Bear-ly Loved

by M. L. Briers

  That wasn’t her style.

  She wasn’t Bonnie…

  “So, you found the delights of Ma’s bakery…”

  His deep voice was so damn sexy that she wondered how anyone could be unaffected by it.

  “Your … mother’s bakery?” She said, surprised, and he grinned. It was a damn fine grin – the man even got dimpled cheeks and everything.

  “No,” he gave a deep chuckle to match that deep gravelly voice and shook his head. “That’s the name of it.”

  “Oh,” she chucked with him. “Don’t I feel silly…?”

  “Easy mistake to make.” Karl said.

  Yeah, if you’re stupid – read the damn sign over the door – nitwit … she berated herself.

  “I’m just getting some stuff for the ride back to the city…” she offered and watched his eyebrows pull together over his nose…

  “You don’t live next door?” He seemed surprised and he looked a little disappointed.

  Wonderful … Karl thought. The nice one leaves and I get left with the bigot…

  “That’s Bonnie’s place. I was just helping her move,” Jenny explained. “I need to get back for work.” She lied.

  She’d blocked off a whole two weeks just to make sure that Bonnie was all settled, but she hadn’t needed to use it.

  She’d decided to spend the rest of the time vegging in bed until it was time to head back to the daily grind – that and visiting her little favourite coffee shop as much as she wanted … as much as the urge to consume sugary treats took her fancy, and it would take her fancy … a lot.

  “Not today you won’t…” A melodic voice rang out and stole her attention away from Karl.

  Jenny looked around, and there he was…

  Mr Tall, Dark, and so damn handsome that she could feel the elastic on her panties loosen just from having him staring back at her.

  He was the epitome of sex on a stick as he stood there with his backside resting against the bonnet of his fancy car. His arms were folded over his broad chest. His ankles were crossed, and he was giving her something of a hungry look.

  Jenny couldn’t say that she didn’t feel a rush of something similar sweep through her…

  “Excuse me?” Jenny had already forgotten what he’d said. She was far more interested in taking in the view…

  They seemed to grow them big and very sexy around this town … maybe Bonnie had the right idea after all.

  I could definitely live here with that view.

  It looked very tempting from where she was standing, but looks could be deceptive – she just needed to think about Bonnie for that home truth…

  “The rains last night washed out part of the road. It happens when you leave the big city for smalls-ville. It also means that they’ll be spending the next couple of days rebuilding it.” He offered her the explanation that she didn’t really care about – only that he was talking – that voice of his was as close to sinful as she’d ever heard before…

  “Stop it…” Karl growled at the man.

  He’d heard that tone and he’d seen the effect that it was having on the human female – the poor woman could barely concentrate on what she was hearing, let alone string a coherent sentence together…

  “Stop what?” Jenny asked, trying to drag her eyes away from the stranger and back towards Karl, but it didn’t seem to be happening for her … the man was glue and she was stuck.

  How the heck did that happen?

  “He knows what…” Karl growled a warning and his friend sighed.

  “Fine….” Bailey huffed. “Party pooper.”

  The vampire released Jenny from his gaze and the woman practically shook off the compelling need to stare at him. She dragged her eyes towards Karl…

  “What just happened…?” She looked more than a little confused and he couldn’t blame her.

  “Now don’t freak out on us…” Karl warned and watched her frown deepened…

  “The big, bad vampire had you in his sights,” Bailey said on a teasing grin, and her head whipped around as she stared at him, recognition of what he was slamming into mind like a car hitting a brick wall at high speed. “In more ways than one.”

  CHAPTER THREE

  ~

  “Oh … a …” Jenny grimaced as she bit down on the word…

  One word …

  Say it …

  Say it because you look like a total and complete idiot schoolgirl…

  “Vampire,” Bailey’s eyes flashed with amusement at her expense. “Yes. I figured if you didn’t have a problem talking to a shifter … then …” he shrugged his shoulders.

  “I don’t …” she hotly denied with a small shake of her head like she had to doubly confirm it.

  “Sure? Because you’re looking a little – I’ve seen a ghost – white.” Bailey teased some more.

  It kind of felt like a cat playing with a mouse before it went in for the kill, and she regretted even thinking it…

  “Her friend sure doesn’t like shifters…” Karl growled, dropping his eyes to the spot on the pavement that held little interest for him, but he was still smarting from the rejection when all he’d tried to be was neighbourly…

  He guessed some people just didn’t do nice – or accepting…

  “No, she doesn’t have a problem with…” Jenny said, flicking a look back towards Karl, and the man raised his eyes under his deep frown, cutting her off…

  “Yeah, she was real … nice when I stopped by.” Karl said, about to bid her a good day and move on.

  He wasn’t worried about Bailey. The vampire knew to behave himself in their small community, anything else and he’d be run out of town, and in place of pitch forks and torches; the community would be using fangs and claws.

  “It’s not shifters … it’s men.” Jenny shrugged.

  “She’s a…” Karl let the word stay on the tip of his tongue.

