The Bear's Virgin Darling (Honeypot Darlings Book 1) (13 page)

Hope

I’m holding my breath.

The fire trucks are still outside and I can see their soft flickering lights through the windows. The sound of the water has slowed and I wonder if the fires are out. I don’t have to worry about that anymore, though. I did everything I could and now Wyatt is going to take care of me.

Damn, how long has it been since I just let someone take care of me?

Far too long.

I’m on my back and he hovers over me, kissing and biting my skin with soft, quick nips. Somehow, this feels so right. Having him here with me feels perfect. It feels like this is where I’m supposed to be.

He kisses slowly down my body, but I can’t take it anymore. It’s been nearly an hour since he claimed my virginity and we’ve been kissing, cuddling, and talking since then. Still, my body is ready again. I’m in a state of constant arousal and the only thing that will satisfy me is him.

“Wyatt,” I murmur. The last few
days
have been foreplay. I don’t need any more. I’m wetter than I’ve ever been and if I don’t get him inside of me soon, I’ll die. “Please…”

He glides up my body, as if he knows what I want, and he slides his length between my legs. I feel the head of his cock slipping through my folds, teasing my clit, making me ache.

“More,” I murmur.

“Are you ready, Hope?”

“Mmmm,” I can’t find the words, but I know that I’m ready. Wyatt makes me feel more alive than I ever have in my life and after tonight? After tonight I’m not taking any more chances. I’m done taking the slow road, the safe road. I’m ready for the adventurous road, the dangerous road. I’m ready for the twists and turns and chaos.

I’m ready for him.

He plunges inside of me and I cry out at the intrusion, still a bit sore from our first time, but he silences me with a kiss.

“Just breathe,” he murmurs, and he holds very still inside of me. Slowly, my body begins to adjust to his length and I can breathe again. Wow. Once again, I just feel full.

And warm.

“Wyatt,” I kiss him, and he starts slowly moving in and out of me. As he makes love to me, more than our bodies collide. Our hearts bond together in this moment. I’ve never needed anything or anyone the way I need Wyatt.

After he comes, bringing me with him, he collapses next to me on the bed and just holds me.

“Who would have thought the night would end in a marathon lovemaking session?” I giggle, tracing a line on his chest.

“Oh, baby. You ain’t seen nothing yet,” he grins. “I can go all night.”

“Is that so?” I raise an eyebrow. “All night? Really?”

He nods, and somehow, I know he’s telling me the truth. Wyatt doesn’t have to lie to get the girl. I get the feeling he never has.

“So, you know why I’m single,” I ask. “What about you?”

“You aren’t single anymore,” he glowers. “Don’t you dare think that you are, Hope Demers. You’re mine. I’m claiming you.”

“Claiming me? Is that a shifter thing?” He nods solemnly, and I can’t help but smile. “Um, okay. So what, you wanna marry me, Wyatt?”

“I absolutely want to marry you, Hope.” I was joking, but he’s dead serious, and my jaw hits the floor. We only just met. Is he for real? I never believed in love at first sight, but Wyatt’s changing my mind about a lot of things, including this.

“You do?” I squeak out. For the briefest of seconds, I think this must be some sort of trick, but I don’t think it is. I think he’s for real.

I think I came to Honeypot on a whim, and I’m getting everything I’ve ever dreamed about.

“I want to marry you, Hope Demers. I want to marry you and put my babies in your belly. I want to grow old with you. I want to raise kids with you and ranch with you and plant flowers in front of the porch with you. I know we haven’t known each other very long, but you’re my mate, Hope. You’re my one and only.”

I nod, and I realize that I’m crying, but I can’t help it. These are happy tears.

After everything I’ve been through, after all of that, I’m finally getting my happily-ever-after.

“Okay,” I whisper, and the smile that lights his face could brighten the darkest forest. “I’ll marry you, Wyatt. I’ll be yours.”

“Woo!” He jumps up and hollers, which cracks me up because he’s a huge, fit, naked shifter, and he’s jumping up and down like I just promised him the world.

And maybe I did.

Then he pops open the bedroom window and yells into the night air, “We’re getting married! We’re getting married!”

I hear a bunch of responses, but the only one I can make out is Alex’s.

