Hours later, Grace was just beginning to feel like her feet were underneath her. The rest of her shift had rolled along easier now that she’d seen Mia and talked to her. Somehow it made all the difference to have a woman’s perspective on things.

But it was also a woman’s perspective that had unsettled Grace to the point that she’d forgotten to stop by the market on the way back to the house after her shift. Stepping through the door she lifted up her face and breathed in the chilled air.

The cashier called out a greeting and Grace mustered up a smile and a wave in return, but her mind was already on her shopping list. She made it halfway up the aisle before she turned back around and headed back toward the front of the aisle. Rolling her eyes at herself, she picked up a basket and blew out a sigh.

“Long day, huh?” The girl behind the counter giggled. “I know how that feels.”

“I just have to pick up a few things for my aunt, I just remembered when I was almost at the end of the next block. I didn’t write down the list.”

“Oh,” another giggle, “so you’re having trouble remembering what you’re supposed to pick up.”

“Caught red handed. And I left my phone at the house this morning.”

“You can use mine.” The voice came from behind her, deep and warm.

“Travis.” She turned and looked up into his face with wide-eyes and a soft sigh on her lips. It was like she hadn’t eaten for days and now she was inches away from a big juicy steak, and a fully loaded baked potato, and it didn’t hurt that he smelled even better. “How are you?”

She could almost see him consider and discard a number of answers before deciding on, “Okay. You?”

“Putting one foot in front of the other.” So far so good. She could do civil, even if her instinct was to do so much more than that.

“Wow,” giggled the cashier, “could you two do me a favor?”

Grace looked over at the counter. “Um, sure?”

“Yeah,” she waved a hand near her face, “you two are giving off a ton of heat, so if you could stay away from the refrigerator section, that would be sweet. If you melt the ice cream, I will hate you forever.”

Grace held up her hands in surrender. “No worries, we’ll stay away from there. I promise.” Taking Travis’ phone in her hand she grabbed hold of the sleeve of his jacket and drew him along with her toward the windows. “I just need a second.” She dialed the house and tried to ignore the heat he generated just standing beside her. When her aunt answered, Grace listened to the good natured ribbing and repeated each item on the list as her aunt said them. At the end of the list she looked up at Travis. “Do we have it?”

He nodded as her aunt commented on the phone. “We? Who is we, Grace?”

“I’ll be home in a bit. Love you!” She hung up the phone and handed it back to him. “Sorry about that.”

“Whatever you need, Grace.” He smiled and she felt a gentle heat on her skin. “What’s first?”

They managed to keep things easy as they walked up and down the aisles, adding the handful of items to the basket that Travis had managed to remove from her arm with a minimum of fuss, but she drew the line at the counter when he reached for his wallet.

* * *

She put her hand on his and pushed gently until he set his wallet back into his jeans pocket. If he had been human, it would have been a simple gesture, maybe even playful. But he was a shifter and no matter how much she denied it, she was his mate. That simple touch was enough physical contact to make his heart tumble in his chest, thundering against his ribs and that added enough blood flow in his veins to have him painfully hard. If Grace moved her hand an inch closer to him, she’d know exactly how much he needed her.

So he gave in, and stepped away to put enough distance between them that she wouldn’t bump into him and he didn’t give the cashier anything else to comment on. He didn’t think she missed much from her perch behind the counter.

He picked up the paper bag after the cashier packed it up and settled it low against his hips. The slight bump of the bag was enough to hurt, but it was better than Grace thinking… well, whatever Grace would think. He didn’t know how to get through to her.

But thanks to a little bit of dumb luck, he could be close to her. Backing out the door, he held it open for Grace and when she walked past him he took a deep breath and filled his lungs with her scent. Beneath the scent of coffee and fryer oil that was on her clothes, was the clean scent of her shampoo, he could smell her skin and he almost tasted her spice on his tongue. He mumbled the flavor under his breath, as if he could etch the scent in his memory forever.

“Cinnamon.”

She stopped a step away and turned. “What?”

He felt her eyes on his skin and almost leaned into the caress. “That’s what you smell like,” he explained, “you remind me of cinnamon.” His mouth watered as he saw the affect it had on her, the hitch in her breath. Her eyes darkened and his bear rumbled in his chest, swatted at him through their connection.

Her skin flushed a warm red on her cheeks. “It’s probably because I eat so much of it,” she grinned, “I put it in my coffee when I remember to bring the shaker to work.” She reached out for the grocery bag. “I can take that. I should be getting home.”

He didn’t bother to look around him, he knew the answer, but he still asked the question. “How are you getting home?”

She swallowed and he ached to place his mouth against her throat and feel the movement under his skin. Then she spoke and his mind focused on her words. “I was going to walk. It’s just a few blocks.”

He had no problem walking with her, he’d enjoy the sway of her hips and the scent of her on the wind, but he wanted to talk to her and it would just be easier if, “I’ll drive you home.”

Grace’s steps didn’t hesitate, but he felt a change in her temperature, a shift in her gait. The soft whisper of her tights brushing together had him aching for her, and when she stopped to look up at him he had his heart in his throat. Hoping. Praying.

