Before I know it, we’re tearing each other’s clothes off and I know we won’t make it to the bedroom. I maneuver us over to the couch and flop down onto it.
Alex unbuckles my bra and tosses it aside as I hurriedly push his unbuttoned shirt off of his shoulders. He moves his hand to his belt and slides both his pants and boxers off of his hips as he kisses my throat, my chest and moves his mouth to suckle at each of my breasts in turn.
He moves his mouth to kiss along my stomach before he reaches my pants. He gently unbuttons and unzips them, then slides them down my hips along with my underwear.
He stares at my naked body for a moment and I feel goosebumps as I once again see a look of utter awe fill his face.
“You are so beautiful,” he mutters. He kisses my lips and I feel him gently enter into me. I wrap my arms and legs around him.
As I do, I know one thing to be true: I’m safe here.
While Alex is with me, it feels like no one will ever be able to hurt me again. Not even Simon. Even though neither of us knows what will happen tomorrow or how Simon will react to the story. I know that Alex and I, the two of us, together, will be able to weather whatever he has in store.
Epilogue
We don’t have to wait long to see Simon’s reaction. Just as Ben promised, he was able to get the story in the early edition of the paper the next day. And, just as he had predicted, the fallout was huge.
Everyone in the company was talking about it when I walked in the next morning. Even the news channels on the televisions in the lobby mentioned it, along with calls for Simon to step down as a full partner in the company.
It’s not a surprise, therefore, when Simon bursts into the office at ten o’clock this morning demanding to speak to Alex.
“I’m sorry,” I tell him calmly. “Alex is busy at the moment. He’s not taking any calls or walk-ins.”
“Don’t try to pull that shit with me,” Simon growls at me, his sophisticated façade gone completely. “I know he’s in there and I’m going to see him.”
“You know I can’t do that, Simon,” I answer him, sounding much calmer than I feel. “You have to have an appointment.”
“Then make me a goddamn appointment you stupid—”
Before I can find out what horrible name Simon plans on calling me, I hear the door to Alex’s office open.
“Evie, something wrong?” he asks, looking calmly from me to Simon.
“I’m going to have a word with you,” Simon says striding past him and straight into Alex’s office.
Alex sighs and follows him in. Before he closes the door, he gives me a secret smile. I think about going to door to listen but, it soon becomes clear that I don’t have to.
“WE HAD A DEAL!” Simon’s voice yells so loudly that I see employees beyond the glass doors stop in their tracks and look towards the office.
“You agreed to this! Now, I find out you’ve gone behind my back and—”
I hear Alex interrupt him, but, his voice is softer than Simon’s. I can’t exactly make out what he says.
“I DON’T GIVE A SHIT ABOUT THAT FRIEND OF YOURS!” Simon screams. This time, one of the employees tentatively makes his way to the door and looks in.
“Is...is everything okay?” he asks, “I mean, does Alex need someone to call security?”
“Actually,” I say giving him a calm smile that seems to confuse him, “that’s a great idea.”
I put a call into security before making my way to Alex’s office. I knock on the door before opening it.
I look at Simon. Hair askew, red-faced with sweat patches appearing on his brow. He doesn’t look even remotely handsome now.
“Alex, I wanted to let you know, security is on its way,” I tell him. “Some of the staff were getting nervous so I called them.”
Simon suddenly turns on me.
“This is you, isn’t it?” he says.
“Simon, leave her out of this,” Alex says, warningly. He moves from behind his desk and closer to Simon.
“This little slut convinced you to turn your back on me, didn’t she?” Though he’s talking to Alex, his eyes, no longer bright and gleaming are fixed on me.
“This stupid little—”
Before he’s had a chance to finish the sentence, Alex’s fist flies to Simon’s face and sends him reeling backward.
Two men from Security come in to find Simon staring slack-jawed at Alex as though he can’t believe what’s just happened.
They escort Simon out. As soon as they do, Alex closes the office door and pulls me into a hug.
