Hard To Bear (10 page)

“Mmm,” she whimpered helplessly, squirming underneath him.  Damn the bear, teasing her like this when she wanted him inside her, with a hungry, aching urgency.

“What’s that? I didn’t quite catch that.” He nipped at her neck again, and then
moved down to suck her nipple into his mouth. Her nipple was swollen, sensitive, engorged in his mouth. Every inch of her body that he touched lit up with pleasure, little rivulets of delicious sensation crackling down her nerve endings.

“Yes….
Ohhh, yes….” She wailed, squirming. “Okay, maybe I’m a little…ohhhh….interested…”

“Good,” he growled. “Because I’m very interested.” He sucked at her nipple again, gently tugging it with his teeth, and another whimper of pleasure escaped her lips.

He cupped her other breast with his hand, and ran his thumb over the nipple.  Little jolts of pleasure shot throughout her body.  His massive bulk pressed her into the mattress, and she couldn’t have escaped if she’d tried.  She lay there helpless and loving it.

Then he moved down lower still, and
she bit her lip, anticipating what was to come.

“I can’t wait to taste you, baby,” he crooned. “You smell so sweet.”

He kissed her stomach, and she couldn’t help but flinch.

“What?” he murmured into the soft swell of her flesh.

“I’m fat.”

“You’re well padded.  I like that in a woman.  When I make love, I don’t want to bang up against someone’s bony skeleton.” 

She forced herself to relax, trying not to think of the other women he’d made love to.  He was here with her now, for this night, and that was all that mattered. 

He kissed her again, swirling his tongue over her flesh.  It was amazing how her body responded to
his every touch, her skin instantly turning deliciously sensitive under his hot kisses and firm caress. 

He moved down lower still, to the neatly clipped triangle of red curls, and then placed his big, strong hands on her soft thighs and firmly spread them apart.  She kept herself shaved bare on the lips.

He spread her lips open gently, reverently, as if he were opening a box of delicious chocolates or a treasure chest of gold.  Then he ran his tongue along the seam, from back to front, in one long slow lap, and she gasped in ecstasy.

He slowly lapped at her again and again, and then his hot, hungry mouth close
d around the swollen pink bud of her clitoris, and he sucked at it hard.  She sank her fingers into his shoulders, moaning helplessly beneath the sensual torment of his tongue.

Her arousal was building up inside her like a hot wall o
f lava, and she writhed with mingled pleasure and frustration. 

If he didn’t make her come soon she’d die. 

As he sucked, he slipped a finger inside her, and began stroking her inner wall, until he found the sensitive spot that made her arch her back and cry aloud.  He massaged the spot with the pad of his index finger and sucked harder, until the dam inside her burst and the hot streams of pleasure gushed through her body. She felt dizzy, lighter than air.  Sparks exploded behind her eyes as she came, gasping for breath.

He moved up, pressing his knee between her legs, and she parted her thighs, wrapping her arms around his waist.

Then he paused, moving down to grab a condom
from his wallet.  He tore open the packet and rolled it onto his thick cock.

“Jumbo size?” she guessed. “Not that I’m complaining.”

“Was it good for you too?” he teased.

“Oh, my God,” she
said.  “Oh. God. Terrifyingly good. Yes.”

The thick head of his cock nudged between her drenched lips, and he moved his hips and thrust again until he was inside her.
He thrust again, filling her completely, so big that it took several more hard thrusts before he was fully inside her.

Then he began rocking his hips in rhythm, burying his face in her hair. “Oh,
baby, you’re so tight. I love how you squeeze me,” he groaned.

He was so big that it hurt, but it was an exquisitely pleasurable pain.  He filled her completely, and she felt her wet sheath clamping down on his cock, squeezing it hard.
 

He pumped inside her, thrusting all the way in, and then pausing while he was buried all the way to the hilt. 

“Don’t stop,” she begged, and he resumed, hard and fast, and then, just when she was on the brink, stopping again, making her plead for it.  Finally with a last explosive thrust, she came again, hard, muscles convulsing and clamping on his cock, and he came with her, his guttural grunts of pleasure sounding in her ear.

Flint woke up to the urgent sound of hi
s cell phone trilling from the nightstand.  It was a special ring tone that had been programmed to alert him in case of emergency.

Coral lay on her side with her back to him; he’d been spooning her, arms wrapped around her deliciously soft, warm body, when the phone rang.

Yearning to sink into her warmth again, instead, he scrabbled for the phone, pulling it out of his pocket and answering it quickly.  “Flint?” Melinda said. “You need to come meet me right away. I’m at our northwest post.”

“
What do you need?”

“I’ve been attacked.”

Alarm shot through him.  Melinda didn’t sound as if she’d been badly injured – she wasn’t even out of breath – but if she’d been attacked, that was bad news.  The operation might have been compromised.

He swung his legs across the bed,
and sat up.  “I’m on my way,” he said. “Have you called Rory yet?”

“
Just hurry!”

He pulled on his pants quickly.

Coral was looking at him, her sheet drawn up to cover her.  “That was Melinda,” she said, her tone cool.

“Yes, it was. 
You heard that?”

“
I’m a wolf shifter.  We have freakishly good hearing.  Did I hear her say she’s been attacked?”

“No, no,” he lied, inwardly cursing.
  “Just some problems at the work site.”

Coral just stared at him stony-faced.  She’d heard what she’d heard. He knew it. She knew it.

Melinda shouldn’t have called him, and she was well aware of it.  She had just risked exposing them all.  She should have called Rory, their lieutenant and commanding officer. Flint’s reason for being in town was to provide cover for their entire crew.  The construction project was the perfect cover, allowing them to move dozens of men into town undetected and unquestioned.

He quickly dresse
d, wincing at the look on Coral’s face. This wasn’t the morning after he’d been hoping for.

