“Um," Casey suddenly appeared nervous. Her brow furrowed, she rubbed the hand Hunter had just shaken. Had she felt it too?
"I just... I came because... I wanted to thank you. For yesterday." She attempted a smile but Hunter saw her grimace as her lips forced muscles into use that were still swollen and painful. "I know I wasn't much help," she continued. "I just... my life… it's complicated. But I wanted to thank you just the same."
Hunter took a deep breath. How many times had he heard his own mother say those very words? It's complicated. His stomach knotted to hear this beautiful woman use them now.
"I don't get it," he finally said, weighing his words carefully. He didn't want to chase her away; he didn’t want her to leave. But, he wasn't about to sweep everything under the rug as though it had never happened either. That wasn’t his style.
She offered him a small, sad smile. "No, I don't suppose you would," she said. "I… we… have a son." She spit the words out like a dirty confession.
He nodded. It explained a lot, actually. "How old?"
"Three." Hunter couldn’t help but notice the way her face suddenly lit up when her thoughts turned to her child.
Hunter hesitated. He could feel his brothers' eyes on his back, watching him. They'd never seen him with a woman before. It’s not that he didn’t enjoy women’s company, just that he didn't do girlfriends. What would be the point of introducing his brothers to the women he did bed? To him, they were nameless and faceless. Women like Trixie.
“Well, Thanks again,” she said, “I should be going.”
"Don’t go," Hunter could hear the desperation in his own voice. He didn't know exactly what it was about this woman, but his attraction to her was almost overwhelming. It had been there last night in the darkened bar, where her scent had been driving him to distraction. Walking away from her last night had taken every ounce of strength he’d had in him. Today, the visual confirmation of his desire was almost too much for him. Now that fate had brought her back in front of him, he wasn’t about to just let her turn and leave. "Would you like to grab a coffee or something? And talk?"
Casey looked over Hunter's shoulder to where Ethan and Scott were still watching with their jaws open. "Those two knuckleheads are just my brothers," he said. Casey nodded, but her face was strained.
"I would, but… if anyone sees me talking to you, or drinking coffee with you..."
"The husband," he finished for her. Casey nodded, her cheeks flushing red. It was a strange feeling to be relieved someone understood her dilemma, while at the same time being embarrassed and ashamed by it.
"We can talk here in the gym then," Hunter offered. She looked around them again. "You don't have to worry here. This is my gym. My brothers and I own it. I guarantee Mike has never stepped foot in here."
Casey smiled and finally gave a slight nod. She followed Hunter to some benches in the back and his brothers finally returned to their sparring match.
"How did you find me anyway?" Hunter asked, flattered to the core that she’d gone to the trouble.
"The shirt you were wearing last night had the gym's name and logo on it. I recognized it, I pass by here often on my way to school. I thought I’d take a chance and see if, by some bizarre twist of fate, you might just be here."
"School? Are you a teacher?" He was thinking of the middle school a few blocks over.
She shook her head. "Student. I'm enrolled in a class at the community college."
Hunter was impressed. It couldn’t be easy in her situation to take steps towards self-improvement. Not when her main concern would have to be self-preservation. "Westlake Community? And your husband’s okay with this?"
"The class?" Casey asked, surprised. "Of course. I wouldn’t be able to leave the house otherwise.”
"He’s supportive?"
"Well... it took some convincing on my part.” Casey didn’t even want to think of the things she’d had to do to get him to acquiesce, the things she still had to do. “I have to pay for the sitter myself, and make sure his dinner is on the table at exactly—" Casey's face went pale. She stood up.
"Oh God, it's almost four. I need to get home." She rushed towards the entrance. “It was nice meeting you,’” she called over her shoulder without glancing back.
"Wait!" Hunter called, running after her. She slowed her pace but didn't stop. "Can I see you again?"
She hesitated. "What for?"
