"I—" Her throat was dry, and tight with wanting. "My cat can't stand the thought of leaving you. I don't want to leave you, either. I want to stay with you, Thor."
There was that smile again. It warmed her from the inside out.
"Do you want to know what my bear is telling me?" Thor asked.
She nodded, her eyes never leaving.
"It wants to protect you. It wants to wake up next to you every morning, Cassie, just like I do," he said, his voice low and passionate. "I want you in my life. I want you."
His touch left her cheek. He reached for her hand and raised it to his lips. His beard brushed the back of her hand, and she shivered at the sensation.
Then he kissed her ring finger, his lips and breath warm against her skin.
"Will you be my mate, Cassandra Long?"
This time, she didn't hesitate.
"Yes," she said and leaned over to kiss his mouth. "Yes, I will."
She had stepped forward at last and found that there was no abyss, after all. Just Thor…her intended mate.
Thor took his time returning the kiss with gentle thoroughness. When their lips finally parted, his eyes were glowing with happiness.
"How about we make this a short day of driving and find ourselves a nice comfortable hotel somewhere in Ogden or Salt Lake City?" he suggested.
Cassie smiled at him. "I'd like that…especially since we've got some unfinished business to take care of."
Thor chuckled. "Believe me, I remember." His expression sobered. "I promise I'll make it good for you, Cassie. We can go as fast or as slow as you want. Anything to make you comfortable."
"Thank you," she told him, warmed by his concern. "But 'comfortable' is pretty far down on my list right now."
"What's at the top of your list?" he asked, raising his brows.
She smiled shyly at him. "Seeing you naked again. You're one hot firefighter, Mr. Swanson."
* * *
Overcome by the demands of his healing body, Thor fell asleep about fifteen minutes down the highway.
Cassie, aware that he had overdone it by a considerable margin this morning, let him sleep until it was time to stop for lunch.
Anyway, it felt good to have some time alone with her thoughts as the miles rolled by, her music playing softly on the iPod plugged into the car's stereo and Thor sleeping peacefully in the passenger seat.
I'm going to be mated. To a man I met two days ago.
She turned that concept over and over in her mind, waiting for the Oh no! moment to hit. Waiting for confirmation that she'd just made a huge mistake.
But regret never came. No matter how often she considered her decision, it felt utterly right.
Thor was hers, just as her cat had declared yesterday on the drive from Colorado. And she was his. And it just felt right.
He was as much a part of her soul now as her cat. He was hers, and she was his, and she felt whole at last.
Her pulse raced, and she felt butterflies churning in her stomach as she contemplated the next step: having sex with him to seal their mating bond.
After their interrupted makeout session this morning, she was actually looking forward to going all the way with him.
She knew he could make it good, very good for her. She just wanted it to be good for him too. But the specter of Ed Baldwin still stood between them.
Thor woke up as they approached Ogden, located on the eastern side of the Great Salt Lake.
"How do you feel?" she asked, as he yawned and stretched within the confines of his seatbelt.
"Better," he assured her. "My arm and leg stopped hurting a couple of hours ago." He flexed the fingers of his right hand. "I think things are finally starting to heal up."
"Oh, that's great news!" Cassie said with genuine enthusiasm.
"As long as you're gentle with me tonight and don't break me," he added dryly.
She laughed at the mental image of the New Braunfels Pride's Fraidy-Cat trying to beat a huge grizzly bear. "I'll try to keep that in mind. I am a fierce sabertooth after all."
"Yes, yes you are," he agreed, without a trace of irony. "Remember, I saw you in action this morning. You took on two tough guy shifters, and you didn't even hesitate."
"Yeah, but I didn't—" she began to point out.
"Cassie," Thor interrupted her with gentle good humor. "Just accept the compliment, okay? Don't try to argue me out of thinking you're beautiful and brave. I'm a stubborn Swanson bear. I can tell you right now it's not gonna work."
"But—"
"Just smile and say thank you, even if you think I'm delusional…which I'm not, by the way," he added with a grin.
Cassie sighed loudly, trying to hide how pleased her cat was by his compliment.
He was the only one who'd ever called her brave. She decided she liked it. "Thank you."
His grin widened. "Good. I think we're off to an excellent start with this mating business. It's my job to compliment you, and it's your job to accept said compliments."
"So what happens if I compliment you?" she asked coyly. "For example, if I tell you that you're the hottest guy I've ever met and that your bear can totally kick the ass of any two sabertooth cats?"
He made a show of considering her question seriously, but she could see the smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. "I tell you that we're a perfect match? You're the beauty, and I'm the brawn?"
"Thor!" she exclaimed and was overcome by giggles.
She realized she trusted him completely, and that was why she could let her guard down and laugh whenever he said something outrageous and funny.
"Hey, you want to hand me your phone so I can look for a hotel?" he asked. "And a place to eat lunch? I'm definitely ready for lunch."
"Okay," she said. She dug in the center console and handed him her phone.
"And I was thinking that maybe we could enjoy a nice shower together before we took an afternoon nap," he continued. "And then we could go out for ice cream once we were thoroughly, uh, rested."
