Bear's Gold (Erotic Shifter Fairy Tales) (10 page)

His boys wiggled around in their
seats and clapped as plates of cake were placed before them. Another waitress
cleared the bowls and basket from the table and refilled their glasses with
sweet green tea.

Thank God for aunts.
Theo sat back, not realizing that he
had leaned forward toward Riley. This was going to be a long night.

~YH~

At home three hours later, he pulled
his boys from a bath and got them dried and dressed in pajamas.

“Can we see the ice movie?” Aubrey
pulled on his slippers.

“The one with the possums,” Bernie
clarified as he raced out the room door.

“Yes, we can.” Theo went back into
the bathroom and hung the two towels on hooks to dry as he followed his boys
down the stairs.

Riley had just finished assembling
the dinner plates when he moved into the kitchen. His son was telling her about
the ‘ice movie’, practically telling her all the exciting parts. He hoped she
had seen the cartoon movie before, otherwise his son had just spoiled it for
her. Seeing her there caused his gut to warm. She looked perfect in her
sweatpants and pullover, like she belonged in his kitchen making dinner.

“I’ll help you carry the plates into
the living room. We’re going to eat in there and watch the movie.”

“Perfect. Like a slumber party,” she
joked as she glanced over her shoulder at him. Riley had taken a shower first;
she’d washed her hair and blow dried it. Now, her golden brown locks fell
around her shoulders, straight with a shine to it from whatever kind of oil she
used to manage it. She was just as beautiful as she had been covered in mud and
wearing a frizzy plait.

“Exactly.” He grabbed two of the
plates that had turkey sandwiches and salad on it making sure he kept clear of
touching Riley. His bear’s lust level had been on a low simmer all day and
since they’d arrived back at his home, it had only elevated. He’d keep himself
under control tonight. The pull of the First Frost Moon be damn, that’s all it
was. That’s all last night’s overpowering reaction to Riley had been.

Liar
, his bear declared.

Theo chose to ignore the word.

He allowed Riley, carrying the last
two plates, to go before him with the boys trotting happily between them. Once
in the living room, he relinquished his chair to Riley, the boys sat in their
own recliners and he pulled the boys old rocking chair from the guest room then
started the movie. When his wife passed away and he had redecorated, during
that time, because it was initially hard for him to see all her frilly details
around the house, he never truly considered how another person would fit into
his all boys décor.

With Riley’s presence in his home,
it made him think of things like that. Eating, he silently observed her as she
ate and conversed with the twins, as they explained parts of the movie to her
as if she couldn’t figure out what was going on. She laughed and pretended to
be shocked when events happened in the movie the boys told her were coming up.
The nagging feeling that she belonged with them tapped at his gut again.

He consumed his salad with more
gusto than was needed, reminding any inner voice or feeling that Riley was
headed to a new life. Den County was just an accidental stopping point for her.

Looking away from her, he focused on
the movie he’d seen more than a hundred times with his boys and tried to push
his active thoughts of Riley from his mind. As he dreaded the coming moments
when he put the boys to bed and the two of them would be alone.

~YH~

“Okay, boys, time for bed.” Theo
announced as he rose from the rocking chair when the cartoon movie ended.

“Ah, Papa-Bear, can Riley tuck us in?”
Aubrey asked, rubbing his tired eyes.

Bernie scooted off his own recliner.
“Yeah, Papa-Bear, we want Riley.” A yawn followed his small declaration.

Riley smiled hearing their nickname
for Theo. It fit the big bear of a man that stood beside her, directing the
twins toward the stairs. The two little guys looked more than a little beat.
She was surprised they had made it through the movie. Even though it was just
barely eight at night, they’d had a full day of running around with other
children at the park by the fair grounds.

“Do you mind?” Theo glanced over his
shoulder at her.

Her smile faltered some at his
direct gaze. By some kind of silent agreement, they'd avoided each other’s eyes
all evening. The tension in the room was thick. While she’d focused most of her
mind toward enjoying the movie with the boys, the rest of her thoughts were
consumed by the man in the rocking chair. How he looked in a navy blue tank top
and jeans, his feet bare and masculine. His scent, the woodsy robust smell
seemed to be everywhere around her since they got home.

She had told herself that it was
because they were in his house, around his things, but her body hadn’t seemed
to care as it reacted to him continuously. Her skin felt as if it was on fire,
her nipples were drawn tight, and her sex was aching to feel him inside her
again.

First she swallowed then licked her
lips and fingered her hair away from her face, she was nervous and edgy. She
feared that the moment the boys were down and they were alone that she wouldn’t
be able to keep her desire at bay and under control. She had to. One night’s
mistake was one thing. Two nights was just—

 Pure bliss
. Her body sighed.

Ridiculous!
Her mind countered.

“I don’t mind putting them to bed.”
She circumvented the recliners on the side closer to the boys instead of the
side Theo was on.

“Thanks.” Squatting down, he kissed
and hugged the two boys. “One story and that is it,” he told them firmly.

Two identical heads bobbed up and
down before they turned and moved up the stairs. Riley followed.

“I have things to check on around
the property, it may take me a while.” Theo backed up toward the hall leading
to the kitchen.

Continuing up the steps, she nodded.
“Take your time. We’ll be fine here.”

 Before she and the boys reached the
last step, Theo was out of sight.

“Have a fun run, Papa…” Aubrey
yawned loud.

Riley ushered the little guys into
bed. She knew the boy had to be excessively tired thinking his dad would go
running in the dark woods at such a late hour. That didn’t make sense.

Twenty minutes later, the boys were
sound asleep and Riley realized Theo had not come in yet. Deciding to wash up
the dishes, she told herself that she wasn’t trying to wait around for the sexy
father of twins; she was only being courteous to her host by cleaning up the
kitchen.

