Jo opened the flap and peered in before sliding her body inside the flap.
She could hear her own breath puffing inside the quiet of the space. It was clean like the others but this one had the added luxury of a small generator in the corner and a mini fridge. She opened the fridge. A few small bottles of alcohol, a six-pack of beer, a half-eaten sandwich. She closed it again and turned toward a little table with a stack of papers and next to those stacks of clothing.
Jo leaned over the paperwork.
Land permits made out in the name of the company, nothing with a personal name, signature, or address.
If he’d bloodied his clothing then would he have discarded the garments or been too cocky and decided just to wash and keep them?
She couldn’t remember what he’d worn anyway.
Jo went back to the edge of the tent just as the flaps flew open and Jack walked through.
“What the fuck...” he looked at Jo then looked around his tent. “All by yourself, prowling around a stranger’s personal belongings?”
Jo caught her breath and looked in her immediate vicinity for something she could use as a weapon.
“But then,” Jack moved closer, beginning to smile, “we’re not really strangers, are we?”
“I’m not by myself, Clayton Porter is looking through one of the other tents right now,” Jo lied. He wouldn’t really kill her, not now when she’d been the one to point the finger at him killing Rick. Wouldn’t that be a bit too risky?
Of course, the man had made Rick disappear.
“Oh, you brought your boyfriend to visit?” Jack cocked his head as if he were listening. “No, I don’t think you did.”
“Back up,” Jo picked up Jack’s Maglite flashlight, wielding the heavy end like a weapon.
"Don't bring a flashlight to a gun show," Jack began to reach for his cot and Jo panicked. She jumped toward Jack striking at him hard. She made contact and the unexpected hit threw Jack off balance but he was able to right himself and continue going anyway.
Jo screamed as she saw the hard black metal of the gun. He was turning it on her just as her scream was overwhelmed by a much more powerful sound.
Jack instinctively turned toward the sound and suddenly there was a rip of light. The tent had been torn away in the swiftest of movements and behind the tan canvas stood a massive grizzly bear, standing on hind legs, roaring like someone had just killed its only cub.
Jack turned the gun on the grizzly but the bear was too fast. He swatted at Jack like he was a pesky fly and Jack went tumbling through the air, past where the side of the tent had stood a few moments earlier.
The bear moved its body between Jo and Jack then pounced down on all fours, his body hovering over Jack's body.
Jo moved away from both of them, she backed up as she saw the bear turn its head. Its eyes met her eyes and Jo felt like she’d been the one thrown four feet away. There was no doubting, this was the same grizzly she’d run into in the forest near Clayton’s house. She recognized the same brown eyes, the largeness of the animal, its sound, and smell.
The grizzly looked at her then looked back to Jack who lay underneath of him. Was it possible? Was the bear…protecting her?
Jo backed up again, still moving slowly. She wasn’t supposed to run from a grizzly. The bear turned its head once more, one big paw holding Jack down, it leaned its head back and let out a giant roar. Jo felt like the bear was telling her, go...turn and run.
The feeling of the communication was so overpowering that Jo turned and she ran. She ran down the street, out to the car, she was shaking when her hands put the car key in the ignition.
Jo stalled out on her first move forward, she restarted the car and pealed away from the side of the road. She drove straight back to the restaurant where she'd left Clayton. Her body was vibrating from the adrenaline and she felt as if she was moving at a snail's pace.
She hopped out of the car and ran into the restaurant.
All six people inside turned to look at her.
“Can I help you darling?” the woman who owned the restaurant asked from across the diner.
“No,” Jo looked again. “No. Thank you.”
Chapter Six
Clayton spotted Jo just before she got back in the Range Rover.
“Jo,” Clayton touched her shoulder and Jo screamed as she spun around toward him.
“Oh my god, you scared me,” she was breathing hard and put a hand to her chest before bending over.
“Are you ok?” Clayton knelt down so he was face to face with her. He pushed the hair back from her face and rubbed his thumbs across her forehead and over her temples. “Shh,” he whispered in her ear.
Jo looked up at him, her breath beginning to finally slow and calm.
She paused and a question ran across her face.
“What is it?” Clayton pushed both of his hands back again, moving the hair away from her eyes.
“You…your eyes,” Jo stared into his eyes. “I think I need to sit down.”
“Why don’t you sit in the car,” Clayton lifted Jo from her elbow, “let’s get out of here.”
Jo obeyed without protest. She let him help her into the car, watched his body as he snapped her seatbelt into place, then watched him start the car and easily shift as they moved away along the streets that would lead them back to his house.
“Are you ok?” Clayton turned to Jo halfway through their ride. There had been something in her expression, something that made him think… but that was impossible.
Jo nodded but said nothing in response. His worry was overwhelming all of his other senses and Clayton felt he needed to test the waters and see just what it was his intuition was picking up on.
“Where did you go?” Clayton asked without turning to her. He watched the trees melt into one long green blur. Suddenly he felt that he needed fresh air, they both probably needed fresh air. He rolled down the top of his window.
“Where did I go? I went to the same place you went,” Jo said ignoring his second question.
Clayton felt his palms grow clammy, “I don’t think I understand.”
