by Sable Sylvan
“Exactly. When we gut a fish, we start from the bottom. Look for the fish’s anus, and put the knife there, because that means we’re aligned with the center of the fish, and its guts,” said Jasper.
“Just like a human,” said Artemis.
“You been gutting humans?” teased Jasper
“You volunteering for a gutting?” asked Artemis. “Now what?”
“Well, just insert the knife, and pull up and towards the head, splitting the belly,” said Jasper. “You want to do it all in one motion and not break any of the bones.”
“What about the scales?” asked Artemis.
“Oh, that’s easy,” said Jasper, brushing at the skin with his knife. “See, the scales come off easily.” He scraped the knife into the chum bucket until it was clean.
Artemis stood back from the table. Jasper put his knife at the base of the fish and pulled it up in one straight motion, exposing grey fish guts. It wasn’t as gross as Artemis expected. “Now, we just scrape the guts into the bucket.” Jasper used his knife to sweep the fish guts into the bucket. “You try.”
“Alright,” said Artemis. She took a salmon from the bucket and pressed her knife into the squishy fish before pulling up. Her line was smooth, but something else came out of the salmon, something other than the grey guts. There were red pearls in the salmon. “Uh...Jasper, I think I did something wrong.”
“No, you actually lucked out,” said Jasper. “Get me a dish, quick.”
“Got it,” said Artemis. She rushed inside, got a plate from off the table, and brought it out to Jasper who was preparing the red substance. “What is it?”
“Salmon roe,” explained Jasper. “You’ve probably had it on sushi before. The Japanese call this ikura. It’s like caviar, but much less expensive...but in my opinion, this is way better than caviar.”
“So what do we do with it?” asked Artemis, taking off her long sleeved top, revealing that all she was wearing underneath was a thin tank top, which left the outline of her bra open.
Jasper’s bear roared: what were the chances Jasper would meet a woman who wasn’t just insanely attractive, but who was also interested in all kinds of things, most importantly, things related to cooking up yummy salmon? Jasper felt his cock twitch and hoped to the high heavens that Artemis hadn’t noticed his twig and berries were going nuts. “If we find any more salmon with roe, and I doubt we will, what we can do is prepare it and I can take this back home with me after this trip’s over,” said Jasper, placing the large red mass on the plate carefully. Jasper scooped the grey guts out of the fish and split the fish in half, before removing the bones with ease and tossing those in the chum bucket too.
Artemis and Jasper split the rest of the fish and saved all the roe. The table only had room for one person at a time, so Artemis helped Jasper out by getting him various implements from the kitchen and clearing the chum bucket into the compost pile. Finally, Artemis started a pan of hot oil while Jasper made sure the fish were absolutely ready to be cooked. Jasper handed the fish to Artemis while he prepared his salmon roe with salt for refrigeration. Soon, they had a piping hot platter of pan fried salmon, and although the mashed potatoes had cooled, the cold texture was perfect on such a hot summer day.
Jasper poured them two glasses of water as Artemis served the salmon and potatoes. It was a simple but hearty meal. Jasper and Artemis ate at the living room table, overlooking the river they’d fished in earlier.
“We didn’t get much work done today, did we?” asked Artemis.
“It’s technically Saturday,” said Jasper. “And we don’t start working until Monday.”
“So I’m stuck with you for what, six more days?” asked Artemis.
Jasper rubbed his shoulder against Artemis’s playfully. He caught himself doing it midway through: what was he doing, flirting with an intern? “It’s not like you’re going to starve in the woods,” asked Jasper.
Artemis put her fork down. “And what exactly is that supposed to mean?” asked Artemis. She wasn’t about to take any jabs about her size, especially not from ‘Rumpled Bear Skin’, who was known to have a thing for women with curves.
“It means that I intend on dining like a king while I’m down here, and given you’re my guest, you’ll dine like a queen,” said Jasper.
“I prefer empress,” said Artemis.
“And what does the empress want for dessert?” asked Jasper.
