“How’d you like my boyfriend now?” she asked with breathless mirth.
“It’s kind of like a ritual,” Hart explained. “Once you do it, there’s no turning back. If you’re with the right person, then it bonds you for life to them. You want to protect them, and love them always.”
“And am I the right person?” Jane asked.
Hart’s grin was broad and beaming. He leaned down and kissed Jane, their lips grazing hungrily for one another’s taste.
“Of course you are,” he said. “I knew it the moment I fell and hit you with that door.”
“You did not,” Jane protested.
“Did so,” Hart argued.
She tried to return the argument, but he buried her in kisses until she gave up. They were lying in the clearing where the pot farm had been, though it’d been almost a week since it’d been cleared away. Now, there was only a quiet little space, obscured by bushes, where no-one at all could see what they were up to. Jane was lying on her back, hardly worrying about the grass stains on her clothes, and Hart was on top of her, leaning on his elbows. His hips weighed comfortably heavy over her own, his erection throbbing against the thin material of his uniform. Jane wriggled against the bulge, and he gave a groan of delight.
“So you’re saying once we make love, that’s it?” she asked him. “You’ll never let me go?”
“Not ever,” Hart promised.
He leaned down, kissing her neck and nuzzling against the soft skin there.
“Not even if I go back to LA to work?” she challenged.
“I will follow you anywhere you choose to go,” he said, his breath warm against her throat. “Although if you get that phone of yours replaced, we’re going to have a problem. It’s distracting you from what’s really important in life, you know.”
Hart pulled up, and their eyes locked. Jane agreed with him completely, but she wouldn’t let it show just yet.
“I suppose,” she mused wickedly, “you’ll just have to find something even more distracting to occupy me, won’t you?”
She raised her hips, grinding them against Hart’s throbbing body again.
“Here?” he asked. “Now?”
“Here and now,” Jane replied, feeling strangely free.
The clearing was shaded, and Hart stripped first. He laid his shirt and pants out to make a kind of bed for Jane to lay down on. She could hardly keep her hands off his naked form as he proceeded to undress her, hands roaming all over his toned, muscular body. When she reached his cock, she teased him with feather-light touches, and Hart lost his manners for a moment and ripped her shirt at the shoulder. Jane gasped, but she found that she didn’t care about the tailoring any more. All there seemed to be in the world was love, passion and joy. Hart had brought her that, and she didn’t want anything to spoil it now.
When she was down to her underwear, Jane lay back on Hart’s clothes, feeling the crisp outdoor air on her body. She had a front-fastening bra on, a wise choice for the occasion, and Hart unclasped it partly with his teeth. He ran his mouth over her breasts hungrily, teasing her nipples with his tongue and brushing them with a stubbly jaw. Jane shuddered at the pleasure she felt, then gasped again when Hart’s hand delved suddenly into her panties.
Jane shrugged them off entirely, wriggling around as his fingers slipped inside her. First one, then two fingers opened her, pushing teasingly, and then his thumb found her clitoris and began a circular rubbing motion. Hart’s face was rapt with passion, eyes deep and a darker shade of gold than before. When she pulled him in to kiss her, his tongue slipped into her mouth, roving all over in a search for conquest.
It was relaxing, to let him take control of her body. Jane felt totally safe in Hart’s strong hands, and she lay back with no tension at all in limbs. Everything was pleasure, waves of passion hitting her with every thrust of his fingers, every flick of his thumb. When Hart’s kisses travelled all over her neck and breasts once again, Jane looked up into the leafy canopy overhead with a grin she couldn’t control. This was everything she had wanted, the thing that was worth leaving her stressful world behind for. Not long ago, she’d thought Elise was the lucky one, the one in a million to find real happiness, but now she was it. And it was the greatest feeling in the world.
“You’d better not be daydreaming,” Hart chided, his lips against her stomach.
“Oh, I am way beyond that,” she said with a giggle. “Who needs drugs when we’ve got this? This is the original high.”
Hart’s fingers slipped out of her, leaving her barren and aching for them to resume their thrusting motions. He climbed on top of her body, resuming their original position, but now she felt his hard-on sliding along her thigh with an eager grace. She looked up into Hart’s face, watching a wicked grin overcome him.
“I’ll bet I can take you higher still,” he promised.
“Please,” Jane begged delightedly. “I really want to go there with you.”
She let her legs open a little wider, and Hart shifted his hips to slide inside her. Jane held onto his firm back, hands roving downwards until she found those perfect buttocks she had glimpsed not long ago. She felt the muscles there squeeze tightly as Hart began to thrust into her, and the first push sent a wild wave of heat through her body. She shuddered, hardly able to contain her pleasure, and once again she was totally in Hart’s control. He knew just to what to do with her, fulfilling her with thrusts that changed in speed and depth.
