Chapter 33 – BEAU
BEAU
Her house is dark except for a single porch light glowing yellow when we pull into the driveway. Absently, I make a mental note to add more security lighting. It might be a quiet town most of the time, but she’s isolated out here, vulnerable, and I need to know she’s safe.
Lisa unbuckles her seatbelt then folds the printout carefully before sliding it into her inside jacket pocket. She sits for a moment, staring at the front door, then after giving me an odd look, reaches for the handle and jumps out.
Unsure how to behave, my mind is still blown by the fact that the woman beside me is carrying my child, a piece of me and her, inside her.
And she thinks I’ll be a great father.
Which is fantastic except I want to be more than just a father to our child, I want us to be a family. And I’m going to make it happen, eventually, even if it means being patient and not pushing for what I really want immediately.
I walk her up the path. The garden is overgrown, the grass long, and there’s a pair of muddy boots abandoned by the step.
She fumbles with her keys, hands shaky, and swears under her breath. When she fails to get the door open on the second attempt, I rest my hand over hers and quietly take the key, then slide it into the lock and turn it.
“Thank you,” she whispers, taking an unsteady breath and pushing the bright red door wide. The hall light flickers on, and warm air pushes out into the cold, carrying the scent of her home with it.
My bear inhales, loving the layered perfume of her. The rumble that starts in my chest is so loud, she glances back at me.
“Something wrong?” She kicks off her shoes and hangs up her jacket, careful to remove the ultrasound image first and slide it against the glass of a picture frame on her table.
“No, I just…” I take another deep inhale and close my eyes. “You’ve lived here all your life. Your scent is so strong.”
It’s intoxicating. When I open my eyes again, she’s stepped further inside, but I stay on the doorstep, one hand on the frame.
"Are you coming in?" Head tilted, she watches me, and it feels like this is a test. One I really want to pass.
I just don’t know what the right answer is.
"Am I? I’d love to, but I thought you might want some space."
The last couple of days have been tough, and Lisa’s had to deal with a lot.
She’s just found out she’s pregnant, and having a baby with a man she barely knows, who as it turns out, can transform into a deadly, albeit furry and devoted, apex predator.
As well as being shot at and finding the missing woman she’s been tracking for months.
I couldn’t blame her if all she wanted was to lie in a cool, dark room and shut out the world.
She gives me a curious smile. "So, if I say no, that I need some time to myself, where are you going to go?"
My stomach drops. Does she want me to leave?
Rubbing the back of my neck, I make myself look at her and tell her the truth. Because even if she doesn’t like the answer, she deserves to know what she’s dealing with here. And who I really am, deep down.
"To the treeline at the back of your property. I was going to shift and sleep out there.” I shrug and press my lips together. “There are some pine trees out there and lots of moss. It’s nice and cosy.”
Lisa is very still in her doorway. “How do you know that?”
Shit. Confession time.
"Because I’ve been out there before." I look her straight in the eye.
“Not for the entire night, and not watching you, per se. After the hotel, and then when we saw each other at the station…” I sigh, unable to find the words to adequately describe the all-consuming impulse to go to her.
“My bear wanted to see where you lived, just to make sure it was safe and that you were okay. Not like a weird peeping Tom thing.”
Her expression doesn’t change at all, and I have no idea what she’s thinking.
“It is a bit like a weird peeping Tom,” she quips, one eyebrow raised.
Okay, so that is what she thinks.
“It’s… instinct. I was pissed off with you, but he…” I throw my hands up, frustrated by the inadequacy of the words that are filling my head. “He craved you. Even if it was just to watch from a distance.”
Fuck. That’s it. She’s going to hit me with a restraining order. I should have kept my mouth shut. And I definitely shouldn’t keep talking and make things worse.
"Now that you're carrying our cub, he’s going to be unbearable. There’s no way he’ll let me go home tonight, not after seeing the scan.
I'm going to be overbearing, Lisa. I'll try to keep a lid on it, but…
" I swallow. "He wants to protect you, just like I want to be here, with you. But I also don't want to crowd you. So… fuck, I don’t know. Just tell me what you want, and I’ll do it. "
Her expression softens, her big, blue eyes glassy as she reaches out, taking my hand off the door frame, and pulls me across the threshold.
"Get inside, Beau."
The door closing behind me feels monumental. She’s letting me in.
The warmth of the house wraps around us as Lisa heads down the hallway, and I follow. Taking in the space, I run my fingers along the table, the rungs of the staircase to the right, the door to a downstairs bathroom.
There are quirky touches everywhere, hints of Lisa’s feisty personality that she doesn’t get to share every day in her very serious job.
My hand brushes along the hallway wall as I walk, and in the kitchen doorway, I grip the back of a dining chair as we pass.
Lisa stops and turns. "What are you doing?"
Stubbornly, I grit my teeth, but then, I relent. This is all part of letting her know what it’s like to be mated to a bear shifter.
"Scent-marking. Like I did in the woods out back." There’s no point lying. She’s a detective, she’s going to figure it out eventually. "Every surface I touch carries my scent. My bear is putting himself all over your home, so any other male will know I was here."
She laughs, but when I don’t join her, she stares at my hand on the chair. "You're serious."
