Eric (Strauss Bear Shifter Brothers 0f Colorado Book 2)

by Brittany White

  “God,” Lydia whispered. “Eric, please…”

  He wrapped an arm around her waist, holding her up out of the water and that growl came back, his eyes flashing. “I love it when you say please.” He kissed her fiercely and she spread her thighs, opening for him. “Not because...I want you to beg for it, I just… I want to know you want it…”

  “I’ve always wanted it,” she said in his ear. “I’ve always wanted you. Always.”

  He slid inside her all at once. His thick hard cock found her center as he held her close, grasping her legs around him as he thrust into her. She threw her head back and gasped, pulling him in further with her legs, lying halfway out of the tub, her breasts chilled in the air. He rocked into her, slowly at first and then with increasing greediness as if searching for the key to life inside.

  “Tell me,” he breathed, groaning when she clenched around his cock. “Don’t stop telling me…”

  “I used to…” She licked her lips and feeling bold, she said, “I used to touch myself and think of you. I mean...I always did, Eric. You were my first fantasy-”

  “Fuck...ah…” Eric picked up both the pace and ferocity and she clung to him as he pounded into her. She hugged him to her as he pistoned his hips and every time he brushed against her clit she gasped and sank her teeth into his shoulder.

  “You...you..m-made me come so many times,” she said, hardly able to speak as she shook beneath him.

  Eric came with a roar that he shouted into her skin and then he reached down, fingering her fiercely, not letting her rest before his talented hand found the right spot and she cried out, loud enough that a shifter walking outside the suite would definitely hear. He laughed into her neck, holding her fast with one arm as he furiously brought her off with his finger. She shut her eyes, just a little embarrassed by the way she flailed in the water and splashed around, pleasure consuming her.

  I love you so much, my beautiful mate.

  She heard his thought clear as day and when she opened her eyes, he kissed her.

  I love you too, she thought back.

  15

  Lydia

  Following bathtime, they made it as far as the living room floor before Lydia ended up on her back and she had time to notice how soft and plush the pristine cream colored carpeting was just before Eric was climbing on top of her again. She could hardly kiss him as she was grinning uncontrollably, laughing as she threw her arms around him. He peppered her face with kisses before filling her again, this time plunging inside her with yet more abandon. Lydia screamed, her mouth wide open as he thrusted into her again and again, wringing her of every bit of pleasure.

  That night, Lydia fell asleep in Eric’s arms. Between the champagne, the sex, and her man holding her, she had never felt so good in her entire life.

  The nightmare came on suddenly.

  It was just like all the others. It seemed to start in the middle of a terrible fight between Eric and some terrible and powerful force. Eric was in his bear form and getting tossed around like a child’s toy. Lydia was paralyzed, helpless to stop it from happening. All she could do was scream and cry out as her truest love and mate was torn apart in front of her. It was ugly. She had dreamed of it all in gory detail several times and it never got any less real or terrifying.

  “Sweetheart,” Eric’s voice interrupted the dream and she cried and flailed. “Sweetheart! Liddy, wake up!”

  Lydia jerked awake and blinked herself to alertness. She was on her side, facing Eric in bed as he started to sit up. She was shaking and he murmured soft words, stroking her hair as she scooted up to lay her head on his chest. She closed her eyes and just breathed, clinging to him for dear life.

  “Was it one of those nightmares again?” Eric said.

  “I couldn’t move,” she said, sniffing. “You were being killed right in front of me and it felt so real, Eric.”

  “It’s not real, Liddy,” Eric said firmly. “I’m not in any danger. I haven’t had so much as a tiff with a customer. There’s been nothing.”

  Lydia listened to Eric’s heartbeat, solid and regular, and spread her fingers along his stomach, just to feel how warm and alive he was. “No angry ex-girlfriends or anything?” she muttered.

  “Oh...hmm.” He sounded just uncertain enough that Lydia lifted her head and frowned.

  “What?”

  “Well… Alright, look she’s not angry. Just what you said reminds me of something I should tell you. It’s nothing dangerous though.”

  “What is it?” Lydia said, narrowing her eyes.

  Eric ever so gently pressed her head down so she would lie on his chest again and she rolled her eyes, acquiescing. “I was dating a woman before you showed up,” he said, sounding almost embarrassed. “It was just for a few weeks. It really didn’t amount to much. I ended it just before you arrived. It just never felt right.”

  “Doesn’t sound too bad,” Lydia said warily. “How’d she take it?”

  “She took it really well when I had to dump her,” Eric said. “Except well-”

  “What?”

  “She’s tried to get back together with me a couple times,” Eric said, chuckling. “Just a little insistent. I put her off. I was firm. I don’t know. I guess she was really into me. Bit messy because she’s staying at the lodge-”

  “She’s staying here?” Lydia sat up and gaped at him. “Eric!”

  “What?”

  “You should have told me!”

  “We got together for real about four hours ago. When was I supposed to tell you?” He was grinning in that impish little way of his. He looked just like young Eric.

  “Okay,” she said huffily. “Fair. But it’s got to be awkward breaking up with a guest who’s still here? How long is she here?”

