She kind of hoped so.
He swam up beside her, tall and intimidating. She loved how fluid he was in the water, like he seemed to be a part of it.
“I wish I was as comfortable as you in the water,” she said.
“Well, you know the official name for Polar Bears, ursis maritimus, literally means maritime bear. We love the water. It’s our environment. People think we can’t live anywhere warm, but we can basically live anywhere there is water for us to cool down in.”
“Yeah, it surprises me that you don’t overheat out here.”
“Well, for one, I don’t go in my bear form a lot. For two, I don’t have the fat on me that a polar bear normally would to survive in the Arctic.”
She raised an eyebrow at him and then laughed. “No, you don’t.”
He sidled up and put an arm around her. “Oh yeah? So you’ve noticed?” He tickled her side playfully and she squirmed until he caught her up in his arms and tickled her sensitive tummy with his nose. She screeched and flailed but couldn’t get loose from the tickling onslaught. When he finally gave her mercy, she had laughed so hard she was tearing up, and she looked up at him, gasping, sharing a warm smile between them.
Damn, this felt so right. Not just the Caribbean breeze and the elegant hotel around them, but just everything about being in his arms.
He got a focused look and set her down in the water. “I’ll get us drinks. You probably need to cool down.”
She frowned. Did he mean cool down physically, or was he chiding her for her very physical reaction to being touched and held by him? She had to admit she’d never responded this way to a man before, but she’d never met one like him.
The men around her at home were both pushy and cowardly. Pushy about her getting them coffee, solving their problems, and taking care of them. Cowardly in that she sensed some of them would like to date her, but didn’t have the guts to ask her out.
Sky wasn’t like that. He knew what he wanted and he just went after it, and she admired that. Hell, she was turned on by it.
She loved the way their bodies fit together, hers small and curvy, his tall and muscular. The contrast of their skin tones. The thought of what their kids would look like.
That thought stopped her, frozen. How could she even be thinking of something like that? She’d never even thought about having kids. She’d always been so busy with her career, and now that she was in her thirties, and the right man hadn’t come along, she’d sort of given up on things changing. But she had wonderful parents. A pretty good job if you removed her boss from the picture.
She was happy.
But it wasn’t anything like how she felt here with Sky. He literally was like the sky. Broad and expansive and overwhelming. Everywhere she looked, all at once. She barely knew him and yet she knew him completely. There was something so natural that coursed between them.
He returned with drinks, big frothy frozen pina coladas, and they drank them while they rested their elbows on the edge of the infinity pool and looked out at the ocean.
“It’s so beautiful here,” Leah said. “I don’t know how I’ll ever leave.”
“So don’t,” Sky said.
“What? But my life is there.”
He shook his head. “I’m trying to go slow with you. Win you over. Show you I’m in it for the long run, not just for the sex, which I’m sure would be incredible. I want to spend my life with you, Leah. I have to spend my life with you.”
Her heart pounded and her jaw dropped, but she said nothing, just remained there, stunned. She hadn’t known he’d been feeling that way the whole time they’d been standing there. “Then why don’t you come back to New York?” she asked. “If you want to be with me so badly.”
He raised an eyebrow. “You’d rather live in New York than here?”
“I have to make money,” she said.
He shook his head. “I have plenty.”
“You’re a dive instructor.”
His eyebrow arched higher and he took on a haughty look. “Um, that’s not all I am.”
“What do you mean?” she asked.
He turned back to the ocean. “Maybe I’ll show you later, when you have a little more faith in me.”
“I have family back in New York,” she said quietly.
“Then what if we spent half our time here and half there?” he asked.
“I have a job there…”
“But if money were no option?”
She bit her lip. It shouldn’t matter. She should be able to say it was no big deal. That she could just quit her job if needed. But she couldn’t. A swift chill coursed through her. “I’d still have a job there. I can’t just walk away.”
He turned toward her and his blue eyes turning an icy green. So she hadn’t imagined it before. They really did change colors. “You know, when you aren’t in bear form, I can’t read your mind. But because you’re my destined mate, I can still kind of feel your moods. Why are you afraid, mate? There shouldn’t be anyone in the world who can make you feel afraid when you’re with me.”
She opened her mouth to tell him about Ignus and then stopped. She didn’t know what to say, how to approach it. Her boss had a hold on her. She couldn’t explain it to others. Maybe because he’d held her job over her head for so long, maybe because he’d been so demanding, so close to the edge of verbally abusive.
But she just wasn’t ready to tell Sky about it yet. Not if it would ruin their time together arguing about it. She’d figure out what to do about Ignus later. “It doesn’t matter,” she said.
He turned to her, stroking a curl off her forehead. “It matters to me. No one is allowed to threaten you when I’m around.”
She flushed, feeling her body heat at his touch again, and faced out to the ocean. “When do we go on our first dive?”
“We have a few more water sessions, but could probably do it as early as tomorrow if you wanted. After all, I’ll be with you the whole time, since it’s a private session. Why, you nervous?”
