Bear Naked Truth (Southern Shifters Book 7) (2 page)

C
alder stared
out the window at the street, where he’d watched the human run away from him. Literally. She’d sprinted out the door and bounced down the sidewalk and out of his sight. He frowned.

He wanted to go after her and ask her a million questions. Including what made her so special? He’d met more than his fair share of humans in his lifetime, and none had made him want to pursue them for no good reason.

“What the heck was that?” Sienna asked him from behind the counter.

“What do you mean?” Although he had a pretty good idea what it had meant to him. The sexy, curvy woman who’d disappeared down the street might be a potential mate. He’d not had much time to assess her further, but from what little he’d scented and seen, the bear inside him had gone from lazy to frantic in a few seconds flat.

Something had definitely happened, but he’d been too distracted by plump pink lips that parted slightly when she perused him from head to toe. The flare of interest she’d shown had sent heat straight to his groin.

“I mean,” Sienna glared at him. “You scared that woman half to death. Would a smile have killed you, big guy?”

He turned around and frowned at the blonde pixie behind the counter. She wasn’t really that tiny, but to him everyone was small. “What are you talking about? I did smile.”

Sienna grabbed her sides and started laughing so hard he expected her to fall to the ground any second. Silly woman. What was wrong with her? When she finally recovered, she had to wipe tears from her eyes.

“If you call that a smile it’s no wonder you don’t have many dates. That was the smuggest looking smirk I’ve ever seen. And that’s saying something.” She came around the counter carrying his box of dozen donuts with an extra honey bun on top and touched his shoulder. “Calder, you have got to learn to lighten up. Learn to relax.”

“You humans confuse me,” he said. “I hope Gage can make sense of you better than I can.”

Sienna winked at him. “Gage does just fine, thanks. You on the other hand… Maybe if that woman comes back, you could try again with a real smile and a kind word or two. This town could use another human female.”

Calder scoffed, took his donuts and fished out his wallet. He forked out the cash to pay for them with the intention of forgetting about the woman who’d run from the bakery. If Sienna thought matchmaking was in her future, she was dead wrong. It seemed unlikely that a human would embrace his bear and especially not the skittish one who’d freaked upon seeing just his human side.

“Who was she anyway?” He asked as he stuffed the first of the dozen cherry donuts in his mouth.

She shrugged. “Don’t know for sure. But I’m betting that’s Jake’s new tenant. He mentioned yesterday that he’d rented his cabin to someone new for the winter. Although why anyone wants to rent that run down crappy cabin during the coldest months of the year is beyond me.”

He froze, his hand with his second donut in midair. “He rented to a female human? Is he crazy?”

“I know, right?! Bhric’s going to shit--well, a brick when he hears about this.” She stifled a giggle. “Warn me before you tell him so I can make sure I’m not around, okay? That’s going to be a hell of a storm.”

Calder pictured his boss and the neutral zone leader’s face when he delivered the news. His mood had been foul lately, and this information wasn’t about to improve that situation. Humans weren’t supposed to know about shifters, but living only a few miles from their territory meant Deals Gap was the closest town for her and was bound to cause trouble. “You’ve got at least a day or two. He went out of town.”

“Again? He’s been doing that a lot lately. Everything okay?”

Calder’s bear perked up. He took note of Sienna’s observation while he kept up his ‘I don’t care’ exterior. His ability to compartmentalize his emotions had always been one of his greatest strengths, besides the actual power of the bear of course.

He shrugged. “Leaders always have a lot they have to deal with.” He started in on donut number three, his sweet tooth in full force as he kept imagining the cute human running away from him, her curvy ass practically calling out to him.

“I hate that you can eat a dozen donuts every day and still look like that. Life is so not fair.”

Grateful for the subject change, Calder smiled around a mouthful of Sienna’s delectable treats. The woman was a goddess in the kitchen, making Gage one lucky son of a bitch.

“You think I’m hot too?” he asked.

She slapped him in the chest with her work rag. “Such an ego you have. Are all bears like this?”

His mood instantly darkened, making him think of the family he left far behind. There were moments, such as now, that he missed being with his clan. The shifters here in the neutral zone still weren’t used to his bear. Not that he blamed them. Grizzlies in bear form make for a very unpredictable animal. He certainly had enough blood on his hands to prove it.

He shook thoughts of the past free from his head and turned back toward the window, still thinking about the woman who fled. “Bears are confident,” he said. “We generally get or take what we want with little resistance.”

“And you want the woman who was just here?”

He swung around and faced Sienna. “I did not say that.”

“You didn’t have to. It’s written all over you.” Her smile softened, more serious and less mocking this time. “Why not go up to Jake’s place and check on her? Bhric will want to know for sure if there’s a human living so close and why.”

He nodded. Bhric would need to know about her.

“But Calder,” she hesitated. “Don’t scare her okay? Be yourself, but be the nicer you. The one who coddles Niki and her baby. That’s the Calder a human will appreciate.”

He started to protest and stopped. Did he treat Niki different than others? She never feared him and became his friend from the first moment they met. And her cub was precious to all shifters. He only wanted to protect her.

