Damnation: Reckless Desires (Blue Moon Saloon Book 1) (13 page)

He nudged her legs wider.
Love you.
Nestled the head of his cock against her entrance.
Need you.
Pulled her arms up over her head.
Want you.

She’d barely nodded before he plunged in.

“Yes!” she cried at the searing inner pain.

“Watch me,” Simon whispered. “Keep your eyes open. Look at me.”

She hadn’t even noticed closing them, being so intent on the sweet slide inside. The feel of him stretching her, filling her.

“Yes…” she mumbled breathlessly.

When he drew out, it was sweet torture. Then he pushed back in, and that was even better. Her whole body screamed with satisfaction at the feel of him right where he belonged.

“Perfect,” he rasped.

“Simon…” She pulled her legs higher and tightened her fingers around his.

He rolled his hips and nestled deeper, then pulled back and hammered in again. Then he settled into a rhythm of one slow slide followed by a hard push that she matched with tiny bucks and cries. She kept his hands captive and squeezed him inside until he was groaning with her. The shadows in the room danced faster, too, and a vein stood out on his brow. His biceps bulged, keeping him balanced over her with just the right pressure. Just the right everything.

“Simon,” she pleaded, tightening her legs. Pumping him as hard as he pumped into her, panting his name.

“God, Jess…” he groaned through gritted teeth, driving her right to the edge. His next thrust was so hard, so fast, she slid up the bed.

Her blood rushed through her veins. Her teeth bit into her lip, but that was only part of the pleasure-pain. Her mouth opened in the silent cry. Every nerve in her body wound tighter and tighter, spiraling out of control. Simon was moving so fast, filling her so deep…

“Yes…” she moaned as the rush overtook her. “Yes…”

Simon panted beside her ear, still going. His balls slapped against her skin. Then he went stiff all over and groaned so deeply, it was more vibration than sound.

“Jess…” The softest, most longing sound she’d ever heard from a bear.

He collapsed over her, and she wrapped her arms and legs around him, keeping him close.

Keeping him forever
, her wolf hummed, rolling in drowsy bliss.

He wiped them both off with a shirt, rolled behind her, and spooned her close. Stroked a thumb over her hand, and she stroked back. Saying nothing, feeling everything. Falling gently, peacefully into the sweet silence of sleep.

“You’re serious.” Soren looked him square in the eye.

Simon stared right back. Yes, he was serious. Dead serious.

“She’s my mate.”

Soren gave him a stern look and took another sip of his coffee. Bland coffee Simon had already given up on sipping because it was nowhere near as good as the coffee Jess made. But that’s what he got for dragging his brother halfway across town to a corner diner on a Sunday afternoon.

A Sunday afternoon that followed the best sleep of his life. He’d managed to get Jess to sleep in, too, and even if what they’d been up to wasn’t only sleep, he’d never felt as rested or as good in his life.

Yep, the best sleep of his life and the best muffin a bear ever did eat. A blueberry oatmeal muffin that burst with juice and sweetness and love. Jess had slipped out of bed an hour before him — obviously, he’d have to work on her definition of sleeping in — and baked a fresh batch, just for him.

It had pretty much been the best morning ever, stretching long past noon. The saloon didn’t open until late on Sundays, so there was no rush. Plenty of time to touch, to kiss, and finally, to eat breakfast. It was bliss until Soren stomped downstairs, muttering something about coffee.

Jess had walked by him with a friendly, “Good morning.”

“Morning,” Soren mumbled back.

Jessica’s scent had trailed half a step behind her, thick with the heavy musk of bear. Of satisfaction. Of sex.

Soren’s head whipped around. To Jess then back to Simon, then to Jess again. Soren’s eyes grew wide, and he batted Simon in the chest.

You telling me that you and she…
Soren blurted into his mind. Another accusation.
You…you…

The fire in his eyes made it clear Soren knew exactly what verb followed the
You
.