“We just started dinner, and you’re thinking about dessert?” asked Artemis, digging into her potatoes, which were still fluffy and buttery, while Jasper was already on his third salmon. Artemis tried her salmon too: the salmon broke into small pink flakes under her fork, and the salmon was so good she couldn’t help but let out a little moan.
The sound of Artemis’s small pleasurable moan sent Jasper’s bear wild. He wanted to make her moan from having something else inside her, somewhere lower ideally, although filling her mouth would also do. “I’m always thinking about dessert,” said Jasper, resisting the urge to lick his lips as he watched Artemis lick the oil from the salmon off her lips. He had no idea what those plump, kissable lips would taste like and he wanted to see how Artemis made that salmon taste. “I’ve got a huge sweet tooth. There are three options for dessert. We can head into town and hit up the Bear Claw Bakery, we can get some local ice cream at the ice cream parlor, or...we can have some marionberries.”
“What are marionberries?” asked Artemis.
“There is no frikkin’ way you just asked me that,” said Jasper. “They don’t have those where you’re from, I guess...so that’s what we’ll have tonight. Marionberries and honey.”
“Sounds good to me,” said Artemis. “This salmon is amazing.”
“Yeah, it’s almost good as your potatoes,” said Jasper.
“Is salmon your favorite food?” asked Artemis.
“I mean, I’m a bear, so it’s between salmon and berries,” said Jasper. “I grew up on this food, so I’m biased.”
“You grew up in Port Jameson? No frikkin’ way,” said Artemis.
“I’m Jasper Dixon...of the Dixon Clan...of the Port Jameson Dixons?” said Jasper. “That doesn’t ring a bell?”
“I don’t know a lot about old money families,” said Artemis. “Shifter or human. I was never a big American history buff.”
“So you really have no idea who I am, other than just some guy at work?” asked Jasper as he thought about his bank account’s three commas, and how those three commas represented so much to so many women.
“I mean, I know your unsavory nickname, but that’s pretty much it,” said Artemis, helping herself to another small salmon fillet. “And I know you’re one heck of a fisherman, and you have an uncanny memory in terms of remembering what I drink in the morning, and you know how to pick out pretty good pastries.”
“Pretty good?” asked Jasper.
“You’ve never had my blueberry pie,” said Artemis. “Besides, it’s not like you’re the owner of Bear Claw Bakery, so what’s it matter?”
That’s when Jasper knew Artemis really had no idea who he was. If she did, she was playing some sort of sick game. How could she not know who he was? Hadn’t she looked him up before? None of the girls around the office had clued her into why he was the most eligible bachelor in the office? “It doesn’t matter,” said Jasper, although he made a mental note to have his bakery chain acquire a good recipe for a blueberry pie from Artemis’s home region and start selling it in as many of their Seattle shops as fast as they could.
Jasper’s bear roared: Jasper was being nuts, and should just take his mate the easy way, like so many shifters did, by impressing her. Jasper shut his bear up: usually the man and the bear were on the same page, but right now, his bear wanted him to act like a peacock shifter rather than a bear shifter, and bear men earned their mate’s love.
If Artemis even was his mate...
Artemis waved her hand in front of Jasper’s face. “Hello? Earth to Jasper?” said Artemis.
“Oh, sorry,” said Jasper. “Just...thinking about work.”
“It’s one heck of a project,” said Artemis. “I don’t know how I’m going to spin this.”
“Into pure gold. You’re Artemis frikkin’ Miller, if you can’t figure out a way to spin it, nobody can,” said Jasper.
“Well, the things I’ve been spinning have never been of this scale,” said Artemis. “Plus...I don’t know how the other half lives. You know. Billionaires or shifters.”
“Well, that’s why I’m here,” said Jasper. “I mean, to give you perspective.”
“We can think about work later...is dessert happening?” asked Artemis with a smile.
“Who would I be to deprive a lady, nay, an empress, of dessert?” teased Jasper.
He stacked the empty plates and Artemis carried the full food dishes into the kitchen and started putting the little leftovers away into a container. It’d be enough for one person to have for lunch on Sunday. Jasper found the marionberries in a container in the fridge, and pulled out a jar of honey from the cabinet. Both the marionberries and the honey had a matching label: Craston Bros. Honey, although technically, the Craston farm made honey and grew berries.
