Briar on Bruins' Peak (Bruins' Peak Bears Book 7)

by Erin D. Andrews

  She smiled and quickly opened the door to find Grey standing and leaning in the frame. His smiling face hit her like a breath of fresh air. It was what she’d needed to see all day.

  “There you are.” He stepped in and pulled her into his arms. She was so relieved to feel them wrap around her that she just melted into his embrace for a while. His arms seemed to be filled with so much relief and peace that she wasn’t sure she wanted him to ever let her go.

  “Why is everything all locked up?” he whispered into her ear.

  “Because I don’t want anyone to see us.”

  He pulled back and raised his eyebrows at her. “Why not? You have something planned?”

  She nodded and gestured to the door with her chin. “Lock that up for me, will you?”

  He stepped away to gently shut the door, and shadows fell over the two of them. Shuttered safely in the dark treehouse, they kissed in the middle of the room. Harper let her hands massage Grey’s shoulders and neck as she pressed her lips against his, unable to get enough of his taste or smell. She needed all of him, and she needed him urgently.

  “Grey,” she whispered as he kissed her neck. She tilted her head back to give him full access. “Take my dress off.”

  “You sure?”

  She nodded. He knelt down in front of her and gathered her hem in his hands, then lifted her thin, flowery dress up over her head. She raised her arms to help him, and he tossed it aside on a chair. Underneath, there was nothing. The heat had helped everyone get a lot less prudish about things like bras and underwear, and now none of the females wore them. He slipped his arms around her naked waist and pulled her close, putting his nose to her neck and then her shoulder.

  He hunched down low so that he could kiss her breasts, then sucked one of her nipples. She ran her fingers through his hair as he did, loving the way his lips on her nipples made her feel. It was something more than arousal; there was a powerful, sexual being that his non-verbal worship brought out in her. She felt it stir and stand with her. It made her decisive. It was time. Time to be with Grey. Time to let go of her virginity. Time to find a space for just the two of them and shut out the rest of the world.

  She pulled his hand to guide him to the bed and sat down in front of him. She untied the cord that held up his pants and smiled at him.

  “Grey,” she said, “do you know that I’m absolutely crazy about you?”

  He nodded. “I’m insane for you. Always have been.”

  “You know that I trust you? Truly trust you?”

  He hesitated at the question, then nodded. Yes. He’d always known that.

  His pants fell to the floor and he pulled off his shirt. She stopped him so that she could look at his erection for a moment. It was tall and pink. For some reason, it frightened her a little, even though it was nothing more than an appendage. She reached out to touch it, then pulled her hand back.

  “You All right?”

  “Yeah. I just…I’ve never seen one before.”

  He took her hand and guided it to his tall shaft, gently placed it there, and then loosely wrapped her fingers around its width. “Nothing to be scared of. I’ll tell you if anything doesn’t feel good or if I need you to do something. Okay?”

  She let her hand close a little more, and he groaned, leaning down to put his head against hers. She slid her hand up to the top, still uncertain what she was doing and touched the round, oddly shaped head. He let out a little cry, and she looked up, startled.

  “Does that feel good?”

  “Very.”

  He kissed her again and pushed her down to the bed, moving her hand aside. They laid next to one another, naked and warm and comfortable and just touched one another all over with their hands.

  Grey’s body was endlessly fascinating to Harper. He climbed and did physical work every day, so his muscles were highly defined and rippled under his clear, brown skin. Back when he’d worked for her father, he had always looked a bit underfed and pale, but his new diet had given him a rosy glow and helped him flesh out a bit. She kneeled above him and let him explore her body while she smiled down at him.

  “You are so beautiful, Harper Bachmann. I hope you know that.”

  She smiled and felt herself blush. She always felt a little silly worrying about her appearance, but she did want to be beautiful. At least, she wanted Grey to find her lovely to look at.

