by Roxie Noir
Boone took a pen from a drawer and scribbled a number on a phone pad. “This is me,” he said. “Texts usually get through better in the boondocks, out where I am.”
“Thanks,” said Ariana.
Then something occurred to her.
“You two are leaving together?” she asked.
They exchanged another glance, and there was a long pause.
“I’m making the first leg of my journey back with Boone,” Regina said, unconvincingly.
Ariana just raised both of her eyebrows at them, glad for something besides Jake to think about, however briefly. “Sure,” she said.
“Come on,” Boone said, his deep voice brusque. “Let’s go before it gets dark.”
They said goodbye, and then quiet fell over the cabin as the two of them disappeared into the woods.
* * *
The grizzly lifted his head. He’d been trudging through the forest, somewhat toward the sun, for an hour now, and everything was finally starting to look familiar. Jake worried that he was losing his directional abilities, going soft living the human life. Hadn’t he been a bear for years? Hadn’t he known where he was most of that time, and hadn’t he found a place to go when he needed it?
He walked up another steep hill, the pace punishing even for him. Ariana, Ariana, he thought with every heartbeat, the thought of her face the only thing that kept him going.
Suddenly he stopped. He sniffed the air once, and then again, new knowledge flooding his senses: that was Boone, for sure, and he was pretty sure the other scent was Regina, both as bears.
He had to be close. He just had to get to the top of this ridge, and then he’d know where he was, and be a little bit closer to her...
* * *
Ariana tried to take a long, relaxing bath, but she couldn’t stop thinking about Jake.
I never should have driven off, she thought. Even though she remembered the look in his eyes, that animal look that had said don’t come near me.
What kind of girlfriend just left the man she loved alone in the woods like that on the worst day of his life?
He told you to, she thought.
I shouldn’t have listened, she thought back at herself, miserably.
She tried to make dinner — if Jake came home soon, she thought, he’d definitely be hungry — but she burned the chicken in the oven and the salad had gone bad, so she ate a peanut butter sandwich instead. Not even Friends on Netflix, her favorite down-in-the-dumps activity, could cheer her up or get her mind off of it.
By midnight, she still hadn’t slept. She couldn’t make her brain stop thinking: what if he’s lost? What if he’s hurt?
What if someone found him and shot him, and now he’s dying in a ditch somewhere, all because you left him?
Even though her tear ducts felt nearly dry, they began that familiar ache again.
“Fuck this,” she said out loud to the empty cabin, standing from the couch.
She couldn’t sit and do nothing.
No, she was going to go look for her man.
Five minutes later, she had a steak knife in her pocket and a huge flashlight in her other hand, and she was trudging through the woods in their backyard. She quickly realized that her sense of direction was almost nil — she wasn’t even sure which direction the clearing she’d dropped him off at was in. It was west of their cabin, true, but... what direction was west?
“JAAAAKE!” she shouted at the top of her lungs. There was a flurry of wings in the tree right above her as a couple of night birds took off, but otherwise, nothing.
She waved the beam of the flashlight through the trees, hoping maybe he could see it and magically know that it was hers.
“JAAAAAKE!” she screamed again, as loudly as she could.
There was nothing, of course, besides the white-brown of the trees in the beam of her flashlight and the hush of a forest at night.
She lost her mind a little.
“JAKE!” she screamed. “JAKE JAKE JAKE JAAAAAAAAAKE!”
Nothing.
I’m an idiot, she thought. She clutched the steak knife, in her pocket, and went back into the cabin. She’d look again when it was daylight — no point in getting lost in the forest herself.
* * *
From very far away, there was a very small sound.
Grizzly Jake pricked up his ears when he heard it. It was almost too faint to be heard, and at first he wasn’t sure he had heard something — just a tugging in his heart, like something very familiar was happening that he couldn’t quite understand.
He stopped walking and stood perfectly still.
No. Yes.
There it was again.
Jake picked up the pace, half-jogging toward it, even though he was tired and dirty and more exhausted than he’d been in fifteen years. He knew there might be hunters or traps or other humans with guns between him and that beautiful, beautiful sound, but he didn’t care anymore.
He just wanted to be home with her, and that was all.
A mile from the cabin, he shifted again. Becoming human hurt a little, in a way it didn’t usually — almost like his body was made of rusty gears and he had to get them moving.
It didn’t matter. It didn’t matter that he was walking naked and barefoot through the forest. He was going home.
Chapter Ten
When someone pounded on the cabin door, Ariana nearly fell off the bed. She’d read the same paragraph in Wuthering Heights over and over again, wearing one of Jake’s old shirts, her mind anywhere but on the book. She didn’t know what else to do, though — she was useless at looking for Jake, and she couldn’t concentrate on anything.
She jumped to her feet and bounded for the door, reaching her hand out for the knob — and then stopped. It could be anybody. It could be an escaped Violet, it could be Regina who’d had a change of heart, it could be someone else entirely from the Alaska pack...
“Ariana!”
It was Jake’s voice.
