Page 18 of Bear with Me
Blake's pen had stopped moving a while ago, but I'd been so immersed in the thriller's climax that I hadn't noticed. He'd leaned his head back against the headboard and closed his eyes. The angle looked uncomfortable.
"I'm just resting my eyes," he mumbled when I said his name.
"You should go to bed."
He sucked in a breath. "Santa! We should leave out cookies and milk." He chuffed a laugh. "You don't mind me stealing a cup of your milk, do you?"
"Take all the milk you want, but … Santa?"
"You don't believe in Santa?" He blinked at me like a cartoon child stumbling upon the Grinch as he stole Christmas.
"I'm thirty-two years old." Blake was around my age, too, or so I thought. Now I wondered how much younger he was. "I would play Santa for hypothetical children, but I don't believe some random stranger will swoop out of the sky with presents."
Blake laughed. "I know it's silly. It's not like I believe some magical elf is going to pull up to the cabin with a sleigh led by flying reindeer or anything, just … Mom always left out a plate of cookies and a cold glass of milk, and this is the first time I'll have an actual chimney."
"Do it," I said, climbing out of bed. "I call dibs on the bathroom while you're doing your thing." My bear would probably clean the plate in our sleep, but I didn't have the heart to tell him that. If he wanted to believe in Santa, who was I to stop him?
Later, when we both lay in bed, my bear could already smell the treat waiting for us the moment Blake fell asleep. That wouldn't be anytime soon, by the sound of his racing heart.
"What do you do for a living?" he asked after a few minutes of both of us shifting uncomfortably.
"Construction. I build apartment buildings and condos, mostly, but I built my own house."
He sighed. "Of course. Put all that muscle to good use. Do bear shifters have natural muscle mass?"
"Alphas do, yes. Our omegas look more like you."
He turned onto his side facing me, so I rolled to face him. A sliver of firelight from the living room lit up the bottom of the door and allowed me to see his face in the dark. I doubted he could see me with human vision, but his grin was adorable.
"Do you have an omega waiting for you back home?"
"Depends."
He pinched his lips together for a moment, and then said, "I see."
"I met this guy on vacation," I continued. "Still seeing how it goes."
"Oh." He snorted. "Me? I'm a mess, Ollie. You don't want this."
"I've never met someone who not only knew they were a mess but also wanted to do something about it. You hit a rough spot, but you're doing your best."
He blinked his eyes a couple times, and I saw a single tear slide toward his pillow. "You definitely saw me at my worst," he whispered.
"Come here." I tugged him to me, rolling him over so his back was to me. I curled my arm around him, holding him in place. We fit together like two puzzle pieces.
"What are you doing?"
"We need to sleep." I nuzzled his nape and up into his sweet-smelling hair. "We can talk more tomorrow."
"If you think I'm going to sleep like—" a yawn interrupted whatever he was about to say. He snuggled closer to me, and his ass brushed up against my cock. I squeezed my eyes shut and thought about my least favorite place, the dentist's office, until I heard Blake's soft snores.
I was too comfortable to sneak out of bed for a late-night snack. My bear tried to remind me I had the perfect snack in my arms, but I was already too close to sleep.
CHAPTER 10
BLAKE
I founda bear in the kitchen on Christmas morning. No one would have believed me if I told them. I thought Ollie was a big bear when he shifted outside. Inside, he barely fit between the galley-style cupboards. His big tongue slurped all the way to the bottom of the clear plastic tumbler to lick up most of the milk. The tumbler fell over, spilling the rest on the counter, but he quickly lapped it up. The cookies were already gone, not even a crumb left on the plate.