“Okay, where’s your truck?”

* * *

The streets of Grayslake were quiet and in no time at all, Travis turned into the driveway, wishing he could have taken more time, but he’d made the most of the time that they’d had.

With the windows down, Grace laid her arm on the frame and leaned her head against the window frame. Her breathy sigh had brought a smile to his lips.

“I love the smell of the trees,” she drew in a breath, filling her lungs with the scent, “don’t you?” Before he could answer she laughed and the sound of it wrapped around his heart. “Of course you do! What bear doesn’t?”

The bear inside of him agreed and before he knew what he was doing he reached out and took her hand in his, twisting until it was the back of his hand on the seat between them and her hand covering his. He gave her a chance to pull away, but she didn’t.

The key stayed in the ignition, and the radio kept the interior of the car pulsing softly with music as they sat in silence with the breeze playing over their skin.

“Do you need to go inside?” He grumbled at himself for asking the question at all. He wanted time alone with her.

Grace leaned over and checked the bag. “Not right away,” she answered, “nothing is going to go bad if we stay out here for a few minutes.” She sat back and looked at him with a somber look on her face. “And I owe you an explanation. It’s only fair.”

Fair was the last thing on his mind. His bear was in full agreement. He didn’t want to worry about fair, he wanted Grace. Three words were foremost in his thoughts when it came to Grace: mate, den, cubs.

She bit into her bottom lip, putting her nerves on display, but it was the soft stroke of her finger between his that sent shivers through his body. “I’m not what you think I am.”

He felt her hand grow a little cold against his and felt a subtle shiver, but it wasn’t fear. Whatever it was, Grace trusted him and he was grateful for that.

“I’m not the kind of girl that does forever.” She shifted slightly and he held his tongue. “All of this talk of ‘mates’ and ‘fate,’ it all sounds nice. It sounds like one of those vampire shows where he’d wait hundreds of years for her. It sounds great, but words are just that. Words.”

“Then what would convince you?”

She laughed, almost a cough of sound scraping through her lips. “You got a hundred years?” She didn’t give him a chance to answer. “The problem is; we have this connection. I’m not saying I don’t want you, goodness knows I want you. I just don’t think I can have you and then lose you.

“I can’t fall in love with you and give you my heart and then wake up one day and you give me ‘that look.’ Or you come home and tell me you found someone else. Or that ‘this,’” she gestured between them, “isn’t working for you anymore.”

“I wouldn’t, Grace. I-”

“You can’t promise that, Travis. You can’t.”

“I can,” he spoke the words slowly, his eyes never leaving her face, even if she wouldn’t meet his gaze. “I know what I feel, Grace. I know what you mean to me.”

He felt like his words were hitting a wall, almost as if he could see them hit the surface, crumple like paper, and fall to the floor between them.

“And Noah can give you forever?” His heart contracted in his chest and held there, motionless as he waited for her answer.

Something shifted in her. He saw her body still and without a single movement, he felt her withdraw from him. Her voice, when she managed to make her lips move, was barely a whisper. “I never said that.”

He felt a tremor roll through her hand, but she didn’t pull away from him and he held onto that as a sign that he could hope.

“I never asked him for that either. Noah has been my friend for years. We understand each other. We get along with each other. This ‘thing’ everyone is so determined that I should buy into, would work with us. He’s not going to expect more than I can give.”

It felt like she drove a knife through his chest.

“How do you know that I won’t do the same? How will you know unless you ask me, Grace?” He moved closer and saw her eyes widen when she realized he was close enough to lift her hand to his lips without tugging on her arm. He pressed his lips along the side of her finger and drew his lips along her soft skin until the scratch of his beard tickled the tip of her finger.

Travis turned her hand slightly and nibbled the tip of one finger, watching her face closely to see her reaction. “Why won’t you ask me?”

“Because I know what you’re going to say. You’re going to say what I want to hear and I’m going to want to believe it and then where will we be?”

“We’d be happy, Grace. If there’s one thing I know for certain about me is that I would do anything to make you happy.”

“Anything?” She whispered the word and he swore he only heard it because he was staring at her and he could almost read the syllables on her lips.

“Yes.”

The energy in the cab shifted again and she moved, tucking her knees under her on the seat. She leaned closer, setting her hands down on his legs, just above his knees.

He’d been on edge for days, but having her that close, her heat and energy laying on him like a heavy blanket, he was ready to be rolled under her power like a sailor to a siren.

All she had to do was tell him what she wanted and he’d find a way to give it to her.

Travis felt her gaze moving over him like a caress. From his forehead to his jaw, shoulders, chest, and lower. When she looked back up into his eyes, her lips curving in a smile as lush as gorgeous as her hips and incredible backside, it was all he could do to wait for her to speak.

“Then kiss me, Travis. Kiss me, then let me go.”