“Thank you, Evie,” he says, “for everything. I promise you’ll never have to worry about Gabe losing his job again.”
“Are you just saying that so I’ll keep sleeping with you?” I ask looking up at him with a flirty smile.
“No,” he answers, “but, I hope you’ll keep sleeping with me anyway.”
“You’ll never have to worry about that either,” I answer before pulling him down for another kiss.
At last, at long last, I feel completely safe in Alex’s arms.
THE END
Bonus Story 15 of 40
The French Quarter Hostages
Elizabeth fought to get free of Jake’s tight grasp. He was squeezing her so tightly in his bear form that she could barely breathe. She was tucked under his arm like a carcass, and was bouncing around like a rag doll as he climbed as fast as he could up a thick, bald cypress tree in the Louisiana woods.
“It won’t hold us!” Elizabeth yelled, as the ground disappeared beneath them, as bright green spindles caught in her tank top and jeans, and as sharp, dry branches ripped through the surface of her pale skin. Elizabeth tried to tuck her long blonde hair in her shirt for fear it would be ripped from her scalp in the ascent, but she was bouncing around too much and needed to hold on.
Jake growled something to her that must have been a swear word in whatever growly language bears speak. She could not understand Jake or his best friend Chris when they transformed into bear form. Chris was already several feet ahead of them in the tree, and Elizabeth tightened her grasp in Jake’s, black, thick fur as they raced behind Chris. Jake was just following Chris’ lead, but all Elizabeth could think about was how Chris was likely weakening the spindly branches in his enormous grizzly bear form above them.
Chris must have read her mind, because as he climbed higher he got smaller until the massive girth of a grizzly bear receded into the broad shoulders of a thirty-year-old man. Chris’ tousled blonde hair danced in the cool Louisiana night and his long body ascended the tree with great ease until he settled on a high branch. Elizabeth could see the curves and shadows of his many defined muscles even a few feet down, as they drew nearer to him, Chris’ deep green eyes burned into her. His square jaw was clenched like he was angry, but she knew he wore that stern face more out of habit than out of menace.
When Jake sat her on a branch across from Chris who was bare-chested aside from torn blue jeans riding low on his hips, Chris still stared at her. She knew he wanted her reaction, maybe even an apology. She had told the friends, Chris and Jake, that they were full of shit. She did not think that two hot guys trying to pull a fast one over a bookish college student could be supernatural creatures.
Elizabeth was only in Louisiana for the spring semester since her school, Michigan State, was doing an environmental student exchange with Dillard University in New Orleans. All she wanted was to save the planet, and save at risk animals like the bear population, from shrinking in the Cajun state. Never in her wildest dreams would she have thought her earth-consciousness would land her high in a tree in the Louisiana forest with two men who had the ability to transform into grizzly and black bears. Not to mention, inadvertently, she managed to run into a menacing voodoo priestess.
“I think you owe us an apology,” said Jake, flashing her a boyish grin. He had already transformed back into a man, a man nearly as muscular as Chris, but who took the world half as seriously.
“It’s no
t a joke, man,” Chris said, scowling at him.
“It’s pretty damn funny from where I’m sitting, bro. If Elizabeth had listened to us about not poking the metaphorical bear that is Louisiana voodoo culture we would all be enjoying ourselves back in New Orleans. I just want to take this time to gloat, and bask in what a shitty person Elizabeth must feel like right about—now,” Jake said, whipping his head around to look at her, and subsequently flashing her a cocksure grin.
She gritted her teeth, knowing he was right. Jake’s blue eyes twinkled with humor, contrasting with his inky-black hair. He had this way of blasting you with the truth through his sarcasm, and she had to admit she was happy that he and Chris saved her.
“That’s not going to help us get down from this tree,” Chris said, scowling. Scowling melancholy seemed to be Chris’ way of backhand slapping you with the fact you were doomed, and Elizabeth’s stomach sank with guilt.
“Look, I get it. I get it. I screwed up. I’m sorry. Just—just would you believe me if I told you I was a magical transformative bunny rabbit?” Elizabeth said, feeling exasperated.
