Ursa Major

by Mary Winter

  “There’s a Starbucks across the street. That okay?”

  “Can Liam come with us?”

  “Yeah.”

  The three of them walked to Starbucks in silent. Once they were inside, drinks in hand, Ken steered her and Liam toward a corner table. For the first time, he looked tired, far older than his years.

  Sarah touched his hand. “It’s bad, isn’t it?” She inwardly grimaced at her trite choice of words. “I take that back, I know it’s bad. But this could end Hodges & Associates, couldn’t it?”

  “Yeah.” Ken sipped his drink.

  Beside her, Liam remained silent, her rock. Even without him she would have honored her ethics. With him, it was easier because, although she knew most of the money and power of Washington was against her, she had someone in her corner. Sarah rested her hand on his thigh beneath the table, the warmth of his skin radiated through his jeans. His presence reassured her.

  “I’ve known about this for a while and I’ve kept it from the staff. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have, but I did what I thought was good at the time. Bill…” Ken lowered his voice. “He hasn’t been…right for a while. He has addictions, expensive ones that made him owe money to off-shore corporations and has had him bouncing money through accounts to try and keep ahead. It caught up with him. I was trying to get him to go public, even though I knew our reputation would take a hit. You have no idea the figures he’s indebted to both personally and professionally. The firm isn’t going to be the same.”

  Sarah drew a harsh breath.

  Liam turned his hand and squeezed her fingers.

  Her mind whirled. She knew, oh she could imagine, what had transpired, the backroom deals and political machinations that weren’t confined to one particular party. She learned long ago that both sides of the aisle worked the system, warping and twisting it. Her boss’ actions were simply more proof of that.

  “But it will continue, right?” Politicians survived scandals, even went on to second terms or to become president. Sure, some stepped down, but others continued. Surely the firm would do the same.

  “I hope so. We’re going to have to start fresh. I like your work, Sarah. I know I pressured you and did some things that I’m not proud of, but that report is a grade A piece of writing. There’s a future there. You have a future there.”

  Her heart warmed at having her work validated. The long hours she’d spent on the report might have been to help ease her broken heart. They’d also helped a people. Liam’s people. “Thank you.”

  “You don’t deserve this. With Bill’s death—” Emotion choked Ken’s voice.

  Sarah blinked her eyes. The image of her boss’ broken body lying on the ground haunted her. Whatever he done, shouldn’t have been so bad that he’d felt a need to take his own life. He’d nearly taken out the entire building. The firm had been his world. Destroying it had cost him his life.

  Ken turned his attention to Liam. “Look, without you, Sarah wouldn’t have written what she did. She’s always been a fine analyst. Something changed up there in Alaska. I know you’re just a tour guide and you’re probably anxious to get back to your company. I’m thinking that we could use someone like you.”

  Sarah smiled at Liam being called ‘just’ anything. “I thought you were against my report and my staying in Alaska?” If he weren’t, if she had a chance to go back, she’d take it in a heartbeat.

  Liam arched his eyebrow at her. “Staying?”

  Sarah shrugged. “If things hadn’t gotten so bad down here, I probably wouldn’t have left.”

  He inched her hand higher on his thigh.

  “I needed you back here and I needed your report. Trying to get you to placate Senator Durwell with it is one of those things I regret. There’s not a lot we can do tonight. You know enough. I’m sure you can piece together the rest. Once Bill’s funeral is over, I’ll call everyone back and we can see where the firm can go from here.” Ken drowned the last of his coffee. “I don’t want to make offers until I’m sure there is going to be a firm after all of this.” He shoved back his chair and rose.

  Sarah and Liam followed suit, and she noticed that he still held her hand. She let him. Right now, though she had a good idea what had happened, she wondered, even with Liam beside her, what the future would hold. “You have my numbers. Call, or email, if you need anything. Okay, Ken?”

