by Alexis Davie
Jade stared at him in fear. “Are you certain he’s not coming back?” she asked nervously, and she was relieved to see Wyatt nodding.
“I’m sure.”
Jade stared at him, gratefulness and affection flooding her. “Where did you say your house is?” she asked.
Wyatt stared at her. “Yes, we should call someone about your car,” he said, as though he had just remembered his original suggestion, and Jade was sure she caught a note of wistfulness in his voice.
“Yes,” she said slowly. “Or…we can do that in the morning.”
He looked at her, his eyes bright with understanding. “The morning would be better,” he agreed.
They spent the night making love, Jade reaching heights of passion she had never known she could achieve.
Wyatt seemed moved by her eagerness, by her reckless abandon as he tasted every crevice of her body, exploring every cavern.
* * *
When dawn arrived, Wyatt felt like he knew Jade more intimately than she knew herself, and he wondered if he would ever find another lover as sensuous, as desirable or as deeply in tune with him as her.
He lay on his side, watching her sleeping face with regret.
How can I become so attached to someone I don’t know? Wyatt thought, and yet, as he watched her peaceful smile, he felt like he knew her better than he had ever known anyone.
A scratching on the door shattered his trance on Jade’s lovely face, and Wyatt leaped to his feet, still naked. He glanced over his shoulder to make sure that Jade had not woken with the sound of Mischa’s arrival.
As he opened the door, he saw the husky’s blood-stained snout, and he scratched her silken ears softly.
“Good girl,” he murmured.
He could keep his promise to Jade.
* * *
“Oh my god, girl! We have been worried sick about you!” Meredith screeched as the Camry pulled up to the hotel in Daytona. Jade’s friends were gathered out front, smoking a joint.
“My car broke down,” Jade replied. “And I had no reception.”
Meredith’s eyes widened with interest. “And who is this?” she purred, noticing the handsome stranger in the passenger seat.
“This is Wyatt,” Jade introduced him. “He saved me.”
Meredith’s eyebrows raised in interest. “Welcome, Wyatt,” she cooed. “You can save me any time.”
“I’m glad you’re okay, Jade,” Cheyenne piped in. “But have you seen or heard from Todd? He said he was coming up with you, after all.”
Jade felt her blood run cold as she glanced at Wyatt.
He shifted his eyes away.
“Did he?” Jade asked nonchalantly. “He didn’t mention that to me.”
“I guess Wyatt really did save you,” Meredith chimed in, and Jade whipped her head around.
“What do you mean?” she asked suspiciously.
“I mean, can you imagine a six-hour car ride with Todd Hamburg?” Meredith guffawed. “I’d rather be eaten by a bear.
* * *
THE END
3
Chance Meeting
A country song twanged through the old jukebox in the corner, the music falling on near deaf ears as three men sat at the bar, staring blankly at their bottles of beer. They were all ancient fixtures in Scarlet Oak, silent and brooding as their drinks warmed and their moods soured.
Sarah, the bartender, wiped glasses fresh out of the washer, her ears carefully blocking out the sounds emanating from the small hallway behind her. A man rose drunkenly from one of the stools, ambling toward the rear of the roadhouse bar, but Sarah’s voice froze him in his tracks.
“And where do you think you’re going, mister?”
He stared at her through bleary eyes. “I’m gonna drain the lizard,” he announced, gesturing at his crotch. Sarah shook her blonde head firmly.
“Not back there, you ain’t,” she informed him bluntly.
“Where d’ya want me to go?” the man demanded.
“Out by the dumpster,” she said, and when he opened his mouth to argue, her piercing look silenced him instantly.
“Yes, ma’am,” the patron mumbled, turning to shuffle toward the entrance, muttering something under his breath.
Amelia giggled, hearing the exchange, but Luke’s mouth crushed into hers again, further pinning her lithe body against the wall. She could feel the bulge between his bucking hips meet the damp spot at her center.
