Kneeling down, he stuffed his notebook in his backpack and took Fred’s head between his hands, digging deep behind the ears. One hind leg started thumping as the dog’s eyes rolled back into his head from sheer bliss.
“Well, we’d better get back to the cabin before those bears fill their bellies with us, dontchya think?” Fred barked and bounced in response as Jess grabbed his pack and rifle, and they made their way up the barely-there trail from the creek.
Normally Fred’s exuberance made Jess laugh but all he could muster today was a wan smile. It had been days since Veronica had shut him out, literally. He’d emailed a few times but she never responded. One day he saw on his contact list that she was online so he opened a chat window but she quickly logged off. No doubt she’d set her profile to private so no one could see when she was online after that. Either that or she’d suddenly lost her internet connection.
At first, he’d been worried. Even when she dodged his previous invitations to meet, she hadn’t cut off all communication with him. Horrible images of her in a car wreck flitted through his mind during the first couple days, but when she’d gone offline so quickly that day, he knew she was fine; just didn’t want to talk to him.
Fred was tearing up the trail and back, barking madly and generally making a fool of himself. He seemed to sense Jess’ moods and now he was trying to cheer up his human. Just that lifted a bit of the weight from Jess’ heart, but when the dog actually started doing crazy backflips and somersaults, he couldn’t help laughing. “What are you doing, you maniac? Come here, fella.”
The dog obediently trotted over to his owner, panting loudly, his mouth so wide it looked like he was grinning. Jess gave his head a rub and together they jogged up the trail to the clearing in front of his cabin.
A blacktail deer jerked her head up as they burst out of the brush and tore off in the opposite direction. Fred gave chase, but only half-heartedly, returning almost as soon as the deer was swallowed up by the forest.
“Good boy. Now let’s go scrounge you up some chow, huh? Whaddya say?” Fred barked in agreement and bounded into the cabin as soon as Jess opened the door.
After carefully putting the gun in the wall rack and setting down his backpack, he filled the food bowl to the top and watched in amazement as the dog wolfed down the entire contents in less than a minute. Licking his chops, he gazed up at Jess hopefully, his tail wagging so hard his backside swayed.
“That’s all you get, boy. Can’t have you getting fat and slow, now can we? How would you outrun the bears?”
Fred blinked, understanding that there was no more food forthcoming. Defeated, he wandered over to his bed and curled up, keeping one eye on Jess, no doubt in case he decided to take mercy on his poor, starving pooch.
Jess took out a single-serving-sized vacuum-packed piece of salmon from his freezer and set it in a bowl of water in the sink to thaw. He’d meant to pop it in the fridge that morning but he’d been anxious to get out on the trail to do his daily survey of the streams. It normally didn’t take all day, but he hadn’t got much sleep the night before, wondering what the hell was going on with Veronica, and he was determined to stay out of the cabin — and away from the computer, which he seemed to check incessantly.
So he packed up a lunch and his camera before he left that morning, and had an enjoyable day photographing Fred, flowers, the fish, and even a grizzly he spotted upstream. He was downwind and the bear was busy catching easier prey than him, so he wasn’t worried, but he didn’t get any closer either. A healthy respect for the wildlife was required for this job.
While he was waiting for the salmon to thaw, he moved over to the small table he used as a desk and flipped on the computer. Disappointment had stopped flooding him every time he logged on to find no message from Veronica, and today was no different. Instead, his resignation just grew deeper. It was a feeling he didn’t care much for but he recognized it as essential for getting over her — it was the same as when he was recovering from his divorce.
The weather looked good for the next week or so, and his supervisor wanted him to report any unusual bear activity with his usual fish reports. “Wonder what they consider ‘unusual’? Eating fish?” Shaking his head, he got up to finish getting dinner ready.
Twilight wouldn’t arrive for several more hours, and then it would only last a handful of minutes before brightening again, but his stomach was telling him it was time to eat. A tiny deer-proofed garden near the back door provided fresh veggies, and he still had some bread left over from his shopping run in town. A giant zucchini — one of the side benefits of gardening in the land of the midnight sun — and a handful of greens would be a nice accompaniment to the fish. He snipped off some chives for a white wine-butter sauce and headed back in.
