River Bear (BBW Paranormal Shapeshifter Romance) (Blue Bear Rescue) Read online

  He opened his mouth and let out a bellowing roar, daring anything or anyone else to challenge him tonight. Delilah’s expression crumped, and he rose on his hind legs, shifting back as he closed the distance between them.

  “Sshh,” he said, catching her up in his arms just as her knees wobbled and gave out.

  She collapsed against him, sniffling, shoulders shaking, as she buried her face against his bare chest. He smoothed her hair, enjoying the silky waves as they ran through his fingers.

  “It’s all right,” he assured her when her sniffles slowed. “He can’t hurt you anymore.”

  She pulled away, swiping at her wet cheeks and then at her nose as she stared up at him. “I’m not crying for him, you idiot. I was worried for you.”

  “Me? But I wasn’t in danger. You were.”

  “He had a gun, Jake. Didn’t you see it?” She pointed, and he finally spotted the pistol glinting in the darkness.

  “No,” he admitted. “I saw him going after you. I had to stop him.”

  Delilah threw her hands up. “You didn’t even stop to think. Do you realize that’s Tim, one of the men from Mack’s? You could have been hurt.”

  She hugged him again, and he had to smile as he held her. She wasn’t scared of him after all. Or even disturbed by the fact that he’d killed a man tonight. She’d been worried for him. For his safety.

  But fuck if she wasn’t right, he realized as he snuck a look at the body. Tim. That beanpole from earlier lay at a crooked angle on the pavement, loose gravel coating one blood-soaked cheek. A shame he hadn’t brought Lyle and the others out with him. Jake wouldn’t have minded it, and despite Delilah’s obvious worry, he could’ve handled them all easily.

  Delilah trembled against him, and his bear growled at him. Determined to protect, he drew her face up, cradling her cheeks in his palms. “Delilah, I have to call Xavier and then the Sherriff. They’ll need to come out and ask some questions. Collect and identify this man. Do you think you can handle all of that?” he asked.

  She let out a shaky breath. “I can if you’re with me. And I already called them,” she admitted, holding up her phone.

  He couldn’t help but feel a rush of pride at how well she was handling it all. Thinking on her feet, making that call. Good girl. “I’m not going anywhere,” he promised.

  Which was the absolute truth. He’d saved her tonight. He’d proven to himself that he wasn’t a danger to her, but a protector. She needed him and the more time spent with her, the more he wanted her.

  Screw staying away and screw this “no clients” rule of hers. Tonight, Delilah wasn’t getting away. He took her face in his hands, drawing her gaze up to his. He searched her eyes for resistance, but this time, he found none. No argument. Only invitation and trust. He’d gotten to know her well enough to understand trust didn’t come easy for her, but he saw it in her eyes now, and something inside his chest unfurled.

  Achingly slow, Jake drew his mouth down to hers and closed the distance. He kissed her slowly, sipping at her like a glass of water. Delilah responded instantly, pressing her hands against his torso before winding up and around his neck. He nudged her along until her mouth parted for him and he licked at her bottom lip, then her tongue. Sweet as candy, just like he’d suspected.

  His cock hardened, and he pressed it against her, rocking into her. She whimpered, and the sound of it alone threatened to overtake him. He wanted her right here and now. His fingers moved toward the waistline of her jeans.

  In the distance, a siren sounded, snapping him out of the moment. God, what the hell was he thinking? He couldn’t do this to her here, next to a bloody body on the street. He drew away, carefully gentle, his arms still around her.

  “We’ll finish that later,” he said, and she smiled sheepishly.

  Her insecurity was endearing, but it wasn’t necessary. He’d show her later that he meant it. He planned to kiss her again. Actually, he planned to do a hell of a lot more than kissing with Delilah Henry.

  Five

  Delilah walked into her dimly lit motel room and tossed her bag on the floor. The bedside clock read just after two am. Dear Jesus, tonight had been hellacious. She went straight for the mini-fridge and grabbed a water, downing half of it at once. She’d prefer something stronger, but there wasn’t anything open at this time of night. The police had taken two hours, and now her nerves were fried.

