Kenny (Shifter Football League Book 2)

by Becca Fanning

  He waved his hand as if the machines he was hooked up to were nothing. “I’m fine. The virus is out of my system. My heart is fine too.”

  She looked at Owen who stood by the door, as bewildered as she was. “Then why did the hospital call?” she asked.

  “Because I need a ride home, and I didn’t want to go home by myself.”

  Finally, she let the relief of her papa’s good form overtake her. “I’m glad you called,” she said, falling onto the bed with him. She was moved by his sentiment. “You know you can always call me, Papa.”

  ***

  The virus was gone, but her papa still needed his rest, so while he slept in his bedroom at the mansion, Mary Beth and Owen took a stroll down by the lake, consuming the morning, ignoring their own fatigue. As they walked, Owen’s hand was wrapped firmly around hers. It was sweet, but her body wanted more than sweet. A heat settled upon the land, kissing her skin left bare by her sleeveless denim dress, the same sensation she felt when she imagined Owen running his lips over her body.

  “You owe me a hat,” she claimed, dipping her toe into the soft current of the lake, though it did little good in cooling her off.

  “Not yet, sweetheart. I said you get my lucky hat if I win. I didn’t win. I left. If you want my hat, you’ll have to come to the next rodeo.”

  “Owen Hutch, are you blackmailing me?”

  “Never,” he said. “I’m daring you.”

  “It’s no dare to me. A dare is something dangerous. Like daring you to run naked into the lake.”

  “If I go into the lake naked, you’re coming with me.”

  “Of course,” she said, her voice dropping as she ran her hands along his chest, which was hard and ripped beneath his T-shirt. “That’s what makes it so dangerous.”

  “Then what are we waiting for?”

  He stepped back, leaving a safe distance between them, and he turned into a bear. She had never seen him, or anyone, shift before. It was magic, but it was completely natural. Owen belonged to the outdoors as much as he belonged on the red carpet. In that way, they were similar. Roaring, he ran into the lake.

  “Hey, that’s cheating!” she yelled, laughing. “Fur doesn’t count!”

  A bear had gone into the water, but a man came out, his jeans and T-shirt soaking, the water that dripped off of him glistening beneath the sun like an ember rain.

  “I forget something important,” he said. “You.”

  “You can have me,” she breathed as she pulled his T-shirt off. Water continued to drip down from his hair to his tanned abs, which were as hard as stone. She rubbed her hands along each indent of flesh, admiring the man she was about to fuck.

  Ripped with a desire to see more of him, she bent down to her knees and took the button of his jeans into her teeth. When the button was loose, she then bit onto his zipper and slid it down, staring seductively into his eyes.

  “You drive me wild,” he said, running his hands through her hair. “You always have. I’ve waited years for this. I’ve waited years for you.”

  In response, still on her knees, the sand of the lake cushioning them, she pulled down his jeans fully, exposing his manhood, which stood erect and thick. She ran her tongue across the tip, licking away the lake water and the salty wetness she caused. As her tongue glided in slow circles around his flesh, Owen moaned. His moans turned into a growl as she placed her hand at the base of his shaft then took his full tip into her mouth and sucked hard. It was impossible to fit his entire cock into her mouth, but she took in all that she could, savoring his flavor. His cock tasted like desire.

  “I’m gonna come, darling,” he said, his grip tightening around her hair. “You’re too damn good.”

  It was what she wanted. His cock grew, ready for release. Quickly, she moved her mouth away and leaned back, unbuttoning the top of her denim dress just in time for him to cum over her breasts. It was warm and satisfying. She liked that she could please him, and she trusted that he would return her affections.

  When he finished cuming, he kneeled down into the sand with her, and he continued to unfasten her dress so that it slid off of her like silk from a bed, leaving her exposed in the purple lace of her bra and panties. With his almighty strength, he picked her up and walked into the lake. When they were waist deep in the water, he set her down. Using the water as if it were a toy to tease her, he gently washed the cum from her breasts. His hands were like fire against her skin, awakening her body to the possibilities of his touch. Each drop of water that rolled off of her was a blazing caress.

  When she was clean, he pulled her close so that his cock pushed against her lace. Grabbing her hair once more, he kissed her with the force of a thousand hurricanes. His tongue wrestled against hers, ruling her, forcing her to surrender to him, to his desire and to his love. As they kissed, he removed her bra and tossed it to the sand. Holding her around the waist with one hand, he cupped her breast with the other, working her body, charging her so that it matched the heat around them.

  When her lips were bruised by his kisses, he moved down to her breast, releasing it to lightly slide his tongue across her nipple, like a feather. It was a shock that added to her ecstasy. Waves of bliss mounted within her, and her core ached.

