His teeth ached. “Fellow’s nothing but a fortune hunter.”
“Amber hasn’t got a fortune.” Dad pressed buttons and the screens went black. “I’m ready for bed. Doesn’t look like I will be called out tonight. But morning is just around the corner.” He turned back towards Calvin and clapped him lightly on the shoulder. “Did I tell you that I’m glad you’re going to fill in for Laura while she’s on maternity leave?”
“Several times.” Cal stretched. “It’s the least I can do for my only sister. Besides it’s time for my vacation.”
Dad grinned. “Sure. And managing a ranch and a stud for a couple of weeks beats two weeks lying in the sun in Corfu.”
“Corfu and the villa will still be there in six months. Laura needs me now.”
Resisting the impulse to turn the monitors back on and spy on Lance and Amber in the tack room, Calvin followed his father to their bedroom wing. He made a note to get Steve to check Prescott out six ways to Wednesday. What did a lovely creature like Amber see in an ugly, beat-up has-been like Prescott anyway?
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Amber~
At three when Budge Purvis showed up for his shift, Lance walked her back to her cabin. The sky was clear and spangled with stars, the air frigid. But when they passed under the trees that grew around her cabin, the pine boughs blocked the sky.
Lance was tense. He craned his head in every direction, as if he expected trouble. Of course he was hampered by both his bad eye and his heavy parka. He couldn’t just take a glance, he had to turn his whole body to see on his left side.
“What’s the matter?” Amber whispered.
Lance shook his head. He spoke slowly as if considering every word. “I’m not sure. Maybe it was seeing that bear the other day. Maybe it’s not trusting Dog. It’s probably nothing, but I’m antsy tonight.”
She sniffed the air surreptitiously. The wind was blowing strongly from the north. It brought her only the scent of horses and cattle mingled with coming snow. “I don’t think that bear will be back,” she murmured.
His eyes quartered the darkness. Even with her shifter vision she could not see far beyond the circle of light cast by the back porch light. What could Lance make out with only one eye? Better not to comment. A man had his pride.
He shrugged. “I’m not so sure. You never can tell with half-grown animals. They don’t have a lot of sense at that age and if they just once get a taste for garbage, they tend to hang around. And I wouldn’t trust Dog, if I could see him.”
“Hmm.” What could she say? She didn’t trust Dog either. And naturally she too was keeping an eye out for both Dog and Blondie. What was there to keep a snake behind bars if he didn’t want to stay?
As for that bear, the truth was not an option. And Lance was more correct than he knew – she had behaved with a total lack of sense in taking bear where she could be spotted. She was just lucky Lance had not realized she was the bear.
They reached her back door without meeting anything — not even the owls were hunting so close to dawn. Lance held her hand as she went to step inside. He gave her time to back away before he kissed her. He was just as good a kisser as she had remembered. And tonight there was no officious Calvin Bascom to play the part of an affronted, overprotective papa bear.
Lance nibbled his way along her lower lip to the corners of her mouth, tasted the bow and only then asked for admittance. He was a tease. Willie had been all hot urgency and directness. Lance wasn’t hesitant exactly, it was more that he was delicate and leisurely. He kissed her as if he had all night and nothing better to do than explore her mouth and learn what pleased her.
She let herself savor the gentle glide and sweep of his tongue. He tasted of potent masculine desire and smelled enticing. She felt safe in the strong circle of his arms and regretful when he raised his head and smiled gently at her. They were both warm and she could feel passion prickling her skin. But for her at least it was too soon for anything more than kissing.
His twisted smile stretched wider and the skin on either side of his eyes formed crows’ feet. “I’ll see you at morning stables.” He let her go. “Lock your door.” He waited on the back porch until she had gone inside and done just that.
Amber watched his straight, upright back through the window until it disappeared into the darkness. Maybe she ought to feel guilty for enjoying another man’s kisses, but her Willie was never going to come marching back to her.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
Amber~
Her Willie was buried at Arlington. All she had to keep her warm at night was his old letter jacket and the class ring he had given her to wear when she was sixteen and he was their high school running back. His mama had his purple heart displayed in her front room.
