Slade (BBW Bear Shifter Moonshiner Romance) (120 Proof Honey Book 5)

by Becca Fanning

  “Why yes,” Sally-Anne said. “To tell you the truth, they gave me the creeps the both of them. Come from Pritchard, but I’m not one to judge.”

  Willow thought she sounded exactly like one to judge, but she was more interested in Tyler’s response to this news. He was livid and she could see it. He growled under his breath and bunched his hands into fists.

  “You better drive,” he said giving Willow the keys.

  Back at the theatre Willow asked Tyler why he was so angry.

  “Sun Valley where I live, that’s bear country okay?” he said.

  “Sure,” Willow said.

  “And then Pritchard, that’s werewolf country,” Tyler said. “We’ve been having a problem with the wolves lately. They’re up to something I swear it! I mean what would they want with the Sawyer place? It just doesn’t make sense!”

  Just then Rosemary arrived with Dave in tow. At first they didn’t see Tyler and Willow sitting on the back steps. But as they got closer Dave looked up. His grey eyes met Tyler’s golden ones, and Willow swore she could see the hairs on Tyler’s neck stand up.

  Dave turned and ran for his car. Tyler was on him in a flash. Willow and Rosemary followed both screaming.

  When Willow caught up with them, Tyler had Dave by the shirt front, his back against his car door.

  “You slimy shit!” he said. “You go tell your little friends in Pritchard I’m watching you. The whole Bear Clan are watching you.”

  “So what?” Dave drawled. “You bears ain’t gonna know what hit you.” And then he laughed.

  “Let go of my boyfriend!” Rosemary yelled at Tyler.

  Tyler shook his head.

  “Please Tyler,” Willow said gently placing a hand on his arm.

  Tyler let go of Dave. Dave fell to the ground and Rosemary went to his side to help him up, but he pushed her away roughly.

  “Get away from me you bitch!” he said.

  Rosemary’s hand went back and then slapped Dave in the face. She looked at Willow with her eyes brimming with tears.

  “You can do whatever you like to him Tyler,” she said and ran to the house.

  Willow left Tyler and Dave there and followed her sister.

  She never knew what happened to Dave, but later that night Tyler had looked very happy with himself.

  Rosemary took a little more work to get back to her happy self. But after a few days she pronounced that Dave was a lying shithead, and that she couldn’t believe she’d ever thought he was nice. The fact that he’d stolen Aunt Vanessa’s banking details from right under Rosemary’s nose, also contributed to his jerk status, as far as she was concerned. Willow was relieved. Sad about losing the farm, but then she’d gained so much more.

  They had spent the day together. The fall weather was turning dry and cold, but the weather service said there could be snow in a few weeks.

  Tyler had finally brought Willow back to his place in Sun Valley. It was a lovely log cabin, with a view onto a piece of woodland. There was another cabin on the other side of a hedge border and Willow was not at all surprised to find that Jesse and Jamie lived there.

  Tyler shrugged as he opened the door for her. “It’s cool to have my big bro next door,” he said. “Saves me having to cook most nights. And I always have someone to watch the game with.”

  “What game?” Willow asked walking into the cabin and looking around.

  Suddenly Tyler swept her up in his arms. “Any game,” he said and kissed her.

  It was a long kiss that drove everything from Willow’s mind. Everything but her hunger for him. She needed Tyler like a junkie needs a fix. Before she knew what was going on, she was pulling his Tee over his head. He grinned at her and began to kiss her neck his hands running over her skin under her shirt, her bra. She began to throb between her legs, wishing his hands would travel down her body.

  Her world contracted until it was just Tyler and her. All she could see was him, all she could feel was his skin on hers and all she could smell was the intense scent of him. He excited her so, that she wanted him now, all of him. She wanted to devour him whole, and come back for more.

  Suddenly she was on her back on the rug in the living room. It was soft and furry. Tyler pulled her shirt off and she removed her bra, tossing it away from her. Tyler grabbed her breasts in his hands and licked both her nipples, sucking first one and then the other. Willow moaned and ran her hands over his perfect body, up into his hair and down to the button on his jeans.

  With a fumble and a strain, she undid the button and then the zipper. He had to help pull them off and soon he was naked sitting in front of her.

  “Your turn,’ he said his voice husky.

  Willow smirked, sat up and coyly undid her jeans, pulling them off.

  Tyler stopped her at her underwear. He kissed her and gently pushed her backwards making her lie down again. His tongue ran along her neck, down in between her breasts, down over her stomach and when it reached her panties, he gripped them in his teeth and drew them off.

