Bearing the Whiteout (Ice Bear Shifters Book 2) (2 page)

“Gotcha,” Delaney said.

Eric rolled his eyes, and Tyler gave him a sharp kick in the shin. Eric rolled his eyes again, but it was obvious from the small amount of information that Delaney had already shared that she wasn’t upset over a boy. Eric had lost his bet and he knew it. The pointed look Tyler gave him said Tyler knew it as well. Eric was going to have to ask Delaney out on a date. Although, since she was a visitor in town, she would probably decline anyways. Eric should have been happy about that, but he somehow found himself nervous that she would turn him down. Suddenly, he had an idea for the perfect date—one he knew Delaney wouldn’t be able to resist.

“I can show you some spots,” Eric said. Tyler raised an eyebrow in Eric’s direction, but said nothing. Delaney looked over at Eric with an eager expression, and a huge smile broke out across her face. Damn, that smile was going to be the end of his no-woman policy if he wasn’t careful.

“Really?” she asked. Her voice sounded so hopeful that Eric felt his heart melt a bit.

“Really,” he said. “I spend a lot of time out on the ice, so I know a lot of really beautiful, obscure spots. I’d be happy to show you.”

Delaney clapped her hands, unable to contain her enthusiasm. “That would be amazing! Let me give you my number. I’m renting a cabin over on the north edge of town.” Delaney flipped over one of the cardboard coasters and dug a pen out of her purse.

“I live on the north side, too,” Eric said, taking the coaster from Delaney after she finished writing on it. “I’ll give you a call tomorrow to set something up.”

“That’s so awesome of you! Thank you so much,” Delaney said. “I’m so glad I decided to switch pubs and got to meet you guys.”

Her eyes sparkled and her voice was beautiful and melodic. Eric felt his bear stirring within him, and he recognized the flutter of raw animal attraction he felt toward Delaney Parker. If she made him feel like this after just a few minutes of conversation, how was he going to feel after spending hours out on the ice with her alone?

He was in so much trouble.

Several hours later, Delaney waved goodbye to Eric before pushing open the door to her rented cabin. He had insisted on following her home to make sure she made it alright, since he lived close by. Delaney had been on several solo adventures in all kinds of remote locations, so she wasn’t worried about taking care of herself. But it had been sweet of him to offer, and it gave her a chance to see him for just a little bit longer before saying goodbye for the night.

Eric sped off on his snowmobile, which was the preferred method of transportation out here during the winter months. Anything else was too much of a pain in the ass to navigate through all the ice and snow. Delaney watched his taillights grow smaller, and eventually disappear into the dark night. She closed the cabin door behind her and let out a happy sigh.

This night had not started out well, but it had ended so much better than she had dared to hope it would. Eric was exactly what Delaney had always pictured in her mind when she imagined a sexy, rugged outdoorsman. He was tall and muscular, with dark, mussed up hair. He had just a hint of stubble covering his chiseled face. And his violet eyes were deep, and piercing. Like he knew the ways of the wild and could see right through anything artificial. Delaney had never seen eyes like his before. Both the color and expression were extraordinarily distinctive.

Delaney had always hated it when people used the word “dreamy” to describe a guy. But there was no other way to describe him quite so perfectly. Eric Caldwell was dreamy.

Not only had she found a local tour guide to show her some good spots to shoot sunrise shots, she had found one who was pretty much the most gorgeous man alive. This trip was definitely looking up.

A few miles away, Eric was entering his own cabin. His emotions alternated between ecstatic at the fact that he would be seeing Delaney again soon, and terrified that she had awakened his bear. She had done what no woman had been able to do since the poisoning tragedy, and the heady feeling of passion and lust overtook him in waves. Shit.

Shit, shit, shit.

Eric blamed Tyler for all of this. If Tyler hadn’t insisted on pushing Eric back into the dating ring, Eric would never have bothered to speak to Delaney tonight. Tyler was relentless. When Delaney had gone to the restroom, leaving the two men alone at the bar top, Tyler had argued that offering to take Delaney to see sunrise spots didn’t count as a date. Eric had asked him what the hell he thought was more romantic than the sun rising over the shimmering Arctic snow, and Tyler had backed off.

Eric went to his fridge and grabbed a beer, even though he’d already had far too many tonight. He sat on his couch and raked his fingers through his hair. He didn’t want to think about the way his heart had pounded whenever Delaney looked at him. But he couldn’t get her gorgeous face out of his head. This was going to be an interesting week, that’s for sure. Eric sipped his beer and flipped on the television, watching old comedy reruns until he fell asleep.

