Bear The Fire (Firebear Brides 4) (5 page)

“What’s the deal you called in with her?” he finally asked.

Chuckling, Ragnar gave Rhodes a look that was almost indecipherable. “I figured if we go out, we go out with a bang. Uncle Herbert left us the homestead with a few conditions. We all have to get married in a year, live here, and two of us need to have cubs. I figured it was a long shot, but if we had any chance of tying you down, it would be Kali who would do it. She’s here to be your bride.”

“What?!” Rhodes roared, coming to a full stop and staring at his brother incredulously. “You did what?! Have you been inhaling too much smoke lately, maybe sniffing some solvents? How the fuck did you think
that
was a good idea?!”

“She said yes, didn’t she? She’s here. And you’re still here. So whatever I’m huffing, it seems to be putting me on the right track,” Ragnar said, shrugging his shoulders. “It was a long shot but I figured what the hell? You two are drowning without each other. Figured I’d give you a life raft and see what you do with it. If you want to punch a hole in it and go down regardless, that’s on you, brother,” Ragnar said, clapping him on the back.

Ragnar continued on the walk, but Rhodes couldn’t find his legs to go one way or another.

She said yes.

Holy fuck.
 

CHAPTER SIX

Kali

“Are you avoiding me?” Kali asked, crossing her arms over her chest as she came to a stop in front of Rhodes.

He was smoking a cigarette, sitting on the back of one of the trucks. It had been parked near the workshop, out of the immediate sight of the rest of the house. It had been nearly a day now that she’d been in Hamilton House, having a perfectly awkward time and getting to know the rest of the Hamilton clan.

Ragnar and she went way back because of their shared… history due to Seattle, but the rest of them she’d never met. The Hamiltons had never been very close after they all split off to find their individual destinies, Kali knew, but seeing them all together brought a smile to her lips. There was something about the raucous, lively bunch of firebears and their mates that made Kali immediately feel at home.

Rose was a sweetheart and Tiana and Abigail were both sassy and strong as hell, complementing their men beautifully. Kali kept catching herself feeling jealous at their happiness. Not in a malicious way, just with her eyes constantly searching around for a sign of Rhodes, and then immediately chiding herself for doing that.

This is a favor for Ragnar. It’s just temporary. You’ll get a stupid piece of paper and you’ll be out of here in no time,
she kept reminding herself.

But she’d stopped believing that the moment she’d seen Rhodes, all brooding, brutal and vulnerable. Standing face to face with Rhodes, leaving sounded like the most ridiculous thing in the world. How could she have ever thought this would be
easy
?

“Do I look like I’m avoiding you?” he asked, quirking a brow and giving her that maddening bad boy smirk she loved and hated.

“Give me that,” she snapped, plucking the cigarette from between his lips and taking a long drag from it.

The smoke filled her lungs and then came out in one hurried breath. She had to bite down on the urge to cough. God, it was disgusting. No wonder she’d quit years ago. She took another drag before handing it back. Even touching the same cigarette as Rhodes sent an electric pulse through her and straight to her traitorous pussy.

“I thought you quit,” he said with amusement in his eyes.

“I thought
you
quit,” she countered.

“Yeah, well, some things drive a man to acts of desperation,” he said mildly as she sat next to him on the tailgate.

“Are we going to talk about it?” she asked after a long pause, the tension of being around him steadily warming her.

“Do we have to?” Rhodes asked, sullenness replacing that lively charm.

“I’m about to become your wife. I think we should.”

“You’re not about to become anyone’s wife, least of all mine,” Rhodes huffed.

Putting out his cigarette on the side of the truck, he made a move to get up and leave, but Kali instinctively grabbed his arm, pulling him back to face her.

“Rhodes, stop it. I haven’t seen you since that night. Since… you know.” The words died on her lips.

“Since I burned your ex-boyfriend alive and skipped town?” he asked brutally, a sharp coldness on his expression now.

“Yeah,” she said, gulping. “Since you saved me from a deranged psychopath who was going to kill me. Since you took off before I could say anything about it. Since you left me alone.”

