Colby (BBW Western Bear Shifter Romance) (Rodeo Bears Book 3) (172 page)

“How do you know I’m thinking about that?” Valerie asked in mock surprise.
 

Kyle leaned close to her ear and whispered, “Because I’m thinking them too.”
 

Oooh he just had to go and say that!

Valerie just about slid off her chair but managed to hold on.
 

They paid the check and left.
 

Kyle walked her across the road in the storm, his jacket over both their heads. They stood on Grandma’s porch and held each other.
 

“Kyle,” Valerie said.
 

“Yeah,” he replied his breath on her neck.
 

“Thanks.”

“For what?”

“For not hating me anymore,” Valerie said.
 

He sighed into her neck and kissed the soft skin there making Valerie wish he was devouring her right about now.
 

“I have faith in us,” Kyle said, “We’ll find a way to beat these bastards.”

Valerie didn’t feel anywhere near as certain, but she smiled and watched him run down the steps in the rain to his truck. Then she waited to see the headlights disappear before heading to her room.

Morning. It stole into the room while Valerie was sleeping with her head on her keyboard. She was so tired that only the beep her machine made when an email came into her inbox, woke her.
 

She was up to her armpits in notes and photos. Sun Valley was beautiful and the people were friendly and lively. They were also bears. But that seemed a lot less important now, than the fact that they were people who were about to lose their homes.
 

They worked hard on other people’s ranches as hired labor at a reduced rate, to pay off some old stupid debt that was owed since the wild west days. It was like they were cursed or something. Valerie got the impression that the deck had been stacked against the bears for a long time. This meant it was unlikely that there was anything short of something silly and radical, that would change this. But what did she have that was silly and radical?
 

Kyle was counting on her. The whole valley was sure, but Kyle’s faith was the one she didn’t want to lose. She wanted to be his hero. She wanted to make him happy and have him hold her and whisper a lot of sexy nothings into her ears. Valerie realized that what she wanted more than anything in the whole world was for Kyle to love her, and she would do anything to get that. She would lose her job over this—no actually she would quit. Submit the final report and quit.
 

But that was the problem right? That final report. What if she didn’t submit it? They would just send Calvin down anyway and he would submit it no problem.
 

And then it hit her.
 

“Of course! You can be so stupid you know?” she yelled at herself and punched the air. Of course, why didn’t she realize it before. The report, that final piece of red tape. That was going to save them. And not by some strange clerical error, or by Valerie not doing her job properly, oh no! She was going to do her job by the book and to the letter.
 

With a huge grin she began to type.
 

Three hours and multiple cups of coffee later, Valerie met with Kyle, Ryan, Wyatt and Jess at The Lemon Drop Café. The storm had left puddles on the sidewalk and there was a chill in the air even though the sun was shining.
 

When she came in and sat down next to Kyle they all turned strained faces to her. Jess looked haggard and spent. Her face was pale, her eyes red-rimmed like she’d been crying. Valerie smiled and placed a hand over hers.
 

“It’s going to be okay,” she said.
 

“How?” Ryan asked in his calm measured voice. “Have you done something?”

Valerie beamed at them. “It’s not a fix. I have to tell you that outright. But it will buy you, us, some time.” She took Kyle’s hand in hers.
 

He squeezed her fingers.
 

“What did you do?” Wyatt asked.
 

“Nothing, my job,” Valerie said.

“I’m lost,” Jess said. “How does you doing your job solve our problem? I thought you doing your job was the problem?”

“So did I,” Valerie said. “And then I realized that if I did my job to the letter, then this process would take a lot longer.”

“What did you do?” Kyle asked smiling.
 

“I sent in the report,” Valerie said, “A copy goes to Mr. Petersen, and one to Mr. Snow and then another to the council. In it I have raised concerns about the land, what it is intended for and how that will affect the fauna and flora, some of which I suspect may be endangered, or at least in need of conservation.”
 

“Hold on, you’ve gummed up the works with your report?” Jess asked.
 

“Yup,” Valerie smiled as Kyle kissed her temple and put his arm around her shoulders.

“That’s my girl,” he said proudly and Valerie felt her heart flutter in her chest.
 

“They will have to do a full environmental impact survey and those take time. I’ll send a copy of the report to your grandpa, Kyle, if you give me his email address. That way if they do anything without that report you can report them to the authorities. It won’t hold them off for long, but maybe it will buy enough time.”
 
She shrugged.

“You can send it to me,” Kyle said. “Is this girl a genius or what?”

He turned to her then and took her face in his hands and kissed her. She melted into him as all his friends made the usual mocking noises, but she didn’t care at all.
 

It was cold outside, but warm inside by the fire. Kyle had invited Valerie over for a celebratory dinner. She arrived at his cabin at seven pm, having traded in the stupid sedan for an SUV and followed his hand drawn directions.
 

“You really should draw better,” she said with mock anger. “I wasn’t sure which one of the bazillion giant trees to turn at.”
 

Kyle pulled her into his arms when he opened the door. Valerie felt her jacket slip to the floor.
 

“I brought wine,” she said holding up a bottle of Merlot.
 

Kyle took it, looked at it and put it on the kitchen counter. The whole cabin, apart from the bedroom and bathroom was open plan and heated by a huge fire roaring in the grate. The night was clear and crisp with frost.
 