“Bunny rabbits? You compare the lords of the forest with rats with long ears?” asked Jake, raising an eyebrow at her.
“We are not the ‘lords of the forest’, idiot,” Chris said, rising to his feet and surveying the land.
After an afternoon of passion between the three of them, Chris had told her that werebears could see for miles, and Elizabeth wondered what it would be like to basically have binoculars for eyes.
“Well, it would catch on if you say it too. People will catch on, and we’re the biggest, so if people disagree, we should eat them. I think that’s only fair,” Jake said, shrugging his massive shoulders.
“Shut up, Jake. Jesus, why don’t you keep a lookout so we can get out of this damn tree?” Chris said, turning his head slowly like a barn owl.
“You see anything?” Elizabeth asked, staggering to her feet. She was experiencing vertigo from being up so high, and the ground was swaying beneath her.
“You should sit,” Chris said, more as a command than a suggestion.
Elizabeth wanted to protest, but he was right, so she plopped back down on the thin, gray branch.
“I really don’t think they followed us this far, man,” Jake said, lazily surveying the quiet countryside.
Chris did not seem to agree, because now his head was darting left and right, and he was sniffing the air.
“No, they’re here. They just don’t know which way to go. We need to get out of here,” Chris said, looking at Elizabeth.
“Go where? I can’t spend my semester running from supernatural psychopaths. I have school!” Elizabeth said, crossing her arms.
She felt like a petulant child, but she had near perfect grades, and this was her senior year at Michigan State, and she wanted to do well. She had to do well. No one in her family graduated or even attended college, and here she was with a full ride to college, and a reputable internship at Dillard to study wildlife hands on. This was an important step to her final college career goal. She wanted to work for the Environmental Protection Agency in Washington, D.C. She just had to graduate from this program to be considered for their entry level research program, but here she was stuck in a tree instead of saving the trees. This one misstep was throwing off her plans. It was like one domino fell after the other after the other, and her world was crumbling. Elizabeth sat up when she saw a glimmer of light dance about a hundred feet below in the underbrush.
“Don’t move a muscle,” Chris said. He must have seen it too.
“Guys, it was nice knowing you. We are totally fucked,” Jake said, shaking his head.
*****
One day earlier
Elizabeth scribbled furiously in her day planner as she marched down Bourbon street. The brick made a wet, slapping noise against her flat shoes as she fought with the recent rain. The ground was slushy, but even in the macabre grey of the day there was an electricity to the city: New Orleans. No matter what street she walked down, jazz was dancing in and out of her ears. There were street performers too, in vibrant colors like they were putting on a pre-show for the upcoming Mardi Gras festival. It seemed fun, but it was not something Elizabeth could be bothered with.
Elizabeth had landed in New Orleans in January, and had until May to submit her thesis on causative human factors in the black bear decline. She did not want to go the bland “human expansion” route because she wanted to dazzle. She wanted the EPA to notice her, and beg for her to join their agency, and she would have to encourage herself to do it. None of her classmates could be bothered with doing extra work senior year. Michigan State was a hard enough school as is. The last thing anyone wanted was extra research. And the last thing Elizabeth wanted was to end up a single mom working in a diner like her mom.
Elizabeth pounded down the sidewalk, not taking in the sights of the historical buildings, blatantly disregarding the magic of the French Quarter, and almost snapping when a human statue tapped her shoulder. She glared at a him, a silvery Charlie Chaplin look-alike, and he stiffened back into character.
Elizabeth just wanted to get back to her dorm room, but her stomach growled menacingly, reminding her it was lunch time, and she had not eaten all day. She looked up from her day planner for the first time in a few city blocks, and realized she was in Gris Street.
