14. Nolan
NOLAN
The police took twenty minutes to arrive.
I’d shifted back before they pulled up and threw on some shorts from my place before the cruiser’s headlights hit the driveway.
Evan was still on the floor with his knees drawn up and his back against the wall, staring at nothing.
He didn’t move when the officers came in.
Didn’t even speak. He looked like a man whose soul had left his body and hadn’t come back yet.
Rose gave a statement. She told them about their past, his texts, him tracking her down, breaking in, and threatening to harm her if she didn’t come back with him.
She didn’t mention my bear. Maybe I should have been focusing on that, but I wasn’t.
All I could think about was how well she lied.
I mean, I knew she made up stories for a living, but damn.
The woman could tell a bold-faced lie without missing a beat.
It was actually impressive… and slightly scary.
Evan didn’t say a word as they cuffed him and walked him out. He kept that blank look on his face all the way to the cruiser. Whatever fight he’d had when he showed up was gone. All that was left was a man in pissed-in khakis who couldn’t stop shaking.
Good.
After the police left, Rose moved to sit on the couch with the blanket wrapped tight around her shoulders.
I’d cleaned up the mess my bear had made as best I could, but knew I’d still owed Alister a new coffee table when he came back.
There was an awkwardness charging the air, and I could feel Rose’s eyes on me while I cleaned, but I couldn’t meet her stare.
“What are you?” she finally asked, breaking the silence, and I looked at her.
“A bear shifter,” I said.
She nodded, like it was the most natural answer I could have given. “A bear shifter.”
“Yeah.”
“You shift into a bear. At will.”
“Yeah.”
“Have you always been able to do that?” she asked.
“Pretty much. I was born a bear shifter, not bitten and turned.”
She arched a brow. “That’s a thing?”
“Yeah.”
“So, there are others like you?”
“In town? Yeah. More than you’d think. We keep it hidden. Most people don’t know.”
“Most people,” she repeated.
“The people who matter know. Friends. Family. Mates.” The last word came out before I could stop it, and I saw her register it, her eyes seeming to sharpen.
“That’s one heck of a secret.”
“Yeah, it is.”
“What about Evan, though?” she asked. “He saw you. He saw... that. What if he tells someone?”
I shrugged. “Let him. Nobody’s going to believe a guy who pissed himself and got arrested for assault and stalking. He can say whatever he wants.”
“But what if —”
I held her gaze. “Even if someone believed him, I don’t care. Protecting you was the only thing that mattered. It still is.”
She stared at me, and I wondered if this was the right time to go into what she was to me and my bear.
Would there be a better one?
“Which is why I should tell you something else,” I said, deciding it was probably best to get it all out at once.
Dread filled me.
Not because I didn’t want to tell her—I did—but because the mate bond wasn’t easy to explain without sounding crazy, and also, the last thing she needed right now was another man telling her she belonged to him.
“My bear has instincts that run deeper than mine. He recognizes things I don’t always see right away.” I rubbed the back of my neck, hoping what I was saying was making any sense. “The day you showed up, I’m pretty sure my bear recognized you.”
“Recognized me, how?” She shook her head, confusion clouding her eyes.
“As his mate.”
The words hung in the air between us. When she didn’t say anything to that, I continued on.
“He’ll never choose anyone else. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime thing for shifters, like an imprint. It’s permanent for him.”
Her brows pinched together like she was struggling to understand. “So you don’t have a say? You didn’t choose this—choose me?”
“No, but I would have.” It surprised me how easily the words came, but it shouldn’t have. She was the one—for me and my bear. “Even without the bond. Even if none of this shifter stuff existed. I would have chosen you anyway.”
Her eyes were bright, and I could see her working through everything I’d said.
“You have a choice, though,” I said, and I meant it. “The mate bond is mine, but it doesn’t obligate you to anything. If you don’t want this—if it’s too much, if it’s too soon—I’ll understand. You don’t have to accept me or my bear.”
She didn’t say anything, and I felt her silence squeezing the air out of me. Suffocating me.
