ROMANCE: MENAGE ROMANCE: Tapped and Taken by Two (Pregnancy Sports MMA UFC Fighter Romance) (Alpha Male Romance) (55 page)

“Larisa—” he gasped.

She tilted her face to redirect her kisses along his jawline. She sucked on his earlobes for a second, then traveled farther to nibble on the pointed ends of his ears. Larisa liked how she could drive him wild with just a few simple touches. He squirmed beneath her, the breath forced from his lungs. He pressed a hand against her chest and pushed himself back.

“Larisa—you’re going to make me desire more,” he said through bated breath.

“Do you want more?”

“Are you being dirty with me?”

“You didn’t answer the question,” she said, laughing and kissing him on the neck.

“You are too irresistible,” he groaned. “That question is unfair.”

Larisa laughed. “I’m sorry, I wasn’t really meaning to tease you. I just couldn’t help myself for a moment.”

She snuggled into him and he squeezed her as tight as he could without sending unbearable pain pulsing through the  tender spot where his wound was in his side.

“I promise we can make love day and night when we return,” he said. “Once we’ve both rested.”  

“You make a good point… In hindsight, I’m not sure I could last long right now.”

Kallos smiled and kissed her forehead.

Larisa laced her fingered between his. “I…”

“Yes?” Kallos prompted after she fell into silence.

“I… I’m actually looking forward to getting back. For the wedding… I mean.”

Kallos’ grin spread the entire width of his face.

“As am I,” he said. “And I never was one for ceremony before.”

“Really?”

“Formalities—especially long processions—tend to bore me. But now I can’t wait to see you in your wedding dress. Nillana has been busy finding various styles for you to choose from.”

“Is there a party after the ceremony?”

“There’s a massive banquet,” he said, growing enlivened at the thought. “Food, drinks, and dancing. Royal weddings are extravagant, but I hope it won’t be too overwhelming for you.”

“And afterwards?”

“Afterwards, we retire to our new suite.” 

“I’d like that,” Larisa said. She kissed him once more, then rested her head against him.

“I’d like that as well,” Kallos said. “I’d like that as well.”

~

The warm morning sunlight danced across Larisa’s bare shoulders and soaked deep into the skin of her naked neck. The color of the silver gown wrapping around her body and trailing behind her, was an identical match to the elaborate robes Kallos wore. They stood facing each other, smiling like young lovers, atop an altar painted with the stylized image of a star. Behind them, in the open air courtyard, were rows of seated guests, banners of the royal family’s colors hanging from balconies and decorative posts, and white flower petals scattered along the the aisle. In front of them stood an old official garbed in black, who recited a traditional text from memory and held an engraved, wooden box.

“And Larisa of Earth, do you vow to love and cherish each other for as long as you both shall live? To uphold the link you have forged and never think of leaving it, but only to nurture and build upon it?”

“I vow,” Larisa said, her heart radiating joy at how immediate Kallos’ response to the same question had been.

“Then, Lord Kallos,” continued the official. “Take from this box that which will forever bind you, and claim your partner.”

Kallos opened the box and removed from it Larisa’s collar, now embedded with a ring of syimondium gems—their syimondium.

Larisa hadn’t seen the collar since it was taken from her days ago, and the sight of it now took her breath away. Her eyes began to tear and she stifled a cry. Everything they had gone through, each moment leading up to now, could be seen in the metal gleam, the circular shape, and the sparkling gems.

Kallos held it up to her, and following the guidance Larisa had been given in preparation for the ceremony, she turned around for him. One of his fingers brushed aside a strand of baby hair that couldn’t be pulled into her braided up-do. Her eyes fluttered closed as the metal clasped around her neck. She turned back around to see Kallos’ sea green eyes a little watery around the edges. In her heart, she felt certain that it wasn’t just a trick of the light.

“Now, Lady Larisa,” the minister said. “Take from this box that which will forever bind you, and claim your partner.”

Larisa took a steadying breath and removed Kallos’ collar from the box. Kallos turned for her, and bent down so she could reach without standing on tiptoes. She looked from the collar to his neck, then back again.

