by M. L. Briers
Curtis didn’t know what he could offer a woman like her. Sure, he had a home and business, and he’d kill himself each and every day to provide for her, but he was a shifter, rough around the edges in so many ways, and he took to brawling way too much for someone like her to put up with.
While she certainly had a set of lungs on her when she wanted them, and she was okay with staring down a shifter and a vampire when the mood took her, it still felt wrong to drag her into his world with him.
She was human. She was soft, in all the right places. He grinned at the memory of kissing her, of having her body against his – then he snapped that the hell off, she was also soft in her thinking.
How could he expect her to fit in with his world?
He might have a shop and what resembled a normal life, but his best friend, if best friend was the right term for it, was a damn vampire, and then there were shifters like Goran… there were always shifters like Goran’s in his world.
Curtis noted the way that she ducked her head down out of sight behind the screen of her laptop, and he strained his neck to try to get a better view of her. It didn’t work – he’d need to move position to be able to see her better.
He made a slow, careful journey around the edge of the woods – using the overgrown foliage for cover. He made a mental note to cut that the hell down for her so that nobody else could hide there and watch her for any reason – bad reason – his beast grumbled a growl within his chest at the thought.
Curtis made sure to keep one watchful eye out on her as he picked his way to a better location. He didn’t want to scare the hell out of her if she caught sight of him. She might think that he was some crazy stalker – which, he guessed that he kind of was, but in a protective kind of way.
He noted her head pop up from behind the screen and her eyes locked onto him, and he rushed forwards towards cover – smacked his forward on a low hanging branch – bounced backward with a curse and a growl, and shot another look her way.
Busted!
CHAPTER ELEVEN
~
“Oh… my… what does he think he’s…?” June covertly eyed Curtis over the screen of her laptop. She’d been almost certain that she’d seen movement outside while she’d been searching through, too many internet pages, and she’d been right!
Stalker!
Look up… bear shifter stalking his mate.
June did the one finger on each hand typing as fast as she could, then hit return. In reality, waiting took about twenty seconds, but as her eyes flicked up to where he was now hiding behind the foliage, and down to screen – it felt like an eternity until she could find her answers.
“O…” she frowned at the screen. Apparently, it was a common occurrence for an unmated male to protectively follow his mate. “Well, that’s just toot-fruity.” She bit out, slamming the laptop closed and eyeing the last place that she saw him.
Now what?
I’m armed with the knowledge that I don’t really want to know and faced with a stalky bear that wants more than honey.
And I could have just posted my parcels with the damn post office.
June gripped the arms of the chair and pushed up with a purpose. She might not have had a damn clue what that purpose was, but she hoped to find it by the time that she had to make a choice about which direction to go in.
Hide in the bedroom with the curtains closed or face down the bear shifter?
When did my life get so damn complicated?
Oh yeah, when I chose not to go to the post office.
Idiot mine, in more ways than one.
Ok, get a grip.
He’s a bear shifter, not Godzilla.
You have knowledge. You have smarts. You need to talk to the man and tell him… to get the hell off of your property!
Yes, that’s it.
Go, be gone, and dinner is canceled.
That’s good. I like the sound of… damn, that mate thing.
Well, that’s not good.
He’s just going to come back for more like a child that knows where the cookies are hidden.
June went to turn on her heels and head for the sanctuary of the bedroom, but then she got a rush of annoyance at having to hide away in her own home, and she sidestepped the kitchen counter and made straight for the back door.
~
~
~
“O…” Curtis groaned out at the sight of his mate, looking rather miffed, and heading for the back door.
He knew that he’d been spotted. He didn’t have that stealth about him that a vampire could pull off. He was too damn big and clumsy for a start.
Not to mention that he didn’t much care for deceit. She was his mate, and it was in his DNA to protect the hell out of her. Even when she didn’t want, or felt the need, to be protected – there he’d be.
It was his job as her mate, damn it, and he wasn’t going to apologize for it. He wasn’t about to make excuses for it either.
The moment that the back door was tossed open; he felt a heavy stone drop inside of his stomach. He toyed with the idea of slowly backing away, but her eyes were on him, and she knew where he was alright – it would just make him look like an idiot – more of an idiot if he tried to slink away.
“Ok, stalky, get out here – front and center!” June called, and he groaned inwardly.
“I’m not stalking you,” he offered the half-truth as he pushed out from the foliage and tossed a stray leaf that fell over his face behind him.
“Oh no, that’s right, you’re protecting me from the ninja assassins in the trees that are lying in wait,” June offered back.
There was a part of her that was as mad as hell, and a part of her that was kind of flattered that someone cared enough to try to protect her – from – whatever it was he thought he was protecting her from.
There was also a part that was freaked out by his presence, and a part that fluttered in her chest and made her feel like a schoolgirl again. But, she’d hated school.
