MC BIKER ROMANCE: Bad Boy Romance: BETRAYED: (New Adult Motorcycle Club Navy SEAL Romance) (Contemporary Military Romance Thriller) (103 page)

The Bear Minimum

The Bear Minimum: Chapter 1

Candy Voss wasn't the kind of girl you could ignore. Her stylish blond hair never had a strand out of place, her manicured nails and red lips were always perfectly applied. She was aloof but she was nice underneath the cold exterior. No one really got a chance to know her that well, her father made sure of that.

She came from money. Old money. Her father was a politician and had more money than she knew what to do with, although she didn't spend as much as people thought she did. She'd driven the same car since he got it for her birthday when she turned eighteen. At twenty-four, her father wanted her to marry the son of one of his biggest contributors - a political match that would look good for her father. Being a daddy's girl, she was willing to go along with it to make her father happy. She didn't have many boyfriends, having security guards and the threat of no privacy pretty much scared off most men her own age.

The ones interested in her were people in her father's circle, who were used to this lifestyle. The thing is, she wanted peace and quiet and a less stressful life, but when you're the daughter of a famous politician, you didn't get a lot of choices.

Only meeting Denver Fredrickson a few times, she was willing to marry the man's son. She'd only met him once at the last party her father threw and he'd been charming and handsome, and his family was in the billionaire range. She'd never want for anything, but she had some reservations about the whole thing. Something about Daniel Fredrickson had set off her warning bells, but she couldn't quite place it. When she'd told her father, he'd accused her of just having cold feet and he'd pressured her until she'd given in.

Tonight, she was driving her cherry red jeep out to the woods to the lookout to clear her head. Normally teenagers came out here to make out and have sex, but Candy had always come alone.

Henry Voss rarely let his daughter go anywhere without supervision, but every now and then she could convince him to let her go to the woods and just sit and look at the stars. She'd come out here in her heels and designer jeans and fantasize about what it would be like to live a simpler life. The kind where she could just throw her hair in a pony tail and walk around her house in sweats and sneakers without her father's people seeing her.

It had rained a few days ago, and when she hit the outlook, her tires got stuck in the mud. She couldn't get her jeep out after driving to reverse or even the four-wheel drive. She took out her cell phone and sighed. No cell reception here, she'd have to walk back to the main road to call Triple A. Her father would kill her. She wondered if she could do it without him finding out.

She wasn’t afraid as she walked down the dark path. The heels and dirt and gravel made it hard to walk, but she wasn't a wimp, even if she might appear to be on the surface. She might have been born with a silver spoon in her mouth but it wasn't the kind of girl she'd wanted to be. She had learned to change a tire and her oil, and she could fix basic things around the house. She'd even fixed leaky faucets in their bathrooms without telling her father, simply to prove to herself she could.

Her father never would have allowed her to have an image of anything but a quiet, demure socialite who would marry for his political career. Maybe that was why she was so against marrying Danny. She would do it to make her father happy, but as she walked down the muddy path, she wondered if her happiness would ever matter to anyone.

Tripping, she almost fell face first in the mud. She took off her shoes to find a broken heel. Grunting in frustration, she checked her cell signal again and still had no bars. Shoeless, she walked feeling the sharp sting of rocks and other things in the dirt cutting up her feet.

Finally giving up, she found a stump to sit on to wait until someone found her. She didn't think it would be that long, it was a Friday night. Someone would have to come out this way eventually. Wrapping her jacket around her tighter, she realized that when she wasn't moving the chill of the night air sunk into her bones.

An hour later, shivering and feeling like her teeth where going to chatter out of her head, she gave up on sitting there and decided to continue walking. It was only a few miles but it was now pitch black. Walking down the road, she eventually saw a path leading into the woods. She saw a light shining between the trees and decided maybe they'd have a phone there she could use. Heat would be nice too.

Walking towards the house it was further away than it looked and her feet were raw and bloody by the time she reached it. Knocking on the door she waited and heard footsteps, sighing in relief when the door started to open. She took one look at the man in the doorway and all rational thought flew out of her head.

The man that stood there was a big bear of a man. He stood well over six feet tall and had a bushy beard. He was wearing the green uniform of the state park rangers and looked surprised to see her standing there. He had the grayest eyes she'd ever seen and his brown curly hair looked like a soft mop on the top of his head. She wanted to curl her fingers through it and see if it was as soft as it looked.

"Candy." She said and just stared at him.

"Is it Halloween and I forgot about it?" He blinked at her and stood back to let her in.

Letting out a small laugh she realized she didn't say a whole sentence. "No, my name is Candy, I'm sorry. My jeep got stuck in the mud; I was walking down to the main road and saw the lights through the trees. Do you have a phone I could use?"

"Sure, I could also try to get you unstuck from the mud, from past experience Triple A doesn't like coming up here, and their big trucks get stuck. I have a few boards and some rope and chain that usually does the trick to get you out of the mud here. When it's been raining like this it can be impossible for them to get up here." He cocked his head side-ways and his expression softened when he saw how badly her feet were injured. Come sit down on the couch here and let me tend to your feet, and we can talk about your car or truck."

