The Bigger They Are… (Lovers on the Fringe, Book Two) Read online

  And Joss didn’t have a reputable career to fall back on. He was like Indiana Jones without the college gig.

  She was the person Indiana Jones would hire to do his taxes.

  Damn, she needed to get a hobby. Maybe she’d learn how to skydive. Or maybe she should start with crocheting.

  And yes, she was stalling.

  The closer she drew to the building, the more her heart started to pound. Instead of pulling into the lot, she parked just shy of it, turning off the car but not removing the key.

  She still hadn’t talked herself into getting out of the car.

  She was pretty sure she was trespassing. Even if the sign at the entrance said state park, the sign had also said the park closed at dusk. And that had definitely been a couple of hours ago because right now the only light was that of the moon.

  She’d driven for what seemed like forever to get here and she wasn’t sure where here exactly was.

  Above, the sky shone with waaay too many stars. All those tiny pinpricks of light were kind of freaking her out. They looked too damn…cheerful.

  Where was a good, old flickering streetlight when you needed one? Hell, she’d feel safer on the streets of Reading at midnight with a homeless guy asking her for money than she felt here.

  Here… Mountain lions and bears and wolves, oh my.

  Why—

  The door to the shack opened, light spilling out into the darkness like a party dress in a dark club. A shadow cut through the light and a man walked out. At least, the shadow was man-shaped.

  Her mouth dropped open. Holy crap, the guy was tall. So tall, he had to bend down so he wouldn’t hit his head on the doorframe.

  Backlit, she couldn’t see his face but she did catch a glimpse of blond hair that brushed linebacker-wide shoulders.

  The guy stopped to lean against the porch railing, staring up at those same stars, and now she gasped.

  In the weak light of the bare bulb over the door, she could just make out his features.

  And, oh my goodness, the man was gorgeous. Her heart actually tripped over a few beats on its way back to a normal rhythm.

  He didn’t look like anyone she’d ever seen before. He looked…a little wild. A little rough. A whole lot gorgeous.

  Typically, she dated guys who had their hair styled—their word, not hers—every three weeks and didn’t own a pair of jeans that weren’t pressed and creased and able to stand on their own.

  This guy…

  Wow.

  The broad planes and sharp angles of his face gave him an exotic, mysterious air. She couldn’t decide if he looked Nordic or Asian or eastern European. Probably some combination of all of those and more.

  Which just made him absolutely stunning.

  And made her tingle from head to toe.

  He had blond hair, and she didn’t mean run-of-the-mill, department-store gold. She meant Tiffany’s platinum. The guy had to spend at last two days a week in a high-end salon to get that shade of white-blond and make it look so damn natural.

  And the waves. Tousled waves fell to just below his shoulders, longer than her recently shorn pixie cut.

  My God, the man should be hawking shampoo. Or butter substitute. He’d sure as hell sell more than that freaking Fabio.

  Then there was that face. His features were such an exotic mix of east and west, broad nose and forehead, sharp cheekbones and eyes that hinted at an Asian ancestry. But his skin tone was definitely on the lighter side of golden.

  She’d never seen anyone like him.

  And she’d like to see a whole hell of a lot more of him, preferably naked and sprawled on a bed big enough to let them roll around on it. She didn’t think he’d fit on the queen-size mattress in her room at the B&B but she’d be more than willing to compromise and let him hog more than his share.

  She wondered if GQ was holding a top-secret Big & Tall male-model convention in the backwoods of Pennsylvania.

  If this guy was one of the models, she was sure as hell signing up for the catalogue. And the calendar and the pay-per-view event.

  Please, God, let it be unrated and clothing optional.

  As he walked off the porch and started toward her, she knew her mouth was hanging open but she couldn’t seem to care.

  Not when he wore that quirky grin that let her know he saw her looking at him.

  Good old-fashioned lust made her insides turn to liquid even as her nipples hardened into tight points and her thighs clenched like a virgin at a male strip show.