  “Touch me,” she begged. “I want to feel your touch.”

  His tongue continued to arouse her nipple, but his hand fell down to her panties, where her wetness was thicker than the waters of the lake. Like a snake slithering provocatively against her skin, his hand brushed across her small patch of hair to her wetness, and then he plunged two fingers into her, seizing her insides with a force that exhilarated her. With his tongue on her nipple and his brawny fingers thrusting within her, she reached her own brink of release. His touch was glorious against her inner flesh, hard like his cock. He moved his fingers within her in a way that swelled her core, reaching deep to stroke the back of her pussy, causing her to scream out in pain and bliss.

  “I’m cumming!” she panted, arching her back, inviting him in deeper. “I’m coming hard.”

  She did. Her wetness seeped out of her, over his fingers and into the lake, but he continued to bang her with his touch as her body contracted, riding her to the end.

  She came, but she wanted more, and so did he. Pressing his mouth to hers, he ripped off her panties and lifted her up so that she straddled him. Water rained down around them as he cusped her ass and glided her pussy over his cock. His tip filled her, sensual against her opening, which still throbbed from his touch. When he lowered her down completely, his cock stretched her pink flesh in a way that made her cry out, but it was euphoric, like mating a god of the lake.

  With his strength, he bobbed her on top of his cock, thrusting hard each time it filled her. She could barely breathe through the pleasure. Her cries echoed across the lake and circled back to them so that they heard their own love making.

  “Cum inside of me,” she told him, scratching her nails across his back. “I want to feel your cock release inside of me.”

  Her words were a trigger. Like he had in her mouth, his cock grew within her, ready to cum. She arched her back, a golden glow within her that matched the light within him. He thrust harder, deeper, and then he came, circling his cock around her flesh as he poured himself into her. She came with him, their souls claiming each other as their bodies exploded together.

  Cuming with Owen was transcendental. She didn’t want him to let go, nor did he want to let go of her. Remaining inside of her, he kissed her again, harder than before. She returned his passion, biting his lip with the force of her love. Her kisses roamed to his neck where she sucked hard, tasting his flesh once more, making sure to leave her mark on the bear.

  Later, they slept in the grass by the lake, giving into their exhaustion. Owen’s arms were the only place Mary Beth wanted to be. When she woke, she allowed him to continue his sleep, listening to him mumble incoherently about missing shifters, and she looked up into an endless blue, happier than she ever had been. I�
�ll have to buy taller shoes if I’m going to be walking down the red carpet with Owen, she thought. And I’ll definitely have to go to more rodeos.

  Colby

  Rodeo Bears III

  by

  Becca Fanning

  Chapter One

  Gemma Thomas had no intention of going to the rodeo. Just because she lived in the west, just because she lived in Reno, and just because this year Reno was getting more than one rodeo in more than one series didn't mean she had to go anywhere near any of them.

  Gemma's west was civilized. She loved to hike in the foothills but not in the dead of summer. Most of the time she didn't hike long enough or go far enough to need to carry water. She was just as happy strolling by the Truckee River in one of the downtown parks. The city aspect of Reno was nice. Indoors was nice. Mucking around in the dirt and dust wasn't part of her lifestyle.

  Neither were cowboys. She'd grown up around cowboys. She'd grown up outside of Winnemucca, Nevada, not even in the town itself but on her father's ranch. After that, as an adult, she'd become – in her opinion – civilized.

  No cowboys. And rodeos bred cowboys. That was her theory. Most of the men who lived in Reno drove normal cars (not beat up, full size farm trucks), wore normal shoes (not cowboy boots that just might reek), dressed like they understood the century they lived in and the society around them. They worked out in gyms. They bathed regularly.

  Add a rodeo and drop men she was acquainted with into that picture, men she knew from jobs and friendships, otherwise reasonable men who lived in metropolitan areas. They suddenly start chewing tobacco, spitting, drinking beer from a can, wearing cowboy boots and calling the women around them darlin'.

  No way she was going anywhere near all that. Gemma moved from her daddy's ranch outside Winnemucca the minute she turned 18. She wasn't looking to go back. She moved, she lost the horse droppings under her boots and started wearing sandals and heels. She graduated college and got a job at the newspaper, worked her way up to lead freelance writer for a lifestyle magazine, an upstart startup that Marla the editor liked to call it because it was a glossy hard copy in the age of e-magazines and the post-recession collapse of so many magazines.

  Gemma had a college education, a condo in a downtown high-rise (a converted casino, very trendy), a Mitsubishi Spyder convertible, and she freelanced, writing articles for a living.

  No cowboys. No rodeo. No roping of calves. No riding of bulls.

