* * *
Hope woke up to a bright stream of sunlight on her face, and the sound of incessant hammering. She blinked a few times and looked around at the one room cabin, surprised to find it completely empty. She had no idea what time it was, but it looked like everyone except her had already started their day. She sat up slowly and rubbed her forehead. Usually, Hope was a light sleeper, and woke up at the smallest stirring from one of her many roommates. But she must have slept like the dead last night, exhausted from an emotional day.
And, of course, there were no electronics out here to wake her up. This had been one of the biggest adjustments for Hope. She had become so accustomed to the constant whirring, beeping, and buzzing of modern life that the silence out here in the woods was almost deafening. Hope stood and went to look out the window. Grant, Calum, and Storm were working on the cabin addition, which was probably only a day or two away from completion. Hope felt a pang of guilt as she looked over at the addition, because she hadn’t done any work on it for several days. Instead, she had sulked around in the forest and then run off to town to drink beer.
She told herself that she had already done her fair share of work at the beginning of the project. For several days, Hope, Mia, and Juno had been the hardest workers on the project. Hope smiled, remembering the fun days of laughing with the girls while exhausting herself from hard labor. Then she frowned, looking around and wondering where Mia and Juno were now. Or any of the rest of the crew, for that matter. The only shifters she could see right now were the three working on the cabin.
Hope grabbed a muffin from the kitchen, and then threw on a hoodie before heading outside. Calum looked up as she walked out, and got a big, mischievous grin on his face when he saw her. Hope braced herself as soon as she saw that grin. She’d seen it hundreds of thousands of times over the years, and she knew it meant he was about to make a teasing jab at her expense.
“Well, well, well,” Calum said. “Look who finally decided to grace the day with her presence. I was about to come check on you and make sure you weren’t dead.”
“Very funny,” Hope said, rolling her eyes. “It took me a long time to fall asleep last night, so I guess I slept in a little to make up for it.”
“A little?” Calum asked, letting out a big roar of laughter. “You call sleeping in until 1 p.m. sleeping in a little?”
Hope’s eyes widened in surprise. “It’s one o’clock?” she asked, looking back and forth between her brother, Grant, and Storm, as though waiting for one of them to start laughing and tell her it was actually only ten o’clock or something like that. But the three of them just stared back at her with amused looks on their faces.
“Uh, yeah, Hope. It’s after one,” Storm said. “I can’t believe you slept through all the hammering we’ve been doing out here for hours.”
Hope looked up at the sky, and realized that the sun, while still very high, was dipping ever so slightly toward the west. Her brother wasn’t kidding. It was definitely well past noon.
“Where’s everyone else?” Hope asked, looking around in confusion.
“The rest of the shifters went on a hike. Supposedly there’s a long trail that goes all the way to the lake, and they wanted to check it out. Drew went into town again to order supplies.”
Hope narrowed her eyes. “He just went to town to order supplies yesterday.”
Calum frowned at her in response. His expression was genuinely angry, something Hope rarely saw. “Yeah, I heard,” he said. “But you would know better than me since you apparently were also in town yesterday.
Hope bit her lip and tried to keep herself from making a snarky remark back to her twin. She wanted to defend herself, but he had a right to be angry. She had put their whole clan at risk by going to the bar. Still, she wasn’t completely sorry for it. She had to admit that it had been nice to get a change of scenery for a few hours. It had been surprisingly refreshing to talk to someone outside of their little group of refugee shifters, even if that someone had been a grumpy old bartender.
“Whatever,” Hope said. “I’m going to get some breakfast.” Then she spun on her heel and made her way back to the small cabin.
“Don’t you mean lunch?” Calum called after her, then burst into a fit of laughter.
Hope gritted her teeth and ignored him. She loved her brother, but he definitely knew exactly how to get under her skin.
Hope stormed into the cabin and put some coffee on to brew, then looked in the refrigerator to see what was available for food. There were plenty of eggs, so she decided to make herself an omelet. She started robotically going through the motions of chopping up an onion and then cracking eggs open. She felt angry, ashamed, and confused all at once, and she didn’t know how to deal with the sudden flood of emotions.
