Her Holiday Bear (A BBW Paranormal Christmas Romance) (3 page)

“The man works for Henry.”

Jagger looked around. He didn’t sense any other bear shifter. Henry and a couple of young wolves on the far side of the lot looking at a tree were the only ones around.

“I’d never seen him before,” Ally admitted.

“A stranger.” It was a statement, not a question. Jagger knew everyone in town and the surrounding area. Or had. Bears didn’t do the whole pack thing, but they were usually respectful of other bears, acknowledging the other animal’s territory. To have a bear, especially an unmated male, come into his territory without an introduction was almost the same as issuing a challenge. A challenge Jagger would be more than happy to accept. He’d have to have a talk with Marcus for allowing the bear into town without giving him a heads up. Jagger considered the town of Riverton his. His to protect.

Just as Ally was his to protect. Today she had on tight fitting jeans and a colorful Christmas sweater beneath her coat. It revealed the V of pale skin at her neck and the abundant swell of her cleavage. Had the other male gazed at her like this? In a nervous gesture no doubt caused by his unrelenting stare, she pulled the hem of her sweater down over her hips. Her wide, healthy hips. He shoved his hands in his pockets, struck once again by the unbidden, now not-so-unwelcomed need to touch. Twin arrows of heat shot through him from his chest to his groin. Jagger set his jaw and ignored the sensation. This was not the time nor the place.

Ally had a tiny, concerned crease between her brows that he wanted to erase with the pad of his thumb. He wanted to touch her there, then trace the full red surface of her lips, his forefinger painting the deep dip in her upper lip. The pulse in her throat caught his attention. That sweet spot where her neck joined her body. Where a bear marks his mate.

Her scent changed as he continued to stare at her. The sweet innocence faded as another familiar scent permeated the air. Now she smelled sweet and spicy. She looked up at him through the shadow of her long lashes.

“He was very helpful.”

She didn’t seem to realize she was playing with fire. He felt his bear stretch inside him, yanking at the chains he’d put around the disgruntled animal.

“Why do you care if another man was near me?” She looked at Jagger and licked her bottom lip again. Maybe she did want to get burned.

The thought of her with another man made him snarl with primitive male possessiveness. His hand clamped down on her upper arm. He needed to taste her. Now. Assessing his surroundings, he headed for the back of the trailer that acted as Henry’s office. It was parked along the side of the city hall building, providing a perfect hide-away for what he had in mind.

The weight of Jagger’s gaze pressed against Ally’s skin like the weight of a needy mouth. Or a hungry cock. He was looking at her the way she wanted him to look at her. So hungry that he didn’t know how to control himself. A shiver rolled down her back as she moved with him. He’d taken her behind the trailer, away from prying eyes. She gasped when he shoved her against the brick wall of the building.

She reached out and trailed her hand down the shirt covering his chest. The buttons were done up so nice and tidy. No wrinkles marred the crisp linen surface. It held the silver gleam of his badge. His gaze jumped from her face to her hand, but he didn’t take a step backward. The wild bubbling in her blood rushed faster now, but she wasn’t afraid of the sensation. Instead, she felt womanly and powerful. She was reaching for what she wanted, unafraid of the hurt that might follow.

She shivered.

“You’re cold.”

“Maybe a little. Are you going to keep me warm?” Innocence, seduction, and sin filled the smile she gave him. The air around them stilled and the rest of the world faded away leaving nothing but her and Jagger, together in this moment in time. There was no mistaking the want in his dark eyes. The moment had presented itself and she wasn’t going to let it slip away. Ally’s lips tingled and she moistened them with the tip of her tongue. The movement brought his gaze downward. Stretching onto the tips of her toes, she placed one hand on his jaw. Taking the chance he’d completely reject her, she touched her lips to his.

In an instant, he took control of the kiss, covering her mouth with his in the sweetest, most honest kiss she’d ever known. Their first kiss was everything it should be. Urgent yet respectful. Passionate yet tender. His hands settled on her hips and her palms rested on his chest. 

“Jagger.” The soft whisper of his name seemed to break him and his legendary control.

Jagger snarled Ally’s name as his mouth took hers again, the softness of before gone, burned away in a flash of need. His mouth captured hers, made it his. She was the girl-next-door, the schoolteacher, the woman who had been driving him insane for the past six months. She tasted wild and when her soft lips opened beneath his, he pushed his tongue into her mouth with a hunger he had never felt.

There
was
no hunger like this. The hunger a bear shifter had for his mate.