“You need extra donuts for the road?” Sienna had that mischievous look about her again.

He looked down at the more than half eaten box clutched in his hand. “Don’t tempt me.”

“Well, you know where I am if you need more.” With that, she disappeared through the swinging doors and left him alone. Alone with his donuts and his thoughts of a particular woman swirling through his mind. Dark, silky hair with equally dark eyes that he couldn’t stop imagining how sexy they’d be looking up at him from underneath him as he made love to her.

His bear pushed at his skin, urging him to go after her. He had a hunch doing so might not be the smartest move he ever made, but there were times when he had to go with his gut and his bear.

Find the girl.

J
essa pulled
on the wrench as hard as she could trying to tighten the pipefitting. She’d arrived back home to find out the plumbing under her sink she just fixed that morning had sprung another leak and flooded her kitchen floor.

She now had an inch of water under her feet, and she couldn’t get the main water valve shut off. With every passing minute the mess grew to the point everything would be ruined if she didn’t get this to work.

“Jesus Christ!” she yelled, tempted to throw the stupid wrench across the room. Instead, she gave it one more hard yank and the pipe finally gave just enough for her to tighten it down and stop the leaky spray.

No sooner did her shoulders hit the bottom of the cabinet floor in relief and a knock sounded at her door.

Great. Just what she needed. She climbed out of the cupboard and dropped the wrench on the counter. Water sloshed between her feet as she wiped her hands on her jeans. The knocking sounded again, this time coming more insistent. “Coming,” she yelled as she trudged out of the kitchen and to the entry.

Who was at the door seem inconsequential compared to the fact anyone was there at all. She was far enough away from neighbors that a drop by was unexpected. But of course, par for the course it happens on the day her new home flooded, and she looked a hot and wet mess from the ordeal.

She flung the door open without peeking out the window and froze before she could get a word out.

The shifter. Oh God.

The big one from the bakery stood in front of her. On her porch, making the doorway look tiny with his mile wide shoulders and beefier than normal build. Calder, the woman at the bakery called him. Such an unusual but strong name. Not that she hadn’t already repeated his name a hundred times in her head on the way home, while she ate, when she crawled under the cabinet and even when she cursed the pipe that wouldn’t tighten.

He reminded her of a—

“Oh my God. That’s it. You’re a bear.”

With the way his body stiffened and his eyes narrowed in her direction, she wished again she had some sort of impulse control that helped her keep her mouth shut. Blurting out she knew he was a shifter could cause all kinds of trouble.

“Excuse me?” he questioned.

“Uhm—No—nothing. I’m sorry—I mean— I didn’t mean to…” To make matters worse, she couldn’t put words together now in a sentence. What exactly was her problem around him?

“Why are your clothes all wet?”

Jess looked down, following his gaze and wanted to die on the spot. She wasn’t just wet. She was soaked, and her pale pink t-shirt was now plastered to her boobs and the thin lace covering them. She’d been hot while working, but now she looked cold. What with her nipples standing at attention and waving hello to the gorgeous man still standing in her doorway.

Grreeeaaat.

After a few awkward moments, his gaze left her body and wandered to the room behind her. “You spring a leak?”

Jessa nodded. “Kitchen leak. I think I finally got it.”

“I’ll look at it for you.” The bear walked in, his big body taking up so much of the doorway, forcing her to back up so he could pass.

She started to object and then wisely shut her mouth. As much as she wanted to stand on her own and take care of everything, there came a point when she either accepted help or outsourced. He was here and offering, which could save her the time and cost of hunting down a plumber. Although with his back already disappearing into her kitchen he was beyond an offer.

Clearly he did whatever he wanted. But it wasn't done in some asshole cavemen fashion. It was a quiet alpha move, and it made something inside her stir to life.

Okay fine, it was lust. He was hot as hell, a fact not lost on her. She imagined it would affect anyone who spent more than thirty seconds in his presence.

On a sigh she closed the door and followed him only to stop short at the sight of the burly man now lying on her floor with his head inside her cabinet.

He'd removed his flannel shirt and draped it across the back of her kitchen chair. She had to resist the urge to pick it up and bury her face in it. Heat crawled up her neck. What exactly was wrong with her? This sudden and overwhelming attraction wasn't like her.

Even after months with the Blackwood pack amidst more good-looking men than any one woman could handle, she didn't once feel this loss of control over her libido. This crazy, insane need to jump on the man getting wet on her floor.

She desperately needed a cold shower. Something to clear her head.

“Calder, right?”

He lifted his head and looked at her.

“That’s your name, right? It’s what the woman at the bakery said.”

“Yes,” the word came out a little growly if you asked her. But the look in his eyes was not of anger. She’d swear he looked at her…

Her nipples tightened more. The ache between her legs increased. Whatever was happening here between them couldn’t be normal. Men like him didn’t go after women like her. Although her boobs were quite large, which most men seemed to enjoy, so was the rest of her.

She shook her head to clear it before daring to speak again. “Should I call a plumber? I don’t expect you to fix it.”

“I don’t mind. I enjoy fixing things and besides Sienna sent me up here to check on you. She thinks I scared you back at the bakery.”

