The Lumberjack's Baby Bear

by Sophie Stern

  “Wait.”

  I hurry over to my closet and rustle around for a minute. Then I find what I’m looking for. I grab the item and come back to show her.

  “Is it...a crate?”

  “It’s a box,” I say. I set down the wooden box in the center of the floor. It’s definitely big enough for my little guy, but small enough that it’ll be nice and cozy.

  “Like a travel bed,” she says. A slow smile spreads over her face and she looks at me with something that could only resemble admiration. I don’t know why. I haven’t done anything. If anything, this is just a shallow attempt to make up for the fact that I’ve essentially missed my kid’s life. He’s been around for months and I had no idea. I mean, that much isn’t exactly my fault, but it sure feels that way.

  I grab some bedding and we make a little nest for my baby bear. Polly places him gently inside and once we’re satisfied that he’s not going anywhere, I gesture to the bedroom.

  “We need to talk,” I say.

  “In bed?” She raises an eyebrow and her eyes quickly move up and down my body.

  Interesting.

  So, she finds me attractive.

  I’m not sure how I should feel about this little piece of information, but for some reason, it makes me feel pretty okay. Not that I should make any sort of move on Alexis’ best friend, but I’m glad to know I haven’t completely lost my appeal to the fairer sex.

  “Polly, we can talk wherever you like.”

  “I think the table would be a safer bet,” she says, gesturing toward the little table and chairs.

  “Is that where you want to talk?”

  “It’s safer,” she repeats.

  I take a step closer. Then another. I’m invading her space and we both know it. I lift her chin, though, and I force her to look at me. I see so many things in her eyes that I don’t even think she does.

  Excitement.

  Passion.

  Nervousness.

  Fear.

  What’s little Polly afraid of?

  “The table it is, then.”

  She looks at me and her tongue darts to her lips, wetting them. Her eyes look from my lips to my eyes and then back again. Finally, she nods.

  “The table.”

  I wait for what feels like an eternity. She’s got to make the first move here. For a second, I’m not sure whether she’s going to grab me and kiss me or turn away and sit down at the table. After just a moment, though, common sense wins out, and she looks away and moves toward the table.

  It’s probably for the best.

  We both take a seat and I wait for a long minute, trying to find the exact words to say.

  “Tea?” I finally ask.

  “No.”

  “Coffee?”

  She shakes her head.

  “Whiskey?”

  “You have whiskey?”

  “Do you want some or not?” I ask gruffly, but she nods, and I pour us each a shot. Once we’ve downed our drinks, I motion to her.

  “All right, Polly. Enough stalling. What happened to Alexis? And why are you here?”

  “She was staying with me.”

  “Why you?”

  “We were friends forever,” she tells me.

  “Best friends, if I remember correctly.”

  “Best friends,” she agrees. “When Alexis faked her own death, she went to the last place she thought anyone would look for her: her hometown.”

  “That’s where you still were.”

  “Yeah.”

  “So, she showed up on your doorstep and you just let her in.”

  It seems like a convenient story, to be sure.

  “Something like that,” she says. “Alexis just wanted to stay with me while she had the baby.”

  “Why you?” I ask. “No offense, but it’s not like you’re a doctor.”

  “Actually,” Polly swallows and looks at little Brandon. “I am.”

  “Is that so?”

  She nods.

  “She had the baby at my house. I delivered Brandon. I had medical supplies from work and while it was definitely not an ideal situation, I was able to make sure she was safe. I brought in a nurse we could trust, and she helped.”

  “Did the nurse talk?”

  “No.”

  “Then what happened?”

  “About a week ago, I started noticing strange cars on my street.”

  My body tenses.

  Someone had to have talked. If not the nurse, then someone who knew Alexis. Maybe a neighbor saw a light on when the woman was supposed to be at work or maybe someone heard a baby crying. In a town with corrupt cops, it was impossible to know who was on anyone’s payroll.

  “Alexis and I were nervous. We had blackout curtains up in my house and I thought we were going to be okay.”

  “She never went outside?”

  “Never,” Polly agrees. “Not even at all.”

  “Someone was watching you, though.”

  “Yeah,” Polly nods. “Someone from work started asking me questions about my roommate. I said I didn’t have one and he acted like I was lying or being evasive. It was weird. Then a neighbor lady kept trying to come over and get into the house.”

  “When you were home?”

  “No,” Polly shakes her head. “When I wasn’t. I had security cameras up and an app on my phone alerted me. I went home from work and caught her. She said she heard noises coming from inside the house.”

  “You think that was fake.”

  “I think it was all fake,” she says. “Someone caught wind of something. Maybe Alexis’ dad had been watching me the whole time. I don’t know.” She shakes her head. “But I failed her, Jace. I totally failed her.”

  She looks up at me and there are tears streaming down her cheeks. She shakes her head.

  “I called in sick from work.”

  “Were you sick?”

  “No. I just had a bad feeling.”

  “Tell me.”

  I’m tense now, and my hands are digging into my knees. It hurts, but not as much as wondering what happened to the woman who was supposed to be my wife: the woman I thought was already dead.

