by M. L. Briers
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
~
“Because…?” Jenny asked.
“Because…”
Bailey rolled her over onto her back on the grass. He found her hands with his and laced their fingers together – pressing her hands back against the ground.
Trapped beneath him – caged with his body, his power, his strength, and he saw from the way that her eyes flared and her breathing changed that she liked that a lot…
“I know for a fact that when I taste your blood for the very first time; I’m going to want more than a sip, and I’m going to have my cock buried so deep inside of you that you’re going to come around me again and again…”
“Now who’s teasing…?” she giggled.
“It doesn’t have to be a tease – you just need to say the word and I’ll take you home with me, and forever can start right then…” he said and she blinked, drank in the oxygen all around her, and he knew that she really was giving that serious consideration. “But not before you are well and truly ready to be mine.”
“You mean be a vampire?”
“Not so much, no. We have time for that,” he assured her. “But once I’ve taken you to bed, made love to you, done all of those debauched things that most people only read about in books – I’m never going to let you out of my arms again.”
“Not even to pee?” She grinned, but he could see the way that his words had affected her.
Her cheeks were flushed, and he could scent her arousal in the air, so much so that his cock was twitching like it wanted inside of her that very second.
“Until you become a vampire – I can’t risk you getting hurt…”
“And peeing is a deadly sport…?” She shot back, playfully.
“You could fall off the toilet seat and damage yourself.”
He’d play her game, for now. He’d said his piece and he knew that she’d heard him loud and clear.
She just needed a little time to mull it over.
~
~
~
Cooper watched from the other side of the tree line. He’d been watching since they first arrived, waiting for his chance…
He hadn’t expected to find her living in the middle of nowhere with Jenny and two men…
He felt the heat of anger on the boil inside of him. She always seemed to manage to do that – twist his insides with her ways and games.
Well, he wasn’t playing this time.
This time he’d make her see sense and she’d go home with him, be his forever, or he’d make sure that she died where she denied him…
He thought that she’d been different.
She wasn’t like her friend, out for a good time at everyone else’s expense, but he’d been wrong.
She’d played games with him and then when it had come time to pay the piper, she’d rejected his advances and given him no option but to take matters into his own hands…
Then she’d lied to the police, twisted it all up, and somehow made it sound like what had happened was his fault …
Like he was the bad guy.
She needed to pay for that, and she would.
He’d have to teach her a lesson – then he’d give her the opportunity to see it as they really were – she was his, and if he couldn’t have her then no man would.
~
~
~
“What are you doing?” Bonnie planted her feet, covered her eyes from the glare of the sun, and looked up the ladder to where Karl was standing – tossing bits and bobs down from the guttering.
“Stopping you from doing something stupid…” he offered back over his shoulder, and for one long moment, Bonnie was speechless.
“Nice to know that you think of me as stupid…” she muttered.
She looked anywhere but at him, because looking up the ladder at those muscled thighs and his taut backside, not to mention the way that the muscles in his back and arms moved under the shirt that was being tightly pulled over his upper body – kind of made her want to keep looking, and maybe a little touching too, and boy would that send him the wrong signals.
“You were hanging from your fingertips from the roof – not exactly the smartest move anyone has ever made.” He chuckled to himself and tossed out a clump of moss.
“Yeah, well, we can’t all be Einstein, now can we?” She folded her arms and chewed an imaginary wasp.
She’d messed up in climbing the ladder, and she knew she had, but the ground had given way beneath her, maybe not where he had put his damn ladder...
She also knew that she wasn’t about to do it again – at least, not unless she was certain the ladder was on stable ground. But above all, she didn’t really need it pointed out to her that she’d made a mistake.
Karl shot a look down at her over his shoulder and his bear groaned within him. He’d done it again – made her put up her defences – and she looked pretty miffed with him…
Mine… His bear growled – hammering home the point that he’d messed up.
“Ok, now – don’t get all salty and…”
“Salty?” Her chin went down and her eyes widened.
“Sulky?” He offered, and his bear growled once more.
“Oh boy, you’ve lived alone for too long…” she said, dropping her arms to her sides, turning about face, and stalking off to … somewhere that he wasn’t.
He was doing a nice thing – she knew that – but still, it felt as if he was trying to save her from herself – like she needed saving – she didn’t – at least, she didn’t think that she did…
But, in truth, she didn’t rightly know exactly what it was that she was feeling as confusion and apprehension about him met excitement and attraction head on.
Bonnie heard the unmistakable thud of heavy feet chasing down the metal rungs of the ladder, and then he was following on behind her, and she grimaced.
Am I in the wrong?
Why am I asking myself that?
Why am I second guessing myself?
I never used to do that.
He basically called me stupid – and salty – and sulky …
Which … all three might have been right, sort of, but is he really supposed to point that out?
Hi, I’m your mate … you’re stupid, and I’m a male chauvinist Genius who wants to save you from yourself…
Sounds familiar…
“Bonnie…” Karl’s hand wrapped around her upper arm and she jumped in fright.
