Timberman Werebear (Saw Bears Book 3) (8 page)

Danielle’s head bobbed against the seat cushion with the uneven road. Her lips were parted slightly, her dark hair fanned across her cheek. Denison pulled his attention away from Kellen’s taillights in front of his Bronco long enough to tuck her hair behind her ear so he could see her face better.

He’d been drinking her in since she fell asleep an hour ago. It was dark out, but the glow of the radio dials illuminated her face in soft blues.

The little gray goat lay in her lap, curled into a compact ball under her hands, staring back at him and apparently comfortable to just be still against Danielle.

She’d always had a way with animals. She never met a dog on the street she didn’t stop and pet, then rope the owners into a conversation about how cute their fur baby was. He’d taken her to a petting zoo when she’d been here before, just to watch her light up from the inside as she spent three hours petting every single animal. She’d named every last one of them and asked their keeper about their quality of life.

Denison sighed and narrowed his eyes at the sharp angle of a switch back he had to maneuver carefully to avoid going over a side rail and off a cliff.

Danielle liked animals, so maybe she could handle the snarling beast inside of him.

But what if she couldn’t?

What if she ran?

It was too risky to share himself completely with her right now. He had to be patient. Had to wait until he was absolutely sure he wouldn’t lose his mate again.

He’d watched Tagan after Brooke had left. His alpha had been forced to Turn the woman he loved, and she wasn’t able to deal with it here surrounded by the Ashe Crew. She’d escaped to Boulder and spent months trying to control the grizzly inside of her. And Tagan had burned up, losing the connection with the enraged animal that sat just below the surface of his skin.

And Denison had burned with him.

He’d known that feeling—felt the ache of a mate loss. He hadn’t been able to talk to Tagan or look at the heartbreak in his eyes without feeling sick to his stomach. Watching Tagan try to go on with life after losing Brooke had dredged up so many feelings about Danielle. Memories and a stark reminder of all he’d lost. He’d burned inside along with his alpha, but he’d hidden his sleepwalking and uncontrollable Changes. Nightmares of awful things happening to Danielle in some anonymous city where he couldn’t get to her, couldn’t save her.

When Brooke had returned, the relief Denison had felt was almost tangible. The nightmares had stopped, and the sleepwalking, too. He was able to put the pain away and lock it behind a set of iron doors in his mind. He could function again without being consumed with thoughts of his own lost mate.

Now Danielle was back, too. Denison had seen the bond between Tagan and Brooke grow over the months, and he wanted that with Danielle so badly he was second guessing every decision he made with her.

He had to be careful about his timing, but he couldn’t wait too long or she’d feel left out and leave like she did last time. Either way, he’d probably lose her.

Women didn’t tend to stick around for this kind of life, and especially not human women. Choosing him back would mean painful decisions. It would mean deciding to become a bear shifter from his bite if she ever wanted to be truly claimed by him. It meant they would struggle to start a family, because history showed it was difficult for his kind to breed. She’d have to think long and hard about whether he was worth the pain and the constant care of the angry animal he would put inside of her, and then she’d have to decide if he was enough for her. If she could handle them being a family of two for the rest of their lives if he wasn’t able to give her a cub.

Shit. He curved his spine over the pain in his stomach. Gripping the wheel until his hands hurt, he shook his head in the dark at the predicament he’d found himself in. He’d been a kid when he met Danielle, gangly and barely over twenty, and he’d allowed his bear to bond to her—to a human—without thinking of the consequences to her. He’d been so stupid, but love had ruled his life. His instincts had screamed she was his from the first time he’d met her, but he’d fought it. He’d tried to spare her at first. Spare her from his past and from the danger that lurked, snarling and waiting inside of him. But Danielle didn’t get the name Badger for nothing. That woman had wanted him back and was determined to have him.

And he’d given in to her. How could he not? She was his mate, and he wanted to please her. Wanted to be with her and make her happy. Satisfying her had been the only thing that ever soothed the seething turmoil that constantly bubbled inside of him. It was bearable when she was near.

At twenty-one, he hadn’t been strong enough to resist the idea that Danielle, the beautiful balm to his slashed-up soul, could be his for always.

He looked at her again and hated himself for what he would ask her to do. She looked so innocent and happy cuddled against the passenger’s seat of his Bronco, snuggling the baby goat.

It didn’t matter that claiming her would be wrong, though, or that it would hurt her.

He already knew he would ask her because he was too weak to let her go again.

****

“I’m going to name him Bocephus. We can call him Bo for short,” Danielle said sleepily as she handed the goat to Brooke.

The woman laughed and nodded. “That’s a fine trailer park goat name. Tagan is setting up a pen for him behind our place for the night.

“Nighty night, wittle Bo,” Danielle said in a silly voice as she scratched behind his oversize, drooping gray ears. “I’ll give you a million snuggles tomorrow.” She kissed a little white swirl of fur right between his eyes, then watched Brooke and Tagan leave with him.

Aw, she was going to miss Bo until tomorrow. She’d never had a goat before, though she knew a ridiculous amount of random facts about them thanks to her insatiable thirst for knowledge on anything furry, covered in tree bark, or plant matter.

When she turned around, Denison was looking at her with his lips pursed into a thin line. He almost looked…sad.

“I’m staying with you tonight,” she announced, marching past him into his trailer. “The Airstream is too big and lonely.”

His deep chuckle behind her sent chills of anticipation up the back of her neck.

“Badger, you’re welcome to stay with me any time you want to.”

He muttered something under his breath, and she turned. “What did you say?”

“I said you’re welcome to stay with me—”

“No, after that. What did you mutter all quiet and sneaky-like?”

His nostrils flared as he inhaled deeply. “I said, forever if you like.”