Drew was so lucky to be human. He could do whatever he wanted to do, and go wherever he wanted to go. Did he really have to rub it in all of their faces by going to town two days in a row?
Hope cursed as she accidentally dropped an egg on the floor, sending it’s sticky clear white and goopy yellow yolk splattering in several directions. With a sigh, she went to get something to clean it up with. She forced herself to take several deep breaths as she cleaned, willing herself to calm down and be rational. She knew part of her anger toward Drew stemmed from the fact that she had been dreaming of his perfect, sculpted body ever since he kissed her yesterday. She had been hoping that he might pay a little extra attention to her today. She’d even dreamed about what it would be like to kiss him again. But instead of paying attention to her, he’d taken off into town.
“Must be nice,” Hope said bitterly, scrubbing the floor rigorously even though the raw egg was long since cleaned up.
“What’s nice?” a voice asked from the doorway of the cabin.
Hope froze, then looked up to see Drew in the doorway. He was standing there with the sun to his back, making him look like a silhouette. A sexy, broad-shouldered silhouette. He was carrying a huge cloth bag in one arm, and he smelled like hot dogs and beer. He’d been at the bar in town, that’s for sure. Hope felt the anger bubbling up within her again. He was maddeningly gorgeous, but she hated herself for even thinking that right now.
“Have fun going out on the town drinking?” she asked. “Must be nice to not be a prisoner in your own home. To come and go as you please.”
Hope stood up and tossed away the cleaning rag she’d been using, then crossed her arms and stared at Drew defiantly. If he said one word about how this was hard for him, too, she swore she was going to really go off on him.
But he didn’t say anything for a long time. Instead, he took one step into the cabin so she could see him better. His eyes were tired and sorrowful, and they looked into Hope’s eyes with such intensity that she finally had to drop her gaze.
“I, uh. Look. I don’t want to fight. I know things are tough right now. I don’t really want to argue about whose life is shittier. I just wanted to give you this,” Drew said. He held out the cloth bag to Hope, and she gingerly reached out and took it from him, still not meeting his eyes.
“I know you’ve been going a little stir-crazy lately, and I get it,” Drew continued. “You’re used to the city, to technology, to having places to go and people to see. It’s too quiet out here. Life’s too slow. You miss your computer and your graphic art. I can’t really help with all of that. Things kind of are what they are right now. But I thought maybe this would help, at least a little bit. Go on. Look at it.”
Hope did as she was told, opening the cloth bag so she could see what was in it. Her mouth hung open in surprise at what she saw. Inside the bag were several blank canvases of several different sizes, about a dozen tubes of acrylic paint, a large assortment of artist’s paintbrushes, and what appeared to be a table-top easel compactly folded down. Hope looked up at Drew, her face still registering surprise.
“Painting supplies?” she asked.
Drew nodded. “I know it’s not the same as graphic design. But since we can’t ha
ve computers out here I was hoping it might be the next best thing. At least it’s artistic. You know, a creative outlet for you.”
“Drew, no one makes physical paintings anymore except people who are incredibly wealthy. Everything’s done on computers. These canvases must have cost a fortune.”
Drew shrugged. “It’s fine. I have money saved. I don’t spend that much living out here in the boonies, you know.”
Hope ran her fingers across the edge of one of the canvases. She’d always wanted to try painting on a physical canvas, but had never been able to afford it. Now she had several of them, just waiting for her to fill them with color.
“I…I don’t know what to say. Thank you,” Hope said, her voice cracking a little with emotion. “Where did you even find these? I know the general store in the little town here doesn’t keep this kind of thing in stock.
Drew shrugged. “I went to Traverse City this morning. Took one of the gas helicopters from my secret fleet and made a trip up there.”
Hope felt her heart beating faster. Gas vehicles and aircraft were strictly prohibited, so flying one was a big risk. Drew would have been in a lot of trouble if he’d been caught. But he’d flown one, anyway, just so he could get her some overpriced art supplies.
