“Why don’t you finish your coffee? You might need the energy boost from the caffeine. After all, you have already worked a hard day.” She pressed her hips forward, tilting her pelvis up to change the angle of her body. Jed groaned, not bothering to drain his coffee before he placed the mug on the counter.
“I have enough stamina to work all day and all night,” he said, reaching out for her and pulling her close. “Don’t worry about me.”
His hand slipped under her shirt and cupped her breast, her nipple hardening as he tweaked it through the fabric of her bra. “It’s awfully hot in here.” She stepped back from him, and began to undo her shirt, one slow button at a time. He probably thought she was being seductive, teasing him by taking her time. If only she was that kind of woman: being naked in front of a man had never been a comfortable experience. This was no different; her fingers were not picking up the transmissions sent from her brain, which seemed to be short circuiting.
“Want a hand with those?” he asked, and his large hands covered hers, taking control.
In seconds the last of her buttons were undone, at least one of them hitting the floor in his haste. Her bra followed, his fingers moving inhumanly fast to undo the clasp, and then catching her voluptuous breasts in his hands. A groan escaped him, and her arousal grew. He wanted to see her naked, and his eyes grazed her soft flesh, before he lowered his head and kissed her skin.
She gasped, his mouth closing over his nipple, sucking the taut bud, sending a jolt of electricity though her body. Amanda clung to him, her hands on his upper arms, while she watched him, connecting the movement of his head to the exquisite pain that shot through her body when his tongue circled her nipple.
“I want you,” he said, raising his head to capture her eyes, his voice ragged.
She couldn’t formulate the words to tell him she wanted him too. Taking a step away from him, she tried to show him, her hands now under her control as she undid the button of her jeans and pushed them down over her hips and stepped out of them. All that protected her from him was the thin layer of fabric of her panties.
Swallowing down her nerves, she hooked her fingers through the elastic and pushed them down too. Her eyes fixed on his.
Jed watched, standing for a full minute staring at her body before sparking into life and stripping his own clothes off with superhuman speed. It was Amanda’s turn to watch, and to drool. He was amazing, his body sculptured out of muscle and bone and wrapped in a layer of tanned skin.
Taking a step forward, she reached out to him, wanting not so much to tickle this version of Jed’s tummy, but to run her fingers down his washboard abs, and lower.
Her hand wrapped around his hardened cock, stroking him, scratching her nails lightly over his balls, and driving him insane.
His arms locked around her and he lifted her up into his arms, and she thought he might carry her to bed. He didn’t. Turning, he sat her down on the edge of the kitchen table, his body between her thighs. One finger ran along the length of her sex, testing her readiness for him. Then he guided himself into her, the head of his cock spreading her outer lips, before he entered her slowly, giving her time to adjust to his wide girth.
Jed’s body nestled against hers, and she could feel the heat radiating out from him. Bear heat. She was in her grandma’s kitchen, making love to a man who turned into a bear. A bubble of laughter rose up inside her, threatening to spoil this moment of intensity, as Jed buried himself balls deep inside her. But when he fisted her hair with his hand, and tilted her head back, claiming her mouth with his, the laughter dissipated, leaving in its wake a sense of connection, of belonging.
This wasn’t sex. She had expected him to claim her hard and fast, to exert himself over her. He didn’t. This was lovemaking, coming from a need to be with her, the one fate had chosen for him, and he wanted her to enjoy it. She felt it in the way his lips moved against hers, in the way his hands caressed her skin, and in the way he moved in and out of her, his hardness grazing her inner walls, the friction incredible.
Her orgasm rushed towards her, the sensations he invoked in her body building to an earth-shattering crescendo. Then he erupted inside her, filling her with his essence, and she followed him over the edge to drown with him in a sea of pleasure.
When they were both completely spent, he lifted her up in his arms and carried her to the bedroom, where they slept, bodies entwined. As her eyes closed, she let go of her past, and knew she was holding her future in her arms.
Chapter Ten – Jed
“Arriving for work together,” Dylan observed.
“Your point being?” Jed asked with a raised eyebrow. “Amanda might have simply given me a lift.”
“But the look on your face says you claimed your mate.” Dylan sat at his desk, working at his computer. Jed had come in to see what his work orders were for the day, while Amanda was in the outer office checking messages. He looked out to where she was standing with the phone to her ear, and her eyes on him. She would know they were talking about her.
“Is he giving you a hard time?” Steph, Dylan’s wife, asked Jed as she entered the office. Jed had met Steph when they were younger; he couldn’t remember whether she was on the list of people whose lunch money he had stolen or not. He hoped it was not.
“Not really,” Jed said.
“Don’t worry.” Steph went over to Dylan and nudged him in the ribs. “You can tell him to mind his own business if you want to.”
“I’m only interested in the health and well-being of my employees,” Dylan said in his own defense.
“Nosy, that’s what I’d call it.” Steph rubbed her back. Her belly was swollen with the baby she was carrying, but she looked happy. “Are you going to show me this house or not?”
“You’re coming with us today?” Jed asked surprised.