  Jake walked in behind her, his boots clopping over the thin carpet, and she handed him the bottle of water, still uncapped. “Thanks,” he said, tipping it back.

  Despite the long night, she could still appreciate the arch of his neck and the curve of his jaw as he leaned back and drained the water bottle. And the way his lips had felt on hers earlier. Amazing. Just watching him gave her nerve endings a strange sort of recharge. Suddenly, she was wide awake and nervous as hell. She wiped her palms on her jeans and paced toward the wall, needing some distance.

  “You all right?” Jake asked, dropping the empty bottle in the trash can and coming to stand in front of her. “You look pale.”

  “I’m good,” she said, but her voice shook. Damn. Almost getting killed and then spending two hours standing over a dead body, and she was good. Two minutes alone with a sexy polar bear shifter and she was putty. Something had changed between them tonight. She didn’t know what it was, but she felt it the moment Jake had saved her from their would-be attacker. Like he wasn’t working so hard to fight this attraction between them. And his kiss had been proof. The fact that she kissed him right back was proof she was going soft. Or maybe Jake River was special.

  Jake studied her face, his sharp brown eyes searching for something. “You’re lying,” he said quietly. “I can tell.”

  She scoffed and then her eyes narrowed in suspicion. “Seriously?”

  “Animal senses. I can always tell.”

  “I’ll have to remember that,” she muttered, unsure whether it was a blessing or a curse to have a lie detector built in like that.

  Jake ran a hand lightly over her bared shoulder, leaving behind a trail of goose bumps. Delilah shuddered.

  “Are you cold?” he asked. His voice had dipped low. Gravelly and rough and sexy as hell. Somewhere between dangerous and exhausted, she realized.

  “No,” she said. “Just tired.”

  Jake nodded and let his hand fall away. “Yeah, tonight was long. I’ll let you get some rest.” He turned away, and she grabbed his arm even before she’d thought it through fully.

  “Jake, will you stay with me until I fall asleep? I don’t want to be alone,” she admitted.

  His expression softened, and she could have sworn he looked happy about her admission. He nodded. “I’ll stay.”

  She bit her lip, looking down at her jeans and then back up at him.

  “Go get changed,” he said. “I’ll be here.”

  She darted into the bathroom and stripped quickly, heart pounding. She rifled through her bag, half-panicked over what to wear. She didn’t want to waltz out in lingerie and send the wrong message. Not that she owned any. Times had been tough these last couple of years, and she was lucky she had granny panties without any holes in them right now. Besides, what message was the right one, anyway? She’d only asked him to stay and sleep, right? Or sit? Maybe he’d just sit across the room and stare at her.

  Why the heck was this so nerve-wracking anyway? She wasn’t innocent by any means. She’d had boyfriends in the past. Nothing serious, as most guys didn’t take well to a woman private investigator. Not just the danger, but the tendency to want to be in charge was a major turnoff for most men she’d met. Jake definitely didn’t seem intimidated by her, though. If anything, she was acting like the demure damsel in distress. And while normally that might have irritated her, in this case, she couldn’t help but want to feel Jake’s hands on her, protecting, comforting, and taking care of her in every way possible.

  In the end, she threw on a pair of pajama shorts and a tee. A compromise, she told herself, and
walked out before she could change her mind.

  Jake was seated on the edge of the bed unlacing his boots. The covers were already drawn back underneath him, and he waved her over. “Come here,” he said.

  She plopped down next to him, pretending she wasn’t on the verge of hyperventilating. He’d taken his shirt off, and she couldn’t tear her gaze away from the rippled planes of his chest and abs. She tried to remember if she’d ever seen an eight-pack before? Nope. This was a first.

  “You lay down. I’ll get the light,” he said, and she scrambled up to the pillow just as he clicked the lamp off.

  She exhaled as the room was thrown into darkness, glad for the cover it provided her. At least now he couldn’t see if she drooled.

