Chasing His Bunny (8 page)

No.  Just hell no.

She had a lot of living that she
planned on doing, and she didn't care what the thing wanted - its
desires and hers were not one and the same on most things. 
Even if Steele did smell even better than before and even if her
body was already aching to see what else he could
do. 

Fortunately, she was given a bit of
relief when he suddenly lifted his head and sniffed the air.
 "Shit!  The potatoes!"

And just like that, Bethany found
herself alone, on her back, and still half-naked.  Her body
immediately felt his loss, even as she giggled at the way he'd
bolted.  Now that he'd said something, she could smell the
potatoes too - they'd be a little crispy on the outside, but not
truly burnt.  She was actually thankful to some damned
potatoes because they'd given her the opportunity to collect
herself.

She could hear Steele
moving around in the kitchen while she went to the bathroom to
clean herself up.  The cum sliding down her leg was something
else she hadn't thought about.  Next time, she was definitely
wearing panties, or at least bringing some with her.  Catching
herself humming as she fantasized about the
next time
 with Steele while she
washed her hands, Bethany scowled at herself in the
mirror.

There would be no next time with
Steele, dammit.  The guy was way too possessive already, and
once she made it clear that she'd just used him to get her cherry
popped, she doubted he'd want much to do with her anyway.  He
obviously believed in this whole mate thing, but she doubted it
would survive such a direct hit to his male pride.  Strangely,
it hurt to think that he wouldn't be interested in her again after
tonight.  

Which was so stupid.  It wasn't
like they really knew each other.  Okay, so he was hot as
hell, an experienced and talented soldier, smart enough to run a
whole pack, and a good leader, but knowing about him wasn't the
same as knowing him.  Plus he was also arrogant, bossy, and
way too demanding.  And the monster inside her liked him,
which was a huge mark against him, even though that wasn't really
his fault.

Having determined her course of
action, Bethany marched out of the bathroom, ready to thank him for
popping her cherry and let him know she wouldn't be staying for
dinner.  After all, having dinner would just confuse the issue
- she'd wanted him for sex, and now that she'd gotten it, she
needed to leave.

Instead, she skidded to a halt as she
came into the main room.  Steele had lit the candles on the
table and the dinner was already laid out on plates.  Her
stomach rumbled as the smell of steak wafted towards her - a
perfect medium-rare.  Mr. Not-Just-A-Sex-God-But-Also-A-Cook
was pouring wine into the wine glasses next to their plates. 
He looked up and smiled at her, apparently completely
relaxed.

"I hope you're hungry," he said. 
His eyes roved over her body, making her acutely aware of the
pleasant soreness between her thighs, and giving double meaning to
his next words.  "I know I'm starving."

Chapter 4

Watching Bethany dig into her dinner,
Steele couldn't help but smile.  That had been a close call,
but he'd won that round.  He could tell she'd been seconds
from bolting out the door; it had been written in every line of her
body.  Although he knew she had bear and turtle in her, she'd
been acting more like a rabbit - ready to bolt.  Despite the
fact that she'd mated him - and he was pretty sure she had no idea
that's what she'd done - she didn't seem all that in tune with her
animal side.  Now that they were mated, they should start to
be able to feel each other's emotions as the bond between them
strengthened, but he could barely pick up a glimmer of
hers.

Was it because she was a hybrid or
because her shifter genes had been awakened unnaturally?  Or
was it because she'd never been around other shifters before? 
Or was it because she didn't realize that she'd bonded
them? 

Steele wasn't sure, and he doubted she
realized how much she had acted like a prey animal when she'd first
come into the main room.  Her big blue eyes had been huge in
her pale face, and when he'd made the casual remark about being
hungry, he'd actually seen her hesitate.  Taking it back to
sex had actually seemed to make her more comfortable. 
Eventually she'd realize that he wanted a hell of a lot more than
sex from her though.  Coming together physically would help
strengthen the bond too, because her guard would be down
then.

