Page 19

Chapter Nineteen

I Could Work With That

Bellamy

It was my job to put myself in dangerous situations, but I’d never been as nervous about any of it as I was right now. Fuck, I wanted Clover, but I wouldn’t grovel. She’d hate that.

For her to accept my claim after all these years would be to admit she was wrong in the first place. And that was something Clover Crowley did not do.

I might have just set myself up for major disappointment. But I had to try. I had to let her know I still wanted her now as much as I did back then.

She rose from the mattress, her copper hair wild. My bear appreciated the view as her heavy tits rose with her arms as she stretched. Her nipples were still pink and swollen from our time together. Those barbells glistened. I’d just rubbed oil over every inch of her body, but being able to appreciate her from this view… I’d never get sick of looking at her.

Her leg swung over the edge of the bed. Thick, shapely calves, and bright blue toenails. She gripped the mattress and her gaze smoldered.

“So I might like to be yours, on one condition.” She raised a brow. “Promise me you’re not doing this to get the final word against the clan.”

She said yes! But she thinks you have an ulterior motive.

I could work with that.

“I don’t care what the clan thinks.” Did I want them back? Absolutely. But there was another, much larger piece of me that would never forgive them for not fighting. For letting me cut all ties. “I just want you.”

She came over to the tub and sat on the edge. “I like to think I’m the same old Clover, but I’m not sure that’s true. To be honest, I’m not sure who I am anymore.”

I joined her, and steam rose around us. “I like you wild and defiant. I’m not interested in taming you, Clover. I want you exactly as you are.”

She didn’t answer right away. “I always thought I was broken because I didn’t have magic,” she finally said softly.

There were no words that would convince her otherwise. I’d try like hell to show her, but for her to really believe it, she’d have to figure it out on her own. That was the key to this woman. She had to do things her way.

So I let her run her hands over my body as I tangled my own in her hair and pulled her head to the side. She moaned as I kissed her neck, but then she pulled away from me.

“What are we gonna do? Now that we’ve confirmed that we’re ‘working’ together, in the mate moon suite.” She grinned.

“You wanna talk about this now?” I groaned.

“You’re the one who’s all business.”

“Usually.” I chuckled and ran my hand up her side. “But now that this gorgeous body is no longer off limits, I’m tempted to say your nana can find her own damn locket.”

Clover’s eyes widened, and she laughed. “And here I thought I was gonna be a bad influence on you.”

“If we find this thing, we need to dig into its history and find out why someone wanted to steal it in the first place. This could change things.”

“The clan deserves to know the truth.” She scraped her teeth against her lip, a move I was quickly becoming addicted to. “I’m worried about Nana. What if she really did something scandalous and our whole clan was founded on a lie?”

“We need to find Anders Lynwood, whoever he is. There’s a possibility that he was one of the bears who brought you to the woods, but you might be misremembering. You were most likely spelled, and that name might be in your head for a reason.”

“You think someone’s setting him up?” Her mouth dropped. “Or setting me up?”

“I think there are bears who want you to know the truth, and some that are intent on keeping it from you.” I kissed her forehead. “And we need to figure out which bear is doing what.”

There was nothing sexier than Clover Crowley lying in bed wearing nothing but my T-shirt. She’d commandeered my laptop and was working on one of the breakfast sandwiches we’d ordered from room service.

She took a long sip of her iced mint latte. “The motorcycle is a distraction.”

“Probably, but it was ordered by someone using the same name as the bear you claim gave you scandalous information about your grandmother and it’s still missing.”

“If there were other bears this close to clan land, we’d know about it, wouldn’t we?”

“Unless they made sure no one around here knew they were bears.”

She raised a brow. “Give me one good reason a bear would hide themselves from other bears.”

“We haven’t been forthcoming that we occasionally go furry,” I reminded her. “If they were looking for information on your clan, or they wanted to sneak onto clan land unnoticed, maybe to take back something they thought belonged to them, they probably wouldn’t mention it.”

“Pretty good reason.” She grinned. “But you know how the clan is. If anyone unfamiliar set a paw on our land, the gossip network would immediately kick in.”

“Maybe they weren’t so unfamiliar.” I had to admit, it was kind of nice teaming up with her. She had a playful approach to finding information that I’d abandoned long ago. “If they could shapeshift—either to appear to you as long-dead ancestors, or these ancestors somehow have rematerialized and are ordering luxury motorcycles, they could probably convince the clan that they were friends and not foes.”

“Gives a new meaning to the concept of shapeshifter.” She took another sip of her coffee. “There’s a problem with that theory. My memories of the incident are still fuzzy, but I’m pretty sure they accused me of taking the locket.”

“Interesting, because Shirley did too.”

“So did you.” She laughed. “Maybe a better question is, why would everyone think I’d steal something from Nana, when I’m not even sure what the flipping thing can do?”

“I figured you’d made a mistake and you were trying to cover your tracks,” I said. “Or the clan had pissed you off.”

She shook her head. “Nana came to me in a panic when she realized it was gone. There’s no telling how long it took her to notice. After we ripped the house apart, she insisted I come see you, because she said that”—she lowered her voice to mimic Shirley— “If anyone can fix this, it’s Bellamy.”

“Are you sure she didn’t set you up?”

“I don’t know anything anymore.” She scooted closer to me and tapped the laptop. “Look at this. When you look up the Lynwood family tree online, it lists a completely different birthdate for Nana than when you look her up as a Crowley.”

“Let me see that.” I took the laptop from her and studied the Crowley screen. There were names above Shirley, but many of the ones with completed entries were still alive. Anyone who had passed either didn’t have a full name, or their dates were listed as unknown. I switched back to the Lynwood tab. “Huh. Some of these names line up, and the information is much more complete over here.”

“But it doesn’t tell us why Anders Lynwood came back from the dead to special order a stolen motorcycle,” she said.

“No, it doesn’t.” I kissed the side of her head. “I want nothing more than to spend our time here ravishing you in this bed, but if we’re gonna solve this mystery, we need to find this guy. I got a copy of the order from Major. It seems legit. There’s a paper trail that confirms that someone by that name lives in that apartment.”

“But that woman said she didn’t know him.”

“And that she did know you.” I sighed. “This case was weird from the start, but something about this part of it doesn’t add up.”

“Like I said, it’s a distraction. But from what?” Clover tapped her fingers on her thigh. “If you were Anders Lynwood, what would it take to get your attention?”

“A gorgeous redhead with a sassy mouth and incredible tits.” I laughed as she smacked my arm. “Fine. The motorcycle.”

“But we don’t have it.”

“And most likely, neither does he.” I leaned in and kissed her, a dangerous move because my bear was easily distracted by this woman. “Maybe that’s our angle.”