Bearly Passing: Saylor and Ryan

Copyright

––––––––

B
early
Passing: Saylor and Ryan

Copyright © 2015 Roxxy Muldoon

Cover by Sam Thompson

Special thanks to Eliza Phillips.

Sign up for special email offers
here
.

Published by Muldoon Publications

Bloomington, MN 55438

This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents that occur in this book are works fictitious. Any resemblance to any persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

All rights reserved. No part of this work may be used or reproduced in any manner without written permission with the exception of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Property of Roxxy Muldoon July 16
th
, 2015

Title Page

Copyright Page

Teaser

Dedication

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Epilogue

Author's Note

About the Author

Sign up for Roxxy Muldoon's Mailing List

Further Reading: Bond of the Mates

Also By Roxxy Muldoon

About the Author

"
Have you," he asked, "ever had sex before."

Saylor batted her eyelashes, looking up through him in her best impression of a kitten. "I have never felt the touch of a man before, mister. Are you going to show me how to be a woman?"

Ryan flushed and stumbled over his words. Saylor broke out into a peal of laughter.

"Of course I have had sex before!" She said. "Not good sex, but sex enough. Your face when you thought I was a virgin though, it was almost like you were into it."

Ryan laughed and swept Saylor into his arms. She screeched as he lifted her. It was so easy for him, he smiled at her and brought her into the cabin like he was carrying in the mail. She reached around, pulling him into a kiss as he carried her through the cabin and into the back bedroom.

The only pieces of furniture in the room were a King bed in a log frame and a small desk to the side.
This place needs a woman's touch,
thought Saylor,
It's a good thing I am here now.

Ryan threw Saylor back on the bed. She bounced and laughed as the covers and pillows were all mussed. Ryan jumped in after her, nuzzling her face with his newly sprouted beard. She giggled as the rough hairs scratched at her face.

"We are getting you naked," Ryan said, pulling at her shirt, "so I am not the only one caught with his pants down."

Saylor kissed him while he unbuttoned her jeans, wiggling out of her pants as he pulled them down. The shirt came next, tossed carelessly to the side. She lay before him in only a cotton bra and panties. He grinned down at her hungrily.

"I'm going to eat you up," he said.

T
o Eliza and Sam, for always putting up with my puns, even when it felt like pun-ishment.

S
aylor sighed, chewing on the end of her pencil. Astronomy was her last class of the day and the lengthening days of spring did not help her focus. She was tired! Running a hand through her long, light brown hair, Saylor did her best to pay attention to the lecture.

Professor Ryan Paulson talked about the constellations that were now visible in the spring. He gestured excitedly at the diagram displayed on the screen. Saylor sighed. Her professor was another big distraction. He was
hot.

He dressed like a total geek, he had that much in common with her other professors. For this lecture, he sported a white shirt and black tie under a forest green sweater and too tight khakis. Not an outfit most people could pull-off. Yet somehow, Professor Paulson looked good,
really
good.

Saylor's eyes wandered from the diagram of the night sky on the screen to looking-this-good-in-khakis-should-be-illegal Professor Paulson. His broad shoulders threatened to burst out of his sweater every time he pointed at the screen, muscles barely visible through his clothes. His stance was strong and movements confident, as though he played football in high school.

The sweater pulled tight across his stomach, and Saylor could just make out abs under a thing coating of pudge. She smiled, imagining how he looked without his shirt. A little pudge never hurt anyone, especially after a long winter. It was Michigan, after all, who didn't gain a few pounds of blubber to shield the cold. Saylor certainly had. She shifted in her seat, jeans pulling tightly at her own belly.

Saylor moved her gaze down, abandoning thoughts about her Professor's possession, or lack, of toned abdominals. She found herself staring at the fabric pulled too tight around his lower region. She hated khakis, as a rule, but was learning to love them on Professor Paulson. The unforgiving fabric left little to the imagination, and when the professor stood the right way she could make out a distinct, and large, bulge.

Not that she really would know what to do with it if the barricaded bulge presented itself. Twenty years old and the only sexual encounter Saylor could boast was clumsy fumbling in the back of her high school boyfriend's car after graduation. He finished after a measly sixty seconds and they broke up shortly after. Her busy school life plus shy disposition made it just short of impossible to get a boyfriend.
Still though, the things she wouldn't give to-

"Perhaps Saylor can tell us," said Professor Paulson.

Saylor yanked her gaze from the tempting bulge between the professor's legs and met his twinkling green eyes. Heat pooled in her cheeks and, most embarrassingly, between her legs.

"Um," said Saylor, berating herself for not being more eloquent, "I'm sorry, can you please repeat the question?"

Professor Paulson smiled at her from the front of the lecture hall. Astronomy 101 was a large course, and they were in a room with stadium seating. Saylor was just one of over one hundred in the room, but when the professor looked at her with those bright green eyes, she felt like they were the only people in the entire university.

He ran a hand through his perpetually untidy brown hair. His hair stuck up at all angles, reminding Saylor of post-sex bedhead. Her blush deepened.

"I asked the class what constellations can be seen in the spring time," said Professor Paulson, his low voice honey in her ears. "Can you help us out?"

Saylor flipped through her notes. She knew she had written this down last night, it was in the reading.
Where was it... oh! There!

