Bearly Loving: Foxhollow Den #2 (Alaskan Den Men Book 10) (6 page)

Samantha shrugged. “Some people can’t change.”

“Maybe.”

She detected a slight alteration in Carter’s mood, but instead of pushing him into a conversation neither wanted to have, she tugged him toward the promise of a meal.

They entered the kitchen and came to a full stop. Dr. Holland stood in front of the stove, dipping gravy onto a plate with biscuits. He didn’t pause, his tone brisk. “Hurry up you two, before Cook comes back and catches us.”

Samantha didn’t need a second prompting. She dropped Carter’s hand and rushed over to the plates. The breakfast leftovers sat under a heating lamp, and she piled her plate high with bacon, eggs, skillet potatoes, and biscuits. Not one to pass up gravy, she joined Dr. Holland at the stove, and he hefted the gravy on her plate. Carter followed suit, and soon the three of them stole out through the back door to a grassy area with a couple of picnic tables.

Dr. Holland placed his food on the table, and she and Carter took the side opposite of him. For a few minutes they ate in silence, enjoying the homemade breakfast.

Dr. Holland pulled a handkerchief out of his pocket and dragged it across his lips. Samantha braced herself for an onslaught of questions about the sneaking around and handholding.

He cleared his throat, and she placed her fork on her plate. She nudged Carter with an elbow, and he did the same.

“I’ve seen people in mediation fighting over child custody rights, dog ownership, and even the right to use a business name. So a dispute over land doesn’t surprise me. But I’ve done this long enough to know that your families aren’t fighting over land. There’s another issue keeping them from seeing eye-to-eye. Usually it’s hurt feelings over something small. Might be something big. What I do know is that if the two of you want to have a relationship that doesn’t require deception, I’d suggest you get to the bottom of the issue and resolve it.” He nodded at the both of them and grabbed his empty plate. He stood to leave. “I expect both of you to be at the meeting this afternoon.”

Samantha smiled warmly at Dr. Holland, and Carter resumed eating his breakfast.

Her doubt mingled with the silence.

When Carter finished eating, he used his finger to trace a circle around the outside of her hand. “What would you like to do? Go to mediation and dig deeper into these family issues, or go upstairs and let me spend another hour or two on your breasts.”

Want and need replaced the doubt. “Breasts win every time.”

∞∞∞

Carter backed Samantha against the wall inside their room. He pushed her T-shirt up past her stomach. “You have an awful lot of purple shirts.”

She mimicked his movements by pushing up the front of his shirt. “Bobbie makes me promo Total B.S. all the time. Purple is our color.”

“How’d you guys come up with the name Total B.S.?”

Her gaze locked on his, and she shoved him back toward the bed. He sat on the edge and pulled her into his lap. “You’re going to laugh.”

“Probably.” The pulse at her neck throbbed gently, and he placed a kiss on the spot. “But tell me anyway.”

“It’s your fault, really. A couple of years ago, before all this drama, we were sitting around at Grant’s, I think, at one of the bonfires. I mentioned opening a donut shop someday, and you cut in, saying donuts would never sell in Alaska. I thought it was total bullshit. And now we have Total B.S.”

“I really can be an asshole.”

Her laughter had a trigger effect, and soon he joined in.

“I know why you tease, why you act aloof,” she said.

“I just said why. Asshole.”

“Uh-uh. It’s because it keeps everyone at a distance.” Her voice whispered across his cheek.

A long strand of hair escaped her bun and fell across her forehead. He pushed the strand behind her ear. He liked sharing these fun times with her, but he wasn’t so sure he liked her peering into his soul. Bears roamed. Shifters roamed. Hell, he could name fifty shifters he’d met who loved to roam.

“Hey. I’m okay with not thinking about what comes next,” she said.

“Are you really?”

“Right now, right in this moment, I’m okay just being with you.” Her lips met his in a flurry and stopped any further conversation.

He didn’t want to think. He wanted to have her. They stood and rushed to take off their clothes. First to remove all of his, he grabbed her and tossed her onto the middle of the bed before she could discard her panties.