Hunter wasn't sure how to answer that. Because he liked her. Because she stirred something in him that he had never felt before. Because he hadn’t been able to get his mind off of her or his thoughts to stop their obsessive wandering back to her since he’d first seen her last night.
"Because I could use a friend to talk to," he said. Lame. Stupid. He really needed to get some game.
Her face brightened and she stopped. The sounds of men fighting in the ring drew her attention and Hunter noted her body tense and slightly flinch at every blow. Of course the fighting would bother her. What an idiot, he should have known that. How could it not?
"Somewhere else is fine," he said, "I can meet you at WCC any time you want."
"I... I suppose that would be okay.” One thing Mike and his buddies avoided was anything having to do with education or academia. “How about the library?" she asked. "It's quiet there."
With lots of books to hide behind in case someone should see them, he thought but didn't say. "Sure." He winked at her and she smiled.
"Alright. I have classes Tuesday and Thursday from one to three. Meet me right after?"
"I'll see you Thursday," Hunter grinned.
He watched the way her backside jiggled as she hurried away.
As far as Hunter was concerned, Thursday couldn’t arrive soon enough.
Chapter 4
Casey awoke on Thursday with a sense of excitement tempered by regret. Why had she agreed to meet with Hunter? Granted, she’d gone through about a million “what if” fantasies about the sexy marine since they’d parted on Tuesday. But nothing good could come of this.
She sprinkled Tommy’s favorite Comet Crunchers into a cereal bowl. The little boy was sitting in front of the TV in his pajamas, belly laughing at superhero cartoons.
“C’mon champ. All X-men in training need a good breakfast.”
Seriously, what the hell did she think she was doing meeting up with another man? She was a married woman for Christ’s sake. A married woman with a child and a whole trunk full of baggage. Why was Hunter even bothering with her in the first place?
He’d told her that he needed a friend but she wasn’t stupid. The man could find friends anywhere. Unless ‘friend’ was a code word for cheap, meaningless sex partner. She giggled to herself. One look at him and it was obvious he could find handfuls of women who would gladly fill that bill for him. The brief thought of being in bed with Hunter sent shivers of desire shooting through her.
“Tommy, let’s go, buddy. We need to get you all fed and dressed. Miss Meagan’s on her way over today.”
“Yay! Miss Meagan!” That had him up and scrambling to the kitchen table. Casey smiled knowingly. Her son had a three-year-old’s crush on his sweet, attentive babysitter.
She gathered together her school books, trying unsuccessfully to keep her thoughts from straying to Hunter. What did he want? A man like him, a protector, probably thought he could be her savior, her white night. If so, he didn’t understand that as bad as her life was, the best thing for her was to keep the peace when she could, and to take the punches when she couldn’t. Mike would do some serious damage if provoked and she had a little boy to protect. Self-preservation meant ‘don’t rock the boat’.
By the time class ended, Casey was determined. This whole friendship with Hunter thing was a bad idea. She wouldn’t leave him hanging. She’d show up toady, but just this once. One time, and then it’s over. She couldn’t risk Mike finding out. If Hunter needed a friend, or a sex partner, he’d have to look elsewhere. She let out a slow breath. If only things
were different.
When she reached the library, he was already waiting for her.
Hunter took note of the relieved but apprehensive smile that appeared when she saw him. Did she think he wouldn’t be here waiting? The woman clearly had no idea the effect she had on him. Christ, he didn’t understand it himself, but not showing up hadn’t even been an option. He would have breached the gates of heaven or suffered the flames of hell to see her again.
"Casey." Her name rolled off his tongue in soft waves that weakened her knees.
He was wearing a dark colored t-shirt stretched across wide, muscular shoulders. The hard, muscled outline of his chest could be seen through the taut fabric and continued on in his biceps and forearms. The man was sinfully, dangerously sexy, and not just his body. The way that his face lit up when he saw her, huge smile, brown eyes crinkled at the corners staring at her as though she were the only woman in the room. She felt as though she would melt. In mere seconds the man had her pulse racing and her panties dampening. Oh, this was going to be tougher than she thought.
