DuBois, Edith - Rugged Glimpse [Rugged Savage Valley, Colorado 1] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting)

by Edith DuBois

  There were only a few stools left at the counter, and Elena watched a line of burly men chatting and scooping up hearty bites of steak and eggs or drinking coffee.

  When they walked past the first booth on the right, a big round one, both Joseph and Caleb tipped their heads at the two men sitting in the booth.

  “Oliver. Roarke. Evening.” Elena couldn’t be sure, but she thought Joseph’s and Caleb’s voices sounded a little stiff.

  One of the men, the younger one it seemed, smiled affably up at Joseph and Caleb. “Evening, fellas.” He had bright blue eyes and an even brighter smile.

  The other man at the booth only offered one brief nod, and Elena noticed his blue eyes following them as they sat down in a large booth directly across the aisle and across from the counter. Joseph hung back to talk to the two men, and Elena glanced down the row of booths along the long glass corridor of the diner. Both natives and tourists ate and chatted. A few of the tourists were taking pictures of the mountains through the glass. Elena chuckled to herself at the absurdity.

  “What’s funny?” Caleb asked in a low voice.

  “Nothing,” Elena answered quickly, embarrassed that he’d noticed her laughter.

  “I want to know.”

  Surprised by his earnest tone, Elena said, “Okay. I was wondering why they didn’t step outside.” She indicated the tourists who were still snapping away. “Why take pictures from behind the glass?”

  “It’s easier?”

  “Perhaps. But they’re going to have to leave the diner eventually. Why not wait until then?”

  “Are these the kind of things you worry about?”

  Elena frowned. “I’m not worried about it. It was merely an observation.”

  “Hmm.” Caleb’s dark eyes studied her intently, and Elena resisted the urge to squirm under his gaze.

  A moment later, Joseph brought the quiet man from the booth across the aisle. “Elena,” Joseph boomed. “I’d like you to meet Oliver Cash, Mayor of Savage Valley. Oliver, Elena Ward.”

  “Nice to meet you, Miss Ward.” Mayor Cash spoke in smooth, low tones. “Sheriff Kinman told me about your project with National Geographic, and I wanted to personally extend my hand in welcome. If you ever need anything, please do not hesitate to ask.”

  “Thank you, Mayor. My reception in Savage Valley has been nothing but warm.”

  Mayor Cash’s eyes flicked first to Joseph and then to Caleb. “I’m sure.” His mouth tipped up a bit. “I look forward to seeing some of your work.”

  Elena nodded, but the mayor had already turned to stalk back to his booth.

  Joseph muttered something under his breath and then turned to Elena apologetically. “Mayor Cash just told me about a party some of the high school hoodlums are threatening to throw tonight. I’m going to track some of ’em down, give ’em a good scare, make sure they don’t try anything stupid.” Joseph shot Caleb a grimace and then said, “Bring me home a burger.”

  Caleb nodded at his brother and then slid in closer to her, letting his thigh rest against her leg. Her skin flushed at his proximity. They sat this way a moment, Elena at a loss for words while Caleb scanned the menu. She looked on his, but there were so many options, she didn’t know where to begin.

  “Have you picked out your dress yet?” Caleb spoke quietly, still looking over the menu.

  “My dress? For what?”

  “The Honey Harvest Hoedown? In September?”

  Elena’s heart beat rapidly in her chest. “Umm…I didn’t know…wait, did you say September?”

  “Yes. Near the beginning of September after we harvest the honey from the Savage Valley hives. The whole town celebrates.”

  “The Savage Valley hives?”

  “Yep. Owned by Dr., Dr., and Dr. Ashley. Been a part of Savage Valley for over two hundred years. But don’t change the subject. Have you picked out your dress?”

  “I hardly think you need to begin worrying just yet. It’s still over two months away.”

  “Yes, well, beautiful women go fast when it comes to the Honey Harvest Hoedown.” He said it so matter-of-factually that it took Elena a moment to grasp what he had said, and by then, he had already moved on. “And now that I think about it, Jeremiah did have a little bit of a twinkle in his eye for you this afternoon at the wildlife center.”

