Chapter 15
Chapter Fifteen
Bea
Bax sat up, and his boxsprings squeaked. “What’s goin’ on? Are you okay?”
“Yeah,” I said. “You said I could stay here if I was more comfortable, and tonight, I’m more comfortable.”
His room was pitch dark, but the moon shone in the window just enough for me to see his outline.
“Okay…” he said, twisting and reaching for the light on his bedside table.
As a warm yellow glow filled the room, I scooted down and laid my head on a pillow, tugging the edge of Bax’s blanket over my hip, and I tucked my hands beneath my cheek.
“I’m sorry I woke you, but I’m pretty sure there’s at least one bear out by the cabins.
I kept hearing a noise. I have no clue what it was, but it scared the crap out of me. ”
“Uh, just for future reference, if you think you hear a bear, stay in your cabin! Are you nuts?” He shook his head. “Dammit, I should’ve given you bear spray. I can’t believe I forgot. I’ll get you some tomorrow.”
Rising up onto my elbow, I asked, “Is this not okay?” Shit. You’re a dick, Bea. Why didn’t it occur to you that maybe he’s not ready for another woman to be in his room?
But I really was freaked out by the noises I kept hearing outside my cabin.
At first, I’d thought it was a person. In fact, my very first thought had been that maybe Bax had come back for round two, but then I swore I’d heard someone fumbling with the doorknob.
Bax had another key, so I knew then it wasn’t him.
“No, it’s fine,” he said, lying back down and resting his head on his pillow. He turned to look at me. “But I almost had a heart attack just now when I imagined you tryin’ to run from a grizzly.”
“Oh, okay.” I closed my eyes and snuggled into his covers. “Well, that didn’t happen, so calm down. Go back to sleep.”
“I’m calm, but I’m not sure about the sleepin’ part.”
I yawned. “Turn out the light, and don’t make a big deal out of this.”
He snorted. “There’s a woman in my bed. It’s kind of a big deal.”
“You have a kid. It’s not like it’s the first time. Wait.” My eyes popped open again. “So should I not run if I come across a bear?”
Still looking at me, he arched a sexy brow. “You ever hear the sayin’, ‘if it’s brown, lay down. If it’s black, fight back, and if it’s white, say goodnight’?”
I snorted. “No.” Seriously? That’s the best bear advice you can give me?
“Words of wisdom.”
“You want me to lie down in the dirt and let the bear eat me?”
“You are delicious,” he said with a smirk, and I blushed from head to toe.
“But he won’t. Bears don’t see us as food, but if you get in their personal space or for whatever reason they feel threatened, they will fuck you up proper.
If you can walk away slowly, do that—you can’t outrun a bear—but if it’s too late for that, it’s best practice to stay as calm as you can.
In other words, don’t go berserk, try not to make eye contact, and most likely, he’ll leave.
But if the worst happens and he attacks, cover your head and play dead.
“And if it’s a mama with cubs, just pray.”
I rolled onto my back and stared up at the ceiling, trying hard not to imagine the worst happening. “I’m more freaked out than I was five minutes ago. I think I made the right decision to come to your house.”
“Didn’t you ever see a bear in North Carolina? Y’all have black bears, right?”
“Yeah, and yes, I have seen them, but from afar. We had one goin’ through our garbage cans once. My mama and daddy got up in arms, but he wasn’t there long and he never came back.” I shrugged. “I guess we were lucky considerin’ where we lived was pretty rural.”
When I turned my head to look at him, I caught him staring at my profile.
“We should go to sleep,” I said cautiously, as opposed to fucking each other’s brains out, which was what I really wanted to do as my eyes wandered down the wide expanse of his bare chest above the blanket tucked around his hips.
“There’s another bedroom or I can sleep on the couch,” he said. “I mean, if you want privacy.”
“Rye’s on the couch. At least, that’s who I think the big boulder was under a pink blanket with red hearts all over it. Whoever it is, they’re sawin’ some serious logs.”
Bax chuckled.
“But I thought for sure your dog would bark at me and wake the whole house.”
“He’s Rye’s dog, really, but Fig stays out with the herd most of the time.”
“Oh. Good to know,” I said. “But the third bedroom is the room next to yours, right?”
“Yeah.”
“The door’s locked.” I really had tried to find somewhere to sleep that wasn’t occupied by the one person I couldn’t seem to stay away from but absolutely should have.
I couldn’t bring myself to wake Athena; she had cross country and school in the morning. And I assumed the locked third bedroom had been Bax’s and Candy’s before she died.
The room he’d been sleeping in before I woke him couldn’t have been a married couple’s room.
It looked pretty barren and undecorated.
Besides the bed and the side table, there was a hardback dining chair in one corner with a pair of dirty cowboy boots set on the seat, a dresser with three open drawers and clothes falling out, and not one picture on the wall or any kind of personal decoration.
“Bax?”
“Sorry,” he said, shaking his head like he was trying to shake away a thought. “It’s uh, the room’s not… There’s a lot of junk in there and it’s not really set up for guests. I forgot.”
