“Rone? The broody one, right?” She scrunched her nose. That didn’t sound too fun.
“Hey, Doc, nice long johns.”
Derriere in the air, Sabine froze. Goosebumps prickled the length of her spine until Sabine stood ramrod straight.
Her eyes slammed shut. Right on cue, her bad luck showed up like an unwanted crazy uncle.
A whiskey-rich baritone warmed her from the outside in and had her wishing for warm blankets, and deep kisses and a rumbling fire. In that order.
“Sabine, this is Rone and your racing buddy. I trust you two will win.” Cherry provided like a chirpy little cardinal.
Damn her. She smelled a setup. Cherry’s eyes lit with an I-told-you-so glow and made Sabine want to grind her teeth.
Sabine did a slow one-eighty and the thick wool of her socks dug into the plastic grass carpet that acted as the only barrier between frostbite and her toes. Locked in like Velcro, it was all she could do to keep her balance as she stood, chin raised. Then raised a notch higher. Reaching up, she used a finger and pushed her glasses back in place.
Sweet baby Jesus, he’s like a freaking Amazonian. She shivered from her pinky toes to the roots of her hair.
Was there such a thing as Amazonian men? Broad-chested, dimples on either side of his cheeks and taut pecs. Naked, tattooed pecs with pebbled nipples and a light dusting of snow on his shoulders. A marble god, she corrected herself as her gaze raked over perfection. Her guidebook did not warn her of such wintry beauty. No shirt, nothing to protect him against the cold and he owned it as if ice laced his blood and he thrived in it.
In place of pants, only a scrap of brown leather with four slashes burned into the front like claw marks protected his essentials from the cold like the others she saw gathered on the opposite side of the table.
“Did you know it takes as little as five minutes for a body part to die of frostbite and fifteen for hypothermia to take hold?”
Smooth, Sabine. Real smooth. You’re going to be dead before you see any action.
Eyes wide and her mouth slack Cherry offered up an introduction and Sabine couldn’t help the sudden urge to tuck her head into the nearest snow bank. She needed to get a life outside the freaking library and hospital.
“Rone, this is my sister. Sabine, meet Rone. He’ll be your werebear for the day.”
Tall, hard, and very much all male. Rone. She rolled the name around on her tongue. Fitting, she surmised. Rock solid and cocky with a stubborn angle to his chin. He stood, arms at his sides and a half grin claiming one side of his mouth as his eyes drank in the flush of heat brushing her cheeks.
Another team lined up at the starting line all smiles and full of taunts. The sound of the gun went off and cheers erupted.
Her heart did erratic things in her chest. They were next.
“I see I’m not the only one that likes facts. Nice. I did know but it’s still good for the refresher. When working with humans, a shifter can forget the more delicate skin of a human.”
As she stripped off another layer of socks she considered his words.
Smooth like silk. He was good. Heat returned to her extremities little by little as her mortification faded.
Sabine tried to act nonchalant, but that was hard to accomplish with her pants down around her knees. A harsh swallow worked her throat and that caught his gaze next.
Her werebear? All day? Christmas wishes did come true. Her inner vixen whipped out the cuffs and whipped cream ready for the party while, on the outside, Sabine worked her expression into cool and calm.
Besides, who was she kidding? Her land him? Nerdy doctor dropouts didn’t get the sexy shifters. Three days, a week, or a month wouldn’t change that little fact. Not for her. Just how it was and she accepted it as fact.
Quickie hookups and one-night stands never suited her anyway. Or rather no one ever really considered the quiet girl in the corner of the library poring over research books as sexy. Long hours in the library and her six-week rotations at the hospital kind of bit into her non-existent love life too.
Oh, how she wished, though.
His smile broadened until the yellow of his eyes stood out with a warm glow.
Beautiful. Love at first sight was a myth for idiots, but damn, lust at first sight… totally a thing.
One more layer.
“Looks like your sister bribed or conned you too.”
