Bearliest Catch (8 page)

She smiled at him. “I’m definitely
interested.”

She hoped he understood the full meaning of
her words. She didn’t want to leave here tonight without at least
one more of those stellar kisses of his—or maybe even a whole lot
more.

Drew bustled around for a bit, setting
everything up. He brought out the wine and poured her a glass,
insisting she sit down and put her feet up on the oversized chaise
he kept out on the deck. He slept in the thing, at times, and knew
it was comfortable. He wanted her to feel safe and relaxed while he
took care of everything.

He set the grill to warm up and got the
steaks out of the fridge in the kitchen, transferring them to the
workspace he’d built around the grill. He toasted her with his own
glass of wine while he got things going.

“So what do you think of the cove, now that
you’ve had a chance to really look around?” he asked, wanting to
make conversation.

The way she was looking at him was making him
think things that might just be a tad inappropriate. Or not. He’d
try his luck after dinner and see if she was as receptive as he
thought. But for now, he was on a mission to feed her before she
left. He wanted her to remember how well he took care of her so
that she’d want to come back.

“It’s beautiful. The waters are still
perfect—a safe place to swim and raise young. The pod will
appreciate that. We have a few children living in the sea right
now, but they’re reaching an age where they should probably start
learning about life on land too. This looks like a good place for
them to do it.”

“There aren’t a lot of children in town yet,
but there is one little girl who would probably love to have some
playmates. She’s about five years old and a panda shifter.” Drew
thought of young Daisy, who had come here with her mother after her
father had died, back in China.

Daisy was the sweetheart of the town and
every heart melted when she held her arms out to be picked up.
Daisy and her mother, Lynn, had known tragedy, but they were slowly
healing and making a new life for themselves here in Grizzly
Cove.

“A panda? No kidding? She must be absolutely
adorable.”

Drew smiled. “You have no idea. She’s equally
cute in either form. And her mother is a force to be reckoned with.
I’m actually surprised you didn’t get a chance to meet them today.
Lynn is usually in town for lunch, since she runs one of the
galleries. Remember the one with all the bamboo?”

Jetty laughed. “I should’ve guessed. Pandas
love bamboo, don’t they?”

“They do. I was surprised that Lynn wasn’t in
today, but everyone needs a day off now and again, right?” He put
the steaks on the grill, then walked over to refill her wine
glass.

Unable to resist her allure, he sat down on
the edge of the wide chaise, facing her as they sipped their wine.
The mood was intimate. Quiet. Charged.

“What did you think of the town? The people?”
he asked over the rim of his wine glass.

“The town is charming. The people…” She
paused, seeming to think. “The women were nice, the men, a little
intimidating.”

“Not to you, surely?” he asked, knowing his
Jetty was made of sterner stuff.

She laughed. “No. Not to me. But if you take
all those men as a group, I can see where humans—and a lot of
Others—would be somewhat intimidated. You’re a powerful unit.”

“We were the best the Special Forces had to
offer. When we were working all together, nothing could stand in
our way.” He knew he was speaking no less than the truth, and he
felt pride in what his friends and he had accomplished.

Of course, he’d been sidelined well before
the other guys. Personally, he thought maybe his injury had been
the beginning of the end for his team. Right after he almost got
blown to bits, the other guys had started thinking seriously about
retiring. Oh, they’d brought up the idea once or twice over the
years, but after Drew got hurt, it seemed like priorities had
changed.

They wouldn’t admit to it, but Drew knew. He
could put two and two together. While he’d been healing, his team
had been starting the process that eventually resulted in Grizzly
Cove. He hadn’t asked John about it outright yet, but he would one
day.

John was a long-term strategist. He always
planned things out—years in advance, sometimes. Grizzly Cove was
one of those. John had revealed that he’d been quietly buying up
the land around here for decades before he was ready to reveal his
plan for the town to his men. They’d gone along with it, to a man,
which said something about John’s leadership and the faith his
people had in him.

