Husband Fur Hire (Bears Fur Hire Book 1) (14 page)

Josiah leveled Elyse with a thoughtful look and nodded slowly. “When will you go?”

“Day after tomorrow. We’ll do a two-day hunt, then come back here and ride up your way to collect the cattle if you have time.”

“Yeah, that’ll work for me. I can come out here on Wednesday and check your animals for you.”

“We’d appreciate it,” Ian said. “We’ll take the pup with us, so it’ll just be the chickens, goats, and horses. If we get anything, we’ll bring you back a roast.”

Josiah’s face lit up, and he ripped open his biscuit. “I do love venison. You planning on getting a bear this season?”

As if she were lightning struck, Elyse jolted in her chair. “What?”

“Bear meat?” Josiah offered her a baffled look. “It’s your favorite.”

Elyse blinked slowly and gritted her teeth against the ill feeling unfurling in her stomach. She couldn’t look at Ian even if she tried right now. “It used to be my favorite, but I don’t have a taste for it anymore.” Her voice cracked and dipped to a whisper. “Too gamey.”

Ian’s hand slid up her thigh under the table, and he squeezed her leg reassuringly. “No plans for bear this season.”

Elyse intertwined her fingers with his against her leg. No plans for bear meat any season. Not when it reminded her so much of the massive animal that lived inside of the man she loved.

Except for the bones, Josiah scraped his bowl clean, then leaned back in his chair. “Elyse, this stew is as good as Uncle Jim’s.”

“You want to crash in the guest bedroom?” she asked hopefully, stalling for more time with him.

“Nah, I’ve got my own animals to feed. I’m gonna load the four-wheeler in the back of my truck and get going. Ian.” Josiah shook his hand hard. “I will slit your throat if you hurt my sister. Formalities aside, I like you better than her last man. Cole never worked a day in his life, but I can see you’re a real hard worker. I thank you for taking care of my sister.”

Ian huffed a tired laugh. “Brother, you’ve got it wrong. Elyse takes care of me.” He stood and followed Josiah with Elyse trailing behind him.

“Speaking of Cole,” Josiah said, turning around at the door. “His brother was up at my place last week asking about Elyse.”

“Miller?” Elyse asked, shocked to her bones.

Josiah nodded. All the humor had seeped out of his eyes now, and he looked more and more like the somber Josiah she was used to. “He was asking if you were done mourning and ready for a man and followed it directly with asking how your cattle are doing. Shit timing, too, because wolves had just taken one of the calves the night before, so I wasn’t in a mood to answer him. He left pissed.” Her brother dragged his gaze back to Ian. “Be wary of that one, okay?”

When Ian clenched his hands behind his back, Josiah couldn’t see it, but she could. He was shaking, and a deep red flush of anger was creeping slowly up his neck. “Will do. Thanks for the head’s up.”

“Sure thing. Night,” Josiah called over his shoulder as he strode toward his four-wheeler.

Troubled, Elyse watched Josiah straddle the seat of the ATV, rip the engine, and gun it toward the hayfields where he’d left his truck parked on the edge.

“Miller is Cole’s brother,” she explained softly.

“I know.” Ian’s voice was more growl than anything, and he strode out the front door and off the porch.

“How do you know who he is?”

“Small town,” he answered mysteriously.

But that didn’t make sense. Miller didn’t live in Galena. He lived near Naluto, closer to where Josiah lived.

“Where are you going?” she called.

“To check on the animals.”

Huh. Elyse leaned against the open doorframe, arms crossed over her chest as she frowned so deeply her face ached with it. It wasn’t uncommon for Ian to check the animals right before they went to sleep, but they would likely be up for a couple more hours still. Josiah’s admission that Miller had been asking about her had rattled Ian badly, but for the life of her, she couldn’t understand why. Cole wasn’t a threat to either of them, seeing as how he was cold and buried, and Miller could ask about her all he wanted. That butt-faced moocher wasn’t laying a hand on anything she owned ever again. She was Ian’s now, and he was the biggest, baddest man there was. With everything going on around here, a drunken McCall brother should be the least of her mate’s worries.

