Size Matters (8 page)

“I’m not moping, asshole.” Well, maybe he was a little but no way would he cop to it. Christ, he wanted to see Carrie again, which didn’t make a damn bit of sense. “Hell, I didn’t know her long enough to be moping. Not even twenty-four hours.”

“And yet here you are,” Andy said. “Moping like a five-year-old who had his favorite toy taken away. Why don’t you just put yourself out of your misery and call her, you sorry SOB. You know you want to. And for what it’s worth, I don’t think she’s anything like Jenny.”

Andy’s quietly sincere statement made Tim stare at his cousin. “Did you
not
read that article in the
Journal
?” He picked up the offending tabloid and shook it in the vicinity of Andy’s face. Or at least, what he thought was the vicinity of Andy’s face since he was seeing two of them at the moment. “She practically foamed at the mouth about how Bigfoot saved her from a car crash and nursed her back to health.”

“Dude, the woman has a job, which she does amazingly well, if you didn’t happen to notice. I laughed out loud reading it. That’s some skill there. But only a complete idiot would believe that story was true.”

“The article was rather humorous,” Fry added. “I must admit I found the entire edition amusing.”

Tim just shook his head. “Have you both gone off the deep end? She used me. Just like Jenny.”

Andy snorted. “Carrie is nothing like that crazy bitch. She made you out to be her knight in furry armor, for chrissake. She’s practically begging you to call her.” 62

Size Matters

He really wished that were true. He wanted to call her. He’d picked up the phone so many times Tuesday, he’d actually forgotten he had it in his hand and fell asleep with it that night. But he’d never had the balls to complete the call.

Not even when he’d recalled the look on her face just before he’d left her at her house. She’d been hurt. Not pissed off that he wouldn’t sleep with her again.

Just…hurt. Like he’d rejected her.

He’d wanted to grab her close and kiss her until neither of them could breathe.

Then he wanted to spread her out on a bed and screw her brains out.

They’d connected in the short period of time they’d spent together, shared something special.

“Ah hell.”

“Yeah, that about sums it up, cuz.” Andy motioned for another beer from the bartender. The German troll, four-feet-nothing and not as ugly as the name would suggest, nodded and drew another draft. “So what are you going to do about it?”

“I have to go to her.” He jumped off the stool, barely noticing the wobble in his knees. “I have to tell her—”

Tim’s knees gave out on him. Just buckled and dropped him to the floor like a sack of potatoes.

He barely heard the laughter from the other bar patrons and the last thing he remembered seeing was the
Weekly News Journal
fluttering down to cover his face before he passed out.

* * * * *

Friday morning, Carrie stared at her computer screen at the best non-fiction article she might ever write in her life.

All week, she’d cranked out stories for the
Journal
during the day and spent her nights researching. And writing.

After she had all her facts in order, she’d agonized over every word of the article.

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Stephanie Julian

Her father would have been proud. Hell, he might’ve even considered running the piece.

If he ever saw it.

Which he wouldn’t.

If the piece was published, Tim would have to leave the area. Hell, he might have to leave the country.

Characters with
way
fewer scruples than she had would crawl all over his property trying to take his picture, get hair samples, maybe even capture him and take him in for tests. Yes, the members of the Society of Paranormal Abnormalities were that nuts.

SPAz was a group of lunatics who believed Jason and Grant from Syfy Channel’s
Ghost Hunters
were messiahs. They constantly called the newsroom to provide “tips” or berate the staff for screwing up a story—most of which were half-baked to begin with while the other half were thought up by the staff in alcohol-soaked roundtable discussions, sometimes at the bar down the street.

Who would’ve believed those idiots actually knew what they were talking about?

But the main reason she didn’t want to publish the story remained the same—Tim would leave.

She couldn’t believe how badly she’d missed him these past five days. She couldn’t imagine how awful she’d feel if she knew she’d never see him again.

Thursday, her car had shown up in the parking lot of her apartment building, towed there by a man who insisted he’d already been paid and told her to have a nice day. She could have sworn she saw two tiny horns peeking out from under his ball cap.