  “I always keep the same work hours. This makes it easy for anyone to target my home. It’s obvious when I’m going to be gone. I’ve tried to apply for different or rotating shifts, but I work at the hospital, and well, it’s tricky to get an ideal schedule. Most people have rotating schedules, so I thought it would be easy, but my manager wouldn’t move me.”

  “Understood.”

  “But people have been acting weird around me and I told Alexis I thought we should move her and the baby.”

  “Where?”

  “Alexis wanted to come here, to you. Well, she said she’d been keeping tabs on you and she thought you were in Storm Haven.”

  “That’s where I get my mail. She must have run my credit.”

  Polly nods.

  “Sounds like something she would do. That’s for sure.” She looks over at Brandon and takes a deep breath. I know that whatever she’s going to say next is killing her a little. She’s so nervous. She’s tense. I wish I could take this pain away, but once I know what’s wrong, then maybe I’ll be able to help.

  “What happened, Polly?”

  “They came for her.”

  “Tell me. Tell me everything.”

  “I was upstairs with the baby,” she said. “I was packing. Our plan was to wait until dark and then leave. She said they were getting close to finding her and we needed to get to you. You’re a bear,” she says, as though she’s confiding a secret I don’t already know. “And none of them are shifters.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “You’re strong.”

  “She wanted me to protect her.”

  She trusted me to protect her.

  Even though we’d been apart for so long and I thought she was dead, Alexis believed in me. That thought gives me so many different emotions all at once. None of these are things I’m able or read
y to deal with in front of Polly. She might be Alexis’ best friend, but to me, the beautiful girl is still a stranger, and I don’t want her to see me cry.

  “They broke in while I was upstairs,” she says in a rush. “They came in and they killed her.”

  “Who?”

  “Her dad and Andrew.

  “Did you see them?”

  “I heard their voices,” she says. “And I had security cameras in the living room. I saw that it was them.”

  “Did they say anything before they killed her?” I ask. My heart feels so tight that I think it might explode – and not in a good way.

  In a horrible, terrible, this-is-the-end-of-the-world way.

  “They wanted to know where she’d gone and when she’d come back, but she didn’t say anything. Then her dad said he knew she’d been pregnant. He saw her back when he’d tracked her down the first time. He wanted to know where the baby was.”

  “She didn’t tell him.”

  She wouldn’t have.

  If there’s one thing I know about Alexis, it’s that she would never give up any information she didn’t have to.

  Polly starts crying then.

  Her tears come slowly at first, and then faster, and soon she’s sobbing at the kitchen table. I don’t know what to do now. This woman literally barreled into my life and she brought with her a train wreck of emotional baggage.

  How am I supposed to handle this?

  What am I supposed to do with any of this?

  Alexis is dead.

  To me, it’s as though she’s been dead for six months.

  To Polly, her death was only recently.

  It’s also possible that I’m the only person who understands what Polly is going through or what she’s dealing with. I might be the only person who can help her, and if there’s one thing I know, it’s that I can’t leave a woman like Polly to fend for herself. Not when she doesn’t have to.

  I can help her.

  I can comfort her.

  I can protect her.

  “Come here,” I murmur, and I stand up. I think that she’s going to hesitate. I suspect that she’s going to fight me, but she doesn’t. She doesn’t do any of that. Instead, Polly practically leaps to her feet and throws herself into my arms.

  I hold her tightly, but I don’t tell her it’s going to be okay.

  I don’t make her any promises.

  I don’t do any of that.

  I just...

  Wait.

  Chapter Five

  Polly

  The bear is hugging me.

  Oh, he’s not a bear. Not right now.

  I know what he is, though.

  I know, and I understand, and I remember everything that Alexis told me about him.

  She told me he’s rough and tumble, but that inside, there’s more to him than meets the eye, and right now, I really want to know what she meant by that. He’s so...big.

  Handsome.

  Burly.

  Strong.

  For the first time in months, I feel safe, and it’s not because he’s a man. It’s because he’s him. She warned me that I would like him a lot. She chuckled, and she said that if anything happened to her, I could shoot my shot.

  Again, I didn’t know what she meant by that and I was actually a little hurt, but now I’m not.

  Now I know exactly why she said that.

  Now I know that there’s nothing I want more than to climb into this man’s bed and spend the entire night exploring his body.

  It would be wrong, I know. It would be a terrible idea to make a move on a man like this, at a time like this, in a place like this, but...

  “Polly?”

  “Huh? What?” I look up at him. I totally didn’t even realize he was talking to me. “What’s up?” I say casually.

  “What’s up?” He frowns, raising an eyebrow. “Are you okay?”

  “Yes, of course,” I say, smiling a little too brightly.

  “You don’t look all right.”

  “That’s not a very nice thing to say to someone you just met.”

  “It’s the truth. You just lost your friend. Are you okay?”

  “I’m...”

  I’m not okay.

  I’m not going to be okay.

  I’m not every going to be okay.

  Nothing about this is okay.

