A Christmas Spectacle to Bear

by Jennifer Hilt

  His cell phone vibrated.

  The text message read: “Important! Can u swing by the club ASAP?”

  What was the matter? He didn’t have any sense Lea was in danger. She had been perfectly fine when he’d left her sleeping early this morning.

  Ten minutes and more than a few rolling stops later, Caleb pulled into the S&S parking lot. At close to eight, it was already more than half full. The early evening show was popular with the senior crowd.

  Once he was inside the club, a gauntlet of former coworkers greeted him with “Hey, Caleb!” “Good to see you,” and “You working tonight?”

  He waved and nodded, getting through the gaming room as quickly as possible. A comedian was warming up the crowd when Caleb reached the main showroom. He scanned the audience. No sign of Lea. She’d be backstage.

  “I work here,” he told the unfamiliar security guard at the backstage entrance. He tried to step past the guy.

  “Not if I don’t know you.” Security folded his arms across his chest, setting his feet wide apart like a sumo wrestler. His black T-shirt bulged under the tension of his muscular arms.

  “I’m the magician.”

  Security snorted. “Magician’s gone. Left his doves behind.”

  “They’re my doves. Look, use that headset to call Paddy before—”

  Before what? He might succeed in giving Security a bloody nose or a broken arm, but for what? Doing his job. Security was there to project staff from guys like him. Though to be honest, he often thought the security’s real purpose was to protect the humans from the trolls.

  “Kerzak?” Paddy said, coming up from behind Security. “Stand down. He’s one of us.”

  Security looked Caleb up and down, and then stepped aside—but not before giving him a disgusted head shake.

  “Where’s Lea?” Caleb asked.

  The older man’s eyes widened. Caleb could practically see Paddy making the connection between him and Lea.

  “She’s in the back,” Paddy said, jerking his thumb over his shoulder. “Don’t leave until you’ve seen me.”

  Caleb headed toward the dressing rooms. Whatever it was must not be as serious as he’d feared, because Paddy didn’t seem worried.

  In the back, he knocked on a series of dressing-room doors. Responses ranged from “fuck off” to silence.

  Peals of giggles echoed behind the last door at the end of the hall.

  “Lea?” He rapped on the door.

  The door opened a crack. The bright eyes that assessed him did not belong to Lea.

  “Vera?” Caleb asked, stunned. Wearing a goodly amount of makeup and dressed in a white pantsuit with her hair piled high, his foster mother was barely recognizable.

  “Caleb! What a wonderful surprise.” She kissed him on the cheek. A cloud of strong perfume enveloped him. He wiped at his lipstick-smudged face as if he were a little boy. “Come in.”

  A chorus of troll catcalls within the room made him back deeper into the hall.

  He was surprised to see Vera out of her apartment. She looked spry—and happy. He’d thought she hadn’t been back to the club since her hip injury, but now he wasn’t so sure. Was she gambling again?

  “I’m looking for Lea Riley.” His Vera-related concerns could wait. He had to see Lea. He had imagined all kinds of things since her text, and she’d never texted him back.

  As with Paddy, Vera’s puzzlement cleared into a knowing smile.

  “Lea, you have a gentleman caller,” she said over her shoulder. Then she winked at Caleb. “Try not to be an idiot,” she whispered to him before closing the door in his face.

  WTF?

  Since when did his Vera talk like she was in a Southern drama?

  The door opened slightly. Lea wiggled through, her arms cradling her dance bag. She jostled the bag to close the door behind her and glanced up the hall, checking for potential interruptions.

  “Take this home,” she said, and thrust her dance bag into Caleb’s chest.

  His arms closed around the bag, its weight catching him by surprise. Was she carrying bricks around?

  Something inside the bag shifted.

  Lea unzipped the top, and Elvis’s sleek head popped out.

  “He climbed into one of the costume boxes I brought home,” she explained. “I didn’t notice until I got here. I sprayed a ton of hairspray in there to cover his scent.” She rubbed the fur above Elvis’s nose. “Not that this bad boy has any odors when he just had a bath?” She pitched her voice high, as if talking to a baby, before gently pushing his head back down and rezipping the bag.