Air failed to enter her lungs ash she searched for something to say and rethinking her whole decision against a quick roll in the hay. Technically, a whole day wasn’t considered a one-night stand. Nothing in her rulebook about those. She gave herself a swift kick in the pants. Well, she was in the process of taking those off. But with three days on her schedule, she didn’t have time to maul a werebear with her sex-deprived needs and wasn’t that a shame.
She took in the shape of his lips and the way his dark hair brushed his shoulders. Asgardian, as clear as the snow in front of her. How else could she describe the god-like jaw line and honey-colored eyes framed with thick black lashes?
“I sighed like that when I first spotted my mates too,” her sister quipped close to her ear, and Sabine nearly died in her long johns.
Rone choked out a laugh as he ducked his head.
What the hell did her sister just say? “Uh, yeah. I don’t think so. Just caught me off guard,” she reassured them. Come on, Sabine, get it together.
Sabine turned and threatened every cell in her body to the terrible death of frostbite if they dared to make her blush. Of course, her body betrayed her.
A thick finger tucked a strand of her hair back with a smoky laugh, the kind you heard in jazz rooms that left you wanting to slow dance all night long.
“Sorry,” he offered with a shrug. “Your hair has a mind of its own and it looks like you have your hands full.” He looked pointedly at her hands clutching the materials of her pants. Around her knees. She quickly peeled them off. Gah. Seriously! Could this day get any worse?
Sabine brought her gaze up and smiled, “Siblings,” and narrowed her eyes on the back of a retreating blue parka. “All you wanna do is kill ’em half the time.”
“I know the feeling. I have seven to your one.” As he spoke his gaze lit lightly on her lips before roving over her long midnight black hair piled around her face and draped over her shoulders from beneath the largest matching white beanie she could find.
Rone raised a hand between them, and she peeled off her gloves.
Sabine didn’t believe in magick but she didn’t know how else to describe what happened from one second to the next. She sucked back air, harsh and loud as his expression flashed to pure shock.
Electricity. Purer than the fresh snow piling at their feet. Raw and unrestrained jolts of it zinged over her skin and zapped her system as their palms slid together, large fingers wrapping around her more slender hand. Locked together, she couldn’t pull her eyes off their connected hands.
Before their mom died, before the drugs ate away the woman, she had once imparted in Sabine and Cherry that the day would come when the magick, she’d called it, would happen and they would be helpless against fate.
Not on Sabine’s watch. Steel slipped into her spine. Not now or ever. Nobody would ever take that control from her again.
She shrugged off the words like she did everything else the woman had ever told her.
Curious, she flicked her gaze to his. Big mistake. The unreadable mask slipped and the surprise she felt was perfectly portrayed back at her for a brief second before heat simmered in his irises.
Sex was no mystery to her. She loved the euphoria of an orgasm and the mind-blowing sensations of a lover’s touch, but she had deep suspicions anything with Rone would leave her a boneless puddle. She didn’t need hours with the man to know the intensity within him would burn her beyond recovery.
All the more reason to back away from the fire.
That gave her pause. Her sister once mentioned she shared her thoughts and emotions with her m
ates. But could that be possible for unmated couples? She nearly laughed at herself. Couples? She had no business thinking anything remotely along those lines.
“Sabine.”
Although a secret part of her wished he’d said her name like that because he felt the same tug to kiss her as she did, Sabine new better. A wispy fog tangled with her thoughts as sensual images of her legs intertwined with his, their bodies pressed together and surrounded by snow filled her mind.
She blinked and slowly the sight of snowflakes caught in his rich sable hair filled her visions, this time for real.
His brows a shade darker than his hair pinched together in a crease. “Sabine?”
Like tethers fraying, the connection snapped. She cleared her throat and took a half step back, the sights and sounds of the town party slamming into her like a thousand trumpets in her ears. Her gut lurched and for a second she forgot to breathe.
