There’s not a lot of men in this world who can shut me up, but this man keeps taking all the words out of my mouth. I’m speechless.
“I’m the one who should be thanking you.”
“For what?” I ask with a chuckle. “Immortalizing your heroics on the nightly news?”
“For saving my life.”
I laugh and lightly bat his forearm, thinking he’s joking. He’s not.
“You didn’t even hesitate,” he says, those sexy eyes practically melting me. “With the rifle. You leaped on the Sheriff like a badass superhero.”
Oh. That. I’m lucky I’m not in a cell right now. The Sheriff was so distracted with the grizzly bear and getting the festival back in order that he probably forgot that I must have broken at least half a dozen laws with that crazed reaction.
But how did that save his life?
“You saw that, huh?” I say, dragging my fingertip up my pint glass.
“First hand,” he says in a low voice. “It was pointed at my head.”
I look up at him slowly.
“What do you mean, your head?” I ask. “You weren’t?—”
He just watches me, steady and quiet.
I frown. “I don’t follow.”
There’s a subtle shift in the air around us. I feel it tingling on my skin. The noise of the bar fades into the background as all of my focus centers on Boone. He sets his beer down with deliberate care and leans in just a little.
“Do you know about shifters?” he whispers in my ear.
I blink. “Shifters like… werewolves in movies?”
“Not like in movies,” he says. “Like in real life. Men who turn into bears. Men with animals inside them.”
I stare at him, trying to tell if this is some kind of joke. His expression doesn’t move.
“What are you saying?” I ask slowly.
He holds my gaze.
“That grizzly bear,” he says. “The one at the tree.”
My breath stutters.
He taps two fingers against his chest. “Was me.”
The world seems to tilt for a second. I grab the table as it all comes crashing down, making sense although none of it makes sense.
That huge bear… The way it was looking at me with those same brown eyes with golden flecks in the beautiful irises… That strange comforting feeling when he charged at me… Feeling like I was safe instead of feeling any terror…
Being so drawn to that bear… Being so drawn to Boone in the same way…
“Wait,” I whisper, looking up at him. “Are you serious?”
He nods once.
I study his face, searching for some sign of a lie.
