Taming the Beast: Eleven Paranormal Romances

by Alyse Zaftig

  “Three years.”

  Her jaw dropped. “Three years?” she repeated in disbelief. “Have you seen anyone in three years?”

  Logan rubbed his chin as he stared at the ground. “There’s an elderly woman who gets me some stuff about once every two months. Butter, spices, coffee, that kind of thing. She usually leaves them out on her back porch for me.”

  “Three years?” she repeated. Three years without any human contact, without any interaction, without any affection. No wonder he was a little rough around the edges.

  “Me and civilization just don’t mix,” he said, downing the last sip of coffee.

  “Okay, that,” she said, pointing at him. “What the hell does that mean? You and civilization don’t mix. Who the hell says that kind of stuff?”

  “People living with crazed animals in them say that kind of stuff,” he answered, running his thumb over his lips.

  “Your bear is not crazy,” Bella said, actually feeling bad for the guy. “He’s sweet. I don’t think you give him enough credit.”

  “I think you give him too much,” he answered. “You don’t know what he’s done.”

  “What?” she asked, leaning forward. “What has he done?”

  Logan shook the mug in his hand. “Is there any more coffee?”

  Bella ripped the cup out of his hand and marched back inside to refill it. This guy was a master at avoiding questions. And he never answered any of the juicy ones.

  “How did you know all that medical stuff?” she asked when she came back out with two cups of coffee, one for each of them. “The symptoms of a concussion. I didn’t see a laptop inside with a WebMD page open. Are you a doctor or something?”

  “Wha-” he said, shaking his head as his cheeks turned red. “Do I look like a doctor?”

  “I don’t know what you look like,” she said, staring at him. “That’s what I’m trying to figure out. I’ve never met anyone like you before. You’re like a puzzle but you refuse to give me any freaking pieces.”

  “Want to see something really cool?” he asked, ignoring her frustrated rant.

  She threw her hand up and huffed out a breath. “Sure.”

  “Come,” he said, jumping out of the seat and grabbing her wrist. He yanked her up and then hurried back into the forest, dragging her along as the hot coffee spilled on her hand. “You’re going to love this.”

  “Where are you taking me?” Bella asked after about ten minutes of being dragged through the forest. She would have been nervous if Logan didn’t seem so freaking excited.

  “Seriously, Logan,” she said, trying to pull him back but it was like trying to stop a train and every time she did, her feet would plant in the dirt and she’d fly forward. “I’m not a bear shifter. I can’t keep up this pace for much longer.”

  He slowed to a stop and crouched, pulling her down with him. “Shhhhh,” he hushed, looking up into the trees.

  “What are we looking at?” she whispered. All she saw were branches and leaves.

  A warmth flowed through her as he wrapped a muscular arm around her shoulders and pointed up. Her breath quickened as she felt his hard body next to hers. It was surprisingly comforting being so close to his large body and her body started reacting in a strong way.

  “Right there,” he whispered, pointing up at the tree.

  “Right where?” Just as she said it, she saw it. Two little white owls, sitting on a branch high up in the tree.

  “No!” she said, her hand flying up to cover her open mouth. Her eyes widened as she stared up at them with her heart racing. She couldn’t believe it. Two sleepy owls.

  No wonder I couldn’t find any of them. They were small enough to fit in her hands.

  “Wow,” she whispered as she gazed up at them with her chest tingling. She had actually seen them. She wouldn’t have to lie on her paper after all. Well, I’ll still have to exaggerate and make up some stuff if they don’t wake up.

  Their eyes were closed as they slept on the branch, their fluffy white feathers looking like a comfy blanket wrapped around their tiny bodies.

  She turned to Logan and smiled. “Thank you,” she whispered, studying the hard line of his jaw. There was some good in him no matter what he thought about himself. This was the sweetest thing he could have done.

  He turned and smiled at her, making her cheeks heat up. “Now you saw your owls.”

  She grinned, nodding. “I saw my owls. It wasn’t all for nothing.”