His eyes softened, remorse flooding them, but he battled it out of himself. She wanted to smack him so bad, make him slow down and really
talk
to her for once. Rhodes ripped his arm out of her grasp and went to get up, but Kali was determined. This wasn’t going to go down like that.

“Why did you go, Rhodes?”

“What do you mean
why
? I was a fucking murderer. I
am
a murderer. I had to get out, before anyone could connect the dots and take this back to me.” He was up, pacing a few feet from her, rigid, jagged motions making his body look like it was made up of pieces that didn’t really fit together.

“You aren’t a murderer. You saved me from him. He would have come for me again, we both knew that. J—”

“
Don’t
say that name,” Rhodes said, coming so close to her now that they were just a few inches apart. “Don’t say that name ever again, Kali. I mean it. It’s not in your vocabulary anymore. You meet another person with that name, you fucking run like it’s the devil incarnate. Never fucking again,” he hissed.

Kali felt her chin lifting and going tight. His eyes were cold as ice now but it still wouldn’t put out the fire in her. Not in a million years. He’d left without so much as a goodbye after that night in the little cabin they’d been sharing for the weekend. The memories were strangling, but she’d memorized every second. They were as clear as they could be in her mind.

Rhodes had gone out, leaving her alone in the house for a while. She heard a knock on the door and thinking it was Rhodes, she’d opened it, only to get slammed down on the ground by her ex. He was a werewolf, a man far too dangerous for her. She remembered every hit he landed, bashing in her cheek and her nose and making her cough up blood. She remembered thinking she was going to die.

And then she remembered Rhodes crashing in, tearing Jonathan off of her and disappearing into the darkness of the night, while she tried desperately to hold onto consciousness. Finally Rhodes had returned, bruised and battered, but alone. And angry as hell. She’d passed out in the car on the way to the hospital, but not before she saw the stark red glow of the forest burning right around their little cabin.

“All right,” she said softly, conceding. “I won’t say his name.”

“Good,” he said, straining the words out.

He pulled away and the distance was harrowing. This would be it. If she let him go, that would be the end. She knew it. She wasn’t sure how, but she did.

“Ragnar came to see me in the hospital,” she said, making Rhodes stop. He listened, not turning around. “That’s why they never found out. Ragnar made sure all our bases were covered. Called in more favors, as he does,” she said with a weak grin. “I know you called him right after. I know you talked to him. But he talked to me too when you disappeared. He told me everything.”

“Everything?” Rhodes asked, looking over his shoulder.

“Everything,” Kali said, forcing her voice steady. “You’re not like Eric Hassleback, Rhodes. It wasn’t the same.”

“I’m a monster,” he seethed, his eyes flashing dark brown as he turned to face her. “You don’t know what you’re messing with, coming here. Staying here. You’re playing with fire, Kali, and you’re going to get burned.”

Yeah, she could feel it. The tight heat in her chest, suffocating, burning, scratching. It gave her life. She jumped off the tailgate and walked to him, standing close, glaring into his eyes. So close that she could feel his breath on her skin, the warmth emanating off of him. It was mesmerizing.

“I know
exactly
what I’m doing, Rhodes. I’m not the one who ran. You were. I’m giving you another chance to stay the fuck still. To face your demons. I’m not one of them and I’m not afraid of you.”

“You should be,” he said, but some of the fight was out of his voice, making Kali stand taller.

“Yeah? Make me.”

Was this how it was always going to be? One of them stopping the other from storming off, hot kisses searing the path that could have ended with tears? As Rhodes threw his arms around her waist and almost tore her off the ground, his hands under her ass, she sure as fuck wished that it would be. If she couldn’t have him any other way, she’d take it like that. Hard, wrong, bad.

Their lips mashed together and she groaned into his mouth as he pushed her back on the tailgate. This time, she wouldn’t miss her chance. Tearing at his shirt, she made him take off the solid black T-shirt before moving any further. There, nestled amongst his plethora of tattoos, right above his heart, read the name “Kali.” He still had it.

“You still have it,” she said, beaming.