Just as he was stepping over the threshold, he heard a loud rustle from the dense forest surrounding his little clearing. Always on high alert when he was in the field, he whipped around but there was nothing to see.
He stood stock still for a moment, calculating how long it would take a charging bear to cover the distance from the trees to his door and estimating if he would have time to grab his rifle. Not a chance, he thought. At most, he’d be able to close the door, but he wasn’t entirely confident the simple latch could withstand an irate 1,000-pound bear.
When nothing else moved, he slowly backed into the cabin and shut the heavy door. Heart thumping, he turned to find Fred standing in the middle of the room, growling at the door, hackles raised. The hairs on Jess’ neck stood on end and another shot of adrenaline rushed through his veins. Something was out there. And he couldn’t shake the feeling that it was watching him.
The heebie-jeebies had a firm grip on him, so he did something he’d never felt the need for since he’d arrived at the cabin: he set the two-inch by six-inch piece of barricade wood into U-brackets on either side of the door. He repeated the process for the front door. The shutters for the windows had to be set up from the outside, and there was no way he was stepping out there right now. Besides, only a cub could fit through the cabin’s small windows. He and Fred were about as protected as they could be right now.
“Stand down, boy,” he said, scratching the dog’s neck to calm him. Slowly, the hackles smoothed out and Fred’s posture eased. His worried brown eyes gazed up at his master.
Kneeling down, Jess wrapped an arm around his companion and whispered, “It’ll be okay, bud. It’s just a bear wondering what a crazy dog and human are doing all alone out in the woods. C’mon, you want a treat?”
At the magic word, all anxiety left the dog who immediately rushed to the cabinet he knew held his beloved snacks. He sat at Jess’ command and did his best to wait patiently for his reward for being the best guard dog ever.
“Wait,” Jess instructed as he placed the treat on Fred’s snout. “Waiiit. Waiiit. Go!”
At the command, the dog’s head jerked and mouth snapped, the biscuit disappearing in a flash. “Damn, you’re fast!”
Jess gave the front door — and the window next to it — one more wary glance before returning to the kitchen to fix dinner. He normally ate at the table, which overlooked the clearing, but tonight he opted to eat at his small desk, which sat in the corner of the main room. No windows.
He surfed the net as he chewed, grateful that the government had set up the cabin with satellite internet. He didn’t spend much time on it, but it was nice to keep up with world news — as depressing as it was — while he was isolated during the summer.
He scraped his plate clean and set to work writing up his report. Remembering his new mandate to report any “unusual” bear activity, he made a note at the end about the Kodiak he’d spotted.
“Observed one Ursus arctos middendorffi feeding approximately 150 meters from my post. No unusual behavior noted.”
He paused briefly, wondering if he should make note of tonight’s incident. “What the hell...” he mumbled as he typed.
“At approximately 7 p.m., the sound of
a large animal in the brush outside the cabin caught my attention. No animal was observed, but my dog behaved in a way that leads me to suspect it was a bear. This is all supposition, but I got the distinct impression that it was observing me. I have taken appropriate precautions for protection.”
Report sent, it was time to clean up the kitchen. The feet of his wooden chair scudded across the rough wood floor of the cabin, causing Fred to raise his head sleepily from his bed. Just as he started to close the laptop for the night, the computer binged. Sitting back down, he opened it again and an email from Veronica popped up. His heart leaped to his throat as he stared at her message: “Tomorrow, 2 p.m., Caribou Cafe, Main Street. <3.”
“YES!” he shouted, drawing a bark of surprise from Fred. Elation just barely overpowered the sense of wariness that was sending warning bells to his brain. She’s been dodging you for days now...be careful. He told that part of his brain to shut the hell up, and started typing. He backspaced and retyped several responses until he came up with one that didn’t sound too eager.
