Whatever they had was clearly too big for him to comprehend. And she was starting to wonder if it would be the undoing of them both.
9.
“I don’t think I have ever been as hungover as I was when I woke up underneath that table this morning…” Gwen said before she picked up a huge glass of water and began to down it in one.
Amanda wrinkled up her nose as she watched her, not at all missing that feeling of dehydration and hunger that she hadn’t experienced since her college days.
“Honestly, when the cleaner started to try and move me, I almost punched her!” Gwen laughed. “I watched it back on the CCTV with Ryder and we laughed our asses off at it.”
Amanda smiled and shook her head.
“You are far too wild for your own good sometimes,” she laughed. “I can’t believe you’re awake and here with me now, raring to go again.”
“I wouldn’t say raring to go,” Gwen smirked. “But this food should make me feel a whole lot better.”
She slapped her stomach and turned to look towards the kitchen.
The girls had found a lovely restaurant on Main Street which looked to be family-owned and run. It was Italian, with delicious foods on the menu, a feast of pasta and carbs and exactly what Gwen had been craving since Amanda had found her back at the hotel.
They sat and looked around, admiring the food on people’s plates and wondering how long theirs would be. Amanda had ordered a steak and a large leafy salad, but Gwen had gone all out and decided on carbonara and garlic bread. She was tapping her nails eagerly on the table and licking her lips.
Amanda had been thinking about Dean the whole time since she had walked away from him at the Ranger’s Office, but she had also thought a lot about Lilith too. If it was just the two of them, then was it really surprising that Dean was so guarded and stand off-ish? He must have been hurt somewhere along the line, and Amanda couldn’t even imagine what it must be like for him to try and raise a child alone.
“You look deep in thought,” Gwen said as she poured herself another glass of water. “I’ll give you a penny for them?” she winked.
“Oh, it’s nothing,” Amanda brushed it off. “I’m just tired that’s all.”
“I know, I’m so sorry,” Gwen cringed. “I really do feel terrible that you were so worried. When the sheriff cornered me on Main Street and asked what had been going on, I almost died of shame.”
“It’s okay, I’m just so glad nothing terrible had happened,” she smiled. “How was it back at the bar?”
Gwen scrunched up her mouth and cocked her head to the side.
“It was fun,” she said finally. “But also, a little weird. I don’t get this place, one minute it’s like it’s completely perfect, and then the next it feels like all hell is about to break loose.”
Amanda was listening, but her mind instantly travelled back to Dean, and to Lilith. Lilith had hinted that something was going on there in Bridge Hollow too, and that her dad knew the truth. Amanda started to play with her bracelet and found herself staring into space.
“But I still think we should go back there tonight,” Gwen grinned. “They have a band playing and I told Ryder we would check it out.”
Amanda looked at Gwen and even though she wanted to roll her eyes and tell her off, she had to reason that they were on vacation, and sitting in a bar watching a band was hardly a great misadventure.
“Okay,” she said reluctantly. “But this time if you go missing and I don’t see you for breakfast, I won’t be alerting the entire town.”
Gwen threw her head back and laughed.
“Hell, don’t worry. I’m not drinking tonight, and I will certainly be coming back with you.”
“Good, good,” Amanda mused.
The waitress appeared at the table with their plates, and Amanda could feel her mouth begin to water as soon as she set it down. The steak looked better than any she had ever seen before, it was big and fat, brown and sealed on the outside but still bloody in the middle. She could already taste it and grabbed her cutlery before Gwen even had her meal in front of her.
“Damn,” Gwen joked. “You would think you’d never eaten before.”
Amanda smiled as she shoveled in a big piece of steak, and then she couldn’t think or talk anymore. The food was so incredible, it was like butter melting in her mouth and the smell was so exquisite and decadent she felt as if she were sinking into a soft, fluffy pillow.
She moaned as she chewed and tasted each tiny bit of meat. It were as if her senses were on overload.
“Are you okay?” Gwen said.
When Amanda opened her eyes and looked at her, Gwen was staring at her as if she were mad.
She put her knife and fork down on the table and dabbed the side of her mouth with her serviette. She hadn’t realized that she was so hungry, but she had easily devoured the entire steak in a matter of seconds. Gwen looked concerned but also amused, and then she shook her head and dived fork first into her own meal.
Amanda sat back in her chair and stared down at her plate, a complete sense of bewilderment taking hold of her and pulling her down further and further.
What on earth had just happened to her?
She had never tasted food like it, it was as if she was a junkie trying to get her fix.
As she started to snap out of her trance, there was one thing that she was aware of and it made her sit upright and touch the top of her arm.
The place on her shoulder where Dean had touched her, felt like it was throbbing.
She didn’t know how, or why she knew… but she felt like he was calling her.
As it approached 9pm, the girls had finished their meals, paid the check, and were walking back into Shifter’s Bliss.