Closing the door Kyle buried his face in her hair. “You smell good enough to eat,” he said.
 

“Well,” she said and smiled.
 

It was all he needed.
 

Kyle kissed her. Valerie closed her eyes and felt herself sail off on a sea of pleasure. He tasted of salt and something sweet and tangy. His lips were soft and met hers with a hunger that mirrored her own desire to have him.
 

The kisses moved, all down her neck and shoulders. Where clothing got in the way it was removed so that the lips could continue their exploration of her. Kyle was in no hurry and although Valerie could smell dinner cooking away merrily on the stove, she felt no desire to eat it. All she wanted was Kyle.
 

He lifted her into his arms and placed her backside on the kitchen counter. His lips were finding her again as her shirt and bra fell to the floor. He ran his fingers over her breasts, playing with the nipples.
 

Valerie reached up under his shirt and felt the tight, hard muscles of his chest and abdomen. His skin was silky smooth and he had fine chest hair that she twirled her fingers in. The volcano was building again, deep within her and Valerie was afraid it would consume her.
 

Then Kyle took one of her nipples into his mouth and his hand slid down her body to her jeans. He undid them and pulled them off her discarding them on the floor. Valerie wanted him so badly she was aching for him. She fumbled his jeans open and pushed them down, her mouth finding his in a blind need to have him inside her.
 

Off the counter now he carried her to the bedroom and threw her gently onto the matress and then he was on top of her. Gently he eased her panties down and off and then slid his hand back up her thigh.
 

Two fingers slid into her and sent electric shocks through her whole body. Had it really been this long since someone did that? Valerie knew it was. She bore down on his hand rocking back and forth as he slid his fingers in and out of her.
 

She slid her hand into this boxers and found him hard and waiting. She took him into her mouth and licked and sucked him, working the shaft with her hand. He groaned and laced his free hand in her hair. They moved and his fingers slid out of her. Valerie felt a pang of disappointment but she kept on pulling sounds of desire from his lips.
 

Then suddenly Kyle pulle himself out of her mouth and lifting her up placed her on his lap. She felt him slide into her and all she could do as the joy filled her was hold on to him for dear life. She was sinking in a sea of lust and desire for this one man and it was going to consume her. She felt lightheaded, out of control and it both excited and scared her. There was no telling where she ended and Kyle began in the writhing mass of hair and skin and sweat that they were.
 

She was on her back now, him above her. And then she was on top, riding him like a stallion, pulling every groan and moan of pleasure from his throat as she moved.
 

But it was all coming to a head too quickly. She was going to explode. Kyle seemed to know this he flipped her over entering her from behind. She felt him deeper than before and it only served to make her more excited.
 

And then it came like a volcano erupting. The orgasm leveled cities and laid waste to her mind, tossing her emotions into a choppy sea. Utterly spent they collapsed together on the rumpled bed sheets and panting crawled into each other’s arms.
 

After a while Kyle kissed her and then said. “So about that dinner?”

Valerie laughed, “But we just had desert.”
 

“Nope, ma’am we did not,” Kyle said shaking his head. “This was the appetizer.”
 

Oh, boy!

As Kyle rose, naked, and went to get them each a glass of wine, Valerie lay back and smiled. She felt so free and loved, happy in the moment. But she knew it was only a moment and that all too soon the wolf would literally be at the door again. But for now, for this precious moment, the wolf was in chains and she was free to love this man.
 

Bucking Bearback

Bear Ranchers Book V

by

Becca Fanning

Jeanie Buchanan found herself surrounded by pine and spruce. She loved spending time out in nature and it seemed that Sun Valley was as close to authentic nature as you could get nowadays. Birds sang around her as the breeze whispered in the trees. She stood for a moment and closed her eyes. Life was oozing out of the ground all around her as her feet crunched the needles that carpeted the forest floor. Behind her the mountains rose into the sky. It was beginning to get chilly in these parts and she zipped her jacket closed.
 

Strands of her long auburn hair waved in the breeze that carried a hint of ice. If she dragged this Environmental Impact Assessment out she might be able to get her company to sponsor her being here through the winter. She loved winter in the mountains. But it was quite clear that they really wanted a rush on things.
 

Petersen-Snow was a huge client of the Wilkes Environment Assessment Agency who were her current employers. Her manager, George Chavez, had made it abundantly clear that any deviation or delay would see Jeanie out on her ass. She couldn’t help that she did her job properly. It wasn’t her fault that she felt a sense of obligation to actually visit the sites before they became office blocks, mine dumps or landfills, or whatever else their clients had in mind. With Jeanie there was no compromise and she didn’t care about politics. She was however becoming vaguely aware that perhaps she should start to care about those things, if she planned to stay employed.

Originally from Chicago, Illinois, she had moved to New York right after graduating with the promise of work at Wilkes. She had been there for five years now and she thought she did a good job, but lately her manager had been irritated with her thoroughness.
 

George would often berate her for her travel account, her reports that were always more than competent and complete, and her flagrant disregard for specific instructions to ignore certain things.

“It’s not that you’re not good at your job, Jeanie. You’re too good,” he would complain. “You just don’t have to turn over each rock in the place to see if there’s some endangered species of butterfly or something.”
 

“Well, George, turning over each rock is kind of what this is about. And you will never find a butterfly under one. Unless some total douche has put it there,” she would retort.