Bearing It All

by Vonnie Davis

  As if emptying her Pandora’s box of secrets deflated her soul’s balloon of fear, a peacefulness encompassed her. Her eyes drooped once, twice, and Ronan shifted her off his lap onto the sofa. “I have to check on the baked chicken and make neeps and tatties for supper. Rest here until I get everything ready.” He brushed his lips over hers. “Sleep, me woman, me luv, me heart.” He strode to the chair she’d occupied earlier, retrieved the blanket, and covered her with it. “Snooze. Ye’re with me now. Safe, loved, and pampered.”

  Ronan hummed as he worked in the kitchen. Gee, the man even cooks. Anisa smiled and snuggled into slumber.

  While Ronan stirred the pot full of neeps and tatties, his inner bear pulsated with frustration. “I ken ye need to exorcise yer demons. Tonight, Brother Bear. I’ll let ye loose to run fer hours.”

  They whipped our woman, our family. I couldna stand hearing about all she’d been through. They broke her bones and left scars. Promise me, we’ll protect her from now on.

  Och, Ronan wouldna forget what those heathens had done to his woman. If they came here and tried to take her away, they’d meet a Highlander with bloodlust in his eyes and fury flowing through his veins. If his ancestors could vanquish the Vikings who came to their shores, he could damn well murder the mercenaries or covert government officials of whatever regime that had tortured his sweet woman.

  “Brother Bear, do ye remember where I store me broadaxe?”

  Aye. In the basement.

  “Good. If the time comes and we’ve shifted, carry her to the basement for safety and get me ancestors’ broadaxe. Once ye’re in the sleeping alcove again, we’ll shift. If I’m in the forefront, I’ll need yer help. Yer hearing is better than mine. If ye hear an airplane or helicopter, tell me immediately, so I can get her belowground where ’tis safer.” When he’d built the cabin, Ronan had reinforced the walls with steel rods, thinking he was preventing them against crumbling from the freezing and thaw of heavy snows. Now, he had bombs and missiles to worry about.

  We put her first, Ronan. She’s our family. I just need to run off some anger over what those people did to her. I canna recall being this fookin’ mad or nervous.

  Brother Bear paced and stomped to such an extreme, Ronan worried he’d have trouble keeping his internal bear under control. “Ye canna come forward until I give ye permission. Tonight, after she’s asleep, we’ll shift and ye can run off yer wrath. Work off some fer me, too, because I am near to feckin’ insane for all she’s had to endure. Fer the first time in me life I want to kill someone. I just want to grab ahold of a CIA numpty and rip his balls off and stuff one up each nostril.”

  Ye’ve fallen in love with her.

  Ronan’s gaze swept toward the back of the sofa where she lay, nestled under the blanket and asleep. “Aye, Brother Bear. I never expected it to happen, but there’s so much about her I adore. Even the way she bats her eyes at me when she’s trying to get her way.” He snorted. “Or get me goat.”

  Ronan bent to remove the chicken from the small oven, used two spatulas to lift it from the pan to a meat platter, and set it on top of the counter to cool. He turned the heat off the neeps and tatties. Then he slipped into the bathroom. He must have been tired fer he woke up with his head leaning against the wall beside the commode.

  Naked.

  His tee and flannel shirt were ripped to shreds and crumpled on the floor. Laying across the edge of the vanity were his jeans along with his socks.

  “Brother Bear, I will bloody well kick yer arse. Ye ken the rules.” The socks were stretched so long he had to pull them over his knees. He jerked his jeans from the sink and saw all the buttons had been ripped off the fly. Cursing, he yanked on his pants. As for the shirts, they were ruined. He snatched one of the sweatshirts he had folded on top of the washer, and wrenched the shirt over his head.

  Then the noise registered. Brother Bear was chewing.

  Oh, I know he didna.

  Ronan flung open the bathroom door and looked at the empty pan of neeps and tatties, the big spoon lying on the stove. Then he spun toward the meat plate. All that remained were the two wings, the arse flap, and a greasy mess on the counter. “Brother Bear, ye’ve gone too far this time.”

  Ye know I’m a nervous eater when I’m fokin upset. Dinna get mad about the empty honey jars, either.

