Bearllionaire Stepbrother 1 (Bear Oaks Book 1) Read online

  “This. Is. So. Goooood!” My voice was muffled in between chews.

  He grinned that panty-dropping grin again, and I almost creamed my knickers. I couldn’t let this go on any longer and had to put an end to it. There was no way we could be together anyway, so why bother flirting?

  “Stop it,” I said.

  “Stop what?”

  “Looking at me like that.”

  “Like what? I enjoy looking at you,” he chortled.

  I stopped chewing, swallowed, and stared at him. “Like you want to eat me alive. It’s killing me.”

  He glanced away, and I immediately felt bad.

  “Sorry. I can’t help it, Jess,” he admitted as he stared at the cream carpet beneath his bare feet. Jeez, even his feet were sculpted to perfection; the tendons stretching and bulging as he curled his toes.

  “You make me not think straight,” Jake continued quietly.

  You and me both.

  Inside my heart was dancing a merry little jig, but up top my stupid yet well-meaning brain was urging me to consider all the reasons why I shouldn’t say one more word, why I shouldn’t encourage him anymore.

  It felt like my whole world hinged on that very moment. Should I tell him I felt the same way or shut him down? Bury my feelings deep and crush both our hearts in one fell swoop. I knew what the right thing to say would be, what my dad and every sensible other person out there would say.

  And yet the wrong words were out of my mouth before I could stop them.

  “Me too.”

  Take that, brain!

  Jake’s head snapped up, his caramel eyes boring into mine, and I saw the animal inside clamouring to escape. Was it getting hot in here, or was it just me?

  I licked my lips, tasting the saltiness of the sharp cheese but longing for his lips to be on me instead. Do it! Kiss me, oh god, please kiss me. I wanted him to quickly close the gap between us and take me into his strong arms again. My heart pounded in my chest waiting for it to happen.

  “Oh, hey you two! It’s really chucking it down out there. Did you get caught in the rain, too?” Alex asked, breaking the spell that had been cast upon us.

  For a couple of seconds the room was deadly silent and all I could hear was the air frantically escaping my lungs. It was if we’d been caught actually doing the nasty when we were only praying for it to happen. Shit, I don’t know which was worse and my cheeks burned in embarrassment.

  “Oh, hi Alex. Yeah, I was hiking and got a little soaked,” I managed to say in a daze, motioning to my partially dried and very frizzy curls. I must look a right state; a flustered wildling with all my primal senses overtaking me.

  “Isn’t that always the way?” she said in a light, polite tone. Too polite if you asked me. She was forcing friendly conversation and smiling too much. Alex glanced at her son and gave him a serious, knowing look.

  “Jake, I think you better go to Green Oaks and take care of business.” When he didn’t answer or move she added, “Now!”

  “All right, all right! I’m going.”

  I kept my body rigid as Jake glared at his mom and removed himself from the sofa, taking his warmth with him.

  “Don’t you want to know why?” she asked quietly as he passed her.

  “I already know why,” he replied and walked out of the room leaving me to smile like a fool at his mother, pretending that everything was perfectly normal.

  No sudden movements, I thought. Something’s not quite right…

  I pondered whether or not she knew about Jake’s furry little secret. She had to, surely? It only took me a few days before I stumbled upon not one, but two bears - another one and I was changing my name to Goldilocks. But Alex’s been here a lot longer than I, not to mention she was his mother – she’d raised him. She had to know. And yet her face was a blank mask, she wasn’t about to give away anything, even if I asked.

  My brain slowly caught up to the situation and started gathering puzzle pieces in the hopes of glimpsing the truth. What if everyone already knew? Did my dad know? And if Jake was one of these things, and so was Doug, did that mean everyone else was also a… a shifter? That was the only appropriate name I could possible conceive at that moment, but the word fit perfectly. Like a round peg in a round hole. And they couldn’t well be called transformers, now could they? Werebears in disguise… I chuckled at my little joke and immediately clammed up as soon as Alex turned her head towards me.