“See you then!”
He almost went with a period, but that seemed too sedate. He had to exude some sense of excitement. After all, she’d put the shorthand for a heart at the end of her message. The least he could do was add an exclamation point.
“Ridiculous,” he mumbled, the grin never leaving his face. “Fred, never fall in love. You become this lame needy dork.” The dog just sighed and snuggled his head deeper into his cushy bed.
It had been far too long since Jess had felt such euphoria. Not only did she finally email, but she wanted to actually meet! This was it. The beginning of something major, he could feel it deep in his bones.
He stayed up late scrubbing every inch of the cabin, trying to work out some of his pent-up energy — and, he wasn’t going to lie, just in case Veronica came back here with him. Catching sight of the time out of the corner of his eye, he knew he needed to get to bed so he could be up early enough to file his daily report and make it to town by 2 p.m. But how on earth was he going to sleep? He was still completely amped.
Sleep took its sweet time to overtake him, but when it did, it eased up on him like a warm blanket. Forget sugar plums, visions of Veronica’s sweet rump sheathed in tight black Lycra danced before his eyes as he drifted off, completely oblivious to a hackled Fred standing in front of the door growling at whatever was prowling outside.
Chapter 7
“Max, I’m fine, really.” Bethany pushed away the wet washcloth Max was trying to hold to her head. “You just startled me, is all.”
“Are you sure? Do you think I hurt the baby? Should I track down the local healer?” He moved to pick up the room’s phone.
“No!” she called out to him. “Honey, really. Believe me, I’d tell you if I thought I or the baby were hurt. You barely even connected with me. It was the fall to the floor that took my breath away.”
Anxiety creased Max’s handsome features. Smiling gently, she tugged him down next to her on the bed and pulled his head to her ample bosom, just like she would do someday to the child that was growing inside her.
“Babe, you thought I was an intruder. You had no idea I was coming here and I surprised you. It was stupid of me not to give you some kind of warning. I know you would never hurt me, Max.”
He wrapped his arms around her and snuggled his head into her, caressing her belly. “If anything ever happened to you, B...”
“Shh, it won’t. I’m not going anywhere, okay?”
She felt him nod against her body and hold her just a little tighter. They lay entwined for several blissful moments before he tipped his head up to her.
“Not that I’m not happy to see you, but why did you come? We could have hashed this out over the phone, you know.”
“I dunno, I...” she stammered, trying to find the words. She’d practiced what she was going to say to him when she arrived, but he hadn’t been here and it all flew right out of her head the moment he knocked her to the ground. “Things have been tense with us lately, you know?”
His lips grew thin with regret. He didn’t need to say anything for her to know he felt it, too.
“I thought if I came here, we could get away from the shit going on at home,” she said. “Like a vacation or something.”
Max opened his mouth to protest, but she interrupted him. “I know you’re here to work. I understand that, and I won’t get in your way. But after work...”
Her hand crept up to his cheek, a thumb tracing the arch of his brow, a finger tickling the ridge of his ear. His eyes twinkled in response, but his hand reached up to still hers.
“Bethany, I never thought I’d love someone like I love you. Which is why I didn’t want you to come here.”
He pulled away to sit on the edge of the bed, his back to her. “Listen, before we go any further, I need to say something. I’m sorry for what I said back home.”
He turned to face her, reaching for her hand. The anxiety lines were back. “I was trying to explain what the Brotherhood assholes think, not what I think. This is a stronghold for them, and they’re not going to be as friendly as the jerks back home who were harassing us. Do you understand what I’m saying?”
The ember of fear that Bethany had felt back home started to glow. “Okay, I’ll be careful. Won’t go out at night, make sure no one is following me, and so on.”
Max shook his head. “No, babe. As in, you don’t leave this room. We can’t take any chances.”
She barked a loud laugh. “If you think I’m going to be a prisoner here, you’re wrong, buster. I have work to do, too, you know.”
His brow furrowed. “What work?”
