by Edith DuBois
He chuckled. “A hippo?”
“Well, first, if I was a hippo, I could stay in the tub all day.”
“Solid reasoning.”
“And then I’d seen somewhere, at school or on the television, how in ancient Egypt the hippopotamus was perceived as a protective goddess of pregnancy and childbirth because of her ferocity and aggression while protecting her young. I remember liking the sound of that.”
“It’s a noble aspiration.” He looked up when she giggled and said, “What?”
“Nothing. I like the way you said that.”
“How did I say it?”
“I don’t know. You’re more serious than your brothers.”
He smiled at her. “Looks like you and I have something in common then.” He felt his cock rise in response to the flush that washed over her chest and cheeks. He’d thought of little more than the feel of her pussy as his cock sank into her warm, glistening depths since that night at her aunt’s. “You’re beautiful when you blush like that. It’s good to see your color coming back.”
Her eyes locked on his. She had deep brown irises that, when moving and shining under the lights, reminded him of a silk dress his mother used to wear when she went dancing with his fathers.
“I thought that you didn’t…that maybe…that you and your brothers—”
“Say what you’re going to say.”
“I’ve seen Franklin. I’ve seen Thomas since that night. But not you, and I wondered.”
“Don’t wonder that. You needed space. I gave you that.”
“I never said I needed space.”
“But you needed it nonetheless.”
He pulled the thread through on the last stitch then tied and snipped it off.
“I don’t think you know me well enough to say something like that, Dr. Ashley.” Her voice was cooler than before. He could see that he’d annoyed her. She didn’t like that he could see through her insecurities.
Wiping her palm with sanitizer, he locked his eyes with hers. “It’s Elias, and you know it.”
Moving across the room to throw away refuse from the procedure, he heard a rustle of material as Michelle got up from the bed. Then she spoke from the door, her words clipped and agitated. “Thank you so much. You’ve been most helpful.”
He recognized it for the self-preservation tactic that it was. She wanted to pretend that the air between them didn’t crackle with the pull of their attraction. She wanted to deny that something intimate and real existed between them. If she pretended, then she was safe. She could go on living with her sister, miserable and abused. But hell if Elias was going to let her get away with that.
“I’m not through talking to you. Get back over to that table.”
He bit back his smile when her eyes flashed. “I don’t think so, not if you’re going to talk to me like that.”
In one step, he crossed the distance between them. He grabbed her by the hips, lifted her up—satisfied with her indignant shriek of surprise—and then plopped her ass firmly back onto the table.
“Now,” he said, “what do you think about that?”
She glared at him, her eyes narrowing and her chest heaving with her agitation. But then something small changed in her features. Her eyebrows lifted, and her breathing came shorter. He noticed her good hand clenching the edge of the table. He thought maybe his position between her now-spread legs had something to do with that.
“Part of me wants to slap that smirk right off your face.” She pushed back on him, but when he didn’t budge, her eyes, angry at first, dropped lower to focus on his lips, and the longer she looked, the softer hers became until they parted slightly. He could feel her warm breath wash across his lips. “And part of me wants you to kiss me and kiss me hard.”
He bent his head to hers, but suddenly she looked up and put her hand to his mouth. “But you can’t.”
“Why not?”
“I’m sick.”
He growled, and for the first time since he’d been around her, he felt his bear rippling through his skin. He wanted her, and he didn’t like being thwarted. He put his hand on her chest and exerted a slow pressure, easing her back until she lay on the table again. Moving his hand lower, he lifted her shirt up her stomach a bit, enjoying the expanse of her creamy skin. It looked like the color of a female pheasant, all soft and creamy with a light-brown tint.
He put his lips to her skin. He tasted her flesh. He breathed her in deep.
He needed more.
Trailing his lips down the softness of her stomach, he kissed above her belly button and then moved farther. She wore an old pair of pajama pants. He put his nose between her legs and nuzzled her pussy through the thin fabric of her pants. Taking a deep breath, he absorbed the scent of her. Even in human form, it was a powerful scent. He could feel her rippling through his blood, his bear eager to shift and smell her.
