by M. L. Briers
“It’s true,” Owen said. “You can be very bitchy, Harvey.”
Harvey grumbled another growl as he raised his eyes towards the leafy canopy of the trees and muttered annoyances under his breath. He had a mind to lay Owen out flat on his back with one punch, but somehow he resisted the urge.
“I wanted to thank you,” Jon started, bringing Harvey’s attention back down to earth. “Not necessarily for what you did in going up against the clan — although, I am grateful that you were there for Macy. But also for not walking away from your family when I gave you a reason to.”
“I would never do that,” Harvey grumbled back.
“Jordan needs that. She’s never had that. Neither has Macy.” Jon admitted. “Nobody will ever be good enough for my girls — and they’ve had a rough time of it over the years — but, Harvey, you come damn close.”
Harvey didn’t know what the hell to say. He already knew that in his own way Jon had been protecting Jordan and Macy. He admired him for that. But now with one less obstacle in his path to wooing his mate, Harvey truly felt elated.
“Well, I for one appreciate you saying that, Jon,” Owen stated and got the stink eye from Harvey for his trouble.
“You best come back to the house and wash up,” Jon offered Harvey.
“Oh, I’m fine,” Owen said.
“I’m not inviting you into my house,” Jon offered back.
“That’s a little harsh,” Owen said.
“Not in my book,” Jon grumbled.
“Your obvious trust in me is overwhelming,” Owen grinned.
“You’re a vampire. And even I know that you don’t invite a vampire into your house,” Jon said.
“You mean, a vampire that has spent the last few hundred years able to quash his bloodlust. The same vampire that now has access to blood bags, vampire groupies, and a tasty treat whenever he wants one?” Owen offered the man a toothy grin with just a little of his fangs showing.
“That would be the one,” Jon shot back.
The sound of Harvey’s deep chuckle caused Owen to do a double take of the man.
“Oh, look who’s gone from grumpy bear to happy bear. It’s always funny when it’s not you at the end of the pokey stick,” Owen scowled at the shifter.
“Isn’t it just.” Harvey grinned.
~
~
~
Harvey strolled out of the shower and into the bedroom was a towel wrapped low around his hips and the rest of his naked, wet body on display for Jordan’s viewing pleasure. He hadn’t known that she was standing there in the bedroom doorway, but even if he had, he wouldn’t have rushed to dress.
“Holy hell!” Jordan bit out.
They were the first words that had slammed into her mind even if they wouldn’t have been the first choice for her to say, except that her mind was otherwise occupied with what her eyes were seeing, and all rational thought had quickly vanished at the sight of him.
It was true that she’d seen Harvey with his shirt off before. Those muscles that packed his chest, his abdomen, and his arms were a sight to behold. But he wasn’t standing in her bedroom before, naked beneath a small towel, and setting her whole body on fire with feminine feelings that she hadn’t had in a very long time.
Jordan swallowed down a good portion of her tongue, even though it seemed like the hardest thing in the world to do because she was suddenly feeling very dehydrated. She knew that Harvey was watching her, but she still couldn’t seem to manage to stop her eyes from devouring his body.
“I thought you knew I was in here,” Harvey said.
Jordan was almost certain that the man’s deep tones had become even deeper — they were certainly sending vibrations through her body. For some strange reason that she couldn’t quite fathom, her eyes flicked towards the bed, and then back to Harvey once more.
There was a low rumble like thunder that came from him, and she somehow managed to drag her gaze up to his face.
“I did,” she breathed out, and then she dragged a breath back in again.
“Well, I didn’t mean to scare you,” Harvey said and held on to the grin that threatened his lips.
“Scare me…” Jordan echoed his words in the hope of understanding them. “You didn’t scare me.”
“Then I guess you like what you see,” Harvey said as he felt the grin tugging at his lips.
“Who wouldn’t?” She winced as her mouth offered more words than her brain hadn’t checked yet.
“In that case…” Harvey took just one step towards her and watched as she snapped her body to attention. “How about seeing it up close and personal?” He teased.
“I’m…umm… Good, thanks,” Jordan rushed out and with her words she made sure that Harvey never took the second step.
“I can handle good, and I can do very bad too,” Harvey couldn’t keep the growl from his voice.
“I bet you can,” Jordan allowed the wickedest grin that he had ever seen in his life appear on her lips. “But I didn’t come here for that.”
“I can’t say I’m not disappointed,” Harvey offered back. But as much as he wished that she had, it was pretty obvious to him, what with Macy and her father being downstairs, that things couldn’t go much further.
“Your wounds have healed,” Jordan said, allowing her eyes to roam over his body again. She felt well within her rights to do so now that she had come up with a good reason to do it.
“I’m good,” Harvey said.
He was more than aware that outwardly his wounds had healed. He still had a few angry -looking red welts on his skin from where the brother's claws had gone deeper into his flesh, but on the inside, the effort that it had taken for his body to heal him had also weakened him.
“Owen said…”
“You’ve been talking to the vampire — I should have known.” Harvey grumbled a different kind of a growl.
