Two Tickets To Bearadise
Page 1
Table of Contents
Also by Chasity Bowlin
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Coming Soon
Two Tickets to Beardaise
Bearadise Lodge, Book One
Chasity Bowlin
Copyright © 2018 by Chasity Bowlin
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
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Contents
Also by Chasity Bowlin
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Coming Soon
Also by Chasity Bowlin
Also by Chasity Bowlin
KINDLE UNLIMITED TITLES:
The Beast of Bath
The Last Offer
Worth the Wait
The Lost Lord of Castle Black
The Vanishing of Lord Vale
The Missing Marquess of Althorn (March, 2018)
OTHER WORKS BY CHASITY BOWLIN:
THE DARK REGENCY SERIES, PART ONE
The Haunting of a Duke
The Redemption of a Rogue
The Enticement of an Earl
THE DARK REGENCY SERIES, PART TWO
A Love So Dark
A Passion So Strong
A Heart So Wicked
THE FIRE CREEK SAGA
Bennett
Ciaran (novella)
Clayton
Carter
Quentin
Emmitt (Coming Soon)
Matt (Coming Soon)
Savannah (Coming Soon)
THE DUCHAMPS’ DYNASTY SERIES
Been Loving You Too Long
Have A Little Faith In Me
I’ll Take Care Of You
1
Zoe Hawkins parked her car in the space designated for the cabin she’d rented for the week. It hadn’t been her intention to go on a writer’s retreat alone. Her friend, and fellow romance author, had bailed at the last minute. The rental fees for the cabin were nonrefundable, so there she was. Alone in the mountains. The distant strain of banjos was probably her imagination. Probably.
“This is a stupid idea,” she muttered aloud. She didn’t like the outdoors. Nature was full of dirt and bugs, and, well, nature. Though it was only evening, it was already pitch black outside the relative safety of her car. She hadn’t realized just how much the glow of the city blocked out the inky night. With clouds obscuring the moon and not a star in sight, she felt acutely vulnerable. The single bulb on the only light pole in the parking lot would occasionally flicker and buzz, but it was emitting hardly any light at all, certainly not enough to shake the heebie-jeebies she was giving herself by thinking about all the things that could of bump in the night.
“Great. Just great. Wolves. Bears. Psycho killers,” she muttered. Of course, it couldn’t be any worse than spending the week in the city, checking every dating app she was on at least once every hour only to be disappointed by a lack of messages or creeped out by the ones she did receive. She’d taken to limiting herself to that particular disappointment only in the evenings. It was too hard to take in the mornings before her coffee.
Digging her overnight bag and her laptop out of the fast food graveyard of her backseat, she stumbled backward. The heel of her very expensive boot sank into the mud lurking beneath the gravel. Teetering for a moment, she managed to right herself. “Or my own clumsiness,” she added, “but clearly, something on this trip will kill me.”
Making the decision to come back for her larger suitcase in the morning, she grabbed the bag of “supplies” she’d picked up at the convenience store at the foot of the mountain. Cheetos and chocolate chip cookies might not have been the healthiest option, but they were the tastiest and they’d soothe the sting of getting stood up for the coffee date she’d had planned before leaving town. Although, it didn’t really count as being stood up if she saw the guy lurking through the window of the coffee shop, scoping her out, and then bailing. That stung. A lot.
Turning away from her car, she pressed the button to lock the doors and trudged toward the porch weighed down like a sherpa.
One week alone, in a remote cabin, to finish the book that her editor had been harping about for the last three months. If she didn’t finish it, she’d be in breech of contract and then she’d be broke. Homeless. Bankrupt. And she wouldn’t be able to afford nice, high-heeled boots or chocolate chip cookies, but maybe the creepy men on the dating apps might at least let her sleep and shower in their mother’s basements.
That little pep talk did more to depress her than cheer her up, so as she laboriously climbed the steps, she determined not to think about it anymore. She’d write and she’d make deadline. Then she’d pay all those pesky bills that kept her living in relative comfort. End of story.
Reaching the front door, Zoe dropped her overnight bag and the stash of goodies that would get her through the next day. There was no key for the door, just a keypad above the door knob. Foiled by technology in the back of beyond, she grimaced.
“Crap,” she said, digging into her pocket for her phone. She’d forgotten the access code.
Her phone flashed, then abruptly died. She’d forgotten to charge it in the car.
Zoe leaned her head against the door and willed herself to remember the last four digits of her friend’s phone number. It was no use. She hadn’t memorized a phone number in the last decade and a half. She didn’t even know her own, for Pete’s sake!
There was only one option. Go back and sit in her car until she had enough of a charge to access her contacts. Looking at the bags, she decided to just leave them. They’d be in sight the whole time. It wasn’t like there was anyone up there to steal anything anyway.
Reaching the car, she tried the door, but it was locked. Zoe patted her pockets for the keys and then realized that she’d undoubtedly dropped them on the porch with the bags. It was getting better by the minute, she thought.