  His hands traveled down to her hips and then back to her butt. He used both to give her rear end a double spanking, and she cried out and fell forward with the force of it. She found herself hovering above him, her hair hanging down to his face. Suddenly, she felt a strange urgency. She needed him inside of her right away.

  He read the expression on her face and lifted his hips up to meet hers. She felt him slide inside her and pushed her hips down to take him into her. The pressure and heat that came with the penetration filled her whole body and made her tremble. She tried to say something, but her words came out as odd little sounds that made no sense.

  Grey seemed to understand and took her into his arms again. They rolled so that he took her place on top and he gently, slowly moved in and out of her. He kissed her over and over, whispered his love to her as he moved back and forth. She wrapped her legs around his hips so that she could open up to him completely. For a moment, she felt a terrible pain and cried out, but she didn’t want to stop. She held him inside her and squeezed her eyes shut and told herself that a little pain was worth this experience. It listened and the pain subsided.

  As he moved, Grey started to breathe faster, and tension built in his legs. He straightened out and then convulsed against her. She felt a heat inside her and realized that he had just come. She wondered if maybe his sperm would make her feel ill or if it would burn her, but there was nothing she could do about it at the moment. Perhaps she could crouch down and make it drain out? No, that didn’t seem right.

  He distracted her from her worries when he collapsed against her. She held him as he went soft inside her and then slipped out. She focused on the way the sperm felt and tried see if she could sense where it was going, what it was up to. It was easy at first, but the little organisms traveled deep into her until she couldn’t feel them anymore.

  Grey stood up to get a drink of water and looked down at the bed.

  “Oh. Honey, we uh…we better clean that.”

  She looked down and found that there was a blood stain on the mattress. “Oh. Is that…Do you think that’s from my, you know…?”

  “Your maidenhead? Your virtue?” The two of them laughed at the old-fashioned words. She knew the blood had come from the moment her hymen broke, but for some reason, she couldn’t just say it. She was such a child.

  “Let me get you some water and a rag.” He wandered off, his naked behind staring at her. She watched it and was suddenly struck by a strange thought.

  I don’t get to call myself a virgin anymore. The idea of losing part of her identity as a young woman struck her deeply. She’d been the last of her female friends to experience lovemaking and hadn’t realized that she would miss that innocence once it was gone. But she did.

  Good. No one needs you to be a virgin anymore. They need you to be a woman. The new thought seemed to possess a different, inner voice. It was stronger and seemed to come from a deeper place. She thought of all the people she knew in the community, of the dead little boy, the association who wanted her to be their new accessory. She suddenly realized that all of those scenarios were things she could choose to take part in, or to leave behind. No one could force her to do anything she didn’t want to do or stop her from taking action if she deemed it necessary.

  This new discovery made her smile a little to herself as she waited for her lover to bring her some collected rain water. He returned looking very smug and sweet at the same time. They gave each other a little clink of their bamboo cups and then drank deeply, both of them tired and thirsty.

  “Can I get cleaned up here?” Grey asked her. “I need to go a
nd visit my dad.”

  “You can,” she said, putting her cup on the floor. “But not just yet.” She took his cup away and poured what was left down the front of her body and then gestured for him to come and lick it all up.

  Chapter Four

  The Body

  Harper walked to where she had seen little Marcus laid out, but she already knew that his body would have washed away from its original place after the storm. She just hoped it wouldn’t be too far away.

  To her surprise, someone was already with him.

  There, standing over Marcus’ body was his grieving mother. She looked exactly like him – the same deep mocha skin, the same wide nose, the same sad eyes. She barely acknowledged Harper as she walked up, but she didn’t seem to mind having her there. The two shared a friendly silence as the jungle around them clicked and hummed. Some big, fat flies buzzed past them, but both women let them fly in peace.

  Marcus had had several visitors by the look of him. He was surrounded by large, flowered branches and had a pillow of leaves under his head. He was lightly covered with a blanket of little blossoms that were sure to be gone by morning, but it still had the intended effect. He looked at peace and at one with the outdoors., like a little forest spirit returning to the Earth.