  Her boss looked grim, but determined. “I will.” Turning, he left Starbucks, and left Sarah to figure out where to go from here.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  As soon as Sarah let them back into her apartment, Liam pulled her into his arms. Throughout the conversation with her boss, even when he’d been called ‘just’ a tour guide, he’d remained silent, offering his love and support. Now that they were alone, he intended to show her exactly what she meant to him. “Did you mean it when you said you would stay in Alaska?” he whispered against the top of her head.

  Sarah sighed and snuggled against him. Her breasts flattened against his chest. Their legs tangled. Even now, she still held that elusive lavender scent that he knew, and loved, so well.

  “I think I probably would.” She squeezed him tighter, and he followed suit, walking them through the entryway to the couch, where he sat down beside her. He pulled her into his lap.

  Liam brushed his thumb across her cheek. Dark circles formed bruises under her eyes. Beneath her makeup, her skin held a pallor that came from work and worry. With her slender body draped over his, he thought of her as delicate. But there was nothing delicate about Sarah. She was strong, far stronger than he in some respects, because he had his inner bear. She had…simply herself.

  Caressing her skin, he turned her face toward his. “You would have stayed in Alaska for me?”

  Sarah laughed, and Great Mother, after the stress of today when he feared he’d lost her, it was good to hear her laugh. “No, silly. For me.” She closed the space between them and sealed her words with a kiss.

  Her lips moved gently across his, her fingers curling across his shoulders to tangle in hair at the nape of his neck. Deep inside his bear roared in triumph. His mate. His love.

  He reveled in her, from the lavender scent that wrapped around him like a tantalizing glimpse of heaven to the silken texture of her skin. Her tongue brushed against his lips. He opened for her, offering her everything. Their open-mouthed kiss echoed the mingling of their bodies and the binding of their souls. In the way of his people, this mating went far beyond the simple joining of bodies. It would be that. It would also be more.

  Their tongues met and tangled, each taking the measure of other like two grizzlies circling each other in a field. His hand slid down her arm. He touched her hand, then caressed her hip.

  She turned in his lap, the awkward fumbling of legs adding to the eroticism. When she straddled him, her sex pressed intimately against him.

  He moaned.

  A tremor ran through her, and he swept his hands over her back. Breaking the kiss, he pressed his forehead against hers. “You okay? You’re shaking.”

  Her lips parted. Her eyelashes fluttered closed to fan against her cheeks. “Today…I just…” She cupped his cheeks and lifted her head. “Love me, Liam. Make love to me until I can’t think about anything but you.” She slanted her lips across his, the hard, primal kiss designed to drive every thought from her mind.

  He knew all-too-keenly the knife’s edge between life and death.

  Liam curled his fingers into her shoulders, holding her to him. His tongue dipped into her mouth, tasting the sharp bite of the black coffee she’d sipped. Sitting here, doing nothing but kissing, had him hotter for her than he’d ever been. His cock pounded. The couch provided enough comfort, but there was more to be had in the bedroom. He tugged at her shirt.

  Her breathy sighs echoed around him as he removed first her shirt, then her bra, baring her breasts to his gaze. He stared at her, drinking in the sight of the round, firm globes of her breasts with their hard nipples. Lowering his head, he nuzzl
ed her skin. Lavender. Nestling his lips in the valley between her breasts, he took his time savoring her.

  Sarah wriggled in his lap, her motions serving to make him harder.

  Liam palmed her breast. “Let me.” He turned his mouth to the other, drawing the tight bead of her nipple into his mouth and sucking.

  Arching her back, Sarah cried out. She offered him her breasts, her hips thrusting against his. She tangled her fingers in his hair, holding his mouth to her.

  Drawing the combined lavender scent of her skin and the musk of her arousal into his nose, he branded the scent on his memory. Sarah was his woman—his mate. He lifted his head only to turn his oral attention to her other breast, using his fingers to caress the slick nipple he just left.

  She whimpered. “Liam, please.”

  “Please what?” he whispered against her skin.

  “I need you inside me.” She rubbed her sex against him.

  “Then let’s go to the bed.” Cupping her ass, he lifted her and stood in a single, smooth motion.