  Holy crap.

  She knew she’d been suffering from sexual frustration since she’d dumped her last lover five months ago. They’d dated for over a year and she’d never wanted Craig to strip her naked, bend her across the hood of her sensible Honda and make a few dents.

  She wished she was the sort of girl to proposition a guy like that. Or any guy she liked, for that matter.

  The only propositions she got involved bribes for tax evasion. Not quite enough to make her panties wet.

  This guy could probably do it reciting the latest IRS newsletter for CPAs.

  Somewhere in the back of her mind was a voice screaming at her to get out of the car, meet him halfway and say, “Hey, you’re hot. Can I climb you like a telephone pole and ride you like a cowgirl?”

  She wondered if he’d say no. She couldn’t imagine the man, who looked like a cross between a Nordic god and the Wild Man of Borneo, hadn’t had some pretty far-out come-ons in his time.

  What was this guy doing out here? For that matter, what was anyone doing out here in the middle of nowhere?

  What if Joss is actually on to something?

  No, that was crazy talk. Crazy talk made you believe ancient aliens built the pyramids.

  And no matter how much she admired the skill it took to make Giorgio Tsoukalas’ hair defy gravity or the fact that he’d parlayed a totally insane idea into a series on the History Channel, there was no way she believed little green men from outer space had visited Earth to show ancient humans how to cut perfectly square rocks.

  Then what is this guy doing here, where there’s supposed to be nothing and no one?

  She’d done her homework before she’d left home. She’d checked out the coordinates on Google Earth and come up with nothing but trees.

  This building stood in a clearing. It should’ve shown up on Google Earth. And yet it hadn’t.

  Did that mean someone had gone to great lengths to hide this place? To make it secret?

  Or had she finally joined her brother and tasted the Kool-Aid?

  No, that was… No.

  There was a reasonable explanation for everything. She’d just have to come back in the light of day and find it.

  No way in hell was she getting out of her car and asking the hot giant if he could introduce her to Bigfoot.

  Chapter Two

  Andy had noticed the car parked up the lane as soon as he’d leaned against the porch railing and looked out into the dark forest.

  His night vision was good enough to make out the woman in the car. A damn pretty woman who stared at him as if he were an exhibit in a sideshow.

  What the hell was she doing here? Who the hell was she? And how the hell had she gotten here?

  He didn’t recognize her, which didn’t mean anything. Except…she smelled totally Normal.

  Edible but Normal.

  Which meant she really shouldn’t be out there staring at the Mystyk Bar as if she’d stumbled onto Shangri-La. Which was absolutely worth staring at for hours.

  The outside of the Mystyk…not so much.

  Good thing he hadn’t shifted to go lumbering through the forest to the cabin he and Fry had rented.

  He’d thought maybe he’d get lucky and scare the crap out of a long-haul trucker or two as he made a “classic Bigfoot crossing”.

  That show Finding Bigfoot on Animal Planet had become one of his not-to-be-missed pleasures in life. And that skeptical scientist was kinda hot.

  Though not as hot
as the girl in the car.

  What was she doing here?

  Probably better go find out before anyone else walked out of the bar. Didn’t want her to get the bright idea that she needed to get out of the car and investigate. Some of the other Mystyk patrons might not be so willing to divert her attention.

  They’d mess with her mind for a while then scare the hell out of her until she thought she was crazy.

  Of course, maybe he’d found the perfect diversion for his boredom.

  Messin’ with Normals ranked high on his Most Enjoyable Pastimes list.

  Stepping off the porch, he headed toward her car, watching her eyes get bigger with every step he took.

  With his hands in the pockets of his oldest, most comfortable jeans and a tight blue t-shirt that matched his eyes, he knew he looked pretty damn good.

  Women had been known to swoon at the sight of him.

  Of course, just as many had run in the opposite direction, so that pretty much dealt with most of the ego he might’ve developed.

