“Aye, but those lasses weren’t likely to crack their heads open like a melon, either. Roxie just might. She’s easy prey for no man if she scaled the rock face of a cliff just tae see ancient cave drawings.”
“You’re probably right.” Calum laughed. “We should probably approach her with caution lest she takes the two of us down with nothing more than a swish of her luscious hips and a smile.”
One thing was certain. Roxanne Hammerlin was a strong female. It was one of the things that drew them to her. That and her full hips and fleshy ass. He closed his eyes and willed his thoughts away from his gorgeous mate.
With luck, she would welcome them back into her life as soon as they made their presence known. However, he wasn’t sure anyone could say luck was on their side. The one time he and Aiden managed to get close to the bonnie lass, something happened and she disappeared. He was determined that would not happen again.
Chapter Three
Roxie woke, shivering in the dark. The temperature in the cabin had dropped in her sleep. Sitting up, she rubbed her eyes. As much as she wanted to stay in her sleeping bag and go back to the hot dream she’d been having about a couple of guys she met across the Atlantic, she knew she had to get moving. Already, the cold had seeped into the thermal bag and she was only going to get colder if she didn’t do something.
All she wanted to do was go back to sleep and keep dreaming of the two hot Scots she’d met in Scotland while she’d been on a research trip with her friend Sunshine.
They’d been looking for evidence of polar bears in Scotland. They’d found it, all right, but it wasn’t what they’d expected. In fact, she really hadn’t thought they would let her go after learning about their existence. Still, when the call came in and she’d had to leave, they let her go with a request that she not go blabbing to the press. She’d honored their request. Who would have believed an entire clan of shapeshifting men lived in the Highlands of Scotland, anyway?
She shivered again and sighed as the cold drew her thoughts back to the present. While a thirty-pound tank wasn’t much compared to the huge five-hundred-gallon pig her grandparents always had, it should have lasted more than a couple of hours. It was running the generator at fifty percent, not the old furnace itself.
It would have lasted more than a few hours. According to her grandfather, the generator used two and a half gallons an hour under load and she’d only kept it under a full load for two hours while she’d cleaned up. After that, it had only been the refrigerator and the pellet stove that would have caused the generator to use fuel. The thirty pounds of propane should have lasted at least twelve hours, which was why she’d brought two. With luck, they would last at least until the gas guys arrived to hook up the larger fuel tank later in the day.
After bundling up in her winter gear, she made her way down the stairs and gasped. “No wonder it’s freezing in here!” The front picture window had shattered. Thousands of shards of glass covered the floor, glistening in the moonlight.
She checked the pellet stove on her way past it. Of course, the hopper was empty. It had no doubt ran incessantly while it attempted, in vain, to keep the lower level of the cabin warm while she slept.
“What—how? It’s not that cold, is it?” Roxie tiptoed her way through the broken glass to the window. Thankfully, her grandfather had installed thick aluminum storm shutters to protect the windows from wind and cold damage while he and her grandmother were in the city. After a few windows broke in frigid temperatures and wind storms off the lake, it convinced him to install the expensive window coverings. Even if the cold still managed to break the windows, the shutters would keep any precipitation and the biting cold out until he could get someone out here to replace the broken panes.
“Please work.” She closed her eyes and pressed the button mounted on the window frame and sighed with relief when the shutter slid closed with a soft whine. “Thank you, God.” She watched the shutter seal over the gaping hole and stepped back, the glass crunching beneath her feet. She frowned as she stared at the shutter, her gaze moving over the rest of the windows. They should have been closed. Knowing the cabin would stand empty for the winter, her grandfather would have closed the shutters. Why weren’t they closed?
With a frown, she moved back to the stove, lifted the lid and emptied another forty-pound bag of pellets into the metal box before pressing the reset button. Worrying about why the shutters weren’t closed wasn’t going to make the cabin warm again, no matter how curious it might be.
“Well...” She brushed her hands together. “I can’t say my first night here was boring, I suppose.” She also couldn’t say it was as restful as she remembered, either.
Her stomach grumbled and she glanced at the clock with a sigh. It was five a.m. and would be light soon. She might as well get a head start on the day.
Four hours later, she sat back on her feet and swiped her forehead with a sigh. She’d managed to dust, sweep and hand wash all of the floors on both levels. Her hands were freezing from the cold water, and she was starving. She refused to leave the cabin for breakfast when she knew the gas company planned to drop off the new pig sometime during the day.
She cast a longing gaze toward the refrigerator. She could make a bologna sandwich, but she just couldn’t bring herself to eat bologna for breakfast. “I knew I should have bought cold cereal.” All she had was hot cereal and other things that required a stove, and she hated microwaved oatmeal with a passion. She would have used the toaster and made toast had she not found a dead mouse in it.
She grinned when she thought of what her grandpa would have said about that. You can’t be too hungry, then, missy. If you were really hungry, you’d eat anything. He would have known, having been in the 101st Airborne during World War II. He used to tell stories of being stuck without supplies and being so hungry they’d eaten rats, or out of people’s trash cans.
