Tara decided she wanted to get closer to the wall though, so she did, brushing her body against it. She looked around, sad she wasn’t able to find anything that remotely resembled the bear. However, she wasn’t going to stop so she went a little bit further to where the front gate of the property was. As she looked around there she got a better view of the house. It was impressive by all means, and she really liked it, but as she looked she head a rustle in the bushes. She looked, and although it wasn’t silver it was a Kodiak bear. It seemed to be minding its own business, so Tara took that as a chance to photograph it. She kneeled down and positioned herself, snapping a photograph of the site. As she moved up the bear looked at her and ran away, not wanting to deal with her at all. Tara sighed in relief; she knew how to scare off a bear but she didn’t want to have to use it on her first day. After she got her bearing she turned around, but instead of seeing the forest she was standing face-to-face with a tall and stern looking man.
~ ~ ~
“H-hello,” she managed to say. She didn’t know whether it would be good to show fear or play it off in front of this man, but she could feel her nerves start to crop up a little bit.
“Hello there. Are you looking for something?” the man asked.
“Oh. Not really. I’m just a photographer. I saw this mansion and I wondered what it was. I wanted to get a better look and then I saw that bear. I got a picture and then I ran into you. Terribly sorry,” she replied. She hoped that this would stop the man from looking at her with a deathly glare.
“Understandable. Come with me. You can come see my master Uriah. I’m Morrison by the way,” the man replied. He was still very stoic but Tara could see a little bit of his very serious stature start to crumble a tiny bit. She nodded and followed the man to where the house seemed to be. When she got to the door she was immediately impressed by the place. It was very interesting and very stately, and it looked to be bigger than her entire building in California. The man walked in and she followed him. He led her upstairs to where the man seemed to be. He was in his study when Morrison knocked on the door. After hearing a deep voice telling Morrison and her to come in, they did so, and immediately Tara caught a glimpse of this man.
He was beautiful, and that was not an overstatement. He had broad shoulders which showed off well in his polo shirt and a pair of black pants. He had a head of brown hair that went to about his shoulders but it was tied back in a ponytail. He also had dark eyes that were almost black. They were hypnotizing though, and Tara was mesmerized.
“So this is the woman who was snooping around was she?” the man asked.
“Yes Uriah. She’s a photographer though. Not anyone trying to spy on us,” the man replied.
“Fair enough. She does look very pretty and frankly I wouldn’t mind if this little lady did want to spy on me. She definitely has the appetizing demeanor that I like. Plus I don’t’ mind the idea of female companionship,” the man said. The sounds seemed to come off his tongue like a smooth dance and Tara was very turned on by this. He seemed like the perfect guy for her, but she didn’t want to scare him off in that way. She had to keep quiet, for she was a guest here and had to act nicely.
“She seems harmless. What should I do with her?” the man asked.
“You can leave her here. Please make sure the gates are sealed and there isn’t’ anything else straggling around. I’ll deal with her personally,” he cooed. Morrison nodded and walked away, leaving Tara with Uriah.
“So what are you doing out here Tara? I don’t see a whole lot of nature photographers,” he ventured to ask. Ti was worth a shot, and he wanted to know what this woman wanted more than anything.
“I’m here to photograph a few things. I’m looking for something rare, and I wanted to see if it was around here. I saw your mansion on the plane ride. I didn’t know it was by my cabin, but I definitely wanted to see it before I left Alaska. You have a very nice place Uriah,” she replied. She hoped that maybe buttering him up would help with the ease a little bit.
“Ahh... That’s very interesting my dear. Well welcome to Alaska. I’m Uriah Freeman and my assistant out there is Morrison Kidd. This is my main home. I do a lot of business out here with the oil company and I have ties both to the US and Russia, so I have to stay in the place closest to where the two can meet up. I’ve been out here for a few years, but I still don’t know too much about the place,” he replied.
“That’s interesting. What do you do with the oil companies?” Tara asked. She wanted to keep the conversation light and this seemed to be the way to do it.
“Well I’m one of the head seller to different companies so I control a lot of the pricing and different things. I have a lot going on, but I mainly stay at home to do it,” he replied. He gave her a small smile and Tara started to feel weak to her knees.
“That’s cool.”
“It is. Tell you what, why don’t’ I show you around? You can have dinner with us too. We don’t have a whole lot of women come by here, and frankly I find it sort of calming to have a nice little spirit like you dropping by. What do you say?” he asked.
“That sounds great. I’m just photographing anyways. I didn’t see what I needed to see, but I did find a very pretty Kodiak bear out there,” she replied. The conversation was light and Tara was happy about that. She hated talking about awkward things like watching over her and other stuff.
“Very interesting. Yes the Kodiak bears like to hang out around the mansion. As long as you don’t bother them they have no intention of messing with you,” he replied.
“That’s very true,” she said. She liked this guy a lot already, but she felt like there was something off about him. Maybe it was just the fact that she wasn’t used to being so friendly with a man that she didn’t want to screw this us, but she was still feeling a bit of the butterflies in her stomach and her guard was up as the man walked her out of the study and to the hallway.
