CHAPTER THREE
Ezra couldn’t believe he was riding next to Thea. Meeting her again was really something, and the fact that she wanted to travel with him and had recovered so well from her ordeal made him feel…odd. His heart felt like it was expanding, letting the universe in to do a little tap dance of happiness, leaving him forever changed. For the better.
It was an expansive feeling. Something he couldn’t really define, but it was good. Oh, so good.
They couldn’t talk as they rode along at highway speeds, of course, but just knowing she was there, next to him, was something special. It was like she brought an energy with her that had been lacking in his life ever since she’d flown away with her folks all those weeks ago.
His inner bear had mourned her loss. He’d felt protective of her in a way he’d never really experienced before. He’d thought maybe it was just the circumstances of her rescue and the horrific conditions he’d found her in, but now, he wasn’t so sure.
If it had just been the heat of the moment driving his emotions higher, they would have subsided in the intervening time, no? He was no expert, but he thought maybe seeing Thea now—recovered and riding a badass hog like she’d been born to it—would have cured him of any lingering feelings, if that had been all there was to it.
In a way, seeing her like this, so wild and free, made his heart feel good. As if rough patches had been healed, just knowing she was getting better and was already well enough to forge a new path for herself. In another way, the concern and protectiveness was still there. It had even ramped up a bit, if he was being honest with himself.
Knowing she was heading for the craziness of the rally made his bear want to roar. He had to watch over her. His inner bear wouldn’t settle for anything less. The protectiveness had come full circle to a point where he couldn’t let her go off on her own. He knew, if she wanted to do her own thing in town, he’d be dogging her steps, watching out for her from afar, if he had to. He just knew he couldn’t leave her on her own to fend for herself, no matter if she was on some kind of mystic vision quest or not.
He hadn’t pulled her out of that basement prison only to let her fall prey to the first shady character that crossed her path. He was proud of her for wanting to go on an adventure after all she’d been through. That spoke volumes about her strength of character, as far as he was concerned. But, by the same token, he didn’t like the risk her choices might expose her to, and he made a decision, then and there, that he’d be watching over her, whether she knew about it or not. He’d watch from the shadows if he had to, but he was going to make damned sure she was safe.
How exactly he was going to go about that while still completing his own mission, he wasn’t sure, but he’d figure it out. Somehow. There was no other choice.
They stopped a few of times on their way in, but there was really no time or privacy to talk about anything important. As they drew closer to the place where all the motorcycles were heading, the number of bikes and people on the road increased until they were just one of many, all heading to the same destination. There was a surprising camaraderie with the bikers they rubbed elbows with at the rest stops. The party atmosphere was already beginning, and the sheer number and variety of bikes on the road was impressive.
Ezra was going to enjoy his first trip to this part of the word—as long as he could stop the drug runners and keep Thea safe while she continued on her journey of self-exploration. He’d had more difficult missions in the past, but he was definitely setting himself up for a challenge. Good thing he excelled at meeting challenges. He’d make it work. He had no other choice.
When they rolled into town, hours later, Ezra led Thea straight to the hotel at which he’d reserved a suite. It was on the outskirts of town, away from all the commotion, for the most part. He led her inside and didn’t give her a chance to object as he collected two keys to his room and gave her one.
He wouldn’t do that for just anyone. In fact, it was very out of character for him to even consider sharing his space, or giving someone free access to his territory, albeit temporary territory. It was still his den for the time he was there, and he usually wouldn’t go handing out keys willy-nilly. That he didn’t think twice about it in Thea’s case said something. Something he’d have to think about at length.
For now, it was enough to know she’d have a place to run to if she needed it. Or a place just to lay her head if she needed rest. It wasn’t that long ago that she’d been so weak she’d been barely able to move. The busy town might get to her. In which case, he hoped she’d take advantage of that key and come here to find some peace.
“This is nice,” Thea said as she walked into the suite.
