A Taste of Honey (16 page)

Another pang of empathy struck Violet, threading its way through her memories of the night before. Ted looked so earnest, so eager to make Ronnie and her understand when that should’ve been the least of his problems, in light of what he himself was facing with Kristen.

“You two will be at the ceremony, right?” Ted wasn’t nearly as good as Ronnie was at masking his emotions, though he looked like he was trying. His eyes gleamed with a nervous, half-hopeful sheen as he stared across the table at them both. It made him look younger than ever, causing the age gap between him and Ronnie to seem wider.

“It’s my responsibility to be at the ceremony,” Ronnie said. “But even if it wasn’t, we’d be there. Right Violet?”

She nodded. “Of course. Ted… I hope you and Kristen will be happy together.” Somehow. For his sake, mostly.

Ted smiled. “We will be. It might be hard at first, with me fresh out of college and searching for a job, but I’ve already got a few interviews lined up and with my engineering degree, I know I’ll be able to support us and the baby when it arrives. I think… I think everything will work out, as crazy as that might sound.”

“It doesn’t sound crazy,” Violet said. Strange, yes. Unexpected, yes.  And it wasn’t as if a bitter taste didn’t still fill her mouth every time she thought of Kristen. But she knew what it felt like to discover one’s destined mate. The pull was absolutely irresistible, the bond strong enough to endure things the average relationship might not. That was what gave her hope for Ted, whose unselfish optimism and similarity to Ronnie combined to pull her heartstrings a little tighter every time she looked at him.

“Thanks, you guys.” He’d finished most of his breakfast already. “I’m gonna get going. I want to talk to dad and our grandparents about a good time to hold the ceremony.” He rose and pushed his chair beneath the table. “Thanks for breakfast.”

Ronnie saw him to the door and he left, heading on foot into the woods, going in the direction to his grandparents’ cabin.

“Who would’ve thought?” Violet asked as Ronnie shut the door.

“Not me,” he said, crossing the living room and reaching for her as he entered the kitchen. “I can’t say anything against it though, not when I know there’s nothing anyone could do or say to keep me away from you.” He laid a hand on her hip, locking eyes with her.

The phone rang, its electronic melody filling the air almost as thoroughly as the delicious tension that had sprung up instantly between them.

He pulled his hand from her hip and picked up the phone from the counter. “Hello?”

“It’s for you,” he said after a moment, handing the phone to her.

“Hey April.” She recognized her sister’s voice instantly. “What’s up?”

“That restaurant you interviewed with called. They said they’ve got a server position for you and to call back if you’re interested in starting next week. Do you want their number?”

Violet hesitated for just half a moment. “No. But thanks for letting me know.”

“Okay, I won’t keep you then. I’m sure you and Ronnie are busy!” After a cheery goodbye, April hung up before Violet could reply.

“That restaurant I interviewed at offered me a job as a waitress,” she said, placing the phone back on its receiver and turning to Ronnie.

“Are you gonna take it?”

She shook her head. “No, I’ve changed my mind. I don’t want to settle for a job I don’t really want. I waited for a mate, and look what it got me.” She smiled. “I’m going to keep looking for something I’m actually interested in.”

“I’m glad. I want you to be happy and you would’ve been selling yourself short by taking a position you don’t want. Besides, that means I don’t have to worry about you starting a new job right away.” He wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling her close as he grinned. “I’ll have you all to myself here at the cabin for a little while.”

“Ronnie!” She shrieked as he picked her up and threw her over his shoulder as easily as if she were a baby.

“What?” he asked, taking a step toward the hall that led to the bedroom. “Don’t you want to go back to bed with me? You heard Ted – this is our honeymoon morning.”

“It’s not that!” She squirmed against him and the way his shoulder dug into her ribs tickled, leaving her breathless.

“Would you rather stay? Because I can think of some things we could do right here…” He lowered her as suddenly as he’d lifted her, laying her across the kitchen tabletop.

The wooden surface was cool and her nipples pricked instantly against it as her breasts and belly were compressed against its surface. Her hips were flush against the edge of the table and after a couple moments of reaching, she was able to touch the floor with her toes.

He gripped her hips in both hands and pressed his groin against her ass, letting her feel the hard rod of his cock beneath his jeans. “I can think of a lot of things we can do here.”

The sweater really was her only garment – her entire outfit, including her panties, had been destroyed when she’d shapeshifted the night before. Ronnie hiked up the hem of the sweater and laid a hand on her hip, placing his other one between her thighs and brushing the seam of her sex with his fingertips, teasing.

She shuddered, her hips bucking against the edge of the table and sending the tiniest twinge of pain through her. It heightened her senses, causing her pussy to shrink around his two fingertips as he pressed them inside her.

His fingers were thick, like the rest of him, and the two of them together reminded her of the broad shaft of his cock. She moaned as he ran their tips up and down her inner wall, plunging in and out of her twice before withdrawing. A moment later he tightened his one-handed grip on her hip, letting his fingers dent her flesh as a low moan rumbled in the pit of his chest.

Violet looked over her shoulder just as he withdrew the two fingers he’d pressed inside her from his mouth, their tips glistening. A wild pulse of excitement struck her as his eyes grew hazy and his lids crept a little lower over their dark irises. His gaze sharpened when he lowered a hand, meeting her eyes as his fingertips brushed the waistband of his jeans.

She looked straight ahead again as her neck began to ache from peering for so long over her shoulder. Not being able to see Ronnie made it that much more thrilling when the sound of his zipper parting broke the silence, sending a shiver down her spine. A moment later the rounded tip of his cock pressed hot and firm against her pussy. All she could see was half the kitchen and the hallway they’d never made it down, but in her mind’s eye she watched him wrap his hand around his shaft and guide it past her folds.

