Secrets of the Bear (Trapped in Bear Canyon Book 4) Page 4

  “I guess I’m going to go get ready, then,” she said.

  “I guess I will, too,” he said, following her to the stairs. She felt his eyes on her as she went up.

  “You need to put on your makeup and tight jeans?” she teased, looking over her shoulder.

  He wrinkled his nose. “No makeup for me. I can manage the tight jeans, though.”

  She made a funny noise in her throat that was half stifled laugh and half arousal. “I can deal with that.”

  “I mean, it might draw the attention of all the ladies, if you’re okay with that.”

  She frowned playfully. “I don’t know. Are there a lot of ladies in Bear Canyon after your ass?”

  He cocked his head. “Over the age of sixty? You bet.”

  She laughed as she climbed the rest of the stairs and walked into the bedroom next to his. He stopped her, holding out the bag of makeup and clothes he’d been carrying.

  “You’ll need this,” he said, looking awkward.

  She took it from him, blushing again. “Thank you.”

  He rubbed the back of his neck and walked to his room, and she heard the shower running after a few moments.

  She walked into her own room and sank against the door, her heart pounding just from being in his presence.

  Then she looked at her bathroom and the shower in it.

  Francis said he couldn’t see her as anything but Charles’s mate. He was having trouble seeing her as a woman.

  She wasn’t sure if he’d ever been attracted to her. She knew now that she’d always been attracted to him but hadn’t thought she had a chance with him.

  That had left her open to someone who made her feel secure, rather than someone who truly could have treated her right.

  She grinned slightly as she looked down at her bag. It wasn’t time to hide and wait for something to happen anymore. If she liked Francis, if she wanted him to really see her and to know if anything between them was a possibility, she needed to take risks.

  She needed to get ready and put on her makeup and make him see just what a woman she was.

  She wanted him as a mate, and it wasn’t just as a means of protection.

  No, after a day with him, she was more and more sure. He was the one she should have been with all along.

  6

  “So you want me to get a private investigator on this Charles person?” Ryland’s voice was curious but nonjudgmental on the other side of the phone.

  “Yes.” Francis shifted the phone and sent a look toward the stairs. No Valerie yet. He couldn’t wait to introduce her to his friends, not to mention the fact that seeing Rock often helped him calm down when he was tense.

  And yeah, the longer he was with Val, the tenser he was.

  “Anyway, I’ve got his info,” Ryland said. “I’ll get someone on that right away. If he leaves town, we’ll know.”

  “Thanks, bud, I really appreciate it,” Francis said.

  “No problem. We really owe you one, with everything you’ve done for the family. You’re practically one of us now.”

  “Ha-ha, a Brolin? I’m not sure that’s a compliment—” He cut off midsentence when he saw Valerie at the top of the stairs.

  “Francis? You there? You okay?” Ryland sounded alarmed.

  Francis covered the receiver and stared, slack-jawed, at Valerie as she came down the stairs slowly, fully aware of the effect she had on him.

  She looked beautiful, her hair curled and soft and smooth, and she was wearing jeans, tight as promised, that accentuated her soft, feminine waist and large hips. His mouth watered, and he forced himself to turn back to his call.

  “Sorry, Ryland. Gotta go.”

  “Got it, bud,” Ryland said. Francis heard his laugh as he hung up.

  He let the phone in his hand drop to his side as he continued to stare at Valerie. She was wearing little black-and-white Converse sneakers, and a black hooded sweatshirt over a tight white tank top that dipped in a low V, showing her generous cleavage. Her hair was partially pulled back, revealing a face that looked fresh and gorgeous, her green eyes enhanced by a light application of makeup, her cheeks flushed with blush.

  She was utterly beautiful, and the task of resisting her suddenly seemed monumental.

  He walked to the stairs in a trance, feeling as if she were some kind of princess and he should probably take her hand to escort her into a coach or something.

  He tried to shake himself out of it, but the bear in him was growling in approval.

  Mate. Ours. She wants us. She’s displaying herself.