He’d started to nibble when his cell phone rang. Michelle jumped. “Damn,” he said under his breath. When he checked the caller ID, Franklin’s number flashed on the screen. Then Michelle’s phone rang. She pulled it out of her pajama pocket.
“I put it in there before I started cooking. It’s Thomas.”
Elias frowned. Something wasn’t right.
They answered at the same time and soon had the story. Franklin had an odd lisp as he relayed the events occurring at Catdaddy’s. “We’re going to have to stop this quick, or Joseph and Caleb and the Cashes are going to get involved. We’ll all be in deep shit then.”
“Michelle’s with me right now. We’ll come over. Give us a couple minutes. Do whatever you can to get Marina out of there.”
“I don’t even know where the hell she went.”
“Damn it, Franklin, find her.” He kept his voice as even as possible because he heard Michelle growing more upset as she talked to Thomas.
“Is she hurt? Is Marina okay? Please, Thomas, you have to help her. I’m coming over there now, but please, just get her out of there.”
A moment or two later, she hung up. When she looked at Elias, he could see a tumultuous mix of anger and fear and pain in her features. “She said she was going to a friend’s. She said…” Michelle sucked in a breath, shaking her head.
He cradled her cheek in her hand. “Michelle…”
“I know.” She nodded, looking down, sniffing. “I know.” Then she looked up, meeting his eyes, and he saw something harden deep in their brown depths.
“I’m here. My brothers will be, too.”
She nodded. “Let’s go.”
“All right.”
They walked out to the lobby together, and when she went to scoop up her puppy, which was sitting in Matilda’s lap, Elias swept in and grabbed the little guy. “Not with your hand.”
She nodded. They walked into darkness.
Chapter Seven
As soon as she opened the car door, she heard the sounds of a brawl coming from inside Catdaddy’s. She could hear shouting and breaking glass and chaos.
The building was a basic rectangular shape constructed with dark wood. Above the entrance on top of the roof was a red, electric sign with the name of the bar in blinking, lit-up letters.
“You stay out here, Michelle. I’ll find Marina and bring her out.”
She nodded, not wanting to delve into the mess. When he walked through the doors, the noise intensified, and she could make out an amalgam of shapes in the dimly lit interior, writhing and twisting and slamming against one another.
Anxious about Marina and wary of the anger she felt brewing beneath the surface, she grabbed Roy and set him on the ground, looking for a distraction. He sniffed suspiciously at a small weed that had popped up through the dusty gravel of the parking lot. Then he trotted away, investigating other matters.
A few minutes later, the doors to the bar opened up again. Elias and Franklin dragged a fighting Marina out of the doors while Thomas walked so close behind another man that Michelle was surprised he didn’t trod on his heels. The man had d
ark hair that curled loosely over his brow and wore a gray business suit. It was a nice-looking one, too. The nicest she’d seen in Savage Valley.
Franklin and Elias brought Marina toward the Escalade.
“Oh god, why the fuck did you call her?” Marina asked, slurring her words, when she caught sight of Michelle.
“Come on. Stop it. We’re going home.” The words were stiff, and Michelle hoped they could make it home before Marina embarrassed her any further.
“Stop it,” Marina mimicked with a nasty sneer. “Wah wah wah. Shut up, Michelle.”
Michelle jerked with the wrath in Marina’s words.
“All you ever fucking do is complain,” Marina spat. “I’d think you’d at least pretend to be grateful. If it wasn’t for me, you’d still be working at Ike’s Burger Joint in Nashville, grease stains on your apron and always talking about how you’re going to get out, how you’re going to travel the world and do things.” Marina laughed out loud and shoved out of Franklin’s grasp, stumbling forward. “What a fucking joke.”