  Logan sat with her for twenty minutes as she observed them from the ground. “They sure do sleep a lot,” she said, laughing. All of the initial excitement had worn off of her about ten minutes ago. “Maybe I should have observed rocks for my paper instead. It seems like it would be just as interesting.”

  “They’re not named sleepy owls for nothing,” Logan said, grinning.

  Bella looked down at the empty coffee mug still in her hands. “Have any other cool stuff to show me?”

  He looked at her with a grin. “Definitely.”

  Chapter 6

  “Swimming?” Bella asked, curling her nose up at the pond that smelled like rotten eggs. “I was hoping you had a hidden spa or something in mind.”

  He smiled at her as he pointed to the pond that for some reason was steaming. “This is a hidden spa,” he said. “It’s a hot thermal pool.”

  “A what?” she said, raising an eyebrow.

  He grinned as he pulled off his shirt. “Just get in.”

  She would have but she was too busy gawking at his shredded body. He was ripped with a broad muscular chest and deep abs that were chiseled as fuck. His arms were the thing of fantasies, toned over hours of chopping wood and doing manly shit. He was incredible. Completely gorgeous, even with the scars on his face that Bella didn’t seem to mind anymore. They gave his face a dark tragic look that was surprisingly hot.

  “What are you staring at?” he asked, looking at her funny.

  Abs, abs, and more abs.

  “Nothing,” she said, looking away with her heart pounding. He was right. Swimming is definitely exciting.

  He respectfully looked away as she stripped down to her bra and underwear and dipped a toe in the hot water. “I see what you mean,” she said as she jumped in, letting the waterline climb up to her neck. “It’s like a hot tub.”

  She closed her eyes and moaned, letting the hot water soothe her aching muscles. This was definitely better than spending the long, boring day by herself in her tent.

  “Why is it so hot?” she asked, opening one eye to look at the sexy bear shifter in front of her.

  “It’s geothermally heated groundwater that comes from the earth’s heated crust,” he said, nodding.

  “It’s what now?” she asked, looking at him with a blank face.

  He grinned, inching a little closer to her. “The heat from the earth’s core makes it hot,” he said, putting it in laywoman’s terms.

  She raised an eyebrow as she looked at him curiously. “You seem pretty smart,” she said. “When you’re not being an asshole.”

  He ran a wet hand through his messy brown hair, slicking it back with the water. His brown eyes shined as he watched her intensely and she watched him back. He’s got nice lips. I wonder what they feel like.

  “I’m sorry,” he said, biting his sexy bottom lip. “I’ll try to be more of smart Logan and less of asshole Logan.”

  “That would be nice,” she answered with a grin. “Smart Logan is much more appealing.”

  He turned away as redness flushed to his cheeks and Bella could see the hint of a smile cross his face before he showed her the back of his head. She took the opportunity to raise her chin and try to get another glimpse of that hard body. Stupid murky thermal water. She couldn’t see a thing.

  “Where did you go to school?” she asked, wishing that he would turn around again. She liked looking in his soft eyes.

  He swallowed before answering. “Harvard.”

  “Harvard?” she spat out in disbelief. “
Like Harvard, Harvard? Or Harvard High School?”

  “No,” he said with a laugh. “The Harvard.”

  “Get the hell out of here,” she said, eying him funny. “You’re fucking with me, aren’t you?”

  He shook his head, sending little droplets of water sliding down his cheek.

  She was still having trouble believing that a Harvard educated man had been living outside in the wilderness for three years by himself. Was there anyone else like that ever in history? Bella gulped. Right. The Unabomber.

  “What did you study?” she asked.

  His lips tightened into a line as his eyes dropped back down to the water. “I shouldn’t have brought it up,” he said. “It’s not a part of my life that I like to talk about.”

  “Which part don’t you like to talk about?”

  He sighed. “All of it.”

  Logan turned with a heaviness in his body and swam to the rocks on the other side of the pool. He sat on a rock and laid back, closing his eyes as the lucky water massaged his big muscles.

