by Bianca D'Arc
Mellie took charge, placing the box on the counter and using scissors she had near the cash register to clip the strings holding the box closed. She opened it and carefully unlatched the side flaps to make it sit flat on the countertop. The aromas of sugar, honey and various sorts of toppings and fillings came to him at once, making his nose twitch. The trio of sisters who ran the bakery really did know how to cook. Peter’s mouth watered, even as Mellie pulled out paper plates and napkins from behind the counter.
“Grab that stool,” she told Peter, pointing toward a cushioned stool off to one side as Mellie grabbed a matching one from behind the counter. “Urse and I do this all the time since we don’t have a lot of foot traffic in the store yet,” she told him. “Rather than close up the shop when we want to nosh, we just decided to put a stash of the necessary utensils and accoutrements under here.” She gave him a conspiratorial smile as she handed him a paper plate and napkin.
“Very efficient,” he complimented her. “But, if John’s plans for the town come to fruition, there will be more foot traffic come tourist season.”
“Yeah, I know. I’m not entirely sure whether or not to be happy about that. I’ve sort of grown used to the town the way it is, and I like the slower pace,” she admitted.
“But you’ll make more money if you have more customers, no?”
“Sure, but there’s more to life than making money,” she replied, touching a chord in his own heart, though she probably didn’t realize it. “You guys have got a pretty sweet thing going here. A town where shifters can be shifters and your grandmother can waltz down the beach in bear form without ten guys with tranquilizer rifles being called out to shoot her.”
Peter barked a laugh at the image she painted with her words. “You’re right,” he told her, between chuckles. “We all know that it can’t go on forever, though. Eventually, humans will start showing up in greater numbers. At the moment, we only get the occasional tourist, but word is already spreading about our sweet little artists’ colony here. Brody’s chainsaw masterpieces aside, Lyn Ling’s bamboo art gallery has drawn attention from Northern Californian art critics, and she’s even got a brisk mail order business beginning to take off. I helped her a bit with the website.”
“I’ve seen it,” Mellie told him excitedly. “Love the graphics.”
“That’s all Lyn. I just helped with the menu scripts and the shopping cart,” he replied modestly. He’d done quite a bit more than that, but he wasn’t a braggart.
“Well, maybe when we have time to breathe again, you can help out a bit with the bookstore’s site,” she said with a trace of humor. “We had this idea of featuring postcards, notecards, stationary—heck, even T-shirts—with some of the best art from cove residents and selling it online and in the store to supplement our book income.”
“Sounds like a good idea,” Peter told her, glad to hear the sisters were putting thought into their business in addition to their magical work for the town. “I bet John will like this plan.”
“He does. Urse talked it over with him already, though it’s only in the planning stages. He thought it might attract more tourists, which is the eventual plan, of course. But the timing… Urse may have completed her task, but there’s still a lot to do on my part. And the town itself isn’t quite ready yet for throngs of the general public. With any luck, we’ll be ready about the same time the town is, so it’s an idea we’re deferring for a few months, at least.”
“I will help with the website whenever you want to start setting it up,” he told her, glad to be able to help her in any way she needed.
“Thanks, that’s really nice of you.” The smile she favored him with warmed his heart. “Now, which of these do you want?” She pointed to the selection of a dozen different pastries.
“You go first,” he said graciously. “I like them all.”
“Well, in that case…” Mellie made a small production out of choosing just the right pastry, lifting it in her fingers and taking it directly to her mouth for as big a bite as she could manage. Peter watched her every move, wishing that little pink tongue would lick out at him sometime, just the way she licked the stray icing off her own plump lips.
Could a guy get a boner just from watching a woman eat a honey bun? Apparently, he could. Peter shifted his position on the stool, hoping to ease the sudden tightness of his jeans. Mellie didn’t appear to notice his discomfort. She was too busy making love to the pastry he’d brought for her.
