Chasing Peace, Love & Fur [3xtasy Lake 8] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting)

by Corinne Davies

  “Yes, which is what makes this even more confusing. She should have known we were Mates the moment she got out of her car, but nothing.” That fact is what irritated Luc. He didn’t like not understanding what a problem was. How was he supposed to fix what he didn’t know was broken.

  “Okay, none of this makes any sense.” Nouel made a cup from the single-mug brewer and then carried his coffee over to the table. Turning his chair around, he straddled it and leaned his forearms against the kitchen table as he reached for another honey bun. “How do you know she’s a bear?”

  “Because there is nothing wrong with my nose. Also, I phoned Gordon to ask his opinion. He received a phone call from her father last week requesting permission for her to pass through the area.

  “Something about that bothered me, too.” Georges leaned back in his chair as he spoke. “She said that she’d escaped, but escaped from what? If her father was calling to ask permission for her to be here, then shouldn’t we assume that he isn’t the problem?”

  “I don’t think we can assume anything. There is more to her story then simply her ability to change shape. Gordon said that he’d been assured she would only be in town for less than twenty-four hours.”

  “What did you tell him?”

  “I told him that was unlikely because she was our Mate, and we planned to do what we could to convince her to stay.”

  “If she’s upstairs, how did you convince her?”

  “Georges fucked with her car.”

  Nouel looked at them both as if they’d gone insane. “Didn’t you tell me less than six months ago that you would never do that because of how guilty you both felt last time?”

  “It’s different this time.”

  “How’s that?”

  “This time it’s our Mate. I don’t feel the least bit guilty doing what I had to, to make certain we get the opportunity to figure out what is going on with her.”

  Luc took another swallow of beer to hide his smirk at Georges’s answer. After seeing how upset Tara was when he had accidently told her the truth, Georges had sworn to never do anything like that again. But, he was right. This was their Mate and that meant all bets were off. “I spoke to Hugh McNamara earlier this evening and he gave me some more insight into the bear culture. If he’s right, the community she was living in was on the fanatical side. To the point that he warned me that there is no way they would have let her do this on her own. There has to be some males keeping an eye on her, which means a possible threat against us.”

  “Great. I have no problems fighting for her. What’s the other important factor?”

  It was the one point that Hugh had mentioned that sent him and Georges to the fridge for a beer. “There is a good possibility that she is a virgin or near close to it.”

  “Holy shit.” Nouel pulled out a chair and dropped into it. Georges leaned over to the fridge and pulled out a beer for their brother.

  Luc understood how he felt. The idea of her being all theirs and never touched before had its draw and he was man enough to admit that it pleased his possessive streak to no end. What really concerned them was how important this would be to her and them. They needed to make every moment perfect.

  “Their females are guarded and hounded. She obviously has enough spirit to stand up to them, but they’re very narrow-minded when it comes to relationships. Hugh and his brothers left their community because they wanted to share a woman. We’re going to have to be very careful how we approach her.”

  “I don’t want to hide our intentions like some dirty secret. We can’t risk having her play one of us against the other.” Georges scowled down at his bottle and Luc knew he was remembering their older brother and the bitch that led to his death.

  “This is a completely different scenario than what Jacque faced. She’s meant to be ours, to be shared. We can’t fuck this up for her or for our future.”

  “You come at her with that baseball bat you carry between your legs, Luc, and she’s going to run screaming.” Nouel pointed at him when he spoke.

  “Yeah, well, I already figured that out, and Georges is a little too intense in his demands at times.” Georges didn’t look up at either of them, but nodded as he continued to pick at the label.

  “That leaves you, little brother. Fitting since you’re the one who never gave up looking.” Luc knew that was what drove Nouel to the other side of the world, his constant search for the woman meant to be theirs.

  Nouel scratched at his jaw. “Damn, I hope I don’t screw this up. Are you sure we shouldn’t all three approach her at the same time?”

  Luc understood Nouel’s concerns and nervousness. He also believed that their younger brother’s easygoing ways and romantic nature might be the best introduction for her. “If all three of us come at her at the same time, we might overwhelm her or unintentionally bully her into agreeing. Especially if she is used to bossy, forceful males. By approaching her one by one, we can ease her into it and be sure that she is willing.

  “I guess it’s not a good idea if I go upstairs and crawl into bed with her…whose bed is she in anyways?”

  Luc met Georges’s gaze. His brother was wearing a bit of a smirk now.

  “You assholes. She’s in my bed, isn’t she?”

  They’d decided earlier that this was the way things would have to proceed and since Nouel was going to be lucky enough to explore their Mate first, he could be the one on the uncomfortable couch. Not that Luc thought any of them would be getting much sleep. As soon as he finished this beer, he was going to go take a cold shower and see if he could rub some of this tension out.

  * * * *

  After a restless night spent on the uncomfortable living room couch, Nouel stared at the piles of papers spread out over the desk in front of him. How the hell did they fuck this up so incredibly? “You had one job. Put the papers in the box and send them to the accountant. I had no idea it would be so difficult.”

