Gray Back Ghost Bear (6 page)

“Don’t ask,” Jason said as he twitched his head in an invitation.

When Jason held open the front door for her, she hesitated in the entryway. A two-seat table sat in the middle of the single room. In the center of it was an old fashioned lantern that was the source of the warm glow. Two plates were covered with checkered napkins and two beers sat side by side, condensation dripping down the glass bottles and staining the wood underneath darker. Strands of lights had been hung like gentle rolling waves from the rafters above.

“Did you cook for me?” She had to force the words through her thickening throat.

“It was that or take you into Saratoga. The drive is brutal, though. Maybe we can do that for our second date.”

“Already planning a second date, and you don’t even know if you’ll like me after our first.”

Jason’s smile lifted the corners of his lips, then faded as he brushed her hair behind her ear. “I like you fine.”

She cupped his hand to keep his touch on her cheek. “This is the nicest thing anyone has ever done for me.”

The corners of his eyes crinkled with his grin. “Good.”

Jason helped her out of her jacket. The treehouse was warm, so she kicked out of her boots while she was at it. Sitting in a chair, she curled her legs under her and lifted the napkin off the plate. Thick, dark broth with lumps of succulent crawfish meat steamed in the shallow bowl of the plate. It was laid over a bed of dirty rice, and on the side was a thick piece of buttered bread. It smelled spicy and divine.

“You cooked this?” She didn’t mean to sound so surprised, but wow. She’d been living off canned stew and chili heated over an open fire for the past week. “What’s it called?”

“I’m from Louisiana, so it felt right making you food I grew up on. This is Crawfish Étouffée. It’s my mom’s recipe.”

She took a bite and rolled her eyes closed at the rich flavor that exploded across her tongue. “Jason, this is amazing.”

He sighed and huffed a laugh as if relieved, which was silly because really, the man had some serious game. If he was trying to woo her, well…she was wooed.

“How did you end up here, Georgia?” Jason asked. He leaned over his plate and nearer to her, as if his food held no interest.

“Well, I was hired by a dragon to hunt poachers and drove here in my Jeep, which was stolen the day I was sort of kidnapped by a Gray Back.”

Jason leaned back in the creaking chair and said, “Seriously. I want to know more about you.”

A wave of insecurity took her. She wanted Jason to continue liking her, but talking about her past would only hurt his opinion of her. “Okay. My mom raised me in a small trailer park right on the edge of Big Canoe. Have you ever been there?”

Jason shook his head and took his first bite.

“Well, it’s a huge plot of land that has been built up with nice homes on big wilderness lots, but the trailer park was there first, so as long as they stayed upright, the community couldn’t ask us to leave. It was all my mom could afford on her tips from the local diner she worked at. She had me really young and didn’t finish high school, so putting food on the table and keeping the bills paid was a constant struggle. But it was easier when I turned sixteen and got a job with the forestry department. It was nothing big, just picking up trash and calling in any problems around the park. My boss let me drive this extra Jeep he had from his wife leaving him, and for the first time I felt fancy. You know? Like, I’d been shivering through all the winters, sleeping in the same bed as my mom because we had to do that to keep warm. And we were always worried about not being able to pay the light bill and get the groceries we needed, and it just sucked. But after school, when I got to drive around working in the woods, none of that mattered. I was happy outdoors.”

“Did you go to school in the community?”

“Yeah, and I bet you can guess how that worked out. I made a few good friends, but the teasing from middle school to high school turned from freckles to trailer trash.”

Jason reached across the table and held her hand, brushed his thumb across her knuckles. “You aren’t.”

“No one is. Trailer trash is such a bull crap tease. It’s just a way to make fun of people who are struggling.”

“So that’s why you said yes to ten-ten so easily. I thought you would turn it down flat.”

“Ten-ten reminds me of the house I grew up in. The déjà vu is kind of nice. Plus, I can’t spend the winter in the tower.” She looked out the warped window panes at the snow falling steadily. It was too early and too warm to stick yet, but in a month, this place would be blanketed in white. “I needed to find a viable place to live, anyway. And now I get the added bonus of being around you and the other Gray Backs. It’s nice, the family you’ve made for yourself here.”

Jason huffed a laugh and shook his head. “Ranger, I sure hope you feel that way after you really get to know us. Do you still talk to your mom?”

“Not as much as I should. She’s angry I left. Took it personally that I didn’t stick around after high school to help her pay the bills. I just couldn’t. I know that’s not how it’s supposed to work, but I didn’t want to stay in Big Canoe for the rest of my life. I wanted to travel. Not to see different cities, but to experience different landscapes. So I went after a forestry education and took the first internship I could get my hands on and worked my way up. A year at each place, never settling down. And it worked well for me. I got to see some incredible things. Things a trailer park kid like me wasn’t going to see unless I went out there and got what I wanted. I tried to send my mom money, but she wouldn’t cash the checks. I sent her cash once, and she sent it right back. I failed in her eyes, but I know she loves me. I think someday, if I can settle down somewhere and show her how happy I am, she’ll forgive me for leaving.”

“It has to be hard on her if you’re her only kid, but you did the right thing. You’d resent her and hate your life if you stayed trapped somewhere.”

“What about you? Do you still talk to your family?”

“I do. I have five brothers, all married and breeding. My parents are in hog heaven spoiling all the grandbabies. I’m the slow one. The one they worry over because I never tried to settle again after Tessa.” Jason leaned back and linked his hands behind his head. “You should’ve seen the vitriol my mom had for Tessa. She never liked her. It was this constant uncomfortable situation. I mean, Tessa ruined every holiday we tried to spend with my family.”

“She didn’t want to share you or what?”

“Didn’t want to share me, but didn’t want to keep me. I don’t think Tessa knew what she wanted. Not like I did.”