  I saved my friend’s baby only to have her die on me only to have me save her baby a second time. I’m certain that her father is going to come after us now and this bear shifter man is the only chance that we have at being saved. We’re trapped in a cabin during a terrible storm and all I can think about is climbing this bear and losing myself in him for tonight.

  Would that be so wrong?

  “Polly,” he says, and then I feel his hands on my cheeks, and I look up at him.

  This is it, I realize.

  This is my shot.

  You always have to shoot your shot, girl. Most of us only get one chance at “amazing” in this crazy world. Don’t miss out on yours because you’re scared or you’re worried about doing the wrong thing, okay?

  Alexis always gave me great advice, and I don’t think she was wrong about this, either.

  But am I brave enough to go for it?

  It’s a terrible idea and if Jace decides to throw me out on my ass, well, then, I’ll be totally fucked.

  But I could stay in here, with him, and I could go for it, and then maybe I’ll still get totally fucked.

  But in a good way.

  He’s cupping my cheeks, staring into my eyes, and I make my decision.

  I reach my hand out and palm his cock over his pajama pants. He’s hard. I probably should have expected that, what with the hugging and the face-touching, but I’m still a little surprised.

  “Polly?” He raises an eyebrow. “What are you doing?”

  I don’t answer him.

  Instead, I go up on my tippy-toes, wrap my arms around his neck, and I kiss him like there’s no tomorrow because for all I know, there might not be. I kiss him over and over again, and then I jump up and wrap my legs around him. Jace doesn’t say a word. He just kisses me back and carries me into the bedroom. He closes the door, but I know that Brandon is going to sleep like a rock and won’t wake up. We’ll be okay to be alone for a little while.

  A little bit of alone time is exactly what I need, I think.

  “Polly,” he murmurs, licking my lips. He teases my mouth, dominating me in every way. He’s possessing me. He’s making me feel more alive than I’ve ever felt before. It’s been a long time since I slept with anyone, but it’s been an especially long time since I slept with someone who made me feel like my entire body was on fire.

  “This is wrong,” I whisper.

  “You don’t really believe that.”

  “I do,” I say.

  “You don’t smell like you think it’s wrong.”

  “What?” I pull back and look at him. “What do you mean?”

  “I’m a bear, baby.”

  “You can shift into an animal.”

  “I can do more than that,” he taps his nose, and I realize what he’s hinting at.

  “You have enhanced senses,” I say.

  “I can see better, smell better, and hunt better than just about any human, love.”

  “So, you can...smell me.”

  The thought is wildly embarrassing to me. Maybe it’s because humans in general are so sensitive about our scents and our bodies, but perhaps I’m just nervous about the idea that this man has managed to wiggle into my brain. He knows things about me that I didn’t tell him. He knows because my body has betrayed me, and he can smell just how aroused I am.

  But then I realize something else.

  Jace doesn’t seem to mind.

  In fact, he seems to kind of...like...this.

  I reach for him, pulling him close again, and he laughs, kissing me for a long minute. Then he pushes me back on the bed and before I know what’s happening, he’s pulling my sweatpants
off and spreading my legs.

  “Jace!” I screech, but he just chuckles and kneels beside the bed. He pulls my legs so they’re over his shoulder, and without hesitation, he starts licking me.

  Immediately, every word of protest dies on my lips and I realize that anything I had to say to him wasn’t very important. In fact, I’m starting to wonder why I’ve ever thought about anything at all in the world except for being licked to death by a bear.

  Because, if you ask me, this could be a beautiful way to die.

  He’s teasing my lips with his tongue and moving slowly around my clit. He’s not getting close enough to touch it, though. He’s leaving me wanting more.

  So much more.

  I find myself arching my hips, thrusting them toward his mouth. He chuckles against my skin, but I don’t care. I can’t find it in myself to care. I just need more.

  My entire body feels like it’s on fire. I’m being burned alive, but it feels so fucking good that I don’t care.

  “Please,” I groan, wriggling on the bed. All sense of modesty has fled. I’m not worried about anything now except getting him to lick closer to my clit. I want his tongue there, and I want it there now because I am so fucking close to coming.

  “Please what?” He asks, pulling away. He reaches for my body and slides a finger inside of me. He strokes me gently, touching me.

  “Please, Jace,” I whisper.

  “Tell me what you want.”

  Normally, in a situation like this, I’d play coy. I’d act shy. I’d be nervous and uncomfortable, and I’d struggle to put my feelings into words. I’d hold back. I’d be much too scared to say what I’m about to say, but Jace has pushed me too close to the edge.

  I need to tell him because I need to come.

  No matter what it costs.

  “Please make me come,” I say. “Please lick my clit. I’m so close, Jace. I’m so close. Please,” I beg. “Please.”

  He doesn’t say a word. He just buries his face between my legs and starts licking again. This time, he touches me exactly where I need him to. This time, he’s licking my clit, flicking it with his tongue, and making me soar higher and higher.

  Heat rushes over my body in waves as I get closer and closer.

  I’m going to come for him.

  I’m going to fall apart for this stranger.

  And all I can think about is how fucking good this feels.

  About how fucking incredible this moment is.