“Yes I am,” she said, with an uncharacteristic burst of pride.
“I’m sorry that I was an ass and dismissed your kind offer to help me out for free. It was very unfair.”
“It was.”
“Can you accept my apology?” She took a long, slow breath, not about to let him off the hook that easily.
“That depends.”
“On what?” she allowed herself a small smile, amused that the power balance between them had flipped.
“On you telling me why you’ve gone to the trouble of internet stalking me to make this very unexpected apology.”
“Number one, because my behavior has been weighing on my mind. And number two, because I need your help.” Her eyebrows shot up and she gave a bark of laughter.
“Help from a human? Really?”
“Yes. Please, Neve. You’re the only one who can help me. The only human I feel I can trust.”
“Uh, I’m sorry, but that ship has sailed. I’m no longer living in Rayville.”
“You left in the last day?”
“Yeah, because of what you said to me. It was the last straw.”
“Really?”
“Kind of. Anyway, so I’m sorry I can’t help, but I’m on the road right now.”
“There’s no way?” His tone sounded pleading – no, desperate, she realized. But there was nothing she could do. And she wasn’t in a mood to forgive him either.
“No, I’m sorry. Good luck.”
Neve cut the call. Her heart was pounding, but her spirits had lifted. She felt vindicated. He did need her help. Too bad it took him so long to put his stupid prejudices aside.
She started up her car again and drove on, continuing along the narrow, mountainous roads that led out of her state.
7
Braxton stared at the blank screen of his phone while his bear howled in disappointment. It had been prowling beneath his skin all morning, ecstatic at the thought of seeing Neve again. While he hadn’t expected her to be warm toward him, he’d hoped he’d be able to talk her around, offer to pay her very well for helping him. But she’d left town, and that was it.
He turned back to his laptop without enthusiasm. He’d have to find another human lawyer to help him out, but he had no idea how to do that. Finding Neve had exhausted all of his technological skills – which wasn’t saying much. It hadn’t been easy. She seemed to be on some kind of social networks, but he didn’t know how to use them. After a lot of looking, he found her on her college site. There was a photo of her, looking very pretty, with her hair loose again and her eyes bright with optimism. And underneath was a short biography. She’d not only graduated top of her class, with a specialism in online crime, but she’d done a lot of work for legal charities, helping out kids who were wrongly accused. He felt a burst of admiration for her. She cared about other people. Was that why she’d gone to all that trouble to attend the fight in her pink t-shirt and try to find him? Her number wasn’t shown, but he found the website of the charity, called them up, and by stretching the truth a little, managed to get hold of her cell number. He’d been quick to judge her, to lump her in with all humans, he realized, as he went back to the search engine he’d used earlier and typed in “online lawyer”. A lot of random things came up, and he started to scroll through, wondering how he was going to make sense of them.
An hour or so passed, and he’d achieved precisely nothing. His head was pounding with frustration at his lack of knowledge of the human world, and he was on the point of hurling his laptop across the room when his phone rang.
“Yeah?” he said irritably.
“Where do you live?” said a warm, clear, very sexy female voice. While his brain was still processing, excitement coursed through his veins.
“I’m afraid I can’t tell you that, because we bears keep our territory secret from humans,” he said, trying to sound casual, although a wave of heat was flooding through his body, all the way to his crotch. “But why don’t you tell me where you are?”
“I’m on Route 55. Not far from Shelbyville,” she said. He pulled out the map on his phone and located her.
“Are you offering to help me?” he said.
“Maybe. I can spare a day, if you can come meet me on my way?”
“I can do better than that – I can buy you dinner tonight.” There was a long silence. Although he was bursting to interrupt, he stayed quiet, in case he said something that pushed her decision in the wrong direction.
“Okay,” she said at length.
“Great!” he said, with too much enthusiasm. “I’ll find someplace on the road and send you the address.”
“It better be a real restaurant. With fancy food. If it’s a roadside diner, you can forget it,” she said, and he thought he detected a little fun in her voice.
“It’ll be the fanciest restaurant I can find on Route 55, ma’am,” he said.
