Bears of Burden: HUTCH

by Candace Ayers

  Georgia wagged her finger at me. “He hasn’t had you in his face. You made it easy for the coward by hiding from him. He’s destined for you. He can only fight it for so long.”

  “Destined? Well, destiny was drunk when he or she put us together. The man can’t stand me.”

  “I doubt that. He’s obviously got some issues. Hutch always seemed so serious. When he’s with the guys, it’s like he pretends to be all light-hearted and fun, but I’ve noticed that when they’re not looking, he loses the smile sometimes. Maybe he just needs a hug or something. Not that I’m excusing his behavior. He still has to pay. But, after he pays, maybe he could use a hug from you.” Georgia shrugged. “That or a kick to the nuts.”

  I didn’t like the thought of him being sad. It fit him, though. The times I’d spotted him moving around, he always looked focused and intense. I chalked it up to him being busy, but maybe he was sad.

  I bit my lip. “Maybe we shouldn’t mess with him too much.”

  Allie patted my leg. “Have another margarita. You clearly need it if you’re already forgetting how shitty he’s been to you. He’s got to suffer a little bit, Ronnie.”

  I thought of the plan we’d concocted. “You really think this is going to work?”

  She nodded. “It’ll work.”

  I took another long drink and laughed. “If it doesn’t, I’m going to feel so stupid.”

  Georgia lifted her head from where it’d been buried in her book. “God, this sex scene is crazy. I wish Wyatt was here.”

  Allie faked a gag. “Don’t give me any details, please.”

  Georgia gasped. “You made Ronnie detail what she did with Hutch earlier!”

  “It was the first time she’d ever ridden a guy’s face. I needed to hear what she thought!”

  I felt my body tingle at the memory and groaned. “Let’s not talk about that anymore, just in case this plan fails.”

  They rolled their eyes and went back to their books. I picked mine up and pretended to read, but all I could think about was the fact that I’d left my romantic life in the hands of two women who both tended to venture a little too far off the deep end.

  CHAPTER 14: Hutch

  I was going to kill her. Veronica was as good as dead.

  I parked my bike behind my truck and growled. It was close to midnight. I’d missed an entire day of work chasing her, or so I thought, around the state. I’d gone all the way to Dallas and back trying to find her. I’d been worried the entire time, until I got a call from Sterling asking why I hadn’t come back to the shop after I found my truck.

  She’d been fucking with me. Had me running around like a chicken with its head cut off. I was past feeling remorse for running out on her the night before. I wanted to turn her over my knee again and spank her ass raw. Only, she’d probably like that.

  I jerked on the truck door and swore like a madman when it didn’t budge. I never locked my truck, and always left the keys in the visor, two habits that would change now, after Veronica’s cute little trick. I looked in and saw the keys sitting on the seat next to a piece of paper with a little smiley face drawn on it.

  I cursed even louder and hopped back on my bike. I was going to find her and teach her a lesson about fucking with me.

  I drove straight to her house and when I didn’t find her at home, headed to the bar. I was still in the worn jeans and grease-stained white T-shirt I’d worn to work that morning. I was tired from being on my bike all day and I knew I probably looked like nothing short of a lunatic as I stormed into The Cave, but I was long past caring.

  What I found managed to raise my blood pressure even more.

  Veronica was sitting in my chair at my table. Not just sitting in my chair, but sitting on some poor fucker’s lap in my chair. Poor, because I was about to rearrange his goddamned face.

  Sterling, Sam, and Thorn were sitting at a table next to ours, looking sour and worried. Allie and Georgia and a few other women were also at the table with Veronica, all looking smug.

  Veronica had too much skin showing. She was all legs and cleavage. The white dress she wore was tiny and parts of it seemed to be missing. Her short hair was shiny and silky looking and the asshole she was sitting on was touching it.

  I released a deafening roar before I knew what I was doing and stomped towards the asshole. His head snapped in my direction and he looked up at Veronica. Whatever she said had him scrambling out from under her and out the back door of the bar.

