I sat there for over two hours watching people get in their cars and leave. When there was just one truck across the lot and the lights around the arena flickered out, I realized that I wasn’t as okay as I thought. I mean, I was still certain of my decision, but I hadn’t thought about how I was going to get back to DC. Everything I owned was in that motel room with Sam. I had no money, no transportation, and nowhere to stay the night. The last thing I wanted to do was have to step back into a hotel room with a waiting, pleading, cheating bastard.
The tears that I’d been fighting off fell too easily as I realized just how alone I was, and just how dark it was in the parking lot.
CHAPTER 3: Alex
The rodeo had done nothing to sooth my nerves. Every muscle in my body had been tense since I’d seen her in the stands. My bear was pawing at me, telling me to go and find her. He wanted to ravish the little human. I wasn’t far behind.
It’d been a while since I’d felt anything besides anger and frustration. For over two months, I’d been dealing with the shit from Dad’s death. He’d left the ranch in a fucking mess, that was sure. No boss, no back up plan, no nothing. My oldest brother, Matt had stepped in as temporary overseer, but, in my opinion, he wasn’t exactly the best man for the job.
Matt was no better than my other brothers. Lucas, Michael, and John were all money-obsessed. They didn’t give a shit about the ranch when it came down to it. It was all about the bottom line on their financial spreadsheets.
Despite the constant distraction in my head that my family situation had become, everything had quieted when I saw her. It was as though the entire world around us stilled for those few moments. I’d fucked my way through every woman, bear and human alike, in Landing, and every town around, but I’d never felt anything like I’d felt when I laid my sore eyes on her. The universe was paused, and then she turned and ran. My bear had tried to take control, and go after her.
Her scent called to us. Honeysuckle with a little hint of something spicy. It’d taken everything in me not to chase after her when she’d left. My bear had roared in my head, scratching at my insides, demanding I find her.
I’d stayed late at the stadium, using the excuse that I needed to make sure everything was locked down tight, but, in reality, I needed more time to calm down. My fur was still just under the surface. I was too close to shifting to be able to hang out at the bar with everyone else. Adding liquor to my current agitated state was a sure fire way to cause a disaster.
A hint of her scent wafted through the parking lot as I headed out to my truck. Damn. I shook my head. I was losing it, smelling her when she wasn’t even there.
The farther into the lot I got, though, the stronger the scent. She was here. Somewhere. I stopped moving and tilted my head back to take in a deeper breath. Her scent came from the north end of the lot, the darkest corner. When I tuned into my senses, I realized I could hear whimpering.
Fur sprouted from my arms and hands as my bear roared in my head. He shouted that she was hurt and we had to save her, but I was already running in her direction.
I spotted her, sitting on the curb, looking small and vulnerable. With a quick scan of the area, I saw no imminent threat, but it didn’t stop my bear from raging at the sight of her tears.
I was still a few feet away from her when she looked up and spotted me. Her bright blue eyes widened to saucers and her hands balled into little fists in front of her face, ready to fight.
“What are you doing?!”
I froze in place and shook my head. Great, I thought, I’d scared the hell out of her by charging at her. “I heard you crying. Are you okay?”
The tension in her shoulders relaxed a bit and her fists uncurled. She reached up and swiped at the tears. “I’m not crying.”
I couldn’t help but smile. “Of course, not. What are you doing out here in the dark?”
She wrapped her arms back around her knees and frowned. “It wasn’t dark until a few seconds ago.”
My dick hardened into steel as her plump breasts were pushed up as they rested on her knees. Her dress barely contained the beauties and my mouth watered at the sight. “Need a lift?”
As she hesitated, I shoved my hands in my pockets, trying to look harmless. It wasn’t easy. I was a big guy, an even bigger bear, and everything inside me was demanding that I grab her and claim her.
That gave me a slight pause. Claim? I’d never felt the urge to claim anyone before. I’d damn sure never wanted to have that urge before. Fucking my way through town had never seemed like a bad way to live. Claiming someone meant having a mate to come home to, it meant responsibility. It meant forever. Forever for a bear who liked to roam wild and free, was a long time.
I looked down at the small human and took a step back. My bear roared at me and demanded that I get closer to her. He was infatuated already.
“I… I don’t have anywhere to go.” The words seemed to break some type of barrier that she’d erected upon seeing me. The tears began silently falling again and it didn’t seem like they were going to stop.
My bear was so close to the surface that I was sure my eyes were turning golden. I blinked a few times and tried to remain in control. “Alright. How about you just get in my truck for now and we can decide where to take you after? It’s going to rain soon.”
She looked up at the sky and then at me. “You aren’t some pervert, are you?”
I couldn’t help the sly grin I gave her. “Of course, not, ma’am.”
CHAPTER 4: Alex
“I’m Alex, by the way.”
She stood up and straightened her dress. Her hands shook slightly as she rubbed the fabric down across her thighs. “Elizabeth.”
I walked beside her to my truck and had to fight to keep my hands to myself. She was way too sexy, and smelled so damned good. At probably a foot and a half shorter than me, she made up for her lack of height with the most delicious curves. Her waist dipped in but her hips and ass flared, begging for me to bite at them. I wanted nothing more than to bury my face between her legs and find out if she tasted as good as she smelled.
