Call of the Bear

by T. S. Joyce

  Bron slid his arms around her shoulders and held her tight, then kissed her forehead and eased back like he couldn’t help but watch her. “I remembered from before.”

  She must’ve told him at some point, but she couldn’t recall an exact conversation about it.

  Her eyes prickled with tears and she blinked them away. Stunned, she said, “I didn’t think it was in the budget.”

  “It wasn’t,” Dillon piped up.

  Bron twisted but she missed whatever look he gave his employee because she couldn’t stop staring at the swing.

  “This one’s on me. I got it for a steal from the hardware store. It adds curb appeal.”

  He was fibbing. It wasn’t just to add curb appeal and he knew it. He’d done it for her, because somewhere inside of him was the boy she remembered.

  “You want to try it out?” he asked.

  Dillon and Grant sauntered back inside and she sat gingerly on the swing.

  “It won’t fall. We replaced the beams up top for you, too.”

  The fool grin on her face couldn’t be helped and she laughed as she rocked back. The rhythmic squeak of the metal chains sounded like home.

  “I’ve missed that smile,” he said softly.

  He’d pulled his sunglasses back on, even though the day was chilly and overcast. She wished she could see his eyes when he said things like that.

  “Sit by me?”

  “Woman, I took a three hour lunch break and we’re on a tight deadline.”

  “I’m your boss, right?”

  His smile lines deepened. “I guess technically you’re paying me for the work, so you could be considered my boss.”

  “I want you to sit by me, Bron, and then I want you to hold me tight and pretend that this could be us when we’re old.”

  The smile dipped from his lips and he hesitated before striding over to her, boots making a hollow sound on the new wooden boards.

  Settling beside her, he draped his arm around her shoulders and drew her into his side.

  “Today has been perfect,” she whispered as they watched the sun sink below the Seven Devils Mountains.

  Drawing her legs into his lap, he hugged her closer. She couldn’t see his face, because he was watching the sunset, but from here, his cheeks swelled like he was smiling. He’d done that a lot today.

  He was so warm, she didn’t even feel the chill of the oncoming night. His gray thermal shirt had the top button undone, and she could see the hard line bisecting his pecs that delved beneath the thin material.

  He stood suddenly and walked into the house, and she thought she’d angered him somehow. But he came back moments later with a blanket and draped it around her shoulders, then kissed the top of her head and murmured, “I’ve got to get back to work. Why don’t you take the night off? The walls look great.”

  She beamed under his compliment. They did look pretty good, if she did say so herself.

  “I do need to run into town and check my work email. Maybe I’ll get some more groceries to stock the fridge while I’m running around. You need anything?”

  Ensnaring her with both hands on either side of her hips, he leaned forward and took a long pull of her lips. He angled his head and his tongue brushed her mouth, asking for an invitation in. Wrapping her arms around his neck, she gave into him, rolling her tongue against his as he sipped at her.

  The blanket slipped from her shoulders as he pressed her back, but she didn’t care. She was greedy for his touch. With a love nip, she bit his bottom lip and a low rumble sounded from his chest. Before he could stop, she pressed her hand against his heartbeat to feel the vibration of the strange sound. It was something that had always been a part of him—a part of him that she loved.

  “Why do you make that sound?” she asked.

  “Because I want you,” he said simply.

  The sound was desire for him then, and she couldn’t help the pride that swelled and filled her.

  “Grrr,” she said in a pathetic imitation.

  He dropped his head against her chest and chuckled.

  “Are you laughing at my love growl?”

  “Yes,” he croaked out. “It’s cute. You’re cute.”

  “Cute like a baby turtle, or cute like a sexy vixen who amuses you so much you want to ravage her every chance you get?”

  He took her hand and pressed it against his erection in answer, then turned and sauntered away. “You’re no baby turtle, Sam. You’re pure trouble,” he said with a devilish grin before he disappeared inside.