For sure Willie Benoit had broken her heart, but she didn’t have to mourn her first love forever. Did she? It was what bears did, but the years stretched out bleak and lonely between Willie and death.
Amber opened the sliding door of her closet. She reached past her clothes to the garment bag hung just out of easy reach at the far end. She lifted it out and hung it where she could see properly. Pulling on the zipper revealed red wool and black leather. She buried her face in the familiar jacket.
It no longer smelled of slightly rank adolescent bear. All her nose could detect were the cedar chips keeping away the moths, and the faint background note of the lavender sachet resting at the bottom of the bag. Even his scent had faded from the earth. Her eyes filled with tears. She zippered up the garment bag and tucked it away regretfully.
She had assuaged her loneliness so often with Willie’s scent that it seemed incomprehensible that she could no longer do so. Where had her lovely memories gone? She brushed her teeth and puttered around, straightening her already neat quarters and setting out her breakfast things. And pondering.
Just when had she decided that her one true love’s body odor was rank? Surely even when he was soaked from football practice or hard work, she had loved Willie and delighted in his presence? If he had lived, would her feelings have evaporated like his personal fragrance? Was she really so flighty?
As she lay in bed waiting for sleep, she thought of Willie’s broad handsome face. Like all the Benoits, he had been stocky and muscular. A true bear. Dark-haired and dark-eyed and heavily bearded. Strong and loving. With a reckless taste for adventure that had made him a star on the football field and propelled him to join the Marines as soon as he graduated from high school. They had planned to marry right after her own graduation from high school. But he hadn’t come home after his first tour.
He had been dead before she got her diploma. And her dreams of living happily ever after with her sweetheart had been crushed. She had resigned herself at seventeen to widowhood without ever having been quite a wife. Even though she knew that Willie would not begrudge her happiness, her attraction to Lance smacked of infidelity. What kind of a bear forgot her lover after only five or six years?
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
Calvin~
“What do you know about Prescott?” Calvin asked his brother-in-law before he took his first sip of coffee.
Steve Holden stared in surprise. “Lance Prescott? Less than you do, I imagine, since I’m the newcomer around here. He’s a Marine. Made sergeant. Was wounded in Iraq, got a medical discharge, and has worked in the stables for the last seven years. All around stand-up guy. Why?”
“He’s sniffing around Amber.”
Laura broke in laughing, her eyes sparkling. “I think it’s cute. When they think no one is watching, they look at each other out of the corners of their eyes. And blush. They’re adorable.”
“You don’t think he’s hoping for a free ride?” Calvin demanded.
“Lance?” Laura sounded shocked. She shook her head. “He’s a straight arrow. I think he’s smitten. Amber too.”
“What’s he going to do when he finds out she’s a bear?” Cal demanded. “How cute will that be?”
Laura and
Steve exchanged glances.
“Either he will mind, or he won’t,” said Steve after a long pause. “Depends how badly he’s smitten. I think it’s too late to interfere.”
“Amber doesn’t have a clue,” snarled Cal. “She just a babe from the backwoods. I don’t want to be the one to tell Patrick that his wife’s gullible sister has been taken advantage of by one of the hands.”
Steve raised his brows. He shook his head. “Lance won’t hurt Amber — although she may hurt him. He is a southern gentleman.”
“With a mind above money?” Cal asked cynically.
“No one is that pure,” admitted Steve. “But Lance is a good guy. I would trust him at my back in battle.” Sgt. Steve Holden, late of Special Forces, had no higher praise for any man.
Laura rubbed her bump. “Maybe you should investigate Lance’s background anyway, honey,” she suggested. “When he was hired we took him at his word. He looked and acted like a veteran, and he’s certainly a hard worker and a natural with horses. You’d think he grew up around them.”
