“But you are not.” Steph stood up awkwardly, and crossed over to Amanda. “You will not. We’re going to help you get through this. Me, Dylan and that big lump of a man who is in love with you.”
“You don’t think it would be better if I just quit? The last thing I want is to cause you any trouble. Not with the baby so close and all. I have a prison sentence because of this.” Amanda wanted to believe she would get through this, that she would get Mason off her back without losing everything she had gained over the last few weeks.
Her independence, her freedom, good friends, a great boss, and, most of all, Jed.
“Lady, you are not going anywhere. I believe in you.” Steph took the envelope and gave it to Amanda. “Keep this safe. If the guy turns up and harasses you, then we get Declan to arrest his ass. This will be proof.”
“And what do I tell Jed? And Dylan.” Amanda wasn’t sure how they would take it.
“I’ll tell Dylan. You tell Jed when you are alone later. Just make him swear he won’t go and hunt the jerk down. Bears are very protective, believe me. I know.” She smoothed her hand over her stomach. “If anyone tried to hurt this cub inside of me, I would kill them without a second thought. It’s made life kind of interesting for me and Dylan lately. He’s seen me in a whole new bossy-pants kind of a light.”
“Thank you, Steph.” Amanda wanted to hug the pregnant woman in front of her.
“No problem. You just be on the lookout for anything suspicious. And don’t worry, if he tries to show his face here, or anywhere in Bear Bluff for that matter, he will wish he had never come here.”
Amanda smiled. “It’s nice to feel part of a community.”
“Amanda, you are part of a large extended family now you are hooked up with a shifter. His family will treat you as one of their own. And Bear Bluff bears always look after their own.” She hugged Amanda. “You are not alone here. Ever.”
“Thanks,” Amanda said. “I haven’t ever been part of a real family. It was me and my mom and my grandma for the first few years of my life. Then grandma came here, and it was me and my mom. Until she remarried.”
“That is the past. Mason is the past. Your future will be happy.” Steph stepped back from Amanda. “Remember, hormones. No one messes with a pregnant female shifter. Not if they want to live.”
Amanda said goodbye to Steph, feeling so much happier, and wishing she was a shifter; those raging pregnancy hormones might be just what she needed to fend off Mason when he showed up. And she was absolutely sure he would show up.
The only thing she didn’t know was when that would be, and what trouble he planned to bring with him.
Chapter Sixteen – Jed
“I have some news to share with you,” Jed whispered in her ear when he got back to the office. His arms were around Amanda, and he held her close, breathing in her scent. She still looked a little pale, but she had insisted she was all right when he asked.
“And I have something to tell you,” she said, resting her head on his shoulder. “So maybe we should get home.”
He liked that she thought of the cabin as their home. “Then grab your purse and let’s go.” He released her, wanting to get out of there as soon as possible. Tonight was not the night for last minute overtime.
“See you tomorrow,” Jed called to Dylan, who was sat at his desk, doing something on his computer. Jed would never get used to those things, and he hoped part of his job as foreman didn’t involve working one of them. His fingers always seemed to hit the wrong keys, and sitting at a desk was not Jed’s idea of a good working day.
“Bright and early,” Dylan answered. “We’ll get the house watertight tomorrow. Any messages, Amanda?”
“No. Quiet day,” she replied, which was kind of truthful.
“Great, see you tomorrow,” Dylan said.
“Bye.” Amanda steadied her nerves; she had to keep it together and trust that when Steph spoke to Dylan about her past, he would understand. He had a prison record himself. That was what Steph had said. She had also mentioned that Dylan would know exactly why Amanda had taken the blame.
“Hey. I’m right here,” Jed said, putting his arm around her as they walked to the car.
“I know,” she said, fishing out her keys.
“I thought I would remind you, because you seemed miles away. Let’s make dinner, and then we can share our news.”
“I think I’d rather get it out of the way first,” she said.
“That bad?” he asked.
“Maybe.” She opened the car door and got in, buckling her seatbelt and starting the engine. “I just want to make sure you know who I am. What kind of person I am.”
“I think I can tell. My bear senses are pretty good at sniffing out good and bad people.”
“I might need to borrow them,” she said as they left the yard and got in the car. In seconds she was on the road, headed towards the cabin she called home. How much simpler her life would have been if she had lived in the cabin, never started work for Dylan and never found a bear who told her she was his mate. She could have lived a simple life off of the savings her grandma left her.
Instead she had learned to care about other people.
Isn’t that what you always dreamed of? she reminded herself. You always wanted to be part of the world, part of a family. If you had stayed in the cabin, never venturing out, you would have been as lonely as the little girl who always stayed in her room.
“So are we going to go with good news or bad news first?” he asked.
“I think bad news,” she said, watching the road carefully. “Then you can cheer us up with your good news. If you still want to. If you still want me.”
He placed his hand over hers. “There is nothing you can say that will make me want you less.”
“Isn’t that unfair?” she asked. “I mean you want me unconditionally. What if I’m an axe murderer or something?”
“Then I lucked out, didn’t I? But you aren’t.”
“No, I’m not. But I did do something wrong.”