She nodded. “And a little excited. I mean, it seemed much scarier before I realized how closely regulated it is.”
“Follow my instructions and stay close to me and nothing will go wrong. Even if something does go wrong, I’ll be there to fix it.”
She nudged him and leaned in and didn’t complain when he wrapped an arm around her. “You just want an excuse to keep me close,” she said.
“Always, mate,” he replied.
She shivered. Why was it so right? “So, tell me more about you. I guess I should know more about you if you’re really going to be my mate.”
“I hope to be,” he said. “What do you want to know?”
“What’s your life history? What was your childhood like? How did you come to be here?”
He rested on the pool edge and sighed. She had an urge to run her fingers through his hair but restrained herself. “I moved here when I was ten. My parents had separated.”
“Were they mated?” she asked, interrupting.
“Yes, but even with mates, things can happen. If a couple makes mistakes…”
“What kind of mistakes?”
He raised an eyebrow. “You’ll forgive me if I don’t want to tell you everything that can go wrong when I’m trying to win you over.” He flashed a wry smile. “Suffice to say, I’m not going to make those mistakes.”
She nodded.
“Anyway, my mom left my dad because she was tired of the cold. He moved here, I think hoping she would one day come back, but she didn’t.”
“She just left you?”
“Well, you have to understand, in the wild, bears aren’t very social animals. Some of us are more on the human side of things emotionally, some are more on the animal side. In the wild, bears tend to split up so they don’t have to share food and territory.”
“Ah,” she said.
“But as you can probably tell, I’m more on the human side of things emotionally.” He nuzzled his nose in her hair and she laughed
and swatted at him playfully.
“Yes, I can see that. But you can still be quite a bear when you want to be,” she replied.
“That’s a compliment, sweetheart.”
“Argh, you’re driving me crazy,” she muttered.
He turned to her with a surprised look on his handsome features. “What do you mean?”
“I mean, we almost had sex a few days ago, and then I learned we’re both bears, and yes, everything has been overwhelming. But I mean, why haven’t you even kissed me again yet?”
His beautiful eyes that were blue again widened in response. “I didn’t know you wanted me to.”
“You’re my mate, right? Why wouldn’t I want to?”
“I didn’t want to rush you,” he said, turning her toward him, running his hands over her shoulders, which were still wet with water.
“It’s not rushing. After all, what if we only have these two weeks together? Won’t we have wanted to do everything we could?”
He growled low in his throat. “Honey, it’s never going to be two weeks.”
“But could you really go to New York?”
“If that’s what it required, yes.”
“But you love the ocean,” she said. And looking out at it, at the waves tossing and cresting in white foam, at the birds swooping low to feed, at the dock swaying with the rise and falls of gorgeous blue swells, she loved it too. It was just that…
“I do. But you seem to love your job.”
“It’s not that, it’s just…” She trailed off.
He brushed her hair back and studied her face. “Why do I get a sense that something back there scares you?”
She brushed his hand away. “That’s silly. It’s just a little stressful back there. But they depend on me.”
“So, is it just the job then?”
She nodded. “The job has kind of become my life, if I’m honest.”
“You can be honest.”
“I mean, I had kind of given up on meeting the right man. I was happy as I was, at least, I thought I was. But now…things are complicated. But in a way, they are finally right. But that doesn’t mean it’s all easy sailing from here.”
“But you want more physicality,” he said, looking down at her lips.
Hell yes she did. She wanted to press his beautiful body against her and take everything she could, see if they were as sexually compatible as she suspected they were.
“I’ll tell you what,” he said. “We’ll make love again after we go on our first dive. If you love it, I see no reason not to move further.”
She laughed and put her hands on his chest. She meant to playfully shove him, but once she touched his warm skin, she just wanted to caress him. He tightened under her hands and she sighed. “So, you just want me to like scuba diving?”
“I just need some more time to get my head on straight. And I know that after I dive with you, after I go under water with you and share my world with you, I won’t be able to let you go ever again. Not that I could let you go now, but it’ll be final then.”
She sighed. “All right, I can wait then.”
“But I can give you a taste now,” he said, leaning down to catch her waist and pull her up to him. He lifted her easily and caught her mouth with his, their lips fitting together seamlessly, as if they were made from the same mould. Her whole body heated and then melted in response to his touch, and as his tongue stroked every sensitive area in her mouth, her toes curled in the cool water, and the smell of salty ocean and coconut-scented sunblock blew around them.
And then another scent, one that was uniquely his. Cold, arctic, fresh and clean. It made her want to stand on a mountain with him, or dive into an ice cold stream. Or stand on a lone ice floe.
She clutched his back, loving the feel of his strong, capable muscles. Muscles that would protect her, that much she knew.
The kiss went on and on, and it felt that time was stopped for them. There was only this moment, this kiss, this melding of bodies and feelings, and she never wanted it to end.
And then a loud ring sounded from inside the suite. She pulled back as a bit of nervousness sliced through her automatically.
He sensed that the mood was ruined and started away from her, as if he meant to get to her phone before she could.
