Devoted to the Bear Read Free

her, but she at least wanted her family pictures back.
    She hustled double time to the elevator, careful not to spill the steaming cups of coffee in her hands. When it came to poking the up button, she glared at her fingers, currently tied in the art of balancing four honey buns around the coffee cups. She debated turning and bumping the button, but her ass wasn’t bony enough by half. And just as she was figuring out the logistics of poking the pointiest part of her flip flop against the button, a man in a suit rushed to her side and pushed it for her.
    “What floor?” he asked.
    “Eight.”
    He pushed eight and ten and she settled into the corner farthest away from him.
    “Do you need help?” he asked, gesturing to her full hands. He was young, in his early thirties with dark hair and a bright smile. Couldn’t trust anyone though.
    “Oh, no. I’m fine.” Really, even if she tried to unload her wares onto a kind meaning stranger, there was a high probability she’d spill it all, and she really needed coffee after yesterday. Near torture apparently kept even the heaviest sleepers awake all night.
    The electronic number on the wall dinged two and she bit her bottom lip. Elevator rides were so awkward.
    “You visiting from out of town?” the man asked.
    Suspicion made her take a second look at the man. Blue eyes, infuse d with an honest expression probably got him a lot of what he wanted from women. Dane was dead, but Stone was still alive. And that man had the uncanny ability to show up just when everything was going well. She narrowed her eyes and backed her hips against the cold metal railing. “Why do you ask?”
    Hands shoved in his pockets, the man looked away first. “Just being friendly.”
    The elevator doors opened and Hannah rushed out. When they closed again, she pressed her back against the wall. The air felt thick and made it hard to breath, hard to swallow. He was just a man asking a simple question. It didn’t mean anything. She had to get a grip. Riker had fixed everything and there was no need to be scared anymore.
    Breathing steadied, she walked crisply to the end of the hall and kicked at the door. Riker opened it within moments. “What’s wrong?” He stuck his head outside and searched the hallway as she ducked around him.
    “Nothing. Some guy was actually being nice and struck up a conversation in the elevator and I just about peed my pants.” The coffee cups made clunking sounds as she lowered them to the table. “I’ ve turned into a wuss.”
    “No,” he said, closing the door behind him. “You’ve just honed your instincts. You’ll relax over time, I promise.”
    His hair was mussed and damp from a shower and the w orry slowly left his gray eyes to be replaced by relief. She understood it. She’d only been away from him for twenty minutes and she’d felt like a piece of her had been missing until she laid eyes on him again.
    “Is it like this because of our bond?” she asked, unable to drag her gaze from his.
    “It’s like this because we’re important to each other. Not because of any supernatural pull that tells us to obsess. The bond is what we make it.”
    Satisfied, she sat in the chair Riker pulled out for her and took a long pull of the cooling coffee. He lowered himself in the seat across the small table and drew her legs into his lap, then ate in companionable silence amid secret smiles and soft, affectionate brushes of her ankles. After breakfast, Riker shouldered the small traveling bag holding their menial amount of clothes and checked them out of the hotel.
    The subway was an experiment in animal patience. On three separate occasions, she thought Riker would rip a man’s head off who sat too close and bumped his shoulder at every stop. He also talked loudly into his speakerphone to a hard of hearing family member and smelled like grilled onions. Riker kept clenching and unclenching his fists, but the fourth stop was theirs, and the man survived them.
    “I