She pulled frantically at the door knob, stopped, unlocked it, tried the door again, undid the deadbolt and then, finally, pulled the door open to Jake standing on the back porch. He was filthy and naked, but Ariana didn’t care about any of that as she practically launched herself at him, finally wrapping her arms around his big frame.
“I thought you were dead,” she gasped. “I’m sorry I just left you there, I’m so sorry.”
Jake buried his face in her hair and breathed in her scent, letting it flood his senses, and then he sighed.
“I’m sorry you had to see that,” he said into her head, finally. “If you’d left me, I’d have understood.”
Ariana pulled back, tears in her eyes. “What are you talking about?”
“You deserve better than that,” he said, stroking her hair. “You shouldn’t have to live with someone who can’t control himself that way.”
“Stop it,” she commanded.
Jake opened his mouth to protest, but Ariana put one finger over it.
“I get to choose what I want,” she said. “And I want you. I know everything, and I know your weird faults and I know you turn into a bear sometimes, and I still want you.”
Jake leaned down and kissed her, hard, her warmth flowing into him through her lips. Ariana clutched at him with both hands, winding her fingers through his dirty hair. She didn’t ever want to let him go, ever again, and she felt like in that moment, she had the strength to keep him physically there, with her, always.
He pulled his face away from hers but kept their foreheads together, their noses nearly touching.
“Ow,” he said.
Ariana loosened her grasp a little.
“Sorry,” she said. She started running her hands over his face, down his neck, over his shoulders. “You’re filthy,” she said, with some surprise.
“I was in the woods overnight,” he said, a smile tugging at his lips. “I destroyed an old logging cabin all by myself.”
Despite herself, Ariana squeezed one bicep, feeling the
hard, springy muscle there. She didn’t think she’d ever get tired of that. Her hand made its way down his back, feeling the slight ridges of his spine.
“You should shower,” she said, not letting him go.
Instead, he kissed her again, even more insistently this time, his fingers slipping through her hair. His other hand moved quickly down her back to her plump rear, and gave it a squeeze at the same time that his tongue reached into her mouth.
Ariana pressed herself to him, a cool breeze moving past them, still on the back porch. She could feel his member through her clothes, already at half-mast, as though the long trek over the wilderness had been nothing.
“Come on,” he said, breaking away from her again. “It’s cold out here.”
With that he reached down and hoisted her up. Ariana wrapped her legs around his waist and her arms around his shoulders and let him carry her inside, past the threshold and through the kitchen and living room, until he tossed her on the bed.
She was still amazed at how he could just throw her around, almost as if she were weightless, even though she knew she had some extra weight.
He bent over her, resting his weight on his hands, and went right for her weak spot: the side of her neck. Ariana squealed as his tongue and lips worked together, leaving a trail of kisses from her ear to her collarbone, the half-ticklish sensations lighting a fire deep inside her.
Her hands found the muscles of his shoulder, around his back, and she grabbed at them. Her brain had stopped thinking about anything but this, and the way he was kissing her neck was short-circuiting her, fast, even as she wrapped her legs around his waist, lifting herself a little bit up off the bed.
“I missed you,” he said, his face buried in her neck.
Ariana just moaned, quietly. Even though he was filthy, just the sight of him always did this to her — seeing his perfect, incredible body, his strong, ropy muscles, all hers.
It was enough to drive a woman wild, even is he weren’t kissing her neck ferociously.
Jake put his knees on the bed and sat up just enough to take her shirt in his hands. With no preamble, he simply ripped it open, buttons flying everywhere.
“Hey!” said Ariana, even as she arched her back up and toward him.
“It’s my shirt anyway,” he said, leaning down and grinning at her.
Then he took the center of her bra and pulled in opposite directions, tearing the whole thing in two.
Ariana was too turned on the protest anymore as Jake put his hands on her, his warm calloused hands running over her nipples, sending little sparks of sensation running through her body before putting his head down and biting them, gently, sucking on one and then the other.
As he did, one hand made its way to the button on her jeans, releasing it and unzipping her pants, and then he stood to tug them off of her. Ariana sat up and tossed away the ruined shirt and bra, and then grabbed Jake, pulling him back to the bed.
Quickly getting the upper hand, she climbed on top of him, feeling his hard member slide between her legs. Even though she ached for him, she didn’t let him in yet, instead letting his length slide along her, teasing him.
“Come on,” he growled.
Ariana just laughed softly, sitting her full weight on him, and kissed his neck, gently. He smelled like dirt and sweat, but always like that wonderful scent Jake had — a little musky, a little like pine.
She inhaled gratefully, tears coming to her eyes but lust burning a hole deep inside her. She put her lips back on his skin and made her way down his body, leaving a trail of kisses from his collarbone to his hard pecs, his perfect abs, and then down the treasure trail leading south his his bellybutton.
When she put the head of his cock in her mouth, she heard him gasp and then growl, the sound deep in his chest and reverberating throughout him. He was hot and hard and as her lips slid down his shaft she heard him moan, a long, loud sound.