Thankfully for his sanity, his wolf
was intrigued by their mate's strange behavior and had gone into
stalking mode.  He was the hunter, and Bethany was his tasty,
tasty prey, whom he planned on having for dessert. 

Despite her initial reluctance to
engage in any kind of real conversation, he'd managed to draw her
out a bit.  She was fascinated by hearing about his family and
especially his sisters and how they'd humiliated him constantly
while he was growing up.  Steele was willing to let go of a
little pride in order to make Bethany more comfortable with
him. 

A few glasses of wine and a couple of
stories about how his sisters had liked to practice hair and
make-up on him, and Bethany had completely lost her edginess. 
Even though she was finishing the last few bites of her meal, she
didn't seem interested in leaving anymore, which was just fine with
Steele. 

"So then Pansy cried, because she was
the only one who'd never gotten to see me dressed up as a girl, so
what else could I do?" he asked, shrugging his shoulders.
 "She was the only one younger than me, and I didn't want her
childhood to be deprived in any way."

"I can't believe you fell for that,"
Bethany said, her eyes sparkling with amusement.  "I thought
it was just my brothers who caved at the mere hint of
tears."

"Oh, none of my older sisters can get
away with that," he said, shaking his head.  "Just
Pansy.  She's not just the baby, she's the nicest... and I
guess I felt a little bad because it's pretty obvious she was the
'accident' baby too.  My parents thought they were done after
me."

"I can only imagine," Bethany said
dryly.  She shook her head as she lifted her wine glass to her
lips again.  "She got the worst name too.  I mean,
couldn't they cut her a break?  They didn't really need to
name all of your sisters after flowers, did they?"

"My mom really likes gardening," he
said with a shrug.  "Pansy's not so bad."

"Flowers for the girls and Steele for
you," she said thoughtfully, tapping her finger against her chin.
 "Kind of an odd combination."  

Steele coughed, hiding his immediate
discomfort.  "Uh yeah, well that's my parents.  It's not
really any worse than someone naming all of their children with the
same first initial."

"Yeah."  The wistful smile on
Bethany's face as her cornflower eyes unfocused, seeing a memory
rather than looking at him, made his heart break a little for
her.  Dammit, he shouldn't have reminded her of her
parents.  He hadn't wanted to bring up any subjects that might
distress her.  At least she didn't seem to be too upset, just
nostalgic and a little sad.  That sadness made his chest hurt
though.  "I think they just thought it was funny since they
were Bruce and Brenda Bunson, so they wanted to keep the B theme
going.  They used to tease us that if we continued the
tradition, eventually we'd have to get really creative with the
names."

Since she seemed willing to share,
Steele figured it was okay to keep the conversation going. 
After all, he'd opened up to her in a way that he never had to
anyone else; if he could get the same from her, he would be one
step closer to his goal.  "They sound like fun."

That same sad little smile stayed on
Bethany's face as she told him about her parents and growing up as
the only girl until Bailey came along.  Which, of course, made
her wildly jealous at first because she'd always been spoiled as
the only little girl, until she'd realized that she could use
Bailey as her own personal doll.  None of her brothers had
ever let her put make-up on them, although they'd occasionally let
her play dolls with them as long as they could use their G.I. Joes
to be Barbie's boyfriend instead of Ken.  Barbie was usually
the mastermind who stayed back at "base" (a pillow fort) while the
Joes carried out the missions Barbie had planned.  

Steele couldn't help but grin,
listening to how different Bethany's upbringing had been from his
own.  Even though she'd been the only girl for quite some
time, her parents hadn’t spoiled her the way his parents had
spoiled his sisters.  She'd also been determined to keep up
with her brothers, and he had no trouble recognizing that the way
she and her brothers had played now carried over to their real
lives.  Bethany was back on "base" while her brothers trained,
but he had no doubt that they would go where she pointed.  She
was a natural alpha and leader, even when surrounded by other
alphas. 