He jerked her against him, letting her feel what she did to him. He tangled her hair in his hand and pulled back her head, exposing her throat. She would be terrified if she realized the raw, sexual need he was experiencing.

“You make me crazy. Feel what you do to me, baby. How hard you make me.” He sucked her tongue into his mouth and she writhed against him, her soft belly rubbing against his cock. He pressed his leg between hers, against her mound and drew a deep, needy groan from the back of her throat. When she tried to break away, he held her fast, holding her head still for his kiss and to protect her from the bite of the brick wall at her back.

His hand eased beneath the hem of her sweater. The first heated contact with her skin had his bear roaring to be set free. He loved the curves he found there, the indention of her waist. His hand moved higher and he palmed her left breast. He was a big man, a big bear, and had big hands. She filled them perfectly. He felt his claws extend, wanting to remove the barrier of her sweater and bra. Knowing he couldn’t do that, not yet anyway, he deepened the kiss and pressed her closer. His body was burning with need now, almost out of control. From just a taste of her.

He
wanted
to go up in flames.

He ended the kiss and moved his mouth along her jaw and down her throat. He savored her scent. He licked the skin where her neck joined her shoulder. Where he would bite her. Later.

The thought threw a cold bucket of water on Jagger’s arousal. No mate. No mate ever. He wasn’t mate material he reminded himself quickly. He was too grumpy and set in his ways. He was a bear and she was human. She… he could think of a thousand reasons why they shouldn’t be together. They didn’t mean anything compared to the one reason why they should.

Mate.
Inside him, the bear roared and sank its fangs into Jagger’s shoulder, trying to break free to claim the woman in his arms. Jagger shook off the animal, wrangling him back under control. Barely.

Pulling back, he saw the same need burning in her brown eyes. She wanted him as badly as he needed her. But he couldn’t. Just couldn’t.

“I can’t.” He stepped away before he gave into the instinct of his bear and mated a woman who had no business being mated to a bear.

CHAPTER THREE

IT WAS DARK outside when Ally made her way across the empty school parking almost two weeks later. It wasn’t unusual for dark to have already fallen by the time she left work in the evenings. Opening the trunk of her second–no, third hand–compact car, she crammed books and papers inside. Over the holidays, she hoped to get her lesson plans for the next semester completed. She’d have very little else to do during the nearly two weeks of vacation. Standing still as snow fell around her, she realized belatedly that she shouldn’t have stayed after school so long, but it had been the last official day of the semester.

It had been fun, if not a little hellicious. In just a few hours, they’d held a Christmas pageant, gift exchange, and a party. It had taken her until now to clean up. She felt a little nudge of guilt that she’d sent her classroom full of second graders home on a sugar high from too much punch and cake. Not to mention the candy.

She was grateful when the engine fired on the first turn. Her car was old, but it was reliable. Cranking up the heat, she got back out and swept the snow from her front and back windows. She brushed off nearly two inches. Beneath the snow was a thin layer of ice. She’d have to wait until the defroster did its job before she could pull out onto the highway.

The next few days would be lonely. It seemed like forever since Jagger had dragged her behind Henry’s trailer and kissed the living daylights out of her. Instinct told her that what she’d experienced that day was a mere snippet of the pleasure Jagger could provide. Two weeks and she had seen neither hide nor hair of him.

During that time, she had, with great pain and regret, come to accept the fact that the grumpy, growly, and most-stubborn-shifter-she-had-ever-met really wasn’t going to acknowledge the pull of attraction between them. Before, she’d held out hope since he had never kissed her. Thinking, maybe, the instinct didn’t kick in until after you had some level of intimacy with the other person. Before that fateful day at the Christmas tree lot, they’d barely exchanged greetings. Oh, there been some hot, panty-dampening looks, but that had been the extent of their sexual interaction. But now… she no longer had that excuse. Everything she’d read about shifters or been told about mating indicated that once the male found his mate, he’d do anything to have her. That did not describe Jagger’s behavior.

She blew the bangs out of hair, hope falling away as quickly as the ice melted from her windshield. She wasn’t his mate, plain and simple. She refused to allow the tears that gathered at the back of her eyes to fall. This was life. You loved, you moved on. She’d have a few memories to keep her warm on other cold, winter nights. Putting the car in gear, she pulled out of the parking lot and made her way home.

She gripped the wheel as the car skidded when she took a curve too fast. The last thing she needed was to land in a ditch. As she drove, she thought of her options. She could suck it up, stay in Riverton or she could move. She was free. No family, no responsibilities. She could go anywhere she wanted do anything she wanted. She didn’t have to be a second grade teacher. She could be a nanny, travel the world looking after someone else’s children.

