“You dropped out of school? You supported your family at fourteen? Hutch, you were just a boy.”
There. Now she knew I wasn’t very educated. “I had to make a living. I worked constantly. I saved enough that when the owner of the shop wanted to retire, we worked out a deal and I bought it from him. Now, I still work constantly. What happened to our family when Dad died… I can’t imagine letting Mom and Sterling go through that again. I want them to be taken care of if anything happens to me. And, now you.”
Her mouth fell open and her cheeks burned. “Nothing is going to happen to you.”
I shrugged. “I’m just saying.”
“Well, don’t.”
Finally at the top of the mountain, I backed the truck up to the viewpoint and got out. Walking around to open her door, I found her already standing beside the truck when I got over to her.
I sighed. “This is a date. I’m supposed to open your door and shit.”
She laughed, the first sweet laugh I’d heard from her, and it melted everything in me. That real glimpse of the woman inside took my breath away. I cupped her face in my hands and pressed my lips to hers.
It was a first kiss. No games, no anger, no fighting. Genuine. Just the two of us, man and woman, experiencing something for the first time.
I pulled away before it went deeper and stroked her lips with my thumb. “You’re beautiful. I’ve thought so since the first moment I saw you. I want you to know that.”
She turned away from me and looked around us. The view was stunning. The town sat below us and, farther, Big Bend National Park. When the sun went down, it would be even prettier. The stars would shine bright enough that it would feel like you could just reach up and touch them.
“This is so pretty. I never knew this place existed.”
I came up behind her and whispered in her ear. “That’s because it’s a shifter secret.”
She shivered and spun into me. Her hands went to my chest and she lightly dug her nails in before pushing me away. “Well, now it’s ruined. I’m no shifter. In case you missed it.”
I grinned and slid my hand over her back as I moved past her to lower the tailgate. I slid my arms out of my jacket and slipped it around her shoulders. “Hold that for me, would you?”
I grabbed a couple of blankets and a couple of pillows from the backseat and carried them to the bed of the truck. I made a makeshift bed and then pulled a picnic basket out.
“I didn’t know what you liked, which is my own damned fault, but I made a few different things.”
“You cook?”
I hesitated. “Well… I bought a few different things.”
She laughed and sat cross-legged at the edge of the tailgate, facing me. “What did you buy?”
I opened the basket and pulled everything out. “Fried chicken, with all the fixings. Pizza. Sub sandwiches. Chips and dip. I also packed beer and some wine. I don’t know anything about wine, though. I just grabbed the first bottle I saw.”
She held it up and bit back a grin. Her eyes sparkled as she met mine. “This is cooking wine, Hutch.”
“No good? Well, I got sweet tea and water, too.”
She grabbed a slice of pizza and took a huge bite. I watched her mouth move as she chewed and heard the little moan of pleasure she released. “I’m starving. I haven’t had much of an appetite lately…”
Because of me. Her head jerked up and I knew she hadn’t meant to say that to me. She swallowed her bite of food and then frowned. “I’m sorry. You did all of this and I’m not going to throw anything in your face. Tonight is a freebie. No bad blood from the past shall be brought up.”
I smiled at her, grateful for what she was giving me. “How is it?”
She smiled back at me. “Is pizza ever not good?”
CHAPTER 25: Veronica
The sun set with us eating and talking. Since this date had started, my heart had stumbled over itself practically nonstop, eager to leap across the truck and find its home with him. My brain, however, was still wary.
The man sitting in front of me was as much a stranger as he was my mate. He was so different from the hard-bitten, Harley-riding, bad boy I’d always thought Hutch was. He was a man who had been supporting his mother and brother since he was a boy. Sure, he was a scary looking, giant of man, but inside he was warm and good and leaned in when I talked. He laughed when I joked and grew angry when I told him horror stories from my childhood about my family forgetting me places.
