“We’ve been such fools, dad,” she said letting Oliver go. “Such idiots. Who has been helping out with the admin since mom died? Who has been here to receive the deliveries? It’s not me, I’ve been with you, out in the fields. But it has been someone now hasn’t it?” she looked at Oliver.
“Did you come up with this plan by yourself or did your girlfriend here help you?”
Oliver swallowed and stood up. “I don’t have to sit here and take this,” he said.
“Actually you do,” Jamie said. “You tried to pin it on me, but I’ve been watching you. Was it you who tampered with my light fitting so it would fall on my bed and hurt me? And the snake in the stable? Was that you too? And Jesse in the car?”
Oliver sighed, “You were supposed to be in the car, not him.”
“He almost died!” Jamie roared at him.
“Oh, stop being so melodramatic,” the werewolf said. Her voice was annoyingly nasal. “He’s a bear, he’ll be fine. Sadly it takes more than failed brakes to kill them. But like Oli said, it was supposed to be you.”
“Why Oliver?” Jamie’s father asked sounding so sad and tired it almost broke Jamie’s heart.
Oliver turned on him. “Because you’re a fucking bumpkin who wouldn’t know how to run a business if his life depended on it!” he said. “You’re out there, at home with the cattle and the shit. I’m in here, thinking about growth! About building a future!” His voice got low. “About building an empire. I always knew I’d change the world, but my stupid father pissed away everything on penny stocks. Now he’s nothing. You had Andrew, there was no way this would ever be mine. So I came up with a plan to get it. I had to remove some pieces but…”
“Some pieces?” Jamie felt herself go weak and cold at the same time.
“Don’t judge me because you’re too scared to go after what you really want in life,” he said, licking his lips.
“My mother and brother weren’t pieces!”
Her father was red with rage. He grabbed Oliver by the shirt and hit him again and again. Then the werewolf was on him, pulling him off Oliver and throwing him against the wall where he hit with a crunch and then lay still.
“Daddy!” Jamie grabbed the number 14 cast iron skillet from the kitchen shelf. Twelve pounds of solid nineteenth century craftsmanship swung in a long arc. The crunching sound as it slammed into the side of the werewolf girl’s head was sickening and satisfying. She flipped backwards, and Jamie could see the hair beginning to sprout from the girl’s face as she Shifted.
The girl brought both hands up to her face and with a quick motion pulled her jaw back into place. “You were supposed to be there with your mommy and brother. There were meant to be three. I was cheated out of your flesh. I think I’ll take it now,” the werewolf said around her lengthening canines.
Jamie was scared, her heart beating so fast. She wanted to run but her muscles were stuck. She held the frying pan between them. The werewolf batted it out of the way. The werewolf girl leapt, a maw of savage teeth aimed at Jamie’s throat.
Jamie closed her eyes waiting for the beast to land on her, but she heard a scream and a roar. Opening her eyes, she saw a huge black bear bolt through the back door and grab the wolf girl out of the air. The bear turned then with the wolf scratching and clawing at it, dragged it back out into the yard. There were growls and yelps and then silence.
Jamie went to her father who was coming around.
“What happened?” he asked sitting up.
“I think one of Jesse’s people just saved our butts,” Jamie said.
A moment later Tyler poked his head into the kitchen.
“Hey,” he said. “All taken care of out here. I’ll just get rid of the trash.”
Jamie looked up and quickly looked away. Tyler was naked. He saw the look on her face and laughed.
“You’ll have to get used to that if you’re gonna hang around with bears,” he said. “See ya!” and Tyler was off.
Oliver was still out cold on the kitchen floor. Jamie took great pleasure in calling the police and giving them all the evidence they had. Oliver was taken away in handcuffs by the time the sun set. Then father and daughter sat on the porch in the swing and watched the stars come out, finishing a bottle of whiskey together.
“I’m sorry about all this,” Jamie said snuggling up to her dad.
He wrapped his arm around her shoulders, “It’s not your fault Juniper-berry. I trusted Oliver. You were right about him from the start. You have good instincts.”
They were silent for a moment and then her father said, “So you and Jesse?”
“Yeah, yeah,” she said smiling uncontrollably.
“So how does that work?” her father asked. “I mean are my grandkids going to be bears or humans?”
“Geez dad we’re just dating!” Jamie said.
“You’re twenty-six already. I need grandkids before I die,” he said and kissed the top of her head.
Jamie let it slide. It had been a long time since her father had spoken about a future. It was good to hear him dream.
It was Sunday. Jamie lay on Jesse’s bed in his small cabin. The window let the sunlight in beautifully, warming her from head to toe. All around the cabin the trees were beginning to turn yellow, red and orange.
She stretched lazily and looked up at him. He was so gorgeous. He traced the line of her face with a finger.
She moved closer to him and Jesse smiled at her.
“Don’t just look at me, kiss me already,” she demanded.
“Yes, Ma’am,” he said ripping off a mock salute.
The kiss was deep and languorous.
They were in no hurry. So Jamie pulled back from him. “So about your intentions,” she said a naughty smile playing on her lips.
“What about them?” Jesse asked.
