A Fox Between the Bear's Sheets (2 page)

even his bear hadn’t been able to sense it.

She stared at him for a long time, and it killed him, had his anger rising, and his pain

escalating.

“I didn’t mean to hurt you. I really, truly didn’t.” Her tongue poked out, and she wet her

bottom lip, and even though the words sounded sincere he could tell there was a lot more she was

going to say. “I met Kevin at the office, and we hit it off, fell in love almost instantly. I—”

“What else, Mina? I know there is fucking more than just that.” The pain and tightness in his

chest increased as she stared at him with sad eyes, but that sorrow wasn’t over what she was putting

him through, but because she was sad it had all come to light this way. “It wasn’t like I was trying to

deceive you.” Wasn’t that a load of shit? “Come on, Ford, you and I both know this relationship was

over with a long time ago.”

He saw red. “No, Mina, I have never stopped loving you, never stopped wanting you.” He ran

his hands through his hair and didn’t stop the growl that left him. “For fuck’s sake, I just proposed for

the third fucking time last month.” He stared at her with what he knew were crazy eyes, because that

was exactly how he felt: fucking insane. “I loved you.” His voice was becoming a distorted growl, and

he knew he was far too close to shifting for comfort. He needed to go, needed to run and cause some

destruction to feel whole again, at least for the next few hours.

“Six months.”

He didn’t need to ask what she meant, because he fucking knew. The low rumble that filled the

room came from him. Every part of his body shook, and he clenched his hands together into tight fists

until he felt his claws slice into his palms. For six fucking months she’d cheated on him, had some

other male’s dick up inside of her. All of a sudden he felt filthy, used, and stupid as hell.

“Listen to me. It was just something that happened—”

“You cheated on me, Mina, and for what?” He resumed pacing, but as a thought crossed his

mind he snapped his head in her direction. “Was there more before this one?” And the way she looked,

coupled with her silence, told him all he needed to know. He ran his hands through his hair again and

tugged hard on the strands. Dropping his hands and looking at Mina once again, he felt the last six

years of loving her harden in his chest. “Why the fuck are you here screwing me when you are so in

love with him, when you’ve deceived me all this time, and I’m assuming many more times before?”

She stood and took a step closer, but he knew it wasn’t to comfort him.

“I still love you, Ford, I do. I’m just not
in
love with you. I don’t know if I ever really was.”

His laugh was humorless. “Oh, I get it. You thought you’d keep both of us, right? A bear on the

side, one that would have done everything in his power to make you happy, to protect you, but not the

one you really loved? Not fucking likely.” He walked up to her, but making sure not to touch her he

reached for her purse and tossed it to her. “Get the fuck out of here, and don’t bother calling me or

coming around again.”

Her eyes went wide, and he swore she was going to cry. But then again only someone with

actual feelings could have such emotions.

“So it’s just like that?”

He loved her, had given her a part of himself, but yeah, he was no one’s doormat.

“I don’t know what the fuck you want from me, Mina. You want me to stay with you while you

fuck me and then leave in the middle of the night to go fuck your other boyfriend?” A growl left him

at the thought, and bile rose in his throat. “I’m not into that ménage shit, and no fucking way will I

stand by and let the girl I’m seeing go off to be with someone else.” She stayed quiet and that pissed

him off even more. “Just go, Mina. You’re right, this is over, and apparently has been for a very long

time.”

He was a fucking fool, the biggest fucking idiot that walked the earth. His bear had been blind

to what was going on, and the fact he’d let his defenses down so that his inner animal instinct hadn’t

even been able to detect her betrayal was a slap in his damn face. His heart broke in two as he watched

her hesitate before tightening her hold on her purse and turning to leave. The fact the last six years

could have been brushed away so easily was a killer. How had it happened so fast? The sound of her

heels clicking on the hardwood floor down the hall, then through the living room, and then finally the

front door opening and closing had him sinking to his knees and letting his anguish finally take hold.

The sound of her car driving away had the fire in his belly burning so bright it consumed him. To

think that she truly had been with someone else, that she loved someone else, had slept with another

male, all the while thinking he would sit back and be okay with it all, tainted what they had for all

these years. It was clear she had never been invested in their relationship, and that she had never really

felt what he felt. He asked himself how he could have been so ignorant to what was going on right in

front of him. He needed to get out of the house, run free, and tear some shit up. He had made plans for

them, ones that included a family and marriage.

“
Fuck
!” But now all of that was all down the shitter in the span of less than an hour.

He vowed at that moment he would never let himself get consumed by the thought of love. It

was a disgusting and untrustworthy emotion, one that stole everything good and turned it into

worthlessness. No, never again would Ford let himself be taken advantage of and put in such a

vulnerable position. Love was for people who were weak, and he would never let himself get this way,

feel this way, ever again. Well fuck him, fuck her, and fuck everyone else who told him otherwise.

He wanted to hurt something or someone as much as he was hurting, but instead of letting his

bear free at that moment to cause some serious destruction he did something he had never done in his

twenty-five years of living. He cried.