  Her arms twined around his neck. Her startled gasp made him smile against her skin. One of the perks of being an inner bear, he had strength he could call on at will, especially when it came to pleasing his woman. His long strides carried them into the bedroom, where he laid her down on the bed. He quickly unfastened her pants and pulled them down her legs along with her panties. He stopped at her feet, removing shoes and socks, and then she lay deliciously bare to his gaze.

  His nostrils flared. He shed his clothes to give his erection some room, then he stalked to the bed.

  A shiver raced down her body.

  Sarah scooted to the pillows, then parted her legs, giving him a glimpse of her wet labia. Her clit poked out from beneath its hood.

  Liam settled one knee on the mattress, then the other. He crawled between her thighs, lowering himself so he could blow a warm puff of air across her sex. He traced his fingers along her folds, opening her.

  This was for Sarah. Ignoring the driving need in his blood, his bear’s roar to claim his mate, he licked her.

  Sarah’s breathy cry drove him onward, and he drew her plump clit into his mouth. He suckled the organ, using his lips and tongue to torment her. Two fingers played around her opening. With every stroke, he felt her muscles contract and flutter. He slipped his digits inside her, and he rewarded her keening wail with a quick pump of his fingers.

  He longed to feel her shatter around his mouth and fingers, to know that her world had narrowed down to him between her legs, driving her over the edge. He slid his tongue into her channel. A quick flick, and she came.

  Liam rose over her. He could kneel there and watch her all day. Emotions played across her face, and the sheer pleasure he saw there humbled him. He did that. He made her lose control and scream his name. The tremors racing through her body barely stilled, when he braced his weight on his arms. His thighs nudged hers.

  Wrapping her legs around his hips, Sarah offered herself to him. The first brush of her wet pussy against the head of his cock jolted him. He groaned, struggling against the urge to plunge into her willing body. This was for her…not for him. He eased ever so slowly into her heat, and when their bodies were flush, he savored the moment.

  Liam stared at her parted lips and her cheeks flush with desire. Her heels pressed into his buttocks. With her thighs and arms locked around him, she looked like the most beautiful woman in the world. His woman. He kissed her, hot and hungry, sealing the bonds between them.

  Then, he began to move with long, slow strokes designed to drive them both quickly out of their minds. Liam savored each slide. He tilted his hips, finding the place high and deep inside her, that had her sheath clamping around him. His Sarah. His mate. He groaned as her heels pressed even harder into his buttocks. Her nails curled into his back, and his inner bear relished the possessive action.

  Sarah’s hips bucked. Her movements grew more frantic, her thrusts harder. He knew the feeling, the driving need to merge with her as hard and as fast as he could. His balls tightened. Struggling to hold off his release, he ducked his head, holding her against him.

  Her lips nibbled along his neck. Flicks of her tongue shot like fire through him. She sucked at his skin, drawing it between her teeth and marking him.

  Liam groaned.

  This woman drove him madly, deeply in lust, and he loved every moment of it. He gave himself over to his bear, letting his primal nature dictate the thrust of his hips against her. The sounds, and smells, of sex filled the room. He relished every moment. A roar erupted from his chest, and beneath him, Sarah quivered.

  “Yes! Yes!” Her chanting words heightened his arousal. His woman, and he made her scream like that. He swept one hand down her side to cup her ass and haul her even tighter against him. His weight pressed her to the bed; she didn’t seem to mind. Her voice grew higher, until she exploded with his name on her lips. “Liam!”

  He held her, grabbing her buttocks with both hands now, his hips still driving into her. He tucked her beneath his chin, covering her with his body. An all-too-familiar tingling began at the base of his spine, and still, he waited, determined to wring the most pleasure from her before he succumbed to release.

  Sarah clawed at his back. Her voice broke, words dissolving into a wordless cry. She bore down, tightening around him like a fist, and spots swam in front of his eyes at the exquisite pleasure. How could he ever have thought he’d send her back to D.C., and stay in Alaska, away from her, forever? Stupid!

