Grizzly - Bundle Parts 1-3 (6 page)

He stepped out of the kitchen, and brought out settings for us both. I suddenly felt lazy and rude, allowing my night-guest to do all the work.

“I’m so sorry. Just sitting here drinking coffee. I can help.” I blurted out sheepishly.

He glanced at me with a curious look of bemusement, “No, it’s okay. I don’t mind. Enjoy your coffee and nurse your hangover. I’m sure it’s still a bit unpleasant?”

I nodded, relieved actually. I was often clumsy as is, let alone the day after a beer-fest and drinking binge. “Thank you, I appreciate it.”

He laid down the plates and utensils, arranging them just so. I admired his strong forearms, the beautiful tension in his muscles, the defining lines that made a man’s arms so sexy and appealing. Just like one of the men in my shifter books.

And then wham! It hit me… Like a bolt of lightning! Abe and I had kissed last night, right before I’d passed out.

As the memory crept back into my mind, I swallowed hard. Somehow, I got the sense that he was waiting. For the recollection to hit.

It wasn’t an unpleasant memory, mind you! But it was a shocking and surprising one. For me.
Holy whoa!!

With stone-cold awe and disbelief, I suddenly blurted it out, “Abe? Did we kiss last night?!”

“I was wondering when you’d remember that, if at all.” He said, pausing to take in the surprised look that was on my face. “Yes, we did. I must admit, it was quite a nice kiss. Then you passed out.”

I continued to stare at him in disbelief, although I could feel the red creeping up my neck to my face and ears. Stunned into silence, he winked at me and then returned to the kitchen. He began to bring out our breakfast food and serving it up. Once he was done, he sat down and gave me a mischievous grin.

“Eat up!”

I picked up my fork, as if I was in a trance. Someone, like Abe, one of the sexiest men I’ve ever met, even better than my imaginary, fictional, book boyfriends, had kissed me.

And he’d liked it?!

I decided that I needed to get some food in me ASAP. I started to eat and before long, my eyes were rolling back in my head. Jesus, the man knew how to cook too!! Wow….

Silenced by good food, good company, and a semi-embarrassing recollection of the events from the day and eve prior, I just relented. Gave in. It was what it was. And it dawned on me, if I hadn’t gotten arrested, would Abe McKeon be at my dining room table, serving me breakfast after a night of beer-induced shenanigans?!

Screw it! The asshole from the gym could sue me. I would gladly pay him. For the likes of Abe and the turn of events, I was grateful.

Chapter Six

(( 6 ))

ABE

I couldn’t help but get a kick out of how cute she was, being so confused and caught off-guard once her memory and recollection had caught up with her.

Thankfully, I’d managed to get her into her bed without too much resistance. Once tucked in, I’d decided it would make better sense to stay the night. Her sofa was quite comfortable, and despite the late hour we were going to sleep, I’d decided to rise at my usual time to get working on the edit-revision for her book.

So, at eight, my cell’s alarm went off. Luckily, her place was roomy and so I’d slipped into the bathroom to get a quick shower in. While I did, I thought about how carefree, silly and funny she’d been the night before. Intoxicated, certainly – but I’d gotten a whirlwind tour of her personality in less than a day flat.

One that I liked. She was refreshingly real, herself and expressive. I was so used to women pretending to be someone or something they weren’t, all in the hopes of snagging me or at the very least, catching my interest. Being a bear, I could see right through them. It only made them less attractive in the end. Sadly, there were so many who did this nowadays that I just assumed that was their mode.

So, Cassidy was a breath of fresh air. I was a bit off my game, but it didn’t seem to matter. She had no game. She didn’t pretend. She was real. Sweet. Silly. Funny.

I was all about her.

That kiss, despite the inebriated circumstances it rotated around, had been one of the best in my life. Which was rather amusing. I mean, what’s a guy to think when the woman he’s kissing passes out?!

I knew she was a light-weight when it came to alcohol once she’d made her way through the second stout. But, it was her home, her beer and who was I to prevent her from ending a shitty afternoon and evening the way she wanted to end it. I mean, jail can suck, right?

