The bear inside him pushed against his mind. The grizzly wanted nothing more than to claim his mate, mark her, and put a baby inside her as swiftly as possible. That approach was not going to work with his sweet, sensitive little human female. He had to be gentle. He had to go slow.
“Do you feel different now that you met me?” she asked hesitantly.
“Yes. All of my instincts urge me to claim you. It is as if I am drawn to you like a magnet.”
“Am I supposed to feel something?”
“It depends. Some humans do feel the bond of fate and some take longer. I have even heard tales that some human fated mates never feel the bond, leaving their shifter mate alone forever.”
“That’s terrible.”
“I should not have said so much. I don’t wish you to feel pressured to do anything,” he said.
“I don’t feel pressured by you. Not at all. I do feel… something. I feel different, attached to you somehow. I also feel something else…”
She giggled and Levi could scent a wave of arousal wash between them. The grizzly bear growled inside him, and a hint of it escaped through Levi’s own lips. When they were done with dinner, Levi asked if Juliet would like to join him on the couch that faced the fireplace.
He took her hand and led her to sit beside him on the plush red couch. There was a black throw blanket over the back of the couch, and he pulled it over their laps for additional warmth.
He put his arm over the back of the couch, and she leaned into his chest so that he was holding her as they sat side-by-side.
“Tell me about your dreams, Juliet,” he whispered into her ear.
She looked up at him as if no one had asked her such a question before. She blinked twice and looked back at the fire.
“I want to do satisfying work. A home, children, a family. Mostly, I want to feel at peace. I imagine living with beauty all around me, so I can suck up the inspiration every moment of my life.”
“You amaze me,” he said. “You’re an inspiration.”
“I’m not inspiring,” she said, dismissing herself.
He leaned forward and gently rubbed his knuckles over her cheek, looking deep into the pools of her eyes. Her expression was questioning as he gazed at her. She needed to know what she really was.
“That’s where you’re wrong, Juliet. All those things you say you want. They are inside you already. You are the beauty. You are the inspiration. You are the peace and satisfaction. It’s all you. I can sense it. I know who you are.”
“Levi,” she said, breathing heavily.
He leaned and caught her breathless mouth. She moaned as she ran her hand down his side and grasped his waist, pulling him closer. The kiss deepened, his tongue sliding between her lips. They tasted each other, exploring the depths of each other’s passion.
His inner grizzly could not be contained much longer, and Levi pulled Juliet up on his lap astride him. She rested her forehead on his and gazed in his eyes as she pulled open the first button on his shirt. Her body slid over the length of his stiff shaft. Her lips were slightly parted as she planted them on his mouth. Levi ran his warm hands under her shirt and over her back, pulling her harder against his erection.
It elicited a frantic moan from her lips. He pulled his hand around and cupped her breast, feeling her tight nipple under the layers of her clothes. She rocked back and forth over him, letting him know exactly what she wanted.
He pulled away, looking questioningly in her eyes.
“I want this,” she whispered.
“Then you will have it,” he growled, twirling her around and depositing her back against the cushions of the couch as he climbed between her legs.
His cell phone began to ring. And ring.
“Shit,” he said, reaching for the phone on the coffee table.
“Don’t answer it,” she said below him, pulling on the lapels of his shirt.
“It could be an emergency,” he said. “I’m sorry.” He kissed her forehead and sat up to answer the phone.
“It’s okay. I understand. You have important responsibilities.”
She was being kind, but he could hear her disappointment in her voice.
“Hello?” Levi said, answering the phone.
“You need to get back here now,” Kelly said frantically. “Shane’s erupted.”
Chapter 9
While Levi dealt with the kitchen emergency, Juliet went up to her room to get ready for the bachelorette party that night. When she got upstairs, she found a note on her door that said to come get ready with Quinn in her room. Juliet grabbed her things before trotting down the hall to her friend’s room. She knocked on the door, and Quinn flung it open two seconds later. Her friend’s dark brown eyes were wide with excitement.
