“Ian, I saw a bear once. A big one. It was the scariest moment of my life.”
“Relax.” He slid his hand over her thigh and squeezed it reassuringly. “Elyse, you’re mine to take care of, and I wouldn’t put you in a situation that was dangerous or that you couldn’t handle. We probably won’t see a bear, but if we do, you do exactly what I say, and I promise, I won’t let anything happen to you.”
“You are dangerous to date,” she accused.
“It’ll be fun. Plus we need to start filling that empty freezer of yours.”
“Freezer of ours.”
Ian pulled onto the main dirt road toward Galena. His plane was stored near the landing strip just outside of town. “Ours,” he agreed, though he wouldn’t be eating meat out of it this winter. He would be sleeping deep in a snowy den on Kodiak Island. The thought of being so far away from her suddenly socked him in the gut and stole his breath away. Kodiak Island was the natural choice that would make it hardest for Miller to track him, but the closer he got to Elyse, the more his instincts screamed to stay here, deep under one of those old cabins on the back of her homestead near his mate. His mate? Fuck. Tobias had been right about pairing up. Ian was deep, deep in this now. There would be no turning back or pulling away from her. Not after today.
Now the thought of her finding out about his bear was more unacceptable than ever.
Chapter Twelve
Elyse pulled a hiking backpack from the floorboard and unzipped the biggest pocket. Ian seemed to need to eat constantly because he was built so muscular, so she’d packed him extra food for today. She pulled out an apple and handed it to him. “Here.”
With a grin, he took it and bit a piece off, then handed her the apple, and she crunched off a bite. With a giggle, she gave it back and wiped the juice from her mouth with the sleeve of her thin sweater. Ian ghosted a hungry glance at her lips that turned her middle to churning hot metal.
“I didn’t sleep that well last night,” she said carefully.
“Why not?”
She gulped the sweet fruit down and stared out the window, too chicken to look at him when she said, “I was thinking about you.”
Ian took another bite, and the crunching of the apple was the only sound in the truck for a while. “Thinking about me how?”
Elyse licked her lips. “Thinking about you, like I wished you would come into my room and sleep with me. Beside me. Sleep beside me.”
“Did you…?” Ian canted his head and left the unfinished question hanging in the air between them.
“Did I what?”
“Never mind.” He made his lips into a thin line and shook his head. “Nope. Not appropriate for a first date.”
“I thought you didn’t know anything about first dates, and besides, we’re engaged, remember? Ask me.”
“Did you touch yourself?”
Heat blazed up her neck and landed in her cheeks. “God, Silver.” She definitely couldn’t meet his gaze right now, so she kept her focus on the evergreens that blurred by.
“You don’t have to answer.”
“Yes,” she answered on a rushed breath.
He inhaled sharply, and she huffed a laugh, shocked that she’d just admitted that out loud.
“Did you think about me?” he asked in a low gravelly voice that brushed chills over her skin.
Elyse covered her burning face when she whispered, “Yes.”
“Shit, woman,” Ian said, adjusting his dick and then gripping the steering wheel in a choking grasp. He was smiling so big right now. “Next time you feel like a slumber party, you let me know and I’ll be in your room in a second flat. I was trying to give you space.”
“In case I cried again?”
Ian nodded. “I listened for it last night. I had trouble sleeping, too.”
Finding her bravery, she asked, “Did you touch yourself?”
“No, and now I’m going to fucking explode. I’ve thought about you a lot.”
“A lot?”
“Yeah,” he murmured, leveling her an honest glance before he pulled his attention back to the road. “An embarrassing amount a lot. It’s hard to focus on the things I need to get done.”
“I feel close to you,” she whispered, terrified he would reject her sentiment.
Ian squeezed her leg again, this time higher up her thigh. “Me, too. I’m trying to take things slow with you, though.”
“Why?”
“Because I want to do this right. Cole is still kind of fresh for you, and I don’t want to be a rebound fuck.”
Elyse laughed in shocked surprise. “Ian Silver, you are nobody’s rebound. No one else compares to you.”
“Not even Cole?”
“Especially not Cole. When I think about him now after spending time with you, I’m even more disappointed I stayed in that relationship as long as I did. I’m not crying over that man anymore.” She took the apple from his hand on her thigh and chomped another bite.