There were two bedrooms with a bathroom between them—the kind with two doors, one from each of the bedrooms. The door opened into the main room, which was set up like a living room in a house with a couch, coffee table and conversation area on one side, a dining room table and chairs on the other, with a small kitchenette along the far wall. There was a fridge, cooktop, microwave, sink and a few cabinets with supplies.
“As you can see, there’s plenty of room. I don’t need all this space,” Ezra assured her.
“So, why did you rent a suite, then?” she asked, turning on him with a suspicious lift to her eyebrow.
“Short notice. It was all I could get, and to be honest, I like the buffer of space between me and the neighbors. You know how territorial we can be,” he said quietly, not needing to elaborate further. She was, after all, also a bear shifter.
She nodded. “Yeah, I can see that. But won’t you mind sharing the territory, such as it is, with me?”
“Oddly enough, no,” he answered honestly. “Probably because of the way we met, you rouse all sorts of protective instincts in me, but it’s not just that. You feel…comfortable. Kind of soothing to my other half, in a way.” He lifted his shoulders, unsure how to put the feeling into words but wanting to be as open as he could with her.
She’d frowned when he’d brought up their first encounter, but the look faded to one of curiosity as he elaborated. Good. He didn’t want her to think he only wanted her around because he had seen her at her most vulnerable and wanted to protect her. Bear shifter females—any strong female—usually didn’t take well to that sort of thing, in his experience.
And he didn’t want that for her, either. He wanted her to be strong. To stand on her own two feet in any relationship—whether it be just friendship or…something more. At this point, he had to admit, he was very interested in pursuing that something more with her.
“Don’t take this the wrong way, but I feel some of that, too. My other half feels comfortable around you,” she admitted, seeming almost shy about her words. “That isn’t something I feel around men since…”
He nodded sadly. “I understand. I want you to know that, no matter what, you’re safe with me, Thea. I won’t let anything bad happen to you again. Ever.”
Her eyes brightened with tears she didn’t let fall, nodding as she took a moment to regain her composure. “I feel that, with you, Ezra. I mean… I’m strong now. Stronger than I was even before Bolivar. That experience changed me in ways I’m only just beginning to understand, but you’ve remained constant. Running into you on the highway… It was like nothing had changed. Not in a bad way. I mean, I’ve changed, but you haven’t. And that’s a really good thing.” She leaned back against the top of the sofa and shook her head. “I’m not making much sense, am I?” Her smile softened her words, and he found himself smiling along with her.
“It’s okay. I think I understand,” he told her in a gentle tone of voice as he moved closer.
He wanted so much to touch her. To take her into his arms and give her a bear hug. But not just yet. He knew it was too soon. She’d been through so much. He didn’t want to scare her off by being too grabby.
Instead, he reached down and took hold of the saddlebags she held loosely in one hand. He met her eyes, and they were close…closer than he’d anticipated. The question in her gaze turned to something much warmer, but he kept his resolve. He wouldn’t try anything physical with her unless and until he knew for certain it wouldn’t send her running away from him. Her safety was too important. More important than his own selfish desires.
She relinquished the saddlebags to him, and he straightened, moving slightly away. Out of the danger zone before he did something he couldn’t take back.
“Which bedroom do you want?” he asked. “I think they’re both basically the same. Right or left?”
She got up from her leaning position and went ahead of him to scout the rooms. One was a little more femininely decorated than the other, so she wisely chose that one. Though, to be fair, he didn’t really care one way or the other what color paint was on the walls, as this was only a temporary place to hang his hat.
He dropped her saddlebags on the chair near the dresser and left her to settle in. He’d left his own bags in the main room, so he retrieved them and headed for the other bedroom. He took off his jacket, checked his messages and heard the water running in the bathroom between the two bedrooms. Good. She was settling in.
The bear within him wanted to rumble in satisfaction. She was here, in his territory, and she’d agreed to stay. All was well with the world. At least for the moment.
Ezra had found messages waiting for him on his phone, which he hadn’t checked since the last rest stop on the road. His crew for this job was in town and ready for a meet, though Ace recommended waiting until tomorrow, so they could arrange some sort of casual encounter. Ezra spent a few minutes texting back and forth, and the plan was set.