  When he reached the car and leaned down to knock on the window, he decided to start with charm. Save the scare tactics in case the charm failed.

  Which he hoped didn’t happen because, wow, the lady was a looker.

  Her hair was shorter than his, a pretty chocolate brown that perfectly matched those wide eyes and fluttered all around her adorable face. She had soft, rounded features that reminded him of that actress, Reese Witherspoon. Pretty, sweet. The kind of girl you took home to meet Mom.

  Not the kind of girl you wanted to strip naked and pin up against a wall.

  Which was exactly what he wanted to do.

  His smile widened and so did her eyes.

  “Hey. You okay out here?”

  She opened her mouth but he didn’t hear anything come out. Her cheeks flushed bright red, showing up as blotches of color on her milk-pale skin.

  Her gaze dropped to the steering wheel and she took a deep breath.

  Now she could be frightened. A seven-foot guy walks out of a ramshackle building in the middle of nowhere and knocks on your car window. Most people might have cause to fear for their life. Or at least wonder if he hid a chainsaw or meat hook behind his back.

  But he didn’t think that was what was going on here.

  She looked…gobsmacked. In a good way.

  In the same way he felt.

  He really freaking hoped he wasn’t reading her wrong, and he usually had a good sense for these things.

  Of course, there had been that one time with that beautiful cat shifter… He’d mistaken a hiss for something other than a warning and… Well, chicks dug scars, right?

  He really didn’t want this woman to freak out, put the car in gear and scream bloody murder as she drove back to where she’d come from.

  So he squatted down until his eyes were level with hers and waited until she turned her head to look at him.

  Which she did after a few seconds.

  And he was struck again by an urgent need to beat his chest and throw her over his shoulder as he ran to the nearest cave.

  Guess he shouldn’t give in to that one. Didn’t want to feed the stereotype.

  He forced a smile back onto his lips, hoping he didn’t frighten her anymore.

  Looking from his lips to his eyes, she blinked a few times then slowly returned his smile.

  And lowered her window.

  “Hey,” he started again before reining in the urge to say exactly the same thing he already had. “I didn’t mean to frighten you. Are you lost?”

  Slowly, she nodded, but he couldn’t be sure what she was saying yes to—being lost or being afraid.

  “I guess I must be. Lost, that is.” Her gaze flickered toward the bar for a brief second and he had a momentary thought that she was about to lie to him.

  Then she flashed those big brown eyes at him and his brain just keep repeating, Fire bad, girl pretty.

  He’d have to lay off the Buffy, the Vampire Slayer reruns.

  “I must’ve gotten turned around when I got into the park. I was heading back to the bed-and-breakfast and I have such a terrible sense of direction and the GPS didn’t seem to be working all that well out here.”

  Her expression turned apologetic though she didn’t bat her eyes as if she were trying to charm a cop into letting her out of a speeding ticket. She looked genuinely guilty and sorry about it.

  Like maybe she thought he was a park ranger about to bust her for being in the park after hours.

  Damn, wasn’t that just the perfect excuse?

  And to some degree, you could argue that was true…if you bought the theory that a Yeti shifter had any jurisdiction over a territory held by the Bukwas tribe of shifters, who were based in British Columbia.

  Yet, looking into those oh so guilty eyes, he didn’t want to lie to her.

  What the hell did he say?

  “I could show you the way out. I was just getting ready to head back to town. I’ll lead you out.”

  Her gaze shifted back to the bar for a brief second before she smiled up at him. And made his heart thump with a rock ’n’ roll beat.

  Okay, he definitely needed to spend a little more time with this woman because she was definitely up to something. Something that involved the Mystyk.

  Very interesting. If he had a goatee, he’d be stroking it.

  He wanted to stroke her instead.

  “Let me get my truck and you can follow me back to town.”

  She smiled at him again and his cock perked all the hell up.

  “I’d really appreciate that. Thank you so much.”

