She had finally agreed, however reluctantly, to this crazy plan. She simply had no place else to go, and frankly, she’d envied Mel and Addy their husbands, and found herself drawn to Luke in a way she’d never even imagined. In the very short time since he’d found her in that dank alley, he had become the center of her life. It didn’t make sense. People didn’t fall in love at first sight, not in the real world. But there was just something about this man with whom she had just spoken her marriage vows.
Luke was right about one thing. She wouldn’t be an “untouched” debutante after tonight, and the Manager would be furious that his plans had been thwarted. The only question that remained was whether these five men—and one woman—who could become a band of wild animals with claws as sharp as knives could teach the Manager enough of a lesson that he would give up ownership of his prize. She had her doubts but could not argue with these people, this new family, because she wanted what they offered just too much.
They pulled into the wide, circular drive at the front entrance of the hotel and got out. Bart handed the keys to a valet, and they entered the grand lobby with its lighted dome of stained glass. Luke paused at the front desk to check in then sent their luggage up to their room with a bellhop, so they could all go into the Atrium, where they had reservations for dinner at the Old Hickory Steakhouse. The Atrium was magical at night, with its sparkling lights and cascading waterfalls. Candace was entranced by everything, and she clung to Luke’s hand almost afraid he would vanish in this fantasy world, leaving her left with nothing but the remnants of a dream.
Dinner was as promised—memorable—and the after dinner liquors exactly what she needed to relax.
“Well, here’s to the newest Saint,” Bart said, lifting his glass. “Welcome to the family, Candace Saint.”
Candace had to swallow tears before she could speak. “I don’t know how to thank all of you,” she began.
“I do,” Luke said, giving her hand a squeeze.
She blushed crimson and everyone laughed.
“Get a room, bro,” John said. “Oh, wait! You’ve got one!”
More laughter helped to settle Candace’s nerves.
“And don’t you worry about tomorrow,” Matt said. “Enjoy your nights, here, and we’ll be back to pick you up whenever Luke calls us.”
“We’ll do a little rearranging at home,” Bart said. “I’m gonna call the realtor tomorrow and ask him about that other house.”
“What house?” Candace asked.
“There’s a two-story house right across the alley from us that Uncle Bart’s thinkin’ about buyin’,” Mark said. “We’re thinkin’ about flippin’ it, maybe turnin’ it into two apartments. That way he and John can move in there, while we’re fixin’ it up, and you and Luke can have the first floor in the big house.”
“If it’s still for sale—and the sign was still up this evenin’ when we drove by—then we can buy it this week, and by the time you and Luke get home, John and I can be moved across the alley.”
“And on that note,” Mel said, taking Matt’s hand, “I think we should all get out of here, so these two can start enjoying their honeymoon.”
“Right!” Bart said, emptying his glass. “How about it, boys and girls?”
They separated in the lobby after Candace was hugged and kissed by everyone in the family
“Don’t worry” Mel whispered in her ear. “They don’t shift in the bedroom.
Candace felt herself blush crimson. Mel laughed and sent her husband a telling look, which made it clear to Candace that hers wouldn’t be the only “honeymoon” this night. She swallowed hard, and allowed Luke to take her hand. At least tonight would be her choice, her decision. And she trusted Luke like no one else she had ever known.
Their room was awe-inspiring, the bed the biggest she had ever seen. Then she glanced at her new husband and was reminded of just how big he was. Beyond the bed was a glass door leading to a small terrace that overlooked the atrium at the center of this incredible palace of a hotel. She stepped outside and leaned on the railing, her eyes roaming over the sparkling lights below.
“We can take a stroll through there tomorrow,” Luke said, coming up behind her.
She understood. This was a grand hotel, but Luke didn’t want to chance taking her anywhere in the shadows, in case the Manager or his minions might be watching. She was okay with that, though she wondered how she could spend the rest of her life in hiding without leaving Nashville altogether.
Luke laid his hands on her shoulders, and she straightened to lean back against him. When he wrapped his arms around her, she hugged them to her.
“It’s so beautiful,” she said. “Like a fairyland.”
“Under all those lights and glitter, it’s really nothin’ but a fancy, overpriced mall, you know.”
Candace laughed and smacked him lightly on the arm, like she knew he expected. “Spoil sport.”
Luke chuckled and nuzzled her neck.
“You know, we do have somethin’ better to do tonight.”
Candace sighed. “I know.”
She pulled away from him and returned to their room. Luke closed the class doors and the curtains behind him.
“If you’re not ready, I understand.” He voice was soft, gentle.
Candace glanced back at him and knew she’d never know another man more honorable than he. She shook her head.
“I think I’ve been waiting for this moment—for you—my whole life.”