  Jake stood over her, a sexy silhouette against the window, and bent low. She heard the shuffle of fabric, and a second later, he slid in beside her, his bare legs brushing lightly against hers. Dear Jesus, he’d taken his pants off.

  No way would she sleep now.

  He scooted in close, his arm and torso inches from hers, but he didn’t reach for her. Delilah pressed her lips together, disappointed. She’d thought… Well, clearly, he hadn’t mistaken this for the invitation she’d thought.

  “Thank you for staying,” she said.

  Jake rolled toward her and her eyes adjusted to the grainy light enough that she could just make out his eyes on her face. “I’m sorry you had to be there to see that tonight,” he said. “I wouldn’t blame you if you wanted to quit.”

  “I can’t do that. Xavier’s counting on me, and I won’t let you guys down.”

  “I spoke to Xavier on the phone earlier while you were giving your statement. He understands if you want out.”

  “I’m not leaving, Jake. I don’t scare that easily.”

  “Well, I do. You were almost hurt tonight.”

  “So were you,” she shot back.

  “I heal. You don’t.”

  He had a point. She wondered what that would be like, having shifter healing abilities. Handy, that’s what, she thought, but decided not to say it. “I can’t just leave because some punk threatened me. I won’t back down that way. It’s not who I am.”

  “I can see that. You’re tough, Delilah Henry. Tougher than any woman I’ve ever met. But you’re breakable. Don’t forget that. I won’t.”

  “I do this because I am breakable.” She hesitated and then added, “I graduated from the police academy, you know. I was going to be a cop.”

  “Was?” he echoed. “What changed your mind?”

  “The breakable people. My dad.”

  “Is he a cop too?”

  “He was. Ten years ago, a gas station robbery went sideways on him, and he was shot and killed. The guy got away, but there was video footage. It was taken without a warrant, though, and between that and a witness he paid to lie about his alibi, the guy walked.” She grit her teeth, still furious when she thought about it.

  “And your mom?”

  “Not an option,” she said, resisting a shudder at the thought. “She wasn’t very nice to me. Mental problems, my dad said. She was committed when I was nine, and I never saw her again. Never cared to.”

  “Damn,” he murmured, his hand reaching for a lock of her hair. He ran his fingers over it, staring at her with what she really hoped wasn’t pity. She didn’t want to see that.

  She looked down, picking absently at the blanket as she talked. Might as well get it all out now. “After Dad died, I went into foster care for a while. I was on my own early, though. Foster care sucks even in the best situations.”

  “I was in foster care, you know,” he said, after only a brief hesitation, and she blinked in surprise.

  “No, I didn’t, but that explains some things.”

  “Like what?” he asked, his tone guarded now. She understood that. She understood more than he knew about growing up in someone else’s house.

  “You’re careful. You don’t put yourself out there very far, and you have that same wary look in your eyes that the other foster kids always had. And… I see how fiercely loyal you are to Xavier. He’s your family. In my experience, only someone who didn’t have parents, a home, would be that protective of what they’ve built.”

  “Your experience,” Jake repeated. “Did you ever find a family?”

  She turned away, hoping his sharp bear senses couldn’t spot the tears pooling. “Nah,” she said, keeping her voice light. “Still looking. But when I find them, I’ll protect them as you do yours.”

  Jake shook his head. “That must have been so hard on you.”

  She wasn’t sure what he meant. Foster care or not finding a family by the time she’d come out the other side. She ignored both, in case either one caused her to lose the battle with the tears she blinked back.

  She went with righteous anger instead. “It was harder knowing justice failed my dad because of technicalities in the law. I spent the next few years in foster care, bouncing around. Forgotten. Then, when I graduated high school, I went into the academy, but it wasn’t what I thought it’d be. The more I learned about the justice system, the less inclined I was to play by their rules. Not when so many criminals operate in the gray areas. So, I put the word out that I was for hire. Friends of friends and that kind of thing. Pretty soon, I was in business as a PI, and I’ve been doing it ever since.”