  I was torn between chasing him and ripping each of his fucking limbs off and scooping Veronica up so she couldn’t cause me anymore grief. I settled on her.

  She’d resettled in the chair and looked perfectly relaxed. Her legs were crossed towards me and I could almost see her panties, the dress was so short. My dick hardened and I couldn’t focus on anything else in the room. Everything around us faded as I zeroed in on her.

  “Well, hey there, Hutch. You look like you could use a cold beer. Long day?”

  She was teasing me. Teasing.

  Without hesitating, I grabbed her around the waist and tossed her over my shoulder. I covered her ass with my hand and turned to leave. Thorn was standing in my path, a pissed look on his face. I countered with a look of my own. “Not right fucking now.”

  He glared at me, but in the end, he could see I was in no mood to be fucked with. “We’re going to be having a long talk later, brother.”

  I kicked the bar door open and carried her through it, without a fight from her. She actually seemed to be laughing. “You’re a pain in my ass, woman.”

  Her hands cupped my ass and squeezed. “You ran my date off.”

  I dropped her next to my bike and glowered down at her. “You had a fucking date? After last night?”

  She faked a yawn. “Last night? What was last night?”

  I climbed on my bike and scooted back slightly so I could drag her on. I positioned her in front of me and then started the bike. “Reach back and hold onto me.”

  She lifted her hands in the air and then brought them down around my neck. Arching her back, she looked at me over her shoulder and bit her lip. “That man had plans to help me out with a certain problem I’m having. You ruined them.”

  My voice was just a growl as I spoke. “What problem?”

  She giggled. “A private one. Take me home and I’ll tell you all about it.”

  I looked down at her exposed neck and the thought actually crossed my mind—just mark her. Give her a claiming mark and put myself out of my back and forth misery. I couldn’t do it, though.

  Angry as hell, I tightened my thighs around her and took off. I meant to drive to her house, but somehow I ended up in front of mine, parking behind my truck again. I’d never brought a woman home to my place, but there we were.

  Veronica waited for me to climb off and then seductively swung her leg over the handlebars like she’d been a stripper her whole life. The move got to me. It made me a little crazy, actually. One minute, she was sliding off my bike, and the next, she was over my shoulder again.

  “I can walk, you know. Also, this isn’t my house. I thought you were going to take me home.”

  I growled at her and swatted her ass. The smell of her arousal immediately hit me and I stumbled. “I took you here.”

  She trailed her fingers up my back, as high as she could go, and then raked back down. “Are you kidnapping me, Hutch?”

  I carried her straight to my bedroom and tossed her onto the bed. I didn’t know what the fuck I was doing. I was past the point of reasoning. My bear was calling half of the shots and my dick was calling the rest. “Do you feel kidnapped, V?”

  She purred and turned over so she could crawl up the bed on her hands and knees. Her ass swayed seductively and my mind blanked. She looked back at me over her shoulder and bit her lip. “Maybe you should tie me up. It’d feel more genuine that way. Then I’d really have something to write about in my diary.”

  Fuck, I had to unzip my pants. My dick was trying to pu
nch its way through my jeans and it was getting painful. Something about knowing how innocent and inexperienced she really was, and hearing the dirty shit that was coming out of her mouth made me hot. I doubted she even knew how far she was pushing me.

  She went up on her knees and pouted at me. “Help a girl with her zipper, would you? I want to get more comfortable.”

  I stayed where I was. It wasn’t a good idea to get closer. “You looked pretty comfortable in that dress at the bar.”

  She grinned. “That’s because I had a comfortable lap to sit on.”

  That was it, I was pushed too far. I closed the distance and crushed my lips to hers in a bruising kiss. I locked her short hair around my fist and held her close to me. From that close, my senses were overrun with her. Her taste, her smell, her softness, it all worked together to break through my last shreds of resistance and carry me past the point of no return. A man was only so strong.