A sob broke through her control. She wanted her own children. She wanted her own family. Heaven help her broken heart, she wanted her own great, big, grumpy, stubborn-assed bear shifter.

At least it was going to be a white Christmas she thought as she watched the rhythmic swish of the wiper blades.

****

She was only about a mile from home when the accident happened. A rut in the road, a wheel hitting it wrong, had Ally struggling to bring the car to a stop and guiding it safely to the side of the road. She didn’t know what had happened, but she knew the loud pop she’d heard wasn’t good. Wasn’t good at all. Her hands still on the wheel, she lowered her head, trying not to cry. Just another thing gone wrong in her dreary, dismal life.

As she sat there debating what to do, her car quickly became covered in snow. What had started out as a steady fall of snow in the school parking lot was now building into a full-fledged blizzard. It was going to get a lot worse before it quit. She thought about calling the sheriff’s department, but then thought better of it. They would no doubt be busy on a night like to night. Besides, what if Jagger answered the call?

Knowing there was nothing else she could do but walk the rest of the way home, she opened her glove compartment, praying she’d put the flashlight back after the power outage last month. She’d forgotten to replace the batteries in the one in her house.

Grabbing her purse, she took out her wallet and pulled her keys out of the ignition before opening the door. Thankfully, she’d opted to wear blue jeans to work today. That didn’t make the mile hike to her house any more inviting, because, unfortunately, she had on a pair of sneakers that would provide absolutely no protection against the wet snow. Buttoning up her woolen coat, she cursed herself for not wearing the puffy parka she’d purchased from a consignment shop before she moved here. She’d read up on the area and had discovered that the winters could be harsh.

Tonight she just might see how harsh. After a few yards of walking, she realized the cutting wind was more dangerous than the snow. Bending her head, she trudged along the empty two-lane road.

She came upon another snow-covered pothole, just like the one that had disabled her car and barely managed to avoid it. When the heck had the road became so treacherous? Vowing to report the condition of the road to the county commissioner the first chance she got, she didn’t see the next break in the pavement. Her ankle twisted beneath her, throwing her off balance, and down she went. She was close enough to the edge of the road that the momentum carried her down into the ditch running along the side. It wasn’t a deep ditch, and thankfully, it wasn’t filled with water. She landed on her back, the breath knocked out of her. For a moment, blind panic set in when she couldn’t get any air into her lungs. She thanked her lucky stars when her breath returned coming in short, ragged gasps.

She lay perfectly still, drawing in one lungful of air after the other and watching the snow fall. It swirled and danced above her head and for a moment, she felt as if she were lying inside a snow globe.

As her breath returned, she took inventory of her person. While she didn’t think anything was broken, her ankle was already starting to throb like a bitch. She also felt a slight sting on her face and raised her hand to touch it before she remembered she had on gloves. Biting at the fingers, she pulled one off. Gingerly, she explored her face. She flinched when she touched the scraped skin on her cheek. It was too dark to tell if the wetness was from blood or melting snow.

Knowing no one would likely come upon her any time soon she braced herself to move. At this time of night, most families would be sitting around the dinner table discussing their plans for Christmas. Any fool would be in their house, room and dry. Damn it, she hadn’t even remembered to turn on her hazard lights. If anyone did pass her car, they’d probably think the person driving it had already been helped. She was totally on her own here. Rolling to her side, she managed to get her legs beneath her, preparing to stand.

Ally was still struggling to her feet when the beam of highlights swept over her. Hurrying in order to get the driver’s attention, she slipped again, rolling down the bank even further than before.

“Fucking crap.” Usually not one to swear, she felt justified this one time. She was outside in the middle of a damn blizzard, lying in a ditch with no one to rescue her. That called for a bad word or two.

Immediately, her thoughts turned to Jagger. He was a damsel-in-distress’s ideal white knight in shining amour. Or warm, furry bear. The thought of all the heat given off by the bear shifter made her shiver. Or was it the fact that she’d been lying on the cold ground for more than a half hour? She had to get moving. Grabbing at the pitifully sparse clumps of grass growing on the bank of the ditch, she pulled herself back up to the place she’d been before her second tumble. It provided a more level piece of ground for her to try and regain her footing.

For a moment, she thought she heard the sound of her name over the howl of the wind. She frowned. The first car had passed and she hadn’t heard the sound of another engine coming up the road. Sighing, she tried to make it up the bank once again, knowing she was her only hope of getting out this dangerous situation.