Amanda’s memory of the night before was hazy, and she was sure that the place looked much more friendly and welcoming than it had seemed. Gwen waved to Ryder behind the bar, and she took hold of Amanda’s arm as she led her toward a table in the corner.
At one side of the room, the stage was set and there was a drum kit, two guitars and a microphone standing proudly and waiting for someone to take them and bring the place to life.
The lights were low, and the girls bounded over to their table and Gwen pulled out a seat and told Amanda to sit down.
“Everything is on me tonight,” Gwen said. “And don’t hold back. What can I get you?”
Amanda shrugged and cast her eyes towards the refrigerators behind the bar.
“You know I’m not much of a drinker,” she said. “Just a soda will do.”
“Okay, okay,” Gwen said holding up her hands. “I’m not going to push you like I did last night.”
She moved away from the table and to the bar, and left Amanda sitting alone and looking around. The room was busier than it had been the previous evening, groups of men and women were forming at the front of the stage, and every booth around the edge of the room seemed to be taken. Amanda clasped her hands together in her lap and tried to lose herself in the moment. She had had such a strange couple of days, and now it seemed like her body was leading her off in an unnatural direction too. She had never felt so animalistic when it came to food before, and the fact that she had even ordered steak should have alerted her to the fact something wasn’t quite right. She had practically been a vegetarian for a year. Only eating chicken sparingly and occasionally fish, but she hadn’t touched red meat in a long, long time.
She bit her lip and shook the thought away.
You’re on vacation Amanda, she thought. This is probably what happens when you start to relax and stop overthinking things… you enjoy life instead of suffering through it.
Gwen appeared next to her and placed down two sodas and the girls clunked their glasses together just as the band took to the stage.
Each musician took their place and within seconds the whole bar was shaking with heavy music and the screech of their guitars. Gwen got to her feet and whooped and cheered, and Amanda soon followed her and stood to get a
better view.
As she was watching them, it wasn’t long before her shoulder began to tingle and the hairs on the back of her neck stood on end. She could feel eyes on her, and she knew she was being observed. She could sense him, even if she couldn’t see him, and she felt a twinge of excitement in her panties and her heart picked up its pace.
She reached down and grabbed her purse and then she whispered to Gwen that she was just going to the bathroom. She darted through the crowd, not looking or trying to find him, but as she pushed her way through the mass throng of bodies, she knew he was behind her.
She felt herself be hunted.
She stopped a few meters in front of the door to the bathroom and turned around, expecting to see him there, but it was just the backs of people watching the band. Disappointment momentarily raged through her, until out of nowhere, and to the side, he appeared and she felt his hands on her waist pushing her lightly backwards and up against the wall.
His hands were hot and heavy, and his face was close to hers. He looked down on her, his breath fast on her face and her mouth open, wanting to reach for his.
He held her there and they looked into each other’s eyes. He was so dark and intense, and she could see the lust within him. He had been fighting it the night before, and he had been fighting it all day when they had been out on the mountain. But now, in the middle of Shifter’s Bliss, it was becoming clear that Dean wasn’t going to be able to fight it for much longer.
He reached up and traced his finger down the side of her face, down to her jawline where he cupped her chin and tilted it up so that her mouth was angled towards his. Amanda was frozen in place. Her pussy was soaking wet and her body was rigid. She wanted him so badly and being this close to him was like standing on the edge of a cliff and waiting to jump off into an abyss.
She didn’t know what was coming, but she could tell it was going to be exciting.
His eyes pinned her there against the wall, and his hands held onto her waist as she reached up and wrapped her arms around his neck.
“Dean…” she whispered.
But before she could say another word, he kissed her hot and hard on the mouth, taking her breath away.
He slipped his tongue against hers, and with each kiss and movement he pinned her closer to the wall, his body brushing up against hers and pressing down on her. She found herself angling up towards him, pulling him closer, letting his tongue explore her mouth as she did the same to him. The kiss was intense and deep, it made her nipples hard and aching and she moaned as he reached up and took hold of her neck and jaw. When their lips broke apart, it was as if there was a spark between them, a deep connection that had been forging since the first moment they had set eyes on each other, but as if it had just been sealed in that moment.
“Amanda,” he whispered as he looked into her eyes.
He was so intense, so dark and mysterious, and so, so hot, his skin was on fire. He was something else, she could sense it. He was powerful and magical and there was something animalistic about him. Something that at this moment she would never be able to understand or explain.
He didn’t say another word as he backed away through the crowd and she stood there alone, feeling cloaked in darkness and cold without his heat and light. Her whole body tingled, much like her shoulder had, and her lips were hot and alive, wanting more.
She wasn’t letting him get away this time and she lunged forward, grabbing hold of his arm just before he was out of sight and she pulled herself towards him, bumping into the crowd as he turned around and took hold of her by the waist and stared at her again, deep in the eyes.
“What is happening?” she asked him.
The music was loud, vibrating through the floor and drowning out all other sound around them, but she knew he could hear. Because she could hear him too.
“I told you, you’re mine,” he said.