The sensual drawl in his voice and the look in his eyes clued Cassie in that "resting" was the last thing on his mind right now.
Stopping in the middle of the day so that they could spend the afternoon in bed sounded utterly decadent.
"Ice cream?" she teased. "You promise?"
"Only if you're a good girl," he said huskily, and warmth kindled between her thighs.
"You know, I've heard that some hotel rooms come with a hot tub. That would be easier on your leg than standing in a shower, don't you think?"
"Cassie, you're a genius! Definitely the brains of this partnership. And since we're in the middle of the desert here, I think we'll need to conserve water and share that hot tub," he said solemnly, tapping the hotel finder app icon on her phone's screen. "I'll get right on that."
* * *
The hotel room that Thor booked for them turned out to be a honeymoon suite.
It was bigger than Cassie's off-campus apartment had been, with a huge bathroom that featured a deep spa tub with jets, a luxuriously appointed living room area…and only one bed in the bedroom.
She put her suitcase and Thor's duffel bag down in the bedroom and stopped to study the bed with a flutter of anticipation. It was king-sized.
The room looked freshly renovated and smelled clean, with just the faintest trace of scents from other people who had slept here.
Thor came up behind her, limping only slightly now, though he still wore both casts.
He slid his arms around her. She felt a hot jolt of sensation as his lips brushed her ear. "So…lunch first, or do you want to tend to our unfinished business?"
She turned in his arms and rested her cheek against his chest, inhaling his scent. His heart beat steadily under her ear.
"I don't know," she murmured. "I have the feeling that if we don't go out now, we may end up ordering room service for lunch and dinner."
"You say that like it's a bad thing," he teased. "Remember, I've got a credit card, and I'm n
ot afraid to use it." His hand cupped her cheek. "And I've been thinking about you all day. Before we were so rudely interrupted this morning, you were about to come for me. I still want to see that."
Desire kindled, hot and urgent, in the pit of her belly. She went up on tiptoes and kissed him hungrily.
Room service for lunch was beginning to sound awfully tempting, never mind the cost. She still had her final paycheck in her purse. It wasn't much, but it would cover the cost of a meal or two…
Thor's stomach growled, and she broke the kiss, laughing.
"As tempting as your offer is, let's go out to lunch." She added, "And let's find a drugstore while we're at it."
His brows shot up.
"We, uh, need some stuff. Condoms. I'm not using any birth control right now."
She held her breath, wondering if he had assumed that their mating would result in her trying to get pregnant as quickly as possible. That was how things worked among sabertooth shifters.
Adults of her lineage cherished every child born to a pride…at least until they hit adolescence, and the brutal struggle for a place in the hierarchy began.
Did Thor even want children? She did, someday, but first she needed to find a place where she'd be safe from Ed Baldwin.
"I hadn't even thought about that," Thor said apologetically. "Sure. Let's get some food and go shopping. But we're definitely doing room service for dinner."
Cassie relaxed at his answer. They had so much to talk about before taking the next step to seal their mating bond. At least Thor appeared willing to have a fair discussion about vital aspects of their mating.
Yeah, we should definitely go to lunch first. That's the sensible thing to do, no matter how badly you want to rip his clothes off right now.
But being sensible didn't stop her from casting a regretful look at the bed as she followed Thor out of the bedroom.
Chapter 13 – Sealed
Over a leisurely lunch at a restaurant just around the corner from the hotel, Thor told her that he was beginning to remember more details about his pre-accident life.
As they both devoured racks of delicious short ribs slathered in a tangy, spicy barbeque sauce, he described his apartment, located near the airport that served as the smokejumper base.
His place sounded like a typical bachelor pad, with minimal furnishings and a big TV, but also nicer than some of the places that Cassie had been living over the past eighteen months.
"We can move closer to downtown, if you end up enrolling in a gradate program at the University of Colorado," he offered. "Which reminds me—there's something you should know about my job."
"That you jump out of airplanes?" she teased.
He grinned at her and reached over to steal one of her sweet potato fries. "Well, yeah. But you already knew about that."
Then his expression turned serious. "I'm not going to be around much during fire season. They fly us out to wherever the wildfires are. I might be in California one week, assisting the Redding Hotshots, then they might send us to Montana to serve as backup for the Missoula Smokejumpers. Plus, all of the smokejumpers pretty much live in a dormitory on base during the summer and fall months, so that we can deploy on short notice if they need us."
"I kind of expected that," Cassie said.
"And you're okay with that? A lot of people think that smokejumping isn't really the kind of lifestyle that's compatible with serious relationships or having a family."
"I'll know I'll miss you and worry about you whenever you're off somewhere fighting a fire, but if things work out, I'll be busy doing research for my thesis and probably teaching undergraduate biology classes." She looked at him through her lashes. "We can set up date nights…or afternoons."
She could see Thor relax subtly at her answer. Did he think I was going to demand that he give up his job?
He loved being a smokejumper. She'd only known him a short time, but that had been one of the first things she'd learned about him.
She would never take that away from him.
Cassie studied him across the table. "Are you okay with not starting a family right away? We might be fated mates, but I think it would be good to have some time to get to know each other first before we commit to having babies."