“Claim your partner,” she repeated to herself, and she slipped the collar around his neck. Her fingers lingered for a moment, half on the smooth metal, and half on his nape. She stepped back and Kallos returned to face her. His expression was brighter than all the stars combined, and Larisa found herself willing the minister to hurry to the next part.

“Before us stands two being who have vowed to share a life as one,” the minister announced to the crowd. “And with this marriage, we also welcome the new king and queen of Halpa.” He addressed Larisa and Kallos once more. “King Kallos Nhy’jas, Queen Larisa Nhy’jas, you may seal your vows.”

With those words, Larisa leapt into Kallos’ arm and threw her lips into his. He kissed her back as he swung her around, the trail of her dress swirling in the air. Larisa was so lost in her love that she didn’t even notice the crowd cheering behind them or the downpour of petals softly raining down upon them.

The End

Outlaw Bear King

Chapter One

              It felt bittersweet to move back home.  On the one hand, Zoey was glad to be back in her old hometown. She had good memories from here. More good than bad anyways, but that didn’t have anything to do with the bitter part of coming back home. It seemed like she was giving up on her dreams, or maybe that her dreams were giving up on her. She dreaded that moment of walking into her old home to see her mom. Seeing that look on her face that would be a mix of joy from seeing her daughter again, but also guilt and regret that she wasn’t able to help her more.

Zoey went to Massachusetts in hopes of becoming a vet. Her first step was to study animal biology. But now, due to financial reasons, she was barred from continuing her education. Zoey did everything she could. Worked three jobs and even that wasn’t enough. Her friends just asked why she didn’t go to her mom for help financially, but she knew there was nothing her mom could do. It’s not like she was rich or anything, and any money she would send her would come from Ted, her husband. Zoey couldn’t bring herself to take money from him even if he would lend her some. He would hold it over her until she would be able to pay every last cent back. He was one of the reasons Zoey moved away in the first place to go to school. He wasn’t abusive or anything, but Zoey and him just didn’t get along, and it was better for her mom that she didn’t have to live through that stress. Zoey felt that at least one good thing that Ted gave her was the inspiration to do well in school so she could get into a good school and get away.   

              But here she was, back home, in some forgotten town in rural Maine.  She sighed as she waited at the local bus stop outside the greyhound terminal for the only bus that ran through the town, waiting for her ride back home. She hadn’t told her mom yet that she was coming home. Zoey just couldn’t do it. She kept on believing that there was some other way, but with no way of paying rent as well as classes Zoey had to make the decision to drop out. Her first plan was to find a more inexpensive apartment to live in, take a fourth job, and start saving for classes. Her landlord though cheated her out of the damage deposit and left Zoey with nothing to put down on the new apartment she found. So standing out on the street with no-where to go she made the decision to head back home. It was literally the last place she wanted to be, but there was no-where else to go. 

              Finally, she heard the tell-tale sounds of the old bus making its way toward her.  It rattled with the effort of going more than 20 miles per hour. Things like this stirred the nostalgia she felt for the small town she grew up in, but also reminded her of the home she was going back to.  She climbed aboard the bus to find it nearly deserted, which it normally was at that time of night.  There was an old man who looked half asleep in the back. She sat in the front seat, near the gruff driver who paid her no mind. She just wanted to get home now and get that conversation with her mom over with. It had already been a long and shameful greyhound ride from the city that day.

              Reaching her bus stop, she got out, carrying her small suitcase with her. Her old apartment was furnished, and Zoey was a little sad knowing that everything she owned at this point in her life fit into that suitcase. It was late and the streets were dark due to the lack of lamp posts. It was so strange being somewhere where the sound of traffic wasn’t always coating every other sound around it, and the walk to your front door took you down dark roads with no sidewalks and just acres of murky forest beyond what she could see. Zoey clutched her belongings harder as if it would protect her from the things that her childhood imagination told her were lurking in the shadows. Zoey couldn’t explain it, but she always felt watched walking down these roads in her hometown at night. She had never seen anything, but it was more like a feeling always in the back of her mind. The feeling that something lurked in the forest at night. 