His smile warmed his golden eyes. “I know I’ve been waitin’ for you, darlin’.
She took a deep breath and considered, not wanting to break the spell but needing him to understand.
“I know how it’s supposed to work. I’ve lived surrounded by sex my entire life. I’ve had men stare at me, and I know they wanted me in that way. I had to sing and dance for them, while pretending they weren’t there. It was easier, when I was a little girl, because I didn’t know what was under the glitter, the fancy dresses, the handsome men, the beautiful women. I was thirteen before the Manager let some of the…women…tell me things, things about what went on behind closed doors, what I could expect as I got older. I’m not sure I believed them. Maybe I just didn’t want to believe them, because I knew that life—their life—was not for me. Mama said so. The Manager said so. They both continued to tell me so—until two days ago.”
She ran her hands through her hair releasing it from the pins that held it in place and shaking it out. She set the pins carefully on the dresser then turned to face him.
“I have knowledge of what goes on between a man and a woman, Luke, but I don’t have a clue what you want me to do.”
He crossed to her and enfolded her in his arms.
“What I want you to do is forget all that,” he told her as he rocked her gently. “All that stuff those women taught you, that’s not what this is about, what we’re about.”
Candace pulled back and studied his face closely in the dim light.
“Are you saying you don’t want me in that way?” she asked in surprise.
He shook his head. “I’m sayin’ this isn’t about ‘sex’, darlin’. Or at least it’s not only about sex. I’m not gonna just have sex with you. I’m gonna make love with you. Now maybe those women didn’t know the difference. Maybe your mama didn’t know the difference. But tonight I need you to know the difference.
She shook her head, incredulous. “How can you love me after only two days?”
Luke smiled and brushed the hair back from her face. “There’re all kinds of love, darlin’,” he said. “There’s what we already have for each other, based on courage and mutual respect. There’s what we’re gonna feel come mornin’, when we wake up makin’ love together in that big bed. Then there’s what we’re gonna feel for each other when we’re both old and gray and watchin’ our grandkids play.”
Candace felt tears threaten and reached up to take his face between her soft palms. “Courage and mutual respect is a good place t
o start,” she whispered.
She pulled his face to her then, and their lips met.
The contact was charged and in no time they were struggling with the fastenings on their clothing. She pushed the suit jacket off his shoulders, he drug her soft sweater up and over her head. Even as they continued the dance, Candace felt her belly clench in anticipation, wanting him inside of her, needing to surround him. Maybe this wouldn’t last. Maybe it couldn’t last. But if it didn’t, it wouldn’t be because of either of them. There might be outside forces that pulled them apart, but she now knew those forces would have a fight on their hands.
In another moment, they were completely naked and tossing pillows to the floor as they rolled around on the huge bed. Luke was laughing, but Candace could only marvel at his physique. Tall, yes, but his body was a miracle of smooth skin over hard muscles that contracted wherever she touched him. His chest was covered with a delicious, dark-brown fur that was incredibly soft and silky under her lips and tongue.
“Ah, darlin’,” he moaned, when she found his nipples with her mouth, “It’s gonna be over too soon, iffen you keep that up.”
She sat up on him, her thighs straddling his. “You don’t like that?”
He grinned helplessly. “What I like doesn’t have anythin’ to do with it, darlin’.
Her smile blossomed, and she shifted, sending a jolt through both of them as her secret place rubbed against that one part of him that was hardest and hottest of all. She took him into her hands then, wanting to know all of him.
“They showed me pictures,” she whispered as her fingers explored him, “but I never knew how it would feel…”
Luke laughed and lifted her off him, tossing her aside then coming down on top of her. She clenched, suddenly afraid, certain that it couldn’t possibly fit inside of her, and the pain many of the women spoke of would ruin this for her.
Luke seemed to feel her withdrawal, because he settled on his elbows and began to kiss her again.
“It’s gonna work, darlin’,” he said as though reading her mind. “I promise.”
His lips trailed over her face and down her neck. When they reached her breasts, she dug her fingers into the bedding, and arching her back, she begged him for more. He gave it to her, but only for a moment before moving on down her body, pausing along the way long enough to nip her ribs and belly with his teeth.
Mad with wanting, she opened her legs wide in invitation, and she felt him touch her there. She gasped as his fingers found her, and wetness gushed.
“Luke!”
“I have you, darlin’,” he said, his voice a husky growl. She felt his big hands lifting her hips off the bed
“Please!”
“We’ll get there,” he promised. “Just wait. But this is your first time, and I gotta make it right for you.”
“No! Please! Don’t wait! I can’t stand it if you wait!”
“Sure you can,” he said on a chuckle, his lips roaming farther.