“Okay. Then I’ll sleep in here with you tonight. Tomorrow, I’ll get that bear spray, and do you have a shotgun around here I can keep at the cabin?”
“Bear spray’s a better bet, but yeah, I’ll show you how to use the gun tomorrow in case of emergency.”
I scoffed. “I know how to use a shotgun, Bax. You can’t be surprised by that, and I wouldn’t aim to actually shoot the bear. I’d fire into the air or nearby or whatever. But if it comes down to me versus a grizzly, the grumbly bitch is goin’ down.”
He laughed. “You’re right. I’m not surprised. It’s in a locked safe in my closet. I’ll get it out in the mornin’.”
“Thanks.”
“But I mean, you’re welcome to stay here, too, not just tonight… if you want to.”
“I do want to. The cabin’s nice, but yeah, I’m kinda freaked out. I can’t really sleep with all the nature noises. But I don’t know if it’s a good idea. Athena’s down the hall, and?—”
And if I stay, I might take advantage of you. I’ll try not to, but the heat comin’ off your body right now might just lure me in. I can’t make any promises.
“I want you to try,” he whispered.
“What?”
He rolled onto his side, pushed up on an elbow, and propped his head in his hand. “You said you’ll try not to take advantage of me, but I want you to.”
“I thought I said that in my head.”
“You do that a lot,” he murmured. “Say things out loud that you mean to leave unsaid.”
“I do?”
“Yeah. It’s cute. Plus, I kinda like knowin’ what you’re really thinkin’.”
How long had I been doing that? Dozens of inappropriate inner thoughts ran through my head, and I winced when I realized I had no clue if I’d actually said them out loud.
His gaze burned the side of my face, but I was actively trying to avoid it. This time, I made sure my inner diatribe didn’t leak out: You work for his brother. Get a grip, dammit!
“Athena asked me today if I was plannin’ to take you on a date.”
Whoa . “She did?” I pushed up on my elbow, too, and we were face to face. “What’d you say?”
“I didn’t really answer.”
Pulling Bax’s blanket up higher to cover my chest because I suddenly felt exposed even though I was fully dressed in leggings and a sweatshirt, I said. “I’m not much of a dater.”
“You and me both,” he said. “But this”—he lifted his hand to my hip and slid it down the outside of my thigh, then tugged the blanket down and slipped that hand between my legs—“this I can do.”
My hand reached out slowly—of its own volition, thank you very much—and I watched with fascination as it slid over his hip where his sweats had dipped a bit, and then lower over his smooth abs.
They tensed when I touched. Bax held his breath, and my mouth watered.
All it would take was one slip of a finger beneath his waistband, and the night could take a turn. “If I didn’t work for your brother?—”
“You do, I know.”
“Yeah, but if I didn’t and if I didn’t live a whole day’s drive away, would you ask me out?” Searching the burning blue of his eyes, my hand moved in slow motion over his skin. “I mean, like, are you… available for that?”
“Available? I’m not seein’ anybody.” He moved closer, inching his hand slowly up my inner thigh, slipping closer to the wetness his nearness, the sound of his voice, and the heat from his skin had caused.
I moaned softly, the anticipation of getting naked with this man making it impossible not to. For such a rough, grumpy guy, his touch felt delicate and soft.
“But I meant are you in a place to do that?”
“‘In a place?’”
“Are you ready , Bax?”
His eyes rose to mine, and thank God ’cause if he stared any harder at my body, I might’ve internally combusted.
“I don’t know,” he stated simply, “but I want you.”
One simple sentence, but there was so much contained within those seven words.
I thought about how to respond, but I rolled my lip beneath my teeth, and he groaned and leaned closer to kiss me. I moved onto my back and pulled him with me, and his hand finally found its way to my pussy over my leggings.
He rubbed and I gasped into his mouth.
“Ride me, Bea. It’s all I can offer, but I promise, as soon as my leg will cooperate, I’ll repay the favor and fuck you into the next week.”
Could I make any other noise besides moans? But I did it again loudly. “But what about Athena?”
“Lock the door and don’t scream.”
Gently, I pushed him away, and I rolled off the side of the bed and jumped over to lock us in his bedroom. “Please, you’ll be the one screamin’.” I lifted my sweatshirt over my head, and my hair fell and swayed down my bare back.
It didn’t escape my notice how quickly I’d abandoned my “I work for your brother” excuse, but I would analyze my lack of propriety later. Lack of loyalty? But surely Brand could see that making his brother smile was a kind of loyalty… Wasn’t it?
Bax stared at my breasts as I walked around to his side of the bed, pulling the blanket off his legs and letting it slip down to the floor. “I don’t doubt that,” he said when I climbed over him carefully and straddled his hips. Beneath his sweatpants, he was hard as stone.
Scooting lower, I moaned again when his cock made contact with the heat throbbing between my legs.
“Condom?” I asked.
He nodded to the side table. “Drawer. Foreplay?”
“Don’t need it. I’m already turned on.”
“Yeah,” he said, “so am I, which is why foreplay’s probably a good idea. It’s been a while for me.” He paused but then commanded, “Get up on your hands and knees.”