BEARed to You(10)
There was something about him. Especially after she’d watched him turn into the bear. A strength and dark sensuality, tempered with a touch of vulnerability. He was genuinely one of a kind, which made him that much more dangerous.
She needed to get out of there, away from him. Not just because she didn’t belong in the woods any more than a penguin belonged in the jungles of Africa. And not just because he turned into an animal that weighed anywhere from five to ten times what she did and probably wouldn’t mind swallowing her whole.
She needed to get out of there because of what he might do to her heart. Tarik was not a stripper like she’d thought. He was a genetic researcher who’d done some kind of experiment on himself, from the looks of it. This man was brilliant, fascinating, sexy…
Man oh man, she was in trouble. She knew herself well enough to know that if he was half as smart as he claimed, she could fall for this guy. She tended to do that if she let down her guard—fall for guys hard and fast. Especially sexy, intelligent, semi-vulnerable guys. Two weeks was nothing to some people. But to her, fourteen days and nights was ample time to set herself up for some serious heartbreak.
The itinerary for her vacation to Alaska did not include heartbreak. Vacation fling with someone she could never fall in love with, yes. Falling for a guy who wasn’t just sexy but thoughtful and smart, hell no!
She really didn’t need those kinds of complications in her life right now. Damn her weakness for people, animals, things that needed rescuing. That susceptibility had gotten her into this situation in the first place. If he hadn’t given her those sad puppy dog eyes—and yes, her erroneous (idiotic) assumption that he’d been a gift from Katie—she wouldn’t have been tempted to let him stick around.
She was her own worst enemy sometimes.
At the risk of making another stupid decision, she determined she needed to leave the cabin, find someplace safer to stay until she could fly back home or until Katie could join her. Either way, she wasn’t going to see Tarik the morphing research scientist again.
Lucky for her, like most men after having mind-blowing sex, Tarik slept deep and hard. At the first light of daybreak, she scooped up her suitcases and headed out to the truck she’d rented. She threw them on the backseat and checked her cell to see if she had a signal. Nada. She’d have to wait to call Katie.
It was difficult, but she didn’t go back inside for one last look at Tarik the man-bear. She didn’t leave a note. She didn’t wake him to explain. He was truly the most mysterious, interesting, gorgeous man she’d ever laid eyes on. To stand there and stare at him, remembering how it had felt to have him touch her, make love to her…she couldn’t do it.
As she maneuvered the truck around the wide circle driveway, she whispered guiltily, “’Bye, Tarik. I hope you figure out what’s happening to you.”
Chapter Three
She was gone. Gone! His woman. The one he’d had only once and wanted again, already.
He searched the cabin. Her luggage was missing. He looked outside. Her rented truck was gone. A set of fresh tire tracks wound down the drive and out to the road.
A horde of emotions flared through him, ten times more intense than he wanted them to be. Fear for her safety, frustration, confusion, anger. They churned inside his gut like storm clouds. Wrapped in the blanket, no shoes on his feet, he ran down the rural dirt road, thankful for the lack of traffic. Her truck’s tracks hadn’t been covered. He could easily follow them. He had to.
She was alone out there. Alone and defenseless.
What if she got lost? Or her truck broke down? What if a tire went flat? She needed him. She was obviously out of her element.
He broke into a full run, raced past his own house without a thought, following the winding road that meandered through the pine forests. If she was headed back to Anchorage, she was going the wrong way. Did she realize that? His fears swelled with every moment that went by. Rage soon followed.
He wasn’t just running now, he was charging. Into battle. Battle with the beast.
He lost.
Right after he’d stepped on something hard, a rock maybe, he felt the first twinges of the change again. “No!” he shouted. The dense forest around him swallowed up his voice. He fell to the ground as his bones shifted and his muscles stretched. This time the beast didn’t have to fight so hard to take over the man. His fury and fear fed it until his thoughts were gone and only instinct drove him. He ran through the trees, battering anything in his way. He came upon a building of some kind and smelling her inside, kicked and clawed his way through the door.
No Abby.
He ran back outside and sniffed the air then turned toward the road. He heard the pop of a rifle, the whir of a bullet. He dashed for the trees. He ran until he couldn’t run any longer and then he stopped. Finally, exhausted, the beast released him. Luckily he wasn’t far from home. Weak and wobbly-legged, he shifted back to a man.