Other than finding our mate, his bear reminded him.
I’m certain Betsy doesn’t know about shifters, Beck reminded his bear.
“So why do you have this sudden…thing…for Kassia?” Betsy leaned forward, her voice low. “I’ve seen the way people in Bear Creek fall in love like this.” She pointed her finger at Beck. “And I can see it’s love.”
“You’ve got me.” Beck held his hands up in surrender. “Although, I don’t know if Kassia is ready for me to call it love.”
“She’s been hurt. Badly hurt. She was engaged.” Betsy ground her back teeth together as if trying to figure out if she should say more.
“And he betrayed her.” Beck nodded. “I don’t know the details, but I’m guessing it was bad.”
“Very bad.” Betsy leaned so far forward, Beck reached out his hand to stop her from falling out of bed. “There was a court case. She lost her job and everything.”
“I’m sorry to hear that,” Beck said honestly.
“So am I.” Betsy’s eyes flicked toward the door. “But now I see it as an opportunity. I want Kassia to come and live here in Bear Creek.”
“That would be great.” Beck nodded. “But only if that’s what she wants.”
“I don’t think she knows what she wants right now,” Betsy admitted. “She’s confused. Which is why I’m asking you not to hurt her.”
“I don’t intend to,” Beck promised.
“Well, that’s what I thought.” Her expression grew stern. “But then that’s what Kassia thought about Travis.”
“I’m not Travis,” Beck reminded Betsy. “And I have only Kassia’s best interests at heart. I aim to make her happy.”
“Good. Then we’re on the same team.” Betsy folded her arms across her body as she leaned back against her pillows. “She always wanted children. Travis robbed her of her dreams.” Betsy held her hand up. “Not physically. But mentally and emotionally. After what happened, she said she wasn’t interested in men. You have a chance to change her mind. Make sure you don’t blow it.”
“I will try my hardest not to.” He sat back as he sensed Kassia coming up the stairs.
“You know, that’s one more thing I’ve noticed about the people of Bear Creek,” Betsy commented. “Some of you seem to have this sixth sense.” Her eyes narrowed as she stared at him.
She suspects there is something different about us, but she doesn’t know about shifters, his bear said.
I think we’re going to have to tell her. Once we’ve explained things to Kassia. Beck glanced toward the door as his mate came back into the room.
“That smells good.” His mouth watered as the aroma of warm apple pie reached him.
“I hope it tastes good, too. It’s been a while since I baked.” Kassia set the tray containing three bowls of apple pie and ice cream down on the table. “What were you two whispering about?”
Her question caught Betsy off guard and her cheeks flushed with color. “Oh, we were just talking…about how we’d both like you to stay in Bear Creek.”
One of the bowls clattered onto the table as it slipped out of Kassia’s fingers. “I’ve only just arrived. I don’t think I’m ready to make any decisions about the rest of my life yet.”
“We know, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t discuss it. Make you feel welcome. Make you feel needed.” Betsy smiled at her niece. “But we both agreed it should be your choice. That you should do whatever makes you happy.”
Beck accepted a bowl of dessert. “Thanks.” He looked up apologetically.
“What would make me happy is for us all to eat dessert and then for Beck to help me do the dishes while you settle down and watch TV.” Kassia leaned forward. “Your cheeks look flushed. I hope you aren’t coming down with a fever.”
“No, I feel fine,” Betsy assured her. “I think it’s the excitement of having a young man in my bedroom.” She winked at Beck and then laughed. “I’m not used to company at home, so forgive my meddling.”
“All forgiven.” Kassia pointed to Betsy’s pie. “So, what is your verdict on my baking?”
Betsy ate a spoonful. “Delicious. Really good.”
“Thanks. I was worried I might not have inherited the ability to bake.” Kassia half-turned to Beck who had been keeping out of the conversation. He didn’t agree with Betsy trying to steamroll Kassia into agreeing to move to Bear Creek. However, he certainly wouldn’t complain if she did.