  He spoke to no one in particular. It was a shock that the Canadian Revenue Service hadn’t crawled up their asses with a fine tooth comb yet. “Four years.” His idiot brothers hadn’t filed taxes in four years. The box he’d left for them the last time he came home for a visit sat in the exact place he’d placed it. At least he assumed it was under the massive pile of papers that lay in a mound on the side table. He lifted up a cardboard box and more papers slipped over the edge and onto the floor. He shook his head and tried to figure out where to start first. Luc and Georges were out in the shop working on some cars, which had left him to figure out something to do to pass the time.

  The snow hadn’t let up and there really wasn’t much to do until it did. He’d sat at the bottom step of the stairs and listened to the sound of Clara’s deep breathing as she slept. He’d wanted to go upstairs and crawl into bed with her and wake her up with a smile on her face, but waking up with a strange man in her bed would have scared the shit out of her. It hadn’t stopped him from peeking in his room earlier, but all he could make out was the soft brown of a lot of hair. She slept curled up in the middle of the bed, almost as if she were trying to protect herself. It made him wonder if she’d lived in fear in her community and that was why she was desperate to leave.

  Luc was correct. There had been something wrong with her scent. He’d noticed as he stood in the doorway to her room listening to her breathe. Under the delectable scent of warm sleeping female was something different. It wasn’t decay or illness, but something was definitely off, almost as if she was out of sync with herself. He’d met an old man in New Zealand who’d never been able to shape-shift, even thought he should have been. There was a very similar characteristic to her scent that Nouel recognised. Something terrible must have happened for her to deny such an intricate part of herself. The moose inside of him shifted restlessly, feeling a need to protect her from anything that might cause her pain, even herself.

  “Wow, that’s quite a mess you have on your hands.”

  Nouel’s gaze snapped up at the soft voice
in the doorway. It was as if his thoughts had called her but now that she was here, he didn’t know what to say. She was even more gorgeous than Nouel had expected and for the hundredth time, he wished he’d come home earlier last night. He’d been having so much fun playing in the snow, he’d lost track of time. Her hair looked thick and lustrous. Even in the dim light coming from the windows, it looked like a rich dark brown. She was a walking embodiment of his fantasy woman, all curves and confidence with beautiful, soulful brown eyes. “Clara.”

  “Yes, you must be Nouel. It’s nice to meet you.” She came into the room and held out her hand. “I’m sorry for putting you out of your bed last night. Luc and Georges said you wouldn’t mind.”

  “No, really it’s okay.” Nouel couldn’t help the feeling of pleasure he’d gotten, knowing that she was curled up with her face in his pillow. Luc and Georges had warned him that there was something unique about her and she didn’t recognise them as Mates. That was disturbing to say the least but he was more than willing to do his part to convince her. “Did you sleep well?”

  He wrapped his fingers around her hand and fought the urge to tug her closer. The need to feel her body pressing against his was almost tangible. Letting go of her hand was incredibly difficult but he knew that he should rein in the need to rush forward. The conversation he’d had with his brothers rang in his memory. She was meant to be theirs and he wanted to claim her sooner than later.

  “Very much so, thank you.” She looked around the room and he got the sense she was unsure of what to do with herself. Her hands roamed up and down her arms and he wondered if she was feeling chilled. Another hint that something was different about this woman, because temperature wasn’t something that often bothered shifters. They didn’t often think about lighting a fire, but he would do anything to make certain she didn’t leave.

  “I was about to make some coffee and sort through some paperwork. Would you like to keep me company?” Nouel looked around and pulled a chair out from the corner. “We don’t often have the woodstove on back here but I was about to get it started.” He waved his hand toward the mountain of papers spread across the table. “It looks like I’m going to be here a while.”

  “I could help you if you like. Ma mère and I were the ones who kept my father’s books in order.” She stepped forward and moved a couple papers around with her fingertips. “Do you have a specific accounting program that you use?”

  She really is perfect. “You have no idea how much I would appreciate that. I’m sure under this mess is the laptop I left for them to input everything.”

  “Okay then, you make coffee. I’ll get the woodstove lit and help you out with this. After everything you are doing to help out, I really want to return the favour.”

  Nouel stepped closer to her and caught her hand with his. Lifting her fingertips to his lips, he pressed them against his lips. “Clara, you could sit here and keep me company and I would be more than happy. Don’t think for one second you need to do anything.”

  Her cheeks darkened to a pretty shade of pink but she didn’t pull her hand from his grip, a win in Nouel’s book. Her skin was like satin and he could still smell the sleep weighing on her senses and the mouthwatering tang of her essence. His cock kicked hard beneath his jeans at the feel of his lips against her skin. Before she could do or say anything, or he did anything to scare her off, he winked at her and then slipped past her to go to the kitchen.

  While Nouel waited for the coffee to finish, he put together a tray of different fruits and Georges’s homemade biscuits and a small dish of organic honey. Bears and honey seemed stereotypical but it felt right. He loved the stuff.

  Balancing the large tray of food, he carried it all back to the office but almost dropped the entire thing. Clara was on her hand and knees in front of the woodstove, nursing a small fire. Her ass was like an upside down heart and suddenly he had different ideas about what he wanted to use the honey for. She tossed in a couple of good-sized logs and closed the iron grate, leaving it partially open to get some air to it.