So, I’d just decided that I’d do what any decent guy would do, and adult-babysit until she made her way to sleepy-time.

Her and I locking lips had just been the unexpected, icing on the cake. A rather delicious taste of what the future held for us if I played this right.

Sitting there, eating breakfast, the best I could make, with her recouping from her hangover, I felt that sweetness passing backing and forth between us. She was clutching at and nursing her big mug of coffee as if her very life depended on it.

Deciding not to poke the bear, so to speak, I ate in silence and pulled my
MacBook
over to peruse it while having breakfast.

She ate cautiously at first, but then her hunger caught up with her. I caught her eyeing me judiciously at times, but it was the good kind. The pensive look of someone who’s waking up to the reality of a shared and mutual attraction. I simply waited.

Ultimately, I’d be the complete gentleman. There was only one way to proceed. I’d clean up our meal, tell her I was heading out to finish the edit and that I’d connect with her as soon as I was done. I’d allow for a couple of days to pass. Allow her enough time to wrap her head around the idea of there being mutually shared attraction between us.

For me, this felt natural. I’d come to Boston with a purpose in mind. Circumstance and instinct had both brought me here and kicked it into gear.

There was just the issue of me being a shifter.

A bear shifter, that would need to be revealed. Shared and exposed. I needed to be cautious in how I went about it.

As it was, I’d never gotten used to being the wrecking ball to someone’s reality. Hell, half the time it happened entirely accidentally and most tossed it up to temporary insanity or a strange trip. Blame it on the mushrooms in their burger they’d eaten at lunch or whatever it took for them to be able to push it aside, deep into their mind, and far, far away. Never to be pulled out.

That was how it worked for my kind. We could count on humanity’s inability to grasp or fathom that the supernatural, the paranormal was a reality. One that they were conveniently protected from at a great cost.

With Cassidy, or Cass, as I was already calling her by – I wanted to be upfront, honest, and open straight from the get-go. I didn’t want to have any secrets between the two of us. There were a few things I needed to tell her.

First, that I had been married and divorced.

Second, that once this edit was done, she’d need to fire me since I was romantically interested in her.

Third, that I was a grizzly-bear shifter from the
Rocky Mountains
region and seeking a mate.

The first two would be reasonably easy, the last one though… I needed to figure out a way to go about it. But how?

How indeed…

Needs

(( Song by Collective Soul ))

All around me I see what weakness has made
Too much tomorrow I think I'll take all today
Am I a poison am I a thorn in the side
Am I a picture perfect subject tonight

I don't need nobody
I don't need the weight of words
To find the way
To crash on through

I don't need nobody
I just need to learn the depth
Or doubt of faith to fall into
Here I slumber to awaken my daze
I find convenience in this savior I save
Am I a prison am I a source of dire news
Am I a picture perfect reason for you

I don't need nobody
I don't need the weight of words
To find the way
To crash on through
I don't need nobody

I just need to learn the depth
Or doubt of faith to fall into
In this time of substitute
It's my needs I've answered to (all the while)
And the hopes that I invest
Turns to signals of distress (all the while)

I don't need nobody
I don't need the weight of words
To find the way
To crash on through

I don't need nobody
I just need to learn the depth
Or doubt of faith to fall into

You are all I need
When the water runs deep
You're all I need
Now I cry my soul to sleep
You're all I need

You are all I need
You are all I need
You are all I need

Chapter Seven

(( 7 ))

CASSIDY

I was going crazy. It had been two days since the night that Abe stayed over and baby-sat me through my
get-out-of-jail-and-get-drunk
fest. There had only been a few brief emails between us, him focusing on and confirming small details that mattered to his edit on my shifter book.

Other than that, he’d said nothing. Nada. Zip. Zilch. No mention of our amorous ending to the evening.

Which made me worry.

Was he no longer interested?

