There was a burst of enthusiasm around the table, and Kitty shook her head in wonder.
It is so easy for them, she thought.
Mel and Kitty had outlined their preliminary plans for the whole family over pulled pork and coleslaw, and everyone seemed to want in on it. Bart had agreed that his front parlor was the perfect place for an office, and Matt had an idea about a possible joint venture with the owner of a small recording studio nearby who was currently in trouble financially. The brainstorm of ideas seemed never ending.
“You still with us, darlin’?” Bart asked after a time, his voice a soft murmur in her ear.
She smiled at him. “Barely.”
“I think Kitty’s had it for tonight,” Mel said, and Kitty felt the warmth of her smile.
And how good it feels to have Mel for a friend and colleague, now, she thought.
“I think you’re right,” Kitty said, getting up from the table. “I can’t thank all of you enough for…” She broke off, suddenly at a loss for words.
Mel stood and gave her a warm hug. “I’m so glad you invited me to go with you, Kitty, she said. “I think we’re going to be great together.”
“You bet,” Matt said.
“I couldn’t even begin to succeed without all of you,” Kitty said.
Bart got to his feet and put his arm around her shoulders. “You were the spearhead on this one, Kitty, and deserve all the credit for it. And we’re all agreed it’s gonna be good for all of us, so let’s just call this a family affair and leave it at that.”
In another few minutes, Bart led her down the back stairs and into the night. They crossed the alley and stopped between their two cars.
“I don’t like the idea of you tryin’ to drive home tonight, Kitty,” Bart said.
She looked up at him, trying to see his golden eyes in the shadows.
“I don’t like the idea of going home at all,” she said.
Bart smiled and brushed the hair back from her face. “Even better,” he murmured, kissing her brow and turning her toward his door.
They didn’t bother with the lights, but let the moonlight and streetlights coming through the windows guide their way into the bedroom.
“We need to be more careful tonight,” Kitty said when he brought her to a stop at the foot of the bed and took her into his arms.
“Oh?”
He sounded worried, and she actually giggled.
“I don’t want to ruin Meg’s dress,” she said.
He laughed. “I’ll be careful,” he promised, loosening the belt that held the dress in place.
When the belt was gone, the dress flowed to the floor along with it, and Kitty’s breath caught when he opened the front of her bra, releasing her breasts. The air conditioning blew across her heated flesh, where his mouth left a damp trail, and she felt an answering tingle in her nether regions.
“Bart…”
“Don’t worry, darlin’,” he said, returning his lips to hers. “We won’t be takin’ as long to get there tonight.”
“Good!”
He chuckled, but when he would have laid her on the bed, she twisted and pushed him ahead of her. He landed on his back in the middle of the bed, and she rejoiced at the sound of his laughter.
“My turn,” she said, straddling his thighs and going to work on his shirt front with clumsy fingers.
“Just don’t take too long,” he said, groaning when she reached for his belt but stopped long enough to feel the bulge at the front of his jeans.
Kittle laughed breathlessly. “It won’t be long, now. Just scoot up on the bed.”
He did as directed, and she moved away just long enough and far enough to pull off his shoes and socks, as well as her own shoes, slip, stockings, and panties, before she quickly returned to his belt buckle and pulled it apart. Then carefully unbuttoning his jeans, she felt for the zipper.
“Careful, darlin’…”
“Don’t worry. I’ll be careful.” She pulled the zipper down and felt his member pulsing through his shorts.
“Lift your hips for me,” she directed.
When he did, she lifted up far enough to give her room to slide his jeans down. Once they were around his ankles, he kicked them off.
“Sit up, now.”
He did as she directed, and she peeled his shirt over his shoulders and threw it away, before pushing him back down onto his back.
“You are so beautiful,” she said, as she settled down over him and ran her hands through the dark fur on his chest. His muscles were smooth and hard under the soft coat, and she let her fingers roam, following the line of hair as it narrowed down to the waistband of his shorts.
“You got that wrong, Kitty,” he said through clenched teeth. “You’re the one who’s beautiful.”
He grasped her under her arms, then, and pulled her up over him until he could reach her breasts with his mouth. She held herself above him with her arms on either side of his head as he feasted on first one then the other, leaving her gasping. When she couldn’t stand it anymore she slid down him to lay her lips on his, taking their kiss deep, all the while feeling the huge presence of his member between her legs. He had pushed down his shorts while she hadn’t been paying attention, and she felt her own wetness as she rubbed against him.
