by Reina Torres
He barely saw Cage standing off to the side of the double doors leading to the dressing rooms, waving him through.
Conor and his bear wanted to stop right there before their mate and feel her hands on them, but it was the gentle hand and voice of Gerri Wilder that got him moving. “Some things are best done in private.”
His bear let the touch roll off his metaphorical and physical shoulder. In the presence of his mate, another’s physical touch was troubling. Dangerous.
It was only the fact that he’d met Gerri before that saved them from a rather bloody and terrifying situation.
#
Hollis followed along, only because Gerri had a hold of her arm. Everything inside of her wanted to turn back toward her bear.
Her bear.
The certainty of the feeling inside of her made her knees weak and flushed her cheeks. Her skin prickled with awareness between her shoulder blades and she swore she could feel his breath through the back of her blouse.
The room they stepped into was grey and bare for the most part, the walls made of cinderblocks and broad fixtures of bright fluorescent lights trailed across the ceiling.
Lockers lined one wall with wooden benches bolted to the floor a few feet in front of them.
The room was sparse, but the space was filled with energy. She could feel it even without her own bear to answer the call of his in the sudden chill.
Gerri stepped back toward the door and Hollis could see her at the edge of her vision as she seemed to dissolve into the shadows.
Leaving them alone.
Leaving them together.
Hollis turned to face him and was again face to face with the bear.
He was huge, not just for a grizzly bear. She’d seen her share of shifters, hundreds and hundreds, but none of them had captured her attention the way he had.
He had fighting skill. Taking down a bear who was larger and more muscled would be a perfect reason for her to sit up and take notice, but it wasn’t just that.
When he’d stepped out of the cage, he showed none of the natural awkwardness that an animal would display on a staircase made for humans. The movement of muscle under his fur had been magnificent.
Other bears had tried to intimidate her, stare her down, demand her submission.
But not Conor.
The bear before her held his head to meet her eyes with his own. He could have easily looked over her, a hulk of size and build. Instead he seemed to present himself before her as if he was waiting for her inspection.
“You’re incredible, you know.”
The bear chuffed and leaned a few inches closer.
“Beautiful, really.”
His head titled just a hair to one side, watching her.
“Don’t beg for compliments.”
Goodness… how at ease she felt and yet on edge as well.
Hollis reached out and took his head in her hands. The connection between them wasn’t the spark that she’d read about in books, but instead she felt a hum of energy under her hands, like high voltage harnessed and barely held at bay.
When she moved her hands over his fur, working her way toward his ears, she wondered if her touch would raise some kind of static electricity between them, but when she finally wrapped her fingers around his ears and gave them a gentle tug, he leaned into her touch.
“Conor?” She leaned her cheek against his and murmured into his ear. “I’d like to talk to you.”
Her palms met flesh, heated and flushed with life. Gone was the thick coat of fur and in its place the man she’d come a long distance to meet.
The strong lines of a grizzly bear’s face narrowed and reformed in a rush of motion. Thick-shouldered bulk gave way to the same strong lines of muscle that she’d seen in the earlier part of the fight and instead of meeting the bear’s dark and soulful eyes, Hollis had to lift her chin to keep her eyes on his.
He loomed over her, more than six feet tall and the scent of his skin fresh from not only the exertion of the fight but also the shift was a heady cologne of raw power.
The muscles in his jaw worked visibly and she wondered if he would be able to speak so quickly after the shift. So many of the bears that came to the Black Hills took hours or even days before they could find their human voice again.
It wouldn’t affect her opinion of him.
In fact, she would be more than happy to enjoy his company silently if that’s what it took to be with him.
“Take your time, Conor.” She gave him what she hoped would be an encouraging smile. “I don’t mind waiting.”
“Well, I do,” he told her, his voice a tempting mix of a wild growl and a deep human timbre, “because I’ve waited for you a long, long time, Hollis. And I don’t want to miss another moment.”
Chapter Four
A bit of humor managed to ease the feral smile on his lips, and by the time Conor had walked Hollis past Gerri and Cage and straight through the exit to the private parking lot, he was already dying to taste her.
Yes.
His bear was no help.
It was only Hollis’ breathless gasp that helped hold his fragile control together.
“I know what they’re thinking.”
Oh, this he had to hear. Hollis didn’t just have the rosy glow of a virgin, she had the smell of one too and that, his bear wasn’t going to let him forget either.
“Go on.”
There was more of the bear in his voice than he would have liked, but so be it.
“They think we’re being more than a little rude. Don’t you think? We barely said a word to them on the way out. I should have stopped to say goodbye to Gerri at the least.”
So innocent.
So…
Ours.
“We’ll send her a fruit basket,” he grumbled under his breath. “She’ll understand,” he assured her, “after all, you know what they call male bears. We’re boars. And, baby, a bear kept from his mate is exactly that.”
By the time they’d made their way to the side of his Land Rover he had his keys out and the door unlocked. He managed to let go of her hand long enough to reach around her and open the passenger door.