He felt it too. Or he was damn good at faking surprise. But the shafts of raw emotions shattering his irises didn’t lie. She swallowed past the tight collar that suddenly restricted the flow of air to her lungs. She jerked her hand back and stretched the material.
He moved to reach out to her but thought better of it and let his hand fall back to his side.
“So, huh, are we going to do this?” she croaked around a scratchy throat. Her shoulders drooped and her gaze fell to the table where several trays holding silver liquid lined the deep red cloth covering it.
He rubbed a hand over his face and backed off a step, his gaze roaming over the crowd.
She could use a stiff drink. Maybe two. And she wouldn’t say no to a third.
From her lower point of view, his eyes appeared hooded from her as he peered down. “I had no idea they came in pink.”
That got his attention? She blinked. “What?”
“Your long johns. You really gonna race in those.”
She held his gaze and popped the first button at her neck and quickly unhooked the others. His eyes roved over every inch of skin she exposed and his expression darkened when the mounds of her breasts were revealed.
He threw a hand over hers. “Wait. No Southern rookie is going to freeze on my watch. Button that back up, sweetheart.”
“You don’t think I can do this?” She popped another button as defiance edged her words and another when his eyes flashed her a sexy warning.
He leaned in until the only thing she could smell was fresh pine and snow. “If you do I’m afraid for the male population of Claw Ridge.”
Oh. That only made her want to find out what that entailed, but he had a point and she didn’t relish the fact her nipples would freeze. She willed her heart out of her throat. She could easily blame the heat hitting her cheeks on the freezing bit of air blasting them head on from up the street. That was her story and she was sticking to it.
She went utterly still, eyes wide when a burst of energy rippled through the air beside her to reveal a bear that was massive and over eight feet tall.
Sabine felt the second her mouth dropped open.
“You’ve never seen a shifter before, have you?”
“Not a shifter that big.”
“Everett, stop scaring the poor girl.” Rone reached around her and swiped a couple of shots from the table then pressed one into her hands.
“This will help get the muscles warmed up and take the edge off.” His lips parted and in two seconds every last silvery drop slipped past his lips.
She raised her cup to Everett, who she knew by name only until now, in salute. “Bottoms up.”
“Wait!” Rone threw his hand out.
Rone looked at her across the few feet between them, but too late. Sweet baby Jesus. All the pristine snow turned to a slushy, watery mess behind a wall of instant tears.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen a human do that before. Hell, even I didn’t take my first swig of Moon Lust that fast and I was a full-grown man.”
She heard the words, but for the life of her couldn’t manage anything past gasps and gulps. She leaned forward and pressed her hands on her knees, inhaling faster than she could exhale, but it didn’t help. Nothing did. It did, however, make her look like a rabid human.
Great first impression. Check.
There were some moments in life that needed a redo button. This was one of them.
Rone took a knee and clapped her on the back. “Slow and steady. In through the nose and out the mouth. First one is always the hardest. Sorry ’bout that.”
Finally able to stand, she pressed the back of her hand over her mouth and tried to smile. “Umm, that was hellhound juice. What other being could survive that stuff!”
Waves of heat poured off Rone as he took a step closer, and she briefly realized he was the sole reason she wasn’t a popsicle.
Hellfire felt like icicles compared to the flaming torture that consumed the life from the pit of her stomach and spread through her veins and into the back of her throat.
“I think my life just flashed before my eyes.” The burn bloomed blood deep. Now that the world stopped spinning and swirling behind her tears, she had to admit, the cold didn’t sting as much and the apple cider aftertaste wasn’t so bad. She closed her eyes and reveled in the sweetness as she sensed Rone stand.
“Everyone, thirty seconds.”
Rone pressed another drink into her hands. “Guess that means us!”
“You know the rules, right? We have to run down the road as we drink the Moon Lust and we can’t spill any. And we have to cross the finish line before anyone else.”
