“I smell? How do I smell?” Martha was outraged.
“Sexy. Provocative. Ripe.” He pulled her worn tee-shirt down so he could find the delicate skin of her breasts. He found her saggy, graying nylon bra. He was so done with that ugly thing. He ripped the straps and unhooked the band and it came off in his hand. He flung it away.
He tore the neck of the tee-shirt and her wonderful, abundant flesh tumbled into his hands. He palmed her breasts and kissed her mouth until she kissed him back. He nuzzled her armpits and kissed the place where they met her luscious breasts. He inhaled appreciatively.
“I do not smell,” she insisted.
“Of course you do. You smell like walking seduction. Like temptation personified.” He bit her lightly and soothed the bite with his tongue. “Sex on legs.”
“Oh.” That was good, wasn’t it? “Stop that, Shelly will hear us.”
“If the little bear is going to live with us she’ll have to get used to the fact that we make love.” Will put his tongue in his mate’s ear.
“Is she?”
“Is she what?” Will had found the delicately scented place below his mate’s earlobe and was snuffling hopefully.
“Is Shelly going to live with us?”
“Well sure. Unless she wants to live with Hannah or Robert, but I think she’ll want to stick with you.”
His Warrior Woman burst into tears again. Well hell. He was so not getting lucky. “Aw, honey,” he crooned into her hair, “Come sit down and tell me what’s wrong.”
It took a long time for the whole sordid story of Lance and Kyle to come tumbling out. Will put his arms around his woman and held her while she recalled Lance’s attempted rape.
“You do understand that, if you had stayed, Kyle would have beaten the meatballs out of you and then held you down so that fork licker could rape you?” Will asked shaking her a little. “How would that have helped Shelly?”
“I should have gone to the elders,” she sobbed.
“And maybe they should have paid more attention to you and Shelly after your aunt died. You did okay for a kid of fourteen. When I think of all the dreadful things that could have happened to you in LA. You were so lucky you had Barbara Brown to run to.”
“She met me in the diner outside the bus station. This big guy was dogging me. He got on outside of LA and sat beside me on the bus. He tried to make like we were pals. I found him creepy but he wouldn’t stop talking to me. He followed me off the bus into a diner and offered to buy me lunch. I didn’t know what to do, or how to make him leave me alone.
“Barbara tripped him when he tried to follow me to the bathroom. He was so mad. But there she was, a frail old woman apologizing nicely, and all the other patrons where standing around asking if she was all right, so he just swore at her and left.”
“Sugar on a stick. What happened then?”
Martha shoved the hair out of her eyes and settled more comfortably on Will’s lap. “Barb took me home with her and I never left. She thought it was fate when I told her my name was Brown. She took me to the nearest high school and registered me. Told them I was her granddaughter from Wisconsin and nobody ever knew any different.”
“You do understand that guy on the bus was likely a pimp looking for runaways?”
“That’s what Barb thought.”
“Out of the frying pan. But how come you weren’t falling for his blandishments?”
“Blandishments?”
“It’s a fancy word they taught me at Annapolis. Why didn’t his line of patter work on you?”
“He smelled off.”
Will chuckled. “And you say your bear never did you any good?” He began to nuzzle her behind her ear again. This time Martha turned her mouth to his in a soul shattering kiss.
Tonight was not a night for high spirited play. Tonight was about affirming his bond with his mate. Will stood up with Martha in his arms and carried her into her bedroom. He set her on the carpet beside her bed and slowly undressed his mate in the darkness, enjoying the sensuality of exploring her entirely by touch and scent.
He was all too aware that when Martha had decided she and Shelly should watch his back she had deliberately put her life in peril. All had turned out well. But that was pure luck. Just as it was luck that Brown’s single shot had blown out the frame of the shattered window instead of ending up in Will’s chest.
Brown had dropped his gun when Martha and Shelly had jumped him. The two women had captured the villain who stalked their nightmares without bloodshed. But it could easily have been otherwise.
Will worked his way slowly from Martha’s mouth down to the hollow of her neck, glad that he had thought to shave so he would not chafe her delicate flesh. He traced her collarbones and followed the slope of her breast bone to where it disappeared into the lovely hillocks of her bosom.
He could not see the mauve veins he knew lay under the alabaster skin except in his mind’s eye. He kissed them and found the aureoles already hard and distended. He tasted them and licked the salt from her skin.
Martha’s hand found the buttons of his shirt and began to undo them. He unhooked her skirt and shimmied it and her panties past her hips to her bare feet. She kicked the garments away and peeled his shirt off, running her hands over his chest and digging her fingers into the thick curls that covered it. Will kissed her mouth again and moaned his pleasure into it.