She hooked a thumb in the edges and pushed them off her hips to her thighs. He caught them with his thumbs at her thighs and brought them the rest of the way down past her feet and tossed them to the floor.

He climbed on the bed and crawled between her open legs with the intention of spending quality time with her breasts. His cock was already hard from when she’d sat in his lap.

She pressed an arm across her chest. “No way. I want it fast, and I want it now. You inside me. Now.”

He tested her wetness with a finger and found her more than ready. Not getting a chance to lick her nipples made him want to argue, but he thought better of it. He’d take it slow next time. And then the time after that.

She grasped at his shoulders and wrapped her legs around his waist. He entered her with a quick thrust and kept thrusting and pushing and grunting against her, each moan escaping from her lips to match his movements.

Her nails dug into his back, and he felt her sex pulse around him, announcing her orgasm. He came right after, his legs shaking, his breaths in pants. He didn’t roll off but instead pulled her into a tight embrace. Never wanting to let her go.

∞∞∞

Samantha woke from her mid-morning, after-sex nap to a pattern of chimes. She rolled over and snatched the cell phone off the night stand. The heavy drapes blocked all sunlight, so she clicked to phone to check the time. Lifting it up to her face, she realized that she and Carter had the same phones with the same generic text alert. Intending to put it back, she couldn’t help but notice Carter didn’t use the hide feature for his texts. The message from Ray started off
I need an update
…

She tilted her head to listen for Carter’s movements, guessing he’d gone down to grab coffee or a snack. Unable to kill the curiosity the preview caused, she tapped the screen for the full text.

Is operation stick it to her a go?

Operation. Stick. It. To. Her.

No, no, no. The five words hit her harder than any poacher’s bullet ever could. Was it possible? He’d meant to seduce her all along? Stripping down in the woods. Saying he believed her about not having sex with Gregor. He’d known exactly which buttons to push, and this confirmed it. All the “no promises” talk he’d somehow convinced her to repeat back to him. At what point did he plan to ask her to split the land? After the next bedroom romp?

And to think, she’d almost given up making his family pay for the easement access. Hell, she’d almost given up something more precious than an easement. She’d almost given him her heart.

A growl rumbled low in her chest and burned its way up her throat.
Those dirty, effing Wrights
. She should’ve known he’d never play fair. This was going too far. He’d made her want to fall in love, even in spite of their no-promises agreement.

Once again she’d been caught up in a web of deceit thanks to a Wright.

Carter pushed through the door, juggling two paper cups whose aroma teased with a delicious brew of coffee. A toothpick dangled from between his lips.

She threw the cell phone, hitting him in the chest. It bounced off, barely fazing him, and landed at his feet.

“You bastard,” she said, wrapping herself in the sheet and tucking it between her breasts.

His eyebrows drew together. “What do you mean?”

“This was all about winning.” Anger fueled her to pack her duffle bag and snatch on her clothes. She’d have to leave her soap and shampoo behind, which were weird things to think about when faced with the urge to slap someone. Every second spent in the room with him grated on her ability to reason. She needed to get out. “I can’t believe how stupid I am.”

Carter set the cups down on the bedside table. He scooped up his phone and tapped the screen. He took the toothpick out of his mouth. “You read my messages?”

“Please. Please act like
that’s
the transgression here.” Her screechy tone vexed her nerves further, and it killed her that she could sound so pathetic.

He held up the phone, but he kept his gaze trained on the floor. “This isn’t what it looks like.”

“You can’t even say that with true conviction. It’s exactly what it looks like.”

“This was before our time out in the woods. We were both pulling pranks, and Ray and I were tossing ideas back and forth. That’s all this is.”

“There is a big difference between me making you strut around naked in the parking lot and you plotting with your brother to convince me to get in bed with you.”

His nostrils flared. “It didn’t take too much convincing.”

Samantha’s pride ached, but Carter’s words rang true. She needed to take responsibility for her actions.
All
her actions and her hidden expectations. She dropped to the edge of the bed. Men complicated things right before they ruined everything. Except in this case, the sentiment didn’t ring true. She was just as culpable. “You’re right. We’ve been acting like a couple of immature jerks since we arrived. The pranks and then the sneaking around. I’ll let Dr. Holland know this mediation agreement is never going to happen. No matter the outcome, our parents need to figure this out.”