“Come in,” Quinn said, waving Juliet inside.
Quinn’s room was identical to Juliet’s, except there were clothes flung all over the queen sized bed, easy chairs, and table. There was even a pink push-up bra hanging over the television.
“What happened in here?” Juliet asked.
“I can’t find anything to wear,” Quinn said.
Her natural hair was already twisted into ringlets, giving her a textured bob that shaped her pretty, oval face. Quinn fisted her hips, looking around the room, distraught.
“Why don’t you just wear what you have on?”
Quinn was wearing a sleeveless, formfitting teal blue dress. It accentuated her curvy shape and her smooth, chocolate skin. She looked perfect.
“I want to look good tonight,” Quinn said with a hint of something Juliet recognized.
“Do you have a date?” Juliet asked, spreading her own red dress across an empty spot on the bed. Juliet had gone for something a little more classically feminine with a fitted bodice and flared skirt that fell just above the knee. She’d paired it with shiny black pumps that would make the outfit sexy enough for a bachelorette party.
“It isn’t necessarily a date,” Quinn said, turning on her nude colored heel and stepping toward the closet with her back to Juliet.
“Isn’t necessarily a date? What the hell is that?”
Quinn spun around, her face saying she had the biggest, craziest secret of her life. “The guy I met on Mate.com is delivering his beer to the parties tonight.”
“What was his name?”
“Drew.”
“That’s super-hot,” Juliet teased.
Quinn stepped past her and flicked out her fingertips towards Juliet’s forearm. “Shut up. I’m nervous.”
“I can tell.”
Juliet was enjoying this. Quinn was usually so cool. It was like nothing fazed her. She never got nervous over guys. Quinn turned back around after grabbing the bra over the TV and throwing it into her suitcase. She looked at Juliet with desperation in her eyes.
“You know that shifters are different from human men,” Quinn said.
“I just got back from a date with one.”
Quinn stepped forward, putting her hands on Juliet’s shoulders. Quinn was taller than Juliet by a few inches and towered over Juliet in her high heels. “How did it go? What did he do?”
“It was nice. Really nice. Probably the best date I’ve ever been on. He was so sweet and romantic. And when we kissed… It was so hot. But it wasn’t just that. It was more like the stars had aligned or something. I can’t explain it. It just felt really warm and safe.”
“So does he want to mate with you?”
“I think that’s a pretty serious subject for him. You know shifters have fated mates. It’s a shifter’s perfect match. And shifters mate for life. That’s forever.”
“Did he ask you to marry him?”
“No! It was our first date. We ate lunch at this beautiful gazebo in the lake and made out on the couch in front of the fire. It was awesome. He’s awesome. We talked about this stuff a little bit, but he was really serious about it. I could tell he was holding himself back. Going at my pace was his priority.”
“Are you his f
ated mate? Did he tell you?”
“Well… Yes. I am.”
“What are you going to do? Do you feel anything?”
“I do. I think.”
“I wonder if I’ll feel anything when I meet Drew,” Quinn said thoughtfully, crossing her arms.
“Have you guys been texting?”
“A little bit.”
“So you think you’re going to meet him, and he’ll ask you to marry him immediately?”
“Something like that. I want to meet him, but that’s about as far as I’m willing to commit right now,” Quinn said.
“I don’t think you have anything to worry about,” Juliet said. “Now let’s get ready.”
Juliet changed her clothes, did her hair, and put on fresh makeup. They met Charlotte and the other bridesmaids out in the hallway. The wedding guests who would be attending the bachelor and bachelorette parties had already arrived and were clustered in the hallways.
Everyone was dressed in sparkling and glittery clothes, ready for a great party at the lakeside mountain lodge. As the maid of honor, Juliet had been responsible for organizing the bachelorette party. She couldn’t wait to see Charlotte’s face when her surprise arrived later.
