Bear: A Dark Shifter Romance

by Delta James

  “You’re engaged, Hal? Hell, Kaye’s going to be over the moon. She didn’t want to tell you about us until you’d been back a while. Guess I’ll tell her I want to see that ring back on her finger,” Charlie said, looking pointedly at Halley’s left hand.

  “You know, Charlie, I was just going to ask Halley about not having hers on. I may have to get after her about that. She has a penchant for misbehaving, especially if I’m not around to make her mind.”

  Charlie’s face registered empathy and understanding. “I have the same trouble with Kaye. Sometimes they just need to be reminded who wears the pants in the family.”

  “They do indeed,” agreed Cade, relaxing as he patted her behind.

  “And sometimes,” said Halley sweetly, “when men are being jerks, they end up sleeping by themselves.”

  “Yes, but that won’t be tonight, will it, sweetheart?’ Cade asked smoothly.

  Charlie laughed. “You wouldn’t do that to Cade, not when you two have been apart. I’m not thinking he’d let you get away with that. I have to tell you, Cade, I was a little worried about your girl.”

  “How so?” Cade inquired politely.

  “No one has seen her for a couple of days and Kaye was getting concerned. It’s a good thing I’ll be able to tell her you were fine and that Cade’s here now to make sure you don’t get into trouble. If you two are free this evening, how about we meet at the Copper Steer later for an early supper?”

  “I’m not sure, Charlie,” said Halley.

  “Halley, I’m not a beast all the time, I can wait to get you alone until after we have dinner with Charlie and Kaye.”

  “That’d be great,” said Charlie. “I’ll let Kaye know. What do you say we avoid the dinner rush and meet about 5:30?”

  “That would be fine, Charlie. Halley and I will see you and Kaye then.”

  “Sounds good. Nice meeting you, Cade.”

  Charlie trotted down the porch steps, got into his patrol vehicle, and pulled out of the drive. Halley turned on Cade and pushed him away.

  “Betrothed? And what the hell did you mean playing grab ass with me in front of Charlie? What is wrong with you?”

  “There is nothing wrong with me and you watch your language. I did not play grab ass with you. I’m not even sure what that means. I just reassured Charlie that I knew how to keep my woman in line.”

  “I am not your betrothed.”

  “Of course you are. I won’t have the whole town thinking that we are living under the same roof and aren’t at least engaged.”

  “I don’t mind playing along for a while...”

  “We aren’t playing, Halley. I believe your idea to stay down here has some merit. We can ensure that the grave doesn’t get disturbed until it’s had time to fully blend back into the landscape. And you’re right, the house has a mostly clean field of fire. If we get that security system installed, I’ll feel better about being here. Charlie’s visit proves your point that taking you off to the mountain will raise a lot of questions we aren’t really prepared to answer.”

  “I never agreed to marry you, Cade.”

  He leaned over and kissed her lightly. “That’s all right, Halley. I never asked.”

  “You are the most infuriating, obnoxious, chauvinistic...” She was at a loss for words that weren’t ones he’d consider curse words.

  He grinned, watching her catch herself. “Good girl.”

  “If you tell me good girl again when you get your way, I swear I’ll... well, I don’t know what I’ll do, but you won’t like it.”

  “Fair enough,” he said, nodding. “And when you do, I’ll turn that fanny of yours bright red and take my pleasure from your bottom hole.”

  “You are not going to fuck my ass.”

  “Not only am I, you’re going to beg me to do it.”

  “Never happen.”

  “Never is a relative and long time when you’re talking to a man who was born before the turn of the nineteenth century.”

  “We’d better leave before I say something we’ll both regret. I thought we could stop by the garden store and pick up something to put over...” Halley stopped struggling to find the right words.

  “The grave of the men who wanted to rape and kill you? You did nothing wrong, Halley. I’m the one who did the killing and I’d do it again. Nothing and no one will ever harm you again.”

  Cade pulled her close, wrapping her in his strong embrace. For the first time, he tilted her face to his and kissed her. Not the light pressing of his lips to hers that he’d done before, but a long, slow, sensual kiss that caused her to go weak at the knees. Halley clung to him and kissed him back. He lifted his head and smiled at her. At that moment, she knew she was home—not because she was in Colorado, not because she was in her family home, but because she was wrapped in Cade Devereaux’s arms.

  “We’d best get going or I’m going to decide there is a much better way to spend the next several hours than nosing around town to see if there’s anything we need to know.”

  Halley blushed. “I don’t think Charlie would have been able to hide that. But you’re probably right. I’m ready to go when you are.”

  “All right, first we talk to someone about the security system, then we go to the bank and the feed store and then just poke around until we meet Charlie and Kaye.”

  “We can get the security system started on the drive in. I have a friend who has a company that specializes in them. I can call and get him started. I’ll take an extra key so if he wants to come out, we can give it to him. What do you need at the bank? I can get money out of the drive-thru ATM with my debit card.”

  “With your what? Where?”

  She laughed. “Come on, mountain man, let me introduce you to some other modern luxuries... money that comes out of a machine.”

  “Is that legal?”