“No, you have passed the baking test.” Betsy savored her apple pie, eating it slowly and enjoying each mouthful. Beck wanted to do the same, but it was so delicious he wolfed it down.
“There’s more downstairs, if you want some more,” Kassia offered.
“I don’t want to look greedy, but I might take you up on that offer.” Beck stood up and placed the bowls and glasses on the tray. “I’ll help you clear everything away first, though.”
“Thanks.” Kassia turned a stern eye on Betsy. “Get some rest.”
“I will.” Betsy picked up the remote control and began searching through Netflix for something to watch.
“It’s going to be a long few days,” Kassia sliced another piece of pie for Beck and then fetched Betsy’s special ice cream from the freezer. “Betsy is not going to be an easy patient. Not when the novelty of having me around wears off and she gets stir-crazy.”
“Thank you.” Beck leaned against the counter, watching her while he ate. “Are you sure the novelty will wear off? She likes having you around.”
“I know.” Kassia admitted as she ran hot water into the sink and added dish soap to the running water before plunging the glasses into the suds. “I just need to be careful that whatever decisions I make about my life are my decisions and not because I’m being pushed one way or another.”
“Or pulled,” Beck said lightly.
“Or pulled. It’s tempting to think about moving here and making a fresh start, and I certainly need one of those.” Her hands hovered over the sink as she lost herself in memories.
“What’s stopping you?” Beck grinned. “Honestly, if we flipped the question on its head, what is stopping you from moving here?”
“I don’t know.” Kassia washed the glasses and set them down on the drainer. “I suppose it’s the upheaval, of leaving behind everything I know. The people I know. People who supported me through the hard times.”
“You’re scared.” Beck’s offered excuse made Kassia frown, but she didn’t deny it. “Being scared is good. Fear helps us to protect ourselves. Letting that fear hold you back is not good.”
“So why did you leave Bear Creek for a year if it’s such a good place to live?” Kassia’s question was unexpected and he wasn’t prepared to give an answer right now. A fact she surmised from his expression. “You don’t want to talk about it.”
“Leaving had nothing to do with the town. It had more to do with my feelings toward my brother and my stupid pride.” He shrugged. “I took time out, reevaluated my life choices and came home.”
“It took a year?” Kassia finished washing the glasses and moved on to the plates. “Where did you go? Anywhere exciting.”
“Not exciting in a good way.” Beck placed the glasses down on the counter. “I learned a lot about myself which was the point of me going away. I also learned how important my family was to me. Which is why I came back.”
“Aunt Betsy is the only family I have left.” Kassia placed the plates on the drainer and turned to look out of the kitchen as if she could see her aunt upstairs. “Seeing her in bed like that…it’s made me think I should move here just so she has someone.”
“You shouldn’t make decisions based on what you think you should do or what you ought to do.” Beck desperately wanted to tell Kassia she should pack up her old life and move to Bear Creek right now. And not just move to Bear Creek but move in with him.
Move into a house we haven’t built yet, his bear suggested.
Good point, Beck replied.
“What about us?” Ka
ssia asked bluntly. “You tell me we are meant to be together. You moved back here to be with your family. So why aren’t you telling me to move?”
“Because part of the feelings I have for you mean that I want you to be happy above all else. If I convince you to do something you don’t want to do or that isn’t right for you, then that would hurt you, which is something I would never want to do.” He shrugged as her mouth fell open. “You asked.”
“Let me get this straight. You and I are meant to be together…for whatever reason.” She nodded and he mirrored her action. “And you would pretty much sacrifice your own happiness for me.”
“Yes.”
“So if I said I wanted to live in the city on the other side of the world, far away from the people you know and love and the mountains and the wide-open space, you would do it?” Her words tumbled out of her mouth.
“Yes.”
“That is messed up.” She looked at him sideways. “Are you making this up?”
“No.” He picked up a plate and focused on drying it very carefully. “I mean every word.”
“That’s hard to believe.” She gave a short laugh. “And this is from a person who was sucked in by a man who swore his undying love to me and gave me a huge, fake engagement ring before he screwed me over.”
