by T. S. Joyce
She fought the urge to yank the door open.
“How do I know it’s you?” she asked.
“Trin,” he murmured softer, and then there was a thud outside.
“Brick?”
No answer.
“Brick?” she asked louder.
Nothing.
Shit. She eased the deadbolt unlocked but left the sliding chain. She cracked the door open a couple inches and saw that Brick was lying on her porch, bleeding. There was no scar on his cheek.
“Oh my gosh,” she murmured, closing the door to unlock the chain. She yanked it open and did her best to drag his giant frame inside, but he was too heavy.
“Brick? Brick, I need your help to move you.”
Caw, caw, caw.
Damn those birds! “Brick!”
He grunted.
“Come on, I need to get you inside.” She used her legs and tried to drag him inside, but Brick was made of bricks! He didn’t move an inch.
“What do I do?” she asked him. “Do I call an ambulance?”
“Mom?” Tucker asked sleepily behind her.
“Go back to bed, baby. I’ll be right there.” She went to cup Brick’s face with her hands, but hesitated. He didn’t like touch.
“Do it, Mom,” Tucker said.
He was standing near her, holding his favorite blanket.
“Do what, Tucker?”
“Make him better.”
She frowned at her boy, confused. Make him better?
Brick was completely passed out, his face slack. He wasn’t human. She knew from the soft snarl that was rattling his chest. She couldn’t call the ambulance. What if they found out he wasn’t human?
Slowly, she cupped his cheeks. His skin was warm and sparked against her palms. She gasped and flinched back for a few moments, and then, determined, she cupped his cheeks more firmly. “Brick,” she whispered. “I need your help to move you. Wake up.”
“Wake up,” Tucker said, squatting down beside her. He put his little hand on Brick’s hand and shook it gently. “Wake up, Mr. Bear.”
A long, slow, terrifying growl rattled his body.
“Tucker, can you go get the first aid kit from under my bathroom sink? And all the dark brown towels?”
Tucker gave one nod and then bolted for her bathroom down the hall, blanket trailing behind him.
“Brick,” she whispered again, slipping her hand into his. She squeezed it and rubbed his palm with her fingertips.
A moan left his lips and his eyes fluttered open. God, they were such a bright silver, they were nearly white.
Brick’s dark eyebrows drew down and he took a quick glance around the porch before his gaze landed back on Trinity. She’d never seen such confusion in a man’s eyes.
“Can you move?” she murmured. “I tried to lift you but I can’t.”
With a grunt, the giant pushed up to a sitting position and dragged himself inside.
Trinity shut the door behind him, but too much of the cold air had already gotten inside and the living room was freezing.
She was only wearing an oversized t-shirt for pajamas, but her own temperature wasn’t her concern right now. She pressed her hands against his cheeks. Brick was frozen.
He moaned and rolled his eyes closed, then relaxed back and held his hand up. “Trinity.” Her name on his lips was nothing more than a whisper.
She didn’t know what he needed. Didn’t know anything that a snarling animal of a man would need. She was kneeling between his legs, and, heart racing, she lifted her palm to his. When a blue spark shot out to the side, she flinched and rubbed her palm. It hadn’t hurt, like electricity would. It just felt…different. Warm and startling.
Brick’s chest was heaving as he locked her in that silver gaze, his hand still up in the air between them.
Trinity lifted her hand again and pressed it against his. Brick intertwined their fingers and warmth seemed to seep from her hand to his as cold spread, like frost across a windshield, to hers.
Seconds trickled by as they sat there, locked up in touch. The chill turned to warmth, and it spread throughout her body like a slow rolling fog. “What is happening?” she asked softly.
“I’m breaking all the rules.” His voice was hoarse and pained.
“What rules?”
“I can’t touch you. I can’t fall for you. I can’t let you know what I am.”
Trinity pulled his hand to her face and nuzzled her cheek against him. “What are you?”
“He’s Mr. Bear,” Tucker said from behind them.
