He rubbed his entire body against Hudson’s naked chest, his tail flicking in the big polar bear shifter’s face as what suspiciously felt like jealousy, trickled through her. She wanted to rub her body against Hudson’s naked chest too.
Rosalie! Knock it off! Sexual harassment, remember?
Yeah, she remembered. She walked into the kitchen, trying to ignore the way Hudson’s big hands were rubbing all over her pussy –
Oh my God, Rosalie. Are you a thirteen-year-old boy?
Her cat. He was petting her cat and it was totally unexpected and totally adorable that he liked cats, and she absolutely was not jealous that Mr. Pibbles could sit on his lap and she couldn’t.
“Mr. Pibbles, get down,” she said as the cat settled onto Hudson’s lap and kneaded one thick thigh with his claws.
“It’s fine,” Hudson said.
“I can put him in the spare bedroom,” Rosalie said. “He’s really friendly and won’t leave you alone if I don’t.”
“I like cats. I don’t mind petting him.”
Ask him if he feels like petting your other cat.
Her cheeks went bright red. What the hell? Where did that come from? Inner Rosie had gone postal.
“I like cats too. Uh, obviously.” She opened the fridge. “What do you like to eat?”
“Seals.”
She turned and stared wide-eyed at him. “I don’t, uh, that is, I’m not sure where I could even go to get seal meat. I’ve got a shrimp ring I could thaw.”
There was amusement in his eyes, and she said, “Are you – are you making a joke?”
He didn’t reply, but a small grin crossed his face.
“Oh my God, you are. Listen, don’t take this the wrong way, but do you feel all right?” She asked.
“Yes. Why?”
“I’m worried you might be having a stroke.”
He petted Mr. Pibbles who arched his back and made a high-pitched sound of pleasure. “Why would you think that?”
“Um, because you helped me with my flat tire, touched me twice, and you’re sitting in my kitchen while my cat gets hair all over you. And - and - you just made a joke.”
He scowled. “We’re friends, Rosalie. Friends help each other.”
“I know, but…”
“But, what?”
“I didn’t know for sure that we were friends.”
He sighed and gave her his usual scowl. “I told you yesterday that we were friends.”
“Right.” She peered into the fridge again. “Well, my plan was to make pasta tonight for dinner, but I can change that up if you don’t -”
“Pasta is fine. I like pasta.” Hudson placed Mr. Pibbles on the floor before standing. “What can I do to help?”
“You can sit and relax,” Rosalie said. “You came to my rescue, remember? The least I can do is make you dinner. I don’t have any beer, but I do have a bottle of wine or there’s water or juice.”
“Water, please,” Hudson said.
She poured him a glass of water and set it on the table. She glanced at him, her gaze skittering away from his naked chest. The last thing she needed was Hudson smelling her lust for him.
He might consider her a friend but, today aside, his weird compulsion about not touching her was more than apparent. Even now, she could feel the tenseness radiating from his large body when she scooted past him to get a pot and pan out of the cupboard.
In fact, when she went to slide past him again, he stood and moved around the table to the other side. He pulled out the chair and sat down. Mr. Pibbles rubbed up against his legs before meowing and jumping into his lap. He petted the cat roughly as Rosalie put water on to boil and then put oil in the pan to heat.
She pulled some mushrooms, peppers, and onion out of the fridge and chopped them up before adding them to the pan. As they sizzled, she grabbed the ground beef from the fridge, and a bottle of pasta sauce from the pantry.
“It’s just bottled sauce, I hope that’s okay,” she said.
“Fine with me.”
“Do you like to cook?” She asked as she added the meat to the pan.
“Not really. I eat a lot of frozen stuff.”
“Well, I enjoy cooking so anytime you want a homecooked meal, just come over. It’s just as easy to cook for two as it is for one.”
“Okay, thanks.”
“So,” she stirred the vegetables in the pan before adding the meat, “do you like being a bartender?”
Hudson shrugged. “It’s a job. Porter’s a good boss.”
“Were you born here?” She asked.
