by Alexis Davie
Spent, Zoe could not move, her pulse jumping.
This was a bad idea, she thought, her fingertips tracing over the smooth definition of the muscles in Rocco’s back, but she could not bring herself to believe it. As she lay beneath him, she didn’t want him to withdraw from between her legs. He felt so right there, as if he was made to fit precisely in the spot.
“Are you okay?” Rocco asked, his voice raspy. He also seemed reluctant to leave his warm spot, and Zoe knew that they were deeply connected beyond their carnal attraction to each other.
Rocco propped himself up on his arm and stared at her, lightly rubbing her cheek with his finger.
“You should go back to your room,” he whispered, but Zoe shook her head.
Besides, the look in his eyes told her that he didn’t want her to go anywhere.
“No,” she replied firmly. “I’m staying here with you.”
He smiled, his white teeth flashing against the darkness of the room. “You’re going to get us caught,” he warned her.
“So, let’s get caught,” Zoe replied recklessly, but she didn’t mean it. She knew if her brother caught wind of what they had done, she’d never hear the end of it.
“We can’t do this again,” Rocco told her, but again, Zoe could read the lie in his face.
“Yes, we can,” she said, her lips reaching for him. “In fact, we’re going to do it again right now.”
* * *
Over the next two weeks, it became harder and harder for Zoe and Rocco to hide their growing affection for one another, with Zoe becoming blatantly obvious about their nightly trysts.
Rocco was certain that everyone in the Carrington household was beginning to speculate about them, but he did his best to play dumb.
He couldn’t deny it anymore—he was falling in love with his best friend’s sister, but they could never work. Even if Branson was to give his reluctant blessing, who knew when Rocco would find himself back in Scarlet Oak?
Every night, Zoe snuck into Rocco’s room to spend passionate hours, licking and sucking him while he lost himself in her velvety softness. He had never known another woman like her, giving so much of herself to him and wanting nothing but his prowess in return.
“I am going back overseas next week,” he told her. “What are we going to do when I’m gone?”
She smiled beguilingly. “We’re going to have to up our game,” she replied, throwing open her robe to expose her fresh, lovely figure.
They rolled along the mattress, their rhythms in perfect sync as Zoe bucked underneath him, clawing at him wildly.
Rocco gnashed gently at her skin, feeling a tightening in his chest as he strove to claim her in every possible way.
Zoe shrieked, laughing as she was pulled atop him, giving her the straddling position she so often desired. Without preamble, she lowered herself onto him, placing Rocco’s hands on her breasts to guide her deep, slow rocking.
A split second before the door flew open, Rocco sat up, sniffing the air, but it was too late.
Branson stood in the doorway, his eyes bright with fury. “I knew it!” he screamed, stomping toward them.
Before Rocco could comprehend what was happening, Branson had become the beast, lunging for the pair.
In his rage, he swatted at his sister with a heavily clawed paw, sending her flying into the wall and making her collapse onto the ground.
The action spurred Rocco to abandon his human form, and suddenly, the two bears were entangled in a furious fight.
“Stop!” Zoe screamed, her voice coming out in a gasp. While it wasn’t the worst hit she had taken, it had still knocked the wind out of her, and she tried to stand up on her still shaking legs. “Stop it!”
Neither animal seemed to hear her as they grew into a mass of howling fur and sharp claws.
Rocco overtook his friend, pinning Branson to the bed with a massive paw and baring his teeth to go for the jugular. In an instant, he was unexpectedly wrestled backward by another bear in the room.
“Stop it, you idiots!” Don Carrington roared, half in form, his blue eyes alight with anger.
Rocco attempted to lunge at Branson once more, but Don wrapped his arms around him and kept him in place, holding him back.
“You are brothers!” the older man demanded.
The words seemed to calm Rocco and Branson down enough that they no longer yearned to kill the other, but ire was still very much alive in the room.
Rocco felt himself transition back as Don held onto him, watching Branson do the same. He glanced toward Zoe, who had wrapped a sheet around her naked form, standing on her feet but still trembling, and he rushed over to her.
“Are you all right?” he demanded, shooting Branson a dangerous look.
“She’s fine,” Don snapped. “She’s one of us. She’ll heal.”
Zoe nodded, lowering her eyes in embarrassment.
“You have been sleeping with Zoe under our noses!” Branson screamed. “When we opened our house to you!”
“I am a part of this household, too!” Zoe snarled. “And I’m a grown woman. I can decide who I want to sleep with. That doesn’t give you the right to storm in and attack!”
Branson seemed on the verge of morphing into his bear form once more, but Don bared his teeth in warning.
“Is this true, Zoe?” he asked his daughter. “You’ve been carrying on under our roof with Rocco?”
“Sir, it’s not like that,” Rocco interjected.
“Not like what?” Branson growled. “Not disgusting and disrespectful? I thought of you like a brother, Rocco, and this is how you repay that loyalty? Seducing my sister?”
Rocco didn’t know whether to laugh or be livid at Bran’s question.
“No one seduced me,” Zoe snapped. “Get it through your head that I’m not a child anymore, Branson. You cannot leave for three years and believe you can come back to dictate who I can fall in love with.”