Sweet Goddess in heaven! He might come just from watching her eat, which was an entirely new experience for him. Never before had he known a woman to be so innocently sensual. Her every move made his lust rise higher.
Whoa, boy. He had to get better control over his responses, or this hunt might be over before it even truly began.
Realizing he’d been staring, Peter picked a pastry at random and crammed half of it in his face so she wouldn’t catch him staring at her like some sort of pervert. Raspberry. Not his absolute favorite, but not bad. Peter chewed, enjoying the burst of flavor, which only seemed to heighten his arousal. Damn.
“How is your grandmother settling in?” Mellie asked between bites. “I bet she’s happy to see you again.”
“She is. But she likes her space, too. She is reserving judgment about this town, but she’s very intrigued about how it all works. Where we come from, we have a more dense arrangement of bears than is usual in the rest of the world. Our Clan is pretty tight, and we like living closer to each other than most other bear shifters. But this… So many different bears in such close proximity. Babushka is skeptical, but she said the idea appeals to her in these times of trouble. There is safety in numbers, she says.”
“A wise woman,” Mellie agreed. “So, that’s why you’re here? You’re giving Grandma some space?”
“Yes,” he affirmed. “That, and I really have to open the shop today and catch up on paperwork. Plus, I wanted to invite you to dinner at my home tonight.” Here it was. The real reason he’d come to the bookstore and gathered his courage. “Grandmother might be able to help you with your quest,” he offered, hoping to sweeten the invitation. “She knew the dragon in our family line when she was a young girl. She might be able to tell you a bit more about him or, at least, about dragons in general.” He shrugged. The idea was thin, but it was the best he could come up with to try to convince her to eat dinner with him and his grandmother.
The real reasons behind his invitation would probably scare her off. He wanted the first contact between his babushka and his potential mate to be in private. That way, if there was a problem, he could try to contain it and not let the entire cove know that his grandmother had a problem with strega.
“Oh, that sounds great,” Mellie enthused. “I’d love to join you for dinner. Can I bring anything?”
“Just your beautiful self,” he told her in a moment of unguarded candor. He held his breath. She didn’t seem to mind his compliment. In fact, she seemed to glow at his words, her smile turning a shade self-conscious, perhaps, but overall, she looked very pleased.
He ate another three pastries before one of the loner bear shifters who lived way back in the woods entered the store. Mellie saw that she had a customer and jumped guiltily from her seat.
“Mr. Bender! I have your special order in back. Let me just go get your books.” Mellie rushed into the backroom, and Peter stood uncomfortably, putting his stool back where he’d found it. He nodded to the newcomer.
“Samuel.”
“Peter.” The newcomer acknowledged the greeting with a nod of his head then looked around the bookshop in an unconvincing show of nonchalance. “So… You and Mel?”
Peter’s eyes narrowed. Was Samuel interested in Mellie? If that was the case, Peter would make the other man bleed.
“What if it is?” Peter challenged, but Samuel held up his hands, palms outward.
“No skin off my nose,” he said quickly. “I like the sisters, but I doubt I’ll ever find a mate. I’m too ornery
for my own good.” Samuel smiled crookedly, and Peter relaxed marginally. “Mel gets me the books I want and never asks too many probing questions about why a bear shifter is so interested in theoretical physics, or what have you.”
“Well, do me a favor and keep it to yourself for now,” Peter requested in a friendlier tone. “I’m not entirely sure this is going to work out.”
“I heard your granny caused a stir when she arrived yesterday,” Samuel observed, his eyes gleaming with humor. “Is she why you’re not so sure about you and Mel?”
“Could be. Could be I’m not sure Mellie will have me with all my faults. I’m not really sure if humans—even mages—can feel the same way we do,” Peter revealed, saying more to Samuel than he’d expected to reveal.
“Try not to overthink it too much,” Samuel advised. “I have no doubt the older sister is devoted to Big John.”