They grew faster the more they went on, and Hart buried his face against her neck, kissing the skin there wildly. Jane felt her back arch, her body lifting of its own accord to be as close as possible to Hart’s. Her hips began to spasm as she grew closer and closer to her climax, something deep inside her aching as the orgasm built. A moment later, she let it go, shaking and crying out in abandon as pleasure washed over her body. Hart took the sign, his hips wild in their final thrusts as he let his own climax go. Jane felt the wet warmth between them as he rocked their hips the last few times, before they collapsed in a breathless heap together.
“Good lord,” Jane breathed in amazement. “You know, I didn’t even think about protection. What if we… you know?”
Hart looked at her, his grin unflappable again.
“Just made a baby?” he completed with a chuckle. “Hey, I don’t mind if you don’t mind.”
Laid-back as ever. Jane turned and cuddled against Hart’s body, mulling over the possibility in her mind. Baby Isaak was adorable, and she had felt that deep, strong longing for a child of her own when she’d laid eyes on him. It certainly wouldn’t be the end of the world if she fell pregnant from the perfect moment they’d just shared. In fact, it would be the start of a whole new world for them together.
Five months later.
“It’s amazing how much a bunch of idiots can fend for themselves when you leave them to it,” Jane mused.
“You’d better not be talking about me and my cousins,” Hart threatened playfully.
He stole a kiss before Jane could reply, and she smiled at him wryly.
“I mean my assistants at the agency,” she explained. “They’re doing just fine with me running the show from a distance. I’m only getting half as many crisis calls as when we first met.”
“That’s just as well,” Hart replied with a chuckle. “We’re going to have plenty of crisis calls here now, with a lodge full of kids to tend to.”
Layla had given birth to a little girl, whom she and Ben named Lily. She and Isaak were laid out on a rug with a series of toys above them for them to watch and play with, and Jane and Hart were on duty to make sure the babies got up to no mischief. With Kurt and Stacey now expecting twins too, there was all the more reason for them to practice their babysitting skills.
“Look at them,” Jane mused, watching the curious faces of the babies as they looked up at their arch of toys. “They’re going to grow up here in the wilderness, away from all the stresses of the urban world. Lucky little buggers.”
Hart gave a contented sigh. He came to sit beside Jane on the sofa, snuggling his body against hers in a perfect curve. She relaxed against him contentedly, leaning her head back on his strong chest. Hart’s hand wandered down her arm slowly, sliding over to the large, rounded bump of her belly. He put his palm flat over the solid sphere, and Jane put her own hand over his, holding it there firmly.
“Do you think ours will look like these two?” Jane asked. “The Best gene pool seems pretty strong.”
“The only thing I can guarantee you is that he or she will have golden eyes,” Hart told her. “And perhaps that cubs are even messier to clean up after than fully-human babies.”
“Endless fun,” Jane replied, closing her eyes for a long moment.
The door creaked opened somewhere nearby, and when Jane opened her eyes again, she met Elise’s grinning face at the door. The pretty blonde was peeping in on the children with a mother’s careful glance. Jane had a lot to learn from her on that front, and she was looking forward to it immensely.
“Everything okay in here?” Elise asked.
Jane felt Hart nod beside her, and she gave her friend a smile that stretched so wide it actually hurt her face a little.
“Everything is absolutely perfect,” Jane replied.
And, to her amazement, she was right.
Reinicke
Bear Dating Agency V
by
Becca Fanning
Prologue
The most irritating thing in the world was a ‘happily ever after’. As the director of an incredibly popular dating agency, Karina Vasquez was responsible for such miracles occurring every damn day. She was inundated with calls from those who she’d set up, wanting to thank her for making their dreams come true. And, when grateful past clients weren’t clogging up her phone line, new ones with dreams of their own were battering down her door. In simple terms, she had become far too good at her job. Demand was outweighing what she could supply, and there was only one solution to the problem, as far as Karina could see.
The sign on her office door read: “Out to lunch. Permanently.”
She had driven to the place where happy childhood memories called, memories of a time when there were no demands or pressures placed on her. It was the place where her mother, Rose, had taught her to swim, and where her father, Javier, had cooked ribs on a rickety old barbeque. As she arrived in Fairhaven Park, the sun was shining with a glorious brilliance, and all at once she was no longer a twenty-five year old business sensation in the world of romance. Karina was as free as the birds that soared above her.
