Beneath him she moaned and thrust her hips up to meet his, her fingers digging into his shoulders, urging him on. He finished quickly and fell away, panting.
She kissed him and scooted out of the bed. He wasn’t sure where she’d gone, his gaze directed at the ceiling, but he soon heard the tap in the bathroom turn on. With a groan, he sat up and began gathering her clothing. He had it in a pile on the foot of the bed by the time she came back.
“Sorry to cut it short,” she said.
“I’m just glad this isn’t turning out to be a one-night thing.”
“We’ll have to finish talking about what this is, and where it’s going, later.” She pulled her clothes on and kissed his cheek.
“So I will see you later then?”
“I’ll try to come tonight.”
“Okay. Sounds like a plan. I’ll be here waiting for you.”
She let herself out with a smile and a wave, and he set about showering and dressing for lunch.
* * *
Tara and Charles ordered lunch up to his room, a simple sandwich with soup and coffee for her and a beef and broccoli stir fry with extra sesame seeds, no ginger, double the rice, and a side salad with some fancy latte for him. He sat at the desk with his food while she sat on the couch. It felt odd, sitting here so casual with him, when not half an hour earlier she’d been in bed with a man her father despised. She still felt flushed and flustered and her mind kept wandering to things that were embarrassing to think about with her father so close.
“Where were you today? I came to your room but you didn’t answer the door?”
She’d been expecting the question and had rehearsed the answer the entire way back to her room. “Oh, I was all over this morning. I had a long hot bath, I went to the pool, and then of course I had to shampoo the chlorine out of my hair. I went for a walk in the garden because I needed fresh air …”
“You didn’t answer your phone either.”
“I forgot to plug it in last night so it was dead this morning. I left it in my room charging.”
“Sounds like you’ve already had a busy day. What happened to lazy morning?”
“I did a lot, but it was all lazy stuff. I sat in the hot tub for a long time. I admired the gardens. I’m feeling all relaxed and ready for the afternoon.”
“That’s good. I was getting a little worried about you. I actually popped into your room at one point to look for you but you must have been in the hot tub.”
Tara’s heart skipped a beat. She’d forgotten her dad had an extra card to her room. Because he obviously doesn’t trust me to behave. I guess he’s got good reason, all things considered! Too bad I’m an adult now and I couldn’t give a damn what he thought. “You could’ve caught me in the tub, you know.”
“I only went in after the third or fourth time you didn’t answer. I was worried.”
“Dad, I’m an adult, and a werebear. I’m not helpless. I’m not in danger here. I didn’t leave the grounds. You shouldn’t have come into my room like that.”
“Old habits die hard, hun. It’s always been my job to look after you.”
“You know, you pay a lot more attention to what I’m doing than what Sophia or Mark are doing.”
“Tara, I don’t want to have this conversation now.”
“Yeah, you said that Friday, too. That I could understand. There were other people at the table and I can respect your desire to keep private matters private. We’re alone now, so maybe we should talk about this now.”
“When we get home?”
“You’ll be too busy when we get home. I’m a lot less vulnerable than my brother and sister, so why don’t you hound them the way you hound me?”
“You don’t see everything I do to or for your siblings. I’m sure if you spoke to them they’d have similar complaints.”
“It’s because I’m the only werebear, isn’t it?”
“That has nothing …”
“I may not be a Chief, but I can smell a lie.”
“That has little to do with it,” he amended. “Tara, you’re at risk of being targeted by The Human Order. Your brother and sister are human. No one will bother them so I don’t have to worry as much about them.”
“Until they’re kidnapped by those terrorists and used as leverage against you.”
“That won’t happen.”
“It happened in New Orleans. Two humans were involved in that shoot out.”
“Did Remy tell you that? I thought you weren’t seeing him anymore.”
“I did spend two days chatting with him, on and off, so he had lots of time to tell me things, one. Two, no, I’m not seeing him anymore. And three, no, he didn’t tell me that, I read it in the papers.” It was risky, voicing so blatant a lie to her Chief, but she wasn’t going to admit to sleeping with Remy. She wasn’t ready to have that fight with him just yet.
“My apologies.”
“And I know you read it in the papers, too. You know that anyone directly associated with any of us is vulnerable, family more than anyone else.”
“It’s my decision, okay, Tara? Let’s leave it at that.”
“No.”
“Excuse me?”
“Dad, it’s my life. What if I want to move away from Boston? What if I fall in love with a human? Are you going to lock me away like a princess in a tower until I listen to you?”
“Of course not. Honey, you’re being ridiculous.”
“Am I?”
“Yes. I’m done with this conversation.” He dropped his napkin on his plate. “And I’m done with my lunch. We should hurry. We have a session starting soon.”
“Sure. Whatever. I’ll go grab my stuff.”