“Put your pants on! I don’t want to see that thing!”

Wyatt

The sun is going to rise soon. Relucantly, we leave the bedroom. Hope and I join my brothers and Alex in the living room, along with two firemen and Jason Edwards. I try to avoid glaring at him. It’s not his fault that I don’t like him and to be honest, he’s a pretty standup guy.

I just don’t like the fact that he met Hope before me or that he took his sister’s side when we broke up. It’s not fair, really, but he was very quick to point out my own mistakes in the relationship. Maybe I was too young to be in a relationship at the time, but things are different now.

Somehow, I feel different. Hope has changed me somehow, and I think it’s for the better.

“It’ll be awhile before we can verify with certainty what started the fire,” one of the men was saying. “But my initial impressions are that it was arson. If I had to guess, I’d say accelerant was used, which is why the flames spread so quickly.”

Hope shivers, and I wrap my arms around her.

Edwards notices, and catches my eye.

“Don’t worry, Blair. We’ll catch the son of a bitch.” It’s been awhile since I heard Edwards use such harsh language and the last time he did, it was directed at me. It’s a pretty different feeling to be one of the good guys in this.

“Good.” I say, nodding at him. “Thanks.”

The men have a few more things to say, give us their phone numbers in case we notice anything else, then they leave.

“I’ll get you a copy of all the reports for your insurance,” Jason is telling my brothers. “I don’t know what kind of coverage you have, but it’s pretty clear-cut that you’re not at fault for this.”

“Thanks for all of your help,” Micah says. Carter and Alex echo his thoughts. They stay with Hope while I follow Jason outside to the porch.

We stand side-by-side and look out at the damaged cabin for a moment.

“My girl was in there, Edwards. Asleep.”

“I know, brother.”

“She could have been killed.”

“But she wasn’t, Wyatt. She wasn’t.” Jason turns to me now and slaps a hand on my shoulder. “Look, I know our relationship has been…rocky.”

“That’s putting it lightly,” I chuckle.

“I think she’s good for you, man. I think she’s good for you, and I’m sorry as fuck that this happened when she was home.” He shakes his head and I can tell that Jason is really distraught about the whole situation, as am I.

“Who would do something like this, man?” I ask him. “My brothers and I had this idea that it was someone threatened by our plans to expand the ranch, but I just don’t know. I don’t want to think that anyone in Honeypot would do something like this.”

“No one wants to think that,” Jason says. “Honeypot is supposed to be a safe place where shifters can seek refuge and raise their families. No one wants to live here and have to worry that things are going to go south, that someone is going to threaten our wellbeing.”

“Where are you going to start looking? Any ideas as to who it could be?”

Jason shrugs and pulls a cigar out. He lights it and begins smoking. The scent mixes with the rest of the smoke in the air, but it doesn’t bother me. Jason only smokes when he’s stressed. This whole thing must be bothering him more than he’s letting on.

“Nobody hates you guys. You’re the fucking Blair brothers. You guys are legends around here.”

“I don’t think that’s true.”

“You have no idea how true that is.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Everyone loves you, Wyatt. Everyone loves your family. The Honeypot shifters would do anything for you guys. I can’t name a single person or shifter in town who would want to harm you, which begs the question of why now?”

He takes another puff of the cigar and then continues.

“At first, I thought it was Hope. When Micah emailed me yesterday, he said he was worried there were some weird coincidences happening. He didn’t think it had anything to do with her specifically, but he said it was weird. At first, he thought maybe someone wanted to hurt her chances of succeeding in Honeypot.”

“Like her ex?”

“Yeah. The first lost calf happened before she was officially hired, though, so we knew it wasn’t that. I think it’s one of the hotel owners, honestly, sad as it is to admit. And this is off-the-record, before you think about blabbing.”

“Of course.” I know cops aren’t allowed to talk about open investigations and Jason does, too, but apparently there’s a bit of leeway when you’ve been friends forever. Even though there are times when I hate his guts, Edwards is a good guy who would do anything to protect his town. I know that.