“Drew, I don’t know what to say. You didn’t have to do that. I mean, Traverse City is so far. And that was such a dangerous trip. I can’t believe you went to all that trouble for me.”
“Well, believe it, Hope,” Drew said gruffly. Then he crossed the distance between them swiftly and planted his lips on hers. Hope took a step backward in surprise, but Drew took another step forward at the same time, so his kiss was never broken. Hope felt a surge of hot electricity going through her body, and she dropped the cloth bag as Drew pressed his body hard against hers. She could feel his strong erection through his jeans, and she shivered with delight and desire, completely shocked by how quickly this had turned into a passionate moment, but completely overcome with pleasure. This was insane, and such a bad idea on so many levels, but she didn’t have the willpower to stop him. His kiss, his arms, and his body all felt so good.
She wanted more.
But moments later, the sound of laughter and voices echoing across the meadow reached their ears. The rest of the shifters were back. This moment of privacy was over. Drew stepped backward, reached down for the cloth bag of art supplies and handed it back to Hope, then disappeared out the front door.
Hope was alone for a brief moment, once again finding herself putting her fingers to her lips where they still tingled from the electricity of Drew’s kiss.
Chapter Six
Over the next several days, Drew forced himself to avoid Hope as much as possible. He wanted more than anything to spend time with her, but he held back because he needed her to know that the art supplies he had given her were given from the heart with no strings attached. In fact, he was mad at himself for kissing her right after he gave them to her. He hadn’t bought them to try to win her over romantically. He’d bought them for her to show her that he truly did care about her struggle to adjust to life out here in the middle of nowhere.
Sure, Drew would have loved to kiss Hope all day, every day. He’d completely given up trying to deny that to himself at this point. Sometimes her rebellious, stubborn nature made him angry, but most of the time it just turned him on. He knew she felt at least something for him, too. After all, he’d kissed her twice now, and she hadn’t run screaming in the other direction.
She had been spending a lot of time in the woods with her canvases and paints, which had made avoiding her easier. Drew smiled as he stepped out of the one room cabin into the bright autumn sunshine. It made him happy to know Hope was enjoying the art supplies. Maybe in a few days he would allow himself to go into the forest to check on her. If things heated up a little bit from there, well, so be it.
“Drew! Get over here!” Bash yelled out. Bash, short for Sebastian, was an Alaskan grizzly, and one of the tallest shifters in the group. At this moment, Drew could see Bash’s face with a wide grin on it, popping out of the second story window of the cabin addition.
“What’s up, buddy?” Drew asked. Before Bash could answer, Mia stuck her head out of the window, too, crowding Bash to the side in her excitement.
“We finished the addition,” Mia said. “It’s all done! Come inside and see.”
Drew was grinning now, too. “Completely done?” he asked, making big strides toward the building. Bash and Mia disappeared from the window, and Drew started walking toward them. The front of the cabin boasted a giant porch, with enough room for the whole group to hang out. The inside of the cabin was all bedrooms, and stairs led to the second floor where five more bedrooms were located. Each clan member would have his or her own room. Since there was a kitchen and living room area in the original cabin, there had been no need to add one on to the addition.
“What do you think?” Bash asked. “It’s simple, but there’s a lot of space.”
Mia nodded. “I’m excited to have my own room. It’s going to be easier to sleep now that I won’t have to listen to the two of you snoring all night.”
Drew laughed. “Hey now, Bash is the one who snores. Don’t blame his faults on me.”
Bash rolled his eyes, and Mia just laughed.
“Well, regardless of who’s responsible for the snoring, it’s going to be nice to be rid of it,” she said.
Drew ran his hands along the side of the wall, relishing the smooth feeling of the strong wood. “This building is awesome,” he said. “All of you have put so much time and effort into this. You should really be proud of yourselves.”
Mia beamed, but Bash shrugged. “Yeah, well, what else were we going to do with our time?” he asked. “There’s not much else to do out here.”