Jasper rinsed the berries and put them in two dishes before drizzling a generous amount of honey over the berries, using two spoons to drizzle the honey so that they would each have a honey coated spoon for their first bite of berries. “Wanna eat on the porch?” asked Jasper.
“That sounds great,” said Artemis, washing her hands off. She opened the sliding door while Jasper carried the berries out to the two chairs on the porch overlooking the forest brook. Artemis dug into her berries. The marionberries were bigger and darker than regular blackberries and the local honey paired perfectly with the berries.
“So...do they get your seal of approval?” asked Jasper.
“Yeah, they’re good, a bit tannic, like red wine, and the honey...it goes with the berries really, really well,” said Artemis.
“That’s because Craston Bros. Honey made both the honey you’re having and those marionberries,” explained Jasper. “Those very berries went into making that honey.”
“That’s really cool,” said Artemis.
“There’s a really narrow window for enjoying the berries and the honey at the same time,” explained Jasper. “I bought that jar of honey this spring so I could have it with the marionberries when they were in season.”
“Is that why you came down to Port Jameson?” asked Artemis, looking at Jasper. The sunset was basking the forest in beautiful shades of red and yellow which formed rich hues of orange, but Artemis was focused on the way the lights made the man look rather than the lights themselves. In the light, Jasper’s red-brown eyes looked honey gold, and his already plush lips looked even more kissable...those lips, which Artemis found herself looking at whenever Jasper was talking.
“Hey, I told you, I have a sweet tooth,” said Jasper. “But no...I was looking to get away from Seattle for a while.”
“Oh...I’m sorry I’m bothering you, then,” said Artemis softly.
“Hey, hey,” said Jasper, instinctively reaching out to touch Artemis’s soft curve of a chin and tipping her face upwards. Before he realized what he was doing, he had already pressed her face up, inches away from his. He pulled his hand away. “Artemis...you’re never a bother. I’m just a grizzly, grizzly bear.”
Artemis was shocked and to be honest, hopeful, from the moment that Jasper touched her, hoping that he would bridge the space between them, a space of mere inches, and press his lip against hers...but he pulled away as quickly as he’d pulled her closer, always a step ahead and a step away from her. “Because...oh,” said Artemis, looking to Jasper’s chest. She couldn’t see what his mate mark was through his shirt.
“Any new guesses as to what it is?” asked Jasper, noticing Artemis staring at his left pec intently.
“No idea,” said Artemis. “Is it a tooth? You did say you have a sweet tooth.”
“A tooth? Really?” asked Jasper.
“You said you have a sweet tooth,” said Artemis, frowning. “It’s a good guess!”
“My mate mark isn’t about me, it’s about her, whoever she is,” said Jasper. “So it’s not going to be, say, a stone, like my name, Jasper. It’s not going to be honey, and it’s not marionberries or salmon.”
“Those were going to be my next guesses,” admitted Artemis.
“I’m not going to let you guess again until tomorrow,” said Jasper. He ate more of his berries and Artemis followed suit as they watched the sunset. The sun finally started to make its way down past the mountains, its golden light retreating as the sun passed away over the horizon. The sky went from orange to violet in mere minutes, and once the sun had gone to bed, the pair went up to their separate rooms to sleep, perchance...to dream.
Chapter Four
The bedroom was cool from the mountain air, but underneath Artemis Miller’s sheets, things were getting hot and heavy...
When Artemis Miller woke up in her dream world, she wasn’t in bed in the house in Port Jameson. She felt cold and looked outside the window: there was snow falling outside, and there were people on skis, even though it was night. She looked around: on the first sweep of the room, she just took in the Nordic décor, but on the second sweep, she saw it.
A rug.
Rumpled.
Made of bearskin.
The rug was cheesy: the standard brown grizzly bear rug found in a ski chalet. When Artemis touched the rug, the head roared. She pulled her hand away as the bear got up, turning from rug to beast, before standing, and transforming in front of her, into him.
