“Quinn, are you crying? What’s wrong?”
She sniffled, facing his gaze. “It’s nothing,” she said, blinking away the tears.
“No, it’s not. You’re upset. Did I hurt you?”
“It’s not that. I just…I can’t believe I missed out on this for almost a year.”
“Oh, baby. I know how you feel. Come here.” He held her closer and angled her face up to his so he could gently kiss her lips. Quinn laid her head against his shoulder to rest. “Don’t regret the past. There’s nothing we can do about it now. All we can do is focus on the future.”
“You’re right. That’s all that matters.”
“I want us to be together. Really together now.”
“I want that too. So much,” she breathed.
“Good,” he said brightly. “Now. Let me make you some dinner.”
Drew climbed out of the bed and pulled on his boxer shorts. Quinn watched him walk out of the bedroom and into the small kitchen across the hall. He opened the ancient refrigerator and bent down to look inside.
“You still have the steaks,” he said.
“I haven’t gotten around to cooking them.”
He grabbed them out of the fridge and began preparing to fry them in a pan. Quinn rose from the bed, wrapping herself in a pink bathrobe she’d brought with her. She slid her feet into her slippers and walked into the kitchen, hugging Drew from behind as he stood in front of the stove. He grasped her hands with his and let out a satisfied sigh.
“You have no idea how good this feels.”
“Yes, I do,” she said into his back.
“That’s right. You do.” His voice was light and happy.
He patted her hand then threw the steaks into the pan, dusting them with salt and pepper.
“Why don’t you go make yourself comfortable, baby? I’ll have this ready for you in a few minutes.”
Quinn kissed his back and wandered into the bedroom to put her clothes back on. The little cabin had central heating, but it was still pretty cold. The rain had started up again and was pelting the shingle roof so hard it seemed like she could hear each drop. When she was done dressing, she went into the living room and turned on the TV. The broadcast came from the satellite dish attached to the side of the house, and she wasn’t getting very good reception in this rain. Quinn turned a few channels and then decided to turn it off. It all looked terrible and the sound was out of sync.
A moment later, Drew came out of the kitchen with two plates of steak, salad, and toast. He slid the plates onto the table and went back to the kitchen. Quinn took a seat, and Drew came back with big glasses of ice water for them both. He sat across from her in his boxer shorts, his chest naked and shining with drying sweat. He looked magnificent.
Quinn cut into her steak and took a bite. The meat melted in her mouth and the flavor lapped over her tongue. Post-sex food cooked by her mate seemed to be better than any food she’d ever eaten before.
“I’m not sure if it’s the food or the company, but this is delicious,” she said.
“Maybe a bit of both,” he said, smiling over a forkful of salad.
He shoved the crunchy lettuce into his mouth and chewed, his grin not leaving his lips. Quinn was so overwhelmed by the feeling of contentment and joy, it was hard for her to contain. She’d never felt so happy before, so full, so cared for. She’d never dreamed that she could feel so much love. Quinn reached across the table and grasped Drew’s hand.
“This is so good,” she whispered meaningfully.
“Better than good,” he said, caressing her knuckles with his thumb.
“What took us so long to get here?” she said, giggling.
“I think you and I are equally stubborn.”
“Really? Equally stubborn?”
“I could have come to find you a long time ago. Corey could have found you in about fifteen minutes if I’d let him.”
“Why didn’t you?”
“I didn’t want to find you if you didn’t want to be found.”
He looked thoughtfully out the window into the forest beyond the cabin.
“I can understand that. I’m not sure what I would have done if you’d come to find me.”
“Would you have turned me away?”
“Who knows? I might have taken out a restraining order.”
Drew looked at her, hurt and frustration in his eyes. She’d meant it as a joke, but it had backfired.
“I’m kidding. Honestly, who knows? Maybe we could have gotten here sooner if you had come after me.”
“Or you could have called the cops.”
“I wouldn’t have done that, Drew. I was really just joking.”
“We’ll never know now, will we? It sounds like staying away was the best choice.”
“Drew. I was kidding. Really. I might have gone home with you. It’s just as likely. I was really confused. Seeing you again is the only thing that helped me come to my senses.”
“Don’t worry, Quinn. I’m not upset,” he said, picking up their empty plates and taking them back into kitchen.
They obviously still had a lot to work out. She shouldn’t have made a joke like that, not when their togetherness was still so new.
“Will you stay with me tonight?” she asked, seeing the darkness descend outside the window.
“If you want me to,” he said, coming back out of the kitchen.
“I do. More than anything.”
“I’ll stay as long as you need me.”
14
Drew walked back into the kitchen and started washing the dinner dishes. He couldn’t help feeling hurt by Quinn’s thoughtless joke. There was something too real about what she’d said. For all he knew, she really would have taken out a restraining order on him. She seemed really sorry that she had said it, and all he could do was try to forgive her.
Drew needed to forgive her for everything that had happened over the last nine months. If he wanted things to work out between them now, it was essential that he find a way to get past all of his hurt feelings.
