Breaking Badger

by Shelly Laurenston

  “I’m not tired.”

  “Then we’ll turn on the TV Nelle wisely put in your bedroom. But you’re getting in bed, so you don’t randomly pass out, fall down the stairs, crack your hard head open, and—I know it’s rare—possibly kill yourself.”

  “You’re worried about me falling down a flight of stairs after I fell off a building and nearly destroyed your brother’s car with the impact?”

  “And some tough guys get killed by one punch. Strange things happen. Just go to bed. At least until I’m sure your kidney doesn’t explode and you start bleeding out.”

  “Fine. I’ve gotta pee first.”

  “Okay. I’ll go wait for you out—are you peeing in front of me?”

  Mads looked up at him from the toilet she was now sitting on. And, yes, peeing into.

  “Yeah. Why?”

  “You couldn’t wait until I got out of here and closed the door?”

  “You saw me beaten up by my own family. We are beyond the bullshit games that people play with each other, like pretending we have no bodily functions. Besides . . . it’s just pee.”

  Again, he started to say something but instead simply threw his hands up and stormed out of the room, making sure to slam the bathroom door behind him.

  Kind of enjoying his dramatic reaction to her casual Viking ways, Mads finished using the toilet, washed her hands, and walked out into the bedroom. That’s where she found him trying to get the coyote off the bed. Much to Mads’s growing delight, the coyote seemed determined to stay right where he was.

  “It’s not moving!” he complained.

  “Maybe because you call him ‘it.’”

  “I’m not giving this animal more respect than I give my own baby brother.”

  Deciding not to argue that disturbing point, Mads knew she didn’t want to go to bed in tight black jeans and shirt. Even a sleeveless one. So she sat on a cushioned bench by the window and began to tug off her boots, gritting her teeth when she had to bend over a bit and her kidney screamed at her to stop. Once she had her boots and socks off, she took a moment to get her breath back and for the pain to stop shooting through her system. She noticed that Finn was now in a tug-of-war with the coyote over the comforter.

  Shaking her head, Mads got up and went to the dresser. She opened one of the drawers and, sure enough, she found several pairs of the loose shorts and cotton camisoles she loved to wear to bed.

  Damn, Nelle! Why did she constantly have to prove how well she knew them all? That was something Mads would have to figure out later, after she got some sleep.

  She pulled out dark blue shorts and a cami and plopped them on the dresser. She was in the middle of changing clothes when she heard Finn yell, “Why are you naked?”

  “I’m changing for bed.”

  “Why didn’t you ask me to leave the room?”

  “Well, I’ve already seen you naked.”

  “When I shifted from animal to human. That’s different!”

  “Is it?”

  Finn snarled, turned away from her, dragged the comforter forward and the coyote along with it until he could wrap the material around the coyote and remove all three of them from the room entirely.

  “That seemed overly dramatic!” she called after him.

  “Shut up!”

  * * *

  Finn dropped the coyote in the backyard, and when it tried to shoot past him back into the house, Finn’s roar seemed to scare it off. At least for the moment.

  “Shut up the damn cat noise!” one of Mads’s new neighbors complained.

  “I will burn your hives to the ground!” Finn bellowed in warning before going into the house and slamming the door.

  He knew he shouldn’t take it out on the bears—the coyote was getting exactly what he deserved! Just as seeing a bruised and damaged Mads should have made him feel simple pity for her. But instead, finding her standing there, completely naked, made him horny and hard despite all those bruises. What kind of human being was he?

  Maybe his mother’s family was right. Their side of the family was more tiger than human. They didn’t let things like bruises and kidney damage get in the way of what their heart and loins wanted. The females of their kin were as demanding as the males.

  He should leave. Right now. He shouldn’t even go back upstairs. He should call Charlie, give her a heads-up about what had happened, and speed away in shame. That’s what he should do. He knew it. The coyote knew it. The bear that he could hear next door desperately checking his hives knew it.

