Bearly Christmas

by Becca Fanning

  Logan ran through the garage to the door. “Bye Beck!” He waved, then went inside.

  Beck handed the truck back to Harmony. “I’m sure I’ll never see him again, and he’ll want his truck back eventually.”

  She took the truck and held it in one hand, then crossed her arms. “So, you’re still not into the kid thing, then, is that it?”

  He faced her and mirrored her pose. “No, that’s not it. You seem really freaked out about the shifter thing. I figured you wouldn’t want me around.”

  “Well.” She sucked in a breath and blew it out. “I figure since I didn’t tell you about Logan right away and you didn’t tell me about this, and since both of us have something that people tend to kinda freak out about, that maybe we’re even.”

  “Even?”

  “If you’re willing to try dating someone who has a kid, then I’m willing to date someone who turns into a… a bear.” It felt so weird to actually say it out loud. But that was the truth. They both had their secret “thing” to deal with. She couldn’t turn away from him after making such a huge deal that he needed to try things with her.

  “You’re sure?”

  “If you’re sure that you can handle a kid.”

  He took a step closer to her. “And the bear thing doesn’t freak you out?”

  “No.” She dropped her arms to her sides. “It totally freaks me out. But doesn’t being around Logan freak you out still?”

  “Yes. Especially after he almost died today.”

  When he said it like that, it brought reality into sharp focus. No matter what happened with them, he still had saved Logan’s life today. Tears came to her eyes as she thought about it.

  “I can’t thank you enough for that.” She wiped her eyes.

  “No need.” He stepped closer again and wrapped his arms around her.

  “I want to date you and spend time with you and Logan both. If you’re okay with the bear thing, I’m okay with the kid thing.”

  “Okay.”

  He looked at her for a long moment, then pressed his lips to hers. She melted into him, letting his warmth flood over her. She pictured his hard muscles as she moved her mouth against his and felt his tongue slip between her lips. She wanted him and her whole body wanted him, too.

  Beck’s phone ringing broke their kiss. He’d ignored it the first time, then the second, but on the third, he pulled back from her and sighed.

  “Sorry,” he said. “I guess I should see what’s going on if they’ve called three times.” He looked at his phone. “It’s my brother.”

  He answered, but held her close as he listened. “Are you kidding me?” He shook his head and said, “Okay. Thanks for letting me know.”

  “Everything okay?” she asked when he hung up.

  “Remember that arsonist I told you about? And the ladies that attacked our hive?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Well, first of all, I can tell you now that they’re a rival bear clan. All women like my clan is all men. Knox just told me that they got off on some technicality. So, it looks like no justice will be served after all.”

  He narrowed his eyes in disgust.

  “I’m sorry. That’s really awful.”

  “Yeah.” He sighed. “I should get home and talk to them. We have to figure out what we’re going to do. How we’re going to protect ourselves from them.”

  She nodded. “Sure. I understand.”

  “I’ll call you later. And I really will this time. I want to make sure Logan is still okay anyway. And maybe we’ll go out this week?”

  “I’d love to.”

  He kissed her again, more briefly this time, then got in his car and drove off.

  * * *

  Harmony turned into Rachel’s driveway and stopped the car, then got Logan out.

  “But I want to see Beck, too,” he whined. “It’s not fair!”

  “Logan, you got to play with Beck all weekend, and several times the week before. You’ll see him soon, okay? But we need to have some time alone tonight. Some grown up time.”

  Logan stuck his lip out. “Fine.”

  “You’ll get to play with Rachel all night. You love sleepovers.”

  “Will I get to stay up late?”

  “I’m sure Rachel will let you stay up a little late.”

  His frown faded. “Okay!” He ran toward the house.

  “Hey guys,” Rachel said, opening the door.

  “Thank you so much, Rach.” Harmony gave her a quick hug and set Logan’s bag down in the hall. “I owe you big time.”

  “Uh huh,” Rachel said, grinning. “You owe me steamy details of your night with McHunky.”

  Harmony chuckled. “It seems like we’ve been waiting so long for this night.”