There was a part that wanted to pick up a broom and chase the bear away, and a part that knew that even if she hit him over the head with the damn thing that he’d keep coming back for more until he got what he came for – her.
And there was the truth in all of that – she didn’t know if there was a big enough part of her that wanted to be had by him.
The man was a mountain in himself. He was big and growly, broody and moody, and he had the most soulful eyes that she’d ever seen on a person.
But, he also had a bear inside of him. A bear.
It wasn’t like he turned into a cute bunny or anything – the beast in him had claws and fangs and could crush her just by sitting on her. Not that she thought a bear was prone to sitting on people.
That thought wasn’t just a little unnerving – it was ringing so many alarm bells within her mind that she just might scream or go insane from the internal mayhem. She wasn’t entirely sure that she was sane anyway.
“Something like that.”
Curtis strolled towards her with his long legs eating up the distance between them. Every step that he took toward her had him wracking his brain trying to find a way to ease her worries about him and trying to make her see that he was the last person in the world that would ever be a threat to her.
Everything that shot through his mind was centered on just how damn good she looked to him, and that wasn’t helpful.
Mine…
“You hold it right there.” She raised her palm towards him, and he slammed on the brakes.
“You have nothing to fear from me,” Curtis offered.
“Says every serial killer who’s ever abducted anyone,” she snorted back and heard a low growl like thunder rumbled from him.
“I would never…”
“Hurt me, intentionally, yes, I read that,” she tossed back, cringing inside that she’d admitted she’d checked him out.
“Then you know that…”
“You won’t give up until you’ve wooed
me – ha! Wooed – What a word that is,” June snorted again and watched him narrowed his eyes on her.
“Wooed – mated – bonded with…” he stopped and bit down on a growl that couldn’t be helped. Then he took a long step closer to where she stood, and she snapped to attention.
“I’m not inviting you in!” she rushed out.
“I’m not a vampire. I don’t need to be invited,” he offered back and saw the look of shock that planted itself on her face. “That doesn’t mean I’m going to try to…”
“You stay away,” she shot back. “And dinner is canceled!” She slammed the door closed and turned the key to lock it.
Curtis tossed up his hands in frustration. Now, he’d done it.
CHAPTER TWELVE
~
Curtis had only meant to tell her the truth of it. Shifters could cross the threshold of the door to any house, unlike a vampire. But what he’d done was scare the hell out of her.
He was severely lacking in women wooing skills. He knew that he needed to get in touch with his softer side – but he wasn’t sure that he had one.
He’d never needed to be soft around the edges with anyone before. Sure, at work he’d tried to cut down on the growling, and the hard death glares for people who annoyed him – mostly everybody – but, with her, he knew he needed to be gentle. In word and deed.
“Ok, now grab hold of your panties before they get tied in knots,” he offered back.
He kicked himself as he watched a whole new level of disbelief wash over her face as she twisted her head on her neck like a curious beast, and craned her neck forwards until her forehead was almost touching the glass.
“Do not talk about my panties!” June snapped back.
“I meant your mental panties, not your real panties,” he grumbled back, kicking himself again for his fubar.
“Still talking about my damn panties,” she practically hissed at him like a snake.
“I’m not remotely interested in your panties…” he stopped and considered his words.
He’d lied, unintentionally, but it was a lie nonetheless. His mate knew it as well because the look of disbelief on her face was priceless.
“Sure, and soap on a rope was the greatest invention of mankind, and in about ten minutes the pigs from the farm next door are going to do a flyby.” June folded her arms across her chest, and the action pushed up her breasts from his viewing pleasure.
“Do not stare at my breasts!” she bit out as she dropped her hands to her sides and fisted them in annoyance.
“I did not stare. I may have looked, briefly,” Curtis grumbled back. He couldn’t win, and he knew that he couldn’t, but still he had to try.
“I don’t think I like you,” June lied.
“I think you like me just fine,” Curtis sensed her deceit because her words had a different tone to the ones where she’d berated him.
“Not so much.”
“Just fine and dandy,” he said with a small nod.
“Go away,” she snapped back, as her cheeks colored red and burned white hot in guilt for her lies.
“Never going to happen,” Curtis lied.
There were reasons why he would walk away from his mate. Rejection. If she rejected him and he felt like there was no hope, then he’d be gone, but right then, there was always hope that he could be man enough for a woman like her.
Curtis folded his large arms across his broad chest and made his biceps look twice the size. June’s eyes flicked to them, and she swallowed down at the flash of heat mixed with excitement that pinged through her body.
“Stop looking at my muscles,” he tossed back, and her eyes snapped back up to his with a whole heap of guilt in her stare.
“Was not,” she hissed back.
“Was too,” Curtis offered back. “I’m not an object of desire. I’m a man, with feelings and emotions.” He remembered that Justin had read that out of men’s magazine one time under the heading of how not to treat a female.