“Why don’t you have anywhere to go?”
“Because my boyfriend is an asshole.”
Boyfriend? Whoa… my bear raged so much, I had to cough to cover a growl. The bear was pissed, but the man was irate. I’d been entertaining visions of sinking into her soft curves since I’d first spotted her. The idea of another man touching her set my teeth on edge. “Yeah?”
She shrugged and a lock of her long blonde hair fell over her shoulder. “I guess I can say ex now. I just caught him banging some red head over the side of his truck. So, that’s over.”
I opened my truck door and stared down at her. “He cheated on you? What the fuck is wrong with him?”
That got a grin out of her. “That’s not even the best part. I just moved here with him. From DC. I packed up and moved across the country to be with an idiot who cheated on me within days of arriving. I sold my favorite bedroom set!”
Even seeing her cheeks turn red and her muscles tense in anger turned me on like nothing I’d ever felt before. I wanted more of her. “Sounds like a fucking asshat to me. What else?”
She tilted her head and bit her lip. “What else?”
I grinned. “I’ve had exes before. The lists of things they were pissed about were always longer than that. What else did he do?”
“Oh. Um… He begged me to help him buy a new truck. I emptied my savings for that. It’s a stupid truck. It’s like a shiny new toy. He wouldn’t even let me take the plastic off the seats. And he didn’t apologize tonight! I caught him screwing someone else and he didn’t even apologize! The worst thing, the absolute worst thing, is that he’s sure that I’m coming back to the room tonight. He’s probably expecting me to walk in at any minute. He’s in for a rude awakening. I’d rather be homeless than go back to him.”
I watched as she looked up at my truck and tried to figure out how to get into it. “Need some help?”<
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CHAPTER 5: Elizabeth
I side-glanced at Alex and then back up at the truck. I knew the limitations of my short stature. I could climb into the truck, sure, but there was no way I could do it without flashing him half my backside. “Um, yeah, actually.”
I expected him to extend his hand or his arm to help me hoist myself, but he wrapped his hands around my waist and moved like he was going to pick me up. I made a squeaking noise and shook my head. I was short, but I had plenty of curves and none of them were lightweight. The thought of him straining and struggling to lift me into the cab was mortifying. Lord knows, I’d suffered enough humiliation tonight.
“What’s wrong?”
I stared up at him and felt my cheeks go red. “You can’t pick me up like that.”
“Why not?”
“I’m not exactly a feather. Believe me, I’m heavier than I look.”
He laughed and, hot damn if he didn’t pick me up with ease, and sit me down on the truck seat. He left his hands on my waist. “These muscles aren’t just for filling up my shirt, ma’am.”
I couldn’t help but giggle. I didn’t have a clue what I was doing with him, but there was something about him that made it pretty darn difficult to say no. The tornadoes in my stomach were back with a vengeance and every time we made eye contact, they swirl a little faster, a little wilder.
“Thank you.”
His eyes were honey brown up close. They seemed to glow golden sometimes when he looked at me. “You’re welcome.”
The silence between us grew. His hands were still on me and the air between us seemed to be alive. My skin was raised with goosebumps and even the light cotton covering my chest suddenly felt heavy.
Thunder rolled in the distance and Alex’s fingers tightened on me. “It’s going to be a big storm.”
I looked past him and watched the night sky light up with a lightning bolt. Anxiety nagged at the edges of my mind until I could no longer ignore it. I pulled away from Alex and crossed my arms under my chest. “This wasn’t how things were supposed to work out,” I mumbled.
“Fasten your seatbelt,” was all he said before closing the door and walking around the front of the truck to get it. He slammed his own door shut and then started the truck. “Ready?”
I shrugged. “Where are we going?”
“My trailer. This storm isn’t gonna be nice and there’s no way I’m leaving you out here in it.”
Heat blossomed south of my stomach and I shifted in my seat. “You don’t have to do that, Alex. I can’t go to your home.”
“You can and you will. You can even have the bed. You’ve had a long night.”
“You’re being so nice. Thank you. I mean it. I don’t know what I’d be doing right now if it weren’t for you.”
He pulled out of the lot as the first fat rain drops started to fall. “No need to thank me. I get to spend some time in the company of a beautiful woman. Things could be a whole lot worse. The way I see it, it’s a win-win.”
“And you promise you’re not a sex-crazed pervert?”
He laughed. “I’m not a sex-crazed pervert. Promise.”
I tried to relax into the seat, but it was nearly impossible with his sexy body sitting so close. “Well, I appreciate you giving me a place to stay. I don’t know what I would have done. I just knew I wasn’t going back to that motel while he was there, waiting.”
“What are you going to do?”
I looked out at the storm that was just starting to pick up. “Still don’t know.”
CHAPTER 6: Elizabeth
We were both quiet the rest of the way to his trailer. I was focused on the intensity of the growing storm, while Alex hummed along to the country song on the radio. It was oddly comforting, considering my situation.
When we arrived at his trailer, he ran around to help me down from the truck. In the few seconds it took for us to get from his truck to the front door, we were both soaked through. He opened the door and pushed me inside right as a massive boom of thunder hit.
