by Amelia Jade
The fire crew was not gone for long. He was still unloading several boxes from his truck into the apartment Jack had lent to him when it came rolling back in. He gave Harley a friendly wave, to which she promptly ignored him. The third person in the crew, whose name he did not know smiled and waved back, either oblivious or uncaring of the byplay.
Throwing the box he was carrying down on a table, he looked over at the firehouse, and then back at the small pile that was his belongings. It was unlikely that Harley wanted to see him at this point in time, but his bear wasn't going to calm down until he looked into her gorgeous blue eyes again.
He walked out front of the little apartment just as she was exiting the firehouse. She stopped and stared, a shocked look on her face for a moment, until she regained control. His footsteps crunched on the gravel as he approached her, the silence between them amplifying the sound.
"Are you okay?" He spoke first, hoping to start things off on a good note.
"Do I look hurt? I know how to do my job." She rolled her eyes in exasperation, but stuck out her arms and rotated them back and forth anyway to show that she was unharmed. It wasn't much, but it was the littlest sign to him that she didn't entirely object to his interest in her well-being.
"I'd like to take you to dinner tonight."
"I'm on shift until morning for one, and two, no."
"You can't deny what's happening between us," he said bluntly for the first time.
"I can't? Watch me. I just met you this morning buster, trust me, there is nothing happening between us."
Before he could say more, she walked away, headed back inside the firehouse. Chuckling mildly to himself at her feisty temper, he jogged after her. Stopping her before she got inside, he put an arm out in front, resting it on the brick wall. Although Harley could have gone around him, she stopped in her tracks, looking up into his eyes.
Stepping forward, he pushed himself through the building tension between them, as though the air was made of molasses. Each inch he closed between them made it harder for him to continue. He reached out his hand to hold her wrist, feeling her tremble as their skin made contact.
Her pupils widened as he pressed her hand to his chest, before stepping even closer, so much so that their bodies were touching. She never moved away, though she swayed slightly in front of him. At one point, her body made contact with his. His cock, already hard as steel, throbbed in response to the gentle caress from her stomach while he inhaled sharply as her large breasts pushed up against him.
A soft, barely audible gasp escaped her lips at the same time. He so badly wanted to reach out and cup her chin softly before pressing his lips to hers, sealing the distance with a kiss. Her nipples were hard and pushing through the thin white fabric of her Fire Department shirt, driving his bear wild.
He couldn't, however, not this time, not right now. She wasn't ready for him or his bear. If he pushed onward now, it was likely that Harley would relent, and let him do as he pleased with her. But not only was she supposed to be on duty with an important job, but she would never trust him after they were done. She would figure that he was only there for sex, and not the long haul. That was unacceptable to Calan.
It took all of his incredible willpower to step back, putting a few inches of space between them. They both visibly sagged as the moment passed, the blood rushing back to the rest of their bodies. Although Calan knew she was the one for him, that he would one day mark her and make her his mate, it was not this day. She wasn't ready, he needed a longer courtship, one that showed her who he truly was, and one that made her believe in love once again. He promised her silently that he would show her how a bear should really treat his mate.
"I'm not going to give up, but I can see that you need more time. We'll take this a little slower." He let go of her hand and let his arm drop from the wall, moving away from her and into the firehouse, giving Harley some space for the time being.
A tune on his lips, he jogged up the stairs to Jack's office. Although he was busy filing reports and did not have time to talk, he acknowledged Calan's acceptance of his job offer and told him to be ready tomorrow for testing. That was that, and he headed back to the apartment to assess things.
Outside the old building, Harley was nowhere to be found.
***
Chapter Four
Harley
Her heart was still hammering as she sat on the tailgate of her dad’s truck, parked behind the station. She looked down at her hands, which were shaking with nerves even now, minutes after he had left. The strength of her reaction was actually scaring her, making her nervous about letting it proceed any further. Although, when he had been pressed up against her...
Get it together woman, he's not serious!
She latched on to that thought, letting herself get used to the idea that he only wanted her for a roll in the hay. To Calan, she was nothing but a challenge, something to keep him occupied while he was in town.
Her dad had told her a little bit while they were out on the call, about how he had left town after his parents were killed, though he didn't say how. For the first few years, her dad had kept track of him, staying in touch with the odd email. After awhile Calan stopped replying, and from what she had gathered, the last few emails had not been very happy. Apparently he had wandered from town to town, from a big city to little village, all over the country.
His nickname had become 'Rogue' because he was always moving on, never staying put. She snorted at the lameness of it, wondering if he ever called himself by the moniker. Other than that tidbit of information, her father had not offered up much, telling her she should ask him about it. Frustrated at his lack of information, she had stomped off to a different section of the campground, taking her wrath out on a group of campers who had used lighter fluid to help start their fire.