“No offense, Grandpa, but I don’t think I could ever get that hungry.” She wrinkled her nose.
She’d just dumped a pail of dirty mop water down the toilet when someone knocked on the door, and she almost danced a jig. It had to be the gas truck. Who else could it be?
After practically dancing to the front entrance, she pulled open the door and gasped. “What are you two doing here?
She stared at the two men who she had seen only four hours before, in her dreams. Both were tall and dark and could have been brothers. She knew they weren’t, however. They were distant cousins or something like that.
A grinning Calum held out a box and the scent of sugar and chocolate hit her nose.
“Are those doughnuts?” She inhaled deeply. Yep. Doughnuts. Eclairs, if she wasn’t mistaken.
“Aye, lass. We hope you like them. We weren’t sure what tae get.” Aiden looked so hopeful as he stood holding the four-cup drink carrier with three steaming cups of coffee.
“Where did you find a coffee shop up here in the middle of nowhere?” She stepped back and held the door open. “Come in, please.”
Her stomach did a little flip as she stared at the two men she’d lusted after while she was in Scotland. In fact, had things been different, she would have spent a lot of time with them. Instead, she’d received the call about her grandfather’s accident and rushed back to the states to be with him.
Why were they here? Were they as interested in her as their clansmen were in Sunshine, or was that just wishful thinking? Knowing her luck, Sunshine had asked them to follow her and make sure she was okay when she’d called her two weeks before and told her she’d be at the cabin. If anyone knew how much she’d loved her grandfather, it had been her best friend.
“So, what brings you two to the wilds of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula?”
“We have a few clansmen who stay in a house across the lake from ye.” Calum smiled as he opened the box of doughnuts and offered her one.
“Thank you.” She pulled one out of the box. “I’m starved. I don’t have any breakfast
food I can eat cold and I don’t have enough gas to run everything, or I would have fixed oatmeal.” She accepted a cup of coffee when Aiden held it out. “Not to sound ungrateful or anything, but did you think to grab cream and sugar? If not, I have milk in the fridge.”
“Aye.” Smiling, Aiden reached into his pocket and pulled out a handful of both. “If that’s not enough for you, I have more in my other pocket.”
“That should be enough for me.” She headed for the kitchen. “Let’s have a seat.”
“Thank ye, lass.” Calum set the box on the table, removed his coat, then pulled out a chair and sat.
“Aye, thank you.” Aiden smiled as she set her coffee down and made her way over to the cabinets.
“Let me get some napkins.” She gave them a rueful smile. “I’d offer you both plates, but I haven’t had a chance to wash them yet.”
“Napkins will be fine, Rrrroxanne.”
God, how she loved the way Calum said her name. It was the first time she remembered either of them saying it. The way he rolled the R was so damned sexy, it made her stomach clench.
“Great, because that’s all there is at the moment.” She grabbed a few of the napkins she’d purchased, glad that she hadn’t decided only on the paper towels when she’d gone grocery shopping.
She set the napkins in front of them and gave two to herself, before setting her doughnut down to add cream and sugar to her coffee.
“So...” She glanced at them both in turn. “I get that you have relatives who own the cabin across the lake, but it still doesn’t answer my question. Why have you two decided to visit Michigan in the dead of winter?”
Chapter Four
“Well...” Aiden paused. They hadn’t thought about what to tell her about their presence if she asked. They hadn’t thought their plan through. Their only thought had been following her and somehow make her theirs. “We... we.” He sighed and rubbed the back of his neck.
“You came because Sunshine asked you. She did, didn’t she?”
“Aye.” He latched onto the excuse and held on tight. Sunshine had asked them to make sure she was okay. Only she’d asked them because her mates had already explained his and Calum’s interest in Roxie. “She did ask us tae make sure you were doing fine. You left quite suddenly. It was just a happy coincidence that our clansmen wanted to visit Scotland just now.”
“Oh.” She took a bite of her pastry and stared down at the table. “I... I kind of thought maybe that was why you were here.”
Why did she seem disappointed? Did she want them to want her? If so, it surely would make things a lot easier on them.
“What’s the matter, lass?”
“Nothing.” She took another bite of her doughnut. “I’m glad she did. Really, I am.” She smiled. “Otherwise, you wouldn’t be here and I wouldn’t be eating this delicious doughnut.”
He and Calum glanced at each other before he leaned forward with a smile. “There’s something you should know, lass.” He patted her hand. “And that would be that no one can make a man do something he doesn’t want tae do.”
She paused with her pastry halfway to her mouth and stared at him, her eyes wide. “Are you telling me you wanted to come see me?” She lowered her hands and rested them on her napkin. “Because if you are, you should know that my grandpa’s will states that I have to live here for a full thirty days to inherit this property, and I am not giving it up.”
Aiden couldn’t believe their luck. Not only did she seem amenable to having two men court her, but their union, if it came to pass, could very well see members of their clan claiming all of the land surrounding Sleeping Bear Lake. It would give their clansmen another place to shift and let their bears run free without the fear of discovery.