“You know my past. You know that I haven’t always done the right thing. No one has. Not me, not Steph, not Dylan. And I’m sure you can count your parents in with that too.”
“You’re right.” She pulled up in front of the cabin and switched off the engine. “I guess it was such a huge thing to me. I’ve maybe blown it all out of proportion.”
“So tell me, and let’s move on.” Jed turned to face her. He couldn’t think of anything she could say that would make him love her less.
“Can we walk? I’d like some fresh air; it helps me think straight.” She got out of the car and waited for him before striking off towards the path that wound up through the mountains. The night was closing in, but he knew these paths and could keep her safe. But his fear was that it wasn’t the dangers of the mountain he would lose her to.
“Amanda. Just tell me.” They had walked for a few minutes, and he pulled her off the path, through some low brush and out onto an open meadow that looked down on her small cabin.
“OK.” She stood facing him, the last of the sunlight caressing her face with its soft mellow glow.
“Whatever it is, we can face it together.” He paced his hand on her arm, grateful that she didn’t flinch away from him.
“I hope so.” She nodded. “Someone sent an envelope to Dylan, to the construction company today.”
“I saw it, this morning. What was in it?”
“Nothing,” she said. Then explained, “It didn’t have Dylan’s name on it. It had mine. My old name. You see when I came to Bear Bluff, I took my grandma’s maiden name. I wanted a new start.”
“Can you tell me what happened? Did someone hurt you?” he asked. His bear had risen, standing alert, wanting to protect their mate, or defend her, whichever need arose.
“He didn’t hurt me. Not physically,” she said quickly. Had she seen the flash of anger in his eyes? He tried to calm himself, not wanting to scare her off. “He set me up. And
I spent six months in prison.”
He let out his breath, the relief almost too much. “That’s it? That is your secret?”
“Yes.” She nodded. “At least, that is my past. But with the letter, it seems my past might be coming to pay me a visit.”
His mood shifted again, his bear roaring in his head. In a split second, the bear came through, spilling out into the night to stand before Amanda, tooth and claws, fur and rage, that someone might dare even contemplate hurting their mate.
She placed a hand on his fur, her touch calming him. “This won’t help. You can’t kill him.”
The bear slipped out of this world, and with a burst of static electricity, Jed was back. “I’m sorry, I couldn’t control myself.”
“I’m sorry to have brought this on you.”
“We need to tell Dylan. If someone is going to target you at work, we need to make him aware of this.”
“I expect by now he already knows. Steph was going to tell him.”
“Steph knows?” Jed asked.
“She came to the office earlier.”
“Good.”
“Is it good?” She shook her head and hugged herself. “What if they get dragged into this?”
“Are you sure he would come here? Maybe he just wanted to mess with your head?”
She looked up at him, hope in her eyes. “You’re right. Perhaps he just wanted me to ruin everything myself.”
“Let’s forget about him. If he comes here, we can deal with him. Together.”
He put his arms around her and pulled her close. The tension in her body was still there. No matter what she said, she firmly agreed this man would come here. And when he did, Jed would be waiting.
So, too, would his bear.
Chapter Seventeen – Amanda
It would be so easy to let herself believe what Jed said. It was plausible, that was for sure. However, Mason wasn’t the kind of man who simply wound people up. After leaving prison, a woman had approached her: Margo, their stories were identical. Only for Margo, the drama had continued. Every few months Mason would appear in her life, demand something, make subtle threats get what he wanted and then leave. Margo despised herself. Amanda had resolved not to be that woman.
She had taken the blame once, thought she was saving Mason’s son from a life without a father, when in reality she had been used in the same way as many women before her.
The name change, the fresh start, it was hers, she deserved it. She refused to be a Margo, she wasn’t going to be an eternal victim.
She was not going to let Jed become Mason’s victim either.
That was what threatened to choke her. Long tendrils of fear wrapped around her heart, and squeezed. He had a family to help support. Mason would ruin that. Ruin everything, if she didn’t find a way to stop him.
Jed held her in his arms, and she rested her head on his shoulder, looking out across the town of Bear Bluff below them. She wanted to live here. She wanted to belong here. Damn Mason.
“Shall we go back to the house?” Amanda asked.
“In a moment. First I want to tell you my news,” Jed said.
“OK, I sure am ready for good news,” she said.
“Dylan has asked me to be his foreman.” Jed paused. “That doesn’t sound like much, does it? Not when I’m a foreman of myself.” He sounded disappointed in himself.
“Are you kidding?” she asked, her mood brightening. “He has such plans for the construction company. He aims to build it up into something huge. I think he misses his old life. And you are going to be his right-hand man.”
“It’s the first time someone has actually believed in me.”
“I believe in you,” she said, throwing away her own fears and wrapping her arms around his neck, and pulling him close.
“You believe in the power of my hands,” he said, stroking her body. “And the power of my mouth.” His kissed her, his lips fierce, the specter of Mason no doubt in his mind. Jed lifted her up and then laid her down on the ground; she didn’t care about the damp grass beneath her.
“What about the power of this?” She placed her hand over his hard cock, and they both collapsed in giggles. “Sorry, was that a mood killer?”