I’m glad I decided to wear a skirt tonight, she thought dirtily, her hands wrapping around Luke’s back to splay her hands across his rippling shoulders. His hand reached up to gently pull on her dark hair, making way for his roaming mouth, each breath causing another shiver of excitement to course through her body.
Amelia sighed, closing her amber-colored eyes as Luke explored her prickled skin, a hand reaching beneath her skirt. She gasped and giggled again as he slid a finger along the slippery cleft, another gush of warmth running through her.
“I never do things like this,” Luke muttered, his tongue lashing out to lick the beads of sweat formulating along the vee cut of her top. “But seeing you at the bar…”
Amelia purred, arching her chest so her erect nipples brushed his face through the fabric. Luke groaned lightly, pushing her lace panties aside, his fingers working more urgently as his teeth nipped playfully at her swelling breasts. With each move, Amelia could feel the hardness in his pants growing, and she wanted him inside her.
It was highly uncharacteristic of her to act like this, meeting a stranger at a hole-in-the-wall bar and allowing him to paw at her so openly, but Amelia could not dispute the attraction she had felt to the sandy-haired man from the minute she had walked into the Sunset Saloon.
Brad who? she thought, gasping as she felt the tip of Luke’s member against her tender opening. She had not even realized he had taken off his pants.
Suddenly, Luke grabbed her thigh, leveling it with his waist, and effortlessly drove himself inside her.
“Oh, my God!” Amelia cried, not caring that they were within earshot of the patrons. All that mattered was that this man she had met only two hours earlier was pinning her to the wall of a dusty tavern with eager resolve, making her forget any of her prior woes.
Her body tensed as Luke plunged inside her, each thrust causing her to lose her breath as her fingers dug into his broad shoulders, holding on for dear life. Without slowing, his mouth found hers, and they entangled themselves in a heated kiss, Luke’s breaths growing hotter and faster as if mimicking his jerks of pleasure.
Amelia felt her temperature rising, her crotch tightening against his impossibly large shaft, and she screamed out, quivering in her orgasm.
“That’s it,” Luke rasped, another full thrust reaching her higher than she had ever felt. She gaped at him with awe, his blue eyes glazing with ecstasy as he grunted, his member exploding inside her, meeting her own heat as they intermingled into a shaking pile of limbs.
Amelia felt paralyzed, her mind foggy from the passion. She struggled to regain her composure while Luke gently allowing her back onto her feet.
“Wow,” Luke said at the same time Amelia straightened her skirt. “That was—”
“Luke, you got trouble.”
Sarah appeared in the doorway of the hall, her eyes wide with concern. Amelia and Luke both stared at her in confusion.
“What is it?” Luke asked, but rather than answering him, Sarah rushed toward him, grabbing him by the arm as she cast Amelia a worried look.
“You should make yerself scarce for a spell,” she suggested, yanking the man out of view before Amelia could question her further.
Even though curiosity overwhelmed Amelia, she trusted the bartender, despite having only just met her. After all, Sarah had kept everyone out of their way when she and Luke had disappeared into the hallway, almost like an overprotective sister keeping watch over them.
It should have been humiliating, but Amelia felt anything but bashful as she relived the inc
redible sensation of Luke inside her.
I need to freshen up, anyway, she reasoned, her brain still heady from the experience and the alcohol she had consumed. Blinking, Amelia ducked further into the dimly lit hallway and made her way into the bathroom. Pulling open her purse, she removed some essentials to remedy the mess the romp had made of her face. She reapplied her makeup, grinning at the disheveled chestnut curls on her head.
She couldn’t believe that she had been drowning her sorrows at the bar because of Brad only two hours ago. Who would have thought she would meet a guy like Luke in a place like that? It seemed like the fates had simply aligned for her that evening.
Luke had already looked out of place among the apparently lost souls in the room when Amelia walked into the unwelcoming saloon. She had never been inside the Sunset, and she had no idea what had drawn her there that night—she just didn’t want to be anywhere she could be recognized. Her ego was too badly bruised to deal with the platitudes of her friends, no matter how well-meaning they were.