  He had his keys in his pocket. He had absolutely no logical reason to stay!

  “Hey, Finn!” Mads called from her bedroom. “Could you grab a bottled water for me? And ajar of honey-covered nuts, too? Please?”

  It was the “please” that did him in. Why did she have to say “please”? And so nicely. Not mocking nice, or manipulative nice, but just . . . nice.

  “Fuck!” he growled. “Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck!”

  He stomped to the kitchen. Got her a big bottled water from the refrigerator. Dug around in the cabinets until he found a whole cupboard filled with cans and jars of honey-covered peanuts and almonds and cashews. He grabbed the peanuts. Then he took all of it upstairs for her.

  Finn found her tucked into the middle of the bed with the TV on. A Taiwanese action movie was playing. He’d thought she would be watching ESPN, but was glad she wasn’t. He didn’t need any more sports tonight. Especially full-human sports.

  She was stretched out on top of the sheets, several pillows behind her back. She took the water and peanuts from him and dropped them next to her on the bed. Then she turned those big blue eyes on him.

  “Get comfortable,” she said, and tapped the bed with her hand. “Sit. You ever see this movie? The fight scenes are awesome.”

  “Uh . . . I was thinking . . .”

  Again, she looked at him with those blue eyes.

  “You were thinking what?” she pushed when he didn’t finish his thought.

  “I should take my shoes off.”

  “Okay.”

  He kicked his shoes off and got on the bed, stretching his long legs out.

  They watched the movie in silence for a while until she asked, “Water?”

  She held the big water bottle in front of his face. “Oh. Thanks.” He took it from her and gulped some water down, handed it back. She re-capped it and put it aside.

  “What did you do to the coyote?”

  “Just put it outside. It’s fine. Probably under the house again.”

  “Poor thing.”

  “You and my brother.”

  “Keane?”

  “Shay. He’s a dog lover, too.”

  “I could not care less about dogs. But I do appreciate a wild animal that is smart enough to get in and out of a home without messing it up. When you have a racoon in your home . . . you know you have a racoon in your home.”

  Finn put an arm behind his head. “So I guess you’re going to tell your teammates about your cousins being in town.”

  “No, I am not.”

  Confused, he studied Mads, noticed how serious she suddenly looked.

  “Why not?”

  “Are you kidding? That’s a nightmare I can’t wake up from. I’m not saying a word and neither are you. Not a word.”

  “Wait a minute—”

  “No. I’m serious.”

  Finn let his elbows prop him up. “I don’t understand.”

  “You don’t need to understand.”

  “Explain it to me or I start dialing. Because I think your friends would want to know. At least Tock would.”

  “I’m trying to protect them.”

  “Are you kidding?” he asked with a harsh laugh. “You’re trying to protect those broads? Seriously? There’s not one of them that I worry about. Not one!”

  “But they have families. I can’t put their families at risk.”

  “Isn’t most of Tock’s family in Mossad? And Nelle’s father has bodyguards and I th
ink close to a billion dollars. And Max, oh . . . Max.”

  “What about her grandfather?”

  “He’s in a wolf pack, right?”

  “Living right next to my much bigger hyena family! They will destroy him! And Streep’s family has no protection at all.” Mads shook her head and swiped her hands across each other. “No. We’re not telling them anything. We’re not getting them involved.”

  “So what are you going to do with that idiotic sword?”

  “We’ll just send it back through the mail or something.”

  “After what they did to you, you’re really going to give it back to them?”

  “What do you think I should do?”

  “I don’t know. Throw it out. Or hide it under the house with the coyote.”

  “So we can put the coyote in danger when they come here looking for that stupid sword? Because they’ll eventually find out where I live.”

  Finn sat up straight and rested his arms on his knees, focusing his full attention directly on Mads.

  “Are you telling me that not only are you worrying about your friends, and the families of your friends, but you’re also worried about the safety of a random coyote that just happens to be living under the house you just bought a day ago? Is that what you’re telling me?”