Since they’d eaten a simple meal,
the job didn’t take very long. She paused for a moment to look out back, but
didn’t hear or see any movement. With nothing else to do, she headed off to her
room. Once inside, she realized that she was tired. She’d never been an early
to bed kind of person, but evidently the woodland environment was pushing her
out of her norm with excessive hunger and sleepiness.

Don’t forget horny.

She wanted to deny the claims of her
body, but she couldn’t. She was twenty-seven and in all of her dating years,
she had never felt quite so turned on and physically needy. It had never been
that way with Fred. And before he started acting out of sorts, she would have
said they had a pretty good sex life. However, after last night she knew what
she and Fred had was nothing. Staid, boring, and without real passion.

Theo in bed—more like around the bed—was
exciting, bold, commanding, and ardent to a sexually maddening point.

“Ahh.” She gritted her teeth and let
out her frustration. Having thoughts like this of Theo was not going to help
her body calm down.

Snatching off her sweatshirt, she
allowed the coolness of the house to seep into her body. The Kodiak men didn’t
seem to mind the chilly temperature of the house in the evening. She was the
only one always cold, however, she welcomed that now, needing to relax her body
and focus on getting to sleep.

In bed, she pulled the covers over
her head and forced herself to think about things that she had enjoyed growing
up. Mundane thoughts of riding her bike and eating snow cones with her brother
and sister allowed her mind to drift into sleep.

Later, she woke up from a dream; a
bad dream that she hadn’t had for years. It was the same old fragmented visions
about something that happened when she was younger. Things she couldn’t piece
together. Maybe even didn’t want to piece together.

 Her wrist was aching and she needed
a glass of water. Rubbing her old scar, she left the room and padded to the
kitchen silently in her thick socks.

The house was quiet and she figured
Theo was back home and most likely sleep by now. Back in the room, she looked
at her cell phone and realized only an hour had passed since she’d gone to
sleep. Crossing the room, she finished off her drink and set it on the
nightstand. She needed to go back to sleep. If she stayed up, she knew her mind
would just keep replaying the old dream. Being surrounded by woods for the next
couple days, she didn’t want that.

The window was closer to the side of
the bed the stand was on. Her eyes were drawn outside to the dark trees,
shadowy and eerie. All kinds of animals could be hiding out there, in wait of
an innocent prey. Even as she had trepidation about the woods, something seemed
to draw and fascinate her as well. She’d known this since she was little. Her
own curiosity and sense of adventure had been her own downfall.

The light from the porch, her beacon
from the night before, reflected on part of the truck below her window. About to
turn around to head back to bed, something moving caught her eye. Shifting back,
she stared out into the night, unsure of what had grabbed her attention until
she noticed Theo moving past the side of the vehicle. Now at the soft edges of
the light, she could see enough of him to notice that he was completely nude.

His thick unruly black hair blended
well with the night. His broad shoulders seemed to gleam with a heavy sheen of
sweat. The light and the moisture illuminated his muscles. His wide chest was
smooth and well sculpted. She’d noticed that the night before. Every inch of
him was covered with muscles; even his powerful thighs looked chiseled out of
granite. The part of him that captivated her and held her focus was his
manhood. The man’s cock was thick and well hung. Last night she’d barely been
given a moment to view it before she was in his arms and consumed by a sexual
madness.

Her sex clenched and wept into her
panties with memories of his cock thrusting inside of her. Her body pulsed with
need and the mark on her shoulder throbbed. The bite had healed amazingly quickly,
but still left evidence of…teeth? A man that bites during sex. For reasons she
didn’t want to analyze at the moment, the thought of him becoming so
overwhelmed during sex that he bit her caused heat to flood her sex. This was
not what she needed to keep her thoughts away from Theo.

Unable to hold back the sigh of
pleasure, she allowed it to slip from her lips.

As if hearing the soft sound he
stopped and turned to her window.

Shocked and anxious about being
discovered, she quickly stepped to the side away from the window.

Her heart was pounding.
Had he
seen me?The room was dark and he was in the light, wouldn’t that make it hard
for him to see into the house at all?

Unsure, she stayed away from the
window as she crept along the wall until she reached the bed and was once again
buried below the covers.

She drifted off to sleep again with
one question on her mind.
Why would he be strolling around outside naked in
the chilly Fall night?
 

Chapter
Seven

Theo knew Riley had seen him. What
had drawn him to glance toward her window, he didn’t know. Just like he didn’t
know why he was pulled toward the woman herself. The uncanny awareness of her
was more than bear lust. The strangeness of feeling whole and complete around
her was what had driven him out of the house. He always went for a security run
at night. It was what all male bears in Den County did. What he would train his
sons to do once they reached full maturity. How to protect your property and
family was an essential lesson his own papa-bear had shown him and his three
brothers.

But, normally he was only out for no
more than an hour; tonight he’d gone out for over two. Checking and re-checking
every corner of his large boundary. All because he couldn’t trust himself to be
alone downstairs with Riley.

Damn it, he was a grown ass Were-bear.
The man of his home. He was stronger than a little feral desire for a human
woman. In his youth, he’d gone away from the county and traveled. Experienced
life in the world like all young adult Weres and sampled his fair share of
human women. None of them had captivated him like Riley. None of them had taken
his unleashed passion and pleaded for more.

He’d been advised and learned to
temper his sexual drive around the weaker females. However, with Riley there
hadn’t been the will to do it or the need. She’d taken him and compelled him to
give more of himself. He’d connected with her on a deeper level that should not
have been possible. A Were level, mind-link, where visions were shared during
the peak of ecstasy.