Colby (BBW Western Bear Shifter Romance) (Rodeo Bears Book 3)

by Becca Fanning

  “I…” Thalia searched for what to say next. That all depends on the man I stalked and then got jumped? I don’t actually know how to consistently work with the people around me? I’d prefer to not get my hopes up, thanks? “I haven’t, no.”

  “Well, think it over. I think you’re good for Hyde. He sometimes gets it into his head that it’s him against us, but I get the feeling he’s not about to start thinking that way about you.” Thalia waited for her to expound on the subject, but after a moment of silence Annie just looked back at her. “When do you want to interview me?”

  “I’m still a little to terrified of you to ask,” Thalia told her truthfully. “Maybe later?”

  “Well, just let me know,” Annie said, sounding amused. Thalia took that as her dismissal and hightailed it back to the main body of the ship.

  Without a clear goal in mind, she once again wound up wandering aimlessly once again only to wind up in a massive space filled with machinery. Dominic looked up from his pad in the corner he’d been sitting in and regarded her calmly.

  “Um, hi,” Thalia said after a beat.

  “Hello,” he said. “Can I help you?”

  “Nope, just looking for somewhere quiet,” she told him.

  “Well, stay as long as you like,” he told her, turning back to his tablet.

  Thalia wondered for a moment if this was one of those times she was supposed to read in between the lines and be polite and walk away, then decided she didn’t care and sat down by a wall, leaning back against the cool metal and feeling the thrum of the engines reverberate through her body.

  She pulled up the article on her multi-tool, scanning over it. She’s had most of it done before meeting Hyde, only needing him to add a bit of pathos to the scathing overview of statistics and details on the rise of anti-shifter activity in the past decade as well as a list of evidence of Tillman’s many, many misdeeds. She located parts that sounded too dry and tweaked the wording, finding places to slip in quotes that sounded vaguely like what Hyde would say if he wasn’t a sarcastic asshole about ninety-five percent of life. She was in the middle of debating whether or not it would be over the top to write about the glimmer of unshed tears in his eye when Dominic unexpectedly began talking.

  “Is that the article? The one about Hyde?” he asked, nodding at her holoscreen.

  “Yes? Well, it’s not just about Hyde, but yes it’s the article that I chased Hyde down to write and have since decided to write without him because I want people to be more sympathetic towards the shifters on Serkot, not less,” Thalia said.

  Dominic tilted is head. “I thought journalists were supposed to be moralistic.”

  Thalia snorted. “You don’t meet a lot of journalists, do you?” She turned so her back was towards him and he could read over her shoulder. “At the moment, it’s mostly just facts and evidence.”

  “I like the part where you describe Hyde as a mystery wrapped in an enigma wrapped in sarcasm wrapped in the body of a Greek god,” Dominic said.

  Thalia laughed. “Thank you. Unfortunately, like everything else in red, I need to replace it with something more professional.”

  Dominic hummed, thoughtful. “You like Hyde, then?”

  “Okay,” Thalia said, setting her multi-tool down, “why is everyone asking me that?”

  “Because he needs someone,” Dominic replied, “and you… he lets you in, I think.”

  “Oh my God. I’m totally the girl at your engagement party in the red dress,” Thalia breathed out, eyes wide. Dominic looked at her curiously and she waved him off. “Don’t worry about it. I’m just going to…” she picked her multi-tool back up and starting working again.

  There was surprisingly little left to do. She had planned it out so that Hyde’s personal story would enhance but not dominate the article, so within half an hour she was finished and edited. She looked down at her multi-tool in disbelief and mild suspicion, like it all was about to disappear.

  “Done?” Dominic asked her.

  “I think I am,” she told him.

  He looked down at his tablet. “Hyde gets off shift in thirty minutes. You should show him.”

  “Thank you,” she told him, standing and stretching. Her legs were stiff and her spine popped uncomfortably, but she felt better than she had in ages. “I’ll see you around.”

  Dominic grunted in lieu of a reply and Thalia almost flew back to Hyde’s room. She tossed the multi-tool on the table and opened the list Annie had, indeed, sent her, sending a message to each one notifying them of the article going live before opening her blog and, before she could think twice, uploaded the article.

  She looked at the holoscreen for a moment, staring in fascination at the date of publication under the title, before shaking herself out of it. Hyde would be back soon and she wanted to shower before he arrived. Grabbing a change of clothes and tossing them on the bed, she slipped into the bathroom and started up the sonics. She stripped quickly and hopped in, sighing in relief as she felt the clean-feeling tingle cover her skin. As she tilted her head back and closed her eyes, she tried to think up what she wanted to say to Hyde. She knew the points she wanted to convey, but felt that begging him to let her stay was a bit much. She decided to say what she wanted as plainly as she could and let things fall where they might.