"I don’t have long," she told him breathlessly.
"I’ll take what I can get." He was just happy to be near her, breathe in her scent, hear her soft, feathery voice. He ushered her to a table in the back of the library. A few students wandered nearby but no one paid them much mind, even though Casey thought Hunter stood out amongst the college crowd like a God among mere mortals.
“Look,” she began once they were seated, “I don’t think this is a good idea.”
Hunters heart sank “This?”
“Us. Meeting, being friends.”
Hunter blinked at her, once, before coming to terms with her words. “Everyone can use a friend, Casey,” He said softly. There was a long awkward pause between them.
“What are you studying?” he asked, intentionally changing the subject. He cocked his head to read the title on the thick textbook. “Biology?”
Her chest tightened. She wasn’t sure she wanted to answer him. Mike constantly belittled her aspirations and goals, and his friends weren’t much better. Ringleader of a crowd who prized drinking, partying, ‘getting one over on the system’, and placed little value on educational pursuits, Mike frequently offered up her schooling to his buddies as fodder for jokes and ridicule. They all got a good laugh at Mike’s little schoolgirl.
"I've always wanted to work with animals,” she blurted out. “Maybe work in veterinary sciences," she told Hunter uncomfortably, watching for his reaction. His eyes remained focused on her. He actually looked interested. "I thought that maybe if I started with a class here and there. You know, small steps."
"That’s amazing," Hunter said emphatically, genuinely impressed.
"It is?" She was surprised by how excited he seemed. It was a new experience for someone to be supportive of her career goals.
"Definitely. My mother—" He stopped himself, realizing what he was about to say.
"Your mother?" Casey prompted, her curiosity peaked.
Hunter sighed. "My father wasn't a very nice man. A lot like Mike, I imagine. My mother always talked about going to school, but she never managed it. It takes a lot of strength and courage for someone in your… situation. You’re amazing."
He smiled at her, wondering why he’d just been so open. He didn't often speak of his mother, and when he did it was only an offhand comment, usually to one of his brothers. His father had been a powerful bear shifter who had lost his mind some time before he and his brothers had reached the shifting age themselves. They'd tried but been unable to defend their mother when their father was on one of his tirades.
"Is she still alive?" Casey asked.
Hunter shook his head. "She’s passed.” His father had died first and although his mother had made a feeble attempt to move on, the years of abuse had worn her down and she’d passed away a few years later. Hunter remembered her as a shell of a woman who died far too young.
Typically, bear shifters were fierce protectors of their families. Hunter’s father was an exception. Neither Hunter nor his brothers knew if their parent’s dysfunctional relationship was due to his father’s mental illness, or the fact that mother and father had been what was known in the shifter community as mis-mated. His parents had married even though they were not true mates. Neither had the intense instincts that a shifter has, by nature, towards his or her true soulmate.
"What's your son's name?" he asked, changing the subject.
"Tommy," she whispered, picturing the little boy’s sweet face. Hunter was mesmerized by the light that shown in her eyes when she spoke of son. Her face had lit up the same way when she’d mentioned him at the gym. "Mike and I dated in high school, nothing serious. At least not for me. But, when I got pregnant —just before graduation— our parents convinced us we should marry. I was young and stupid and scared and I just went along with what everyone told me."
A lone tear began to slip down Casey's cheek, yet her eyes stayed focused on his, grabbing onto their richness and warmth. Hunter reached out and brushed her tear away with his finger. He noticed her eyes drawn to the scar on his arm as he did.
"Afghanistan," he explained. "My unit was under attack. My buddies were killed." He said it so matter-of-factly that he surprised himself. His words betrayed none of the anguish he'd suffered, and still felt over their deaths.
"You were hurt?"