  Elena opened her mouth to refute this, but Rita came bustling up to their booth. “So sorry about that wait, Deputy Kinman.” She winked at Elena.

  “No worries, Rita. Don’t rush on our account.”

  Rita whipped her writing pad out of her black apron and snatched a pencil out from behind her ear. “All right, missy. What can I getchya?”

  “Umm…actually, to be honest I haven’t looked at the menu. What do you recommend?” she asked Caleb.

  “Bring us two of the sweet honey burgers,” Caleb said, handing Rita the menus. Then he added for Elena’s benefit, “A Savage Valley specialty. And we’ll need one to go for Joseph a little later.”

  “I’ll have that right out for you.”

  Caleb studied her for a moment with a slight frown. “You’re not some kind of a vegetarian or anything, are you?”

  Elena shook her head.

  “Good. You wouldn’t last long in this town.” He said it with a small, inward smile, and Elena watched Rita chuckle as she walked back to the counter.

  “Some sort of inside joke?”

  His eyes lost their humor and suddenly burned a fathomless black. “You could say that.”

  Again, Elena found herself squirming under his dark gaze. “You’ve got to stop doing that.” She spoke low.

  “Doing what, Elena?” Caleb leaned over when he whispered in her ear, and an answering chill ran down the length of her body.

  “Stop looking at me the way you do. Stop whispering in my ear. Stop flirting. It’s not…”

  “Why?” Caleb put his hand on her thigh under the table and squeezed. “Does it ruffle those prim and proper feathers of yours?”

  Elena jumped at his touch, flames erupting on her leg where his fingers gripped her. “Caleb.” She barely gasped out his name. “Deputy Kinman, we are in a public place.”

  “Mmhmm.”

  “You’re wearing your uniform.” He moved his hand up her leg until his pinkie brushed against the soft flesh of her pussy lips through the denim of her jeans. “There are tourists.” That breathy tone wasn’t exactly what she was going for.

  Caleb ran his knuckles down the center of her pussy.

  Elena bolted up ramrod straight, and tried to clamp her legs together. Caleb’s hand was too large and too strong, however, and her movement made his fingers push more firmly against her. “This is most inappropriate.”

  She peeked up into his face, hoping to stir his sympathy, but he watched with only desire swirling in his dark depths. “Please, Caleb. I can’t do this.”

  “Are you sure, Elena?” He spoke low and intense, his words barely audible over the loud din of the diner. “I think you can. If you want this, you can do this. Do you want this?”

  His words lashed through her, tempted her with their promise. She wanted to deny him, deny that she desperately craved what he so clearly offered. No words came to mind, though, and her desire grew more powerful by the second. Caleb saw it in her eyes. She knew he did. His lips curled up in a victorious smirk.

  “Should I tell Rita to make our order to go?”

  Elena swallowed, closed her eyes for a moment, and then slid violently away from him. “I’m sorry. I don’t want to make a scene, but I can’t do this. Thank you for everything. I’ve had a lovely day, but I’ve got to go.” She slid all the way out of the bench.

  “Elena, wait.” She couldn’t stand the pained expression he bore, but she also couldn’t stay.

  “I’m sorry, Caleb. I really am.” She quickly turned away, not allowing herself another moment to look into the black, swirling depths of his eyes. She would fall into him if she did.

  At the door, Rita looked up in c
oncern as Elena barreled past a family of tourists looking at the photos on the wall. “Everything okay, honey?”

  “Fine. Just fine. I’m fine. It was nice to meet you. I’ll see you around.” She didn’t know if Rita heard her, but she didn’t slow down or turn to find out. She had to get back to the lodge, back to her room.

  Only when she had securely fastened the latch behind her did she allow herself a long, deep breath of relief. Stomping over to the bed, she fell onto the mattress flat on her back and then stared aimlessly up at the ceiling.

  “What the hell, Elena?”

  Clenching her eyes tight, she thought back over the past few months and what had eventually ended up bringing her to Savage Valley.

  Her ex-boyfriend, Peter—a professor and a writer at Oxford—had insisted so forcefully, so persuasively that he and Elena get a place together in Oxford. She’d been hesitant, cautious. Her career was in London, but he’d insisted. Finally she’d given in, and for a few months, everything had seemed to be going along fine.

