BearyMerryChristmas

by Tianna Xander

  A click caught her attention and she turned toward the door. “Hello.” It was the blue-eyed stranger again. Hadn’t he said his name was Duncan? He whispered as though he wasn’t certain she was awake.

  Lara turned toward him. “Hello.” She smiled and sat up, the sheet falling in a puddle around her waist. Any other time she would have snatched it up and pulled it to her bare chest, but this was a dream after all. What could it hurt to allow one of the two most gorgeous men she’d ever met see what he had so obviously come to see? She could tell by the expression on his too-handsome face that he wanted her. He practically devoured her with his gaze as she allowed him to look at what, at least for a little while longer, was one of her best attributes. Lara had worked long and hard to keep her breasts high and firm. She’d done push up after push up along with other numerous exercises to keep them as perky looking as they could possibly be on her almost-middle-aged frame.

  She let him look as her nipples grew tight in the cooler air of the room. She looked down at herself, then back up at him. “Can I help you?”

  “Ye have no idea how ye could help me.” He swallowed visibly. His Adam’s apple bounced up and down in the thick column of his neck. She watched him move across the room, like the predator she’d dreamed him to be. Every part of his body move synchronously as he moved closer and closer.

  Liquid heat pooled low as she watched him move. She didn’t care if it was only a dream. She didn’t care if it made her seem like a loose woman. She wanted this man and his friend like she had never wanted any man in her life. Now, it was her turn to swallow thickly as he approached. The expression on his face left little to her imagination. He wanted her at least as badly as she wanted him.

  Never in her life had Lara been so bold. Never in her life had she ever wanted a man so much and never in her life had she ever bared her body to a man she’d just met. Throwing the covers back, Lara patted the bed next to her and gave him what she hoped was a sultry look. “I don’t care if this is a dream or not. I have never wanted a man as much as I want you.” She felt her face heat. “And your friend.”

  White teeth flashed in the tan of his face as he continued his slow approach. “Ye want Jamie, too?” He stopped for a minute to study her, his head tilted to the side.

  Please don’t let him stop. I don’t want to lie to him, though I fear I will if it will get him moving toward the bed again. What was it about the man and his friend that had her throwing caution to the wind, even in her dreams? She lifted her chin, deciding that she had never been a liar and she had no intention of becoming one now, even if it meant losing the opportunity to have the night of her life with one of the most handsome men she’d ever met. “I won’t lie to you.” She met his gaze squarely. “I want him just as much as I want you.”

  “If ye had tae choose between us, which of us would ye choose, lass?”

  Lara tilted her head to the side and bit her lip. “Is this some sort of test?” If it was, she had the feeling she was about to fail, miserably. She raised her chin again, still determined to tell the truth if it killed her and it just might. It sucked that she couldn’t get away from her penchant for telling the truth no matter what, even with a figment of her imagination. “I wish you hadn’t asked me that.” She shook her head and sighed. “You see, there’s something about me that makes me tell the truth no matter what I think you might want to hear. It doesn’t matter that this is nothing more than a dream. If I can’t hold onto my values all of the time, what’s to stop me from dropping them at the first opportunity when I’m awake?”

  “Are ye saying you’d rather have Jamie than me and ye fear it will hurt my feelings?” He finally stepped up to the bed and sat next to her. Reaching out, he brushed the hair from her face.

  She wanted to say he looked disappointed but felt as though that would make her conceited and goodness knew, at her age, she had little to be conceited about. “No.” She shook her head. “I’m saying that since I try to always be truthful, you can believe me when I say that I couldn’t choose between you two if I had to. Why?” All at once, she became hyper aware of her nakedness and wanted nothing more than to cover herself up, but he was sitting on the thick comforter, making it impossible for her to do so.

  He just grinned at her and shook his head. “No reason.” Crossing his arms, he covered his mouth with one hand, making Lara wonder if he was laughing at her. “Are ye cold or something?” One of his perfect, dark brows arched.