Brick’s lips curved up just a little, but the smile didn’t reach his tired eyes. “The boy is right. I am a bear.”
“A bear,” she repeated, testing the words out. “A giant, furry, sharp-toothed bear. So you can what?”
Brick nodded as he deadpanned, “I can change into a bear.”
“Into a bear,” she repeated. Nope, none of this was normal or okay.
He huffed a laugh, but she didn’t find anything funny right now. “You probably think I’m crazy.”
“I think we need to look at your arm.” Yep, she was stalling on further conversation because truth be told, she kind of believed him, and she needed time to think.
“You aren’t in danger from me,” he said. “You or Tucker.”
“Lift up,” she demanded, pulling at the hem of his shirt.
He did, but the movement hurt him. He was keeping a good poker face, but he couldn’t lift his bad arm past his ribs and she had to maneuver his blood-soaked shirt off carefully.
Trinity gasped in horror as she saw the damage. Half of his shoulder was missing.
“Tucker, go on back to your room and get in bed, baby. Brick will be fine, but you don’t need to see this.”
“Go on, boy,” Brick said hoarsely. “Your momma will get me fixed right up.”
“Will you stay here?” Tucker asked. “So I can see you in the morning?”
“You want to make sure I’m okay?” Brick asked.
“Yes.”
“I’ll stay if it’s okay with your mom.”
“He’ll be here in the morning, Tucker,” Trinity assured him as she rifled through the first-aid kit he’d brought her for some gauze. “Off to bed, buddy.”
And off he went.
Relieved that she could work without traumatizing her kid now, Trinity said, “We have to get this bleeding stopped.”
But Brick was staring down at his shoulder. “I think you already did.”
“What?” she asked, puzzled. She patted his arm with a towel and sure enough, the open wound wasn’t seeping anymore.
It looked awful and raw, and she could see the uneven, damaged muscle, but it wasn’t bleeding anymore. Huh.
Confusion tainted every word as Brick murmured, “What in the fuuuuuck?”
He stood suddenly and startled her. Trinity fell back onto her locked arms to give the giant man room to move, but Brick didn’t want room. He grabbed her hands and tugged her upward so fast, it left her breathless. He intertwined their fingers again, and bewilderment swam through every one of his features.
“I haven’t touched a human. I haven’t touched…you,” he said low.
Trinity pressed her lips first to one of his hands, and then to his other. He didn’t flinch back or pull away. His eyes darkened to that roiling silver she recognized. Releasing his hand, Trinity swallowed hard as the nerves started getting to her. She slid her hands up his bare chest. Oh, he was the most masculine creature she’d ever seen. He was thick with muscle. His six-pack flexed with each breath, and his pecs were deeply defined. She rested her hands just below his collarbones to feel his racing heartbeat. Bum-bum, bum-bum. The beat raced hers.
A slow, hungry smile stretched his lips. Mmmm, he looked good in that wicked grin.
She pushed up onto her tiptoes and slid her arms around his neck, hugging him tight. When he slid his hands to her waist, bunching up her t-shirt as he gripped her there, she pressed a soft kiss to his neck.
A long, low moan escaped his lips. Never in her life had she felt more powerful or more in control.
Leaning forward slightly, Brick slipped his hand under her sleep shirt. The feel of his fingertips running up her bare back made her arch and gasp his name. His lips lowered to her throat and he kissed her there, sucking gently until she was boneless.
By the time he eased back and pressed his lips to hers, she was already gone. He growled into her mouth as he pushed her tongue against hers. Trinity’s knees buckled and he caught her, lifted her up, and pulled her legs around his waist as he walked her to her bedroom door. She’d always hated her bedroom being across the house from Tucker’s room until now.
Now, her room felt like a different world as he settled her on her feet and closed the door behind them. “Look,” he murmured.
In the dim illumination of her nightlight, she could see his shoulder was healing.
“That’s impossible. How is this happening?” She traced the outer edge of the horrific injury. “Am I doing that?”
