She’d never felt that from anyone before. Such intensity. Such absolute hunger but held in check by an iron control. Made everything inside her go liquid with want. And then he held out his hand to her, so she descended the last few steps feeling like a queen entering her court.
“I’m am the luckiest man alive,” he said as he nuzzled beneath her ear. “You smell amazing.”
“I am never changing this shampoo ever.”
He licked her. A light quick flick of his tongue before he rumbled his answer. “It’s not the shampoo. It’s you.”
What had she done right in her life to deserve this man? This magical man. Sure, he turned into a grizzly, and, frankly, she wondered where was her sanity. Who wanted to get involved with a bear? One who had a death sentence coming in a very, very short time.
Her. She wanted to. She wanted him. And rational or not, she was along for the ride for as far as it could take her.
“So,” she asked as they headed for the door. “Where are we going?”
“It’s a restaurant a ways from here. That’s the problem with Gladwin. Nothing fancy for miles.”
She hesitated. “Are you sure you want to take the time? Dad might be coming home tomorrow and that’ll make it harder?—”
“I’m sure. Stop worrying. Start living.” He flashed her his teeth. “With me.”
She stiffened in mock insult. “Why, Mr. Robertson, are you asking an innocent girl like me to move in with you? What would my father say?”
His eyes crinkled as he smiled. “Probably, can she help with my research?”
She snorted. “That’s probably true. I don’t think Dad cared about the niceties of polite society even when he was in polite society.”
He opened his truck door for her and helped her climb in. It was sweet and courtly, and she couldn’t have been more pleased if she were stepping into a limousine. Then he popped around the other side, and soon they were on the road.
“Was your father really in polite society?” he finally asked.
“Absolutely. Remember that traveling salesman? He made it big with the Crescent Brass and Pin Company. Not Henry Ford kind of money, but he did just fine. According to family legend, his daughter became a society matron.”
“But your dad was probably an academic when he was still in diapers.”
“Much to the despair of the women who kept trying to make him into a dashing young lad.”
“So how did your parents meet?”
“School, of course. University of Michigan. Dad liked her practical side. She kept him on track, grounded him when he was prone to lose himself in his research.”
“And what did she see?”
“A romantic. Flowers, poetry, and badly sung ballads in the moonlight.” Julie sighed. “They divorced when I was a teen. Turns out poetry pales when someone’s forgotten to pay the water bill.”
“Ouch.” He looked at her, his eyes narrowing. “Which side do you favor? Practical or romantic?”
“You can’t guess?” She didn’t mean to test him, but it was an old habit with her. Had he really been paying attention? Or had everything they’d done been an elaborate dance for ulterior reasons?
“Oh, you’re practical through and through,” he said glibly. “Pay your bills on time, have a boring car and a responsible job.” Then he flashed her a heated look that set her blood on simmer. “But you give your heart easily and too well. Romantics like that get taken for a ride. So you try to be logical, but then it happens again. A guy shows up with flowers and pretty words, and there you go.”
She swallowed, her throat suddenly dry. Damn, he’d nailed it right on the head. Except this time it wasn’t pretty words and flowers that had caught her heart. This time, she’d tumbled headlong into a man of magic. “Makes me sound like a sap,” she said as she turned to look out the trees whipping past the window.
“It’s a miracle, Julie. Do you know how hard it is for me to connect?” His voice was calm. As steady and even as the freeway they’d pulled onto. “Animals love instinctively with very few. Child or mate, that’s it. Everything else is food or rival. Carl’s my best friend, but the minute we became teens, my bear started to assert itself. Carl’s the alpha of my generation, but to my bear, he’s the man who’s going to kill me when the time comes. At best, he’s a rival. At worse, he’s my predator.”
“That’s awful.”
“That’s animal. Don’t get me wrong. Animals feel love, especially pets. But I’m a wild animal. It’s the man who makes human connections, and even before my teens it was hard.”
She twisted in her seat, needing to see his face as the talked. “Why?”
