Rapid Pulse: A Limited Edition Spicy Romance Collection

by Gina Kincade

  Cable grinned. “Yeah?”

  Everett held onto Cable’s strong arms and moaned as he rammed into him so hard he nearly flew off the bed. Everett literally squirmed in ecstasy. Cable grinned and covered Everett’s mouth with one hand, still pummeling away, and began to rapidly stroke his dick with taut, hard thrusts. Everett arched his back, his legs gripping around Cable’s torso, pulling them tighter together. The moment was coming. He could feel it. He could smell it.

  Everett roared loudly as the rapid motions stopped and hot streams of cum burst onto his belly. Almost a second later, Cable groaned and shuddered in pleasure as he came inside Everett.

  They flopped by each other on the bed. Everett grinned and carefully peeled off Cable’s condom. He threw it on the floor.

  “I hope you have more of these,” said Everett.

  “Neither of us have diseases,” said Cable. “Why do we need these?”

  Everett turned away, thinking.

  “Are you scared you might get something from me?” Cable demanded.

  Everett felt stupid for what he was thinking. Yet he couldn’t keep the truth from his friend forever.

  He turned back to Cable. “I’m scared I might give you something.”

  Cable looked confused as he said, “But you don’t get sick. You heal like fucking Wolverine.”

  “But what if I have something that only my kind have? I don’t know. As far as I’m aware, I’m the only polar bear shifter out there. What if I give you something that kills you? I can’t risk that.”

  Cable smiled and shuffled closer, pulling their bodies together. Everett felt a little better, tucked into his friend’s intimate embrace, but he still brooded.

  What am I really?

  Why can I change into a polar bear?

  Am I a mutant? A genetic mistake? A scientific experiment?

  “You don’t talk about your heritage much,” said Cable.

  “That’s because I know fuck all,” Everett lamented. “Some days it’s all I can think of, and some days I forget because I love my adopted family so much.”

  When Everett had been five years old he’d been involved in a car crash with his parents. They’d died instantly, consumed by fire as the vehicle exploded. Everett had escaped with third degree burns on over half of his body. While in a long coma the injuries had healed, quicker than the doctors thought possible. When he was ten all signs of any burn scars were almost gone. Even now you had to look closely at his skin to see the scars on his legs and chest. They were almost non-existent.

  Everett was adopted by the Browns just after he came out of the hospital. He’d been a shy six-year-old, but had quickly adapted to his new home, becoming best friends with his new sister in the process. After a few years, he’d blocked all memories of his former life. He couldn’t remember his birth parents at all.

  “Do you think they were polar bears, too?” Cable asked.

  “I don’t know,” Everett admitted. “Maybe. Maybe they created me in a lab.”

  Cable shook his head. “I don’t think you’re some science experiment. Remember that you get stronger during the full moon. That seems...well, it seems magical somehow.”

  Everett refused to think about that possibility. He didn’t believe in magic.

  “What am I?” Everett asked. “What am I?”

  EVERETT POURED HIMSELF a cup of coffee. He felt bruised, but in a good way.

  “You always know how to make me feel better,” said Everett.

  Cable was walking around naked, his semi-erect penis flapping around. Everett slapped his backside as he passed. His friend’s butt cheeks still had bite marks on them from the night before.

  “You know you’re gay and just daren’t admit it,” said Cable teasingly, sitting by him on the sofa. “Everyone knows bisexuals are just people who can’t make up their minds.”

  “I know what I am,” said Everett. “I like to have the best of both worlds.”

  It had been confusing growing up. One part of him was telling the other he was gay and the other was convinced he was straight. It wasn’t until he realized he was bisexual that the confusion washed away. His family had supported him when him he told them.

  Cable had been the surprise. It was at Everett’s sixteenth birthday party that they hooked up for the first time. It had affected their friendship for a while until they both decided it had just been sex and didn’t mean anything. They often had sex whenever he was on the outs with Aina or Cable was between boyfriends. What they had together was fun and nothing more.

  Very good, kinky fun - no strings attached.

  “So what now?” Cable asked. “You have a whole life ahead of you with no Aina and no job.”

  “I was thinking I could be a local deputy,” he suggested.

  Cable burst out laughing. “That’s funny. That’s very funny.”

  “I quite like the idea of using what I’ve learned to beat up criminals.”

  “Jesus, you’re serious. Is this what you really want?”

  Everett shrugged. “Yes. Maybe. Possibly.”

  They sat and ate breakfast, bowls of possibly out of date cornflakes. Everett didn’t even know how to become a deputy. What training did it entail? He didn’t think it was that difficult. He’d met a lot of stupid law enforcement officers in his time.

  His cell rang. It was Vetta.

  “Where were you?” she demanded.

  Shit! The homecoming party!

  “I needed to spend time on my own,” he said, figuring she was owed the truth. “I know you went to a lot of trouble but...but I couldn’t stand all being with all those people.”

  “I figured as much.” She sighed. “Look, you can talk to me about what happened. Edward phoned me. I know everything. I know you were close to Edie.”

  He should never have slept with Edie. He’d given her false hope about their relationship before she’d died. The only reason he’d had sex with her was because he felt tense about killing Emil and needed a release.