  She thinks she needs us, he replied to himself. She never showed interest before. I don’t want to be fooled.

  But he knew that was foolish. Valerie wasn’t trying to trick him. She wasn’t like that. He put out an arm for her, and she took it graciously. When she stepped down from the last step, she was so much shorter than him that he blinked.

  Yet somehow, she was the perfect size.

  “You okay?” she asked. “You seem to be at a loss for words.”

  He wet his dry lips. “Yeah, I’m fine.”

  She turned in a slow circle, arms outspread. “How do I look for meeting your friends?”

  He swallowed. “Fine.” It came out in a croak, and he started for the front door. They sooner they were out of here and in public, the better.

  He heard her chuckle behind him. So maybe she was aware of what she was doing to him. That just meant he had all the more reason to be careful.

  Falling in love with Valerie was all too easy. No, allowing himself to be in love with her, since he’d truly loved her from the moment he laid eyes on her.

  He opened the door and stretched in the late evening sunshine. It was cool in the canyon because winter was coming. The sun was low; soon it would go down behind the trees. The sky was awash in orange and red over the hazy blue background.

  She joined him, and he felt a palpable tension in his body as they stared out at the wild landscape in front of them.

  “It really is beautiful here.”

  “Yeah,” he said, sneaking a look at her while she stared out at the sunset. “It really is.”

  She blushed and pushed him playfully in the arm. “Stop it,” she said. “If you check me out that much, you’ll make me uncomfortable.”

  “So you wore tight clothes and a bunch of makeup because you don’t want me to look at you?” he asked, raising an eyebrow.

  She frowned, biting her lower lip. “Shut up. I don’t care what you think.” Then she grinned. “Maybe I don’t mind if you look at me.”

  He groaned, resisting the urge to let his eyes wander over her again, noting all her “assets.”

  “Come on,” he said. “Let’s go to the bar and get something to eat.” Before he got ideas about devouring other “delicious” things.

  “Okay,” she said, shrugging lightly, making her curls bounce. “I’m excited to meet your friends anyway. I don’t think I met any, other than Charles.”

  He opened the door to his truck for her. “Yeah, well, these friends are infinitely better than Charles. Sometimes you have to keep unhealthy people out of your life to make room for better ones.”

  She blinked. “Yeah, I guess that’s true.”

  Awkward silence fell between them as he realized that was exactly what she’d done when she left Charles. What she was trying to do by being with Francis.

  But just how far could any of this go?

  He got in on his side and pulled on his seatbelt. Then he started the engine, keeping his hungry eyes focused on the road.

  He’d never so looked forward to seeing Rock Brolin.

  Valerie could understand why Francis liked Rock. In most ways, he was Francis’s polar opposite, with his hilarious, frank disposition and over-the-top masculinity. From his leather apparel to the piercing in his ear to the scars running the length of his cheek, he exuded bad-boy appeal.

  But his personality was more that of a playful trickster, and he seemed to enjoy wat
ching Francis blush and fidget almost as much as she did.

  There was something about seeing such a mild-mannered, stoic, “good guy” getting all flustered. Like when she’d come down the stairs, made up as nicely as she could while still appropriate for going to a bar.

  She wondered who he’d been on the phone with when she came down the stairs.

  All she knew was he’d gone completely rigid, his jaw had dropped, and he’d hung up on the person almost immediately.

  No matter what Charles had said before, Francis was attracted to her. Was it because she’d lost weight? No, not based on how he was feeding her.

  The only thing that really made sense was that Charles had been lying. But even considering how bad Charles had treated her since then, she never would have guessed he would stab his friend in the back like that.

  How could she have known what kind of person Charles was when even Francis hadn’t caught on to it in so many years?

  She rested her cheek on her hand as a handsome bartender with black hair and dark eyes and a stocky, medium build came up to the table to take their orders.

  Rock’s wife, Ros, owned the bar and sometimes worked there but was off tonight so she could hang out with them. A suntanned blonde with blunt, cute features and country style, Ros was a take-no-shit kind of person, and Valerie immediately liked her. She hadn’t had a lot of girlfriends in her life, but she thought if she ended up staying here, Ros could be one of them.