“Well as you can see here that was the study. I practically live in there and I don’t really work in any other location. It’s just a personal thing and I like it a lot,” he explained. They walked into another room which was big to say the least. It had a giant bed and a set of antlers over the bed. There were a couple of other little things in there as well, but overall it looked like one’s typical cabin.
This is my main bedroom. It’s the one that I use whenever I decide to leave the office. As you can see it’s not very used and I don’t really intend for it to be used except when needed,” he replied.
“That’s interesting. So you sleep in your office?” she asked. Tara found it weird and a little unhealthy for the man to do that a lot. Sure she had a few nights where she slept in her office as well, but that wasn’t something she tried to do every day and all the time. However, it looked like this man was serious about sleeping inside it. She wasn’t going to try to argue with him however. It’s his life, and if he wanted to do that then he could.
“A lot. I have to take calls at all hours of the night so it’s easier to work there then bringing my phone to the bedroom. I don’t like it in there because usually fi it rings in the middle of the night I tend to ignore it whereas in the office I won’t. I have a little bed in the office so I am able to get some sleep though, so I’m not some crazy guy who never sleeps,” he replied.
“Well that’s good. I was wondering how you managed that,” she admitted. This guy was weird, but in a way she found it sexy. She never saw guys as dedicated to their job as this man, and she found it sexy in a way. When they got out of there he showed her the guest bedroom, and the bathroom, which were huge. Thee bathroom was bigger than her entire apartment, and she marveled at it. After they looked at that he showed her a couple of the other rooms, including another study, an office, and a dining room. There was also a library, which had more books than she could see. She also got to see the game room, which looked like ti was just there for the purposes of saying that he had one. After they finished the tour he turned to the woman and smiled.<
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“Well dinner will be ready in a few minutes. Do you still want to stay?” he asked.
“That sounds fine with me. I don’t even know what I would eat at home anyways,” Tara replied. She hadn’t even had a chance to look in the fridge yet. The man smiled and brought her to the dining room, sitting her down on the other side. It was a big table but she still felt very close to the man, for he definitely had that impression to him. After a minute Tara wanted to talk again, so she opened her mouth.
“Say Uriah, can I ask you something?” she said. It was worth a try to ask about the Kodiak bear. He may have some sighting on it.
“What is it?”
“Well…I wanted to know if you knew anything about the legendary Kodiak bear. I heard about it when I was in the airport and I wanted to know if you knew anything about it. I really would love to see it, but if you don’t know then it’s fine,” she replied. It was worth a shot. However, just as she asked if she could see the man grow a little bit stiff. Perhaps she hit a very touchy place? She didn’t really know.
“I have heard of it but I don’t know anything of it. I’m very sorry,” he replied.
“Oh okay. Well thanks. If you do hear anything however could you let me know? I would love to see it and I think it would be a great thing for the magazine I’m shooting for,” she said. Judging from the look on his face he didn’t really want to talk about it, so she made sure that she didn’t say it was the only reason she was here.
“You’re welcome. So is that the only reason you’re here? To photograph something that might be a legend?” he asked. He was very sensitive with his question and Tara felt like he was striking a nerve with that.
“No, not at all. I just wanted some great pics for the articles I’m doing and I wanted to see if there was anything regarding that. I would love to see it, but if I don’t then it won’t be a huge deal,” she lied. She hated lying to this guy but she definitely knew that there was something up and she didn’t want to hit any nerves.
“Alright. Well lets’ dig in then,” he said. They started to eat the dinner of trout with vegetables and rice and Tara immediately was floored by the taste. It was amazing, and she loved it a lot. The conversation was very quiet and she didn’t want to rally go in too deep into his past or anything. He didn’t seem to want to talk a whole lot about that either. After they finished up Morrison came back and grabbed the plates again. Uriah turned to Tara with a smile on his face as he looked at her.
“Well my dear, that’s all I had planned. Do you want to do anything else?” he asked.
“No I think that’s all that I needed. Thank you for letting me come to your home today,” she replied. She didn’t want to hit any more nerves, for he felt on the edge as it is.
“No problem. I don’t’ know if we’ll see each other around but if we do you’re more than welcome to say hi and have dinner with us again. Good luck with your shoot,” he replied.
“Thanks,” she said. As Tara left Morrison came by and looked at Uriah with a very serious glare.
“So what should we do about her?”
“Put her on surveillance. I want to know what in the world she’s really planning. There’s no way that’s the whole story, and I don’t want her to get too close,” Uriah replied. He was a little bit worried about her, but he was also worried about himself as well.
“Fine sir. Whatever you like. I will make sure that you are able to have what you need in order to get your job done,” the man said. He walked away and as he moved Uriah looked at Tara as she started to climb back the way she came. She was a very attractive girl and as Uriah looked at her he could feel his erection growing stiff at the sight of her backside. However, he had a job to do and that was the first thing he ne3eded done. He was sure that this woman had more to her then meets the eye, but he didn’t want to pry too much. He was going to wait for how things would play out, and if he needed to handle anything else in order to help keep his past a secret then he would.
