Some Bear to Love: BBW Bear Shifter (BWWM) Romance Standalone by Terry Bolryder Page B

few days?”
    He nodded emphatically. No use hiding that.
    “You could be happy again.”
    “No,” he said. She was his mate. She was the only one worth risking it all for, and he still couldn’t do it. The trauma was too strong. And she would find someone else before he could beat it.
    It was okay. It had to be.
    “Tell me yours,” he said.
    She seemed to be holding back tears, and he felt like an ass. He didn’t know how to make it clear it was about him, not about her. She was a good woman. If she found someone compatible, she probably had a chance at something long term, not a fling like they had.
    “I’m betrothed,” she said. “Well, I will be when I get home.”
    “Do you know your fiancé?” he asked.
    “No,” she said. “I didn’t want to know. Not when I was planning to come here and do whatever I wanted.”
    “Do your friends know about us?” he asked. “Or about this fiancé?”
    She shook her head. “No. They know I’m infatuated with you, but I let them think you were playing hard to get and I was chasing other males.”
    His jaw tightened. “Why?”
    “Because if anyone sees how much I already love you, I think I’ll break,” she said. “I can go through with this, but I just can’t stand for anyone to watch me do it. If I pretend it’s all some big joke, just some fling, then it’s fine. But it’s not. You’re my mate. And for the first time in my life, I want to go against my family. My family who has been so good to me. But even if I did, you wouldn’t come with me, would you? You wouldn’t take a risk on me, because you’re sure I would leave you.”
    She stood and jerked her hand away when he tried to stop her. “And I just don’t understand why you would let something so small stop you.”
    He gritted his teeth together. It didn’t feel small.
    “I mean, I’ve known this would happen since I was a child. If I tried to walk away from this, I’d literally betray everyone who has ever cared about me. I’d lose everything, and I’d be breaking my word.” She looked at him with narrowed eyes.
    He frowned. “What do you want from me?” he asked. “You should keep your word.” He saw the hurt in her eyes as he said it, but he knew even if he fought for it, even if he ignored the coldness inside him, one day she would resent him for making her do something that would make her turn on her family.
    It was even more reason she would one day turn on him and leave. He couldn’t do it.
    “If I were willing to turn my back on them, would you accept me? Would you even try to battle your demons?” she asked. “Would you trust me?”
    He considered the question in his heart, trying to ignore the low growling of his bear that was getting louder every second. What could he honestly say? Other than the mating instinct within him, there was no reason they would work, nothing that would hold her here as he worked long days on the ocean.
    She wouldn’t just be giving up her family, but her home in New York and her occupation as lawyer, which she’d presumably spent years in school for.
    Perhaps if she’d had nothing to lose, he could have made a play for them, could have hoped she’d stay. But she had everything waiting for her, so what would stop her from going once she tired of him? Once he wasn’t an adventure anymore?
    Eventually, his sternness would get to her. She was like a feather floating on the wind, and he was like a rock stuck at the bottom of the ocean.
    Trapped.
    He realized that while he’d been thinking, he’d given her all the answer she’d expected. Hurt flared in her eyes. This was everything he’d been trying to avoid. Everything they could have avoided if they’d just not gotten involved.
    But trying to cut things off with her had been like trying to stop falling after you’ve already jumped off the cliff. Impossible.
    He’d just wanted their last night together to be pleasant. But he could see now he’d been naive.
    “I should take you home,