Page 11 of Bear for the Holidays

“Well, yeah. She’s tiny and pregnant.”

Something about the way Nik said it made Deanna’s heart open, and tentatively, she reached over to run her fingertips down the length of his forearm, pausing on the bare skin of his wrist. She was almost painfully aware of how he was looking at her, and it cost her willpower she didn’t even know she had to pull back.

“So we should talk,” she said regretfully, and Nik nodded.

“We should,” he said, and then he looked surprised when she took him by the hand, squeezing it gently as she led him back into the living room.

“I know who you are to me,” she said. “I just don’t know what to do about it.”

CHAPTER FOUR

∞∞∞

Nik was slightly startled to discover that it was still morning when they finally took a seat at the kitchen table again. Of course it didn’t help that he had been up beyond early, but so much had happened over the last hour or so that he felt it had to be evening at the earliest.

Yes, and we should feed our mate a large meal, and then curl up around her,his bear rumbled with satisfaction, and all right, that sounded amazing.

“Are you hungry?” he asked instead, and Deanna looked startled, then chagrined.

“Actually, yes. Usually I grab something to eat at the shop, but I’m overdue.”

“Eggs, bacon and bagels sound good to you?”

“Oh my God, yes. Can I help?”

“Kind of tight quarters. You can keep me company, though, if you want. And we can talk.”

“Sounds like a good idea.”

To his surprise, instead of taking a seat at the table, she came to sit on the counter by the stove, hefting herself up with a tiny throaty noise that made his stomach lurch with interest. Once seated, she looked at him with sparkling dark eyes.

“Your mom and dad let me do this all the time.”

“That’s a lie,” he said gravely. “My parents would never leave something delicious just sitting on the counter.”

He wasn’t sure where the line had come from. As compliments went, it involved his parents, never a good thing, but Deanna actually laughed, drumming her fingers on one plush thigh.

“Is that so? Well, I was told you should never leave, um, a big hunk of beefsteak out at room temperature.”

He pointed at himself with a raised eyebrow, and she nodded, covering her grin with her hand.

“Yes, yes, you, absolutely you. Okay, maybe we call this one a draw.”

“You just want to do that because I’m winning,” he argued. “Because you’re a snack.”

“You’re a–steak? This isn’t fair. There are more food names for women than for men.”

“Like what?”

“Tomato, candy, sweetpea, flower. All I have for you is beefsteak.”

“Good. I like steak.”

“And I like you.”

She looked a little stunned to have said it. He was braced for her to take it back or laugh it off, but she nodded slightly, as if coming to a decision.

“I do like you,” Deanna said softly.

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