But when she screamed, he came up over her again, and that part of him that had made her afraid was coming inside her. Her inner muscles clenched around him, and suddenly there was only Luke as they cried out and tumbled over the edge together.
The recording session had gone particularly well, today, and Candace thought she might begin to float she was so happy, as she helped Luke pack up his drums. His brothers and uncle were loading the rest of the gear into the van while Mel and Addy sorted the music and filed it safely away. In a few minutes they would be heading out for dinner then going home again.
Home, she thought with a smile. Uncle Bart had bought the second house, so she and Luke now had the first floor of the first house to themselves. In the past three weeks they had made love in every room, and she found herself blushing at odd times, remembering the pleasure. That was the one thing her mother and the other women had never mentioned, and she wondered if any of them had ever known pleasure with a man.
Candace found her eyes roaming to her husband, enjoying the ripple of his muscles under his snug t-shirt as he loaded the vehicle.
“Never gets old, does it” Mel whispered in her ear.
Candace started then blushed when she looked up to see both Mel and Addy watching her, their grins telling her they knew just what she’d been thinking about. She started to speak, then froze in terror when she heard a familiar voice
“You really thought you’d get away from me, didn’t you?”
Candace turned to face the one man in the entire world she had prayed day and night she would never have to meet again.
The Manager hadn’t changed. Even in the bright lights of the studio, he was all darkness, from his ebony skin to his black-pinstriped suit, to his black shirt and tie. The four men at his back—two black and two white—were dressed in much the same way, though she knew their clothing would not be as finely cut.
“Candace, Mel, Addy,” Luke said. “Come over this way.”
All three women began to comply, but the Manager pulled a gun and pointed it at Luke.
“I don’t think so. I’ve just come for what’s mine,” he said in an amazingly smooth voice. Candace knew under that smoothness there seethed a bubbling caldron of fury—all of it directed at her.
“There’s nothin’ here that’s yours,” Luke said, sounding remarkably calm for someone with a gun pointed at him.
“Don’t bet your life on it,” the Manager said, letting just a hint of the heat show. “I spent a lot of time and money on this particular whore, and she belongs to me. I’m just here to take back what’s mine.”
Candace forced herself to take one step toward him. “Don’t hurt anybody,” she said. “Please.”
The Manager’s eyes flickered only briefly to her, before he ignored her.
“Saul, Johnny. Get her.”
Two of his minions began to move toward Candace. They ignored the other women which was their mistake. Suddenly a scream rent the air, and Candace turned just in time to see a mountain lion leap for one of the men. The Manager turned in surprise, raised his gun, and fired, but his shot went wide, and before he could make an adjustment, he was flattened under the charge of a vicious bear. Only seconds passed, and before the other men could get to their own weapons, the room was suddenly filled with bears, who were taking down the bad men like a farmer harvests his grain.
Once every last one of them was down, the Saint men Shifted back so they could disarm each of them. They conveniently found handcuffs on the four minions, which the brothers used to subdue them. Luke picked up the manager’s gun and pressed it to the man’s forehead.
“Don’t shoot him, Luke!” Candace cried. “Please!”
Luke controlled himself, but just barely.
“What the hell is going on in here?”
The studio manager, hearing the commotion, came bursting into the room.
“Call 911,” Bart said. “These clowns tried to kidnap our women.”
Candace lay in her husband’s arms late that night, and tried to sleep. He had loved her slowly and carefully, trying to set her mind at ease, but she still couldn’t turn off the images of the day’s fiasco at the studio.
At least it’s finally over, she reminded herself for the umpteenth time. I suppose I should worry about what’s going to happen to my mother, but I just can’t.
“Hey, you still awake?” Luke asked in a sleepy voice.
She nodded. “I can’t help it.”
Luke shifted, letting her down carefully so he could lean over her.
“It really is over,” he reminded her. “The cops believed everything we told them, because they wanted to. The so-called “Manager” has been on their radar for a long time, and you gave them what they needed to bring the guy’s whole empire down. They owe you, and they know it. That lieutenant who showed up promised to keep you out of it, so you’ll never have to testify. It really is over, darlin’.”
She shook her head. “I know. It’s just that I can’t get the picture of him pointing his gun
at you out of my mind.” She reached up to play with the silky fur on his chest with trembling fingers. “If Addy hadn’t…” She broke off, still finding it hard to believe what her new friend had done.
Luke grinned, though. “Addy was sure somethin’, wasn’t she?”
Candace had to smile, too. “Yes. Yes, she was.”
He grasped her roving hand in his and held it to his lips.
“We’re all right, then, aren’t we?”
Luke (BBW Country Music Bear Shifter Romance) (Bearly Saints Book 3) Page 4