Travis felt like he was falling, as if the solid door and bench seat beneath him had melted away and she was the only solid thing he could hold on to, even as he tried to forget the second half of her request. He’d heard the jokes, he was a man, he could have selective memory, but he was also a bear, and his bear was having none of his silliness. His mate wanted something from them and they would give it.

He reached out and gripped her hips, felt the rounded swell of her body willingly surrender to him. The wheel, his mind offered the warning at the last minute and he shifted over to the middle of the seat, setting her knees down on either side of his thighs, pulling her close enough that he didn’t have to worry about the rearview mirror. And a quick glance out the window said they were under the heavy canopy of a tree that had likely been there for more than a hundred years and would keep them hidden from people driving by on this secluded street.

“Grace, please-”

“No words, Travis… just-”

He met her lips as he pulled her flush against his hips and swallowed her keening cry when her warm heated core met the hard, unyielding ridge of his need. He swallowed her soft moans with his parted lips and tasted her hunger in the rough scratch of their tongues.

His indrawn breath filled his lungs with the sharp pang of her desire. He could smell her heat and even though his bear begged him for more, to beg her to reconsider, he reached his hands around to her back and up to her shoulders.

Slowly he pulled her away, tracing a kiss along her arm, and then holding her steady while they struggled to find their balance apart from each other.

He heard her mutter something under her breath, but he couldn’t hear it clearly past the rush of blood in his ears. “I need you, Grace. I don’t know how to convince you that it’s more than words or empty promises. So I’ll show you that I’m going to do what it takes to make you happy.”

Travis held her still, balanced on his knees, and opened his door. With the same hand he tugged the shopping bag under the steering column and scooted over. He helped her slide over and sit on the bench. He gave her a smile. “Give me a second and I’ll get the door.”

And he did it, sliding out of the cab and carrying the bag in one hand and offering her the other when her feet were on solid ground.

They made it to the front door and he waited while she fumbled with her keys, darting glances at him when she thought he wasn’t looking. He didn’t follow her inside and she didn’t offer, taking the bag from his hands and struggling to keep it steady, even when she brought it close, against her shoulder.

“I’m sorry, Travis.” She looked up at him with such confusion in her eyes that he wanted to pull her back into his embrace, but it had to be her choice.

“I’m not, Grace,” he said the words and tasted the truth of them on his tongue. “I came to Grayslake to find home, and I found what I wanted in you.” He reached out, and trailed the backs of his knuckles along her hairline. “I just wish you wanted me back.”

It killed him to lower his hand and walk away, but he did it. If she’d asked him to walk through glass it would have been easier, but walking away was what she wanted… and what she was going to get.

Driving back through town on his way to the Bed & Breakfast, he saw Noah leaving the diner and walking down the street. Head tucked down to his chest, hands shoved deep into his jeans pockets, he looked like a man with a price on his head, not a man about to claim his mate.

Before he knew what he was doing, Travis heard his engine dig deep and a few moments later he’d turned on the next street and stopped short. He agreed with his bear who was itching for a fight, dropping down from the cab he walked around the front of the truck, and met Noah on the sidewalk.

The other man looked like he wanted to be anywhere but there at the moment. “Look, Travis, I’m not going to fight you.”

Travis smelled more than a hint of fear in the other man. “It would be easier if you did.”

Noah drew in a long breath. “You want to tell me why we’re standing out here?”

Travis wasn’t having it. “You’re not that stupid. I don’t even know why you’re bothering. She’s not meant for you.”

“I’m the choice she made!” Noah looked around to see if there was anyone around them and Travis knew it wouldn’t matter if there were other shifters around. Noah was only worried about humans. “I just wish you’d leave it alone. Pick up your stuff and leave.”

“You know why I can’t,” Travis felt a weight in his chest. “I need her like my next breath, but she turned me down. She wants,” he swallowed and felt as though he was gargling glass, “she told me to let her go.”

He felt Noah watching him, maybe waiting to see when he’d lose his temper, but it wasn’t going to happen. It would be oh so easy to shift and rip the other bear’s heart out of his chest. His bear would enjoy the hot rush of blood pouring down his throat, but it would be the aftermath he couldn’t stomach. Having Grace hate him would be worse than the pain he was going to have to live with by letting Noah live, and so he did.

“You better live up to whatever promises that you made her. Make her happy, because if I find out you hurt her, I’ll come back and rip you apart.”

Turning, Travis moved back around his truck, heading for the driver’s door which was still standing wide open.

“Wait!” Noah called after him. “So you’re leaving?”

Travis gnashed his back teeth together. “I’m leaving tomorrow night after I talk to the Itan. I’m just waiting to hear what time he has to see me.”

“It’s probably for the best.”

Travis read the truth in Noah’s face, but he didn’t understand the pinched look of the other man’s features. “I’m taking her to a cabin tomorrow night and-”

Travis slammed the door and stomped his foot on the gas. He couldn’t hear any more. He’d already heard enough to make sure he wouldn’t get a lick of sleep that night. Turning his truck down a back road he looked for a way deep into the woods. He needed to run, he’d just have to hope the hunters were smart enough to stay home tonight.