Total pages in book: 21
Estimated words: 19872 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 99(@200wpm)___ 79(@250wpm)___ 66(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 19872 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 99(@200wpm)___ 79(@250wpm)___ 66(@300wpm)
But this here… sitting with Boone… inching closer to his strong safe presence… this feels right.
This feels like what I’ve been waiting for. What I’ve been yearning for.
Him and his crazy grizzly bear.
“Are you okay?” he asks softly. “It’s okay to take a minute. I know it’s a lot. But I know you feel it. That pull. That connection. Just know, for me, it’s times a thousand.”
“I don’t see how that’s possible,” I say with a scared tiny laugh.
“I didn’t think it was possible either until the moment I saw you,” he says looking at me with so much love and adoration in his eyes that it makes me blush. “And then I knew, what those old mated shifters always go on about, it was all true. It was more than true. It was more intense than they described. You have to experience it yourself to fully understand.”
My heart aches as I watch him. I reach out and put my hand on his and his whole body loosens. It melts before my very eyes. I love that I can draw that reaction from him.
I can be that calming presence in his life too.
The waitress returns with our beers and then heads over to Leanne. She catches our eye as she takes her beers and hands one to Mr. Hot Lumberjack.
I laugh when Mr. Hot Lumberjack bends over to take a shot at pool and she pretends to hump him from behind, her tongue out, her eyes locked on me.
Boone sees it too and laughs.
“She’s crazy,” I say. “She definitely keeps my job interesting.”
I start rambling on about work for a bit and then I get into my family. Boone asks questions and keeps me talking. I must go on about my parents for at least five minutes straight.
“You’re going to love them,” I say before I can catch myself. But he doesn’t seem freaked out and he’s not eying the emergency exit. He hangs on every word I say. “I can’t believe Christmas is only ten days away. What are you doing for Christmas?”
“What I always do,” he says. “Nothing.”
My heart breaks for him. “Will you spend it with me?” I ask. “With my family?”
I’m expecting him to say no. To make an excuse. To say that he got the whole mate thing wrong.
But he doesn’t.
He just smiles warmly at me.
And nods.
“I’d love to.”
CHAPTER SEVEN
Veronica
It’s so quiet on the mountain after the crowded pub and the lively festival. The air is cool and fresh with the gentle kind of cold that kisses your cheeks instead of biting them.
The bright, silvery full moon is lighting our way, stars glittering between the bare branches, as we walk through the untouched snow.
I’m heading to Boone’s place for the night.
It’s something I thought I’d never do. Something I never even considered doing before…
Spending the night with a man I just met.
I didn’t think I had it in me. I don’t really, not for anyone but Boone.
I can feel it vibrating deep in my bones, radiating out from my core, that feeling pounding in my heart… I’m his. And he’s mine.
We belong together. We want each other. So why fight it?
Leanne left with the lumberjack and I didn’t feel like going back to the hotel by myself. I couldn’t even picture leaving this man’s side. Not when curling up with him in a bed, feeling his big strong arms around me was an option.
We’re heading there now, walking up the mountain on foot, but to be honest, if he keeps looking at me like that, I’m not sure we’ll even make it to the cabin.
“Are you sure?” he asks for the tenth time. “I don’t mind carrying you.”
I smile as I put my hand on his arm. “I’m fine, Boone. I’m enjoying the hike.”
He’s so cute. Looking out for me already.
We follow a narrow path that winds up through the trees. It’s so peaceful up here. So quiet. No car horns. No sirens. No street lights.
We walk in silence for a moment, but it’s not awkward. It’s comfortable. The kind of silence that married couples have after decades of love.
The kind of comfortable silence a couple has to earn, but for some reason, it comes naturally to us.
I’m present in the moment, which doesn’t happen for me too often. My mind settles, and for once my thoughts aren’t racing ahead with work deadlines, news stories, and ratings.
They’re here.
In this moment.
With him.
I slide my gloved hand into his bare hand and he just holds it like it’s the most natural thing in the world.
“So, do you let your bear wander around out here?”
I’m so curious about that grizzly bear. I want to know everything about him. I saw it in adorable mode eating that candy cane and in freak out mode charging at the officers, but what’s in between? What does it do? What is living with him like?