There were two separate areas in the lodge where private parties could be held simultaneously. One was the main dining room where the women’s celebration would be held. The second was a conference hall that was often used for special events, according to the lodge brochure. That’s where the bachelor party would be held. That way, the guests could intermingle in the other rooms of the lodge yet still have private celebrations. It promised to be an interesting night.
Juliet rode down in the elevator with Charlotte and the bridesmaids. The music was already thumping through the hallway when the elevator doors opened. Balloons lined the open doors of the dining room across the lobby. The women laughed with each other as they strode into the party. Most of the other guests had already arrived and were enjoying the food and drinks from the bar.
Everyone looked great and several women were dancing. The bridesmaids joined the party, and Juliet laughed as Quinn swept her onto the dance floor.
“This party needs men!” Quinn shouted over the music.
Out of the corner of her eye, Juliet noticed a burly, bearded man holding a silver keg on his shoulder in the doorway. Juliet turned to look at him, and Quinn stopped still as a statue beside her. Juliet turned to smirk at her friend, who grabbed her arm and squeezed.
“That’s him,” Quinn whispered.
Juliet could see Quinn and Drew’s eyes lock before he turned toward the bar and set his keg beside it. He glanced back at her as he set it up.
“Are you going to say hello?” Juliet asked. Quinn still hadn’t moved.
“He’s busy.”
“Go talk to him,” Juliet said, pushing her friend toward the bear shifter across the room.
Quinn took several baby steps forward then stopped, took a deep breath, and strode toward him like the confident girl Juliet knew. Quinn tossed her head and greeted him with a hand on her hip.
“Go get him,” Juliet said under her breath.
Charlotte came up behind her and wrapped her arms around Juliet’s waist.
“What’s Quinn doing?” she said in her ear.
“That’s Drew. The brew bear,” Juliet said, laughing.
“Ooh, hot. Wait. Is he leaving?”
Quinn waved goodbye to Drew as he walked out the door of the dining room before she rejoined her friends.
“He just left?” Charlotte asked.
“He has to deliver the bachelor party keg and then he’s coming back to talk.”
“Talk?” Charlotte said, snorting.
She pulled Quinn and Juliet onto the dance floor. But Drew wouldn’t be the only bear they saw at the bachelorette party tonight. The man Juliet was waiting for walked into the room and the DJ stopped the music.
“Did someone call for a rescue?” a golden haired, blue eyed man said from the doorway.
He was dressed in outdoor gear with his khaki shirt halfway open. It was easy to see the rippled muscles of his chest. Juliet knew the stripper who went by the name Rock Hard was a bear shifter. That’s what the talent agency had said anyway.
The women started to scream as the golden haired man bounded on top of the bar while the bartender poured everyone a pint of Drew’s craft beer. Rock Hard started to dance to the music, unbuttoning his shirt.
The guests pulled chairs up in front of the bar and watch the stripper slip out of his button-up shirt. He threw it down to the floor to pool at Charlotte’s feet. As Rock Hard started to grind his hips, the women clapped and cheered, taking long swigs of Drew’s special Fate Mountain brew.
The energetic dance music came to the bridge and the dancer yanked off his pants, leaving him in a pair of work boots and a speedo with the words “Rescue Bear” across the crotch. The women screamed and Rock Hard jumped off the bar, landing in front of Charlotte.
“Don’t worry, ma’am, I’m here to rescue you,” he said with a twirl.
He used the cables he’d brought with him to tie around her before he started a special dance, just for the bride. Charlotte laughed and cheered as Rock Hard circled his hips around in front of her face. The dancer was so physically fit, his oiled muscles glistened in the lights of the dining room. As the song came to the last verse, the dancer reached down and lifted Charlotte over his broad shoulder as if she were weightless.
“I’ll get you off this mountain!” the stripper said, carrying Charlotte across the room.
He reached up and smacked her ass, making her scream with excitement and good humor. Just as Rock Hard was about to set Charlotte down, Levi walked into the room.