  “It’s been two months,” Rachel said, “That is kind of long.”

  “I know. It’s just been tricky. I didn’t want us to have to rush or worry about waking Logan for our first time, you know?”

  Rachel wiggled her eyebrows. “Oh, I know. I just hope he’s as amazing in bed as he looks like he’d be. And maybe he’ll have to hook me up with one of his business partners. Those men are all huge and buff.”

  Harmony hugged her again, then squeezed Logan tight. “Be good,” she said to him. “I’ll see you in the morning.”

  “First one to the Xbox gets to choose the game!” Rachel said.

  Logan ran into the other room and Rachel followed, waving goodbye to Harmony.

  Harmony drove home and changed. She’d picked out this outfit just for tonight, but now that she stood in front of the mirror in her bedroom, she felt a little nervous. She hadn’t slept with anyone in a long time and this lingerie left her feeling very exposed.

  But, it was Beck. Beck, who she’d gotten to know over the last two months, who’d become close to Logan and loved hanging out with him. Beck, who’d even watched Logan one night so Rachel and Harmony could have a girls’ night out. Beck, who she was not only going to bring into her bedroom tonight for the first time, but who she was also going to say “I love you” to tonight. She hadn’t said those words or felt like this in a really long time, either.

  There was a knock at her door, and her heart leapt. She was so filled with anticipation, her palms were already sweating. She opened the door slowly, revealing herself a little bit at a time.

  Beck stood watching with a smile of pure desire on his face. When the door was fully open, he took his time looking her up and down.

  “Dang, you are hot,” he said. He stepped into the house and closed the door behind him. “I almost can’t even look at you, you’re so hot.” He adjusted the crotch of his jeans. “You’ve already got me hard.”

  She smiled and walked backwards into the bedroom. He followed her and once they were in her room, he closed the door and wrapped her in a tight embrace. He pressed her back to the wall and kissed her.

  His body pressed against hers, trapping her between the hard wall and his hard cock. Her head felt light with desire, and every inch of her body longed for him.

  “It’s been so long,” she whispered.

  “We’ll take it slow.”

  “I don’t think I want you to.” She lifted his t-shirt and pulled it over his head. She ran her fingers along his muscles, stopping to pinch his nipples.

  He raised an eyebrow at her and reached out to do the same. She squirmed and bit her lip.

  “Do you like that?” he asked.

  “Yes,” she breathed.

  “How about this?” He dragged his fingers down and slid them under her panties, then slipped his finger inside her.

  She let out a moan. “Yes,” she said.

  He pushed her panties to the ground and moved her legs farther apart. “You’re so wet already,” he said.

  “That’s because I want you so badly.”

  She unzipped his jeans and pushed them to the ground. Then she dropped to her knees in front of him and took his hard cock into her mouth.

  As she stroked and sucked
him, he leaned against the wall with one hand, his other hand on top of her head. “That feels so good,” he said.

  “Good.” She stood up and kissed him.

  Then, she wrapped one leg around his waist. She was still pressed back against the wall. She pushed her shoulder back and thrust her hips forward, letting his dick slid between her wet lips. He rubbed against her clit, sending tingling waves through her body.

  He growled softly in her ear. “I’m afraid I’m going to have to take you right now. Foreplay time is over.”

  He picked her up and pressed her whole back against the wall. Then he thrust his cock inside her, making her cry out in pleasure.

  He held her ass and moved her up and down on his dick, using the wall to press inside her deeper.

  “You feel so good,” she said. “Harder.”

  He obliged by thrusting in deeper and faster, slamming against her as hard as he could.

  “You’re going to make me cum any second,” he said.

  But she cried out right then as the waves of pleasure rushed over her. She was dizzy with the feeling.

  He thrust in several more times, moaned loudly, then held her close to him, panting and leaning against the wall for support.

  After a minute, he pushed off from the wall and carried her to the bed.

  “That was so good,” she said, panting.

  “I agree.”

  He pulled her body close to his, curling around her so her back was against his chest.

  They lay like that for a long while. He let his fingers trail over her breasts and nipples, rubbing them between his fingertips until they grew hard.