****

Jagger drove slowly down the back roads surrounding the town, his thoughts centered on the woman who had stolen his heart. Ally. The blood in his veins pounded, hot and swirling like a swollen river as he thought of her lips beneath his, her body beneath his bear. He’d made a bad decision when he’d touched her. It had been as intoxicating and mind-bending as he’d known it would be–and more. When she’d looked up at him, desire and sincerity shining in her eyes… Well, no man could have denied himself the pleasure of her touch or the sweetness of her taste.

The wipers swished loudly, trying to keep up with the falling snow. He’d decided to up the patrols when he’d received the latest weather forecast. The storm had started out slow, gaining momentum as evening fell. It was the cold wind accompanying the snow that presented the real danger. He barely felt the chill thanks to his bear. A bear that had grown more and more restless in the past hour.

He knew not to ignore the feeling. Something was wrong he just didn’t know what yet. Reaching for the radio, it didn’t surprise him when it crackled. He’d learned long ago not to ignore his bear and the animal’s instincts.

“Hey, Sheriff, you there?” The voice of the deputy on duty came over the air. There was no such thing as a dispatcher for the small sheriff’s department.

He picked up the radio receiver, pushing the button to respond. “Yeah, Harold. What’s up?”

“Emily Higgins reported seeing a car on the side of the road out near McKinley’s farm.”

Jagger’s heart jumped in his chest, right along with his bear. Ally lived on that road. “Did she give the make and model?”

“No. She didn’t see anyone and the hazards weren’t flashing. She just thought we should know.”

Depressing the button once again, he said, “I’ll check it out.”

“Gotcha.” With that, the radio went silent.

Jagger turned the SUV around and headed to the abandoned car’s location, driving as fast as he could. When he got there, he parked his vehicle behind the abandoned car. Even under the layer of snow, he recognized it as Ally’s. Leaving the key in the ignition, he stepped down from the high cab. A couple of strides and he discovered no one was inside.

He walked around, trying to determine what had happened. The crazy angle of her passenger side tire revealed the reason. He hit the hood, causing the small car to bounce once before settling back down on the snow packed road. “Damn it, Ally. Why didn’t you stay with your car?”

The steady snow had obliterated any tracks that would have pointed him in the direction she’d gone. Her scent still lingered in the air, telling him, she’d hadn’t been gone too long. He drew in a deep breath and let his bear out. The bear cuffed inside his head as he picked up the scent. He’d never felt the animal in such a state.

Cursing under his breath, Jagger took off down the road at a loping run. When he caught up with the little minx he was going to bend her over his knee and smack her generous ass until it turned a bright red and then he was going—

He stopped abruptly. The break in the weeds at the side of the road told him something had rolled over the side. Stalking over, he searched the bank. Sure enough, he spotted a swath of gray against the white blanket of snow. A chill far colder than the wind rushing around him took hold because he knew it was her. “Ally?”

He flew down the side and dropped to the ground beside the still figure. She lay flat on her back, her arms spread wide as if she’d been about to make a snow angel.

“Ally!” His bear was going crazy, almost whining in despair. Her hair spilled over the ground behind her head and her eyes remained closed. Was she hurt? Knocked out? Or worse. His hand trembled as he reached out to check the pulse at her throat. Just as he was about to touch her, her eyes fluttered open.

“You.” A clearly whispered word as though she’d been expecting him.

“Anything broken?” Jagger crouched beside her prone figure and brushed a strand of matted hair from her cheek. He ran his fingertips down the curve of her jaw, his bear needing that skin-to-skin contact. Now calmer, his training took over and he quickly assessed her to make sure she had sustained no serious injury. He said a silent pray of thanks when he didn’t discover anything. Right now, the risk was the cold.

“I’m going to lift you.” He wanted to kiss her and promised himself he’d do just that when they both were standing upright.

‘Bout damn time
, his bear groused.

Pushing his arms beneath her body, he had her in his arms. Straightening, he bumped her closer making her cling to his neck. “I won’t drop you, Ally.” He started up the side of the ditch. For him, it wasn’t very steep and he navigated it easily. “Just so we’re clear, if you do something stupid like this again, I’m going to take you over my knee and tan your backside.”

When Ally had heard her name being called, she’d figured she was hallucinating. When she’d opened her eyes, she’d seen Jagger’s rugged face leaning over her. His worried eyes… and tight lips. Oh, the bear shifter was angry. But he was still the most beautiful thing she had ever seen. She shivered at the rough tone in his voice but she wouldn’t let him see how much that and his words affected her. “It’s not like I did it on purpose.”