Which was what had brought him and Soren to the diner, because the conversation they had to have might stand a better chance of avoiding an all-out fight in a place like this. The two of them were squeezed into a booth way in the corner of the diner, glaring at each other over the Formica table, grateful for the boisterous softball team seated at the opposite side of the establishment, providing enough noise to cover their conversation.

“How could I not be serious about Jess?” Simon said.

“I mean more than serious. I mean sure,” Soren snapped.

“Sure, I’m sure. You got a problem with that?” He leaned forward and showed his teeth. His regular human teeth, but his bear fangs weren’t far from extending, judging from the pressure on his gums.

Soren bristled, unimpressed. Really bristled with considerably more hair showing on his arms and neck than normally would. Both of them were a breath away from shifting, itching to fight.

Simon didn’t blink. If he had to fight his brother into accepting the truth, he would. Never mind that his older brother beat him every time they’d fought, either as kids or men. He’d take Soren on. He’d do what he had to. He’d do
anything
he had to do.

Like flexing his fingers against the table, fighting to keep his claws sheathed. Why the hell was Soren so bitter about the idea?

Somewhere across the diner, a woman laughed, and they both looked up. An older woman patted the shoulder of the man next to her in an easy, practiced motion she’d probably repeated over the past twenty or thirty years.

They both watched for a second, and when Soren turned back, Simon saw him in a new light.

Maybe Soren wasn’t so much mad as sad. Still in mourning, as he always would be, for his lost mate.

Simon sucked in a long, dry breath and started again, in a whisper this time.

“Look, if it were Sarah…”

Soren’s head snapped up, his eyes fierce.

Simon plowed on. “If it were Sarah, wouldn’t you risk anything to get her back?”

The fire in Soren’s eyes burned brighter, then slowly died out. He dipped his chin so far, it nearly touched his chest. “I’d die for her.” Then he winced and closed his eyes. He didn’t say the rest, but it was written all over his face.
But I didn’t. I failed.

A painfully quiet minute passed in which Simon relived the soul-sucking despair of the past six months. Yeah, he knew exactly how Soren felt. And it hurt almost as much to be the lucky one. The one with a second chance.

“Look,” Simon said, as softly as he could. “I know you’d do anything for her. I’d do anything to help you get her. But…”

Soren stared at the table. They both knew the
but
was an obstacle that no amount of wishing, dreaming, or fighting would overcome. Soren shook his head and downed the last of his coffee with an expression so blank, it hurt Simon more than the angry version did. Soren was hiding the pain. Denying it, just as he had these past dreary months.

“No,” Soren said in a raspy voice. When he looked up again, the bear had drifted out of his eyes, replaced by a weary resignation. “I guess I don’t have a problem with that.”

Simon exhaled slowly, but his brother wasn’t done.

Soren leaned closer and finished his thought. “But the Twin Moon wolves might.”

Simon threw his head back. Christ, what would it take to win his mate?

“Why would they?” Simon didn’t know everyone on Twin Moon Ranch, but he knew there were a couple of non-wolves mixed in. A handful of humans, a wild boar…

“Think about it. They’ve got their own to protect. They don’t want Blue Bloods sniffing around here any more than we do. And really, what do the wolves of Twin Moon Ranch owe us?”

Simon groped for words. Soren was right. The wolves didn’t really owe them anything. Didn’t owe Jess and Janna, either. They had been willing to help out, but how much longer would they be willing to help if the newcomers drew rogues into their corner of the world?

Not long
, Soren’s sharp gaze said.
Not long.

“Maybe Tina could…” Simon started.

Soren cut him off with a sharp shake of the head. “Are you really going to ask her to go that far out on a limb for us?”

Tina was kind and generous and principled to the core. She’d help smooth things over with the wolf pack if they asked. But she was also mated to a man who’d been human before she turned him wolf. Tina was building an addition on her house that could only mean the two of them were hoping for kids.