There was no harm in hijacking it for his own ends. What was good for the goose was certainly good for the bear.
“I…” June was gobsmacked. What had she been doing, drooling on herself at the sight of those rock hard muscles that she had a really big urge to reach out and squeeze? “You kissed me!”
June lifted her hand and went to point a finger, but she cracked her knuckles on the glass instead. She cursed like a sailor on shore leave.
Curtis bit down on two needs. One to laugh at the fact that he’d turned the tables on her and deflected away from the fact that he’d snatched a look at her breasts – and the need to growl and berate her for hurting herself while making sure that she hadn’t damaged her hand.
Mixed emotions and one very confused bear inside of him.
“Not right then I didn’t,” Curtis held himself in place, resisting the urge to try to get through the door to her. “But, if you wanna open the door.”
“Don’t you ever think about it.” June gave him one hell of a look of disbelief.
“Why not? You’re thinking about it,” Curtis shot back, and she yanked her head back on her neck and gasped.
“Are you reading my mind?” she demanded. She thought that she’d just read on the internet that only vampires could do that, but she wasn’t one hundred percent sure.
Oh no, what have I been thinking for the last…?
“Don’t need to read it,” he replied, not confirming or denying that he could read minds. He figured what she didn’t know could only help him. “It’s written all over your face, in your eyes, and in your body language.”
“Stop reading my body!” she shot back.
June might have thought that she sounded slightly neurotic, maybe just plain insane, but she didn’t like the thought that he could read her mind if he chose to. She didn’t quite trust that he hadn’t already chosen to do just that.
She certainly didn’t like that he could read her body language because that meant that the man was looking at her body, and that started a whole other line of feelings and uncertainties within her.
Reading minds and bodies. What’s wrong with him?
It’s an intrusion of privacy that’s what it is.
He should be ashamed of himself.
I should be ashamed of my thoughts.
Checking out his muscles, wanting to squeeze those big biceps.
Damn it, stop thinking about his muscles!
Easier said than done when they’re out on parade like that.
Men!
What gives him the right to go flash off his best bits in public where any poor unsuspecting woman could just see them?
Ok, I think I’m losing it. Did I just reverse body shame a man?
I’m going to hell.
“Stop gawking at my muscles,” he tossed back.
“Fine!” she bit out, then she reached up on both sides of the window and swooshed the curtains closed in front of her.
Then she felt the spark of regret.
Now she couldn’t check out his damn muscles. How wrong was that?
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
~
I overplayed my hand. Damn, that’s just bad wooing on an epic scale.
What an idiot.
Curtis wasn’t entirely sure what to do next. She’d busted him when he’d been watching her to keep her safe, but she hadn’t told him to leave her property.
She had said that she wouldn’t go to dinner with him though. So where exactly did that leave him – them?
His bear was grumbling and growling within him. The beast wasn’t happy, but then neither was he.
In truth, he had to wonder if his beast could have done a better job wooing their mate. He was failing at it. Big time.
What could a woman like her want with a beast of a man like him? That was the question that kept bouncing around inside of his mind.
What could he possibly offer her, aside from his undying love, and everything that he was or could hope to be? Was that enough?
> “And another thing,” she yelled at him as she snatched back the curtains and glared out through the window, meeting him eye to eye, and holding his gaze.
“Oh, there’s more. shocker,” Curtis grumbled back before he’d even thought about his plan to be nicer, to woo her with sweeter words, and to get over his damn bad mood bear of a-self.
“You know, there have only been a few times in my life where I have literally wanted to knock someone’s lights out, but this is one of those times,” she snapped at him.
“You don’t say?”
Curtis folded his big arms across his chest and let his mate get things off her chest. She was going to anyway; he might just as well stand there and hear it all while she was good and fired up.
“I do say,” she snapped back.
“Go on,” he urged. He could see that she still had a mind to tell him what for.
“You are just the most annoying, frustrating, bear of a man that I have ever had the misfortune to meet,” she bit out.
“And you’ve met a lot of bear shifters?” he asked with a small nod of his head and trying his best not to grin at her rant.
“That’s not what I meant,” she snapped back.
“Didn’t think so,” he crinkled his eyebrows in such a way to look so damn sexy that she found herself lost for a moment as she eyed them. “I’m not insulted.”
“You’re a bear. How could you be insulted by being called a bear?” she demanded.
“In the context you meant it – I think I should be insulted,” he teased her, watching closely as she narrowed her eyes and considered what he’d said.
“You’re twisting my words,” she muttered back.
“Nope, you said them – you own them,” he offered back.
Then he watched as the little pink tip of her tongue poked out and ran across her lips, while her gaze danced around the area, flicking here and there, but not landing back on him as she thought about it.