She rubbed her bump harder. “We’ve never had a reason to look deeper. But if he’s going to be part of the family, perhaps we should know a bit more than we do. After all, Amber doesn’t have anyone but us to look out for her.”
“Fair enough. I can make inquiries.” Steve returned to his eggs. “Were you planning on working today?” he asked his wife.
“Nope. Today I’m going to be busy.”
“Anything special?”
“You might say so. I think today’s the day.”
Steve stood up, leaving his eggs to cool on his plate. “Are you in labor?”
Laura nodded. “I think so. Sit down, both of you. Finish your breakfasts. Likely we have hours to go before we have to leave for the hospital.”
Calvin caught Steve’s eye. Laura pressed hard on her belly and picked up her glass of milk and set it down unsipped.
“You keep an eye on her,” Steve instructed. “I’ll get her bag.”
Calvin shoveled in eggs while he could. Just as he bit into his toast, Laura started to rise, thought better of it, and plunked back down again. “I have to wash my hands before I go anyplace.”
“The hell you do.”
Laura’s face contorted. Calvin swept her up into his arms and carried her towards the bathroom. Steve met them in the hallway. “Let’s swap,” he suggested, handing Calvin a small suitcase.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
Lance~
Her soft warm mouth traced a damp line between his nipples and down to his belly, nuzzled his happy trail and followed it to his rock-hard erection. He thought she gave a happy murmur when she found his cock standing at attention.
His heart was pounding with arousal and happiness – and love. He was in love and his love was returned.
His lover grasped his dick with both hands and swirled her tongue around the top like a kid eating a taffy apple. But there was nothing childish about the way she sucked him dry. Nothing childish about the way her breasts felt when he hefted them.
He thumbed the stiff nipples and she responded by nipping his cock. Enough was enough. He came. He put his arms around her to hold her close, but she vanished with a smirk.
Lance sat bolt upright and woke himself. He struggled to remember the fragments of his elusive dream. He was as sweaty as usual, but damned if he hadn’t had an armful of the sweetest girl in Colorado.
And damned if he hadn’t had a wet dream like a fucking adolescent – or a bachelor. He had read someplace that wet dreams were the body’s way of making sure a fellow had fresh sperm in case he got lucky. He better make damn sure he picked up some condoms. Miss Amber wouldn’t consider herself lucky if she got caught like her twin sister.*
Even less chance that she would marry him just because he was the father of her child. Still, it was mighty pleasant to think of Miss Amber rounding out with his baby. Marrying him as she had done in his dreams.
Mind you, in his dreams he was whole. His face intact. No road map on his chest. Even his little bear had been as fresh as the day she was inked. Not much chance that he would get lucky, the shape he was in now.
*Bear Sin
CHAPTER THIRTY
Amber~
The sun had found her windows. The cabin was flooded with light. She was late. That would never do. The horses were used to their routines and morning stables had been underway for half an hour. Her phone alarm had not gone off because she had not turned it back on after she got home.
She scrambled into her clothes, ignored her coffee pot and laid table, and headed for the stable block as fast as the freshly fallen snow would permit. Even so, she took note that all around her cabin, the snowfall her nose had predicted the night before was unmarred. No one had been prowling around while she slept.
She had already made sure a snake couldn’t come slithering through a gap around the plumbing or electrical wires. The cabin was caulked as tight as a drum against critters and winter. It had triple-glazed windows which she wasn’t opening until it got a lot warmer. The doors fit snugly, and her wood stove might be banked during her absence, but the chimney was still a death trap for anything that tried to use it as an entrance.
She sniffed the air. A coyote had been hunting nearby and had caught a rabbit. And someone was adding horse apples to the manure pile out by the barn. She was super late. She dashed into the empty tack room stripping off her parka as she went. She grabbed her gear and headed for Sissy’s stall.
The mare was chomping busily at the remnants in her hay net. Sissy barely lifted her head when Amber came into her stall with broom and pitchfork. Beneath her glossy coat Amber could see ripples as the foal tried to turn in what had undoubtedly become tight quarters. This morning Sissy smelled pungent. Amber figured that meant the mare was now even closer to impending motherhood.
