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“I will, just another fifteen minutes, okay?”
“I’m holding you to that.” He caught my earlobe between his teeth and tugged. “Maybe we don’t need to watch a movie?”
I shivered. “Ten minutes.”
His laughter trailed behind him as he went off to make movie snacks for the three of us.
I returned my attention to my laptop screen where I was not working, as I’d told my mate, but finalizing the arrangements for our trip to Alaska. After I’d told them about it at Christmas, they hadn’t mentioned it again, but I knew they’d have the most wonderful time. These men spent all their time making my life fantastic, and I’d grasped onto this vacation as a way I could not pay them back exactly but show them how much I cared about them and what pleasure it gave me to give to them.
I’d managed to get dates for the very end of the season up there, when many people would not want to go because snow would likely be falling and it would be getting cold. But most people did not have two polar bears to warm their bed. And their hearts.
But they were waiting for me, and ten minutes was too long. I’d get back to this tomorrow. For now, I could smell buttered popcorn and spiced cider. My favorite.
Epilogue
Nacho
Marney got tickets so we could be on shipboard for the autumnal equinox. It had been almost a year since she came into our lives, and I couldn’t imagine a day without her. After the cruise, we’d be spending some time on land where our bears could run to their hearts’ content, and we could truly see how polar bears lived in the wild.
Somehow Marney had contacted a den of polar bear shifters and asked if we could visit. Both our families had been living in the lower forty-eight all our lives and I’d never heard anyone express a desire to live anywhere different.
But as the ship slid past yet another gorgeous glacier, I found myself anticipating the two weeks we’d spend with those northern bears. Marney was so good to us. She’d not only paid for the trip she’d given us last Christmas but kept every one of the arrangements secret until the last possible moment, secret from us. My editor knew, and my publisher, and that knowledge explained some of the rushed dates for things on a book that wasn’t going to come out for some time. They knew we’d be out of contact for a month or more, so they needed to cover these things, and while I grumbled, I went along with it.
Then, less than a week before our departure, she sprung the news on us. “We need to do some shopping before we leave.” Just like that.
“Aren’t you coming out on deck?” Marney came out on the balcony and joined me. It was cold enough that few passengers were making use of the balconies, but Riggs and I had even slept out here on the loungers. In bear form. Marney pointed out that if we were spotted by a passing ship, it could cause a riot—and that the cabin steward still wanted to know how we’d managed to break two loungers so far. “The view is great there.”
“It’s pretty awesome here.” I brought her between me and the railing and opened my coat to bring her inside with me. She snuggled close. “Why don’t we call Riggs and find out where he is?”
“Hmm? I think he’s on deck.”
I nibbled the back of her neck. “Don’t you think he’d like to come to the cabin and say…take a nap?”
“A nap?” Her voice held incredulity. “While we’re passing some of the most beautiful glaciers on the whole cruise?”
I moved up the side of her neck to her earlobe. “I can think of something else beautiful I’d like to see.”
“Instead of glaciers?” She was weakening.
“We could all just do it out here and…”
“And break another chair?”
“It would be so worth it.” It would be more than worth it. “I’ll call Riggs.”
