“Captain,” Josie said, drawing attention away from where Leo looked about ready to tear Strathmore in half then and there. “I’m afraid I need to ask for payment now. It’s rude, I know, but I’d like to go ahead and wash my hands of this.”
“Regretting turning on a friend?” Strathmore asked. “No matter. Excellent work, captain.” He pulled a sleek device of his jacket pocket and, with a flick of his wrist, pulled up a holoscreen. He tapped a few button and then put it back in his pocket.
“That should do it,” he said.
Josie opened her multitool, her eyes scanning the screen.
“Thank you for your generosity,” she said as she closed it back out. “Is that all you needed?”
“It is, thank you,” Strathmore said. “I’ll keep you in mind the next time I need something like this handled.”
“Somehow, I don’t think that’s going to matter much,” Josie said coolly as she unholstered her blaster and shot one of Strathmore’s guards in the chest. Her men both turned their weapons away from the shifters and began to fire on the soldiers. Four were dead before they reacted, but by then it was too late.
Annie rolled away from Leo and the others as soon as the shooting started to give them the room to shift. Within seconds, Strathmore’s men were facing four bears and three armed pirates.
Strathmore stumbled back a pace before tripping and falling on his ass. For the first time, he had an actual expression on his face. Abject terror was written all over his features as he gaped at the spectacle before him. Annie took a sick satisfaction in watching him scramble backwards as Leo advanced on him.
“What the—” he said before being cut off by way of Leo’s paw crashing into the side of his face. Annie closed her eyes just before the impact but the crunching sound let her know that she’d heard the last from Strathmore.
It was over quickly. The few remaining guards dropped like flies and Josie helped Annie up as they started for the lake. It left Annie with a kind of dissatisfaction. Surely it should have taken longer? This was Strathmore, after all. But she knew better. She knew death always happened too quickly, without regard for the status or wealth of its victims.
The bear that was Leo pressed against Annie’s side for the trek to the lake. She rested a hand on his furry shoulder, taking comfort in the contact even as her skin felt too tight and her mind buzzed.
Was it over? Was she free?
Josie radioed Dominic to let him know they were close and when they arrived at the lake, the Breakwater was waiting with her cargo ramp down. Annie was struck with a sense of déjà vu as she followed Leo into the ship. Almost as soon as they were inside, Dominic announced takeoff and the mechanical whirs of the ship working began to fill the air.
“Alright, baby doll,” Josie said as the shifters wandered off, presumably to find pants, “I doubt whoever takes over the Appomattox is going to waste time looking for you when whoever it is should be watching their back. That said, lay low. Now, I better get to the transport pad so the Honorable can get the hell out of here. Is there anything you need before I go?”
Annie hesitated. “I hate to ask, but… my dad. I’m not asking you to take care of him, Lord knows he needs to learn how to do that for himself, but just make sure he isn’t dead, please?”
“I think I can do that,” Josie said and leaned in for a hug. “You take care of yourself, you hear?”
“Yeah, you too, Jo,” Annie said before stepping back. She waved as the woman made her way to the transporter room.
Annie started towards Leo’s room. Halfway there, she was overcome with the knowledge of what had just happened. She burst out in uncontrollable giggles as the world seemed to tilt forward. Walking no longer appeared to be an option. Instead, she made it the rest of the way to the room with a sort of stumbling run. She entered the code and launched herself inside the room, still laughing.
“Having fun out there?” Leo called from the bathroom. Annie heard the hiss of the sonic shower in the background.
“Time of my life,” she answered.
“See? I told you everything would work out. Now don’t you have something to tell me now that we’re back on the Breakwater?”
Annie threw herself across the mattress. “And what would that be?”
“Oh you know.” Leo’s voice was warm and teasing. “A certain confession I believe I’m owed.”
The memory trickled in. “Ah. That. Captain Ingram,” she said dramatically, “I must make a confession. These last few hours have been the happiest of my life. I love you madly, darling. Now please, feel free to ravish my nubile body in return for saving my life.”
Leo laughed. “Well, you’re more than welcome to join me in here.”
Annie sat up considering. On the one hand, she hadn’t known this man for long and she wasn’t necessarily in the right frame of mind to make decisions. On the other, she was a fugitive who had just caused the death of her ex-fiancé/owner and was now fleeing on a ship with five bear shifters. To hell with caution.
She stripped quickly, deciding to put the shirt back on. Without her bra, her nipples stood out against the fabric as it fell off one shoulder. Annie walked into the bathroom and pulled the shower door open.
