by M. L. Briers
He really did want to chuckle, but he held back. He really did want his tongue to take the place of hers and taste her lips, but he knew that would have to wait.
“I didn’t mean to insult you,” she said, but she still looked as if she couldn’t quite put her finger on what she’d done wrong.
“Sure, you did.”
“Maybe I did,” she gave a small, frustrated shake of her head, and a frown settled on her forehead.
He’d somehow managed to tie her in knots of uncertainty but in a good way. She was now on the back foot, and he liked that.
“I can understand how someone like you…” he stopped talking and motioned up and down her body, and her head dropped forward as she looked down at herself – not really knowing why – but he pressed his lips together for a moment so that he didn’t chuckle.
“Me?” she asked, her frown turning into a scowl as she wondered what he meant by that.
“Would take exception at the thought of having dinner with someone like me,” he said.
Then when June’s head snapped back up, and her eyes narrowed on his, he tried to make himself look as innocently forlorn as possible – it sometimes worked for the vampire in certain situations, so he thought he might as well give it a try.
“What’s wrong with you?” she asked quickly, and he felt the chuckle in his throat and quickly cleared it with a subtle cough.
“You tell me,” he shrugged those broad shoulders and her lips parted a little. She certainly looked confused.
“I…” she paused for thought. She had a whole list, but she’d already managed to hurt his feelings, not that she was trying – or was she?
At that moment in time; she wasn’t sure if the sky was still up and the ground was still down. She had the urge to lay in the middle of the bed, in a ball, and just… be.
“Nothing?” he asked, raising those expressive eyebrows high on his forehead, questioning her, but she didn’t look as if she could read a menu right then.
“Meh,” she offered with a shrug.
“So,” his voice took on a whole new level of hope. “Dinner tonight?”
June pressed her lips together and eyed him like she wanted to hate him – wanted to tell him to get off her property and never darken her door again – but, for the life of her, she didn’t know why.
“Uh-ha,” she offered back, lamely, and with just an air of confusion about her.
“Are you cooking, or am I?” Curtis asked, slapping those big hands of his together and rubbing them as if he was cold.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
~
June wasn’t even close to understanding how she had, not only agreed to have dinner with the man, but how she was the one who was cooking it. There was some sort of fast talking skulduggery at work there somewhere, but she didn’t feel like she had the mental willpower to retrace that whole conversation to find it.
She was multitasking. Cooking and checking internet sites to find out more about the man that she knew was still outside on her property, only because she’d also been peeking out at him from time to time.
Curtis had called her his mate, and just one simple check on mates had brought up a gazillion search results that she was trying to wade through. It was tough going.
There was some weird information out there that she snorted laughter at, but there were also some home truths that, if true, made her slightly worried about what she could be getting herself into.
Male shifters who didn’t bond with their mate were said, by most of the pages that she’d looked at, to go crazy-bad. She didn’t want that for Curtis.
The man might have been the epitome of a bad mood bear, but crazy-bad – she didn’t think so, and she didn’t want to be the one to cause it.
June did a double take at the window when she had the feeling that a pair of eyeballs were on her, and sure enough, he was standing there, peering in. She lifted her flour covered hands up at her sides and shrugged her shoulders at him.
“Is it ready yet?” Curtis tried to sound as innocent in his stalking of her as was possible, given the circumstances, but to June, he just looked like a really big stroppy teenager who couldn’t wait for his dinner.
“Does it look ready?” She shot back and watched the man fidget in place.
“No,” he grumbled.
“There’s your answer,” June said.
When he turned on his heels and walked away, she couldn’t help but chuckle. The man was – strange – and yet, he had a certain appeal about him that kept her eyes coming back for more.
It was true to say that if she hadn’t of been reading about bear shifters on the internet, then she might very well have barricaded herself inside the toilet and called the police over his antics. But, she got it – well, sort of. He would still need to fill in blank spaces in her shifter education.
But if he started to pee up trees then she was out there with a broom.
June flicked another look back at the window, and he was pacing back towards the house again.
“Still not ready,” she called and watched as he did an about face and went the other way.
“Ok, this is silly,” she muttered, flicking the flour from her hands before reaching for the kitchen towel. “I could just get the information straight from the horse’s mouth – bear’s lips?”
June headed for the back door, and the moment that she flicked the lock off, there he was, stalking towards her once more with a hopeful expression on his face.
“Still not ready,” June bit out, and she watched the hope die. “But, you’re here anyway, so you might as well come in.”
“I can?” Curtis frowned. Then he looked over her shoulder as if she had a posse of villages lying in wait for him with pitchforks.
“You lose something?” She asked.
“No,” he shrugged. He lifted one foot to walk forward and held in place. “I should get flowers or something.”
“I have flowers, lots of flowers, and the – or something – sounds lovely, but I don’t need anything.”
“Sure?” he eyed her with suspicion – like it was a test and he didn’t want to fail it.