"Bootes, Corvus," she blurted, "Ursa Major, Ursa Minor, Cancer, Scorpius-"

"Whoa, whoa, very good! That's enough for now," the professor said, winking at her.

Saylor thought she would melt, right there, in the middle of a lecture hall.

"As we went over in this lecture," he continued, "there are now celestial bodies that were unavailable to us before. That is why your homework this evening will be to go out, locate some of the constellations we talked about, draw their positioning, and take a photograph."

The class groaned, Saylor included. She didn't have time to go out tonight. Her junior year of university was winding down, there was so much that still needed to be done.

"Don't give me that," said the professor, "I remember what it was like in undergrad. You have all the time in the world to go out with your friends but you don't think you can stay out doing homework for a few extra hours. No complaining or I'll give you field assignments all next week."

The class gave a collective sigh and a chuckle. Professor Paulson was new, just out of grad school. Saylor knew he couldn't be older than thirty-one or thirty-two, and he was notoriously an easy grader. That's why she was in this class in the first place, science credits needed for an English Lit major. Threats of extra homework worked, but everyone knew he was kidding around. Mostly.

"All right," the professor waved at the class, "get out of here. Go out, learn, and come back with something to discuss tomorrow. Have a good night!"

As Saylor filed out, she snuck one more glance at her favorite professor. He stood bent over his desk, scribbling something down in his notes. His shirt was untucked at the side, riding up. Did she detect some muscle tone?

He looked up, catching her eye, and gave her a dazzling smile. Saylor smiled back, then hurried out the door. Yeah, she was hopeless.

"
Jasmine," Saylor called as she swung the door of their apartment closed, "I'm home!"

"I'm in my room," Jasmine said through the door.

Saylor dropped her books on the kitchen table and slipped into Jasmine's room. Her roommate lay sprawled on the floor, books in a circle around her head. Her cotton shorts rode up on her ample butt and Saylor felt a familiar pang of jealousy.

They were both bigger girls, clothing sizes firmly in the teens – the upper teens, but Saylor felt that Jasmine wore it better. Where Saylor felt frumpy, Jasmine was curvy. Where Saylor felt paunchy, Jasmine was voluptuous. With long dark hair always tied back into a shiny ponytail, a love of all things sports, and an intoxicating laugh, it was no wonder Saylor felt lost in the crowd when she was with Jasmine. But they were best friends and roommates. Jasmine was one of the kindest people Saylor had ever known.

"Guess what?" Jasmine said, pushing herself up so she was sitting.

Saylor plopped down next to her, moving some textbooks aside.

"You know Theo from my history class? The obnoxious jackass who thinks he's funny?" said Jasmine.

"Of course," said Saylor, trying to find a comfortable position on the scraggly beige carpet, "you never shut up about him."

"Good," Jasmine continued, "because this is going to blow your mind. Theo... is a werebear!"

Saylor's eyes widened. Weres, or shifters as they were sometimes called, were not wholly accepted by the student body of Northern Michigan University. It wasn't that they weren't allowed to be here, anti-were laws had been overturned in 2009. It was just that, well, some people thought they were dangerous. To have a prominent student, and TA no less, come out as were was a big deal.

"Shut up," said Saylor, brushing some of her light brown hair out of her eyes. "How did you find out?"

"He emailed the class!" Jasmine said, grinning widely with excitement. "He said that even though he is a senior this year he is sick of hiding who he really is, blah blah blah. And how he wants to use this opportunity to remind us that the dehumanization of shifters is un-American blah blah blah."

"He didn't say 'un-American,'" said Saylor.

Jasmine waved her off. "Okay, not that exactly. But basically that's the gist. It was crazy!"

"What happened?"

Jasmine shrugged, finally putting aside her laptop and the premise of study. "My professor made a snide comment this morning about misuse of the class email list and some of the people in my class were sort of uncomfortable, but nothing much. It was just a regular class. I don't think there is that much discrimination anymore."

Saylor bit her lip, "I don't know, there aren't that many proud shifters on campus. I think there would be more if discrimination was really dead."

"Don't go all bleeding heart on me right now," Jasmine said, "I want to tell you the best part. Guess what kind of were he is!"

"I don't know, wolf?"

"Bear!" Jasmine squealed, rolling around and then ending on her side, looking up at Saylor. "Isn't that so dreamy?"

"Who says dreamy anymore?"

"I do!" Jasmine said, mock pouting before pulling her face into a smile again. "I'm even more into Theo now that I know he is a TA in the streets and a bear in the sheets. Does that make me a bad person?"

"I don't think so," said Saylor, "a lot of people have a thing for weres. Remember that movie we watched last summer?"

"'Bearback Mountain?' I thought it was going to be about something else," said Jasmine.

"That was about a human and a were-bear," Saylor finished. "And it was kind of... hot."

She blushed again and Jasmine laughed, poking her knee.

"You totally are into weres!" She said, laughing at the blush that worked its way up Saylor's face. "I'll find you one after Theo and I hook up! I bet he has friends for you. Or are you still hung up on the sexy professor."

"Shut up!" said Saylor.

"You didn't deny it! You have a thing for older men in sweater vests."

Saylor said, "He is barely older than me! He's like thirty! And I have never seen him wear a sweater vest."