Without thinking. He picked her up and set her on the seat. Reaching across her body he secured her seatbelt and managed not to kiss her as he moved back.
A quick look into her eyes stopped him in his tracks.
The once smooth skin between her brows was wrinkled and her eyes were dark with some unnamed emotion.
His bear rose up within him, angry and demanding, Conor didn’t need his bear to tell him she was unhappy or that he needed to fix it.
She started to speak before he could ask her about her mood.
“You know,” she sighed and he leaned against the frame of the car to look at her, drinking in the sight of her and the sound of her voice, “I’m not a big fan of the name for female bears. Sows.” She cringed and her nose scrunched up. “I know what it means, but it always makes me think of a nursing pig.” She lifted her hands and moved them over her chest. “Don’t you?”
Doesn’t he what?
His cognitive mind shut off as his instinct surged to the forefront. Images of his hands exploring her breasts and then other delicious parts of her had his throat working hard to swallow and his pants tight enough to strangle off the flow of blood to his cock.
“I’m sorry,” she offered, her voice a soft hush in the interior of the car, “I didn’t mean-”
He swallowed the rest of her apology. Lips on hers, one hand on the frame and the other on the dash, he managed not to maul her and strip her naked in his car.
Oh, he wanted to.
So did his bear.
Yes.
But he wanted more… for her.
And then her hand touched his chest, finding dead center on his heart. The shirt he’d hastily pulled on wasn’t much more than a flimsy barrier between them.
“Oh, come on! Get a room!”
Conor turned as fast as lightning, shi
elding Hollis from the intruder.
“Wolf.”
Dominic Vestri, or whatever name he was using that week, was crossing through the lot toward his old Mustang. “Your energy is bleeding all over the lot. If you don’t want someone coming out here to challenge you for her you better get going.”
Conor’s eyes narrowed at the other shifter. “What do you mean?”
Dom lifted his nose slightly in the air and drew in a breath. His shaggy hair fell back from his face and his mustache did little to block the scents from his nose.
“She’s aroused and unmarked. If you think they’ll leave her alone out of respect for you, you’ve got another thing coming.
“You took some good hits back there and you’re mostly healed up, but this parking lot might turn into a riot if you don’t get her home.
“Cage and I would hold some of them back but if they come in numbers-”
Conor made sure that Hollis was safely tucked into the vehicle before he shut the door securely and stalked around the back of the large sport utility vehicle. “Point taken.”
The other man waved it off. “I got my work out tonight. I don’t need more blood on my hands.”
Conor started the vehicle and pulled it out onto the street, heading for the road that began the outer ring of the island.
Once they were safely on the way with no sign of a car behind them, Conor looked over and met her eyes again. “Don’t apologize to me.”
“I- I just wasn’t sure if it was something I said.” She shook her head. “You got really quiet all of a sudden.”
“It was, but it wasn’t because I was upset.” He gripped the wheel a little tighter. “I was thinking of how you would feel in my hands. How you would feel and taste in my mouth.”
He heard her sudden indrawn breath.
“Oh.”
Conor heard her surprise at his words and fought to keep his desires in check. There was something hesitant about her in her manner. He saw flashes of fire when she was looking at him.
And yes, just like Dominic had noted, Hollis had been aroused by him.
It was unmistakable, but that didn’t mean she was ready for him to mark her. Sex wasn’t the same for everyone. Shifters were like any other man. Many of them enjoyed numerous partners and didn’t think much beyond finding their own pleasure.
Hollis was different. He knew that on sight. And every look at her told him the same thing. Hollis was not experienced sexually and everything in him was roaring his approval. No mate wanted to think of another man touching his mate.
But even if his bear was very clear in what he wanted to happen once they had their mate alone, he needed her to know something first.
“I should wait for a better time to say this,” he began, hoping that he would find the right words, “but I just want you to know that while you’re here, until you’re ready for something to happen between us… it’s not going to happen.” He darted a glance at her as the road curved to follow the shoreline and then dragging his gaze back toward the road ahead. Did she have to be so beautiful?
Ours.
He shoved his bear out of the way and kept a hold on the steering wheel.
“Do you understand what I’m telling you?”
He saw movement out of the corner of his eye and turned to look as they continued on, drawing ever closer to his home.
“I think so.” Hollis nodded, a very distinct movement of her head. “So it’s up to me. What I want.”
Conor sighed in relief. That was one worry out of the way.
And it was the hesitant smile he saw on her lips when he took another quick look at her in the passenger seat that had his chest puffing up with pride.
#
It was amazing how things were different just a few hours away from where she’d lived her entire life. It was almost as if the world had turned upside down and all the blood had rushed to her head, making her a little dizzy.
He was happy.
Satisfied.
The emotions rolled off of him in waves and instead of feeling like the lesser of the two people in his car, she felt as if she was the one with the most power.
The Alpha.
Goodness, how crazy was that!
Then again, there was no mistaking the fact that Conor was the stronger of the two. He was literally in the driver’s seat, but he’d given her the control.