  ****

  Samantha had intended for her trip to be a quick one, but she’d got sucked into skyping her boss and going over the rest of the week’s deadline schedule, and it had taken half an hour to download the files she needed for work on account of the sketchy Wi-Fi that kept making her sign in over and over. She had to rush through grocery shopping because the store closed at eight, and by the time she got home, the crew, including Bron, had gone home for the day.

  She tried to stifle the disappointment of missing him, but a note taped to the door made her bad timing a little easier to swallow.

  Hey Trouble,

  I need to take care of some stuff at home.

  Be back soon.

  -Bron

  It was the same blocky, capital letter print writing she’d memorized from all of the notes he’d passed her in class when they were younger.

  Folding it neatly, she opened the front door and pressed it into her desk drawer with the rest of the pictures from her past. After the groceries were unloaded, she cooked spaghetti and sautéed vegetables with a country station crooning to her about relaxing after a hard day’s work. Amen to that.

  Dishes cleaned, showered, legs shaved, face scrubbed and bed turned down, she recorded her lines for work in the closet and checked the window for the tenth time. This time, unlike the others, Bron’s truck was parked across the street.

  Flicking her fingertip away to lower the blind, she tried to steady her thundering heartbeat. She had a plan, but acting on it would make leaving on Saturday excruciating. But if she didn’t, she’d never know how it was to be close to him again. She would always wonder, what if?

  He’d said they needed to live like they meant it. But this? There would be no getting over ripping her heart open and letting him burrow inside.

  Hang responsible decisions. She wanted him and the thought of denying herself his touch hurt too much. Sliding her feet into a pair of warm slippers, she wrapped a blanket around her shoulders and padded out onto the porch and down the sidewalk.

  Bron opened the door to his pickup before she even got there. “What’s wrong?” he asked, frown marring his features.

  Good grief, this was a really bad idea.

  “If we only have four days left together, I don’t want to spend any of that time apart.”

  “Okay. I had to take care of stuff at my house tonight though—”

  “No, that’s not what I’m saying.” God, she was so awkward at this. She blamed it on zero adult experience at seducing a man. “I want you to stay with me. At nights. I mean I want you to sleep beside me.”

  The tension in his shoulders relaxed and he shut the door to his truck softly. “You want me to stay inside with you?”

  “Yeah.”

  He dragged her waist to him and spun her until she was pressed against the side of his pickup. “And you just want me to sleep beside you? Because I’m telling you right now, you strip out of those ugly pajama pants in the middle of the night and brush those sexy little panties against me, and it won’t be sleeping that’s on my mind.”

  Oh, what that man did to her insides when he talked like that.

  “I bought condoms at the store.” Hunching her shoulders, she squeezed her eyes closed in mortification at allowing him to see just how much planning she’d put into this. She opened one eye, but he didn’t look surprised at all. In fact, he looked utterly satisfied and more than a little amused.

  His gaze dipped to her lips a
nd he pulled her flush against him. “Good.”

  Wrapping the blanket around him to keep them both warm, she stood on tiptoes and kissed him. Never in her lifetime could she ever tire of the feel of his mouth against hers, or the taste of him, and she only had four days to savor him completely.

  His grip hardened around her waist, and with a nip at her neck, he folded her into his arms and carried her into the house. She expected ravaging and clothes ripping, but instead, he set her gently down in the bedroom and wrapped his arms around her, buried his face in her neck like he had at the cemetery.

  “Are you sure about this?” he rasped against the oversensitive skin just under her ear.

  Sure about it? Heck no. She was standing on the edge of a cliff and the wrong step could cut them both down to nothing. But she was already too far in, so close to his ready body. She couldn’t stop now if she tried.

  “I’m sure I want to be with you. I always have.”

  As he eased back, she saw the agonized expression on his face just before his lips crashed onto hers. Head bobbing and jaws working, she was overwhelmed by his warm hands exploring her body. Shirt gone, and now her pants joined the growing pile on the floor.