* * *
Luckily, Daniel was in Remy’s afternoon session because Remy was having trouble paying attention. His mind kept wandering to Tara. She was overwhelming his senses in a way he’d never experienced before. He’d had plenty of girlfriends, maybe not as many as Brock, but not one of them had captivated him this way. It wasn’t just her body, which was amazing, or her face or her hair, it was something more than that, and at the same time, so much simpler.
It was her laugh. It was the way she just walked in and took charge. It was her lack of shame and embarrassment. It was her sass and her poise. It was the way she kicked off her shoes and tossed her sweater around in his space like she was already home there.
It was the way she soothed something inside of him, and the way she made him feel alive.
“Remy?”
“Hmm?”
“Your plans for the next hurricane season?”
“Oh, right, sorry.” He tried to focus and managed it for most of the meeting, only letting his thoughts wander a little and not losing complete track of the conversation again.
When the session was over, Daniel patted him on the shoulder. “You okay?”
“Yeah. Just something on my mind.”
“Good news or bad?”
“Hoping it’s good.”
“Then good. You coming to dinner?”
“No, not tonight. I think I’ll eat upstairs tonight.”
“Fine. Leave me alone with Marnie.”
“She’s not so bad.”
“It’s a good thing I’m married or she’d be hounding me, too. Go. I only jest. It’ll be nice to sit and chat with her some more.”
“All right. See you tomorrow.”
* * *
Tara sat down next to her father and started pulling out papers for the session. The chair beside her moved and someone sat down. She turned to smile and offer a polite ‘hello’, but found Dimitri sitting beside her.
“How was your lazy morning?” he said.
“Amazing.” She turned away. “Dad, do you think we’ll need the security cost reference numbers today?”
“I don’t think so but make sure you know where they are, just in case.”
“All right.”
“Still busy, I see,” Dimitri said.
“I’m used to it.�
��
“There’s no ceremony tonight, and no full moon, and I’m not attending any of the evening events tonight.”
“Okay.”
“So let’s do something.”
“No.”
“Oh come -”
“Let’s get this session started then, shall we?”
Dimitri and Tara both looked up, his face set in a scowl, hers awash with relief.
She moved her chair so she was closer to her father and kept her focus on the meeting, ignoring Dimitri to the point of not even looking at him when he spoke. The break was short-lived however, even with the men talking well past the set end time of the session, and soon she was packing up her papers again.
“Let’s get dinner,” Dimitri said.
“I’m not interested.”
“You don’t have to be so cold. I’m not as well off as your father but I can look after you. And if you’re not into long term, I don’t mind that either.”
“I’m not into you at all,” she said. “And how do you know I don’t have someone waiting for me back home?”
“Because I already asked your father.”
Thanks, Dad. You hate Remy but you’ll set me up with this asshole. She glared at Dimitri. “My father doesn’t know everything that goes on in my life. Maybe if you wanted to know if I was single you should have asked me.”
“You would have lied.”
“Excuse me. The session is done, I’m going now.” She scooped up her folder and marched out.
He followed her. “I thought your father would have raised you with better manners.”
“You mean you hoped my father would have raised me to be a subservient push-over who would jump into bed with you just because you told me to. If you’re going to try to insult me at least be honest.”
“You’re reading too much into this.”
“You’re not reading into it enough. I said ‘no’. Do you understand what that means?”
“That’s you being coy.”
“It means I’m not interested in you, at all, not now, not at any time during this conference, not if you buy me dinner or drinks or a Mercedes Benz. I’m not interested. Leave me alone.”
He grabbed her arm hard enough to make her wince. “You little bitch. Your daddy is Mr. Successful Businessman and you grew up rich and spoiled so you think that gives you the right to look down on people like me who actually worked for their money, it doesn’t.”
While he was talking, she was fussing with her phone in her pocket. “I don’t look down on people who work. I look down on entitled assholes.”
He barked a short laugh. “Entitled. Oh, that’s rich coming from you.”
“Let go of me.”
“We’re going to dinner.”
“The lady asked you to release her, now I will have to ask you to do the same.”
Dimitri snarled at the finely dressed man who had appeared in the hallway.
“Of course if you insist on harassing our guests in this manner we can certainly have you removed from the resort.”
He let Tara’s arm go and pointed a finger at her. “This isn’t over.”
“Sir, it certainly is.”
Dimitri stalked away.
“Ma’am, I apologize for this inconvenience. If there’s anything I can do?”
“This wasn’t the resort’s fault. Thank you for answering a very vague call for help.”
“It was smart of you to dial the front desk. I’ll just have them call back all the servers they sent out to find the source of your distress call. I will let the manager know about this.”
“His name is Dimitri, I don’t know a last name.”
“That will help. Again, I am sorry.”
“You’re not the one who should be sorry, but thank you.” She stayed in the hallway for a few minutes while she steadied herself, then put on what she hoped was a convincing smile and went upstairs.
* * *
“God save me from old men,” Tara said as she entered Remy’s hotel room. She hung her coat on the hook just inside the door. She was still feeling shaken by the encounter with Dimitri but she didn’t want to discuss it with Remy.