Beck nearly dropped the plate. Taking a deep, steadying breath to control his anger, he set the plate down on the counter. “A fake engagement ring. No wonder you have trust issues.”
Kassia snorted then blushed furiously. “Sorry.” She rubbed her hand across her nose.
“Where’s the guy now?” Beck asked, his voice cold and hard.
“Oh, he’s rotting in jail. It’s a long and sordid story but basically, I was stopped at the airport with a not so small amount of diamonds in my luggage. Luckily they were onto him and instead of throwing my ass in jail, they persuaded me to set up a sting.” Kassia shook the soap suds off her hands and then dried them. “I think I need more wine.”
She went to the fridge and took out the half-empty bottle and set it down on the counter.
“I’m fine.” Beck put his hand up as she offered to pour him a glass of wine. “I have to drive home.”
Kassia looked at him for a long moment before she poured the wine. “I loved him.” She pressed her lips together. “I really did.” A tear rolled down her cheek and she wiped it away before she took a long drink of wine. “I try to kid myself that I only thought I loved him, but I know deep down that I did.” Her forehead creased. “At least I was in love with the version of himself he sold to me.”
“There’s nothing to be ashamed of,” Beck told her gently as he dried the last of the plates and set the dishcloth down. “We all want to be happy. We all want to be loved.”
Her jaw tensed. She was fighting back tears. “I’m no spring chicken. My biological clock is ticking away. Counting down the days, months and years until I’ll be too old to have children.” She sniffed loudly. “I wanted the whole package. And he offered it to me.”
Beck wanted to hunt down this Travis idiot and rip his throat out. At least his bear did.
As for the human side of Beck, he wanted to hold Kassia in his arms and tell her it was all right and that he wanted the whole package, too.
But only with her. No one else would ever do.
Chapter Eight – Kassia
Talking to Beck was cathartic. He listened and understood. Whereas most other people, Aunt Betsy included, would listen and judge. Just as the various police officers and detectives had judged her. Not always with words, although a couple of the detectives earlier on in the investigation had questioned whether Kassia was a part of Travis’s undercover smuggling ring. Particularly when she’d tried to persuade them that the man who had hidden the diamonds in a false bottom of the designer handbag, that he’d given her as an engagement gift, truly loved her and that there must be some mistake.
It soon became apparent there was no mistake and that Kassia wasn’t the first naive woman he’d duped.
“I’m sorry Travis hurt you.” Beck’s kind words soothed her.
“It’s not your fault.” She sipped her wine and let herself relax. Travis was in the past and Kassia was damn sure he wasn’t going to destroy her future. The future that stood in front of her in the shape of Beck.
“If I’d have found you sooner, Travis wouldn’t have stood a chance.” He gave her a crooked smile. “I want to make you the same promises he made, but I won’t, because I’m not him.”
“I don’t need anyone to make me promises,” Kassia admitted. “I need someone to show me who they really are. So that I believe in them. Anyone can say the words I longed to hear. I’ve learned that the hard way. But to make me believe in them, that is going to take some doing.”
Was she challenging Beck? He was the most incredibly handsome man, with his dark brooding eyes and mop of hair that looked as if it hadn’t been cut in the year he was away. Coupled with his broad shoulders and toned abs and completed by full lips that made her go weak at the knees when he smiled, he was her kind of perfect. Her kind of Mr. Right.
How had she ever handed that crown to Travis?
“I can make you believe in me,” he said confidently as he sidled toward her. “But you have to promise not to scream.”
Kassia nearly inhaled the mouthful of wine she was about to swallow and broke the mood entirely as she coughed and spluttered to clear her airways. “Sorry.”
“That’s okay. I’m glad I have an effect on you.” His hand was warm and comforting as he rubbed her back. “Anything I can get you?”
“I think I might switch to coffee,” she squeaked as she turned around and slammed straight into his rock-hard chest. “There you are.”
“Here I am.” His full lips curled up at the corners, mesmerizing her.