  Willow felt his hands run up her thighs. He squeezed them and ran his thumb through her pubic hair. In a moment he slipped two fingers inside her. She groaned and pushed down on his hand, wishing it was all of him. He worked her somehow knowing exactly what would drive her wild. Willow arched her back, and ran her fingers through his hair feeling him grow against her leg. After a while she couldn’t take it anymore and she reached down and took his penis in her hand. He was so hard and big. Willow longed to suck him. So she moved and withdrew his fingers, took him in her mouth and began to massage him. Tyler moaned and knotted his fingers in her hair, rocking gently with the pleasure of her touch.

  Gently he moved her, taking himself out of her mouth. He held Willow to him and kissed her neck. He sat up and drew her onto his lap. Willow straddled him and slowly sat down. As he slipped inside her Willow bit her lip. It was so intense just having him inside her, she thought she might climax right there and then. But then he shifted and she shifted and they were rocking to and fro, clinging to each other. His hands ran down her back and cupped her backside as she rode him.

  It was all coming too fast. Willow wanted it to last and last, so she pulled him out of her and moved away from him panting. She looked at him longingly and crooked a finger at him. Tyler crawled to her and as he reached her she turned around. She looked at him over her shoulder. Tyler smiled. He took her from behind, sliding in with ease. It was a rush. He was so deep, so in her that Willow could only gasp. The pleasure threatened to come and break the spell, letting the world back in again, so once again, Willow moved away. This time she lay down in the soft fibres of the mat and Tyler crawled over her. He started at her toes and licked and kissed his way up her legs. Then he inserted a finger into her vagina and licked and sucked his way around it, working her until Willow pulled him up to her and kissed him deeply.

  Now the game began in earnest. They started slow, the rhythm taking time to build. With each thrust Willow felt herself losing control more and more. Soon there would be nothing left of her, just a whisper on his lips. But Tyler thrust again and again, and soon Willow was a screaming animal, pulling him further and further into her.

  Her orgasm was so intense that she couldn’t do more than make the smallest of sounds, lest she take her attention away from the warm delight that spread through her. Tyler groaned and stiffened and in a moment he was lying next to her. He held her close, nestled his face in her hair and kissed her neck.

  “I think I’ll have to keep you around,” he said.

  “What?” Willow asked breathless and laughing.

  “Well, then we can do that over, and over, and over,” Tyler said.

  “Speaking of doing it over, let me know when you’re up for seconds,” Willow smiled.

  Tyler kissed her then, and the world melted away.

  Mark

  Bearly Saints II

  by

  Becca Fanning

  Addy Spencer stared at the neatly typed letter and fe
lt her stomach drop to her toes.

  …The members of one of the bands we represent, The Four Saints, are very much interested in recording and performing the song you sent—or any other material you might have—and would like to begin negotiations for the rights to do so, if that would be agreeable to you. I can be reached at the address and telephone above, or, if you prefer, we could set up a face-to-face meeting, either here in Nashville or at a place of your choosing.

  Thank you for submitting your song to us. I look forward to hearing from you.

  Sincerely,

  Melinda Darling

  Konstantine Talent Agency

  Nashville, Tennessee

  “I can’t believe you sent them my song, Granny,” Addy said, fighting to keep her voice calm, though she could not stop the tremor in it. “Why would you do that?”

  “Because you’ve been hiding your God-given talent under a bushel for far too many years, darlin,’ and it’s time for you to come out and sing to the world.”

  Addy turned abruptly to face her grandmother, who stood at the kitchen table, steadily kneading a mound of fragrant bread dough with her small, strong hands.

  “But…”

  “I’m not gettin’ any younger, Addy, and I can’t stand the thought of you holed up here in the hills all by yourself for the rest of your life.”

  “Don’t talk like that,” Addy said. “It’ll be a long time before I’m havin’ to live alone up here. And anyhow, I like bein’ alone.”

  Granny Spencer sighed, because she knew the latter to be true. “I’m almost eighty-four years old, Adelaide Ann, and you know as well as I do that the only guarantee we have in this life is it’s gonna end, sooner or later. And bein’ alone ain’t the way we’re meant to live, girl.

  “You know that, too,” she added for good measure as she patted the mound of dough and turned it back into a greased bowl for its second rising. Granny then draped a clean towel over the bowl and set it on top of the warm stove.

  “I can’t do this, Granny,” Addy said, tears in her voice now, as she held the scrunched letter up in her fisted hand. “You know I can’t.”

  Granny sighed, wiped her hands on another towel then crossed the small room to reach out and take hold of Addy’s shoulders.

  “I know you think you cain’t,” the old lady said, her voice kind but firm. “But Addy, darlin’, how you gonna ever know for certain, iffen you don’t at least try?”