~ ~ ~
Tara started to climb up the pathway again to where she originally found the stream. Thankfully she wasn’t completely stupid about all this so, she was soon back at her cabin. When she got there she uploaded the pictures from the animals and nature she took today. They were very pretty, but they weren’t the gold mine she needed. However, as she left Uriah’s house the intuition she felt started to go a little bit dimmer as she left. There was something there the man wasn’t telling her, and she needed to get to the bottom of it. Tara didn’t want to intrude, and she certainly didn’t’ want to get onto the man’s bad side, so she decided that she was going to camp out down by the river. She was going to be by the edge of it, but it was closer to the mansion then the cabin was and she would be able to see what she needed to see and get the pictures she needed without intruding.
After looking around to see what the place had, she was able to find a tent, sleeping bag, some canned food, and some other good little treats. She would eat her big meals at the cabin, but she would sleep by the river in case if the bear was going to come close during the night. It was more than likely going to happen in the evening anyways, so she had to be ready. After setting it all up and grabbing everything she put it all in her bag. Tara grabbed her computer and put it in the bag as well. Even though there wouldn’t be any internet, she could work on editing the photos to prepare for the online viewing.
After she packed it all she went to bed. She was going to set up tomorrow evening after a day of shooting and dinner so she would have more time to set it up with daylight. That night she kept dreaming about Uriah and how sexy he was, and even though the man was pretty cold and heartless at one point, she knew that deep down this man definitely had a passion to him that she wanted to experience for herself.
The next day Tara got up early to go out and look around. She decided to go the other direction this time and although there was still no sign of the bear she got some great pictures of the wildlife in Alaska. There was something amazing about it that she loved to see, and she really was marveled by all of it. She continued to look around at the different trees, spotting a beautiful red cardinal that was perfect for a spread she wanted to do on her photography website eventually. She snapped a myriad of pics of the bird and headed back to her cabin. It was about four now, so she ate a quick breakfast before she gr4abbed her stuff and set up came.
She went down to the stream and set up kind of beside it, but in the forest so that Uriah and Morrison couldn’t see her directly. She started to open up her laptop, looking at the pictures of the bird she saw and editing them. She could feel the presence again, and immediately Tara stiffened. She looked around the general area, but there still wasn’t anything and she was both nervous yet frustrated. She hoped ti wasn’t anything else, but she knew that the other bears weren’t anywhere nearby and she did have bear repellent all over. So what was the presence then? She didn’t’ know, but at the same time she wanted to keep it a mystery until she was able to fully find out and figure it all out.
About five days had passed since the day she arrived and there was still no sign. Clients were still doing okay despite her not being there, but she knew she had to bet back to reality soon. The place was nice and she really loved Alaska, but her home in California needed some TLC as well. Plus she missed taking pictures of attractive couples in embraces and other such things, and although she loved to see how the animals and stuff looked around here, she was ready to go home.
That night, Tara was by the river getting some water when she saw a saver outline in the distance. It was down about a mile, but immediately her ears perked up as she saw it. Was it the silver bear she needed? Would she finally be able to go home and back to reality? She went into the tent and grabbed her camera, running down the river and to where the sight was. She had to be both quick yet quiet, and it took a little bit longer than she expected, but she soon found the area of the river she was looking for. It was a deeper part, and she definitely was interested. It was also by
the waterfall, which helped mask her movements through the forest as she looked around. However, when she got to the area she looked at it again, and she immediately flushed at the sight.
Instead of a bear, she found something she thought she would never see. It was Uriah in the buff and completely naked, and she could see everything. He had a well-defined set of abs and pecs that looked very big and very broad, and his arms looked like he’s been at the gym a whole lot recently. His legs were both long and toned as well, and she could see his hair cascading down his body. She was marveled by the sight, and she was also turned on as well.
While Uriah was there in the pool he was thinking. He had watched Tara a whole lot recently and he was entranced by her. She was a very pretty woman and really did have a lot going for her. Plus she was very sexy, and when he saw her undress a few times he couldn’t help the erection from forming when he laid his eyes on her. She was a very pretty woman, but he also had to think about the other things he had to keep in mind. One of them was that she was supposed to be working and he was so entranced with her that he just wanted to take her away. He was turned on by her, but he was also a little wary. She was still here after a week, which was very weird considering she just said that she was here to photograph nature. Something was up, and he was going to keep a watchful eye on her so nothing was out of the ordinary.
As Tara watched the sight she moved a little bit closer. She didn’t want to reveal herself just yet. However, when she looked at the man’s body in the moonlight she was totally in awe at it. It looked almost ethereal in the distance, and she was so turned on by him that she almost forgot that she was supposed to stay hidden. As she looked at him she saw that he was completely oblivious to him. She looked downstream and there was another small pool. She snuck over there and got behind the rocks, undressing her body. As she did this Uriah looked at her, desire present in his eyes and a want for this woman increasing in his body. He was so turned on by her that he wanted nothing else then her sexy body and he definitely wanted to take her and make her his.
Bear to the Bone (A Paranormal BBW Billionaire Shifter Tale): A Silver Moon Romance Page 2
