Authors: J.K. Hudson
Simone Thomas’ stiletto heels sunk into the rich dirt one too many times. She was a city girl, but only because she had never lived anywhere else but Seattle. She didn’t mind the great outdoors, but she wasn’t prepared for it.
She yanked off her shoes, tempted to throw them away, but they’d cost her more than she wanted to admit. In a boardroom they were de rigueur. In the forest not so much. She was unprepared mostly because she hadn’t wanted to stop home to get the proper shoes or clothing.
She hoped to find the house where her stepbrother lived soon. She didn’t want to walk too far into the woods, but she had to find him. With his father retiring and not willing to give the company over to Simone, she needed to get to Tim before his father sold the company and she was out of a job.
It seemed important to get here as quickly as possible. So Simone had jumped into her sports car and driven hours out of Seattle to this place where her brother lived and worked as a Forest Ranger.
Simone accepted that she’d made a dumb mistake in not being prepared, but she thought the house was here somewhere. She slapped at the bugs that bit her, but they didn’t stop.
She gripped her high heels as she looked up the trail to see a bear. She had no idea what kind, but it was a bear. She stopped her in her tracks. She searched her brain for what she should do if she found a bear.
For brown bears you did one thing. For black bears another. This one wasn’t close enough to differentiate and she couldn’t ask him so she stood perfectly still.
“Please go away. Please don’t eat me.”
The bear looked at her then shook itself before walking away. Simone let out a breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding. She waited for a moment then kept walking on the trail.
Her skirt was torn and her feet were beginning to bleed when she turned the corner and saw the log cabin. Why her stepbrother couldn’t have a cell phone like normal people, she had no idea. She pulled hers out to let her mother know that she arrived, but no bars appeared.
“Great. No service.”
She tucked it back into her Coach purse, then trudged to the front porch. She hadn’t seen her stepbrother since her mother and his father had married. She’d remembered thinking he was cute, but he hadn’t engaged her in conversation so he’d come off cold.
Hopefully his reception of her today wouldn’t be so chilly.
*****
Tim Busbey stared down the trail at a sight he hadn’t thought he would ever see again. Standing there was his stepsister Simone. Looking as hot as ever even with her hair messed up and her feet unshod.
Damn.
Why was she out here? Had his father died? He couldn’t come up with another reason that she would be here. After his father’s marriage to Simone’s mother, Tim had left the family compound. Not only had he not approved of his father’s choice of a mate, he had strong sexual feelings for that woman’s daughter. Simone had only been twenty at the time. Too young for his thirty year old self.
He’d stayed away because he knew that if he’d been under the same roof as the delectable young woman, that she would have been his. And with his secret, he didn’t think he could offer her the life she deserved.
He’d walked away from the trail, doubling back to try to beat Simone to his cabin. She’d arrived there first and was now standing on his porch, looking out at the forest as if she liked what she saw.
He was back in his human form and in his Ranger uniform. He stopped just on the edge of the clearing that made up his home. She was still sexy as hell. This was dangerous having her here. He’d heard the call of her, scented her when they’d first met. He knew who she was, but he couldn’t have followed through.
She was too young then. Even now she was still young, but he knew that she ran his father’s company. He’d been keeping tabs on her, just not on his family.
He sighed. Guess he had to face her. She’d come all this way and he’d heard that she was a determined soul.
He stepped into the clearing. Her gaze caught his immediately. She watched him walk up to the porch. He’d been clean shaven when she’d seen him last so he’d bet that his beard looked odd to her.
“Hi,” she said.
“Hello, Simone.”
He stopped before he reached the porch, her scent strong in his nostrils. If he moved any closer, he couldn’t be held accountable for his actions. She was his mate. She would never stand for that.
In her designer duds and shoes that cost more than his Ranger paycheck, she’d never consent to living in the forest. Tim wouldn’t take a wife unless it was his true mate. That was his disagreement with his father. The man had had his one mate in life and he’d messed it up. There were no do overs for their kind.
But his father had let his human side take over and had married Simone’s mother. He wondered how that was working out. How much did Simone know about his family? He sighed.
“What did you come here for?”
*****
Simone hadn’t expected a celebration, but she also hadn’t expected him to be this cold. He looked good, even with the beard, and something primal in her stirred. She hadn’t felt that pull from anyone else. As if her very soul knew it had found her mate.
What an odd feeling. None of the men she’d dated in the last two years made her feel this way. Why did Tim? He was her stepbrother. No relation except by marriage. Only slightly taboo, but enough that she wouldn’t pursue it.
Given that he hadn’t come close to her, like she smelled of garbage, he wasn’t giving her any chances to get close to him.
“Your father is going to sell the company if you don’t come back to run it.”
Tim waved a hand. “Let him sell it. I don’t want it.”
He preferred the trees to a boardroom. And if he were to live out his life alone, as it seemed since he knew that Simone was his mate, he’d rather live it out among the woodland creatures. Not the sharks of the corporate world.
“If he sells it, I’m out of a job.”
“Find another one.”
She’d poured the last two years of her life into this company. She didn’t want to get another job. She wanted the company to be hers. Only Tim could help her with that. “Not that simple.”
“Yes, it is. Contact a headhunter. You have a lot of experience.”
How would he know? Had he been paying attention to her career? “I don’t want to lose this company. I’ve earned it.”
“And my father is willing to sell it or give it to me and not you. Doesn’t that piss you off?”