“I just don’t know who, man. All the bed and breakfast owners are older than dirt. How would any of them be able to make it out here to rile up trouble? Even if they shifted, they can’t move that fast anymore. Fuck. A lot of them can’t even shift anymore. Mrs. Marsh sure as hell can’t, and my guess would be on her. She runs the most popular B&B in town. She’s not going to want competition.”

“Mrs. Marsh?” I ask, something clicking in the back of my mind, something Hope said when she showed up. “Isn’t her son in town?”

“Fuck,” Jason drops his cigar butt and rubs it in the ground with his boot. “Fucking Sawyer. Let’s go.”

***

It’s a short drive to Mrs. Marsh’s. When we arrive, the lights are out.

“You ready?” I ask Jason. He nods. We left Hope with my brothers. She was pissed as hell about getting left behind, but she’ll be fine. I know Micah is so thankful that she saved his fuckin’ flash drive, he won’t let her out of his sight. They’ll probably bake cookies together or something like that.

Either way, I know my brother won’t let her out.

Now that Hope and I have been together, it’s more ingrained in me than ever that I want her to be mine for always. Maybe she’ll agree to a short engagement. From what I know about her, she doesn’t have many friends or relatives, so maybe we can skip the hoopla that comes with big weddings.

I can’t think about that now, though.

Jason and I stride up to the door and knock. There’s no answer, but we hear a rustling at the side of the house. We exchange weary glances, then head around the side of the building.

Like a bad vintage cartoon, Sawyer is trying to climb out of a first floor window, but failing. I don’t know what his pants got caught on, but they’re tearing very loudly as he tries to get away.

“Sawyer Marsh,” Jason says. “Hold it right there. You’re wanted for questioning.”

Forgetting his pants, Sawyer does what any innocent person would do when questioned by the police: he shifts and runs off.

“Fuck it all to hell,” Jason says. He growls and shifts, chasing after him. I follow close behind with a growl. It feels good to run. It feels even better to be chasing after the asshole who put my ranch and my girl at risk.

Sawyer might be a panther, but he injured his leg a few years back, so he’s slow. He’s certainly slower than Edwards and surprisingly enough, he’s slower than me. In a very undramatic way, Jason leaps at Sawyer, knocking him onto his side. He pins him on his back with his mouth at Sawyer’s throat, sending a clear message: move and die.

“Go ahead,” I say, shifting back to my human self. “I’m hungry for loser tonight. Go ahead and move, Sawyer.” I can practically see the wheels turning in Sawyer’s head as he decides whether to try to fight Jason or not, but when he hears sirens in the distance, his body goes limp. With a soft mewl, he shifts back to his very human, very naked self. Jason immediately follows suit.

“Let’s go, asshole,” Jason says, grabbing Sawyer’s wrist. Before he leads him back to the house, though, there’s something I have to know.

“Why?” It’s cliché. It’s totally, completely cliché, but I need to know why us. Why our farm? Of all the places Sawyer could have picked to sabotage, what made him go after our business right now?

“Ma’s business is failing,” he mumbles, shrugging his shoulder. “She’s going to close down at the end of the month. Says it’s time for her to retire, anyway.”

“You fucking idiot,” Jason says, forgetting to act like a cop for just a moment. “Wyatt wants to bring in more tourists and more money to Honeypot. You understand what that means, right?”

“It means even fewer people will be staying at Ma’s.”

“No, asshole, it means more people will be coming to town, which means more people will stay at
all
the businesses in town and spend more money. This means a great influx of cash for all of us: not just our ranch.”

Suddenly, Sawyer makes the connection, and I have to wonder how much he’s been drinking lately to be acting so stupid. Still, I’m glad the drama is over and he’s going behind bars where he belongs.

I won’t have to worry about Hope anymore. I won’t have to worry about anything but fucking my beautiful darling over and over and over again.

“Dude,” Jason says, suddenly turning back to me. “Calm down, will you? I know I’m sexy, but try to keep your arousal to yourself. I can smell you all the way from over here.”

“Yeah, me too,” Sawyer adds, and Jason slugs him. They disappear ahead of me and I follow slowly back to the house.

Such a simple problem that could have been dealt with through a reasonable discussion escalated into something that could have ended in Hope’s death.

For the millionth time, I’m grateful she’s okay.

For the millionth time, I’m wondering how I managed to live this long without her.