It was too easy to be with him as the stars and moon came out. He put our leftovers away and then suggested we lay back and watch the stars. I sighed happily as he pulled me into his side and curled his arm around me. We pointed out the constellations we knew and I felt my heart winning over my head.
“I didn’t know it would be like this, V. I’m sorry. I’ve been working constantly for so long, I thought dating was the only way I’d have any fun. I was so stupid. I got scared and thought being mated would just mean more responsibility piled on me and I didn’t know if I could live up to that. Shit, to be honest, I had images of us sitting around, reading. I’m not a reader, V. I just…made a lot of assumptions that were wrong.
“I fucked up. I’m so sorry I hurt you and I deserved you walking away from me. If what I was feeling was anything like the way you’ve felt for the past year, then I have a hell of a lot more making up to you to do. I hope you let me. I want this. I want you. I want to prove to you that I want you. Like this, or all sexed up in some tiny dress. I wanted you the first day I saw you. I’ll want you forever.”
Staring at the big dipper, I swallowed a wave of raw emotion lodged in my throat. I blinked back tears and shuddered as his hand held me tighter.
“You don’t have to say anything yet. The night’s not over.”
My heart raced as I thought about what he was saying. “You don’t feel like that anymore? You don’t think being with me would be too serious and your life would be miserable?”
He turned his head to look at me and shook his head. “No. Life with you would be a lot of fun. Sexy, wild, hilarious, and always exciting. Mating with you would be a constant surprise.”
“You want me to be your mate?”
He swallowed and licked his lips. “I’m afraid if I told you how much I wanted that, you’d run screaming.”
I looked back to the big dipper and took a deep breath. “I should hate you. I should want to make you suffer. That’s not me, though. I don’t want any more suffering. I want you.”
He reached over and cupped my cheek before turning my face to his. “You want me?”
Granny panties be damned, I wanted the man. I rolled over on top of him and stared down at him. “If you change your mind, I’ll kill you.”
His hands immediately cupped my bottom, but he moved them right away. “Sorry, got too excited, and, V, there is no changing my mind about this.”
I sat up and yanked my shirt over my head. Braless, I felt sexy and free under his gaze, under the moon. “Put your hands back. I want you now, Hutch.”
He looked up at me with a hungry stare. “The date isn’t over, V.”
I rocked my hips against him and raked my nails across his chest. “Fine. We can do the rest after. I need you right now. I want to feel you.”
He growled and rolled us. “I need you, too. I’ve missed you. I don’t want to fight with you anymore. Just for you, baby.”
I worked at his buttons while he tried to push my leggings down. After the first button flew off, I just ripped it open. At his shocked look, I shrugged. “I can sew them back on.”
He ripped my leggings and tossed them aside. “I can’t sew those back together.”
I tried to kick my granny panties down to keep him from seeing them, but he grasped my hips and held them still. “Stop looking at those, Hutch. I bought mourning panties.”
He moved down my body and pressed his mouth against my core through them, leaving a wet spot. “You look hot in them. But, fuck, I’m going to rip t
hem off, too.”
Before I could protest, he did just that and then put his mouth back on me. With long, rolling strokes, he brought me to the edge of an orgasm right away. I scraped my nails over his scalp and chanted his name. My neck and head arched, the stars floated around my vision as Hutch calmed me down with less focused strokes and then took me to the edge again. He did it again and again until I screamed his name in frustration.
“Hutch! Please!”
He looked up at me and winked before moving to just the right spot and flicking his tongue. He pushed his fingers into me and curled them.
It was all I could handle. I came with a loud cry and clenched my thighs tight around his head.
He kicked off his pants and grinned up at me. As he moved up my body, he trailed kisses over my sensitive skin and groaned when I reached down and took him into my hand. “Careful.”
I stroked him and gave a growl of my own as he nipped the underside of my breast. “You be careful.”
He rolled over and took me with him, looking up at me with so much hunger I was startled into stillness for a few seconds. “Well?”