  The bear belched.

  “Two fokin’ wings?” Ronan held them up, waving them over the plate. “All ye left us for supper was two fokin’ wings and an arse hole? Oh, I will clip your claws to nubbins, ye greasy-lipped, numpty-headed bastard!”

  “Ronan?” His head whipped around toward Anisa, sitting with her arms folded over the top of the sofa, staring at him wide-eyed. “Who…who are you talking to? You sound positively livid.”

  Tell her how good ye baked the chicken. ’Twas probably just me nervous eating, but I think it coulda used more pepper. Brother Bear’s lips smacked.

  I’ll impress her with how far I can jam me foot up yer hairy arse. Ronan pasted on a self-deprecating smile and prepared to lie. Something he didna like doing with Anisa, or anyone fer that matter. Soon he was going to have to tell her about the shifting and Brother Bear. What would she think of him then?

  “I dropped the bird on the floor when I was transferring it from the baking dish. And while I was cleaning up the chicken mess, I burned the neeps and tatties. Looks like we’ll be having more of the food Cook Edweena sent along.” He waved an open hand over his change in shirts. “I got grease everywhere.”

  She walked over to the kitchen area while he grabbed an old rag, made it wet, and bent over to wipe up the food Brother Bear had dribbled all over the kitchen floor. Ronan dinna want Anisa to slip and fall. Something dinna seem right…

  A snicker exploded behind him. “I do love those firm ass cheeks of yours. No matter how often I see them.” He peered around his waist and Anisa was giggling. Well, what was so damn funny? She pointed to his arse before she folded her arms and laid her head on the counter and laughed so hard, he didna ken if she could catch her next breath.

  He stood straight again. “What the feckin’ hell is so funny, I’d like to ken?”

  She lifted her face slightly and fluttered her eyes at him. “Are you putting on weight, Ronan? The ass seam of your jeans is ripped.” She pointed. “From top…to…to balldom.” The giggling began again and she placed both palms over her mouth.

  Just how the bloody hell was he to explain this? “Well, I did just have that cup of hot chocolate.”

  Brother Bear, ye and yer nervous eating ass.

  “One cup of hot chocolate?” She slipped into another fit of laughter. “Believe me, a little cup of sweetness would not make your ass spread to where you ripped the back seam.” She shifted to stand in front of him and tugged on his sweatshirt. “How long have you had these pants? Since you were sixteen? All the buttons at the fly are gone.” Her voice took on a breathy quality. “And you have no underwear on.” One of her hands bunched the denim at his waist, while the other one slipped inside and wrapped around his cock.

  Holy Mother of God. All the blood in his brain shot to his cock. He was so damn hard, he could chip the ice from his truck’s windshield with his rigid pecker. Now, wouldna that make a fine sight?

  Anisa rose on her toes and nuzzled his neck. “Any other man would get angry because I laughed at him, but you understand how much I need something funny to take my mind off all my fears. A man has to be strong in his masculinity to give the woman he claims to care for all she needs, even if it is a good laugh at his expense.” She kissed his neck several times and then bit his earlobe, all the while her hand slowly stroked him to madness. “You make me respect you more for the way you put my needs first.”

  His mouth had gone dry and all he could do was grunt. Although he was glad to hear she respected him as a man. Aye, a Scot required that in all his relationships—personal and business.

  “I’m ready to cross that line you talked about earlier. Take me to bed. Make me
yours.” A drop of pre-cum seeped out and her thumb swept it around the head of his cock while a groan escaped from between his jaws. Her fingernails grazed his balls. “I’m serious. I’ve made my decision, Ronan. The attraction and trust between us has grown fast, but it’s materialized stronger this time, like magic. And there’s no denying it.”

  She retreated a couple of steps, unzipped her jeans, and shimmied out of them. A more appealing action, Ronan had never seen. Her arms crossed so her hands could grasp the hem of her turtleneck and tug it over her head. “Or were all your declarations merely empty words? I’m calling your bluff.” Reaching back, she unhooked her black bra and then shot it at him like a slingshot.