Relief and gratitude washed through him as he ran to his garage and looked over his cars. He picked out the Porsche Roadster – it was the only one that had the pure speed to reach his destination in time. He set up the satnav, making sure that his alerts were switched on to warn him of his proximity to any kind of law enforcement, and roared off in the sporty red car.
The miles sped by effortlessly, and as he stopped for a quick bite mid-afternoon, he figured out that Nemaha Falls would be the most convenient place for Neve to stop, and looked up some restaurants. The fanciest one oozed romance, the website photos featuring candles and secluded nooks. So be it, he thought. He’d promised her the best. She’d just have to deal with the fact that it was made for lovers rather than obnoxious bear shifters. He texted her the name and address, asking if she’d be there by 7. She messaged back, saying that was fine.
All through the drive, as his Porsche tore up the asphalt, guilt plucked at Braxton’s thoughts. Once again, that little human had shown her generosity in agreeing to meet him, despite the fact that she was obviously busy with her move. He couldn’t understand why, but she wasn’t mean and self-centered like many of the humans he’d encountered in his past, and she seemed to genuinely care about the future of his clan. The thought that a human could want to help the bears instead of hurt them was so alien to him that he could barely process it. He turned it around and around, as if he was trying to solve the puzzle of a Rubik’s cube.
Late afternoon turned into a hazy, golden evening, and Braxton was getting more and more impatient to see Neve. Because I need her help, he told himself. But twice, while stopping in traffic, he pulled his phone out and found himself looking at her photo from her college website, while his bear butted at his insides with its blunt, primal need. The picture didn’t do her justice, failing to bring out the light in her hazel eyes, or the beauty of her smile. Not that he’d seen her smile very much, since she hadn’t exactly been full of joy in his presence so far. He was going to change that, he promised himself. At the end of the evening, she’d walk away happy that she’d made the effort to help him.
When he pulled into the parking lot of La Coquille restaurant – a sprawling place, housed in an old mansion – there were a dozen other cars there. One, a rusty, gray Plymouth Reliant, looked to be full to bursting with boxes and suitcases. He smirked. That had to be Neve’s car. She wasn’t inside though, and he was ten minutes early for their agreed meeting time. He got out of the car and loped around the parking lot while he waited, unable to be still.
And then his breath hitched in his throat. She was coming out of the restaurant, carrying a tote bag and heading in the direction of the car. Her petite, curvy body was encased in a black dress, which was cut low on her bust, revealing a hint of cleavage, and she was wearing emerald-green, high-heeled shoes and carrying a matching green purse in her other hand. In short, she looked stunning. He hung in the shadows of the parking lot, wanting to drink in the sight of her for as long as possible, while his bear purred its approval. I want her, he acknowledged to himself. Human or not, I want to mate this petite, curvy fem
ale. Desire pulsed in his veins, coursing its way through his body. She must’ve sensed his attention, as she turned her head sharply toward him. Her eyes locked on his and she gasped. Then she backed away fast, her small hand rising to cover her mouth. He picked up the faint scent of her fear. He stood still.
“Neve, it’s okay,” he said in the gentlest tone he could muster. “I’m not about to do anything to hurt you.” She stopped moving too and took a deep breath.
“I know. I was just – shocked to see you again. And you’re just so big and tall.” She looked so vulnerable just then that something flipped inside him. He found himself longing to put his arms around her and tell her that his urge was to protect her, not to hurt her. Instead, he grinned.
“I’ll request a low seat in the restaurant if you like?” he said.
“Doofus,” she said, returning his grin, and she seemed to relax a little. She unlocked the door of her car.
“You’re not having second thoughts are you?” he asked worriedly. She flashed him a look over her shoulder.
“Not yet. I just went into the restroom to get changed. I think the other customers would choke on their lobster thermidore if they saw me in the sweats I’ve been wearing all day.” She leaned into her car and pulled out her laptop. “And I needed to pick up my laptop too.” Of course. How was it possible that he’d completely forgotten about the whole reason why they were together right now? With a supreme effort, he tore his eyes away from her ass as she bent over.