“Yes. I have a day off from the B&B; my mom and Paul can handle things.” She rubbed her stomach. “Although the number of days off I have left is numbered. Once this little cub is born, we are going to have our hands full.” She looked at Dylan, and he pulled her close.
“We’ll manage, together. How hard can it be?” Dylan asked and kissed Steph.
“I’ll go load the truck,” Jed said, feeling a little uncomfortable when Dylan kissed Steph.
Quickly leaving the office, he went out to where Amanda was sorting through the mail, and a twinge of unease spread through him. How were they going to manage? Financially, he was a million miles away from being the provider. That was the male’s job, to provide for his female and his cubs. He had seen only too well what happened when things went wrong and there was no male provider. The idea that they would be so poor his kids might turn to theft was almost too much. But if he stopped supporting his siblings through college, they would be forced to abandon their own dreams.
“What’s wrong?” Amanda asked, picking up on his mood.
“Nothing,” he said, emphasizing it with a shake of his head.
“That face says differently.” She put the letters down and came around her desk to him. “Tell me.”
“It’s stupid.”
“Tell me anyway.” She put her arms around his neck and pressed her body to him. “Please.”
“I see Dylan and Steph. They both have businesses; hell, Dylan is a millionaire. He went away for years and came back rich, I went away for years and came back broke.”
“Money isn’t everything,” Amanda said. “There are some things that are necessities in life, but a load of money is not it.”
“No, but it is sure better to have it than not.” He was torn between providing for his family, and providing for Amanda and their own children.
“Listen, before I came back here, I was in some trouble.” She looked worried, her eyes flitting to the office where Dylan and Steph were still wrapped up in each other. “It made me realize one thing; I would rather have a poor man who I can trust. Because before I met you, and found out what you are and what that means, the mate bond, I had deci
ded that I wasn’t going to have anything to do with men ever again.”
A part of him, the primal, protective part of him, reared up and he struggled to keep his breathing even. Someone had hurt Amanda. Really hurt her, enough that she was willing to shut herself off from the chance of love and happiness. It certainly explained their first meeting, and how she had been adamant she did not want a mate.
“Then I am glad I am your mate. I promise, I will never do anything to make you doubt me, or to put you, or us, in danger.” He stroked her hair back from her face and then bent his head to kiss her. “Whatever happened, if you want to tell me, that’s fine. If you don’t, that’s fine too.”
She buried her face in his chest. “I’m just scared it will come back and bite me in the ass sometime.”
He tilted her chin up so he could look into her eyes, fixing her with a look that he hoped conveyed his sentiment much more than words ever could. “The only one who is allowed anywhere near your ass is me. Anyone tries to hurt you again, you need to tell me. I will deal with it.”
She slipped her arms from around his neck. “That is what worries me.”
“Hey,” he said, pulling her back to him. “That does not mean you can’t come to me. I can control myself.”
“Let’s just hope it never comes to that.” She went back to her desk. “Only my mom and step-dad know this is where I came to live. So let’s drop it.”
“Drop what?” Dylan asked, coming out of the office, and the look on Amanda’s face told Jed the conversation was over. For now, at least.
“Nothing. Amanda is coming over to dinner with my folks tonight,” Jed said, covering his worried expression.
“Meeting the in-laws already. Do I hear wedding bells soon?” Dylan asked.
“Dylan! Just because you rushed me down the aisle, doesn’t mean everyone else has to.” Steph pushed Dylan out of the outer-office and into the sunshine. “Take your time, Jed. Good to see you again, Amanda.”
“Good to see you, Steph.” Amanda watched Dylan and Steph leave. Jed knew she had the same thoughts. If only their own lives were as blessed as that of their boss and his wife.
“They had problems too,” Jed blurted out.
“Not the same kind of problems,” Amanda said.
“Worse. Dylan went to juvie for killing a boy.”
Amanda looked shocked. “Dylan?”
“Yes. A long time ago, ten years or more. My sister was a witness.” He placed his hands on the desk and looked at Amanda. “They found a happy ending. And so can we.”
He just wasn’t sure what that was yet. But surely there had to be some kind of answer.
Chapter Eleven – Amanda
She’d missed Jed all day. But she was also secretly relieved he wasn’t there to ask her any more questions. She had already revealed too much about herself. About the past that haunted her. One stupid moment in time, one ounce of misplaced trust, and she had earned herself a prison record.
The fact Dylan had one too, kind of made her feel better: he would understand her. Which left her with one question: Should she tell him about it?
Because she hadn’t, not when she applied for the job, or in the interview. There had been no mention of it on her CV, and the name change might have hampered any search he might have done for a criminal record. If he’d actually done a search.
She sat at her desk, her work done, resisting the temptation to gnaw at her fingernails in a bid to figure out what she was supposed to do. Coming clean was the best option. It would put everything behind her and mean she was no longer left feeling like a fugitive.
Or maybe she should wait until she had proved herself to be an invaluable employee. Amanda got up and paced to the window, looking out across the yard to all the neatly stacked timber, the buildings that were to be used as storerooms for machinery, and to the old battered red pickup that belonged to Steph. It was all starting to feel familiar, like she belonged. The same with her grandma’s cabin, she belonged up there in the mountains. She loved it here, and the people of Bear Bluff were accepting her as Grandma Orson’s granddaughter, not some stranger from out of town.
