BearyMerryChristmas (5 page)

Lara couldn’t take it anymore. She never knew such pleasure could exist before today.

Never in her life had she dreamed there were such forms of gratification. She wasn’t certain she could take the feel of their hands and mouths moving over her flesh. She wanted their bare skin pressed tightly against hers and she didn’t want to wait another moment to feel it.

The more their hands and mouths skimmed over her flesh, the more she shook, the more she wanted them both, no matter how wrong her mind insisted it was. “Please,” she begged, knowing that they knew what she wanted from them. Still, she had to voice it. “Make love to me.” She bucked as Jamie suckled her clit and thrust two fingers deep inside her. The action didn’t help. It only made her need them more.

Duncan raised his head from her breast. “Which one?”

Lara shook her head. “I don’t care. One of you, both of you. It doesn’t matter to me. I need one of you inside me before I go mad!”

With a chuckle, Duncan leaned over her and took her lips in an explosive kiss. A kiss filled with so much need and passion, it took Lara by surprise. She had no idea that she had the ability to make any man react in such a way.

His tongue caressed every tooth, mapping the inside of her mouth while she returned the favor. Reaching out, she wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling him closer to press the warmth of his naked body against hers.

Every breath that brushed her sensitive skin ratcheted her pleasure higher. Every time Jamie exhaled on her nether flesh as he continued his oral assault caused goosebumps to cover her flesh.

She wanted one or both inside her. At the moment, she didn’t care which.

Jamie thrust his fingers deep once again. The tension ratcheted higher and higher. The sensation of their concerted efforts had her arching her back, her muscles growing rigid as she reached for another orgasm.

With their mouths and hands driving her higher and higher, Lara had no choice but to hang on as they carried her over still another precipice and into heaven itself. Throwing her head back, she screamed until she could no longer catch her breath, until Jamie released her clit from his mouth and withdrew his fingers from her clasping channel.

Weak as a newborn babe, Lara fell against the mattress, her breaths coming in short, erratic gasps. She was certain that she’d died and gone to heaven, instead of only getting a glimpse of it as she enjoyed the most profound and pleasurable experience of her life.

She looked at the two men who moved to flank her and gave them a weak smile. She still wanted them,
needed
them inside her, but she was too weak to lift a finger, let alone speak.

“Ye needn’t speak, lass,” Duncan said with a smile just before he pressed a gentle kiss to her lips. “We can read your mind. We know ye still want us and we know you’re tired.” He brought her limp hand to his lips and kissed it. “We’ll continue this after you’ve had a bit of a lie down.” He wrapped his arm about her and pulled her close.

With a yawn, Lara rested her head on his arm and snuggled closer to Jamie who kissed the tip of her nose. “Then you’d better take care of it when I wake up, or I’m not going to be a happy camper.”

Chapter Five

Lara awoke to the sound of silence. She was alone. With a frown, she rolled over and stretched languidly. Was last night nothing more than a dream? It couldn’t be. Every muscle in her body felt relaxed, fluid, as though she’d just gotten a wonderfully expensive deep-tissue massage. Nothing in her life had ever felt more real than what happened last night.

She grabbed her watch from the nightstand, her eyes widening when she got a gander at the time. “Holy crap! Where did the day go?” It was nearly five in the afternoon. Lara couldn’t remember ever sleeping so late in her life.

Standing, she grabbed the unusually beautiful tartan skirt and white blouse from the top of the chest at the foot of the bed and put them on since her own clothing was nowhere to be found. It was probably some kind of period clothing from the castle tours they had here. No one had the money to keep a castle in such good repair without the help of tourism these days, did they? The tartan skirt looked like something out of the seventeenth century. What clan’s tartan had blue, green, brown and black with threads of gold shot through it?

She slipped her feet into the large, warm-looking wool slippers left just inside the door and opened it. The hallway was empty. What did she expect? Everyone who lived here probably had a job to do during the day. A large castle like this certainly couldn’t run itself, even in these modern times.