  “No.” She covered her breasts with her crossed arms. “I’m just feeling a bit self-conscious. After all, you’re fully dressed and I’m sitting here with my chest exposed.” Her face burned and she looked away.

  Without warning, Duncan removed his shirt and threw it across the room. “Better?”

  “Not really.” If anything, it made matters worse. Now, she could see the hard, defined muscles she’d only imagined before. Liquid heat pooled low, then slid sinuously from her channel to wet her inner thighs. She tried not to stare at all of that tanned skin he so casually exposed but found herself failing miserably.

  “Ye want me.” He didn’t ask her. He stated a fact. He knew it as well as her that she wanted him and Jamie so bad, she was almost willing to parade naked through the halls of the castle she’d gotten a glimpse of before she fainted. He glanced toward the door, stood, then strode over to it to turn the key in the lock. When he turned to face her, his expression unreadable, he slowly stripped his jeans from his hips.

  Lara felt her breath grow shallow as he peeled the tight jeans off, exposing more of his tanned and muscled flesh. Purposely, she skipped over his package, giving it only a cursory glance. She didn’t want to stare, no matter how big it seemed. She wasn’t necessarily a fan of big. She knew from experience that a man with a large organ could hurt her if he had the mind. She’d found that out with the first man she had ever dated. He had taken her virginity and, Lara was certain, her ability to orgasm in one night of thoughtless rutting. She’d broken it off the next day after she’d had her locks changed. It was a good thing, too. Mike had not been a happy camper when she dumped him.

  “Um…what are you doing?”

  “Giving ye what ye want, unless you’ve changed your mind.”

  “I don’t remember telling you that you’re getting naked was what I wanted.” What nerve! She took the opportunity to yank the covers up over her breasts to hide her nipples that had grown so hard they hurt. She scowled at him. He was acting like another Mike and if anything could turn her off, that could. Still, what did she expect? She had just invited him to bed. Since when was she a tease?

  “I apologize, my lady.” He bowed his head, looking contrite. “I wish only to please ye.”

  “Don’t give me that my lady crap.” She continued to scowl at him as he moved closer.

  “Then what do ye wish me to call ye? Ye have yet to give me your name.”

  Heat infused her face at his comment. She had been sitting here, half-naked—no, totally naked—with a man who didn’t even know her name. Wasn’t it just like her to find a man who was so anxious to stick the appendage between his legs into her that he didn’t even take the time for an introduction? “My name is Lara, you creep.” Tears started to run down her face as she thought about what she must have become since she broke it off with John. Was she really no better than some cheap tramp who would have sex with a man in his lover’s home, in her bed, while she was away at work? Dream or not, she had just become a loose woman. Lara covered her face with her hands and cried.

  Chapter Four

  Duncan didn’t know what to do. He was torn between taking her in his arms and leaving her be. She had been though a lot in the last twenty-four hours or so. His mother, always one to think of everything, fished Lara’s rental car keys from her bag and sent Donnal and Ian out in search of her car. They had found it, in the middle of nowhere with an empty tank and a broken petro gauge. It was no wonder that he and Jamie had found her nearly frozen to death in the woods. If he wasn’t
mistaken, his mother had already called and given the clerk at the rental company a scathing lecture. He would have done worse but thought better of it and let his mother have her way. Sometimes letting his mother have her way was the wisest choice.

  Closing his eyes, he thanked everything that was holy that he and Jamie had followed the two turtledoves they had seen in the woods. Had they not, the beautiful lass he longed to take in his arms would have certainly died last night. If she had, Jamie and he never would have found the one woman who could be their mate.

  Finally giving in to his desire, Duncan pulled her into his embrace. He rocked Lara in his arms as she continued to sob against his shoulder. “Dinnae cry, lass. I won’t hurt ye. I promise.” He pulled her close. It surprised him that she allowed it, considering his state of undress that upset her so. “I only wish tae please ye.”

  “That’s…” she paused to hiccup. “That’s what Mike said, the jerk.” She shuddered in his arms. “He-he hurt me. I-I can’t…” She began to sob.