  I used her.

  “Edie and I had sex,” he admitted. “I...I used her, and then she died. I didn’t have those types of feelings for her and I used her to make myself feel better.”

  He sighed, feeling like scum. Vetta didn’t say a thing, just listened.

  “I’ll come and visit later,” he told her, eager to change the subject. “Is there any cake left?”

  She laughed. “I saved you a slice.”

  She hung up, and Everett made a promise to himself to visit Vetta. He couldn’t wait to see his nieces again. They must have grown up so much by now. At least there was two things in his life that could make him happy.

  “Vetta has the perfect life,” said Everett. “I’m so jealous of her.”

  “You just haven’t met he right person yet,” Cable told him.

  “I thought I had. I thought Aina was the one.”

  Cable took Everett’s hand and placed it on his naked thigh. His friend was hard already.

  “Want to go for round three?” Cable asked.

  Everett kneeled down onto the floor between Cable’s leg and grabbed his penis in both his hands, tight. He couldn’t wait to taste it.

  “I think it’s more like round eight,” said Everett, grinning.

  EVERETT SNIFFED THE tree, taking in its scent of sap. He rubbed his head against the bark, getting rid of an itch that had been driving him crazy. Sometimes it was hard to scratch himself in certain places when he was a polar bear.

  Cable was sitting on a log, talking on his cell. It sounded like he was setting up a date with his ex. Everett hoped he didn’t get his heart broken again. His best friend had a worse love life than he did. None of his relationships lasted longer than a month. Cable claimed he was okay with it, that he wasn’t looking for anything steady, but Everett knew better.

  My friend wants to settle down and have kids.

  He wished he could be the one, but Everett didn’t love him like that. Cable didn’t love him like that, either. He only wi
shed he did. Maybe it would make things much simpler.

  STAR WAS CONCERNED. She hadn’t heard from her brother all night. It wasn’t like him. He was a worrier. If he was going to be out late, he would’ve called her.

  She paced behind the counter of the bar, her mind drifting back to the one thing she wished it wouldn’t. She shook her head, shooing away the thoughts.

  I can’t think about him. Not now.

  The landline phone on the counter rang. It was a retro Bakelite phone, shaped like a football. She picked up the receiver.

  “Hello?” she said.

  The phone went dead.

  “Weird,” she muttered, slamming the phone down.

  EVERETT FOUND CABLE staring at him as he changed back into a human again. There was just the two of them in the woods. The snow was about an inch deep and the weather was cool for this time of year.

  Or maybe it’s not cool. Maybe it’s actually cold but I just don’t feel it.

  “There’s something that’s always bothered me,” said Cable. “Where do your clothes go when you change?”

  Everett opened his mouth to answer when he realized he had absolutely no idea. Why had this never occurred to him before?

  “Maybe the clothes change with me because they’re next to my skin,” Everett guessed.

  Cable shook his head. “That means I’d change into a polar bear if I were to be touching you when you changed.”

  “Another mystery to add to the list.”

  Everett heard his cell ringing in his pant’s pocket. He picked it up and saw who the caller was.

  “It’s my mother,” he said.

  “Do you think her new bloke is well hung?” Cable asked, laughing.

  He turned off his cell. “I’m not talking to her.”

  “You can’t blame her for ditching your dad. She’s put up with enough.”

  “I know, it’s just...”

  He wasn’t sure why he was angry with his mother, not really. He only knew it upset him to learn she’d left and things weren’t the same in the house where he’d grown up. He hated all this change. It made him feel nervous.

  “I better get back to the bar,” Cable complained, stretching as he stood up. “You know how tedious it is running your own business? It’s a total bore.”

  “You seem to be doing okay,” said Everett.

  “I’m just lucky I have Star,” said Cable. “She’s like a math whizz. She sorts out my accounts and taxes.”

  Everett thought back to the Star of high school, the geek with the twin braids, bullied for being smart and ordinary. She was far from that now. If those same bullies could only see the sassy, hot woman she’d grown into.

  She’s certainly hot.

  “I’ll come with you,” Everett insisted. “I need some place to use as a base.”

  “You want to stay with me?” Cable asked.

  “I don’t have anywhere else to go,” Everett admitted. The admission made him feel ashamed. I’m thirty and I’m homeless. Way to go! “Please?”

  “What about your old home? You could stay with your dad.”

  “No fucking way.” Everett studied Cable’s face for a moment. He seemed anxious. “Is there a problem with me staying with you?”

  “No, it’s just...Star is delicate right now. I don’t want another person adding to her worries.”

  Everett nodded. He understood. Family had to come first.

  “You could live here,” Cable suggested. “I know it’s half an hour out of town but...”

  He nodded, looking around the forest. Maybe this was the best place for him at the moment. He had nature all around him. He could turn into a polar bear whenever he wanted, with no fear that somebody would see him.

  “Sold,” said Everett.

  CABLE DROVE AWAY, LEAVING Everett to get himself acclimated to his new abode. He didn’t envy him living all the way up here. Then again the cold didn’t seem to bother him, and he was in his element surrounded by nature.