  Elena had felt truly inspired. She was in love, and it showed in her work. Some of her photos had caught the attention of a fashion editor for Vogue UK. He’d contacted her to do a four-page spread. It was supposed to be a one-time gig, but after that, she was asked to do a ten-page spread for an up-and-coming Hollywood starlet. Then it was a cover shoot, and then she’d begun to receive calls from all sorts of fashion magazines, fashion events, and even designers themselves contacting her to shoot their shows.

  Unfortunately, Peter’s debut novel had been released right around that time, and it received only lukewarm reviews at best. It was a quiet release, and then it was a quiet disappearance into obscurity. The whole time, though, Peter had begun growing distant—not escorting her to any of her couture events, staying late at the college, going to bed without so much as a kiss, much less sex.

  And then that night had happened.

  Peter had come home hours after Elena had already gone to bed. She had a big event to photograph the next day. He flung their bedroom door open, letting it slam against the wall and startling Elena into complete wakefulness.

  “My beautiful darling,” he’d crooned drunkenly. Stumbling to the bed, he fell haphazardly onto the mattress, part of his body covering hers and his legs dangling off the end. “Give me a smooch, Elena. I want a smooch from my lover.”

  “Peter, you smell awful.” Indeed, he smelled like piss and beer and cheap perfume. Elena shoved against him, noticing dark smudges on his shirt collar when she did.

  “Peter, have you…” She choked on the words for a moment, gasping. “Have you been with someone? Is that lipstick on your collar?”

  Peter ignored her question and stared intently down into her face, an odd faraway look in his eyes. “I want to kiss my gorgeous, successful lover. You are so successful, my dear. Let me press my lips to yours. I want to taste your greatness.”

  He’d pressed his mouth harshly against hers, grinding her lips into her teeth. Elena had whimpered beneath him and tried to push him away, but he gripped her chin in his hand and then bit her bottom lip hard enough to draw a little blood.

  “Peter!” She shoved against him hard, a small niggling of fear blossoming in the pit of her stomach. “You drunken bastard. Get off me.”

  He stayed on top of her but pulled his face away from hers, smacking his lips together. “It’s sweet like I imagined. Though just a little bitter.” He smacked his lips together again. “Hmm, no, it’s really fucking bitter.” He leaned close to her again, his face contorted in sudden anger. “In fact, it tastes like shit.”

  Elena had glared up at him, willing herself to stay calm, to not let any of her fear show. “Get. Off.” He tightened his grip on her chin. “Now,” she ground out.

  “You bitch,” he said, and Elena felt tiny specks of spit hit her in the face. Then he ripped the bedcovers off her body and yanked at the drawstrings of her pajama pants.

  “Peter! Stop it!” Panic took over her senses. He was crazed, his fumbling fingers determined, and Elena suddenly felt very afraid of him. She squirmed and flailed beneath his heavy body, desperately attempting to wriggle her way from beneath him, but he had her pinned.

  “Hold still, damn it.”

  “Peter, please, please. Just stop, Peter. This isn’t you.” Elena grabbed for his hands, trying to stop him, trying to keep her pants on. “Peter.”

  In a bout of frustration, he gripped her wrists and placed them above her head, holding them with one of his hands. He wasn’t that big of a man, but he was still much stronger than Elena.

  “Why you?” Elena was surprised to hear the break in his voice. “I’ve been working my whole life on this book, and you take pictures of fucking supermodels.” A tear splashed hot on her cheek, making Elena flinch. “I hate this whole fucking world.”

  Then his eyes had gone glassy, and he collapsed on top of her with a loud snore.

  Elena sucked in a deep breath, her mind returning to the present. It had been so long since she let herself remember the events of that night. Peter had apologized, begged her to stay, promised to seek professional help, but that night made Elena realize a lot of things about herself.

