Bear Fur Hire (Bears Fur Hire #2)(24)

“Like what?”

“Like that heaviness in the air that has you drawing into yourself. That’s me. Most people move away from it on instinct, but not you. When the air around me gets heavy, you stop ducking your gaze and look right into my eyes. You’re doing it now.”

“I told you I was broken,” she whispered, frozen in his predator gaze.

“Mmm,” he rumbled. “You are the least broken person I’ve ever met.”

She bit her trembling bottom lip to steady her emotions. “That’s one of the nicest things anyone has ever said to me.”

He huffed a breath and stood, taking their plates with him. He’d finished off four baked potatoes and a mound of other food while she’d only been able to finish two-thirds of her plate. Confused by his abrupt escape, she readied for bed, then pulled on her jacket and stepped outside to brush her teeth. The rain had slowed to a drizzle, but she still pulled her hood over her head.

Jenner was leaned against a tree near the corral, as still as a sentry in the soft glow of a lantern he’d hung from a low branch beside him. Only his eyes moved as he followed her path toward a canteen that sat on a splintered table.

Teeth brushed and mouth rinsed, she turned for the tent, but stopped before she went inside. “Jenner?”

“Yeah?”

“Did I say something wrong?”

“You’ve done nothing wrong, woman.”

“Are you going to stay out here all night?”

“I have to keep you safe.”

“But—”

“You don’t understand, Lena. I have to.”

“You always sleep in the rough to protect clients?” He was making no sense. It was raining and chilly, and he could get sick staying out all night in this weather when they had a perfectly dry tent right here.

“You’re more than a client now,” he said quietly, his eyes troubled.

“Okay.” She shifted her weight side to side, stalling. After what they’d done by the creek, she didn’t want to say goodnight right now. “Jenner, can you just lay by me for a little while then?”

The steely look in his eyes softened, and he nodded his chin once. “Just until you fall asleep.”

A small victory, but a victory all the same. She hid her triumphant smile as he followed her inside. He lay down and held his arm out for her to cuddle against his side, and damn her emotions, the gesture almost made her want to cry again. Jenner was hard. Iron-tough and cold to others. She’d seen it when they’d been at the lodge. He could joke with the other guides, but from a distance. With her, he was letting her in little by little. He was exposing his softer side to her, and if that didn’t prove he was growing to trust her, she didn’t know what did.

She rested her cheek against his warm chest and traced the crisscrossing scars across his ribs. Quietly, so as not to spoil the magic of this intimacy, she said, “You said I would like you less when I found out the reason behind these, but I like you more.” I love you, actually. She left those words unspoken, though, because she hadn’t said them to a man before, and Jenner seemed the type to run from something that serious this soon. She would be patient and hope that his feelings caught up with hers someday.

His heartbeat was steady and strong under her cheek, and his lips pressed against the top of her hair, lingering there while he pulled another unzipped sleeping bag over them. He turned off the lantern, and the soft rain pitter pattered against the nylon of the tent.

In the dark, Lena curled against him and let the warmth Jenner provided slip over her. She fought to keep her eyes open for a little while longer because this was another moment. Another gift added to the many he’d given her today.

“Jenner,” she said sleepily.

“Hmm?” he rumbled in that sexy, deep timbre of his.

“I’m glad you were my first.”

And as she drifted off, warm and safe against him, she could’ve sworn he whispered, “So am I.”





Chapter Eight


Jenner resisted the urge to look back at Lena for the billionth time since they’d left Wolf Camp this morning. The deeper they got into brown bear country, the more he had to fight the instinct to turn around and take her back to the lodge where she would be safe. Because out here in this brutal wilderness, he wasn’t the only monster anymore.

Behind him, Lena was clicking away on her camera, and for as wary as he was of taking his mate deep into bear country, he looked around and tried to see what she saw.

This land had always called to him, but she’d shown him a couple of pictures she’d taken this morning while he’d been packing up camp, and he’d been stunned into silence as he’d cradled the camera and looked at the images she’d captured. The splintered railing of the corral had been at the forefront in one of the photographs, and behind it, the packhorses were resting with their noses beside each other. She’d discovered this moment of incredible serenity while he’d been rushing around trying to prepare for the rest of their trip. Lena saw the world differently. She found moments that he would’ve just walked by and never noticed. He didn’t have a creative bone in his body, but Lena had the uncanny ability to find beauty in the mundane. The proof of that was the way she looked at his body, as if he was some priceless artwork instead of a slashed-up man.