Everyone at Dillard told her to avoid Gris Street, because of the evil that permeated the air. It was rows and rows of voodoo and occult shops all with crooked orange and black signs that read ‘open’. Elizabeth felt no evil, it was painted with the same dull gray as the rest of the city because of the recent rain storm. Her issue with the shops on Gris Street was not their reputation, but the fact that they did not sell food. She turned around in a full circle, realizing she was surrounded by occult stores, and pursed her lips. This part of the city was not overcrowded with tourists like the main French Quarter where people seemed to be shoving past her just to get some jambalaya. The thought of red beans and rice made her mouth water.
Elizabeth picked a store, a black and red painted brick building tucked in a corner, with a sign that read “Karis’ Mischief Shoppe.” Elizabeth tilted her head, deciding she did not like ‘shoppe’ spelled in an old European way since this was America, but she needed directions or a bag of potato chips so she did not pass out before her next visit to the woods.
The doorbell made a low clinking noise as Elizabeth entered the dimly lit, small, round space. It smelled of wet grass, and an undercurrent of spices. Bizarre dried out plants were in clear plastic baggies hanging lazily on hooks down three narrow aisles that all pointed to a single register. Elizabeth looked around for a vending machine or a cooler, but nothing looked edible in the shop. Also no one had even come from the beaded doorway in the back of the room to greet her.
“Can I help you, miss?” came a low rhythmic voice down one of the aisles. A Creole woman rose to her feet. Her face was caramel brown, and her features were sharp, aquiline, and her eyes were a clear gray like the edges of her braided hair.
“Hello, I was looking for food, like a restaurant, maybe?” Elizabeth said, clutching at her cross-body purse for support. The woman made her nervous.
The woman crossed the aisle, dragging her thin body closer, and crossing her arms, as if appraising Elizabeth.
The woman was wearing a long, muddy-brown dress, and Elizabeth felt out of place in her jeans and t-shirt.
“You come to a voodoo shop for food?” the woman asked with a crooked, mirthless smile.
“I—I’m just lost. I’m sorry for bothering you,” Elizabeth said, turning to leave.
When she reached for the door, she saw rows of something that caught her eyes in the baggies: bear teeth and bear fur. She reached for it, tracing her hands around the edges of the bag, feeling her stomach sicken.
“You kill innocent animals for a joke shop?” Elizabeth asked, feeling angry.
The woman uncrossed her arms, and snee
red at Elizabeth.
“This store has stood in this spot for over eighty years. There is nothing funny about it. And for your information, we don’t kill anything on these walls. When bears tear through the flesh of their prey, sometimes a tooth falls out, and lingers in the wood. I collect them for their power. It’s an ingredient in hexes.”
Elizabeth scoffed, putting the baggie back on the hook.
“Oh, so you don’t believe, eh?” the store keeper asked.
“I’m an environmental scientist. I work on, at a minimum, empirical evidence. Don’t put much stock in magical bear teeth.”
“Well, you should. And I would be careful who I insult when I’m so prone to shedding hair.”
The woman pulled a long strand of straight blonde hair from a shelf Elizabeth had just walked pass. Elizabeth instantly touched her scalp like she would miss it.
“Don’t worry. I will just keep it for good measure. Anything connected to you can shed even your more darkest secrets, your fears, your hopes, so I would be careful Miss—” the woman paused, threading the hair through her index finger and thumb, pinched her eyes closed, and breathed deeply, “Elizabeth.”
*****
Elizabeth all but ran out of the store. The rain had started to fall again and her straight blonde hair was sticking to her slim face. She pulled the hood of her jacket up, and trotted ahead until she saw a line of restaurants. Even though Elizabeth did not believe, she had to admit that being away from the street of voodoo shops made her feel at ease. There was something dark in the air there. It was a heaviness that she could not explain. Perhaps it was the darkness of the rainy day, or perhaps it was her own anxiety about getting a job in her field that made her so uneasy. She marched ahead, keeping her head down when she slammed into someone.
“Hey, watch it!” said a man with dark black hair.
“I’m sorry,” Elizabeth said, looking into the handsome face of the stranger.
When he met her gaze his eyes seemed to soften. He was taller, broad-shouldered and had a grey hoodie up to protect him from the rain.
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