, she reminded herself. But his big hands had been so gentle and deft. Just the memory made her pussy clench hungrily.
There was a quiet knock on the bathroom door. Isabella wrapped herself in one of his huge, fluffy white towels and opened the door a crack.
Ryan stuck one hand through the crack, holding out a shirt. He hadn't even tried to sneak a peek at her, Isabella thought appreciatively; he was a real gentleman. And then she realized with a pang that he probably wasn't interested in sneaking any peeks at her at all.
Billionaire. Of course he's not interested, she reminded herself. She vaguely remembered seeing pictures of his ex-fiancé, who'd looked like a supermodel and been some sort of enormously successful business consultant. If he was used to women like that, of course she didn't rate a second glance.
"I don't think I have a single pair of pants that'll fit you," Ryan said, sounding chagrined. Isabella held his shirt up in front of her. It had been tailored for his enormously broad shoulders and powerful chest. On her, the tails would probably come down to mid thigh, which was almost a respectable length, and certainly longer than her poor torn dress had been at the end. When she pulled it on, it exposed rather more of her chubby thighs than she would have liked. But trying to wear a pair of his pants, when he was so much taller than her and built completely differently, wouldn't look any better.
"This works," she said.
***
Ryan's breath caught when he saw Isabella coming out of the bathroom clad in nothing but his shirt. She smelled like him, the scent of his shamp
oo and his clothes mingling with hers. Every other bear who saw her would instantly know she was his, his bear thought smugly.
Stop it, Ryan told himself.
She wasn't his, and she couldn't be.
"Sit down for a minute. I brought some bandages for your foot," he said. He made himself keep his eyes on his hands while he wrapped her ankle. It took real effort to keep himself from stealing peeks at the tantalizing glimpse of her thighs bared by his shirt.
"Are you hungry?" he asked, when he was done. "I was just about to take dinner out of the oven when I heard you outside."
"Oh, I can't possibly impose on your dinner," Isabella said. "You've already helped me so much."
"Nonsense, I've hardly done anything," Ryan said, wincing. She had no idea that he was the whole source of her troubles in the first place. "Really, I'd love to have you join me for dinner. And I can't possibly make you go out into that weather. Stay another hour, get properly warm. We'll eat, and then I'll call you a taxi. How does that sound?"
"That sounds great, thank you very much," Isabella said.
She followed him to the kitchen. Ryan took the pair of oven mitts off a hook on the wall and used them to take the big roast pan out of the oven.
Isabella looked around his kitchen. Ryan couldn't help watching her for her reaction. He tried his best to make the mansion a comfortable and inviting place to live despite its intimidating size, and the kitchen was part of the heart of his den.
"I wouldn't have thought that a billionaire would know his way around a kitchen," Isabella said.
"I like my privacy, so the last thing I want is a cook around all the time. I got tired of take-out," Ryan said with a smile.
"A man who knows how to give a foot massage and how to cook? You're going to make a woman very happy one day."
