Grizzly Secret (Arcadian Bears Book 3) Page 4

  Alton had no intentions of making the place livable by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, he’d shoved the couch back several feet to get it out of the way, and he’d brought a pile of blankets over the past few weeks and dropped them on the rug in the center of the room.

  If he ever managed to get Joselyn to meet him at the cabin, his only goal was to protect them from the elements and keep them relatively warm so they wouldn’t freeze their asses off and need to rush back down the mountain.

  It wasn’t the ideal location to woo a woman, but it was better than nothing.

  Alton rubbed his forehead as he paced the few feet between the front door and the small table. The only other door in the one-room cabin led to a basement, or rather a cellar. The room below had nothing but a small cot in it and a narrow window high on the wall at ground level. It gave him the chills the one and only time he’d ventured down there.

  The personal fight warring in his head to let her go had lasted about two weeks. In that time, he’d even gone to the town’s one and only local bar—Tipsy’s—in an attempt to mingle and put himself out there.

  The effort had been futile and repulsive. No woman managed to turn his head, let alone awaken his dick. No matter how many beers he nursed, he couldn’t shake Joselyn from his mind and replace her with another.

  Meanwhile, his hand and his cock were well acquainted. He’d jerked himself off to visions of Joselyn at least once a day for weeks. Months.

  Embarrassingly ridiculous was the fact that he’d never had sex with any woman. At twenty-five, he’d known Joselyn was his for over half his life. No other female had tempted him to cheat on her. It was absurd since he’d never so much as touched her, let alone dated her, but the touch of another woman had a tendency to make him cringe. So he hadn’t fucked a single one of them.

  He knew Joselyn wouldn’t have, either. At least he hoped not. He had no claim to her other than what his mind knew to be true, so he couldn’t very well be angry if she’d experimented with other men in her life, but it would be painful to find out.

  As if he didn’t have enough on his mind, his brewery was in the process of developing and launching a new product line that was sure to put an increased strain on the relationship he did not have with the competitor’s daughter.

  He sighed, closing his eyes while he rubbed his temples. “Fuck.” It seemed like his entire world was a mix-up, like Fate played some sort of trick on him, placing him in the wrong family or the wrong providence, or the wrong century. Whatever it was, it wasn’t funny anymore.

  On top of everything going on in his real life, he spent at least two hours every Sunday night standing in this dilapidated old cabin hoping Joselyn would take him up on his offer and meet him.

  She hadn’t communicated with him a single time in two months. Not since the weird phone call that ended with her freaking out and hanging up on him for no apparent reason other than the possible fact that she didn’t like him calling her baby.

  Did he insult her in some way? He couldn’t imagine how, but she still refused to respond to him since that night. And he refused to give up on her.

  So he’d texted her the precise location of this godforsaken cabin six weeks ago and then reminded her every Sunday evening he was there if she would please join him.

  How many weeks would he continue to put himself out there like this emotionally and physically?

  As many as it takes.

  Taking a deep breath, he froze in his spot, dropping his fingers from his temples and widening his gaze to the darkness of the room. Another breath confirmed the unmistakable scent of his mate. He inhaled slowly, his hands shaking as he wiped them on his thighs.

  Holy shit. She’s here.

  Nerves ate a hole in him like a fifteen-year-old boy on his first date. Except this was not a date. He had no idea what it was. There was every chance in the world she would show up yelling at him to stop texting her and leave her the fuck alone.

  He would gladly face even her wrath if it put them in the same room. He was that whipped.

  The door creaked slowly open as he stared at it, and he said nothing as she stepped into the small space and shut it behind her.

  For several seconds, neither of them spoke. The room was lit only by the faint trace of moonlight streaming through the two small windows on opposite walls of the cabin, but the vision of a grizzly shifter was sharp enough for them to see fine.

  Finally, Joselyn blew out a breath, leaning against the door.

  “You came.”