  Such a bizarre conversation to have with oneself; I felt like I was on another planet or was having a bad trip. Maybe I was still dreaming… One thing I knew for sure: I was in way over my head. I needed to talk to Jake. He’d been saved by the storm and now his mom, but I vowed to get answers from him sooner or later.

  Ten

  Jake

  As soon as I entered the Green Oaks bar, which also doubled as the community lodge, the noise hit me like a tidal wave, deafening me. I hoped that after a couple of drinks they’d all see reason.

  “You look like you need a stiff one,” Chris the barman prompted.

  “How did you guess?”

  Chris shrugged as his eyes fell onto the trouble makers, the ones making the most noise, over in the corner. “The usual?”

  “Might as well make it a double,” I groaned. “This may take a while.”

  I took my drink and headed towards the makeshift stage opposite the bar. I glanced around the room taking in the faces as they gradually quieted down, noticing my presence.

  After a quick swallow of soothing bourbon I cleared my throat and got ready to address the crowd. Everyone was here. Good, I thought, I won’t have to repeat myself. I had no time for bullshit.

  “Listen up!” I said, my voice silencing the enclosed space.

  “You here with excuses, Jake?” Doug yelled from the corner. Murmurs rippled through the room.

  “Actually Doug, I’m here to apologise. I fucked up.”

  “Too right you did, put the lot of us in jeopardy,” Doug continued, partially slurring his words. He swayed on his thick legs as he pointed an accusing finger at me.

  “I’m here to tell you all it won’t happen again. It was an honest mistake. Jessica is just a young girl. She didn’t know—”

  “But she does now! That’s the point. The cat is truly outta the bag now. How the fuck can I, can we, trust her to keep her mouth shut?” Doug continued.

  “Doug, if you interrupt me again…” I took a deep breath to regain my patience, I had to be reasonable, level-headed. I was their supposed leader after-all. “Look, I can assure everyone Jessica is not like that. She didn’t bolt or freak out when she saw me shift; she was more concerned with my injury than anything.”

  “Yeah, but what if she tells her father? He’s a reporter, ain’t he?”

  Grumbles of shock emanated from each table. Crap, I was hoping to keep that little bit of information quiet.

  “He’s a writer, yes. Look, I’ll keep a closer eye on Jessica and her dad—”

  “Not good enough, Jake,” chimed in Mick, Doug’s closest pal. What a clusterfuck. Now I had this idiot siding with Doug, did they really want me to lose my shit? That’d be playing into their hands, I thought, but the rage inside me was building to an almost uncontrollable level.

  “How about we vote?” said Hank, cutting Mick off and surprising me with this tactic; attempting to appease everyone. I stopped grinding my teeth. This might actually work, I thought. The majority of the clan saw sense most of the time, and they all knew what jokes Doug and Mick were.

  “Good idea! I reckon we should vote on it, like the good ol’ days. Democracy, you know?” Doug cheered, grinning like he’d gotten one over on me, like he’d already bloody won.

  “Fine. But do I need to remind you that I gave each and every one of you a second chance at life? A secure place to live? I ask only this in return,” I said and took the time to look each member in the eye. If this was what it was going to take to regain the trust and respect of my clan, then I’d let this litt
le farce of a vote proceed.

  In reality, I could’ve had them all evicted from the mountain in a flash - Bear Oak Lumber Mill was not an integral part of my empire, not even close. It was a cover and it was here as a preoccupation for those who needed it. But like it or not, these men had become my family. I was responsible for them. I couldn’t send them out into the cold, beyond the fence, with no protection, to be picked off one by one by the undomesticated filth that roamed our edges. That was not who I am.

  “Those in favour of giving my stepfather and stepsister one more chance and allowing them to remain on Scarfell, please raise your hands,” I said and raised my own hand while scanning the room, praying the vote would be favourable; I couldn’t bear to lose Jessica, not now. Just the thought of her being banished made my insides rip in two.

  I breathed a sigh of relief as several arms went up into the air.