              She quickened her pace and was practically running as she turned the corner of her street. As she walked up to the door that hadn’t changed a bit since she left, she noticed all the lights were off. The neighbor across the street was pulling out her garbage cans. Zoey didn’t recognize her at all.

“Hey, do you know if Marsha and Ted are home?”

“Home? Who’s asking?”

“Sorry, I’m Zoey. Marsha’s daughter. I’m kind of surprising them with a visit back from school.”

“Oh yes, Marsha mentioned you once or twice. It’s nice to meet you, but I’m afraid you should have called ahead Zoey. Your mom and dad are in Florida for the next month or so they told me.”

“Florida!?”

“Yeah, apparently your dad got them a little vacation home for a bit and the two of them are down there now. Do you need to use the phone to call them? I could let you use mine.”

“No thanks, I’ve got a cell.”

“Okay well do you have a plan for the night?”

“Don’t worry about it. I’ve got a key for the house.”

“Well okay then, I guess maybe you just learned a valuable lesson in planning ahead. Right dearie?”

  Zoey was not in the mood for that, and she was glad it was dark enough so that the lady probably didn’t see the look on her face.

“Oh yeah, well thanks for the notice, and Ted’s not my dad okay. Did they leave a number or something with you?”

The lady quickly came back out of her house with a piece of paper she scribbled the number on and she thrust it at Zoey. The neighbor could feel animosity and frustration coming off Zoey even if she couldn’t see her face, and she just turned to walk back into her house leaving Zoey outside her darkened childhood home alone.

Zoey looked at her cell and decided she would call from her mom’s phone inside the house. She had no idea how many minutes she had left, and she definitely didn’t have the money to buy anymore at that time.
 

              Zoey sighed. She walked past her mother’s rose garden that looked like it could use some watering. In her mood, she told herself that it wouldn’t be her problem just like she wasn’t apparently their problem now. Putting her suitcase down, she knelt next to the dry dirt of the flower patch and found the oddly colored rock near the mailbox.  She picked it up and opened the false bottom, pulling out the spare key. At least that was one thing that went right today. Zoey had no idea what she was going to do if the spare wasn’t there.  

              Soon, Zoey was inside her childhood home.  She turned on all the lights and turned up the heat.  The house was a mess, causing her to sigh once more. Cluttered with useless things that her mother couldn’t seem to get rid of. Frankly, Zoey had on more than one occasion thought about telling her mom to get some help for her hoarding issues. Her mom just would have ignored her though, and Ted would probably just keep on ignoring the situation like he did everything else. Zoey knew the house was going to be in a bad state, but leaving and coming back to it with fresh eyes made her feel all the more overwhelmed by the chaos of the house. 

              Zoey struggled to navigate herself and her suitcase around the boxes and stacks of magazines Ted and her mom probably didn’t even read in the first place. She didn’t see either of them as the “cigar aficionado” type. Opening the door to her old room she was nearly crushed by toppling boxes.  Her room was now overrun by clothes, shoes, and everything else her mother had bought while she was away. The bed wasn’t even in sight.  She looked into her mom’s and Ted’s bedroom and it wasn’t much better.  Frustrated, she grabbed a blanket and headed for the couch. She plopped herself down and soon gave into what her body was feeling and fell asleep in exhaustion. 

              In the morning, Zoey woke up and stared at the ceiling not wanting to look around her. At least the ceiling was free of clutter, even if it had a brown water stain that wasn’t there before.  Zoey took her time lying there, but soon came to the decision that she had no choice but to clean the house. She was a total neat freak. Her room was always the cleanest room in her house. Her mom mentioned once when Ted wasn’t around that she got it from her father. After she left, Zoey’s mom probably found the organized and clean space too inviting to not fill with unneeded clutter. Being back at home, the trashed house was making more of an impact on her than it did before. Suddenly, Zoey had a thought. At least she had the power to do something about this issue in her life.