“Let me guess: come on in, the sonic’s fine?”
Leo’s looked her over, eyes darkening. “Something like that. You in?”
Annie shrugged and pulled the shirt off over her head. She let the material fall carelessly from her hand. Leo didn’t seem to notice.
“I’m in,” she said, stepping into the shower and pulling the door closed behind her.
The feeling of the sonic shower on her skin was amazing, but Annie had a hard time focusing when Leo was naked right in front of her. He tentatively reached towards her.
“Can I touch you?” he asked, like maybe Annie had stumbled into the shower by accident.
“Yes,” she said, and sighed as he ran his fingers down her arm. He backed her into the wall and stared at her, eyes hot and dark.
“I’m not sure what, exactly, you want to do here, but—” he started.
“I have a chip,” she said.
“What?” Leo asked.
“I have a birth control chip implanted. It should be good for another two years,” she told him. When he stayed silent, she added, “what I’m saying is, you can come inside me. Unless…”
“Shifters can’t get sexually transmitted diseases from humans, or vice versa,” Leo said, swaying towards Annie. “So you want…?”
“I want,” she told him, then gasped as he leaned forward to scrape his teeth along the sensitive skin under her ear.
The feeling of Leo’s teeth at her neck was a religious experience. Annie’s toes curled as he sucked bruises along the slender column of her neck and pressed kisses over the darkened skin. He nosed at the hollow of her throat before pressing open-mouthed kisses down her chest.
“Still yes?” he murmured into her skin.
“Still yes,” she sighed, tilting her head back and closing her eyes. The tingling sensation the sonic left on her skin was a sharp contrast to the warm, hard pressure of Leo’s body on hers and she could feel the slick heat between her thighs grow.
Leo sank to his knees, his hands on her hips and his mouth kissing down her stomach. Annie let her legs slide apart as far as the small stall would allow. Long fingers traced gentle patterns over the skin of one of her thighs before Leo clutched one hip to support her while he used his other hand to hike her leg over his shoulder. Groaning as he pressed a kiss to the inside of her thigh, Annie slid her hands into his hair.
The first press of his tongue to her sex set sparks racing through her veins. The second turned them into a wildfire. She moaned as he worked the inferno hotter and hotter, his hands digging into her. It was incredible, already better than any sex she could remember having.
It wasn’t nearly enough.
“So,” she managed to gasp out, “how long are you planning to stay down there?”
&n
bsp; Leo pulled back. “Impatient, aren’t you?”
“I deserve to be impatient,” Annie told him. “I’ve had the worst time of my life, during which I met the person who is currently the best man in my life, and he’s finally in between my legs but apparently he’s intent on teasing me until I pass out instead of actually fucking me.”
Leo rose slowly, a predatory grin sliding over his face. He traced his fingers lightly up her side, making her shiver. One hand slid up her neck so he could grab a handful of her hair, the other cupping one breast, swiping his thumb over her nipple and drawing out another gasp.
“Why don’t you tell me what you want?” he whispered into her ear, sliding a leg in between her thighs. Annie writhed against him, the pressure so very nearly enough.
“You know what I want,” she told him breathlessly. “Maybe you could be a gentleman and give it to me.”
Leo chuckled, warm and low, before releasing Annie and taking a step back. “Turn around.”
She complied readily, bracing herself against the stall wall and pushing her hips back at him. Almost instantly, he was on top of her. She had known he was a big man, but there was a difference between knowing and feeling. He pressed against every inch of her back, his face buried in her neck.
“Is this what you wanted, Annie?” he asked as she felt the head of his cock press against her entrance.
“Yes,” she moaned as he slid inside her. For a split second, she was afraid he would fuck her like she was fragile. She didn’t want that. She wanted this to be passionate, with neither of them holding back. Fortunately, it seemed that the thought had never crossed Leo’s mind.
He grabbed her wrists and held them against the wall just above her head so that his arms bracketed her, trapped her. She was pinned, with the beautiful man over and in her, flooding her veins with lightening. Her breath came out in ragged gasps as he drove into her, his own groans sparking down her spine.
“Harder,” she told him, working her hips back to meet his. Leo squeezed her wrists and shifted his stance slightly, thrusting into her at a new angle. Her vision whited out for a moment, the sheer pleasure threatening to drown her. She babbled at him, urging him to keep going, until all she could do was pant out broken syllables. She felt her climax building. From the stutter in Leo’s hips, he wasn’t far behind her.