From out in the aisles she could hear two masculine voices rumbling back and forth. Carlos and Calvin. What was he doing here? She had thought he and Jeremy were going back to Denver to do whatever stuff those two big shots did for B&B Oil. It’s none of your fricking business, she reminded herself as she got busy changing Sissy’s straw and making sure the mare had fresh rations and water.
The rumbling continued. Both voices sounded tense. She strained her ears, but even her sensitive bear hearing could not make out full sentences. She dumped her wheelbarrow out by the barn and went back to finish grooming Sissy, who was even less cooperative than usual. She was humming to quiet the mare when she became aware she was being watched.
Calvin stood in the doorway, arms folded across his burly chest. His fancy suit was gone. A plaid work shirt was rolled up to reveal muscular forearms and wrists. His faded denim jeans were snug and frayed. His tooled leather boots were clean and shiny, but the toes were scuffed and the heels worn down. For once he looked like he belonged on the Double B. And like a bear. A tame bear. But still a bear. Made a pleasant change.
“Good morning.” She tried to be natural, but her voice came out stiff.
“Sleep well?” he asked. Despite his smile, there was a subtle question in his tone. What was he driving at? Oh, right. She was late.
“I overslept,” she said curtly, brushing Sissy’s already shiny rump. “I’m not used to standing watch. I’ll make up the lost time.” Damned if she would ask what he was doing here.
“Steve took Laura to the hospital this morning,” he continued, just as if they often chatted idly in the mornings.
Her neck cramped. She stared at him over Sissy’s back. “That’s early,” she said. “Is she okay?”
“Seems to be.” His shoulders strained the seams of his flannel shirt as he shrugged. “Of course she’s still in labor. But no news is probably good news.”
Under his aura of masculine assurance, he was genuinely worried about his sister. Unwillingly she felt sympathy and tried to be reassuring. “Laura is strong and healthy. The hospital in Acton is first rate. She’ll be fine and so will her babies.”
/> “Thank you, Dr. Dupré,” he drawled.
Amber controlled an urge to bite. “Childbirth is a normal process,” she said gently. “Laura has had no problems so far, don’t worry until you have to.”
He grunted, leaned against the door frame and watched her comb out Sissy’s mane. “That mare is about to drop her foal,” he announced as she moved to the long-braided tail.
Amber left Sissy’s plait as it was and just combed out the loose end. “Probably. She has more discharge than yesterday, and it smells stronger.”
“Hmm. They usually wait until dark, but not always. I’ll get Carlos to examine her.” He vanished with surprising speed for such a big man. But no more quietly than any of her big cousins back home would have done. Like Joey and Gideon, and his own cousin Patrick, Calvin was in the Reserves. He had been trained to move silently and fast, as they had.
He returned just as swiftly and noiselessly with Carlos. “Morning, Amber,” Carlos said genially. “How’s it going, Sissy?” He scratched the mare’s muzzle.
Calvin held the mare’s bridle while the older man ran his latex gloved hands all over Sissy’s belly and flanks. “She’s having contractions all right. You want to stay with her, Cal?”
“I can. But I had expected to get cracking on those records today.”
Carlos stripped off the blue gloves and stuffed them into his hip pocket. “I know. Now do you see what I mean about Laura being spread too thin these days? She’s doing her own job as well as every dang thing Clive used to do. And she never used to be married and about to have her own babies.” The elderly foreman sounded exasperated as well as worried. Amber knew he was fond of Laura.
“Where’s Dad?” asked Calvin.
“He’s out stitching up a heifer that tangled with a barbed wire fence.” In Carlos’ drawl ‘barbed wire’ came out ‘bob war’.
“Maybe the Double B could use another veterinarian as well as an archivist,” Cal suggested.
Bear Fate: A Billionaire Oil Bearons Romance (Bear Fursuits Book 8) Page 8