  “I’m so sorry for your loss,” she said softly to the mother beside her. She didn’t respond. Instead, she bent down to put a few more small flowers on her son’s body.

  “He never hurt anyone,” she said hoarsely. Harper realized with a start that the woman had been weeping all night and lost her voice. “He was always smiling, always upbeat. Even when we were so poor and digging through the garbage in the streets. Nothing got him down. He just loved the sky, the sun, his family. He was a special little man.”

  “I wish I had known him better. I’m sorry to say we never spoke. But,” she turned to the mom, “I want to help. Is there anything at all that I can do?”

  “According to the whispers in the trees,” the woman said, raising her eyebrows, “you intend to find Marcus’ killer.”

  Harper gulped and nodded, doing her best to look determined. “Yes. That’s what I want to do. What I will do. This kind of thing cannot stand. It would be one thing if he’d had an accident, but I checked. He was nowhere near a bridge, and even if he had been–”

  “I know,” the woman said, holding up a hand. “His father did all the same things. Talked to a lot of the people who saw Marcus last. Even his little friends. Everyone confirmed that nothing strange was going on. So,” she went on, looking deep into Harper’s eyes, “that means he must have gotten involved with something that he was keeping secret.”

  “A secret?” Harper felt her blood run a bit colder.

  Marcus’ mother nodded. “The best I can figure,” she said, “is that just as he was on his way home, he must have heard something, seen something, found something, anything, that he was not meant to see. And someone got scared that this innocent, trusting little boy would talk.” She hiccupped a little cry and looked up the sky. “And they were right. Marcus couldn’t keep a secret for more than a minute. He told his brothers and sisters everything. Every single detail of his day.”

  Harper moved a little closer and tentatively pulled this stranger in for a hug. The woman resisted for a moment, then collapsed against her and let out a deep and shuddering sob. She shook against Harper’s frame, almost falling, so Harper pulled her in a bit tighter, holding her with as much strength as she could muster.

  “So, I need to figure out who’s keeping secrets around here,” Harper said matter-of-factly. “Then we’ll know what happened to Marcus.”

  Her new friend pulled away and looked at Harper doubtfully. “You really think you can do that?”

  Harper thought for a moment, twisting up her mouth. “Where had Marcus been playing the evening he passed away? What we he up to?”

  “His friends told us they were all playing a round of Humans versus Shifters in the trees, but I know that means they were in the part of the forest near his friend Shep’s house.” She turned and pointed west to a little neighborhood of treehouses. “You could start there.”

  Harper smiled at her and managed to draw out a smile back from her sad friend. The expression clearly pained her, but she fought through it.

  “Okay, then,” Harper said. “That’s where I’m headed. Can you tell me where Shep lives?”

  “Oh,” the woman replied, “everyone knows Shep. Just ask around, and you’ll find his house. He’s a popular little guy.” Harper could hear a touch of affection in the woman’s voice; her son’s friends were all she had left of him. The half-shifter wondered if Marcus’ mother was missing her noisy house. No time to ask, for there was work to be done. She turned to go and then stopped.

  “I’m Harper, by the way.”

  “I know who you are.”

  Harper gave a tight smile. “Right. I should have guessed. Can you tell me your name?”

  The woman thought it over, uncertain if she wanted this young, would-be detective addressing her by her first name. Then she shrugged and said, “Dahlia. My name is Dahlia.”

  Harper walked into the part of the forest Dahlia had indicated and noticed that the trees were a bit thinner here, meaning that they were younger. This new forest grew in a manner very different than forests of the past. Now trees shot up thin as arrows and then gradually expanded month after month. Once they reached a certain circumference, they slowed down significantly and only expanded about an inch a year. The new, aggressive growing pattern made it fairly easy to plan treehouses. If a tree was still thin, the floor just needed some leeway between the tree and the inner circle. Nets were placed underneath the opening in case anyone’s foot slipped through, and then the nets were taken away as the tree filled in.