“He said you have a fight tonight,” Jordan offered back with concern.
“The vampire talks too much,” Harvey grumbled, biting down on his need to go and find Owen and silenced the man with one punch.
“Like a nun just getting released from a silent order,” Jordan tossed back.
“That’s… a strange way to describe Owen,” Harvey was still thinking about it.
“You’re not going to fight them again tonight, are you?” Jordan asked.
“Not them…”
“No, another brother,” Jordan folded her arms and pierced him with a steely gaze.
If his intention was to run rings around her and mislead her, then he was barking up the wrong tree. She was a mother and very used to dealing with those tactics.
“You shouldn’t be fighting at all.”
“It’s what I do.”
“Not tonight,” she tossed back.
It wasn’t that she liked the idea of Harvey in a bare knuckle fight at any time, but he’d been injured already, and that meant that it wasn’t a fair fight at all.
“Is that an order?” Harvey braced himself for her words.
He was good at what he did. He won. And going toe to toe with another shifter leveled out his bear.
“That’s not my call,” Jordan shrugged one shoulder.
“It’s been your call since the moment I met you,” Harvey offered back.
He watched as she tilted her head to one side like a curious beast, and she frowned as she took a moment to consider his words. Harvey waited.
If she told him that she didn’t want him to fight anymore, then after tonight, he would be done.
But that night’s fight would go ahead no matter what because he had given his word.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
~
“You know I haven’t made my mind up about you yet?” Jordan didn’t know what to say, and so she lied.
“Yes, you have,” Harvey offered back taking that next step, and the one after that, and the one after that until he was in front of her.
Jordan’s gaze flicked to the bed and b
ack to him again. Her brain was trying to work overtime, and yet it felt fevered.
Just with the size of the man, her instinct should have been to take a step back. After all, she didn’t really know him. But instincts be damned, her feet felt like lead, her heart was hammering in her ears, someone had given her stomach a trampoline to bounce upon, and her womb was doing a Highland jig.
“You want to run that by me again?” Jordan asked as she tipped her head back to stare up into his eyes, eyes that were darkening to black, and with the sound of thunder that was rumbling in his chest, she thought that she just might end up a melted puddle of goo at his feet.
“Sure,” Harvey said, a moment before his hands closed around her upper arms and his lips came down on hers.
Jordan was pretty sure that going into the kiss she knew which way was up. But between the feel of his soft lips on hers, his hard chest pressed against her breasts, the feel of his hands as they released her arms and explored the curve of her back, and the press of his hard length against her stomach — which way was up was the least of her worries.
The man was temptation personified. Her hands wanted to explore the damp, hard ridges of his body while her mind threw up images of the different parts of him that she would like to explore.
Harvey was a dangerous man. He was dangerous to her sanity, to her panties, and to her willpower.
Harvey was lost in her. The scent of her was all around him. The feel of her in his arms flooded him with desire and needs the likes of which he’d never known before.
The taste of her tongue on his sent him wild with desire. He palmed the curvy cheeks of the backside with one large hand and lifted her up his body. The feel of her legs as they wrapped around his hips made him growl like a man possessed.
Harvey wasn’t sure where the wall was, but he was damn sure he was going to find it. And he did.
The press of his hard cock against her sex made the sweetest sound that he’d ever heard the catch in her throat. Harvey answered with a hungry growl.
He wanted to take her like this. He wanted her now. But he knew that couldn’t be.
They were in her bedroom in her father’s house. Macy was downstairs. How the hell could he do what he wanted to do to her, with her, when they had that kind of an audience?
Mine…
There wasn’t a whole heap that he could do about it, except to pull back away from her, and it felt like it was killing him to do it
Harvey only had to look at her to know that they were in the same boat. She looked dazed and confused, and she questioned why he’d stopped with just a look.
“Say that you’ll come home with me tonight,” Harvey growled. That growl was hungry, and it was all for her.
“You got pizza?”
“Huh?” Harvey was blindsided by her question.
“Well, a girl can’t live by sex alone.”
“Oh, it’s more than sex,” Harvey growled. His words sounded more like a promise than a tease or a line that he’d thrown out to a women before.
“So, there’s beer too?” She said. The sexy sound of a decidedly wicked giggle rang in his ears and made his cock twitch against her sex.
“Damn, woman, I’ve never come up against a shifter with the kind of knockout punch that you can deliver.”
“Ah, Harvey. I promise I won’t hurt you — much,” she said as her eyes sparkled with mischief.
Harvey got the feeling that he had certainly met his match.
~
~
~
“Walk away, Harvey,” Owen said. He followed the bear shifter towards his truck. He determined to knock some sense into the man before it was too late.
“You know I can’t do that.” Harvey didn’t want to go to the fight. He wanted to go back to the house, get Jordan, take her home and make her his mate.
“That’s pride talking,” Owen snorted his contempt.
“Nothing wrong with a little pride.”
“Unless it leads to a fall,” Owen muttered, knowing full well that Harvey could hear him.
