ROMANCE: PARANORMAL ROMANCE: Coveted by the Werewolves (Paranormal MMF Bisexual Menage Romance) (New Adult Shifter Romance Short Stories)

by Hawke, Jessa

  “You’re happy here?” he pressed.

  “Yes,” Martha said, chuckling. “Are you?”

  Eddie realized he was. The tension had been dissipating all week, and he was down to a glass of beer a day. He hadn’t even missed his liquor, come to think of it. He looked at Martha, the decision forming in his mind. He nodded slowly.

  “Okay, so does that mean you’re ready to eat?” she asked, smiling indulgently.

  “Marry me,” Eddie said urgently. Martha’s smile faded, and she set the tray down on the table next to him. His heart sank; she’d changed her mind, then; how could she have change her mind? She sat next to him on the bed and looked at her hands while Eddie closed his eyes in shame.

  “Can we get married soon?” Martha asked quietly. “I’ve always wanted a spring wedding. If that’s alright.”

  Eddie took a moment to process her words, then grinned. “We can get married whenever you want.” He stood and pulled her roughly to her feet. Her brilliant green eyes locked on his, and she took a deep breath and tilted her face upward. Eddie bent forward instinctively, and the sweet smell of cinnamon hit him just before the taste did; a clap of thunder hit his brain as their lips met, and an exhilarating tingling sensation flooded his veins. Martha wrapped her arms around his neck as his hands encircled her waist and lifted her to him, and she cried out as her feet left the floor. He thought he felt the pounding of her heart, and he swore they were in unison. He let her back to the floor gently and stepped away, gazing at her as they both gasped for air.

  “Wow!” Martha said, laughing. “What was that for?”

  “Great night’s sleep,” Eddie answered. “Waking up to breakfast by a beautiful woman puts me in a good mood too.” He pulled her in for another kiss, and she moaned softly as he plunged his hands into her dark red hair. He pulled back and smiled, seeing her faze frozen in an expression of deliriousness happiness. “I’ve wanted to do that since you first smiled at me,” he said. “Once I knew you were an adult.”

  Martha laughed and swatted him playfully. “You should’ve. It would have been a much better start than knocking me over.” Her smile faded, and her eyes grew serious. “But Eddie…are you sure? I’m so happy if you are, but I don’t want you to change your mind in a week. I need you to tell me why you’re sure.”

  Eddie nodded, grasping for the right words. “It’s a feeling,” he said after a moment. “It’s like you said before, everything has a solution. You taught me a new way of seeing, and it just changed everything. My heart’s been so black all this time, I thought it was rotten…but it just needed a new coat of paint.”

  Martha grinned. “My, that’s beautiful. Are you writing your vows as we speak, Mr. Poet?”

  Eddie laughed and kissed her again, but she broke away early.

  “Before I forget,” she said breathlessly. “I wanted to say…you taught me something, too. When I got here, I was expecting some mess of a man that I’d need to fix or nurse back to health. But you’re already so strong…” she shook her head, her eyes full of wonder. “You’re adding color to my life, Eddie James. You painted my heart, too.”

  Eddie’s lips were sore by the time they got to breakfast, and by the end of the day, his cheeks hurt from smiling. He wrote a letter to his uncle, picturing the look of joy and simultaneous disbelief that would overtake him when he read the news. They joined Evan and Cheryl for dinner that evening, and Eddie’s heart melted when he saw how sweetly Martha interacted with the children. Evan was watching him through the night, and before they left, he pulled Eddie aside.

  “She’s really something, huh?” Evan asked, nudging Eddie conspiratorially. “You look like a new man! Better color, eyes not as puffy…you even look like you’ve been eating better. You guys gonna have kids?”

  Eddie looked at Martha as she said goodbye to the babies, who were already wailing for her return. “Maybe,” he said, smiling broadly as she stood and walked toward him. He thought about what she’d said---you painted my heart, too. Eddie thought he would die if it were true; Martha’s beauty was so pure and lovely, he knew he had no part in it. But he liked that she insisted that he did. She was a work of art, and he was just starting to appreciate her masterstrokes. Eddie knew he was lucky to even be in her presence. She grinned at him and took his hand as the left. The colors of the sunset in front of him reminded him of her hair, and he wondered if he could replicate it with a brush. She saw his far-away look and smiled.