  “I shouldn’t have, but yes.” She met his gaze. “You’re persistent.”

  “I am. When it’s important.”

  “How is it so important to maintain a relationship with me? I would describe it as dangerous and playing with fire.”

  “It’s both of those things. No doubt. But it’s also undeniable that I can’t stop thinking about you.” It was time to throw everything on the table and toss in his heart.

  She reached behind for the doorknob, making him lurch forward to stop her from leaving.

  To avoid his touch, she jumped to one side out of the way and circled to the back of the dingy old couch, her arms wrapped around her middle.

  He leaned against the door, blocking her exit, at least for a while.

  “So I’m a hostage now?” she asked sarcastically.

  He moaned. “Dammit, Jos. Don’t do that. Don’t act like this is all on me. Just…don’t.” Never once in all the years had he forced her to face the truth or prevented her from walking away from reality. It was time to put his foot down and insist she listen to reason for a change.

  She hugged herself tighter, shutting herself off from him. “Fine. What do you need to say? I can’t stay long.”

  “You know me, Jos. Better than anyone. You know I would never do a thing to hurt you. But I also won’t let you hurt yourself. And unless I’m deranged, we’re meant to be mates. I’ve known it for most of my life, and I know you have too.”

  She didn’t speak, but she did cock out one hip and settled the corresponding foot at an angle.

  He could smell the anxiety coming from her. In the tight space, he could sense her increased heart rate. Good.

  “We have hurdles that seem insurmountable. I get that. You aren’t the only one with family and pack obligations. Mine are the same. It’s the reason why I let you walk away from me and return to Silvertip after university.

  “I could have pressured you then. Maybe I should have. But I knew how much your family meant to you, and I didn’t want to be the catalyst that upset your relationship with anyone, so I let you go. Maybe I shouldn’t have. Maybe I should have insisted we run off together. Bind.”

  She flinched subtly, enough to let him know he was getting to her.

  “I’ve given you years to find yourself. Grow into the woman you are today. I’ve waited patiently for you to realize on your own that we were meant to be together. I’ve never broken a single promise to you to keep my distance, keep my hands off you, hold my tongue.”

  She gave a sharp laugh.

  “Okay, maybe I don’t always hold my tongue, but far more often than you can imagine.” He took a tentative step away from the door. “Things are not improving within my pack. I had hoped to get a feel from my family that they would lighten up on their incessant need to feud with yours, giving us the opportunity to come clean. But if anything, it’s been worse lately. Tempers are flaring.”

  “Same in my pack,” she muttered.

  He nodded. “I need more, Jos.” There was no way he would force her, but he would give this one last-ditch effort to convince her to see things his way. “If I’m crazy and this entire thing we have is all in my head, I need to know that. I need to prove it so I can move on.”

  Did she give a subtle nod?

  He swallowed and held his head higher. “Baby, let me touch you. Let me hold you. If the spark isn’t there, we’ll know. If it is, we’ll deal with it.” He watched her carefully as he used the endearm
ent.

  She dropped her hands to her sides and licked her lips. “I’m scared,” she whispered.

  “I know, Jos. So am I. Frightened out of my mind. But we have to know.”

  “What happens if we find out you’re right? What if the spark is there and we can’t deny it?” She took deep breaths. He didn’t interrupt her, sensing she had something else to say. She continued. “What if I find out what I’ve suspected most of my life?”

  Finally. Finally, she admitted she felt the same thing he did. Headway.

  “We figure it out. We deal with it.”

  Pain covered her face. She lifted one hand to wipe a tear where it slid down her cheek. She turned her face to one side. Her voice trembled when she spoke again, tentatively, softly. “I don’t need to touch you to know you’re mine. I’m yours. I’ve always known.”

  His heart kicked up a beat. His cock also jumped to attention, stiffening further than it had already the moment he scented her outside the cabin.