“Nothing can destroy my mood, not when you are lying here all helpless in front of me,” he said, his fingers on her zipper, tugging it down and then pulling her jeans over her thighs.
“Helpless, am I?” she asked, sitting up, trying to get over the fact she was here in the open air, half naked for anyone to see.
“Oh, very helpless. There is no way you can deny the power of my hands.” He slipped his hands between her thighs and touched her there. Two fingers pressing inside of her, feeling her slick, wet heat. “Or my mouth.”
Jed knelt before her, pressing her thighs apart. Then he dipped his head down and licked along the length of her sex. “I think you might be right,” she admitted breathlessly as his mouth covered her mound, his teeth grazing her clit. She fisted his hair, urging him to make her come.
The mountain was almost silent around them, sounds of small animals in the undergrowth and startled birds the only thing, apart from the soft sighs that escaped her mouth as he brought her to her first orgasm. His fingers pressed inside her, stroking her inner walls, while his mouth nipped and sucked at her swollen clit. Then her world exploded. The stars in the night sky were hidden, but the stars in her head were pinpricks of brilliant light.
“See, helpless.” He kissed her neck, as she tried to regain her senses. Jed was right, she found him irresistible, but in such a good, honest way.
“Let’s see how helpless you are,” she said, turning him onto his back, and tugging his jeans down over his thighs, so his cock was exposed. Then she straddled him, his hands sliding under her blouse, and pushing her bra up so his hands could cover her breasts.
“I am ready to surrender to you.” His voice was serious. Telling her he was as helpless as she against the power of the mating bond.
She rose up, taking his cock in her hand and then lowered herself down onto him, feeling the head of his cock press inside her, filling her. She closed her eyes, shutting out the world; it was only her and Jed out here. No one else could touch them. She hoped no one else could see them.
Up and down, she rose, and then lowered herself on to him. Deeper and deeper she took him inside her. He stretched her, the friction amazing, both inside her and across her skin. His warm hands, worn rough with work, chafed her skin. Her senses took in everything he did to her, her nerve endings sending signals to her brain, where they combined into one earth-shattering orgasm.
Circling her hips, she rode him, his hands moving to her hips, guiding her, his hips lifting off the ground to thrust into her. Both of them were lost, both helpless, and then they peaked together, and it was as if they found each other and neither of them would be helpless again.
When they were both completely spent, she leaned forward and lay on his chest, listening to his heartbeat. Jed stroked her skin, caressing her softly, while the darkness settled around them.
“If only we could stay like this,” she said. “You and me. Perhaps we should just pack some food and go and live in the mountains.”
He moved, sliding her off him so she lay next to him, and then he turned and faced her, his hand in her hair. Then he kissed her. Pulling away, he said, “That’s not who I am. That is not who you are. You came here to escape the feeling of being separate from the world, don’t let that son of a bitch win and make you forget who you want to be. My family is too important to me, and you are the most important part of it.”
“Maybe I always take the easy option,” she said. “If I’d stood up to Mason in the first place…”
“Don’t. You did what you did for the right reasons.”
“What I thought were the right reasons.”
“And I admire you for that,” he said. “I’m proud that my mate put the welfare of a child above that of herself. It wasn’t your fault the father was sti
ll a lying son-of-a-bitch.”
“Arghh. If only I could get him out of my head.”
Jed got up off the ground and found her clothes, passing them to her. “Get dressed and we’ll go and find something to eat. That will make you feel better. Then if you want, I will suffer through one of those chick-flick movies… just for you.”
“My hero,” she said.
“Always.” He pulled her close and they walked towards the cabin, cutting through onto the path they had come along only a short time ago. Her head had been in turmoil then, but Jed made everything feel better, and as if they would always find a solution.
“So, foreman. Does that mean you are the boss of me?” Amanda asked.
“I guess it does,” he said, earning himself a playful slap across the chest.
“Don’t even think about it.” She laughed. “We’re equal.”
“Whatever you say,” Jed answered.
They had reached the cabin; hand in hand they climbed the two steps to the wooden porch. There she stopped. The door was open. Not just unlocked, but ajar. She froze, and a shudder passed through her.
“You should go, Jed.” She pushed him behind her.
“He’s here?” Jed said, his whole body bristling. He moved to surge past her, but she caught his arm and somehow managed to stop him.
“This isn’t your fight.”
“Like hell it’s not!” He tugged his arm out of her hand, and pushed the door wide open.
“Please, Jed. I have to do this. I’ll just tell him he can’t manipulate me.”
“That’s what you think,” a voice said from inside the cabin. “And you might have been right until I followed you two up on your lover’s tryst.”
Amanda put her arm across Jed’s chest. “Let me talk to him.”
Jed tensed and for a moment she though he was going to deny her the chance of dealing with Mason herself. This was her fight, her problem to deal with. Of course she appreciated his backup, but only if absolutely necessary, and only if she knew for sure he wouldn’t kill or otherwise maim Mason.
His Bear's Necessity: BBW Bear Shifter Paranormal Romance (Return To Bear Bluff Book 2) Page 8