The princess and her dog falling into his world was not something he’d expected. He’d had his life well in hand for quite a long time and he wasn’t prepared to let go of that control. That didn’t mean that Daisy didn’t pull at his heartstrings. He, however, had no idea what to do with her.
Chapter 5
Daisy woke, finding herself under the thick furs on Cyrus’s bed. She scrambled up to a sitting position, and the events of the day before began to catch up with her. She shook her head, putting her palm to her brow.
“How are you feeling?” Cyrus asked from the chair in front of the fireplace.
“Better. I think.”
He brought her a cup of water and she drank it greedily, thanked him and asked for more. He handed her another cupful of water and she drank that down just as fast.
She sighed and relaxed. Finding Cyrus in the woods had been such a surprise to her that she still wasn’t quite sure if she wasn’t dreaming. As relieved as she was to find him, she had the sinking feeling that he just didn’t like her.
They were so different. She’d lived a totally different life than him. He was all raw buckskin and facial hair. She was all about designer bags and manicures. How could they ever be happy together?
And it wasn’t just that. She had the feeling that Cyrus thought she was a silly person. And maybe she was. But that didn’t mean he shouldn’t take her seriously.
Fifi sat beside her on the bed and nuzzled into Daisy’s neck. She petted her little friend and smiled. She knew Fifi would always accept her just as she was.
Cyrus returned to his seat near the fire, and continued frying mushrooms in a cast iron pan. She looked around his cabin and really took it in for the first time.
It wasn’t a very big space. Maybe twelve by twelve. Not even as big as her bedroom at home. She was on the double bed, across from the fireplace, at one end of the room. At the other end sat a table and chairs beside what looked like a work bench.
“Why do you live out here like this?” she asked.
“I thought I explained that on my profile,” he said.
“I didn’t get a chance to read the whole thing.”
He raised an eyebrow at her.
“I was being kidnapped by my stepfather at the time,” she said, snuggling her dog.
“Right. Well. I came out here after the war, when I realized that the world is damaged beyond repair. You should know that better than anyone else.”
“And how does this help?” she asked.
He growled at her and she smirked. “I mean, just look at this place. I get the whole rustic look, but come on. You’re just taking it too far. And what are you cooking anyway? Second rate wild mushrooms in deer fat? What makes you want to eat like that? Don’t you care about yourself?”
“Huh?” he asked.
Daisy giggled inside. She knew she was putting him on his toes. She didn’t even really care why he lived out here. That was his business. She just had to find a way to get through this whole mess without losing her cool. And she refused to let him look down on her. She refused to ever let anyone do that again after yesterday.
She climbed out of bed, finding herself barefoot. Daisy spotted her boots beside a chair and went to sit down so she could put them on.
“You need to learn to take care of yourself if you want to take care of anyone else,” she said, having read that on an inspirational poster somewhere. “If you want to do anything about all the damage in the world, you should first trim your beard. And, I don’t know, maybe add some curtains?”
“Curtains?”
“Yes. Curtains. I think you could do a shabby chic look in this place. Maybe antique lace? What do you think, Fifi? Antique lace in eggshell white?”
Fifi barked in agreement from the bed.
“You want to hang curtains in my cabin?”
“Well, yes. Of course. You need to brighten this place up if you want to get over whatever happened to you out in the big scary world.”
“You are insufferable,” he growled.
“I…” she said, putting her hand to her chest. “I’m only trying to help.”
“What do you know about anything?” he grumbled.
“If you haven’t forgotten, I was raised by a man who just tried to sell me for drugs. So, I’d guess I know plenty.”
He raised his eyebrow at her, crossing his arms over his chest.
“You’ve seen some stuff, that I’ll grant you. But no curtains.”
“Fine. No curtains. But I think you’d be much happier if you upgraded your flatware. How on earth are you getting by, using this aluminum stuff? It’s chipped! You know that’s not good for your health, right?”
“I get by just fine. We need to figure out how to get you off the mountain and to safety. We can figure out our mate situation later,” he grumbled.
She sat opposite from him, her booted legs crossed. She wished she was home right now with her credit card in one hand and a latte in the other. But right now, pressing Cyrus’s buttons was almost as fun. Even if that meant being trapped in his drafty, old cabin.
“You want to get rid of me?” she asked in mock shock.
As much as she liked the idea of having a shifter to protect her, Cyrus had been disappointing so far. She’d always thought shifters were supposed to be super possessive and into their mates. So far, she’d felt like she was on a bad date with a guy who would have rather stayed home.
“It’s not that,” Cyrus said, standing and turning his back to her. “But you can’t stay here and I can’t leave.”
She let out a sigh and crossed her arms. That was the problem, wasn’t it? She had no idea how to get around it or what to do about it. Daisy Danes was not spending the rest of her life in this cabin, no matter how hot and sexy Cyrus might be. He turned back to her, his eyes blazing with animal heat.
“I don’t want to get rid of you, Daisy. On the contrary. But this isn’t going to work. We both know that.”
“That’s why you need to let me put up curtains. It will solve everything,” she said standing from her chair.
She passed Cyrus on her way to the front door, pulling her parka around her shoulders. She gripped the door and looked outside.
