He exhales, the sound sharp, like it hurts to hope. “I think one day you’ll wake up and remember who you were before all this. And you’ll realize I don’t fit into that world.”
I shake my head, fierce now. “Maybe that world doesn’t fit me anymore.”
He goes still, searching my face, as if he’s trying to see if I mean it.
“I’ve spent the last two days feeling more alive than I have in years,” I tell him. “You think I want to trade that for traffic and deadlines and people who don’t look at me the way you do?”
His hand comes up, rough palm cupping my cheek. “Lila…”
“I’m not going anywhere,” I say, and I mean it.
For a long beat, neither of us moves. The air between us hums with everything that’s been said—and everything that hasn’t.
Then he pulls me against him and breathes me in like he’s memorizing the moment, his voice a whisper against my hair.
“Say it again.”
“I’m not going anywhere,” I repeat, and feel his whole body ease around me.
“I’ll take care of you,” he mutters into my hair.
I grin as the thought takes hold, warming me all the way through. “I’d like that. But, you know, I’m an independent kinda girl. I’ll also need to get a job.”
“In the town?”
“Yeah…” I drift off as all the possibilities occur to me—working for a local marketing agency, running a café, becoming a dog groomer. I never really wanted to leave Maple View. If I’d had a different family, I would’ve happily been a small-town girl all my life.
“I’ll get a job in the town,” I say happily.
“At least, until you start having our cubs.”
“Cubs?”
“That’s what a bear’s young are called.”
I go still, imagining my belly swelling with Holt’scub.His seed growing inside me. A baby that has his black hair and amber eyes. Curled against his broad chest, loved and protected by us both.
Suddenly, I can’t breathe.
“Do you want that?” His voice is taut with uncertainty.
I nod. “So much.” The words spill out of me. I lift my head so I can see him. His eyes are blazing gold. “I want to have your cubs, Holt. Lots of them.”
A growl breaks from his throat, and he lays his massive hand on my stomach. “You’re so fertile, baby.”
“I am?”
“Uh huh.” His nostrils flare. “I can scent it on you. I can’t wait to impregnate you.”
I shiver. “No time like the present,” I say, and a shudder of longing goes through me.
14
Lila
Holt grabs my waist and hauls me against him, mouth crashing onto mine as he backs me up against a big old pine tree. His hands roam everywhere — my hips, my ass, the back of my neck — all possessive, all hungry. His cock is rock-hard against my stomach, thick and pulsing through his jeans.
Snow drifts off the branches above us.