Sienna. That was her name. She filed the woman’s name in her memory for the next time they met.

“Did I?” he asked.

“Nah.” Jessa tried to shake it off and act cool but failed miserably. Her need to blurt things out without a filter didn’t lend itself to any kind of cool factor. That was reserved for guys like him. The ones who used the least amount of words and obviously took their time thinking about them before they spoke.

He didn’t say anything else, and she stood there like an idiot watching the muscles in his arms and chest flex as he worked. Several minutes later she realized what a goober she was and went on a hunt for every towel she owned. Time to start cleaning up this watery mess.

It took her nearly an hour to get the last of the water mopped from the floor. Including from around the sink where Calder sat still working on her plumbing. Which of course made her think of a different kind of plumbing she needed worked on.

Jesus. What was she? Twelve?

With a clatter of the pipe wrench, the bear emerged from her cabinet. “That should do it for now. You had the bare bones for supplies under here, so this fix is only temporary. I’ll need to go and get some new pipes and cement to make it permanent.”

“You don’t have to do—”

“I’m gonna. So there’s no point in talking about it. Jake is two states away dealing with family problems, so he isn’t going to be able to help. And I don’t mind doing it. Gives me something different to do.”

“You said that earlier,” she said, handing him a towel to wipe his hands. “What is it you normally do? I mean since it’s so different and all.”

He stared at her silently while cleaning his hands. The intensity of his gaze made her unable to look away. It was the quiet strength he continuously exuded that did her in. Most men tried to convey their power through words and it often felt forced. Calder, on the other hand, did not. He was an alpha through and through, and he didn’t need to tell anyone to make it so.

“I do mostly security at the Dark Moon. The roadhouse just outside of town. I also take on private jobs as needed.”

“Deals Gap seems a little sleepy for security. It’s quiet here.” She fiddled with the edge of her shirt unable to hide her nervousness.

He came out of her cabinet and hauled himself to his feet. All seven feet of him. “Don’t let the size of the town fool you. We get a lot of strangers through here during tourist season. Among other things...” He placed her towel on the counter and accidentally brushed her arm.

She gasped. The sudden sizzle of connection took her by surprise. It tingled across her skin and raced across her body. Nerve endings lit up for no apparent reason other than this beautiful man touching her.

His hand froze with the connection between them still hot. “It’s not safe for someone like you to be out here in the woods alone.”

“Someone like me? You mean a woman?”

The ice blue color of his eyes thawed and heated, turning a deeper shade of blue. “Yeah, a woman alone in these woods is vulnerable.”

She frowned. “I have a lock on the door. And a shotgun next to my bed that I
do
know how to use. I’m feeling pretty safe.” Even more so with him standing there in her kitchen.

Jessa turned away. As attractive as he was, it didn’t change anything. The indulgent look he’d given her at the bakery had been the real deal and she didn’t need to waste her time getting hung up on a man, make that shifter, who would want nothing to do with a woman unable to bear him children.

According to Simon, the doctor for the Blackwood pack, the shifter females weren’t getting pregnant very often and when they did, they often couldn’t carry to term. And now finding some sort of solution had turned into an obsession that had clans turning against clans, often in violence.

“Still,” he continued, pulling her from her thoughts. “Seems like an odd choice for a woman like you to take up residence in a seen better days cabin on the outskirts of a town where you don’t know anyone.”

“Oh for Pete’s sake.” She jerked her arm free and stomped away from him. “Stop referring to me as a ‘woman like you’. What the hell does that even mean? Do I not possess the right kind of qualities for this town or the people in it? Is it because I don’t grow fur or do you just have something against fluffy girls?”

Before she could take a breath, she found herself spun around and enveloped in big, muscular arms. His face now inches away from hers. “On the contrary. A woman with curves is the perfect kind of woman in my book.”

The timbre of his voice lowered, rumbling across her skin. Goosebumps popped up across her arms and neck. She could barely breathe with him this close. In fact, one slight little turn to the left and about an inch forward and their lips would meet. She suddenly wanted that kiss more than anything in the world. Just a little taste…

Instead of kissing her though, he took a step back.

“Winter’s coming soon. You’ll need to stock up on firewood and food supplies. If the snow comes early, as it often does, you might not make it into town for weeks. You’ll have to hunker down for the duration if that’s the case.”

Her mind couldn’t grasp everything he was saying. One minute he was about to kiss her and the next he wanted to lecture her about snow?

“I’ll be fine.”

For a few seconds longer he stared down at her, looking like he had a lot more to say. But for whatever reason he refrained. He tipped his head down as if he agreed with her and walked out of her house without saying another word.

Jessa stood there her mouth gaped open staring at the front door he closed behind him. A couple of minutes later a motorcycle flared to life at the end of her drive and she ran to the window in time to see him roar off.

What the ever living hell?

Apparently bear shifters were the most non-communicative, stubborn, egotistical shifters out there and that was saying something considering the pack she’d left behind.

She was so frustrated she wanted to throw something. Instead, she opened the door and slammed it shut. No, it didn’t make a difference to anyone but her, but it still made her feel better.

The next time she saw him though, she was going to give him a piece of her mind and then some.