All she wanted to do was drink her hurt away with cheap booze and no conversation. And the Sunset Saloon seemed just the place to make that happen. However, upon entering the filthy joint, Luke had inevitably caught her attention, despite her resolve to be alone.
The last thing Amelia had expected was to be instantly attracted to a random stranger sitting alone at the bar.
He looks like a man in pain, she thought, slipping onto a stool two down from him. Maybe that’s why I feel such a kinship toward him. She did not admit to herself then that kinship was the least of what she was feeling, a familiar, aroused shiver sliding through her slight figure.
Sarah had politely brought her a vodka with soda and lime as Amelia subtly checked out the blond man, her heart skipping several beats as she did.
I haven’t been smitten with a guy on sight since I was in grade school, she thought in disbelief. What is wrong with me?
She had been captured by more than his attractiveness, although he was remarkably good looking. His body was well-formed and broad, and even through his flannel shirt, Amelia could make out the definition of a muscular frame. His hair swept to the base of a thick neck, but his jawline was almost regal.
Soon, Amelia was openly admiring him while he stared straight ahead, debating whether to strike up a conversation. Then he turned his head to her and ended that debate himself.
“Are you just gonna keep staring at me or are you gonna buy me a drink?” he challenged.
And that was how it started.
Amelia had been right about him. He explained that he, too, had just broken up with a woman who apparently found other men more appealing.
“I don’t know what’s so difficult about being committed,” Luke muttered. “If you feel like you need to sleep with other people, then don’t get into a relationship.”
“Hear, hear!” Amelia agreed, raising her glass to toast the sentiment. “It sounds like your ex and mine would make a good couple.” Luke glanced speculatively at her.
“Maybe you and I would, too,” he replied, sending a bolt of electricity through her.
From that moment forward, Amelia knew she was putty in his hands. What had happened in the back hall had been inevitable, a mounting tease through drinks and growing flirtations until suddenly neither was able to keep their hands off the other.
No one seemed to notice as they tripped and giggled into the back corridor, lips exploring one another as if they had been apart for centuries.
Amelia studied her reflection, the aftermath of their tryst still reflective on her face, when the reality of Sarah’s words came flooding back to her in a flash.
“Luke, you got trouble.”
Amelia’s brow knit, her smile fading in the glass, and she whirled, her dark hair fanning out behind her as she moved. What kind of trouble was Luke in? Why had Amelia listened to Sarah? She should have gone out there with him.
As Amelia rushed toward the front of the Sunset Saloon, her heart was racing, wondering what she would walk out to see. What kind of trouble could have followed Luke into the saloon?
Is it a business deal gone bad? she wondered to herself. A family matter? I don’t know anything about this guy! He could be a mobster or—
She entered the bar and froze on her tracks, her greenish-gold eyes widening in shock.
Luke was pressed up against the bar, his lips locked on a petite brunette who was raised onto her tiptoes, her fingers entwined in his hair.
Amelia swallowed the lump in her throat, furious at herself for allowing such a fleeting moment of happiness to fool her. Luke had not felt the bond she had sensed. He was only looking for a quickie, a good time with a naïve girl.
They are all the same, she thought bitterly, turning to flee down the corridor and out the back door, ignoring Sarah’s voice calling out after her.
* * *
Luke’s push sent Mandy flying back toward the pool table, her lips still puckered when she landed.
“What the hell are you doing?” Luke roared as Mandy gaped at him. “Are you crazy?” She stared up at him defiantly, folding her arms over her chest.
“Oh, come on, baby,” she sulked. “You can’t still be mad at me!”
Luke scoffed, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand in disgust, like her kiss had been laced with arsenic.
“What the hell are you doing here, Mandy?” he demanded, a hot flush rising to his cheeks as he realized how close his ex-girlfriend had come to seeing him and Amelia together. Not that Luke cared from a personal standpoint. After all, he had learned that Mandy had been doing half the pack in the two years they had been together.