“Why did you all decide to retire?” Jetty
asked, unknowingly opening an old wound.

Drew sighed. He could gloss over it, but for
some reason, he wanted her to know the truth.

“In my case, it wasn’t a choice. I got blown
up by a roadside bomb, and they had to send me back State-side to
glue what was left back together.” Jetty was frowning, but she
didn’t say anything, which was good. He wouldn’t be able to get it
out if she interrupted. “My mom took over my healing, and thanks to
her stubbornness and determination, I lived. And I didn’t lose any
limbs, though that was a close thing, she tells me.”

She sat forward, putting her hand over his,
but it felt like she knew not to say anything until he’d finished.
They were in tune already.

“I spent months healing from something that
would’ve killed anyone else. Anyone without my mom pulling for
them.” They both knew that for a shifter to take
months
in
healing, the wounds had to be serious. Most shifters healed
incredibly fast due to their accelerated metabolisms. “The mental
scars were harder to deal with than the physical ones.”

“Which is why you seek the peace of the
ocean,” Jetty whispered, moving closer. Drew didn’t object when she
reached out and put her arms around him, offering the comfort of
her embrace. “I understand that. Perhaps better than anyone
here.”

She cupped his cheek in her palm and turned
his face toward hers. And then, they were kissing. It was a gentle
kiss filled with understanding and banked passion that threatened
to overtake them given the slightest provocation. Drew had never
felt anything like it with any other female. Jetty was special.

Mate
special.

He drew back, and she let him go with a last
lingering caress on his cheek. Her touch was like satin, her skin
the softest he’d ever known. She was all things good in the world,
and his thoughts were quickly racing into very serious
territory.

“You’d better turn the steaks,” she
whispered, her smile inviting at the same time she pushed him
away.

But it didn’t feel like she was pushing him
very far. He just had to rescue dinner, and she’d still be here,
waiting for him. Possibly to pick up where they’d left off? He
could only hope.

“Yeah.” Drew slapped his hands on his thighs
in order to keep them off her. She was in charge here, and he had
to make that clear. He wasn’t some cave bear that couldn’t behave
himself.

He got up and worked on the steaks until they
were done. They both liked their meat cooked medium well, so
serving up dinner was an easy thing. She moved over to the table
and chairs set up near the grill and took her seat while he served,
then took his own chair.

They ate and drank the wine, enjoying each
other’s company. She talked about the town, asking questions about
things and people she hadn’t yet discovered, and he enjoyed filling
her in on the details. She revealed a bit more about her former
life in LA. She’d been a high school teacher and yoga instructor on
the side, he was fascinated to learn.

“If we ever set up a school here, you’d have
a job, no problem. Big John has plans for this town that are
far-reaching. If we get enough families to settle here, he’s
already discussed looking for teachers who are shifters.”

“He’s quite the strategist.”

“You have no idea.”

When they finished eating, Drew tidied things
away, refilling Jetty’s wine glass as she sat on the big chaise
once more, looking out over the beach. The sun was setting on a
gray evening, clouds rolling in, as they so often did in this part
of the country.

“Looks like rain tonight,” Drew observed as
he finished clearing things away and came back out to sit with
her.

She smiled. “I love water in all its
forms.”

“So it’s not like in that old movie where if
the mermaid gets wet, she shifts no matter what?” he challenged,
grinning at her over the rim of his glass from much too far away.
He was seated on the foot of the chaise, facing her.

She laughed outright. “No. It’s not like that
at all. I control the shift. Water isn’t necessary to shift, but it
is
necessary to move around once I’ve got a tail, so it’s
wiser to wait until I’m in the water to change.”

“A wise precaution,” he agreed, enjoying the
intimate moment as the sun’s last rays began to fade.

He scooted a few inches closer to her. When
she made no objection, he moved closer still.