“What the hell are you doing with the bride, Zach?” Levi bellowed as the stripper set Charlotte down in her chair.
Charlotte laughed breathlessly as Quinn helped untie the prop from around Charlotte’s body. The dancer looked up at Levi and gave him a good-natured grin.
“The name’s Rock Hard,” the dancer said.
Juliet walked across the room to take Levi’s arm in her hand. She leaned into him and spoke into his ear.
“Is this stripper one of your crew?” Juliet asked.
“Yes. I can see you ladies are having a good time so I’m not going to lecture him about having ‘Rescue Bears’ written across his crotch.”
Zach continued dancing for the other ladies, getting one dollar bills shoved in his speedo.
“The men have a dancer over on their side too. I just didn’t expect to see my ski instructor down here half naked,” Levi said.
“I can understand how that would be a shock,” Juliet said to him. “Especially if you didn’t know he was a stripper on the side.”
Juliet couldn’t help giggling as the dancer continued to grind his hips in front of her friends. Zach was really good looking with his rippling muscles, blue eyes, and bleach blonde hair. He was hot, but way too energetic for her taste.
It made her happy she’d been matched with Levi. Levi was exactly Juliet’s type. Green eyes, dark blonde hair, a quiet sense of responsibility that kept him grounded. She liked everything about him. She loved his unassuming charm and his loyal leadership of his crew. Contrasting him to a man like Zach just made Juliet want him that much more.
She wrapped both her arms around his elbow and snuggled closer to him as she giggled at Zach’s antics with the other women in the room. Zach jumped up on the bar and did a handstand to the vocal approval of his audience. Juliet and Levi stood in the open doorway and couldn’t help but notice when Drew entered the room again.
“Drew?” Levi said. “Didn’t you already deliver your keg to this party?”
“Yes,” said the man with a sparkle in his eye. He had a hand-crocheted beanie hat pushed back over his brown hair. The sleeves of his flannel shirt were rolled back to reveal his tattoos. “But that’s not why I’m here.”
Juliet watched Quinn look up from the entert
ainment. Her eyes met Drew’s and she stood from her chair, walking directly to him where he stood in the doorway.
“Do you want to get out of here?” Drew said to Quinn.
“Yes,” Quinn said, wrapping her arm through his.
“Where are you going?” Juliet asked.
“I’m going to show Quinn the brewery,” Drew said with a wink to Juliet and Levi.
Juliet and Levi looked at each other as if they were a couple of parents watching their children misbehave.
“What’s that all about?” Levi asked.
“They met on Mate.com,” Juliet informed him.
“I had no idea they’d been matched.”
“Quinn was messing around with it on the way up in the car. I don’t think she’s taking it very seriously, to tell you the truth.”
“Drew can take care of himself. Believe me. That guy has no trouble with the ladies, if you know what I mean.”
“Why did he sign up for the dating site? Does he want to find his fated mate?”
“I don’t know. I can’t tell you why Drew does half of what he does. He was probably just supporting our friend Corey who developed the thing.”
“Well, it sounds like Drew and Quinn have a lot in common. That means we don’t have to worry about either of them,” Juliet said with a sigh.
“Good. Let’s forget about them for a while and focus on each other. Have you tasted the beer?”
Juliet giggled, looking up at Levi with a lightness in her heart. They walked together into the party and got two more pints of beer from the bar. After drinking a pint or two and watching Zach entertain the ladies, Juliet reached over to Levi and snuggled up under his arm. She wanted to be closer to him, away from the loud music and all the activity of the party.
“You want to get out of here?” she asked, smelling the masculine scent of his skin as she spoke into his ear.
“Definitely,” he said in a husky voice.
He took her hand and led her through the party. No one noticed or said a word as they shuffled out the door, down the side hallway, and into the elevator.
“Where are we going?” she asked him as he held her close to his side.