Beary Overdue (Polar Bliss 1) (5 page)

“He can stay,” Jillian said, cutting off her friend. “If you don’t mind, Riley, then I’m okay with it.”

“Okay,” Riley said. “We’re about to have dessert.”

Jillian and Riley disappeared into the dining room, and he heard the clank of plates and silverware, and the moving of chairs. No doubt they were setting a place for both him and his date.

“Behave yourself,” Ryker warned, “or there will be hell to pay.” 

“You worry too much,” Reid said. “I’ll be on my best behavior.”

He pushed on Ryker’s arm, and the man stepped back and allowed him to pass. He pulled his date down the hall, and inwardly smiled when he found their seats at the tiny table. Jillian was seated right across from them.

After the introductions were made, Riley set a fresh pot of coffee on the table and passed everyone a plate of peach and apple cobbler. The crunchy, sweet, warm concoction had been his mother’s recipe and one of the only things Riley could make exceptionally well. It was also one of Jillian’s favorite desserts, or it had been all those years ago.

His dick started to harden when he remembered kissing her after cobbler night, and the first time they’d made love. Her mouth and skin had always tasted like brown sugar and honey to him, but after cobbler night she’d always tasted extra sweet.

Shit!

He couldn’t afford a walk down memory lane. Not now.

He pushed the sensual memories away, and latched back onto his anger. His date was talking to his family, and he hadn’t even been paying attention.

Fuck!

She was supposed to keep quiet.

“I teach the first grade,” Jillian said. “What do you do?”

“Nothing,” the woman laughed. “I’m too pretty to work.”

Jillian gave a fake smile and nodded, and then Riley filled the silence with several questions about her work. When there was another lull in the conversation, his date spoke again.

“So, Jillian, Reid said that you used to live in Longmeadow. I bet it’s weird to be back in a small town again.”

“Not really,” Jillian said. “This place will always be home to me.”

“If you love it so much, then why’d you leave?” the woman asked.

“Because no one asked me to stay.”

All of his siblings whipped their heads in his direction, and for a moment, the room fell silent. The anger radiating off his family was palpable, but he didn’t understand why their ire was directed at him. He wasn’t sure if Jillian had meant to be so candid, or if it just slipped out, but his blood boiled.

“Oh,” his date purred. “It sounds like unrequited love. Have you seen him? Did he recognize you with the weight gain? Is he successful?”

“That all depends on how you define success,” Jillian said. “I’ve always been overweight, so I doubt that was a surprise, but yes, I’ve seen him. He’s not someone I would want to know now, so I’m confident I made the right decision.”

“To bad he’s not rich,” the woman replied. “You can forgive a rich man anything.” She refocused on her dessert, ignorant to the drama unfolding around her.

His siblings still stared, and although he didn’t understand their fury, he needed answers.

“What the hell do you mean—”

“Riley, you have outdone yourself,” Jillian interrupted. “Your cobbler is still the best I’ve ever had. I’ll help you clean up.”

Jillian and Riley stood and cleared the table, and his brother’s shook their heads and helped. Jane followed Ridge like she always did, and he was left alone with his date at his family’s dinner table.

“Let’s play a game,” Jane eagerly suggested in the other room, and everyone seemed to let out a breath of relief at her proposal.

Dishes clanked as they were set in the sink, and everyone laughed at some inside joke. He hadn’t heard it because he’d been focusing on Jillian’s words.

No one asked me to stay.

They’d been the perfect couple, and had spent nearly every waking moment together. Hell, she’d basically lived at his family’s house on the weekends, and the rest of the time she’d been in
Polar Bliss
. Who the hell had she been expecting to ask her to stay?

“Oh, I love games,” his date said.

“We’re leaving,” he said, standing. “Now.”

He hurried his date toward the door, and they left without a word.

Jillian had been his mate—his everything—and it had all been a lie.

He couldn’t wrap his head around her betrayal.

Chapter Five

Thump! Thump! Thump!

Jillian jolted awake and glanced at the glowing clock on the motel room nightstand.

Two-thirty in the morning.

