She pushed up on her elbow, and yesterday’s events came back in a flash. She was in a cabin. Brayden’s cabin.
Holy heck. A complete stranger. I might be losing it. But there had been a snowstorm. She’d had a perfectly good reason for spending the night with a strange man in the middle of the woods.
Though she had to admit the snow was beautiful, there was a slight problem. She was stranded here with no clothes. No makeup. Nothing.
She reached over and picked up her phone. Not even any phone service.
Laying back down, she groaned. A wild goose chase-- That’s what Michael had sent her on. Now that she thought about it, she had seen him with Maribelle quite a bit lately. With her out of the way, Maribelle had a better chance at getting the anchor job.
She sighed. Now that she was here, she realized how ridiculous it was to think she could get a story about shapeshifters. If there was such a thing as shapeshifters, they weren’t going to come out and make themselves known.
As she lay there staring out the window, wondering what she was going to do about her current predicament, she watched a bear walking toward her. A bear wearing a… bag over his shoulders.
She blinked. And sat up.
A bear carrying a bag? It wasn’t a backpack. It was more like a burlap haversack. As she watched, the bear ambled toward the cabin. She leaned back against the pillow and pulled the blanket over her nose. She lay very still. Could a bear break through a window?
As the bear walked past her window, it turned and looked right toward her. She squeezed her eyes closed.
Maybe it wouldn’t see her.
After a minute, she opened one eye and peeked out the window. The bear was gone. She breathed out slowly. This place was crawling with bears. No wonder there were so many legends revolving around shapeshifting bears up here.
Then she heard a noise in the other part of the cabin. It sounded like a door opened and closed. Then something fell. Had the bear gotten inside the cabin?
She didn’t dare move. She just lay there listening for any sound.
When someone knocked on her bedroom door, she muffled a screech. Bears don’t knock.
When she didn’t answer, the door opened, and Brayden peeked inside? “Are you okay?”
She nodded. Then cleared her throat and lowered the blanket.
“You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
“A bear.” She nodded toward the window.
“Oh.”
“I didn’t know there were so many bears around here. I thought they were hibernating.”
“I don’t know. Bears are funny sometimes.”
Taylor had no idea what that meant. She almost asked him about the haversack the bear had worn. But decided it was too far-fetched, and he might think she’d gone insane. So, she kept that to herself.
“Are you hungry?” He asked. “I have some fruit.”
“Sure. Coffee?”
He smiled. “Of course.” He tossed her a sweatshirt. “I’ll be in the kitchen.”
She pulled the sweatshirt over her head, and it reached to her thighs. It smelled like him. Woodsy and a little like vanilla and lavender.
A few minutes later, she sat at the little table in front of the window while he made coffee. It wasn’t a Verismo latte, but he added lots of creamer at her request. While she sipped her coffee, he put together a plate with grapes, oranges, and strawberries.
As he set the plate in front of her, his cell phone rang. Interesting how he had phone service, and she didn’t. He wandered off to handle what sounded like a business call. She finished her coffee, ate her fruit, and went in search of a shower.
As she left she kitchen, she noticed a rack with his coat hanging by the back door.
Nestled between his coat and a green plaid scarf was a burlap haversack.
Chapter 17
“At least it stopped snowing.” Taylor snuggled under the down blanket as Brayden turned from adding wood to the fireplace. “But it’s sooo cold.”
“I know how we can warm up.”
Taylor’s eyes widened. “I bet you do.”
“My, my, Taylor Stone. Your mind does go to interesting places.”
She pulled the blanket higher to cover her smile. Her mind was indeed going to interesting places. He was wearing jeans that had just the right fit. Not too tight. Not too loose. Watching him bend in front of the fire had set loose a flutter of little butterflies all through her stomach. She decided it was best not to answer.
“I was thinking more along the lines of a bath.”
“I already had a bath.” She said against the blanket.
“Didn’t it warm you up?”
She lowered the blanket from her face. “Yes. It warmed me up quite a bit.” She admitted.
He rubbed his hands along his arms. “You know what? I think I’ll take a hot bath.”
“Good idea.” She said and nestled deeper into the couch.
He grinned and went into the bathroom. A few seconds later, she heard water running.
With the blanket around her shoulders, she went to warm herself in front of the fireplace. She needed to think about something besides Brayden naked in the next room.
Anything would do.
Unfortunately, she couldn’t get her mind to focus on anything else for longer than a few seconds. She gave up, closed her eyes, and replayed the feel of his arms around her as he pulled her from the tree.
“The water’s about ready.”
She jumped, and her eyes flew open. He was standing right in front of her. Totally in her space. “Good.” She scoffed at herself. She couldn’t even put her brain in gear enough to make a complete sentence.
He grinned at her. “I really hate to keep that hot water all to myself.”
Her eyes widened. She shook her head, and he shrugged. “If you change your mind…” He said as he turned around.