  “Yes. I put my debit card in there, the machine gives me money, and they debit the amount of money I took from my account.”

  “I can pay for our dinner.”

  “I’m sure you can,” she said, not wanting him to be insulted. “If you want, you can pay me back and I’ll give you the cash. It’ll just save us time from having to go inside the bank.”

  “But we need to go inside...”

  “No, really we don’t.”

  “Halley... I’m going inside the bank.”

  “Okay, okay! Don’t get your feathers all ruffled.”

  “Bears don’t have feathers to ruffle unless they’ve just eaten a nice plump pigeon. The one I ate the other night had plenty of honey and but no feathers that I recall,” he teased. “I may have to check more thoroughly later.”

  Halley felt color burning her cheeks. “I can’t believe you just said that to me. You’re impossible.”

  He patted her derriere as she preceded him out the door.

  * * *

  Cade was amazed that Halley could call her friend to start the work on the security system from her truck. He knew what a phone was, but her cell phone was beyond his comprehension. Her friend agreed to meet them at the feed store so they went there first.

  Halley introduced Cade to the people she knew there. By the time they had passed the key over to her friend and purchased the wildflower sod, she wanted to kill him. He had managed to tell each and every person they met that he was her fiancé.

  She was fuming when they got back in her truck. “Damn it, Cade. I never said I’d marry you.”

  “You never said you wouldn’t. And you will.”

  “Just like that. You decide to marry me and expect me to just go along?”

  He took a deep breath. “No, Halley, I expect you to obey me...”

  “You do know they took that out of the marriage vows a number of years ago.”

  “That’s all right. I don’t care if you say it out loud in front of a preacher so long as you remember that you will, and will get your bottom spanked if you misbehave.”

  “You cannot threaten me to get me to agree to marry y
ou,” she said with exasperation.

  “I’m not threatening you, Halley. I’m simply telling you that we’re getting married. And if you don’t settle down, we’re going to go back to the house where I’ll put you over my knee until you decide to behave yourself and agree. Do you want to go to the bank or back to the house?”

  “You really want to marry me? Why? Is it because you made a promise to my grandmother?”

  “Halley, find a place to park this thing.”

  “You are not going to put me over your knee.”

  He laughed. “If I thought that’s what you needed, I sure as hell would. But I want to talk to you a minute and want you to really listen to me.”

  She pulled into a vacant parking lot and turned off the engine.

  Cade took her hands into his. “Halley, I think I’ve known since I fought that cougar over you. I didn’t want to admit that and never thought to have a woman in my life again. Once I realized that we were connected somehow, it became difficult just to stay in the shadows and watch you. You have no idea how many times I wanted to come and claim you for my own. Your grandmother saw me more clearly than anyone I’ve ever known...”

  Halley smiled. “Yeah, she was like that.”

  “She knew, but still I didn’t dare hope. But the other night when those men were threatening you? I couldn’t deny that I was meant to protect you. But I’m no chivalrous knight of old. If you’re the lady in distress, I must be the dragon. All I wanted was to kill those men and claim you as mine... and I did. And you allowed the claiming.”

  “I didn’t...”

  “You did and you know you did. You respond to me in a way no woman ever has. Before whatever happened to me happened, I had pleasured my share of women. But my lust and need to dominate had been dormant for more than two centuries until I found you. Now it’s all I can do not to keep you tied to the bed so I can have you whenever and however I please. I live to hear you call my name as you come and feel your sweet, hot sheath pulse all along the length of my cock.”

  “And how is that different from what you’ve been doing? Oh, that’s right, you’ve made time to spank me whenever you wanted...”

  “Whenever you needed or deserved it.” He ran his hand up the inside of her thigh and smiled as she shivered in response. “And I will continue to fuck you and discipline you as I see fit. You will not deny me or yourself. I will keep you safe and I will love you for the rest of my days. There will never be another for me.”

  He could see the tears welling in her eyes.

  “Never is a long time coming from a two-hundred-year-old man,” she whispered.

  He nodded. “It is indeed. Love, honor, and cherish for as long as there is breath in my body. And I will expect the same from you as well as your obedience.”

  She shook her head. “And you were doing so well up until that last part.”

  He laughed. “Make all the jokes you want, little girl. You will obey me or wish you had before doing it anyway.”

  “Can we have something in there about that big copper bathtub in front of the fire?”

  “Yes. I will build you a big fireplace in our bedroom where we can put an enormous copper tub for you to soak in. So that’s a yes?”

  “Sort of.”

  He growled.

  “Don’t get all grizzly on me. For us to get legally married we’ll have to come up with some kind of documentation for you. That’s the only reservation... and that’s only to make it legal. If you’re asking me if I’ll spend the rest of my life with you... as long as I get that copper tub, you’ve got a deal.”

  He laughed. “At the risk of pissing you off... good girl. Halley, isn’t there something you’d like to tell me?”

  She started the truck up and looked at him. “What? I agreed to marry you.”

  “And have yet to tell me you love me.”

  “Oh, that. I thought you were bright enough to have figured that out by now.”

  He smiled. “Perhaps, but it would be nice to hear.”

