Blake, Abby - Suddenly Bear (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting)

by Abby Blake

  “Are you okay? We never did talk about what happened last night. Maybe you should press charges against that asshole.”

  “Maybe, but I reckon he’d make sure to drag you down with him.” She moved and turned slightly so that she could see his face. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone tossed out a door like that before. You must be stronger than you look.”

  “Adrenaline,” he mumbled, sounding embarrassed. He seemed willing to argue the point, but then he breathed out heavily and hugged her a little tighter. “Okay, we’ll leave it for now, but if he tries anything else, we need to report it.”

  “All right.”

  They fell quiet again for a few minutes, and she was starting to wonder if he was asleep until he cleared his throat and said, “Oh, by the way, my brother is coming to stay for a couple of days. He’ll arrive sometime tomorrow afternoon.”

  A good dose of that adrenaline he’d mentioned burned through her veins.

  “W–Why?” Was the timing suspicious? She hadn’t met any of his family in the past year, but within twenty-four hours of going to bed with this man five years her junior one of his older brothers was coming to stay.

  “He wants to meet you,” Jayden said in a tone of voice that she couldn’t interpret.

  A little too freaked out to censor her words she said, “Oh, god, he’s going to hate me.”

  “Hate you? Why would you think that?”

  She shook her head, too embarrassed, and perhaps a little too frightened, to explain the fear coursing through her. Jayden pulled her back into his embrace, his warmth surrounding her as he settled them both back into a spooning position.

  “Babe, he’s going to love you,” he said as he pressed a kiss to her temple. “I know that for a fact.”

  Chapter Four

  The first thing Brandon noticed about the woman was that she carried his brother’s scent. The second was that she had a beautiful smile, and the third was confirmation that she was indeed his mate.

  Every primitive thought in his head screamed at him to claim her. It was only the underlying fear he could sense from her that kept him sane enough not to follow through.

  “You must be Brandon,” she said as she stood partly leaning against the open door.

  “What gave it away? No wait, let me guess. It was the hair, right?”

  She laughed softly, and his cock twitched at the melodious sound. Everything about this woman called to him in ways he’d never expected, and he was hard pressed to keep his thoughts to himself.

  “Come in,” she said as she stepped away from the doorway. “Jayden should be home any minute. Can I get you something? Have you eaten?”

  “I’m fine,” he said, already falling for her nurturing personality. Shit, if this was the way he was reacting to her after only a few minutes’ acquaintance, how had Jayden lasted a whole year?

  “Um…Jayden said you…um wouldn’t mind sleeping in my bed.” Brandon’s cock rose with immediate interest, but sense finally kicked in, and he realized that she meant without her. She’d most likely sleep beside his brother. Lucky bastard.

  “That’s fine,” he said, hoping that she didn’t glance down and see the erection trying to burst through his zipper.

  “Okay, my room’s the door on the left. Did you want to take a shower or something?”

  His mind chose “or something,” but he smiled and said, “A shower would be great.”

  She nodded, seeming to relax just a little. “Towels are in the cupboard under the sink.”

  He dipped his head in acknowledgement, almost grateful to be able to put a wall or two between them. “No worries,” he said in a voice that he hoped didn’t sound as strained as it felt. “I won’t be long.”

  He quickly grabbed a change of clothes and locked himself in the bathroom. Unzipping his jeans needed way more patience than usual, and by the time his cock sprang free, he was already oozing pre-cum. Brandon briefly considered a cold shower but realized nothing short of orgasm was going to deflate this hard-on.

  He stepped under the water as images of his beautiful mate flickered through his mind. Even through the shapeless shirt and unflattering loose-fit jeans he’d caught glimpses of the goddess underneath. She was curvy and soft in all the right places, and he could practically feel the warmth of her wet pussy surrounding his cock as he loved her slowly.

