Brad lowered himself on his arms slightly and kissed her, his tongue delving into her mouth as his cock thrust into her sex. Simone ran her hands down his muscular back to his hips, pulling them forward with each thrust, helping him get deeper inside her tight pussy.
He broke the kiss and whispered hotly into her ear, “Get on your hands and knees for me.”
While he pulled out of her and moved backward to give her room to move, Simone rolled over and arched her hips. She felt Brad’s hands grab them as he positioned himself behind her, ready to mount her.
“Please,” she begged, “I need it.”
He pushed into her, sliding deep inside her pussy. Simone gasped at how big he felt. She was sure his entire length was buried in her. Brad groaned with the pleasure of being inside Simone, and began to thrust back and forth inside her from behind, his groin slapping against her ass as he increased his speed.
Simone grabbed fistfuls of the covers as she felt a second orgasm building.
Brad began to pump into her with an urgency that told her he was about to come.
She gasped as her orgasm hit and her inner muscles spasmed, squeezing Brad’s cock.
He shouted, “I’m going to come!” and then roared his delight as his cock twitched inside Simone.
They came together, both of them shuddering and gasping.
Brad stayed inside her until they were both totally satiated. Then he pulled out and lay next to her, kissing her and looking into her eyes as if he wanted to tell her something but wasn’t sure how to begin.
“What is it?” she asked.
He raised an eyebrow. “Hmm? What is what?”
“You look like you’re trying to figure out how to say something.”
“Maybe I am.”
“Well, why don’t you just say it?”
“Okay. So, after we did the visualization in the woods, when I was waiting for you to get my clothes, I felt The Call.”
“The Call?”
“Yeah, it’s what happens to shifters when we recognize our mate.”
“I know what it is. What do you mean you felt it in the woods? How?”
He laughed. “Remember I told you I was determined not to fall for another woman after what had happened with Cora? That’s why I tried to suppress my bear nature. The bear part of me knows when it meets it mate. I never wanted that to happen so I tried to turn it off.”
“Yeah, I know that, but that doesn’t explain what you’re telling me now. You felt The Call?”
He nodded. “Being in the woods brought the bear back. But the reason it came back so strongly was because I was with my intended mate.”
“You mean me?” She was surprised by the fact that Brad had experienced The Call, and even more surprised that the mate he was talking about must be her.
“Yes, you. If I’m honest, I felt it when I first met you, but I tried to deny it. I can’t deny it any longer. Don’t you feel the connection between us?”
“I do,” she admitted. “I wasn’t sure it was mutual.”
“Believe me, it is.”
“Oh, my God.” She was stunned into silence.
“We don’t have to rush into anything,” Brad said. “We can continue as we are. These feelings are all new to me and they’re so intense sometimes that I’m not sure how to handle them.”
“Okay, we’ll take it slow,” she agreed. She was filled with a sense of relief that she wasn’t the only one feeling the strong bond between them. “But will you stay here tonight? I’d like to wake up in the morning with you next to me so I know this wasn’t all a dream.” She wasn’t sure if it was just because she had barely slept last night, but she was so tired right now that if she fell asleep, this would all seem unreal by the morning. Only Brad’s presence would confirm that it had actually happened.
“Of course I’ll stay. I’ll be right back.” He climbed out of bed and went naked into the bathroom.
Simone fought to keep her eyes open. Her earlier burst of energy had ebbed away and now she needed sleep.
Brad returned, climbing under the covers with her. He kissed her lightly. “Goodnight, Simone.”
“Goodnight,” she said wearily. As soon as she closed her eyes, she began dreaming about bears and witches, and a town she had never seen called Paxton Falls.
Brad has to go back there, she told herself in the dream. Brad has to go back to Paxton Falls.
Then she slept so deeply that no more dreams came.
9
He woke her with a soft kiss on her cheek. Bleary-eyed, Simone looked up at him. He was already dressed. “What time is it?” she asked.
“It’s almost ten. I need to go and get my things, then get to Wimbledon for my match. You go back to sleep.”
“No, I can’t sleep all day,” she said, pulling herself up into a sitting position. She felt so tired that an all-day sleep sounded appealing, but she wasn’t going to give in to the lack of energy she felt. Maybe coffee would wake her up.
“I’ll see you later,” Brad said, slipping out of the door. Before he closed it, he grinned and said, “Oh, and by the way, last night wasn’t a dream.”
“I know,” she said, nodding. “Because here you are, all real and stuff.”
He blew her a kiss and left the room.
Simone forced herself to throw back the covers and get out of bed. She got as far as swinging her legs out and sitting on the edge of the mattress before she felt another wave of exhaustion settle over her.
A light rain pattered against the windows, and the usual bright sunlight diffusing through the curtains was absent. The windows looked gray. It looked like the warm weather was passing, and the typical British weather of overcast skies and rain was making a comeback.
She slid her feet to the floor and went over to the electric kettle, flicking it on before she tore open a packet of instant coffee and poured it into a cup. She felt like she would need three of these before she was able to function. That’s what she got for staying awake the night before last. The sleep she got last night hadn’t made up for lost time; she remembered that some crazy dreams had played in her head, all inspired by Brad’s past.