He was free for the rest of the night, and he hoped he could spend that time with Thea. They were both a little beat from the trip, so he assumed she’d probably like to have a relatively quiet night to recuperate. He’d take her to dinner—or order dinner in, if she really wasn’t up to going out again.
From the sound of water in the pipes, he suspected Thea was taking a shower. He checked his own road-dust spattered appearance and realized he could do with a bit of a cleanup himself. Ezra spent the next few minutes making himself more presentable and then made himself leave the bedroom. The audible swish of water was making him think lusty thoughts and the last thing she needed was some hard-luck bear with a boner sniffing after her right now.
Ezra forced his libido back down and opened his laptop. He sat out at the table in the main room and studied the paper trail he had compiled while he waited for Thea to make a reappearance. Luckily, the reminder of why he was here and what was at stake did the trick, and he was soon lost in the money trail that led to Zappo’s Bike Repair on the edge of town.
Thea felt about a thousand times better after her shower. She emerged from the bedroom she’d chosen to find Ezra staring at a small computer screen while tapping the keys more rapidly than she ever would have expected. He knew how to type. Like for real. All fingers on the right keys and everything.
“I’m impressed,” she told him, moving to stand near the table but angled so she couldn’t read his screen, giving him a bit of privacy for his work.
“By what?” he said, looking up and then stretching, as if he’d been deep into work for a while. She’d been in the shower, and then in her bedroom, for a lot longer than she’d thought, so it was possible he’d been working all that time.
“You can type,” she said quickly, trying hard not to notice the way his muscles moved as he stretched his arms above his head. Ezra was a handsome man, and in just a T-shirt and jeans, he was mouth-wateringly tempting.
He glanced back at his laptop. “Yeah, I learned back when I was in school. Saved me a lot of hassle and headache knowing the right way to get the best use out of a keyboard all these years.”
“I just can’t picture you sitting behind a desk all day,” she told him, scrunching up her nose as she tried to imagine it. Nope. Didn’t work.
“Well, I don’t do it all day,” he allowed, shutting down his laptop and closing the screen. “But a lot of my work involves research. These days, that means logging time on the net.” He stood from the table then picked up his laptop in one beefy hand. “What do you want to do for dinner? Go out to a restaurant or order something in?”
She tilted her head to one side, thinking. Going out in public might be safer. If she stayed here with him, the mood might get a little too intimate, and she was very much afraid she’d crawl into his arms and never want to leave.
Where were these thoughts coming from? He was her savior, after all, but over the past few hours in his company, new desires had risen with more power than she had expected. She’d thought almost from the first moment she’d seen him, back in that hellish basement, that he was attractive, but now, there was a new awareness awakening. A new yearning that was growing.
Dangerous stuff. Especially for a woman who wasn’t really sure who she was anymore. Did Ezra even want to feel anything for her other than the protectiveness he’d admitted to earlier? Best she didn’t stir up too much trouble for now.
“Let’s go out. I didn’t really see too much of the town yet, and I’d like to get acclimated a little more,” she told him. It sounded reasonable. Sensible, even. She wouldn’t admit to the fact that he was just too darn sexy for her frame of mind right now.
“All right. Give me a minute to get my jacket, and we can go. I understand there’s a really good restaurant a brisk walk from here, if you don’t mind going on foot. I figured you might want a chance to stretch your legs after all the riding we did today.”
Thoughtful as well as kind. Damn. Ezra just kept becoming more attractive the more they were together. She’d have to be really cautious around him, not to lose her head…or her heart.
Dinner was delicious, even if the setting was a bit more raucous than Thea had expected. The restaurant also had a large bar along one wall of the large room. A half-wall topped with metal poles and frosted glass panels separated the two areas, but the bar was so full, people were spilling over. The waitstaff didn’t seem to mind, allowing bar patrons to sit at the restaurant side tables as long as they allowed the waiters and waitresses to fetch their drinks and ordered some snacks.
