Page 22 of The Bear's Chosen Mate
“Me neither.I think we should go find a hot shower and a soft bed for the next round.”
It wasn’t very ladylike, but she couldn’t stop from snorting.“Sure.Let’s get right on that.”
A second later she was in the air again—damn bear—before being settled on her feet.She reached into space to catch her balance, but James was there, holding her tight until she was steady.
“Wait here,” he ordered, sliding her hand to the solid metal of the elevator.
She leaned against the wall.
He scooped down and rummaged around in the backpack for a moment before moving to the elevator doors.He slid an oversized screwdriver into the slim slot between them and applied pressure until the narrowest gap appeared.With sheer brute strength, he slid the doors apart, darkness looming on the far side.
Kaylee stepped tighter against the wall.“Do fail-safe double redundancies still work when you open the door and—oh my God, what are you doing?”she shrieked as James scooped her up in his arms.
The low light from the flashlights in the corners cast eerie shadows on his face as he grinned, carrying her toward the deathtrap of an opening.“Heading for a bed.”
She screamed as he stepped off into nothing—
A second later he absorbed the shock of landing, and she opened her eyes to discover they were standing in a dimly lit hallway.Behind them, the elevator doors stood open, the floor level with James’s waist.
Kaylee lifted a fist and smashed it on his chest.“Youbastard.You scared me to death.”
Only she was laughing, and so was he as he reached back into the elevator.He grabbed one of the flashlights and passed it to her.“I really wish the security cameras were working, because watching your face right then would’ve been priceless.”
“You’re lucky I didn’t pee my pants,” she muttered.
A loud burst of laughter escaped.“You’re hysterical, Banks.”
“I should be hysterical,” she said, resting one arm around his neck and extending the other arm forward so the flashlight illuminated the hallway.He strode toward the emergency exit with her cradled in his arms.“This is all moving a little quickly, and you did just throw us out of an elevator.I thought we were about to plunge to our deaths.”
A low growl escaped him, and Kaylee shivered.
Good grief, whatwasit about his growling?Or more to the point, what was it was doing to her libido?Sure, there was tons of lingering sexual tension between them, but the sound drove her way past anticipation as fiery heat slid over her skin.
She glanced at his face.
“Since we’re going back to my apartment to continue to enjoy the mating fever, I hardly think I’d do anything stupid to mess that up.I want you, Kaylee, and now there’s nothing to stop us.”
Not even, it seemed, nine flights of stairs.
“I.Can.Walk,” Kaylee said between bounces as he rushed upward.
He ignored her, running with her in his arms at a pace that far outstripped anything she would’ve been able to do.So…win?
They reached the top floor, and he shouldered opened the door to his suite without letting her go.There were signs everywhere of her rapid escape, including soggy jeans abandoned on the floor.
James stepped over them and headed straight for the back of the apartment.When he stepped into the bathroom, she laughed.
“I feel as if we’ve done this before,” Kaylee teased.“Maybe even earlier today?”
He put her down.“I hate to admit my memory is a little foggy.”
Oh.“The mating fever.”
He turned on the shower and steam began to rise.“It’s funny.I can tell it’s there, but it’s not muddling my brain like it did earlier.”
“Your bear was pretty hard in charge,” she told him.“And while I like that side of you…”Oh dear.There wasn’t really any polite way to say this.“You’re not always the sharpest tool in the shed when you’re in that form.”
He was stripping away her clothes, and his, then bringing her into the shower with him.“It’s not an insult.I don’t think many polar bears get smarter in their animal form.Better at scenting, yes.And fighting, if it involves brute strength.I think most shifters are smarter in their human forms.”