“I should run away from you right now, Beck.” She tore her gaze from his lips and looked him straight in the eye. “You have this power over me. And it scares me.”
“But does it excite you, too?” he asked. “Does it make your insides turn to fire and make you crave me like a flower craves the sun?”
“So, you’re my sun now?” Kassia’s attempt to be flippant failed. “I don’t know. I don’t want to think that far ahead or that deeply. Not tonight. We’ve only just met, and this all seems too intense too soon.”
“And you’ve been burned once already.” Beck nodded in understanding and turned away from her. He straightened the chairs around the table and then folded the dishtowel even though it didn’t need folding. Beck was nervous and she hated the tension between them.
“I’ll make that coffee.” Kassia walked past him and reached for the coffee pot. “I want this.”
Beck looked at her over his shoulder. “I know.”
“I just need to be sure.” She gave him a sad smile. “I wish I’d met you before Travis.”
“But if you hadn’t experienced Travis, you wouldn’t be here. Right here, right now.” Beck’s expression faltered.
“And if you hadn’t experienced…whatever it is you experienced during your travels, you might not have been in the middle of the street cutting up a tree. We might never have met.” She slid her hands against each other. “Two people passing incredibly close but their lives never touching.”
“Fate.” Beck was deadly serious as he said the word. A word Kassia had never believed in until now. It was hard to deny meeting Beck and her feelings for him weren’t destiny.
Kassia made the coffee and handed him a cup. “Let’s sit down. It’s been a busy and eventful day and I think if I don’t sit down for a moment and enjoy my coffee, I might fall down instead.”
“Then I could look after you like you are looking after Betsy.” He grinned. “You would be my prisoner.”
She chuckled. “And there was me just beginning to think you were halfway normal.”
“I am halfway normal,” Beck admitted with a twinkle in his eye. “And later, you can meet the not so normal part of me.�
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Kassia’s forehead creased as she studied Beck. “You know, if you are trying to win me over, then you are not doing a great job of it. Telling me you have a hidden side is not a comforting thought. Particularly when my former fiancé also had a hidden side.”
“Ah, but my hidden side is much nicer. In a cuddly kind of way.” He arched one eyebrow. “I should ask you to guess what you think it is.”
“Oh, I’m terrible at guessing anything. If anyone ever asks me to guess their age, I’m horrible at it. I either insult people by guessing too low or too high.” She cupped her coffee cup in her hands and shook her head. “I so want a simple life.”
“That’s what I want, too.” He reached across the table and took hold of her hand. “I’m a complicated person, Kassia. I don’t deny it. But during my time away from Bear Creek, I did a lot of thinking and have a solid idea of what it is I want from life. So to come back here and meet you almost instantly makes me think fate sees that I’ve changed. That I’m ready to be a husband and a father.”
“Ready to be the man of my dreams.” She put her free hand to her temple and blew out a long breath. “I’m going to blame the wine for that.”
“Blame whatever you want.” His sensual lips curved into a smile that bordered on smug. “But we both know I am the man of your dreams.”
Color crept across Kassia’s cheeks and she lifted her coffee cup and drained it before she pulled her hand away from his and got up. “Speaking of dreams, I should go and get Betsy ready for bed.”
“Do you want me to stay?” Beck asked bluntly. “I’ll wait here for you. If that’s what you want. Or I can go, and I’ll see you tomorrow.”
Seeing her tomorrow wasn’t a question. There was no escaping Beck, even if she wanted to. Kassia swallowed down her panic. He was a good man. He wasn’t some crazed stalker who had infiltrated her life with a plan to take it over.
“Why don’t you stay,” she answered bravely. “Then after Betsy is settled, we can talk more about this other side of yours.”
“Deal.” He lifted his coffee cup to his lips and drank deeply, while she placed her cup in the sink and headed out of the kitchen. His eyes seared her skin. She didn’t have to see him watching her, she knew his eyes never left her until she turned to go up the stairs.
Beck (Winter - Shifter Seasons Book 2) Page 6