She poured hot water onto the coffee and popped open two of the individual creamers before adding them to the drink, along with a packet of sugar.
After putting on jeans and a dark green T-shirt, she pulled open the curtains. London looked gray and damp. The rain on the window blurred the view. Dark clouds hung over the city.
Sipping the hot coffee, Simone wondered if Brad’s match would go ahead today. Rain suspended play all the time at Wimbledon, except on the Center Court, which had a retractable roof. All of the other meticulously manicured courts had to be covered over when the weather got too bad.
She switched on the TV to see if there was any news coverage, but the BBC was showing nothing more than the covered courts, and the rain. When an interview with Igor Dremel began in the studio and the presenter said that his match might be the only one to go ahead because he was playing in the Center Court, Simone switched to another station. Maybe Brad would call her later if his match was cancelled. They could spend some time together.
An hour later, after she had showered and put on her makeup, she lay on the bed with a paperback historical romance novel that she had bought at the airport in France but hadn’t yet had a chance to read.
Her tiredness, which she thought she had managed to wash away in the shower, came back with a vengeance. She read the first page of the novel twice, and the words still weren’t sinking in.
Maybe if she closed her eyes for a while, she could catch up on the sleep she had missed.
When she awoke, something was buzzing in the room. She sat up, the paperback falling off of the bed onto the floor. The buzzing was coming from the nightstand. It was her phone.
The caller ID said it was Brad calling. She answered it. “Hello?”
“Hey,” he said. His voice was flat.
“What’s wrong?” she asked. “Did
your match get cancelled?” The rain was still tapping against the window.
“No, I was playing on Center Court against Igor Dremel. There’s a roof.”
She frowned with confusion. How long had she been asleep? Looking over at the bedside clock, her eyes went wide when she saw that it was after five. Brad had played his match. It was done. And the tone in his voice could mean only one thing.
“I lost,” he said. “I lost the match, and I’m out of Wimbledon.”
10
They met in a coffee house near Piccadilly Circus. Beyond the windows, heavy traffic moved slowly through the drizzling rain. The statue of Eros firing his bow stood beneath dark gray clouds.
The coffee house was warm, the air smelling of coffee and the damp clothes of the customers sitting at the tables or getting takeout at the counter. Like everywhere in London, the place was crowded and noisy. Simone had slept for so long that she felt as if she had a hangover. The loud conversation from the other tables, the hiss of the coffee machines, and the pop music blaring out of the speakers on the wall weren’t helping at all. She was still shocked that Brad had lost his match and was out of the tournament.
“What happened?” she asked.
He sat across the table with a tiredness in his eyes that matched how Simone felt. “He beat me in straight sets,” he said. “Dremel is on a meteoric rise at the moment, which is why the match was played on Center Court, but I still thought I had a chance to beat him.” He shook his head. “I couldn’t concentrate. I lost the will to win. The passion just wasn’t there.”
Simone thought about it for a moment while she sipped her latte. She remembered her dream last night. “You have to return to Paxton Falls,” she told Brad.
He frowned. “What? I don’t think you understand. I just lost my place in a major grand slam tennis tournament. Victor and Tony have been bawling me out for the last hour. I have a hell of a lot of work to do before the Hall of Fame Championships in a couple of weeks.”
“Brad, it doesn’t matter how hard you train for those championships; you don’t have a chance of winning until you go back to Paxton Falls and face your past. Only then will you be able to put it behind you and move on. The Hall of Fame Championships are in Rhode Island, right?”
He nodded.
“So Massachusetts isn’t all that far away. It doesn’t have to disrupt your training too much. Anyway, you might have been playing in Wimbledon for the rest of this week and all of next week if you hadn’t been knocked out, so you can’t have anything planned yet. You have a chance to make a positive change in yourself. You should take it.”
He looked at his untouched coffee for a while before answering. “Going to Paxton Falls is going to create even more distraction at a time I should be focusing on tennis.”
She reached across the table and took his hand in hers. “I know it’s scary, but it’s the best thing you can do to help yourself. You hired me to help you. You asked me how I can improve your game. Well, now I’m telling you that this is how. It’s a technique called the big bear theory, and it involves facing your fear. You’re carrying around a fear of losing that has grown from a seed planted in your head by Marcus in Paxton Falls.
“You need to go back there and realize that he has no power over you. You’re more successful than he is, and he only wants to bring you down because he’s jealous.”
“I understand that,” Brad said. “I don’t need to go back to Paxton Falls to realize that stuff.”
“You realize it on a conscious, rational level, but your fear isn’t on that level; it’s deep below the surface, in your subconscious. You can’t make the fear go away by rationalizing it, because it isn’t rational. You need an experience to change your subconscious. That experience needs to happen at Paxton Falls where this all started. Only then can you bring everything full circle in your mind and move away from it all.”
He took a sip of coffee. “I understand what you’re saying, but how is going to Paxton Falls supposed to help me? What am I going to do while I’m there?”