  “You’ve seen some bad people,” he said. It wasn’t really a question, but she answered it anyway.

  “What happened tonight wasn’t the worst thing that’s happened on a job, if that’s what you mean. Not for me. But it sucked worrying about you.” She laid a hand on his cheek and rubbed lightly against the rough stubble. “That scared me.”

  He shifted, propping up on his elbow, and stared down at her. He ran the back of his hand over her cheek, his eyes pinning her still in the darkness. God, he was beautiful, even covered in shadows.

  “Your dad would have been proud,” he said.

  Delilah’s chest tightened. Tears stung her eyes and she swallowed, scared she was finally going to lose it. “Thanks,” she whispered, and just like that, the wall she’d built around herself crumbled. She gave into temptation. She gave in to Jake.

  And then, because she refused to cry, she grabbed his face in her hands and pulled his lips down to hers. Jake’s head dipped low, and he kissed her softly just like he’d done earlier. After everything that had happened tonight, the tenderness healed her, sealing up the wounds she’d opened and shown.

  She clung to him as he planted soft kisses at the corners of her mouth. “You’re breaking your rule,” he teased, his mouth curving into a smile.

  He was right. Technically speaking, Xavier was her client. He was writing the check. Which made Jake fair game. The fact that Jake was Xavier’s right-hand man was a gray area, but hadn’t she just finished telling him she operated in the gray areas of life as a rule? Besides, her rule was formed because clients usually ended up being deadbeats with too much drama. Jake was neither of those.

  “Mmm. I’m a rebel at heart,” she said, and his chest rumbled with laughter. She sank against the mattress, loving the sound of his laugh. And then sobered when she remembered the reaction he’d given when she’d first told him about her rule. “You were angry with me about it before. For stopping this,” she added.

  He drew back and smoothed her hair, studying her. She could feel his erection pressing against her, but he wasn’t rushing it. She’d expected hard and fast once she’d given the green light, but he was taking everything so infuriatingly slow. Jake River was a puzzle. Complicated. Layered. And right now, watching her like she was the solution. It made her feel beautiful. And important for the first time in a long time.

  “I wasn’t angry with you,” he said slowly. “Just… I don’t want to hurt you.”

  “You won’t hurt me,” she insisted. How did she explain that he’d already done more to heal her than anyone had since her dad died?

  “You don’t know the future. Anything co
uld happen,” he said, and something in his voice made her wonder if he knew something she didn’t. But that was impossible. No one knew the future, not even polar bear shifters with built-in lie detectors.

  She tightened her arms around his neck and brushed his words off. “The future’s not certain for anyone. We don’t get to choose what happens next. Only what happens right now.” He didn’t answer, and she knew she’d stumbled on whatever it was he’d been keeping from her. She hoped he was ready to open up and tell her, but he didn’t elaborate. That was okay. He’d tell her when he was ready. “What do you choose tonight, Jake?” she asked softly.

  Jake’s lids lowered until he stared down at her with hooded eyes. With slow, lazy movements, he coaxed her up and drew her shirt over her head, his fingertips trailing over her bare skin as he peeled it off. Then her shorts, and last, her panties, drawing them down her legs and tossing them onto the floor.

  When her body was bared to him, he raked his eyes down the length of her. She felt the weight of his perusal like a touch. Never had someone’s stare felt this erotic before. “You’re so beautiful,” he murmured.

  He rolled on top of her, his elbows propping him up so that his skin only brushed lightly over hers. Even with the barely-there contact, her nipples hardened into tight beads. Her thighs instantly ached for him, and she inhaled deeply against the need pulling below her stomach.

  “I chose you the minute I saw you,” he said, lowering himself inch by delicious inch over her until their bodies were aligned. His gaze didn’t waver from hers, and she shuddered at the intensity. The way he looked at her, like she was his whole world, overwhelmed her. “I want you tonight. Let me have all of you, just for tonight,” he whispered. “No rules.”

  Delilah held tight and nodded. “Have me, Jake. Right now. Tonight,” she whispered, already arching for him. Pulsing for him.