  His hand snaked out and caught it in midair. “Nay. There’s no denying it.” He pressed her bra to his nose and inhaled the strawberry fragrance it had absorbed from her skin. “Me desires fer ye are about to consume me. They burn at me day and night.”

  He circled her slowly like a wild animal approaching its prey. He trailed his fingertips across the back of her neck, pressing his lips to the middle of it to make her shiver. The callused tips of his fingers continued over her shoulders and slowly swept down her spine to the dimples above each of her flawless, firm arse cheeks. His index finger dipped into each round indent. “One day, I shall fill these dimples with strawberry ice cream.”

  She trembled as she inhaled a couple of pants of air.

  With the lightest of caresses, he touched her round arse. “Ye are a perfectly formed woman.” Stepping in front of her, cupping her firm, round breasts, and running his thumbs over her nipples, he kissed her where her neck joined her shoulder. “Beautiful. After meeting ye in Paris, I became greatly enamored of a big-busted woman with breasts I imagined I could kiss all night and not hit the same spot twice.” His fingers slid down both arms in a featherlight touch. “I think from now on I shall call ye Beauty, for I shall be yer beast. But there’s more to ye than looks. Aye. There are brains, courage, and a sense of right and wrong I completely respect.”

  She laughed and cupped his cheek. “You have a charming way of talking that seduces me. On one hand you’re very alpha and on the other, you’re all gentleman. I love it. I really do.”

  Both of his hands rose and he smiled. “Which hand is the biggest, Beauty? The alpha or the gentleman?” He leaned and pressed a kiss to each corner of her mouth. “If ye ask me into the bed, only the alpha will join ye. I’ll be leaving the gentleman behind. I do have some condoms in the bathroom closet.”

  Her smile disappeared. “Do you bring women here often?”

  “Nay. I’ve never brought a woman here.” He glanced away and sighed as he made up his mind what to tell her. The truth seemed best. “Me eldest brother’s wife has a grandmother with a weird sense of humor who lives near our lodge. The auld woman’s lovable in her own way, but can be like a tick under yer skin. She’s been after me to find a woman.” The fingers of his one hand tapped a nervous beat on the edge of the counter. “I told her I was too busy to find one. That she’d have to drop out of the feckin’ sky and land on top of me. So, as a joke, Effie stuck a box of rubbers in the outer pocket of me tote bag.”

  Anisa’s dark eyebrows furrowed. “I did drop out of the sky. Only I landed on a bear.”

  Ronan scooped her in his arms and nuzzled her neck. “Aye, but ye knocked at me door in the middle of the night, mad, and full of sass and vinegar. Ye had me smitten right away. I didna want ye to leave.” He kissed her gently and carried her into the bedroom alcove. “Nor do I ever. I want ye with me forever.”

  Chapter 7

  Anisa stared into his eyes and forked her fingers through his hair. “You treated me like you wished I were anywhere but here that first night. At least until we recognized each other.”

  The honesty and pain in her voice lit a fire of shame in his soul. He lifted a shoulder and cleared his throat. “I’ve never had a woman knock me on me arse as easily as ye did…or kick me balls to me lungs. Christ, ye wounded me Scottish pride as well as me manhood. Still, there was something about ye I liked. Who knows? Maybe it was the verbal sparring and yer inner strength. Or maybe a part of me remembered ye unconsciously.”

  “Then bring two condoms. I’ll be waiting and I want your long hair rubbed all over my body.”

  “Och, I can see ye’re used to giving orders. We’ll have to come to terms with that habit. Nay man likes to be ordered about, especially in bed.” He leaned in, dwarfing her with his height. “So let me tell ye how ’twill be between us sexually. There won’t be one inch of your skin my hair, tongue, lips, and teeth won’t touch. I will devour ye with me desire. When I am through loving ye, I will have memorized yer taste, yer smell, and the way ye scream me name in climax.”

  “Well, then, suppose you get those condoms.” Damn if she dinna bat those eyelashes again. Aye. She knew what that did to him. “And we’ll see if you can deliver or if you’re all talk.”

