He motions to the chair, and she sits again. He pulls out another pair of boots and begins to unlace the current ones. She’s letting him take care of her, and his bear preens. She could easily have undone the boots herself, but she’s letting him help. He laces up the new pair, and she walks around some more.
“Better?” he asks.
“Yes, thank you.” She seems shy again, like she doesn’t know how to let someone help her. He never wants her to feel that way again.
He shows her the clothes and suggests what she should pick out. She needs everything: pants, shirts, sweaters, a jacket, and even underwear.He shows her where those are and leaves her to pick them out, holding the rest of her clothes for her. She tries some things on, but the majority she just piles in his arms. He doesn’t mind the least bit. She grabs some toiletries too, and other things she needs.
When they head to the register, Bud’s wife, Sue, is there to check them out. A stricken look comes over Chloe’s face, and Axel immediately bristles, feeling his hackles rise.
“What’s wrong?” he asks her. He’s concerned, he wants to know what is making her upset.
“My purse, I think I left it in Levi's truck.” She bites her lip and turns her head away from him. She’s embarrassed and frustrated, he can tell.
“It’s ok,” he tells her.
Turning back to Sue, he tells her to put it on his tab.
“No,” Chloe protests, “I can pay. Can we go back to the lodge and then come back?”
He hesitates, and her face drops. It’s a forty-minute drive into town, and while he doesn’t care in the least about driving her back and forth, he wants to be able to buy her these things. His bear wants it.
“You can pay me back. How about that? I can add it to the bill.”
“Yes. Ok, yes, that’s great. Thank you.” He can tell that resolution makes her happy, and he’s glad.
“I’m going to go change real quick, so I’ll be warmer.” He nods at her, and she scoops off clothes from the counter and heads back towards the dressing room. He turns back to Sue, who has a smirk on her face.
“What?”he asks her.
“Pretty lady you got there, Ax.”
“She’s a guest, she’s not…”
“You sure do look at her like she’s something.”
He turns away, ending the conversation there. Chloe is his mate, the other half of his soul. But if Sue can see the way he looks at her, then Chloe can too, and he doesn’t want to scare her off. He has two weeks, two weeks for her to want to be with him. Two weeks to fall in love with him.
Chapter Six
Chloe
After showering, Chloe comes down to the main sitting area in the lodge. She grabs a book and tucks herself into the couch. Danielle had gone off on a hike while she was gone, and Chloe wanted some alone time to think. This trip had started off miserably. Finding out they were going to Montana instead of a tropical location, falling in a puddle, ruining her shoe in mud, and losing her luggage. But Axel has made it better. Axel cared for her, carried her, and made her feel good. It has been years since a man has done any sort of taking care of her, and then it wasn’t anything on this level. He looks at her like she hung the moon, and she knows that can’t be right.
No man has ever looked at her like that, and no man will. She isn’t worth it. She isn’t beautiful or strong. She’s meek and plain. It’s how she’s always been. She would get hit on sometimes when Danielle dragged her out to a bar, but she knew it was just forsex. Those guys were trying to get laid, but she isn’t going to find her soulmate in a bar. It just isn’t her.
It has been lonely for her all these years. Her fling lasted a couple of months, and they never did anything besides have sex. There were no dates, no sleeping over. They would fuck, and he would kiss her forehead and leave. He was kind about it, but it was just sex, not a relationship. Her previous relationship had been in college, which was over ten years ago. Rick and Chloe had met Sophomore year and dated till they graduated. He was funny, smart, and outgoing. She thought for sure they would get married, but he told her he was going to Baltimore for graduate school and left her with a kiss on the cheek and a broken heart. Looking back now, it was more lust than love. He was attractive, hot even with his perfect skin and hair. She thought they’d make beautiful babies, and she always wondered what he’d seen in her. But it had ended, and she hadn’t had another boyfriend since.
Thirty-two and two boyfriends and a fling under her belt. Danielle had been married for five years and still had tens of boyfriends and guys she'd dated. But she couldn’t compare herself, jealousy was the thief of joy or something like that, and Danielle was her friend. Not another woman to be jealous of.
The lodge is empty for the most part. She had seen a woman cleaning up the dining room and another man stomp through the lobby, but that was it. She wasn’t used to the quiet. New York City was loud. Even in her house, there was noise from the street and the neighbors. Now, as she sat reading her book, she could only hear the crackle of the fire and the occasional bird song from outside. It was unnerving and relaxing at the same time. She felt like she shouldbe doing something. Work or cleaning or work. She’d checked her phone as soon as she came back from her trip to town with Axel, but had no new messages. She knew the board wasn’t meeting till next week, so there wouldn’t really be any news for her, but she was always glued to her phone, so it was hard to break the habit.
Axel approaches her from the side, and she jumps. She’d been holding the book and watching the fire, immersed in her thoughts of being made partner when he’d come over. He carries a plate of cookies and a warm smile. She feels herself smile back up at him with a blush on her cheeks.
“Got you some cookies, straight from the oven.”
She hesitates. She knows if she eats one cookie, then she’ll eat a bunch, and they will go straight to her hips, as her mother always told her. But fuck it, she’s on vacation.
“Thank you,” she says, taking one off the plate and biting into it. She can’t help the moan that bursts forth, and sees Axel’s eyes widen a little. The blush blooms bigger on her cheeks as she tells him it’s a really good cookie.