He woke up at 9 a.m., still on the couch and wearing his clothes from the night before. Delaney’s name was the first word that popped into his head. He sat up slowly, and tried to decide whether it was too early to call her. He finally decided to just go for it, and he stood and crossed the small living room to get to his phone, which was located on a corner of the kitchen counter. No one out here had cell phones. Cell towers were nonexistent up this way, so the townspeople and any visitors had to rely on landlines. This didn’t bother Eric, who had never had a cell phone. The idea of being constantly reachable anywhere you were sounded awful to him. But the lack of cell service in Glacier Point seemed to be a major complaint of many of the townspeople who had moved here from areas were mobile phones were prevalent. Eric did take a satellite phone with him when he went out ice fishing, but he only kept it use in emergencies. It was too damn expensive to use for regular old chit chat.

Delaney answered on the third ring.

“Hello.” Her voice was a bit croaky.

“Hey, it’s Eric. Did I wake you?”

“No, I’ve been up for a little while. Just haven’t had my coffee yet, so I probably sound pretty out of it.” She chuckled and Eric’s heart clenched a bit at the beautiful, musical sound of her laugh.

“Ok, good. Sorry if it’s too early to call. I just wanted to see if you wanted to start planning out how to find some spots to take your photos.”

“Yes, of course. Thank you so much again for doing this. You have no idea how grateful I am. You’re awesome.”

“It’s no trouble at all,” Eric said dismissively, even though he felt his heart swelling with happiness at her praise. And then, despite the rational side of him screaming that spending any more time than necessary with her was a bad idea, he found himself inviting her to coffee.

“If you want some coffee, there’s a café in town that’s pretty good. They have decent coffee, and a good selection of muffins. Do you want to meet there and plan out our tour of sunrise spots?”

“I’d love that,” she said. “Just tell me where to go. And give me thirty minutes to take a quick shower and make myself look not totally scary.”

Eric doubted she looked scary, but he decided to refrain from making comments about her appearance. He was already getting in way over his head. He gave Delaney the address of the café and then went to take a quick shower himself. He threw on some jeans and a plain black long-sleeved sweater, then bundled up against the cold and headed out to his snowmobile. He would be a few minutes early, but he figured that was better than making her wait.

* * *

Delaney walked into the small coffee shop and spotted Eric sitting in the corner. He was holding a huge, steaming mug, and picking at pieces of the napkin that sat in front of him. Delaney was about ten minutes late, which wasn’t exactly the first impression she wanted to give him of what hanging out with her would be like. But it had been surprisingly hard to decide what to wear. She had changed outfits three times, which was impressive considering she only had about six outfits with her on this trip. She had finally settled on a dark gray v-neck sweater over her best pair of skinny jeans. She had even wished she had makeup to put on, but she hadn’t brought any with her. She tried to pack light, and toting along a bag of makeup to a town on the outskirts of Alaskan civilization had seemed a bit frivolous.

Eric looked up and spotted her, giving her a quick wave and motioning her over. She waved back and gave him a big smile as she approached the table.

“Hey, sorry I’m late,” she said. She didn’t bother trying to make an excuse. She couldn’t come up with a good one that didn’t make her sound like either a vain girl who spent too much time getting ready, or a clueless girl who had trouble finding the only coffee shop in town.

“No worries,” Eric said, and flashed her a huge smile. He hadn’t shaved this morning, and the stubble on his chin had increased a little. The effect made him look even more masculine than he had the night before. As she admired his stubbly face, he stood to head to the counter. “Let me grab you some coffee. Do you like it black, or with anything in it?”

“Just black,” Delaney said.

“Nice. Low maintenance. I like it,” Eric said.

Delaney just shrugged. She wasn’t sure that a girl who had tried on half her wardrobe before a simple coffee shop meeting could be considered low maintenance, but she said nothing. At least “half her wardrobe” was only three outfits.

“Anything else?” Eric asked. When Delaney shook her head no, he went off to get her coffee. She watched him walk away, admiring how strong his back and arms looked in his well-fitted sweater. His ass wasn’t too bad looking either, and Delaney was happy to see that her evaluation of his appearance as “gorgeous” the night before hadn’t been just an illusion of her alcohol clouded mind.

When he came back to the table and set down a steaming mug in front of her, Delaney immediately took a long sip of the black liquid. It was strong, and good. Just what Delaney needed. She felt the hot liquid warming her body from the inside out as Eric started asking about her work.

