Breakwater: Hyde (BBW Bad Boy Space Bear Shifter Romance) (Star Bears Book 4)

by Becca Fanning

  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?”

  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 da
maged. 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.

  “Can you make some calls?” Slade asked. “Get some people out here to fix them?”

  Daxton nodded.

  “I’m going to case the joint in a little while. Try to figure out who the leader is ahead of time so we’ll be prepared. I’d also like to get a look at their grounds and their honey processing building if I can. I want as much info going in as I can get.”

  “I can go with you,” Knox said.

  Slade nodded. “Sure. That’d be great.”

  A little while later, Knox and Slade met in the living room to head out. They stripped down until they were wearing nothing, then walked outside and shifted. Whenever possible, they tried not to ruin their clothing. Sometimes they had to shift on the fly and it happened, but they went through so many shorts and shirts, it was crazy.

  Slade loved the feeling of the transformation. He stood tall, stretched his arms into the hot air, then set them on the ground so he was on all fours. Knox did the same. They were all so used to the transformation, had been doing it so many years, it was now second nature. In the beginning, sometimes it took them a few moments to set their minds to change. But now, it was instant and almost no thought was required. It was as simple as wanting it, then the change started.

  It was always his back first. The bones moved and shifted to form the back of a large bear, then the rest of his bones followed. It reminded him of going to the chiropractor, having his bones cracked and adjusted. It felt much the same. Then, somewhere toward the end of his bones moving and the skin loosening or tightening around his new skeleton, hair would pop out all over him, growing from his skin as if in a time lapse video. The last thing was the teeth and claws. They shot out of his mouth and paws, and he was now a fully-formed bear. From start to finish, the whole process took about two seconds.

  They took off into the woods, running fast like they always did. They could run so much faster in bear form than human. The women’s clan lived many miles away. They tore through the forest, over a wide stream, scampered up part of a mountain. When they were close, they picked up their scent.

  “Four?” Knox thought to Slade.

  The best part about being a shifter and sharing a clan was the ability to share thoughts when they wanted to. Otherwise, communicating in bear form would be tricky.

  “Five,” Slade thought back.

  Knox nodded.

  When the scent grew thicker, they slowed. Who knew if the women were in bear form themselves, running through the woods. If the Walkers were smelled, the women would know it was them. Not only did they already know their scents from being on their property, but the bear shifters smelled different than natural bears. Their humanness left its mark, no matter what form their bodies were in.

  They came to a large house. It was much prettier than theirs. This house was cream and white, the shutters painted with simple flowers at the edges, the porch clean and peaceful looking with a swing in one corner.

  They had a good bit of land. Maybe not as much as the Walker clan did, but enough. They circled around the premise first, to get an idea of what was located on the property.

  Besides the house, there was a barn. Horses were kept there, from the smell and sounds of it. There was another large building, unmarked. Perhaps their processing building? They had a few bee hives, a full garden of vegetables and herbs, and a few smaller ones full of bright flowers. Maybe Slade should have one of the guys’ girlfriends plant some flowers. It would be good for the bees anyway.

  Slade was the last lonely bear. All of his clanmates and business partners had found love over the last year. He didn’t know how they managed it. Anytime he was anywhere near anything that looked like a relationship, it freaked him out. He never trusted any woman enough to share his secret, and if he dated anyone, he constantly worried she would find out. That somehow, he’d end up having to change in front of her. More than one of the Walkers had a tale like that. In the end, it had worked out okay for all of them. But Slade had been burned once, and he’d never lived it down.

  When he was just barely twenty, he met a gorgeous woman and fell head over heels. They were madly in love, planned for marriage, the whole thing. He knew he had to tell her. He waited until the moment seemed right, took her outside and told her, then showed her. She’d been so freaked out, she left her engagement ring and never spoke to him again. The heartbreak had been so severe, it damaged him permanently. Never again would he put himself through that. He’d rather be alone. He was perfectly happy alone.

  Knox nudged his shoulder with his head. Slade looked in the direction he indicated by jerking his head and saw that someone was coming out of the house. Two women walked outside. They paused to talk and while they stood there, three more came out. So there were five then. A common number for a clan.