The clouds shifted and the moon came out for just a moment, and Zoe looked down at her new boots only to see large scuffs on them from the gravel. The frustration was so intense that she literally wanted to cry. She wanted to sit down on her ass in the gravel and wail like a toddler, but that would get her effectively nowhere.
“Shit. Just shit.”
Reaching the steps, she paused and raised one foot, inspecting the damage. There were several deep gouges. “Dammit.”
It wasn’t a sound or even a movement that alerted her to the fact that she wasn’t alone. Even completely citified and nature-phobic people could have a sixth sense. In that moment, hers prompted her to look up, directly into the elongated snout of a very large black bear. He was pawing at the grocery bag full of Cheetos and cookies, but he was looking directly at her.
Zoe’s breath caught, seized in her lungs. Her mind was rapidly searching, sifting through all the random factoids tucked away there for what the hell was an appropriate response when confronted with a bear who wanted your road snacks. This wasn’t like the bears in her books. This was a real live, with sharp teeth and sharp claws and a big appetite, bear!
Play dead. Was that bears or dogs? Fuck it. Try
it. Try anything. Something! Just don’t stand there and get eaten!
Dropping to the steps, Zoe forced her body to go as lax as possible. It defied every instinct she possessed, which told her to just run. Her impossibly expensive, already scuffed and incredibly uncomfortable high-heeled boots reminded her that was a dumb idea. Not to mention that she had more than a passing acquaintance with every variety of junk food in that bag, and running just wasn’t her thing.
Keeping her eyes closed seemed like the best plan, at least that way she wouldn’t see the gaping maw before it chomped down on her face. When she felt the bear’s hot breath on her neck, she fought the urge to whimper. The dead don’t whimper, she reminded herself, but the soon to be eaten might.
The bear inhaled her scent, let out a huff, and then licked her. Zoe didn’t have to play dead anymore. For the first time in her life, she fell into a dead faint.
Logan Arthur hadn’t realized that anyone had booked the furthest cabin at Bearadise Lodge. So when he’d needed to shift and let his bear roam, that had seemed like the wisest location since all the cabins on the lower part of the ridge were occupied. He hadn’t wanted to go too far afield since his oldest brother Barrett was doing the Appalachian equivalent of a walk-about and their middle brother Sam was in Knoxville for the weekend. Now, he stood there, looming over an unconscious and unbelievably sexy woman who clearly had a sweet tooth.
He couldn’t just leave her out there. There were bears around who weren’t shifters, and they wouldn’t have the same kind of response to her he was. He had to get her inside, and that meant taking human form, at least for a few minutes.
He focused, pulling in the energy he needed until his bear form began to recede. Naked, he realized that if she woke up to that she’d panic all over again for totally different reasons. Still, he took a minute to look her over and appreciate her with human eyes and very masculine senses.
She was curvy from head to toe, soft and sweet. Her lips were parted in a soft “o” and her lashes fanned against her cheeks. Dark hair spilled over some ridiculous leather jacket that looked more like it belonged in a magazine than on a real person. Jeans cupped her thick, shapely thighs and skimmed over her calves, down to the pointiest toed, highest-heeled shoes he’d ever seen. He wouldn’t call them boots. It was an insult to the word. That was, he thought, the most pointless footwear he’d ever laid eyes on in his life.
Getting to his feet, he walked over to the door and punched in the master code that would unlock the cabin. When the door swung inward, he moved her stuff inside and propped it open. Walking back to the steps, he scooped her up in his arms. She was a big girl, but not too big for him to carry. In fact, carrying her felt so good that even the cool night air wasn’t preventing certain parts of his anatomy from standing up and saying hello. Holding her that close to him, inhaling the honeyed scent of her, left him with one very large, very hard problem. Buck naked with a strange woman in his arms and sporting a huge erection, the night had definitely gotten weird.
Get her inside the cabin and then get gone, he told himself. Before things could get any weirder or any more uncomfortable or he wound up on some kind of registry, he carried her up the steps and toward the door of the cabin. She stirred, her eyes opening for just a moment, at least she was only seeing his face and not his pecker which had a mind of its own.
“The bear…” she whispered.
“It’s gone. You’re safe,” he whispered. Technically it wasn’t a lie, though why he was bothered at the thought of lying to her he didn’t know.
“Who are you?” she asked.
“I work at the lodge,” he answered. “Just close your eyes.” Please, before you call the police and I have to explain this situation to a judge or have to stay a minimum number of yards from schools.
She frowned at him. “Where’s your shirt?”
He needed to think fast. Not an easy task when all the blood was rushing south. “You screamed,” he lied. “I didn’t have time to get dressed. I saw the bear and just grabbed my shot gun.”
“Where’s your gun now?”
“I couldn’t carry it and you.”
She started to look down. “Please keep your eyes up, ma’am. I didn’t have time to grab any pants either.”