  I don’t know which version is more beautiful – the sleek, predatory polar bear, or the sensitive, rough man.

  Cable sighed as he continued to drive. He was definitely not thinking about how much he was in love with his best friend.

  Chapter 4

  27th February 2010

  “So you’re thinking about becoming a cop?” Star asked.

  Everett was siting at a table in the bar, using Cable’s laptop. He would’ve preferred to do this in his cabin but he didn’t have the internet set up yet. Still, coming into town had given him a chance to see his nieces. He’d agreed to take them to the cinema later in the week. He couldn’t wait.

  “I think I could be good at it,” he said.

  “You certainly have the muscles,” she said. “Then again, the deputies we do have are either overweight, dumb or both.”

  It wasn’t hard to become a local deputy. It was damn right easy, which in itself made him a little nervous.

  Star sat down by the table. He could tell she was mentally undressing him by the way she stared at him. He liked it.

  “So what do you and Cable get up to in that cabin?” she asked.

  “We get drunk,” said Everett.

  Star laughed. “Is that what you call hooking up?”

  Everett stopped typing, and looked up at Star in shock. “You know?”

  “You don’t have to be Sherlock Holmes to figure out you two have been at it since you were teenagers.” She smiled and patted his hand. “It’s nice.”

  Everett wondered how many other people knew about his and Cable’s “friends with benefits” arrangement. He shuddered to think that the local town gossips knew what he did when he went up to the cabin with Cable.

  “So are you...going steady or anything?” Star asked.

  “Not really,” Everett admitted. “It’s just a thing we have.”

  “Right.”

  He closed the laptop, not wanting to read any more. It was going to be fairly easy for him to become a deputy. Now all he had to do was decide whether it was something he really, truly wanted. Would anything replace what he once had, or would he forever be thinking about his life as a sniper?

  Edie’s brains splashed all over the windshield...

  Maybe it was best he did something less exciting, less bloody. It was time to settle down.

  The football phone on the counter started to ring. Star sighed and answered it. She slammed the received down after a few seconds.

  “What is it?” Everett asked.

  “Dirty breather,” Star spat. “I feel sick.”

  “Scream down the phone next time. That’s what my mom did when she used to get weird phone calls.”

  Star smirked. “I may do that.”

  The saloon doors swung open. Cable entered, carrying a huge cardboard box with the words ‘Pickled Eggs’ on the side.

  “Do we really need that many pickled eggs?” Star demanded wryly.

  Cable placed the box on the floor. “It was on offer.”

  Star laughed. “You’re like an old woman who buys crap in bulk just because it’s on offer.”

  The two of them began to argue good naturedly as Everett’s cell began to ring. It was his mom again.

  I have to talk to her some time. It might as well be now.

  “Hi Mom,” he said.

  Anthea Brown sighed with relief. “I thought you were ignoring me.”

  “I was,” Everett confirmed. “But you’re persistent.”

  “I wanted to be there when you got back, I really did. I know how much you cared for Edie. It’s just Lemar and I are just starting out, and I didn’t want to leave him. You do understand that, right?”

  “Mom...”

  He really could have used her support when he came home. He missed her. But he wasn’t ready to forgive and forget just yet.

  “Everett, are you still there?” Anthea asked, worried.

  He hung up. He felt like a bastard for doing it, but he had to do it. His parents could stew in their own
guilt and mess for the time being. He had things of his own to process.

  “That was a bit harsh,” said Cable. “She is your mom.”

  “She couldn’t leave her new boyfriend to comfort her own son,” said Everett bitterly. “I don’t have time for that.”

  He left his chair, knocking it aside. He needed some fresh air.

  “SINCE WHEN WAS MRS. Brown such a bitch?” asked Star.

  Cable watched his friend go, worried about him. Everett’s mother had never been the type to hug her children and tell them she loved them, but she did care. He just wished she hadn’t put her own needs first this time when her son really needed her.

  “You love him, right?” Star asked.

  Cable nodded. “He’s my best friend.”

  “We both know it’s a lot more than that. You’d have to be a tree not to see it.”

  Cable stared at his sister, daring her to go further. “You’d have to be a tree not to see that you love him, too.”

  Star turned away, suddenly angry. She stormed off into the back, leaving Cable on his own.

  “Way to make things complicated,” he muttered to himself.

  STAR SLAMMED THE DOOR behind her, her mind going to places she couldn’t afford for it to go. She was clean, sober.

  I am sober.

  I don’t need drugs.

  She kicked at a garbage can, spilling its stinking, sour contents all over the alley. She wished there was something out there that could get her high and not be addictive. She wished for that so badly.

  She closed her eyes, her body moving of its own accord, the yoga moves coming to her instinctively. Yoga had been one of the few ways she’d discovered that could push the cravings aside. It also made her body supple, too, but that was just an added benefit.

  When she felt sufficiently calm she opened her eyes. There was a man standing in the alley, staring at her.

  “What are you doing down here?” she asked him.

  He was in his late twenties, dirty, his blonde hair in a ponytail. He had a beard, but it was fluffy, sticking out in odd places. He had a leering, gap toothed smile. She knew without a doubt that he meant to harm her.