Bear to the End (Bear Claw Security Book 5) (6 page)

T
he next day
, Mark could hardly focus on the financial papers he was supposed to be looking over. He’d been with his mate. His
mate
.

Sure, it had been with protection, and sure, they had a long road ahead of them before things could work out. But still.

It was amazing.

Every time he looked over at her, he saw her flush with embarrassment, give him a shy smile, and push her hair back. He loved their silent flirting.

But he tried to focus on the task at hand. His phone buzzed, and he ignored it. He wasn’t taking any more phone calls while they were working together.

He set the phone atop his desk and looked at the text.

How’s it going?
It was Bronson.

He picked up his phone and unlocked it.
Fine.

When are you going to tell her?

He shoved the phone in a drawer as the bell above the door dinged. A headache pulsed at his temples as he thought about the moment he would have to tell her he’d lied. He hated that.

But he couldn’t hate the results so far. His mate was falling for him, and she was safe. That was all that mattered.

He’d pay the price for the rest later. He knew he wasn’t a bad person or a liar in general. He’d just have to win her trust again. But he knew from how much she’d been hurt, that wouldn’t be easy.

He drummed his fingers on the desk as a woman entered the office.

Char stood up to work with her, and they moved into a side office to talk. The woman was well dressed and looked familiar somehow. He wracked his brain as he kept his eyes planted firmly on the glass door where the women were talking.

Then he remembered. She was the wife of one of his father’s former business partners. They still ran in some of the same circles. His stomach twisted as he thought about how many of the men in his social circle might be able to use their power to hide what they were doing.

He cracked his knuckles and tried to look like he was working on papers as Char finally came out from the office. She introduced the woman to Leslie, and they moved into another room together.

Char walked over to his desk and leaned on it with a sigh. He was happy to see she was wearing her jacket a little more open today. He hoped she felt even a little bit more confident after their night together.

“I hate those,” she said. “The cases where the man uses money as a weapon.”

He stayed silent, not thinking he could say anything he knew about the woman for the sake of her privacy.

Char’s wide hips were tantalizingly close to his lap, and he longed to pull her down onto it and hold her, but he knew it wasn’t the time or place.

It’s always the time and place
, his stupid bear growled.

He told it to shut up.

“How do they use money as a weapon?” he asked.

Her gaze went dark and cloudy, and she folded her arms tighter over herself. “They’re rich guys with great lawyers who know how to lock up their wife’s assets and make sure they can’t even access enough to rent a car.” She sighed.

He nodded.

“So I guess no case is really worse than another. I just hate it all.”

He nodded and reached up to touch her cheek. She looked down at him, surprised, and he pulled back his hand.

“Last night was amazing,” he said.

She looked embarrassed and turned her attention to his papers. “So what are you figuring out about our business?”

He picked up the stack quickly so she couldn’t see the notes he’d written. Truthfully, the business was in terrible shape. They could have the rent raised on them at any time, and they weren’t even close to being caught up on it anyway.

She was right. It was unfair that men with money could throw it all away trying to make a woman’s life hard while the women here barely had the money to do good things for the world.

He intended to do something about that as soon as it was safe to do so without being discovered.

Still, he found himself wondering what her husband was like. They hadn’t seen hide or hair of him, and she seemed to be more relaxed about the situation. Something had scared her, which had made her hire him. But that something didn’t seem to have shown up again.

Maybe he was just planning his next move. He made a mental note to ask Char again about her husband, even though she seemed about as eager to talk about that as he was to talk about his own history, which he had to fake.

“And last night was good,” she murmured against his ear, turning him on. “More than good. Great.”

He laughed. “I’m glad.” He set aside the papers. “Anyway, things are looking fine here.” Well, it wasn’t much of a lie because they
would
be looking fine as soon as he fixed them. No way women here should suffer for lack of money when he had plenty of it and had just found the perfect cause for it.

“Are you thinking something sneaky?” she asked, tilting her head at him and sending her curls cascading over her shoulder.

“No,” he said innocently.

“Sometimes you just get this look like you’re pleased with yourself.”

“Why shouldn’t I be pleased with myself?” he asked. “I just made love to the most beautiful woman in the world.”

She clapped a hand over his mouth and looked around. “Not so loud.”

He licked her hand, and she gasped and pulled back but giggled.

“Naughty,” she said.

“Always,” he replied.

She grinned and pulled a chair next to him and sat. “It’s a slow day. I’m thinking of taking the afternoon off.”

“That sounds like a good idea. I think Connie and Leslie can handle it.” He folded his arms. “When’s the last time you took time off?”

She pursed her lips. “You know, I can’t even remember. I’m not sure I have ever since I’ve been here.”