"Yeah, I'd like kids, someday. But not right now," he said. "And I'm glad to hear that you'll be okay if I'm not around much during fire season."
"Well, they do say that absence makes the heart grow fonder," she said, toying with one of her fries. "I'm hoping that we'll be able to sleep apart once our mating bond is sealed. And we can look forward to having reunion sex."
He brightened. "I like that plan."
But his warning brought up another issue if she was going to be on her own in Denver for weeks at a time…
"What do we do about Ed Baldwin?" she asked quietly. "I know him. He thinks I belong to him, and he's never going to stop looking for me."
Thor frowned. "Not if he's in jail."
He leaned forward and put his hand over hers.
"Would you be willing to press charges against him for assaulting you? Especially with all of your scars…he really did a number on you." She saw a shimmer of gold pass over his eyes. "My brother Mark is a lawyer. He could give you some advice on the best way to go about that."
If that's what it takes. Cassie opened her mouth to answer and remembered that if she did press charges against him, she might have to face Baldwin in court someday.
An image of Baldwin rose up in her mind from the last time she'd seen him. He'd been naked and laughing uproariously at her attempts to fight him off…
She shuddered and suddenly felt like she couldn't breathe. Her heart was hammering inside her chest as an invisible band of panic tightened around her ribs, forcing her to gasp for air.
Thor was there in a flash, standing behind her, his hands on her shoulders, his scent surrounding her. "Hey, it's okay. Just breathe. You don't have to do anything you don't want to, Cassie. We'll find another way, I promise. I'll protect you."
Thor's touch and his scent helped her regain control after a few moments. The choking feeling gradually eased, and Cassie became aware of a feeling of embarrassment supplanting the panic.
Some of the people seated at nearby tables were staring at her. She hated making scenes or calling attention to herself and had to fight the urge to stand up and run away.
Thor ignored them.
"I've got your back now, Cassie," he said in a low voice. "I'll always have your back. My mom always told us that Swansons look out for their own."
She reached up and gripped his hands, feeling calm and gratitude flow through her.
Someday, she might get used to the sensation of knowing that Thor wanted to protect her. But right now, it still felt like a fricking miracle.
On the heels of that feeling came another: overwhelming desire. She wanted Thor, and she wanted him now.
"Hey, how about that bath you promised me?" she asked.
His fingers tightened. "I'll flag down the waiter so that we can pay and leave."
* * *
Cassie was feeling breathless again by the time they returned to the honeymoon suite, but it was from anticipation rather than panic this time.
On the way back from the restaurant, Thor had stopped in at a drugstore and emerged with several boxes of condoms.
"Don't tell me," Cassie teased as she eyed the large paper bag. "You're seriously worried that we're going to run out?"
She was honestly curious. She'd never dated another shifter. All three Ordinaries she'd slept with while at college had been "one and done."
Thor did his best to look down at her with a deadpan expression, but his mouth was twitching with a barely suppressed smile. "I can see you've never slept with a bear shifter before."
"No, and now you've got me worried," she joked.
In truth, she felt only a slight flutter of nerves as they directed their steps back to their hotel.
But her words stopped him
in his tracks. "Do you want to…wait?"
"God, no!" she exclaimed.
Thor huffed out a breath of relief. "Good."
"But thank you for asking," she said, slipping her hand into his. "It means a lot to me that you care what I want."
That made him frown. "Why wouldn't I care? You're my date, and hopefully, my mate."
And that was when she realized that what she felt for Thor was more than just sheer physical attraction or gratitude. He was a good person, through and though.
And soon he was going to be hers, always and forever. How'd I get so lucky?
The realization dizzied her, and she clung to his hand all the way to their suite on the hotel's top floor.
Once they had made it safely inside and locked the door securely behind them, Cassie went to draw the bath.
When the water was running, she returned to the suite's living room and did what she had been wanting to do all throughout lunch.
She removed Thor's sling, wrapped her arms around his neck, and pressed herself against him from knees to chest. Then she kissed him with slow appreciation and a lot of tongue. His heartbeat accelerated as he cupped her ass in his big hands and returned the kiss hungrily.
Cassie kissed her way down his neck and enjoyed the sensation of his pulse throbbing against her lips. She nipped lightly at his throat, received a groan in response, and found herself pinned against the nearest wall.
Oh yeah, he liked that, she thought with a trace of smugness as she felt a hard bulge pressing against her belly.
Thor bent his head and nibbled his way deliberately around the curve of her ear, sending hot shivers of pleasure shooting down her spine.
She tugged impatiently at the hem of his T-shirt, pulling it up to expose his deliciously muscled torso. Cassie ran greedy hands over his warm skin as she pushed the shirt up over his chest.
His eyes more gold than hazel now, Thor eagerly raised his arms so she could remove the T-shirt entirely.
Panting with excitement, she yanked it over his head and flung it away before flattening her palms against his delightfully hairy chest. She wanted to touch every inch of him, wanted to discover all the places that turned him on.
"My turn," Thor said hoarsely, and she felt his fingers at her waist, pulling her own T-shirt out of her jeans.
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