  Mads shrugged. “Yes.”

  “Wow.” Finn pressed the palms of his hands to his eyes and lay back on the bed. “Wow.”

  “It doesn’t mean I’m wrong.”

  “Just . . . no.”

  “But—”

  “No.”

  “If you’d only—”

  “No.”

  “Well . . . do you want a honey-covered nut?”

  “I’m already sitting next to a honey-covered nut.”

  chapter EIGHTEEN

  Mads had no idea when she fell asleep. She just knew that at some point in the night, her side really hurt. So bad, she must have made some sound because Finn told her it would be okay, pressed a fresh ice pack to her side, and brushed her hair off her face. That was the last thing she remembered until she woke up around three in the morning with her head on Finn’s shoulder and her arm thrown over his massive chest. She had no idea how she’d got there, but she didn’t really mind.

  They didn’t agree on a lot, but she had to admit that she felt perfectly situated at the moment. Tucked against his body like this.

  She also felt something she didn’t feel except when she was with all her teammates in a hotel room or on the basketball court. Safe. She felt perfectly safe with Finn Malone.

  She couldn’t think of any male she’d ever felt safe with. Comfortable, sure. But safe? Nope. Especially while in bed. Which was why most guys said the same thing when they called the next day. “I woke up and found you gone. Where did you go?”

  Of course, that was after sex. She hadn’t had sex with Finn. She was just lying here. But the fact that she didn’t feel like escaping to a cabinet or leaving the state . . . that was new.

  “You need to stop doing that,” Finn muttered next to her.

  She thought he might be talking in his sleep because his eyes were still closed, but just in case, she replied, “Doing what?”

  “Rubbing my chest.”

  She was?

  Mads lifted her head from his shoulder to take a look and yes! She was rubbing his chest. Under his black T-shirt no less!

  “Oh!” She pulled her hand out. “I’m so sorry.”

  He smiled even though his eyes remained closed. “No need to apologize.”

  There wasn’t? “Then why did you complain?”

  “It wasn’t a complaint. I just needed you to stop.”

  “Was it irritating?”

  “Irritation was not the problem.”

  Mads was trying to figure out what the hell he was talking about when she happened to glance down and—

  “Oh!” She fell back on the bed and his arm. “I see.”

  “I’m a strong man but the tiger inside has its limits.”

  Mads closed her eyes. Not because she was embarrassed. She wasn’t. It was because she was trying to get the outline of Finn Malone’s massive cock pressed against his black jeans out of her head. She’d had no idea it was that fucking huge!

  Closing her eyes, however, did not help. Now the image was burned into her brain.

  “Okay.” She sat up. Shook out her hands. Blew out a breath.

  “Are you all right?”

  Dammit. His low voice wasn’t helping either.

  “I’m fine, I’m fine.” She shook out her hands again. “It’s just I’m so damn horny.”

  “Wait . . . what?”

  “It’s been a while since I got laid. And winning a game always gets me a little riled up.”

  “Uhhhh . . .”

  “And I had no idea your cock was that big.”

  Finn sat up. “What’s happening?”

  “So seeing the size of that thing made my nipples really hard and my pussy really wet—”

  “Woman! What are you doing?”

  “You asked me if I’m all right. I’m telling you what’s going on.”

  “You just had a fight.”

  “That wasn’t a fight. That was an assault. And what does that have to do with anything?”

  “Is this the fever? I feel like this is the fever.”

  “No.” She took his hand, pressed it to her forehead. “See? No fever.”

  “So then you’re just . . .?”

  “Horny.”

  He pulled his hand away. “With a damaged kidney.”

  “That healed ages ago.”

  “I doubt it. I almost rushed you to the hospital. You were groaning in your sleep and when I checked, the bruise had spread and there was this humongous lump that just looked terrifying. But when I tried to lift you out of the bed, you grabbed the headboard and squealed so loud, the coyote started yipping and the bears on the street started to roar. I was afraid if I took you outside, they’d eat you.” When she frowned, he added, “They’re omnivores. They’ll eat anything. So I changed the ice pack and let you settle down, hoping I could take you to the hospital when you passed out. Then we both fell asleep and . . . here we are.”