“Better a fall than a fool,” Harvey growled back.
“Too late. You’re already a fool going to the fight instead of taking Jordan home with you and doing the bears-bear and the bees-bee thing.”
“Owen…!” Harvey stopped and turned towards the vampire and Owen lifted his hands in surrender.
“I know, I know. You’re a proud man…”
“Who was going to throw this fight for Macy,” Harvey growled at the thought of the bargain he had made with the clan brothers.
“And now you don’t have to.” Owen grinned.
“And now I don’t have to,” Harvey confirmed.
The smile on his face said it all — he was planning to enjoy coming up against one of the clan in a fairer fight than the one that he’d had earlier.
“Things can go wrong.”
“Yes, they can.” Harvey turned back away from him and started back towards his truck.
“I had a point,” Owen called after him.
“Then get to it — some of us age.”
“I’m coming with you,” Owen said. He raised one eyebrow as Harvey shot a look back over his shoulder at him. “Let’s just say I will be your insurance policy should anything go wrong.”
Harvey stopped with his hand resting on the handle of the truck door. He considered it for a long moment and then he nodded.
“Sounds fair.”
“I expected you to put up more of a fight than that. But then you never had the incentive of a mate before.” Owen strolled to the passenger door of the truck and yanked it open. “Let’s hope you don’t cave that easily at the fight.”
“Butthead.”
CHAPTER NINETEEN
~
Jordan paced. She’d tried to sit down, to stay calm, and not to think what was happening with Harvey but it just wasn’t working for her.
She’d given Macy her supper, put her in the bath, and then read the customary three stories to her at bedtime. It had helped a little, but now she was at a loose end, and she didn’t know what do with herself.
“You’re going to wear a groove into those floorboards,” Jon said. He was sitting in his favorite armchair and had been trying to ignore her pacing for the past however long.
“Well, at least I know I’ll have made my mark,” Jordan said. She’d been trying to ignore the fact that her father had been strumming his fingers against the armrests for the past hour.
“He’ll be fine. He’s a big guy and a grown man. He can take care of himself.”
“So is the other guy.” Jordan tossed back over her shoulder as she paced towards the picture window. Then she performed a military turn and about faced it towards the door of the room once more.
She’d only managed to get halfway across the room when she heard the sound of a truck rolling up outside. Jordan whirled back towards the window, slapped her palms down on the windowsill, and banged her forehead against the glass as she peered out.
“Sure, break the window as well. That will ensure you leave your mark.” Her father could say what he wanted, but she could hear the relief in his voice.
Jordan squealed inwardly at the site of Harvey’s truck. She pushed away from the window and raced towards the door.
“No running in the house!” Jon bit out. “If that rule is good enough for your daughter then it’s good enough for you.”
Jordan barely heard her father’s words as she raced to the front door, yanked it open, and threw herself outside. Her eyes devoured Harvey from head to toe. The man was battered, bloodied, bruised, much as he had been earlier that day when he’d rescued Macy – but he was a sight for sore eyes.
“Please tell me the other guy looks worse,” Jordan demanded as she tossed her hands onto her hips and gave him a no-nonsense look.
Harvey grumbled to himself as he frowned at his mate. The sound of Owen chuckling didn’t help matters.
“He looks worse,” Harvey grumbled.
> “You kicked his big furry backside back to clan land?” She demanded once more.
“He’ll crawl back there eventually,” Owen chuckled again.
“I can speak for myself,” Harvey growled.
“Go on then. It’s not like I’m holding onto your tongue,” Owen sniped back.
Harvey stopped within a few feet of his mate. He eyed her for a long moment, and she looked mad. He wasn’t sure what he’d done wrong this time, but he’d make it up to her whatever it was.
“You have a little blood — everywhere,” Jordan said it like an accusation, and Harvey got that she was angry at him again.
“It happens,” Harvey said.
“How often?” Jordan asked, folding her arms in front of her as she squared up to him.
“Only when necessary from tonight on,” Harvey offered back and watched her lips pull up into a dazzling smile. That smile alone was worth getting repeatedly punched in the face.
“Sounds good,” Jordan grinned at him, and it was a grin that was full of mischief, happiness, and promise.
“Get a room,” Owen bit out as he rolled his eyes at the pair of them, and kicked the mud from his boots before he sidestepped Jordan and went to walk into the house.
Jon stepped up to the open doorway and gave Owen a long hard look.
“You going somewhere?” Jon asked the vampire.
“Now you know I’ve already been invited in,” Owen tossed back. “Right?”
“Doesn’t mean you get to come in whenever you want,” Jon said with a scowl for the man.
“Even if I bring a gift?” Owen raised his hand and the bottle of Scotch that he had a grip on. Jon raised his left eyebrow back at him and considered his words carefully.
“Now, you are the kind of houseguest that I like.”
“How easily they fall prey to my deviously wicked ways,” Owen said with a small chuckle.
“Damn, Harvey, who handed you your backside?” Jon snorted a deep chuckle, Harvey chose not to see the funny side of it.