“Have you dated anyone since her?”

Jason’s single, “Ha!” was loud in the small space. “Woman, you’ve met her. Tessa doesn’t take too kindly to me moving on. She’s done a bang-up job of keeping me uninterested in a relationship for half a decade now.”

“So you didn’t sleep with anyone after her?”

“Didn’t say that, but it was always a onetime deal and never serious.”

“Oh.” Her heart sank, and she focused on eating.

Jason watched her thoughtfully, his dark eyes gone serious. “Georgia, I’m not going to lie to you. Sugar-coating that stuff would only hurt you later on when you found out the truth.”

“No, I know. I just…I don’t like competition for you.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, I already have to compete with the ghost of your mate. I don’t get any of your firsts. You had this really huge life-altering relationship with her. She
Turned
you for goodness sakes, and it’s not like you’ve been able to mourn her passing. She’s still here.”

“I know, but sex with other women—”

“I get it. I do. I did the research, and bear shifters have needs to keep their animals sated. I understand, really, but to me, you’re already more than a friend. You feel like mine, and I don’t like thinking about you with other women.”

“But I wasn’t with those women. I only slept with them.”

“Sleeping with someone is really special to me.”

“Wait, are you a virgin?” Jason’s eyes went wide and apprehensive.

“No! I slept with my ex-boyfriend. But it was special, and I made sure it was the right time when I wouldn’t regret it. And your callous disregard for what love-making can actually be makes me nervous. I don’t want to be like those other women to you.”

The confusion washed from Jason’s face as he smiled and shook his head. “Georgia, you’re not. And I’m not pressuring you to sleep with me. I’m fine with taking this slow if it means I get to keep you. Do you know what sex was like with the three other women that I’ve slept with besides Tessa?”

“I don’t want to know.”

“Unemotional, boring humping with Tessa standing over the bed hurling insults that I could hear but my partners couldn’t. I felt awful afterwards. Sick. Crazy. It was impossible to concentrate and impossible to enjoy. It was sex for my bear’s sake so that maybe I could keep him steady for a little while longer. Do you know what happens to a bear shifter who loses control of his animal?”

“No.” Cora Wright’s pro-shifter website definitely hadn’t said anything about this.

“It’s the alpha’s responsibility to put that shifter down.”

“You mean…kill you?”

“Yeah. I got lucky and found Creed, and I told him about my mate passing and begged him to take me in, because rumor had it, Creed would hold onto his crew longer and give them a chance to fix what was broken. Sex wasn’t this emotional need to connect with another person. It was a Hail Mary desperation move when I knew I couldn’t hold control over my animal anymore. It bought me time.”

“Oh.” She frowned. Georgia wanted to keep her ruffled feathers because she didn’t like the idea of Jason sleeping with women just for the sake of sleeping with them. But it had bought him enough time to make it to her. And if she had to choose between Creed killing Jason or him doing what he had to do to stay alive, she would choose Jason’s life any day.

“Well, I slept with my ex-boyfriend, Evan, a lot, so there.” She cracked a grin.

Jason narrowed his eyes. “Yeah, I don’t really like that.”

“Sucky feeling, isn’t it?”

“Did Evan make you come?”

Georgia pursed her lips at his unexpected question.

His voice had gone all deep and husky, and he leaned over the table again. “Did he?”

Trapped.
Georgia was trapped in his gaze, unable to escape the question. “Yes.”

“How many times?”

“Twice,” she whispered.

Jason jammed the table out of the way, its legs groaning across the floor. He lifted her into his arms as his lips collided with hers. The chair behind her fell backward and, a moment later, her shoulder blades hit the wall. Jason’s lips moved against hers with a desperation that enflamed her middle in an instant. He ground against her, pressing his hard erection onto the seam of her jeans. God, that felt good. He was right where she was most sensitive, but still, it didn’t feel close enough. She wanted to feel his skin.

He trailed kisses down her neck and grazed her sensitive skin with his teeth. She gasped and fumbled with the button of his jeans. She needed more of him, or she’d go mad.

She yanked down his zipper and shoved his pants and briefs out of the way, unsheathing his long dick. Holy macaroni, that was not going to fit inside of her. Desperately, she pulled his sweater over his head. His dark hair was all mussed in that sexy, just-woke-up look as he kicked out of his pants completely.

Clothes. Why was she still in her clothes? Kissing and fumbling, she peeled out of her uniform and left the pieces on the floor with Jason’s.

“Wait, wait, wait,” Jason rasped out as she moved to unsnap the back of her bra.

She hesitated, unsure, but he popped her breasts out of her D-cups and took a step back.

This was usually the part where she crossed her legs, tried to stand at a better angle, and sucked in her stomach, but the look on Jason’s face made all of that completely unnecessary. His eyes lightened, and the man looked nothing shy of hungry as he raked his blazing eyes down her body.

Lifting her chin high and feeling courageous, she pushed down her boy-short panties and shrugged out of her bra.

Jason was beautifully masculine, standing there under the soft light with the snow falling behind him just outside the window. His Adam’s apple dipped into his thick neck as he swallowed. The strands of light threw the indentations between his pecs and abs into shadow. His six-pack flexed with every breath, and when he caught her staring, he smiled, then stepped back with his hands held out at his sides.

“You’re perfect,” she whispered.

“Even if I don’t have a dad bod?”

She giggled and looked down at the wooden floor boards. Darn the shyness that crept in at the most inopportune moments. “Even so.”

“So are you. You’re the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen.” Jason laughed and ran his hands through his hair. “Do you know how many times I’ve thought about you like this?”

“Three?”

Jason cracked up and shook his head. “A lot more than three. My imaginings didn’t even touch what you really look like, though.”

“What’s different?”