Chapter 4
Vaughn woke suddenly, his phone clattering on the nightstand as it rang and vibrated. Grabbing it, he swiped his thumb over the screen without looking at it and answered.
“Yeah?”
“Vaughn?”
Immediately alert at the sound of Holly’s worried voice, he sat up and swung his legs over the bed. “Is everything okay?”
He glanced at his clock and saw it was nearly 5:00 a.m.
“Well, not really.” She laughed humorlessly. “I’m stuck in a snowdrift.”
He stood and grabbed his jeans off the floor. “What? I left you in your apartment two hours ago.”
“Well, I had someplace to be that couldn’t wait.”
“Where?”
“With you.”
His beasts roaring in happiness, he pressed his phone to his ear with his shoulder so he could pull his jeans on. “Oh?”
“Yeah. I couldn’t go to sleep without telling you a few things, and I needed to do it face-to-face. My car skidded on some ice when I made a turn, and now I’m stuck.”
When she told him the street names for the intersection, he realized she was less than a mile from the apartment. “I’m on my way, beautiful. Stay in the car and stay warm.”
“Okay. Thanks. I’m sorry.”
“It’s not your fault you got stuck.”
“No, I’m sorry I didn’t tell you this stuff earlier. I could’ve saved us both a trip.”
“No apology necessary. Sit tight.”
He ended the call, grabbing a shirt and tugging it over his head as he walked down the hall, then knocked on Jack’s door.
“Yeah?” came the sleepy reply a few moments later.
“Holly’s car is stuck in a snowdrift down the road a bit. I’m going to get her unstuck and take her back to her apartment.”
There was a rustle of fabric and then the door opened a crack.
“Is she okay?” Ivy asked. “What was she doing out in this weather?”
If he was a peacock, he would have been preening. “She was coming to talk to me.”
“About what?”
He just raised his brows. After a beat of silence, Ivy chuckled. “Oh, cool! Go get her.”
“Will do.”
He drove the truck to the intersection where Holly’s car was stuck, the wheels firmly entrenched in the deep snow at the curb. He got out and smiled at her as she lowered the driver’s window. “Did you call a tow?” she asked.
“Don’t need one, beautiful.”
She looked at the truck behind him. “You’re going to pull it out?”
“Nope. Put it in Neutral.”
“Vaughn! I know you’re strong, but you can’t possibly push my car out by yourself.”
“I don’t have tow ropes. But tell you what, if I can’t get it out by myself, then I’ll pay for a tow.”
She gave him a skeptical look. “Okay.”
He heard the gears shift as he plodded through the knee-high snow to get to the back of the car. She’d thoroughly trapped the rear tires in the deep snow, but he wasn’t worried – being a shifter meant he was stronger than a human. He placed his hands on the icy cold bumper and gave it an experimental push.
It didn’t move at all.
Bending his knees, he gripped the underside of the bumper and pushed. He tapped into his polar bear’s mighty strength, fur prickling along his skin as the power rushed through him. He gritted his teeth to stifle the mighty roar that wanted to burst from his chest as the car began to move. With a grunt that was half snarl and half roar, he pushed the car entirely free of the snow.
Holly shifted into gear and stopped next to his truck. She got out and walked quickly to him, carefully dodging the icy patches on the road.
“You pushed the car out,” she said breathlessly.
“I told you I could.”
“Well yeah, but I didn’t think it was possible.”
He just raised his brows and said nothing.
“Thank you,” she said. “I’m sorry you had to come rescue me. I feel like an idiot.”
“You’re not an idiot,” he promised.
She gazed up at him. “I am. I let you leave. I never should’ve done that.”
Now his beasts were very happy.
“Tell you what. Let’s get out of the cold and we can talk. Do you want to come back to my place or go to yours?”
“Mine, since Ivy and Jack are at yours.”
“Okay. I’ll follow you.”
“I’ll try not to get stuck in any more snowdrifts.”
He snorted and walked with her back to her car, keeping his hand on her elbow to ensure she didn’t slip.
Before long, he parked next to her behind the bar and followed her up the steps to the apartment she shared with her sister. He was hyper-aware of her – how she slowly pulled off her coat and hat, how bright her eyes were, and the subtle scent of her arousal that was sweet like honey. Pulling off his jacket, he draped it over a chair with hers, then turned to face her.
He was hopeful she’d been on her way to see him to tell her how she felt about him, but he didn’t want to jump to conclusions. For all he knew, there was a problem and she’d needed his help, and the late-night visit had nothing at all to do with how crazy attracted he was to her, and how badly he wanted to make her his.