Carter slipped his phone in his back pocket. “Great. We’ll go down and see him together.”

They descended the stairs in quiet and walked past Lisa to Dr. Holland’s office. He sat behind his desk and scribbled notes in a file folder. “House rule number seven, don’t interrupt me while I’m working in my office.”

Samantha didn’t back down from his authoritative tone. “We’re leaving.”

He looked up. “Is that so? Without a resolution?”

“Yes,” she said.

Carter sighed and folded his arms under his chest. “No.”

“What do you mean?” Dr. Holland asked.

Carter didn’t look at her. “The Wrights will pay for the easement. I’ll agree to whatever paperwork the Taylors originally proposed and have my parents sign.”

“I’ll need at least one of you to stick around and sign the mediation agreement later this afternoon after Lisa has a chance to finish typing it up.”

Carter turned to her and gestured to the door. “You can leave. I’ll handle it from here.”

“What’s the catch?” she asked.

“No catch. You got what you came here for.”

“Great. And it’s not like you’re ever around Foxhollow enough for this to be an awkward thing between us. Good luck on whatever rigging or crabbing or rescue adventure you take on next.”

“Goodbye, Samantha.”

“At least I get a goodbye this time.” She offered him a small smile and slung the duffle bag strap over her shoulder. The trouble with shifters, other than occasionally being shot at or the fleas and ticks, was the urge to find a forever mate. That one person to lean on and start a family with. She’d been caught up in those shifter urges, and that explained why she’d allowed herself to be taken in by Carter’s big brown eyes. It was her fault she didn’t see the bigger picture. Dr. Holland was wrong. There weren’t any deeper issues at play here. They’d each had a mission to end the land feud, and they’d each played the game.

She walked out the front double doors of the lodge, and her shoulders sagged. Carter was a nomad, she’d known that as long as she’d known his family. This thing between them never would’ve worked even if the land feud hadn’t been in the way. It didn’t matter if things ended on a sour note or not. No matter what, they were always meant to end. She needed to appreciate the win and forget the fail.

They simply didn’t want the same things. And now she had no idea what she wanted. No, that wasn’t true. She’d wanted him to ask her not to leave.

Carter pushed through the doors of his family’s hardware store. His brother Ray greeted him with a grunt from behind the front counter where he built a house from a deck of playing cards. His twin didn’t look at him and started on a fourth level. “Didn’t expect you back in town so soon after failing the family at mediation.”

“Don’t be an ass.” Carter poked one of the cards, and the entire card house tumbled to the counter. “We didn’t need that land anyway. Mom and Dad will forgive me. Eventually. Where are they?”

“Ugh, man. I spent an hour on that.” He gathered the cards and started at level one again. “Down in Fairbanks again, trying that new seafood place. Why? Did you give away more of our land?”

One week had passed since he’d let Samantha walk out the door. He’d thought long and hard about Dr. Holland’s words, and he’d decided the time had come to get to the root of the family feud and put it to rest. “Shut up about the land. I was hoping they’d be here for the announcement.”

“What announcement?”

“Call Grant, and tell him to meet me in front of the donut shop in fifteen minutes.” Carter walked down one of the aisles and grabbed some supplies. “Put this rope and this tape on my tab, okay?”

“What do you need those for?” he asked.

“In fifteen minutes, come over to the donut shop, and you’ll see.”

Carter walked through the back and signaled to his youngest brothers from the door. They hooted and high-fived each other before jumping in Carter’s truck. Coordinating the biggest apology Foxhollow’d ever seen was the easy part. Convincing Samantha to give him another chance was going to take some serious charm. And commitment. The whole “bears don’t do commitment” argument flooded his mind again, but he pushed it aside. He wanted Samantha. She challenged him, and he wanted that challenge to be a part of his life. That meant making a commitment. He’d show her that some people can change.

He’d compromise for her, and he hoped she’d be willing to do the same for him.