  He roared, unable to hold back his own pleasure any longer. One, single thrust, burying himself to the hilt, and he stiffened. Head thrown back, mouth open, he spilled himself into her, the exquisite rush from his balls through his cock, setting off lightning shocks deep inside him. He filled her, claimed her, and she climaxed again, as he slumped down onto her, too spent to move.

  Aware of the woman beneath him, he rolled to the side, taking her with him. Even now, with their legs tangled and his cock half-hard against her thigh, he wanted her again.

  Sarah snuggled against him. Her hair cascaded over his arm and against his chest, the silken strands an erotic caress. “Thank you,” she whispered. “I needed that.”

  He pressed his lips to the top of her head, the pain in her words tightening like a steel band around his heart. “I know. Sometimes the best thing you can do is celebrate life.”

  She nodded. Silence descended over them, and he held her close. In his line of work, he’d seen far too much death, human and animal, and knew the pain it caused. Sometimes, like when he’d been with the Quintursa, things hit a bit too close to home.

  He swept his hand from her shoulder to her hip. The outer curve of her breast taunted him. The first time was to celebrate life; this time would celebrate them.

  He rolled so she sprawled on top of him, loving the way her smooth, supple body looked against his. Reaching up, he palmed her breasts, then pulled her closer so he could kiss her stomach. He nuzzled her flesh. City sounds penetrated the walls of her home, honking cars and traffic noises reminding him he wasn’t in Alaska.

  For the first time, he didn’t mind. His blood didn’t stir with a need to return to his home, to shift and run as a bear in the pristine forest. His bear waited, secure in the knowledge that someday they’d get back to Alaska. It might not be today, and it might not even be next week, but he’d return, and until then, the bear would hibernate.

  His lips paused over her navel, his inner stillness startling. He looked up her body and their gazes met. Here, with this woman, was his home. And for once, his bear didn’t argue.

  He leaned back, unable to stop looking at her.

  “What is it?” Sarah smoothed her hand over his shoulder and across his chest. Against his abdomen, her sex tightened.

  “You’re beautiful.” His attention never left her face, though her breasts with their upturned nipples were nearly right in front of his mouth, never drifted down to the thatch of curls covering her sex.

  �
�Not that beautiful. You’re staring at me like I’m…a rare artifact or something.” Sarah chuckled. “I’ve seen art collectors at the Smithsonian who looked at an original painting the way you’re looking at me. Not that I mind, but I’m just a woman.”

  “Like I’m just a tour guide.” His mirth rumbled from his chest and into his voice.

  She flattened her hands against his sternum. “You’re more than a tour guide, Liam.”

  “And you’re more than just a woman. You’re my woman.” He pushed her down until they joined, and he thrust into her secure in the knowledge that this was the one. His bear settled into a sleepy, sated slumber. Together, they celebrated their love, and life, as they rocked their way to the stars.

  ~* * *~

  A week later Sarah still hadn’t heard from Ken. She sat in her living room, staring at the laptop. Liam seemed at ease, far too at ease, she thought, working beside her. Occasionally he called Alaska, but mostly spent time with her. They played tourists. She showed him the monuments, went hiking across civil war battle grounds, visited everywhere that visitors to D.C. were supposed to go. Still no news from Ken.

  She didn’t like it.

  The longer she waited, the more agitated she became. Thoughts of leaving Hodges & Associates, if it was even still in business, filled her mind. Maybe she should forget it all and go back to Alaska. Her sister was an adult. Things might be rough for a while, but surely Nat would work things out.

  A knock on the door startled Sarah’s thoughts.

  She unfolded herself from the couch and went to the front door, wondering who it might be. The last time she’d heard from her sister, Nat had said she was enjoying supper with Jim. Good news about job opportunities had come through, and they were going to celebrate. Sarah peered through the spy hole at her boss, Ken, standing on the other side. Unfastening the latches, she opened the door. “Ken, come in. I didn’t expect you to visit in person.”

  “I’m glad I caught you home. There’s some things I’d like to discuss with you.”

  “Sure.” Sarah closed the door behind him and refastened the locks. “Can I get you anything to drink? Come in. Sit down.”