Page 110 of Choose the Bears

Because I’d been through this before.

When I was a kid, I was sure I saw white fur prickle across my skin, my nails lengthening. All preparation for when I’d meet my bear, Mum assured me. Her warm words were like a lifeline then, helping me keep my head above water through adolescence, but now? They felt like a death sentence. All my hopes and dreams had died because I invested myself too much in her assumptions about me.

Nelly didn’t see me, not really. It was herself that stood there in ragged clothing, with filthy feet, when I was first brought to her home. It was her own inner child or some bullshit that she cared for. She had to believe that I’d have a bear, that I’d be theone that would find a sleuth and earn my mate’s favour, because that way I got all the same things she did to get her out of her shitty situation. Imagine her disappointment when it was her own son that got all of that. In her mind, he didn’t deserve it. She’d muttered something to that effect to me often enough. He had it easy. He grew up with a loving family in a nice home. He didn’t need a bear.

But he got one anyway.

And me? I was just some fuckup sitting outside a girl’s place like an abandoned dog and that had me turning the ignition again before driving forward. My job for the night was done and it was time to rest again, just to get back on this fucking hamster wheel all over again.

Chapter 57

Imogen

“What’s this?”

There was a forced lightness about Kyle’s voice as I stood stirring a big pot of lamb stew. The way he pushed my hair aside, his fingers forcing a whole-body shiver out of me as he traced the mark Asher left, had my hands releasing the wooden spoon to slap down on the metal counter. Something in that touch made me want to arch my back and part my thighs, letting him, letting all of the sleuth, take me right here in the kitchen. Instead, Kyle pulled his hand away and confronted Asher.

“You marked her?”

Need, jealousy, and a hunger to do the exact same thing is what I got from his tone before I dared to look up and watch the drama as it unfolded.

Kyle’s just being protective, Asher informed me.It’s what he does.

“Yes,” I replied to Kyle. “That’s what happens when I ask for it, isn’t it?”

“You…” All the steam seemed to go out of Kyle then. His brows creased as he searched my face. “You wanted it?”

“I want it all.”

There was still a part of me that couldn’t believe that I had the right to reach out and stroke Kyle like this, finding the hem of his shirt and sliding my hand underneath. His skin was shockingly hot, his stomach muscles bunching in response to my touch. His eyes bore into mine, looking for evidence to support or disprove my statement.

“All of it?” That left me reluctant to speak, the words feeling too big for the kitchen. Asher left off slicing up breadsticks for garlic bread and moved closer to me, but Kyle stepped in his way. “Imogen?”

“That’s what I said, didn’t I?”

This was all an act, me putting my hands on my hips like I was some cocky girl rather than just me. But fake it before you make it, right? Kyle’s lips finally twitched up into a smile.

“Then you better come with me.”

“Where?” I squeaked, but he just grabbed my hand and pulled me out of the kitchen.

“Tell your mate to hold down the fort,” Kyle called over his shoulder, “because we’ve got something better than stew for you.”

That was all the clue I got before I was dragged upstairs.

“We don’t use this part of the building much,” Kyle explained as we walked past room after empty room. “It was built just in case we had enough clients needing somewhere to stay. As of yet, it hasn’t really been used, so we decided…”

“You aren’t going to leave me hanging like that,” I snapped, pulling my hand free before looking around me. Dimly, I heard the muffled sound of someone cursing long and hard about something. I drifted closer, wondering at the source of it, only to find this.

Heaven, that’s how I’d describe it later, because that’s what it was. A far larger room than the one I was currently staying in,but it was nowhere near as finished. The generic grey curtains in every room were replaced by these sage green ones with a nubby texture, the pale grey walls restful on the eyes, but that wasn’t what I was focussed on. Firstly, the massive bed spanning the entire wall on one side, big enough for one woman and three bears to sleep on. Two, boxes and boxes of books. My fingers twitched, wanting, needing to pick up and fondle each one, but it was the last thing that really caught my attention. Lucas sat on the floor with a screwdriver in hand and the beginnings of a bookcase on the floor, a screw hanging from his lips. It dropped to the floor when he saw me.

“I thought you were off getting Asher?”

“Asher’s done enough for today,” Kyle informed him, walking further into the room, and I couldn’t help but follow him. “And anyway, I think Imogen needs to see this. It’s her room.”

“Mine?”

I’d been excited about my apartment, willing to overlook how old, dated, and worn out it was because I knew that’s all I could afford, but this? I saw that they’d already created two bookshelves and set them against the wall opposite the bed. I’d be able to stare at my pretties before I went to sleep, gloating over them like a dragon might its hoard. My feet took me closer even as my brain stalled, unable to believe what I was seeing.

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