BEAR-LY NEW YEAR Read online

  “I think you’re delusional.” She half whispered as she pressed that breath out and slowly dragged in another.

  “No…” his voice was a whisper all of its own, the kind you really had to listen too, concentrate on, just to hear it, but that only made her feel closer to him. “Tell me you’re not attracted to me…” He dared her.

  Kristy opened her mouth to deny his words, and yet, she found that she couldn’t. There was only one way to go from there.

  “Who wouldn’t be?” She decided to brazen it out. “Standing there with those muscles on display. That whole badass, shifter thing that you’ve got going for you – every woman likes a bad boy, even if they don’t admit to it – even if they wouldn’t want the whole package that goes along with it.”

  “You don’t like the package?” Nick felt his heart hit his ribs.

  He needed to know what she was telling him. If she couldn’t see herself in his life then there was little point in debating taking her away from Jackson and breaking his friend’s heart.

  “The whole clan thing? The alpha thing? Fighting – claws and fangs…? Sure, what’s not to like?” She tossed up just one shoulder and offered him her sarcasm on a plate, but he didn’t much look like he was enjoying it.

  “Good to know.” He reluctantly released her wrist and forced himself to turn away from her. He practically counted the steps back to the kitchen stove as his mind whirled with thoughts of what came next.

  Kristy frowned as she watched him. She hadn’t expected him to just walk off like that, and she had to wonder why he’d turned from Mr Playful, to Mr Curious, to Mr Frosty.

  It shouldn’t have bothered her, but it did. It bothered her as much as the newfound distance between them and the way she seemed to want to move closer, take a step and another until she was right back there with him again.

  Then her mind snapped back to Jackson and she frowned harder. She felt a rush of guilt for the man who she was supposed to be marrying in a few hours.

  Cold damn feet… She reminded herself.

  Jackson was what was real. Her life outside the mountain resort was what was real.

  Nick had saved her life and now she was locked up in some cabin with him – that was just a moment in time. This wasn’t her life. This wasn’t real – it was an interlude, nothing more – nothing less.

  Soon she’d be married to Jackson – or not – but not Nick. Nick wasn’t even an equation in her world.

  So why the hell did it feel like he was a big one?

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  ~

  “And down we go…” Dolph lowered her to the bed as gently as he could. She was high on life and had more than a few drinks inside of her to make wooing her an impossibility, but she was home in his cabin and that was all that mattered.

  “W-where are we?” Chloe lifted her head from the pillow and looked about the room. It was clean and minimal and she guessed it was a guest cabin…

  “My – our… cabin.” He corrected himself. She was his mate and she was home where she should be, and he needed to think of them as one now.

  “Our… what?” She shrieked a little as she pushed up in the bed, all wide eyed and started like a rabbit spotting his bear.

  “What’s mine is yours.” Dolph chuckled a little as she eyed the room with suspicion, and then eyed him with even more.

  “Well, that’s… not the point. I didn’t say…” She started to shake her head.

  “You needed your bed and I needed not to have to circle your cabin all night in protection mode.” Dolph informed her.

  “Protection mode?” Chloe echoed. Her brain must have misunderstood her ears.

  “My bear would not let you sleep in that cabin alone without me either being inside to protect you or being outside to… protect you.” He shrugged and she frowned.

  “So, protection mode… but – why?” Chloe frowned harder.

  “Because you’re my mate and it’s my duty to protect you.” He shrugged again.

  Why were things like that always hard for humans to understand? It was the mate way… simple.

  “Who gets to protect me from you?” She cocked her head to one side and he mirrored that stance.

  “Huh?” Dolph frowned.

  “Well, here I am, slung over your shoulder like a sack of spuds, carried off to your bed, and there you are; all sexy shifter guy, and here we are… in your damn cabin. So who protects me from you?” Chloe lifted a hand and let it drop back down like a brick.

  “I do.”

  “Do what?”

  “Protect you from me.” He shot back as she eyed him with a dollop of suspicion and a lot of confusion.

  “How can you protect me from you?” Either she’d drunk way too much or he wasn’t making sense. “That’s like asking the bear to guard the honey.”

  Dolph opened his mouth to speak and yet when her words echoed within his mind he chuckled instead.

  “Not true.” He offered and she scowled at him.

  “Oh tell me how it’s different?” She shot back.

  “Because I have honour.” He shrugged.

  “Says you.” She snorted.

  “I won’t touch you-”

  “Like e-v-e-r?” She craned her neck towards him a little and narrowed her eyes on him.

  “No, not like ever, like now while you’re drunk.” He looked at her as if she’d grown another head.

  “I’m not drunk.” She rushed to denial, but there was a slow to burn smile breaking out on his lips, but his eyes were already alive with amusement.

  “Then there’s no problem with me touching you.” Dolph’s grin was firmly in place now. Triumphant.

  “That’s not what I meant.” She lifted that hand again and batted it about in the air.

  “So, you are drunk?” He asked with a level of amusement that she couldn’t quite comprehend.