She could only imagine what kind of an effort it took for him to offer her that control, and she wanted to thank him somehow. She didn’t have gifts to give him. When she’d left to meet Gerri Wilder she hadn’t planned to keep going, further from home.
All she had was the heart beating wildly in her chest and the words that she might be able to string together.
“Besides Gerri,” she freed the words from her throat and let them burst from her lips, “I think you’re the only one who’s ever cared about what I want.”
“And I mean it, Hollis.” She saw the strong line of his jaw tense. “We mean it. This happens when you want it. I want you, make no mistake about it. We need you. You’re our mate and our future, but I won’t mark you until you’re sure.”
She shook her head. “You must think I’m crazy. You’re hot,” she laughed at herself, “so damn hot and I’m standing here like it would take more than a second to agree to be yours.”
She heard the heavy, satisfied chuff of sound from his throat and knew that his bear was close.
“But it’s more than that, isn’t it?” The look he gave her made her feel like he’d wrapped his arms around her, but he hadn’t moved from his place in the driver’s seat. “What kind of choices have you had in your life?”
When she remained silent, he continued on and she heard his voice tighten.
“Well that stops now.” His words had a finality to them that made her feel like the door to her past had swung closed. “Starting now, you’ll have choices. So many of them that you might think I’m crazy, but that’s how it’s going to be.
“You’re not ‘stuck’ here with me, Hollis. What you want, you just have to ask for.”
She shook her head and barely managed to meet his gaze. “I don’t want you to feel like you have to pamper me or give me a lot of attention. That’s not what I’m looking for.”
He kept his hand on the steering wheel, anchoring him in place. And the look in his eyes did the same thing to her.
“If I could,” he leaned a little closer, “I would spend every moment of the rest of our lives taking care of you.”
“That sounds amazing.” She blinked back tears that suddenly welled up in her eyes, but her voice was tight and bland.
“You sound like you don’t believe me.” His tone wasn’t angry, but there was a note of sadness in it.
“Oh, I do!” She rushed out the words so fast and made her tone so bright that she knew she sounded like the worst liar ever. “I mean, I want to believe. I’m just used to everyone treating me like a consolation prize that it’s just a little hard to believe someone like you-”
“The only thing I am,” his words came out slowly and each syllable marched along one after another, “is your mate. Your other half. Who knows,” she felt the mood lightening inside the vehicle and had a feeling he was trying to take care of her again, “I might have gone crazy if I hadn’t found my mate. I might have roamed the woods… eating hikers that I found in my travels.”
A soft sputter of laughter touched her lips. “You wouldn’t have done that.” Her bright tone was tinged with a touch of worry. “Right?”
“I’d like to say no, but…” he drew in a deep breath and the set of his features said that there might have been a note of truth to his earlier words, “I was going a little stir crazy before I got the call from Gerri. After that, I was going a little crazy waiting for you to arrive.”
“And now that I’m here?” Goodness, she was almost flirting with him.
“Now that you’re here?” His breath tickled the shell of her ear. “Now that I know what we’re
going to be to each other. I can take a few breaths, relax a little.”
She shook herself, trying to clear her thoughts. “Good. I know it’s going to take me some time to get ready for it.”
He turned down another road and pulled off to the side of the road. Turning slightly, he laid his arm over the back of her car seat and gave her a curious look. “Are you scared?”
“A little.” Hollis folded her hands in her lap and almost met his eyes. “A lot actually.”
She expected him to ask another question, but he sat quietly and waited. All of that power and his fierce nature were sitting there waiting for her.
“I haven’t done it. I haven’t even come close. A few kisses that felt… odd. Wooden. Until you kissed me.”
“And that was different?”
She flushed and felt heat rising under her skin. “You know it was. You know I was… you know.”
“Aroused?”
Heaven help her, he sounded proud of himself.
“Yes. I was. I think I still am.”
She felt his thumb smooth over the nape of her neck and she shuddered at the contact.
“I just don’t know exactly what to expect.” Honesty, she told herself. “I’ve heard some of the women talking. They enjoyed it.” She laughed and felt a self-conscious flush color her face and the skin across her chest. “They enjoyed it a lot. And I know you’ll take care of me. You wouldn’t want to hurt me. So as long as you don’t mind me sitting there scared out of my mind-”
“I told you that you would have choices, Hollis, and I meant it. When you’re ready for my mark, I’ll give it to you.” He let out a long shuddering breath. “Until then whatever you need from me, you’ll get.”
She untangled her fingers and lifted a hand. She touched her fingertips to his chest and let them drift down, discovering by touch the taut perfection of his body through his shirt.
“What if I wanted you to touch me?” she wondered aloud. “What if I wanted to feel what it was like to have your skin slide against mine?”
Hollis felt him shake as if the earth was trembling beneath them and the vibrations worked their way up through their bodies and the physical connection of her hand against him.
“Whatever you want, love.” The way he spoke the word did something to her insides. It melted her and set her aflame all at once. “That’s what you’ll get.”