  “I cannae help what other men hae done, lass. I can only promise ye that I willnae do the same.” He pressed a kiss against her temple. “Let me show ye, lass.”

  She shook her head. “It’ll hurt and I’ll only disappoint you anyway. I-I’m frigid.”

  “You’re what!” Duncan had never heard anything so ridiculous in his life. “Dinnae be ridiculous. I’ve seen women who didn’t like men and though ye may hae had a bad experience with some selfish oaf, I can smell your arousal from here.”

  “I don’t stink!”

  “I never said ye had a bad odor, lass.” Duncan shook his head with a chuckle. “On the contrary. I love the way ye smell like sweet summer honey.” He closed his eyes and took a deep breath for emphasis. “Ye smell like no other woman and I cannae wait tae taste ye.” Duncan heard her breathing grow shallow as he described her scent. It almost made him want to smile, but he knew she would think he was laughing at her, so he refrained.

  He leaned closer, knowing his breath brushed her ear when she shivered. “Let me please ye, lass. If I fail, ye can order me from your room and I’ll leave.” He would leave now if she told him to go, but he didn’t want to give her that weapon just yet.

  “I don’t know if I can.” She continued to sob onto his shoulder. “I don’t know you. It would be so wrong.”

  “Why would it be wrong, lass? Because ye think that others would judge ye?” Why did humans always set such ridiculous limits on themselves?

  She nodded. “People judge others all of the time. Why should this time be any different?”

  “Because, lass,” he stroked her hair, willing her to relax, “you’re here in my home, with my people and we don’t judge people by who their bed partners are. We judge them by the actions that matter. Would ye help a child in danger or would ye walk away? Would ye feed a starving man or would ye leave him hungry?” He pulled her closer in his embrace and rocked her. “Those are the actions that matter. Who ye sleep with is of no concern tae anyone but yourself.”

  As gently as he knew how, he lifted her chin and pressed his lips against hers. He had to taste her. He needed it as much as she needed comfort. Her scent drove him near the edge and his need to taste her was so great, he was going mad with it.

  Her lips were the softest silk and she tasted just like she smelled, like sweet summer honey. Warm and soft, she pressed against him, her arms snaking around his neck, pulling him closer. Her breasts pressed against his bare chest, her nipples like little pebbles, pressing into his flesh.

  His cock grew harder than it ever had before. It pressed upward toward his navel, reaching inexorably toward the woman in his arms. It was as though the thing had a mind of its own and reached for the beautiful lass. His cock throbbed, his balls aching with the need for release. Still, he wouldn’t press her. She must make the decision on her own. The choice to mate must always be her choice. What he wanted meant nothing compared to her needs.

  Duncan moved his hand down her back, over the indentation at her hips and up her side to cup her breast. He swallowed her gasp of pleasure as his thumb brushed her hard nipple, stroking over the taut flesh.

  “I can smell your thick woman’s cream as it seeps from your channel tae soak your silky thighs. Can ye feel it, Lara? Can ye feel the juices escaping from deep within you, soaking the sheets?” He chuckled when she would have pulled away and he held her in place. “This is where ye belong, lass. Here in my arms, in Jamie’s arms, with your body telling ye what you’re doing is right.”

  He lowered his head to suckle one diamond-hard nub into his mouth. “This is where ye belong, lass,” he said against her breast. “This is where ye were meant tae be. That’s why we followed the strange turtledoves into the woods. That’s why we found ye, sitting on that log so near the end of your life that only one of our kind could hae brought ye back from the brink of death.”

  With a long, low moan, Lara threaded her fingers through his hair and pulled him closer.

  Duncan was happy to oblige. He wanted this woman more than he had ever wanted a woman in his life. What was more, he wanted to sleep with the lass. He didn’t want her just for sex, to rut on her and leave like he had done with women so many times before. He actually wanted to sleep with this woman, to wake up at her side, his body wrapped around hers, protecting her even as they slept. What was it about her that changed the way he thought about women?