No, his concern was that Mandy’s temper was infamous, and there was no doubt in his mind that she would unhinge her jaws and take out her anger on Amelia or anyone else she deemed a threat.
Luke glanced over his shoulder, his face growing warmer as he realized that Amelia might walk out into the trap any second.
“Go home,” he instructed Mandy, grabbing her arm to usher her out the door. “You have no business being here.”
“Baby, I just want—”
Luke snarled through clenched teeth, shifting into his bear form instantaneously to tower over his ex-girlfriend.
Mandy balked at the display, her pout deepening as she threw her hands up. “All right, all right,” she muttered. “I’m leavin’. But know this—you belong with me, Luke. We’re mates, and no matter how angry y’are, we’re gonna work this out.”
Luke snarled again, falling onto his front paws to glower at her.
Sarah was suddenly within his range of sight. When he glanced at her through his peripheral vision, he saw that her incisors had begun to elongate.
“I think you better go,” Sarah said flatly.
“Y'all don’t scare me. I can do that, too,” Mandy snapped, spinning to leave. “But I don’t wanna drink in this shithole anyway.”
“Good, because I don’t want you back in here, Mandy!” Sarah yelled after her.
The patrons watched Mandy saunter away, the air in the tavern thick with anticipation.
Slowly, Luke allowed himself to shift back into his human form, his pulse racing angrily.
“Luke…”
He waved Sarah away, willing himself to be calm.
“Luke!” the bartender started again. “She saw you.”
Luke turned to look at the woman uncomprehendingly.
“What?” he demanded. “Who saw what?”
Sarah bit her lip. “The girl. She saw you kissing Mandy. She ran out of here and looked pretty damned mad.”
“I did not kiss Mandy!” Luke growled, grabbing his jacket. “She cornered me!”
He did not wait for Sarah’s reply, his blood boiling with fury. As he made his way out into the back of the bar, he scanned the area for Amelia’s slender frame, but she was long gone.
Great, he groaned. Now she thinks I’m a pig, just like her ex. I am going to wring Mandy’s neck!
; Luke could not help but wonder how a woman he had just met could have such a profound effect on him. At first, he had just believed that his attraction to the quiet brunette watching him was based on the sweetness she seemed to exude while she pretended not to study him across the bar. But as they shared drinks, it became obvious that they were drawn to one another for reasons unseen.
Have I ever been so connected to a woman at first sight? he wondered, his eyes narrowing as he tried to remember where Amelia had said she lived. Had she even mentioned it?
Mandy had gotten Luke so furious, he could barely see straight, but he forced himself to think. It was clear that Amelia was not one of them. He could sense that on her from the minute she walked into the bar, just as the other shifters did. Obviously, no one had warned her about the dangers of walking into a bar for bear shifters. Or perhaps she didn’t believe in the legends.
Amelia was so fresh, so unlike the women Luke had known in Scarlet Oak, in or outside the pack. There was something plaintive about her, a guilelessness that plucked at his well-guarded heartstrings.
Now she was gone as quickly as she had appeared.
Luke began to walk toward the front of the tavern, gritting his teeth. He could still feel the cut at his gums where his teeth had enlarged.
“I knew you would come looking for me.”
He whirled, a smile on his face, only to have it fade when he saw Mandy.
“Are you deaf or stupid?” he demanded, his temper flaring again. “Get away from me!”
A small smirk formed on Mandy’s mouth, only fuelling his annoyance. She was not even the least sorry about what she had put him through. How could Luke have been so blind to her conniving ways for so long?
What she had said earlier was true in part: there had never been any doubt that he and Mandy would become an item. After all, they had grown up together; their fathers were close friends.
It didn’t seem to matter to anyone that Mandy was brash and obnoxious while Luke was quieter and preferred his own company to that of his girlfriend’s friends. They fought more than they had sex, and Luke had always questioned if his heart was truly in the relationship.