“Enough,” she said out loud. She was dwelling on what happened, allowing Mason to invade her new life, when the chances were, he had moved on to someone else. It still rankled her, that he was free to do the same to someone else, but she still stood by her decision to take the blame. And who knows, he might have taken the second chance she had given him firmly by the horns and gotten himself an honest job.
Why couldn’t she believe that, and let it go? Because she knew Mason. That he had made a fresh start for himself and his own family, the family she had no idea about until after her arrest.
The sound of the truck returning made her jolt out of her musings. They were back, and it was nearly time to go home. It was nearly time to meet Jed’s family.
Now that was something to be nervous about. Meeting her future in-laws.
“Hi, we’re back,” Dylan said.
“Obviously,” Steph said, following her husband in. “Sorry, I feel grouchy. I blame it on my hormones.”
“Can I get you anything?” Amanda asked, seeing the tired look on Steph’s face.
“A new back.” She pressed her hand to her lower back, stretched and then said, “That’s better.”
“Want me to take you home?” Dylan asked, concerned.
“Not an invalid,” she insisted and then kissed Dylan. “Sorry. No, I’m fine. I’ll swing past the farm, check on Mom and then go home. See you there soon.”
She waddled down the path and then struggled to get into the truck. Dylan was about to go and help her when Jed, who was unloading the tools they had brought back with them, sprang to her aid.
“He’s a good man. Works hard,” Dylan said absently.
“Very hard. Is his family that poor?” Amanda asked. “Sorry, I should wait to meet them. But I wasn’t sure whether to take something with me. Wine?”
“A bottle of wine would go down well, I’m sure.” Dylan looked at her for a moment, considering what he was going to say. “They’ve had some hard knocks.”
“You mean mind my own business?” she said.
“No. I mean I knew them years ago. Both before and after…” He smiled at Amanda. “Now I don’t. Jed was considered a troublemaker, but I believe it was only for the right reasons. He took what he needed for his family to survive. Now Bear Bluff rallies around them. But pride stopped them asking for help when they needed it years ago.”
“What happened?” Amanda asked.
“You don’t know?” Dylan asked.
“No. Should I?” Amanda asked, worried.
“Listen, go and meet them tonight and make up your own mind about them all. Like I said, it was a long time ago that I knew them…” Dylan walked into his office. “In fact, you might as well go now. Tell Jed I’ll see him tomorrow.”
“OK. Thanks,” she called, gathering her purse and going out to find Jed, who was locking the tools away in the one of the buildings.
“Hi there,” he said, sensing her approaching.
“I wish I had a sixth sense like yours,” she said, grabbing a toolbox and carrying it into the building. “Where do you want it?”
“Over there.” He pointed to a set of shelves and that was where she put it down, before going back for more tools.
“How did it go?” she asked.
“Good. The house is taking shape already. We worked hard, I think Dylan was out to impress Steph,” he smiled.
“Is that a male bear thing?” she asked.
“A male anything, thing. Survival of the fittest, you know.”
“Evolution seems to have passed all men by, doesn’t it?” she asked.
“I am not going to answer that.” He put his arm around her and guided her outside, locking the padlock behind them, checking it was secure.
“It’s true, though, men like to think they are the only ones capable of being providers.”
“It�
�s tough if that gets taken away from a man. I think it is inbred. Something in their genetic makeup.”
She wondered if that was a hint about his family. He had spoken about his dad, she was sure he was at home, not absent like Amanda’s own father had been most of her life. Yet the family struggled to earn enough money. Nervously, she got into her car, with Jed sliding in beside her.
“Is there anything I need to know? About your family?” she asked.
He looked at her, his brows furrowed. “In what way?”
“I don’t know. That’s why I’m asking.”
“So my sisters are adorable, with claws; my brother is quiet, a thinker. My mom is the ultimate homemaker and my dad…” Jed paused. “Did Dylan say something about my dad?”
“No.” She shook her head. “Is there something I should know?”
“I forgot, I should have warned you. I mean, he’s been like it for so long, I never think.”
“Like what?” Amanda asked.
Jed shifted nervously. “When I was sixteen, he got hit by a car. It left him paralyzed down his right side.”
Amanda’s hands gripped the steering wheel tightly, trying to keep the car straight. “Oh, I am so sorry.”
She felt so bad. She had envisioned Jed’s father as being some kind of lazy bum, but instead he had been a victim of an accident. No wonder Jed had fought hard to help provide for his family.
“We survived. It’s been tough. My mom had to spend a lot of time looking after my dad. It was a choice between him staying in a residential home away from us, or us all pitching in, and living with the lack of funds in the house.”
“And you all pitched in…”
“He’s my dad, we’re a family.” He ran his hand though his hair, and sighed. “Worst thing was, the accident was a hit and run. To this day we have no idea who it was. No compensation. Nothing. My mom struggled alone. She wouldn’t even let on to people in town at first how hard it was. She needed to prove to everyone she could cope. I think she was scared that if she wasn’t some superhuman being, then social services might make her choose between my dad or us kids.”
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