  Caleb felt as if he’d just stepped off a roller coaster. “This was why you texted me to come by?”

  “I can’t leave with two shows coming up. There’s nowhere to secure him here. Plus he’s such an escape artist.” Lea patted the bag. “You’re too smart for your own good, aren’t you?” she cooed to Elvis.

  Caleb was aware that his heartbeat was slowly returning to normal. Lea was fine. She was uninjured, unharmed, and not ill.

  “Don’t text me like that again.”

  “I only asked for you to swing by on your way home from work.” She reached up on her toes to kiss him on the lips. “Sorry to have worried you.”

  “I wasn’t worried.” His chest still felt tight. He could hear his blood pounding in his ears.

  “Got it. Not worried. But dinner’s on me tonight. Chinese food is in the freezer.”

  9

  Lea

  Back in the dressing room, Lea smoothed her dress and checked her silhouette in the mirror. Her mark had started to burn. She slid her finger inside the neck of her dress to lift her bra strap off it. Seeing him in the hallway wearing a blazer and button-down shirt over jeans gave her a surge of happiness. She really appreciated him saving her ass and Elvis’s striped hide.

  “Has anyone seen my boa?” Wanda called.

  Trolls jostled around them, preparing for their first number.

  Lea looked the girls over: all pasties present and accounted for. Her mind snapped back into focus. She’d taken some costumes home to repair—another thankless job that fell under her domain—probably including the boa.

  “Here it is,” she said as she pulled it from the box.

  Wanda wrapped the feathery decoration around her neck, arranging the long tail to drape behind her. “You’re the best.”

  Lea gave Wanda’s arm a light squeeze. Despite all the job’s difficulties, it was great being with her best friend again. She’d felt guilty for her annoyance with Wanda over the new routine. Wanda wanted to perform her best, too. The routine was just taking longer to click than either one of them liked.

  She hoped her friend’s love for performance would help pull the whole thing together. As of practice today, it still hadn’t been where Lea wanted it.

  “Remember, tomorrow night is the Spectacle,” Lea said, trying to encourage them. “Now let’s knock ’em dead with tonight’s shows.”

  The trolls got up from their dressing tables, seemingly unimpressed by her rousing speech. The scraping of chairs and clicking of heels soon quieted as everyone except Lea and Vera trooped out of the dressing room. Her consultant had taken to offering opinions on the showgirls’ routines whether Lea wanted them or not.

  “How do you know my foster son?” Vera patted her beehive updo as she studied it in the mirror. Not a hair moved.

  “You’re the General?” Lea’s mind raced back to everything Caleb had ever said about his foster mother—and his nickname for her. The frail woman before her hardly looked like the strapping woman with a persistent moustache that Lea had pictured. OK, maybe she’d added the moustache, but really, how could anyone blame her after the way Caleb complained about the General?

  “His place flooded so he’s staying with me until it gets fixed,” Lea added.

  Vera pulled herself away from examining her reflection. “You’re the shifter he claimed.” It wasn’t a question. “And you’re the reason he visits New York.”


  “Oh no, he’s friends with my brothers. That’s why he—”

  Vera peered at Lea over the top of her glasses. “He’s not flying five thousand miles each way a few times a year to see his boyhood friends. What kind of shifter are you?”

  It was the height of rudeness to inquire about another being’s paranorm abilities. Lea had never sensed anything otherworldly about Vera, but now she wondered how much she’d misjudged the other woman. The sharpness she showed in dance clearly extended beyond the stage.

  “My husband was an ice bear shifter. We were mates until he died. Lost myself in a good bit of booze and bad men until Caleb needed a home.” Vera fiddled with a bangle bracelet.

  Lea shifted her weight, feeling awkward and yet fascinated. Was what Vera had with her husband like the bond she and Caleb currently shared?

  So many questions.

  “I’m a dove shifter,” Lea said. Then it dawned on her. Vera must know about breaking the claim.