A heavy silence fell over the room as all the men turned to look at her.
“What did you just say?” Rocco murmured.
Zoe’s mouth curved into a smile and she shrugged. “What? That I’m in love with you? Isn’t it obvious?” she asked nonchalantly.
The Carrington men looked uncomfortable.
“Well,” Don said, clearing his throat. “How do you feel about this, Rocco?”
The words filled Rocco with incredible happiness, and he couldn’t help shaking his head in disbelief. He had been sure that Zoe had seen their time together as fun while he fell deeper in love with her. He had never thought she mirrored his feelings.
Rocco did not answer Zoe’s father.
Instead, he leaned forward and cupped Zoe’s face in his palms. “I’m in love with you, too,” he told her. “These past two weeks have been the best of my life, and I can’t bear the thought of leaving you next week.”
“You don’t have to leave me,” she murmured, and he felt a stab of uncertainty.
“Zoe, Rocco has no say where he can live. The marines determine that for him,” Don said chidingly, and Rocco cast him a grateful look.
Zoe laughed merrily. “I know that,” she replied. “I was thinking about going with him.”
“Wait a minute now—” Don started, but for the first time since bursting into the bedroom, Branson seemed like the idea was growing on him.
“Yes!” he cried, clapping his hands together. “We would be amazing as a team. The three of us, living on base together! And you could finish college online.”
“Then, you’re happy?” Zoe asked Branson.
With a deep breath, Branson answered, “Yes! I suspected something was up between the two of you since I’ve been home, but I didn’t suspect that you two actually had feelings for each other. This whole time, I thought he was taking advantage of you, but it seems it’s much more than that.”
Don said, “Let’s go, Branson. We’ll give them some time to alone to talk.”
Father and son left the room.
&n
bsp; Rocco stared at Zoe, his eyebrows raised in question. “Are you sure that is what you want to do?” he asked. “It means upsetting your life a great deal.”
“I can guarantee you that nothing will upset my life more than letting you go,” she replied, and Rocco’s heart pounded with happiness.
He kissed her deeply and passionately, staring into her blue eyes. “Are you sure?” he asked again. “I don’t ever want you to regret your decision.”
“The only decision I would regret is letting my mate go once I have found him,” she replied, wrapping her hands around his. “Now, let’s finish what we started.”
* * *
THE END
2
Stranded
Jade tried to set her mind on anything but where it was going. So far, she had been unsuccessful. She had been driving for two and a half hours, the music blasting from the radio as she coasted down Interstate 95 through Georgia from South Carolina.
At least I’m making good time, she tried to reason, but no amount of mental cajoling was working to her advantage. Deep breaths, she told herself, though the anxiety in Jade didn’t seem to subside as she continued toward her destination.
Too much was rolling around in her head; final exams, the drive, the feeling of impending doom upon her head. Her initial anger at Meredith and Cheyenne had yet to subside, despite knowing that they had planned to leave her behind in South Carolina weeks earlier.
They didn’t leave you behind, she chided herself. You are meeting up with them right now. It’s not their fault you had a later exam than them. Still, Jade could not let go of the fact that they didn’t want to wait for her.
“It’s just a day,” Jade had pleaded. “What difference does it make?”
“It’s a six-hour drive!” Meredith had replied, exasperated. “It’s a six-hour drive to Daytona Beach, Jade. We’ll miss a full day of spring break by the time we get there and get settled! Why should we have to suffer just because your schedule sucks?”
Meredith had meant it jokingly, of course, but Jade had taken her reply with anger.
She knew her feelings had less to do with their unwillingness to wait and more with the fact that she didn’t want to do the drive alone.
“I can drive to Daytona with you,” Todd Hamburg had volunteered, overhearing their discussion from a nearby table at the coffee shop. “I have a poly-sci exam on Friday afternoon. We can leave Saturday.”
“See?” Meredith had announced. “Toddy will drive with you.”
Jade had narrowed her hazel eyes at Meredith’s mocking tone, turning to smile politely at Todd.
“No, thanks, Todd. I’m looking forward to unwinding by myself. The drive will do me good.”
It wasn’t true, of course. Nothing terrified Jade more than driving from South Carolina to Florida without a co-pilot, but Todd Hamburg disturbed her. Jade couldn’t say exactly what it was about him.
Possibly it was the way he seemed to always infringe on their conversation at exactly the right moment, despite having nothing to do with the group. He always seemed to be just within earshot of the girls whenever they were out, like he was perpetually trying to weasel his way inside their trio.
“He’s a nice guy,” Cheyenne had protested when Jade had threatened to tell him off. “He’s just lonely. You can’t be mean to him.”
But Jade found him unnerving sometimes. Yet Todd still seemed to hang around, as if pecking for crumbs of their lives. Jade would be blind not to see that he was half in love with her, but that was not her concern.
I don’t’ have time for a relationship, and even if I did, it wouldn’t be with Todd Hamburg.
She had turned her attention back to her friends. “We always go together,” she’d reminded them in a last-ditch effort to convince them to wait, but Jade had known it was a losing battle.
