Baby Protector Bear: BBW Bear Shifter Baby Paranormal Romance (Who's the Daddy? Book 4) (9 page)

Beau’s words were the truth, a truth he had been putting off. If he was ever going to be in the best place to tell Chrissie about his bear, then this was it. He could follow a trail up into the mountains, and at least if she screamed no one would hear her, and if she ran, he would be there with her, and catch her and persuade her it was OK, that his bear was why she was his and why he would always keep her safe.

“Elise is lovely,” Chrissie said. More lovely than she could have imagined. Very grounded, and the most loving mom Chrissie had ever met. Her life was perfect, and it was hard not to feel jealous. The words of the guy who had attacked Joel came to her. He had thought everything about Chrissie’s life was perfect, and he had been so wrong.

“They are a lovely family,” Joel said, reaching for her hand as they hit the trail, and she didn’t pull away. Through the trauma of yesterday, and the flight through the night to escape whoever was after Sam, something had shifted in her. She trusted Joel implicitly. He wouldn’t have brought her here to this lovely family, if he wasn’t sincere and on her side.

Joel wouldn’t have put Beau and his family in danger. She could see how much he liked them. But that was exactly what they had done, if anyone had followed them.

A penny for your paranoia
, she thought as they went through the trees, the cool air lifting her mood, and the greens of the leaves soothing her headache. This was exactly what she needed, a break from the stress, to be alone with Joel and her thoughts.

She needed to get some perspective, and figure out if her boss really was the bad guy.

“Forget about it all for a while,” he said as if reading her thoughts. “This place is beautiful; why don’t we enjoy it?”

“Because Sam is back at the house on his own: What if someone comes for him? What if Elise and the children get hurt, or Beau?”

“Beau can look after them all. Nothing would get past him.” He stopped, turning to her and stroking her cheek. “I wouldn’t have left Sam if I didn’t believe one hundred percent that he was safe.”

“I know.” She bent her head, resting her forehead on his chest, letting his calm wash over her. “I think my head will explode.”

“Then let’s walk and you can talk about it.”

“This was supposed to be simple job. Look after a baby, while the police do their best to flush out his father. Instead, the father might not be the bad guy after all. Well, he is a bad guy, but not
the
bad guy. Which means that if he wanted, when this is all over, Krieg could come and claim custody, and the chances are he would get it.”

“Unless Krieg is the culprit. We don’t know for sure.”

She’d given it a lot of thought, and she was sure now Krieg wouldn’t have pinned this on her. “Don’t we? The fact that I’m being framed points the finger away from Krieg.”

“You said you were friends with Angela, maybe he is mad about that and getting his revenge.”

“Killing Angela wasn’t enough?”

“You have his child.”

“To protect.” None of it made sense. “But that puts us back at either Anderson, or your chief. But they are both good men.”

“When we get back, I’m going to take a look at what Beau has found on Anderson, and then dig some more myself. There has to be some reason, if it’s Anderson, then there must have been a trigger. A man doesn’t spend his whole life helping people and then turn bad for nothing.”

“True, especially since he is going to take early retirement in two years. His wife had cancer, she recovered, but he wants to spend more time with her.”

“A nice silver handshake with a large pension, I would imagine,” Joel said. “You could start calling him
King Anderson
.”

“Not funny,” she said.

“Princess lost her sense of humor?” he teased.

“I don’t even know why he started calling me it. My nickname used to be Jenny Hen because he thought I fussed over everyone like a mother hen. Then one day he came in and called me Princess.”

“Did he suddenly find out who your parents were?”

“No, it was all in my job application, he even asked me about it when he interviewed me. Was very supportive of my career choice. Then he changed.”

“When? How long ago. One month, one year?”

She thought for a moment. “Around two months ago.”

“It gives us a starting point,” he said, stopping and taking an appreciative lungful of air before exhaling slowly.

“So I thought you were a city boy, but really you are a mountain man.”

