“No.” He smirked. “How old do you think I am?”
She gasped. “You’re hundreds of years old?”
“No! I’m thirty-eight.” He dragged a hand through his thick brown hair. “Holy crap. I thought I looked a lot younger.”
“Oh. You do.” She bit her lip to keep from laughing when he gave her a dubious look. “Sorry. When you said five hundred years, I thought . . .”
“Never mind.” He ripped open a foil package of chocolate and stuffed it into his mouth.
“You don’t look a day over thirty.”
He grunted. “My point is I don’t resent being what I am. I like it. And all the were-bears I know like it, too. So you have nothing to fear from them. Or me.”
“But we still believe that my grandmother was killed by a berserker. And her grandmother before her.”
He grimaced. “I’m really sorry about that. But that happened in Sweden, right? Maybe the berserkers there are a bunch of miserable SOBs. I can tell you for a fact that the were-bears in Alaska are a jolly bunch. We would never harm a woman.”
Could that be true? Could the berserkers who left Scandinavia be different? “How did your people end up in Alaska?”
Howard shrugged. “According to my grandfather, they left about a thousand years ago and migrated all the way across Russia.”
“How did the line continue? Did they find female were-bears?”
“They didn’t have to. The were-bear gene is always dominant, so they were free to marry whomever they pleased.”
“And the children were always were-bears?”
Howard nodded. “According to my grandfather, the berserkers did find some were-bears in Alaska. Local shamans who could turn into Kodiak bears. Our line mixed with theirs, and that’s why I’m a Kodiak bear.”
“Oh.” She considered this news. Howard’s line of were-bears could be quite different from the berserkers who had remained in Scandinavia. Maybe the curse hadn’t followed his people. “But your grandfather still believes you are cursed?”
Howard waved a dismissive hand. “It has no power unless you believe in it.”
She nodded. That’s what she’d always thought. But the curse had been much easier to dismiss before she’d learned that berserkers were real. “I’m still a bit worried—”
“I know you are. And I’ve been racking my brain to come up with ways to convince you that I can be trusted.” He leaned toward her. “Look me up on the Internet. I used to play for the Chicago Bears.”
She blinked. “Football?”
“Yes. I was a defensive—”
“The Chicago
“Yes.” His eyes twinkled with humor. “I realize the irony. Anyway, I was a defensive linebacker. I took hits for a living.”
“You were a professional football player?”
“Yes. Huge, three-hundred-pound linemen tried to mow me down on a daily basis. Usually, I mowed them down, but believe me, they were trying to hurt me.”
“You played professional football?”
His mouth curled into a half smile. “Is there a problem with that?”
“No.”
“Well, as I was saying, I was paid to take abuse and annihilate the other team. I sacked a lot of quarterbacks. I realize that sounds . . . aggressive, even violent.”
She nodded, restraining an urge to fan herself. When had the afternoon gotten so hot?
“My point is, I was taking hard hits but hitting back even harder. You would think that would anger the beast inside me, right? But with all that violence, I never lost control. I never seriously injured anyone. Even the quarterbacks I sacked were able to jump up and keep on playing.”
A vision of him sacking her flitted through her mind. Except when he tackled her, they would land in bed.
“If you don’t believe me, you can look it up.”
Huge, handsome Howard. He probably had women throwing themselves at him.
“Okay?” He gave her a questioning look.
She nodded.
“Then there’s my second point. I work for MacKay Security and Investigations, and for the past few years, I’ve been a bodyguard for the Draganesti family. Currently, I’m stationed at the Dragon Nest Academy as head of security. They would never trust me to guard their children if I wasn’t absolutely in control.”
She sighed. He was making good points. And her resolve was slipping fast.
“I would be happy to give you a tour of the school and let you talk to other people. It might alleviate any concerns you have.”
She sipped some more juice. “I’ll think about it.”
“Good.” He heaved a sigh of relief. “I don’t want to lose you, Elsa.”
She didn’t want to lose him, either. But wasn’t it crazy to date a were-bear? A huge beast of a man? Her gaze drifted over his big, muscular body. Maybe not. She gulped down more juice.
“And then there’s my third point.” He picked up a chocolate square and ripped open the foil. “You can trust me because I genuinely care about you. I admire you, and I want you to be happy.”
She swallowed hard. “I—I appreciate that.” She finished her juice and set the glass down. Maybe she should leave before she lost all her resolve. Instead of rejecting Howard, she was tempted to throw herself at him.
“Here, try this.” He broke the chocolate square in half, then held one piece up to her lips. “Open.”
With her heart racing, she opened her mouth. Just a little, so she could feel his fingers against her lips.
He set the piece on her tongue. “Let it sit there and melt in your mouth.” He placed the other piece in his mouth.
She watched his lips brush against his fingers, the same fingers that had been in her mouth. Her gaze lifted to his eyes. They were an intense blue, almost like the blue in burning flames.
“It shouldn’t take long,” he murmured. “Your mouth was hot.”
She was hot all over but still shivered.
He leaned closer, watching her closely. “All melted and gooey?”
She nodded. Heat began to gather between her legs.
He held a huge red strawberry to her lips. “Open.”
She did. He pushed the fruit in and she bit down. Juice dribbled down her chin. He caught it with his finger, then brought it to his mouth and licked it off.
She moaned. The strawberry mixed with the melted chocolate in her mouth. So good. And yet so bad. All she could think about was how much she wanted him.
“You like it?” He stuffed the rest of the strawberry into his mouth and chewed slowly, never taking his eyes off her.
Moisture pooled between her legs, and she pulled her knees up, squeezing her thighs together.
“I bet your mouth tastes sweet inside,” he whispered.
“Yours, too.” He was seducing her, and God help her, she loved it.
He crossed the blanket on all fours, like a beast, till he reached her feet. He grasped her ankles and tugged, straightening her legs. He knelt in front of her, his legs straddling hers. “Goldilocks.”
Her heart pounded. “Beast.”
“I’m going to kiss you.”
She reached for him. “Yes.”
Chapter Eighteen