The feel of her hands on his body was more arousing than anything that they had ever done before. He knew this intensity was a side effect of surviving the danger of the day, but it was no less real for that. He urged her hands to his belt buckle and shivered when she ran her palm down the hard length of him before she unzipped his fly. She started when she realized he was commando.
“Naughty,” she whispered. The word a mere giggle in the darkness.
He didn’t explain that he had ruined his briefs when he took bear form. He just let the pants drop down to his ankles and stepped out of them. He picked his woman up and carried her triumphantly to the bed. He tested her slick folds with two fingers, enjoying her little shimmy, before setting his erection to her nether lips. She was wet and eager for him and he slipped home with a single thrust.
He wanted this pleasure to last them both a long time so he set a leisurely pace that had Martha’s head writhing on her pillow. Her bun came undone and a froth of curls fell over her shoulders. She pushed her heels into the mattress and found purchase so she could raise her knees and grip his sluggish hips and urge him on. He kissed her gently, and then as her wriggling and squeezing had their inevitable effect on his cock, more fiercely.
Their mouths now matched the furious pace of their loins. The liquid slap of flesh against flesh. The joyful noise of sacred mating was sweet in the cocoon of their love. Martha felt her heart squeeze with joy as her mate flooded her passage with his seed. He slipped sideways to clasp her hard against his damp body as they both slipped into sleep.
* * *
Martha came awake to see Will standing naked at her bedroom window looking through the curtains at the back yard. The sounds of excited yapping and snuffling chortles came faintly through the closed casement. Will seemed to sense Martha’s waking because he beckoned her to stand beside him.
On the grass, a small black bear and a tiny dog played tag. They dodged the posts of the clothesline and the rectangle of the vegetable garden, and pursued each other in circles. Whenever the bear stopped, the little dog play bowed and the bear crouched in an awkward ursine imitation and continued the game.
Martha gasped. Will chuckled. “I guess Shelly has found her bear once and for all.”
“She can’t just go wandering around in bear form,” objected Martha. “And she needs her sleep.”
“You can explain that in the morning,” Will said firmly. “Right now, nothing you said would get past the fact that her bear found Honey. Let her celebrate, she’s had a horrible time. Feeling strong and competent is an antidote for the helplessness Brown force her to en
dure.” He looked down at his mate. Shelly was not the only one who had endured a terrible ordeal.
Honey and Shelly were only too happy to let Will and Martha join them in their nocturnal romp. Will was delighted to discover that his Martha’s hormones had woken up with a roar at last. He let both the females tumble his big frame onto the grass while Honey circled them all, yapping with sheer joy.
When he thought all three had used up the adrenalin flooding their systems, Will gently disentangled himself from their roughhousing. He took his human form in the deepest shadows of the garden before slipping into the house.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Two days later, Will and Rob were putting a new window in the Deers’ living room. Sam Deer was apologizing again.
“I am an old fool,” he said. “I clean forgot about Lester Bell. He never did amount to much. But he and Kyle were drinking buddies.” He shook his head. “We should have kept watch on Bell’s place.”
“I thought Wesheno was dry?” Will said absently as he and Rob slotted the new window into the enlarged opening that they had cut for it.
Sam gave a snort of contempt. “Those good-for-nothings care nothing for the Law. Any Law. They would bring booze onto the reservation and drink themselves blind even where the children could see. I should have remembered.”
“What I don’t understand,” said Will, “Is how Lester Bell knew Shelly was here.”
Rob laughed. “Brenda.” He tapped his side of the frame lightly with his fist and it slid sweetly into place. “The waitress. At the Coffee Shop.”
“She told Bell?”
Sam Deer said, “She told someone Shelly was staying at our place for the weekend. Eventually Bell heard. If Brown asked him, he would inform him. I should have remembered him.”
“Ah, a small town thing,” Will said knowledgeably.
Frank Payawasay put his head through the doorway. “Looks good,” he approved. “You’ll get more light with this bigger window, Sam. Be warmer than that single glazing too.”
Sam inclined his head. “Mary and I are grateful to Will. The Tribal Council wanted us to board it up until their insurance company settled.”
“I broke it,” Will said. “My job to replace it.”
“I just came by to tell you folks what the Prosecutor’s decided.” Frank pulled out his notebook. “Seven counts of forcible confinement. One count of kidnapping. One of home invasion. One attempted murder. Seven counts assault with a deadly weapon. One of possession of firearm by felon.” His voice droned on.
“Can we safely assume that the great state of Wisconsin will offer Brown permanent accommodation?” Will asked when Frank was finished.
“I would think so. Those shots of Shelly you took are enough to get him put away under the three strikes law.”
“Then we can have ourselves a wedding,” said Will with satisfaction.
* * *
“What do you mean your mother will be here today?” Martha put her hands on her hips and glared at Will.