  “Wow, are you hungry? That is a ton of food.” She looked over the tray with what looked like concern but then she relaxed.

  “I hope you weren’t looking for bacon or sausages. We’re not big meat eaters. Well, truthfully, we’re vegetarians.”

  * * * *

  “Luc and Georges told me last night when I was afraid to eat his chili. I don’t eat meat either.” Clara tried to busy herself by pulling a small table from the corner for him to put the tray down on. Nouel was as gorgeous as his brothers and incredibly thoughtful. She never expected him to make her something to eat. The men she knew in her community would never have done that. “I thought it might be easiest to divide all this paperwork up according to the year and then work on each year at a time.”

  “Sounds like a great plan to me.” Nouel handed her a large mug of coffee and she retreated back as soon as she wrapped her hands around the mug. Much like last night, she felt a strange tugging in her chest whenever he looked at her. She’d only met just met him but felt like she’d known him for longer. Maybe because I slept in his bed last night wrapped in his scent.

  Nouel spooned a disgusting amount of sugar into his coffee. She’d learned last night after eating a couple of Georges’s delicious honey buns that the three of them shared a massive sweet tooth. “I didn’t know where to start first.”

  “It might be easiest to sort this all out into separate years and then break down each year into separate categories.” She picked up a sheet of paper that looked like a tax assessment for their property showing what was owed on the property taxes.

  “If we can at least get this mess sorted out into separate years today, I’ll call it a win.”

  “It looks like they have kept the property taxes up to date if that makes you feel any better?” She’d been about to start a pile for the current year when Nouel stepped up behind her. Lightly grasping her wrist, he lifted the page up a bit so he could see it and bent close to her face to read it. Having a man this close to her was a bit disconcerting, especially after the way Luc had made her feel upstairs yesterday. During dinner last night, Luc and Georges hadn’t said anything else about them sharing a woman and she wasn’t about to ask. Both of them had given her a gentle kiss on the cheek when she’d said she was going to turn in early but hadn’t given any inclination of being interested in more.

  Nouel, on the other hand…He’d wrapped his arm around her waist as he bent over her to reach for another paper. The stretch of his body over her back made her heart flutter and sent tingles of awareness along her skin, arrowing straight for her pussy. She shifted her hips, hoping to create enough friction between her legs to alleviate some of the ache she felt, but the movement made her ass slide back and forth across the front of his jeans. He stepped closer and she could feel the hard ridge of his erection press against her spine. She froze, uncertain what to do next. Do I ignore it? She hadn’t meant to arouse him but now that he was…“I’m sorry if I make you feel uncomfortable or embarrassed you, Nouel.”

  He dropped the paper on to the table in front of them and wrapped his other arm around her chest, directly below her breasts, trapping her back against him. “Sweetheart, you’re making me feel all sorts of things, but uncomfortable isn’t one of them.” He shifted his weight slightly side to side, moving her body with him as if they were slow dancing together. “You feel absolutely perfect in my arms and I love the smell of your skin.” He brushed his cheek against hers.

  “Maybe because I smell like your bed?”

  Nouel chuckled against the shell of her ear. “Maybe, but there is more to your delectable scent than a reminder of my second favourite place in the world.”

  “Like what?” The question was out before Clara could press her lips together. She’d never felt like this before. It was like the universe had collapsed in on itself and only the two of them remained. She reveled in the feel of his warm breath on her ear and the way his thumb had started
stroking the underside of one of her breasts. She took in a shuddering breath and felt the effort vibrate through her body. Nouel pressed the hard ridge against her again and this time she moved counter to him, pressing back against him.

  “You keep doing that, Clara, and we’ll never finish this conversation.”

  “I thought we were dancing?” Clara grinned when he moaned against her temple. It was fun teasing him and she didn’t feel as though he was pressuring her to do anything she didn’t want to. If anything, it was the opposite. She wanted him to demand more, give her what she felt she wanted but didn’t know how to ask for. Having never been in this situation before, she wasn’t certain what to expect or what he might be expecting and that set her to worrying.

  “Whatever is going through that head of yours, I want you to stop thinking about it.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “You went from being soft and flowing to rigid and locked down.” Nouel continued to stroke under her breast with his thumb but didn’t make any further moves. He slid his hand over her hips and pulled her back against him. “Think of your favourite song, something slow, something that makes you wet.”

  He whispered the last word and Clara felt her cheeks heat up as her pussy grew slick. The more she rocked her hips back and forth, the wetter she felt.

  “What song are you thinking about?”

  “Never Tear Us Apart.” Clara used to fantasize about a man who would sweep her off her feet and stand up to her father. But, any male that looked in her direction would grovel and snivel at her father’s feet. She’d thought that Eddie would stand up to her father, but discovering his betrayal destroyed that dream…until now.

  “I remember that one.” He hummed the melody against her temple as they moved and she relaxed back against him again. Being held like this made her feel warm and cherished. This was uncharted territory for her. Usually anytime a male got near her, her inner darkness would snarl and slam against its prison walls, but ever since the moment she stepped foot inside this house it had become unusually quiet.