I laughed and leaned down to kiss him before trailing kisses down his chin and jaw. I spent a little while kissing his neck and shoulders, finding the spots that made him groan the most, before moving down to his nipples. I flicked my tongue over them and grinned as his hands tightened in my hair.
My mouth watered as I moved even lower and trailed my lips lightly over the length of his shaft. With his moans and hands urging me on, I took as much of him as I could into my mouth.
Before I even finished one stroke, Hutch pulled me off of him and up higher on his body. “I need to be in you. More of that later.”
I gasped as he pulled me down on him. He filled me and stretched me until I dropped my head back and moaned loud and long. Feeling every inch and ridge of him, I rolled my hips and then fell forward, into his chest, when the feeling was too much.
He grabbed my hips and lifted me before dropping me back down on him. His lips pressed to the side of my head as he used my body. “So fucking good.”
We moved like that until I felt my orgasm building again. I lifted my head and moaned his name. “I’m so close.”
He grunted and dug his fingers into my skin. “I want to mark you. I want to claim you.”
My body reacted instantly. My walls tried to milk him as I came violently against him. I jerked my head to the side and exposed my neck to him. “Now. Do it now!”
Hutch growled and sank his teeth into my neck, sending white hot pleasure coursing through me. I screamed as my orgasm continued on and on. Hutch came in me with his teeth still in my neck. His arms banded around me, holding me to his chest until we both went limp.
CHAPTER 26: Hutch
Mate. My bear was roaring his happiness. Hell, I was tempted to shout myself. I claimed her. She was mine and I was hers. I licked the new mark on her neck and moaned as her body clenched around my still hard dick.
“You okay, V?”
She turned her head to the side so she could look at me and the content grin on her face tugged at my chest. “Better. You marked me.”
“Of course, I did. You’re mine. I want to spend the rest of my life showing you how special you are to me.”
I wanted to spend the rest of my life making love to her and fighting for her and making everything up to her. She deserved to never again have to doubt my feelings. I’d been such an idiot. I kissed her forehead and held her even tighter. I knew without a doubt that I loved her.
“What do you like to do for fun?”
Surprised by the question, I didn’t know what to say. There were so many things I hadn’t done.
When I hesitated for too long, she moved off of me and sat up next to me. My body instantly missed her warmth. She pulled a blanket around herself and tilted her head as she stared at me. “What would be sadder than dying and leaving your family nothing, would be dying and not having lived, Hutch Mallory. We’re going to make sure that if and when you go, you go out with a smile on that handsome face of yours.”
I laughed. “Want me dead already?”
She cupped my face in her hands and gave me a serious look. “Never. Not in a million years.”
I sat up and rested against the cab of my truck. I grabbed her and pulled her into me. “This is fun for me, being with you. Don’t think that you have to do anything for me, V. I want to make up for all the time I could’ve been holding you and making love to you.”
She ran her fingers over my knees. “I’ll tell you things I want to do for fun and you tell me which ones sound fun to you. I want to skinny dip. I want to try out role playing. I want to sky dive. I want to maybe play around with more spanking and stuff like that.”
My dick pulsed as I realized what a wild card life had handed me. Half of her list was sexual. I didn’t know how I’d ever worried about having a mate that was a nerdly little bookish librarian and having to sit around reading stuffy textbooks all the time. Life with Veronica would most certainly never be boring. “Stuff like that?”
She giggled. “I don’t know. Stuff like…toys. I have a whole box of sex toys we could have fun with. You know. Oooh, my fuzzy handcuffs!”
Her giggle was the most erotic thing I’d ever heard. “We were supposed to go back into town. I had a movie set up on the back of the bar. Everyone was going to be there and it was supposed to be this big thing, but I think I’d rather stay here and get started on your fun stuff.”
She turned to face me and pulled the blanket over our heads as she sank herself slowly onto my hard dick again. Resting her head against mine, she bit her lip. “Can we do that movie thing some other time?”