She moved to the couch in the center of the living room and leaned against the back to buy herself time to settle the flapping butterfly wings fluttering around her belly. “You’d let me stay here forever?”

Denison closed the door gently behind him, then leaned his back against it. “Of course I would.”

She couldn’t help the emotional smile that commandeered her face. “Today was the best day I can remember.”

His gaze darkened and dipped to her tender lip. “Even though Matt hurt you?”

“Yes. He didn’t ruin our day. Only a tiny part of it. You let me in a little today, and it was more than you gave me in the months that we were together last time. You’ve changed, Denison Donovan Beck. And for the better, if you ask me. I liked the boy you were. I love the man you’ve become.”

He approached slow and slipped his hands around her waist, then bent down and rested his cheek against hers. As if he heard the cadence of music that wasn’t there, he rocked them slowly back and forth in a dance that made her melt against him.

“Tell me more about what you like,” he murmured in a soft stroke against her ear.

“I like that you are so devoted to your friends here. I like that you and Brighton are still close, and I like how you treat Skyler and Brooke. You boys revere them, always moving to take care of their needs before your own. You treated me like that today, and it made me feel adored and cared for. I like that you seem proud to have me beside you. That you don’t mind that the boys give you a hard time over showing affection toward me. I like that you respect Mother Nature. And Denny?”

“Yeah?” he asked, easing back to expose the deep happiness in his eyes.

“I like your tattoo.”

“You think it’s sexy, don’t you, Badger?” he accused with a chuckle.

“Yes,” she whispered, tracing his shirt where she knew the outline of it was. Running her fingertip along his defined pec, she smiled when he rolled his eyes closed and shivered under her touch. “But more than that, it’s sweet that you did that for me, even after what I’d done to you. I hurt you. Hurt us both, and you still paid tribute to what we’d had. That says a lot about your loyalty.”

He grabbed her hand without missing a step in their slow dance and kissed her knuckles. “You were always it for me, Danielle. It’s the way it works with me. With everyone here. I could’ve never cheated on you like you thought. It isn’t in my make-up. I only want you, for always.”

She rested her forehead against his chest and tried to stifle the excited energy he caused when he admitted sentiments like this.

“I’m scared,” he whispered.

Frowning, she looked up at him. “Of me? Why?”

“When this job ends for you, and you’ve done all you can do for research, I’m afraid you’ll leave me again.”

That didn’t sound like what he’d meant to say. Denison was still holding back, but she understood. She’d burned him on the way out of town, and she would have to earn his trust back.

She stretched up on tiptoes and kissed him in a gentle promise that she was here to stay. Even when the job with Reynolds ended, she would find a way to work in these woods, near the man she loved. Near the man she’d always loved. She was going to put in the time and prove to him she wouldn’t run when things got hard or confusing again.

She tugged at his shirt, scratching her nails gently against his skin as she lifted the hem, then tossed the fabric onto a heap on the floor. Still swaying her hips with his, she trailed little sucking kisses down his jaw and to his chest. She pressed her lips against the different shapes in his tattoo, then pulled his taut nipple between her teeth.

Denison muttered a curse as his hips bucked forward. Danielle brushed her fingers down his flexed mounds of abdominal muscles and pulled at the button of his jeans, then tugged the denim down his legs. His muscles twitched and jerked under her careful touch, and when she eased down the elastic band of his briefs, he inhaled in a gasp when her finger brushed the long length of his stone-hard erection.

He gripped the back of the couch until his knuckles turned white and his triceps bulged. His eyes were light gray now, not quite silver, but she would get him there. With a wicked grin, she knelt in front of him as he watched her with hooded eyes. The kitchen light was the only illumination, casting his flexing muscles into shadows and highlights. He was beautiful, bare in front of her, exposed, with that naughty smile that said he was utterly comfortable in his own skin.

Gripping the base of his cock, she teased his head with her tongue, tasting the drop of moisture that had beaded up on his tiny slit. Salt and Denison, and her stomach clenched with want.

He moaned and tensed his hips as she pulled him into her mouth, then eased back. In no hurry, she set a slow rhythm. She wanted to make him feel as good as he made her feel. She stroked him, careful with her teeth, lapping with her tongue until she could feel the veins go hard—until she could feel him swell in her mouth. Until he bucked against her and clenched her hair, guiding her. His stomach muscles strained, and he rocked into her mouth in shorter, faster bursts.

She touched herself outside of her jeans.

“Fffuck, Danielle, do that again.” He leaned over and watched her cup her sex, then pulled his cock from her mouth. “Stop, stop, stop, I’m going to come,” he rasped out, closing his eyes tightly.

“That was the point,” she teased.

His lips were on her mouth before she’d even registered that he moved. He pulled her upward into his arms, hooked his hand behind her knees, and carried her to the bedroom as if she weighed nothing.

The room was bigger than she’d imagined, with quaint wainscoting along the walls, soft green paint, and old-fashioned sconces on either side of a plush looking queen-size bed, adorned with neutral brown tones and mannish sheets. Much nicer than she ever would’ve guessed for an old trailer in the middle of the wilderness.

Denison flipped on the switch near the door, and a soft golden glow lit the room. Settling her onto the bed, he brushed soft, biting kisses down her neck before pulling her boots off and peeling her jeans from her thighs. Her shirt and bra joined the pile on the floor. The window unit air conditioner blew cold air across her skin, chilling her. With trembling fingers, she reached for Denison and smiled at the way he raked his silvery eyes from her lips to her breasts to her navel, then to the apex between her legs.

“You’re beautiful,” he murmured.

And right now, she felt beautiful. How could she not as he brushed his fingers down her ribcage and dragged his gaze along her collar bones, exploring her body. He wasn’t rushing to satisfaction. He was adoring her.