“Oh, come on. You just have to be creative,” Mia said. “You’ve let your brain rot away with technology for too long. There’s always fun to be had, if you look hard enough for it.”
“The first round of fun we should have is a proper barbeque,” Drew said. “My old clan treated barbeques as practically sacred, but we haven’t had any since you all arrived. I think it’s high time to celebrate, now that the cabin is done. Next time I go to town I’ll pick up supplies.”
“Yes!” Mia said. “I love barbeques. Make sure you get some beer. I know it’s not easy to haul all that stuff from town, but, seriously: you can’t have a proper barbeque without beer.”
Drew laughed. “Fair enough. I’ll do my best. It takes a lot of beer to keep nine bears happy, though. Where is everyone else, by the way?”
“They all went hiking again. They wanted a break from working on the cabin. But there wasn’t much left to do, anyway,” Bash said.
“Well, everyone except your girlfriend went hiking,” Mia said. “Hope went to paint again. It’s pretty much all she does these days.”
Drew raised an eyebrow. “She’s not my girlfriend,” he said. “Just because I bought her a bunch of art supplies doesn’t mean we’re a thing.”
Mia laughed. “Okay, if you say so. But if you really want to act like you’re not into her then you should stop looking at her like a puppy dog in love. It’s so obvious.”
Bash laughed, and Drew scowled.
“Whatever,” Drew said, starting to head for the door of the cabin. “We’re just friends.”
But the sound of Bash and Mia’s laughter followed him as he walked across the meadow. He hadn’t realized he’d been so transparent with his feelings for Hope. He hadn’t even been spending that much time around her, so how could everyone have already picked up on the fact that he was pining over her? Drew’s frown deepened. He really needed to get better about keeping his expression neutral.
He walked into the forest, grateful for the cover the trees provided. He felt a little more undercover here, like he could think without everyone trying to see into his brain. Without really thinking about it, his footsteps started heading toward the waterfall. He knew Hope wou
ld be there. It was her favorite spot, and the view made for some great artistic inspiration.
Drew hadn’t actually seen any of Hope’s paintings yet. He knew she had already filled a few of the canvases he’d given her, but she hadn’t offered to show him and he hadn’t wanted to push. Art was such a personal thing, after all. And he wasn’t sure exactly how personal things were going to get between the two of them.
As he walked toward the waterfall, he mulled over everything in his mind. He’d spent the last several years of his life going for what he wanted and not giving a shit what anyone else thought of him. His clan, and his family in particular, had often tried to convince him to leave his cabin in Michigan and come back to reality. But he’d been perfectly happy out here. Why would he leave? What was there to go back to in the real world that was so much better? Computers could never win out over sunshine and fresh air. And, besides, now his shifter friends were happy that he had spent so much time living off the grid. He was saving their lives, and his access to the black market of gas powered vehicles had proven useful when computerized hovercars were too risky to use.
But now, for perhaps the first time in his life, Drew was really holding back from going after something he wanted. He wanted Hope, but things were so complicated. They were living in such close quarters that things would get really awkward really quickly if she rejected him. Drew had always been confident around women, but he’d never been interested in a shifter woman before.
He had to admit, although he was pretty badass, it was hard to measure up to the giants that shifter men were. Drew was tall and muscular by human standards. But would Hope think that was enough? Would she want to be with someone who couldn’t shift into a bear to protect her if the need arose?
Drew kicked a nearby tree trunk in frustration. He was nearly to the waterfall, and he still had no plan for what he was going to say. He almost turned around, but he forced himself to keep going. If there was one thing he’d learned about himself over the years, it was that he could never get rid of an idea once it had lodged itself deep in his mind. And the idea of Hope and him together had been eating at him for a while. If he didn’t at least try to talk to her, he was going to drive himself crazy. Besides, what kind of man backed down from talking to a woman who filled him with desire? Drew wasn’t a coward. He was a strong man, and he was going to talk to Hope. If she rejected him then he would take it like a man.
Mischief in a Fur Coat Page 4