  Her hesitation was palpable. Taking this leap was huge. He knew it. He’d let her keep her distance for all these years because of it, but if he wasn’t mistaken, she needed him to take charge now and press the issue further than he ever had.

  “Jos.”

  She didn’t move.

  “Jos, look at me.”

  She slowly turned her face in his direction, wiping that damn tear again. It tore him up inside to see her in so much turmoil. Shaking. Frightened. Afraid to face the truth.

  “Jos… Baby, take off your coat.” He nodded toward his jacket where it was draped over one of the two ancient wooden kitchen chairs. “It’s not that cold in here.” The heat coming off their bodies from the intensity of this meeting was enough to light a fire.

  She took small, tentative steps toward the table, slid her arms out of her thick winter coat, and draped it on top of his. When she turned to face him, she rubbed her arms. The long-sleeved, black shirt she wore was tight fitting and dipped low in the front, showing off her cleavage. Had she worn it on purpose?

  He fought the urge to smile. “Come here, Jos.” He wouldn’t go to her, but he would insist she come to him.

  She rounded the couch, arms crossed in a way that pushed her breasts up higher and made her nipples pucker. Beneath the V of her shirt, he could see the edge of a black lacy bra that made him groan inside. She never dressed provocatively. Ever. Not that this particular outfit was provocative by most people’s standards, but for her it was huge.

  For her, coming to meet him in a remote cabin in the woods was beyond huge.

  He wondered how long she had pondered the decision to wear the particular bra and shirt combination and how many clothes were on her floor at home.

  She stood two feet from him, facing the floor. Her usual ponytail fell around the sides of her head in thick gorgeous locks.

  “Look at me, Jos.”

  She was pale when she lifted her face, tipping her head back to meet his gaze. She wasn’t a short woman. She was six feet tall. Most grizzlies were taller than humans. But she was still five inches shorter than him. Her throat worked as he watched her swallow several times.

  He could scent her arousal. Stronger than any time in the past.

  Was he doing the right thing pressuring her like this?

  Yes. He had to believe this was the right thing to do. Later they would sort out the complications. For now, what they both needed was confirmation. Assurance they were not mistaken. Not that he had doubts. Nor did she. But proof would tip the scale. Proof they would have as soon as they touched. Skin to skin.

  “Jos… Touch me.” The words slid easily from his mouth now, empowering him with every utterance.

  She stiffened as more of her arousal filled the room. “It’s a bad idea,” she murmured.

  He knew the war that raged inside her was fierce. He also knew she wouldn’t have come to this cabin tonight—wearing that shirt—if she hadn’t already decided to give an inch.

  He lifted one hand between them and held it out, palm up. “Take my hand.”

  She stared into his eyes for several more moments before she lowered her gaze and lifted her hand. It was shaking hard. Her fingers looked so small and dainty next to his.

  As she eased her reach forward, he knew this would be a monumental moment in both their lives they would never forget.

  The second her fingertips hit his, a zing of excitement raced through him. Heat. Arousal. Electricity. Need. A consuming desire to strip her clothes off and devour every inch of her body from head to toe.

  He didn’t move a muscle, letting her smooth her hand over his until their palms touched. And then he wrapped his fingers around hers and brought her palm to his face, tipping his cheek into her hand.

  She gasped but didn’t pull away.

  He grabbed onto and held her gaze.

  Oh yeah. The last shred of doubt fled the cabin.

  Joselyn Arthur was his.

  ∙•∙

  Joselyn flattened her palm on Alton’s smoothly shaved cheek and stared up into his chocolate eyes, opening her mind just enough to let him see how much he affected her.

  She could see into his mind too. She so entranced him that it cost him a tremendous amount of effort to remain still and allow her to move at her pace. The deep feelings she’d had for him for several years grew even more intense at the realization of the level of his restraint. Restraint he’d carried with him all this time.

  Not to diminish her own restraint. It had put stress on her for the same number of years, but she knew now it didn’t compare to his. Because he was male? Or because he was…dominant?