“You need to sit up, now, darlin’,” he directed, placing his big hands under her arms once more and lifting her off him.
Kitty cried out in disappointment, until she felt the prodding of his member at her center. She reached down to take him in her hands, feeling him grow harder still, then guided him to her opening. It was bigger this way, and she felt some pain as she slowly sank down onto him.
Then he was thrusting up, hard, and pulling her down, her hips trapped in his big hands. Kitty squealed, arching back, her hands spearing through his hair, as she came down on him. He repeated the motion, first lifting then pulling her down, until the pain was eclipsed by a pleasure so big, she thought she would burst from it.
And in another moment, she did, shuddering hard on her climax, her cry swallowed by his roar as his seed filled her.
Later, she lay on him, her legs wrapped around his, his member still deep inside her. He had softened, but he was still there, still a part of her, and she felt complete. She sighed in contentment, and felt him pull a blanket up over her against the cool night air. When he turned his head to kiss her, she felt tears threaten.”
“Did I hurt you, Kitty?” he asked, and she heard distress in his voice.
“No! Well, maybe, at first, but then it was...it was perfect.”
She felt his smile when he kissed her again.
She sighed. “I love you, you know.”
“Yeah, I kind of figured you did. Convenient, that, since I love you, too.”
As his arms tighten around her, she felt his member begin to grow inside her, and in another moment, she felt herself quicken once more.
“I can’t believe what you do to me,” she murmured. “It’s never been like this before.”
“Good,” he said, the satisfaction in his voice unmistakable.
Kitty laughed softly and hugged him close, at home in his arms as she had never been anywhere else before.
“Are you gonna marry me, Kitty?” he asked after a time.
She sighed. “I think I’ll have to. Bear-Cat is supposed to be a family affair, after all.”
He laughed and rolled over, reversing their positions. Then he began to love her once more, and she let herself fly.
Riding Bearback
Bear Ranchers Book I
by
Becca Fanning
Damn cows! Damn them all! Jess Lincoln, her black hair flying free from her ponytail, swore as she ran through the knee high grass. The cow loped out of her way, dodged around a scrubby bush and cantered off in the opposite direction.
She hadn’t signed up for this, not at all. The property description had said quite clearly that this damnable ranch, in Colo-stupid-rado, had stupid peopl
e…what were they called? Oh yes, hands who worked with the cows. No one had said that they would all be gone when she got there, or that the fences were in reprehensible disrepair, or that in the face of an oncoming thunderstorm, the stupid creatures would scatter to the four corners of the state.
Jess stopped her helter-skelter run and hands on knees began to suck in lung-fulls of air. The stitch in her side was becoming a problem. A cow turned brown, expressive eyes on her and mooed dolefully.
“Yeeesh, and to you too,” Jess said.
“That’s not how ya do it!” That was Old Charlie. He had come with the ranch, but since Jess guessed he was at least a thousand years old, he was no use to her. He leaned against the still standing part of the fence and smiled his toothy grin. He was an African American man with a dandelion, powder puff of white hair that stood up like Albert Einstein’s. Jess had known Charlie for five minutes and already he was getting on her nerves.
She could’ve stayed in New York. It was a big city, with bustling people and cabs. She could have kept her old job at the ad agency, or found a new one since Conrad, her ex, probably still worked there. Actually come to think of it, she could have chosen a lovely tropical island in the Bahamas instead of this cow-infested dust bowl. But then she looked up at the view; the plain stretching out ahead of her to a line of trees, and then the mountains in the distance. All this space, all this land, and she’d bought it for a steal.
Sighing, Jess turned to look at Old Charlie. “Okay, so how do you suggest I get these dumb creatures back?”
He shrugged. “You know how to ride a horse?”
“No,” she said wrinkling her nose.
“Well then, you’re poked,” he said and shuffled his way back up to the main house.
“Thank you, oh so much for that,” Jess yelled after him.
He just waved a wrinkled hand at her and went on his merry way.
Oh well, nothing for it. She ran around for a while as the clouds rolled in overhead and cows trotted out of her way in a distressingly unconcerned fashion. It was almost as though the beasts knew that she had never so much as petted a cow before.
Eventually she flopped down in the turf her sides aching, while above her the sky began to boil. Lightning flashed and licked the depths of the clouds turning them bright for an instant before letting them fall dark again. And of course the sun was setting. It was going to rain and get dark all at the same time and she was so far out of her comfort zone, it was on another continent.