  “Final tally is 10 for, 3 against.” I made a mental note of the three opposed: Doug and his buddies. I’d have to watch my back with them lot, I thought, this wouldn’t be over for them.

  With the impromptu meeting over, I knew I had to get out of there quick, away from Doug, before I really lost my temper. He was actively trying to undermine everything I’d worked for. My temples pulsed hard, it felt like my eyeballs were being squeezed from the sides. But first there was someone I had to thank.

  Over by the bar, Hank was sitting alone and facing away from the rest. Once an outcast, always an outcast, I thought.

  “Chris, another if you wouldn’t mind, and one for Hank, too,” I said as I rested my palms on the bar’s surface.

  “You saved my bacon back there, you know?”

  “Ain’t that always the way, Jake?” he chuckled. Our drinks arrived, and we clinked the rims together. “Anyway, I had a good reason,” he added after taking a mouthful of the bourbon.

  “What do you mean?” What was the old guy up to now?

  “I’ve seen the way you look at her.”

  “At who? At Jess?” I raised my eyebrows. Fuck, how could he know?

  He must’ve seen the panic in my face. “She’s not blood, Jake. And you know as well as I do how rare it is for our kind to find compatibility – to find a mate, to find love.”

  Holy fuck. He was out of his mind.

  “You’ve got it wrong,” I said, trying desperately to believe my own lie.

  “Have I?” Hank said and shrugged.

  His words burrowed into my head, a seed planted. I reached for a stool and sat heavily onto it. I’d never really considered what he was implying until now… and crazily, it all started to make sense. There had been an instant attraction between us, and I’d done everything I could to will it away, to completely dismiss it, blaming a surge of hormones, but the feeling had never dissipated, it only grew stronger – more so when she was away from me.

  And yet, whenever I was not with her physically, she was always there, lingering in the back of my mind, ever present. Maybe he was right. Maybe Jess was fated to be my mate, but I resisted calling it love. There was no way it could be love. Love was a fairy-tale; a myth. Love was lust dressed up and made fancy, so people wouldn’t feel guilty of their primal instincts to fuck. No. That wouldn’t be me. I wouldn’t be fooled.

  The clamour of the bar was not helping me untangle my thoughts; it was too warm, too stifling.

  “I gotta go, Hank,” I said and moved for the exit.

  “Don’t forget what I said, Jake. You can’t let this one slip by you, otherwise you’ll regret it for the rest of your life,” he called and went back to nurse his drink.

  Yeah, like I could ever forget that now.

  I stepped out into the night. Rain drizzled down on me, blissfully cooling my troubled face.

  Jesus, every fibre in my body was agreeing with him, urging me to go to her. It wasn’t just that I wanted her – I damn well needed her. Needed to have her. Images of taking her hard flashed before my eyes, images of her hands cradling her swollen belly, ripe with promise. A life together that could never be.

  I shook my head. I wouldn’t go home. I couldn’t; Jess would be there. Her scent would drive me crazy, overpower me, and I’d have little choice.

  No, I needed to think, so I chose to go in the opposite direction, through the trees and up the rocky trail, away from home.

  Eleven

  Jessica

  Where was he running off to?

  In need of answers, I decided to get off my butt and go get them. Overhearing Alex and Jake’s conversation, I did the most natural thing that came to me: I followed him to the Green Oaks. He’d probably shout at me for stalking after him, if he caught me, but I didn’t care. I wasn’t nuts, I wasn’t a bunny-boiler, I just had to find out what the hell was going on on-top of this mountain!

  I lurked outside in the damp cold air. I didn’t risk entering the bar itself but decided to wait for him to come out. Curiosity got the better of me, though, and I skirted around the side, brushed up against the wooden panel below a cracked-open window and angled my head up to help me hear better. It wasn’t like I was eavesdropping or anything – OK maybe I was, but this was a public place after all, and even if the window had been shut, I still would’ve been able to overhear the unmistakable boom of loud angry voices yelling inside. They all sounded so angry; roaring at each other.