  He thought about sticking his head back in the bar to tell Fry he was going but decided not to press his luck. All those nosy bastards could decide they’d want to get a closer look at the hot chick Andy had found outside.

  And that would not be good for so many reasons.

  One of which was not because he didn’t want to share her.

  And yeah, that was a total lie.

  He got into the Tahoe he kept in his cousin’s garage when he wasn’t on this continent then drove up to her car. He gave her a stupid little wave and a grin he hoped wasn’t too eager then pulled forward so she had enough room to execute a perfect three-point turn in her sensible little sedan.

  She didn’t crowd him as he wound through several small back roads before he turned onto the main road that lead out of the park and finally to the two-lane country highway back to town.

  It took almost a half hour to get back to town, a drive that normally only took fifteen minutes, and that was only if you got behind an eighteen-wheeler doing the speed limit.

  Since there was only one bed-and-breakfast in the small town of Bailey Falls, he knew where she was staying.

  And, gee, what a coincidence. That’s where he was headed too. The cabin he rented was owned by the same couple who ran the bed-and-breakfast.

  How convenient was that?

  After they’d parked in the lot, he hustled out of the truck so he could open her door for her and watch her slide out of the car.

  Damn good call.

  Long legs emerged first, encased in formfitting denim that he wanted to pet. Followed by a totally hot set of tits that’d do an all-natural porn star proud. At least a C-cup, if not a D. Damn nice rack.

  He wanted to bend down and rub his five o’ clock shadow all over them. First he’d pull off that well-worn t-shirt that had some obscure college symbol on it.

  Wait, was that…

  He started to smile.

  Starfleet Academy. Her shirt bore a wickedly artistic symbol that only made sense if you knew what you were looking at.

  And since he happened to be a fan, her hotness factor had just gone up about a thousand points.

  “Classic or Next Gen?”

  Pleased surprise flared in her eyes before she returned his smile. “Classic, of course. And DS9 had more depth than Next Gen, though Picard still rules.”

  “A woman after my own heart. Kir
k was a Neanderthal compared to Picard. The prime directive was more a guideline with James Tiberius than an actual directive.”

  As they started to walk toward the inn’s front door, he realized he’d never gotten her name.

  “I’m Andy, by the way.”

  He stopped at the bottom of the stairs as she climbed to the porch. When she turned to face him, her eyes were almost on level with his.

  In the warm, dim glow of the porch light, he saw just how beautiful they were. Golden brown, almost amber.

  “Jenna.” She held out her hand and he wanted to grab it and lay it on his chest. Preferably while he was naked.

  Then he’d move it lower. Slide it down his stomach. Wrap those slim fingers around his dick and show her how he wanted her to touch him.

  She must have seen something of what he was thinking on his face, because those beautiful eyes widened again and, when he took her hand, her fingers tightened around his convulsively before releasing him. He didn’t want to let her go and had to force himself to do it.

  And he definitely wasn’t ready to say good night before she took herself off to her bed and he trudged, brokenhearted, to his own. Alone.

  “Hey, you wanna get a drink? I know Matt and Birdie have a bar in the lounge for the guests to use. We could,” make out, get naked, have sex, “talk for a little while.”

  She blinked. “You know the owners?”

  Well, yeah, he did. He’d been renting a cabin from them for years. The mated mountain lion shifters had inherited the property from Matt’s parents several years ago.

  Frankly, Andy was shocked that they’d rented a room to a Normal, given that their clientele was almost exclusively Fringe.

  Now he really wanted to know what this woman was doing here.

  He shrugged as if it were no big deal. “Yeah, I’ve been coming here for years. I like…” roaming the forest and scaring the bejesus out of the occasional hiker “hiking around here.”

  Her head cocked to the side and he got the impression she was trying to get a read on him. That sharp gaze made him want to fidget like a kid caught passing notes in school.

  Of course, if she’d been his teacher…