  He ran his hand up and down his cock, letting the fantasy unfold in his mind. He’d lay her out on the bed, naked with her legs wide, that gorgeous pussy open to his gaze as he lowered his head to taste her essence. She’d gasp as he thrust his tongue into her folds, and she’d scream when he sucked on her clit. He’d push his fingers deep inside her, caressing her G-spot as he continued to suckle her flesh. She’d be writhing under him, begging her to take her, her arms open, welcoming. Her embrace would be warm and comforting as he slid his cock into her pussy and held her close. She’d orgasm around him, the tight caress dragging him ever closer to completion.

  He barely bit back the groan as cum spurted from his cock onto the tiles of the shower. He jolted as aftershocks worked up his spine, his cock barely deflating as he turned the shower head to wash away the evidence.

  He dragged in a deep breath and swallowed a hysterical laugh. Fuck, if that’s how hard he came fantasizing about his mate, making love to her might just kill him.

  * * * *

  Jayden came through the door of the apartment, and every sense he had went onto full alert. The smell of semen hit him full force, and instant fear for Violet had his heart rate kicking into high gear. But then he took a deeper breath and realized that his mate was in the kitchen, and someone else was in the shower.

  Now that he was calming down, he recognized his brother’s scent and understood exactly what had happened. He couldn’t help the broad grin that spread across his face as he found his mate making a pot of coffee.

  “Hello, beautiful,” he said as he pulled Violet into his embrace. “Did you have a good day?”

  She shrugged. “It was okay. Your brother is here.”

  “Hmm, I heard the shower,” he said, breathing deeply as his mate’s unique scent filled his senses. Knowing that Brandon was also attracted to Violet helped to still a little of the panic he’d carried in his heart since Monday night, but he wasn’t entirely sure why.

  “Did you get to talk to him?”

  “Not really. He only got here about ten minutes ago, and he’s spent most of that in the shower.”

  Jayden tried not to laugh. If she knew what his brother was up to, she’d probably be completely embarrassed.

  “You’ve got tomorrow off, right?” She nodded. “Would you mind spending the day with Brandon? I’ve got an exam in the afternoon, and I could use all the cramming time I can get.”

  “Uh, sure, I guess.” She sounded surprised by his request, but he didn’t miss the slight jump in her arousal. It would seem that she was as attracted to Brandon as he was to her. Jayden wasn’t sure exactly what that meant, but a part of him felt hopeful it was a good sign—despite the fact that his logic made no sense.

  * * * *

  “So where would you like to go?” Violet asked, trying to hide her nervousness. She’d thought Jayden was huge, but Brandon was built like a damn mountain. The trouble was that she kept having naughty little fantasies about climbing to the top. She swallowed hard. Hell, a couple of nights in Jayden’s arms and she’d turned into some kind of nympho. And, wow, how hard did she have to work to make sure that thought didn’t end up written clearly on her face?

  “I don’t really know,” Brandon answered as they headed for the car. “I’ve only been here once before and it was a really short visit, so anywhere you take me will be a new experience.”

  “Okay,” she said, wracking her brain for somewhere interesting that was also cheap. She’d never discussed finances with Jayden, so she had no idea if his family had money or not. Shit, she didn’t even know if they were helping him with his educational expenses or if he was
racking up huge student debts. “How about something simple like a walk in the park? The trees are quite beautiful this time of year.”

  “Sounds good,” Brandon said as he opened the driver’s side door of his rental car and waited for her to get in. “Probably best if you drive.” She nodded in agreement and slid into the seat, trying hard not to notice the heat that radiated from him was just as hot as when it came from Jayden. Although, the fact he wore only a long-sleeve T-shirt this time of year was mindboggling. It might not have snowed yet, but it was cold enough to warrant at least a coat.

  “Will you be warm enough?” she asked as he slid into the passenger seat. He gave her a smile so like Jayden’s that she started to wonder just what else the two brothers had in common. Shoot. That was the trouble with a great imagination. She closed her eyes and tried to think of something, anything, that didn’t revolve around sex with the Delko brothers. Suddenly, she was the one who probably didn’t need a coat.

