The big tub filled quickly with them both in it, and he flipped the switch to make the bubbles come on. They’d both had a long day, and a quick soak was probably a good thing. Especially considering the bruises she could now see forming along her leg. Zak noticed the direction of her gaze and lifted her abused leg out of the water, placing it over his shoulder as she reclined against the back of the tub.
“My poor baby,” he whispered, kissing the booboos that were a harsh reminder of everything they’d been through today. As far as eventful days went, this was one for the books. “Does it hurt a lot?”
“Not really,” she answered as he examined each bruise in minute detail. “Just when you press on it. Or when I move the wrong way. Otherwise, I think it’s just going to be colorful for a while.”
“Yeah, I hate to say it, but these are going to look worse before they get better.” He lowered her leg back into the effervescent water. “You’re in for a colorful few days.” He held her gaze as he moved through the water to take her into his arms. The giant tub was big enough for them to move around a bit. “You’ll tell me right away if anything we do hurts your leg, right?”
The request almost sounded like an order, but she understood his concern. Zak was nothing if not thoughtful. She thought it was sweet that he didn’t want to cause her any more discomfort than she was already feeling.
“I promise. But honestly, when we’re together, I only feel the good stuff,” she assured him, patting his chest and smiling up at his handsome face.
“I like that,” he said, holding her gaze. “With you, Tina, there’s nothing but good stuff. And I have to tell you, that’s new for me.”
“For me too,” she admitted shyly.
He stopped talking, diverting his attention instead to lathering up her body and his own, cleaning them off, one limb at a time. He paid special attention to her damaged leg and, much to her surprise, seemed to be very serious about getting them both clean. He might’ve stroked her skin a bit more gently than strictly necessary, but he didn’t allow her to touch him, even when she tried to give him a bit of what he’d already given her.
“Patience,” he counseled, moving her roving hands away from his cock. “I’ll give you everything you want, honey, but I want to do it in a bed this time. You deserve gentle care after everything you went through today. Bathtub sex isn’t for wounded girls. There’s too much potential for further injury. I’m going to keep you safe tonight, Tina. And that means a soft bed under us.”
Her heart melted right then and there. What a great guy.
A few minutes later, after he’d dried every inch of her body with one of her fluffy towels, he carried her into her bedroom and placed her on the bed. He wouldn’t let her lift a single finger, convincing her that he would do all the
work
tonight.
“Aren’t you going to let me do anything?” she asked.
“Nope.”
“Ever?” she wheedled.
“Well, maybe some other time, but not right now, okay? I’m enjoying this too much.”
She didn’t argue. It was enough to know that at some point, in the future, it would be her turn.
“Okay, but I have plans for you when it’s my turn, big guy,” she told him with teasing promise.
He agreed that sounded like a whole lot of fun, but for tonight, he would be calling the shots. The first of which seemed to be getting inside her.
She wasn’t objecting. She’d had plenty of foreplay in the bathroom. She was more than ready for him to be inside her, but after he slid in…slowly…inch by inch…he just…stopped.
He stopped and looked deep into her eyes. It was like their hearts were beating in time. Like the whole world had stopped spinning on its axis for this moment out of time.
“This is something special,” he said in a voice so low and rumbly she almost came right there on the spot. “Tell me you feel it too.”
“I do,” she whispered. “I feel it.”
Something that looked like triumph entered his gaze. “Say you’ll be only with me, Tina. I want this to be exclusive.”
Oh, hell yeah! She smiled up at him. “If you promise the same, I’m yours, Zak. I don’t want to share you with anyone else.”
His grin lit his face. Damn, he was so incredibly handsome. How in the world did she manage to catch a guy like him? What pagan god had smiled on her and given her this amazing man, who wanted to be exclusive with her…whatever that turned out to mean down the line?
She wasn’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth. If they were taking this one step at a time, he’d just taken a big one. Exclusivity after only one real date? Yeah, by human standards, they were moving fast. By shifter standards? She wasn’t sure. Those boys her sisters had brought home had moved awfully quick from dating to mating. But if Zak wanted to take things a little slower, she wasn’t going to argue.