But he knew he couldn’t really mate with her. Not like he wanted to, anyway. He and his beasts needed to mark her with a bite on her throat, swiping a drop of blood into the wound to ensure it would heal quickly and scar permanently. It wasn’t normal for humans to bite each other like that during sex, so he needed to wait until he’d shared the truth of his nature with her.
Which he couldn’t do in her apartment.
Well, he could, but if she freaked out and screamed, or tried to run away, he wouldn’t be able to help her without possibly revealing his nature to others. He’d need to take her somewhere private so they could talk things out, and then he could shift for her. He had no doubt that his mate was a strong-willed female and could handle his shifts without batting an eye, but just in case, it was better to be safe than sorry.
“I wanted to tell you I’m sorry,” she said after a brief moment of silence.
“Sorry for what?”
“For a lot of things, but mostly that I let you leave earlier without telling you the truth. I’m just scared, but I’m tired of being scared.”
“What are you afraid of?” He took a few steps to close the distance between them and grasped her hands.
“When I bought the bar, I wasn’t prepared for how much work it was. I’d worked for my uncle, so I had an idea of what went into the day-to-day, but it was so much more than what I’d expected. It consumed me. I thought about it day and night, dreamed about it. I worried over every little thing until everything else in my life became secondary to its success. I thought this was my life’s dream, but somewhere along the way it became a nightmare that blotted out any chance I had to be happy.
“The moment you walked into the bar, I knew there was something special about you. I couldn’t put my finger on it, and I refused to dwell at all on why I wanted to be around you. But I realized earlier that I’d come to rely on you as more than an employee. I think of you as a friend, but it’s not quite a good enough description. I want you as more than a friend. I want you to be my partner, to be side by side with you no matter what tomorrow or the next month or year brings. If the bar crashes around me right now, as long as you’re here, I can get through it.”
He swallowed past the lump in his throat at the raw emotion he could feel as Holly spoke. “What are you saying, beautiful?”
She blinked, lifting her eyes to the ceiling. Tears slipped over her cheeks as she lowered her head to look at him. “I’m saying that somewhere in the last few weeks you’ve been here, I’ve fallen in love with you. It took tonight and the situation with Ivy for me to take a good, hard look at my life. I put walls around my heart so I could focus on the bar. I thought of it as my life’s work, but how crazy is that? What good will having a successful company do for me if I don’t have anyone to share it with? I want that person to be you, Vaughn.”
He released her hands and cupped her face, kissing the tears from her cheeks before he brushed his lips over hers. She sighed and opened her mouth, gripping his wrists as their kiss deepened, and everything within him quieted for a moment before roaring in happiness.
“I love you, too, Holly,” he whispered against her lips before he eased away and looked into her eyes. “I’ve been crazy about you since the moment I walked into the bar and saw how much you wanted to succeed. I’m happy to work by your side, and I won’t let you fail.”
She smiled, her eyes crinkling at the corners. “Will you stay with me tonight?”
“Yes,” he said, sliding his hands down her throat and brushing his thumb against her pulse. His fangs throbbed in his gums, his beasts making interested noises in his head. His mind spun, and a plan formed quickly. “But I don’t want to make love tonight.”
She blinked in surprise. “You don’t?”
He would’ve laughed at the absurd idea that he wasn’t going to toss her over his shoulder and take her right to bed to cement their mating, but it was the most serious thing he’d ever said. “Sunday morning, after the bar is closed, let me take you to a private cabin so we can spend some time alone together.”
“We’re alone now.”
“Yeah, but the bar is right below us. You can’t really get away from it if you’re always around it.”
“I’d have to keep the bar shut down on Sunday night. Ivy and Jack can’t run it by themselves, and I wouldn’t ask them to try.”
“If we leave early Sunday morning, we can be back late Monday afternoon before it opens. It’s not ideal – I’d like to take you away for a week, at least – but it’s enough to give us some privacy and time away.”
She pursed her lips and then smiled. “Okay.”
“Yeah?”
She chuckled. “I haven’t had a break in ages. Even if it’s just for a short while, I can’t think of anything better than actually going away.”
“Good. Now it’s very late and I need my beauty sleep.”
She laughed and took his hand, leading him to her bedroom. Grabbing a piece of clothing from the dresser, she excused herself to the bathroom, and he stripped to his boxer briefs and pulled the covers back. He’d just made himself comfortable and covered his lower half with the blanket that was swimming in her sweet scent when she came out of the bathroom wearing a short sleep shirt. Her lovely legs were on display, and she’d taken out the braid in her hair and left the blonde locks loose.
She joined him in the bed, sliding under the covers, and he settled back against the pillow and wrapped his arm around her shoulders. He pulled her close, and she rested her cheek on his chest over his heart and laid her arm across his stomach.
“Are we together now? I mean, are we a couple?” she asked softly, almost shyly.