Even after making love to Quinn, he still felt as if he was taking a chance by letting her inside him again. Now that he’d opened himself up to her, she had the power to destroy him like never before. He knew that he couldn’t take it if she left him again. It would be too much for him to bear, and he would be lost.
He turned on the hot water and squirted soap into the stream, watching the bubbles rise in the sink. He rinsed the other dishes and began to wash everything. Quinn stepped into the room, leaning against the door frame, her arms crossed. She chewed on her bottom lip, her eyes cast down to the peeling linoleum floor. His heart ached for her. Deep down, he knew that Quinn was trying. Not believing her intentions was hurting her too.
Drew pulled his hands out of the soapy water and dried them off, walking across the room to place his hands on Quinn’s shoulders. He rubbed up and down her arms with a sigh and looked deep into her eyes.
“We’ll work this out. I promise.”
He pulled her into his arms, and she melted against him. Her belly rested on his hip, and he could feel the stirring of the child within. He took a surprised breath and drew back.
“Was that the baby?” he asked her.
“Uh-huh,” she said. “Give me your hand.”
She placed his palm against her belly. He could feel the strong kicks of his cub pushing against his hand. His eyes grew wide and his mouth dropped open. His child was so close. He would be born in a few short weeks, and Drew was completely unprepared.
Usually, new parents found out about their children nine months before they were born. Drew didn’t get that luxury. His baby would be here within a month. Not only did he have to figure out how to make things work with the mother, he had to sort out all his feelings about fatherhood as well.
Drew had grown up with good parents. His mother was a human and his father was a shifter who’d stayed in hiding most of Drew’s life. They had been largely unaffected by the turmoil that f
ollowed the Great Shifter Council’s announcement that shifters existed. His parents had been kind to him, and he’d had an idyllic human childhood, even though he knew he was a shifter all along. Keeping the secret of his identity hadn’t been particularly difficult. His parents had coached him from the very beginning that he had to keep it hidden. Having a shifter for a father had definitely helped.
He knew that Shane’s mate Lily had been raising a shifter child by herself before Shane turned her. Lily had been a single human parent who had no idea how to raise a shifter child. Little Theo was constantly giving her trouble. But that was not the way it had been for Drew.
He didn’t come out of the closet as a shifter until he was a young man, living on his own and working in a brewery for a boss who was also a bear. His boss had convinced him to come out. Unfortunately, as soon as he had, that’s when the war had broken out, and Drew had been drafted.
He didn’t resent coming out, and he didn’t resent fighting in the war. Mostly he saw it as his duty to his country. Now that things were so different for shifters, it was all water under the bridge. What Drew needed to do was figure out how to let go of his hurt feelings over Quinn the way he had let go of everything else in his life.
With Quinn, the knife had cut far deeper than being drafted into a human war. She was his mate and she left him. For a shifter, nothing hurt quite as much as being betrayed by a mate. In some ways, Drew could understand why Corey refused to sign up to Mate.com. Fated mates could really hurt each other.
Unlike Corey, Drew had always wanted someone in his life. The pain he felt over the last nine months was slowly dissipating in the hours since he’d made love to Quinn. As he felt his baby stir inside her belly, a calm sense of security wrapped around him like a blanket. Maybe they could make it work. He took a deep breath and let it out, just imagining how wonderful it would be if they could get it together.
Drew wanted nothing more than to spend the rest of his life with Quinn and their child. It was all he wanted, really. He would have given up everything else in his life just to ensure that they would be together from now on.
“It’s amazing, isn’t it?” Quinn said about the feeling of the child quickening within her.
“It’s the most amazing thing I’ve ever felt,” he said, wrapping her in his arms. “Except for maybe the feeling of being inside you.”
She giggled and then sighed, holding him tight.
“When will you be able to forgive me, Drew?” she said.
“I’m trying, Quinn. I promise you.”
“What else can I say to make it better?”
“I just need time, baby,” he said, kissing the top of her head.
“Time is all we have now,” she whispered.
“We don’t have that much time before the baby gets here.”
“That’s true. But I don’t think we’re going to have all this worked out before the baby arrives.”
“Let’s just not talk about it now. I want to spend some alone time with you. And not let the rest of the world interfere with our peace.”
“You’re going to stay with me at the cabin?”
“I just want a couple of days with you. I’m going to call the brewery and make sure that my shifts are covered for the next several days so we can figure some things out.”
“That sounds wonderful, Drew. And I’m going to go get in bed. I’m exhausted.”
Quinn waddled off to the bedroom, and he could see her climb under the blankets. He picked up his cellphone and began making calls to his employees to find people to cover his shifts for the next couple of days. It didn’t take that long to find replacements. The people he’d hired to work at his bar were dependable and helpful. Most of them loved the brewery almost as much as he did.
With that settled, he went to the bedroom and crawled in bed beside Quinn, pulling her close. They slept together through the night and woke the next morning to the sound of rain. It had been storming nonstop for almost twenty-four hours after several months of rain. Even a bear could get sick of rain.
