Chapter Nine – Caroline

“We have to go, if you want me to come with you to your house before I go to work,” Caroline said, gulping down a piece of toast as she pulled away from Carter, who wanted to spend the whole day kissing—and more.

“Are you sure we couldn’t have one more day to ourselves?” Carter asked, grabbing an apple and biting into it.

“Nope. I have responsibilities.” She grinned at him. “I’m beginning to think you are trying to avoid leaving my house.”

He looked around. “As much as I love your house, I cannot trade the open mountain for these four walls. I’d go insane.”

“Then let’s go and see if your house still has four walls,” Caroline suggested, draining her coffee cup, and grabbing her purse, before heading for the door. “I have an hour before I have to be at work.”

“Does Will even know you are back yet?” Carter asked. “You could spend the day with me at my house.”

“No, I can’t. And yes, he does. He texted me last night.”

“That is one thing I have not missed,” Carter told Caroline as he followed her reluctantly out the door. Despite his words about being cooped up, Caroline was certain he would rather stay hidden away.

“Phones?” Caroline asked, taking his hand; she liked to feel the warmth of his skin. Holding on to any part of him made this all more real. Waking up this morning with Carter in her bed, she had felt the urge to pinch herself, to check that it wasn’t a dream. Not because it was Carter, massive movie star, but because he was a man, he was her mate.

“Yes. They invade your privacy.”

“Then don’t get one. No one is going to force you.”

“You know, you are right,” Carter said. “I won’t.”

“You’ll just have to get used to me yelling to find you instead. Or using the bush telegraph of Bear Creek.” Caroline took a breath of the early morning air. Was it sweeter today? Did the scent of flowers on the breeze seem stronger, and the sounds of the birds more melodious? Or was it simply because she was in love?

Caroline looked sideways at Carter. Was she in love? Or was it the mate bond telling her she was? Or should be.

“I’ll get a phone when we have kids,” Carter relented.

“So that I can call you and ask you if they are OK?”

“Call me?” Carter asked.

“I thought you were volunteering to be a stay-at-home dad,” Caroline questioned.

“A stay-at-home dad?”

“While I go out to work,” Caroline prompted.

“Hey, I have enough money invested that neither of us will ever have to work again,” Carter said.

“And where is the fun in that?” she asked. “I don’t want to be shut away in a house with high walls. I want to be part of Bear Creek.”

They had reached his house on the outskirts of town; it really did have a high wall, all the way around it, with wrought-iron gates mounted with spikes. If anything said keep out, this house did.

“I’d forgotten what the place looked like,” Carter said as he looked through the gate. “It’s more … enclosed than I remember.” He plunged his hand into his pocket and withdrew a key. “Let’s hope the lock isn’t rusted.”

Caroline stood back and watched Carter insert the key. His hand trembled as he turned it.

“Opening this gate and going inside, does not mean you will go back to being who you were,” she reassured him.

“I know,” he said as the key turned in the lock and the gate swung open with a loud creak. “But it opens up my past, breathes life into it.”

“Only if you let it,” Caroline said. “Listen, I was a soldier, a part of me will always be a soldier, but that does not define me. My actions define me.”

He took hold of her hand and stepped inside the gates, pushing them closed behind him, as if needing to keep the rest of the world out. “Damn, the lawn needs mowing.”

Caroline burst out laughing. “That is the least of your worries.” The long, sweeping driveway leading up to the house was overgrown, with deep holes in it where the rain had gathered and small trees had seeded and grown. “Looks as if both you and this house need renovating.”

He ran his hand through his newly washed and combed hair, which curled around his neck. He’d let her cut it, but only to make it even, and he would not give up his beard. Not yet. “At least I have something to do.” He gave her a crooked smile, and she got a glimpse of the movie star underneath. Carter had a charismatic way about him that made her heart flutter.

Together they walked toward the house. Caroline felt like a trespasser, as if they weren’t supposed to be there. “It’s like a set for a horror movie. Don’t go into the abandoned house.”

Carter chuckled. “If something jumps out at us, I’m expecting you to take it on, soldier.”

“As long as it’s not a big spider. If it is, I’m gonna scream and run.”

“Come on,” he said as he mounted the porch steps. “There’s nothing here that can hurt us.”

“A deranged fan with a gun?” she offered.

“You mean someone who’s been living in my house, waiting for my return?” Carter asked.

“Yeah, who shriveled up and died, and now haunts the place.” Caroline stood next to him as he unlocked the front door, pushing it open to reveal nothing more than a musty-smelling empty house. “Anticlimax.”

“Some people said that about the ending of my last movie,” Carter joked.

Caroline let go of Carter’s hand and walked around the large hallway, peering into the different rooms that led off of it. “Wow, this place is huge.”

“It is. Too big for one man.”

“Did you live here at all?” she asked.

“Nope. Well, for two weeks, but only while I prepared to move up to the cabin. I slept in here.” He opened a door, which led to a sitting room with a squishy sofa and two comfortable chairs, which were covered with a dust sheet. “The old owners left these.”

“It’s a beautiful house,” Caroline said, looking out of the big windows that stretched from floor to ceiling, giving a wonderful view out onto the overgrown backyard. “You need to decide what you are going to do with it.”

“What do you want to do with it?” he asked, moving to stand behind her. Wrapping his arms around her body, he pulled her into him, kissing her neck. “It’s not my choice alone.”

Caroline leaned her head back on his shoulder and tilted her face up to his. “This is your house. You should decide.”

He tipped his chin down and pressed his lips to hers, kissing her, his tongue sliding along her bottom lip, and his hand cupping her chin. Damn, she wanted him. Wanted him with an intensity that ripped through her body. The feel of him hardening, his cock pressing into the small of her back, made that intensity grow.

He broke their kiss, and whispered in her ear. “What’s mine is yours, Caroline.”

Caroline broke away from him. “No. It’s yours. We’ve only just met,” she reminded him.

“Are you telling me we won’t be together forever?” he asked.

“That’s not the point.” She pressed her hands to the glass. “You need to decide what you want to do. Decide if you are going to be part of this town, or if you are going to live on the fringes of it.”

He sighed and walked to the window. “Do you have those plans with you?”

“Plans for the center?” she asked.

“Yes.”

“No, I left them at home.” She took his hand. “But Will has some. Come and meet him.” Her face brightened. “Come with me. No pressure. But really, if you want to give me any part of your past, give me that. It means so much and will change so many people’s lives.”

Carter turned her to look at him, brushing her hair back from her face and kissing her lips. “I can see why you served your country.”

“Why?” she asked with a frown.

“Because you want the world to be a better place.” He looked into her eyes. “Teach me to be a better person, Caroline.”

Caroline stroked his hair, feeling the silky-clean strands between her fingers. “You don’t need me to teach you.”

“I do.” He groaned. “I’ll come with you. But we’d better go now, or else I’ll be throwing you down on that sofa and tearing your clothes from your body, and to hell with being late for work.”

Caroline took both of his hands in hers and pressed her body close to his, her breasts soft against his hard-toned chest. “After work.”

“What time is that?”

“Five.”

“I’ll be waiting,” he promised.

“Then we’d better go; if I’m late I’ll have to make the time up. And I know how much a movie star as big as you hates to be kept waiting.”

They left the house together, hand in hand. When he opened the gate and stepped back out of his sanctuary, Carter seemed more relaxed. It gave Caroline hope that he would find a place in Bear Creek where he could fit in and feel comfortable.

And if he didn’t? They would make a refuge in the house he had bought and then abandoned. But she would never let Carter Eden go back to being a solitary bear on a mountain.