“When did you know?” she asked, her voice barely above a whisper.
“When did I know what?”
“That I was—that your bear chose me. When did he know?” she asked again. “I mean, I know you said he knew from the first time you saw me, but that can’t be right.” She rolled her eyes.
“Actually.” I rubbed the back of my neck. “I’m pretty sure he did know then. The second you showed up on my steps and told me to turn my music down.”
Her eyes widened. “Seriously? That first day?”
“Yeah.”
“You hated me that first day, though.”
“No, I was annoyed. There’s a big difference.
My bear didn’t feel the same as I did, though.
He wasn’t annoyed by your presence. He was settled in a way I’d never known him to be.
” I laughed and shook my head. “It drove me crazy, honestly. Here I am arguing with this woman about noise, and he’s in my chest acting like he just found the thing he’d been looking for his whole damn life. ”
She stared at me. “Is that why you were so—”
“Obnoxious?”
“I was going to say difficult, but sure.”
“Yeah. Partly. I was fighting it. I didn’t want to feel what he felt.” I held her gaze. “I stopped fighting it a while ago, though.”
“This is insane,” she said. “I mean, it sounds like fiction.”
“You’re a writer. It should be a cakewalk for you,” I teased, because it was better than having her say it was all too much and she couldn’t handle it.
I didn’t want her to say that.
“I write contemporary romance.”
“Sounds like you might need to switch genres.” I winked.
She laughed and shifted her gaze to her lap. It was short and a little shaky, but it had been a laugh. That had to be a good sign, right? One that meant she wasn’t about to run from me because of what I was?
When her laugh faded, the room went quiet, and I didn’t know what to say.
She wasn’t looking at me, and the longer she didn’t look at me, the harder it got to breathe.
My bear was motionless and waiting to see how this would pan out with her, too.
Both of us locked on her like the next thirty seconds decided everything about our future, because it did.
Was she trying to figure out how to let me down easily? Working out the kindest way to tell me this was too much? That she’d be gone by morning?
The silence stretched until I couldn’t stand it, and that was when she finally broke it.
“You turned your music down for me,” she said.
I blinked. “What?”
“The music. You turned it down. You didn’t tell me you were doing it. You just did it.” Her gaze was still fixed on her lap. “You did your yardwork when you thought I wasn’t working. You made me tea that you bought, even though I know you don’t even like tea.”
I didn’t have a response.
She finally looked up. Her eyes were wet, but she wasn’t crying. Not yet. Instead, she searched my face, looking for the catch, waiting for the other shoe to drop.
There wasn’t one, not with me, and she had to know that by now.
“You’ve been rearranging your whole life around me since I got here, and you never once asked for anything back. With Evan, everything came with a price and everything had a string attached.”
My chest ached for her and all she’d been through with that asshat.
“I didn’t do any of that to get something back from you,” I said, hoping she believed me.
“I know. You did it because that’s just who you are.”
“No.” I held her gaze. “I did it because it’s who you make me want to be. Better.”
Something shifted in her expression. I couldn’t name it, but it was like a door she’d been holding shut had finally swung open and she’d decided to stop fighting.
She stood and crossed the space to where I stood until she was right in front of me, and then she lifted to the tips of her toes and kissed me.
It was soft and careful. I didn’t push for more or to deepen it.
Instead, I just let her lead. She pulled back an inch or two after a moment and locked eyes with me as if searching for permission to do it again.
What she saw on my face must have been all she needed because she lifted to the tips of her toes and pressed her lips to mine again.
I let my hands find her waist this time.
When she didn’t pull away and instead pressed closer, I deepened the kiss.
My tongue glided against hers and the noise she made in response went straight to my groin.
My hands gripped her waist harder, and I pulled her flush against me.
I skimmed my lips along her jaw, down the side of her neck, and to the top of her shoulder.
She tilted her head back, and I traced a line down to her collarbone, noticing when goose bumps spread over her skin.
Her fingers interlaced their way through my hair as another noise spurred from her parted lips.