  Staying here? Heat rushed into her cheeks as she realized part of her was already thinking about permanence with Francis, even if it meant leaving everything behind.

  Was she really ready to do that? Well, she didn’t need to think about it yet. She didn’t even know how he felt about her.

  “What do you want, cutie?” the bartender asked, drawing at least three pairs of curious eyes toward him.

  She blinked. “What?”

  “Cutie?” Rock asked, leaning back on his chair with a grin. “Uh-oh, see something you like, Harvey?”

  Harvey had a square-jawed kind of obstinacy in his face, and he nodded. “Yup.”

  “Cutie?” Francis snarled, meeting Harvey’s gaze. Sparks seemed to clash between the two men as Ros let out a laugh and put a hand over Valerie’s.

  “Just ignore them, hon,” she said. “I’ll take your order if Harvey won’t.”

  “No, you won’t,” Harvey snapped, licking his pencil and tapping the pad. “Looks like Francis already claimed his territory, and there are plenty of cute tourists around here. I don’t need to go up against a Brawl champion.”

  “I want—” Valerie started her order, but Francis cut her off.

  “Yeah, you wouldn’t want to, runner-up,” Francis snapped, drawing Harvey’s sharp gaze.

  “Oh yeah, big shot?” Harvey asked, letting out a growl and stepping forward. Francis snarled back, and Rock shot up, putting his hands between them.

  “Okay, you two, calm down. You’re friends, not grizzly bears about to fight in the forest.”

  “Black bear,” Harvey said, staring down at his notepad as he made a visible attempt to calm down. “Truce?” he asked, looking warily at Francis.

  Francis, who appeared slightly ashamed of himself, nodded. “Truce.”

  Valerie let out a sigh of relief. She’d never seen Francis act… petty like that. Was he jealous? He’d never acted like that when Charles had gone for her. If he had…

  “What are you looking at?” Francis asked defensively.

  “Nothing,” she said with a small grin.

  Francis raised his small menu to block his reddening face. “I just don’t think it’s professional is all.”

  Harvey took all their orders and left, and Rock let out a snort. “Dude, I’ve never seen you lose it like that.”

  “I’m… protective of her,” Francis replied.

  “I can see that,” Rock said, a rakish grin spreading over his face as he looked at Ros. “Looks like our boy’s all grown up and finding himself a lady.”

  Francis flushed deeper. “We’re only friends. I told you that.”

  Valerie’s stomach dropped. Was that what he was telling people? She supposed it was true, but it wasn’t true in the way he’d looked at her or the way he’d acted with Harvey.

  She fidgeted nervously as Harvey came over and set their drinks down so they could start on them while waiting for their food.

  Ros and Rock talked for a minute about how well Harvey was doing with the bar, while Valerie studied Francis, wondering just what was going through his mind at that moment.

  “I’m going to the bathroom,” he said, standing abruptly. His neck was crimson as he walked off. Since he was wearing a greenish-gray crewneck sweater, it was pretty easy to see.

  “That boy is a tomato,” Rock said, leaning back on his chair in amusement.

  He had odd gray eyes that glinted silver in some light. His looks leaned more to movie star, which made sense because Ros had said he was a stuntman at some point. Rock had explained that he had two brothers who also owned large parts of the town, and Francis had come up to help them run it.

  “I saw that,” Ros said. “Super embarrassed.” She looked at Valerie. “Are you two really just friends?”

  “I don’t know,” Val said. “It’s complicated. I guess if he says so, then we are.”

  “That dude is so pent up,” Rock said, shaking his head. “I don’t know what to do with him. But he got jealous over you, of that I’m sure.”

  “I saw that, too,” Ros said. “I haven’t seen that side of him. I mean, I know he won the Brawl, so he has to have a beast mode, but he’s so gentle and kind all the time.”