  She didn’t want to get out of the shower, but she also didn’t want to be the person who used all of someone else’s charge so she reluctantly stepped out and wrapped herself in a towel. Walking out of the bathroom, she stopped short at the sight of Hyde sitting at his desk and looking over the article. Her heart did something dramatic at the sight of him staring so intently at the screen.

  “I was expecting it to be a good article,” he told her quietly, “but I wasn’t expecting this. It’s… amazing. You…” He swallowed.

  Thalia walked carefully over to him, feeling a tingle of shock go through her as she saw the steadily rising viewer count. “Well, that’s my job.”

  “You do it well,” he told her with a wet laugh. “You really did it, you know?”

  “I had a lot of help,” she said, suddenly nervous. “You’ve got a pretty good network here. I’ve been wondering if you’d let me be part of it for a little longer.”

  He looked up at her, an incomprehensible table of emotions in his eye. Gently, he reached out and took her hand. “Just don’t corner me in a bar the next time you need a favor, okay?”

  Thalia smiled and, before she could second guess herself, leaned in and pressed a kiss against his lips. He sat perfectly still for a moment before leaning in. There were words somewhere, in some language, that could describe the sensation of his mouth on hers but in that moment Thalia couldn’t think of a single one.

  They broke apart and Thalia smirked at him. “So, you a third date type of guy, or…”

  Hyde growled, heat flashing in his eye. “So help me God I will throw you on that bed.”

  “Don’t bother,” Thalia told him, pushing away from him. “Let me.”

  She sauntered over to the bed as best she could on legs that were about to give out and dropped the towel before laying down as gracefully as she could. Turning over so she could look at Hyde, she was delighted to see he was staring hungrily at her.

  “You look…” he trailed off and shook his head.

  “Mmm, I know. So, you gonna get over here or what?” Thalia asked, like she wasn’t naked on the bed of the most attractive man she’d ever seen. Forcing herself to remain outwardly nonchalant she rolled her shoulders. “I’m getting cold. And bored.”

  “Well, we can’t have that,” Hyde said roughly, yanking a boot off.

  “I’m glad you understand,” she told him as he pulled the other one off as well and started for his belt. “Also, as much as I appreciate the strip tease, I’d definitely prefer it if you came over here instead.”

  “You want me to leave my clothes on?” he asked, eyebrow raised.

  “I want you, period, and you’re taking too damn long,” sh
e replied.

  Hyde grinned at her and pulled his belt through the loops, tossing it across the room. He sauntered over to the bed. “Didn’t anyone ever tell you patience is a virtue?”

  As soon as he was close enough, Thalia reached up and grabbed the front of his shirt and pulled him towards her. He was surprised enough that she was able to unbalance him, dragging him down so that he was half on and half off the mattress, his right knee digging into the bed beside her hip and his right hand bracing himself on the pillow so he didn’t crush her. “Didn’t anyone ever tell you to treat a lady right?”

  Hyde smiled and leaned into her. “Well,” he said against her lips, “if that’s what you want, I’ll see what I can do.”

  He pressed his mouth to hers, hard but chaste, but Thalia had never been one for teasing caresses and gentle touches in bed. She parted her lips and arched up, making Hyde moan. Sliding her arms around his neck, she took the opportunity to lick her way inside his mouth as he settled on top of her.

  Thalia slid her bare legs along his clothed ones, delighting in the contrast as the sensation sent sparks of pleasure though her body. The way her breasts brushed against the material of his shirt somehow felt more erotic than any touch she’d had in the past and she whimpered as Hyde slid a hand down along her side and cupped her ass.

  “Aren’t you going to tell me what you want?” he asked in a voice like melted chocolate, squeezing ever so slightly.

  “You,” Thalia gasped out. “I want you to touch me. I want you to fuck me.”

  “Maybe if you ask nicely I’ll consider it,” Hyde said with a wicked grin.

  Thalia looked up at him, widening her eyes and slipping her hands down to the fly of his pants.

  “Please, Hyde,” she breathed out as she undid the button. “Please fuck me.”

  If the look in Hyde’s whiskey-gold eye had been hot before, now it was molten. “Anything you want,” he said as she worked his zipper down.

  Thalia stroked his hardening member lightly, pleased by the ragged edge his breathing took.

  “I’m so glad you think that,” she told him, applying slightly more pressure to hear his breath hitch, “because you’re here, and I’m here, and I have a birth control implant, so really there’s nothing stopping you from fucking me into you matress. And I really, really want you to do that.”

  Hyde groaned. “Are you ready, or…?”

  “I’m past ready,” Thalia said, because he was big but she was impatient and besides, she wanted to feel it tomorrow, a tangible reminder of what had happened.

  Hyde swore and reached down, lining himself up and sinking ever so slowly into her. Thalia sighed and pressed herself down, trying to increase his maddeningly slow pace, but he was stronger than her and pinned her in place. She was helpless, whining and squirming in his grasp, until at last he was fully inside her. He paused for a moment to let her adjust and Thalia nearly snarled at him.