  He pulled her close for a kiss and before their lips met, he half-laughed. “Ye’re going to be trouble, are’na ye? Well, hear this, lassie. Driving a stolen plane will be nothing compared to the ride with a fired-up Scot. That much I can promise ye.” His fingers grasped her hair and pulled her head back before his mouth covered hers and took control. He nibbled and sucked at her lips while his tongue swept across the silkiness of hers. He tasted the sweetness of Anisa’s mouth as he kissed her with so much passion, he could smell her arousal. He snapped the back of her thong. “Have these off before I return or I’ll tear them from ye.”

  She scurried to the other side of the bed to stand and tuck her thumbs under the elastic of her thong. He smirked at her eagerness and strode into the bathroom for the condoms.

  Ronan sauntered into the bedroom with the condoms in his hand. His gaze locked on her, he dropped three foil packets on the nightstand. “Bloody hell, I damn near swallowed me tongue. Here ye are, spread across me bed and shaved bare—or waxed. Whatever ’tis women do to their privates.” He stroked her bald pussy. What an appealing and complete turn-on.

  “Ye are a tempting woman.” With one hand, he reached over his shoulder and pulled off his sweatshirt. He shoved his ruined jeans over his hips, stepped out of them, and yanked off stockings stretched big enough for a giant—or a bear.

  “I’m glad you think so. I put this outfit on just for you.” She batted her eyelashes again. God, he loved it when she teased him like this. There were too many times it seemed his life was full of “fix this, build that.” All seriousness and very little cheerfulness. Unless Colleen did one of her comical antics to brighten his day, there wasna much to genuinely smile about. Sweet Lord, but he needed this woman to brighten his life, to bring some honeyed joy into it.

  Ronan closed his telepathic shield so his bear wasna able to see what was about to happen. It would serve his other half right if he kept the shield down the rest of their time here.

  He sat on the edge of the bed and stared at her from her red polished toenails to the crown of her head. “And a mighty fine outfit it is, me Beauty.” He slid his finger between her bald folds. “I especially like what ye’ve done with this.”

  Fingers coiled around her ankle, he kissed the sole of her foot, sucked her toes, and nipped her ankle. Kiss by kiss, nip by nip, and with gentle sucking, he slowly worked his way up her legs. She fisted her fingers in his long hair, giving him a bite of pain he discovered he liked. The bare folds of her labia glistened with feminine juices he bet were sweeter than honey. He swept his tongue along her clit to gather her nectar.

  She moaned and muttered his name. He grew harder as his need for her ramped with an all-consuming strength. His kisses and nibbles traveled over her abdomen. Entwining his fingers with hers, he placed them above her head. He whispered the strength of his desire before he drew her bottom lip into his mouth and sucked. To soothe, he swept his tongue across the inside of her lip before her tongue met his for a sensual back-and-forth dance. Her nipples were beaded, as if waiting for his touch or his lips
. As he drew one into his mouth, her back bowed toward him on a cry of need.

  Would it always be this good between them? The sensual essence of her, the abandon with which she responded to him, and the depth of his desire for his Beauty. If he treated her with love and respect, he expected it would. Aye, she was a woman to cherish and dote on—not with gifts, but with shows of sincere affection.

  He inserted one finger inside her and circled his thumb around her clit. Her fingers coiled in the blanket as she panted, breaking out in a sweat. He added another finger and slowly pumped in time with the sucking of her breast. Her thighs began to tremble and she gasped as a climax hit and rolled over her.

  Showing her no mercy, he wrapped both arms around her full hips and trailed his tongue slowly around her opening, lapping at the sweetest juices he’d ever tasted. He flicked it over her clit until she began to tremble once more and then he slid his finger higher to reach her G-spot. She screamed his name again.

  He sat on the edge of the bed, opened a foil packet, and rolled on a neon yellow condom before he spread over her sweet body, positioning to enter her.

  “From this moment on, ye are me woman. Mine, do ye hear?” He pushed into her with one powerful stroke, pumped his hips, and strove for nirvana. He kissed her face from her chin to her forehead, repeating, “Me woman. Me Beauty,” as if it were an old Scottish love chant.

  She scratched his shoulders and wrapped her heels against the small of his back, moving him faster and faster. “Come with me, Beauty,” he commanded. A few more pumps and it was as if both flew toward the passionate heat of the sun, their souls and hearts melting into one being.