“No, I’m lying. I love or something.” She shrugged.
“Then I should go…”
“Get in the damn house or don’t come back here tonight,” June bit out and watched the man snap to attention.
“Seriously?” He grumbled. “You think if you send me away that I’m not just going to…”
“Stand down the garden like a gnome?” She couldn’t hide the grin on her lips. “A really bloody big gnome without a fishing pole.”
“Not like a gnome,” he offered back.
“Bear – a protective bear,” she conceded, and he had a slow to boil smile on his face that was a little crooked, and very sexy. “And I’m sure you’d be peeing on trees and crapping in the woods.”
Curtis’ smile dropped like a ton of bricks, but the sound of her feminine chuckles was music to his ears – and not the bad kind like Justin and his stupid melodic voice offered him.
“You had to go and spoil it,” he teased back.
“Yeah, well, you ruined my morning,” June said on a step back from the door so that he could pass.
“I don’t know if I wanna come in now,” he teased once more and lifted his foot again to take that first step, but she tossed the door closed right in his face.
“Ok,” she shrugged and heard the low, deep rumble that sounded like thunder coming from the other side. “No sense of humor bear.” She chuckled, pulling the door back open.
“You can be mean,” Curtis grumbled.
“Bet your furry little buns I can,” June chuckled once more before she set off across the kitchen towards her baking.
“What are you making?” he asked, closing the door behind him and eyeing the inside of her kitchen – it looked bigger now that he was inside.
“Food,” she tossed back over her shoulder. “Is there anything a bear shifter can’t eat?”
“Nope,” he shrugged.
“Is there anything you don’t eat?”
“God no,” he tossed back.
“Good answer,” June turned her head and gave him a killer smile, and then her eyes were drawn away from him towards the door behind him. “Do you to come as a pair?”
Curtis had already turned his head to see the vampire standing there, and the growl that rumbled within his chest was a lot meaner.
“I locked up the shop,” Justin offered on a smirk. “Are we invited for dinner?”
“I am,” Curtis growled.
“Are you not going to feed me after all my hard work?” Justin pushed out his bottom lip and June chuckled.
“Define feed?” she said, and her mate’s head snapped around on his neck – she was almost sure that she heard the bones click.
“Nobody feeds the vampire,” Curtis growled.
“Is that a hard and fast rule – like in a zoo?” Justin asked, and June chuckled again.
“He’s not coming in,” Curtis growled.
“Is he not?” June tossed back, and he’d done it again. He’d gone and told her what not to do, and now all she wanted to do was to do what she’d not intend doing all along.
“No,” Curtis rumbled another growl.
“Come on in Mr. Bloodsucking Vampire,” June called out, and she heard Curtis gasp in disbelief.
His head twisted on his neck and he eyed the man with a death glare.
“Do not step over that threshold,” he warned him.
“But she invited me in,” Justin offered back. “And we all know that you can’t un-invite a vampire.”
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
~
“Where are you going?” Curtis asked when she dried her hands and made a move towards the back door.
Between June and the door sat the vampire, and Curtis was already putting his body between the pair of them.
“The food’s cooking and I’m just going to the greenhouse for ten minutes – you two can play nicely in that time, no?” June shot back.
Curtis didn’t look as if he could play nicely with anyone since Justin had arrived. He had a frown that was firmly lodged on his forehead, and he wasn’t letting it slide.
“I can, but he’s mean,” Justin said, stirring the shifter to growl in his direction, and growl he did.
That sound didn’t bother her so much anymore, at least, not in the worried sense. Instead, she found that it called to her ears to listen harder and made her heart skip a beat, in a good way, if there was ever a good way for someone’s heart to skip a beat.
“Why don’t you…?” Curtis started, but she headed him off.
“Play nice or go home,” June berated the man. “You do have a home, don’t you? Or do you just hang upside down from the rafters in the barn?”
“Ouch,” Justin said, but his eyes were full of amusement. “Girlfriend’s got claws, and not in the Grrr… sense.”
“I’ll come with you,” Curtis had already started to follow her, but he pulled up short when she spun around to frown at him.
“Do you think I’m going to get lost between here and there?” she asked.
“Probably not, but you never can tell,” Curtis offered back, and the vampire snorted a chuckle.
June shot a look at Justin and considered the small shrug that he offered her.
“Fine,” she said, standing a little bit taller and pulling her shoulders back. “I’ll show you the difference between Cassava and pot.”
“See, I knew you had pot,” Curtis grumbled.
“I…” she bit down on the need to hit him, headbutt the door – kill something. The man was a nightmare.
~
~
~
Curtis watched her work. He liked the fact that she was so graceful compared to his clomping around. She went down the lines of plants, none of which he had a hope in hell of naming, watering as she went with a long hose that seemed unending.
“Cassava,” she announced when she reached the last remaining plants that she had left.
