“Please don’t judge us all on Kyle’s example. I know what it’s like to answer to a boss, I used to be in advertising,” Jess said smiling. “Which firm do you work for?”
Jess was so friendly, and genuinely hospitable, so Valerie told her. “It’s a conglomerate Petersen-Snow,” she said.
Valerie had heard of people going pale, but she’d never actually seen the color drain out of someone’s face, until now. Jess dropped her mug and pushed her chair back. It clattered on the floor, spilling the last of her hot chocolate on the wood.
“Oh, no,” she said backing away.
Valerie stood up. “What did I say? Jess, are you okay?”
Wyatt came into the room then and seeing Jess’s face he rushed to her. Jess grabbed his arm and with obvious terror on her face, she turned to him and said, “It’s all my fault.”
Valerie’s head was swimming. Jess had calmed down and then the phone calls started, and people arrived. Soon Ryan and Kyle strode into the living room, followed by Marcus, Paul and the woman with the braids from the meeting in the woods. They all sat around in Jess and Wyatt’s living room, while Jess sipped a whiskey and spoke.
It was a story that Valerie could hardly believe, but it was real. The story of a possessive, manipulative, ex-husband who had chased Jess across the country just to make her life hell. How he had attacked her and she had killed him in self-defense. Everyone in the room, bar Valerie had been there that night, and so that part of the story was just for her.
“What I didn’t tell you,” Jess said,” Is that Conrad’s father is part owner of the firm Petersen-Snow. It owns the ad agency we worked for. And it’s the company now looking to buy up Sun Valley.”
“Coincidence?” Ryan asked.
Wyatt shook his head. “Not likely.”
“No, Sun Valley’s been targeted and it’s all because of me. Old man Petersen wants my blood, he wants revenge for Conrad,” Jess said. “I don’t think there’s a way to stop them from taking your home.”
She looked so sad, so defeated. The happiness that had been bubbling out of her when Valerie had met her only a few short hours earlier, had all drained away.
“It’s all my fault,” Jess said and dissolved into tears on Wyatt’s shoulder.
Valerie looked away, feeling hollow and like an intruder in the room. Her eyes fell on Kyle and he looked at her and smiled. It was a small smile, just a little lift of the corners of his mouth, but it was enough. Valerie sighed and felt her own tears recede.
“Those blasted wolves will stop at nothing,” the braided woman said. Valerie thought she’d heard someone call her Eugenie.
“They need taking down a few pegs,” Paul said hotly. “A taste of claw and teeth.”
“That’s what got us into this mess,” Marcus said shaking his head. “We need a smart plan.” He looked at the assembled faces. “Anyone have one?”
“But we can’t let those stupid werewolf boys walk all over us, we should have a good honest battle, like in the old days,” Paul said.
“You are a daft old man!” Eugenie said angrily. “You would have us all dead at the bottom of a ditch!”
“They’re no match for bears, and you know it!” Paul bellowed.
“Excuse me,” Valerie said putting her hand up like she was in school. “Werewolves? Bears?”
“Yeah, what did you think we were talking about all this time?” Paul blustered at her.
“Well, I don’t know, maybe you were being figurative?” Valerie asked with a huge amount of hope in her heart. And slowly a memory trickled back of her Granny Fifi saying, “Don’t play there child, it’s wolf territory.”
She looked at the faces and now she could see it. The eyes, the broad shoulders, the way their hair was so thick and glossy… “Just like a fur coat,” she said in the smallest voice. “Oh. God!”
“Well maybe there’s hope for this one yet,” Paul said and actually smiled at her.
Valerie felt sick. The world was upside down and she was dangling from a very thin thread. Suddenly someone had her by the arm and she looked up into Kyle’s gorgeous face.
“You’re a bear,” she said and her knees gave way.
Valerie woke to the sound of snoring. She was in her tiny room at Grandma’s Inn and seated in the armchair in the corner near the bathroom, was Kyle. His head had slipped back, his mouth hung open and he breathed in and out in a ragged, sawing grate. Valerie sighed.
He was a bear. But she realized that he was also a man. A passionate man, one who loved his little slice of the world and wanted to protect it. She also realized, watching him sleep, that she very much wanted to help him. So she got up, noticed she was still fully dressed. Even her shoes were still on her feet. Well no one could accuse Kyle of inappropriate behavior.
