Tracking the Bear (Blue Ridge Bears Book 1)(14)

He broke away before I could quite make up my mind.

“I’m sorry.” His voice was a deep husky purr and I might have decided to do it right there in the bathtub, if he hadn’t pushed me gently off his lap.

“Right,” I panted. “No funny stuff.”

“Did you want funny stuff?” he asked hopefully.

A small measure of sanity returned to me and I shook my head. “No.”

My body disagreed, though. I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to sleep after what we’d just done.

“Right,” he echoed me. “Time for bed, I think.”

I nodded jerkily, trying not to let images of exactly what we could be doing in that bed flood my mind. He exited the bath first, and I had a difficult time not staring at his ass as he toweled off and dressed in a pair of boxers and plaid pajama pants.

“I’ll get you one of my shirts,” he said brusquely. I didn’t protest, though I had some pajamas of my own in the bag.

“And a pair of underwear,” I called after him. Lord knew it would be dangerous to be in that man’s bed without underclothes on.

He tossed said items into the bathroom a few minutes later, and I retrieved one of the fluffy, white hotel towels from the shelf overhead. My hair would be a rat’s nest if I slept on it wet, but I was too tired to bother blow-drying it. I wasn’t on call to impress anyone, and I had the feeling I could wear clown makeup and not put Chase off.

Once I was sufficiently dry, I put on the overly large T-shirt and the lacy black underwear he’d tossed in. Of course, he’d chosen the only sexy pair I’d packed.

Of course he’d gotten the room with a single bed. It was king sized though, which was something. I could sleep at the opposite end from him if I so chose and that Jacuzzi bath had been worth sacrificing the other bed. He was reclining on the bed when I emerged, and was looking everywhere but at me.

“I’m not offended, okay?” I sighed. “I came to apologize for earlier. It was an overreaction. Promise you’ll never keep anything really important from me again, and I promise not to stay mad.”

“I promise.” He met my eyes and I could see the earnestness in every line of his face. I crawled into bed beside him, burrowing beneath the downy bedspread.

He turned the bedside lamp off and leaned over to kiss my hair. It felt nice.

“Goodnight, Lucy,” he whispered.

“Goodnight, Chance.”

A weight of guilt pressed on my stomach and I felt a bit sick. He hadn’t even hesitated before giving me his word. He’d meant it, too. He wasn’t going to keep things from me from here on out.

So why was I keeping things from him?





Chapter Six


Chance


My alarm went off at seven in the morning, and I wanted to bash it against the wall. I’d finally gotten a solid night’s sleep and now I had to wake up at the ass crack of dawn to resume the chase that was going to put me on the outs with the only woman that could ever satisfy my bear. Peachy.

I changed into a fresh pair of jeans and a T-shirt before she even stirred. She was a heavy sleeper, it seemed. Or maybe, like me, she’d just been exhausted. I hated to wake her, but we couldn’t afford to waste another day. The trip to Columbus would probably yield poor results in the end, but I had to try. At the very least I had to make sure that Luke hadn’t passed his curse on to anyone else.

I shook her shoulder gently. She groaned and attempted to bat my hand away. “Five more minutes.”

I laughed softly beneath by breath. “Wake up. We need to get on the road. You can sleep more in the car.”

Somehow we managed to get everything packed, eat breakfast, and check out of the hotel in under a half hour. Lucy shuffled unenthusiastically to the car. Though we couldn’t really afford the delay, I stopped at the nearest gas station to buy her an additional cup of coffee.

“Thank you,” she muttered, sipping the steaming liquid carefully. “You didn’t have to do that.”

“It’s another three hours to the university. I want you to be awake when we arrive.”

She sat up straighter in her seat, staring out at the highway and the passing road signs. I got the feeling she was deliberately not meeting my eyes.

“So if we don’t find him there, we’re headed to Virginia? Are we going to hike on the Appalachian Trail or are we off-roading?”

“I am going to hike the trail. You’re staying in a cabin until I get back.”

“No way!” she cried, slopping coffee down the front of her yellow tank top. She winced but didn’t tear her eyes away from me. “There’s no way I’m going to sit around like a lump and do nothing while you’re hunting my brother down!”

“And I am not dragging you into danger,” I growled. Just the thought of having her in the proximity of her brother anywhere close to the full moon sent a thrill of terror through me. She was too fragile. Her human skin didn’t mend like mine. Her bones were like sugar glass. Her injured leg was proof of that.

“More people are killed by more dogs in a given year than by bears!”

“Your brother isn’t a regular bear,” I argued. “He’s a were-bear.”

“So are you.”

“It’s not the same,” I said, gripping the steering wheel so tightly my knuckles turned white and the leather creaked ominously.