“Well, if you want to take the day off, there are a ton of places I’d love to take you.”

Her grin widened, and then she hesitated and bit her lip. “I… I don’t know. I haven’t been out a lot.”

“You’re worried about
him
.”

She nodded.

“He hasn’t been around since I’ve been here, right?”

She nodded again. “I don’t know if I even saw him the first time. It was just a gut instinct, and I freaked out.”

“He’s not going to touch you while I’m with you,” he said.

“What about when you aren’t with me?” she asked.

I’m always going to be with you
, he wanted to say. But he held his tongue, because that could end up easily sounding creepy. “Don’t worry, Char. I’m not going to let anything happen to you.”

She tilted her head adorably. “You know, sometimes you make me believe you.”

He laughed and stood, pulling her against him and wrapping an arm around her waist so he could place a kiss on top of her head. Then he let her go. “You can believe in me, Char. I promise.”

She blinked at him and then nodded. “I’m going to go tell Leslie I’m taking off. I think I
would
like to go out. Do some things I haven’t allowed myself to do.”

“Good,” he said with a wink. “I’ll see you in a moment.”

She nearly tripped walking away from him while trying to look back at him and then steadied herself on a desk, making him grin.

He took advantage of the time she was talking to Leslie and Connie to take out his phone and fire off a few quick texts to the man who was once his father’s partner and also apparently abusing his wife.

He just made it clear that he could bankrupt him with records he had and that if he didn’t immediately free up his wife’s assets and leave her the fuck alone, Mark would level him.

Then he put his phone back in his pocket and looked innocently over at Char.

With that taken care of, he set his mind to thinking of the best possible places to take his mate.

C
har looked
out the window as they drove into town. It’d been a while since she’d gone out. She didn’t know many people here due to just going straight home after work to read or watch TV for the past few years.

They turned into a city block, and he made a couple lefts and then pulled up in front of a fancy restaurant. She gaped at it as he came around the door to open it.

“Um,” she said, looking up at the sign and the fancy writing on the outside specials menu.

He looked where she was looking, did a double take, scratched his head, and then laughed. “No, I was thinking that wouldn’t be your style. I was thinking we’d go over there.” He pointed across the street to a burger bar that looked like it had pool tables.

She felt the tension melt out of her as she looked at the more inviting atmosphere.

He held out an arm, and she put a hand through it before he walked her across the street to the bar.

It was quiet since it was just after the lunchtime rush. The decor was fun inside and well lit considering it was a bar, and there were pool tables and dartboards scattered around.

When the waitress came to take their orders, they both got classic burgers with fries and then talked as they waited.

She realized despite being incredibly connected with him and really enjoying his company, she knew barely anything about him.

“Tell me more about you,” she said, stirring her straw around in her drink.

His face went visibly paler, which made her suspicious.

“What?” she asked. “Why don’t you like to talk about yourself? You’ve had a really interesting life.”

“Not as interesting as you’d think,” he said, dodging it. He waved down the waitress to change his order slightly, though she got the feeling he was doing it just to change the subject. When he turned back to her, she rested her hands on her palms and glared at him.

“Why do I feel like you’re hiding something?” she asked.

“I feel the same about you,” he said. “Sometimes it doesn’t feel like you’re telling me the full story.”

She put up her hands. “Fair enough.” She looked over at the pool tables. She’d played pool with her dad a lot when she was younger. “Since neither of us wants to talk about ourselves, how about we make it fun?”

He raised a blond eyebrow. “Yeah?”

She stood and walked to the nearest pool table. She grabbed a rack, and an employee brought balls over. She set them up on the table and gave him a playful grin.

“Whoever makes a shot gets to ask a question,” she said.

He shook his head. “That’s silly. I can already tell you’re a pro.”

“Yup,” she said. “Watch out.”

“That’s hardly fair,” he said, nevertheless standing with a smile to come over to her.

She liked how he tended to gravitate toward her, but it never felt threatening or weird. Just right. Everything was right since she’d hired him.

“All right, I’ll agree as long as it’s not a question about my family or my military background.”

She pouted. “But those are the interesting ones.”

He frowned. “So I’m only interesting for my past and my background? Besides, military stuff is classified.”

She nodded. “Fine, then. No questions about my ex.”

He sighed. “I guess that’s fair. You go first. I’ll break.” He did, and the balls didn’t move very far apart. She laughed. It was going to be easy to win this one.

She sank a ball off a bumper, and he groaned. “All right,” she said. “Favorite thing to eat?”

“Anything you cook,” he replied quickly.

“Ugh,” she said, folding her arms. “So not an answer.”

He laughed. “All right. Spaghetti. Take note.”