Funny now that she was thinking about it, she couldn’t remember getting home. She couldn’t remember much passed the four whiskeys she’d downed out of Jess’s glass. Oh God, what must they think of her?
Changed into her pajamas, Valerie woke Kyle. His head shot back up with a “snark” sound and he looked at her with bloodshot eyes.
“Come on, I won’t bite,” she said and opened the covers. “It’s a double, there’s enough room for both of us.”
Kyle regarded her. “You sure?”
She nodded.
Kyle took his shoes and jeans off. He wore boxers. Somehow that is exactly what Valerie had expected. Then he climbed into her bed and snuggled down, pulling the duvet up under his chin.
“Now no funny business,” he said to her.
Valerie laughed and said, “I promise.”
“You’re okay with having a bear in your bed?” he asked.
“Hell no!” Valerie said, “But I’m fine with having you. Actually I’m more than fine with you being in my bed.”
Kyle smiled, yawned and rolled over. “G’night,” he said and soon was snoring again.
“Good night,” Valerie said and this time when she slept her dreams were warm and happy.
The next few days passed in a blur and Valerie and Kyle spent them together. She had to turn in reports all nice and regular just like normal. So she had to actually go and do her job. In the time when she wasn’t doing her job, which Kyle found hellishly boring, she was out with him and his people trying to find a way to save Sun Valley.
Paul proved to be annoying, and Jess was all in pieces, saying she would fly to New York and just let Mr. Petersen have her. This sent Wyatt on a tirade and it took her, little Valerie, to point out that it probably wouldn’t make any difference anyway.
“I know him,” she said at one of their meetings. “He won’t care. You killed his son, there’s nothing on earth you could do to stop him nuking this whole place.”
They went pale.
“Oh, but I’m pretty sure he doesn’t have one,” Valerie said and then stayed silent for the rest of the meeting.
At night she and Kyle would have dinner and talk. They purposefully stayed away from the trials of the day, and spoke about their childhoods, their dreams.
“I wanted to be a jazz pianist growing up,” Valerie confessed over coffee one night. “Yeah, my dad paid for lessons and everything. Eventually the teacher asked him to please stop paying. He said I was terrible and no amount of coaching would change that. Sad but true.”
“Man, that is harsh!” Kyle said.
“I know, right?” Valerie said and smiled.
They were at the Lemon Drop Café, sitting in the back. A storm was raging outside and they were huddled together at a table. “I always wanted to be a police man, you know, get the car and the siren. But then I found out that most of the job was paperwork so I decided on being a cowboy. Anyway, I guess cattle are easier to handle than gun toting bank robbers and drug crazed lunatics, once you know how.”
“So you say,” Valerie said. “Listen, I’m sorry about all this. I’m sorry we couldn’t meet under better circumstances.”
Kyle shrugged. “Doesn’t matter. It d
oesn’t determine who we are and what we’ll be to each other in the future, now does it?”
“I guess not,” she said, and sipped her coffee. It was strong and black and totally unsweetened.
Valerie liked things to be simple in her life, and since taking this job on, her life was anything but simple. And here she was in a little café with a man, who under normal circumstances would make her mouth water and she was just talking. He’d slept in her bed and nothing had happened, not one single solitary thing.
Well that’s probably because you’re not his type, Valerie thought. Face it Val, a man built like this doesn’t want a girl who spends all her time eating airplane food, and rushing around the country. A man like this wants the kind of wife who can lift a cow, and give birth to a million sons to help run the ranch.
And I just put him squarely in the Wild West. Wow!
She chuckled.
“What’s so funny?” Kyle asked.
“I was just picturing what you must probably look for in a woman,” Valerie said and then realized she’d said it. “What I mean is, I was just thinking stupid thoughts,” she finished lamely.
Kyle seemed to consider this, “Well now, when looking for a suitable mate I look for very specific things.”
“Is that a fact? Does the ability to lift an ox feature at all?” Valerie asked unable to stop herself.
Kyle laughed, “Actually that’s like number three hundred and twenty-one.”
“I would’ve thought it was right up there with ‘must be able to cook’,” Valerie said.
“Nah,” Kyle said. “When I look for a suitable woman I look for dark curly hair, and the most beautiful blue eyes I’ve ever seen. They’re nice you know, but what I really look for is strength of character. Loyalty, friendship, a great sense of humor and the deal clincher is her ass. Can I bounce a quarter off it?”