  Was it her intoxicating scent or the way she made him feel when he looked at her, smelled her or touched her? The word mate danced through his mind every time he gazed upon Lara, every time he inhaled her unique scent. Never in his life had he ever felt this way for any woman. He had never wanted to grab one and hold her close to him, protecting her for eternity as he did with the lass currently occupying his arms. This woman was different. She was the one Jamie and he would call mate, providing that she would allow it.

  Slowly, Duncan moved lower, sliding his tongue over her silky flesh, tasting the flesh of the woman whose scent had tantalized him from even before the moment his gaze first fell upon her. His tongue traveled still lower, finding the indentation of her navel, the curve of her hip. He groaned when his nose brushed the soft hair at the juncture of her thighs. Her scent, stronger there, nearly made his eyes cross, she smelled so sweet, so delicious.

  Quick as a wink, he snaked his tongue out, delving between her nether lips to lap up her woman’s essence. He closed his eyes at her exquisite taste. This is what he had waited centuries for. This is why he’d lived lifetimes alone with only the company of his best friend, Jamie. This lass, this beautiful, brave and tough woman, was everything he’d ever dared to dream of having with him, with them.

  Encouraged by her gasp of pleasure and the way Lara threw her head back and groaned, Duncan settled her back on the bed, her legs spread wide, resting on his shoulders. This is what he’d waited for, this is what he’d dreamed of for so many long centuries and now that she was his, he would show her just how much he wanted her, how he and Jamie would worship her like the goddess she so obviously was to them both.

  * * * *

  The world spun around her and Lara gasped. She was drowning in a sea of sensation as Duncan’s mouth took her to the edge of some great precipice only to bring her back time and again. She could feel some elusive…thing, waiting for her to reach that edge and tumble over into the awesome abyss that lay beyond.

  She moaned, her head thrashing on the pillow as his tongue swirled over and around her clit, circling the little nub before he suckled it into his mouth. She screamed her frustration when he stopped to thrust his long tongue into her channel to lap up the endless amount of cream that kept flowing from inside her.

  What was this thing he kept her from? Was she finally nearing an orgasm? If so, Duncan was the only man who had ever brought her so close to this point of ecstasy. A strange, tingling heat filled her body, moving up from her toes. It was as though someone had covered her with a warm blanket that filled her with sensation. Her body
quivered with tension as he finally began suckling her clit again. Every muscle in her body tightened to the point of pain as she strained toward that elusive explosion that she could feel so close.

  Her eyes flew open for a split second as she felt someone cup her breast and a warm mouth settle over her right nipple. Jamie stared down at her with his gray-green eyes and she knew then it was too late to do anything but allow these two men to do what they wanted, what she wanted. What, at this moment in time, she needed more than air to breathe. Nothing could make her change her mind now. Her body needed, no demanded, that she finally be allowed to feel what lay beyond that precipice. What lay beyond the boundaries of that great abyss of which she could feel herself teetering on the edge. Lara couldn’t stop herself from pressing her sex harder against Duncan’s face as he thrust two fingers inside her. He pressed them upward as her body continued to quiver and quake with need.

  She fisted one hand in Jamie’s hair, pulling him closer, willing him to suckle her harder as Duncan continued his oral assault on her nether flesh. This is what she had been waiting for. This was what she had wanted all this time with the other two men in her life. This…thing the other men had failed to give her after months of dating, months of getting to know each other was so simple, so easy with these two men she’d just met. With one last glance into those wonderful green eyes, Lara threw her head back and screamed. It was as though her mind splintered into a million shards of light before it slowly brought itself together again.

  Afterward, she lay on the bed, panting, her body quivering with exhaustion. Duncan moved up and over her. He kissed her with the taste of her essence still upon his lips.

  Jamie leaned over with a growl. “My turn, Duncan. Now that ye drank your fill, it’s my turn.”

  “I-I don’t know that I can take anymore.” Lara panted as she tossed her head on the pillow. “I’ve never felt like this before. No one has ever—”