They were so screwed. Liquid heat prickled up her limbs. “Yep. Easy.” She nodded, wide-eyed. This was so not easy.
“Ladies and gentlemen, the next teams are lining up. Racers, are you ready?” The booming voice rang out over the crowd and elicited whistles, woots, and screams from the ladies. She didn’t blame them.
“Hey, Sabine.”
She leaned around Rone’s big body to see a leaner, yet a just as finely toned version of Rone smiling their way, a brunette by his side in a set of blue panties and bra that resembled a 60’s bathing suit. And a scarf to match.
Huh. Cute, she mused, pushing her glasses up her nose. But she’d take her long johns, thank you very much.
“Make sure to miss that big patch of ice,” Everett, back in human form, flicked a thumb toward the middle of their side of the road. “Don’t worry, you can’t miss it. See you at the finish line.” He waved, throwing her a saucy wink.
Game. On.
“Don’t pay attention to Everett. He’s an idiot.”
“But the ice. I am a magnet for anything slippery, wet or hard.”
His lips quirked up with the same smirk his brother had flashed her.
“In that order?” His words a dark, husky growl.
Freaking Cherry. She would kill her for this. Right after she popped out that kid.
Sabine groaned. “Just tie us together and let’s get this over with.” She needed to watch her words.
“Yes, ma’am,” he drawled with a tip of his imaginary hat.
Large hands parted her thighs and it wasn’t her imagination that he took extra precaution to not slip too high.
Now thigh to thigh, he stood and offered her a hand to her elbow for balance. “That’s not too tight, is it?” His eyes darkened as he met her gaze.
“No.” She pressed her hands to her cheeks and her voice held a flicker of flirtation to her own mortification.
Cherry swooped in with her ever perfect timing and handed them a tray filled with small plastic cups the size of jello shots. “Don’t spill any or we lose!”
Rone leaned over and pressed his lips to the shell of her ear. “By the way, long johns turn me on.”
A single crack rang out over the crowd and all hell broke loose.
Fact: shit just got real and she was half naked in front of a ton of strangers.
CHAPTER TWO
As a woman who never took a step outside of Texas before today, Sabi
ne’s crash course on a real winter had her insides clenching and her eyebrows nearly frozen to the rims of her glasses. “Holy hell.”
Rone swung his massive leg forward and she either moved her ass or got dragged by the oversized werebear to the finish line.
She’d much rather get there under her own inertia.
“Drink,” he commanded, shoving a glass in her hands while his other balanced his side of the tray. It was all she could do to keep up and not lose her grip. They took another step and another, increasing the speed. Faces and voices flashed by and bubbly laughter filled her chest as half of the contents of her glass slipped down her front.
Stings like a thousand needles punched through the worthless barrier of her socks to stab at her feet. Snow sloshed and fanned out but she didn’t let the bite of the cold slow her. His stride ate up two of hers, and she could see he was forced to slow his pace to match her shorter one.
A bully blow from a gust of wind nearly did them in and threatened to topple their tray, to the gasps of the crowd. “You spill any, we have to go back and start all over again,” Rone warned, eyes zeroed in on the yellow ribbon that fluttered as a marker for the finish line some twenty yards ahead.
She tossed an askance glance in Everett’s direction. “Damn, that boy can move.” They were gaining on them. “Get it in gear, werebear.”
“Yes, ma’am.” Rone switched hands on the tray and wrapped his left arm around her waist, the rough calluses of his fingers worked through the soft cotton of her long johns and played havoc with her imagination. Between the two stark contrasts of intense warmth and cold, she couldn’t pick between shivering and sweating. Tossing the tray and working herself around him or keeping in step.
Their tied leg made the call for her as Rone set their pace.
Three shots down. Bubbles gurgled in the pit of her stomach and she went back for more before her better judgment slammed into her.
Snowbound With Her Christmas Bear: Wylde Den #4 (Alaskan Den Men Book 16) Page 2
