Silver Mine (29 page)

She dragged for courage and nodded.

He drew the tip of her finger into his mouth and sucked lightly before pulling off with a
pop
. “That’s not going to spoil the mood. So it’s got to be something else. You want to talk first?”

Shelley hesitated, then nodded. “I think we need to.”

“Agreed.”

He stepped back, and Shelley whimpered her disappointment. She whimpered again when he stripped off his shirt and returned to his close position.

Oh Lordy, that chest needed to be outlawed. “What are you doing?”

He played with her buttons. “Talking. Every five minutes we lose another piece of clothing. I figure we should be done talking about the time we’re both naked.”

Shelley stared at him. “You’re not wearing anything anymore but your jeans and underwear.”

“Only jeans.”

Shelley nearly swallowed her tongue. “Ahhh…”

“Because I agree, we need to talk, but unless I’m totally wrong, we’ve got one big thing to talk about. The ton of little stuff can wait until after the sex.”

She discovered her fingers rubbing up and down his body without her consciously trying.

“Did you have to say sex?” she complained. “It’s hard enough to concentrate.”

Chase leaned their heads together. “We talked a lot when we were in the bush. I don’t remember it being uncomfortable or awkward. You?”

She shook her head. “You made me feel welcome.”

“Ha. I didn’t make you feel anything. You were welcome, you fit in. And you made it clear at the pack house you have some ideas about the future.”

Oh boy, here it came. “I do.”

Chase breathed out slowly. “The only thing I want to know… Does that future you’ve planned out? Does it include me?”

She wasn’t sure how to answer. “It’s not that simple, Chase.”

His expression was unreadable. “No, it is that simple. I’m not asking you to figure out the details because that’s not the first thing. Let me say it this way. I want to have you in my life. When I thought you’d left without even saying goodbye, there was this massive empty spot inside that made me feel truly alone for the first time in my life. I’ve been lonely, but never enough to want to just give the hell up. I don’t want to head into a future without you. How that can happen when I live in the north and you’re getting established here in Whitehorse? That’s a down-the-road problem, because the first and most important thing I want to know, no, that I
need
to know—do you want me around?”

It was seriously the longest speech she’d ever heard from him. That alone was enough to floor her.

When he started undoing her buttons she shook her head in happy confusion.

“Chase.”

His grin was back. “So what’s it going to be? You going to admit that you like this old grump?”

He tugged off her top and discarded it behind him. He stared into her face, waiting patiently.

“You know I like you. I…” All the complications rushed back in, and she growled in frustration. “How could it work? I mean, I don’t want just a casual thing, Chase. I really care about you. I think.”

He laughed. “You know how to keep a man’s ego in check. It’s like being the man of the hour for ten seconds at a time.”

“We’ve only known each other a few days.”

“And we’re shifters.”

There was another issue. “And we’re not mates. And I can’t shift. And you’re—”

“Ready to remove another bit of your clothing. Say it, Shelley. Say you like me.”

She nodded. “I like you. I admire you. I think…I think I’ve fallen in love with you.”

Sheer relief flashed across his face before delight took its place. “Then we’re even. Because I’ve liked you since I spotted you in the park and you were adamant I leave you alone because we weren’t mates. I’ve admired you since you insisted you were coming north.”

Hope quivered inside. “Really?”

He kissed her briefly then spoke against her lips. “And I’m already in love with you. Because when I thought you left, I didn’t want to live without you.”

She punched him in the gut before she could stop herself.

He gasped and doubled over.

Shit
. “Oh Lordy, I’m sorry, but that’s for freaking me out and being an idiot. Do you know how horrible it was to have to stand there and watch you act like a berserker? To think you might die and there was nothing I could do? Bastard. That’s not how you act when you love someone. You fight to be with them. You
fight
for what you want.”

Chase drew an unsteady breath and straightened up, his grin back. “Interesting reaction to hearing a guy say he loves you.”

She balled up her fist again and he trapped it in his palm. “No dying on me. No giving up.”

“No sneaking out windows with juvenile feral wolves and making me crazy with worry.”

“Sorry.”

She relaxed into his arms, and they held each other. Just stayed close until their heartbeats synchronized and she was in danger of overheating from how hot he made her.

Mysteriously, her bra hooks loosened, and the fabric was tugged from between their bodies.

She smiled, her cheek resting against his chest. “You managed that very well.”

“If you’ve got to cover them pretty things up, I’m glad you at least use the easy access kind of bra. Like a twist-top beer.”

How romantic.
“You smooth talker.”

He nibbled his way down her neck, over the sensitive curve of her breast and kissed her nipple once as if saying hello. “We okay moving to the next stage of the discussion?”

“To the talking-with-our-hands part? Oh
yes
…” The word trailed off into a hiss of bliss because he’d begun to suckle, and there really wasn’t any way to stay quiet as he worked her over.

Talented, determined. Creative. They were both naked, and he had her in the bedroom, and she was ready to tip over the edge, his tongue and teeth and lips never leaving her body. Another brush with his fingers, another stroke twisting deep inside, and she moaned in pleasure as her body obeyed his call.

She was still shaking from her orgasm when he slipped into her.

It was the first time they’d made love face to face. They had romped and played and rioted around the cabin the previous times, but now as he stared down and took her again and again—that expression in his eyes?

If it wasn’t love, she wasn’t sure what love was.

Happiness and gratitude sprang up. Inside, her wolf was still hiding. It didn’t matter right now. Maybe that part of her needed more time, maybe she’d never be able to change, but there was no doubt she was loved in spite of that by the man taking her higher and higher. Tightness grew in her core, shots of desire flashing from everywhere his lips brushed her skin.