  “I have no idea,” he said, shrugging. “She told me she works from home so she just travels as she works. Like in...finance or something? She was kind of vague. Also a bear shifter.”

  “Well…” Lydia frowned, squinting. She hated the idea that this woman might see them together and make a scene, potentially. Although she didn’t like to think ill of any woman just because she was her mate’s ex. It was probably pretty presumptuous. “What if we run into her?”

  “Then we run into her,” he said. “I mean, it’ll be a little weird but it happens. It’s not a big deal. It’s just life.”

  “Are you sure she’s not secretly an evil mad scientist or something?”

  “Yes,” Eric said, laughing, and kissed her hair. “She’s just fine.”

  A regular morning with Eric felt strange precisely because it felt so normal.

  He’d set his alarm for six as he did every morning. Lydia, considering herself to be on a sort of vacation, groaned at the sound of AC/DC blasting from his phone.

  “Sorry,” Eric whispered into her neck. He kissed her there before rolling out of bed and she grumbled in protest, burrowing under the covers before tentatively poking her nose out. “Gotta work.”

  Lydia rubbed her eyes and sat up, smiling to herself. Her hair was a mess and she probably had wrinkles on her face from the blankets and she hadn’t brushed her teeth yet but Eric was looking at her like she was the most precious human being in the world.

  “That’s okay.” She rubbed the sleep out of her eyes and sighed, watching him hover by the bed, smiling down at her. “You said you wanted me to move in here? Should I...do that? I mean if you don’t want to after all, it’s completely fine, I just thought my room should be booked instead of sitting there but I’m not trying to-”

  “Move your stuff up here,” Eric said, his voice throaty but sure. He winked at her. “I meant what I said. I want you here with me. I mean, I know this seems fast but-”

  “But we’ve known each other for what...fifteen years?”

  “Exactly.” He nodded at her and said, “You have the run of the place. I’m serious. I gotta get ready for work. You sleep in, order whatever you want or eat downstairs. Whatever you like. TV’s got cable and Netfl
ix and-”

  “I’ll figure it out,” Lydia said, unable to contain her grin.

  “Okay.” He leaned down and pecked her on the lips. “You can come down and eat lunch with me?”

  “Of course.”

  “Good.” He looked giddily happy at that. It put butterflies in her stomach and she burrowed back under the covers, feeling young and in love as Eric went off to shower and ready himself for the day.

  This is the best day of my life.

  The thought came to Lydia suddenly and it made her smile. She had gone back to her own room across the lodge to change clothes and shower and had found the maid cleaning up her room. The maid had insisted on a porter helping Lydia move her things, having already been told that Lydia was moving in with Eric.

  It all felt like a fairy tale to Lydia as she walked around the snowy gardens outside in a parka, listening to music on her phone. Everything seemed more beautiful than it had been just a day ago. The white mountains were as pretty as a postcard, where before they had seemed foreboding. The little icicles dripping water from the eaves of the lodge’s roofs were poetic details rather than threatening. The other guests, who she’d felt completely out of place standing next to, suddenly seemed like old friends.

  She could hardly contain her giddiness.

  It all made her think of other things she wanted in life, beyond having Eric as her mate. She had been forced to take whatever job she could get for so long, she hadn’t had any time to think about what she wanted to do. But keeping in mind that she would likely be living at Black Bear Lodge for the foreseeable future, she wondered about going back to school. There was a community college nearby and a small liberal arts college outside town.

  It was something to think about that she’d never before had the luxury to ponder. It was a nice thought to imagine kissing Eric goodbye in the morning before heading off to a class. She could study in the dining hall or in the big reading room by the coffee cart that looked out on the big slopes. She imagined Eric testing her with flash cards, teasing her about her grades, and taking her out to celebrate when she did well. Not that it wouldn’t also involve hard work. But it would be hard work she could actually get excited about.

  That was a kind of life she could get used to.

  It was a scary notion to chase something she had never had the freedom to chase before. But she had no doubt in her mind that Eric would support the idea. She promised herself she would talk to him about it.

  “I told you, you should have taken her when I said-”

  “Shut up!”

  The voices were whispered and seemed to come from nowhere. Lydia was coming back from the gardens and walking down the wide wooden verandah that stretched all the way around the lodge. She had the verandah and patios mostly to herself, as all the guests were out skiing or visiting town and it wasn’t nearly warm enough to be hanging around outside for long.

  But she spied two figures around a corner up ahead, talking in hushed voices. The woman was blonde and wore a flashy red parka and sunglasses, her glossy blonde hair immaculately coiffed. The guy was tall and skinny and had long dark hair. He wore a thick leather jacket and a chagrined expression. Neither of them had seemed to notice her.

  Lydia smirked. There was something a little comical about them, and being in a good mood and naturally curious, she found herself ducking back into the shadows and keeping her sensitive bear shifter’s ears open to listen to them.

  “Now they’re together!” That was the guy, sounding very upset as the woman he was with grumbled and cursed under her breath. “That’s what it looked like! I saw them coming back down the mountain!”

  “Well, then why didn’t you do something about it?” The woman demanded to know. She sounded very defensive, as if desperately searching for a way this was the man’s fault. Whatever it was.