“So, do you just want sunrise pictures? Or anything else?”

“I’m trying to get a wide variety of shots of life in the Arctic. I’ve been traveling around northern Alaska for a few weeks, and I already have quite a few photos that I’m happy with, but somehow I haven’t quite been able to find the perfect sunrise picture. Or sunset, I guess. It doesn’t really matter which. I just like the idea of the warm, fiery hues of sunrise or sunset interacting with stark, cold white of the ice and snow.”

“So is this what you do for a living? Travel around and take pictures?”

Delaney nodded, and Eric seemed impressed.

“Wow, he said. “Sounds like a pretty cool gig.”

Delaney toyed with the handle of her coffee mug. “It’s definitely a cool gig. I’ve had the chance to see some pretty amazing places all over the world. But sometimes I get tired of always moving around and not having a real home. I’m starting to wonder if I just need to pick my favorite place and stay in one spot for a while. I guess the problem with that plan would be picking a favorite place. I’ve loved pretty much every single location I’ve photographed over the last several years.”

Delaney looked up at Eric and felt a little uncomfortable under his intense gaze. Maybe she shouldn’t be sharing such personal information with him, but she was starved for conversation. Almost every person she had met in the last few weeks had been politely aloof at best, and downright unfriendly at worst. Delaney decided to deflect the conversation back to Eric for a bit.

“What about you? What do you do?” she asked.

A shadow passed over his violet eyes. “Um, I’m an ice fisherman. But it’s kind of just a hobby. I thought about doing ice fishing excursions for tourists to turn it into a business of sorts, but the ice fishing season doesn’t coincide very well with the tourist season. By the time the tourists arrive, the ice has melted away.”

Eric’s voice trailed off and he stared down at his coffee mug. Delaney had hit some sort of nerve, but she wasn’t quite sure what it was. She stared down at her own coffee mug, trying to think of something to say to change the subject or break the tension that suddenly filled the air. But Eric spoke first.

“Do you want to go ice fishing?” he asked, his voice hopeful and nervous at the same time.

Delaney looked up and her face brightened. “I would love to. I’ve never been, but I think I would enjoy the experience. And I might be able to get some good pictures to add to my Alaska portfolio. That is, if you don’t mind my taking some. You don’t have to be in them if you don’t want to. It could just be pictures of the fish or equipment or things like that. Whatever you’re comfortable with.” Delaney forced herself to stop talking before her rambling got even worse. But Eric seemed pleased by her suggestion. His lips turned up in an adorable smile that set Delaney’s heart to racing. She momentarily wondered what those lips would feel like on her lips, then forced herself to push the thought away. She wasn’t going to make things awkward with Eric and ruin his offer of being her tour guide.

“You should take all the photos you want,” Eric said. “In fact, if you want to, we can go on a two or three day trip. I have a big ice fishing shelter that runs on solar electricity. It’s heated, and has two beds. You can cook and everything in there. If you really want some good sunrise or sunset shots, spending the night out on the ice is probably the best way to get them.”

“Are you kidding me? I’d love to! That would be amazing!” Delaney said, and Eric gave her a huge grin.

“I think you’re going to love being out there for a night or two. It’s so peaceful and quiet. And when the first rays of sun break over the ice in the morning—wow. Just wow. It feels like another world.” Eric’s face beamed with excitement, and Delaney felt her own face lighting up with anticipation. She could hardly wait to see the sunrise he was describing in person.

Eric quizzed Delaney on what kinds of warm weather apparel she had. Seeming satisfied that she would be well prepared, he told her he would pick her up around 8 a.m. the next day.

“Do I need to bring anything? Some food or something?”

“Don’t worry about it. I’ll take care of food and water and things like that. Just bring your warmest clothes, and whatever camera equipment you need.”

Delaney nodded, and she thanked him again as they finished their coffee and stood to leave the café. He rewarded her with another smile, and she felt her stomach fill with butterflies. She could hardly believe her luck. She was going on an adventure with a gorgeous, Alaskan hunk. This trip was quickly making its way into her favorite trips of all time.

It crossed her mind that maybe agreeing to spend the night in the middle of nowhere with a man she barely knew had not been the smartest idea. But she pushed the thought away. After years of traveling and meeting all sorts of people from all walks of life, Delaney had developed a pretty good knack for reading people. And Eric Caldwell was one of the good ones.

There was something extra special about him. She couldn’t quite put her finger on it, but he was different from anyone she’d met before. Different in a good way.

Delaney couldn’t wait to learn more about Eric Caldwell.