“That’s enough.” Michelle spoke low. She didn’t dare look at any of the Ashley brothers. She couldn’t. She didn’t want to look in their faces, into their black eyes, and see her own pitiful reflection there.
Marina laughed again. “Look at you. Nothing to say?” Marina looked at Michelle with disgust, and then she smiled coldly. “That’s right. You never have a goddamn thing to say.” She leaned in close so that only the two of them could hear. “Because deep down you know I’m right, don’t you, Michelle? You know where you would be. What you would be. How fucking pathetic your life would be.”
“That is enough.” Michelle snapped her eyes to Marina’s face, and her voice shook. She could feel her fury growing, and her hands shook with the force of containing it.
Marina didn’t listen to Michelle’s warning. “I got you out of Nashville. I got you out of that grease house. Nothing in your life would be real without me, Michelle. I’m the talented one. Everyone loves me. You are nothing without me.”
“Marina, oh my god, look at yourself.” She could feel her control slipping. Her voice rose hysterically, and she couldn’t keep her emotions in check. “You’re a mess. You’re a drunkard and a liar. And you are so selfish.”
“I’m selfish? I’m selfish? You use me, Michelle. I’m nothing but a paycheck to you. All you care about is if I’m making you enough money.”
Michelle groaned in frustration. “That is not true.”
“I couldn’t have one night? One damn night, Michelle. But no. We have to get me healthy, have to get me back out on the road, have to get another album out, another interview, another fucking CMT special. You never stop.”
“We cancelled over thirty tour dates. You don’t understand how serious this is.”
“Oh, please do tell me.”
“Let’s just go home and get some rest. Come on.” She tried to grab Marina, but her sister twisted violently away from her.
“No! I want to know. You say I don’t understand. Fucking enlighten me then.”
She hadn’t wanted to tell Marina. She’d been afraid of sending her spiraling even further away than she already was, but Michelle couldn’t take anymore. She had to come clean. “The record label wants to drop you, Marina. Did you know that?” The sneer on Marina’s face diminished, and Michelle pressed on. “The only way they would agree to let you stay on is if you got sober and were ready to record by the New Year. You’ve cost them thousands of dollars. You are this close to losing everything, Marina. You are this close.”
“That’s a lie. They wouldn’t dare. I’m Marina fucking Andrews.” She threw her arms out in a wide circle and laughed, but Michelle knew her sister. She could hear the desperation in her laughter.
“They would and they have.”
“You’re a liar. You’re trying to scare me. You always have to be the one in control, don’t you? You’re trying to make me feel guilty for coming here.”
“No, Marina, you are the one that lied. I don’t have to do anything to make you feel guilty about that.” She turned around, not sure she could handle any more arguing. But then her anger and her hurt exploded outward. “I’m your sister, damn it. Don’t you understand what that means? I’m the one person in this world who actually cares what happens to you. I couldn’t give two shits about selling a million records or selling out ten-thousand-seat shows. At the end of the day, I’m your sister. That’s it. And you can’t treat me like shit. You can’t do that to the people who care about you.”
“I can do whatever the hell I want. You know why? Because you are nothing, and you are nobody. You are going to die alone, sad and old and lonely. You don’t matter to anyone. You—”
“This has gone on long enough,” Elias said, his voice cracking over Marina’s. He stepped between them, but Michelle put her hand on his arm.
Looking at her younger sister, she finally understood what she had to do, and the realization had her drawing in a sharp breath. She realized now why they’d had to cancel the last half of Marina’s tour. Why they’d come to Savage Valley to get away from the rest of the world. She realized why, even after all of that, Marina still wanted to blame her for everything. Why her sister couldn’t get over her alcoholism and her jealous, raging fits.
“Marina, I’m sorry, but I quit.”
“What?” Marina’s voice was low and deadly.
“I said that I quit.”
“You are a fucking idiot. What do you think is going to happen? Do you think that you’re going to stay in Savage Valley with Aunt Agnes? And do what? Join the Wii club?”
