Page 10 of Mated to the Mountain Bear
“I just need somewhere safe to hide her while I track this guy.” Beau throws a hand out and gestures to the inky blackness around us. “You know there’s nowhere safer than here. No man can get a car within half a mile of here without you knowing.”
Ben’s lips press into a thin line as he mutters, “Didn’t stop you.”
“Look at her, Ben.” Beau’s voice carries a note I haven’t heard before. Almost pleading. “Just look.”
Slowly, Ben turns back to the SUV. His gaze finds mine once more, but this time, it’s not anger I see as our eyes lock. He stares, dark and intense, holding my gaze for a long momentbefore his eyes scan my face, dropping to take in the rest. Beau’s jacket drowning my frame, my arms wrapped around myself, my body shaking.
He mutters a curse, then lifts his face to the sky in exasperation, jaw clenched, eyes closed, then shakes his head.
“Fine,” he says finally, voice rough, and irritated as hell . “Fine. But also, fuck you. You know I can’t say no.”
Beau grins, victorious, and Ben hits him with a warning glare.
“Solve this fast.”
At least, that’s a sentiment I can get behind.
“Thank...” Beau thrusts his hand out, ready to thank his brother, but Ben’s already done with the conversation.
“One night only. ONE NIGHT. I mean it.”
4
ZARA
Ben’s already heading back toward the cabin when he calls over his shoulder, “After that, bring her down to Maddox’s and let him mind her.”
Beau’s shoulders relax, and he motions for me to get out and join them. So I do, every muscle protesting, seized up after the exertion of earlier and followed by time spent sitting in the car. The mud squelches between my toes, and stones dig into my sore feet, making me hiss involuntarily.
Ben freezes and turns back to me. His eyes drop to my feet.
“Stop.” He barks.
I stop, not sure what I’ve done wrong. I thought this was settled, and I could stay. The thought of leaving and going somewhere else is gut-wrenching.
But that’s not what’s wrong at all. In a heartbeat, he’s there, sweeping me up into his thick arms and lifting me out of the mud. His strength does something funny to my belly, and I have to fight back the urge to shriek as my insides flutter. I’ve never been picked up like that before.
“Thanks,” I mumble, practically melting in his arms as his heat seeps into me, and I get a waft of his manly smell.
Ben doesn’t respond but levels his brother with a glare as he sets me back down on the bottom step of the porch beside Beau.
“I suppose you better get inside; it’s too wet to be standing out here,” he says to Beau, then to me, softer, “Watch the steps. They’re slick.”
He opens the door and stands to one side, waiting for us to come in with a scowl rather than welcoming us. But I’m so exhausted, I don’t care once he says he’s letting us stay.
Inside, the cabin is exactly what I’d expect from someone who’s “a bit of a loner.” One main room and a kitchen flows into living space. Minimal furniture, all function over form. Handmade, possibly by him, if the loner lumberjack persona I’ve created for him in my mind already is true.
A stone fireplace crackles with actual wood, and I immediately go to it, eager to stand beside the fire.
But as I go to move, my wet, dirty feet squelch against the floor, and I stop, looking down at the dirt I’m walking in.
“Shit, sorry.”
Ben moves to the kitchen counter, filling a kettle. He doesn’t even turn. “It’s just mud.”
When I stay frozen to the spot, he turns and looks at me, gaze lingering on the leather jacket still hanging off my shoulders.
“There are towels in the bathroom,” he says. “Down the hall, first door. Beau, get her some, and grab some clothes from my room. She needs something warmer than that.”
