Page 73 of Regally Binding

Liss ran her fingertips across his tattoo. The room’s silence and the Bear’s heat were like a blanket that kept her safe. The house was worlds away from their problems or past. It was like anything was possible, even the truth and being completely open with someone. She relaxed into him and let his calm slow her pulse. “Do you remember when I freaked out about grabbing your throat during self-defence?”

Liss murmured yes as her finger followed the swirls forming a boxing club emblem.

“That happened to me.” Liss waited, willing him to speak. “My parents had kicked me out for stealing from them. I owed some nasty people money for losing street fights, and my friends ditched me.” Even with the threats to her life and the knowledge that her world was changing, she felt safe in this house and knew that one of the reasons Bear shared his story was because he did too. The decisions about her future had faded, and as much as she knew his story would be painful, she wanted him to speak it. His woody citrus smell enveloped her. “I shouldn’t have stolen. After everything I had done and being excluded from school, it was the last straw, so they washed their hands of me.”

“I’m sorry,” she whispered.

He brushed and kissed her hair. “I know you are, baby. But it’s like I’m telling someone else’s story. I’m safe now.”

“But then?”

“But then I was fifteen years old, scared and needing somewhere to stay. I ended up in the territory of this hardassdrug dealer from another town. I learned then what absolute terror was, and I’ve never felt anything like it since. He grabbed me by the throat and squeezed as his gang jeered. For a long time, I could hear their shouts as I slept. It was as if they were always there, waiting in my nightmares to get me.”

Liss gasped. “What happened?”

“The police turned up. If they hadn’t, I’d be dead.” Liss held her breath until Bear brushed a kiss against her forehead. The sweetness of his touch softened the shock at his story.

“It’s okay, Princess. I survived. I was such a punk to those coppers even though they’d saved my life. I refused to give them any information about me, and I wasn’t telling them about my parents and giving them a chance to reject me again. So they dumped me in a cell overnight while they decided what to do with me.”

She gripped his chest and held him. Even now, she wanted to hold him forever and keep this badass man safe. “But what does this have to do with Strike’s parents?”

“Earlier that day, I’d bumped into one of the kids from my old school who was handing out flyers for a boxing club in town. He was a little older than me and owned anyone who messed with him, even me once in the playground when I gave him lip. He was gentle but still smacked me down. He said that he remembered me putting up a good fight that day and should join a boxing club. I laughed at him, but he wrote his number on the back and told me that if I changed my mind, I should call.”

“That was Strike?” Liss asked, putting the clues together.

“That was Strike.” Bear’s hands continued to caress her skin. His fingertips stroked her back, and her stomach flushed. She pushed away the awareness that, for her, this wasn’t just sex. “The police went through my stuff and called the only number available. Strike used to hand his mobile to his parents at nightso that he’d sleep. Ma ruled with an iron fist and the best brownies in the world.”

Liss chuckled. Bear and his chocolate addiction.

“Anyway, Ma answered the phone. By the morning, I was living with her and Pa. They paid my debts and sorted out a new school for me. I never returned to the streets and never had to be scared again. I joined Strike’s boxing club, and I was good. Strike left school a few years later and then went into the army, but we were best friends from the moment I came to the house and shared his room. Imagine the two of us in bunk beds.”

“Like two giants in a doll’s house?”

“Exactly.” He chuckled. “They cleared out the garage for me eventually. They gave me a home.”

“And what happened to your parents?”

Bear sighed. There were so many emotions in that sigh, and all were heartbreaking. “Ma and Pa spoke to them and told them they were missing out on a relationship with me, but they didn’t care. According to them, I’d already burnt my bridges.”

“And now?” Liss asked, her voice wavering.

Bear trembled, and his voice cracked briefly. “I heard they’d moved north. My contacts check them occasionally. They’re less spritely and still miserable, but they’re alive. I considered visiting them, but I’d know if they wanted anything to do with me. I told you before that you find your own family. I hoped it was my parents, then I thought it was the gang. But the only place I could truly be me, where I could push the boundaries and safely discover my identity, was with Strike, Ma, and Pa. I found my family—well, they found me.”

Liss closed her eyes. “I guess.”

“Don’t get me wrong. A part of me will always be alone because that’s who I am. I don’t let people in,” Bear said. His voice was light, but truth filled the space between them.

“I’ve kinda noticed,” she replied without judgement.

“And I’ve no idea how you’ve managed to get in, because no one knows this stuff about me except my adoptive family.” He took a quick breath. “But I let Ma, Pa, and Strike in over time, and now they’re my world, and I’m theirs.”

“Do you still box?” Liss avoided any reference to her family. She must decide her future, and this wasn’t the time to do it.

“I’ve boxed in a couple of charity matches and pop to my old gym once a month, but that’s it. It’s a young man’s game, and although I’m only twenty-six, it’s not for me. I boxed while working as a doorman, but when Strike came out of the army, we started this, and that’s all the adrenaline I need.”

“And you don’t miss it?”

Bear stroked his thumb across her lips. His intimacy didn’t surprise her anymore, but sadness attached to the moment like little Velcro balls. It might be the last time she saw this side of him again. He cleared his throat. “I miss boxing a little, but I love this job and don’t want to do anything else again. Besides, I don’t find my adrenaline just through work.” He leaned closer and kissed her tentatively before settling back against the pillows. “Sex with you was more intense than any fight, job, or shootout.”

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