  As Harper gazed up at all the trees above her, she saw lots of nets hanging down just over her head. This was a very new neighborhood.

  As she walked, a group of young boys screamed past her, their tiny spears raised over their heads as they charged at some imaginary enemy.

  “Got you!”

  “Die! Die! Die!”

  “You’ll never get away! You’re our prisoner. Ha-ha!”

  She watched as they stabbed and swatted at the invisible monster and then eventually got tired. She walked up as they teased one another, shoving each other to the ground.

  “Hi, boys.”

  They glanced up, looked at each other to see if anyone knew this strange woman, but they were all equally mystified. They quickly went back to playing and ran away from her.

  Huh. Okay. She would have to try again. What did kids want to hear from adults? She thought about it as she walked and then stopped as the same three boys came careening around a corner and straight for her. Seeing their homemade spears in their hands, she got an idea.

  “Stop right there, you enemies of the state!” They froze. Good. “I’ll have no more of this horrible war. I’ve sent all my forces home, and from now on,” she stepped her feet apart and put her hands on her hips, “you’ll have to deal with me: President Bachmann.”

  “Hey,” the tallest boy said, puffing up his chest, “we’re not playing Shifters versus Humans. We’re playing Monster in the Forest.”

  “Well,” Harper said, hunching over and making claws with her hands, “guess what? I was trying to trick you, but as you can see,” she pretended to rip off a mask, “my human face was only a disguise. I am the monster!”

  The boys screamed and ran, glancing over their shoulders to make sure she was right behind them. The boys took her on quite a chase, and she was tired long before they were, but she pushed herself to keep going. She was positive the tall one was Shep, and she needed to talk to him.

  “Ha-ha-ha! Silly children! Don’t run from me. Just get into my pot where I can boil you up!”

  “No! Don’t eat us!” they shrieked, all of them clearly enjoying the idea of being someone’s dinner. She grabbed the smallest one and picked him up by his waist. />
  “Help! The monster’s got me! She’s got me!” He kicked and wiggled, but he was so small that she managed to keep a hold of him.

  “I’ll give you your friend back if you’ll tell me one thing,” she said. All three stopped and waited to hear what she would say next. Good – she had their attention. “The boy I really want is Shep. Is that one of you?”

  The bigger boy pointed to the little squirmer in her arms. “You’ve got him already.”

  “Oh.” This turn in events threw her for a moment, but she quickly recovered. “Yes, I knew it was him! I am triumphant!” She pretended to take a bite out of his head, and Shep did an imaginary death in her arms.

  “Hey,” she said, breaking character, “anyone hungry?”

  Soon, the group was sitting on some of the bigger roots in the ground and munching on some fruit together that Harper had picked for them. She had hoped the three of them would shimmy up a tree and do it for her, but they’d been content to sit and rest while she did the gathering. She didn’t complain; she needed them on her side. She had already gotten their names: Shep, the smallest, Tyler, the tallest, and Van, the quiet one.

  “Shep,” she said to Shep before he could finish his snack and run off, “I saw Marcus and his mom today.”

  “Marcus died,” he informed her. He seemed okay with the idea, but he also gave the impression of not really knowing what it was to have died. Harper waited to see if he had anything else to say, but he was finished talking.

  “What did Marcus like to play?” she asked them.

  “Humans versus Shifters was his favorite,” Tyler informed her. “He was always the president.”

  “Wow. That must have been fun. Were you playing with him the night before he died?”

  They nodded and went on eating. She thought hard about how to handle this next part. She needed to ask it in a way that would keep their attention and make them want to keep talking.

  “You know,” she said to all of them, “I have a very special job. I solve mysteries.”

  “What’s a mystery?” Shep asked.