Page 96 of More Than I Can Bear

“Polar bears are the largest of all the bear species,” Kaine shot back, but I couldn’t tell if that was to warn me or to gloat. I didn’t bother to clarify, transfixed by the sight of him pulling his shirt off. But all those muscles transformed in a blink of an eye, turning into a now familiar form.

I hadn’t had a chance to inspect Kaine’s bear closely the other night. My brain had been broken by the sight of it and I’d bailed as quickly as my legs could carry me. But now… The polar bear’s head shifted from side to side, his huge paws stamping the ground almost nervously, right before I took a step towards him.

My hands went out, like I was gentling a horse, not the biggest apex predator on the planet. And the bear? His nose worked as his head swung closer. We slowly, slowly worked our way closer to each other, him jerking back when I did, growing bolder when I did the same. But the first time I touched him, I let out a sigh and he shifted closer, that massive head coming and resting against my chest, then giving me a nudge that had me stumbling.

“He wants a pat,” River explained.

I let out an incredulous laugh, then wrapped my arms around Kaine’s head, reaching down to scratch around the bear’s neck. We all chuckled when a massive paw started tapping the ground in time with my scratches. But when I stopped, the bear grew insistent, letting out a little growl to make clear he wanted more, right before Kaine came back to skin.

“He’s pushy—” he tried to explain.

“Just like you are,” Adam added.

“Whenever he likes something, he just wants more.”

“Just like you do.” River interrupted Adam before he could make another smart arse remark, shooting his sleuthmate a meaningful look.

“Well, right now I want a swim. How about it, Freya?” Adam asked, propping his arm out for me to take, which was kinda incongruous because he was completely naked.

“What about River’s bear?” I asked, right before the man himself strode forward and picked me up, throwing me in the air, as if to land on his shoulders, but by the time I did, it was on the broad back of a black bear instead of the man.

Jack and I had drunkenly joked about riding the bears down Rundle Mall, but now that I was experiencing it for real, I knew that this was better. River’s bear roared and then barrelled towards the deck that led out to the river beyond, my fingers digging into his fur.

“River…! River…!” I yelped, just before he launched himself into the water.

I was submerged, clothes and all, forced to swim up and splutter before turning on the black bear with a roar.

“Well, he did put you in the river, as you asked,” Adam said with a cackle, before leaping off the bank and into the water. When he landed, it wasn’t as a man, but as a bear, and waves and waves of water threatening to overwhelm me.

“Are you alright?” Kaine scooped me up and dragged me back to the shallows. “If we get these clothes off now and hang them in the sun, they should be dry before we leave.”

“Is that an attempt to help me or to get me naked?” I asked, clambering up onto the bank.

“Well, they say the secret to success is multitasking,” he said with a studiously smooth expression. “So…”

I punched his arm then and it was totally worth seeing his look of surprise, then hearing his low chuckle, but as I pulled my sodden clothes off, I saw there had been more than one casualty to River’s prank.

“My phone!” I pulled it out of a sodden pocket and then shook my head.

“We’ll get you a new one,” Kaine assured me as I stripped down, “and I’ll take the cost from their wages. You don’t need it now, but you do need this.”

As he scooped me up and ran towards the riverbank, I was beginning to think the whole sleuth shared a psychic bond. River and Adam were now back in skin and watching us with the eyes of predators as we approached. They launched themselves at me the moment I was back in the water. Hands grabbed me, arms tugged me closer in a wild fray of splashes and kisses, right before I emerged breathless.

“It’s not so bad, being the mate of three bears, right?” Adam asked.

“It’s considerably wetter than I thought it’d be,” I grumped, even as the cool water washed over my skin, the dappled sunlight that filtered through the trees overhead bathing my face.

“I’ll get you wetter…”

Adam pulled me into his arms like we’d been together for years, not minutes, and that was the magic of him. By assuming everything was alright from the get go, apparently it was. He smiled as my head dropped down, our mouths seeking each other, but slowly, creating anticipation that just made the kiss sweeter when it came. I forgot about bears, the river, everything, as he kissed me senseless, water dripping off me as he pulled me from the water.

“Adam…”

“Yeah?”

His voice was all low and husky.

“You didn’t get off last night.”

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