Could she open up to the old cop? He seemed nice enough. But the last thing Mina wanted was to drag anyone else into her mess. The last person she’d gone to for help was already dead.
Just as she was about to give in to despair, the door opened and he walked in.
Dressed in a rumpled brown suit with a matching necktie cinched too tight around his neck, the man wasn’t dressed well, but it didn’t matter. He was so big he had to duck to clear the doorway and so wide that he had to turn sideways to fit. He was muscular and lean and massive and looked like he was built on a different scale than the rest of the world. And he was gorgeous, with wavy brown hair, deep brown eyes and a face that belonged in a museum, with a strong nose and high cheekbones and a square jaw dusted with stubble.
Mina took one look at him and lost her breath. Men didn’t really look like him. Or at least, not outside of the movies they didn’t. She wondered what he looked like naked and then immediately felt embarrassed. There was too much at stake to get swept away by a pretty face and a perfect body. Closing her eyes, she forced herself to breathe. She thought about Harker and his beautiful blue eyes, the way he kissed her, the sight of him holding a smoking gun. You couldn’t trust a pretty man. You couldn’t trust your heart. The fire inside would warm you, it would drive you crazy, but it’d burn you up as well.
The big man sat down across from her, the chair groaning under his weight. He smelled like pine trees and sugar with a hint of animal musk that made her knees so weak she glad she was already seated.
“I’m Matt,” he said, his voice clear and calm like a mountain stream. “What should I call you?”
“You’re my attorney?”
“I am. So anything you have to say is protected. Attorney-client privilege.”
“You don’t look like a lawyer,” she said, trying to keep her voice neutral but the lust she felt was there, a swift undercurrent.
“With this suit? Who else would wear this?” He flashed a relaxed and boyish grin at her. And inexplicably, Mina felt like everything would work out. If you looked up reassuring in the dictionary there’d be a picture of this guy’s smile. He produced a yellow legal pad from a battered satchel and clicked a pen to life. “Tell me what you’re running from, maybe I can help.” Mina liked the way he’s eyes sparked when he said help. She liked it a lot.
No, she couldn’t do this. Begone hormones! She was a grown-ass woman. She’d opened her own business. She wasn’t some fifteen-year-old to get swept away by a pretty face.
“I can’t tell you my name. I can’t be in the system. There are men looking for me. Dangerous men.”
# # #
Matt leaned back in his chair and tossed the pen onto the pad. “Tell me about these men.” The thought of anyone threatening this beautiful woman made his man and his bear both very angry. The world was tough enough by itself, it didn’t need evil men preying upon innocent, curvy, voluptuous, cocoa-skinned women with lips that were made for kissing.
“You’re a big guy. You live out here in the forest or whatever so I’m sure you think you’re tough. But you don’t know the men who are after me. You don’t want to know them.” The woman’s voice shook with fear as she spoke. She was trying to hold it together and failing. She was strong—she’d have to be to get through a car accident and not end up a sobbing mess—but there were limits to strength.
Unless you were Matt.
Matt took off his suit coat, it was always too warm in the station, especially for him. Being a shifter meant his blood ran hot anyway. He unbuttoned his shirt cuffs and rolled up his sleeves, revealing his thickly corded forearms as large as saplings.
“Please trust me when I tell you I can take care of myself,” he said, putting a hint of a growl into his voice. If he didn’t know it would drive her stark raving mad with terror, he would have shifted right there to show her. Well, maybe outside. He was pretty big as a bear and he’d hate to smash up anymore furniture.
“Can you get me out of here? The men who are after me, they want me gone. They’re undoubtedly searching every inch of Northern California for me right now.” Her eyes were wide, her breathing shallow. Matt’s enhanced shifter senses could hear her heart hammering in her chest. He could smell the sour tang of fear wafting off her, mixed with the sugary head-spinning scent of lust. She wanted him. He knew it.
“Did you bring your cell phone?”
“Of course, it’s right here.” The woman slid the phone across the table. Matt picked it up and shattered it in his hand with one quick squeeze, letting the glass and plastic and printed circuits rain to the table with a clatter.
“If these men are half as dangerous as you say, they’re already near. Probably tracking you via your phone.”
“Then maybe you should have tossed in onto a truck headed out of town instead of smashing it here like a caveman?”
Matt sighed. She was right. It’d been an impulsive move. He was trying to impress her with his strength but instead she now thought he was an untrustworthy meathead who didn’t plan ahead. It was closer to the truth than he was comfortable with. The bear inside him wanted to claim her as his mate, it didn’t understand why there was so much talking still happening when they both clearly lusted for each other. He should just sweep her off her feet, carry her back to his den, and spend the next fifty years mating and eating and mating until they were surrounded by so many cubs they couldn’t even count them all.
“Is there anyone you can call?” Matt asked. But what he meant was, “do you have a boyfriend?”
“No,” she shook her head, a darkness sliding into her eyes. “Not anymore.”
“No one? Not parents or friends or siblings?”
“I don’t want to drag them into this. The last person I told about all of this ended up dead at my feet. Do you think I want that for my sister?”
“Where does she live?”