“Oh no, it’s me that doesn’t understand.” He could hear the hint of something unexpected in her voice and he wondered at it. If she really did know then shouldn’t she be running for her life? Shouldn’t she be screaming and running—jumping out of his car?
“But I am grateful,” her voice came low in almost sacred tones. “You saved my life.”
Clayton felt his heart beating heavily in his chest. He'd never told anyone. His parents had known, of course, it had come to him from his father's father. He'd been told his whole life that this secret, this thing, could turn him into a pariah, or a science experiment.
His grandfather had been killed by a hunter, his father had killed the hunter and was killed himself in the process. Clayton’s mother had lost her mind shortly after then simply slipped away.
It had been all too clear a sign of things to come if he let someone else in on his secret. If he fell in love, had children, tried to live a normal life, then he was bound to ruin other lives as well as his own. He’d decided on his work instead. He would have a thriving work life. He would be good in business, he would read, let his books keep him company, and he would never love.
“I don’t think it’s a good idea for you to stay with me anymore,” Clayton felt his knuckles go white around the steering wheel.
“You want me to leave?” Jo’s calm changed in an instant, “I’ll be killed. You are the only one I’m safe with now.”
Clayton felt something flip over inside of him. He should have killed Jack when he had a chance. Mauled by a grizzly, that would be one way for him to go.
“When this is over, when they arrest Jack, you’ll need to leave,” Clayton said the words slowly.
“What if this is never over, what if they never arrest Jack?” Jo’s voice was rising in pitch and he could practically feel the panic drifting off of her.
“I’ll
make sure of it,” Clayton lifted a hand, hoping to keep Jo from losing all sense of her calm.
The two didn't talk the rest of the way back to the house. Clayton didn't unbuckle Jo's seatbelt or open her door, of course, Jo was more herself and didn't need him to anymore.
“I think you’d better take a nap, you haven’t had any proper sleep yet,” Clayton came into the house and put his keys down.
He turned when he didn’t hear Jo respond. She was nodding lightly and already moving toward the stairs.
“I’ll have dinner when you wake up, I can keep it hot if you need extra sleep,” Clayton called after her. She looked on the edge of collapse, ready to fall over, and he could hardly blame her.
Clayton listened from the bottom of the stairs to Jo as she walked up. He heard her footsteps in the hall above, past the library, past his own room. He heard her door open and close and then all was silent.
He stood listening to the silence for a long time before walking around the house checking locked windows, doors, the security system that he never used, and noting what items in each room might make for a good weapon.
Clayton had dinner ready at its usual hour but there was no sign of Jo. He waited and still there was no sign of her. He put it all on to warm and sent Lincoln to check on her but she was sound asleep and it seemed better to just let her keep on sleeping.
With all that she’d been through and the very small amount of sleep she’d had in the past two days, Clayton thought it likely that she would sleep straight through to morning.
Chapter Seven
She was in the woods running, running through trees, falling on rocks and branches. Her knees were bleeding and her heart was pumping so violently that the water from the lake was moving in time to her heartbeats.
Jo turned, it was cold and she was wearing a small scrap of a dress, behind her was Jack. He held a gun and he was laughing. He laughed as he lifted the gun and Jo screamed. The giant grizzly thudded out of the forest, as big as a rhino, his body shaking the ground. In three bounds he moved in front of the gun just as it went off. Jo screamed as the bear went down, as Clayton’s legs buckled beneath him.
“Jo.”
Jo sat up with a sudden jerk and gulp of air. It was dark, only the light from the moon swept into the room.
“Jo,” the voice belonged to Clayton. Jo looked into the darkness and saw him in front of her, felt his hands on her arms. “It was only a dream.”
It was only a dream, Clayton wasn’t dead, Jack didn’t shoot him. Jo looked up at him as her jaw shook. Though her fingers felt cold, she’d been sweating and her hair was damp and matted.
“Have I been sleeping all this time?” Jo looked at Clayton. He was in the same clothes so it was possible that it wasn’t as late as she thought. “What time is it?”
“Three in the morning,” Clayton brushed her hair back and away with his hand just as he’d done earlier in the day. His eyes met her eyes.
He took his hand away from her face.
“No,” she reached for his hand and moved it back to her cheek. She held his hand in hers and suddenly, on an irrepressible whim she kissed his hand.
“Jo…” he said her name and she knew he was going to pull away, to retreat beyond the place where she could reach him.
Jo lifted her other hand and brought it to his face.
“Stay—please stay,” she looked at him, deep into his eyes. Then she moved closer to his face until their lips met.
Clayton’s lips were warm. His body felt tense and ready as she placed her hand on his chest.
He let Jo kiss him but he held back. Jo kissed him harder.
She pulled on his lower lip with her teeth, felt his skin next to her skin, rubbed her cheek against his stubble.
When she pulled back his face was focused on her and she could feel his energy, wild and untamed, ready to pour out of him. Clayton took her head in his hands and pulled her mouth to his.
He was more alive than anyone she’d ever met. Jo felt every move of his body, the tightening of every muscle. Her skin tingled as he exhaled near her neck and Jo felt every part of her body calling for Clayton.