He nodded, and there was that wicked grin again. “The more you touch me, the better I feel.”
Well, in that case…
She dragged her nails lightly up his back, and the growl deepened in his throat. Cupping her face, he kissed the hell out of her and backed her toward the bed.
The second her ass hit the edge of the mattress, he pulled her shirt over her head and chucked it to the floor. The fire in his eyes turned her on so damn much right now.
Her nipples puckered up in anticipation and she locked her fingers behind his head as he eased her back onto the bed. He was so strong and confident with his touch. His hands left trails of fire across her skin as he explored her body. Up her waist, up her ribs, to her breasts. He eased down and massaged one before he pulled her nipple into his mouth and sucked.
She uttered a shaky curse and arched back against the sheets. His beard felt so good, his tongue was divine, and his hands were addictive. He released her nipple and moved to her other breast. Massaging, kissing, sucking, gently biting until she was writing and begging for more.
He kissed down her cleavage to her stomach and drew a straight line down, down. He bit her abdomen gently and pulled her panties down her thighs. The second those hit the floor, his tongue was right there, lapping at her sex. Trinity gripped his hair and gasped, rolling her hips with the pace he set. He had her there fast. She was so turned on, her orgasm built quickly and destroyed any reserve she had left. “More,” she said through her panting breath. “Brick, please.”
The answering rumble from his chest was so damn sexy.
Eyes glowing strangely like an animal’s in the dim lighting, Brick crawled up her body and locked his lips around her oversensitive nipple again as he unfastened his jeans.
She had this moment as she was staring up at him, his locked arm flexed, his chest and abs hard as stone with the movement of him moving his jeans down his powerful thighs. She had this moment where she was awed by him. Never had she been awed by a man before, but Brick…Brick was different. She had her hand clamped around his wrist by her cheek, and when his pants were on the floor with her clothes, he grabbed her arm in a blur and trapped it above her head.
There was no hesitation as he slid his swollen cock into her. He pushed in deep and she moaned at how good it felt.
His strokes were hard and smooth, his body tense. The growl in his chest was constant and vibrated against her sensitive breasts. His weight was heavy, but not too much. She just felt safe and warm and good.
He bucked into her harder, over and over, pumping faster until Trinity was there again, release built to blinding. She dug her nails in his back as she came again. Staying deep, Brick hit her just right to drag out her orgasm, like he knew every button of hers to push.
“Two,” he murmured in her ear.
Oooooh, he was keeping count?
Brick kissed her deep, slowed his strokes, and let the throbbing between her legs slowly fade. Just as her muscles were relaxing into his rhythm again, he eased out of her and turned her over so fast her stomach dipped for a split second, as if she was in a jet plane. When she opened her eyes, she was on her knees facing the headboard of her bed, her hands splayed on the smooth wood. Brick’s chest was pressed against her shoulder blades and he kissed her neck. She rolled back against him and sighed at how good his warm skin felt against her back.
Brick pushed her knees wider apart as he took her hands one by one and directed her to grip the top of the headboard. Anticipation licked at her stomach like flames. She was heating up to molten from the inside out as he moved against her, teasing her.
His fingers dug into her hip as he eased her ass back. Trinity arched her back in a silent plea for him to fill her up again, and he did. Brick slid into her from behind and groaned against her ear in the sexiest sound she’d ever heard before.
He positioned his hands over hers on the headboard and eased back, then slammed into her. God he was so smooth, so powerful. Each thrust was the perfect depth, the perfect pace. He pulled one of her hands off the wood and slid it between her legs, putting pressure against her clit, and Trinity gasped. She could feel his wet dick sliding in and out of her like this. Ooooh, she liked this.
Brick slid his hand around her stomach and pulled her tight against him as he stayed deeper, bucking into her faster. And she was there again. Already there. Holy shit she was there and she was going to…going to… “Brick! Fuck…me,” she gasped out.
