She cupped his cheek as she saw in his eyes how much he meant that, how badly he had needed to get her away from Karl and his men. He had managed it in the end, had brought her through this whole ordeal unscathed.
But altered.
Her entire world was different now. She was different. But in a good way. She felt that deep in her heart, in her soul. From here on out, things were going to be better, brighter. They were going to be everything she had wanted for the last few years.
“I know we’re too different, Skye. I know I don’t belong in your world.” Those words leaving his lips left her cold and she wanted to curse him for trying to bring up that wall between them, for letting fear get the better of him and ruining her moment.
She was having that future she wanted with him, whether he liked it or not. All she had to do was come up with the perfect counter-argument and he would crumble. She could see it in his eyes. He was reaching, desperately trying to get her to break down his defences and show him that she wanted him, that she felt something for him, and that the fact he could turn into a bear didn’t change a damned thing.
Which sounded crazy as she thought it.
But she always had been a little crazy.
“It seems like the same world to me.” She looked around at her and took a deep breath, savouring the cold air, the crisp scent of snow and Knox, and how bright everything was. How beautiful. “Same small town. Same wild valleys.”
She shifted her gaze to him.
“Same Knox. Same Skye. All I see before me is the man I fell for… an idiot who walked out on me. Don’t walk out on me again.”
He stared at her. “Fell for?”
And there it was.
That spark of hope, of resolve. The fighter coming to the fore now that his fears had been silenced.
“It was never a one-night stand to me, Knox. It was never too much whiskey and too many lonely nights.” She sighed. “I fell for you a long time before that night.”
His blue eyes softened and warmed, shining with affection. “It was never like that for me either. I think I fell for you the second I set eyes on you.”
She smiled at that, warmed from head to toe, not feeling the chill of the winter air as she bathed in the heat of the look he was giving her. She wanted to kiss him too.
His gaze dropped to her lips, growing hooded as he gently pulled her towards him.
Skye wrapped her arms around his neck, embracing her future, as crazy as it might be, and kissed him.
Chapter 19
Knox put the black truck into park and slipped from the cab. He squinted and covered his eyes as his boots hit the sidewalk, tilted his head back and gazed at the endless blue sky. Around him, insects buzzed, busy as the chill of winter finally gave way to the warmth of late spring. He slammed the door of his old, beaten-up truck and tugged the long sleeves of his black T-shirt up his forearms. The temperature in town was warmer than it was in the valley still, the added altitude keeping Black Ridge cooler. He had ditched his shirt already and was regretting wearing a long sleeve now.
The people coming and going along the main street of the small town paid him no heed, went about their day as if there wasn’t a bear shifter standing among them, just the way he liked it. He hated it when people stared. It always put him on edge and made him worry that they knew what he was.
He locked the truck, slipped the keys into the pocket of his black jeans, and turned slowly to face the direction of The Spirit Moose. The bar was set back on an open lot, with space in front of it for tables and chairs, and a car park off to the right. It looked like an old lodge, with thick posts and beams that were dark with age and a carved wooden moose head hanging on the log wall above the door. The pitched roof overhung on one side, providing shelter for a seating area on a large deck, and at the gable too.
Outside, several of the tables were already busy with patrons enjoying a cold glass of something in the warm sunshine.
Another busy day for the bar.
He could already see how happy Skye would be, how there would be a bounce in her step and a smile on her face as she worked hard.
It made him smile too.
Several months had passed since she had discovered what he was and she had taken it all in her stride. When he had returned her to town once he was sure she was over the shock of everything that had happened, she had told him to come by that weekend to pick her up for their first date.
They had been dating ever since, with him always coming to her bar and spending a few hours talking to her whenever she had a moment and watching over her to make sure none of the local males got ideas about hitting on his female. Apparently, he was an excellent deterrent. Not a single male dared to even look at her for longer than it took to order a drink, and many of them didn’t even manage that. Most of them stared at their hands or the bar counter while he glared at them.
The bear side of him wanted Skye far away from all the unmated males who frequented her bar.
The human side of him knew this was her home. It always would be, no matter how things turned out for them.
The Spirit Moose was important to her, a part of her life she couldn’t leave behind and he would never expect her to do such a thing. It was part of the reason he had continued living at Black Ridge while she had remained living in town at her bar.
The rest of that reason was the fact that if he spent more than a day or two around her, his primal instincts had him dangerously close to claiming her, the need to sink his fangs into her nape and bind them as mates becoming unbearable.
Whenever that happened, he made his excuses and left.
Five weeks ago, Skye had called him on it, demanding to know why he insisted on leaving her at times—sometimes when things between them were just getting damned good.
Seeing in her eyes that she believed he was losing interest in her, feeling the fear in her and the hurt, had helped him find his balls.
He had confessed that she was his fated one and what that meant, part of him expecting her to end things or finally change her mind about them. Not his Skye. She was right. She didn’t run when things got scary. She fought.
She had told him that when she was ready, they could be mates.
Knox had been utterly blown away by that.
For two years, he had been convinced she would never be his mate, and now he felt agonisingly close to having her as just that. Gods, he wanted it. He wanted it so badly he’d had to leave the second she had told him that and had struggled to stay away from her for a week, giving himself enough time to cool down.
It was getting harder and harder for him to keep his head around her now.
As much as he loved visiting her, as eager as he was to see her, he dreaded it too.
He strode towards the bar, paused as the wooden troughs that were a recent addition caught his eye. They lined the front edge of the deck and were spaced at intervals around the seating on the asphalt too, forming a sort of perimeter. Someone had planted flowers of different shapes and sizes in them, providing a sprinkling of colour that seemed to herald that summer was here and brightened everything.
Knox stole one of the pink flowers, one that resembled a large daisy with a thick stem, and hurried up the steps onto the deck. He eased the door open, wanting to surprise Skye since he wasn’t due to be here for hours yet. He had been too restless at the Ridge, eager to see her, and Lowe had told him to get the hell out of his cabin and stop bugging him and Cameo.