She leaned her head back toward the moonlight as his lips trailed down her neck, to her breastbone, until he moved her shirt and took one tight nipple in his mouth. He teased her with his teeth and Jo gasped at the feel as a sensation shot straight through her, down to her core. She extended her spine and arched her back.
Clayton’s hand moved to the other breast, his thumb rubbing over the other nipple. Jo brushed her leg over Clayton’s body and she felt him huge and hard against her leg.
“You saved my life,” she said on as she exhaled. His body worked over hers, taut and strong. “You should let me say thank you.”
She reached for his fly and unzipped his pants. Pulling him hard and full out into the moonlight she moved her hand over him.
Clayton sucked in his breath at her touch. She moved her hand around him, learning him, wanting so badly to arouse him as much as he excited her.
She pushed his torso back with her free hand and brought her mouth to his impressive erection, ready to suck him off. She wanted to swallow him down, drink him in.
“Oh god,” Clayton reached his strong hands down and lifted Jo up, “it’s too much. I want to be inside of you.”
Jo smiled and stood in front of him. She reached down to the edge of her gray cotton tee shirt and pulled it up over her head. Clayton reached for the edge of her panties and pulled them over her thick ass and thighs, down to her ankles where Jo stepped out of them, naked in the moonlight. Her skin glistened a milky white glow.
“You look amazing,” Clayton reached a hand out and touched the curve of her breast. He let his fingers trail across her stomach, then gripped her ass in his hands and held her fast.
Clayton’s glistening erection called to her and Jo moved forward. She straddled him on the edge of the bed and waited, the tip of him ready and pulsing at her throbbing opening.
"Are you going to make me beg?" Clayton sat tensely underneath Jo. She smiled as she imagined him begging. It was a nice thought, but her own self-control wasn't up to the task. Her body was aching for him to fill her up and she didn't think she could wait any longer.
Clayton grabbed Jo’s ass in both hands and guided her down on top of him. Jo let out a loud cry as her body covered his. She’d never experienced a man so large, so filling. She lifted and moved, gliding her body over his, feeling him acutely inside of her. Then Clayton took over.
With his hands guiding her ass he moved her up and down, his strong muscles taking the full weight of her despite his position on the bottom.
“Don’t stop—” Jo pulled her body in close to Clayton’s as his lips brushed her breasts. “Don’t ever stop.”
Clayton looked up at Jo, his eyes burning into hers, “I’m afraid that is an impossibility, but I won’t stop until you want me to.”
“I will never want you to stop,” she felt sensations fly through her body, out to her nerve endings and back again.
He rocked Jo’s body on top of him. Her body slid forward, her clit sliding against his body as he moved her and Jo could feel her body mounting, pulsing, pushing, she was about to boil over.
Jo pushed her fingers back through his thick hair and leaned forward to pull his earlobe into her mouth. Her body was out of her control. There was no stopping the explosion that was coming.
She gripped her upper body around Clayton as her body shook and quaked with its final spasms of complete ecstasy.
Clayton felt Jo tense around him, and he let his body build and push past his final threshold until they both sat spent and exhausted in each other’s arms.
Jo’s head hung against the side of Clayton’s neck and shoulder, her body covered in a sheen of sweat. She felt sensations running through every part of her skin. Her toes buzzed, her stomach swirled, her hair stood on end.
“I’ve never experienced anything like that before,” Jo smiled i
nto Clayton’s neck. He smelled supremely masculine with an edge of musk and cloves. Jo hummed to herself for a moment then, wrapped in the contentment of orgasm, she leaned forward to his ear.
“I love you,” she let the words slide easily out of her mouth.
As soon as the words were out Clayton was fully awake. His torso moved and his hands lifted so that Jo had to lift off and over him to rest on the bed.
Jo understood her mistake immediately, “That’s just the sex talking.” She tried to smile at him but her heart was breaking for Clayton’s reaction to her words.
Clayton pulled his energy away from Jo and withdrew back into himself. Jo felt her face turn red.
“I should go clean up, maybe even get some sleep myself,” he stood from the bed and grabbed his clothes.
Jo wanted to state the obvious, that he could stay here, he could shower here and sleep next to her in her bed, but she could feel the rebuff she would undoubtedly receive to these words before she’d even said them.
“Ok,” Jo nodded trying to act calm, cool, collected… trying to act as if his walking away right now wasn’t stabbing her to the very core.
She suddenly felt naked and she grabbed the top sheet and pulled it over her body, staring at Clayton. Even with her hurt feelings she couldn’t help but notice the perfect flex of his muscles, the perfect shape of him.
“I’ll see you in the morning then,” Jo was surprised at how positive she actually sounded.
Clayton nodded and she could feel words building up inside of him, words she couldn’t bear to hear, words that would make what they just did a mistake.
Jo stood up before he could open his mouth and walked past him into the bathroom. She closed the door and locked it, standing silently until she heard the sounds of Clayton leaving the room.
She leaned back against the door, tension and emotion gripping her throat. But she wouldn’t cry. If she began now she wasn’t sure she would be able to stop again.
The Bear Shifter's Nanny (Fated Bears Book 3) Page 24