“She and Hannah and Jack are on the twelve fifteen from Seattle. They’re picking up a rental in Wausau. They should be in time for a late lunch. Hannah was so excited to meet you and Rob she didn’t want to wait.”
Martha looked at her hands. Her nails were chipped. She looked at her clothes. She was wearing her baggiest jeans and a huge tee-shirt of Will’s. Her hair was in an untidy ponytail. “Why didn’t you tell me before?” she wailed. “I need a haircut.”
“It was a surprise,” Will said lamely. He put his hands on her shoulders. “It won’t make the remotest difference to my family,” he said, “But if you want to go to the hairdresser before you meet them, go.”
“I suppose you told Rob.”
Will kept his mouth shut.
* * *
“What do you mean you’re going to Wayford?” Will asked his mother.
We are having girls’ day out. I take to spa.” Katrina Enright glared at her son.
Will glowered right back at her. He set his teeth. He didn’t want his mate or the little bear out of arm’s reach.
Katrina ignored his bad temper and patted his arm. “When we come back, you tell me your adventures. Also for why my daughter-in-law doesn’t yet have a ring?” She handed him a small package.
* * *
Hannah and Martha were alone in the Stone Croft Inn’s Reflection Room wrapped in large fluffy white robes. They sat side by side with their legs stretched out on matching recliners, enjoying their post-aromatherapy glow. Shelly had gone happily off to the sauna with Katrina.
“Will took me down to Crane Lake to splash. He’s got a thing for courting in bear. I have never spent any time in bear form before, but he does like to play in bear.” Martha giggled softly.
“You don’t mean?” Hannah couldn’t complete her question.
“I do not. Eww. No he likes to swim and play tag and just run a little wild. He calls it feeding our bears. I have to say it does seemed to have calmed Shelly down. I sort of expected weeks of nightmares after her experience with her father.” Martha gave a little shiver. “But she’s sleeping and eating well. And she has so taken to Mrs. Enright.”
“Momma’s great. Bossy but great. I think taking bear form probably is good for Shelly. Fortifying, mentally and physically.
“Jack spent a long time in bear form in Uzbekistan. He doesn’t speak much about it, but I think he would have died of his wounds if he hadn’t been able to hibernate.
“I didn’t even know I was a bear until about two years ago, you know. Jack actually triggered my shift before he took off for Uzbekistan. It was a total shock when I turned for the first time.” Hannah chuckled at her sister’s shocked face.
“To tell you the truth, I’m still learning to deal with my bear, but my Seattle clan keeps assuring me that listening to my bear is a form of wisdom.
“Mind you, they so did not approve when I went into heat this spring and headed to the Sanctuary.”
“You went to the Sanctuary?” Martha’s voice could not contain her shock. “For Spring Mating? Really? OMG. What was it like?” The words tumbled out of her mouth.
Hannah wrinkled her nose. “It was a mad thing to do. But I was so angry at Jack for just disappearing. So I went, and there he was.”
Martha moved closer to her sister and lowered her voice even though they were quite alone. “Is it true that the bears do it, well, in bear?”
Hannah nodded. “Oh, yeah. Right out in the fresh air.” She moved so her curls merged with Martha’s and lowered her voice even more. “I saw boars humping sows, while two and three other males stood around waiting their turns.”
Martha’s eyes got rounder. “OMG! Did you?” she asked, wishing instantly she could recall her indiscreet question.
“Not on your life! But Jack fought another male for me.”
“Really?”
“Really. You know how banged up he looked on TV?”
Martha nodded.
“That was mostly from his mating duel. And from me swatting him on his bare ass with my bear fist.”
“That is a beautiful ring,” Martha said admiringly.
Hannah waved her hand around so that the big princess cut diamond on her channel ring flashed brightly. “It’s my hands off sign,” she confided.
“What?”
“When Jack gave me this ring, he told me it was a signal to other men that I was taken. Swear to God. “ She chuckled. “He wanted me to be happy. He wanted me to like it. But if he had his way it would be even larger. What are you going to say to a man like that?”
“How about, ‘Think of the future.’” Martha managed.
Hannah grinned at her. “That’s when he told me that he had a trust fund. Will too. Didn’t you know?”
Martha shook her head.
“They are such bears.”
Martha giggled again. Having a sister was wonderful. She loved Shelly, but Shell was her daughter and always would be.
* * *
“T
his is a nice town,” Jack said. “But it’s a little down at heel.”
“Only steady employer is the casino. It provides work year round.” Will waved a hand at the main street with its shabby storefronts. Most of these businesses are marginal. Maybe have a part time employee for the summer. Fudge shop closes after Labor Day.
“Some of the men get by guiding during the summer and fall. Doesn’t pay all that well, and there are no benefits.
“What this place needs is some light industry. Something that will provide full time employment at good wages year round.”
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