Turning to her right, she hoped she headed toward the stairs. After what felt like five minutes, she found a dead end at a closed door and turned to head in the opposite direction. It was just her luck to choose to go in the wrong direction. It was the story of her life. Her terrible sense of direction almost got her killed just last night. You would think she could learn to make sensible choices for a change, but no, she always had to choose the wrong course of action every single time.

She bit her lip as she thought about what happened in her bed or her dreams just a few hours ago. Whatever it was, she wasn’t sure any type of relationship with the two men was wise, even if it was only in her imagination.

There is no need tae worry about such things, lass.

Lara had clearly heard Duncan’s voice, but when she spun around, he was nowhere in sight. She remembered him telling her that he could read her mind, but she didn’t really believe him. Who would?

Dinnae fash yourself, Lara. We’re good men. That’s all that really matters, isn’t it?

Lara had to agree with that. She’d dated and dreamed of having children with men that weren’t good men. Just because they couldn’t talk to her through some sort of crazy mind link didn’t make them good. It made them limited, that was all.

That’s a healthy way tae look upon it, lass.
This time it was Jamie’s disembodied voice she heard in her mind.

Lara shook her head. Would she ever get used to that?

The question, lass, is do ye want tae?

That was the real question, wasn’t it? When she finally found the stairs, she headed down to the first floor, her feet surprisingly warm in the slippers they provided. She’d expected them to freeze on the cold stone steps.

That’s it, my brave lass. We’re in the kitchen, about tae mount a rescue.

What rescue? What’s wrong?
Worried, Lara quickened her pace. She didn’t want to let anyone think she wasn’t willing to help in a crisis. It didn’t matter that she knew virtually nothing about the people who lived here. All that mattered was that someone obviously needed help, much the same way as she had the night before and she needed to let these people know she was willing to do whatever they needed of her.

There’s a missing school bus on the hill road. It’s snowing something fierce and the authorities think it’s gone off the road. Since we at the castle are the closest and can reach them the fastest, we’re mounting a rescue.

Lara rounded the corner just in time to see a strange man change from being a human into a large polar bear. She gasped, her hand to her throat, but didn’t say anything. She couldn’t scream, though her rational mind told her it would be prudent. She merely stood just inside the huge kitchen with her trembling hand held tightly against her heart.

Isn’t that risky? What if someone sees you all? What if the teacher or one of the children tells the authorities about how polar bears rescued them?

Dinnae worry yourself, lass. We’re white, the snow will hide us from anyone but the lost ones this day and police will believe that they hallucinated the entire affair because of hypothermia. The teacher will, too, tae my way of thinking.
Ye
did, didn’t ye, lass?

Lara had no answer, other than he was right. Even
she
had thought she’d been hallucinating at first. Lara glanced back to the upright polar bear by the door in the kitchen and wondered at the peculiarity of that sight. Before today, she never would have dreamed that she would ever see such a bizarre thing.

Once the bear lowered himself to all fours, a young woman tied a large red ribbon around his neck, from the ribbon dangled a heavy-looking string of large sleigh bells. One by one, all of the men shifted shape just before a woman tied a bell-covered ribbon around their necks and they exited the kitchen—all but Duncan and Jamie who made their way over to her with beautiful smiles on their faces and ribbons in their hands.

Lara’s knees grew weak at the sight of all of the huge snow white bears that had gone outside. They were so tame and gentle with the women who followed them. Lara glanced up at her two men, her eyes wide. “Can you do that?” She gestured to the others, then shook her head. “What am I saying? That was a stupid question. Of course, you can. Jamie did so last night.” Lara frowned. “It
was
last night, wasn’t it?”

“Aye, my heart, it was last night.” Jamie cupped her chin and tilted her head back for his kiss. “We’re sorry that we couldn’t keep our promise tae ye, lass, but when we woke, we learned of the missing bus and everyone voted unanimously tae go looking for the lost ones. We’ve been told that the teacher who accompanied them is pregnant and very near her time. It wouldn’t do for her tae hae her babe on a cold bus, would it?”