He hugged her a little closer and tipped her chin until he could look into her eyes. He realized he’d made a mistake when he told her he loved her, because if she was asking if they were actually a couple, then he hadn’t made his intentions clear.
“Holly, will you be my girlfriend?”
Although the word that actually came to mind wasn’t ‘girlfriend’ at all, but ‘mate.’ She wouldn’t understand the term, though, at least not until she came to understand him.
“Yes.”
He kissed her, but not as deeply as he wanted. If they took things too far, they’d make love, and he wasn’t confident in his abilities to keep his beasts in check under those circumstances.
“Good,” he said with a chuckle. “You’re mine and I’m yours, beautiful.”
“I like that you’re mine,” she whispered, kissing his pec.
The brush of her lips over his skin made his spine tingle, but he pushed aside the sexy thoughts, promising his beasts that Sunday morning wasn’t far at all.
“I do, too.”
* * *
Vaughn woke several hours later, sunlight filtering through the blinds and bathing the room in the late morning glow. He rose onto his elbow and looked down at Holly. Her eyes were open and the covers were pushed down, revealing that her sleep shirt had ridden up, baring her blue panties and stomach. His hand rested on her stomach, his pinky touching the waistband of her panties.
She smiled at him, her eyes full of heat. “I thought I was dreaming.”
“About you and me?” he asked, leaning over to kiss her.
She murmured an answer that was lost in the kiss, but it sounded a lot like ‘Yes.’ He slid his free arm under her shoulders and pulled her close as they kissed, sliding his hand slowly down her panties. He could feel her heat, her body a temptation he was having a hard time ignoring. Slipping his fingertips under the edge of her panties, he stifled the growl in his chest when she spread her legs and arched her back, covering his hand with one of hers while fisting his hair with the other. She guided his hand under her panties, the apex of her thighs wet and silky with her arousal.
He teased her, barely brushing across her folds and circling her clit with the lightest of touches. She squeezed his hand and growled, the sexiest, sweetest sound he’d ever heard.
“Tired of the teasing?” he whispered, kissing the corner of her mouth and then her jaw. He nipped a line down her neck, his fangs throbbing as he found the perfect place to mark her.
“Yes, please, Vaughn.”
He loved the way she said his name, like a plea and a demand wrapped together in the huskiest tone.
He watched her face as he rubbed her clit, finding a fast rhythm that made her eyes lose focus and her breath hitch in her throat. He could sense the change in her body, smell the heat of her arousal and see the tension in her limbs. Just as she crested into pleasure, he thrust two fingers into her heat and she came around them, her nails digging into his hand and her fingers twisting in his hair. She let out a sharp cry that slid into a groan and made his whole body light up.
Temptation had never looked so sweet.
Her eyes were bright, her skin flushed.
He lifted his hand from her and sucked her dewy wetness from his fingers. He could’ve come on the spot from how good she tasted, and the need that rolled through him was enough to make him forget that she had no idea what he was or the truth of his people.
But the thought of mating her without her knowing everything brought him up short.
She pressed her hand to his cheek. “I want to take care of you.”
He shook his head. “Beautiful, if you touch me, I’m not going to be able to stop myself from taking things all the way, and I don’t want to do that here.”
She sat up on her elbows, her hair a beautiful golden waterfall around her shoulders. “Can I tell you something?”
“Anything.”
“No one’s ever touched me like that before.”
His bear, who seemed the most vocal around Holly, wanted to strut and roar.
He brushed his lips over hers. “I’m glad. I want you to be happy in every way.”
“I am. Finally.”
“Because of my magic fingers?” he asked, wiggling his brows.
She laughed. “Yes. But also because I feel like my life is finally lining up, and it’s because of you.”
“You’re strong enough on your own to handle anything, though. You don’t need me to be successful.”
“But I’m glad you’re here.”
“I’m not going anywhere, either.”
“Good.” She kissed him and sat up, stretching with a yawn. “I hope you like eggs and toast, because that’s all I have in the fridge.”
“Want some help?”
“Nope.” She stood and then leaned over for another kiss, which he was all too happy to give. “Just stay right here looking sexy, and I’ll be back.”
He watched her saunter from the room, the sleep shirt hugging her curves and revealing a tantalizing peek at her thighs, then settled back against the pillows with a smile on his face. His whole body was strung tight, but he’d made his mate come, and her happiness put everything else in shadows.
He finally understood what his friends had told him about finding their fated mates. She was the utter center of his universe. He would do anything to make her happy, no matter the cost to himself.
It didn’t matter if they stayed here or moved to NPC at Christmas. As long as he had her in his arms every night, they could live on the moon and he’d go to sleep with a smile on his face.