Thea and Ezra were seated closer to the bar than she probably would have liked, but the festive atmosphere felt friendly rather than threatening. And, she was with Ezra. Nothing would harm her while he was here. She knew that for a fact.
So, when three big guys stopped in front of their table, she wasn’t too worried. Her nose told her right away that these three were shifters. Even with all the various scents in the room, she smelled the distinct tang of fur. Bear fur.
“Will you look what the cat dragged in?” the man in the center of the trio said, grinning widely. “How you doing, Ez? And who is this lovely lady? Surely, she’s not with you?”
Ezra stood to shake each of the men’s hands in turn. “Good to see you, Ace. Jack. King.”
Thea’s eyebrows rose at the odd names.
“Our parents worked the casinos in Reno,” the youngest-looking of the three told her with a wink.
“This is Thea,” Ezra introduced her. “Thea, these three are old friends, and the best damned mechanics I’ve ever known.”
Thea nodded to each man in turn. If Ezra was describing them as friends, then they were all right. Ezra would be giving off more dangerous vibes if they weren’t. As it was, he was calm and steady, making her feel the same. Her inner bear was very sensitive and had pretty much aligned her instincts to his moods over the past few hours. That, in itself, was a little freaky, if she’d given herself the chance to stop and think about it.
“Would you like to join us?” Thea asked politely, looking at Ezra to see if he approved.
Ace made a show of looking over the crowded bar area and then back at the big table they’d been given. “If you’re sure you don’t mind,” he said, glancing at her before turning his full attention to Ezra.
Ezra held out an open hand in a welcoming gesture. “Pull up a chair,” he told the men. “I was going to look you up tomorrow, anyway, to take a look at my bike. I’m having an engine issue that I can’t pin down and was hoping you could help with.”
That was news to Thea. She’d been riding with him all day, and his engine had sounded fine. Maybe there was more to this meeting than she’d thought? She knew Ezra was in town to do some troubleshooting. Maybe these guys had something to do with his job.
They spent the next hour talking with the three brothers about motorcycles, the rally, the town and the shop they were working out of for rally week. Apparently, they were normally based out of Phoenix but had signed on for seasonal work during the rally at a well-known shop on the edge of town.
Eventually, as the noise level from the bar rose and the night wore on, Ezra and Thea got up to leave. The brothers stayed, with promises to look at Ezra’s bike tomorrow.
Ezra and Thea walked back to the hotel in silence, enjoying the crisp night air. The only thing that would have been better was if she’d been able to let her bear out for a walk around in the cold dark, but there were way too many humans around. Way too many guns and too much alcohol, which was always a bad combination. She would have to be content to walk on two feet tonight…and probably for the remainder of her stay in this town.
When they reached his suite at the hotel, Ezra spent a few minutes prowling around, sniffing everything. Then, he brought out an electronic gizmo from his pocket and went over the room with it, finally putting it away with a satisfied grunt.
“We can talk freely here. Nobody’s been in here since we left, and there’s no electronic surveillance, though that could change. I’ll alert you if it does, but I don’t expect it, honestly. It’s just always good to check,” he told her.
Thea was curious about his preparedness for detecting listening devices but chose to ask about something else instead. “Those three men at the restaurant… Are they helping you with your job here?”
He looked at her with surprise clear on his face. “How could you tell?”
“I’m not really sure. It was just a feeling,” she admitted.
He relaxed a bit. “Well, then, you have good instincts.” He went to the conversation area and waited for Thea to be seated before lowering himself onto the overstuffed couch next to her, but far enough away to give her a bit of space. “The brothers are here to do a little surveillance for me and to act as backup. They really are mechanics. We’d arranged to meet tomorrow, but running into them at the restaurant was actually better.”
“You hadn’t planned that?” she asked, curious.
“No. They had no way of knowing we’d be there. I just figured I’d bring my bike into their temporary place of employment tomorrow,” he told her. “The shop they’re working out of this week is owned by my employers, though it’s just one of many businesses in their portfolio.”