“I’ll be back in time to take you out to lunch,” he promised.

She shook her head, frowning. “I’ll be busy throughout the day,” she said.  “I’m following up on some leads.”

“What kind of leads?”

“Stories I’m working on.”  She shrugged, not meeting his gaze.  She had the covers pulled up, hiding her lush body, and he felt a vast chasm yawning between them now.  Last night they’d practically melted into one person, and now she was cold and distant. “Let’s just say we’re both not sharing everything with each other. You should go see who attacked your friend.”  She put particular emphasis on the word
friend
.

He winced.  “Coral, I will admit that Melinda has a crush on me, but there’s nothing
romantic between us, and there never has been, and never will be.” Her expression didn’t change.

“You believe me, don’t you?” he asked her.

“I don’t know what to believe, Flint.  There’s more going on than what you’re telling me, which tends to make me not trust you.”

Yes, there was, but he couldn’t tell her why.  It was too important. The fate of shifters, and humanity, versus the fate of his sex life?  The choice was clear – unfortunately.

It was more than just his sex life, though, wasn’t it? He was starting to develop real feelings for this lush, sexy wolf shifter.   He was starting to wish he didn’t have to leave town so soon…and that she didn’t have to go either.

“I’ll call you later
.  I’m sorry about this,” he said, and rushed off.  Coral didn’t say a word to him as he left.

He headed out
to the northwest post, which was on a large area of property that he’d recently purchased for Sweet Stuff.  There were numerous wild blueberry and raspberry bushes on the property, which is why they’d purchased it – or at least, that was the story they’d given out. The property was also very conveniently located, next to the area that the Enforcers needed to access in the near future… and that was the real reason he’d bought it.

As he drove, he called
Rory Fontaine, the contractor who was remodeling his parent’s historic house. Rory was also a tiger shifter, and a lieutenant in the Enforcers.  He was supervising the operation in Blue Moon Junction.

“How did Melinda get attacked?” Rory asked him, puzzled.  “She didn’t call any of us for help, and she’s supposed to be at the canning factory today, overseeing construction.
”

“I don’t know,”
Flint said. “But I aim to find out. Just meet me there.”

When they arrived, they found Melinda in her human form, with a bruise on her head, a split lip, and scrapes on her arm.

She flung herself into Flint’s arms. “I’m so glad that you’re here!” she said, hugging him.

He stepped back, disentangling himself from her arms
with some difficulty; she tightened her grip, and he had to firmly push her away.

“What the hell happened?” he demanded.

She flashed him a hurt look. “That’s a nice greeting, considering I nearly got killed.  And why did you bring Rory?  I called you, not him. I was hoping to get a chance to talk to you alone for once.”

“I asked you what happened. If the other side has engaged, this could be a matter of national security.” Flint was stone faced. “And I brought Rory with
me because he’s in charge of this operation, and you should be reporting any incidents to him, not me.  That’s not what I’m here for, and you know that.”

Melinda’s hurt expression melted into anger.  “I was upset because I had been assaulted, and because you and I were friends, you were the first person that I thought to call for comfort. I see now that was a mistake. I won’t make it again.”

Flint felt the sting of guilt.  Was he over-reacting? Was he being a dick because she’d just yanked him away from Coral, and quite possibly ruined things between him and the sexy wolf shifter? He shouldn’t take his frustration out on Melinda.  It wasn’t her fault that he was falling for the one woman he shouldn’t date.

“I’m sorry,” he said, more gently. “But we’re here for professional reasons, Melinda. I need to know what happened.”

She took a deep breath, and nodded. “I changed into bear form and went onto Metamorph territory.”  Metamorph was a company based in Eastern Europe, specializing in pharmaceutical grade weapons.

At Flint and Rory’s startled looks, she added, “I know I wasn’t a
uthorized to, but I was worried.  Those missing people…God knows what’s being done to them.  They’re suffering. I couldn’t stand it.”

Now Flint felt really badly.  She’d done the wrong thing, but for the right reasons.

Rory, however, wasn’t having any of it.  He was a strictly follow the rules kind of person.

“You trespassed on their property?” Rory growled. “You
engaged them, and exposed us!”

“I didn’t!” Melinda protested. “
I didn’t engage them.  It was a bear that attacked me – an actual bear, not a shifter.  I got too close to its cubs while I was out there, but I managed to get away from it.  I was in bear form the whole time. And I found a squadron of armed men patrolling near their so-called hunting camp, at the ley line convergence area.    Trust me when I tell you this, those men were military; they weren’t hunters.  Let me give you the coordinates where I saw them.” She rattled off a list of latitude and longitude numbers, looking pleased with herself.

“That’s some good
intel, huh?” she said happily.

“You disobeyed direct orders,” Rory snapped. “You put yourself in danger of being captured.  If you’d been captured,
you would have been taken into custody and identified as an Enforcer.  They would almost certainly have moved their operation elsewhere, and that would have blown our best chance to rescue the shifters they’re holding, to say nothing of the larger implications.”

“Come on, Rory, I’ve always been a maverick. It’s what I do best.” She flashed a cocky smile.

Rory shook his head. “I can’t risk having this operation blown. I’m the officer in charge, and I am ordering you to pack your bags and leave immediately. You’re suspended from your position pending further notice.  If anyone in town asks, we’ll tell them you were called back home on a family emergency. I’ll be writing up a report and recommending that you be subject to disciplinary action.”

Melinda’s eyes went wide with astonishment and dismay. “You can’t do that!” she protested.
“It’s not fair! I brought back valuable intel!” She turned to Flint. “Come on, Flint. We’re a team, you and me.  We work best together. Don’t let him do this to me! You’re the one who’s putting out all the money for the cover operation – if you say that I have to stay, he won’t make me go!”