  He reached down and stroked her clit gently and she moaned. He spread her wetness around her and lifted her leg up and back so it lay over his.

  He was hard again and he pressed his dick against her, rubbing the tip around to get it wet, then slipped it inside her.

  She gasped in the sudden pleasure, then let out a moan. She pushed her hips back into him, moving him deeper inside her.

  He rubbed circles around her clit as he moved in and out of her, slowly this time.

  They moved together, gently forward and back, letting the feeling of touching each other take over them. The sensation built slowly until she reached back and gripped his hips, pulling him forward and she cried out in orgasm. He finished a few moments later.

  He wrapper her in his arms again and held her close.

  “I think I could do that for the rest of my life,” he said.

  She turned to face him, her legs tangled in his. “I wanted to tell you something tonight. I’ve been waiting for just the right moment.”

  “What is it?”

  She touched her forehead to his and said, “I love you.”

  He closed his eyes and his mouth spread slowly into a wide smile. “Really?”

  She nodded.

  “Tell me again.”

  “I love you,” she said.

  “It’s been so long since I heard that. It feels so good.” He kissed her, then looked into her eyes. “I’m in love with you.”

  She let her fingers slip into his hair. “It’s been a long time since I heard that, too.”

  “Don’t think this is weird of me, but I love Logan, too.”

  “Really?”

  Tears came to her eyes at this. It was one thing for him to say he loved her, but to love her son as well?

  “Thank you for convincing me to give him a chance. You’re right. Hanging around kids isn’t nearly as scary as I thought it’d be.”

  “Neither is hanging out with a bear.”

  He chuckled. “Thank you for taking a chance on me.”

  “Same.”

  He closed his eyes and she closed hers and they drifted off to sleep, tangled in each other’s hearts.

  Slade

  120 Proof Honey V

  by

  Becca Fanning

  Slade Walker picked up his coffee mug and headed for the front door. The morning was already hot. The day would be a scorcher. He couldn’t wait to get back home after taking care of a few business tasks, and change into his bear form so he could run through the woods and feel the wind in his fur.

  Today would be a boring day. He had to file some paperwork at the courthouse. Taxes, product information, and that sort of thing. This was the less fun part of his job, but at least it got him out of the house and into the city for a while. The Ozark Mountains were beautiful, but once in a while he liked to be around the tall buildings and congestion of the city.

  He walked to his car, set his mug on the roof, and reached to unlock the door. But something wasn’t right. He walked to the front tire to inspect it more carefully. He set down his briefcase and bent to look closer. Yup. His tire wasn’t only flat as could be, it was damaged. Looked like someone had knifed it. He circled around the car to check the other tires, then cursed under his breath. All four, slashed.

  And then he recognized the scent. It was the two of the women bear shifters in the area. The ones who’d been giving them nothing but trouble lately.

  He’d have to take one of the guy’s vehicles. They had several between them. But as he walked from car to truck to car to check them, all he saw was flat tires. All slashed. They didn’t have a single vehicle undamaged, a single tire still holding air.

  Slade slammed the house’s front door open and Dax jumped.

  “What gives?” He stood in the doorway, looking like he was ready to head out himself in his suit and tie.

  “Every vehicle, every tire, slashed.”

  “You’re kidding.” Daxton pushed past him to run outside and see for himself.

  Slade was standing in the doorway when he headed back. “It had to be them. I recognize the scent.”

  Dax gritted his teeth and shook his head.

  “I’m waking the guys up,” Slade said.

  He hopped up the stairs, taking two at a time, and knocked on each door.

  “Get up! Emergency meeting,” Slade called as he went.

  He went back downstairs and paced in the dining room, waiting. Daxton sat in a chair, texting. One by one, the men came down until they sat at the table, looking up at their leader, who stood.

  “This has gone on long enough,” Slade said, practically growling in his anger. “We tried taking it to the police and that didn’t work. It’s time for us to take action against these women. To show them who’s boss and what clan rules in this town.”

  “What do you want to do?” Knox asked.

  “I think we should just go kick their butts,” Beck said.