  “What are you thinking about?” she teased.

  Eddie smiled and squeezed her hand as he answered. “My muse.”

  THE END

  His Secret Desires

  Jake didn't know what to think of Sam's insistence that he be the best man at his wedding—a wedding that was happening the very following day. His mind drifted back to when he'd gotten texts from Sam early in the day that seemed vaguely ominous; Sam told him he needed to talk to him, that it was an emergency, and that he needed to come alone.

  “I don't even have anything to wear, man,” Jake said. “I didn't plan on doing shit while home for four days of liberty.”

  It was one of those holidays that got all of federal employees paid time off, Jake couldn't remember what one. He'd decided to come home so he could see his family and maybe bang one of the girls that he'd gone to high school with. Back then he'd just been some dorky dweeb, but now he was a highly decorated Marine who'd done several tours of the Middle-east—not to mention the amount of muscle he'd put on since all those years ago when he got picked on by the jocks in high school.

  “You can wear your uniform!” Sam said. “Do you have any idea how fucking cool it would be for me to have you in my wedding as the best man, wearing your kick ass uniform and all of your medals and ribbons! I mean, think about it.”

  Jake didn't want to think about it. He glanced around the dingy dive bar they'd chosen to have their little rendezvous to see if anyone was listening. No one seemed to care that for the last thirty minutes Sam had been regaling him with the story of how he'd just severed ties with his last best man, and now former best friend, after walking in on him fucking his fiance.

  “Do you really think that it's a good idea that you fuck Sarah after what happened?” Jake asked. It was a hard question but he wanted to be sure that Sam had thoroughly thought about what he was doing. “Because from the stories I've heard, once you let cheating go then it just keeps happening.”

  The story had been one that would have been comically to Jake normally, but since he was old friends with Sam there was no way he could even so much as crack a smile. When he heard about how Sam had taken a night off of working downtown at the best insurance place in the area to surprise his fiance with a romantic candle lit dinner, only to have her stumble through the garage door half naked while being fucked from behind by his the former best friend he had to keep from shaking his head and remarking how it sounded like something that would air as a daytime soap in another country.

  “I know, I know,” Sam said. “I get what you're saying. But she's promised it'll never happen again. You know what I mean? What else am I supposed to do? I love her, you know?”

  Jake nodded as drank deeply from his beer mug in order to hide the wince on his face. He couldn't tell if Sam remembered confiding in him that he'd met Sarah through a BDSM website, or that he had allowed her several on going relationships where she'd sometimes have sleepovers at other mens' houses. Sarah was a submissive in the most extreme sense, almost unable to say no when someone told her to do something sexual. Sam somehow didn't see this as a problem, to Sam it was all just a hot game that turned him on. That is, it had been until she'd decided to not say no to his scumbag former best friend when he propositioned her for a sexual relationship.

  “Do you even have any idea how long it had been going on?” Jake asked. “Not trying to pry or anything. I'm just curious.”

  “Why would I care?” Sam said.

  Sam was a short fat guy, with wispy red hair that had long ago thinned
to wisps, and a red face from drinking so much and being Irish. Jake started to wonder if Sam was going to put a ring on Sarah to try to have dibs on her forever since she was so hot. Because she was smoking hot, Jake had to admit that. Sarah was the kind of blonde that would have walked onto the cast of Baywatch back in the day.

  “I mean,” Sam continued. “She says it's over and that's that, so I'm just going to move forward.”

  “Are you still letting her fool around with other people?” Jake asked him candidly.

  It was Sam's turn to glance around the bar. He hadn't mentioned any of that when he'd been recollection how surprised he'd been to Jake just a few minutes before.

  “No, that kind of played itself out,” Sam said. “It stopped being fun when I realized how submissive she is.”

