and tucked it back into his briefs, zipping his pants back up as he groaned.
“Pam—” he started, but she cut him off. She grabbed Jayce by his hair and pulled him into a hard, possessive kiss, tugging his lower lip between her teeth, as her leg hooked around his hip.
“I know it’s hard for you,” she murmured, grinding against him. “I know what that girl means to you. But if she’s a Keeper like her mama, she’ll be dangerous. Do it for your mom. And Lynn.” Her breath picked up and she added, heatedly, “Do it for me . C’mon, give it to me, baby…”
She rubbed against him harder, faster, until she heard his telltale moan and felt him shudder against her. Smiling, victorious, she hooked her arm around his neck and held him there.
“Fuck, Pam,” he grunted.
She gave the side of his face a hard little pat, and then said, “Keep me in the know, sunshine.” With that, Pam unwound from him and left Jayce catching his breath, pants stained.
Great . He pushed away and tried to regain control of his limbs. Jayce stepped inside his trailed and closed the screen door behind him.
His heart was thudding. He changed out of his pants, cleaned himself up, and flopped down on the edge of his mattress. Memories of Cami still stained his bed. He drew his hand over the sheet, flattening out the wrinkles she’d twisted into it.
He remembered her taste. The way her legs had trembled around his head. He thought about being inside her, wet and wanting. Remembered the way she’d gripped his sheets when she came, screaming.
Her girlish laugh. The warmth of her body. The familiarity in her kiss, the way it reminded him of a time when things were simpler , when he was just a boy and she was just a girl and visions of a wild man-bear didn’t keep him up at night.
His fingers reached the top of his sheets. There were black, charred marks where her hands had gripped. As though they’d been seared through with a flame.
Perhaps Pam was right. Maybe Cami was dangerous after all.
Chapter 2
Cami struggled for breath, wheezing as her throat constricted under the bear-man’s superhuman grasp. Her legs kicked for traction but she felt nothing but air underneath her bare feet.
He smiled as he watched her twist and writhe under his grip, an eerie, twisted smile. His eyes shimmered with an orange, luminescent sheen. Over one eye, a sliver of scar took out a slice of his eyebrow. “I’ve been waiting for this,” he growled, “for a very, very long time.”
Cami ripped her nails into his arms but he didn’t flinch. He yanked her closer and shoved his nose in her hair, taking a deep breath in. “You stink of your mother,” he said, his accent foreign, like he was talking with a mouth full of rusted nails. “You have her blood, but none of her strength.” His voice dropped low. “She fought hard before I ripped her throat out.”
Her eyes stung and she could feel a fire in her chest and in her dry throat. She wanted to scream, wanted to curse at him, but her head was getting light. “You remember the name Aldric,” he said. “The Beast who killed the Keepers of Tyburn.”
She felt her muscles start to weaken, like a puppet with the strings cut, but her heart worked double time to fight it, pounding hard in her chest.
Maybe she should just let go. Maybe…
(Not today, darling. Not like this.)
A loud, chilling roar scattered her thoughts. Her assailant’s head whipped around and she saw his mouth twist into a sneer. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw it. A huge, angry grizzly bear. Nut-brown fur. Flashing eyes.
Wonderful. Now she had two things to kill her. Cami squeaked and felt her eyes droop, lidding.
“The girl is mine,” the man hissed, and then threw her to the ground. Cami hit a tree and heard a crack. Her consciousness wavered and she fought to stay awake as she gasped through what felt like brambles and sticks scratching her throat.
Slumped bonelessly against the tree, she watched the naked man
Gary Hastings
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