Page 15 of Protected By The Polar Bear

“Tessa,” I choke out, and she swipes at her eyes. “I do trust you.”

I tell her that, but I can tell that she doesn’t believe me.

“I do trust you,” I say again. “I swear. I know that you don’t believe me, but I do, and you can trust me.”

She stares at me, looking heartbroken, but I can see the hope in her eyes. She wants to believe me, but she’s scared, and I’m the one who made her that way.

“I’m going to show you that you can trust me. That we’re meant to be,” I promise her, and she just stares at me.

My polar bear roars in agreement. He likes the plan of winning our fated mate back, and I push to my feet. I said what I needed to say. Now, I need to give her time to process what I said.

“I’ll see you tomorrow,” I tell her, and she watches me silently as I head for the front door.

I return to my truck and make the short drive back to my place. As I walk inside, the emptiness hits me. I never noticed how alone I am, but now that I have my mate, it’s obvious. I want her here. I need her to be here with me.

EIGHT

Tessa

When the knock comes at my front door, I already know it’s Ash. He’s been by every day for the last week. The time changes depending on his work schedule, but he still shows up every single day.

The first day, he brought me breakfast before he went to work. It was my favorite order from the diner in town. He had tried to ask me questions as I ate my chocolate chip and banana pancakes, but I had only given him vague, brief answers.

The next day, he had shown up in the afternoon with flowers and a bottle of wine. I had thanked him and then closed the door in his face and gotten back to work.

The third day, he brought groceries and offered to cook us dinner. I had to hide my smile at that. It was cute to see him come up with a plan to get into my apartment and spend more time with me. I had relented and he had made some of the best chicken I’d ever had.

We spent that night talking and he had left, promising to be back the next night. And he was. With popcorn and other snacks. We ended up having a movie night, and at some point, I fell asleep. I woke up sprawled on top of him. I had been nervous about how he would react, but he ended up having to leave in a rush to get to work, so I didn’t dwell on it.

That brings us to yesterday when he came over with breakfast again. We had eaten and he had asked me about the book I was working on. By the time he left, I realized that seeing Ash has become the bright spot in my days and that some of my anger towards him had faded. Okay, most of it was gone.

I try to steel myself as I answer the door, but as soon as Ash smiles at me, my heart flips over in my chest. I can’t deny how I feel about him anymore. I was hurt and mad when I found out what he did, but after learning more about him and his childhood, I kind of got it. He was trying to protect himself, and when I found out the truth, I ended up pushing him away and doing the same thing. No one wants to get their heart broken after all.

Still, part of me wants to make him pay a little bit for all that he put me through. I mean, now that he’s claimed me, he won’t want to leave, but I still think that he should grovel for not making me his mate for months.

“Hey,” I greet him as I open the door.

“Hey, I got us lunch,” he says, and I smile, taking the deli bag from him.

“Thanks.”

“I don’t have a ton of time before I have to get to work,” he says apologetically. “There was a line at the deli, and it took me longer than I expected.”

“No worries. I need to get back to work soon anyway.”

“Are you finishing up the book today?” He asks me as we take a seat at the table.

“Hopefully. I have two more chapters to do and then I need to do a read through so if it’s not done today, then it will be tomorrow.”

“That’s exciting,” he says with a smile, and I nod.

“And a bit of a relief. This one was hard to get out for some reason.”

The truth is that I know why this one was hard to finish. It’s tough to write a romance book when your heart is broken.

He nods, unwrapping his sandwich, and I do the same. We both dig in, and I ask him how work has been. We always start out this way, with superficial small talk. I know he’s been working up the nerve to ask me where we stand, but he hasn’t gotten around to it.

Ash finishes his food first, and I nudge my bag of chips toward him.

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