  “Hey!” Bella said, swimming over to him. “You can’t just spit out that you went to freaking Harvard and not give any more details.”

  He never opened his eyes as he tilted his head up, letting the sunshine wash over him. “Yes, I can.”

  Bella huffed out a breath. “That’s really irritating,” she said, swimming back to the other side. “You have to work on your people skills.”

  He chuckled. “I know.”

  After a few minutes of silence, they began chatting again. Bella told him about her life, her schooling, her parents, hoping that it would encourage him to open up as well. It didn’t.

  But he did listen attentively to every word that she said. She could tell that he wanted to know everything about her. “Why study owls?” he asked when she told him about the dissertation paper that she was surely going to fail.

  “I don’t know,” she said, shaking her head. “They’re cute. I had an owl on my backpack and I panicked when the teacher said that we absolutely had to pick a paper topic in the next five minutes. I saw the owl stitched into my bag and just blurted it out.”

  “They’re nocturnal animals,” he said, grinning at her. “Can you see in the dark?”

  “No,” she said with a laugh. “Can you?”

  “Yes,” he answered simply.

  “Great,” she said, giving him a little smirk. “Maybe you can observe them, Harvard boy, and then type it up for me. Ten thousand words. Double spaced.”

  He shrugged, his large round shoulders plunging out of the water for two delicious seconds. “I don’t have a computer.”

  “That’s something you never hear anymore,” Bella said, shaking her head. “How do you not have a computer?”

  He narrowed his eyes on her playfully. “How do you not have an ax?”

  “I could order one,” she said with a chuckle. “On my computer.”

  “Well I could chop up a computer,” he said with a grin. “With my ax.”

  She laughed as she swam a little closer to him. “I didn’t think they still made men like you.”

  His heated eyes locked on hers, making her heart skip a beat. “I didn’t think they made women like you.”

  She turned away from his gaze, feeling her body heat up. Either the thermal springs raised an extra ten degrees or something else, like a sexy bear shifter, was making it hotter out here.

  “Where’s, Cliff?” she asked, turning back around when she finally recovered. “I miss him. Can you bring him out so I can say hi?”

  Logan frowned as he stared at the water, being unnaturally quiet, even for him.

  “I don’t think that’s a good idea,” he whispered, his shoulders tight and rigid. “It’s not safe.”

  She licked the metal-tasting water off of her lips as she watched him. “He’s never hurt me before.”

  He shook his head, still not meeting her eyes. “I should never have brought him around you in the first place. That was…reckless.”

  “Why?” she asked, holding her elbow. There was still so much mystery to him. He was like an onion with a thousand layers and she desperately wanted to peel off each one to see what was at the center, but he kept clinging onto each layer, fighting to not let it go.

  Logan ran a hand through his hair and slowly looked up at her. His brown eyes were sad and lonely, making her chest hurt for him. “He’s too dangerous.”

  She shook her head as she held his eyes. “He’s not. I know he’s not.”

  “You don’t know what I know,” he said with a heavy sigh. “You don’t know what he’s done.”

  “What has he done?” she asked with a shaky voice. She wasn’t sure if she wanted to know the answer.

  But that was okay, because he didn’t give her one.

  She walked toward him, stopping a heartbeat away from his muscular body. “I know your bear too,” she said in a low soothing voice. “He’s not dangerous. You’re not dangerous. Not if you don’t want to be.”

  He stared at the water for a long minute, contemplating her words. “You really believe that?” he asked, finally looking up at her.

  She nodded. She did. There was good in him, Bella could tell.

  “Okay,” he said, raising out of the water. Bella stepped back with her breath quickening as she looked up at his shredded body. He really was gorgeous.

  “I’ll bring him out,” he said, stepping out of the pool. “He misses you too. I can tell.”

  She watched with her heart pounding as he slid down his boxer briefs, giving her a nice view of his hard ass. His body shook softly at first but then erupted in violent shakes and convulsions. She gasped as his hand curled up and long brown hairs began sprouting out of his skin. His muscles swelled and grew and then in an instant, an enormous grizzly bear exploded out of his skin.