She rolled her eyes. “I never said I’m cooking for you, dude.”

He laughed and took a shot. And scratched on the ball. He scowled.

“That should count for negative, but I guess you don’t get a question.” She took the white ball from the pocket and sank another shot. “All right, my turn again. How many girls have you dated?”

“That’s dirty pool,” he said. “Damn.”

“How many?” she asked, looking up at him.

He cocked a hip. He looked massive in here with the low ceilings. She was enjoying being out with him, but she also couldn’t wait to get back home. Get him all to herself. She saw how the waitresses eyed him, and she didn’t much like it.

Mate
, her mind said.

She told it go away.

There was too much going on to even consider that now.

“None,” he said, surprising her. She just gaped at him. He took an extremely easy shot and sank a ball. He pumped a fist in the air and grinned at her. It was fun seeing a guy who was usually so formal letting loose. “My turn. How about you? How many hearts have you broken?”

She frowned. “I guess that sort of violates the ex rule. But sort of not. Two.”

He shrugged. “Not bad.”

“Why none for you?” she asked, unsure why such a handsome guy would be single so long.

“You have to sink a ball first,” he said.

She sank two. “Okay. Now I get two questions. Why haven’t you dated, and also, why me?”

He scrunched up his nose adorably. “Wow, tough. You hustler, you.”

She shrugged.

“I guess I’ve just been really busy with business, and the right girl hasn’t come along. As to why you, well, I guess the right girl finally came along.”

She rolled her eyes. “So smooth. How do I know you’re not just trying to sweep a girl off her feet?”

He smirked, and his blue eyes twinkled in the low light. “Of course I’m trying to sweep you off your feet.”

And it feels great
, she thought.

“All right,” he said. “How about higher stakes? We’ll play a brand new game, and whoever wins gets to choose their prize.”

“No,” she said, waving a hand. “The only fair way is to decide prizes in advance.”

“Fair enough,” he said. “I want a kiss. As long as I want.”

She wrinkled her nose. “I would have asked for the same thing. But instead, I want a back rub.”

He nodded. “Fair enough.” He cocked his head and folded buff arms over his chest. She loved that he was getting more comfortable with her. “Only thing is now I don’t know whether to win or lose. Both sound tantalizing.”

She laughed as she gathered and racked the balls. “Something tells me you don’t have much choice in the matter.”

His eyes twinkled. He was so handsome he nearly made her knees buckle when he smiled at her. “You’d be surprised.”

“I’ll break this time,” she said, sticking out her tongue. “Yours was pathetic.”

He put up his hands in surrender. “Whatever you like. But remember, the one who goes first gets the advantage.”

“In this case, I’ll take my chances,” she said with an eye roll. She did an awesome break, and then he walked to the table, eyeing the balls with a sharp gaze she hadn’t seen before.

Shit, he was totally lining up angles.

She’d been hustled.

He saw her look and grinned as he sank the first ball and then the next. “You see, I’ve always liked pool because it’s all about the angles.” His grin deepened. “And the
stroke
.” He made a smooth motion with his cue that sent another ball in, and the play of muscles in his arms under his blue tee nearly made her collapse.

If she’d known there was a man on this earth that could have this effect on her, she never would have even looked at Clay.

“What are you thinking?” he asked smoothly as he finished the table.

She folded her arms over the pool cue and scowled at him. “I’m thinking I just got hustled.”

“The stakes were high,” he said, shrugging and putting up his hands. He whistled as he took her cue, gave her a kiss on the forehead, and put away all the equipment. She didn’t even flinch when he came close anymore. It just felt natural.

She put her arm through his as he walked to the waitress and told her to pack their stuff to go and gave her a generous tip.

“Now home to claim my prize,” he said. “Did you have a fun time?”

She felt herself blush. “Maybe. Why did you get our stuff to go?”

He grinned. “I could tell I was having quite an effect on you. It’s empty now, but I want to be the only one to see that. I don’t want anyone else to walk in and see you looking at me like you want to ravish me.”

She was speechless for a moment because she couldn’t really argue. All she wanted was to go home and spend the day rolling around in bed with him. She hadn’t done anything like that maybe ever, and now was the perfect time.

It was just nice feeling safe.

“Do you forgive me for hustling you?” he asked, leading her out to his truck with his arm around her.

She nodded. “I suppose so. I guess you’ll have to make it up to me at home.”

He laughed and opened the truck door to help lift her in. “I will. I’ll even give you that back rub,” he said. “Maybe more if you’re lucky.” He wiggled his eyebrows.

She laughed. “And maybe you’ll get more than just a kiss.”

His eyes widened, and he got in on his side and revved the engine. “Lucky day. Hopefully, there isn’t traffic.”