  “Oh, he can be a monster all right,” Rock said. “One of the best fighters I’ve ever seen. But he also plays everything really close to the chest. I mean, do we really know anything about his life before coming here? All we know is that he was unhappy enough about something that he just wanted to leave.”

  Valerie felt her heart sink a little lower. She still didn’t know what had made him so unhappy, but if she’d played a part in it, she would feel terrible.

  “What about you?” Ros asked. “What do you know about Francis?”

  “I’ve known him for some time,” Valerie said, hedging.

  “Wonder what’s taking him so long,” Rock said, glancing at the bathroom before leaning on the table, looking with interest at Valerie. “Do you like him?”

  She flushed. “I don’t know.”

  “I think you do,” Ros said.

  Rock nodded. “Me, too. So what’s the hold-up between you two?”

  “Um, I sort of hooked up with his friend,” she said. “I was friends with Francis, and he introduced me to his friend, and—”

  “And you picked the friend? Over Francis?” Rock asked, seeming disgusted. “How could you?”

  She shrugged. “Charles was Francis’s friend for a long time. He said he knew him better, and I believed him. He said Francis wasn’t into… girls like me.”

  Rock raised an eyebrow. “What?”

  Ros smiled. “You mean… curvy?”

  “Ohh,” Rock said. “That’s such a lie. Shifters love curves. This Charles guy sounds suspicious.”

  If Rock only knew…

  Val smiled because she already liked these people a lot. “I guess he is. But I don’t really know how to figure out Francis. I’ve been trying to figure out how… open he is to things. But I mean we were both manipulated by Charles, probably, and there are a lot of walls between us.”

  “You mean he isn’t opening up, even if all signs point to him wanting you,” Rock said bluntly.

  “Yes. How did you know?” she asked.

  Ros sighed. “He has some experience with stubborn men who can’t see anything even when it’s right in front of them.”

  Rock slung a possessive arm around Ros. “Yeah, that’s why I can’t let Francis waste a bunch of time like I did.” He sighed. “I knew she was my mate, but I let things hold me back. Stup
id things. I almost lost her for it.”

  “But what can we do?” Valerie asked. “He wants to go slow, and I totally can understand that. I don’t want to violate his boundaries.”

  “Men like it when you ‘violate their boundaries,’” Rock joked.

  “No, they don’t,” Ros insisted, slapping him on the arm.

  “Ouch,” he said. “No, I mean they like when the woman makes the first move. Or something. When they like her at least.” He sighed. “Okay, so I’m sure he likes you, but you aren’t sure.” He looked over at the bar.

  “Oh no, what are you thinking?” Ros asked.

  “Truth serum,” Rock said. “Francis gets super open when he’s drunk.”

  “How would you know that?” Ros asked suspiciously.

  “I drank with all the contestants when I managed the Brawl. I saw it. There are sad drunks and unruly drunks and happy drunks. Francis is an honest drunk.”

  Ros nodded. “And he’s a shifter, so they sober up fast.”

  “How fast?” Val asked. Because with the danger they could be in, she didn’t necessarily want him caught off guard. And she didn’t want to pull things out of him that he didn’t want pulled out, just because he was drunk.

  “Don’t feel guilty,” Rock said, giving her a wink as he gestured for Harvey to join them. “It isn’t your choice. I’m doing it regardless, to satisfy my own curiosity.”

  Ros rolled her eyes. “I’ve given up trying to stop him when he’s like this.”

  Francis appeared, coming out of the restroom, and Val felt a little shudder of lust just locking eyes with him. It was the way his eyes instantly searched for her when he entered a room, as if he had to know where she was and if she was okay.

  He sat down, making the table shake slightly. “What did I miss?”

  “Nothing much,” Rock said. “I ordered our drinks.”

  “Oh, good,” Francis said. “I could use one.”

  Rock’s smile turned slightly evil, and Ros just sighed.

  7

  About an hour later, dinner was over, and Francis was thoroughly drunk from the double shots Rock had kept pushing his way.

  Just what was the other guy trying to do to him? Francis looked around for a clock, but it felt as if the room were swimming around him.