  “Now it makes sense why you’re so natural with the act. What are you going to do about Caleb’s claim on you?”

  “He’s working on getting it dissolved. If you have any suggestions for moving it along, I’d be happy to hear them.”

  Vera arched a brow. “A claim by an ice bear is not like filing for a divorce.”

  This was news to Lea. That was exactly what she’d assumed, albeit involving magic.

  “How does it get dissolved?”

  “Death of one of the two parties considerably weakens it, but even that is not usually enough to sever the link.” Vera’s eyes bored into her, and Lea felt as if she was lasered to the floor. Vera broke her gaze. “Now, Paddy’s gonna buy me a drink while I watch the second show. Need anything before I go?”

  Lea croaked, “You go ahead. I’m going to straighten up here, then watch from the wings. Enjoy yourself.”

  Vera pulled her cane out from the corner where she had parked it before she exited the dressing room.

  Fucking Hell.

  Lea numbly scooped up discarded feathers and fans and dumped them back in the correct boxes for future performances. What Vera said couldn’t be true, could it? Lea would have liked to discount it, but why would Vera lie? She had no reason to lie.

  Caleb, on the other hand, was getting his brains fucked out. Her lover had been evasive about his progress dissolving the bond for a reason.

  The opening bars of the first number were piped back into the dressing room. Lea didn’t want to miss it. She flung open the door—and ran into Caleb.

  “Ouch! Sorry.” Lea rubbed her head where she’d chucked its top against his chin. “You okay?”

  Tell him.

  Caleb opened and closed his jaw. “Yeah.”

  “You surprised me. Elvis okay?”

  Don’t be a big chicken. Tell him you know there’s no way to break the bond and survive. Ask him what he’s going to do about it.

  Fucking subconscious, Lea thought. Lots of help now.

  “He’s snoring in your dance bag in my car. Are you OK? You look upset.”

  “You didn’t leave him zipped in there?”

  Caleb leaned against the door, blocking her exit. “I opened the bag. He refused to get out.”

  “What are you doing back here?”

  “You scared me. And yes, I realize I just said that out loud. My ice bear is freaking out.”

  Lea was at a loss, between strangling him and tackling him. But then an overwhelming feeling of joy hit her.

  Throwing caution to the wind, she threw her arms around Caleb’s neck. They’d have a very serious discussion soon. After work. “Thanks. I appreciate it.” Then, to prove to herself that she wasn’t completely chickenshit, she added, “Vera says hi.”

  Caleb reached out and smoothed back a wayward curl. “Funny how that worked out. I never put you two together. She’s been here often?”

  Oh, he was a cool customer. Not the slightest flicker indicating that he’d confided to Vera about the claim.

  “Every day. She and Paddy flirt like crazy, but neither of them will make the first move . . . I’ve gotta catch this performance. See you at home?”

  “I’ll come with you.”

  “You can’t leave Elvis in the cold car.”

  “Don’t worry, the heater is on.”

  Lea wasn’t sure this was a good idea. Being around Caleb gave her a buzz, like when she drank champagne too quickly. It’d be difficult to focus on the act she was supposed to be critiquing.

  “How about I meet you out front later instead?” she suggested.

  “After I smuggled a skunk out of here for you? You’re not getting rid of me that easily.”

  “Come on,” Lea said, pulling him behind her out of the dressing room.

  Minutes later, with them in the wings, the dancers’ twelve-minute holiday medley number began. Lea was seriously sick of hearing the same Christmas songs.

  “I know a better spot,” Caleb said.

  “Really?” Lea let him lead her away while she took notes. She’d often wished for a different vantage point. When she was standing in the wings, her presence was obvious to the dancers.

  He led her back behind the scenery where the unused sets were stored. Lea glanced around the dark corner. “I can’t see the stage.”

  Caleb took the pen and notepad out of her hands and set them on a nearby shelf. He backed her up against an uncluttered portion of brick wall.

  “What are you doing?” Lea whispered.

  “You promised to make it up to me for taking care of Elvis. I’d like to redeem that offer now.”