She hadn’t been expecting it. She wrenched her arm away from his hold and turned to face him…
He could scent the fear in the air that came from her, and his bear reacted to it – the prickle of fur beneath his skin kicking his backside into gear, and setting off that protection gene within him once more.
But there was no one to fight for her, except himself…
“Whoa…” he held his hands up against his chest and stepped back away from her.
She was breathing hard and her jaw was moving, but no words came from her lips … It took her a long moment to get a hold of herself and realise that he wasn’t a threat…
“I…” She tried to shake that fight or flight feeling away on a small shake of her head.
Now I do feel stupid.
Stupid and irrational…
Maiden in distress here…
Nutjob here…
Am I ever going to feel normal again?
“I didn’t mean to scare you…” Karl growled low in his chest. He berated himself for not thinking about what she’d been through…
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
~
“No … it’s … me,” Bonnie finished lamely on a nod of her head and the press of her lips together as she berated herself for overreacting – to his touch – to him – to the fact that he was up a stupid damn ladder doing her guttering…
“I get that you’re nervous about … everything to do with me…”
“It’s not you…” she sighed.
She wanted to exp
lain how she felt, of course she did, but trying to formulate those feelings into words was way beyond her pay grade.
Karl dropped his chin down towards his chest and raised his eyebrows – questioning her words with just a look. Bonnie cleared her throat and looked anywhere but at him…
“Ok, it’s you a little. I mean – mates?” She took a steadying breath and considered that for a long moment. “Don’t I get a say?”
“Of course you do,” Karl offered gently, reminding himself once more that she was human and unaccustomed to the ways of the supernatural. He couldn’t possibly put himself in her shoes, but he wanted to understand her side of things.
“It sure doesn’t feel like it,” Bonnie offered back.
She didn’t want to sound mean or anything. She was actually getting to kind of like him, in a strange sort of way. He was kind, thoughtful, and he was as sexy as hell, but it still felt like a lot of pressure to be under for him to be the definitive one…
He’s the man of my dreams … only my dreams are usually nightmares and he’s not the one in them…
He’s a bear shifter – what do I really know about that world?
He’s big … nobody can say that the man isn’t damn big, because I’ve seen him turn his shoulders sideways to enter a room…
He’s also kind … and sexy … and I wanna touch those damn muscles and see just how hard they really are…
Is it wrong that I wanna see him naked?
“Well, look at you two all…” Bailey’s voice carried from across the way.
Bonnie wrapped her arms around her body and looked anywhere but at the vampire and her friend as they walked towards her and Karl … anywhere but at her mate.
“Timing is everything…” Bailey offered down to his mate. “And I guess I’m lacking in that department…”
“It’s fine…” Bonnie said in a crisp tone that had Bailey clearing his throat.
“Now I know that it’s not.” He leaned in and pretended to whisper to his mate.
“No,” Bonnie dropped her arms and took a deep breath. “It’s fine.”
“Well good, because I thought we could do lunch – then dinner – maybe supper after that, and there has to be snacks in between.” Bailey said, watching the woman closely to see how she was going to react – when she said nothing, Jenny double timed it towards her.
“Let’s go put the kettle on…” Jenny linked her arm with Bonnie’s and tugged her back towards the cabin.
“Good idea,” Bailey called after them. “I take mine red with a dash of iron…”
Jenny turned and gave him a wicked look, but Bonnie tossed a scowl back over her shoulder at him.
“Oh, a hit and a miss – well fifty percent is better than face planting in a ditch.”
“He’s…” Bonnie leaned in and whispered towards Jenny…
“Don’t say weird,” Jenny chuckled back. “Because I quite like him.”
“I was going to say – strangely funny…”
“Which is another word for odd, which is another word for weird.” Jenny offered back, and Bonnie grinned.
“Well, I guess after dying, coming back, and living a few lifetimes that will happen to you.”
“Maybe…”
“I’d say tell me about it in a few hundred years, but that’s not my destiny … apparently.” She shot another look back over her shoulder at her mate and found him looking thoughtfully frowny.
“Is it wrong that I want to see what Karl looks like naked?” Bonnie whispered, so quietly that Jenny just about caught it and so did the vampire, but Karl was oblivious.
“You had a bad experience – you’re not dead from the waist down,” Jenny hissed back.
“She wants to see you naked…” Bailey leaned in and offered towards the bear shifter, and the low, deep rumble of a hungry growl that went through him made the vampire smirk. “That’s her, not me, so hold onto that thought.” He warned.
Karl slowly turned his head on his neck and eyed the man beside him like he’d just grown another head … the growl that he offered that time was more of a warning…
“Don’t shoot the messenger, friend. I can’t help being irresistible to everybody I meet.” Bailey said with a spring in his step as he started after the woman … eavesdropping on the mates all the way.
“Did you let him in the house?” Jenny asked.
“Of course…” Bonnie shot back without even thinking why her friend would think that she wouldn’t.
