Bearliest Catch (14 page)

Drew didn’t like that, but he understood. “I
just wish I could take the risk away completely, but nobody’s
figured out how to kill that thing yet.” He wanted to cuss, but
refrained considering the ladies on board. “Or banish it. The intel
Big John’s received so far says it can’t be killed, only
banished.”

“Well…” her tone was almost philosophical,
“…someone figured it out before, right? I mean, the thing was
banished once before, during the last battles with the Destroyer.
So we know it’s do-able. We just need to find the right weapon or
person or team…or whatever…to do it again.”

“You make it sound so easy,” he quipped,
sending her a rueful smile.

“Yeah, I know. But I have confidence the Lady
will help us. Evil can’t win this time. We have to stop it, in all
its forms.”

Now he could believe she was a huntress. A
warrior. She had that determined stare as she looked out over the
waves. She was fierce. And he couldn’t love her more.

Jetty directed Andrew and his boat as close
to the area where the pod was currently dwelling as she dared.
Marla raised one eyebrow at her in question, but Jetty knew what
she was doing. She trusted Andrew with her life—and the lives of
her friends. She knew he wouldn’t betray them, but she’d sworn a
vow to keep the exact location of the pod a secret.

She brought them close, but not directly over
the grounds. She only waited for Andrew to do his sensing thing
before wishing Marla and Janice a fond farewell.

They were just about to dive in when Andrew
came up to the rail.

“I know you’ll need time to explain
everything to your people and for them to make a decision. I’ll
come out to these coordinates every day at dusk for the next week
and stay until the sun sets. If you run into trouble, you can find
me here, shielding. If anyone wants a ride into town, I’ll take as
many as fit on the deck. Or if they want to swim in, I’ll act as
escort, spreading my shield as wide as I can to cover as many as I
can.”

“You’re really serious about this, aren’t
you?” Marla challenged. “We’ve been out here all along. We haven’t
had any trouble before today.”

Andrew frowned. “Maybe so, but now that the
leviathan knows you’re here, the trouble may only just be starting
for your people. I don’t want to see anyone killed by that thing,
so I’m offering my services, and my magic, to shield as many as I
can on the dangerous trip to the cove. I think the leviathan and
its minions will be watching for your folk now. It got a taste of
Sirena this morning, and it’ll probably be looking for more.”

Janice shivered, and even Marla finally
seemed to take him seriously. “I’ll tell them.” Marla nodded at
him, and Andrew finally retreated to his wheelhouse.

Jetty took charge of her friends’ discarded
clothing and stuffed it in a bag while the two mer shifted and swam
away. She was worried about them, but didn’t see any other way to
get the message to the pod. And she greatly feared Andrew was right
about the trouble having only just started for the mer in the
Pacific Northwest pod.

Andrew turned the boat around and headed back
toward shore. They talked quietly as he steered the boat back into
the cove, and then to his private dock. He cooked dinner for her on
the grill while she set the table. They passed the evening
comfortable in each other’s company.

Jetty called over to the doctor’s office
using Andrew’s phone, to check on Sirena and let Beth know the
others had gotten to the area near the pod okay. Beth would tell
Sirena when she woke. For now, Beth wasn’t leaving Sirena’s side,
acting as nurse, companion and watchdog.

Beth would figure it out pretty soon, Jetty
thought. The young mer woman would figure out that the bear
shifters of Grizzly Cove weren’t all that much different than the
mer. Oh, the bears were magical, and they had secrets of their own,
but they were good people, willing to help others.

It hadn’t taken Jetty long to learn that for
herself. Of course, she had the added benefit of being around and,
now,
with
Andrew.

She’d watched him from afar for a long time,
fascinated by his presence on her patch of ocean. She hadn’t really
realized why she’d been so drawn to him, but the effect hadn’t
lessened once she spoke to him. In fact, the attraction only grew
stronger the more she was with him. And now that she’d been his
lover, she knew deep inside that she would never have another.