“The one you suspect is being used to smuggle drugs, right?” she asked, remembering their earlier conversation.
Ezra nodded. “Yeah, they’re going to be my inside men since it wouldn’t be easy for me to get the proof I need otherwise. If and when there’s a confrontation with the current manager and employees, the brothers will act as my backup, if needed.”
“Are they members of your Clan?” Thea asked. Bears didn’t have huge Clans, but it was possible the bonds between Ezra and the three brothers went deep.
“No,” he answered quickly, but with no particular emphasis. “I’m kind of a loner. I’ve been skipping around from place to place since I got out of the military, so aside from my folks, I don’t really claim a Clan anywhere, though I do work for Trevor and Beth, and they’re part of the group out of Grizzly Cove. Trev’s been trying to convince me to put down roots there.”
“I’ve heard a little bit about it,” Thea observed. “They put out a call for female bear shifters a while back, right?”
“Yeah,” Ezra admitted with a chuckle. “Those guys have a really grand vision for the town they’re building. I thought it was crazy when I first heard about it, but they’re actually making it work. The town is pretty nice, and they’ve gathered a lot of allies.”
“I had some vague thoughts about visiting there on my way home,” she revealed. Not that she was really looking for a mate… But the idea of a group of male bear shifters starting their own community was intriguing.
“If you want to see the town, I’d be happy to show you around,” he offered, surprising her.
“You’ll probably be sick of having me around long before then,” she joked, feeling a little melancholy even just saying the words. She liked being around him. Perhaps a bit too much.
“I seriously doubt that could ever happen,” he replied, both his gaze and his voice more serious than she’d expected.
He’d moved closer to her on the couch while they’d been talking, but she hadn’t really noticed until now that she’d moved nearer to him, too. There wasn’t a whole lot of room separating them right now, in fact. When he moved his arm from being draped over the back of the sofa to just lightly touching her shoulder, she felt the intimacy of their nearness and wanted to be closer still.
“I like having you around, Thea,” he went on, his tone deep and a little bit growly. The sound went right through her, to stroke the core of her being like a warm, velvet touch. She liked the sensation and wanted more.
But was this wise? The little voice in the back of her head wanted to stop and examine things, but the larger part of her heart didn’t give a damn. She liked being near Ezra, and that’s all that really mattered in that moment.
She moved, of her own volition, into his arms, pressing herself against him. Oh, she remembered that feeling. Ezra’s strong embrace. She’d dreamed about the way he’d held her during those terrible times just after he and his friends had rescued her from that prison. She thought she’d been imagining the safety she’d felt, but no. Ezra was just as she remembered him. Strong, secure and protective.
He also smelled…perfect. Like her inner bear’s idea of the perfect man. The bear was already half in love with him. Her bear had been so badly damaged by Bolivar and the terrible blood magic he’d been working on her soul. Ezra had put a stop to that, and his strength had given her the ability to come back even stronger. He’d almost coaxed her bear back into being, if that was even possible, when the poor thing had almost given up the ghost.
As a result, her inner bear was loyal to him even now, but it felt like more than just that. It felt like he could be important to her. Very important.
Ezra stroked his hands down Thea’s back, making sure his touch was as gentle as he could make it. He hadn’t expected her to want to be so close to him. At least not so quickly.
He didn’t want to do anything that might scare her off, but just having her in his arms again was making him feel things that might get him into trouble. His instincts were roaring to life inside him, wanting him to claim her in some way. To put his mark on her—not in a hurtful way, but in a way that would let her know of his interest in no uncertain terms.
But would that drive her away? If he kissed her now, would she run screaming into the night? Would it be a betrayal of the trust she was giving him at this very moment?
Ezra didn’t know what to do. That was unusual for a bear of his age and experience. He wasn’t used to being so unsure of his next move.
Good thing Thea appeared not to have the same problem. When she raised her head and looked deep into his eyes, he thought he was going to die if he didn’t kiss her within the next five seconds.
And then, she kissed him. Glory be to the Mother of All.