The cold air hit her with a blast that stung her face. The day was dark and gray as the snowflakes flurried in thick clumps outside his door.
“You’ve got to be kidding,” she said just as Fifi went running out the door. “Fifi!” she screamed.
Daisy ran after her dog, scrambling over the slick fresh snow toward the forest.
“Fifi, stop!”
“Daisy, wait,” Cyrus said coming up behind her faster than she could comprehend.
His speed made her feel like a little kid walking through water in comparison. He grabbed her arm to stop her.
“She’ll get hurt,” Daisy screamed.
“Hold on. You can’t go out there.”
“I spent all yesterday out there!”
“Just go back to the cabin and let me find her. I’ll bring her right back. I promise you.”
“But she doesn’t like you,” Daisy objected, growing more frantic.
“I’ll make friends with her. Now you go back inside.”
“Promise me you’ll find her,” Daisy begged.
“I promise. Go on now.”
Daisy started back to the cabin, leaving Cyrus in the falling snow. She turned back just in time to see him pull his buckskin pants down over his perfect behind. Daisy had never seen a man’s butt in person. Not to mention one so squeezable. Her mouth dropped open and Cyrus looked over his shoulder at her.
“Go on,” he insisted.
“Okay, okay,” she said, turning back.
She glanced back one last time just as Cyrus jumped from his human form into a shift, falling on his grizzly paws in the snow. He hurled himself into the forest, growling and grunting as he went.
Daisy was left stunned. She’d seen her first butt and her first shift all in the same moment. It wa
s a lot for a girl to take in all at once. She hurried into the cabin, praying that he would find Fifi before her little darling got into any trouble.
Alone in the cabin, she had all the time in the world to contemplate her life. That only lasted a few minutes before she got bored. She had too much nervous energy to just sit there so she decided to do something about Cyrus’s cabin.
She looked around for materials. There just wasn’t anything to work with to beautify the place. When Cyrus didn’t come back after an hour, she began to worry so much she couldn’t sit still. She started rifling through Cyrus’s things, just to pass the time. She knew it wasn’t exactly good guest behavior, but she really didn’t know what else to do.
She found a trunk under his bed and pulled the heavy wooden case out into the light. She pried open the rusted latch and looked inside. To her surprise, she found everything she needed to decorate Cyrus’s place. There were long swaths of fabric and lace, jewelry, lamps, even women’s clothing. She pulled a burgundy colored velvet dress from the trunk, shocked at the size. It was old fashioned, but it looked like it would fit her.
She draped the dress across the bed and dug into the rest of the things. She couldn’t believe her luck. She pulled a swath of lace from the trunk. The color was more of an antique white than an eggshell white, but it would still work for her interior design plan.
She started by draping the lace over the windows. Then she threw a cloth over the table and set it with the china she found in the crate. She threw the knit throw over the back of a chair. When she was done decorating, she finally donned the velvet dress.
It was slightly long for her taste but she imagined it looked good. Cyrus didn’t have any mirrors but she could see from looking down at herself that the shape was quite lovely. Not her typical taste, but definitely pretty.
She was dancing around in the dress, holding the full skirt out with one hand, pretending to be at an old timey party when the door of Cyrus’s cabin burst open.
An excited bark from the door had her turn to see Cyrus standing there, naked as the day he was born, holding Fifi. The look of shock on Cyrus’s face matched her own. Fifi was filthy!
“What the hell have you done to this place?” he growled. “Why did you go through my mother’s things?”
“Your mother’s things?”
“That’s what all this is,” he said shoving a sopping wet Fifi into her arms. “You’re wearing her dress.”
“Why do you have a trunk of your mother’s things?” she asked, trying to turn the conversation back to him. But he didn’t bite.
“None of your business,” he growled. “Take it all down and put it away.”
“Why?”
“Because I said so.”
“You aren’t even going to tell me why you keep your mother’s dress with you in your cabin, alone on a mountain? Because I’m getting a real Norman Bates vibe right now.”
“Don’t,” he said flatly.
“Fine, but I’m not taking it off until you tell me why you have it.”
“I can make you take that off,” he said, crossing the room to stand in front of her.
He was still naked and growing noticeably hard. She’d never even seen a man’s butt before, let alone his dick. She gasped and covered her mouth, taking a step back, not sure if she should laugh or scream.
“You wouldn’t dare,” she challenged.
He reached out, gripping her hips. He pulled her to him and she felt the heat of his body and the hardness of his manhood. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath of his scent. It filled her nostrils and wafted in her brain. Dang, he smelled good. Fifi barked from the ground and jumped onto the bed, rubbing herself off in the furs.
“I’m not going to take your clothes off until you want me to,” he growled.
Chapter 6
“Just tell me why you have it?” she whined.
“Fine, I’ll tell you over dinner.”
“Is it already dinner time?”
“You slept until afternoon. I was out looking for your drowned rat for five hours.”
“Well, you see. I have an excuse for prying. I was going stir crazy in here.”
“Not an excuse,” he growled, still angry that she’d touched his mom’s things.
She sighed and put her hands on her hips, stepping back to look down at his still-firm erection.