Gooseflesh rose in waves across her skin, and she grabbed her coat off the rack before she shut the door behind her. Shrugging into it, she made her way carefully over the dark yard, but when she got as far as the tree with the rope swing, Ian suddenly appeared out of the dimly lit barn. His nostrils flared slightly in the warm glow of the lantern light, and his eyes were dark as pitch, as though his bear was right there, just below the surface.

“What is it?” she asked, drawing to a halt. Chills rippled up her spine.

Slowly, Ian lifted his face to the sky, and in that moment, she felt it. Something cold, as if the finger of a corpse brushed her cheek. No. Elyse gasped when a snowflake floated down in front of her face. Before Ian, snow hadn’t meant anything. It was a way of life and expected, but now? Suddenly the small, cold flake melting on her cheek stung like acid. Dread seeped into her as she wiped it off and shook her head in despair. “It’s too soon.”

Ian’s chest was heaving as he watched her. She could see it in his eyes—he was rocked to the core by the early snow, too.

“It’s too soon!” she repeated louder, walking toward him. She picked up her speed, then bolted into his open arms.

“Shhh,” he said against her hair, hugging her so tight she couldn’t breathe.

Or perhaps it was the crushing realization that her time with him was growing so short.

“I’m not tired yet. I’m not. Elyse, it’s okay. Shhh. Don’t cry.”

She was gasping, holding in her sobs and trying, but failing, to be strong for him as more snowflakes floated down to the ground around them.

“I’m not going to sleep on you yet, woman. I’m not. Listen.” He eased back and cupped her cheeks. “We’ve still got things to do together. It’s just the first snow, and it’s not even warm enough to stick yet.”

“I’m not ready, Ian. I just got you.”

“I know.” He leaned forward and kissed her, then rested his forehead against hers. “I know, and I’m not ready for it either. We’ve still got time.”

“How much?”

Ian shook his head helplessly. “I don’t know.”

Warm tears streamed down her cheeks. “Will it always be like this? Dreading the winter, dreading the snow?”

Heartache slashed through his dark, inhuman eyes, and then he pulled her in close again. His lack of an answer was answer enough. Clutching onto his jacket with trembling hands, she watched the soft snowfall over his shoulder. She had to do this better—appreciate more the time they had together. She could see exactly how their years would progress, six achingly short months together, and then six that dragged on for eternity as she waited over his body for him to wake up for an hour every day. She had to figure out a way to savor every second he was awake.

“Ian,” she said on a frozen breath, clinging to him tighter. “I love you.”

A wrecked sound wrenched from his throat, and his mouth crashed onto hers. He pushed his tongue past her lips and gripped the back of her hair. With a growl deep in his throat, he yanked his jacket off and tossed it to the ground, and then his hands were on her again, reaching into the open zipper of her coat, lifting the hem of her shirt. Fingertips brushed up her ribcage, over her bra, then slipped in to cup her breast. How was he so warm when the rest of the world was so cold? Nipping his lip, she pulled his shirt over his head and reveled in how touching his chest thawed her frozen fingertips.

His voice was tinged with desperation as he gritted out, “Touch me.” Then he pulled her hand down the mounds of his abs and into the front of his jeans. He shuddered when she gripped his thick, hard shaft and pulled a slow stroke.

She understood this—the desperation to be close. To connect. Soon, this wouldn’t be an option for them. He massaged her breast harder, dumping warmth into her middle and pooling wetness against her panties. He could always do this. Ian had the uncanny ability to rev her up in seconds. She pulled his erection again and again, until his hips rocked with the pace she set, all the while kissing him as if she would never get the chance to be in a moment like this again.

She was on fire. Writhing, gasping, panting his name as he slid his hand down the front of her pants and drew his fingers through the wetness he’d conjured there. The soft growl in his throat turned feral. He leaned forward enough to pick her up by the backs of her knees, and then carried her toward the barn. His shoulders were hard as steel under her hands as she gripped the muscular curves of his body. Tears still warm on her cheeks, she slipped her tongue past his lips. Ian opened for her, daring her. Tempting her, and she lost herself as she tasted him. The snowfall outside was just like the rest of the world right now. It didn’t matter. All that mattered was that she was here, safe with the man she loved. Treasured and adored by the man she respected most.