"He’s obsessed with you. He’ll do everything he can to scare off competition." My eyes land on her shoulder, and a vivid image of my teeth sinking into the tender skin there fills my mind. The bite marks on her breast will have faded by now. He wants something more permanent.
"Beau, there aren't going to be other men in this house." Lisa’s not sure whether to be offended or amused.
"Damn right there aren't." I step into her space, crowding her, as the possessive growl that comes out of me surprises us both. My bear is practically vibrating, drunk on the scent of her home mixing with his own, claiming every surface.
Lisa's eyes darken, and the flush that creeps up her neck tells me my over-the-top possessiveness isn't having the negative effect I’d expected. Her fingers toy with the buttons of my shirt, and I pause, waiting to see what she does next.
I can’t pretend I’m not disappointed when she steps back, blinking hard to rid herself of the dizzying spell between us, before turning away from me without a word. She keeps walking, past the kitchen, past a small living room, and down a corridor lined with more photos.
“Come on.”
I follow, not sure if I should, but unable to stop myself.
When she stops at a door at the end of the corridor and pushes it open, the scent of her is so concentrated, my legs nearly buckle beneath me.
Her bedroom calls to me like a drug. I want her, I want to take her on her sheets, to wallow in her scent and drown her in mine.
Embed my presence in her life, her skin, her smell and her home.
Because apparently, her having my cub isn't quite permanent enough.
“I think I should leave.” I growl, aware my eyes must be glowing if the deep rumble filling the room is anything to go by. “I can’t trust… I’m afraid I’ll lose control.”
Clenching my fists, I close my eyes, forcing my bear back, but it’s temporary. If I stay here, he’ll keep pushing, and I can’t fuck this up by scaring her.
“I’d like to see that,” she purrs. “Would I get to meet your bear?”
Eyes flying open, I pin her with a warning look. “You’ve had enough excitement for one day.”
Pouting, she smiles.
I swear, she’s enjoying this.
She turns to face me and slowly unbuttons her shirt, backlit by the lamp on her bedside table. Her white lacy bra is torturing me, showing me a hint of dusky pink skin and the outline of her stiff nipples.
Lisa reaches for my hand, drawing it up, and presses my palm flat against her chest, right over her heart, which is racing beneath her silky soft skin.
"You missed a spot."
Our eyes lock, the power of the connection between us overwhelming. The bond between us pulls tight, almost painfully so, and the rumble in my chest grows. Her lips part, her breathing quickens, and I know she feels it too.
She sits on the edge of the bed and pulls me toward her by my belt.
I go willingly, standing between her knees, her hands now resting on my hips, looking up at me.
"The marking thing. Tell me more."
While her nimble fingers work on the black leather, I fight to bring my brain back online and answer her question.
"When a shifter, like me, bonds with their mate, there's a bite.
" I touch the spot where her neck meets her shoulder, and goosebumps rise under my fingertips.
"It's permanent. Just like the bond. It tells every other shifter you're taken, and it forges the bond between us, strengthens it.
You'd feel me the way I've started feeling you. "
Her fingers trace the ghost of a bruise on the swell of her breast. "Is that what you did when you bit me?"
My eyes lock onto the mark, wishing it was darker, that the skin there was broken. "That was instinct. The real mark goes deeper."
She moans, a sexy little sound that travels straight to my swollen cock, and I run my fingertips in circles around the fake bite before cupping her breast, taking its weight in my hand and brushing my thumb over the stiff peak.
"Does it hurt?"
I shrug. I can only go by what I’ve heard. "Briefly. Not as much as you’d think."
"And after?"
A wave of lust slams into me. I want her. I need her. And more than anything, I long to know exactly what the after part feels like, with her.
“I’ve never marked anyone, Lisa. This is a once in a lifetime thing. There’s no going back.”
She swallows and nods.
"From what I’ve been told, my bear will settle, satisfied that you're his forever. The moment itself is meant to be… intense, erotic… mind-blowing." My thumb traces the line of her waist down to her hip. "And you'll carry a piece of me with you wherever you go."
My finger dips into the waistband of her pants and slides along, teasing the edge of her underwear, tickling her sensitive skin, but not daring to delve further. Not until I’m sure she can handle it.
Because the way I’m feeling right now, if I taste her, feel her wrapped around me, there’s no way I could stop myself from claiming her entirely.
“Careful,” I hiss through gritted teeth when she pops the button of my trousers open and slips her delicate fingers inside, running her palm along my hard length, down and up. Groaning, I grip the footboard of the bed with one hand to keep steady, and to stop myself from grabbing her.
“I don’t want to be careful. We’ve been pretty reckless so far, and it seems to be working for us.”
Lisa's hand comes up and wraps around the back of my neck, pulling me down until our foreheads touch. Her breath is warm against my mouth.
"I want it."
My bear goes perfectly still, and I stop breathing. Both of us scarcely believing what she just said.
"Lisa, I…"
The argument I was about to make melts away as she pulls at my pants with her free hand, sliding them lower on my hips, letting her yank down my boxers and free my painful swollen cock.
Precum leaks from the tip, and I watch, completely absorbed in my incredible mate, as she leans forward and laps it up, teasing me with the tip of her pink tongue.
"I want your mark, Beau." Her determined eyes are steady on mine. "I'm yours. You’re mine. So… bite me."