“If you say so,” Curtis said with a slow to boil grin that kept her watching him until it was all that she saw.
With the day-old stubble that was wrapped around his strong jaw, the man looked a little darker, and as sexy as hell.
“It’s a food source,” she announced and pricked his interest. Food always seemed to do that to him, bears sure could eat a lot. “But, it’s also toxic if prepared wrong, at least, this one is.”
“Toxic how?”
“Cyanide poisoning,” she shrugged.
“Sounds, peachy,” Curtis reached up and scratched his nails through the stubble on his chin as he considered it. “We’re not eating that, right?”
“I thought you might like to try some,” she teased.
Her little baby plants weren’t going to yield a crop, and she knew it, but he didn’t.
“Not this side of forever,” Curtis grumbled.
Mine…
“Chicken.”
“Bear,” he frowned, and she laughed.
“I’d hate to see the size of the chicken you shifted into,” she chuckled.
Her shoulders rose and fell with her laughter, and Curtis joined her. He could certainly see the funny side of that.
“That’d be a one chicken I wouldn’t want to mess with,” he grinned again.
June couldn’t get her eyes to look away. The man was definitely mesmerizing when he wasn't all frowny and brooding, but, even then, he had a lot of sex appeal.
“So, why are you growing these?”
“They are a clean sample – I think the lab is trying to make Franken-plants. I don’t ask. I just the supplier,” she grinned at how that sounded.
“Drug dealer,” he grumbled, but it was good humored, and she knew it. That didn’t stop her from turning the hose on him.
“Hey!” Curtis growled, jumping back from the stream. He just wasn’t fast enough to save his shirt from getting drenched.
The sound of laughter that came from his mate was intoxicating. His ears pricked up and his body responded to her good mood, and he moved fast as she redirected her aim and caught him in the line of fire once more.
A heartbeat later and he was in front of her. One large hand wrapped over hers on the hose, and he twisted, careful not to hurt her, but the water went upwards and covered them like a heavy shower.
June squealed as the icy water came down over her. She wasn’t about to back down. If the man wanted a fight; he had one.
Curtis just wanted her to let him direct the hose away, but she wasn’t having any of, twisting the hose and nudging him in the chest with her elbow to try to gain the upper hand.
He could feel her soft, warm body playing bumper cars with his, and between the chill of the water and the heat of her body, it was the best of both worlds inside the warmth of the greenhouse.
“You’re not getting it,” June declared on a squeal of laughter as the stream hit her in the face.
“I’d say define it, but I don’t want another elbow in the ribs,” Curtis chuckled.
“Is it just sex that you have on the brain?” she demanded, but she still had that playful tone about her voice, so he wasn’t overly worried.
“Well, there’s food…”
“Men,” she snorted her contempt for the whole of his gender. “Shoot it, shag it, or eat it.”
“Two outta three ain’t bad,” Curtis offered back with the kind of grin that distracted her for just the right amount time that it took him to take advantage of her loss of concentration.
That hosepipe was yanked out of her hand and tossed away. His body was wet, hot, and pressed against hers a moment later.
Curtis’ big, strong arms wrapped around her, and he found that, even though her breasts were pressed against the hard muscles of his chest, squished between them, he still couldn’t get close enough.
“You’re wet!” she announced, and it was the best that she could come up with, because her br
ain had turned to something of a mushy blob.
June didn’t need to think – she felt. She felt the hard muscles of his chest as it rose and fell with his breathing, playing against the ache of her hard nipples.
She felt those big arms of his keeping her within his sphere. She felt the hard press of his cock against her stomach, and that gave her a rush of excitement like she’d never known before.
But mostly, she felt powerless and powerful at the same time. Powerless to stop the way that her body reacted to his, but powerful enough to get the same reaction from him right back.
The growl that rumbled in his chest and got caught in his throat said it all – and her body was speaking his language.
“We’re wet,” he corrected her.
Curtis was fighting the urge to take his mate down to the wet foam mats beneath his feet and make love to her in every way possible.
His bear was almost front and center within him, and he wanted to let the beast push forward, if only so that he could truly concentrate one hundred percent of everything that he had on her.
“I’m wet,” she said absently.
Curtis heard the words and his cock jumped and twitched within his jeans to be set free. She might not have meant it the way that it sounded within his mind – and right then his mind was being exceptionally dirty – but it still got the hungriest, deepest growl yet.
There was no choice to be made. There was no consideration of being a gentleman. Not in his mind.
Curtis brought his lips down on hers with so much demanding passion that she could do little but respond in kind.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
~
June was swept up in the moment. Her body took on a life of its own and responded to him like she had wildfire sweeping through her veins.
She had the urge to climb his hard body and wrap herself around him like a clinging vine. She wanted to feel the press of his cock against her sex and not her stomach.
There was a need within her for more. A desire for pleasure, given and received, and she might not have been a world class sexual gymnast, but she was sure that she could figure it out as she went along.