Peter had to admit Samuel had a good point. He would have said so, but at that moment, Mellie returned carrying a large stack of books. Peter didn’t even try to read the titles. He was sure the esoteric nature of Samuel’s reading choices would be noteworthy, but Peter was more interested in the woman holding the books than in the books themselves.
Peter had hoped to leave Mellie with a kiss to remember him by, but Samuel’s presence had ruined his plans. It didn’t look like the man was going to leave anytime soon, either. He had produced a handwritten list of books he wanted Mellie to order for him, and she was asking him to clarify the chicken scratch Samuel called handwriting. That could take a while.
“I’ll see you later,” Peter interjected during a brief pause in the conversation while Mellie was looking up a title on her computer.
Mellie looked up and smiled at him. “What should I wear?”
“Come as you are,” he told her. “In fact, I’ll swing by after work and pick you up.”
“Sounds good,” she told him. “See you then.”
Peter strutted out the door, feeling ten feet tall. She hadn’t minded Samuel knowing that they were seeing each other later. That was a good sign. At least, he took it as one.
CHAPTER SIX
Mellie was walking on air the rest of the day. She had a date with Peter! Sure, his grandmother would be there as a very effective chaperone, but maybe, in a way, that might be better. Otherwise, she was liable to dive in head first and sleep with the man. Not that it wasn’t a good idea and something she’d been thinking about for months now, but she was still hesitant.
What if she tried to jump his bones, and he wasn’t really that interested? What if they did the deed, and then, he walked away, unmoved…uninvolved? What if she lost her heart to the man, and he didn’t want it? Mellie was very much afraid she’d already lost little pieces of her heart to him, and she just hoped he wouldn’t throw them away.
She tried on a few different outfits before going back to what she’d been wearing in the shop earlier, just a little jazzed up with a pretty scarf and some jewelry. She didn’t want to look as if she’d made a fuss, but she also wanted to make a good impression on Peter’s grandmother.
What did it mean that he was inviting her over to meet his grandmother? That thought hit her like lightning about midway through her indecisive primping. Had he invited her simply to meet his grandma so the older woman could tell Mellie what she knew about dragons? Or had there been more to his invitation? Had he specifically wanted her to meet his grandmother for some reason? The thought made her giddy.
Meeting a guy’s family was a serious step. Was that the step they were taking, or was it just circumstance making this happen and she was reading way too much into it? Mellie tried to scold herself that she had to be a grownup about this, but the giggly teenager that still lived inside her thought otherwise.
Pulling a bottle of red wine out of the rack, Mellie put it into one of the gift bags they sold in the bookshop. The least she could do was bring it along, even though Peter had told her she didn’t have to bring anything. It was a small enough token, and she was pretty sure whatever Peter served for dinner would include red meat of some kind, so red wine was a pretty sure bet.
When Peter walked into the shop at about closing time, Urse had—thankfully—already left. Her older sister was working abbreviated hours lately, but Mellie didn’t mind. Urse had taken a lot of time to recover from casting those permanent wards, and since then, she’d been enjoying a bit of a honeymoon with her mate. Mellie didn’t begrudge her sister that time with John. Not when John made her sister happier than Mellie had ever seen her.
At least one of them was getting laid on a regular basis. More than regular, if the sappy smile on Urse’s face meant anything. Just that morning, Urse had been a couple of hours late, and Mellie just knew why. Urse had that satisfied glow about her, and she’d smiled all morning at nothing. Yeah, that was the look of a satisfied woman, and Urse had been wearing that expression for a while now. Mellie was amused by it, even as she was a little bit jealous.
Mellie greeted Peter from behind the counter and called out that she was just going to lock up the back. She grabbed the bag with the bottle of wine from where she’d left it in the backroom and grabbed her coat. Turning back, she was surprised to find Peter had joined her, and he had a hungry look on his face. A hungry look that set her insides on fire.