He had no idea how much it pissed her off. Her stepfather knew well enough that Tim was not going to return and take the helm. She had no idea what had chased him out here to the wilderness, but she knew there wasn’t anything that was going to entice him to come back.
He wouldn’t look at her. Did he find her that repulsive? She stomped off the porch in his direction wincing because her feet hurt. He put up a hand and she stopped.
“Of course I’m pissed off. That’s where you can help me,” she said.
“I can’t help you Simone.”
“You don’t even know what I want. Will you at least look at me?”
He frowned, but then his gaze set on her. It might have been a physical thing because the hunger in his eyes made her step back. She wasn’t scared, just surprised. It was the most emotion she’d ever seen him show. Almost took the wind out of what she wanted to say.
“Speak,” he said.
She blinked. “If you come back and take the helm, Dad retires then you can name me as your successor.”
He took a deep breath, then let it out. “To get around the bastard.”
His chuckle rumbled out of him, but she wasn’t convinced he was going to help her.
*****
Simone was wily, Tim would give her that. Once his father retired and the company was Tim’s, he could do with it what he wanted. If Simone wanted it so badly, he’d do it. But there would be a price for her to pay. Because he would pay a price leaving her in the human world.
“I’ll do it.”
She jumped up and down and probably would have hugged him, but he put up his hand again. “There’s a condition.”
She stopped jumping, her smile dimming a little. “What is it?”
He mulled this over, but there was no choice. If he was going to help her, he wanted this from her. It would be something to keep him warm on the long, lonely nights he’d spend after she left.
“I want one night with you,” he said.
If he wasn’t going to have her for life, he was going to at least taste the sweet nectar of what he was going to go without forever. She bit her lip, clearing mulling it over. She probably wanted that company badly. Would she use her body?
She cleared her throat. “You want one night with me? For what?”
“Do I need to spell it out, Simone?”
Her face went red. He didn’t have to clarify, but he would. Just for fun. “You and me. My house. Both of us naked. Nothing between us but a condom.”
“Technically I’m on the pill and have been tested so no need for a condom.”
Tim thought he was going to fall over. Or cum in his own pants. Not even a condom between him and Simone. He hadn’t been au natural with a woman in years.
“So you agree?”
His breath hitched waiting for her answer. Even though she had blushed, she didn’t stop looking at him. She could have run away screaming by now. She’d have a long run back to her car, but if she didn’t want to be with him on some level, she’d probably accomplish that feat.
“I agree. One night. Then you come back and help me get the company,” she said.
“Agreed.”
“You’ll have to shave and wear a suit for your father to believe it.”
He could do that. He approached her much like he might in bear form. He scooped her off of her feet.
“I can walk.”
“Your feet are bleeding. Let’s take care of them first before we get down to business.”
She smelled even better up close. She put her arms around his neck. Such trust and it made him hard. He carried her into his bathroom. He set her on the tile next to the bathtub.
“Wait here.”
He rummaged in his hall closet and came up with a first aid kit. Something he often needed in his job. Simone hadn’t moved. She just stared up at him with more curiosity than wariness. Good. She had some trust for him.
He cleaned her feet then put bandages on them. “You should keep off of them for awhile.”
“Sounds like I’ll be on my back.”
Yeah, something like that. He chuckled. “You hungry?”
“I am.”
“I want you full of energy when we get started,” Tim said.
He wanted to have her as many times as possible before they want back to civilization. She had no idea how much it was going to kill him to leave her there.
*****
Simone sat on the kitchen stool in one of the most beautiful kitchens she’d ever seen. Must be powered by propane because she doubted that there were any natural gas lines out this far from civilization.
Granite countertops sat on cherry cabinets. The appliances were gleaming stainless steel. She had her feet propped on another stool as she watched Tim move about the kitchen as if he cooked for women all of the time. She’d bet he did. Even out here, this man would find some woman to bed.
They might not stay in this remote location, but he’d get them. Or maybe he went to their places. Maybe he didn’t bring women here. The idea made her happy and she had no idea why. This was Tim. Her step-brother. No blood relation, but still family.
In a way.
She hadn’t seen him since the wedding, but he’d been ever-present in her life. His shadow loomed over her working career. Her step-father brought him into the conversation whenever possible.
As if to put Simon in her place. Let her know that she wasn’t ever going to get the company. She didn’t understand her step-father’s reluctance to let her have it. She’d earned it. She could run it and make it even better. That her mother’s husband couldn’t see that left a bitter taste in her mouth.
She should have resented Tim and his presence as an obstacle, but she didn’t. He was smart and sexy and not part of this at all. It wasn’t his fault his father had the mistaken notion that Tim would come to his senses and stop hiding. It wasn’t Tim’s fault that he was the reason she wasn’t going to take over.
But she would. She wanted this company. She’d spent too much time, put too much effort into it, to just let it go to a man who didn’t even want it.
Tim put a plate in front of her. He hadn’t even asked what she wanted, but the plate made her mouth water. As if he’d know instinctively what she wanted. Steak. He’d made her a steak with potatoes and some greens. He’d garnished the plate with berries. Her favorite fruit.
“It looks great. Thanks. You having any?”
“I ate earlier, thanks.”
But he had made himself a cup of coffee. He cradled it in his one large hand, sipping from it periodically as if he let the cup go, he might do something wrong.
This was the best piece of beef she had ever eaten. Not that she ate beef very often. No, she watched her food intake better than this. For some reason, she didn’t want to turn down his food. Not only because it looked delicious, but it was as if he’d seen into her soul and knew that she would love to eat like this, all the time.