All my usual insecurities were rising up and haunting me. That I’d possibly misinterpreted his interest. That he’d had some time to think about it and had thought better of it. Or maybe he’d decided that he didn’t like women who punch men at the gym while swimming, who then call a near-practical stranger to come bail them out of jail for five thousand dollars?

Whatever the case might be, I was a bit of a nervous wreck. The more I thought about him, the more I liked him. And it wasn’t just his bedazzling looks. Nope, he had an amazing personality, a genuine warmth about him. He cared about people. He was a good guy. More than just a guy. There was a graciousness about him that was hard to put my finger to.

A gentleman.

That’s what he was. A gentleman.

And that was refreshing. I’d never wanted for attention from men, despite what common knowledge and the media would have you believe. Nope, I could have gotten laid ten times every night if that was what I wanted or was about. But it wasn’t and like any woman my age, I was seeking something more emotionally satisfying.

A long-term relationship. A deeper connection.

So, exasperated that forty-eight hours could crawl by and feel like weeks, I decided I needed to refocus my energy and my thoughts. I didn’t want to come across as desperate, although sometimes I felt like I was. It’s hard to say these days what a woman feels from one day to the next, when it comes to men, sex and intimacy, right? We’ve all been there.
      

I dragged an old manila accordion file out of my office storage cabinet. I slipped off the thick, wide rubber-band that was holding everything in place and carefully pulled out the contents.

It was my novel. My attempt at the
great American novel
. The one I’d started a long while ago and had been afraid to start working on again.

Pulling it out, feeling the aged paper, looking at the title page, my real name as the author name instead of a pseudonym, and feeling the weight of the three hundred plus pages I’d written.

It pulled me back in time. When I’d been both more naïve and more optimistic. So there I sat, breathing in that sort of ‘off’ but pleasant at the same time, old paper, thinking about what I’d been like at the age I wrote it.

Funny how a handful of years can make such a difference. I felt so much more seasoned, like it was an entirely different person who wrote this novel. Since I’d distanced myself from it, I was eagerly looking forward to reading it. A re-read.

Then doing revisions and rewrites.

It was my hope that my fast-paced writing in the shifter fiction genre had trained me to be a better writer. That my review and editing eye would be able to attack the novel and make it a more appealing and marketable book.

I loved being both the businesswoman and author. An
authorpreneur
, if you will. The two sides of me complimented the other. The business savvy it took to be an author was mind-boggling nowadays. In the end, I was lucky if I simply got to write forty to fifty percent of the time since so much of my other time was tied up in business matters having to do with being a successful author.

I’d learned a lot since graduating a few years ago with my
Business
and
Creative Writing
degrees. I worked hard, and often well over eighty hours a week at all sorts of crazy times of day, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. I felt satisfied and fulfilled in my authorial business endeavors.

So, armed with a rather large mug of tea and my reading glasses, I sat down at my antique desk that was older than I was, and dove in. I pushed all thoughts about Abe aside and went to work.

Hours later, I was in a bit of awe. Boy, did my novel need some serious work! I was humble enough to see it and accept it. I still liked its bones and trusted that I would be able to recraft it into a better book.

My cell rang and not recognizing the number, I wasn’t inclined to answer, but I did. “Hello?”

“Miss Cassidy?” A male voice asked.

“Yes, this is she.”

“I’m Mr. Creighton. I’m Bob Silk’s attorney.”

I froze. Right about now, there should only be one attorney in the world calling me besides my own. “Yes?” I said hesitantly.

“My client would like to discuss the recent assault on his person. Can we arrange a time to meet?”

I paused, remembering what my own attorney had advised me, not to agree to anything whatsoever and not to talk to his attorney. I also knew my attorney had contacted the man from the gym; Bob Silk and his attorney, and informed him that he was representing me.

That begged the question,
why was Bob’s attorney contacting me directly?

“Mr. Creighton, you need to call my attorney and only my attorney. I was informed you have his contact information.”

It was his turn to pause, “Yes, certainly. Bob is hoping to settle this situation quietly, without the need for the courts to participate.”