“I’m sorry I left without doing this before,” he told her even as he swept his arms around her waist and tugged her close. Then, he bent her backward as his lips descended, taking hers in a devastatingly romantic gesture that made her want to swoon right there on the spot.
The kiss wasn’t bad either. Peter rocked her world off its axis and sent her senses to orbit before she even had a chance to catch her breath. When he finally let her up…slowly…she was dazed. Completely befuddled by the instantaneous passion only he had ever inspired in her.
“Wow,” she breathed, smiling when he did.
“Wow, indeed,” he agreed, standing her up and holding her until she was steadier on her feet. “Are you ready to go?” he asked in low tone that was more heavily accented than usual. “If we stay here much longer, we might not make it to my place, and Babushka is waiting for us.”
Brought back to her senses by the reminder of her duty, Mellie stepped away from him. “I’m ready,” she told him, trying to rein in her wayward libido.
This simply wasn’t the time or place for what she craved. She had to be patient…and cautious. She still wasn’t sure what endgame he had in mind, and much as she wanted to be with him, she was very much afraid that, after being with Peter, she would never be the same.
They walked in companionable silence out to the street where Peter had parked his truck. He drove a big pickup that was more comfortable than Mellie had expected.
“I’ve never ridden in a pickup truck before,” she said as he helped her into the passenger seat.
“Seriously?” Peter looked surprised.
“Not many of them in San Francisco, I guess. At least not among my circle of friends.” She shrugged, already looking around the cab of the truck.
There were so many knobs and buttons, not to mention what looked like a touchscreen, the cab looked more like a pilot’s cockpit than the cab of a simple pickup truck. Peter made sure she was in and her door closed before he made his way around to the driver’s side.
“What is all this?” Mellie asked, gesturing toward the complicated dashboard.
Peter looked a little sheepish. “I may have modified things a bit.”
“Please tell me you didn’t put in an ejection seat,” she joked, and he laughed with her.
“No. No ejection seat, though it was tempting,” he admitted.
He started the truck and drove toward his home. Mellie wasn’t too steady after that soul-shattering kiss, so small talk was hard. It didn’t matter, though. Peter was good company whether they were talking or not. He drove for a while in silence, seeming comfortable with it. It was only when they neared his property that he started telling her about some of the m
odifications he’d made to his vehicle.
“The truck came with three little buttons for garage door openers, but I needed more. Basically, they’re just little transmitters, and I have a lot of security equipment that can respond to such signals. For example, if I touch this button…” He reached over and pushed a small black button on the modified dash. “That disarms the motion sensors on the driveway as we approach.” He pushed a few more buttons but didn’t explain each and every function. If these buttons controlled aspects of his home alarm systems, she didn’t blame him for not sharing too much information.
Not that she could have used any of it anyway. None of the buttons were labelled. Only Peter would know which buttons to push and when. All in all, she was impressed with his ingenuity.
“I hope you like steak,” Peter said as he pulled up in the drive before a lovely log cabin that seemed to fit right into its surroundings. There was a calmness about the place. A gentleness that spoke to Mellie.
“Love it. And, Peter…” She looked all around, but especially at the house. “I love what you’ve done here. There’s something very special about this place.” Her magical senses reached out, and what she found was unexpected. “It’s as if the trees themselves welcome you,” she said, a bit of awe in her tone that she couldn’t hide.
“Truly?” he asked, getting out of the truck then coming around to her side to help her down. “That’s what I was going for, but I couldn’t be a hundred percent sure, though I believe the redwoods have come to accept me.”
“You’re aware of the consciousness of trees?” she asked in a low voice, surprised in the extreme.
“It makes sense. It always has, to me at least.” He shrugged as she slid down to the ground from the high seat, then closed the door behind her.
“Very few people in my experience give credence to the living nature of all creation,” she told him.
“It’s all the same to me. I built this cabin out of deadfall. I didn’t kill any trees to make my home, and I don’t cut down trees for firewood. It just didn’t seem right,” he admitted.