“I’ll figure something out.” She chanced a peek up at Elias. He gave her a small encouraging smile, and she answered with one of her own. Then she went on.
“For whatever reason, you and me, we’re not working anymore.”
“Get a life, Michelle. Things don’t work that way.”
“You’re right. I do need my own life, and so do you. You need to get better, to get happy, and you can’t…” She felt hot emotion in the back of her throat. “You can’t do that with me.”
“You’re gonna regret this. Every single day of your life. You’ve always been envious, and when you’re not with me anymore, you’re gonna hate your life.”
Michelle’s anger had dissipated, and now a sort of emotional numbness crept over her. “I hope you’re wrong about hating my life, but I do envy you, Marina. You have so much, and you’re wasting it. You’re throwing it all away. I can’t stop you. I see that now, but I can’t stand by and watch, either. So you’re on your own, Marina.”
She stood up straight and looked her sister square in the eye. “I’m done.”
* * * *
Skyler watched Marina sleep off her drunkenness. She was disgusting and not at all his type. Her mouth hung open as she slept, a bit of drool escaping from the corner of her mouth. She was weak. She let alcohol control her life so that she didn’t have to. He looked away, unable to stomach the sight of her.
No, he preferred something harder, less yielding than her womanly form. He preferred muscle and strength and the rawness of male beauty. One man in particular, but no…he couldn’t think of that. He had to keep that secret locked away, even from himself.
It had been so long since he’d felt the touch of a lover, a man’s hands between his legs or a cock between his lips. But the thought of one man in particular kept him closed off to all others. If he couldn’t have the one he wanted, he didn’t want any.
And here, in Savage Valley, he had to keep that part of himself locked tightly up. His boss, Ulysses C. Norman, had given him a job, an important task that he must fulfill. Nothing would distract him from that.
The Ashley men had been more concerned with taking care of her sister, which suited Skyler fine. He’d brought her home and planned on inviting her to stay for a while. He was looking for an opportunity in Savage Valley, and with her apparent prowess in causing turmoil and chaos, he thought she might come in
handy.
He faced Marina again. As much as the country music starlet annoyed him, Mr. Norman had given him one goal—destroy the pristine reputation of Savage Valley.
NormCorp had started with the slogan—No animal attacks since 1846!—staging animal attacks to make it look like the slogan was no longer viable. That had gone awry, so now Skyler was working on the crime rate. The woman asleep on his couch had single-handedly caused a riot at the bar. Already, she’d rattled Savage Valley’s clean record.
And judging by the way those Ashley brothers had been glaring at her while she lashed out at her sister, he had a feeling he could use their vulnerability for the Michelle woman to his advantage.
He kept turning that scene over in his mind. Inside the bar, he’d thought that one of the brothers had his eye on Marina with the way they were so adamant about getting her out of there. But then her sister had shown up, and the two women had started bickering.
God, he’d wanted to slap them both across the face.
But he hadn’t. He’d listened and he’d watched. Every time Marina spat out an insult at her sister, he’d watched the Ashley brothers. The younger ones wanted to help Marina’s sister, but the older one kept them in check. It was an interesting dynamic—all three brothers after the same woman, yet none of them going after each other. He’d like to observe that more, see what he could uncover about this town.
Walking over to his fifty-gallon, saltwater fish tank, he watched his brightly colored dwarf angelfish grazing on the microalgae growing in the tank. In Denver, he had a much larger tank with a lionfish, but he’d had to sell it when moving to Savage Valley for Ulysses.
Now he only had to stay with Marina.
He would wait. And he would watch.
* * * *
“Do you like hot chocolate? Hot tea? Cold tea? Water? Orange juice? What do you like?”
Elias narrowed his eyes at Franklin’s puppy-dog eagerness to make Michelle comfortable. “Why don’t you give her some space to breathe first? And then we can figure out what Michelle wants to drink.”