“Nah. I’m from Alaska.”
“Right, of course.” She felt a little stupid. “Polar bears are from Alaska. That was a dumb question.”
“It isn’t,” he replied. “My dad and mom were both born in Canada and moved to Alaska after they got married.”
“Oh. Are they still there?”
“Yeah. My dad’s an accountant and my mom is a doctor. They live in a small isolated community. My mom runs the medical center.”
“How small?” She asked.
“There’s only about four hundred bears in the town.”
She stared at him. “It’s all polar bear shifters?”
He nodded. “Well, mostly. There are a few black bears who married polar bears, and my mom told me that there’s a human living there now too.”
“That’s kind of cool.” She added some pasta to the boiling water. “Do you have any siblings?”
“No. My mom and dad only wanted one cub.”
“Are you close to your parents?” She poured the sauce over the meat and vegetables and stirred it in.
“Close enough. I don’t see them a lot, but we text and talk on the phone.”
She probably should stop asking Hudson so many questions, but she was weirdly fascinated by his life. “So, you moved from Alaska to here?”
He shook his head. “No. When I was in my early twenties, I moved to Canada. Worked construction for a while – that’s where I met Judd.”
“Who’s Judd?”
“The bouncer at Bud’s Bar.”
“Oh, right. What kind of shifter is he?”
“Black bear.”
She drained the cooked pasta and let it sit while she stirred the meat sauce. She set the table quickly and poured Hudson some more water before putting the pasta and sauce in serving bowls and setting them on the table as well.
“I’ll just put Mr. Pibbles in the bedroom. I’ll be right back,” she said.
He nodded, and she picked up Mr. Pibbles from Hudson’s lap, trying to ignore the heat radiating from the big polar bear shifter’s body. She tucked the cat into the bedroom and made a stop at the laundry room. Hudson’s shirt and hoodie were dry, thank God. She wasn’t entirely sure she could sit across from him for an entire meal while he was half-naked without feeling some kind of tingling in her girl parts.
No doubt he had an amazing sense of smell and, for some reason, Hudson knowing she lusted after him, even if it was just a ‘temporary I’ve gone crazy kind of way’, was even worse than Lincoln knowing she wanted him.
She returned to the kitchen and handed him his clothes. “Here you go. Nice and dry.”
“Thanks.” He dropped the hoodie on the seat beside him and she busied herself with pouring a glass of juice as he slipped his shirt over his head.
She sat down across from him. “Help yourself.”
“Thanks. It smells good.”
He piled his plate high with pasta and meat sauce, not the least bit self-conscious about how much he was taking. She added some food to her plate and smiled at him. “So, you were saying that you did construction?”
“For a while,” he said. “Then I switched to working for a logging company up in Northern Alberta.”
“So, what made you decide to move here?”
A ‘closed for business’ look immediately crossed his face. “Just needed a change.”
“Oh.” She ate a bit of pasta as awkward silence d
escended. She had gone too far, pried too much into Hudson’s life.
“What about you?” He said abruptly. “You grow up here?”
“Yes. Born and raised here. My mom lives about twenty minutes away.”
“What about your dad?” He ate another forkful of pasta.
“I don’t know who he is. My mom raised me on my own.”
Hudson frowned. “She never told you who he was?”
She shook her head. “No. Just said he wasn’t a good man and that having him in my life would be more trouble than it was worth.”
“Does that bother you?”
She blinked a little at the bluntness of his question. “I guess…it used to? Not so much now. My mom is very…stubborn and if she doesn’t want to do something, you can’t make her do it. You know?”
He nodded, and she ate a bite of pasta.
“You’re an only kid too, then?”
“Yes. My mom never really dated, said she was too busy looking after me, so she didn’t meet anyone. We’re, uh, pretty close. I spend a lot of time with her.”
Hudson was studying her, and she flushed when he said, “Because you want to or because you have to?”
“I want to,” she said.
He didn’t reply, and she sighed. “She’s lonely and I’m the only one she has. I feel guilty if I don’t go over there a few times a week. She makes me feel guilty.”