“Are you going to tell me what they are?”
“Nope,” he said.
“Would you like to know what mine are?” she asked as she pushed him onto his back and straddled him.
“Sure,” he said.
Jamie lowered her head and kissed his collarbone, down over his pecs, down the central groove in his stomach all the way to the button on his jeans. There she halted and looked up at him. He was watching her with a bemused look on his face.
Then she undid the button and pulled the zipper down.
Jesse just smiled at her and laughed as she pulled his jeans right off and threw them on the floor. Then she pulled his underwear off, discarding that too.
“Well now you’re hopelessly overdressed for this party,” Jesse said, his voice still light but there were undertones and his breathing had quickened.
Carefully, painstakingly slowly, Jamie stripped off her clothing, one piece at a time throwing them at him, with a self-satisfied smile as he caught them and smelled each one before grabbing the next one out of the air. Eventually she ran out of clothes.
Jesse crooked a forefinger at her but Jamie wasn’t finished. She knelt down in front of him and spread his legs, slipping between them. He was already hard, and she took him in her mouth, tasting him as she worked his shaft with her hand. He began to groan and she grew excited, drawing pleasure from his response to her touch. She ran her free hand along his muscular thighs, feeling them shiver as she sucked and licked.
Jesse reached down and drew her up to him, He wrapped his arms around her and kissed her deep in her mouth. Then he lay back and positioned her over his mouth. Jamie felt him lick her, gently at first and then with more vigor and urgency. He inserted a finger, sliding it up inside her and Jamie arched backwards as electricity filled and jolted through her. He kept working her as he slid her back down his body, finding a breast with his mouth, licking the nipple, nibbling it, sucking it until it stood on end. Then he moved to the other one, gently teasing it to attention.
Jamie had had her fair share of lovers over the years, some good and some bad. Jesse was the one that left them all very far behind. He kissed her, and ran his tongue a
long her neck making goosebumps erupt on her skin as he took an earlobe into his mouth and nibbled on it. His voice was soft and gentle as he spoke to her. Sweet nothings but growing more and more urgent.
Finally entered her. Jamie had been waiting, holding her breath almost, not wanting to come too soon and ruin the whole thing. He had her walking a knife edge of pleasure. She wanted this to last forever. She wanted Jesse to be inside her for the rest of her life feeling him move and writhe with her. She could see is enjoyment, see his hunger for her burning in his eyes as he looked at her.
He began to move slowly at first, and she could feel every inch of him inside her as he thrust. She moved with him, the two of them creating a dance that only they would ever do, to this rhythm in this way. The wave built and grew, filling them both with a desire, a need to be together on a cellular level. Jamie needed Jesse to be with her, in heart, mind and body. He lifted her onto his lap letting her ride him, giving her the control, and she loved it. Now she teased him, squeezing him inside her, making him moan and groan, going faster and faster, as he licked and sucked on her breasts, kneading them.
Eventually Jamie couldn’t hold it in any more. She felt the warmth begin from her toes and rise up along her spine filling her with fire. It was wave on wave of ecstasy and rode them into the shore of bliss.
Afterwards as the sunset and the world turned to monochrome in the pale moonlight, Jamie rolled over and kissed Jesse awake. He reached over and his hands found her warm and inviting.
“So, do you think you could do all that again?” she asked.
He grinned and said, “I don’t know, we could give it a try.”
And as Jesse kissed and licked his way over her body, Jamie felt herself rise from her sadness. Her heart finally had something to rejoice about, and she was never going to let him get away.
Matthew
Bearly Saints I
by
Becca Fanning
Melinda Darling let out a squeak as she hit bottom turning into the pothole-infested gravel parking lot of the Irish Town Pub.
“Please, please, please don’t need any repairs,” she muttered to her car. “I just had you in, and I can’t spend another dime until payday, so please, please, please.”
Slowing to a crawl, she made her way toward the front door of the old warehouse-turned-pub. The only thing the least bit Irish she could see was the color and the name—Kelly green covered the entire metal box, and there was a shamrock over the “i” in Irish—but the metal stairs leading up to the enclosed porch screamed “warehouse entrance” not “friendly neighborhood pub.” Not that Mel had ever been to Ireland to see what a real Irish pub looked like in person, but she had seen The Quiet Man and Darby O’Gill and the Little People, so she knew what a pub was supposed to look like, and this place simply did not mesh at all with what she had imagined for an Irish pub. Nor did the rows of beefy motorcycles lining the front of the building. Mel groaned once more as she brought her compact car to a stop next to a rusty blue van.
“What am I doing here?” she cried.
But of course she knew very well what she was doing here: Trying to save her job is what she was doing here. Fresh out of college with a master’s degree in music business, she had charged onto the country western scene in the Music City ready to discover and manage the newest and greatest bands Nashville had ever seen. Then reality had set in, as she learned that, like guitar players, Nashville was simply crawling with agent wannabes, and she had been forced to settle for an entry-level job with an established firm. Her “boss from hell,” Kitty Konstantine, kept all her minions out late at night, seven nights a week, trolling the small-time venues for the best and brightest new musicians and bands she would then “discover.” Fat bonuses and promotions had been promised to those minions who delivered, but in reality, following the “Konstantine Rules” barely allowed Mel to pay the rent and keep the lights on.