She didn’t move away or make any other
gesture that he could interpret as discomfort. In fact, her eyes
had gone soft, her pulse increasing. She seemed as aware of him as
he was of her.

“I’ve never met anyone like you,” he
whispered, raising one hand to brush a stray lock of hair off her
brow. It was so soft. So sensual.

“You’ve met Grace,” she argued with a little
grin that told him she was teasing him, and enjoying it.

“You’re not like Grace. Not in the important
ways. You might both be mer, but you’re vastly different women.
Grace is a sweetheart, but she doesn’t call to me—to my bear—the
way you do. The way you have since I first laid eyes on you.”

“Your bear likes me?” She swayed forward,
coming closer, sliding her arms around his neck.

“Oh, yeah.” Drew moved into the embrace,
drawing her close. “He likes everything about you. And so does my
human side.”

“That’s really good,” she said breathlessly,
her mouth only centimeters from his. “Because both sides of my
nature have been stuck on you for months now.”

Months?
He would have pursued that
thought, but she closed the gap between them, touching her lips to
his.

Like spark to tinder, that was all the
encouragement he needed to take things to the next level. Drew
kissed her with all the longing inside him, taking her mouth with
the deep satisfaction he’d somehow known would be waiting for him
in her arms.

She was heaven in his arms, and when she
twisted around in his embrace, he went with her. He’d let her steer
the ship, if that’s what she wanted. Anything. He’d give her
anything she wanted.

Jetty liked that her big bad bear was willing
to let her take charge a little. She rolled him over onto his back
on the wide chaise, planting her hands on his muscular shoulders
and one of her knees on either side of his lean hips.

She kissed him the way she’d wanted to for a
long time. He had intrigued her ever since she’d first caught sight
of him in his little boat, months ago. She had spied on him from
the water, watching his rugged face, his perfect body, as he
fished.

He’d seemed so sad, at times, she’d almost
broken cover to talk with him. At other times, he simply seemed at
peace with the ocean—the way she was—which seemed odd to her for a
land shifter, but somehow beautiful. And then there were times when
he drank all day, to the point where he was talking to the fish he
pulled in, his words slurred, the emotional pain in him very close
to the surface. At those times, her heart had yearned to go to him,
to comfort him, but she could not.

Through it all, there was the attraction.
She’d felt drawn to him as she had never before been drawn to
another male.

She had known from almost the moment he’d
called her name that first day they’d spoken that, somehow, they’d
end up here. Not here—on his deck—in particular, but together.
Kissing. Exploring. Learning each other’s bodies as they had begun
to learn each other’s minds and personalities.

She liked him even more than she’d thought
she would. He was open-minded and caring. Considerate and strong. A
warrior with a good heart, from all that she had seen so far. She
respected him. And her respect was not something easily earned.

She also had the hots for him, which was why
she had taken charge for the moment. She wanted to be an equal
partner in this—and in all things they did together. He might as
well get a taste of that right now.
Begin as she meant to go
on,
and all of that.

Enjoying the feel of his hard body beneath
her, she kissed him with all the pent-up longing that had built up
over day and weeks…months, even…of watching him. She’d wanted to do
this for so very long, and the reality was better than any of her
imaginings.

He was so warm under her, his skin radiating
heat that spoke to her human side. She wanted to snuggle up to him
forever. She had the fanciful notion that, even in the cold of the
ocean, he would keep her warm.

She pulled back slightly, licking at his
lips. She wanted to see his expression as she lowered herself over
him, making full body contact for the first time. There might be
two layers of clothing still between them, but the moment was
significant to her. She hadn’t been this close to a male since
she’d left land years ago. Opening herself up to Andrew like this
was something special. She wanted to know it was special to him
too.

She met his gaze, watching him carefully as
she rubbed herself against him slowly, in imitation of what they’d
soon be doing skin to skin, if she had her way. She saw the flare
of desire in his eyes, heard the sexy rasp of his breath.