When he continued to stay silent, she said hurriedly, “I love her. I really do.”
“I know. Do you like your job?”
She paused at the sudden change in topic. A month of hanging out with Hudson and in the span of less than an hour, he was asking more questions than he’d asked her in the entire month.
“I do, actually. I like it a lot. My boss, Jace, is a really good guy. I’m just his assistant, but I’m…”
She hesitated, and he paused with a forkful of pasta near his mouth. “You’re what?”
“I’m thinking of becoming a real estate agent. I mean… I’m going to become one. I’ll have to go back to school and it’ll be a lot of work, but I know I can do it,” she said.
“I know you can too.”
She stared at him, a little taken back by the simple declaration. Warmth flooded through her. “You mean that, don’t you?”
“Yes.” He gave her a puzzled look. “Why?”
She shrugged. “Sometimes the people in my life don’t always think I can do… stuff.”
“Why not?”
“Honestly? I don’t know.”
He mulled that over as he finished his plate of food. He eyed the serving bowls and she said, “Take the rest.”
“Thanks.” He scooped out the rest of the pasta and the meat sauce and they finished eating, this time in surprisingly comfortable silence.
When they were done, he wiped his mouth and said, “That was really good. Thanks. Sorry I ate all of it.”
“It’s fine. You have a big appetite, huh?”
“Most polar bears do. We need to eat a lot for all the energy we burn as humans.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well,” he leaned back in his chair, “when I’m in my polar bear form, my thick fur keeps me warm. As a human, I’m just as warm but my body has to work harder to be warm because of the lack of fur thing. Does that make sense?”
“It does. So, you really never get cold?”
“No. Most of the time I’m too hot. In the summer, I usually sit in an ice bath every night.”
“Seriously?” She said.
“Yep.” He stood and cleared the plates off the table. “Should I just put these in the dishwasher?”
“Sure. Thank you.” She rinsed the rest of the supper dishes, handing them to him one by one so he could put them in the dishwasher. When they were done, he wiped down the table and hung the cloth over the side of the sink.
“Thank you.”
“Thanks for dinner. It was good.”
“It was the least I could do. Thank you again for helping me with my truck. I’d probably still be waiting for the tow truck.”
“It’s not a problem,” he said. “If it happens again, call me, Rosalie. I mean it.”
“I will. Thanks.” She shoved her hands into the pocket of her jeans. She didn’t want the night to end. For the first time, she was feeling an actual connection with Hudson and she liked it. “So, um, I feel bad about making you miss the movie this afternoon. Do you want to find a movie on Netflix and watch it? I’ve got a pretty comfortable couch and I could make some popcorn.”
A weird look crossed his face and he immediately headed toward the door. “Thanks, but I need to get home. Bye, Rosalie.”
She followed him to the door, smiling tentatively. “Okay, bye, Hudson. We’re still on for a movie next Sunday, right?”
“Yeah, sure. Bye.”
He didn’t look at her and by the time he hit the sidewalk, he was almost running. She sighed and shut the door before walking to the bedroom and letting Mr. Pibbles out.
“I screwed up, Mr. Pibbles.” She returned to the kitchen, and the cat followed her. “I pushed too hard again. Why am I so bad at making friends? I shouldn’t have asked him if he wanted to stay and watch Netflix with me…oh my God.”
She stared down at her cat. “I asked him to stay and watch a movie on Netflix… everyone knows that’s code for ‘let’s have sex’. Holy crap, I’m an idiot.”
The cat purred before rubbing up against the hoodie that Hudson had left draped across the chair. She snatched it up. “Mr. Pibbles, no. You’ll get hair all over it.”
She hesitated before burying her face in the hoodie. It smelled delicious, and with a guilty look around, she pulled the hoodie on and zipped it up. She giggled to herself. It fell way past her knees and the arms were so long, she couldn’t see her hands. Lord, Hudson was a big man.
A very big man. How big do you think his penis is, Rosie? Super big, right?