"It's a jeep, but the back wheels just got stuck and I couldn't get it out." Candy told him and felt like an idiot. She knew that mud and tires in the wilderness weren't a good match. It was a rookie mistake. "Are you the park ranger here?"

"One of them. I'm actually wildlife. I keep poachers out and keep track of all the local wolf and bears they've tagged. I have monitoring equipment in the back." He told her as he pulled out a first aid kit and set it down on the coffee table and got a bucket of water to wash her feet and see how badly they were damaged. "What happened to your shoes?"

"I came out in heels. I wasn't expecting to walk. I know, it was dumb. I was just trying to get away from my family for a few hours. I like to come out here and look at the night sky. It's the only place that feels safe and peaceful to me." She told him and shrugged. She helped him wash off her feet and then winced when he poured antibiotic cleaner on her feet to disinfect them.

"You look familiar," He commented as he finished bandaging up her feet and then stood back to look at her for a moment before he started to put his first aid supplies away. "Do I know you?"

"Candy Voss, Henry Voss's daughter. The politician." Candy murmured, feeling embarrassed. His expression changed for a moment, it was just a flash but it looked like anger. His body language was relaxed after he finished putting the supplies away.

"The storm knocked out my land line, I can get your car out when there's light, or I can drive you home now. Your choice." He told her and went to grab his truck keys.

"I'd rather not return home without my car, I can justify staying out all night a lot easier than a strange man bringing me home without my car." Candy stared at him and then stood up and almost fell down. Once she'd been off her feet for a while she hadn't realized how badly they hurt. Crying out she fell forward and grabbed his arm to keep from face planting on his hardwood floors.

"Are you alright?" He blinked at her as he grabbed her to keep her upright.

"Nothing sitting back down won't fix. Apparently my feet hurt more than I thought they did." She said wincing. She looked up into his face and her lips parted, he was close enough she could smell him. He smelled like pine cones and evergreens. It was an intoxicating smell to her compared to the overly perfumed people she was used to being around. This is what a man should smell like. Earthy and strong, capable. He didn't need to preen like a peacock to get attention and feel confident in his own abilities.

Before she knew what she was doing, she leaned forward and kissed him. The minute her lips touched his, he stiffened and looked shocked. Kissing her back, his hand came up to hold onto her head and his tongue plunged into her mouth. Moaning, she deepened the kiss and leaned against his rock-hard body to support herself and her aching feet.

A moment later she pulled away from him and cleared her throat. "Thank you for that. I mean, thank you for fixing my feet. I mean, I don't usually go around kissing total strangers but... I don't know, sorry."

Feeling completely stupid, she hobbled back over to the couch and sat down. He probably thought she was a complete hussy now. It was the most erotic kiss she'd ever experienced and it had happened out of the blue. She didn't know what prompted her to kiss him, but the way he'd kissed her back was like a man starved for a steak. It had stirred her in ways she'd never experienced before. She'd had a couple of boyfriends in college that had gotten her to go to bed, but nothing had as much chemistry or spark as that single kiss.

Blinking at the ground, she tried to process what she was feeling. She was technically engaged to someone else, why had she kissed him? She knew the safest thing she could do for everyone was get away from him as fast as possible.

A large alarm went off in the back room and he had looked like he was about to talk to her, but instead his attention snapped to the door.

"I need to take care of this. Kitchen's off to the right, bathroom is that door off the kitchen. I'll be back soon. You rest, eat and drink whatever you want." He told her and took off into the backroom to deal with the alarm.

Candy sat there on the couch, unsure of everything in her life, and a simple kiss made it so much worse. She realized she wanted whatever that passion or spark was that she'd felt with this man was the kind she wanted in her marriage. Danny had kissed her once and it hadn't felt anything but cold and wet. Nothing like this.

Sighing in defeat, she wondered if she could go through a marriage to a man she barely knew and wasn't really attracted too. He just wasn't her type physically, or emotionally. Burying her hands in her face she wondered if she could stand up to her father and tell him the truth.

Chapter 2

Sneaking back to the room after he'd left, she saw all the cameras and TV's in the backroom. There were monitors everywhere, sensors, and other equipment lining the room top to bottom. It looked like some weird room out of a spy movie. Candy felt a little guilty snooping, but she didn't know anything about the man who's house she was in.

What she saw, however, was not what she was expecting. Shocked completely by what was on the cameras, she saw him strip his clothes off and couldn't take her eyes off the screen. Wondering why he was taking his clothes off, she noticed the way his waist tapered to his hips and he had strong legs with muscles that made him look like he did a lot of running.

What happened next would have traumatized most people, but Candy was enthralled. He shifted, the white light that encircled him didn't last long but when it flashed and disappeared, standing there was a gigantic black bear who was sniffing at the trees.

So, this was his secret. He was an animal shifter. Candy had a particular interest in the paranormal and had since she was a kid. It was a secret that no one knew about her, not even her father. She swore as a kid she'd seen a boy shift into a wolf once, and had never been able to shake the feeling that shifters were real. Here was her proof. What was she going to do about it?

