Bearllionaire(11)

“Do what?”

“Realize they gave up the best thing for them.” He tried to keep the bitterness out of his tone. If his dad had truly felt this way about his mom, why had he treated her like that? Why had he strayed? He clenched his hand around the steering wheel and tried to force the thoughts from his mind. He had his father’s journal to read through while he worked through the will, and maybe more answers would be forthcoming. In the meantime, he was angry.

“I’m sorry if I hit a sore spot,” she said quietly.

“Well, let’s just say the old man had a little bit of Scott in him,” he replied, hating the sourness that came from admitting it. “Anyway, have you told this Scott guy that you’re not interested?”

“I’ve been refusing to talk to him. If I try to tell him, if I give him a reason, he’s the type that will just try to argue me out of it. If I ignore him, there’s nothing he can do.”

A prickle of unease went up Ryder’s back. For what could have happened when he wasn’t around. This didn’t sound like a person who was simply interested. The fact that he’d been trying to keep contact when she’d been outright ignoring him made him something worse than simply an ex. It made him a stalker. And who knew what was on his mind. And who would inflict more pain and annoyance on a woman they’d already hurt badly?

“Why don’t you call the cops?” he asked.

“He knows the cops,” she said. “They’d probably just tell me he doesn’t mean any harm and I should forgive him, besides. Anyway, I don’t want to talk about Scott anymore. I’m fairly certain he couldn’t reach me up here, and I’m going to savor that.”

“And if he did, I’d toss him out on his ass. And then some,” Ryder grumbled, fury moving through him as they pulled up the final drive to the lodge, rising huge in the distance.

“What?” she asked.

“Nothing,” he snapped, not sure if she’d be okay with him showing his overprotective nature this early. But he wouldn’t let anything happen to Janna, not while she was here with him. Not in general, even if she didn’t choose him. She was clearly a good woman, and he’d free her from the presence of Scott in her life one way or another. If it was a ticket out of here she wanted, then the money he’d pay her for this week would be sufficient to grant that.

The thought made him a little queasy though. Janna leaving.

She’s not yours yet, he told his bear. His bear turned up his nose with a huff as if to say he didn’t believe him.

His bear was such a powerful animal that he often felt more separate to Ryder than a part of him. Yet without both sides of him, he wouldn’t have been whole. Both separate and the same, him and his bear.

And his bear was excited to pull up at the lodge safely with Janna.

Game on.





4





Janna wrapped her arms around herself as she stepped out of the car. Ryder had come around to hold her door, and she felt an ache of nostalgia at how it felt to have someone taking care of her. She hadn’t been courted in what felt like forever.

But she knew guys like Ryder didn’t go for women like her. They usually had young, slender models or Hollywood starlets on their arms. Sometimes both at once.

It wasn’t that Janna didn’t see herself as a smart, independent woman who’d seen hardship and proven herself by getting through it. It was just that after catching Scott in the arms of a skinny woman, just when she’d dared to believe a man could love her just as she was, the insecure teenager in her had come roaring to life, reminding her that guys never end up with the fat girl.

Stop it, she told herself inwardly. That’s past baggage, and Ryder deserves a fair shot.

None of her usual alarm bells were going off with him. But maybe that was just that perfect smile, those deep blue eyes that sparkled like a night sky over the mountains in summer, or that tall, immensely muscled body that made her feel small and petite. Two things she really wasn’t.

It’s not that she didn’t care. She worked out and ate all right for a busy professional. But she didn’t have the time to devote all day to fitness or the metabolism to be naturally thin. And she’d been chubby since she was little and just kind of embraced it. Unlike her sister, Beth, whom her mom had always favored, no matter what she did, it didn’t seem to result in her being skinny.

So she’d resorted to being the independent girl. The smart girl. The successful one. While Beth had ridden on her looks and married rich men. Three different times.

She sighed at the thought that she should probably call and check in on her family but told herself putting it off another week wouldn’t matter.