She turned crimson. She shouldn’t even be thinking about Hudson in any way other than as a friend. He didn’t find her repulsive or anything, but he certainly wasn’t attracted to her.
Still wearing his hoodie, she wandered into the living room and sat on the couch, staring blankly at the TV screen as Mr. Pibbles purred and rubbed against her legs.
Chapter Four
“Morning, Rosalie.”
Rosalie smiled at Bria and paused at the reception desk. “Morning.”
“How was the rest of your weekend? You left Ava and Bishop’s new place without saying goodbye,” Bria said.
“Oh, I had to help Lincoln with some car trouble.”
“Lincoln?” Bria said. “You helped Lincoln?”
“She sure did.” Lincoln’s low purr from behind her sent shivers down her back. She couldn’t stop the soft blush when he tugged on a lock of her hair. “You didn’t text me back last night, Rosie-girl. I was worried.”
She blushed again, ignoring the way Bria rolled her eyes, as she turned to face him. “It was late when I got your text, so I didn’t want to wake you.”
He smiled at her. “You text me whenever you want, gorgeous. Did you get things worked out with your car? I’m sorry I couldn’t help.”
“Oh, that’s okay. I understand.” She knew he could smell her lust for him, but she couldn’t help it. God, he smelled good.
“You had car trouble too?” Bria asked.
“Yeah, flat tire on the way to the movies yesterday.” Rosalie studied Lincoln’s face. He hadn’t shaved today, and she loved the bit of blond stubble that covered his face. She wondered how that stubble would feel brushing against her skin.
Why don’t you ask Charlyn?
Reality dumped a bucket of cold water on her lust. Lincoln had been with another woman yesterday, and yet she still couldn’t stop mooning over him.
Lincoln’s nostrils flared, and a slight frown crossed his face before he stepped a little closer to her. “I brought you a coffee this morning.”
“You did?”
; “Of course. You’re my favourite girl, right?”
“Right.” Her face flushed, and a small smile crossed Lincoln’s face before he turned to Bria. “Bria, did you get my email about the Harlow file?”
Bria nodded. “I did. Do you want to talk about it now?”
“If you have time?”
“I do. Oh, hey, Rosalie? Jace is looking for you.”
“Thanks, Bria.” Rosalie headed to her cubicle, nodding hello to Sam and Rhonda when she passed them. She dumped her purse and her lunch at her desk, hung her jacket over her chair, and walked to Jace’s office.
“Jace?” She knocked on the open door. “You wanted to see me?”
“I did. Come in and shut the door.”
She did as he asked, sinking gracefully into the chair in front of his desk. The tall and lean tiger shifter smiled at her. “How was the rest of your weekend?”
“Good, thanks. You?”
“It was good. Bria and I ran some errands Sunday afternoon and then tried out a new restaurant downtown with Kat and Ronin.”
“Sounds like fun.”
“It was. Anyway,” he leaned back in his chair, “I wanted to talk to you about becoming an agent.”
Her mouth dropped open and she stared at him in stunned silence for a moment. “Bria told you.”
He shook his head. “Not really. She just confirmed what I already knew.”
“Listen, Jace, it isn’t that I don’t enjoy being your assistant, I do. I just -”
“Rosie, stop.” Jace gave her a small grin. “I want you to become an agent.”
“You do?”
“Yes. I think you’d be very good at it. In fact, I want to do whatever I can to help you achieve your goal.”
She gave him a hesitant look. “But if I become an agent, I’ll have to leave your company. You’re not looking for any more agents.”
“Actually, this isn’t common knowledge yet, but Warren is retiring. Which means I’ll be looking for a new agent.”
Excitement sent her heart rate spiking. The only reason she hadn’t yet started her schooling to be an agent was her sorrow at knowing she would have to stop working for Jace. But if she could still work for him…
She took a deep breath. “Does Warren have a specific retirement date? Because it’ll take at least four to six months to do schooling, then I have to write the exam, and -”
Rosalie Undone (The Shifters Series Book 6) Page 6