“Seriously? That’s your criteria?” Valerie asked shocked.
“Too specific for you?” Kyle asked. “I could always go with attributes you don’t have, but since I want you, that would be counter-productive.”
‘What did you just say?” Valerie asked. Her heart was beating in her throat now.
“I said that I want you,” Kyle said and leaned over the table.
He took her face in his hands and when his lips touched hers, Valerie almost thought her heart would jump right out of her chest. It was a slow kiss, a deliberate kiss, that sent tingles through her whole body.
Valerie had never had much time for relationships. She flitted around the country like a pretty butterfly, never in one place long enough to make a friend, let alone a lover. One night stands had never really been her thing either. She was a relationship girl, one who got attached to people, formed bonds, and that would never work in the world of one night lustful encounters. So Valerie had spent a long time alone. Well over two years in fact.
This kiss sent messages to parts of her body and mind that had been dormant, and like a volcano the pressure began to build. Valerie felt it rising in her and she pulled back from the kiss. It would be so wrong to reach over the table and pull Kyle to the floor, ripping his clothes off so she could have her way with him. There were kids present.
And the little snots were laughing at them.
“Get out of here!” Kyle said throwing a handful of sweetener sachets at them.
The little scamps darted for the door, laughing and jeering as they went.
“And I was just getting into my stride too,” Kyle moaned.
“We could always carry on at my place,” Valerie said, but Kyle shook his head.
“Let’s get tomorrow over with, then we can do all those things you’re thinking about,” he smiled naughtily.
“How do you know I’m thinking about that?” Valerie asked in mock surprise.
Kyle leaned close to her ear and whispered, “Because I’m thinking them too.”
Oooh he just had to go and say that!
Valerie just about slid off her chair but managed to hold on.
They paid the check and left.
Kyle walked her across the road in the storm, his jacket over both their heads. They stood on Grandma’s porch and held each other.
“Kyle,” Valerie said.
“Yeah,” he replied his breath on her neck.
“Thanks.”
“For what?”
“For not hating me anymore,” Valerie said.
He sighed into her neck and kissed the soft skin there making Valerie wish he was devouring her right about now.
“I have faith in us,” Kyle said, “We’ll find a way to beat these bastards.”
Valerie didn’t feel anywhere near as certain, but she smiled and watched him run down the steps in the rain to his truck. Then she waited to see the headlights disappear before heading to her room.
Morning. It stole into the room while Valerie was sleeping with her head on her keyboard. She was so tired that only the beep her machine made when an email came into her inbox, woke her.
She was up to her armpits in notes and photos. Sun Valley was beautiful and the people were friendly and lively. They were also bears. But that seemed a lot less important now, than the fact that they were people who were about to lose their homes.
They worked hard on other people’s ranches as hired labor at a reduced rate, to pay off some old stupid debt that was owed since the wild west days. It was like they were cursed or something. Valerie got the impression that the deck had been stacked against the bears for a long time. This meant it was unlikely that there was anything short of something silly and radical, that would change this. But what did she have that was silly and radical?
Kyle was counting on her. The whole valley was sure, but Kyle’s faith was the one she didn’t want to lose. She wanted to be his hero. She wanted to make him happy and have him hold her and whisper a lot of sexy nothings into her ears. Valerie realized that what she wanted more than anything in the whole world was for Kyle to love her, and she would do anything to get that. She would lose her job over this—no actually she would quit. Submit the final report and quit.
But that was the problem right? That final report. What if she didn’t submit it? They would just send Calvin down anyway and he would submit it no problem.
And then it hit her.
“Of course! You can be so stupid you know?” she yelled at herself and punched the air. Of course, why didn’t she realize it before. The report, that final piece of red tape. That was going to save them. And not by some strange clerical error, or by Valerie not doing her job properly, oh no! She was going to do her job by the book and to the letter.
With a huge grin she began to type.
Three hours and multiple cups of coffee later, Valerie met with Kyle, Ryan, Wyatt and Jess at The Lemon Drop Café. The storm had left puddles on the sidewalk and there was a chill in the air even though the sun was shining.
When she came in and sat down next to Kyle they all turned strained faces to her. Jess looked haggard and spent. Her face was pale, her eyes red-rimmed like she’d been crying. Valerie smiled and placed a hand over hers.
Spurred Bearback (BBW Shifter Cowboy Western Romance) (Bear Ranchers Book 4) Page 4