When he rose from the bed and looked out the window, he could see blue sky in the distance. The clouds were slowly parting. They would have a break from the rain in a few hours. Maybe he and Quinn could go for a short walk in the forest. He loved the smell of the air after the rain and wanted to share it with his mate.
He went into the bathroom and started a shower, testing the stream for just the right temperature. Drew slipped out of his boxers and stepped into the warm water. As he was lathering shampoo into his hair, Quinn stepped into the room and dropped her bathrobe down her shoulders. She was completely naked underneath, her full breasts and round belly making him instantaneously hard.
He growled into her ear as she stepped in front of him under the spray of the shower.
“Good morning,” he growled.
“Good morning,” she breathed, letting the water flow over her swollen breasts.
She bent over in front of him and picked up the soap before rubbing it all over her body. Drew watched her wash herself over her shoulder, growing more excited with each movement of her hands. She slid the soap between her legs and that was it for him. He couldn’t stand it anymore.
He took the soap out of her hand and began to rub between her legs where the soap had just been. He could feel her clit, tight and swollen under his fingers. Quinn gasped and moaned through her clenched teeth.
“Oh, baby,” she groaned. “Yeah.”
His hands were slick with soap and water. He ran them over her body, clasping her breasts and flicking her bud with his thick fingers. He dipped one inside her wet core as he circled her clit with another. She twisted her head back, and he kissed her greedily, holding her chin to angle it toward him.
He could feel her clench around his finger. Her body went rigid, and he knew he’d made her come. Drew bent his knees and moved his cock between her legs, sliding it back and forth across her throbbing pussy.
“Oh God, Drew. Yeah.”
He growled as he angled himself to push inside her. He wrapped his hands around her breasts and hips, moving into her in smooth thrusts. She groaned, uncontrollably, her head resting against his shoulder. Her eyes rolled back and her mouth dropped open, moans escaping her throat as he thrust into her. She mewled, and he felt her pussy contract on his dick, making him profoundly excited.
He bit her earlobe as his release swept over him. Pleasure coursed through his veins like liquid fire.
“I love you, Quinn,” he whispered in her ear as he drew away.
She turned, wrapping her arms around his neck. She looked up at him with those big eyes, full of wonder and longing.
“I love you too, Drew. So much. So very much.”
He rubbed her back and looked up at the ceiling. His mind reeled with an abundance of joy he could barely comprehend. He had to find a way to make this feeling last. He had to find a way to forgive so they could be together like this for the rest of their lives.
He stepped out of the shower and toweled off before helping her out and drying her with a big fluffy towel.
“If it stops raining, do you want to go for a walk in the woods?”
“That sounds fun,” she said as they walked into the bedroom to get dressed.
After they were dry and dressed, Drew made a pot of coffee and breakfast while Quinn tried to get something on TV. He put plates of eggs and bacon on the table and asked her what she was doing.
“The satellite seems broken,” she said.
“It’s probably off because of the weather. I was able to get enough internet reception to make some phone calls last night.”
He picked up his phone and checked the internet reception. The cabin was too rural for cell reception or regular cable. The only way to stay connected was the satellite. He was still able to connect to the internet so he wasn’t too worried. He’d go up and get the TV back into alignment after their walk.
They ate breakfast, talking about nothing and everything. They were
coming to a comfortable connectedness that felt to Drew as if they were finally starting to rise above the past. He took the dishes back to the kitchen after they were done, and they got ready to go out.
Quinn slipped into a pair of rain boots she’d brought with her. Drew just wore the boots he’d come in. He was always prepared for the weather, being a Rescue Bear. It came with the territory.
He took her hand, and they stepped down the porch steps into the damp, fragrant air. The sun had broken through the storm clouds and cast the world in a soft yellow light. He knew there was a trail that led through the forest and along the river. They walked around the cabin and into the misty woods.
15
Q uinn walked hand-in-hand with Drew into the old growth forest. Being this secluded had its benefits. The forest was a magnificent collection of old fir and pine trees. They towered above the couple as they walked down the wet path.
Quinn was more than a little happy she’d brought her rain boots with her. The trail was covered with gravel, but there were spots along it that were deep with dark mud.
They circled toward the river, and Quinn looked down the ridge at the water flowing below them.
“The river is really high right now,” Drew said. “Dangerously high.”
“What do you think we should do?” she asked.
“Maybe we should go back to town.”
“Do you really want to? I thought we were going to spend some private time together.”
“I want that too,” he said, leaning in to kiss her forehead.
“Let’s stay here. I’m not ready to rejoin civilization yet.”
“What’s waiting for you back in town?” he asked.
“Nothing really. I did talk to Juliet. She’s so understanding. A true friend. I don’t deserve her any more than I deserve you.”
“What are you talking about? You deserve friends and you deserve love.”
“Does this mean you’re ready to forgive me?”
“I’ve been ready to forgive you all along.”
She snorted, squeezing his hand as she led him away from the river’s edge.