  “Yes… No! Wait…” She let her eyes roam around the air…” I’m not sure.”

  “Well, if you’re not drunk…” He pressed a knee into the mattress and her eyes snapped wide.

  “I’m drunk!” She rushed out.

  Dolph held in place. His dark eyes took her in and she looked guiltier than sin.

  “Sure?” He pressed and she frowned.

  “Sure I’m sure. I said so, didn’t I?” She thought she had…

  “You said you wasn’t drunk a minute ago.” Dolph’s grin didn’t waver.

  “A girl can reconsider…” Chloe offered back.

  “Fine. So, drunk it is…”

  “Can I go home now?” Chloe scowled at him.

  “It’s snowing and your cabin is…”

  “Not to the cabin, like, home – home.”

  “No-”

  “I’m not an adoptable, you can just decide that you want to keep me and whoosh…” she tossed up a hand and almost hit him in the face. “Like, here I must stay…”

  “You’re right, that’s a decision only you can make…”

  “Then I choose home.” She tossed herself back into the softness of the pillows and sighed as her eyes closed without her permission.

  “And a decision that I need to talk, and other things, you out of.” Dolph said, but he could see that the alcohol was already working on her body, drawing her mind towards sleep.

  “That’s nice for you.” She started strong but by the end of the sentence her words were almost a whisper.

  “For us.” He corrected.

  “Yes, us.” She rolled over onto her side and sighed again. A moment later and she was dreaming about him…

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  ~

  “That was actually really good.” Kristy pushed up to her feet and reached for both of the empty bowls.

  “You say that like it shocks you that I can cook something that doesn’t come from a can.” Nick watched her moved around the table and towards the kitchen, she looked like she belonged, and in his mind that was both a good thing and a dangerous thing to behold.

  “In
truth – I would have been shocked if you could boil water.” She gave a small little chuckle that filled the air and his ears reached out to grab that sound and store it deep within his soul.

  “Gee… thanks.” Nick sat back in the chair and watched her work. She’d taken to running the bowls under the tap water and stacking things in the dishwasher… yep, this was getting mighty domesticated right there.

  “Aren’t shifter men, especially alpha’s…” She tossed him a quick grin over her shoulder. “Supposed to be like super male chauvinistic pigs with bad attitudes, sex hungry, and undomesticated… like bear cave type, undomesticated?” She popped that grin into a really wide smirk and then turned back to doing what she was doing.

  “In your mind, I guess. Hell, why don’t I just go around biting the heads of kittens and kicking puppies?” He shrugged and she shot him a mock horror look…

  “Well, I left those parts out. I thought I’d cover the basics first.” She teased and watched his slight frown… those dancing caterpillar eyebrows… ease into a slow smile.

  “Well, you’re in my bear cave, my stash of kittens is depleted, I got real hungry, and the puppies all escaped – so tell me, what next?” He asked, eyeing her as she continued to work and couldn’t seem to help shooting looks in his direction as often as possible.

  “How about…” She considered it for a moment, frozen in place as two little ridges above her nose appeared and called to his fingers to sooth them away… Nick fisted his hands instead. “Oh!” She almost jumped in place as her eyes snapped wide and she grew a teasing smile on her lips.

  Then she reached out for a towel and dried off her hands before she slung it over her left shoulder and placed her hands on her hips, as if she was gearing up to challenge him. Nick felt his curiosity rise.

  “All of those posts on social media about you being a one night, sex mad, love God, are you going to tell me those were all fake?”

  From where he was sitting she had a couple of looks about her. Sure, there was the look of a challenge in her stance, the tip of her chin, the whole hands on hips thing, but there was also a look in her eye that almost begged him to tell her that those women lied…

  Unfortunately, he couldn’t do that.

  “I don’t know what you’ve read…”

  “A lot…” She bit out a chortle of disbelief. She kind of wanted him to say they’d lied… she was half holding herself ready for the truth of it, and yet, deep inside she didn’t want to think of him as the love ‘em and leave ‘em guy. The sex mad shifter with the need to practically consume women…

  “Ok, well, sure. That’s probably all true. I don’t follow social media.” Nick berated himself for each and every woman before her that he’d taken into his arms. “But, in my defence… it helps to equal out my bear, keep him smooth and even, and I haven’t done that in a while.”

  “So…” Her eyes narrowed and he didn’t like it. “Not only are you a man ho, but your bear is in dangerous need of you getting laid?” She tossed up one hand in the air. “Good to know.”

  “That’s not…” Nick growled.

  He guessed he’d been with a fair few women in his time, but what male hadn’t? And his bear took exception at the slur that it was in any way dangerous, especially to her.

  “Sure, I get it.” She held out that hand towards him. “With a body like that and the fact you like to show it off, why not, right?” She berated him with a withering look, before she hooked the door of the dishwasher with her foot and shot it upwards.

  “They came on to me…” He pushed upwards to his feet and scowled at her.

  He knew what she was accusing him of, and he knew why she was being irrational – it was the mating pull yanking that little green eyed monster from deep within her psyche, and yet, he felt the need to defend himself.

