The Dark Prince's Prize

Chapter 14-2

“Hey Samara, how are you feeling?” Bear asked the next morning.

Samara looked up from the back of the trailer attached to the UTV. Remorse swept through her when she saw the concerned expression on Bear’s face. She had forgotten all about him.

“Hi Bear. I’m good,” she replied, leaning on the pitchfork.

He dismounted from the gelding he was riding and walked over to her. She tightened her grip on the handle of the pitchfork when he silently studied her. His intense scrutiny made her wish she had kept her hat on.

“So, what happened?” he asked.

“What do you mean?” she uneasily countered.

He eyed her with a slightly reproachful glare that made her flush. She released a loud sigh, set the pitchfork down, and sat on the bale of hay she had been working on distributing. What happened last night still seemed unreal.

“How is your head?” he dryly inquired.

She lifted her hand and touched the spot. It was still tender if she pressed on it. Fortunately, she was wearing a bandana to keep her hair out of her eyes and it covered the area where she should have had a wound.

“It’s fine—a little tender still,” she honestly replied.

“So, did you need stitches? Did the doc at the emergency room clear you to come back so soon? After the amount of blood I saw you lose last night, it seems like they would’ve suggested some extra time off,” he reasoned.

As Bear studied her face, Samara had an uneasy feeling that he knew she hadn’t gone to the hospital. Deciding deflection was the best tactic, she countered with a question of her own.

“What happened to Jerry after I left?” she asked.

Bear snorted and shrugged. “He might be needing a dentist,” he answered.

She stared at his hands. He was wearing gloves, but she suspected there might be a few bruises on his knuckles. The thought made her grin. A look into Bear’s amused eyes confirmed her suspicion.

“How many?” she inquired.

Bear grinned back at her. “Two—a front tooth and a molar,” he confessed.

She shook her head. “He should have known better than to call you Teddy Bear. You were the State Junior Heavy Weight Boxing champion three years in a row!”

“Yeah, a few guys reminded him of that as they were hauling his a*s out of the bar,” he said.

The determined gleam reappeared in Bear’s eyes, and panic hit Samara when she saw it. Her hope that he would drop what happened to her faded. She was a lousy liar, so she would have to tread as close to the truth as possible.

“So, are you gonna tell me what happened to you after you and the Rock Star vanished?” he asked.

“That was a funny thing, Adalard showing up, wasn’t it? I don’t remember a lot with all the excitement and being half knocked out, but it turns out he isn’t a Rock Star after all,” she said.

“What is he then?” Bear pressed.

“He’s a doctor—of sorts. He patched me up, and after making sure I wasn’t going to pass out on him, he brought me home,” she explained.

Bear looked at Samara with a skeptical expression and folded his arms across his chest. “A doctor, you say? From where?” he dryly asked.

She scowled at him. “I don’t know. Some foreign place. What does it matter? I’m better. I’m sorry about last night. It is one of the hazards of being around my family. I shouldn’t have gone out with you. It would have saved us both a lot of grief,” she muttered.

She rose, turned, and grabbed the pitchfork. She wobbled with surprise when she felt the trailer rock. Twisting, she looked up at Bear with a startled expression. It was one of the few times that she witnessed his anger.

“Last night was not a mistake. It isn’t your fault your brothers are d***s. I can handle them. What I can’t handle is that you got hurt. You don’t get it, do you, Samara? I’ve had feelings for you since the tenth grade,” he gruffly replied.

“I… Bear… I….”

She was at a loss for words. No, she didn’t get it. Her feelings of guilt multiplied as she remembered all the times that she cut Bear off short when he had started flirting with her during high school. Hell, she had never had time to think of boys—other than the ones that were pissed off at her brothers and wanting to take it out on her. For that matter, half the girls had been the same way thanks to the long string of broken hearts her siblings liked to leave behind. For some reason that she never understood, being a ‘bad boy’ made her brothers appealing to the opposite s*x.

Bear pulled one of his gloves off and gently caressed her cheek. She remained still when he leaned forward and kissed her cold lips. In response, she felt nothing, and remorse filled her because of it.

It wasn’t that she was repulsed, but there was no fire there the way there was when Adalard kissed her. Bear’s soft hiss of pain made her blink. He pulled away from her with an apologetic smile.

“Sorry about that. The static electricity must be from the cold and my clothes—unless you want to think of it as a spark of passion,” he said, rubbing his chest.

“Spark?” she repeated, looking down at her hands.

Samara had unconsciously pressed them against his chest. A dark red swirl of energy with white sparks that looked like tiny bolts of electricity was emanating from them. She curled her gloved fingers, thankful that Bear couldn’t see what she saw. She shoved her hands into the pockets of her coat and shook her head.

“I… it must be the cold—like in the freezer section at the grocery store,” she mumbled.

He chuckled and nodded. “So, will you give me another chance? I’ll take you someplace where I know your brothers won’t show up,” he promised.

Adalard flashed through her mind. She swallowed and shook her head. There was no way they could ever be together. They were literally from two different worlds.

“I think I’d rather just be friends for now. I’m trying to get my life sorted out… without my brothers,” she awkwardly replied.

Bear nodded in disappointment. “I get that. I can be a patient man,” he said with a wink. “How about I help you with this so you can take some time for yourself to recoup? I have a few hours before I’m supposed to meet with some of the guys.”

“That would be nice, Bear,” she softly responded.

“I’ll even share my hot chocolate with you when we finish—as a consolation prize for missing out on dessert last night,” he said with a roguish smile.

She mutely watched him jump over the side of the trailer and lift one of the square bales of hay from the back. The gelding softly whinnied and stepped forward to take a mouthful.

Lost in thought, they worked in unison with Bear’s casual chatter filling the silence. She was sweeping out the last of the hay when Adalard’s quiet voice filled her mind.

What is hot chocolate?