  “I’ll be fine,” Brandon said as he smiled. Was that a knowing smile? Crap, maybe Bruce had hit her head way harder than she’d thought. After months of feeling attraction for Jayden and no one else, suddenly she was lusting after his brother. Surely that had to point to some sort of medical condition. Sheesh, maybe she was delusional. She dragged in a deep breath, wound down the driver’s side window a crack to get more oxygen, and tried really hard to act normal.

  Now if she could just remember what that was.

  “Oh, okay, then we’ll just…um…get going.” She decided to start the engine before she could babble any more. The way her mind was working she’d probably blurt out something hideously embarrassing.

  She turned the key in the ignition and almost leapt out of her skin as the radio roared to life. She winced at the overly loud noise but considered leaving it that way. After a few moments of indecision, her stepmother’s years of demanding good manners from her kicked in. She reached over to turn the volume down, way down. Heavy metal just didn’t lend itself to friendly conversation, although, in her frazzled state not being able to talk was probably a good thing.

  Brandon grinned at her. “Not a rock chick?”

  “Not really,” she confessed, happy to have something other than fantasies of blazingly hot threesomes spinning through her mind. Damn. She scrambled for something to say. “Um…interesting choice. I would’ve pegged you as more a fan of easy listening classics.”

  He laughed, and she could feel a little of her tension slide away. “Nope, sorry to disappoint you, baby girl. It’s hard rock or heavy metal or the radio goes off.”

  Baby girl? Wow, strange how that simple endearment went straight to her clit.

  “Seriously?” she asked, no longer sure she was talking about music.

  His eyes twinkled with merriment. “Seriously,” he said in a voice that suggested he wasn’t really serious at all. He grinned, released a short bark of laughter, and somehow the tension was broken. “The lodge always has easy listening classics playing through the common areas. But when I’m in my work shed, I play what I want to listen to.”

  “Your work shed?”

  “Yeah, I’m the grease monkey in the family.” She must’ve given him a blank look—she was not thinking about hot, sweaty, monkey sex—because he added, “I’m a mechanic so I spend most of my days covered in black gunk.”

  “Oh, so no plans to be a doctor like your younger brother?” she managed to say without drooling.

  “Hell, no.” He seemed to hesitate for a moment. “Has Jayden told you much about our family?”

  “Not really. I know that you and Declan run a ski lodge in winter and a farm the rest of the year, you don’t have any sisters, and your parents recently retired. But that’s about it.” She tilted her head a little as an uncomfortable thought entered her mind. “Come to think of it, I’ve pretty much spent the last twelve months talking about myself. How did that happen?”

  “That’s the ‘Jayden effect.’ He can get even the most reticent people talking about themselves. The guy is going to make a great doctor one day.” He sounded quite proud of his younger brother. She smiled in agreement but really didn’t know what to say. It wasn’t like her to talk so much about herself. It’s not like she had a heap to talk about anyway. “Don’t worry,” Brandon said, and she glanced over to see his wide grin. “I’m not that nice. I’m happy to spill all the gossip on my family.”

  She giggled as a million and one questions popped into her mind. She had been meaning to ask Jayden all of them, but somehow he always managed to maneuver the conversation back onto her. Hell, had she really been that self-centered the past year?

  “Okay, um…Who’s the oldest?”

  “Declan. He’s twenty-nine. He manages the ski resort. I’m in the middle at twenty-eight. And of course then there’s Jayden at twenty-four. When he’s finished studying, he plans to return to the resort and set up a general practice.”

  “Wow, I think that’s more information than I’ve been able to drag out of Jayden since he moved in.”

  Brandon laughed, a deep, sexy sound that had her toes curling in her boots. “Anything you want to know about our family, baby girl, I’m your man.”