Best of all, work could not follow her here. Not long ago she’d had four clients in this very park, all of them brothers with the surname Best. But now they were paired off, a domino effect of happily ever afters that had been part of the boom which sent Karina off the deep end. That meant there were no eligible men seeking love here, only a park full of quiet, silent places where she could forget that the rest of the world existed. It was going to be heaven.
And then there was a crash, and Karina rocked in the seat of her car.
“Watch where you’re damn going!” said a voice that was almost a growl.
Karina threw her head out of her car window, watching as a man in the Land Rover opposite her did the same. He had tawny brown hair cut straight and sensible, and his face was the most serious one Karina had ever seen. He had a strong jaw pulled into a grumpy sneer and shining eyes that appeared gold by the light of the brilliant sun. For a moment, Karina just looked at him, mesmerized. Before she remembered what he’d said, and done.
“You bumped my car!” she decreed, outraged.
“You were daydreaming!” the man insisted. “You came straight at me.”
“Come on!” Karina retaliated at once. “It’s a wide road. You could have gone around! You’re just one of those assholes who likes to make trouble.”
“Sure I am,” the man replied, “but I’m also responsible for other people’s safety here. Can’t let a menace like you go unchecked.”
It was then that Karina spotted the badge glinting on his lapel. He was in some kind of uniform, and further inspection of his car revealed a huge logo for Fairhaven on the side, along with the words: Park Ranger Service.
“Shit,” Karina said quietly.
“Indeed,” the man said sharply. “My name’s Reinicke, by the way. I suggest you avoid me for the duration of your stay.”
He drove off, snaking around her car before she could bite back with the insult that was bursting on her tongue. Reinicke. It was such a peculiar name. It was one that Karina knew would stick in her head and come back to haunt her. She clutched her steering wheel tightly.
“Jawohl, mein herr,” she grumbled as she too drove away.
The plan was simple. Stay one night at the Old Spring Inn, prepare herself, and then let the adventure begin. Karina stood at the mirror the next morning, taking stock of her situation and kind of wondering if she hadn’t overreacted a little to the stress of her job. After a good night’s sleep in a comfortable bed and an ample room service breakfast, she was beginning to feel relaxed already. Perhaps she didn’t have to go the whole hog and trek completely off the grid.
She was dressed in shorts and a shirt, with a vest underneath and a waterproof tucked into a baggie that hung from her backpack. Her dark locks hung around her face, and Karina studied herself as she pulled them back into an austere pony tail, no single hair escaping from her grip. Her face was still pretty, when it wasn’t contorted by stress, with glimmering dark eyes and full lips. Somewhere in that reflection, there was a carefree girl whose only wish had been to make other people happy by finding their true love. If she could just find that girl again, things would be all right.
Karina had bought all the gear for camping out in the wild. She intended to trek to the northern section of the park, reserved for serious hikers and those who wanted to disappear for several days and be one with nature. She wasn’t a serious hiker by any means, and the store tags still attached to half her stuff would attest to that, but how hard could it be? She did cardio and hot yoga every day back in LA. She was in shape. There was no reason to think that she couldn’t handle a few days alone in the wilderness.
Yet, there was that worry again. Her office, though busy and unbearably loud, was her kingdom. She was comfortable there, in her ergonomic chair, drinking imported coffee. Life was hectic, but it had order to it. She knew what to do in LA. Out here, there were lots of things she’d need to learn, and learn them quickly to stay safe. She moved from the mirror to her backpack, fishing down among the layers of equipment to find her phone.
It had been switched off from the moment she put that impetuous sign up on her office door. Yet she had packed it to take on her trek, like an extra limb that she couldn’t quite part from. Tentatively, Karina held down the button to bring the phone back to life. She dropped it onto the bed at once as it roared with a cacophony of beeps, clicks and buzzes. Messages were coming in from every available outlet, lighting up the screen like a fireworks display. Karina felt her heart grow tight at the prospect of answering them all, and she settled for sending only one reply.
A single tweet from her official account:
Hiking in the woods to get some me time. #offgrid
She turned the phone off and buried it deep within her bag once more.
***
By the time Karina reached the little visitor’s hut that marked the start of the northern section of Fairhaven, she was more determined than ever to leave life behind for a few days. Inside the visitor’s hut there were only three people besides herself, and the emptiness of the charming little place made her feel calm at once. She stepped across to a display unit filled with pamphlets, observing the different maps and walking trails that were available in this part of the park. She began picking up different leaflets, looking at their covers. They seemed to be color-coded, ranging from easy treks that only lasted an afternoon, up to full circuits of the highest peaks an
d lowest valleys that California had to offer. She wanted to be gone for a few days at least to clear her head, so she loaded up on mid-level maps.
Colby (BBW Western Bear Shifter Romance) (Rodeo Bears Book 3) Page 80