“I can’t tell you that.”
Infuriating woman! How could he help her, how could he protect her, if she wouldn’t tell him anything? He had to earn her trust, to show her that he wasn’t some backwoods hick with sawdust between his ears.
“If I can get you out of here—get you to a safe place—will you tell me what’s going on?”
The woman thought about it, chewing her plump lip in a way that made Matt’s bear groan and roll over. He wanted to chew her lip. He wanted to tear her dress off to see what her nipples looked like. He wanted to hold her breasts in his hands and bury his face in their softness, licking and chewing her sensitive buds until she begged him to mate her.
“Okay,” she said. “I don’t know how else I’ll get out of here alive. Take me someplace safe and I’ll tell you everything.”
“Fantastic,” Matt said and grinned at her like she’d just agreed to go to prom with him.
“But first we need to find my car. I need to get something out of the glove box.”
# # #
“Good thing for you my brother runs the only wrecker around. He towed your car to his shop. Just tell me what you need and he can bring it to us.” The big man, Matt, said in a reassuring tone. He wasn’t taking this seriously. Why did men never take Mina seriously? They saw her curves, her breasts, or maybe the color of her skin and assumed she was overreacting about everything. Mobsters killed her business partner while she watched. She was not overreacting.
“I can’t do that.” Mina placed her hands on the table and stood up, the effect would have been more intimidating if Matt wasn’t the largest single person she’d ever seen. What would it feel like to have him wrapped around her? If you spooned with him, he’d be the whole silverware drawer. Mina never felt like a small woman—genetics and a wicked sweet tooth had seen to that—but next to Matt she felt positively petite. Not for the first time since he’d walked in the door, she wondered how it would feel to be under him, to kick her heels to the sky for him.
The longer she was near him, the more intense the heat in her belly became. Just smelling him was making her ac
he with need. If she licked his skin, she might just melt. There was no time for thoughts like these. Keeping her phone had been a stupid mistake. She’d thought she needed it for maps and GPS to get to Oregon, but really it was probably a giant flashing dot telling Harker and his goons where she’d gone.
It was a miracle they weren’t already there.
“Get me to my car. Take me someplace safe. And put some hot food in my belly, and I’ll tell you everything.”
Matt leaned back in the chair, lacing his fingers behind his head and showing off his massively muscled arms. Did he bench press trucks for fun? How did a county lawyer get built like that? “Hot food? Trying to sweeten the deal when I wasn’t looking?” He smiled at her again, as if she was on a first date and not being hunted by killers. It was soothing and sexy and maddeningly inappropriate.
“A girl’s got to eat,” Mina shrugged.
“I should warn you, I’m a terrible cook. I can make three things.”
“Microwave dinners, plain spaghetti, and toast?” Mina guessed.
When Matt laughed his whole body shook and his face filled with light. Mina really wanted to see that again. “You are not far off,” he said. “I can make pancakes, omelettes, and a fantastic venison stew.”
“What’s your favorite food?” Mina asked. Looking at his body, she would have guessed he existed solely on egg whites and push-ups.
Matt’s eyebrows shot up. “Oh man, now that is a difficult question. I like strawberries. And pancakes. A buttery grilled cheese with pickles is pretty nice. A big San Francisco burrito full of guacamole and sour cream and rice and cheese is always good. But I’d have to say that my all time favorite food of foods, would have to be pie.”
“What kind of pie?” Mina sensed some leverage. The man had a taste for sweet things and if there was one thing she knew how to do better than anyone, it was make sweet things.
“Oh any kind of pie is great. Banana cream pie, strawberry pie, apple pie. Even a shepherd’s pie is great, especially with buttery mashed potatoes on top.”
“You ever tried honeybear pie?”
Matt’s eyes sparkled with desire. He literally licked his lips and shook his head.
“You get me out of here and I will bake you the sweetest honeybear pie you’ve ever had.”
Their eyes met and Mina could feel the electricity moving between them. She wanted him. Every atom of her body burned for him. It was bizarre. She’d never felt such overpowering attraction to anyone. She wanted him to rip her shirt off and lick honey off her breasts. She wanted him to bury his handsome mouth in her sex and devour her until her toes curled and she screamed to the heavens.
She needed to get the hell away from him.
“Give me two minutes,” Matt said, then left the room.
Chapter 3
Bearly Keeping It Together
Heading to the car, Mina fought the urge to sprint off into the woods. Just being outside in the fresh air made her feel a thousand times better. She could run. She could always run. She might not get anywhere and the woods might be full of bears and rattlesnakes and Harker’s men, but the illusion of freedom was a comfort.
She’d hoped that being out of the stuffy office-bedroom, being away from the amazing smell of Matt, would let her get her aching, yearning need for the man under control. Like maybe it was a chemical thing, and if she couldn’t smell him she wouldn’t feel the overpowering urge to drop her panties for him? But it was no use. He was in her. Well, not in her in her, but his scent was like a drug in her system and she wanted to rub her face all over his chest and smooth her fingers all over his hard muscles and open herself for him.