Annie’s skin grew hotter and hotter until she wasn’t sure how she wasn’t leaving scorch marks on everything she touched. She’d been with men in the past who had managed to work her to completion, of course, but it had never been like this. She drew nearer and nearer to the brink of orgasm, face red and heart pounding. One brutal thrust was all it took to push her over the edge and she screamed as she shook apart, undone by pleasure. The rhythm of Leo’s hips faltered, then sped up, drawing Annie’s climax out almost torturously. He grunted over the sound of their bodies colliding, and then pressed tight against her as he let out a final moan.
They stood like that for a moment, his chest to her back, just catching their breaths. Then, slowly, Annie tugged her wrists out of his grasp and spun to face him, wrapping her arms around his neck. She pressed kisses along his jaw as the sonic shower cleaned them off, the hissing sound it made in harmony with their heavy breathing.
“So,” Leo said at last, “did that convince you to stick around?”
Annie pulled back to look up at him. She drank in the sight of his dark, ruffled hair, the smile on his full lips, and the hopeful look in his beautiful gold eyes. It seemed strange that he would even bother to ask; there was only one possible answer.
“Yeah,” she said softly. “I think I could stay for a while.”
Slade
120 Proof Honey V
by
Becca Fanning
Slade Walker picked up his coffee mug and headed for the front door. The morning was already hot. The day would be a scorcher. He couldn’t wait to get back home after taking care of a few business tasks, and change into his bear form so he could run through the woods and feel the wind in his fur.
Today would be a boring day. He had to file some paperwork at the courthouse. Taxes, product information, and that sort of thing. This was the less fun part of his job, but at least it got him out of the house and into the city for a while. The Ozark Mountains were beautiful, but once in a while he liked to be around the tall buildings and congestion of the city.
He walked to his car, set his mug on the roof, and reached to unlock the door. But something wasn’t right. He walked to the front tire to inspect it more carefully. He set down his briefcase and bent to look closer. Yup. His tire wasn’t only flat as could be, it was damaged. Looked like someone had knifed it. He circled around the car to check the other tires, then cursed under his breath. All four, slashed.
And then he recognized the scent. It was the two of the women bear shifters in the area. The ones who’d been giving them nothing but trouble lately.
He’d have to take one of the guy’s vehicles. They had several between them. But as he walked from car to truck to car to check them, all he saw was flat tires. All slashed. They didn’t have a single vehicle undamaged, a single tire still holding air.
Slade slammed the house’s front door open and Dax jumped.
“What gives?” He stood in the doorway, looking like he was ready to head out himself in his suit and tie.
“Every vehicle, every tire, slashed.”
“You’re kidding.” Daxton pushed past him to run outside and see for himself.
Slade was standing in the doorway when he headed back. “It had to be them. I recognize the scent.”
Dax gritted his teeth and shook his head.
“I’m waking the guys up,” Slade said.
He hopped up the stairs, taking two at a time, and knocked on each door.
“Get up! Emergency meeting,” Slade called as he went.
He went back downstairs and paced in the dining room, waiting. Daxton sat in a chair, texting. One by one, the men came down until they sat at the table, looking up at their leader, who stood.
“This has gone on long enough,” Slade said, practically growling in his anger. “We tried taking it to the police and that didn’t work. It’s time for us to take action against these women. To show them who’s boss and what clan rules in this town.”
“What do you want to do?” Knox asked.
“I think we should just go kick their butts,” Beck said.
“Don’t be unreasonable,” Amir said. “We’ll just get ourselves in trouble doing that.”
Dax huffed. “Yeah, like they did? They kill our hive, set fire to our building, try to steal our business, and get off with nothing.”
“Must’ve been sleeping with the cops or something,” Knox said.
“Amir is right,” Slade said. “We have to start out by being reasonable. Let’s go over there and confront them. Maybe they just need to know that we’re not going to back down. They might have gotten off with no jail time, but that’s not the end. We’re not going to let it go.”
“And make them pay for the tires,” Dax said.
“Seriously,” Beck added.
“What are we going to say to them?” Amir asked.
“We have to be intimidating,” Knox said.
Slade nodded. “Intimidating and forceful. We’ll make it clear that this is their final warning. We’ll demand they stop coming after us.”
“What about our vehicles? I have sales appointments today,” Dax said.
Ian (BBW Bear Shifter Wedding Romance) (Grizzly Groomsmen Book 4) Page 36
