Montana Wild Bears: Books 1-4 Bundle (BBW Paranormal Werebear Shape Shifter Romance Boxed Set) by Anya Nowlan Read Free Book Online Page A

woodsy guy was supposed to be – and she couldn’t get enough of him. He seemed to have gone from treating her as if she was an irritatingly fragile bauble to looking at her like she had more than enough worth and moxie to make up for being from Wyoming and wasting his time. She couldn’t lie, it felt good.
     
    Their trek took her up one steep incline after the next, always upward and onward. The air grew colder as they were approaching the end of their first day, Tess’s feet burning from trying to keep up with Jackson. He had given her a few bemused glances during the day, egging her on to keep up with him, though she had most definitely noticed him slowing down a few times on account of her and not being a dick about it. It was appreciated and noted. She almost felt like she was studying him as much as she was the grizzlies.
     
    He had the same kind of wildness and animalistic appeal as the great bears had, and she had kept strict mental notes about him. It was more a force of habit than something she did consciously, but she found great satisfaction in tying up the bits and pieces here and there to create a cohesive understanding of the enigmatic park ranger. That, and it gave her so much more fuel to amuse herself with at night. As much as he appealed to her mentally, she wanted equally as much, if not more, to tear his clothes off and do a whole plethora of unspeakable things to him. Just the thought of him made her wet, and it got all sorts of uncomfortable during the long hikes, where she stared at his ass for most of the day.
     
    Tess’s nose was pinched by cold as Jackson reached his hand to her and pulled her up over a small ridge. She heaved for breath, the sun beginning to slowly set and the cold becoming more than a nuisance. They’d been hauling ass all day and she had been completely sore since the first day she arrived on his doorstep. Keeping up with him when he was in a particular hurry was no easy task either. His wide palm rested on her shoulder for a moment too long, lingering just enough for Tess to notice and glance up at him. He retracted his hand and exhaled, his lush lips pressing into a line as she caught him in a surprising moment of weakness.
     
    “We’re here,” he said, sweeping a hand across the sight that stood before them – the horizon cut off by high mountains and countless little streams coming together to form a wide pool cupped in a small valley. It carved a path to one side before turning into the river that they knew as Yellowhead, trailing down into the forests below and feeding the lands with water. Dense, green forests lined the sides of the pools and part of the way they had come up from. Tess smiled brightly, clapping her hands together.
    “It’s gorgeous!” she squealed and burst forward, running to the water even though her legs ached and the grass crunched with chill under her boots. Jackson’s chuckling filled the air, only making her grin wider.
     
    Jackson built the camp while Tess explored the area, armed with a flashlight and one of the cameras she intended to set up. The area was perfect for grizzlies – fresh water that was a favored site for fish, thick woods to hide their comings and goings, and enough space to avoid getting on each other’s nerves. If she had been given a choice, she would have set up a house right then and there and never left. By the time Tess returned to the campsite, there was a happy fire crackling in front of the tent and Jackson was making something that smelled suspiciously like beans in a small pot over the fire. Tess plopped down next to him on a sleeping mat he had rolled out, inhaling the scent of the food as she stretched her legs out.
     
    “This is incredible,” she sighed happily, watching the full sky of stars above them as the light faded into nothing. Night was falling quickly all around them, leaving them with only each other’s company and the sounds of the wilderness boxing them in from each side. She had