by Amelia Jade
Those reasons were exactly why she allowed herself to be frustrated with the barkeep, Jet, she believed his name was after hearing one of the other patrons shout it. By helping her out and keeping him away from her, he had inadvertently claimed her as being under his protection. Now everyone would associate the two of them together, which was not what she wanted.
Kailee Britten had not moved to a new town in the middle of nowhere just to be claimed by the first man she ran into. That was not the way she planned for things to go.
Still, the way the waitress kept hissing at him, like a rabid cat, was beginning to get on her nerves as well. Jet had been nothing but polite and respectful to her, even if he had tried to be her knight in shining armor. He didn't deserve to be treated with such little respect and disdain. There had to be something she could do about it, but she wasn't sure what.
You shouldn't even be worrying!
The internal war played out in her mind for some time, a constant back and forth see-saw battle. She knew that the moment she spoke up or did something that resulted in Jet having to focus on her, she was confirming to him that there was something there. That wasn’t something she was prepared for, but it seemed inevitable.
As it happened, she ran out of beer before a decision could be made. The sound of her empty glass hitting the bar proved to be enough of a distraction anyways. Kailee was actually quite happy with herself, having found a solution to the problem that didn’t involve long-winded explanations of why something just wasn’t going to happen between them.
“Need a refill?” he asked, gesturing slightly at her empty mug as if she didn’t know that it was dry.
“Just one more, if you don’t mind.” She still had to drive home after, and despite the faster metabolism that being a bear shifter entailed, she still didn’t want to do anything stupid. Getting really drunk could wait until she got home.
Her drink poured, Jet brought it back to her spot, setting it down in front of her even as she reached to take it. At the last moment, her hand brushed against his, the faintest of contact. The electricity was so strong it was a visible, tangible thing as far as Kailee was concerned. The embers of her arousal, still warm but having calmed under her control, flared back to life in an explosion that could have been seen in the next county, she was sure.
She froze in place, her hand still outstretched around the mug as he slowly withdrew his hand, looking at it strangely. He then turned his gaze upon her, at which point Kailee knew she had to get out of there. Fumbling with her wallet, she pulled out a wad of cash and tossed it on the glossy wood of the bar, pulling her pants up as she made to leave.
“Wait, don’t go yet,” he started, his voice uncertain, as if he had been betrayed by his voice before the brain had a chance to think, and was now trying furiously to play catch-up.
“What is it?” she replied, doing her best to instill as much disinterest and pseudo-anger into her voice as she could manage. She turned back to face him, waiting for a reply.
It must have sounded more intimidating than she thought, because he swayed backward slightly in surprise. For a long moment, he simply stared at her, and Kailee was afraid that he was going to push into her personal space. That would have been the end of her resistance for the evening and she would have succumbed to his charms in any way he wanted.
But that was not to be, for he simply held her gaze, his eyes seeming to see right through her. After another pause, he simply shook his head, letting her go. She let out a small sigh of relief until his eyes flicked warily behind her before narrowing with anger. Knowing what was coming, she took a deep, calming breath in preparation of it.
The squeeze was gentler than she expected from Tom, more of a sensual caress than a firm open handed pat upon her rear end. She had ample enough surface area for him to latch on to, and he seemed insistent on trying it all because his hand didn’t stop moving, even as she squared her shoulders and turned around, prepared to do what was necessary to defend her persona.
“Now, what do you say we get on out of here?” he suggested, whispering in her ear.
Before Kailee could do anything, Jet had leapt over the bar and pushed past her. She watched as his massive arms flexed, infused with the strength of his bear as he lifted Tom clear of his feet and headed toward the door. The waitress screamed, rushing to the door to head him off.
“Have you lost your mind?” she yelled at Jet, trying to block his progress as mayor sputtered and protested, trying to regain his dignity at being handled so bodily.
Kailee looked on as the two quarrelled, Jet holding Tom aloft with seemingly little effort. They had lowered their voices, but it was clear that the bear shifter was doing everything he could to contain his anger, trying not to lose his cool with her. After a few more sentences, he shook his head in frustration and simply pushed past her and out the door.
He returned a few moments later, devoid of Tom, much to the cheers of a number of the other patrons inside. It would appear that the mayor was not all that well liked in these parts, she mused. Although the waitress tried to stop him, Jet bulled right past her, headed straight for the bar.
She took that moment to flee, using his concentration on avoiding the waitress as a distraction so that she could get out the door without him stopping her. She took one quick glance back before exiting, just as he glanced up, their eyes making contact. It took all of her willpower to drag her eyes away before she became mesmerized by him once more. Before he could do anything more, she forced herself outside into the waning evening light.
Tom was pacing back and forth in anger, kicking at the gravel every time he turned. He looked up at her, but now that she was alone, in her own element, Kailee had no problems with standing her ground if he forced the issue.