Her fingers dug into his hip and she moved her head up and down again, savoring the salty taste of the precum gathering at the tip of his cock. Every moan that came out of him just turned her on more and more, and she loved knowing how good she could make him feel.
Finally, Ariana couldn’t take it anymore.
She needed him inside her, now, and she couldn’t wait any longer.
Ariana moved back up Jake’s body, straddling him. His eyes were half-closed in pleasure and his fingers were sunk deep into her cushioned hips.
Without wasting another moment, she grabbed his hard length, placed it at her waiting entrance, and let herself sink onto it, feeling his girth slowly fill her. She closed her eyes and gasped, her hands resting on Jake’s chest, nestled in his dense chest hair.
Slowly, she began riding him, moving herself gently up and down in his shaft, letting the sensation flow through her. Below her, Jake made a deep, low noise, coming from his chest.
“Go slow,” he whispered.
In response, Ariana sat her full weight on him, his member completely inside her, and began rocking back and forth. She could feel him moving inside her, his cock pressing on all the different pleasure buttons there, just barely moving.
Ariana moaned, unable to stop herself. Jake’s hands gripped her thighs, hard, hard enough to leave red marks. One hand went to her breasts, gently rolling her nipples between his fingers.
She shifted her hips again and watched his eyes close in bliss, even as she gasped, herself.
Before she knew it, his hand had found her clit, his fingers gently massaging it, and Ariana felt the heat rise through her.
“Jake,” she whispered, and his fingers closed on her even harder, his massage getting more insistent. Her hips moved faster and faster, letting him slide in and out, riding him harder and harder.
Without warning, she felt the heat inside her rise to a sharp point and then Ariana came, shuddering and gasping, digging her nails into Jake’s shoulder as she did, her surprised, “Oh!” echoing through the room. Letting it wash over her, she kept moving her hips, still greedily taking all the pleasure from it, still feeling the reverberations of it in her body.
Suddenly, she was being lifted off of him, and then, before she knew it, she was on her back on the bed again, Jake hovering over her. She laughed in surprise, and Jake kissed her, hard, standing at the edge of the bed. Then he tossed her legs over her shoulders and entered her, thrusting hard. Ariana’s laugh turned into a cry of pleasure, and her hands grabbed at the comforter on the bed, taking two big handfuls in.
Now he was nearly rough, as if pure need had taken him over, thrusting harder and harder, his body insistent. He filed her again and again, and even though she’d just come, Ariana felt the lust inside her rise again and she arched her back, moaning.
There was something animal in Jake, the ferocious way he was going at it, and Ariana found it incredibly arousing. It was all she could do to hold onto the comforter as she tried not to come again, trying to hold on just a little longer—
Jake’s breathing was rough, and she could tell that he was close as well, leaning over her, looking into her face, and finally Ariana let go, moaning and arching her back.
It felt like every nerve ending in her body was on fire, and she turned her head and moaned into the comforter, feeling her muscles spasm and contract against her will, Jake still plunging into her over and over again, the relentless pleasure taking her whole body over. She came and came, unable to do anything but moan, until finally, it stopped, and she felt like she could breathe again.
Just then, Jake growled, low, letting her knees down and burying his face in her chest. She held his head there with one hand as he pumped himself into her once, then twice, as he came hard, emptying himself into her and then going still.
Ariana could feel his heartbeat and his hard breathing against her stomach, the way he was still gasping for breath. After a long time, he pulled himself onto the bed next to her and then collapsed, stretching his arms across her and pulling her to him.
“I love you,�
� Ariana said to him, after a long moment.
He nuzzled against her hair, his stubble tickling her scalp.
“I love you too,” he said.
Epilogue
There wasn’t a big group at City Hall. There usually wasn’t, for Tuesday afternoon weddings. It was in a small but very nice room, on the second floor, in front of a mural featuring historic lumberjacks, representing the town’s founding.
The couple in the front murmured their vows, just loudly enough for the small audience to hear. The man wore a gray suit and the woman a stylish, tea-length white dress that hugged her curves perfectly.
“By the power vested in me by the state of Washington,” said the officiant, “I now pronounce you husband and wife.”
Everyone began clapping.
“You may now kiss the bride.”
Jake gently pushed the birdcage veil out of the way and bent to kiss his wife for the very first time.
The applause intensified to cheers. Jake put one arm around her and bent her backward, sweeping her low before bringing her up again.
Breathless, Ariana grinned at him. A flash went off, and then, holding hands, they walked back down the aisle together, through the doors, down the steps, and out of City Hall.
* * *
That night, in their bed, sweaty and naked and sated, Jake was mulling things over.
“Boone came with Regina,” he said.
Ariana’s head was on his chest, his arm around her.
“I told you that,” she said.
“You said they left together last year, after that thing with Violet.”
“Yeah, exactly.”
There was a pause.
“I didn’t know you meant together together.”
Ariana laughed and turned her head to look at him. “That’s your fault, not mine.”
He smiled slightly, too happy to argue with her.