  He wasn’t up on the right terminology for sexual preferences, and he didn’t want to offend anyone. He knew what bigotry was, and he’d hate for people to think that of him.

  “No…” Jenny shook her head on a snort of amusement, but there was an element of sadness that filled her eyes, and he had to wonder at it. “She’s had a bad run of luck with men, is all – well, worse, but,” Jenny shrugged again as she winced and waved that memory away. “That’s not my story to tell.”

  “So, she’s not a shifter hater?” Bailey dropped his arms and pushed up and away from the bonnet of the car. That move was as sexy as hell and Jenny couldn’t look anywhere else as the man strolled slowly towards her… “Crisis averted – you don’t have to move cabins.”

  “You were going to move?” Jenny tried to turn her eyes towards Karl, but the vampire had her squarely in his gaze again, and she didn’t think that she was being drawn to keep her eyes on him that time – it was more of an internal need…

  “Shifters can be little girls sometimes…” Bailey offered and Karl growled in annoyance.

  “I wasn’t going to stay somewhere I was treated like…”

  “A big, bad bear shifter with a sore head?” Bailey offered.

  “Like something bad that she’d wiped off the sole of her shoe…” Karl growled back…

  “Oh, you mean like the poop in the woods kind?” Baily grinned.

  “Can we not do the whole – bear poop in the woods thing, again?” Kalr growled.

  “Trust me, Bonnie isn’t like that. She just … doesn’t trust men, unless they’re very married … or very gay.”

  “Gay…” he frowned. That left him out on both counts…

  “There you go,” Bailey offered, tossing up a hand, “be more gay.”

  “I’ll bake cupcakes and burn candles…” Karl offered back.

  “That’s just profiling…” Bailey berated him and Karl scowled back at the man.

  “I was not…” he growled harder.

  “Not all gay men bake…” Bailey offered.

  “Tom baked.” Karl growled
back…

  “See…” Bailey tossed up his hand towards the shifter as he kept his eyes on Jenny. “He knows one gay man and he assumes that they’re all the same.”

  “That’s not…” Karl shook his head on his neck in hot denial…

  “That’s like saying you spend your time, crapping in the woods and walking around with a growly attitude and a sore head … oh … wait.” Bailey considered it for a long moment to the hearty sound of another growl from the shifter, and Jenny snorted a chuckle. “Am I right? Or am I right?” He asked her.

  “Don’t drag me into this…” she chuckled, holding her hands up in front of her like she was surrendering or was about to push the vampire back – which she wasn’t – she kind of like watching him walk towards her…

  “But you’re a human female, you have to have an opinion…” Karl offered, and at that little gem of wisdom, she finally managed to drag her eyes away from the vampire and onto the shifter.

  She twisted her head on her neck and gave him a curious look…

  “What does that mean?” She twitched her nose at the man as her hands went to her hips and Karl took a long step back…

  “Not a damn thing…” he rushed out.

  He knew that stance on a female and he didn’t want to stand there and have to listen to a volley of abuse from her…

  He guessed that he’d put his foot in it again. He did that a lot with females … he put it down to the fact that he’d never had a female role model with his mother dying when he was young…

  “Chicken or a bear…” Bailey snorted a chuckle at the man’s expense and he got a scowl for his trouble…

  “Don’t start. You already did the poop in the woods thing and the bear with a sore head thing…” Karl growled.

  “Me?” Bailey tried to make himself look as innocent as possible, and yet, he just couldn’t seem to turn off the light of amusement within his eyes or rid himself of the smirk on his lips.

  “You…” Karl growled back.

  “I don’t do whatever it is that he’s accusing me off…” Bailey had turned his attention solely back onto Jenny.

  “Sure you do…” Karl growled.

  “Vampires are always the patsy…” Bailey shrugged and watched as she grinned. It was slow, and it took a while to be devastatingly beautiful and very damn sexy, but he was more than willing to wait for it.

  “Poor misunderstood sweetheart…” she teased back, playing up to his teasing…

  “And that’s my cue to leave…” Karl grumbled.

  “Well, thanks for playing the straight guy to my Mr Wonderful…” Bailey grinned at him and Karl scowled back at him, unsure.

  He twisted his head and craned it forward on his neck towards the man…

  “Was that a gay joke?” Karl growled.

  “See, prejudiced…” Bailey tossed back at him, and Karl snapped his head back on his neck and growled long and hard…

  “I’m not damn prejudiced…” he grumbled as he started away from the pair of them.

  The sound of Jenny’s gentle laughter rang out in the air and seemed to follow him into the shop, and he grumbled all the way.

  “I think we upset him,” Jenny said, and the vampire lifted a hand and wafted it in the air.

  “Karl’s always like a bear with a sore head,” he offered back and heard the bear growl through the glass window.

  “Again…” Karl bit down on his annoyance. “Now who’s profiling and prejudiced…?” he growled and the sound was only slightly muffled by the window.

  “Truth hurts…” Bailey called back, before turning his attention back towards Jenny.

  He folded his arms across his chest, and that hungry look was back in his eyes once more.

  “Now, where were we?” He asked.