He buried himself to the root inside her in one long, slow stroke that sent a wave of heat through her entire being. “Not hurting you, am I?” he asked, pressing his groin firmly against the curve of her ass so that they were seamlessly joined.

“No,” she said breathlessly. The edge of the table did dig into her hips a little when he pressed himself inside her, but the feeling of his hardness impaling and stretching her soft flesh made it impossible to care about the minor discomfort. The tabletop was level with his pelvis, which allowed him to thrust effortlessly into her, reaching deep.

“Good,” he said as he rocked his hips, pulling back and filling her again.

She curled her fingers as if to grasp at something but they only slid against the slick surface of the table. He pushed her farther and farther toward the brink of climax with each stroke and left her with nothing to hold on to, nothing to grasp or claw or squeeze. She tightened her channel, gripping his cock as tightly as she could from the inside, and panted as he thrust harder.

He leaned forward, pinning her more snugly against the table, and slipped his free hand beneath her. Her nipple tingled against the knit of his sweater, against his palm, as he cradled her breast completely in one hand, kneading the mound as he continued to drive himself into her, breathing hard with apparent pleasure.

Her hair had fallen forward, exposing her neck. His breath hit the back of it, causing her entire body to tingle and her nipples to ache. Another stroke, and another, and fierce bliss began to sweep through her, the first wave causing her channel to shrink so strongly and quickly around his cock that it almost hurt.

Almost. She breathed a sharp gasp as he continued to thrust into her, his fingers denting the mound of her breast as he squeezed. As her pleasure peaked, he growled her name, sending an extra thrill through her core as he punctuated it with a deep stroke. She couldn’t respond – couldn’t say anything – could only breathe in his scent and gasp as the honey-scented air rushed from her lungs.

He poured himself into her with a hard moan and even harder thrusts, filling her core with wet heat as he squeezed her breast and made the table tremble slightly beneath her. He continued to rock in and out of her, his strokes slower and slower until he stopped altogether and withdrew from her body, barely pausing before reaching down to lift her from the table top.

She let his hard torso part her thighs and straddled him, gripping him above the hips with her knees as he held her so that she was almost at his eye level. The borrowed sweater was still hiked up around her hips but he wasn’t any less disheveled – his jeans had slid down and pooled mid-thigh, leaving everything above exposed. A beam of autumn sunshine poured through the panoramic windows and across the room, illuminating the fine hairs on his arms and shoulders and casting a bright halo around his dark head. “I love you,” she said as the light caught his eyes, causing the golden flecks that dotted his irises to glow.

“I love you too,” he said, drawing her a little closer and grasping her hips, holding her close against his body. “Know what else I’d love?”

“What?”

“Another taste of honey.” He crushed his mouth against hers, drawing her close against his chest, where she could feel his heart beat and trace the curve of the scar that marked him as her mate.

Epilogue

The bell above the door jingled and Violet glanced automatically over her shoulder, something she’d done a hundred times if she’d done it once over the past couple weeks at her new job. This time though, it was different. Her heart gave a little leap at the sight of a rugged silhouette filling the entire doorway, crowned by an unmistakable hat.

 “What are you doing here?” she asked, unable to fight a grin as she abandoned the pottery display she’d been arranging and strode toward the front of the shop, which was a carefully-arranged treasure trove of pottery, quilts, paintings and sundry knick-knacks, all with a distinct mountain flavor. “I hope there hasn’t been any trouble.”

“I heard there was a crisis in this neck of the woods,” Ronnie said gravely, looking absolutely knee-weakening in his uniform as he gripped a foam cup in each hand. “A pretty store manager in need of some apple cider and someone to share it with.” His dark eyes gleamed as he offered her one of the cups.

She took it, her fingertips tingling as his brushed hers. “I can take a break but I may have to cut it short if any customers come inside. I’m the only one here right now – Patty’s at lunch.”

“I’ll take any time with you I can get.”

She smiled and lifted the tab on the lid of her cup, releasing a pillar of fragrant steam that smelled of apples and spice. “Where’d you get this, next door?” The shopping center boasted a restaurant and several art and craft stores, including the one she’d become assistant manager of, but it was high on a mountain and off the beaten path of the main tourist drags – a quality that made it absolutely perfect.

He nodded. “How are sales of the store’s newest products going?”

She tipped her head toward a display in one corner as a glow of satisfaction lit her up from the inside. Not only had she been able to land a position as assistant manager of the rustic craft store, but the owner had also been eager to sell her work, starting with the quilts, wall hangings and throw pillows she’d created during the time she’d spent job hunting and sewing. “Well, I don’t mean to brag, but we’re down to half the original inventory I brought in just two weeks ago. Apparently my creations are pretty hot with tourists looking for souvenirs. My bestselling items are the ones with the black bear motifs – all those items are gone. Guess I’ll have to get to work on some more.”

“That’s great,” he said, all traces of joking gone from his voice. “Maybe you could own your own place like this someday.”

“Maybe,” she said as the cup he’d brought her warmed her hands, dispelling the slight chill that had swept through the shop when he’d entered, admitting a burst of winter air. “But for now I’m perfectly happy here. Plus, I’d never be able to find time to write up a business plan or get the paperwork together. Whenever I’m home, a certain bear has ways of distracting me. I can barely find time for my sewing as it is.”

He grinned. “That’s not going to change any time soon.”

“I hope not.”

The bell above the door jingled again and a familiar woman entered the shop, her nose pinkened by cold and her heart-shaped face surrounded by cascades of red corkscrew curls.

“Hi Patty,” Ronnie said, nodding in the cashier’s direction as she entered.

“Hello Ronnie.” Patty grinned, unraveling a scarf from around her neck. “It’s too bad you didn’t get here an hour ago – you and Violet could have gone next door for lunch together.”