He slammed into her harder, that snarl in his throat rattling her entire body. She came hard, and as she melted back against him, he wrapped his arms around her and tensed. His dick throbbed hard inside of her, and he let off a deep, growly, helpless sound that dredged chills from her skin.
Slowly, he eased her chest down on the bed, making sure her ass was still up in the air for him. He finished his release jerking into her, dragging out every pulse of pleasure from her.
“Three,” she whispered in an awed, shaky voice.
He chuckled above her. God, she loved that sound.
The bed sank as Brick laid down beside her. He pulled her closer and rubbed her back as they stayed locked in each other’s gazes.
“I can’t stop touching you now,” he murmured, cupping her cheek.
Trinity traced the healing injury to his shoulder. It looked like an angry red scar now. “What happened to you?”
The smile faded from his silver eyes, and he dragged her hand from his shoulder to his lips, where he placed a kiss on her knuckles. His beard tickled her skin. “My brother did it.”
Her heart stuttered at his awful admission. “What do you mean? How did he do something like this? Did he shoot you with a shotgun?”
A humorless huff of breath escaped him. “He bit it off.”
“He bit it off,” she repeated.
“He’s a bear too. We were in a fight.”
Trinity propped up on her elbow. “Over what?”
“I was trying to kill him. He was stronger than I’d remembered. Now I understand why he was stronger.”
Trinity probably looked like a landed fish right about now as she opened and closed her mouth, unsure of how to respond.
“I wish I could protect you from my life,” he murmured, brushing a strand of her hair from in front of her face. “I wish I was different. For you.”
“What happened?” she asked, sitting up completely. “Just say it so it makes sense to me.”
“I have two brothers, Aux and Moore. We’re triplets. Never felt like brothers though. Not like humans have siblings. We were each other’s competition to try and please a set of unpleasable parents. We were taught to fight each other. Taught survival of the fittest. We were raised outside of society, and we were taught that fear was unacceptable. Only rage. Only killing. My dad…” He cleared his throat and rolled over onto his back, stared at the ceiling fan. “My dad was a killer and he did his damndest to teach us the same. He was a maneater.”
�
�You mean he ate people?” she whispered in horror.
Brick looked like he wanted to retch as he nodded ‘yes.’ “My mom too. Hell, all of our people in history have been. The day he and my mom died, my brothers and I made a blood-oath to let our line die off. We’re the last ones left. The world would be better off without bear shifters.”
“How did your parents die?” she asked.
“Moore killed them.”
She didn’t know how to respond. For a few minutes, all she could do was snuggle against his side and think about the things he’d admitted. Never in her life had she heard a story so terrifying or sad. “Are you a maneater?”
“No. Neither is Aux.”
“And Moore?”
Brick shrugged up his shoulders, rolled back toward her, and dragged her tightly against him. “He will be.”
Trinity remembered her dream about the man dressed in animal skins on her lawn, and a new set of chills lifted the fine hairs all over her body.
“I was supposed to punish my brother for breaking the oath. He chose a mate. A human mate. So…I went to his cabin to see for myself and carry out Moore’s order.”
“Order to kill him,” she murmured.
Brick nodded.
“What happened in the fight?”
“I lost. I lost and Aux did something I still don’t understand.”
“What?”
“He let me live.”
Trinity pressed her fingers against the tripping pulse at his throat. “And will you repay him? Will you let him live?”
“Yes. I’ll probably betray my oath even more. I’ll protect Aux and his mate if it comes down to it.” He swallowed audibly. “You should know exactly what I am, so you can choose to stay or go.”
“You’ve already chosen, haven’t you?” she asked softly.
“I chose the first day I saw you. I knew I couldn’t stay away from you, or from the boy. I wanted to be better for you.”
She touched his beard lightly, and smiled at him in the dark. “Brick, you’re just fine the way you are.”
His eyes softened, and he did something she loved. Down to her bones, she loved.
He gave her a rare, small smile back.
Chapter Eight