  CHAPTER 15: Veronica

  Poking the bear had been the girls’ idea and I was going to shower them with gifts when I got out of Hutch’s house. I kissed him back, fighting for dominance because I knew in his current state, it would goad him even farther. I wanted him to stop fighting whatever he was fighting and just give in to fate. If it required me to play a little dirty, I could do that.

  His grip on my hair tightened and he pulled my head back, exposing my throat. His teeth and beard left scratchy red marks as he slid his mouth down it, ending with a long swirl of his tongue in the hollow at the base. “Did he kiss you?”

  He hadn’t. I could barely stand to sit on the guy’s lap, but Hutch didn’t need to know that. “Who?”

  “The fucker at The Cave. Did he kiss you?” he growled.

  “Kiss me where?”

  He growled again, and worked the zipper at the back of my dress. I hoped he didn’t rip this one, too. “Anywhere. Did he kiss you anywhere?”

  I giggled and shrugged. “Don’t remember.”

  Hutch sank his teeth into my shoulder, through the dress, and then trailed bites and kisses down my arm as he pulled the strap down. “I’ll kill him.”

  A thrill went down my back and I pushed at his chest. “You don’t have any claim on me.”

  He moved the other strap down and covered my chest in heated, open-mouthed kisses. He opened his mouth and tried to take as much of my breast in as he could, only to slide his mouth off nipping and clamping his lips over my nipple sucking hard. “You’re covered in my marks. Your skin is red from my teeth. Your mouth is red from my kiss. Your hot little pussy is probably still sore from me. Your body is covered in my scent. It’s me you want buried between those sweet thighs. It’s me you want. I know it is. That’s a pretty big fucking claim, I’d say.”

  Lord help me, but I loved when he talked dirty. Maybe I was a freak. “What a claim,” I teased, “It’ll all fade. I could find another guy next weekend. He’d have no clue that you’d ever been where you are now. And maybe he’ll be able to have sex with me.”

  Hutch yanked me off the bed and against his hard body. He rubbed his erection between my legs, hard, and stared into my eyes. His eyes were flashing gold. “No one else. No one else is going to touch you this way. You got that? Just me.”

  “You ran from me. Because of you, another man had his hand on my butt tonight. I can still feel it. He whispered in my ear about how he wanted to take me home and I’m sure everyone around us heard.”

  “You want me to kill him? Keep talking. I’m close to snapping, Veronica. My bear will fucking shred him alive. You want that? What do you want? You want me to snap and fuck you?”

  I pushed at his chest again, harder, and slapped it when he didn’t let me go. “Yes, Hutch! Why do I have to beg?”

  He tossed me back on the bed and reached over his head to pull his shirt off. Seeing all of his sun-kissed skin, rippling with muscle, was almost too much to look at in my current state of aroused excitement.

  “Take your dress off or I’ll rip it the hell off.”

  I needed something to wear home or I’d have been tempted to let him rip it. I shimmied it over my hips and then tossed it towards the end of the bed. “Take your pants off, Hutch. I want to your manhood.”

  He shoved them down and stepped out of them without an ounce of self-consciousness. He stood in front of me, naked and hard. A tattoo wrapped around his side and I wanted to study it, find out what it meant, but there was something else I had to do first.

  I ran my eyes from his head to his bare toes and then stopped at the long, thick, heavy shaft between his legs. It stood up, pointing at me like it was choosing me. I licked my lips and met his eyes. “You’re beautiful.”

  Hutch shook his head and came closer to the bed. His eyes were solid gold then, narrowed and hungry. “Beautiful is you, in my bed, naked and ready for me. Are you? Ready for me, V?”

  I nodded and crawled backwards up the bed until I was positioned in the middle, on my back. I kept my legs straight and crossed, still teasing him. “Are you ready for me?”

  He knelt on the bed and slowly came towards me. “Probably not. You’re a little bit like trying to hold fire, baby.”

  I reached out when he was close enough and stroked his cheek. “And, yet, I’m the one who keeps getting burned.”

  He lowered himself on top of me, wedging my legs open with his knee, and gently kissed me. Passion simmered right under the surface, under the kiss, but he didn’t rush it. He kissed me like he was making love to me, like he had some real emotion, real feelings there, and I let myself get lost in it.