A growl rumbled from somewhere deep inside my chest, and I had to stop myself from hoisting her into the air and carrying her to the bedroom.
Was that what she wanted?
“Bedroom?” I whispered.
She nodded, and I grinned while I hoisted her into the air.
Her legs wrapped around my waist, and she laughed as I carried her down the short hallway to my room, kicking the door open with my foot, and then lowered her onto the bed.
Her fingers hooked into the waistband of my shorts and tugged me down to her.
I braced my arms on either side of her and kissed her.
When she sat up and peeled her tank top off, revealing a simple cotton bra underneath, I reached around and unhooked it, letting it slide off her shoulders.
She was gorgeous.
I kissed down her collarbone and the swell of her breast. When I took her nipple into my mouth, she gasped and her back arched off the mattress, her fingers tangling in my hair and pulling me closer.
The sound she made as I worked my tongue around her pebbled nipple—half gasp, half moan—nearly undid me.
I memorized everything about her.
Every curve, every sound she made, every place I touched that made her breath catch. My mouth moved lower, kissing across her ribs while my hands found the waistband of her pants. I looked up at her, checking to make sure we were still on the same page.
“Keep going,” she breathed. “Don’t stop.”
With a grin, I hooked my thumbs into the waistband and pulled them down her thighs, pressing kisses to each new inch of skin I uncovered.
Her panties came next, and then she was bare beneath me.
My hand slid up her thigh. When my fingers found her center, she was slick and ready, and the sound she made when I touched her sent a jolt straight through me.
I stroked her gently, learning what made her hips roll and her fingers dig into my shoulders.
“Nolan.” My name came out of her mouth like a plea after a few moments of my teasing.
I tasted her then.
She was sweet, warm, and every sound she made pulled me deeper.
Her back arched off the mattress as a fresh moan left her lips.
I gripped her thighs and held her steady while my tongue worked against her—slow at first, then harder when her hips rocked against my mouth and her grip in my hair tightened.
“Oh God. Right there.” Her voice was raw, and her thighs trembled against my hands.
I didn’t stop. I stayed with her, matching her rhythm, feeling her body wind tighter and tighter until she was gasping. She came apart against my mouth, her whole body shaking, as a sound tore out of her that I wanted to hear every day for the rest of my life.
I kissed my way back up her body while she caught her breath. Her eyes were half-closed, her cheeks were flushed, and when I reached her mouth, she smiled at me all satisfied.
“I need you,” she whispered.
I lined up and pushed inside her slowly.
She was perfect, and I had to hold still for a second to keep myself together.
Then I moved, and she moved with me, and together we found a rhythm.
Her hands slid along my back as her legs wrapped around my waist, and she pulled me deeper.
I kissed her while I moved inside her and swallowed every sound she made.
When I reached between us and found the spot that made her cry out, she arched hard against me, and her nails dug into my back.
“Oh my God,” she gasped.
I held the rhythm, stroking her in time with each thrust while watching her face.
She was close again. I could feel it in the way her body tensed and the way her breathing went ragged.
A few more thrusts and strokes later, she shattered again, and it was the best damn feeling in the world.
My name tore from her lips as the feeling of her tightening around me dragged me over the edge right behind her.
I buried myself deep and let go, my face pressed into her neck.
We lay there for a long time after, tangled together, relaxing in pure bliss. Her fingers traced lazy lines up and down my arm while my hand rested on the curve of her hip.
“I have a confession,” she said.
“Yeah?”
“My book. The hero.” She pressed her face against my chest like she was trying to hide. “He’s you. He’s been you since early on in the book.”
I grinned at the ceiling. “So I’m a book boyfriend now?”
“Don’t let it go to your head.”
“Too late.”
She smiled against my skin. I could feel the curve of her lips.
“I think I might switch to paranormal romance,” she said.
“Yeah?”
“Yeah. My real life is literally more unbelievable and amazing than anything I could make up.”
I laughed and drew her closer to kiss the crown of her head.
“I love you,” I said, meaning it.
“I love you, too,” she said back without any hesitation.
That was when I knew life didn’t get any better than this.