“What? How could I get rid of it?” he asked, scowling, like it was an impossibility and such stupidity shouldn’t even be humored.

Smart-ass comments died on her lips as he kissed her again, tearing at her shirt and her bra. They were out in the open, hidden only by the workshop, and anyone could walk in. But it didn’t matter. Like the previous time in the truck, being with each other was far more important than the possibility that someone could walk in on them.

His hands kneaded her flesh, tearing and nipping at it. It felt so
wrong
wanting him so badly, but at the same time it was the rightest thing in the world. She pulled his belt loose as he undid the buttons on her jeans, and a moment later he was pulling her off the tailgate, spinning her around and pushing her down on it.

Her hands flat against the cold metal, she yelped as he pulled down her black lace panties and jeans with one go, bunching them around her knees, leaving her pussy exposed.

“Fuck, you’re perfect,” he ground out, one hand on the small of her back and the other pushing between her legs, parting her pussy lips and smearing her wetness around.

“Rhodes,” she purred as he slipped two fingers inside of her, pumping them hard and fast as he pressed them against the front wall of her cunt.

He remembered everything. Exactly how to play her, exactly how to get her mewling like a hot mess for him. Kali gasped for breath as he pushed his thumb against her asshole, teasing the puckered hole with the pad. She pressed herself against him, grinding into his touch as he finger-fucked her mercilessly.

The tension was so tight in her that she couldn’t put it into words, or screams. Instead, she held on tight and whimpered through the highs and the lows of the building ecstasy. When he pushed in a third finger, she was gone, done fighting. The orgasm swept her away like she’d known it would—complete,
not leaving a second of time to think of anything but him.

Rhodes pulled his fingers out of her as she was squeezing around them, her pussy hungry for more. And he gave her what she needed, pushing down his jeans and thrusting into her.

“I missed you so bad, baby,” he groaned, stroking her fire with long, slow pumps.

Any reply she might have had was lost on her lips as her orgasm smoothly rolled into another one, milking his cock for all it was worth. He didn’t last long, done with fighting against her—at least for now. Every movement was faster and deeper than the previous, filling her completely up until he came with a roar that Kali thought was impossible for no one else to have had heard.

And it didn’t matter. Let them hear. There were years of deep-seated anguish that needed to be made up for, and at that very moment Kali didn’t know a better way to do it than just fuck it out.

So that’s what she was going to do.
 

CHAPTER SEVEN

Rhodes

“Are we going to talk about this now?” Kali asked, tossing her long caramel locks over her tanned shoulders, her green eyes sparkling with mischief.

“No,” he answered, as he’d done every time she’d asked. Which was far too many times.

Grabbing her by the hips, he flipped them both over so she landed on the sheets with a squeal and he was right on top of her, smothering her with kisses. For a while, she played along, her long legs curling around his narrow waist and her heels digging into his ass. Rhodes moved down her belly to eat her out and make her let out those delicious whining whimpers he liked so much, but exactly when things were getting interesting again, she stopped him.

“Come on. Talk to me,” she said, scrambling away from him on the bed and sitting up.

She bunched the sheet together, covering her pussy and those ripe tits he’d come to worship over the last few days—driving the rest of the Hamilton clan to the brink of insanity, he was sure, with the noises they were making. He growled, getting on his knees and scooting toward her. Kali stopped him with her foot against his chest, gently nudging him back into a seated position.

“What’s so damn funny again?” he asked, scowling as he assessed the situation.

“You. You’re funny.”

He could just grab her ankle and pull her flat on the bed and get on top of her. She’d say no once, maybe twice, and then she’d scream yes. But he was fucking exhausted after two days of not coming up for air.

Talk. Okay. Sure.

“I’ll bite. How am I funny?”

“Weren’t you the one who told me to always face my fears?” Kali asked, reaching for a bottle of water on the nightstand and taking a long swig.

She handed the bottle to him, and his first reluctant sip turned into draining the entire thing. Maybe he was more dehydrated than he thought.

“That sounds dumb enough to come from Past Me, so sure.”