“I hope you don’t think I’m old,” he said, turning off the TV. “What kept you?”
“Old men. They never shut up. I honestly just got out of that session. I’m starving.”
He eyed her carefully. “Aside from long-winded old men, was everything okay?”
“The session was fine.”
“A half-truth if I ever heard one.” He kissed her forehead. “I won’t push, but you can trust me.”
“I know. I just – I don’t want to think about it so I’m not going to talk about it. The whole truth is that I’m fine now.”
“That’s good enough for me. Do you want to drive into town?”
She flopped on the bed. “No.”
“Then we’ll call something in.”
“What are you going to have?”
“Roast and potatoes, I think. I want something with gravy. Want a bottle of win,e too?”
“Sure. And just order me what you’re having.” She waved in his general direction and then let her arm flop onto the bed beside her.
“Is there anything you won’t eat?”
“A ton. I’m too tired to care today.”
Once he was done on the phone, he stretched out beside her. “That bad?”
“Talk, talk, talk, they love the sound of their own voices. Two chiefs from Boston, two from Maine, one from New Hampshire and for some odd reason a tech jockey from California. Tomorrow we’re meeting the chiefs from New York. At least the one from the Bronx is a lot of fun.”
He kissed her. “Hmm. You’re going to make me jealous.”
“I said interesting, I didn’t say charming, or devilishly handsome, or young.”
“Is he any of those things?”
“Charming, maybe. The rest, not a bit.”
“Then I guess I’m safe enough.”
“I should think so. How was your session?”
“We mostly talked about hurricanes, Brock’s term as Mayor, and that time I got tied up in my own warehouse by The Human Order. I didn’t realize I was a celebrity.”
“That shoot out made all the news stations in the country. That’s the first real show down with The Human Order so far. You guys beat them so soundly no one else has tried yet.”
“I’m glad we could be a cautionary tale to the bad guys at least.” He kissed her again. “I missed you.”
“Mmm. I missed you, too.”
They were cuddling and kissing when there was a knock at the door. Remy kept kissing her. “It’s rude to keep him waiting at the door,” she managed between kisses.
“Fine.” He went and fetched dinner and set it on the desk before crawling back into bed with her.
“I’m starving.”
“I want you.”
“It’s not safe to get between a girl and her dinner.”
“I’ve got something to tide you over,” he whispered in her ear.
She slapped his shoulder. “Remy!”
“Too far?”
She was laughing. “If I was only hungry, I might take you up on that, but I’m really starving.”
He let her up. “Okay, okay. Go eat.”
She paused to trail kisses down his neck and tucked her hand between his legs. “There’s always dessert,” she said.
His eyes fluttered shut. “Don’t tease.”
“Who’s teasing?”
They got set up on the couch. The table was a little crowded but they managed to eat without knocking anything on the floor. Over dinner, the conversation shifted away from bedroom talk.
“Something odd happened today,” Tara said.
“What’s that?”
“Well, my father was asking where I was this morning.”
“That doesn’t seem odd.”
“No, and I was expecting it so I had this whole story about where I was that I couldn’t answer the d
oor or the phone.”
“Clever girl.”
“Well, that’s the odd part. He believed me.”
“So?”
“I grew up with a Chief for a father. I learned to lie without lying at a young age. Didn’t you?”
“Yeah, I guess I did. I just got in a lot of trouble over the years and accepted it was inevitable.”
“So did I. But even when I lied without lying he always gave me this look, like he suspected something but couldn’t prove it. It got worse once I became a teen and had to take my oath to him as my Chief.”
“But he didn’t give you the look at lunch?”
“No. Not at all. I outright told him I hadn’t spoken to you, at all, since before the banquet, and he didn’t even blink. And I have no idea why.”
“Could it have anything to do with the sex?” Remy wondered.
“That’s what I was thinking, but why are you so sure?”
“You’ve had sex before, haven’t you?”
She blushed. “A few times, sure. But nothing serious.”
“Same with me. Has this ever happened before?”
“No.”
“So it’s not the sex.”
“And I haven’t taken an oath to you.”
“So why can you now lie to your Chief? It’s a good question. Look, why don’t I go ask someone on the Council. I’ll tell them I’m asking for one of my clan members and I need to know all the ways a clan oath can transfer.”
“Okay. But be careful. If my father finds out …”
He squeezed her hand. “He won’t.”
They finished supper and stacked their dishes and trays on the desk. “Now, about that dessert,” Tara said.
“We didn’t order dessert,” Remy said.
Tara was suddenly in his arms, her body pressed against his. She kissed his lips and then trailed kisses down his jaw and neck, all the while her hands were fumbling with the front of his pants.
When she got the button and zipper open, she helped his pants to the floor, going to her knees in the process.
“Tara, you don’t have – oh.”
She freed him from his underwear and licked the tip, cutting off his words. “I’m still hungry.” She took him, semi-hard, in her mouth, and sucked on him until he was hard.
Remy: Big Easy Bears IV Page 9