I screamed and jumped, the sound like an electric jolt to my already fried nerves. “Jeez! Does it always storm like that here?”
He dropped his cowboy hat on the floor and then kicked off his boots. “We get some big ones. Let me grab you a towel.”
While he disappeared down a hallway, I looked around. His trailer was clean, for the most part. The coffee table was littered with an empty pizza box and a few beer cans, but for a guy who appeared to live alone, it was clean.
I stood on the small tile entryway and shivered. His air conditioning must’ve been on high. The water dripping from my soaked hair and body felt like it was going to freeze in place.
“Do you want to take a hot shower and get out of that dress?”
I snapped my head around to Alex and froze. He’d taken his shirt off and his pants were unbuttoned. The weight of the rain water was tugging them low, letting me see a lot more skin than I’d prepared for. His chest was something that I knew I’d never forget, his abs a dream, and that sexy ‘V’ leading to his...
I grew warmer just looking at him. A shower would give me a chance to get away from his abs for a few minutes. “Do you have anything I could change into?”
He pointed down the hallway. “Last door is my bedroom. The closet is open. Feel free to grab anything. The bathroom’s through there. Take your time.”
I slipped out of my now completely destroyed shoes and hurried to his room trying not to think of the double entendre that popped into my head when he told me that I could grab anything. I closed the door behind me and locked it. I took a fast shower, using his soap and shampoo, and then dried off. His closet was a smorgasbord of T-shirts, flannels, worn jeans, and flannel bottoms.
I knew the bottoms would never fit, so I didn’t even bother. I pulled on one of the flannel shirts and buttoned it. It fell almost to my knees and smelled like soap and something woodsy. Feeling warmer, I finger combed my hair and then headed out to the living room.
Alex was in the kitchen, staring into the fridge. I must’ve made a sound because he turned to face me as soon as I stepped into the kitchen. His eyes traveled the length of my body and back up again. I pulled the shirt that had slipped, back onto my shoulder and forced a tight smile.
“I hope this is okay. I was freezing.”
His eyes seemed to get brighter as he nodded and licked his lips. “It suits you.”
I looked down at my toes and wiggled them as I thought about what I should say. “I really appreciate you letting me stay here. No one else in this town has been nice to me at all. I wasn’t expecting it.”
“Landing can be a pretty private place.”
I gestured around us. “But you let me in your private space.”
“The other option was to leave you all to your lonesome crying in the dark in the middle of a torrential downpour. What kind of man would I be if I did that?”
I looked up and was surprised to find that he’d mostly closed the gap between us. He was close enough that I could, and did, watch a drop of water roll down his chest. “Aren’t you cold?”
He shook his head, causing a few more droplets to sprinkle me. “I run hot.”
He could say that again. I sucked in a breath and tried to remember that I’d just broken up with Sam a few hours ago. I was supposed to be sad and distraught, go through a healing period. I was… Oh, crap, I was head over heels in lust with Alex. I was. Something about the man was calling to me.
“Do you have a girlfriend?” I spit the words out while I still had the ability to speak. It seemed that being around him was burning up my fine motor skills.
He grinned. “No. Why do you ask?”
I gasped as the front of his jeans touched my thighs. I backed into his kitchen counter and realized that I was out of space to move away from him. Not that I wanted to. My body was reeling. My hands trembled as I grabbed the counter and my knees were trying to knock out a rhythm against each other. I’d never felt such a desire,
such a need for someone that my body vibrated with it.
“Elizabeth?”
I bit my lip and raised my eyebrows. “Huh?”
“Why do you ask?”
I stuttered as I answered. “Just… uh, just wondering.”
Alex leaned down until he was eye level with me and then lifted me onto the counter like I weighed nothing. “Something’s happening here.”
I nodded because there was no use denying it. When he moved forward, I opened my legs wider so he could stand between them.
“You can tell me to go fuck off and still stay here tonight. Just so you know.”
Something about him giving me an out made me lose the little bit of doubt that was nagging at the back of my mind. I let my shirt fall off of my shoulder again and held his heated gaze. “I don’t want to tell you to fuck off. Just so you know.”
CHAPTER 7: Alex
The little spice in her words was all I needed to hear to convince me that she wanted me just as badly as I wanted her. I could smell the sweetness of her arousal and it was driving me insane besides wreaking havoc on my bear, but I needed to be sure before I acted upon it.
I took one more look at her, sitting there in my flannel. Her shoulder was bare where one side of the collar had slid off, and the bottom of the shirt had ridden up her thighs. I had plans to lick and tongue every inch of her smooth, creamy skin.
I wove my fingers through the hair at the back of her head and pulled her mouth to mine. The little moan she let out as I gently kissed her sweet lips scorched my every nerve ending. I flicked my tongue out and teased her lips before taking her mouth.
Elizabeth didn’t just relinquish control. No, she pushed back, fighting for her own dominance in the kiss. She bit my lip and then sucked my tongue into her mouth. I pressed my dick against her core, unable to help myself. I ached for her. I needed to be inside her.
Bears of Burden: THORN Page 36