He chuckled. “I am not a boy, city or otherwise,” he said. “But the mountains are where my heart lies. A part of me will always long to be here, lost in the mountains, where no one can see me.”

“That sounds strange for a police officer.”

They had reached the edge of a thick belt of trees, and he led her under their canopy, to where the light was dimmer, the air cooler. There was little bird song, and she could imagine they were miles away from any other creature. Just the two of them. And when she saw the look in his eyes, she wondered if that was a good thing.

“You know I’ve told you how special you are?” he began.

“Damn it, Joel. You aren’t going to tell me you brought me out here so you can bury my body in a shallow grave?”

He shook his head, smiling, and then touched her cheek. “Nothing like that at all. The opposite, in fact. I brought you out here to tell you why you are the most important thing in the world to me. More important than the breath in my body.”

The look in his eyes had shifted; he was no longer so intense, there was a softening, a warmth, that was meant for her. Her stomach flipped, her insides turning to liquid fire. She tried to blame it on the whole situation they found themselves in, that she was projecting onto him or something. But it was more than that, deeper than that.

She could depend on him, and he could depend on her. It was important for him to know that.

Standing on tiptoe, she touched her lips to his, the warmth spreading through her as he deepened the kiss. Joel placed his hand on the small of her back, setting off more tremors in her body. Her legs were weak, and he pulled her against him, supporting her weight, while his tongue searched for entry into her hot mouth.

She let him in, in the same way she was willing to let him into the rest of her life. Joel was a man she could depend on, a man who would stand by her side and always be true, just like he said he would. Given their current predicament, that meant more to her than she could possibly imagine. He had never questioned her assertion that she had never paid anyone to kill Angela. Never asked how the guy knew about her floral sofa, or even if she had a floral sofa. She’d had her answer ready: you could see it through her front window, which looked straight into her sitting room. But she liked he had never asked.

“Is this what mates do?” she asked, coming up for air.

“They do a lot more than that,” he said, his voice ragged.

“Want to show me?” she asked.

“It might be more than you ever bargained on,” he said seriously.

“So it’s more than sex?” she asked, stroking his chest.

“Much more.” He took her hand and turned the palm towards him and kissed it, his tongue swirling around and around until the ache in her core was agony.

“Joel.” She moved and kissed him again, her lips urgent, she wanted him, wanted to ground herself with him inside her, to know that everything would be OK, that they would get through this, together, despite being strangers.

He groaned and lifted her, his body nestled between her thighs, and he rested her back against the nearest tree, a big old oak that had stood here for decades, had watched the seasons come and go and the troubles of men pass it by.

Joel placed his hand against her mound, his fingers pinching her clit, through her jeans. She gasped, a small explosion going off in her head as tremors rocked her body. This was the release she craved, ever since she had met Joel, she had wanted to know what was underneath his shirt, what made him tick. It didn’t matter that they were still in the same clothes they had driven for hours in, because she wasn’t planning on keeping them on for too much longer.

Ripping at his shirt, trying to undo the buttons rather than just tearing them off, she unveiled his chest, broad, smooth and ripe for kissing. Lowering her head, she ran her tongue over his skin, tasting him, circling his nipple, and hearing the hiss of breath through his lips.

“Damn it, Chrissie, if you keep that up, I won’t be able to stop.”

“Then don’t stop.” She grazed the hard bud with her teeth, wishing he would touch her breasts, although the hand teasing her clit was doing an amazing job of bringing her so close to her orgasm, it was agony not to be able to reach out and grab it and wallow in it.

“This isn’t right,” he said, removing his hand and putting a finger under her chin and tilting her head up so she had to look into his eyes.

“It is right, you want me.” She placed her hand on his cock, and squeezed with enough force to make him groan again. “I know you do.”

“But there’s something I have to show you, something I have to tell you.” His voice was strained as he tried to keep himself together, but she didn’t want him to keep himself together: she wanted him to lose control.