If she was honest with herself, the anger was self-directed, at her inability to keep her body calm anytime she even laid eyes upon him. Even now, without Calan in sight, Harley wanted to have him nearby, to feel his thick, strong arms wrapped around her, holding her close. She had felt his cock through his jeans earlier, the hard length of it pressed against her stomach, indicating his arousal.
That, was what she was having difficulty accepting. In her mind she called him a rogue, scoundrel, drifter and worse. Then an immediate attraction so powerful that it brought her entire world down until it consisted of nothing except the gorgeous, muscular man in front of her. Even now as she relived it in her brain, her panties flooded with warm honey, preparing her to take his hard-as-steel cock deep into her cunt.
Without thinking, Harley found her hand inside her pants, pushing down past her panties. The tips of her fingers became slippery as she gently slid them inside of her, trying to relieve the itch that Calan had caused within her. Glancing around to ensure she was alone, she rubbed herself slowly, her heart pounding in her head with nervousness that she might get caught.
The pressure was too much though. She had to forge on, curling first one, then a second finger inside her wet canal. Her palm rubbed her clit as she moved her hand back and forth, bullets of pleasure shooting through her body more and more frequently. The images of Calan inside her head promised a swift climax if she continued her motions. Not wanting to deprive herself after pushing this far, Harley let her fingers move of their own accord, dancing across her clit in an ever quickening pattern.
Her back against the wall of the pickup truck, she felt like a horny teenager all over again, doing whatever it took to give herself even a little sexual release. The pressure built rapidly, and before long her free hand slipped under her shirt and bra, tweaking her nipple in time with the back and forth movements of her other hand.
The cliff was fast approaching, and Harley tried to throw herself over it, opening herself up to the orgasm that was bearing down on her. She desperately needed this release, to clear her head and think rationally about the man who was currently fucking her with abandon in her mind. A gasp escaped her lips
and she moved her hand faster, trying to force the explosion of pleasure from her wet pussy.
"Harley?" A voice yelled from the firehouse.
Fuck off!
With a scream of sexual frustration she punched the worn black lining of the pickup bed and hopped out, slamming it behind her in anger. The blue truck rocked slightly under her punishment, but she wasn't putting her strength into it, simply trying to release some tension.
It was Sam. She had told him not to bother her for twenty minutes unless something came up that was urgent. As much as she wanted to ignore it, the professional within her had to respond.
She longed to shift into her bear and roam the forests nearby, but there was no way she could do that while on duty. It would have to wait. With another sigh, she headed inside to see what he needed.
As she walked, her clit still ached to be touched.
***
The soothing rattle of rain against her metal roof woke Harley several days later. It was, she noted, not looking like the best weather for taking the firefighter testing. Oddly though, the thought did not amuse her the way she had expected. Refusing to think on it anymore, she got up and dressed, ready to head into work. If she knew one thing about Calan, it was that she had no idea how she felt.
The rain had driven many of the normal tourist campers away, which meant the day was likely to be slow. Therefore, Harley found herself sitting on the back of her Jeep, watching as her father put Calan through his paces. Three days of crash-course training was far short of the normal process, but things operated slightly differently in the country.
The first part was the physical evaluation.
The constant bulging of his arms, or the flexing of the muscles across his back, as he lifted hoses and other equipment in rapid-fire sequence, helped to make the experience more enjoyable for her. There was no denying that he was a gloriously sculpted figure of male sexuality. When he had initially rolled up the sleeves of his shirt, Harley had almost bitten right through her lip. She could stare at him from a distance like this for a long time.
The second part of the testing was a time-challenge in the training building. Out behind the newer firehouse was a building constructed entirely for testing purposes. There were smoke generators, heated door traps, and at the top, a two-hundred-pound dummy that the trainee had to rescue. It was here that the majority of newcomers failed.
Sam came over to speak to Calan as he was donning the suit he would have to wear for the final test. The thick, fire-resistant material would certainly slow him down, though she wondered by just how much. From what she had seen, his physical abilities were off the charts compared to the rest of the department. As a grizzly bear shifter, he was destined to be larger than other shifters, but even for one of them he was massive.
His thick hands made short work of the remaining clasps. She admired his dexterity as well, wondering just what he might be able to do with them. The immediate spark of heat that thought generated was more than enough to ward off the penetrating cold of the day. She pushed her thighs closer together, trying to scratch the itch between her legs that had suddenly cropped up.
The effect that Calan had upon her physically was maddening to the point she almost wished she were blind. If that were the case, then she wouldn't become aroused the instant his steely-eyed gazed turned her way as it was doing now. She looked around in mild embarrassment as he continued to stare at her. He was at least one hundred feet away, but his presence was so large it was as if he was standing there right next to her.
The two then turned away and looked at the course he was about to run. With a few quick gestures, it seemed to her as if Sam was giving him some advice on the course. It irked her to no end to not know what they had been saying about her, before so casually turning away. She vowed to have a word with Sam, to find out just what they had been discussing.