  “Well isn’t that a good reason to screw half of the country?” She tossed the towel down on the side and turned her back on him…

  Then she grimaced and tried to comprehend what had gotten her so worked up about him and a million big boobed, short on brains and big on silicon honey’s in his bed… It was like one of those obsessions with a reality star or something… illogical!

  “Now hold on a…” Nick took a step towards her, but she was already spinning around on her feet and starting off towards the front door.

  “I should get going.” She offered over her shoulder, but she had no idea where the hell she was going too, because she didn’t know where she was…

  Oh, this is so not good.

  What the hell was I thinking? Calling him out for doing what bears and apparently bees do and sowing his wild oats… probably real wild from looking at him…

  Where the hell am I going to go? North to the Pole? Maybe I’ll run into Santa and his elves…

  “You’re not going anywhere…” It wasn’t so much the fact that he was somehow suddenly right there behind her that made her jump a little in place and swing around to look up at him… it was the tone of his voice – the determination – the possessive quality to it, and then the look in his eyes – fierce with anger – mixed with desire that made her catch her breath and hold it.

  “You think I’m just going to let you walk out of here into the night?” Nick tried to hold himself in check. He wanted to shake some damn sense into her. Only a female could be so stupid…

  “Let me?” She suddenly found her voice.

  “That’s right.”

  “Like you have a choice – a power over me…?” Her eyebrows went up and normally that was a red rag to a damn bull in his mind and those warning bells would go off with the angry female early warning alarm system that most men had, but right then, he didn’t much give a damn.

  She was being irrational. There wasn’t a chance in hell that he’d let her out that door on her own, and if she didn’t get that then she would the moment that she tried it…

  His bear was anxious. The beast was back into protection mode and it wanted nothing more than to keep her safe, from herself.

  “More than you know.” Nick bit out.

  He watched as she rallied against his words. Planting her feet, she looked up at him as if she was ready to fight a battle…

  “So, enlighten me.” She demanded.

  Nick bit down on the need to tell her. To spit out everything and let the chips fall where they may, but he still owed Jackson, and he hadn’t rightly made up his mind as to what he was going to do about it…

  His heart, his soul, and his head said woo her… His honour said back the hell off.

  “I…” Nick bit back a hard growl of annoyance.

  “What? Nothing to say?” She demanded, taking just the smallest step that brought her right up close and personal with him – toe to toe- like they were about to duke it out.

  “Kristy, I’m warning you…”

  “Warning me?” Kristy tipped her head to one side and narrowed her eyes on him. “The big bad alpha thinks he can bully me into submission…”

  “There’s no bullying. You’re not going out that damn door…” Nick growled.

  That did it for Kristy. She dug her heels in and spun around on her sock clad feet. Without pulling on her boots, or jacket, or doing any sane thing in the world, she yanked open the cabin door and went to take a step outside into the frosty air…

  “Damn it, you are a stubborn…” Nick reached out and wrapped his fingers around her wrist, yanking her backwards towards him, he spun her in place, before booting the door closed with his foot…

  Her hands hit the naked skin of his chest as her world turned about her and she looked for solidity. She’d found it alright. Those hard muscles felt good, but nowhere near as damn good as his strong arms coming around her body to lock her against him…

  Her head tipped back on her neck and she found herself gazing up into his jet black eyes – they held her spellbound. The hard, deep growl that rumbled beneath her fingers sent a long shiver down her spine, and every hair on her body stood to attention
as goosebumps chased over her skin with a tingle that ran up her arms and didn’t seem to want to stop until it had covered every inch of her.

  It was as if her body had suddenly become attune to his, every inch, every last millimetre… The problem was – she liked it.

  Nick’s beast rose up within him. The beast wanted its mate.

  “What are you going to do now?” She challenged him with her eyes and her tone. “Tie me to the damn bed?” Then she’d slammed a million X-Rated thought into his mind with her words…

  Nick couldn’t help himself. One moment he was thinking wicked thoughts and the next he was acting on them.

  He took her lips with so much passion that it made her head spin.

  CHAPTER TWENTY ONE

  ~

  “I shouldn’t have done that – you’re not mine.” Nick growled as he used every bit of self-control that he could manage to muster to put her away from him.

  He’d been an idiot to get that close to her. He was an idiot to think that he could stay away from her when everything about her tempted him to get that much closer.

  “Not... yours, what the hell does that mean?” Kristy felt the rush of guilt go through her.

  Jackson.

  “You’re marrying Jackson – or did you forget?” His tone sounded accusing, and that made the guilt flare inside of her again, but there was also an element of disbelief.

  “That’s damn hypocrisy for you.” Kristy’s hands went back to her hips as she glared up at him. “Did I forget?” She turned her head slightly and her eyes accused him right back. “You kissed me.”

  “I didn’t see you objecting.” Nick growled as he turned his back on her. He had to – because he wanted to do that all over again, and more…

  “Wow!” Kristy bit out, swinging away from him and stomping over towards the centre of the room. “Just wow.” She bit out, as anger flared inside of her.