“Do you think you can help with our problem?” he asked.
“I can explain the law to you, and I can help you to apply the law,” she said, turning back to him, her eyes sparkling. There was a change in her face now. She looked more confident, serious, as if she’d switched into work mode. It impressed him, aware that it took a very strong mind to go from fear to professionalism in seconds.
“It’s this way,” she said, striding toward the restaurant without a backward glance.
Braxton tried not to look over-awed as they went inside. While he had plenty of money to buy nice things, he wasn’t used to eating in fancy restaurants, as he always hung out at the cozy, rustic places in Broken Hill. It was a beautiful place, tastefully decorated, with white linen tablecloths and candles and flowers at every table. Neve confidently picked out a corner table and they sat down.
The candlelight flickered over her features, illuminating her beauty, and Braxton knew that he was going to have to concentrate very hard on obtaining her help tonight. All he wanted to do was ask her everything about herself, before taking her into his arms and then into his bed.
As he drew his chair closer to the table, his knee accidentally brushed hers, and he jumped as a spark of electricity leapt between them. He threw her a glance, expecting her to have felt it too, but her face was calm, focused on the menu. He flexed his fingers, trying to clear his thoughts, but at the same moment, his bear started up purring again, over-excited at being in such close proximity to her. It was too much. He stood up fast.
“Sorry, I just need to use the restroom,” he muttered, already striding across the restaurant.
8
Neve watched him go with curiosity. There were many sides to Braxton Quentin, that was for sure. Ever since he’d called her, asking for her help, he’d been the perfect gentleman, completely changed from the rough brute in the parking lot the day before. She stretched and straightened her back. It was sore from sitting in the car all day, and she was dog tired from the journey and the shock of leaving home. She still didn’t know what had convinced her to meet him. She hadn’t warmed toward him again, after he’d shattered her hero worship of him so abruptly. And she hadn’t forgiven the things he’d said, but she was willing to help, and that was enough. Perhaps it was her love for the bear shifters and her passion for helping those who needed it. She opened her laptop and clicked on the documents that she needed to show him. Here goes my first ever client, she thought with a secret smile.
When Braxton returned, moving his powerful bulk adeptly between the restaurant tables, a shiver of fear ran through her again. She glanced at the other customers. How did they not realize that they were in the presence of a shifter – feared by humans more than any other living species? And when he sat down, his face moving into the light from the candle, she sucked her breath in for an entirely different reason. He was a stunningly handsome man. His features looked like they’d been chiseled by a sculptor as the prototype of a warrior. His face was broad and masculine, his cheekbones and jaw in perfect alignment, his nose was strong and straight, as were his brows, and then he had these eyes that were so thickly lashed and intensely blue that they made her want to giggle nervously.
“What’s wrong?” he said.
“Nothing,” she replied, a little lightheaded from the conflicting emotions running through her veins. He laid his huge, long-fingered hands on the table and gazed at her intently.
“Are you still afraid of me?” he demanded.
“A little.” She pressed her lips together. “Don’t take this the wrong way, but usually when I see you, one of us is in a cage.” He threw his head back and laughed, looking more like the man she’d always imagined him to be – chilled out, good natured and fun loving.
“True. As sad as it is to admit it. But yesterday, in the parking lot, you were okay when you saw me?” Now it was her turn to give a snort of laughter.
“To be honest, I was so scared that I thought I was going to pass out,” she admitted. A look of deep respect came into his eyes.
“Yet you stood your ground, and you’re here again today. You’re some woman, Neve.” She shrugged.
“You don’t get what you want in life by being a mouse.”
The waiter came and they ordered soft drinks and an entrée each.
“So tell me exactly what’s been going on with the clan? Have there been any more developments?” she said. He hesitated, clearly wondering how much he should tell her, and as her irritation rose up, she leaned forward and fixed him with a hard stare.
“Look, I didn’t take a big chunk of time out of my cross-country move for you to feed me some scraps of information. If I’m going to be your lawyer, I need to know everything. Attorney-client privilege means that everything that’s said between us is 100% confidential.” He frowned.