Looking around the room, she saw his diplomas on the wall and finally caught his name. Hoss Blackburn. Somehow, that suited him. She watched him on the monitors for a while longer, and saw him find a wolf that was trapped in a metal trap, using his paws, he freed the wolf. It snarled at him, but limped off when it was freed. With his strength of the bear, he ripped the trap off the ground and broke it in half. He left it in pieces by the tree and then sniffed the ground. He walked around and random cameras would come on and pick up his movements on the monitors. Candy watched with fascination, but when she saw him run back to his clothes and shift back to human, she quickly left the room and shut the door behind her.

She walked into the kitchen and got some water and drank it, trying to understand what she'd just seen. It should have traumatized her, she should have run out of here screaming in the other direction, but all she could think about was seducing him and seeing if her feelings for him were real.

When he came back into the house he paused and looked at her drinking water by the sink. "Sorry, poachers caught a tagged wolf. I'll have to track it down tomorrow to check on it and see if I need to tranq it and get the vet out here to fix it."

"Did you catch the poachers?" Candy asked, knowing that he hadn't, but she didn't want him to know she'd seen him shift.

"No, but I think I will know them the next time they come into my park." He growled low in his throat as he said it and Candy had an eerie chill go up her spine. This was a man you didn't want to cross.

"Why were you in my camera room?" He asked her and leaned against the doorway of the kitchen and watched her reaction. Candy froze with the cup midair towards her mouth.

"What?" She whispered and gulped.

He raised a brow in her direction. "Let's start over, my name is Hoss, you already told me you were Candy. Now, Candy, tell me why you snooped in my office."

"I... I just wanted to see what the alarms and cameras were. I meant no harm." Candy told him and set the glass down. She walked over to him and looked up at him facing her fears. This man could snap her neck in a single motion if he wanted too. If he was going to harm her, she wouldn't be able to get away from him, so instead she faced him head on.

"I'm guessing the cameras weren't the only thing you saw." He whispered softly and looked down at her.

Candy nodded at him and then before she could stop herself she put a hand against his chest and looked up at him, her eyes fascinated with his features.

"You don't scare me." She told him, though that wasn't entirely true. He did scare her, but in a good way. When she stood next to him, she felt safe, protected, as if he'd be able to keep all the bad guys away. She snorted, she had body guards for that if she needed it, yet with him she felt like she didn't need guns to keep her safe. Just him.

"I bite." He told her and watched her reaction. When her eyes widened with shock and then arousal, his nostrils flared and he could smell it. Her musky scent. He swallowed hard and shut his eyes. Whatever was going on between the two of them needed to stop before he did something he regretted.

Like falling for a politician’s daughter. A man like him wasn't the kind that daddy would approve of dating his only daughter. Yet, he couldn't stop himself. He reached out and touched her hair. The strands of hair rolled between his fingers smoothly and he lowered his head and kissed her.

She knew who and what he really was and was still standing here in front of him and when their lips touched, she melted against him and he brought his arms around her to hold her tight. Unable to resist her, he let his lips part hers and thrust his tongue between hers to let the age old dance of seduction begin.

Tugging at the buttons on his shirt and jacket, she pulled the first few buttons apart. Putting her hand inside his shirt she touched his skin. He had thick hair on his chest and she tangled her fingers in his chest hair and tugged slightly.

Hoss hissed in a breath and felt himself grow uncomfortably hard in his pants. Feeling a niggle that he was taking advantage of her, he finally broke the kiss and took a step back.

"I should get you home." He said gruffly. "Your father will kill me."

"I'm a grown woman Hoss, let me decide what I want." Candy said pushing herself closer to kiss him again. She didn't want to give him a chance to change his mind. She wanted him.

"Candy, you're tempting, believe me, but I don't want to do anything you'll regret in the morning." Hoss told her and put his hands on her shoulders, intending to push her away.

Candy grabbed his hands and put them on her breasts, before he could react she pressed against him and kissed him, wrapping her arms around his neck. She wouldn't let him reject her. She could tell he wanted her, she wanted him, especially now that she'd seen proof he was a shifter. It wasn't because he was a shifter, she'd wanted him since first laying eyes on him. But knowing he was real, it made it that much sweeter for her.

"Hoss, I'm a big girl, let me make my own decisions, okay?"

“It’s not that I don’t respect that you’re a grown woman Candy, it’s that I don’t want to get on your father’s bad side. He’s already tried to shut down a lot of our funding for the local parks, and if I piss him off by getting involved with you, it could make it worse.” Hoss told her the truth.

“I won’t let my father do that. Have a little faith that not all of us are evil people.” Candy said, and reached out to touch him. “Look at me Hoss, I’m not afraid to stand up to my father. I’m also not afraid to go after what I want, and what I want is you.”

“You are playing with fire Candy,” He told her as she continued to touch him.

Looking up at him, Candy flashed a big smile. “I like it hot.”

Hoss shut his eyes for a moment and took a deep breath. This girl was nothing but trouble and he found her irresistible. He’d always had a sweet tooth.