Harley let her ego stew for a minute as Calan began the course. He proceeded swiftly but not recklessly, as if he had been training to do the job for years. It had taken her three tries to successfully complete this section of training, but it looked to her that he was going to do it on his first. He wasn't going to complete it in record time, but it was going to be very close by the looks of it.
Then, without warning, one of the external stairs he was ascending collapsed under his weight. Her heart stopped as he hung awkwardly, his legs dangling in midair, almost two stories up. She cried out and began to run toward the building. This wasn't part of the training, and in a real situation he would have a team around him to help. She wasn't the only one, both Sam and her father were rushing toward him.
Before they could do anything to help him though, Calan managed to pull himself up and onto the next step. This one seemed to hold, though he crawled up several more before trying his luck at standing up. Her hands covered her mouth as she watched in terror, hoping that nothing more would happen to him.
Secure in his footing once more, he waved off his would-be rescuers and continued to ascend the four-story building. She had a much closer viewpoint now, able to see everything he was doing. When he reached the final test before the dummy-carry, he almost failed. She saw him reach out to turn the door handle and her heart sunk. If he opened it without testing it first, it was an automatic fail.
Just in the nick of time, however, he remembered his crash course training and began to test the door for heat. That obstacle cleared, now all he had to do was haul the weighted dummy back down and out of the building. Harley had no worries about him completing that section, for she had seen a few examples so far of just how strong he was.
The only part that gave her any worry was the broken stair, but he tested his way forward slowly, and stepped over it without an issue. Moments later he was clear of the building and lowered the dummy to the ground.
It was impossible for Harley not to be impressed by his feat of strength and intelligence. In only three days, he had absorbed enough knowledge to pass a test she had studied and trained six months for. Although she wanted to be mad over how easily he had seemed to accomplish what he set out to do, part of her enjoyed the way her man succeeded.
What the fuck?
That last thought threw her for a loop. There hadn't been much time for them to interact over the past few days because he had been busy studying for up to eighteen hours a day. Somehow he had still managed to ensure she was not alone outside for long periods of time, while she was near the firehouse at least. It had been a token gesture on his part, and they both knew it, but he went about it with utmost seriousness nonetheless.
Besides, she told herself, even if he passed the test, he wasn't going to stay in town. A man who had spent fifteen years wandering around the country didn't just magically decide it was time to settle down and start a family. If she let herself fall for him, then she would just end up being abandoned and hurt all over again. It wasn't worth it, not even for Calan.
Her temper flared at the memories and she stomped off, giving him no more than a cursory thumbs up for his efforts. He tried to follow her, but she went into the ready room at the firehouse and slammed the door behind her, forcefully making her point that she wished to be alone. To her surprise, he didn't follow her in, instead, he let her have some time alone. That was just fine, for she had no interest in spending time with him at the moment.
***
Chapter Five
Calan
Calan had watched his mate leave the area, anger clearly evident upon her face.
A week later, he was still trying to understand it. Although he hadn't expected a huge congratulations from her, the last thing he had planned was for her to be upset with him over it. Frowning, he took another swig of his beer in frustration.
The previous week had been an alternating current of hot and cold reactions from Harley, neither of which benefitted him. If she wasn't yelling at him for messing up even the tiniest thing, her attitude was frigid, colder than the winter he had spent in Canada. The lone victory was that she still
didn't try to fight him when he walked her to and from her Jeep. She didn't speak, ever, but she also hadn't told him to get lost.
The floorboards creaked, announcing the approach of somebody else. It was the middle of the day, so the Quencher was nearly empty. In fact, the only other person inside had been the bartender, Jet, and his waitress, Sandra. Calan had felt somewhat out of place, for he suspected there was something going on between the two of them, although they didn't want the town at large to know. Simply by being here he had prevented them from being alone. Now, however, with the approach of another person, he didn't feel so bad.
"I'll have one of your home brews please, Jet," Sam said as he sat down on the stool next to Calan.
The bartender nodded, grabbing a clean glass and pulling down the tap. The liquid amber flowed smoothly, mesmerizing the men for a moment. Even after the glass was placed in front of Sam, neither of the men said anything.
They both took a long draft of beer together, enjoying the smooth, subtle earthiness of the ale. It was brewed in-house by Jet and was quickly becoming a favorite of Calan's. Despite the delicious taste, however, he had to say something to Sam. It was a long time coming, and the man certainly deserved it.
Sam and he had gone to high school together, back when Calan still had a family and still lived a normal life here in Bear Bluffs. He had slammed that door shut, not ready to face those memories. The pain was still fresh to him, not having faded at all with the years. He owed something to the man sitting across from him now. Back in high school, Calan had not been the kindest person. In fact, he had been a bit of a bully.
"Thanks again for the tip, Sam. I almost forgot it anyway, but without your words I would have failed."