When Meredith spoke, everyone listened. And Meredith had spoken.
Jade had seen them off the previous day with a growing resentment that she kept hidden from them.
I’m not going to let this ruin my spring break, she’d decided, forcing a smile on her tanned face as she waved goodbye. It’s no big deal. I will join them tomorrow.
She leaned over and increased the volume of the radio again, trying to cast her anxiousness aside.
Nikki Lane’s “Highway Queen” piped through the speakers, and Jade took a deep breath, singing along to the country song loudly.
The afternoon sunlight was fading away, and Jade tried not to heed the fact that she was losing daylight. In a few hours, I will be in a hotel room with a beer in my hand, wearing a bikini and checking out Florida beach bums. I will make it. I just have to focus on the light at the end of the tunnel.
Again, she tried to push the tension out of her, turning her eyes to the road and focusing on the music. She would be there soon.
* * *
Dusk had fallen on the outskirts of Scarlet Oak, and Wyatt felt a strange aching in his bones as he peered across his farmland.
Something was coming, he could sense it. He had a nose for unrest, an instinct for trouble. And all of it was on the horizon, whether or not he could see it.
The creak of a floorboard shattered his concentration on the fields, and he turned to stare at the sleepy husky behind him in the living room. Her silken white and black ears were alert as she whined softly.
“You feel that, Mischa?” he asked her, and she barked in concession.
Wyatt nodded and returned his eyes to the window, gritting his teeth as he felt the call outside.
No, he told himself firmly. I am not getting involved. I moved to the country for a reason. I want no part of the comings and goings of Scarlet Oak. Whoever is out there can fend for themselves.
But as he scratched Mischa behind the ears, he could not shake the feeling that he was somehow going to be drawn into whatever it was that seemed to be summoning him from the near dark.
The canine barked again, and Wyatt nodded.
“You need to go outside?” he asked. “Come on.”
He walked from the front room toward the door, letting the husky out into the yard. She immediately sprung toward the ravine, out of his sight.
She was a good sidekick, Mischa—smart, intuitive, and all he needed for company.
Wyatt hoped she would be quick. The longer he stood in the crisp springtime air, the more he could feel the warning overcoming his soul.
Who is out there? Why are they on my land?
They were strangers, that much was clear.
Long ago, the residents of Scarlet Oak had learned that Wyatt did not want to be disturbed. Some had learned the hard way, and the tales of what had happened reached the others. He was left in relative seclusion for the most part.
That night was different.
He did not recognize their scent, but they were close, closer than they should have been. Just over the tree line on the road, he realized, but he tried to shut his mind to what he saw.
Years ago, he had retreated from the embrace of the town he had always known as home. Wyatt had always been a loner, someone who valued his peace and quiet above all else. Scarlet Oak did not provide him the sanctity of such luxuries, and Wyatt had often found himself intersecting the dramas of others, despite his resolve not to get involved.
It was not in his nature to sit back and observe when others needed his help, but how he longed to be a cold, callous being.
When his father had died ten years earlier, Wyatt had promptly sold the family home and retreated into the outskirts of town, keeping his trips to town short and his list of contacts virtually non-existent.
“You can’t live on a farm by yourself,” his sister, Callie, had argued. “We stick together in this town.”
“You can stay here with your husband and child,” he had retorted. “I will be living quietly away from it all. I can’t deal with the drama anymore, Callie. It is depleting me.”
Callie had smiled enigmatically. “It doesn’t matter where you run or where
you go, you can’t escape it. It is in your blood to be a helper, a healer,” she had told him flatly. “Mark my words.”
Callie’s words were partially in the back of his head when he began to sniff the air again, wishing away whoever sat beyond his view. I am done with the locals. I do not want any part of what is happening.
But they weren’t locals. They weren’t from Scarlet Oak. Whoever they were, though, they were on his land, and he knew they needed his assistance.
Wyatt tried to remember the last time anyone had been near the farm. It had been at least two years that he could recall anyone being in the vicinity—except for the mailman.
There was no reason for anyone to be there. The area was far too remote, and he lived on a dead-end road. It was why Wyatt had purchased the land to begin with.
Gritting his teeth, he debated what to do. No, he swore to himself. I am not going. Whoever it is will have to figure it out for themselves. Not my problem. If they found themselves here, they can also find themselves out of here.
* * *
Jade blinked slowly, her eyes slowly adjusting to the dark as her lids fluttered open.
A spark of panic and confusion overwhelmed her as she bolted up, staring around at the pitch black in which she found herself.
Then she remembered where she was and what had happened.
Dammit! Jade thought furiously. I fell asleep! How long was I out? She picked up her nearly dead cellphone and cringed. It was after ten o’clock. So much for making it to Florida at a decent time, she moaned silently. Did I miss anyone that could have helped while I took a nap? Probably.
What was worse was that she had no idea where she was, and there was no reception on her quickly dying phone.
The car had started making a bizarre noise on the interstate, causing her to get off the busy highway, lest she get stranded in the middle of it. She turned down the music, listening as she drove, but the noise was intermittent. She decided to turn her car off and let it rest for a few minutes to see if that would make the strange noise go away.