Chapter 10
Torin
Ipull back immediately.
Hannah’s gone rigid beside me. Her eyes flick to mine, wide and confused, before dropping to her lap.
Something twists hard in my chest.
She wanted me to kiss her. I know she did. I could smell her desire, see it in the way she watched my mouth, the way she stayed right there as I leaned toward her.
Then something changed.
“I’m sorry,” she whispers.
“Hannah, no.”
She shakes her head. “I am.”
I lean back against the couch, putting more space between us. My bear hates every inch of it, but right now I don’t give a damn what it wants.
“You’ve got nothing to be sorry for.”
She stares into the fire.
I give her a minute.
Eventually, she lets out a shaky breath. “I don’t know what that was.”
“That’s okay.”
She looks at me.
“You don’t have to figure it out right now.”
Her gaze drops back to the flames. “I did want you to kiss me.”
“I know.”
“You do?”
“Yeah.”
She’s quiet for a moment. Then she draws a breath. “Before the ceremony, Cade made me take my clothes off.”
It takes me a second to understand what she’s telling me.
“Everything,” she says, her gaze still fixed on the fire. “He wanted to inspect me.”
Rage tears through me, and I have to take a breath before I trust myself to speak.
“He wanted to make sure I was worth the money.”
Hannah draws one knee up and wraps her arms around it. “I’d never been naked in front of a man before. And there were other people there.”
Jesus Christ.
“Did he touch you?” I manage to say through clenched teeth.
“No.” She shakes her head. “He just looked at me. Commented.”
“On your body?”
She nods.
“What did he say?”
Hannah is quiet for a moment. Then she looks down at herself, at my shirt covering her thighs. “Enough that I can still hear it.”
Fuck. That asshole’s voice is still in her head. I could fucking kill him.
I’m burning to tell her what I see when I look at her.
How beautiful she is. How hard it’s been to keep my eyes off her since the moment I found her.
But that animal stood there and judged her body like it belonged to him.
She doesn’t need another man telling her what he thinks of it. So, I keep my mouth shut.
Hannah stares into the fire for a while before she speaks again. “And then suddenly I was back in that room.”
Fuck.
“I wasn’t scared of you,” she says quickly.
“I know.”
“But I still freaked out.” She draws her knee a little tighter against her chest.
I want to reach for her, but after what she’s just told me, I’m not touching her unless she asks me to.
“What happened to you...” I stop, fighting down another surge of anger. “That’s not what mating is supposed to be.”
“What do you mean?”
“He treated you like something he was buying. That’s not how bears are with their mates.”
“But he said I was his mate.”
“He was full of shit. We don’t pick somebody and decide she’ll do. There’s one woman for us, and when we meet her, we know.”
“Immediately?”
“Yeah. We just know.”
She thinks about that for a moment. “And what happens if she doesn’t want you?”
That one lands harder than she could possibly know.
“You leave her alone.”
“That’s it?”
“What else would there be?”
“I don’t know.” Her mouth twists. “Apparently my education in bear mating customs has been a little unreliable.”
Despite everything, I laugh.
“So, what do you do when you meet her?”
My bear perks up, but I ignore it. “Try not to scare the hell out of her, mostly.”
That gets a smile. “And then?”
“Get to know her. Spend time with her.”
“Kiss her?”
“Eventually.”
“And do you kiss women who aren’t your mate?”
“No.”
“Never?”
“Never.”
She goes quiet, and I can almost see her working it out.
“So, when you tried to kiss me...”
“Yeah.”
My bear immediately starts up.
Tell her.
Not now. She’s spent the last twenty-four hours escaping a bear who decided he had a right to her. I’m not about to follow that by announcing she’s my mate.
Hannah drains the rest of her iced tea. “Don’t you at least need to know whether she’s a good kisser?”
It takes me a second to catch the hint of a smile.
“Guess it can’t hurt.”
She sets down her glass and shifts closer.
My bear goes wild.
Mine.
I shut it out and wait.
Hannah reaches up, her fingers brushing through my beard, and I stay completely still as she leans toward me.
Her lips touch mine, light and careful. She pulls back almost immediately, smiling.
“Hannah—”
Her fingers twist into my hair and she kisses me again.
Hard.
Her mouth opens under mine, and then she’s climbing into my lap.
Fuck.
She straddles me, the T-shirt riding high around her hips, and my cock goes painfully hard beneath her.
Hannah feels it. Her breath catches against my mouth.
I stop.
She draws back just enough to look at me. Her pupils blown wide. Then she presses herself against me.
A growl rumbles out of my chest before I can stop it.
Hannah stills.
Shit.
But she doesn’t pull away. Her eyes search mine, and I know the instant the gold hits them because her expression changes.
“Your eyes,” she murmurs.
I force my beast back. “Sorry.”
“Don’t.”
That one word nearly fucking kills me. Her fingers tighten in my hair and she kisses me again. I pull her closer, and this time I quit holding back.
Hannah meets me with the same hunger, tugging at my hair, pressing herself closer. The T-shirt has ridden almost to her waist. I slide my hands underneath it and cup her breasts for the very first time.
A sigh escapes her.
Fuck.
She shivers at my touch and reaches for the hem. I help her pull it over her head. It lands somewhere behind the sofa.
Hannah laughs.
Then both of us turn.
Because a truck has just pulled into the yard.
“Shit, Torin, my shirt!”
Hannah scrambles off me, and I reach behind the sofa for it. I hand it to her just as a door slams.
I try to get myself under control before Orson comes around the side of the lodge.
He takes one look at us.
Hannah is busy tugging my T-shirt down over her thighs. I’m still sitting there with a hard-on that’s going to take a while to disappear.
Orson looks away. “Sorry.”
“It’s okay, you live here,” Hannah says, her cheeks turning pink.
“Still sorry.”
He turns toward the lodge, and I’m grateful he keeps walking.
Hannah watches him disappear inside.
“He doesn’t like me, does he?”
I clear my throat. “There’s something I should’ve told you. The bear you swerved to avoid yesterday? That was Orson.”
She stares at me. “I thought it was you.”
“I know.”
Her expression changes as she puts it together. “So that’s why he was staring at my bruises.”
“Yeah. He feels terrible.”
“He could have just told me.”
“He’s not great at that.”
“You could have told me.”
“Yeah.” I pull at my beard. “I should have.”
She considers that for a moment, then nods.
Then she rubs her hands over her arms. “I think I should go back to the cabin.”
Damn. Her cheeks are still flushed, her lips swollen from kissing me.
“Sure. Let me grab my keys.”
She gives me a small smile, and I head inside to pick them up.
The last streaks of daylight are fading from the sky as we drive back down the mountain.
By the time we reach Bennett’s cabin, it’s dark. I pull up outside and leave the engine running.
Hannah turns toward me. She’s still wearing my shirt, and I have to resist the urge to pull her across the seat and kiss her again.
“I had a really nice day,” she says.
“Me too.”
Her smile is small. “All of it.”
Something tightens in my chest. “Yeah?”
“Yeah.”
She reaches for the door, then pauses. “I’m keeping the shirt tonight.”
“Wasn’t going to ask for it.”
She smiles and opens the door.
“Hannah.”
She looks back.
“I’ll see you tomorrow?”
Her smile comes more slowly this time.
“Yeah. I’d like that.”
I wait until she’s inside before putting the truck in gear.
I’m still grinning when I pull away.