Now Simon was the one shaking his head. No, he couldn’t ask any more of Tina. Couldn’t put her at risk, too.

“Us being bears, Jess being a wolf…” Soren went on. “The Blue Bloods would come looking…”

Soren didn’t have to spell it out.

Simon pulled a sugar packet closer and ripped it to shreds, just to have something to destroy. His bear had already been picturing the apartment over the saloon as home. As the start of a new den, maybe even a real clan someday. He and Jess could take a room at the far end of the house, and Soren and Janna could…

He caught himself there. Did he really expect Soren and Janna to be daily witnesses to his newfound bliss? Well, Janna, maybe. She wouldn’t mind, and a woman like her was bound to find a mate of her own someday. But Soren…

He glanced at his brother. Damn.

He could play the surly uncle
, his bear suggested.

Damn bear had everything figured out, did he? Although cubs just might soften Soren up…

Simon pushed the thought out of his mind and tried pulling some kind of plan together.

The bell over the diner door jingled merrily, but the man stomping in under it looked more like a thundercloud than the sunshine outside. Simon cursed under his breath. What he needed — fast — was a plan that would convince the Twin Moon alpha that he and Soren could maintain peace among wolves. Good wolves and bad wolves.

He had to work hard to remember the
good wolves
part, watching Ty Hawthorne stomp up. A very unhappy alpha on a mission to bruise, maim, and possibly kill, judging by the smoldering look on his face. A dark cloud of disapproval traveled ahead of him, practically flattening everything in sight.

He smacked a newspaper on the table, and the people three booths over jumped. “What the hell were you thinking?”

Simon blinked. “Um…”

Soren turned the paper to read it and swore under his breath.

What?
Simon shot the question into his brother’s mind.
What?

Soren’s arm blocked the newspaper, but when he turned it, Simon saw the photo on the lower right.

“Shit.”

Lost girl saved from inferno!
the headline blazed.
Five thousand acres burn. Local heroine…

Shit, shit, shit. Even the wave of pride that hit him didn’t stop his gut from churning. There was Jess, front and center, in a paper all of northern Arizona read.

It was one of those prize-winning photographs that managed to capture all of the energy, the drama, the relief of last night. Jess stood on one side, smudged with soot, leaning over the little girl and her teary mother with a bolstering smile. The kind of newspaper article he’d frame and hang in the saloon, if it weren’t for one thing.

“If anyone sees this and recognizes her…” Ty trailed off.

Soren’s phone lay on the table, and it peeped with an incoming text, but no one paid it any mind. Not at a time like this.

Simon snatched the paper up and started skim-reading. There was no mention of Jessica’s name, nor his. But the photo had captured Jess perfectly. It was only a question of time before she was recognized. He could see it now. Some asshole from Mike’s Hardware would see the paper, recognize Jess, and call out the press.

His heart beat faster. And with the rogues after Jess…

“Shit.”

“Shit is right,” Ty barked, barely under his breath. “Where is she now?”

He wasn’t that stupid. Kyle, the wolf-cop, was parked innocuously across from the saloon, keeping an eye on things while the bears were away.

“Kyle’s there.”

Ty gritted his teeth, still not satisfied. He thumped a fist on the newspaper. “What the hell were you thinking?”

The couple in the neighboring booth tossed a couple of bills on their table and fled.

“I was thinking, get the kid out of the fire,” Simon blurted. “Get my mate out of the fire.”

Ty froze, and Soren winced.

“Your mate?” the wolf growled, low and menacing.

It was all he could do not to growl back. Jess wasn’t Ty Hawthorne’s to growl over. She was his! She was his bear’s! She was…

He let his eyes slide shut. She was her own damn person, and if he couldn’t manage more than caveman tactics, she’d never accept him as her mate.

Soren’s phone peeped again, and Simon barely held back from flattening it with his fist.

“My mate,” he declared, looking up into the alpha’s dark eyes.