Her heart thumped on in her chest, and she furrowed her brow, unsure if she had heard him right.
“What do you mean?” she asked.
Dean smiled and then he dropped his hands from his waist. She could tell that he was going to move away from her again, and this time she felt as if she wasn’t going to be able to stop him.
“Tomorrow,” he said as he leaned in and whispered in her ear. “Come and see me tomorrow.”
He pulled back and looked at her before he leaned in again and kissed her once more on the cheek.
When his lips connected with her skin, it was as if she had been zapped with ice cold water. An intense shock which then faded to gooey, gorgeous warmth.
He had a magic touch, and she was starting to crave it.
As he disappeared into the crowds, Amanda could barely catch her breath.
What had just happened…
Had it even been real?
She made her way back to the table in a daze and found Gwen dancing alone and shaking her stuff. She smiled but didn’t notice that anything was wrong, and Amanda tried her best to bring herself round. But it was hopeless.
She was well and truly gone.
She was in a spiral of longing and lust, wanting Dean and aching to be next to him again.
She wasn’t just hooked.
She was well and truly screwed.
“That was the best night I’ve had in a long while,” Gwen said as they left Shifter’s Bliss close to midnight and began the short walk back to The Hollow Hotel. Gwen had danced and entertained herself all night long, whilst Amanda had stood with her quietly, pretending to be watching the band when really all she could focus on was each little part of her body that felt alive and changed because of Dean.
She hadn’t told Gwen about him being there in the bar, and she hadn’t even told her that he was the ranger she had spent a good part of her day with. She was doing her best to play it cool, when really all she wanted to do was dance and make an official announcement in the town newspaper. She could imagine the headline…
I, AMANDA, AN OUT-OF-TOWNER, AM FALLING FOR DEAN, THE RANGER OF BRIDGE HOLLOW… AGAINST ALL MY BETTER JUDGEMENT.
She cringed at the thought.
She didn’t have any idea what was happening to her, or why she felt this way. After doing her best to avoid any kind of relationship for the better part of six years, it seemed bizarre that she had started to have feelings like this.
And not just feelings… it was way more than that.
This was something out of this world.
It was something big, powerful and completely out of her comprehension.
Whatever Dean was awakening in her was as exciting as it was frightening, but she knew she owed it to herself to explore it.
He had said to find him tomorrow… and now it was going to take all her willpower and more to stop herself from breaking out of the hotel room in the middle of the night and roaming the streets of Bridge Hollow to find him.
He had triggered something in her and he was bringing her back to life after six years of denying herself love.
She didn’t know how she was going to handle this, whether anything would even come of it at all… but she knew one thing for certain and she was not about to compromise…
She wanted to kiss him again. She wanted him to hold her like he had in the bar, to trace his fingertips across her skin, to explore her with his tongue and to make her body tingle with life and fire.
She may not have been able to explain Dean, but she wanted to find out more and try. And now she knew he was interested in her too, she truly felt like there was no going back.
She had come to this town for a reason. And she was becoming swept up in something enchanting. Now, she was just going to have to see where each day would take her, and hope that they would be able to find some common ground.
10.
As morning approached, Amanda lay wide awake in bed after another night of wild dreams. Bears and wolves had chased her through the forest of Bridge Hollow, and she had found herself up on the mountainside where she and Dean had been the previou
s day.
She wandered alone, amongst the trees and the howling wind, aware of something dark and malevolent. Something not of this world that was coming closer and closer. There was a war coming, and she was one of the only people to know about it. She didn’t know how or why, but something in the way Dean looked at her, something in the way he touched her, the way he kissed her, it was as if he were feeding her the information. Passing over, to her. certain parts of his soul.
In her dreams, she had run and run, away from the black that was crusting over the mossy earth, and she had found herself at the door of a cabin in the woods.
She had knocked twice, and it had opened, only showing bright light before her. She turned to look back, and all she saw was death and decay. The places she had been no longer served her, she needed to embark on a new journey. She needed to follow her heart and forget the past.
A bear came out of the light and appeared in front of her, and she knew in her soul that she had to follow him.
This bear was going to show her the way.
This bear was her future.
Bright, strong and true…
She needed him, and he needed her…
She woke with a start, in a hot sweat, her hair damp and stuck to the back of her neck, and she had buried her face in the pillow. She breathed in and out quickly, her pulse torrid and unnatural.
The dream had both frightened her and inspired her.
Dean really was doing things to her body and mind.
Things she couldn’t explain.
She stared up at the ceiling and she could still feel the pulsing heat on her shoulders. It burned all the way up to her jaw, and each time she remembered how he had taken control and pushed her against the wall at Shifter’s Bliss, it made her pussy ache with longing.
Gwen slept soundly in the bed on the other side of the room, catching up on the previous two days of partying she had done, and Amanda thought of how she could break it to her that she may be going AWOL at some point that day. He had told her that he wanted to see her.
Bridge Hollow Shifters: The Complete Collection Page 7