“Say it again,” Chase whispered. “Say we’re a couple.”

She could do that. “I’m yours.”

“You’re mine.”

She laughed.

She clung to him as they came together. His eyes closed for a second as he emptied, her body accepting him, her mind choosing him.

Her heart filled with caring for him.

They lay tangled together while their breathing slowed. Shelley stared contentedly at the blue outside the window, her body relaxed and sated, her mind buzzing with possibilities. “We’re really going to do this. We’re going to work on falling in love.”

Chase leaned on an elbow and kissed her cheeks, one at a time, before staring into her eyes. “We’re going to work on falling
more
in love.”

A shiver of delight raced over her. “For a guy who doesn’t talk a lot, you sure do have a pretty way with words, you silver-tongued fellow.”

He brushed their lips together, and that was the end of any kind of talking for a good long time.

Chapter Twenty-Five

The cabin came into sight so fast Chase barely had time to think through his to-do list.

“Damn. That’s freaky how quick we got here.”

Shelley stared at him in confusion before he remembered he had to push the button on the walkie-talkie headset for her to hear him. He’d been pretty quiet the two-hour helicopter trip. All of them had, actually. A nice companionable silence after they managed to make Shaun stop rambling about bears and cancan girls and all kinds of unrelated shit.

At least he hoped it was unrelated. Bears doing the cancan wouldn’t be a pretty sight.

He repeated his comment, and she nodded.

“It’s incredibly fast and horrifyingly slow. You try it when you’ve got an unconscious man draped over the seat next to you, and you’re hoping he doesn’t go into cardiac arrest and need medical attention in the middle of the flight.”

Yeah, he could see how that would put a damper on things. He squeezed her fingers. “Thanks for taking care of me.”

She nodded then turned to stare out the window as they approached the landing spot to the side of the clearing. There were no signs of the random campers he’d had crashed on his lawn, and the sections where they’d trampled the grass were already slightly overgrown as the land returned to its wild state.

Just like the men, probably. Gone back to
their
wild state.

Shaun broke in over the mic. “Ahh. Hovel, sweet hovel. You guys got everything you need for the next while? Alcohol to dull the senses, paint to watch dry?”

Chase pushed the mic button. He didn’t say anything, just let his growl—that low terrifying combination of cougar and wolf mixed with pissed-off human—rumble over the line.

Shaun must have a way to override the system because suddenly his laughter rang like summer bird song, light and refreshing. “Okay, fine. It’s a palace. The Taj Mahal of shifters everywhere. Just buzz me when you need a drop. Or a lift. I’ll make the time for you.”

“Of course you will. Caroline would kick your ass if you didn’t,” Shelley teased.

Now that all her wild energy wasn’t being used to interfere in Shelley’s life, Chase could see the humour in how the pack bowed and scraped toward her sister.

He’d seen a lot of things over the past four days while he and Shelley had talked and pondered and planned. Seen how Evan treated his pack with a firm, but rather irreverent hand, never doing exactly what they expected. It kept the group on their toes, and yet they trusted Evan explicitly.

It wasn’t a leadership style that would work with the outcasts, Chase mused, but it did affirm one thing. When there was a group that needed a leader, the best leaders adapted.

He jumped out of the chopper and hurried around to help remove the supplies they’d brought. Shaun was back in and lifting off before they’d been on the ground for more than a minute.

Jones sat on Shelley’s feet as usual, Enigma perched on her shoulder. Chase rolled his eyes at the pair that insisted on following Shelley wherever she went. They all stared after the helicopter as Shaun banked over the ridge of the hill and headed back to Whitehorse. The rapid pulse of the blades faded to be replaced by far more subtle noises. The rasp of a branch falling from a tree, the scolding of squirrels and the slam of a beaver’s tail on the far side of the lake.

Typical ear-filling, body-restoring sounds. Chase took a deep breath of the soft summer air, and smiled.

Warm fingers slipped into his hand as he tugged Shelley to his side and looked around contentedly. “I’m glad you’re here with me.”

“I’m glad it worked out for me to come as well.” She kissed him, then grabbed a box and headed toward the cabin. He watched for a moment, the wiggle in her hips too distracting to turn away from.

She flashed him a smile, and he hurried to catch up, a couple boxes balanced in his own arms. The sooner they were moved in, the sooner they could relax.

The front door opened of its own accord, and Delton’s familiar face appeared. He didn’t say anything, but the cabin was filled with the most incredible scents. Brownies and stew and fresh baked bread.

Shelley plopped down her box, went straight to the old-timer and hugged him tight. Without a word she disappeared out the door, Jones hard on her heels, Enigma remaining behind to stalk through the living room as if he were casing the place.

The flush on Delton’s face could only be caused by Shelley’s open display of affection. Chase ignored his friend’s discomfort and nodded politely. “Smells good.”

Delton cleared his throat. He eyed Chase for a moment then raised a brow. “So. You ain’t dead. You want your bed back, don’t you?”

Nothing had changed. The pace stayed the same. The acceptance. “If you don’t mind.”

Delton shrugged. “I’m getting soft. Thought about asking if I could build me a lean-to in the back next to the creek. Like to stay around if you need me.”

“Be fine.”

Delton opened the box Shelley had dropped and whistled softly. “Fancy grub.”

Chase grinned. “She’s got a sweet tooth.”

The cougar moved to put things away. “You look good, by the way. Not being dead and all.”

“It’s good to not be dead.”

The front door swung open, and Shelley tottered in under a double load, and Chase hurried to help her.