  “Well, it’s fine now.”

  “It can’t be fine.”

  Mads reached back and yanked the ice pack off her back. “Look.”

  She leaned forward, making it easy for Finn to see. She felt his hands slide across the area that her cousins had hit repeatedly, his fingers brushing over the skin. She had to close her eyes again because her nipples became so hard they hurt.

  “Holy shit. It is healed.”

  “Told you.”

  “Sure there’s no internal—”

  “Bleeding? No.”

  “That’s amazing.”

  “Honey badger.”

  He sat up again and said, “I just don’t want to . . .”

  “What?”

  “Take advantage of the moment.”

  “Why are you whispering?”

  “I don’t know,” he whispered again.

  “Okay. I get it. If I were in a fever, this would be very wrong.”

  “Exactly,” he finally said in his normal voice.

  “Except I’m not.”

  “True. But the whole experience with your cousins could be emotionally traumatic.”

  “Could be. Probably should be. But I have been down this road so often . . . I’m sadly used to it. Kind of stopped thinking about it when we were watching the movie. I can promise that I will get angry about it again sometime tomorrow. That’s how the pattern goes.”

  “But at this moment—”

  “Not even thinking about it. Because we won a game. We’re in the championships. Saw the outline of your cock. Now I’m horny.”

  Finn started to say something but she was worried he might guilt his way out of this so she cut him off by offering, “If you want, I can make things easier for you by taking the lead here. You know . . . to start.”


  He took a moment to let that sink in. “Huh.”

  “You can kind of lie back and . . . not have so many thoughts. Just let that big cat take over. And let my honey badger take the lead.”

  He frowned. “Your honey badger won’t gnaw, will it?”

  “It won’t. Promise.”

  “Well . . . if you’re sure—whoa!”

  Mads pressed her hand against his chest and shoved him back against the bed. She dealt with his jeans and boxer briefs first, dragging them down his hips and legs until she got them to his ankles. Then shucking off the shorts and cami she put on earlier, she scrambled on top of his lap but faced away from him, her legs straddling his hips.

  Mads grabbed his cock in both hands. As the outline of his jeans had promised, the size was delightfully massive and she allowed herself to stroke it before settling in and letting her tongue swirl around the tip a few times. Since she loved a good long fuck, she knew it was best to get Finn’s first shot out of the way. But because of the size, she also had her work cut out for her. Not that she minded. She did love a challenge.

  She started by sucking on the tip first, bringing it into her mouth, pulling out, then sucking it in again. She took her time. Played with it. Let her tongue tease around at the top. She heard Finn groan and felt his hands on her hips. Because of their height difference, sixty-nine was out, but that was okay. She had a feeling he’d take care of her later.

  Besides, she was too focused on what she was doing to worry about anything else. She had his cock halfway in her mouth and was determined to get it all the way to the back of her throat without gagging. Wouldn’t be easy. Plus, her mouth was already stretched pretty wide.

  But she kept going. Taking him deeper and deeper. Loving that his groaning kept getting louder. The hands on her body a little rougher.

  What she wasn’t expecting, because she hadn’t been thinking about it one way or the other, was his two fingers slipping inside her. She was already really wet just from sucking on him, so his fingers easily slid out and when they came back, it was three. He pushed them in hard, and Mads jerked forward, ending up taking all of his cock. At the same time, she growled. Because his fingers inside her felt so good.

  He kept fucking her with those fingers, too. Kind of rough, which she liked. Rocking her back and forth, with his other hand rubbing her ass. As he pushed her forward, she came back and arched her ass into his hand. When she did it the fifth or sixth time, he pulled his hand away. Then he brought it down, slapping her ass. Not too hard. But enough to entertain. Enough to keep her attention and make her cry out against his cock.