  She stopped the car at a traffic light and glanced over at Brandon. The sun shone through the window, catching the lighter brown and gold colors in his hair and somehow making it look luminous.

  “How big is the resort?” She groaned quietly and hurriedly corrected when she realized that question could be interpreted poorly. “I mean, will there be enough patients for Jayden to run a general practice?”

  Brandon grinned as if he understood her reason for the quick rephrase, but he gave her the information a gold-digging tramp would be looking for. “The resort has room for nearly four hundred guests. We’re well known for our mixture of cross-country tracks and quality ski runs, and a lot of our clientele have been coming back year after year.”

  He grinned at her soft sound of dismay. Finding out she was sleeping with the youngest son of a very rich family didn’t make her feel any better about being an ambitionless waitress.

  “During peak season we can have nearly five hundred guests and staff living at the resort. It doesn’t take much for the roads to be blocked, and we can be isolated by bad weather pretty easily. Having a doctor nearby has always been a priority. Doc Jackson has been with us for more years than I remember, but he plans to retire around the same time Jayden will be ready to come home. So it should work out well for both of them.”

  She nodded and turned the car into a parking space close to the park.

  “We’re here,” she said in a voice that felt tight with anxiety. She should be thrilled for Jayden that his future was well planned, but all she could think of was how his brothers would see her relationship with him. She’d known for a long time that it wasn’t right to get involved with him. They should have remained friends and nothing more.

  She climbed out of the car, pulled her coat tighter around her, and tried to plaster on a smile. Brandon glanced around the park before his gaze settled back on her. “Which way should we go?”

  There were few people around this time of year, but it was one of Violet’s favorite places. Yet today, with so many worries and the lingering confusion over the lust she felt for her boyfriend’s brother swirling in her head, she barely noticed the brilliant colors or stark beauty of the trees stripped of their leaves waiting for the first snow.

  “Did I say something to upset you?”

  She glanced at the man beside her and felt hard pressed not to cry. He seemed like a really nice guy, and he wasn’t to blame for the mess she herself had made of her life.

  “No. I’m sorry. I just…um…have a lot on my mind.” Geez, talk about lame.

  “I know what happened with your ex the other night. Are you okay?” She nodded but couldn’t stop the tear that rolled down her cheek. She wiped it away quickly, horribly embarrassed that she would be so emotional in front of a man who was mostly a stranger. Brandon t
urned her to face him, holding her shoulders as he gazed into her eyes. He grinned widely and then winked. “Want me to go beat him up?”

  She made a noise that was half laugh, half sob and suddenly found herself wrapped in his arms. The man was huge, built like a gladiator, yet instead of flashing back to her moments of helplessness as Bruce had used his superior strength against her, Violet felt nothing but safe. She held on tight and wished she could shut up that little voice in her head that screamed at her that it was wrong to let her lover’s brother hold her while she cried. After a few more moments, she placed her hands on his warm chest and levered herself away from his strength.

  “I’m sorry.” Lame, lame, lame, but what else could she offer?

  “Don’t be,” Brandon said as he slung an arm around her shoulders and turned her back toward the car. “Did Jayden ever talk about our friend Louise?”

  “Louise?” Well that was a strange turn in the conversation.

  “Yup, she was kind of like the kid sister we never had. Always following us around when we were little, getting into mischief, leading us astray.”

  “Uh-huh,” Violet said with a knowing smile. She doubted Brandon was the type to be led anywhere, even as a kid.

  “That’s right,” he said with a hand over his heart. “She was a terrible influence. We wouldn’t have gotten into half the trouble we did if she hadn’t been around.” He laughed when Violet rolled her eyes. “Anyway, Louise recently fell in love with and married three men.”

  “Three?” Violet was trying not to sound incredulous, but she couldn’t hide her curiosity. She wasn’t sure she’d be able to handle one husband. Three sounded impossible. Although, if the three men were anything like Jayden and his brothers, maybe she understood some of the appeal.