She heard him turn off the water to the tub. She paced to the window and watched as the snow fluttered against the window pane.
She shivered. A hot bath sounded really good. She shook her head.
I just met him. Taylor wasn’t one to hook up with guys. She’d had a boyfriend in high school and a couple of boyfriends in college. She’d only slept with one of the boyfriends in college. And she’d really expected to marry him. But once they graduated, and he moved to Minnesota to go to graduate school, he’d called her twice. Twice.
The second time he called, he told her it wasn’t going to work out. He couldn’t do the long-distance relationship thing. Taylor hadn’t seen that coming. He’d promised that they’d stay together and find a way to make their relationship work.
In retrospect, she considered herself fortunate. After she’d gotten over the pain of being dumped, she’d realized how controlling he was. Taylor enjoyed her freedom. She loved making her own decisions.
Single by choice. Having a mother who was a psychiatric nurse had led to her having an open mind about most things. Overall.
But she’d never been tempted like this before. There was something about Brayden that she couldn’t explain. Just seeing him set her hands trembling and her heart racing.
Something crashed in the bathroom.
Then silence.
“Brayden?”
No answer.
Damn it.
She turned on her heel and tossed the blanket onto the sofa on her way to the bathroom.
He’d left the door open. She stood in the doorway and instantly saw the overturned chair. Then looked at Brayden sitting in a tub of bubbles, looking sheepishly at her, only his head visible above the mountain of bubbles. “Oops,” he said.
A bubble of laughter escaped before she could stop it.
He grinned at her. “What’s funny.”
“You. Taking a bubble bath.”
“You’ve never seen a man take a bubble bath?”
“No. Actually I haven’t. It’s very metro of you.”
“Maybe I’m a metrosexual.”
“
You? Ha. I don’t think so.”
“I’m hurt. I’m very metro, thank you.”
“You’re a cowboy.”
“Okay. Now you’ve done it.” He shifted in the tub.
She put a hand over her mouth and laughed.
“You really know how to boost a guy’s ego.” He put his hand on the edge of the tub as though to stand up.
She shrieked and covered her eyes. “What are you doing?”
“I’m coming to get you.”
“No.” She shook her head and turned. “I take it back,” she said, but her voice caught.
Chapter 18
Brayden settled back into the tub and sat quietly. Taylor peeked at him between her fingers.
No. Any other girl, and he would have been out of the tub, dragging her to his bed like a starved cave man.
But this was Taylor Stone – the perfect girl.
“I should go.”
He narrowed his eyes as he watched her struggle with indecision. The ball was obviously in his court.
The clock over the fireplace chimed ten times. Taylor was making him… itchy.
She turned and, dropping her hands, looked at him, her eyes full of questions.
“Go.” His voice caught on the word.
Her shoulders relaxed. “Try not to hurt yourself.” She set the fallen stool upright, turned, and walked out of the room.
Brayden heaved a sigh. He was in trouble.
Chapter 19
After what Taylor thought of as the bathtub incident, Brayden went upstairs to his office where he spent the rest of the afternoon.
Taylor snuggled beneath a blanket on the couch and kept her head in a book that she found on his nightstand. It was a fantasy novel, not her typical choice of reading material, but it kept off her mind off of Brayden.
At least for the most part. She sat so that she could watch for him to come back downstairs.
She berated herself for acting like a teenager. She hadn’t crushed on a guy this hard since college.
She forced herself to reread the page she’d just read and to her surprise, became engrossed in the story.
Three chapters later, she heard Brayden coming down the stairs. She pretended not to hear him and kept her head down. Nonetheless, her heart rate kicked into overtime, and the words on the page in front of her blurred.
She still didn’t look up when he stood in front of her.
“Hi,” he said.
She looked up. “Oh. Hi.”
He grinned at her. “Hungry?”
She returned his smile. She couldn’t help it. “A little.”
“I can make some chili.”
“Oh. Um.” She narrowed her eyes.
“You don’t like chili.”
“Vegetarian.”
“Right. I forgot about that.”
“How did you know?”
He shrugged. “You know what? I can make vegetarian chili.”
“Okay. Can I help?”
“The Man Code says never turn down help in the kitchen.”
She laughed and followed him over to the kitchen.
He reached in a drawer and pulled out an apron.
“What’s that?” Taylor smiled.
Brayden shook out the apron and pulled it over his neck. When he whipped the strings around and tied them in the front, Taylor giggled. The letters emblazoned on the front read Le Chef.
Brayden glanced down. “What?”
“You have a French apron.”
“Hey. My parents brought me this from France. I happen to think it’s very… manly.”
Taylor covered her mouth with her hands and tried not to laugh.
“Alright. First you laugh at my bubble bath. Then you laugh at my apron. There’s only so much a man can take.” He closed the distance between them, put his hands on her waist and lifted her onto the counter.
His face was only inches from hers. Her laughter turned into a gasp as he moved in and placed his lips against hers.