  “I-I didn’t know what to do!” The man sounded almost pleading. “I thought I should, ya know, report to you first! I was following your orders! You’re the witch! I figured you’d kill the girl yourself! Or him, if you want to seduce one of the brothers instead… Or both, I guess.”

  Lydia's ears rang. At the mention of Eric’s name, she gasped and stood frozen to her spot as the apparently villainous duo continued to argue about what should be done to Eric...and her.

  “You don’t understand anything,” the woman said. “Murder is messy. His brothers are strong shifters. Which means they’re excellent trackers. I can’t be impulsive this time. Even you are a decent tracker and you’re an idiot. Whether we killed Eric or the girl or both, if they ever found the bodies-”

  Lydia didn’t hear anything after that. Because all at once she felt a fury that she’d never known overwhelm her. It was hot and it made her shake. She had never seen red in her life, but she had to think this was what it was. She shifted abruptly and barrelled around the corner, letting out a roar of rage in defense of her mate.

  But she was hasty. Her roar was frightening, but it also alerted the man and woman to her presence, giving them just enough warning that she was about to attack. Lydia stood up on her hind legs just before lunging at the pair, but the woman was too fast.

  Lydia had not been thinking. She had only felt from deep inside her, a primal urge to protect Eric.

  If she had been thinking, she would not have attacked.

  This was the nightmare she’d been having all along. And she’d just made it worse.

  The woman shifted and the two of them clashed, claws digging into fur and flesh as Lydia tackled her to the ground. Lydia snapped her jaws and for a second, she had the woman pinned beneath her. She was right on the verge of sinking her teeth into that bared throat as the two of them wrestled on the wood floor of the verandah.

  It took the woman’s male partner a second, but then he shifted too and it was all over.

  Lydia had been in fights before. She’d won against bears bigger than her, even male ones who were bigger. If the fight for survival or defense was strong enough, she supposed anything was possible. But up against two bears, she had no chance.

  The rest of the fight was a blur as the male bear ripped her away from the woman and pinned her beneath him, capturing her throat in his jaws.

  The message was clear - submit or die.

  I’m sorry, Eric, Lydia thought, before going limp.

  16

  Lydia

  Lydia couldn’t open her eyes and that was confusing.

  What had happened?

  Her head was muddled and it ached terribly. She had been walking along on the verandah, she thought. She had been thinking of Eric and their future and then…

  The man and woman, the two bears…

  Her nightmares...

  She could remember nothing beyond losing the fight with them. She might have won, she liked to think, if she had only been fighting the woman. But two against one was asking a lot.

  Why can’t I open my eyes?

  She had a terrible pain in her shoulder and she felt the aches and pains of having been in a bad fight. She was pretty sure she wasn’t terribly wounded anywhere, unless she was in shock and not feeling it. But her shoulder hurt and her head…

  Why can’t I open my eyes?

  But she was opening her eyes, she realized. She just couldn’t see anything.

  Blindfold, you dummy.

  There was also the minor detail that she couldn’t move. It was taking a couple of minutes to sort these things out. She was muddled and in pain and where was Eric? Those people were going to hurt Eric! And here she was apparently tied to a chair, she thought. She was sitting up but she couldn’t move. The duo had stashed her somewhere and tied her up. There was also a cloth in her mouth, gagging her. She tried not to move her tongue or shift the cloth around too much. It threatened to go too far into her throat and make her choke.

  Shift!

  Lydia fought to calm herself down and think rationally. No, she shouldn’t shift, she thought. She had no idea where she was or if those two were anywhere near
by. They had taken her down so easily to begin with. There was no point in getting smacked down again and risk getting hurt much worse. That wouldn’t help Eric.

  Even now she could hear muffled thumps and the sounds of doors opening and closing somewhere. Everything was a little muted. She wondered if she was locked in a closet.

  Eric…

  Lydia concentrated on relaxing all her muscles, regulating her breathing. She listened to her own beating heart that sounded too fast and forced herself to sit calmly and as still as possible until it slowed again. She had been stupid to attack them, but it had been a bit like an out of body experience. There had been no thought behind it at all.

  Now she had to try to be smart to help Eric.

  It took her a couple minutes to remember the conversation with Eric about his ex-girlfriend. It was all coming together now. The ex-girlfriend hadn’t just been a fling or an attempted relationship, it was obvious to Lydia that the whole thing had been a scheme. Obviously, they were trying to seduce Eric and swindle him somehow. As one of the richest and most eligible bear shifters in the country, it wasn’t so surprising that he would be a target of such a plot.

  How am I going to get out of this?

  More importantly, how on earth was she going to save Eric who was in terrible danger?

  She didn’t cry. She had cried so much over the past few days - out of either sadness or frustration or happiness. But somehow, in the thick of danger, she found herself able to compose herself. She felt no hot tears behind her eyes. She had been stupid already and now she had to buckle down and be cool and rational and smart.

  She did have a secret weapon, she realized. She had that mysterious connection to her mate with its rare but powerful trait. She smiled to herself around her gag when she thought of it.

  Of course.

  Fine, she thought. I’ll just talk to him in his head.

  17