As the sun rose, Bearfield took Mina’s breath away. The town was nestled in a crook near the top of a mountain, with the rolling valleys full of redwoods and sequoias stretching out in all directions. The sun broke over the distant mountains, casting russet shadows across the deep greens of the forest. Here and there below them, Mina could pick out rustic homes amongst the trees. Thin mountain roads wove their way across the face of the rock, almost invisible. This place held secrets.
Mina had always found the countryside alien. She’d grown up in Chicago, moved to San Francisco after college. She was a city girl in her bones. She’d seen the greatest cities of the world—New York, Tokyo, Barcelona, Paris. What could the countryside possible offer that was better?
She glanced over at Matt, standing by the police station door, soothing the old sheriff with his honeyed words and she had an idea of the sweet things the country hid. Maybe there were reasons to embrace other ways of life?
Matt smiled at the sheriff, clomped him on the back with one big hand and walked back over to where Mina stood next to the Jeep.
“He’s not happy about this, but he’s released you into my care. He’ll hold off on filing charges or reports for twenty-four hours, but a wrecked car needs to be reported. The car has a vin number and anyone looking for you who has access to the system will know you were here.” The man shrugged. “Just try not to commit any felonies for the next day or two, okay?”
“I can’t make any promises.” She meant it to come light and flirty, but there was a darkness in her tone she couldn’t hide. If Harker’s men came for her, she’d defend herself. She had no choice.
“Keep saying things like that,” Matt said, “and I’ll have to give you back to old Petey.”
“Mina.”
“Excuse me?”
“My name is Mina.” She felt a heat rise in her cheeks as she said it.
“Mina,” Matt said again, grinning at the name. “That’s beautiful.”
He opened the door for her like a gentleman, giving a slight nod to her as she clambered up into the seat. The car smelled like him in all the best possible ways. You can tell a lot about a person from the state of their car. Harker’s car had been slick and shiny and silent, like a shark. He’d avoided any personal details inside so it always had that temporary feeling of a rental. Mina’s car, if we’re being honest, had always been a bit of a mess, with tissues and loose change and scribbled notes stuffed into the cupholders. Matt’s Jeep was organized and clean, but still felt lived in. He had an old coffee mug on the floor emblazoned with the logo of someplace called the Bearfield Lodge. He had a stack of business cards with his name on them in a little plastic pocket affixed to the dash. The seat was cozy and the whole inside smelled like a pine forest and sex appeal, it made her dizzy every time she breathed in.
Matt swung into the Jeep in one practiced move. “My brother’s salvage yard is just around the mountain from here,” he said. “And it’s near the grocery. Do you need anything special for this pie?”
Gangsters were after here, and this infuriating man was focused on the pie? “Do you have good apples?”
“Yep, from an orchard just down the river from here.”
“Do you have flour and sugar and butter and salt?”
“Who doesn’t?” he said. Harker doesn’t, Mina knew. She should never have gotten into business with the man, let alone into his bed, after seeing his empty kitchen. He had salt and condiments and packaged ramen. The man was worth tens of millions, but he had no food in his house.
“The recipe gets its name from one of those little plastic bears full of honey. Do you have one of those?”
“No, but I have some pretty good honey.” Matt grinned at her like he was telling a great joke. Then when she didn’t laugh or smile back, he added, “I have a beehive out back of my property. Fresh honey, whenever you want it.”
“That’ll do,” Mina said. She leaned her forehead against the cool glass of the window and watched Bearfield slowly reveal itself to her. “That’ll do nicely.”
# # #
They drove in silence for the first mile. Every time Matt opened his mouth to make small talk, Mina cut him off. “I’ll tell you everything after we get the item from my car.”
Her heart beat slower, her skin lost some of the tang of fear. She was calming down around him, but
just a little.
“Okay, well then I’ll talk. My brother’s place, well, it’s a bit shabby. Of the three of us he’s the least interested in appearances. I swear, if we show up before noon and he’s wearing clothes it’ll be a miracle. We could always go get breakfast first and then come back once he’s put himself together a bit?” His bear sat up and took notice at the mention of breakfast. They didn’t always agree, his bear and him, but there were a few areas where they were in total harmony.
“Car first,” Mina said, though the fire was out of her words. A wistfulness played in her eyes as she watched the trees and curves of the village fly past.
Matt fought to keep his eyes on the road. He wanted to watch her curves, to see the light that played in her eyes. He felt like he could spend a hundred years studying her face and never grow bored of it. What was this?
“When we show up and you see the full Michael Morrissey experience, don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
Mina tore her gaze away from the hypnotic roll of the woods and fixed it on Matt. “Is he as big as you?”
“He’s the runt of the family, but our brother Marcus is bigger than both of us.”
“What’s he do?”
“Construction, mostly. Living out here, the work isn’t always steady, so a lot of guys have multiple gigs they work. Take Michael, for example. In any other town he’d just be a mechanic, but out here he’s a mechanic and a wrecker driver and runs a salvage yard and refinishes furniture and sells gas on the side.” Matt shrugged, “It’s the country way.”
A Slice of Honeybear Pie (BWWM Paranormal BBW Bear Shifter Romance) (Bearfield Book 1) Page 2