Once he became aware of the expression on her face, he turned away, muttering something to himself, as he thought better of pursuing his ‘claim’ on her. Something told her that it wasn’t the last of the mayor’s involvement in her life, but for now he walked away, headed toward a fancy grey SUV. She watched him go before hopping into her own faded, battered pickup, tossing the Chevy’s drive into gear as she headed home, hoping she would be able to sleep.
Falling asleep turned out to be harder than she imagined. The constant tossing and turning, images of Jet flashing through her head over and over again threatened to keep her up all night. She finally buried her face in her pillow and screamed, trying to let loose with some of the tension. It remained firmly buried between her legs, however, a constant low throbbing of desire, pulsating outward from her clit until it slowly overwhelmed her.
Against her will, she slowly began to cave to the demands of her body. Moving of its own accord, drawn to her heat source, her hand slid under her stomach. She tried to fight it, to tell herself she was still in control, but she was fighting a losing battle, as her arousal continued to grow, until it dwarfed whatever willpower she had remaining.
When the tip of her finger finally slid under her nightwear and pressed against her aching clit, she gasped at the powerful sensation that flowed out through her. It flooded her wet cunt and swept up through her body. Kailee’s eyes shot open in surprise as she bit down upon a pillow to keep herself from screaming too loud.
It was too much, far more bone-numbing than anything she had experienced before. Her mind flooded with images of Jet, his powerful muscles taunting her with their appearance as they flexed and bulged in her mind. She could feel his hands around her waist, pulling her closer toward him, as he prepared to enter her.
She wanted it so badly, to feel the pressure of a man push between her legs and complete her, to slide deep into her pussy and fuck her until she screamed. It had been too long since a man had done that to her, far too long indeed. Her finger continued to move in circles across her clit, pushing Kailee to the edge as she basked in the knowledge that Jet would fuck her the right way.
Her orgasm came swiftly as she called out his name, not caring that she had barely just me
t the man. No, in her mind he had just cum inside of her, filling her with his seed as her pussy wrapped around his hard cock while Kailee descended into the midst of her own climax, all of it perfectly vivid in her mind.
As she lay there shuddering, her body shaking slightly with tremors as she began to slowly recover, Kailee tried to push Jet from her mind. He was gorgeous and sexy, and that’s how he needed to stay. She didn’t want anything more from him, nor was she planning to give him anything more.
Try as she might, she fell asleep swiftly, only to dream of him through the night.
***
Chapter Three
Jet
Jet bolted upright, his eyes wide as he pulled himself from his sleep. A cold sweat covered his body, the sheets sticking to him with dampness, telling him he’d been doing so for some time. His breath came in huge gasps, his massive chest heaving as he gulped down air, trying to calm his racing heart.
He ran through several mental meditation and relaxation routines he knew, looking for any source of solace. After the third run-through he began to feel his heartbeat return to a somewhat normal pace. His lungs slowly stopped sucking in huge gasps of breath, and he was able to lie back slowly into his bed.
The moist dampness of the sheets prevented him from becoming comfortable, and before long he was up, figuring to at least start his day, to try and be productive. After tossing the sheets in the washer, he headed for the shower to clean himself off. It was going to be a long day, and he would need every advantage he could get it would seem.
The warm water flowed straight down from the overhead rainfall shower head. He rested his hands against the wall, head bowed as he let the rushing liquid do its best to take the memories with it. No matter how far in his past it was, Jet would never be able to forgive himself for the things he had done in a prior life.
He consoled himself with the fact that he had done his best to make amends ever since he had quit that way of life. Moving out to the middle of nowhere and doing his best to provide for the town was the start, though one day he hoped to do much more. Even as he tried to forge a new life, occasionally something would remind him of the old one.
Yesterday it had been Kailee. He hadn’t realized it at the time since he had been smitten with her looks and aura from the moment he first set eyes upon her. But after the ruckus with Tom and Sandra, he had managed to calm down through the evening. It was then that he first clued into the fact that there was something vaguely familiar about Kailee.
It wasn’t anything to do with his new life here in Bear Bluffs, but it was too vague to tell him more. The only reason he felt it was from his past was through the simple process of elimination, because if it wasn’t his present, it must be his past. He wanted to see her again, to try and understand what it was he was looking for. Curiosity was a double edged sword he knew, since the odds were if he looked, he might uncover something he didn’t want to find out.
He would keep it in mind, he told himself as he toweled off. The thick, luxurious towel draped itself around him several times. It had been expensive, but with his large frame, finding a towel that didn’t leave parts exposed had been an impossible task until he had found this one. The sheer comfort of it brought about his first smile of the day, faint though it was.
Instead of sitting around the house, he got dressed, deciding to head into work. Being there that early might allow him to get a head start on some of the paperwork that always seemed to pile up. He wished that Sandra was more adept or even interested in doing it, so that he could turn it over to her. It would certainly make his life much easier if he could find someone who didn’t mind doing the paperwork. Even for an out-of-the-way bar, he seemed to find himself with an inordinate amount of it.