  Bron’s hair was mussed in a sexy tostle from tugging his sweater off, and his smile was slow and thirsty as he stared at her breasts. They were full and swollen as her want turned to eagerness.

  Leaning forward, he palmed her breasts, pushing one upward until it was angled toward him. Dipping his lips to her taut nipple, his tongue on her flesh brought a helpless moan from her as she gripped his hair.

  Slow, languid licks, and she was beginning to think she could have an orgasm just from this. Her breath quickened as he moved his attention to the other side, and the slow rip of his zipper zinged a shiver of anticipation up her spine.

  If he kept going, lapping at her as if she tasted like nectar, her knees were going to go out completely. As if he saw it coming, he pressed her back onto the edge of the bed and spread her knees wide.

  Right. This was it. Reaching, she snatched a condom from the bedside table where she’d fanned them. He took it from her hand and tossed it to the floor. “Not yet, baby. We’ve got all night.”

  Oh. He pulled her panties down to her ankles in a slow seduction and bit the tender skin of her inner thigh. Oooh.

  No, no, no, she wasn’t comfortable with this. It was…she was…boys shouldn’t kiss down there. “Wait—”

  He rubbed his hands up the inside of her legs and squeezed until she could see his fingers indent in her soft flesh. “You changed your mind?” Concern flashed through his eyes, so light, she couldn’t tell if they were green or blue anymore.

  “No. Just…you don’t have to do that.”

  His lip curled up on one side. “Woman, I’m not doing it because I have to. I’m doing it because I want to taste you. Your smell has been driving me mad for days. I want more.”

  “It’s not weird for you?”

  A deep chuckle reverberated in his throat and he looked her dead in the eye when he said, “Not at all.”

  “Okay.” She had tensed her legs in protest, but relaxed again as he massaged her calf and pressed a kiss against her ankle, then trailed his lips to leave a love bite against her knee, and brushed his five o’clock shadow against her inner thigh until she trembled at the sensation.

  Cheeks still aflame, she rocked her head back and closed her eyes as his tongue dipped shallowly into her. His hands found her breasts and tugged on her sensitive nipples, and when she groaned, he rewarded her with a deeper thrust. Hard in and slow out, and she pressed forward with the delicious sensation.

  That rumbling growl he always had ready was nothing shy of erotic as the vibrations went straight through her sex and into her belly. He jerked her hips forward like he couldn’t get enough of her.

  He was so fucking good at this.

  Elbows locked, sheets clenched in her fists, she couldn’t’ help but look down at him as his head bobbed sensually between her legs. She was gasping his name and every muscle in her body quivered as each stroke of his tongue brought her closer to release. His hands grabbed her ass tighter, and his tongue drove deeper and the sound of him sipping her filled the room, and she was gone, floating off somewhere. Her orgasm pounded through her, pulsing, quickening as she ground out a curse at the shock of how hard her insides clenched around him.

  Bron reached over and plucked the condom from the floor. Ripping paper sounded, but she hadn’t the energy to do more than fall back onto the covers. Her bones had left her, and now she had no more substance than sand. Bron leaned over her with that sexy smile. Half of his face was shadowed, and half was lit by the bedside lamp and his eyes were so bright. He looked utterly full of himself and she couldn’t help the giggle that bubbled from her throat.

  “Soft curses and my name as nothing more than a whisper on your lips,” he said low. “You’ll have to do better than that, love.”

  “What do you want?”

  He covered her with his body, his frame pressing her into the mattress. The head of his cock touched her right as the last aftershock faded.

  His eyes grew serious and hungry. “I’m going to make you scream my name.”

  Oh, when he spoke like that, such a knot of anticipation filled her belly.

  Another shallow thrust, and she could see it all so clearly. He was going to drive her mad with lust until she begged. Pressure was already building again as he pressed into her a little deeper. He was big and thick, and fuck the physics that seemed to say there was no way he could fit himself inside of her, she wanted all of him. To the base, to the hilt, she wanted him to push into her until there was no end and beginning to their connection.