  I shifted under him, anxious to feel his body closer. Hutch responded by slipping one of his hands between us and circling his fingers over my pussy. I let my head fall back and was rewarded with soft kisses down my throat.

  “I want you to come for me.”

  I lifted my knees and cradled his hips. When he slipped his finger into me, I moaned and wrapped my arms around his back. “Please, Hutch.”

  He pushed another finger in and massaged his thumb against me, leaving me no option but to come apart on his fingers. I buried my face in his shoulder and cried out his name. The orgasm washed over me fast and hot, leaving me panting and desperate for more.

  Hutch leaned back slightly and looked down at me. “Are you sure about this?”

  I met his eyes with unexplained tears in mine and nodded. “Yes. More sure than I’ve ever been about anything. I’m ready.”

  He looked relieved. “Take me in your hand and line us up, V.”

  I touched him, feeling the silky-smooth skin over hot stiffness, and moaned. I circled my fingers around him, struggling to make them meet, and stroked him.

  He grunted.

  I grinned up at him and lined him up with my entrance. A wash of nerves hit me and I bit my lip. “Go slow, okay?”

  With a nod, he kissed me again, tenderly, slipping his tongue in to taste me. I kissed him back and moaned as he pushed forward gently. I was wet, so there was no friction as he went, but he felt shockingly different from my vibrator. He filled me until just this side of painful. I could feel my body adjusting to his girth and dug my nails into his back.

  “You okay?”

  I looked up at him and nodded. “Better.”

  He finally stopped moving and rested, his body completely flush with mine. A vein in his neck pulsed as he struggled to control himself.

  My body quickly adjusted to his size and started pulsing with the need to feel him moving. I rocked my hips and he slipped in another inch. We both moaned. I did it again and whispered into his ear. “Ready. Move, Hutch.”

  He pulled out and slowly slid back in, growling as he went. “You’re going to kill me.”

  I rocked my hips faster and he got the point. He thrust into me a little faster and before too long we had a punishing rhythm going. I raked my nails down his back and left my own marks on his neck and shoulders. I screamed and cried out his name, begged him to keep going and never stop. I lost myself in him.

 
Hutch slipped his hand between us and stroked my clitoris as his thrusts became more erratic. “Come with me, V.”

  I met his hot gaze and crumbled under him as he growled and slammed into my body once more.

  CHAPTER 16: Veronica

  I didn’t know if Hutch was going to make me leave right after or not, but he surprised me. He wrapped his arms around me and rolled us onto our sides curling himself around me, pressing my backside into him.

  “Are you okay?”

  I smiled to myself and nodded. “I am. It was better than I knew it could be.”

  He grunted and tightened his arms. “You’re too sexy for your own good. For my own good. You make it hard to stay away from you.”

  I stroked his arm. “You didn’t seem to have any problem staying away from me for a very long time.”

  He started to answer, but I cut him off. “Let’s not talk about that right now. Sorry I brought it up. I just want to celebrate my joy at the loss of my hymen and revel in the multiple orgasms I just had for a while.”

  “Later, then.” His voice was already quieting. “Fucking sexy little librarian.”

  I buried my face in one of his pillows and breathed in his fresh scent. I stayed still and just enjoyed feeling him wrapped around me. I was on cloud nine, floating with happiness. Everything in that moment was perfect, but I was going to ruin it as soon as he fell asleep.

  My heart raced in my chest and I squeezed my eyes shut. I was probably going to regret my decision. I was toying with Hutch, not giving him the chance to come to terms with everything in his own time, but for some reason, his own time appeared to be never, and I wanted my mate before I was old and dying.

  So, as soon as he was sound asleep, his breathing deep and a slight snore coming from him, I pried myself out of his arms and slipped back into my dress. I stood there, looking down at him, and swiped at a few tears that were stubbornly falling. My heart ached. I couldn’t help the anxiety that assaulted me.