“Does what you have to tell me have anything to do with the case? With Sam?” she asked, feeling him harden until it must be incredibly painful, when he was confined in tight jeans. She decided to help him with that and unzipped the zipper. One hand slid inside, and she grasped his cock, stroking it, her hand pumping up and down until he leaned forward, his head resting against the tree. Now was the time to break his resolve: she didn’t care what he had to tell her, she just wanted him, here in the woods, far away from trouble.

Teeth grazed his earlobe, and then she sucked it into her mouth. His whole body tensed and he thrust his hips forward. “Fuck.”

“Fuck
me
,” she whispered in his ear, her breath caressing it, making him shiver.

“Damn it.” He loosed her, and she slid to the ground, nearly collapsing as her legs took the strain. He wasn’t the only one who was desperate for release.

Deft hands undid her zipper, and her jeans were pushed off her thighs, to pool at her feet. She stepped out of them, and then began to undo her shirt buttons. Skin to skin was always the best way to make love.

Joel stripped at lightning speed, standing naked before her, making her mouth water. He had to be the finest specimen of a man she had ever set eyes on. And right now he was hers.

Lifting her, he rested her against the rough tree trunk again, and spread her wide, guiding himself toward her sex. Her head screamed, protection; her body screamed she didn’t care. This was against everything she ever taught the girls that she visited who were having underage sex. Protection, protection, it was one of her many mantras as she battled to keep them safe.

But he was her protector, that’s what he’d said, and she liked the idea of being his mate, whatever the hell that entailed.

Then she stopped thinking, the voice in her head replaced by a sudden overwhelming blissful sensation as his thick cock stroked the inner walls of her sex. Very slowly.

What control. Her fingers dug into his back as she spurred him on, wanting him to take her harder, faster, but he was enjoying himself too much. Each time he pulled back out, he smiled as she urged him back inside. Each time he moved inside, he groaned softly, his eyes dilating as if this was the ultimate pleasure.

In and out, his momentum steadily building in time with her orgasm. When at last he had completely impaled her up to the hilt, he stopped, letting her adjust to him, an intense throbbing deep inside her a sign of her stretched inner walls. He was so big, so wonderfully big.

She closed her eyes, letting every sensation have a chance to register. Joel cupped her breast in his hand, lowered his head, and threw another sensation at her, one that pushed her over the edge and left her stranded on some distant planet far away from everything, except Joel.

Fuck. Damn. Fuck
. He couldn’t hold on, being inside her tested his control to the limits. In one last surge, he cried out, his seed filling her as he jerked hard and fast into her sex, which sheathed him perfectly.

Then the sweetest sensation of all hit him, and she came around his cock. Her teeth were biting his collarbone, small cries eliciting from her mouth, as she throbbed and pulsed around him. This was the best thing he had ever experienced. Ever. He wanted it to go on and on and never stop. But slowly, they both came back down to earth and he stopped moving, his breathing ragged and his body slick with moisture.

“Shit. That was something else,” he said, pulling out of her and setting her on her feet. She leaned against the tree trunk, and he stood looking at her, eyes lingering over her voluptuous breasts, her soft stomach and her curvy thighs. What a woman, and she was his, he had claimed her.

But he hadn’t told her he was a bear.

Guilt ripped through him, she should have known what she was getting into before they made love. He hadn’t even thought about protection, she was going to freak out when she discovered what he was and how she might already a have a small bear cub inside her.

No rushing ahead, with wishful thinking
, he told himself, and his bear, who was saying it was his turn to take a look at their naked mate in real life.

“What’s so funny?” she asked, looping her arms around his shoulders.

He lowered his head to kiss her, and murmured, “Nothing. Everything is just right.”

She tasted sweet, like the honey his bear always liked to eat. Wild honey, that was what she was to his taste buds. Although there was more of her honey he wanted to taste, but not here, not now, they had been away for long enough they both had to prepare for whatever was before them. For Chrissie to clear her name, and for him to bring down the guy who was trying to ruin her.

Bring him down and rake my claws across him
, his bear said.

You need to calm down before you show yourself
, Joel told him firmly.
Let’s not blow this.