Alpha Unmasked: BBW Bear Shifter Romance (Greenwood Shifters Book 1) by S.A. Ravel Page A

she realized that driving the winding mountain roads was impossible, and the size of the van meant she and Dirk would be separated by a foot. He watched her screw her lips up and to the left as she tried come up with a way to get him back to the city without unhooking him. Dirk couldn’t help but smile.
    “You’re enjoying this, aren’t you?” she asked.
    “Enjoying being handcuffed to a beautiful woman in the middle of the forest? Show me a man who wouldn’t.”
    Rachel leaned against the trunk of the nearest pine tree. “You’re right. I’m horrible at this.”
    Dirk felt a twinge of regret in his chest. He didn’t mean for his teasing to make her feel bad. But it provided a lesson. When his mate felt bad, so did he. “I wouldn’t say that. You did manage to get a man nearly twice your size handcuffed. The kiss was an inventive touch.”
    “You kissed me ,” she said. “Don’t blame me because you regret it now.”
    He raised an eyebrow and stepped closer to her, trapping her body between his and the tree trunk, and reached down to run a finger along the curve of her jaw. By the moonlight, he could see her full lips. “Who says I regret it?” he whispered.
    She gazed up at him through her eyelashes. “Then why are you complaining?”
    He leaned close, stopping just before his lips brushed against hers. “I’m only complaining about the way it ended.”
    This time, Rachel broached the distance between them. She gasped as their lips met and she wrapped her free arm around his waist. The small motion granted him access, but he didn’t take it. This time, she would set the pace. If she wanted him, on any level, it would be the only push he needed. She rewarded his patience by sliding her soft tongue over his lips.
    “Dirk?” she asked as she finally pulled away. “You knew I was walking in the wrong direction, didn’t you?”
    The smell hit Dirk before he could respond. Cologne mixed with the odor of musty fur. The unmistakable smell of a shifter. He grasped Rachel’s handcuffed wrist and pivoted so that his body blocked hers from view.
    If the other shifter was close enough for Dirk to smell, he was close enough to hear them. He’d only just found Rachel, and he wasn’t going to let anyone hurt her.
    “Let me handle it,” he whispered.

    * * *
    R achel peeked around Dirk’s arm in confusion. Their first kiss had been amazing, but she’d ruined it. Whoever ruined this one would face her wrath. But something about the way Dirk shielded her from view made her nervous. What had he heard that she hadn’t? She placed a hand on the back of his arm, more for her comfort than his.
    At first, she heard only the sound of her own breathing. Then the leaves ruffled and a man emerged from the darkness. She recognized him immediately as the man from the twisted family meeting she’d been summoned to, the one so eager to get his hands on Dirk.
    The man grinned like a bully who’d just found his favorite victim, but his tone was polite. “Going for a stroll, Greenwood? We’re waiting for you back at the big house.”
    “And they sent you as a messenger?” he asked. “I know the way to my own house, Cass.”
    From the small gap between Dirk’s arm and body, Rachel saw that Cass had ditched the tuxedo coat. He’d rolled the sleeves of his dress shirt up to his elbows to reveal his massive, rope-veined forearms. What had possessed him to come this far into the forest in dress pants?
    “Doesn’t look like it,” Cass said. “Come on, Alex is waiting for you.”
    Rachel’s breath caught in her throat at the reminder of Dirk’s fiancée. She’d forgotten that the man who kissed her deeply enough to make her toes curl wasn’t available. She glared at Dirk’s broad back.
    “I’ll be there when I get there, but not to see Alex. I haven’t committed to anything yet,” Dirk said.
    “I can see that. Is that the bounty hunter-turned-baker I see back there?” Cass laughed. “She handcuffed you?