“So, what’s for dinner? More gamy meat or fat-fried mushrooms?”
“What do you expect? We’re on top of a mountain in the middle of a snow storm!” This woman was as exasperating as she was sexy. He wasn’t sure he could handle much more of either.
“Don’t be so ornery. I just asked a question.”
“A silly question from a…”
“Silly girl,” she finished for him.
Cyrus’s mouth dropped open. That was exactly what he was about to say.
“Don’t think I don’t know what you think of me, Mountain Bear. And all I have to say is that you don’t look any less silly from where I’m standing.”
She pointedly looked at his nakedness and he turned away.
“I’m not used to guests,” he grumbled, going to pull on the clothes he’d carried in with Fifi.
“You see, you’ve been out here so long, you don’t even know how to act like a person anymore. That’s why you should leave my decorating alone. It will get you in touch with your human side.” Part of him knew she was right and it hit him right in the gut.
“I don’t want to be in touch with my human side. It ruins everything.”
“I’m not commenting on that one,” she said, walking toward the fireplace.
She’d kept the fire burning while he’d been gone and had even polished off the mushrooms he’d fried hours ago.
“If you hate my food so much, why did you eat all the mushrooms?” he asked, pointing at the empty pan.
“I was hungry. I had to eat something. So, you know now that I’m speaking from experience.”
He turned away and walked outside into the cold air. It was still snowing hard outside, piling up against the cabin. He pulled open the door on his cold storage and stepped down into the cellar.
He’d caught three rabbits yesterday morning before Daisy had arrived and would feed her that for dinner. He grabbed a handful of potatoes, onions and garlic squash, from his last harvest and carried it all inside.
He put it on his work bench where he prepared his meals and did his carving. He quickly dressed the rabbits, covering them in salt and deer fat before skewering them on the spit. He placed the rabbits over the fire, sliced the potatoes, onions, and garlic. He dropped it all in a broth he’d made from last night’s leftover roast.
“That smells good,” she said, sitting at the table behind him. “I’m sorry for giving you a hard time. I’m still tired, I guess.”
He looked her in the eye and she smiled. His heart melted.
“It’ll be ready in a minute and then we’ll talk.”
He ladled the rabbit stew into bowls and sat them on either side of the table. When he was done dishing up the food, he grabbed a bottle of moonshine from the shelf above his workbench.
“Have some of this. It’s homemade liquor.”
“Really?” she asked, smelling the cup.
Her nose wrinkled and she shook her head.
“It’ll grow on you,” he said. “Cheers.”
They clinked glasses. Daisy took a sip and made the same disgusted expression. Cyrus laughed and took a long draw himself, feeling the burn slide down his throat. It warmed his stomach and made him smile. Daisy took a drink of water and dipped her spoon into her stew. Cyrus waited for her to take a bite. She blew on the spoonful of stew and took a tentative bite of squash. Her eye widened and she took another.
“This is good,” she said, scooping up a potato.
“Try the rabbit.”
She took a nibble of the lean, dark meat and nodded.
“That’s good too.”
“Glad you like it
.”
This little princess was growing on him and his inner grizzly agreed. He looked over at Fifi, lying on the bed. He made a kissing sound and the dog hopped up and ran over to him. He gave her a few small bits of stew too, and the little thing wagged her tiny cropped tail. Even her dog was growing on him.
“You’re so sweet to Fifi,” Daisy said.
“We made friends while we were in the woods.” He smiled down at the tiny creature.
“Oh really? How so?”
“I tracked her down in grizzly form, and then I spoke to her.”
“You spoke to Fifi?”
“During my time in the woods, I’ve been perfecting my animal intuition. It’s much deeper than most shifters realize. I’m on the brink of breaking through while in human form.”
“Animal intuition?”
“It’s something like the psychic bond that mates share. But it’s a bond with the entire world. It’s like shifter senses on hyper drive until it’s extrasensory. I was able to have a kind of extrasensory communication with Fifi. I let her know I was there to help her. That there were things in the woods who would not be her friends, but that I was. Finally, she stopped barking and relented. She let me carry her all the way home in human form.”
“I’m so glad you guys made friends,” Daisy said, gazing down her little dog. “That means a lot to me. Now, will you tell me why you have your mother’s things?” she said, palms open.
He let out a long sigh. She was his fated mate, no matter how wrong they seemed to be for each other. He had to tell her. They’d made a deal.
“My mom died a long time ago. When I was ten. My brother Jessie was eight. There was a pretty bad accident. It took Jessie a long time to get over it. When we all got back from serving in the war, the ranch was a mess. My dad was in bad shape, fallen into gambling debt. Everyone was fighting. That’s when I decided to take to the woods. But I wanted to take some of my mother’s family heirlooms. I didn’t want my dad to pawn them.”
“What about the fabric and dress?” she asked. “Those aren’t heirlooms, are they?”
“Not really. They just reminded me of her. She kept the family together. Dad had to raise us alone after she died, and he was a hard man. Not used to giving his heart to his children. But we got what we needed in the end. He never recovered from her death. It hit him worse than anyone, even Jessie.”