“No, it wouldn’t.” Lara glanced down at the ribbons in their hands and smiled slightly at the symbolism. “Did you want me to tie the ribbons around your necks?” Lara felt her face heat when she realized that she wanted to do just that. She wanted to be the one to reach around their necks and tie that ribbon about them. It didn’t matter that they would be bears when she did so. All that mattered was that she be the one to mark them with the red ribbon and send them on their way. “You’ll be careful, won’t you?” she asked as they handed her the ribbons.

“Aye, lass. We’ll be as careful as we know how tae be.” Duncan leaned down and pressed a quick kiss on her lips.

The two men shifted into huge white bears, lowered themselves to all four feet and waited for Lara to tie their ribbons around their necks. Gingerly, she approached the bear that had been Jamie and tied one of the wide red ribbons she held around his neck.

We won’t hurt ye, lass. Both of us would die before we would see ye harmed.
They both spoke at the same time.

A part of me knows that,
she replied with a quirk of her lips.
But you have to admit, seeing you two like this
is
rather daunting for someone like me.
When had communicating with these two with her thoughts become so easy? It felt as though she’d been doing it forever, when in reality, she hadn’t even known these two for a full twenty-four hours yet.

She bit her lip as she thought of what they did in her bed last night. Her face heated and she looked away. How could she look them in the eyes? How could she look any of them in the eyes after what she’d done? She had acted like some cheap tramp last night.

We told ye that our people don’t judge others for their bed partners, lass. Will ye nae believe us?

“That doesn’t matter,” she hissed the words out between her teeth. “It’s how I think of myself.” Reaching out, she fisted her hands in the hair on their necks. She couldn’t seem to help herself. She needed to touch them for some reason. “I’m not like this. Really, I’m not. I don’t just jump into bed with men I’ve just met.”

We know, lass. Dinnae worry. We don’t think less of ye for it.
The bear that had been Jamie turned toward the door and looked out.
I am
still
Jamie, lass.
He glanced back at her.
It’s time tae go. The others have gone already and Connor waits for us tae join him. We’re all traveling in threes, tae be sure we can carry them all tae the keep should we find them.

“Be careful.” She touched them one more time, because she just couldn’t stop herself. “Don’t get yourselves shot by some overzealous woodsman with a gun.”

This isn’t America, lass. Generally, we dinnae walk about carrying guns.
Duncan’s voice was husky in her mind.
Dinnae worry. We’ll be careful. Just promise you’ll still be here when we come back.

After a moment of silence, they walked through the door. Lara followed them, standing just inside as she watched the last three bears move through the clearing and out of sight, the sound of their sleigh bells carrying to her even after she could no longer see them. She watched, she worried and she didn’t even know these men. If she was smart, she’d leave while she had the chance.

Instead, she closed her eyes and hoped they would hear her.
I’ll be here when you get back. Just make sure you come back. I don’t want to find out you’ve ended up a couple of thick rugs on some hunting-cabin floor.

Chapter Six

Jamie stayed between his two friends, feeling as though his heart would burst with happiness.
She loves us.

Dinnae be daft, ye ass.
Duncan laughed.
The lass barely knows us. She cannae be in love with us so soon. In lust with us? Aye, but we can build upon that and for now, it’s enough.

She’s worried about us. That counts.
Jamie was persistent. Perhaps the lass didn’t love them yet, but they were off to a promising start.

Aye, but she cannae fall in love in a night.

You’re probably right.

They continued on in silence for a while until Connor spotted a light in the night sky. It was as though someone had turned a spotlight straight up. It acted like a beacon, the light reflecting off the clouds, caused them to glow.

Do ye think it’s them? How far do ye think it is?
Connor asked.

I dinnae know.
Duncan looked off into the distance.
Three miles, perhaps more.
We cannae just go charging in. It may not be them and it may not be safe,
he added when Connor began to trot toward the light.