  Addy dropped to her knees and wrapped her arms around her grandmother’s waist, hugging her close as she had since she was a little girl. Addy had shot up to be a good head taller than her elderly grandmother during her teen years, and she’d been bigger and stronger than the old lady for the past decade, but she felt small at this moment, and her beloved granny hugged her back.

  “I know you’re scared, darlin’,” she murmured, petting Addy’s thick, soft, sandy-blond hair. Addy had cut it herself again, and it was a shaggy mess, but she couldn’t make herself sit still long enough for Granny to cut it for her.

  When Granny pulled back and lifted Addy’s face to hers, her light green eyes met Addy’s deep golden ones, and Addy felt her grandmother’s frustration.

  “Fate wasn’t kind when it took your ma and daddy away,” she whispered. “You weren’t even old enough for them to know what you’d become, and your daddy never had the chance to teach you what you needed to know.”

  “Whenever I’m around strangers, I’m so afraid, Granny,” Addy whispered. “It seems like it’s only a matter of when, not if, this thing happens to me. I can’t control it. I can’t even predict it. How am I supposed to go to Nashville, if I can’t even be certain I’ll be me when I get there?”

  Granny sighed and pulled Addy to her once more. “I cain’t answer that, child,” she said. “I just know somethin’s gotta change, or you’re gonna just shrivel up and die all alone, and I just cain’t stand the thought of that happenin’ to my precious grandbaby.”

  They stood that way for a long moment, before Granny finally released her again.

  “Just promise me you’ll think about it. All right?”

  Addy sighed. “All right. I promise. I’ll think about it.”

  Granny smiled and gave her a quick kiss on her brow before turning back to the kitchen.

  “I need to get the soup on, iffen we’re gonna have it today. Why don’t you fetch your guitar and sing to me while I chop the veggies?”

  “I ought to help you chop the veggies, Granny.”

  “Nah. I can still chop just fine. And I do love to hear your music.”

  Addy sighed and headed for her room. Their log cabin was small by any standards, with one great room, that included the kitchen and living area, two tiny bedrooms, and a miniscule bath. When her parents had been alive, they had used the bedroom she used now. If they had not lost their lives in a freak accident—the mountain road they’d been traveling on had collapsed following heavy rains, sending their car to the bottom of a deep ravine—then Addy would have been living in the loft over the kitchen. From what Granny had told her, there had been talk of a new addition in the event of more children, but Addy hadn’t been quite two when her parents had died, so there had been no need for more space.

  The sun was streaming in through her window when she stepped into her bedroom. She loved sleeping on the eastern side of the house, so the sun could greet her when she awakened in the morning. As autumn deepened, she found herself rising before the sun, just as Granny did. They invariably shared their morning cup of tea in near darkness, out on the front porch in good weather, or sitting near the kitchen stove, as the kindling caught flame and crackled a cheerful greeting when it was cold outside.

  She reached for her guitar, which rested in its old, battered case in one corner of the crowded room. Her twin-size bed was neatly made, covered in one of Granny’s colorful quilts. A teddy bear she’d had since birth sat proudly in front of the pillow. Her small desk was littered with sheet music and scraps of paper holding promising scraps of song lyrics. Surrounding the small desk were bookshelves loaded with volumes on everything from Plato’s philosophy to Appalachian wildlife. Most of them had belonged to her parents before her, and she had read every one of them at least once.

  Setting the guitar on the bed, she opened the case and reached for her best friend. The Gibson had belonged to her grandfather, Granny’s husband, who had gotten it from his father, who had accepted it in trade for some labor he had provided for a man in town in the early 1930s. Even scratched and worn as the finish was, it was the most beautiful thing she had ever owned, and her greatest joy was losing herself in the music it produced.

  Addy had been home-schooled, because by the time she was five, things had gotten to the point at which she couldn’t safely mix with other people at all. Her family’s books had provided her with plenty of reading material, though, and Granny had proved to be an excellent teacher. When she’d been fifteen, Addy had managed to take and pass her GED exams at the local library, which had gotten the state off their backs about Addy not attending public school. Nine years later, she knew Granny was right: As much as Addy hated to even think about it, she was going to have to figure out what her future was going to be. Loving the farm wasn’t enough. Yes, she could manage to feed herself, but there were times when one woman couldn’t do for herself. She and Granny managed together, because Granny could call on the extended family for help, if they needed a strong back.

  Would they come if I asked them to?

  Addy frowned. When Granny died, their extended family—most of whom had never hesitated to treat Addy as an oddity at best and a complete freak at worst—would nevertheless probably insist she come live and work on one of their farms, leaving this one to be swallowed up by the woods. She hated the thought of Granny’s farm dying that way, but she wouldn’t have the money to keep it up, unless…