“We would never stand in the way of your dreams, lass.” He met her gaze, with the hope that she could see his conviction.
“Well...” She fiddled with the corner of her makeshift plate. “As long as that’s settled. What do we do now?” She cast her gaze down at the table, the pink of a blush dusting her cheeks.
Reaching out, Aiden took one dainty little hand in his and squeezed. “Don’t worry about that, love. We’ll figure it out along the way.”
He loved the way she looked when she blushed. The way the blood filled her cheeks, and the way her eyes darkened to a rich violet, making her look sexier than any woman he’d ever seen.
He wanted nothing more than to take her curvy body in his arms and kiss her senseless. His nose twitched as he inhaled the scent of her desire. It brought every one of his mating instincts to full alert.
A knock on the door brought him from his musings and he scowled. “Who could that be, interrupting our breakfast?”
“That’s probably the man with her fuel.” Calum stood and stretched, his hands brushing the ceiling.
Aiden also stood, prepared to place himself between his mate and any danger. “We should supervise the man, don’t you think, Calum?”
“Aye.” Calum nodded and headed for the front door as Aiden helped Roxie from her seat.
Taking her arm in a gentle grip, he couldn’t help leaning close and taking in a deep breath. Gods, he loved her scent.
“I... I can manage.” She pulled her arm from his grip before smiling up at him. “Thank you, though.” She hurried out of the room like a scared rabbit.
Just watching the sexy sway of her wide hips and ass was enough to make him rock hard. He took a deep breath and thought of going for a swim in the cold lake to take his mind off her beautiful, curvy body. When he finally had himself under control, he smiled and followed her into the living room, before frowning at the closed shutter over a gaping hole where a picture window once had been.
“What happened to your window?” He’d noticed the closed shutter when they arrived but hadn’t given the window a spare glance when they’d made their way to the kitchen. Now, however, he could see that the large square of glass was missing. “Was it broken when you got here?”
He’d known it wasn’t, but he didn’t want her to know they’d been watching her the night before.
“No.” She shook her head. “It broke in the middle of the night. I think it got too cold, or something. My grandfather said it broke once before when he and Grandma were staying here over the winter holidays. That’s why he had the shutters installed. Apparently, sometimes it gets cold enough up here to shatter the windows.”
“Aye. I can believe it, but it wasn’t that cold last night.”
“It felt cold enough to me.” She wrapped her arms around herself and shivered. “I grew up in Virginia. Anything below forty is freezing, to me.” She smiled up at him. “So... Do you and Calum plan to stay here and...”
“Court you as you deserve?” He smiled as her face reddened. Gods, how he loved to make her blush!
“Well, it would be preferable to having you two throw me over your shoulders and carrying me back to Scotland with you. It’s less likely I’ll protest that way.” She giggled, snatched up her coat from a hook just inside the door and ran outside to join Calum and the man who was setting up her fuel tank.
Little Roxie was their mate and had all but agreed to allow them to court her. “Well, my love,” he said as he watched her talking to Calum. “The game, as they say, is on.”
Chapter Five
Roxie rested her hand on her hips and slowly spun around, looking for something, anything, she’d missed scrubbing. Using the back of her arm, she swiped perspiration from her forehead with a sigh.
With a full tank of propane and a warm home, she had pulled a roast from the freezer and set it to cook while she cleaned the ground floor from top to bottom. She’d even washed the floors again because she and the two shifters had tracked in a lot of snow and mud from outside where her new pig sat full of propane.
She tried not to think about how romantic it was for the two men to have followed her halfway around the world. Maybe they really didn’t want to be here but
were following the orders of the laird’s granddaughter-in-law.
Sunshine was her best friend and Roxie wouldn’t put it past her to have ordered the two men to come look after her. Although, she wouldn’t have ordered them to try to sleep with her. That idea had to be theirs and theirs alone. Still, it didn’t mean they had to make any kind of romantic declaration, and Aiden had all but said they wanted to make her their wife. As strange as having two lovers sounded, it also sounded downright hot. At least she didn’t have to worry what her family would think of her if she married them. With the exception of her cousin Garret, she had nobody.
It had taken her all morning to clean the entire ground floor of the cabin again, and she still hadn’t managed to keep from thinking about how the two men had figured out how to wriggle their way into her life so quickly. She wanted it. She wanted them. She was getting too old to beat around the bush. She was pushing forty and if she wanted a family, she had to grab on to whatever chance she had and hold on tight.
Her biological clock had been ticking for a couple of years, and frankly, she didn’t want to spend the rest of her life alone, looking for ancient cave drawings. She wanted a family, damn it.
With her inheritance, she had the means to retire if she wanted to do so. However, she’d had no real desire to settle down. Not until she’d met Calum Montgomery and Aiden MacNeil. The moment she’d seen them in Scotland, she’d wanted them. Needed them, even. When they didn’t make a move to get to know her before she left, she’d determined it had been a one-way attraction.
Granted, she’d left only a few days after meeting them, but it hadn’t taken Sunshine’s guys long for them to make their first move.
Tempting the Bears Page 2