  First, she wasn’t happy with Peter. He was not the man she wanted to be with the rest of her life, and she saw no reason to waste any more of her time with him. She didn’t regret leaving him. She only regretted that it hadn’t been sooner, before that night. Second, in some twisted sort of way, he was right. She did take pictures of supermodels, but she wanted more. In college, she’d had such grand visions of her photography changing the world. She wanted to feel that hopeful again. And third, she hated London. The air smelled bad. The city was too cramped. She wanted to stretch her limbs, see the stars, clear her mind.

  One thing she didn’t want, however, was complication. Everything in Savage Valley was supposed to be simple. She wanted austere. She wanted clear cut.

  She most certainly did not want Caleb Kinman’s black eyes lurking on the back of her eyelids every time she closed her eyes.

  Deciding she needed to distract herself, she grabbed the memory card out of her camera and some more out of her camera bag and then plugged the first one into her laptop. With a crack of her knuckles, she began the tedious process of uploading all the photos she’d taken throughout the day. Since she’d taken so many of the mama elk and her calf, she figured she’d be at the computer doing work for at least four hours.

  Doing mind-numbing, tiresome work for hours on end.

  Precisely what she needed.

  * * * *

  Caleb’s feet slammed against the pavement. He’d been running through Savage Valley in the evenings for years. He ran the same route through town every night, never missing a night. His overall time each night was usually always within a minute of itself.

  Tonight, however, something felt different. His feet weren’t satisfied with his usual easy pace. They wanted to pound and devour the pavement. He felt his blood boiling beneath the surface, the bear side of him ready to explode through his skin. Cursing, he veered off his usual route and headed for the forest. He barely made it past the tree line before his skin began to ripple. For a brief moment, it felt like his bones were liquid fire, and then his muscles erupted. His face, his body, everything transformed.

  His mighty bear-paws fell to the earth-ground as he continued to run. Only now, his unforgiving bear-claws sank into the soft, sun-warmed soil as each great paw greeted the earth-ground. He let a humming growl rumble low in his bear-chest, and his strong back legs propelled his hulking mass forward.

  He ran a short ways through the shallow-watered creek, panting as he forced his bear-legs to push through the resistant water. When he reached the cool-watered lake, he headed for land, running along the trail-of-puny-animals that he knew would lead to where he and tawny-headed-Elena had spent most of their day. Giving the home-of-orphaned-animals a wide berth, he urged his thick muscles onward, wanting the heat-burn, wanting the fleshy exhaus
tion.

  Then he caught a whiff of tawny-headed-Elena’s scent—so foreign and unnatural in this environment—slam through his bear-heart like the song of a siren. He stopped running to rise up to his mighty hind legs and release a teeth-jarring roar. He roared until his bear-throat was raw.

  Putting his nose to the ground, he followed her trail to where she had struggled with him in the grass. He breathed her smell deep inside of himself. It branded his mind. He would never forget it.

  After he had inhaled as much as his strong bear-nose could take without driving himself into a desperate frenzy, he grunted and headed back toward the home-of-orphaned-animals. His man-clothes were in ruin. He would have to grab some fresh ones from the brothers Greenwood.

  He didn’t want to speak to any of the brothers, so he stayed as a bear. Brother Jeremiah and Brother Johnny, the youngest Brother Greenwood, sat on the man-steps of the porch when he plodded up.

  “Thought that was you making all that racket,” Brother Johnny said, his mouth stretching with humor.

  Caleb snarled but continued around to where he knew they kept some spare man-clothes for any of the bear-shifter families to borrow when the need arose. The home-of-orphaned-animals always had man-clothes and food and necessities if the great bears ever needed them.

  “What’s got your fur in a ruffle?”

  “If I had to make an educated guess,” Brother Jeremiah said, “I would say you are looking at a classic case of blue balls. His sweet, little lady friend is resistant to his beary charms.”

  Caleb let out a fur-bristling growl and then charged stupid Brother Jeremiah.

  Brother Jeremiah didn’t budge. He watched Caleb’s threat-less show with a knowing, smug-eyed smirk. Then Brother Jeremiah’s eyebrows lifted, he looked toward the forest, and then he returned his laughing eyes to Caleb.

  He patted Caleb on the shoulder blade. “Oh, hell. I know exactly what you were up to. You are a damn fool.” Then he burst out in laughter. “A damn fool.” He could barely croak it out.