  Not that every male member of her species was dominant. Not by a long shot. But for all these years, she had called the shots with a man she now saw through new eyes.

  Alton Tarben had worked hard to hold back his natural alpha tendency to dominate her nearly their entire lives. It humbled her to see this in his mind. It also made her pussy cream.

  How far would she let things go here tonight in this dingy cabin in the middle of nowhere? The test had been for her to touch him. Now she was touching him, and it wasn’t nearly enough. She needed more.

  She stuffed her ever-present doubts down deep and reached with her other hand to hold his face. A heady sense of power washed through her as she smoothed her palms down to his neck, thumbing the pulse point where she could easily close the distance and bind him to her for all time.

  She stared at the spot where his shoulders and neck came together. In two seconds, she could close the distance, press her teeth into the tender flesh, and allow her personal serum to flow into his bloodstream, binding them together.

  She wouldn’t, but she had never been more aware of the power to bind that could consume a couple. It would drive them mad in no time. “Kiss me,” she blurted, jerking her gaze back to his.

  He licked his lips, his damn tongue stroking across first the full bottom lip and then the fuller top one. Lips she had fantasized about for years. She needed them on hers. She needed to feel them all over her body. She needed to do the same to him.

  “You’re sure?” he asked, his voice gravelly.

  “Never been more sure of anything,” she replied.

  At the same time his lips captured hers, his hands landed on her waist. He gripped her firmly, angling his head to one side to lick the seam of her mouth, demanding entrance.

  She opened for him, tasting him for the first time, an experience ten times stronger than touching him. Her knees threatened to buckle and might have if he hadn’t been holding her up by the waist.

  When he slid one hand around to her back to drag her against his body, she knew he would support her. His palm trailed up her back to tangle in her ponytail, tugging her head gently to one side so he could gain better access to her mouth.

  He tasted exactly as she imagined, the scent of his pheromones that always filled a room warning her of his flavor.

  He stroked the inside of her mouth forever, suckled her tongue
, flattened his on her teeth. When he finally released her lips to trail kisses down her neck, she gasped for oxygen.

  “Alton…” His name slid off her tongue like a balm. Her tone was new to her ears as well as his.

  He slid his hand farther up into her hair and tugged the band restraining it until the thick locks fell around her shoulders and down her back. His other hand flattened on the small of her back, his pinky touching the sliver of bare skin between her shirt and her jeans.

  She wanted more. She wanted him to strip her down and fuck her right there in the cabin. To hell with the consequences.

  Her awareness of his power doubled when he flicked his tongue over the sensitive skin of her neck and scraped his teeth along the tendon. Part of her willed him to do it. Bite her. Put an end to this insanity.

  But she had enough brain cells left to know better than to act so hastily. “Alton,” she warned into his mind. She had rarely spoken to him telepathically. For one thing, they never needed to. When they were together, they could speak their minds out loud. When they were apart, they were usually at a distance that didn’t permit such intimate communication. Unbound couples could not communicate into each other’s minds when they were separated by more than about fifty yards.

  He slid his lips farther down to kiss her cleavage. “Baby, I would never seal you to me without your permission. Relax.”

  His words calmed her. Of course he wouldn’t. Obviously, he was a man with far more restraint than she’d ever given him credit for.

  When his lips hit the upper swell of her breasts, she shuddered, leaning back to give him more access.

  Alton groaned, separating his mouth from her skin for the first time.

  He met her gaze, his brow furrowed. His pinky was the only thing moving, drawing small circles on the small of her back. Did he have any idea what that did to her?

  If so, he didn’t care. He certainly didn’t stop. “Well, that answers that question.”

  “Yes,” she agreed breathily. “But—”

  He shook his head, cutting her off. “Don’t give this a but yet. Please. I just confirmed what I’ve known in my heart for most of my life. Give me a moment to enjoy holding my mate in my arms for the first time before you drag reality back into the equation.”