  “If you don’t move in the next three seconds,” she told him, “I swear, I’ll leave and—” The rest of the threat was cut off by a gasp and Hyde thrust his hips forward suddenly, sending something electric sparking through her. “Oh, God, like that.”

  Hyde rocked forward again, repeating the motion until he had settled into a brutally passionate pace that left Thalia gasping for breath. It had never been like this before, never been this hot or this wet or this good, and suddenly she felt cheated. Everyone, she though deliriously, should have a Hyde, as long as they didn’t try to take hers.

  Thalia was, distantly, aware that this was both already the best sex she’d ever have at only a minute in and also going to be over embarrassingly quickly on her end. She could already feel the tell-tale pulse of pleasure thrumming between her legs as she gasped and moaned as quietly as she could while Hyde moved over her, his eye squeezed shut and mouth slightly open as he panted. There was a thin sheen of sweat over his face and Thalia thought he might be the most beautiful thing she’d ever seen. She wanted, very badly, to have this forever—the gleam in his eye when he looks at her and his smiles and his threats that he never meant and everything else. Then Hyde hit something inside her and it was like every nerve in her lit up with pleasure and thought was suddenly beyond her. All there was, was her body and his body and the perfect way they moved together.

  Hyde grunted over her as the arm he’d been using to hold himself up trembled and gave out and he ended up sprawled on top of her. The warm weight of him and the steady thrusts of his hips combined pushed Thalia even closer to the edge and she turned his face so she could kiss him. He slid his lips down to suck at the sensitive skin just under her ear and she clapped a hand over her mouth to muffle a shout as she felt herself begin to shake apart. Distantly she was aware of the sounds of Hyde’s orgasm following on the heels of her own but she was too caught up in the whirlwind of her own pleasure to be able to do anything but observe.

  Finally, the sensations died down and Hyde rolled over, slipping out of Thalia’s sensitive body. They lay there, getting their breath back, and Thalia reached over to slip her hand in Hyde’s.

  “So was it good for you too?” she asked breathlessly.

  He laughed. “It was… yeah. It was good.” He squeezed her hand. “Thalia…”

  Thalia looked over and saw questions in his eye, hesitations and worries and just a smudge of hope. She smiled and him and rolled over so that she was half on top of him.

  “Hey,” she said gently, reaching up to cup his face. “Relax.”

  She leaned down to kiss him and felt the tension leave his body as he wrapped his arms around her. His mouth curved under hers and Thalia could swear her heart skipped a beat.

  This, she thought. This I could get used to.

  Breakwater: Dom

  Star Bears V

  by

  Becca Fanning

  Aurelia Talbott was not having a good day. Normally, getting off to a bad start on work days meant sleeping in, but unfortunately today the opposite had been true. Aurie had been ripped from the gentle embrace of sleep at three thirty in the morning by her neighbor’s colicky infant. The same child who a week before Aurie had offered to set up a free consultation for with a pediatrician friend if only to be able to get more than four hours of sleep a night, only for the mother to glare at her for daring to recommend she take her precious child to one of “those know-it-all poison-peddlers.”

  After lying in bed for two hours, completely awake, she had stripped, stepped into her shower, and discovered that the water was icy cold no matter how long she waited or how hard she twisted the handles. Teeth chattering, she’d fixed herself breakfast, eyeing the stove warily, and when her eggs neither spontaneously combusted or turned out to be poison she chalked it up to a rough start, arrived to work fifteen minutes early, and was promptly informed that she was being summoned to her supervisor’s office.

  After thirty minutes of a gentle lecture on appropriate workplace behaviors, during which at no point did Mr. Friedrichson look above her collarbone, she was finally released to go fulfill the duties of her residency, which went normally, meaning she spent the rest of the day growing slowly more and more irritated with everything but especially insurance companies. She managed to catch about ten minutes of sleep in two plastic waiting room chairs pressed together, which only made her more tired and frustrated rather than less, before having to assist in an uncomfortably touch and go surgery on a twelve-year-old with a brain tumor.

  By the time she finally walked back out of Grand View General Hospital, she was angry, tired, dreading returning to her own apartment, and on the verge of tears.

  And that’s when she got kidnapped.

  She supposed, as she was gently but firmly herded towards what appeared to be a decently sized cargo ship, that it said something when your kidnappers where nicer than your coworkers and your neighbors combined. There were three of them: a tall, dark man with an eyepatch who’s remaining golden eye gave him away as a shifter immediately who seemed significantly more
annoyed at kidnapping Aurie than Aurie was at being kidnapped, a woman with her hair swept back by a patterned cloth and no discernable expression, and a slight, pale girl with dark hair and eyes who quietly apologized the whole way to the ship.