“Veronica! She’s here in Kodiak. Don’t you remember the business we started together? While you’re working, I can help her figure out how to navigate the joys of a shifter-human relationship.”
She tried to launch herself from the bed in a huff, but her huge tummy made that impossible. She had to settle for scooching to the foot of the bed and easing herself upright, slapping away Max’s hand as he tried to help her. How humiliating! She couldn’t even storm off by herself anymore.
“Bethany, c’mon,” he said in a conciliatory tone. “I’m sorry I forgot, but it’s been a pretty crazy 24 hours.”
Sighing, Bethany went to the bathroom and got a glass of water. She made the mistake of looking in the mirror. Damn, if she thought she’d been fat before she’d gotten pregnant...
Stop it! she told her inner critic, the one who was always trying to break her spirit. But rather than risk looking at her reflection again, she stepped back out into the room and leaned against the doorjamb.
“How about this: You drop me off at Veronica’s on your way to work in the morning. I’ll work with her, see if I can help, then I’ll have her bring me straight back here. Do not pass go, do not collect $200.”
The look on his face said Max wasn’t entirely convinced.
“Max, I’ll either be with you or with her. I mean, how much trouble could I get into?”
It was his turn to laugh, but his was good-natured, not angry. “Plenty,” he said, giving her a wry smile and a wink.
His smile melted her heart, as it always did, bringing one to her own lips. He stood and crossed over to her, taking her face in his hands, gazing into her soul.
“Promise you won’t go out on your own, not even to the lobby. Promise.”
Max’s cinnamon-flecked eyes still never failed to leave her speechless, and this moment was no exception. She struggled to even nod, a choked sigh serving as agreement. He pulled her body to his, burying his face in her hair, her own tucked into his neck, breathing him in. Their baby was pressed between them, between their love.
~ * ~ * ~
Max’s reaction to Bethany’s body was always the same: Instant yearning. He knew she was feeling insecure about her growing belly but he found her more attractive than ever. She was carrying his cub, after all, and nothing was more exciting than that kind of commitm
ent and devotion.
He’d told her a thousand times, but she didn’t really believe him. So he did everything he could to show her, and nothing would show more than the bulge that was pressed against her.
The tension between them had been building over the past few months, and now it was manifesting itself in lust. Crazy, mind-bending lust. His bear wanted to hoist his mate’s deliciously round ass up onto the bathroom counter and fuck her senseless. As tempting as that thought was, Max wasn’t about to handle her roughly right now. He’d allowed his bear a little too much freedom today already.
His lips found hers, his palms cradling her face. He moaned into her mouth when she wound her arms around his neck and melted into him. To him, there was nothing sexier than that.
Stooping down — his lips never breaking contact — Max lifted Bethany into his arms and carried her back to the bed. He’d never opened the room’s blackout curtains when he checked in, and now a solitary lamp on a beside table cast a warm glow over his love’s rounded body. When she reached to click it off, his hand stayed hers.
“Leave it on,” he growled.
He felt a shudder ripple through her body and the overpowering scent of her desire almost sent him into a frenzy. How was it possible to want someone so much?
Afraid that she hadn’t been entirely honest about not being injured, he gingerly removed all of her clothing, inspecting every part of her body with his eyes, his hands, his mouth — partially to tease her but mostly to make sure he hadn’t hurt her. He wouldn’t have been able to continue if there’d been a single mark on her perfectly soft, luscious body. Thank goodness there was nothing but the flush of love.
“Now you,” she whispered, her voice husky. He stood to shuck off his jogging clothes, hoping her sense of smell wouldn’t cause her to run away in disgust.
He kicked off his shoes first, flicking them high in the air and making her giggle. Then flexing as hard as he could so his biceps would bulge impressively, he crossed his arms and eased his t-shirt up until it pulled free of his head. Her sharp intake of breath was the reward he’d been looking for. Hooking his thumbs under the waistband of his shorts, he slid them down gradually, exposing his desire one long inch after another.
Crazy About Curves: 10 Luscious Reads Page 107