“Hell of a first day,” she said to herself, pulling at a grass stalk. It had such smooth sides. Her fingers ran up it and then, “Ouch!” Jess stared at the red blood welling out of the slice and then something hit it. Something wet and cold crashed into her finger, washing the blood away. More raindrops fell.
Jess stood up and ran after the cows again, flapping her arms and yelling with more urgency now. Why were the stupid creatures so happy to spend a stormy night out in a field? Couldn’t they see that the sky was angry at something, and planning on hitting the ground with as much lightning as it took to make it sorry? How was she supposed to do this on her own?
A cow mooed at her and ran towards her. She sidestepped out of its way and in the gloom lost her footing and fell face first into a puddle, drenching her from head to toe.
“Oh well, thank you so very much!” she yelled after the beast’s retreating back. “Shit! Shit! Shit! Shit!” Each word was accompanied by her fist slapping into the muddy water. And then she began to cry and swear, and as the hopelessness built inside her, scream.
“Excuse me Ma’am, but you look like you could use a hand.”
Wiping mud and sodden hair out of her eyes, Jess looked up. The face she saw was long, brown and had huge nostrils. It snorted at her. She looked up again and this time saw the man seated on the horse.
“It’s the damn cows,” she said in what she thought of as her petulant voice. “They won’t listen. They won’t come in out of the storm.” She was sobbing now and then realizing that she must look awful, she tried to wipe her face. But the rain was doing a good job of washing her from head to toe, and her efforts to not look like a drowned rat were proving futile.
“Well, we’ll see what can be done,” he said and in one fluid movement he got off the horse’s back.
All she could see of the man now standing in front of her offering her his hand, was his golden eyes. They almost seemed to glow in the dark.
“Who are you?” she asked taking his hand. He pulled her to her feet and then helped her onto the horse. “Oh no, I don’t know how to ride one of these,” she said. He might have smiled, she couldn’t tell in the uncertain light and the rain. In a moment he was up behind her, his arms on either side of her holding the reins. “What about the cows?” she asked.
“The cattle will be just fine,” he said. His voice was smooth and rich and confident. It was the voice of someone who just knew things would work out. The horse ran up to the house where the lights were on and Old Charlie was standing in the doorway.
Her legs feeling a little weak, and shaking from the cold, Jess found herself deposited on her back porch. Then the stranger on the horse galloped off into the night as lightning sliced the sky.
“Who was that?” Jess asked.
Old Charlie just smiled at her and handed her a towel.
Jess sat on a cardboard box on the floor of what would eventually be her living room. A pool of rainwater settled around her as she dried herself off. Old Charlie collapsed into an armchair. It was one from the apartment she’d live in in New York; a candy striped, overstuffed thing that looked so out of place here in this rustic room. Well, at least it was here.
She sighed and watched the steam rising from the cup of tea Charlie had made for her. It was awful, the worst tea she’d ever had. “Thanks for the tea, and the towel.” She said smiling.
Old Charlie nodded his head. “Hell-of-a first day out here,” he said. “And now christened with a storm.”
“Is that good?”
He shrugged, “Can’t tell yet.”
They sat in silence.
Then Charlie grunted and said, “So what you runnin’ from?”
“Excuse me?” Jess said. If she was a cat her fur would have been slowly rising. She felt the words form on her tongue…I’m not running…but what she said was, “I guess I’m running from a jerk who made my life horrible.”
“You married to this jerk?”
“Divorced.”
“Uh huh, well it’s gonna be ay-okay now,” Charlie smiled. His teeth were dazzlingly white.
There was a click and the French doors to the back porch opened. Jess looked up as a young man entered the room. He was tall, broad shouldered with dark hair plastered to his head. He dripped in the doorway looking into the room. “Hey there,” he said looking at her. He smiled.
Jess realized she was sitting with her mouth open.
“Um…” she said and reached for her tea mug on the floor, hesitated, then tried to grab it again and knocked the contents onto the floor with a tinkling thump. “Oh shit!” she swore and got down on hands and knees using her towel to wipe up the tea. “I just wanted to say, well…um…” she left the sodden towel on the floor now as the tea and her rainwater pool mingled. She stood up and ran her hands over her wet jeans. She was bare foot and her light blue t-shirt had mostly stopped clinging to her. She held out her hand. “I just wanted to thank you for helping me.”
Clay (BBW Secret Baby Bear Shifter Romance) (Secret Baby Bears Book 4) Page 130