Her eyes widened then. “You’re in your underwear?”
He could feel the blush creeping up his neck. “Yes,” he lied again. Why the hell was he blushing? He ran naked through the woods all the time. But not with a raging boner for a woman who was passed out cold thirty seconds ago.
As if sensing his embarrassment, she smiled reassuringly. “I won’t look. I promise.”
Logan moved through the door, into the dark interior of the cabin. It wouldn’t hide the fact that he was completely naked, but it would at least make it a little harder to see every detail. He set her down. “I’ll be leaving now. Just kindly keep your eyes averted.”
She nodded and turned so that her back was to him completely. Logan didn’t hesitate. He beat a hasty retreat out the door and closed it solidly behind him. He didn’t immediately shift back into bear form. While he was still in human form, he intended to find a cold mountain stream to jump into. It’d be the only way to calm whatever lust-fueled insanity that woman had managed to conjure in him.
Zoe had turned her back to him with the best of intentions. She hadn’t realized that there was a mirror directly across from the front door on the far wall. When he’d made such a hasty exit, she’d seen the truth of it. It wasn’t just that he was in his underwear. He was totally, beautifully, and rather impressively buck naked.
As he’d closed the door, she’d seen him in profile and dear, sweet, Lord, it had made more than her mouth water. It had been ages since she’d actually laid eyes or anything else on a naked man, and she’d never seen one so generously proportioned before. It wasn’t just that the Lord had blessed him with abundance, his whole body rippled with muscle.
Moving into the living room, she sank down onto the couch and tried for the life of her to make sense of her evening. It just wasn’t happening. Reaching for the switch on the lamp beside her, the living room was bathed in warm, soft light. It was the minibar beside the television that caught her eye though. She didn’t care if it was twenty dollars for little more than a shot of vodka, she needed it.
Opening the fridge, she saw her favorite drink ingredients already stocked. Tanqueray, sprite, and a little bit of OJ. After run-ins with a big, scary bear and a big, not so scary penis, a drink was just what she needed.
“No more solo writing retreats,” she muttered aloud as she mixed the cocktail. “Never again.”
2
Waffling back and forth between his desire to see Zoe, which was a bad idea, and the fact that he had absolutely no reason to go back up to her cabin, Logan finally gave in to temptation. Even without a solid reason to go, he found himself walking up the hill in her direction, eager to see her and to smell that sweet, enticing scent that was just her. That sweet, honeyed scent had haunted him all night long.
He’d never in all his life met a woman who got to him that way. It didn’t matter that she was all wrong for him. One look at her ridiculous footwear and fashion spread clothes was all he needed to know that. But that didn’t get her out of his head or out of his blood.
Even after he’d let his bear free again to roam the mountainside, he’d found himself staying close to her cabin. Hiding in the trees and watching, waiting for the lights to go off. Even in that strange hinterland between human and animal, where everything was driven more by instinct than thought, he’d wanted—needed, to be honest—to be close to her. It was a new and unfamiliar situation to be in. Not that he didn’t like women and not that he hadn’t enjoyed his time with them, but he’d never felt compelled to be in their presence beyond the bedroom, so to speak.
It bothered him on some levels, unnerved him on others, and in some ways actually scared the hell out of him. But that didn’t seem to be halting his progress in her dir
ection. He was halfway up the hill on the path to her cabin, calling himself a dozen kinds of fool with every step. He was courting disaster and he knew it, but he couldn’t forget what it had felt like to hold her, to feel that soft, curvy body pressed against his. God above, that woman was temptation personified.
Reaching the cabin, he knocked on the door. It was a mistake. He knew it was a mistake, and he was doing it anyway because he couldn’t seem to stop himself.
Logan’s frown deepened as he waited. There was no answer. He knocked again.
Had she left? Encountering a bear and a naked stranger within minutes of arriving would be enough to put anyone off. Fighting down the disappointment, he knocked once more.
Zoe awoke slowly, a little uncertain of her surroundings. The pounding wasn’t in her head after all; someone was knocking at the door. Sitting up in bed, the room swayed alarmingly. With a glance around her at the mini bottles littering the bed, it was easy enough to figure out why. The fact that she didn’t feel sick, didn’t even have a headache, told her one very important fact – she was still a long way from sober.
“Housekeeping will love me,” she muttered as she got to her feet. Swaying, less than steady, she pressed the heel of her hand against the wall to balance herself. It was imperative to keep her Cheeto-dusted fingers off the paint job otherwise the security deposit was history. Big orange fingerprints on their nice white walls would send her already wheezing credit card into full blown cardiac arrest.
“No more gin. No more gin. No more bears.”
At the thought of bears, another memory surfaced. A hot, sexy, well-hung, and deliciously muscly memory. Her rescuer from the night before was still a mystery, but the tingle between her thighs told her it was a mystery she needed to solve. It was rare for her to meet a man who instantly and with no effort made her want to lick him like a cat.