  It made me tremble when I heard my name mentioned. Jake, my knight in fuzzy armour, came to my rescue and my heart warmed for him. Doug, though - jeez, what had I ever done to him, except see his dangly bits that one time? He had it in for me, no doubt about that.

  There was talk of kicking me off the mountain, and just when I was starting to enjoy myself. I’d have to be careful now, I thought. I wanted to stay; had something to stay for…

  After the shouting died down, Jake came storming out of the bar; the door shook as it slammed shut. Seeing his raging and somewhat confused face, I thought better of popping out of my hiding place. I stayed hidden behind the corner of the building.

  He paced up and down, his heavy boots kicking at loose stones. Something had really gotten to him, and all I could think of doing was running to him. I wanted to wrap my arms around his thick neck and calm him down with sensual whispers in his ear.

  But my chance slipped away. I could’ve called out, made Jake turn towards me, but the words were stuck like glue in my throat. He sprinted towards the treeline, towards the trail and started pulling at his clothes, ripping them from his body as his muscles bulged and expanded.

  Who knows what made me pursue him? Instinct, maybe. But I wanted to make sure he was OK. In hindsight though, perhaps I should’ve just left him well alone.

  A fine mist coated my face and hair as I bolted from my hiding place. I passed shredded pieces of fabric, discarded in the mud. Jake was surprisingly easy to follow. The drizzle had made the soil soft; it was perfect for tracking large paw impressions.

  My breathing became laboured as I hurled myself through the trees.

  What the hell are you doing, woman? Are you crazy?

  I was probably being foolish after my double bear encounter, but I couldn’t help myself; there was a need inside me and I knew if I ignored it I’d forever wonder what might’ve been.

  The light had all but gone as my paced slowed. I stopped and took in great gulps of air. He’d been too fast; I wasn’t going to catch him, and I couldn’t see shit.

  Whose idea was it to go tramping in the woods without a flashlight? Oh, right, yeah, this horny idiot.

  I sighed. I was drenched, my sweater sodden and heavy against my skin.

  All of a sudden, the bare patch of skin at the base of my neck prickled, and my body violently shook with a shiver. My head was unmoving, but my eyes swivelled in their sockets trying desperately to see what caused my sudden reaction. I didn’t dare move. Perhaps Jake wasn’t the only one out here.

  Please, not Doug again. Maybe he’d seen me outside the bar and decided to follow me, to finish me off once and for all, rectifying the m
issed opportunity earlier.

  At the thought, my pulse started racing, even more so than when I’d been running. This had been a stupid mistake, I berated myself. I wasn’t that lucky, there was no way I’d escape with my life again… You were only given so much luck in one lifetime and I was pretty sure mine had just ran out.

  Behind me came the sounds of deep exhalations – air forced, gusting through nostrils of what I could only imagine was a great huge beast that was preparing to pounce upon me, gearing up to rip me into teeny tiny pieces.

  “Don’t move,” the beast growled.

  Instantly my eyes dilated in shock, but I did as it commanded and resisted the urge to turn around.

  Jake’s body pressed up against mine, lining himself up at my back. He gathered my damp curly hair and pulled it to one side, revealing my bare neck.

  “You shouldn’t have followed me.”

  “I wanted…” My words trailed off into nothing as his lips brushed the sensitive skin running up from my collarbone to the patch behind my ear. I moaned and tilted my head sideways, melting as he nuzzled into my neck.

  Was this really happening?

  “Is this what you wanted?” he asked, forcibly clamping down hard on my wrists, keeping me in place.

  I had no idea how to respond. There was no doubt in my mind that I wanted him to continue, to ravage me right there in the open air of the mountain. But could I actually let him do it?

  Jake’s hands let go and took hold of my hips, forcing them hard against his crotch.

  Oh, god.

  Through the fabric of my jeans I could feel the hard outline of his stiff cock, wanting me.

  “Yes,” I whispered into the night.

  His hands slid under my sweater, warming a trail up my sides, his fingers touching my bare skin. Before I knew it his hands were cupping my breasts. Instinctively I wiggled and ground my butt backwards to feel him again.