She’d been dreaming about Reid turning into his bear during dinner, and then crossing the table to attack her. It had seemed so real…

Thump! Thump! Thump!

The loud banding noise rattled her motel room door, and she nearly screamed. The same noise had led up to Reid’s transformation in her dream, and it took her a few seconds to realize someone was at the door. She glanced at the clock again, and quietly tip-toed toward the barrier.

“Jillian, open the door.”

She’d recognize his voice anywhere, but the fact that he was bellowing in the middle of the night sent her heart racing. She quickly unlocked the door and swung it open.

“Reid, what’s the matter? Did something happen to Riley?”

“Who the hell were you seeing besides me?” he shouted.

“Um…what?”

She was still half asleep, and she had no idea what he was yelling about. Or why he was yelling. Or basically anything at all. It was as if she’d woken in an alternate universe where Reid still talked to her, and he was acting…jealous?

“Who was he, Jillian?” he growled. “Who didn’t ask you to stay?”

“I…what?”

A gust of wind whooshed by the door, and she shivered and wrapped her arms around herself. She hadn’t given her pajamas a thought when she thought someone was in trouble, but now she cursed the pink cotton tank and matching Capri pants. The pants had cartoon drawings of cute polar bears riding sleds down a pink mountain, and her hard nipples poked through the thin material of the tank. Though she would never admit to feeling anything other than cold, Reid definitely noticed the way she filled out the soft cotton.

“
Fuck!”
he swore. “Get inside before you freeze to death.”

He stepped into the room, and forced her to back away from the door. If he had been any other man, she would have protested, but he wasn’t any other man. He was Reid, and despite the fact that she really didn’t know him anymore, she knew he would never harm her.

“I need a minute,” she said, excusing herself.

She escaped to the restroom, and then silently groaned when she found a big piece of sleep in her eye. There wasn’t much she could do with Reid in the next room, and he’d already seen all of her flaws anyway, so she removed the sleep, washed her hands and used one of the complimentary plastic cups to soothe her dry throat.

His close proximity had effected her more than she wanted to admit, and she took a deep breath and mentally located her sweatshirt before leaving the tiny sanctuary.

When she reentered the room, Reid was leaning against the wall near the door. He straightened, and opened his mouth to speak, but she silenced him with a finger and quickly donned her sweatshirt and slippers.

“Okay,” she said, sitting on the edge of the bed. “What exactly are you doing here, Reid?”

“Who was he?” he asked, calmer than he appeared.

“Who was who?” The few minutes of reprieve she’d taken had done nothing to help her understand him better.

“The guy who didn’t ask you to stay?” he growled again. “Who were you dating besides me?”

Now he was just pissing her off.

“Are you drunk?” she asked, standing. “How could I have possibly dated anyone besides you? You’re not making any sense.”

“Who. Didn’t. Ask. You. To. Stay?”

“You, you idiot!” she cried. “We dated. I loved you, and you said you loved me, too, but when the time came for me to leave, you didn’t ask me to stay. I’m not stupid. I know about shifters and mates. If I was your mate, you would have asked me to stay, but you didn’t, so I left. I had to. I couldn’t risk getting cast aside when your true mate came along. It would have killed me.” 

Tears filled her eyes as she spoke, but her voice had been strong almost till the end. It wobbled on the last word, but she cut herself a break. She didn’t know why Reid insisted on digging up the past, but it felt good to confront him.

“No,” he whispered, shaking his head. “This can’t be happening.”

He placed one hand on the wall, as if for support, and his breathing was erratic. His large chest heaved rapidly, and his big body looked like it would collapse any minute. Reid didn’t do vulnerable, but there was no other way to describe the distraught man in front of her.

Fear raced down her spine.

“Reid,” she said, tentatively. “Let me help you sit down. Do you want me to call Ryker?”

She ducked under his left arm, and encircled his waist. One hand rested on his hip, and the other on his abs. She tried not to think about the smooth, hard muscles under her palms, but it was hard not to appreciate his perfect body.