Taylor grasped the edge of the counter and closed her eyes as her world tilted.
He pulled back and smiled at her. “I just kissed the weather girl.”
Taylor struggled to pull her thoughts together and failed miserably. “I was just kissed by a man wearing an apron.”
He chuckled and kissed her again.
Taylor sighed and leaned into the kiss.
Brayden pulled back and cleared his throat. “Alright. You sit here, and I’ll cook for you.” He ran a finger along her cheek to her parted lips. “Since I’m the one wearing the apron.”
Smiling, she watched as he put a variety of dried beans and tomato sauce on to boil. He opened a wine bottle and winked as he handed her a glass.
“Trying to turn me into a wine drinker?” She sipped the warm liquid.
“Maybe.”
When he started chopping bell peppers, onions, and celery, she felt her crush shift a little deeper. Taylor already had a soft spot for men who cooked for her. But here was a man who not only cooked, but was handsome, and whose lips she badly wanted back on hers.
When he had everything on to simmer, he set a timer and wrapped his arms around her. Taylor set her glass of wine aside and put her arms around him. She nestled her head beneath his chin.
He leaned back just enough to look into her eyes. He ran his thumb against her lips, groaned, and pressed his lips against hers. He deepened the kiss, and time froze.
He pulled her from the counter and held her tightly against him. When the timer went off, her kissed her forehead and left her to lean against the counter, her knees a little weak.
They sat at his little breakfast table and ate vegetarian chili, watching the snowflakes falling outside.
“In my defense,” Taylor said. “It is snowing harder today than yesterday.”
“Exactly. And no sunshine.”
The chili was the best veggie chili Taylor had ever eaten. She told him so.
“Believe it or not, it’s the first time I’ve ever made it.”
Watching this enigma of a man she’d only just met, she believed him.
Chapter 20
They fell asleep on the couch snuggled next to each other like two bear cubs. Brayden woke in the night to find them woven together in sleep, legs and arms wrapped around each other. Brayden had tossed the back cushions on the floor, making the couch as big as a twin bed.
Her head was nestled beneath his chin. He kissed her forehead, and she stirred. Her eyes still closed, she lifted her face to his and their lips met.
The kiss was gentle at first, their lips barely touching, then both still in the haze of sleep, with the moonlight streaming into the room, a passion ignited.
Brayden forgot about protecting her from himself. He forgot about everything except wanting her. As their kiss deepened, they held onto each other tighter until there was no space between them.
He ran his fingertips along her cheek. Her skin was like silk, and he couldn’t get enough of the way her breath caught when he touched her.
He wanted her more than he’d ever wanted anyone. With her lips against his, he couldn’t think straight.
Her breath hitched, and he wove his fingers with hers.
Chapter 21
Taylor was having a most erotic dream. They were naked, and Brayden’s hands were all over her. She knew it was a dream, because she never slept naked.
But somewhere in the middle of the dream, she woke up, and her breath hitched. She pressed against him, wanting more. Her lips responded to his kiss, and she couldn’t get enough.
It felt so right, like a piece of her had been missing.
She lay there in his arms, blocking the thoughts that kept trying to reach her consciousness. She didn’t want to think. She just wanted to feel. To feel this sensation of feeling loved and protected.
Loved.
In that moment, she felt love.
Even though she knew it was only an illusion, it felt real, and wasn’t that all anyone could ask for? To have this
illusion of love?
Right here. Right now. It was enough. She cherished it. And knew that she would hold onto it in those lonely nights that would follow.
He kissed her forehead again, and she relaxed against him. Within minutes, she fell asleep again.
Chapter 22
Brayden rolled over and propped on his elbow. “So, what, exactly, would you do if you actually found a shapeshifter?”
She grinned up at him. “I’d write a story.”
“For the TV news.”
“Of course, silly. What would be the point of writing it, if no one could see it?”
“Hmm. Good point. I guess.”
“Glad to have your approval.” She closed her eyes and stretched.
If he didn’t do it now, he was going to be distracted again. He got off the couch.
Her eyes flew open. “Hey. Where are you going?”
“You might want to sit up.”
She sat up, pulling the blanket up to her chin. “What are you doing?” She scowled at him.
He took a deep breath. He’d never been this nervous before. Out of all his siblings, Brayden shifted the most. He’d shift for the tourists if they’d let him. He loved going from human to bear and back again.
He grinned at Taylor, then shifted into a bear.
Taylor squealed.
Chapter 23
A black bear sat in Brayden’s living room. It had happened so quickly, she wasn’t sure she hadn’t imagined it. One second she was smiling back into the mischievous face of Brayden, and the next second, there was a bear sitting in the middle of the floor.
A real live bear. With dark brown eyes. Just like the bear that had stood next to her while she sat in the tree.
Keeping the blanket against her like a shield, she scooted to the edge of the couch and landed on the floor.
She peeked up over the coffee table, but the bear was still sitting there, watching her, his head cocked to one side.
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