I flexed and watched as her eyes fluttered shut. “Yeah. Maybe after a couple of months of this, we can go out in public again. Right now, I want you all to myself.”
“Hutch, shut up and fuck me.”
“Did you just say the F-word?”
Her hands gripped my shoulders and she started a rough rhythm of riding me. I gripped her short hair in my hand and tugged her mouth to mine. Just before I kissed her, I whispered against her mouth. “I love you.”
Her gasp was followed by a cry of surprise as her body started wiggling around me. She was responsive in every way, and I knew that finding ways to make her body sing would be more fun than I ever imagined.
The End.
Thank you for purchasing this book. I hope you enjoyed it.
I have included several BONUS STORIES that I hope you’ll enjoy! But first, please enjoy an excerpt from Book 1 of my Kodiak Island Shifters series entitled Billionaire’s Bride. If you like the sample, you can download the full book by using the link provided at the end of the sample.
ENJOY A FREE SNEAK PEEK
(This book is a standalone with a Happily Ever After ending. It is the first book in a series you’re going to love about the Sterling Brothers, Grizzly Bear Shifters.)
KODIAK ISLAND SHIFTERS
COLTON: BILLIONAIRE BEAR’S BRIDE
By Candace Ayers
Chapter one
“Take a seat Doctor Cooper.” Hannah’s lawyer proffered a chair opposite his paper-strewn desk. He adjusted his spectacles before continuing, “It’s all fairly straight forward—all monetary assets are to be transferred from your uncle’s estate at your earliest convenience.”
Hannah smiled tightly, not really knowing what to say. It had been an overwhelming week. It began with her uncle’s funeral, a man she hadn’t spoken to in years and only vaguely recollected. It was now ending, on a warm Friday afternoon, in her lawyer’s office, discussing the deposit of a large inheritance into her bank account.
“I have to say,” the lawyer continued, “it’s a rare pleasure allocating such large funds to someone so risk-adverse. You have a very healthy credit record, Doctor Cooper.”
“Well. I don’t come from a wealthy background, Mr. Moore. I think that helps.”
“Indeed.” He nodded, “The
re is, however, another matter I wanted to discuss with you today.” He cleared his throat before continuing, “Your marriage to a Mr…” He peered down at the document in his hand, “Bradley…”
“Brad Crawford,” Hannah interrupted him. “Yes. We’re not actually married. I mean, we’re married, technically, but… well, haven’t been together for many years now. We just never got around to a divorce.”
“I suggest that you do. You understand, of course, that he could cause,” he hesitated, looking for the right word, “issues as your legal husband if you were to receive the inheritance and then opt for a divorce. My suggestion to you would be to obtain signed divorce papers before the transfer proceeds.”
Hannah nodded, “I don’t think that will be a problem… once I track him down.”
“You don’t know Mr. Crawford’s location?”
“No. I haven’t seen him in ten years.” Hannah shrugged, she really hadn’t thought about him for an entire decade. They broke up a month before she left for medical school, and neither of them had been in contact with one another since.
“Well, I suggest you locate him. My understanding is that these funds will enable you to start your own medical practice?”
Hannah nodded, “Yes… and pay off my student loans.”
“Admirable. I hope it proves a fruitful endeavor. I will have the divorce papers drawn up for you by next week. Once you have the co-signature, we can reconvene and transfer the funds.
“Okay. Well, great.” Hannah rose from her chair, and shook her lawyers hand. “Thank you for your help, Mr. Moore.”
“It’s a pleasure, Dr. Cooper.”
Riding the elevator down from Delaney, Smith and Wexler LLP, Hannah felt dizzy. She had hoped that one day she’d have the financial means to open her own practice specializing in family medicine, but never in her wildest dreams did she imagine that day would come so soon. Thank you, Uncle Henry. May you rest in peace.
Bears of Burden: HUTCH Page 10