  Sam nodded and looked toward the video game at the end of the bar that had plastic shotguns resting in racks while scenes of deer and elk grazing in field. He wanted more than anything to have a few more drinks to make the game a challenge and spend the rest of the night waylaying herds of unsuspecting, digital game than try to figure out what the hell was going on with Sam. But it looked like he was going to get roped into the wedding. Sam was looking at him, knowing that Jake would let him know what he planned to do by the look on Jake's face, as old friends often do.

  “All right,” Jake said. “Fine. You want to marry her even after all this bullshit. That's your business, and as your friend I support you in that decision, so I'll be at your wedding tomorrow.”

  “Great!” Sam said, partially standing in his excitement, only to plop back down in his chair to raise his mug in a toast.

  “To you, my friend,” Sam said. “You've done so much for this country, and now you're going to do so much for me as a friend even though I know you want to get some ass instead of hanging out at my wedding with a bunch of insurance salesmen you don't know.”

  Jake raised his glass to toast, but hesitated.

  “Is there an open bar?” he asked.

  “For you there is!” Sam said.

  Jake slammed his mug into the other with a loud *clunk* that drew the attention of the few people drinking around them for a brief moment before their eyes trailed back to televisions.

  “All right,” Jake said. “So I show up. I do the best man thing. I leave.”

  “Nothing to it,” Sam said.

  “Do I have to give a speech or anything?” Jake asked.

  “Oh. Yes. There is that,” Sam said. “I mean, you could just do it off the cuff, no big deal. Usually the best man gives a speech and he's too drunk to really do a good job, but he tries to make up for it by showing everyone how good of a friend he is to the groom by throwing out a bunch of trivia about him and following it up with inside jokes with close friends and family.”

  Jake didn't like how that sounded. He wasn't going to the wedding to try to impress anyone. Hell, he was really only going because he knew he'd feel like a piece of shit if he told Sam to fuck off; so maybe he was, in a very round about way, doing it for himself.

  “Look, I'll stay soberish and when the time comes I'll stand and say a few words,” Jake said. “You know what, I'll keep it brief and then I'll quote Shakespeare calling brevity the soul of wit, or however he put it. I'm sure it was a lot prettier than that.”

  “Oh yeah, that would be great,” Sam said. “That would impress the shit out of people, actually. You should do that! Just get up there, say whatever you want about me but obviously keep it positive, briefly touch on the marriage and how you endorse it, then do the Shakespeare thing and call it good. Everyone will think you're deep as fuck, man. Jesus, that's fucking brilliant.”

  Jake didn't think it was brilliant, he thought it was what Sam was going to have to be OK with because it was what he was going to do. Sam was right about one thing, though. People would think he was deep as fuck when he got up there and didn't give them what they were expecting, but instead gave them what they wanted—just a few honest words followed by a hasty retreat. There would be people in the audience who'd heard all about what had happened with Sarah and the would be best man, and Jake knew it wouldn't serve his image as a Marine or as a man to stand up there and bullshit them.

  “I might not so much as endorse as acknowledge,” Jake said. “I mean, really, that's all people want anyway. They don't want to feel like they are being sold something.”

  Jake hoped that Sam would be able to handle that. He could tell by the way Sam took another gulp of his beer that he wasn't excited about that insistence of non-endorsement, but that it might be a comprise he was willing to make. Sam looked into his beer, holding his mug in front of him cocked at a forty five degree angle. He peered at the suds on top as if trying to divine the future, or what to say next.

  “You know how sometimes life doesn't turn out how you expect,” Sam said without looking up.

  Jake did know. Much more than Sam's understanding, Jake's recognition of the simple truth that life wouldn't work out like he wanted dawned on him between his third and forth deployments. By that time his faith in what his country was doing had started to waver, faltering in the sands, shimmering heat waves, and deserts of Iraq both existential and physical. Jake was going to say something, thought that Sam had paused so that Jake could take the reigns of the conversation for a moment, to be surprised when Sam continued.

  “One of the groomsmen is bi, by the way,” Sam said. It was about the last thing that Jake had expected to come out of his mouth.

  “What?” Jake said.

  “You know,” Sam said. “He likes to fool around with guys as well as girls.”