Tall. Jacked. Brunette, with mahogany eyes she could lose herself into. There was no mistaking the man for anyone but Jasper Dixon.
“Hey there, empress,” teased Jasper.
“What’s the big idea?” asked Artemis, crossing her arms over her chest.
“I didn’t mean to startle you, I swear,” said Jasper.
“You didn’t startle me, you just...annoyed me,” lied Artemis.
Jasper chuckled and pushed Artemis’s arms away. Artemis looked down. She wasn’t naked in this dream. No, it was way worse: she was dressed in bright red lingerie. Pink lingerie was one thing, but red? No frikkin’ way she’d be caught in something so saucy. The red lingerie had black details, which formed the outlines of roses. Could this dream get any cheesier?
Jasper ran his hands over the thin unlined cups of the bra, brushing over Artemis’ pert, perky nipples. “See? I did startle you,” whispered Jasper, his hot breath warming Artemis’s cold body. He ran his hands back and forth over the bra cups.
“No, they’re just hard because you’re rubbing them,” said Artemis. “See, I can do that too.” Artemis ran her hands over Jasper’s broad pecs. There wasn’t any mate mark in the dream. Nothing, nada, zilch. She ran her fingers around Jasper’s man nips and made them stand on end too.
“Babe, that’s not the only thing of mine you can make hard,” said Jasper, and Artemis felt something poking against her belly. She looked down: no frikkin’ way. Jasper’s dick was just as big as it was in real life, big enough to make her a bit scared of the prospect of taking it inside of her, but delicious enough looking that it made her wonder what it would be like inside her mouth.
Jasper slipped down and pressed into her before pushing back up, his chest thrusting against hers as his tumescence quaked in her core, pressing over and over around her as her body pressed around Jasper.
Artemis couldn’t believe it: one afternoon with Jasper acting like a decent human being for probably the first time in his life had made her dream about him in this fashion? And worse...it wasn’t some messed up nightmare. It was actually making her aroused, in the dream and in her bed, the white sheets rumpling around her in wave-like pools as she tossed and turned to match the motions she was making in her bed.
The sex went from cheesy to romantic as Jasper kissed Artemis in front of the fire
place, the warmth from the shifter heating her from the inside while the fire warmed her from the outside, relaxing her muscles as she basked in the dry heat. Jasper explored his body with his hands, pressing his hands against every soft curve as if he was searching for a light bulb’s chain in a basement, looking for ways to turn Artemis on without knocking everything else over.
Jasper’s touch in the dream felt like Artemis imagined it would in real life. His hands, large and broad, had firm pads on the palms and at the base, just below where his fingers started. The placement of the pads varied by shifter, and some shifters had them at the fingertips. Not Jasper, who had them just above the big, main flat broad brown pad, which felt like softly pebbled suede against Artemis’s skin, making her back arch.
In her bed, Artemis held her sheets as hips twisted the opposite direction from her shoulders, and she tossed and turned until the bulk of the duvet was between her legs, a makeshift Jasper her body had conjured up like a ghost from the nothingness below the bed sheets.
Jasper gave Artemis a smattering of kisses as the firelight started to dim, right as things were starting to get really, really good. The embers lit the couple, even when they became mere silhouettes lit by an errant glowing log that glowed on longer than the other coals in the fire. Now, the only warmth Artemis was receiving was from Jasper’s body, which was warm and covered her better than any blanket.
Jasper rocked into Artemis, gently but with every stroke that grew harder and stronger, Artemis grew tighter, her pleasure building up, getting ready to burst forth. She needed Jasper more than she’d ever needed anything before.
Artemis gripped onto Jasper and pressed up against him as she felt the pleasure flow through her, out her lower core and onto Jasper, who kept on driving into her, even as the scene faded to black in her head, and the cheesy scene became more and more romantic as a memory than it had been while she’d experienced it in her dream...and Artemis was left alone, and cold, in her bed, wanting and waiting for someone to hold her, to keep her warm in the absence of fire, in the absence of sex...