Present day

Ford slammed back another shot of bourbon and stared across the bar at the blonde with the

huge tits. She was totally eye-fucking him, but then again he was doing the same to her. The female’s

shirt, if it could even be called that, was about three sizes too tight, and he knew damn well she wasn’t

wearing a bra. Her fucking nipples were hard as hell, and the slight outlines of her areolas were clear

as fucking day through the material. She lifted her hand and wrapped her thin fingers around the girly

drink in front of her. Her nails were bright as fuck, and probably named something like cotton candy

or passion fruit. Hell, her nails matched the shade of her damn lipstick, but all he could think about

was the color smeared along his cock while she sucked him off. He slammed his hand on the counter

and gestured for another shot. He was drunker than fuck, but that’s how he liked it. Ten long years had

passed, and here he was, getting shit-faced once again over his fucking hang-ups. But what made it

worse was knowing Mina was back in town. How in the hell did she think she had the right to call him

up and tell him she was getting married? Ford wanted to tell her to fuck off, that he didn’t give two

shits what she did with her life, but he hadn’t been able to get the words out of his mouth. In fact, he

hadn’t been able to say anything when she called. He had shut the hell up, listened to her sickly sweet

voice that sounded sympathetic and fake as fuck, and everything else had closed off inside of him.

Those first few years when he had broken it off with Mina had been hard, but over time he just

started not caring about anything. Ford supposed it helped that he found enough willing females to

bury himself in, to help forget why he was so fucked-up, but the end result always had him feeling

even worse. He needed that numbing escape to leave reality. He hated to know what a shrink would

say of how he was dealing with his issues, that holding on to something for ten fucking years was

because he probably had some deeper rooted problems, but fuck it all. It wasn’t even the fact he

missed
her
, but more that he was sick of being alone, and her betrayal had cut him so fucking deep he

didn’t know if he could ever trust another woman again. He certainly hadn’t this whole time.

The blonde took one last pull from her straw, pushed her glass away, and made her way toward

him. He didn’t have to be a shifter to smell her lust. Hell, she had been throwing off the vibes that she

wanted to screw since she first walked in, and it hadn’t all been for him either. He wasn’t picky when

it came to who he fucked anymore, at least not when he was drunker than shit like he was now. She

stopped before him just as the bartender slid a freshly filled shot glass in front of him. Ford eyed her

up and down and felt his cock twitch slightly. That was the problem with letting himself get this

blitzed … whiskey dick. He had no worries, though, not when he knew when it was time to get down

to it that shit would be ready to go.

“Hi.” That one word was a silky purr from her overly painted and Botox injected lips. “Ford,

right?” He picked up his shot and down it without taking his eyes from her. She knew who the fuck he

was, especially since he had seen her on a few other occasions at the shifter bar. Besides, he had

fucked a lot of females in the town of Sweet Water, and he wasn’t so delusional to not think they

didn’t talk about what an asshole he was. So yeah, she knew who he was. “You need a little company

tonight? Maybe an extra body warming your bed?” He was a one-night kind of male, and despite the

various females over the years who had tried to tie him down, he would not change who he had

become. It was like a fire burning brightly in his belly, one that gave him the strength and indifference

toward everything that happened around him. He didn’t bother answering, because what was the point?

He wasn’t proud of the male he had become, but he also wouldn’t apologize about it. If this female

lived in Sweet Water, then she knew who and what he was, knew that if she gave herself to him it

would only be for a few hours, and that he wasn’t interested in anything but a piece of ass.

“If I didn’t I wouldn’t be fucking talkin’ to you, right?” He was being an asshole, he knew this,

but he was also fucking drunk, needed some pussy to help clear his mind, and didn’t want to have a

conversation with her. He wanted to be horizontal with the female, so why not just cut to the fucking

chase? “You want a drink?” He might be a dick on the best of days, but he could at least buy the chick

he was about to screw a shot. And there was no denying she was primed for him. Hell, he could

fucking smell how wet she was and knew he wouldn’t have to do much sweet talking to get her panties

to drop, if any at all. He wouldn’t call her a whore, but it was clear she didn’t care who she let

between her thighs.

“Sure, sugar.” Ford didn’t correct her on the fact he didn’t want her calling him shit like that.

After ordering her a shot, because hell-fucking-no was he going to order some feminine crap, he

waited for her to take it down before he took her to the small motel next to the bar. Whoever decided

to build the rinky-dink little place right next to where everyone in town came to get drunk had been a

fucking genius. When he fucked these random females it was never in his home … never. That was his

spot, his sanctuary, and he sure as hell didn’t want it tainted by the filthy shit he did.

It was clear she wasn’t used to the hard stuff since she started coughing and sputtering as soon

as she swallowed the whiskey. He slammed a few bills on the counter to cover his tab, took her hand

and led her out of the bar. He had taken his Harley, knowing that he hadn’t wanted to be in the cab of

his truck with the cloying scent of perfume suffocating him, because all of the chicks he brought back

to fuck wore the shit. He bypassed his bike, because frankly he was surprised he could even walk

straight for as much as he had drunk, and strode quickly to Sweet Water Motel. It wasn’t a Hilton,

more like a Motel 8, but it served its purpose with four walls and a bed. “Wait here.” He left the

female right outside the front door of the motel, paid for a night even though he’d only use it for an

hour or two, and went back outside. After taking her hand again and leading her into the stale, generic

room, he wasted no time in pushing her on the bed, shoving her too tight skirt up her thighs, and

telling her exactly what he wanted from her.

“Spread your legs and start working your pussy with your fingers.” Ford didn’t bother taking

off his clothes, just unzipped his jeans, took out his cock, and stroked himself with his palm until he

was hard enough to put a condom on. If he could have wrapped his dick up ten times with latex he