Chapter Two – Cal

“Are you going to get inside, or wait for us to get washed away?” Cal asked.

She frowned, and put her hands on her hips. “I am not getting in a truck with a stranger.”

“Is that what your mom told you?” he asked.

Her face lost its frown, slipping momentarily to show a sliver of vulnerability, before she papered over it. “No, a dragon told me.”

“A dragon, huh?” He cracked a grin, despite the rain and his concern for her. She was sodden and covered in mud. “You know, if anyone else said that to me, I wouldn’t believe them. But you…”

“Look,” she said, holding out her hand as if they were mere acquaintances. “I really appreciate the help. But I am going to go and get in my car, and go home to get dry.”

“I want to make sure you get home safely,” he told her, as he slipped his hand into hers, letting the sensations wash over him. She awoke parts of him he never knew were asleep.

“Then you can follow me.”

It was a compromise, and one he was going to have to take, looking at her fixed expression. “OK.”

“OK.” She nodded once, snatched her hand out of his, as if his touch burned her, and headed for her car. He watched her go, admiring the sway of her hips and smiling at the way her feet squelched in her shoes.

She got in her car and slammed the door shut, which was his cue to go around to the driver’s side of his truck and climb in. He loved his truck and hated getting his seat wet, but he would have gladly let his mate drip all over the passenger seat just to have her near. His bear rumbled in agreement.

“Should have asked her name,” he said out loud as her car eased out onto the road, and he started the truck’s engine and followed her toward Bear Creek.

A half a mile further on, they passed the turn that led to his house on the lower slopes of the mountain. He should have made her go back there with him, they could have stripped off their wet clothes and used each other’s body heat to get warm. Or they could have slipped under a nice warm shower and washed each other’s bodies.

Instead, they drove into Bear Creek, Cal following her, just as he would follow her to the ends of the Earth and beyond if he had to. They were mates, he knew it, she knew it. Or at least he figured she did. The joke about the dragon made it clear she knew about shifters. Didn’t it?

“Holy hell.” His mate had turned off the road, drawing up in front of two huge gates that stood at the entrance of a mansion. Great, if ever a man was going to feel out of his league, it was with a woman who was rich. And famous? Was she famous? Wow, no wonder she didn’t want to get in his truck. This was a lady who didn’t want to slum it.

He took a closer look at her car, a newish Nissan: it didn’t exactly match the grandeur of the house in front of them. Was she only stopping here so that she could throw him off her trail, and when he’d gone, she would drive to her real house? Did she think he was a stalker?

His behavior back at the creek could have been better; he should have handled the situation in a more professional manner. As a member of the fire department, he should have ensured their safety above all else. Cal blamed it on the way she made him feel: even before he had set eyes on her, he had felt the pull of her presence. He’d stopped because of the abandoned car, his job made him aware of possible danger. He’d gone looking for the occupants, but the nearer he got to the banks of the creek, the more he’d been compelled to take one step after another. She drew him to her like a siren’s song.

The gates in front swung open, dispelling his idea that this was a ruse. She drove forward, and he followed—damn it, he was not going to let her disappear behind these gates, and out of his reach. The gates swung shut behind him and she kept on driving, a good sign. A bad sign would have been her getting out of her car and screaming at him to stop following her.

Her car crawled along the driveway, and he followed. When she pulled up outside the house, he drew up next to her and got out. He grabbed a dry coat from his truck and ran around to her car and opened the door, holding the coat over her head to give her some shelter.

“I think it’s a little late for that,” she said. “But I appreciate the gesture.”

“I thought maybe we got off on the wrong foot.” Cal held out his hand and helped her out of the car.

“We’re going to drip all over the floor, let’s hope we don’t ruin it. Carter will kill me if we do, he’s just had it laid.”

“Carter?” Cal asked. His blood chilled as the thought struck him that she might be married. But she was a shifter; she wouldn’t marry a man who wasn’t her mate, unless it was for money. He looked up at the house. A normal human would do something like that, but not his mate, surely.

However, fate might just have it in for him. Perhaps this was fate’s way of catching up with him for running back to Bear Creek. But sometimes running was the best thing to do. Especially running home. He would never be sorry he came back here; even if he hadn’t found his mate, he knew Bear Creek was where his heart belonged.

“Carter Eden. Movie star.”

He glanced down at her hand, no ring on her finger. “You’re dating a movie star?”

“Oh, no. I work for him. Sort of. I’m babysitting the house and the brewery while he is promoting his movie. He finishes in a couple of days, and then he and his family will come home.”

“Does that mean you’ll be homeless?” he asked, a degree of hope in his voice that made her look at him sharply.

“No, it does not.” She smiled, making him feel warm, despite his soaking skin. “I can stay here until I find a place of my own.” She took a set of keys out of her purse and opened the door onto a huge hallway, with a sweeping staircase. “Impressive, huh?” she asked with a big smile.

“If you like that kind of thing,” he said.

“Don’t you?” she asked lightly, taking off her shoes and leaving them outside. Cal did the same.

“Not really. I like the simpler things in life.”

“Me too,” she confided. “I’ll be honest, it’s been a little odd living here on my own. I’ve never had so much space.”

“Where did you grow up?” he asked, following her across the hallway, leaving a trail of drips on the tiled floor.

Her body language changed, her shoulders drooping a little, before she said brightly, “Foster care. I lived in a lovely house with an elderly couple who were the nicest people I could ever have wished to have as parents. They made sure I got good grades and didn’t feel like the odd kid at school. They came to every recital, every sports game. I was lucky.”

“What happened, for you to end up in care?” he asked. They were in the kitchen; she was opening a door leading off it, that housed a laundry room and a shower room.

“You can strip off here, and I’ll wash your clothes.”

“And what about you?” he asked his voice low, husky at the thought of her naked, and in the shower with him.

She pointed upwards. “I’m going to use an upstairs bathroom. I’ll bring some dry clothes down for you to change into. I’m sure Carter won’t mind if I lend you something of his.”

“Thanks.” He stood and watched her back away from him. Was she expecting him to strip in front of her? Did she want him to strip in front of her?

Grabbing the hem of his sweater, which was all out of shape thanks to the rain, he peeled it off over his head. She stood there, watching. Cal cast it to one side and then repeated the motion, taking his T-shirt off. Only when he unbuckled his belt, did she turn and run, slipping and grabbing hold of the countertop in the kitchen to keep herself upright.

Chuckling to himself, he shoved his clothes in the washing machine but didn’t switch it on in case she planned to put her clothes in there too. He could just imagine their wet clothes, tumbling around and around in the machine, while he and his mate tumbled around and around in bed. What else were they to do while they waited for their clothes?

Maybe he should turn the water temperature down to freezing when he got in the shower. But he doubted anything would help stem his need to claim her, to possess her. He had only been back in Bear Creek for two weeks; he’d never expected to find his woman so soon.

Now she was here, so close he could still sense her presence, the walls of the mansion not thick enough or strong enough to keep her from him.

Who knew the mating bond could be so strong?

A cold shower it is! Cal turned the tap and stepped under the cool cascade, his head filled with images of his mate, naked in a shower somewhere close by. It took all of his self-control not to wander through the house naked, until he found her and claimed her as his own.