“I’ll be true to you, Tina. My bear doesn’t know any other way to be. And it likes you a lot. It wants to wrap you in our arms and keep you safe from anything that might ever possibly hurt you. It was so angry at what happened today, and so proud to be able to free you from that thing’s clutches.”
“I loved seeing your bear, Zak. I loved that you saved me.” She almost admitted she loved
him
, but that would never do.
If he wanted to go slow, she was going to abide by his rules. He was calling the shots. At least for tonight. She’d agreed to those terms, and she’d stick with it.
He let out a sound that was like a low rumble through his chest, like the bear was growling, although it wasn’t a scary sound. It was more like purring. A happy, satisfied sort of rumble.
“The bear likes what you said. It likes when we make love, and it really enjoys when I lick you.” His grin turned devilish, and his eyes glinted with naughty amusement.
“You don’t say?” She caught his teasing mood, willing to go with the flow. “I wonder what he’ll think when I lick you.” She felt his cock jerk inside her, and she chuckled.
“Not tonight,” he cautioned, almost as if he was reminding himself as well as her. “Not until your leg is healed.”
“Spoilsport.”
She stuck her tongue out at him, and he swooped down and caught it in his mouth.
He kissed her as he began a steady, increasing pace that ultimately led them to the oblivion of a pleasure so great she passed out for a few seconds right there at the end.
That had never happened before.
It was scary good.
Zak stayed inside her almost constantly that night, waking her every few hours to make love again. She loved every scandalous, delicious, overwhelming moment of it. And she wanted him like a drug she had just become addicted to.
Zak was lethal in the sexiest way possible, and she wanted more.
She woke him in the morning, dragging him into the shower for a quick wash before she finally convinced him to let her go down on him. She wasn’t taking no for an answer, even though her leg had stiffened up a bit overnight. She simply made him stand in front of her while she sat on the bed—after their shower but before they were dressed—and she licked him like a lollipop. A hard, long, devastatingly masculine lollipop.
Naughtiness ensued, and pretty soon, she ended up back on the bed, her legs in the air. He was careful of her stiff leg, but he definitely let her know how much he’d enjoyed her attentions, in the most delicious way possible.
When they were done, they had to hop in the shower again, but neither of them minded. Tina had a permanent smile on her face as she took her time finishing up in the shower, and Zak went on ahead to raid the kitchen, searching for breakfast.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Zak looked perfectly at home in front of the stove, wielding a spatula like the knights of old probably wielded their swords. In other words, he was the consummate professional, with multiple pans filled with different enticing dishes, all going at once. There were scrambled eggs, laced with finely chopped chives and peppers freshly picked from the rooftop garden, seasoned potatoes that smelled divine, bacon cooking to perfection with a hint of maple in the air, and it looked like chocolate chip pancakes as some sort of dessert.
Dessert with breakfast? She wasn’t going to argue. She knew from being around her brothers-in-law that bear shifters ate an awful lot. Zak would probably pack away most of this feast, but she wouldn’t mind tasting at least a little bit of each of the dishes he was preparing.
She walked up to him, and he turned with a smile, leaning down to kiss her.
“Mmm. Good morning,” she said, still a little sleepy. “Wish we didn’t have to get up so early today.”
“Sorry. Have to. I’m on duty at nine. I hope you don’t mind I took a look around up on the roof then helped myself to some of the produce you grow up there. It’s really amazing what you’ve done with the garden.” He seemed so wide awake—bright-eyed and bushy-tailed as the saying went—that she couldn’t cultivate her usual morning grumpiness.
Especially not after the night before. He’d shown her things she’d never known existed about pleasure. If their interlude in the grass had been hot—before being disrupted by a sea monster—last night had been explosive. Chernobyl-meltdown explosive, but in a good way.
His lovemaking was powerful, but not harmful in any way, except maybe to her heart. Yeah, after what they’d shared last night, she was well and truly in love with the guy. Bear. Man. Bear guy. She shrugged.