“And if I found out that you’d leaked something I told you to the media or something?”
“You could get another lawyer to sue me. Or you could just hunt me down. As I’m sure you would.” She smiled at him; it was meant to be a joke, but as the underlying truth of her words hit her, and a tremble ran all the way through her. “You either understand that you can trust me right now, or I’m out of here,” she said, the brusqueness of her tone masking her nerves.
“No, please don’t go,” he said, his voice low and gravelly. It took her by surprise, and, obscurely, she felt a flicker of compassion toward him. Lowering her gaze so those deep blue eyes didn’t do their work on her, she spoke firmly.
“Then tell me everything pertaining to the threat that’s currently hanging over the Broken Hill Bears.”
Braxton’s face froze. Then he sighed like a gust of wind, stared down at the table, cracked his knuckles. And at last he began to speak. He told her about the life-long rivalry between the clans, explaining that it was genuine, and not just for the entertainment of the fans. He related how hostile the crowd had been at the last fight – a fact that she already knew – and that three quarters of the attendees had been wearing or waving slogans denigrating the Broken Hill Bears. And then he admitted that he’d apprehended one of the t-shirt wearers, who’d confessed that he’d been paid to wear it. The only thing he didn’t mention was that people were claiming that Maximus was behind it.
Neve felt her eyes getting wider and wider.
“This is big,” she said when he’d finished. “It sounds like someone is trying hard to take your clan down.”
“Yeah. My thoughts exactly. We’ve been battling t
he Black Paws for years, but this is different. We usually settle things with our fists – or our claws. They’ve used technology, for christsakes.”
“Fancy that,” she said, allowing herself a small smile. He threw her a sheepish grin.
“I know what you’re thinking, but it’s just not the shifter way.”
“I know. I might be a tech nerd myself, but what I’ve always loved about shifter wrestling is its rawness and directness. The way it hasn’t been ruined by commercialism.”
“You specialized in tech law right?”
“Wow, you really did check me out.” He shrugged.
“Of course.”
The food arrived, smelling delicious. She’d ordered coq au vin, while he had a rare steak.
“When we’ve finished eating, could you show me one of these ads?” she asked.
“No – I’m sorry. I tried to find them, but they didn’t come up on any of the sites I visited.”
“You said you think this kid was targeted because he was local?”
“Yup.”
“So it makes sense that you’re not the target audience,” she murmured, more to herself than to him. “Okay, I’ll do some work later, try to see if I can locate them. You just want to know for sure that it’s the Black Paws’ doing, right?” He nodded.
“I never liked that clan,” she said with an exaggerated shudder. “The fighters always seem kind of – sneaky.” He grinned.
“I like that you’re a fan.” She shot him a sharp look.
“And I thought you didn’t like anything about me.” His jaw visibly tightened.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to be so hostile yesterday. It was uncalled for. I was upset at what I’d seen, and sometimes my bear gets out of control and makes me aggressive. I deeply regret the way I responded to your offer of help.”
“Regardless of whether I’m helping you, you hate everything I stand for don’t you?” she said, regarding him levelly. “It’s probably making your skin crawl being this close to me right now.” But the look he gave her startled her. Something akin to pain flashed in his eyes, and then his pupils dilated. With desire? she thought, before dismissing the thought. As it happened, she was having a very hard time fighting the desire coursing through her own body. And it was equally difficult being in such close proximity to him. Every time he moved, even slightly, his shirt pulled tight against his body, displaying another aspect of his muscular physique to her – now he leaned forward and the huge bulk of his pecs was outlined; now he bent his arm and his biceps swelled beneath the sleeve; now he leaned back, and she found herself eagerly looking for the ridges of his abs. She couldn’t believe that she’d seen him in the ring, fighting in only a pair of shorts, most of that smoking body on display. She was a little star struck, and doing her best to hide it, but every so often, her attention slid out of the conversation and a single thought blazed across her mind: oh my god, I’m sitting at a table with Braxton of the Broken Hill Bears!
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