  “Oh,” Jake said. “Yeah. Yeah I get that. But why the fuck are you telling me?”

  “What?” Sam said. “You aren't OK with it?”

  Jake couldn't believe what he was hearing.

  “No. What the fuck?” Jake said. “How did I become homophobic when I was startled you blurted out the sexual orientation of one of your groomsmen at the bar?”

  Sam chuckled and looked around.

  “Yeah, you're right,” he said. “You've always been better at avoiding impropriety than me. I guess that's how we are different, but at the same time the same. We are both aware of it, but you avoid it. I guess I just don't give a shit, sometimes. But yeah, dudes queer as a three dollar bill but not in the flamboyant way. In the suave, might even make you bicurious way. And I'm telling you, Mr. I'm So Shocked because he's probably going to hit on you. A lot.”

  “Oh,” Jake said. “Well that's not a big deal. Guys hit on me all the time. I don't care about that kind of thing. Life is too short.”

  Sam smiled and let his posture relax in his seat, for the first time revealing how anxious he'd been about the conversation.

  “Listen, seriously, thank you for doing this,” Sam said. “I know you don't have to and I know I'm asking a lot. And maybe I'm an entitled civilian that I hear so many military people talk about, but you know what? My fiance walked into our house a few days ago, literally, with my now former best friend's dick in her. So, please, if I seem like I'm going through a hard time, or I”m a little distant, just cut me some slack. All right?”

  “Fine with me,” Jake said as he finished his beer. “And I'm sorry about what happened. I really do mean that. That's some fucking shit I haven't heard in awhile.”

  “What do you mean?” Sam asked before downing the rest of his beer and finishing the suds with a smack of his lips.

  “In the military all kind of crazy shit happens. Not just, like, during military exercises and stuff, but stuff like this, you know? Like I knew a guy during the School of Infantry that walked into his bedroom—a bedroom, mind you, in a house that he owned—to find his cousin fucking his wife. And when he through her out on the street his mother, also living in the house with him on his dime, told him that he was being too hard on her.”

  A few of the patrons looked over at Jake to see if he'd give some indication that he'd just made the story up. When there wasn't one, the
y looked back down at their drinks gloomily.

  “Damn,” Sam said. “Is that true?”

  “Fucking aye right that's true,” Jake said. “Would I fucking bullshit you on the eve of your wedding? Hey! Speaking of. What happened to the bachelor party?!”

  Sam laughed sadly.

  “You know, of all the people in the grooms party who end up planning things, the best man is the one who does all the bachelor party stuff. So when he got the ax the plan kind of fell apart since he'd booked everything on his credit card.”

  “Fuck that, man,” Jake said, hopping out of his chair and onto his feet. “We can do something right now! I mean, we don't have to get hammered or anything like that. But, I don't know, what do you want to do?”

  “Oh, I don't know,” Sam said. “I . . . I just, well, I'm not sure you'd be into what I'd want to do. Sometimes what I want and what other people consider normal part ways fairly quickly.”

  “Yeah, yea, yeah,” Jake said. “What the fuck do you want to do that's so fucking crazy? Huh? Sell me some racy insurance or something?”

  They both laughed loudly at this. Jake was starting to feel the drinks he'd been downing while he'd listened to Sam. He didn't know what Sam wanted to do, but whatever it was, by God Jake wanted to do it. And right then, not a second later.

  “You might be surprised,” Sam said. “And you might be unwilling. You are so sure, even after hearing the story I just told you? You, my friend, are the fool rushing in this time!”

  Sam chortled loudly, then started coughing, evidently having sucked some last remaining sud in his mouth down the wrong pipe. When he finally got it back together he spoke again, this time with a tone of finality.

  “All right, then let's head back to my place real quick then we'll hit the strip club up or something. All call us a cab since a DUI would be a real cherry on top of the last few days.”

  Jake nodded even though he wasn't sure why they would need to go back to Sam's house for. Maybe he had a bunch of ones that he wanted for the strip club or something. Without giving it much more thought, and more worried that his buzz would wear of than anything else, Jake hopped in the cab with Sam.