Whatever.
She was still groggy when Zak stepped away and poured her a cup of coffee. He placed it in her hands with a smile, and she sipped.
Heaven. Somehow, Zak had a talent that even made regular coffee beans taste better. He was some kind of genius in the kitchen, she was quickly discovering.
They sat down to breakfast side by side at the kitchen table, spending the time together just enjoying each other’s company. Tina wasn’t a morning person as a rule, but just being with Zak improved her disposition. She couldn’t seem to stop smiling, and everything he’d cooked tasted out of this world.
“You ever think of opening a restaurant?” she asked between bites of the fluffiest, tastiest eggs she’d ever eaten.
“All the time.” He looked almost shy as he answered quietly. “I love to cook. Always have. But my life’s path hasn’t always been of my own choosing. Being a shifter limits you in some ways.”
She contemplated his words as she nibbled at her small serving of spicy potatoes. “But the trade off is pretty awesome.” She smiled at him and was glad to see the humor return to his expression. “I think you’d be a great restaurateur. I’d help. And the bakery could supply all the bread you need. Unless… You don’t bake, do you?”
He chuckled. “No. I don’t have the patience for it.”
“Okay then. So what’s standing in your way?” She sensed a problem she could help solve. She’d already been through the creation of two new food businesses—the one here and the original in Portland. She’d learned a thing or two.
“Mostly, it’s a matter of money,” he revealed. “I don’t have enough to build my house and start a business at the same time. I thought maybe after I got the house built, I’d begin saving up for the restaurant, but I don’t have the kind of funds some of the guys do, and I don’t really want to be indebted to any of them. I’ve run the numbers, and it’ll be years before I could even think of turning a profit in this remote a location, even with the projections Big John has on increasing tourism in the summer months.”
“I’m impressed. It sounds like you’ve really looked at this seriously,” she said, meaning every word. She hadn’t dreamed there was such depth to her deputy. “But if it’s what you really want to do, there’s got to be a way to figure out how to make it happen. Like I said, I’ll help. In any way that I can.”
“I appreciate that, Tina. I really do.” He held her gaze for a moment before returning to the project of demolishing the huge portion of eggs and bacon he’d dished up for himself. That, it seemed, was the end of that.
Tina decided to let the topic lie. She’d heard the disappointment in his voice when he’d talked about the realities of the situation. She had learned something important about Zak in this brief exchange.
He had a dream, but he didn’t have the resources to make it work just yet. Maybe he never would. But Tina was no slouch when it came to business. She resolved to quietly look into things. Maybe there was something she could do to help.
As it turned out, when the mail arrived just after Zak had left for work, a potential solution presented itself. Master Hiram had sent a thank you letter—along with a very fat check. His note said the money was to cover any clean up or
inconvenience
his recent visit might have caused.
She snorted at the euphemism. It would have been really
inconvenient
if he had killed someone in his blood-starved state. Zak had explained what he knew about vampires and the dire straits Hiram must’ve been in when he arrived, bleeding, on her doorstep.
Tina couldn’t accept such a large check from the Master, but his letter did give her an idea. She just had to call John to run it past him first, since the Alpha bear might object to getting the Master vampire involved any further in the doings of Grizzly Cove.
Later that evening, after speaking with John, and just before Zak usually arrived at the bakery to keep watch over her for the night, Tina had a window of opportunity. She placed the call to Hiram’s private number just after dark.
“Master Hiram? This is Tina Baker in Grizzly Cove.” She was nervous, but she would do just about anything to help Zak achieve his dream.
“What can I do for you, Miss Baker?” If the vampire was surprised by her call, his urbane manner hid it well.
“I wanted to thank you for the wine and let you know that, while I appreciate the gesture, I cannot accept the check that arrived today.” She didn’t pause to let him argue but forged right ahead. “However, I do have a proposal I’d like to put forth, with Big John’s agreement.”
She drew breath while, it seemed, Hiram thought over her words. Finally, he broke the silence.
“I must admit, I am intrigued. What do you propose, Miss Baker?”