“Asher.”
Neither of us let go, and when Weston finally spoke, he dropped my hand, and my bear moaned at the lack of contact.
“I’m here for work.” Weston’s eyes never left mine. “But I don’t want to discuss it because those guys in there did a number on my head.”
And what work was that? I needed to find out, but first, we should get past the introductions before I started probing for info.
And how he spoke sounded as though he didn’t agree with their opinion, but none of that mattered now because we were together, and I couldn’t let him walk away.
“I’m staying at a B&B. Bobby’s place.”
That explained his scent in the fabric of the building. But he was here on a temporary basis, which wasn’t ideal.
“I know it.” I didn’t offer that I was staying there, in case I made him wary. I had to go at a human pace and not drag him back to my room and mark him.
“This is going to sound weird.” He bit his bottom lip and glanced at his hands.
It wouldn’t be any more odd than finding my mate in a tiny town in the middle of nowhere, though while it was nowhere for most humans, it was somewhere for me.
“But can we talk?” He pointed up the road toward Bobby’s place. “I could use some company that doesn’t involve people likening wildlife management to pest control.”
“I’m staying there too.”
His brows shot up. “It’s a small world.”
My bear was urging me to accept, but I was all in. This was a chance to be alone with my mate.
“Bobby makes a mean cup of coffee,” he said.
Maybe he hadn’t tried Mike’s, but I was up for that, and so was another part of me.
“Sounds good.”
We fell into step as the streetlights came on. Our shoulders almost brushed against one another, and I breathed in and out at the same time as him.
“And you’re here short-term, I suppose?” I asked.
“Mmmm. I’m doing a major study of polar bears.”
Oh shoot. My mate and the scientist were one and the same.
How odd that I was looking for the scientist and found my mate. I still had to deal with him as a scientist, but I no longer cared as much as I should have.
6
WESTON
“For the record, I don’t want coffee,” I said. I wanted it to be abundantly clear that nothing about what we were going to do had anything to do with a nice little sit-down conversation. In fact, if it wasn’t cold and in public, I’d have stripped him naked already.
There was something about this guy. I didn’t know what it was, but never in my entire life had I been so attracted to anyone, so turned on, so needing to feel their touch. Just the brush of his hand on my shoulder had been enough to get my cock’s full attention. It was still hard, despite the time that had elapsed since then.
“Yeah, I don’t want coffee either.” Thank gods we were on the same page.
I reached over and took his hand. That wasn’t like me. I never made the first move, or any move. Heck, half the time I didn’t know when someone else was making a move on me.
“Is this okay?” I asked.
“Very.”