He did allow himself to take the scenic route to work, enjoying the various rock formations, vast swathes of trees and beautiful meadows that made up the area around the Bluffs. It was a peaceful drive, so much so that he made a mental note to start taking this way more often. He longed to stop and let his bear free, to spend the remainder of the morning and perhaps even some of the afternoon simply roaming about.
It would have to wait a few more days, however, until Monday rolled around. The first two days of the week he closed the bar down, taking it as his own personal weekend. That was something he took to heart and had never once done anything but take the time for himself, and his bear.
Keeping in touch with his animal side was important to Jet, since in his prior life he had ignored it almost completely. It had taken him a long, long time to realize that what was making him so miserable was the fact that half of his soul felt trapped within a cage, like an animal at the circus. Only after he had moved to Bear Bluffs, to a place surrounded by forest and other shifters, had he truly been able to re-establish contact with his bear.
Jet could not remember a time where he had been happier than these past few years. The two parts of his soul had been able to reconnect and thus flourish, which had then turned into the desire for a mate and cubs. Something he wanted, but now realized had never been possible with the women in his life.
Until Kailee walked through his bar door. While his human half only made a judgement on what he could see and hear, his bear made that call based on what it felt. There was much more to the animal half than simply being able to shape shift into the form of a bear. They could feel things, sense things that humans appeared blind to. After a time, with a close bond, a shifter could pick up on and understand some of those things.
To Jet, it was crystal clear that his bear believed it had found its mate. He wasn't one to argue with it, for he had felt the connection the night before when their hands had touched for the first and only time. It had been a wondrous moment, something that he hoped to replicate the next time he saw her.
Thus it was, with Kailee on his brain, that he pulled up to his workplace, whistling a song he had heard on the radio. Walking around to the front from his personal parking space, he raised an eyebrow at the white piece of paper stuck to the front door. He was up to date on all of his bills, that being something he forced himself to do as soon as they came in so that he had a clean slate.
As he got closer, it became clear it was just a single standard piece of paper taped to the door. Ripping it off, he unfolded it, his eyes skimming the text. With a snort, he crumpled it up, throwing it into the trashbin nearby as he went inside, closing and locking the door behind him.
"Well, I guess I'm hiring," he muttered to nobody in particular.
Sandra had left her resignation letter for him to find, using as few words as possible, with a few politely worded insults and threats as well. The language was slippery enough that he figured Tom must have had his fingers involved with it as well. The two of them were in cahoots, but she had no idea as to what their plan might be. He hoped it didn't involve anything too sinister, especially if he was going to be the recipient.
Part of him wasn't surprised to see the note as she had been quite upset the night before. Still, it frustrated him that he had to go out and hire somebody now, spend all that time training them up, all because she had delusions of grandeur. Tom was mayor, but of what? A town consisting of perhaps a thousand people under his jurisdiction? It certainly didn't scream power to Jet, but perhaps he was just too uncaring to understand.
He would have to print off an ad and take it into the general store. It would be the easiest way of seeing if anybody was looking for work. Bear Bluffs was about evenly split between shifters and humans, even if the shifters were the ones in command of the public sector. While the two crowds rarely had any issues with each other, they tended to keep their own company, simply because humans couldn't relate to anything with the shifters.
By posting his ad at the store, all of the normals would see it, and perhaps he would get a solid candidate without it taking too long. The Quencher wasn't overly busy even in its peak hours, but Jet had learned the hard way that he absolutely had to have the one assistant for the long term. Perhaps,
he mused idly, this one will be competent enough to help with the paperwork. That would be a huge boon, he knew, so he made sure to include a line about it on the job ad.
As he printed off a few copies of the ad to post elsewhere in what passed for downtown Bear Bluffs, another image of Kailee flashed through his mind. The way she wore that simple outfit the night before, with complete confidence, had him fighting to keep his raging cock under control. All morning he had been in a semi-hard state, but now, with a picture of her on his mind, it was much harder.
His bear was constantly growling at him, urging him to track her down and claim her. It knew she might resist at first, just like a female bear, but in the end she would accept his claim. It was useless trying to explain the idea of consent to his bear, but Jet was well aware he did not have it from her at the moment. He would have to seduce her the proper way if anything was to happen at all between them.
Locking the bar’s door behind him, Jet was caught off guard as a very flashy grey SUV pulled up to the front door. He hadn't expected to see Tom here so soon, especially not after the way Jet had bodily thrown him off the front porch that wrapped around the Quencher. Yet, it seemed that Tom was willing to forgive and forget, for he had a smile in place, and Jet had to admit, it looked genuine.
"Hey Jet, sorry about last night, my friend. I just wanted to come by and say that."
Jet tried not to let his jaw drop in surprise as he acknowledged the apology, waving it off and telling Tom he didn't need to worry about it, these things happen.
"Anyway, Jet," the mayor continued, moving on to the next subject so easily that Jet began to wonder what his real motive was for coming down to the bar.