  She wanted to touch him.

  Running her palms down his taut abdomen, she felt him flex with every thrust. He hadn’t taken his gaze from her, and when she closed her eyes to absorb all the sensations he was pulling from her body, he cupped the sides of her face and tangled his fingers in her hair.

  “No, Sam,” he murmured. “I want to watch you.”

  Opening her eyes, she tipped her chin and kissed his lips. He tasted rich and heady, but she was already too far gone to be embarrassed by the taste of herself on him. Forcing his tongue past her lips once, twice, he eased back and bucked into her again, deeper.

  “Tell me something no one else knows,” he whispered.

  Cupping his hands with her own to keep them in place against her face, she said, “You’re my only.” Only man to be invited to her bed. Only love. Only everything. “And you?”

  “I love you,” he rasped. “Always have, always will.”

  Closing her eyes to absorb the truth of his words, a tear of happiness fled the corner as he slowly pressed the entire length of his cock inside of her. He was long and thick, and she had to remind herself to relax or she wouldn’t be able to take him, but the small pain of the stretch was worth the reward as he touched her clit. She gasped as pleasure shot through her, and he pulled back by inches before he drove in again, harder this time.

  God, she’d missed this—missed him. Missed the feel of him inside of her. Arching against him, blow for blow, they bucked faster and faster until she was on the verge of spilling over again.

  The sound of their skin hitting, the bed ramming against the wall, the constant rumble in his throat and his eyes…they’d be terrifying if she didn’t know his heart. Their thrusting became frantic and his muscles strained, tensed, and she chanted a high-pitched wail of pleasure every time he filled her.

  And he’d been right. He did make her scream his name as she came around him. Gritting his teeth, Bron froze, then thrust erratically into her as he found his own release.

  They lay there for a long time, pulsing together, slower and slower until every aftershock was through.

  He kissed her cheeks and her forehead and finally her lips, and lifted off her. Without a word, he curled her against his stomach and sighed the most contented sound.

&
nbsp; What they’d done had just sealed her fate. She could feel it. No matter where she went now, or where she ended up, he would always be it for her.

  “Bron?” she asked.

  “Mmm?”

  “I love you, too. Always have, always will.”

  Chapter Ten

  A tingling in his arm woke Bron up. He tried to wiggle his fingers, but they were completely numb and he turned toward Samantha. She was asleep against his shoulder, her full lips slightly parted and her dark hair fanned out in rolling waves against the pillow. She looked at peace, like all of the stress of the past few days had lifted.

  She’d been so open to trying new things with him. He’d always known she was brave, but last night had proved it. He could see her reservation about him tasting her, but she’d let him, and he’d felt the exact moment she let herself go.

  God, she was beautiful.

  As gently as he could, he lifted her head and freed his arm.

  It hadn’t been like this with Muriel. She had hated him touching her. She slept in a separate bedroom after their first year together. Sometimes she had cried after they were intimate. Neither of them wanted that marriage, and they’d both suffered to make it work. He got it. Muriel was in love with someone else too and he was a poor substitute for him just as she was a poor substitute for Sam. Even understanding that she felt she was betraying the man she loved by sleeping with Bron didn’t take the sting off of the fact that for years, a woman, his wife, had cringed when he touched her.

  With Sam, everything was effortless.

  Just the brush of his hand brought a shiver to her sometimes, and he relished in how her body reacted to him, how aroused she smelled, when he gave her affection. By the end of his marriage to Muriel, he was afraid of touching anyone—of seeing that disappointed look in anyone’s face. But with Sam, he was learning to trust himself again. She was teaching him how to enjoy intimacy in a way he thought he’d never feel again.

  Three more days wasn’t enough.

  He’d stupidly thought if he was sated with Sam this week, it would hold him—for a while at least. But the more he was with her, the more dire her presence felt to his happiness.