He nodded. "I tried to help them… I was shot... A fire broke out..." He left the words hanging in the air. The burn marks were obvious. They didn't need further explanation. Hunter laughed a short breath out of his nose, wondering what the hell prompted this episode of “true confessions” out of him. First, his mother, and now this. He wasn’t the type of guy to wear his heart on his sleeve. On the contrary, he’d always held his cards close to his vest. Yet, twice now he’d blurted out his most painful memories like he was ordering items off a menu.
"I can't imagine what that must've been like," Casey said. She reached out a hand, then pulled it back. She licked her lips then reached her hand out again and closed it around Hunter's. The warmth and desire that shot through his body at her touch was all-consuming. He tried everything in his power to stifle his body’s response to her, but his ever hardening length was suddenly straining to break free from his jeans.
"It's almost four," he said reluctantly. A half an hour wasn’t enough. He wasn’t sure right now that a lifetime would be enough with her.
She nodded. "I know."
"Can I see you again? Tuesday?"
She took a breath, "I don't think so.” Casey knew this was a bad idea. She absolutely knew it. Yet, she desperately wanted to see him again. And again, and again. Besides the fact that he was hot as hell, he had made her feel better about herself in twenty minutes than Mike had in four years. But she couldn’t allow this, whatever this was, to continue. “People might see..."
"Come to my gym. It’s safe. I promise you."
She shook her head. "The fighting, it's..." She looked at the ground. Hunter got it. The fighting was a little too close to home for her.
"You know, martial arts is not really about fighting. It's about discipline, honor and self-defense."
Casey looked at him skeptically.
"Why don't you come down? I can teach you a few things."
"You mean how to defend myself?"
"And your son. Wouldn't you like to be able to defend Tommy, if you ever needed to?"
He could see her thoughts spinning.
"Okay," she finally said. "Next Tuesday after class, or maybe before, if I can work it out with the sitter. I might have more time that way."
Hunter flashed her a wide grin. "Till Tuesday then."
Chapter 5
"Stop looking at the door. Eyes on me," Ethan shouted.
Hunter refocused on his older brother and tried to forget that Casey was on her way. The last three weeks had been the best of his life. Casey had been coming to the gym twice a week. She'd been hesitant at first—the punching and kicki
ng had made her visibly nervous, but as they’d worked closely together, and she'd grown to trust him, her comfort level seemed to have increased too.
"Yeah," Scott chimed in, eager to poke some fun at his brother. "Your girlfriend will be here soon, and then you can ditch us poor bastards."
But, she wasn’t his girlfriend. He’d been making progress with her, but the closer he got, the more frustrated he felt. It was unacceptable that she went home to that fuckwad. Hunter knew he had to get her away soon, he couldn’t stand much more of this. The closer they got, the more he felt responsible for protecting her. But, he also knew that pushing or making demands was not the way to approach someone who’d endured the kind of trauma Casey had been living with. Either approach could cause her to turn tail and run. Hunter couldn’t accept the thought of losing her completely.
He knew from some of his military buddies the issues that trauma caused. Casey needed to feel empowered. Empowered enough to make her own choices, and for that, he needed to be encouraging and patient and avoid any type of demands that could feel to her as though he was bullying her.
Wait it out. He let out a long, slow breath. He’d been patient. Christ, three weeks was fucking patient. He’d had the patience of a saint. He should be awarded a medal for his goddamned patience. How much longer could he be expected to hold out?
Every stolen moment he spent with Casey cemented the fact that she was his. She belonged to him, and he sure as hell belonged to her. It seemed that every second he spent away from her was a second spent longing to be near her again.
"There she is," Ethan said. Hunter spun his head towards the door and felt Ethan's foot hit his back knocking him down flat on his face. Leave it to his oldest brother to take any advantage available. Hunter growled. He almost thought he’d felt his bear try to surface, just for the tiniest fraction of a second, but then nothing. He'd been feeling little glimpses like that of his bear more and more since Casey had come into his life.
SHIFTER: Marine Bear (MMA Fighter Bears Series Book 1) (Werebear Bear Shapeshifter Fantasy Paranormal Romance) Page 2