They took two steps, and he abruptly righted himself and pinned her back against the wall with his hard body. His palms were flat against the wall on either side of her head, caging her in, but she knew she could easily get away if she wanted to.

She didn’t want to.

“I don’t want Ryker,” he heaved, his lips inches from hers. “I want you, honeypie. You’re my mate.”

Mate! Honeypie!

He’d started calling her honeypie after their first kiss because he’d said that she tasted like brown sugar and honey. The nickname rolling off his tongue had always made her lips smile and her pussy tingle, and though she wasn’t sure if it was his use of the word mate or the nickname, her body had the same reaction. 

His hands moved to her waist, and his mouth crashed down on hers in a desperate, bruising kiss. She slid her palms up his hard chest, and wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling him closer. His tongue slid across her lips and she opened for him, desperate to taste him again.

In the past, he’d tasted sweet and minty, like a
Polar Kiss
, but now he just tasted sterile. It wasn’t liquor, toothpaste or a breath mint…it wasn’t anything. It was as if he’d completely rid himself of anything good, and she suddenly remembered the plethora of women surrounding him all week.

How many times had he had sex since she’d left?

Hundreds?

She’d been in town less than a week and he’d been with a different woman every time they’d crossed paths. Had he had sex with them all? The thought of him with all of those women made her sick to her stomach. He hadn’t owed her anything, but the truth still hurt. 

He pulled her sweatshirt over her head, and she tried to cross her arms over her ample breasts, but he pinned her wrists to the wall with his hands. Despite her sudden lack of confidence, she let out a sigh when he kissed a trail down her chin and neck, but her pleasure was short lived.

A lock of his hair fell into her mouth, and her face burned from his wild, scratchy beard. When his hands let go of her wrists and grabbed her soft, tank top covered breasts, she didn’t feel anything but disgust.

“We have to stop,” she said, pushing on his shoulders as he licked her collarbone. She’d meant to sound firm, but the words had come out in a whisper.

Damn!

His amazing tongue had always driven her wild.

He grabbed the flesh at the base of her neck between his teeth, and she cried out, desperate for more.

Until she remembered his past.

“No,” she said, pushing on his shoulders again. “Reid, stop.”

“What? Why?” he asked, taking a step back.

“How many women have you slept with this week? Or today?” she asked, not wanting the answer. “It’s too late for us.”

“It’s not too late,” he said. “Those women meant nothing to me.”

“It’s not just the women,” she said. “It’s everything… It’s you.”

“Honeypie—”

“Please don’t call me that,” she pleaded.

“Jillian,” he started again. “When a shifter loses his mate, his world ends. I nearly died when you left town. I know I’ve made some mistakes, but everything I’ve done has been to try and stay alive.”

“No,” she said firmly. “You haven’t been merely staying alive all of these years. You’ve been breeding anger and resentment to try and prove something, but the only thing you’ve proved is the Reid I loved is long gone.”

“That’s not true,” he said. “I’m still the same man.”

“The bar, the fights, the women, the drinking,” she said, ticking the things off her fingers. “You think those things make you look cool, or successful, and maybe they do to some, but to the people who love you? They only make you look like an asshole. You’ve pulled away from your family, you treat your employees like shit, and Riley told me what you did to her in
Polar Bliss
. I could forgive the hair and beard if you resembled my Reid at all, but unfortunately, that’s not the worst of it. When was the last time you shifted?”

His answering glare told her everything she needed to know. He hadn’t. Not in a long time.

“That’s what I thought,” she said, sadly.

His throat worked, as if searching for the right response, but silence stretched between them as they seemed to face-off against each other.

Finally, his face softened in defeat.

“I’d better go,” he said, turning to leave.

“I would have stayed, you know,” she said behind him. “If the Reid from seven years ago had asked me to say, I would have stayed and considered myself the luckiest girl in the world.”

He nodded once and left the room, without looking back. When the door clicked quietly behind him, she knew she would never see him again, and tears streamed down her face.

The urge to chase after him and take it all back was strong, but she ignored it and said a silent goodbye to the only man she’d ever loved.