  “Here?” Lea’s stomach flip-flopped in anticipation.

  “We need to expand our horizons.” Caleb kissed a line down her neck into her collarbone.

  “Let’s find a dressing room with a door lock later,” she said, even as her head lolled to the side, allowing him more access to her neck.

  “No.” Caleb placed his hands on either side of her head. “Touch me.”

  Lea swallowed. She had longed to touch him since he’d first appeared tonight to rescue Elvis. She wanted to ease the jacket off his shoulders and run her hands up inside his shirt, teasing his muscular back. She loved how his muscles flexed under her touch.

  “I want to fuck you, right here. Right now.” Caleb’s lips moved back up her neck to her ear. “You look so hot in this dress, I would tear it off you, but I don’t want to start a riot.”

  Caleb’s hands slid under the hem of her dress, then ran up to her panties. His fingers rolled them down, stopping to caress her bare ass. Who was she kidding? She wanted him to fuck her. To hell with her notes.

  Lea whispered, “What time is it?”

  “We’ve got plenty of time.”

  True or not, it was what Lea wanted to hear.

  He dropped her panties to her ankles.

  “I hope no one sees us,” she said, even as she stepped out of her panties.

  “Hush. Let me take care of you,” Caleb insisted.

  He wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her off her feet. His other hand rolled her dress up. Then he held her with one arm while he unzipped the fly of his jeans.

  Lea twined her arms and legs around him.

  At the familiar sound of Caleb tearing open the condom packet, Lea bit back a moan. He hitched her up higher around his waist. His other arm braced the wall by her head for support.

  “This might be a bit rough,” he cautioned.

  “God, I hope so.” Lea pressed against him, feeling the tip of his dick teasing her folds. She wanted to swallow him up whole while he rode her hard.

  When his balls came into contact with her pussy, Lea swallowed her cry of relief.

  He thrust again, deeper this time. “Baby, you’re so wet. I love how your pussy gloves me.”

  Lea loved the tremors racing up and down her body. She didn’t answer Caleb, choosing to focus on how wonderful she felt.

  “You’re mine.” He shoved his cock deeper still.

&nbs
p; She muttered some inarticulate sound. She didn’t want to talk. She wanted this.

  The dim backstage lighting, combined with the live music, transported her. She would never hear a song about reindeer again without thinking of Caleb fucking her against the backstage wall.

  Maybe her senses were heightened by the possibility of discovery, or maybe Caleb was just that good at fucking her. He wrung blissful orgasms out of her with every coupling. Their movement jostled a nearby shelf, intensifying the thump-thump of his thrusts. She raised her legs up higher across his back, catching her stiletto in his jacket pocket. At the sound of ripping fabric, Lea tried to reposition her leg.

  “Don’t even think about it.” Caleb’s mouth came down on hers. His lips fit perfectly over hers. She felt fused to him.

  Her heel punctured the fabric, which pushed her deeper against him. Her last coherent thought was that he was going to be a very hard habit to break. Then she climaxed, spiraling into a mindless bliss.

  Caleb pumped into her once, then twice more before he shuddered with release. Their panting breaths were the only sounds Lea registered for several minutes afterward. She didn’t want to move, although the only thing holding her in this position was Caleb. Without him, she’d have slid down the wall into a boneless heap.

  Gradually Lea became aware of the showgirls’ last song. She really should move. She had to; her job depended on it.

  “Break’s over.” Lea unwrapped her legs and let her feet settle on the ground. Her legs shook. She leaned against the wall for support.

  Caleb tidied himself. He gently unrolled her dress back down over her hips.

  “My panties.” Lea gestured limply with one hand. Her limbs felt heavy.

  Caleb scooped them off the floor and tucked them in his jacket pocket.

  Lea opened her mouth to protest, but her brain felt sluggish.

  “It’ll be our secret,” Caleb said. He kissed her again. Then he left her alone to return to her work.

  Lea stepped away from the wall. She smoothed down her hair and adjusted her shoulder straps. She touched her ass, feeling the chiffon slide over sore skin. She’d have scratches for sure after tonight.