“But why did they have to come here?” she moaned. “Couldn’t they have been seen hanging out at a pizza joint or a Mickey D’s?”
The “they” in question were the members of a country western band she had heard the night before in a little dive down on Belmont Boulevard near her old haunts from her university days. They called themselves The 4 Saints, which had seemed a little weird until she’d learned the four members were brothers with the last name of Saint. Their music had absolutely enthralled her. Traditional in style, as they all played acoustical instruments only—guitar, double bass, mandolin, fiddle, and drums—they had a new, different sound when they sang, because there wasn’t a tenor among them. All four sang bass or baritone, and their voices had blended in a way that only siblings who had sung together all their lives could. They performed all their own songs, which had been a happy mix of up-beat tunes and ballads; hilarious and solemn; family-friendly and sexy.
When she’d first walked in, they’d been singing a song about animals on a farm that had had the audience rolling with laughter, but by the time she’d taken her seat at the bar, they’d switched to a love song, a ballad that had nearly broken her heart. There had been something about all of the brothers that had left her feeling as though they’d been singing directly to her, and at one point, the lead singer—the guitarist—had met her eyes across the room, and she’d almost melted on the spot. She’d told herself later that of course he hadn’t been singing that song to her, personally, but when she closed her eyes, she could still see him.
Those eyes were not something she was likely to forget any time soon, for even from a distance that deep golden color had seemed to look right into her deepest places. All four young men were big—tall and straight, with broad shoulders, slender waists, and muscular arms and legs. Their costumes were nothing more than worn jeans and flannel shirts over white t-shirts, as though there was nothing special about what they were doing. Every brother had dark, rich, wavy hair that varied in color from mink to beaver, and all but the youngest had a distinctive five-o’clock shadow. After watching them for a time, she realized they all shared the leader’s golden eyes, too, a fact that had tickled something at the back of her mind, but after a time, she’d dismissed it as unimportant. She’d had to remind herself to breathe more than once throughout the evening, and if she hadn’t been called away by a text message from Kitty, she would have stayed right where she was until they’d turned out the lights.
The really frustrating part was that Kitty had had another, totally inane errand for her to run, and by the time she’d gotten back to the bar, The 4 Saints had been gone. It was the bartender who had told her that they liked to play pool at a place called the Irish Town Pub south of the airport, so here she was, desperately hoping they were here this evening. She hadn’t told Kitty about the band; there was no way she was going to give anyone the chance to steal this discovery until after she’d had a long talk with them. They were good enough that getting them on her side might make the difference between getting real credit for her discovery and taking a back seat to The Boss once more.
“Courage is being scared to death...and saddling up anyway,” she quoted softly.
That was all well and good for John Wayne, she supposed, but as Mel stepped out of the car, she was more than a little aware of the fine line between courage and pure foolishness. It was one of those scary still nights, when even the summer “peepers” seemed to be alert and waiting for something to happen. She crossed the rough parking lot warily, careful to miss the muddy puddles and wishing she were wearing flat shoes instead of the three-inch heels Kitty insisted her minions wear in public. The night was hot and humid, not at all unusual for early June in Nashville, and she hoped the air conditioning in the pub wasn’t so high that she’d end up freezing once she was inside. Somehow she didn’t think the cardigan sweater she always carried in her car would make much of an impression if she pulled it on over her skinny black dress.
Mel climbed the concrete steps and paused only long enough to check her reflection in the polished steel door. She sa
w clearly what everyone else saw: Miss Average—average height, average figure, clear complexion dotted with freckles, and shoulder-length, curly auburn hair, which had been the bane of her existence since the first grade. Running her hands through her hair one last time in an attempt to flatten it down in spite of the humidity, she told herself to relax, opened the door, and stepped inside.
Mel hesitated as the door closed automatically at her back, waiting for her eyes to adjust to the dim light which was little improved over the dusk enshrouded parking lot. As her surroundings became clearer, she saw a long wooden bar on the left and pockets of light fanning out on the right, where steel pendent work lights hung over a collection of bare round tables with beat-up metal chairs. There were blackout blinds on the wide front windows, and decorations were limited to car and motorcycle parts and posters. It took her only a moment to realize everyone in the bar was staring at her. Her second thought was that they were mostly men, rough-looking men, who were running their eyes along her slim form from head to toe as though undressing her. Suppressing a shudder, she took a deep breath and smelled cigarette smoke, beer, fried food, and sweat. The men all seemed to be dressed in leather, their heads wrapped in colorful bandanas. When she looked closer, she saw there were a few women present, but most of them wore leather, too, though theirs had fringe and sometimes sparkling beads. Swallowing hard, Mel turned toward the bar, where she noticed two other women dressed in matching shorts and tight blouses that highlighted their ample breasts. They carried trays with glasses and beer bottles.
Luke (BBW Country Music Bear Shifter Romance) (Bearly Saints Book 3) Page 24