  She turned the truck off, unbuckled her seatbelt, slid over next to him, and brought his face down to hers so that he could hear what she had to say. “I love you, Cade Devereaux, now and forever.”

  His mouth captured hers in a fiery kiss that left them both breathless.

  Chapter Twelve

  They went into the bank and Cade took Halley with him into the safety deposit vault. They removed her grandmother’s box. Halley had been surprised that Cade had a key to it as well. They found the deeds to both the family home on the outskirts of town as well as the deed to the land that encompassed the mountain where the cavern resided.

  The box was filled with various legal documents and two pieces of jewelry. The first, Halley recognized as her grandfather’s wedding band: a simple band of woven gold. The other was a ring with a large emerald surrounded by baroque pearls and diamonds.

  “Cade, do you know what this is? I don’t recognize this as anything my grandmother had.”

  Cade leaned over and smiled as he picked it up.

  “This is the only thing I have left of my family. It was my mother’s. Your grandmother kept it safe for me.”

  Cade took Halley’s hand in his and started to slip the ring onto her finger. Halley tried to pull away and clenched her fist.

  “Halley, Charlie will be expecting you to have your ring back in place.”

  “Only because you told him we were engaged.”

  Cade refused to release her hand. “I thought we had settled this.”

  “I... just...” she stammered.

  Cade leaned down and kissed her lightly before whispering in her ear, “You can put the ring on before we go to dinner or tonight after I deal with you for having lied to me about it earlier. Do you want to put it on now or do you need to have your bottom spanked first?”

  Halley sighed. “No, give it here. I’ll put it on.”

  Cade still did not relinquish her hand, and Halley realized he had no intention of doing so until he had the ring in place. She closed her eyes and unclenched her fist. She felt an odd thrill run through her body as Cade placed the ring on her finger.

  “Cade?”

  He pulled her into his body and kissed her deeply. “Yes?”

  “Would you wear my grandfather’s ring once we tell people we are married?”

  He smiled. “It would be my honor. I want to leave the two deeds here, but I’d like a chance to go through these documents.”

  Halley reached across to look at them. “This one is my birth certificate. And here’s my grandparents’ wedding license.”

  Cade looked at them, smiling not at the document that recorded her grandparents’ marriage but at the one for her birth.

  “It says unknown for your father.”

  “Yes, I’m illegitimate. I know there was a time that was a terrible thing...” she started apologetically.

  He chuckled. “So am I, sweetheart. And I’m more than two hundred years old. It is only of concern to me if it bothers you.”

  “No. I never even knew my mother. I was an infant when she brought me to my grandparents. One morning when they got up and she was gone. No note, no nothing. I’ve never heard from her.”

  “My mother died in debtor’s prison and, as I said, I came to America as an indentured servant. This was sewn into the lining of my coat with a note from my mother that it had belonged to my father’s family. He had been a duke and was killed during the Reign of Terror. I kept it hidden until your grandmother offered to keep it safe for me.”

  “I guess I just assumed you only met the one time,” said Halley.

  “No, we met several times. Looking back, I think she may have believed we were destined to be together.”

  “My grandfather always said she had the gift.” Halley shook her head. “I’m suddenly remembering little things about her and my grandfather. My guess is both of them wouldn’t have batted an eye at the way you treat me.”

  “I treat you as any man should treat the
woman he loves and cares for.”

  “I got news for you, buddy... there may be some who see your notions as perfectly fine, but that is not the majority. And,” she said, suddenly remembering how Cade and Charlie had bonded over women, “how did you know that Charlie and Kaye had the same kind of relationship?”

  “Those girls that I’ve seen and heard over the years getting their bottoms spanked before getting their pussies plowed by the man that did it? Your friend Kaye was one of them.”

  “Really?” Halley said, shocked.

  “Yes, I couldn’t see the man, but I recognized Charlie’s scent earlier today as the man who’d done it.”

  “You watched them? That’s perverted,” she said, laughing, not sure whether to be intrigued or disgusted.

  “I didn’t set out to. I just came across them. He was sitting on a log with his back to me and had Kaye over his knee getting after her about something. It wasn’t until he let her up and was getting ready to get between her legs that I was able to slip away unseen.” He smiled. “Unseen, but not unheard.”

  “That is more than I needed to know.”

  “I thought you might take some comfort in knowing your friend could sympathize with you when one or the other of you gets disciplined.”

  Halley shook her head. “Have I mentioned I don’t like being spanked?”

  “Repeatedly and my response hasn’t changed. If you don’t want to find yourself face down over my knee, then you behave.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  Dinner had been entertaining and relaxing. As Charlie had predicted, Kaye had been over the moon that Halley was engaged and thrilled to share her own news. Halley had been impressed with Cade’s ability to negotiate his way through a modern dinner in a restaurant. At first, she had been concerned she’d have to cover for him, but that hadn’t proved to be the case, and she found herself able to relax and enjoy the evening.

  They returned home and Cade ordered her to stay in the truck.

  “You are to stay here. If I don’t return within short order, you are to head back to town and get Charlie.”

  “Cade, I’m not just going to leave you here...”