“Then I guess on some level you know you can trust him,” Jenny offered back.
“Or I’ve gone soft in the head.”
“Maybe the head and the heart?” Jenny teased back to the sound of a grunt.
Bonnie frowned as she considered her friend’s words. Maybe on some level she did feel like she could trust him.
She guessed that only time would tell if that trust had been misplaced.
“Someone is going to invite me in, right?” Bailey called out to the mates as they strolled on ahead.
Bonnie flicked a grin at Jenny and her friend giggled like a schoolgirl with a crush.
“Can you leave your fangs at the doorway?” Bonnie called back.
“No,” Bailey bit out as if the woman was crazy… “But neither can he and he got in.”
“That’s because I’m her mate and not some bloodsucking leech vampire,” Karl offered back.
“I…” Bailey started, but he noted the glance that he got from Bonnie as she kept going towards the house…
“Ooo, bloodsucking leech vampire – that’s not really a good recommendation, now is it?” She teased and heard Jenny giggle some more.
“I have … needs that aren’t to everyone’s tastes, but unlike Mr Growly Mc – eat-a poodle or kitten here…”
Bonnie pulled up short and spun around with a look of pure horror on her face…
“I didn’t … I wouldn’t…” Karl rushed out, holding his hands up to his chest to save himself from her wrath…
“Has he?” Bonnie demanded, turning her attention towards Bailey, and the man took a long moment to build up a really good smirk…
“Not to my knowledge,” he admitted, and Bonnie deflated. “Although, a bear’s gotta do what a bear’s gotta do.” He smirked.
“Kill you, woo my mate, live happily ever after.” Karl growled back.
“Harsh,” Bailey snorted. “Touch a nerve?”
“I’m not a violent man,” Karl said to his mate. He could feel her eyes on him and he didn’t want her to get the wrong idea. “But for him I could make an exception.” Karl turned his eyes back to the vampire.
“Bear by name – bear by nature,” Bailey grinned.
“Whose side are you on?” Karl grumbled a growl.
“Mine.” Bailey grinned. “And I’m sure your mate can see what a nice, reasonable, vampire I am.”
“Geez…” Karl rolled his head on his neck and returned his attention back to Bonnie. He wasn’t sure what he expected to find, but it wasn’t the mischievous look in her eyes or the wide grin on her lips.
He liked it – a lot.
“You can come in…” Bonnie said as she flicked her eyes back towards Bailey, and the vampire strutted towards the cabin.
“You know you have to be inside the cabin to invite me in, right?” Bailey called back over his shoulder.
“Oh, really?” Bonnie shrugged her shoulders at her mate. “Guess you’d better not annoy me between here and there then, or I might change my mind.”
Karl liked the fact that her grin got a whole lot wider and her eyes sparkled with fun.
He wanted her to smile, and laugh, and he wanted her to be happy. That was his job to make her happy, and he’d do it to the best of his abilities, but sometimes it didn’t hurt to have a little help.
Maybe the vampire was good for something after all.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
~
“You know how to woo a woman, right?” Bailey took one subtle step back from the shi
fter; when his head snapped around on his neck and his eyes darkened as he offered him a death glare.
“Do you want me to hurt you?” Karl growled back.
“It’s just that I’m not seeing any evidence of the facts here, bear…” Bailey teased some more.
“Why don’t you go woo your own mate?” Karl growled on a low whisper so that the mates didn’t overhear him.
“She already swooned…” Bailey offered back, wiggling his eyebrows with yet another smirk, and that time it looked victorious.
“A gentleman doesn’t tell or gloat.” Karl berated him.
“I left the gentleman phase behind me about a hundred years ago and I believe I’m up to rogue – or maybe scoundrel.” He appeared to be mulling that thought over when Karl grunted in annoyance.
“Butthead,” Karl muttered.
“Isn’t that what bears do? Butt heads?”
“Lunch is ready,” Jenny called from the kitchen and both men started towards the door, getting to the opening at the same time…
“Well, we’re not both gonna get through there together,” Karl grumbled a growl.
“After you. I hear bears get a sore head when they’re hungry…”
“You’ll have a sore head in a minute…” Karl warned him on another whisper.
“Well, I am sort of peckish…” Bailey let his fangs elongate, and the deep sound of a warning growl rolling through Karl’s chest made him snap them back again.
“Did they say it was going to rain this afternoon, because that sounded like thunder…?” Bonnie said absently, looking to the window, and Jenny couldn’t help but chuckle…
“Sure…” Jenny nodded enthusiastically and tried for innocence when Bonnie looked at her.
“What?” Bonnie asked, and Jenny just gave a small shrug off her shoulders…
“Nothing,” she said as innocently as she could. “Sounded like thunder to me too.”
Karl looked sheepish as he strolled into the room, but the vampire was grinning from ear to ear.
“Stop trying to get him into trouble,” Jenny whispered; just loud enough for Bailey to hear, and the man turned his grin on her.