Page 46 of Coveted By the Bear

“He has lost his damned mind,” I whispered as he grabbed onto the fire escape.

The town watched as Caleb scaled the bright red wall of the Main Street Pie & Candy Co. in order to seek out one Crazy Mira Fletcher. He hopped over the railing and wiped his hands off. His breathtaking grin had become bigger with the exertion. Sadey bounded out of the way when Caleb came to stand beside me. He was so close, I could feel the warmth coming off his arm.

“Well, you’re in it now, Mira. You ready?”

I was highly suspicious. “Ready for what?”

“I’m going to kiss you.”

I darted a glance to the waiting town below and then back to him. “But, I’ve never kissed anybody before.”

Caleb leaned over and brushed his lips against mine. Softly. Slowly. More tenderly than I thought a man as powerful as him would be capable of. I couldn’t pull away. I had frozen into place, and the warmth of his touch was the air I had been desperate to breathe. A salvation that loosened a trapped part of my soul. His mouth moved against mine, and his tongue brushed the closed seam of my lips. His fingers traced my jaw, and he stood, straightening me with him. His hands clenched my hair like I still wasn’t close enough, and when my mouth parted for him, he dipped his tongue against mine. I felt like I was falling.

Easing back, his lips curved up into a smile. “Now you have.”

Chapter Seventeen

Mira

I had been kissed. I had been kissed! Not only had I been kissed, but it had been by the most alluring man I’d ever met. It changed the way I saw our meeting in Jake’s. Maybe he’d just been trying to help me but didn’t know how and mucked it all up. He was a good man. The rightness that settled into my bones at the realization was overwhelming.

The parade below was a blur because Caleb kept touching me. Talking to me low, for only my ears.

“I wanted to protect you. I thought I was doing the right thing, but I can’t do it anymore. I can’t hurt you or stay away from you.”

“Tell me you’re the one who keeps dropping the fish on my doorstep,” I whispered.

He brushed his lips against mine again and smiled. “I don’t like seeing you hungry. My animal side doesn’t either. I hunt for you every time I change.”

“Will you tell me everything?”

His face fell. “It’s hard to talk about. Is it something you need?”

“I think it’s something we both need. Maybe you can tell me more about what you found in the journal, and then you won’t have to be alone with all of this. I knew what you were before you did, remember? You can trust me with anything.”

His eyes grew serious. “I know I can.”

We leaned over the railing, and his warm hand rested on the small of my back, rubbing it. This was really happening, and it was happening to me.

I wanted to kiss him again.

His lips were so sensual when he talked. He’d shaved this morning, and I yearned to reach out and touch his face. He felt like mine, so I did.

Smooth against my fingertip, his jaw stretched with a slow smile. “You want to get out of here.”

“Yes,” I whispered, too fast.

A deep chuckle trickled from him as he stood straight, pulling me in until my cheek rested against his sternum. His heartbeat was racing mine.

He was so warm, I stepped closer, burrowing into the blanket of safety he seemed to have enveloping him. His arms wrapped around my shoulders, and he rested his cheek against the top of my head. Dipping closer to me, his whisper tickled my ear and made my legs lock up. “I’ve been waiting a long time to do that. To kiss you.”

I eased back and frowned. “How long?”

“Since I watched you shoot that grizzly over me.” The sincerity in his eyes was so deep, I’d drown right here and happily.

Memories of it stormed me like a battlefield. We’d fought for our lives together that day. “You mean since you saw my boobs?”

His laughter was instant, booming, and his smile reached every facet of his face and landed in his dancing eyes. Leaning forward again, he said, “They’re perfect.”