Read Online Bear To The Bone (Bear Claw Security 1) by Terry Bolryder - Free Book Online

couldn’t risk telling her and having her accidentally give him away. As much as he wanted to tell his mate everything, he’d have to wait.
    “Right now, I’m just happy being back here with you,” he said.
    She nodded, and he could still see the hesitation in her face. The slight wrinkles at each side of her eyes, as if she were fighting off a squint.
    She was trying to take him at face value. Trying to see him as the boy he was. Trying to just be happy about what was happening.
    But ten years. What had happened to her in that time? They’d written each other up until a few years back, and he’d been so busy trying to build up his business that it had passed much faster than he’d meant to.
    Or maybe he’d just been avoiding the thought that she might reject him when she found out he was a bear, and he was trying to decrease those chances.
    She was so beautiful sitting right in front of him, and all he wanted at this moment was to be somewhere alone and peaceful.
    He took her by the hand. “Let’s go talk upstairs. Like we did in your room at Willow’s.”
    She sighed. “I don’t know, Cage. It’s been so long.”
    “All the more reason we should talk,” he said, pulling her toward the stairs that probably led to the bedroom.
    She hesitated, pushing her dirty-blond hair behind her ear nervously and dragging her feet. She looked gorgeous in a soft flannel button-up and worn jeans that accented her short, curvy body. Just perfect for him.
    Could he be perfect for her?
    “Wait,” she said. “I don’t know if I’m ready.”
    He faced her. “Ready for what?”
    “There are so many memories,” she said. “Being alone with you, up in my room… It’s where we spent most of our time. Even if it’s a different room, it’ll bring all of that back.”
    “Is that so bad?” he asked quietly. “I want it all back.”
    She shrugged, looking lonely. “Some of it was good, Cage. But some of it was painful. Like the waiting.”
    “Well, you don’t need to wait anymore. I’m here,” he said.
    She blinked and her eyes looked wet, like she was fighting back tears. But then she grinned. “All right. We’ll go up, then. I’d like to show you my room anyway. I got a window seat, just like I had at Willow’s.”
    “Well, I have to see that. You remember what happens on window seats…”
    She stopped on the stairs and looked at him, blushing. Hesitating.
    He frowned. “Carrie, I’ve waited years to see you. I’m not going to ruin it by doing anything you don’t want.”
    She nodded, squeezed his hand, and kept going.
    He loved the feel of her small, soft hand in his as she pulled him up the stairs. She led him to a door on the right and swung it open.
    Her bedroom was gorgeous, simply furnished in white and blue, with a large window seat looking out over the neighborhood. He walked to it, pulling her with him, and sat, putting his arms around her.
    She stiffened for a moment and then leaned back against him with a sigh. “I’m afraid of accepting this,” she said. “I’m afraid of waking up and finding it’s all a dream and you’re not really here.”
    Her head rested against his shoulder, her back against his chest. They fit together so easily here on the windowsill. “I’m afraid it’s all going to go wrong and that even if I did convince you to leave, they wouldn’t let you go a second time. It all feels ruined.”
    “Nothing between us can ever be ruined,” he said simply. “It can always be fixed. It has to be.”
    “I don’t know how you’re so sure,” she said. “I thought you’d given up on me. You were gone so long.”
    “I was trying to be good enough for you,” he said. “Trying to make a life that would match how amazing you are.”
    She was quiet at that but just rested deeper against him.
    He reached up and touched her hair, which was a darker blond with little streaks of gold shot through it from the sun. Soft, so soft. And fragrant, like fabric softener and fresh