  No thanks.

  So Marla assigned her the stories about the rodeo.

  "This is not happening," Gemma muttered, stepping over horse droppings outside the fairgrounds convention center pavilion and trying to convince herself she wasn't really there and that the sights and smells all around her didn't remind her of home.

  Anyone could like the smell of hay under the late June sun, right?

  When she wrote freelance articles for what was essentially the last business magazine in the state, she did interviews by phone. She wrote for a local foodie magazine and the lifestyle magazine and she usually didn't have to go anywhere – phone interviews worked just fine.

  Phone interviews would have kept the sun off her shoulders and the hay out of her nose. All around here there were mud splattered horse trailers and people in snap-button shirts and huge hats. There were cowboy boots and cowboy voices filling the air and the peculiar and familiar feeling of hot sun giving way to the shadowed heat of barns.

  Marla gave her the assignment to write one of the cover stories, a feature on Wally Wold, buckingest bronco breaker or some title like that. Gemma had called expecting a friendly conversation during which they'd set a day and time when she could call for the interview. She would put her phone on speaker, turn on her trusty cassette recorder, look out the window at the city and interview Mr. Wold.

  Mr. Wold had other thoughts.

  "I'd be happy to talk with ya, darlin'. But my schedule's pretty hit or miss. Never know how a rodeo's going to go. You'd best come down. I'll leave tickets for you at the box office."

  She'd argued. She could call him before hours. After hours. At the tail end of the rodeo.

  He'd countered with morning chores and warmup, evening beers and cooldown, and the fact that the instant the show was over everyone hit the road for the next venue, as well as developing some kind of amnesia about recent events unless they'd won big time.

  He cut the conversation short and told her he would leave tickets. She could pick them up and he'd meet her at five o'clock on Saturday afternoon and if she wasn't there, he'd assume she didn't want the interview. When she started to ask one more question, the line went dead.

  He'd hung up on her.

  Marla had called right after that. Gemma was still staring at the phone. Who did that?

  "Hon, long as you're going to the rodeo, I've got a second feature for you."

  "Who said I'm going to the rodeo? I do most of my interviews by phone."

  Marla barked out a laugh. "Honey, you're interviewing Wally Wold. He's delightful and impossible and infuriating. And he doesn't do interviews by phone. You're going to the rodeo."

  "You know how I feel about this." Gemma heard the whine in her voice.

  "Suck it up, buttercup. It's one story. You'll live."

  "Apparently it's not one story," Gemma said. "Didn't you just say 'as long as you're going to the rodeo, I have a second feature for you?'"

  "OK, OK, it's two stories but one trip if you arrange it right. Owen Hutch."

  Gemma was silent for a minute. Then, "Senator from Utah?"

  She could hear Marla breathing right before she said, "What?"

  "Owen Hutch."

  "That's Orrin Hatch. This is Owen Hutch."

  "Oh." That cleared things up.

  No it didn't. "Who's Owen Hutch?"

  Even the light seemed different. As if the sunlight off the hay tinted the world a funny gold. Growing up outside Winnemucca, Gemma had seen the afternoon light look like this for long, hot summers. A haze hung in the air, made up of tiny flying insects and bits of hay that spun suspended. Dust blew up under her feet.

  She refused to dress for it. Not that anyone had asked her to. Refusing just made her feel better. She wore ballet flats because she wasn't going to ruin heels or trip over things in the murky barns or arena. She wasn't going to wear even her nicest heels because of the horse manure and the hay and the muddy stalls and because even her fanciest boots might be misconstrued as western boots. She seriously wasn't admitting she was doing this.

  So when she went she wore lightweight off white slacks and a light blue shell to combat the heat. Her long brown hair she piled up in a tortoise shell clip and let the stray wisps that always got free frame her face. She carried her cassette recorder, phone, notebook, pens, smart phone, questions and the intention to be there and be gone without ever seeing a single bull ride or a calf roping or a single rodeo clown.

  Unfortunately it was beginning to look like she was also going to leave without seeing Wally Wold or Owen Hutch, neither of whom had been anywhere near where they were supposed to be.

  Or maybe she was the one who wasn't where she was supposed to be. Even growing up in cowboy country Gemma hadn't spent time hanging around cowboys or their games. She had no idea what the main pavilion in the fair grounds rodeo area was, or how to find it. Her plan had been to either pick up a flier with a map of events when she got her ticket at Will Call, or to ask someone. Only there hadn't been any maps. Attendees were expected to just enter the auditorium and sit down, not wander around.

  So far there'd been no one to ask except a couple very drunk looking cowboys. She could hear the announcer in the arena, calling out whatever was going on there. Clearly the day's events weren't over yet.