The barn was warmer without the wind brushing a chill against her cheeks, and he strode directly for a work bench and raked his arm across it, scattering all of the tools onto the splintered wood floors. Ian was breathing ragged now, and he sucked hard in a line down her neck as he set her on the table and pushed her jacket off her shoulders. Eagerly and with trembling fingers, she unsnapped the button of his jeans and pushed them down just enough to unsheathe him. Ian’s hands and lips were everywhere, setting her on fire with every touch, every kiss. He pulled her sweater smoothly over her head as she kicked out of her boots and shimmied out of her pants. She needed him. Needed him inside of her, filling her, giving her silent promises that no matter what kind of separation they would face with his hibernation, he still adored her.

As he unsnapped her bra and exposed her breasts to the cold night air, she tilted her head back and closed her eyes just to focus on how good his hands felt against her skin. A moan pushed past her lips as he pulled her taut nipple into his mouth and brushed his tongue against her. His kisses trailed lower as he pulled her pants from her ankles and tossed them onto the ground.

“Ian,” she pleaded as he lifted her up and shoved her jacket between her bare backside and the rough table. She didn’t even know what she was begging for. He wasn’t denying her anything.

Ian’s eyes were as dark as the night sky, and the sound in his chest said he was half-wild and rutting right now. His teeth were rough on her skin as he sucked and bit his way down the center of her stomach. He lifted his gaze to hers, a dark challenge in his eyes as he went to his knees and lifted one of her legs over his shoulder. They hadn’t done this before, not that he hadn’t let her know he was willing. She hadn’t been ready to give herself so completely to a man before, but as he grazed his teeth against her inner thigh, her back arched instinctively in a silent plea to keep going. His focus drifted from her eyes down, down to between her legs. When he leaned in and kissed her, brushing his tongue against her slit in a sexy tease, she came undone. She moaned loudly and ran her fingernails against his scalp while he took his time slowly laving his tongue against her. God, he was beautiful, bobbing between her legs. The pressure in her middle was already blinding by the time he sucked gently on her clit, and when he directly followed it by thrusting his tongue deep inside of her, she cried out helplessly.

“Fuck, I’m coming already,” she gasped. “Ian, I’m coming.”

He thrust into her harder, and she exploded from her middle out. She came so hard and so fast, she gripped his hair and yelled his name.

“Want to feel,” Ian growled out, pulling her from the table until her feet were planted on the floor. He spun her until she faced the table, but the dizziness didn’t last long as he jammed his knee between hers and spread her legs wider.

Lost in the aftershocks of her release, Elyse gripped onto the table and arched her back for him. Ian had always been controlled and gentle in their bed, but this wasn’t like before. Now, everything was different. Now, they were on borrowed time, and he was letting her see the real him. The feral animal side she’d only seen glimpses of before now. With a snarl, he slammed into her from behind. One arm around her stomach, holding her to him, and one hand on top of hers on the table, gripping her, intertwining their fingers as he slid into her harder. His body was strung tight, iron against her back as he pumped into her faster and faster. God, he felt good inside of her, slick as he eased back by inches, then back in. The snarl in his throat was constant now, and the second she cried out with her second orgasm, he rammed into her so hard the table creaked under her. His teeth brushed her skin again, but this time he didn’t hold himself in check. This time, as he swelled inside of her and bucked into her again, he bit her hard.

Bowing back, she squeezed her eyes tightly closed as pain warred with pleasure. Warmth shot into her over and over until it became too much for her to hold and trickled down her inner thighs. With a snarl of her own, she pulled away from him and spun, then gripped the back of his hair. His eyes went from dazed to shocked the instant before she clamped her teeth against his chest as revenge for him marking her.

Except when she bit him, Ian didn’t seem angry as she’d been. Instead, he tossed his head back and gritted out her name, then slid into her from the front. Hand cupped against the back of her head, he pulled her closer and in a low, gravelly voice demanded, “Harder.”