In the threadbare pajama pants and tank top she had with her, she started stacking and organizing things. Piling worthless junk with similar worthless junk until she managed to forge a wide pathway from the couch to the bathroom and then then kitchen. Finding some old and dusty cleaning supplies in a cupboard Zoey then got to cleaning the newly exposed carpet and floors. She then tackled the bathroom and the kitchen counters and sink. Finally, as the light of the day started to fade through the cracks underneath the pulled down shades Zoey went into her old room and started carrying armloads of magazines and boxes of boxes and bags of bags into the basement until she felt like she had her room back. When she finally shut the door to her bedroom, leaving the rest of the mess alone, she felt like she was home again. She took a deep breath and plopped down on her bed sending a cloud of dust up into the air. Some things were just going to need to wait until the next day. 

Zoey suddenly realized it was the end of day and she hadn’t eaten anything yet. Her mind drifted back to the last few years of her life at home, and she remembered the shoebox she used to stash the money she made in tips working in the town diner. She reached under her bed and found it still there. Opening the lid she was shocked to find two crumpled twenty dollar bills still rolling around inside it.

“Pizza money,” she said out loud before grabbing her phone to call the one place in town that delivered. Finding those two bills was probably the best thing that had happened to her in the past few months. She was so tired and hungry and couldn’t bring herself to open another cupboard door hoping to find something she could make to eat only to find another mess that she couldn’t let herself leave alone, and she didn’t want to even think about what had gotten left in the fridge when her parents took off for Florida. At least she had gotten the house into a state she could walk through without having to tear out her hair. Her bedroom had even started to gain that feeling of hominess. She sat on the couch looking for something good to watch on TV, and waited for the pizza to arrive. By ten o’clock, she was full and half-way through an episode of
Charmed
when she remembered that she still needed to call her mother and tell her what’s going on in her life.

“Hello?

“Yeah, hi mom. It’s me.”

“Zoey?”

“Well isn’t this a nice surprise. Hey Teddy it’s Zoey on the phone.”

Zoey could hear Ted mumbling something in the background before her mom’s voice came back on the line.

“I don’t know Ted, I’ll ask her what she wants.”

“Mom, I just need you to listen to me for a minute.”

Zoey ran through her situation as briefly and unemotionally as she could, and afterwards she could hear her mom swallow the moisture in her mouth and shuffle into another room.

“Well dear, just take the time that you need to get back on your feet. Ted and me won’t be back until next month. Do you think you’re going to be longer than that?”

“I.. I don’t know mom. I don’t really have a plan yet. Do I have a time limit?”

“Well I just thought if you were gone before we get back I just wouldn’t need to tell Ted...you know how he can be sometimes.”

Zoey’s heart sunk but she couldn’t say she wasn’t shocked to hear what she just heard.

“I’ll do my best mom, but you know I can’t say that I’ll have my life fixed in a month.”

“I know you’ll figure it out. Just don’t make any big changes to the house in the meantime and we’ll figure out how to tell Ted if we need to. And dear?”

“What mom?” Zoey was a little angry at how hurt she was feeling. She knew it would be like this, but it was hard knowing her childhood home now had conditions on it.

“I’ve got some money stashed away in my top drawer if you need it for anything. Ted doesn’t know it’s there so just take whatever you need.”

“Thanks mom. I’ll let you know when I know what’s up.”

Zoey at least knew that her mom would do what she could to help her. Zoey was both angry and sad for her mom at the same time. Zoey never wanted to be in a relationship that made her choose between it and something else she loved. Just another reason for her not to like Ted. She wished her mom wouldn’t be so afraid of being on her own.

Before going to sleep Zoey went into her mom’s room and found a small jewelry box stashed in the top drawer. She opened it and found a roll of twenties in it. Zoey counted out a hundred dollars from it and put it back the way she found it, and hoped she didn’t need to go back for more to get herself back on her feet.

Chapter 2
    

              The next morning, she got dressed and headed out into civilization. She needed a job. Money was the problem and she wasn’t going to get anywhere without getting money back into her account. Finding a way back to her life in the city and eventually her classes at school wasn’t going to happen without money, and more money than her mom had hidden away from Ted.