Wait a minute…

Just like that, the light went on in her
mind. She suddenly realized why she hadn’t been able to stop spying
on him, or why she wanted so much to be in his presence—and in his
bed.

He was her mate. Sweet Mother of Oceans.

They made love that night with a new
intimacy. Now that they’d learned the basics of what each other
liked, they were free to explore and cover new ground. They also
didn’t have to rush. Jetty didn’t have to leave the next morning,
and they could even sleep in, if they wished.

They had time now. Time they hadn’t really
had the first night they’d spent together.

Had that been only yesterday? Had her life
changed so much in just a day or two? Had she gone from watching
the sexy fisherman from afar to sharing his bed in so short a
time?

Jetty had grown up in the human world. Even
though she was mer, she’d been raised among human values and
standards. She’d never slept with a guy on the first date before,
much less started thinking about keeping him forever.

Could she keep him? Would he want to be with
her…exclusively? Was his bear thinking
mate
, too?

She had no way of knowing, short of asking a
direct question, and she didn’t have the guts for that right now.
She didn’t want to scare off the best thing that had ever happened
to her.

Dirk the Jerk was ancient history. Her
instincts told her, in no uncertain terms, that Andrew was nothing
like Jerkface. Andrew didn’t seem to realize how goshdarn sexy he
was. She’d never seen him look in a mirror, or any reflective
surface they happened to pass, and check himself out the way
Jerkoff had done constantly. When Andrew talked to her, he was
fully present in the conversation, really listening to what she had
to say. He wasn’t thinking ahead, a vacant look in his eyes as he
planned what he was going to say or do next like his Jerkness.

Being with Andrew had somehow healed the
scars on her heart from trusting the wrong man. She hadn’t realized
it could be that simple. Time away from land and one spectacular
man had done what all the sympathy from her friends and family
couldn’t. She was over the Jerkinator, once and for all. He was
ancient history. A speed bump on the superhighway of her life.

Andrew. He was the future. When she looked
down that road of her life, she saw him on it with her—a companion
to her future. But was she presuming too much?

“I’m glad your people came to the cove.”
Andrew’s voice came to her out of the darkness. They were in his
bed, having just made love, lazing together in the moonlight.

“Me too,” she replied, content to just be
with him. While it was true that she had a lot of questions about
the future, this moment with him was too perfect to taint with
worry.

“I want you to meet my folks,” he said
suddenly, catching her by surprise with the enormity of what his
words implied. Was he…?

Sweet Mother of Oceans! Maybe he was as
serious as she was. No man had ever wanted her to meet his parents
before. Even the one she’d moved in with.

“I’d…” She had to swallow to ease the sudden
dryness of her mouth. “I’d like that.”

“You’ll like my mom. She’s fierce, like you,”
he went on. She turned her head to look at him and could see the
strong outline of his profile. He was staring up at the ceiling,
tension in the line of his jaw. She wondered what that was about.
“She saved me, you know. After I got blown up.”

“You what?” Now that had taken her completely
by surprise. It seemed this night was one for surprises—not all of
them pleasant.

“I stepped on an IED. It exploded and sent me
thirty feet into the air. My legs were shredded, the bones so
broken the human doctors said it was like putting Humpty Dumpty
back together. But they called Mom, and she insisted they not
amputate. She fought tooth and claw with them, but she’s a force to
be reckoned with and they succumbed to her will. Then she
discharged me from Walter Reed and flew me home to Wyoming. The
military didn’t know what hit them when she breezed into town and
right back out again with me in a hospital bed, barely
conscious.”

Her heart went out to him. “I didn’t know
you’d been hurt that seriously,” she said softly, putting one hand
on his shoulder.

She was encouraged when he placed his hand
over hers and held it there. She didn’t want to say too much, lest
he stop sharing. She sensed this was hard for him, and she wanted
to ease his burden, not ask a bunch of questions and make it more
difficult.

“It was my last mission with the unit. I
didn’t exactly go out of the military on my own terms.” He shrugged
and she felt the motion under her palm.