“Sky,” she said, but he was already going. “No!” she cried out, trying to catch him.
He turned, exasperated. She flushed when she saw the evidence of what she did to him pressing proudly against his swim shorts. His long, powerful legs stood shoulder width apart on the deck and he folded impressive, tanned arms over his toned chest as he faced her. “Give me one reason why I shouldn’t answer that phone and tell whoever is scaring you to go to hell. You’re taken.”
“It’s not like that,” she said. “It’s just my boss. He’s…bossy.”
His face relaxed slightly, but held a look of confusion on his handsome features. “What do you mean? A boss shouldn’t be scary.”
“Have you ever had a boss?” she asked, pulling herself out of the pool with his help. The past few days had been a little exhausting, and he could lift her so easily.
“No,” he said. “I’ve always been my own boss. But I’m a boss to others, and I don’t think I scare them.”
She laughed. “Oh, I’m sure you scare some of them,” she scoffed.
He thought about it. “Not like this man scares you.”
“How did you know it’s a man?”
“Call it intuition,” he said. “Animal intuition.” He grinned, as if pleased with his analogy.
“Fine,” she said, walking past him to swipe open her phone after drying off on a towel. “But intuition or not, you aren’t my mate yet, and this is mine to deal with.”
“Fine,” he said. “But I don’t like it. No one is allowed to take you from me.”
“What if I walk away from you?” she asked.
His face tightened and she realized she’d hit a sore spot. After everything she’d learned about this man in the last few days he’d been teaching her, she knew she would never want to walk away from him. He was patient, kind, smart and capable.
But she didn’t need to be controlled like that. “Just please, let me handle it,” she said.
“Why do I feel like you’re keeping a secret from me,” he said.
“You’re not my mate,” she said. “Not yet. So I don’t have to tell you everything. Plus, what about feminine mystique?”
He grinned. “Oh, there’s still plenty of that. I think as long as you’re around, I’ll never want for feminine mystique.” He gave her a long, slow, hot look up and down her body and she felt her face heat and grabbed her phone to head for the bedroom.
“I’m getting dressed,” she said. “So if you want to take this feminine mystique to lunch before our next training session, I expect you do the same.”
“Yes, mate,” he said officially.
She turned. “What?”
“Yes ma’am, I mean,” he said, grinning playfully.
She rolled her eyes but smiled as she walked away. Even when he was trying to annoy her, she enjoyed him.
Now she was just one dive away from enjoying him fully. If she could just survive it.
She looked down at the phone in her hand, at the hundreds of texts and notifications waiting for her. Not answering her boss and being away from him was just confirming what she’d known for some time but hadn’t wanted to acknowledge, even to herself.
The man was obsessed with her.
Eventually she’d need to tell Sky. But when would be right? She would just have to follow her own animal intuition and hope it guided her right, even if she was new to using it.
She walked into her room, chucked the phone and all thoughts of her boss away with it, and started to change.
6
Leah couldn’t believe it was happening. She’d had drills. She’d practiced taking her mask off and putting it back on underwater. She’d practiced breaking from her regulator while u
nderwater in the pool. But now that she was out in the ocean, floating with Sky as he looked completely relaxed, she didn’t know if she could go through with it.
She looked below her, to the stunning corals and fish swimming in the crystal clear water beneath. This was his world, what he enjoyed above anything else, and she would try it if it killed her.
But looking at him and seeing him staring at her with adoration in his eyes, and a fierce protectiveness that only made her hotter inside, and she knew he wouldn’t let anything happen to her.
He put his regulator (the mouthpiece that delivered air) into his mouth and she did the the same. Her snorkel was attached to her mask and hanging free, and she had a second regulator clipped to her vest in case he needed to use it. He had the same. She had a black inflatable vest called a BCD, or buoyancy control device, and it clipped over her chest and waist. She was properly weighted so that once they were down, she would neither sink or float as long as she was careful.
Her heart was going a million miles per hour, but when he gestured to descend, she couldn’t help doing as he asked. She pressed the button that let air out of her BCD and kept her eyes on his as they descended. When she went fully under the water, she saw his blond hair rise up over his head and could tell he was smiling reassuringly at her even from behind his regulator. She tried to smile back but couldn’t do much with her mouth full of breathing apparatus.
They slowly sunk to about ten feet and then stopped. He reached out to hold her vest as she got her bearings, and she plugged her nose and blew into her ears to equalize before they started to descend again. It was eerily quiet under the water, and she became aware of the different way light moved in shimmering waves that cut through the blue all around them.
She looked at him, wanting to let him know how she was feeling but he just nodded and helped her go a little deeper.
They weren’t far out in the ocean, so they stopped at the bottom, only about twenty five feet down. She equalized her ears for the last time and looked around her, finally calm enough to truly take everything in. A fish swam by her, coming close enough to her mask that she could see its eyes. The colors were muted, everything washed in beautiful blue.
Bear-ever Yours: BBW Bear Shifter (BWWM) Romance Standalone Page 4