Page 3 of The Bear's Chosen Mate
“No problem.”
She knew those words were functioning.She wasn’t going to try anything fancier.
Far too quickly, James was down to skin.Glorious bronze skin, tanned and touchable.Big biceps flexed as he moved, his beautiful pectorals shifting as well as her gaze dropped to the trail of dark hair that led down the center of his belly to his groin where the thick length of his cock stood erect and—
Oh my God.
Kaylee tore her gaze away, because nudity might be okay, but staring at the man’s junk was not kosher.
Also, she was getting a little lightheaded.
He grabbed his pants off the ground and tossed them over the rest of his things with little care for the expensive fabric.Then he glanced up one last time and flashed her—
Oh boy, did he ever.
Bad brain.Bad, bad Kaylee brain!
—flashed her a sheepish grin.“Give me a shout later.Once I kick this bug, we’ll have that movie marathon we talked about.”
His naked butt flexed as he turned away from her gaze—Lordy, his ass is a thing of beauty—and strode toward the edge of the manicured lawn where it bumped up against the wilderness outside the factory.
A second later it was like trying to watch an optical illusion.A hue of multicoloured lights shimmered then a massive polar bear stretched lazily before ambling off into the trees.
Kaylee would never get enough of seeing him shift.Up close was even better.She sighed again.
“No problem,” she whispered, although that was far from the truth.
There was a problem.A great big enormous one, one hundred percent on her side of the equation.
She was hopelessly, helplessly in lust with one of her best friends.He not only had no idea, but she was the last person on earth he needed in his life as anything other than a friend.
No problem?In her dreams.
2
Cranky.Itchy.Pissed off at the world.
All of those sensations were running on high as James left the proximity of Borealis Gems.
He should be happy as a pig in mud right now.He’d had a successful trip to New York, sat through a half dozen interviews and talk shows, and successfully created more positive publicity for the family company.
Now he was home and back in the wilderness.The warmth of spring air wrapped around him, and scents filled his nostrils with green, growing things and the promise of a lazy day.This was paradise and should have cured whatever ailed him.
The itching ache at the back of his neck had increased, though, so he let his bear side take control, ambling in the direction his animal wanted to go.The human side of him had enough on his plate to deal with.
He shrugged his big shoulders, trying to escape the tingling sensation.It was strange—he didn’t think the meetings he’d attended were that stressful.In fact, he usually gloried in getting to be in the public eye, which is why he did it rather than Alex or Cooper.
Maybe hewascoming down with some kind of shifter flu, which would really suck considering their type rarely got ill.
Constitution of…well, a polar bear and all that.
But the back of his throat itched, and even though he expected his scent ability to be off the charts, one smell out there was just not right.The sweet, sharp fragrance had bothered him the entire flight home.He’d wasted time post-flight trying to track it down.
He’d wondered at first if one of their top-tier clients, the ones he’d just flown back to their home outside New York, had left something on the plane.But after searching under all the seats, he’d come up blank.
Still, that scent would not go away—and not only did it make everything about him hot, he found himself getting aroused at the most inopportune times.Thank goodness Kaylee had been thirty feet above him as they talked.It had made it easier for both of them to ignore his damn hard-on.
Wasn’t the first time he’d had one around her by any means, but usually he could explain it away with a joke and write it off as a guy thing.