He was so warm and vital. So alive. She
couldn’t imagine how badly he’d been hurt—and what it must’ve taken
to regain his health, his mobility…his life. He was a survivor. A
man to be admired.

“I told you Mom was a priestess. She put
everything into healing me. She called in favors from friends and
former students. She had all sorts of people coming to see me. To
help me. And I was an ungrateful little SOB most of the time. I
don’t know why she put up with me and my attitude.”

He paused in his story, and she squeezed his
shoulder in support.

“I can tell you why,” she said softly. “It’s
because she loves you.”

How could anyone not love this man? He’d been
through so much and still found it in his heart to help others. He
hadn’t had to risk himself the way he had in safeguarding her
hunting party and her people. He’d done it out of the goodness of
his heart, his soul. He was something special.

“Yeah.” He chuckled low in the darkness. “I
guess so. And I love her. And Dad. You’ll like him. He’s the
strong, silent type. Or so Mom claims. Of course, she talks enough
for both of them, but he doesn’t seem to mind. Dad’s a man of few
words.”

“My parents are a little bit the opposite,”
she ventured. “I’d like you to meet them too.” She bit her lip,
unsure how much to say. “I mean, as soon as I call them, they’ll
probably be up here like a shot to visit with the pod and check on
me. They made me promise to call home on a regular basis.”

Andrew moved, putting his arm around her
shoulders and tugging her closer. She was enveloped in his hug,
which made her feel special…and loved.

“You know, if we’re talking about meeting
each other’s families, then I guess we’re both pretty serious.” His
tone gave nothing away, as if he was feeling her out on the
topic.

She turned in his arms, propping herself up
on her forearms to look at him in the light of the moon coming in
through the window. He was so handsome he stole her breath for a
moment. But it was the fire in his eyes that made her warm all
over. It was time. Time to be open about her feelings and see if…
Oh, hell, it was time to take a leap of faith.

“I’m very serious about you, Andrew. My
instincts tell me you’re someone important. Someone I could easily
spend the rest of my life with…if you feel the same.”

His arms tightened, and a smile spread across
his face.

“Oh, honey, I definitely feel the same. My
bear has been beating me over the head with it practically since I
first saw you.” His voice dipped low. “You’re my mate.”

The sexy growl from his inner bear that
accompanied his uncompromising statement set her senses on fire.
Joy sizzled through her veins, and happiness flowed from her heart
throughout her body.

“You’re my mate, too, Andrew,” she admitted,
feeling oddly shy. “I…I love you.”

He kissed her then, pulling her head down
gently and claiming her lips with his. When he let her up for air,
he whispered against her lips, the most intimate of
declarations.

“I love you too, my pearl.”

They kissed for a long time, the languid
declarations of love turning into something hot and exciting. Her
body was slick with wanting as he joined them together, rocking her
slowly, increasing his rhythm with devastating leisure. She came
around him three times at least, before she lost count.

The slow, steady presence of him within her
made her feel—for the first time in her life—as if she didn’t know
where she ended and he began. Her lover was part of her in every
sense. His body possessed hers, but their souls seemed to be
communicating on some deeper level.

He just kept stroking, his confident, steady
movements driving her wilder than she’d ever been before. She
thought maybe she’d clawed at his back at some point, eliciting
that sexy growl that sent her senses into orbit. There was nothing
more attractive than knowing she had power over her lover…just like
he had power over her.

They were a union of equals. Both submitting.
Both dominating. Sharing the burden, and the pleasure. She thought
maybe—when she could think at all—that it was a good metaphor for
the way their lives would be together.

It was clear that Andrew didn’t see her as an
appendage. She wasn’t arm candy, easily replaceable with a newer,
better model. She was to him what he was to her…everything.

And he showed her that, again and again, all
through the night.

Occasionally, they slept, wrapped in each
other’s arms. Comfortable, for the first time in her life, with
someone she fully expected to grow old with. She had no doubts. Her
beast half and her belief in Andrew washed away all the doubts Dirk
had planted. This was her fresh start. The beginning of the rest of
her life.