  Bella held her breath as she stared at the bear with wide eyes. He swung his massive head toward her and sniffed the air as he watched her with the same sad brown eyes that Logan watched her with.

  “Hi, Cliff,” she said, giving him a nervous wave. “Want to come in for a swim?”

  He lowered his head and stepped forward on massive paws. Bella gulped as the bear stepped into the water. The last time she had been this close to it, she woke up with a concussion. But that had been an accident. Cliff had saved her life right before and for some odd reason that she didn’t understand, she trusted the bear.

  “Hey,” she said, laughing as buckets of water drained out of the pool as the large bear stepped inside. “Keep some water for me.”

  Cliff sunk down in the water up to his neck and turned to her with a smug satisfied look on his face.

  “You like that?” she asked with a laugh. “Has Logan ever let you go in a hot tub with a half naked girl before?”

  He lumbered forward and sat down beside her, swinging his humongous head over to look at her.

  “This is so incredible,” Bella whispered to herself as she looked up at the grizzly bear’s calm face. What made it even more incredible, was that Logan was somewhere inside him. Her skin was tingling in excitement as his soft fur brushed against her arm.

  “Can I get that hug now?” she asked, smiling at the bear.

  He didn’t answer but he did lean his shoulder into her, pressing his body against hers. That was enough of an answer for Bella.

  She stood on the rock and hugged the bear, digging her hands deep into his thick fur. She pressed her cheek against his body and grinned.

  “I knew we were friends, Cliff,” she said as the bear grumbled contently. “No matter what Logan says.”

  Chapter 7

  “Having no electricity has its perks,” Bella said, looking around in wonder at the dozen or so candles lit up on the front porch. It was beautiful lighting and very romantic. They had just finished another great dinner after a fun day together and were relaxing on the porch watching the sunset and the stars come out.

  “You shouldn’t be drinking,” Logan said, eying her cup n
ervously.

  “Then why did you give it to me?” she asked, inching a little closer to him on the bench made of logs. She let the sides of her arm and leg rest against him. He didn’t move so neither did she.

  “I just gave you a sip,” he said with his brow furrowed. “You’re the one who took the bottle and filled the glass up to the top.”

  “It’s not my fault,” she said, taking a sip of the delicious wine. “You shouldn’t have made it so damn tasty.”

  It turned out that Logan was quite resourceful and talented. He never went into town to get supplies so he made everything himself. The clay plates and glasses were all made by him, the furniture, house, even the soap. But the most impressive was the wine. He grew grapes in the garden beside his house and fermented them, turning the sweet grapes into a delicious wine.

  “You recently had a concussion,” he said. “You shouldn’t be drinking alcohol.”

  She took a long sip and grinned at him. “I shouldn’t be doing a lot of things. I shouldn’t be staying by myself in the forest with no survival skills, I shouldn’t be talking to a strange woodsman who claims that he’s so dangerous, I shouldn’t be hugging bears, I shouldn’t be studying stupid owls. I could go on.” She looked at the glass of wine in her hand and smiled as she took another long sip. “A small glass of wine is nothing to be worried about.”

  But Logan looked worried. She rested her head on his shoulder and smiled. He was a sweet guy, no matter what his opinion of himself was.

  They sat like that for a while until Bella heard a soft grumble escape from his chest. “Was that your bear?” she asked, sitting back up in shock.

  “Yeah,” he said with a chuckle. “That’s Cliff. He’s quite taken with you.”

  Bella smiled. He was using the name that she chose to refer to his bear. That’s so cute.

  She rested her head back on his shoulder as she looked up at the spectacular pink and purple hues in the sky. “Tell him that I’m quite taken with him as well.”

  They sat in a comfortable silence just enjoying the beautiful sunset and drinking the wine. Bella enjoyed having his large comforting presence beside her. It felt very easy, like sitting beside him was the most natural thing in the world.