No wonder his wolf had taken one look
at her and fallen straight into mating heat.

The ringing of Steele's house phone
made both of them jump.  Concern immediately shot through him
- everyone knew that Bethany was having dinner with him, which
meant that anyone calling him was doing so for a true
emergency.

"I'm sorry, I have to get that," he
said apologetically as he jumped up. 

Bethany waved her hand at him and his
wolf grumped as a guarded look slowly fell over her face, as if she
realized just how much she'd relaxed and opened up to him. 
The phone had more than interrupted their conversation, it had
reminded her of the outside world.  

"What?" he barked into the phone,
doing his best not to snarl.

Since it was Doc, and nothing fazed
her, his aggressive tone didn't matter anyway.  "Bailey needs
Bethany.  Now."  She hung up on him before he could
respond.

Double dammit!

******

When Steele's phone first rang,
Bethany had been annoyed at the interruption - which then made her
glad it had happened.  She hadn't realized how relaxed she'd
become in Steele's presence.  She'd been enjoying herself,
enjoying the conversation, and it had started to feel like a real
date.  The thing inside of her had been completely silent, but
its contentment had seeped through her like a drug, until the phone
rang and it had been like an alarm clock to her brain.  Being
with him, in his company, had felt too easy... too comfortable...
too right.

Of course, all of that was set aside
for panic as soon as Steele told her that Bailey needed
her.

As Steele rushed her over to the
clinic, Bethany felt like the worst sister in the world. 
Sure, she'd spent all day with Bailey after the boys had left, but
had indulging her hormones really been so important that she'd been
okay with leaving her little sister completely alone so soon? 
Granted, Bethany hadn't meant to be gone for more than a couple of
hours, and Bailey had encouraged her, but that was no excuse. 
The urge to see Steele had been so strong - not that it was
anything like that mating call she'd been told about, she wasn't
going to admit anything like that - but she couldn't let her own
selfish desires outweigh what was really important again.  And
Bailey was the most important thing in the world.  It didn't
matter how good Steele smelled or that she'd stupidly started to
consider spending the whole night with him, or how much just being
in his presence felt right, Bailey came first.

Rushing into the clinic, she couldn't
help but scowl as Steele rushed into Bailey's room first, demanding
to know what was wrong. 

"Bethy!" Bailey cried out, reaching
for her sister, like a child reaching for a hug.  Bethany went
to her immediately, her eyes scanning Bailey, but other than a
panicked look in her eyes, Bailey looked just like Bethany had left
her earlier.  

Wrapping her arms around her little
sister, Bethany patted her back as Bailey buried her in face in
Bethany's stomach.  "It's okay, sweetie, I'm here now," she
crooned comfortingly, stroking Bailey's dark hair.  "I'm here,
I'm sorry I left you, I'm here now."

"She was fine up until a few minutes
ago," said an unfamiliar male voice.  Bethany turned to see a
man wearing a white lab coat standing next to Steele. 
Obviously another doctor.  Her instinctive negative reaction
was tempered by the fact that the man looked like Santa
Claus.  He had pure white hair that curled around his head and
a full, thick white beard, blue eyes twinkled above rosy cheeks,
and if he'd been chubby he would have made the perfect Saint
Nick.  Instead he was compactly built and lacking the belly
like a bowl full of jelly.  Still, he wasn't someone she could
feel intimidated by or scared of, despite the white lab coat. 
There was too much friendliness in his eyes and Christmas had
always been her favorite holiday.  "Then she started screaming
that she needed Bethany, so I sent Harley to call you."

"Bethany, this is Dr. Philip
Mansfield," Steele said, his voice gentle.  "He's officially
retired, but he spends most of his time here helping out
Doc."

"Hello," Bethany said tightly, more
focused on the way Bailey was trembling against her, wondering why
her sister had been screaming for her but was now remaining silent.
 "Um, do you mind giving me a moment alone with
Bailey?"