“You’re going to meet with Marcus and tell him that you’re a successful international tennis star, which is true. Part of the reason the fear is staying with you is because you don’t know if Marcus knows about your career. Sure, you’re on TV, but has he seen it? You don’t know.
“This way, you’ll know that Marcus is aware of your success, and that his plan to destroy your career failed. That will change your outlook, and you’ll be able to put the whole mess behind you.”
Brad looked doubtful. “Do you really think this will work?”
“Yes, I do.”
He drank more of his coffee and stared out of the window at the rain and the cars. “I guess there’s no harm in trying it.”
Simone smiled. His acceptance of her plan meant that he was putting his trust in her.
“I can’t go for a few days,” he said. “There are press conferences I need to do, and Victor has set up a meeting with some London sponsors in a couple of days.”
“You’re not just putting it off, are you?”
“No, I’m not. I have things to do.”
Simone pursed her lips, suddenly worried. Sure, Brad was agreeing to go to Paxton Falls right now, while she was putting forward the arguments to convince him, but would he feel the same way in a few days? Victor and Tony would probably talk him out of it by then. Other things would get in the way. She knew how resistant people could be to revisiting memories that could be painful.
She had a plan that would make Brad go, but it was a gamble on her part. It was a test of their relationship, and if it failed, her heart would be broken. But she was willing to risk that if it meant Brad had a chance to face his past and move on from it.
“Are there any good hotels in Paxton Falls?” she asked him.
“There’s one on the outskirts called The Woodland Inn. I think it has a good reputation. Why?”
She finished her coffee. “I’m going to fly out to Paxton Falls tomorrow and wait for you there.”
“What? Why?”
“Because I think you’ll definitely come if I’m there. And this is something you need to do. No excuses.”
He sighed, seemingly resigned to the situation. “Here,” he said, “Take these.” He pulled his key ring out of his pocket and removed two keys. He placed them on the table in front of Simone. One of the keys was large and looked like it fit an old style of lock. It was made of black metal with a filigree design at the end of the shaft. The other key was silver and looked like it fit a standard modern-day deadbolt.
“What are these?” Simone asked.
“They’re the keys to our house in Paxton Falls. It’s empty. Our parents are dead, and Cole, Carter, and I moved out years ago. But we never got rid of the house. You might as well stay there, not in a hotel.” He leaned forward to look her in the eyes. “And I will be coming to meet you there. You don’t leave me any choice now, do you?”
She smiled and leaned forward to kiss him. “No, honey, I don’t.”
11
Simone drove the rented Honda Civic slowly along the street, looking for the address Brad had given her. On one side of the street, a row of large, old houses stood spaced apart by at least ten car lengths. Each house had a front porch and a large lawn, usually bordered by shrubs or flowers, which were reaching up to the afternoon sun.
On the other side of the street, the ground rose up to a dense forest. Simone wondered if this was the “enchanted” forest that Brad had mentioned. She certainly wouldn’t be surprised to see a coven of witches come dancing out of the trees; the town of Paxton Falls had an eerie atmosphere. It was a bright afternoon, but that didn’t change her impression of the place.
“Don’t let it get to you,” Simone said out loud. “It’s all in your imagination. All that talk of witches and vampires spooked you, that’s all.”
She spotted a mailbox by the roadside that had the name “McClintock” stenciled in black on the flaking red paint. Simone
turned the wheel and guided the Civic into the driveway.
She parked by the house, which looked like it had been built in the nineteenth century and was badly in need of a paint job. Some of the wood on the porch and around the large sash windows had been exposed by time and the elements.
Simone got out of the car and tested the wooden steps that led up to the front porch before putting her weight on them. They seemed fine. She went up onto the porch and fished the keys out of her pocket, first using the large black key to unlock the heavy wooden door’s original lock, and then using the smaller key to open the deadbolt that had been added at a later date.
The door creaked open. A hallway led into darkness. Brad had said that the brothers kept the electric bills paid, so there should be heat and light running to the house. Simone reached into the darkness, her hand searching for a light switch on the wall. She found it and clicked it on. An overhead light in a glass shade illuminated the windowless hallway. A set of stairs led up to the upper floors. Down here, an open doorway at the end of the hallway led to a kitchen, and an archway on the right opened up into a living room, which was brightly lit by the sun streaming in through the large window.
The house smelled of dust and old, damp leaves. Simone wondered how long it had been since anyone had set foot in here. She knew the brothers paid a local gardener to visit regularly and tend the lawn and plants, but she was sure the interior of the house was untouched. The patina of dust that covered everything supported that theory.
She went around the house, opening the windows to let the fresh air in from outside, and let the old, musty air out. The living room was furnished with a leather couch and two large chairs that Simone dusted with rags she found in a cupboard in the kitchen. She also dusted the oval-shaped dark wood coffee table and the mantelpiece over the large fireplace.
“There,” she said, admiring the freshly-dusted, aired room. “That’s much better.”
She continued her dusting quest into the kitchen and up the stairs to the next level. She gave the bathroom a cursory clean, as well as the large bedroom next to it, which Brad had told her was his and that she should sleep in there. She left the other bedrooms untouched.
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