  “I was leaving town and you were explaining why I couldn’t,” she said, with a quirk to her lips that he found himself drawn to.

  “Like me to elaborate?” He asked and watched as she mulled that one over… “Over … a late breakfast?”

  “I never turn down free food,” she offered back.

  “We’re perfectly in synch because I never let a woman pay for anything…” he grinned. “Call me old fashioned.”

  “How old … exactly?”

  ~

  ~

  ~

  “What the hell?”

  Karl growled out at the sight of the human female that was at the top of a very wobbly ladder; practically clinging onto the guttering of the cabin by her fingertips and for dear life.

  He hit the brakes and swerved his pickup towards the fence of her property. He was out of the cab and jumping over the fence in a few heartbeats…

  “What the hell are you doing?” He growled out as he made a mad dash towards her; while the ladder rocked and swayed beneath her feet…

  “It moved.” She rushed out the explanation, and she sounded as scared as hell, and neither he nor his bear liked that sound. “I thought it was on stable ground when I started up…” Bonnie rushed out …

  “Females…” He growled …

  Bonnie felt a rush of annoyance, for herself, for him, and for the fact that she couldn’t answer that jibe from her lofty, but somewhat unstable position because like it or not she kind of needed his help.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  ~

  Bonnie wasn’t too worried about sounding or looking stupid in his eyes, she was too damn scared that she was about to take a head first dive from the top of the ladder to be worried about her ego or her pride.

  She didn’t even care that whoever was coming to her rescue was a man …

  Somewhere in the back of her mind she had a picture of who her white knight actually was … that big shifter guy from the day that she was moving in … and she didn’t even really care about that either.

  First she needed to get down – then she could worry about anything else that came her way, and she could then panic like a nun in a brothel after that as needed.

  What’s the worst that could happen?

  He gets me the hell down and then kills me…

  If I stay up the damn ladder I’m gonna die anyways … well, break something – minimum…

  Calm down …

  Breathe …

  He’s not Satan personified … or maybe he is, but who the hell cares?

  I wanna get down… like now … like faster than …

  Holy Hells bells!

  Bonnie felt one strong arm wrap around her waist and she didn’t have the chance to have a leap in faith that everything would work out, she had no choice but to let go of the guttering that she’d been clinging too, or she was going to rip it off as he yanked her backwards and down towards him.

  The heat of the man was the first thing that hit her – it felt like a warm blanket that wrapped around her body. The strength of his arm as he held her back against his hard muscled chest was next, and for the first time in a long time – she actually felt a sense of safety…

  She welcomed that alien feeling to spread inside of her like an old friend coming home.

  Karl backtracked down the ladder making sure that she had her footing as she climbed on down with him. His arm was still around her and she was pressed real close as he caged her in and made her feel like she wasn’t on dodgy ground anymore.

  Karl didn’t much care if she was miffed off at him, but she was mumbling something to herself that even his hearing couldn’t pick up on…

  “Easy now, we’re at the bottom…” Karl said, and he couldn’t keep a small growl from rolling through his chest at the thought of what could have happened to the female if he hadn’t of come along when he had. “I’ve got you…”

  That sounded strange to her ears. Half threat and half promise…

  When her feet touched the ground; there was a moment, one long moment when she felt so safe, so secure from all of life’s ills with his hard body pressed down the length of her back, and his arm still wrapped around her; stabilising her, and she didn’t want t
o let that feeling go … and then she felt his hot breath against her neck and the rush to panic kicked in, and she twisted and turned to get out of his grasp…

  “Let go…” she ground out against the irrationality that he was some kind of a threat to her.

  The man had shown no signs of it. He’d rescued her from the damn ladder, and yet – she couldn’t push that feeling away because it was ingrained within her psyche…

  Karl heard her words, heard the strain in her voice, and he knew that deep down, letting her go was the last thing that he ever wanted to do.

  He’d made the mistake, rightly or wrongly, of breathing in her scent to see if she still had that edge of fear about her, and he’d found so much more there than he could ever have possibly have dreamed of…

  Mine…

  His bear knew it instantly, and it was probably the reason that the damn beast had been so unsettled for days since he’d first seen her … but now he knew as well – now he felt it in his very soul, and that scared the hell out of him more than if she’d had fangs and claws and was intent on killing him…

  “Why were you here? Were you watching me?” She ground out, still twisting against his hold…

  Something invisible hit him on the back of the head like a wakeup call to her words and deeds, and he finally managed to release the hold that he had on her and take the smallest step back…

  Not that he relished it. Hell, every instinct within him said to woo her, make her his … forever … get closer, not to move away.

  “Watching…?” He sounded confused, and he was, but his brain was finally waking up to the fact that his mate still scented of fear.

  “Stalking…” she spun around in place, and there he was, as big as sin, and looming over her like a bad penny…

  “I don’t stalk, I’m not a vampire…”

  Karl grumbled a growl deep within his broad chest and she heard it – registered it on some other level that flashed more fear inside of her…

  She was out in the open. If she had still been in the big city then there would have been hundreds of people milling by – right then and there – she was alone…