Her car would need a few weeks in the body shop, but she had no doubt it’d be up and running soon enough.

In the meantime, she had a rental. A kick-ass, four-wheel-drive Ford truck that could plow through snow like it was fluffy feathers.

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Size Matters

She glanced at the window, noting the time as she did. It was close to nine at night and it was snowing.

She looked down at her feet. Black biker boots, check.

She smiled. Good thing she was always prepared.

* * * * *

Tim hadn’t been able to sit still all day.

He tried to keep himself busy, fixing equipment, making lists of supplies he needed to stock for next season, but it’d mostly been an exercise in futility. The TV couldn’t hold his interest. Neither could the new J.A. Jance book he’d tried to start several times.

Mostly he paced around the cabin, occasionally stopping by the front window to watch the snow fall. It’d picked up in intensity throughout the day.

He wasn’t exactly sure how he’d gotten home from Tioga. He assumed Andy had driven him but after he’d passed out… Well, he didn’t remember anything until he’d woken this morning.

He thought about donning his fur and heading out for a ramble through the quiet woods.

But not today.

Damn her.

He wanted Carrie. Wanted her to come back. Wanted her back in his bed so much he got a hard-on just thinking about her. He’d had a hard-on pretty much all freaking week.

And that pissed him off.

Hell, he missed her smart mouth. She’d captivated him in just a few short hours and he wanted more time with her.

Was she working on another article? One that would make her daddy proud?

He wanted to believe she wouldn’t do it.

65

Stephanie Julian

But he hadn’t heard from her. And she had to be the one who made the first move.

If she’d decided the situation was just too weird for her, that she didn’t want to date a guy who could change into a bear… Well, he wasn’t going to chase her.

He’d never been ashamed of his heritage. Hell, every family had a few skeletons in the closet, a few eccentrics.

His closet just happened to have eight-foot skeletons and the holy grail for cryptozoologists.

Damn it.

Opening the front door, Tim let the freezing air cool his frustration. But it did nothing to ease the ache in his chest.

Maybe he’d just give her a call…

The sound of a motor broke through the silence of the snow-covered forest.

His heart began to pound. He wasn’t expecting anyone. Andy and Fry had left for points west, promising to call in a few days.

He looked down the lane and saw the steady glow of headlights.

Damn, if he didn’t breathe, he was going to pass out. It had to be her.

Idiot. You don’t have any idea what she wants.

But he could hope.

It seemed to take forever but finally a pickup truck pulled up to his front door and the woman he couldn’t stop thinking about stepped out.

She wore her bright pink coat, her red hair loose around her shoulders, a furious look on her face.

Slamming the door behind her, she stalked over to him, a bunch of white paper in her hand, which she waved in his face.

“You never called.”

His eyes opened wide. That wasn’t what he’d been expecting to hear and it made what he’d been going to say stick in his throat.

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Size Matters

“What the hell are you talking about?” he finally asked. “I didn’t know— Wait.

Why the hell didn’t
you
call?”

“Because I was waiting for you, you big
oaf
.” His mouth dropped open in shock. “What the—”

He didn’t get a chance to finish the thought because she threw herself at him, wrapped her arms around his neck and planted her lips on his in a kiss that stole his breath.

He stumbled back a few steps, back into the house, his arms wrapping around her, as much to stop her forward motion as to trap her against him. He wasn’t about to let her go for a damn long time, no matter what those papers held.

His lips opened for her tongue to gain access and he groaned as she slipped into his mouth. Her mouth moved over his, almost painful in its intensity. She tasted hot and furious and hungry. For him.

Pushing the door closed with his foot, he set her away from him but only so he could tear at her clothes. He took the papers out of her hand and tossed them across the room. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw them flutter about like Bigfoot-sized snowflakes.

Then he dismissed them and reached for her coat. It’d barely hit the floor when he started working on her pants. But before he could strip the jeans off her, she stepped out of his reach.

Breathing hard, drawing his gaze to the rise and fall of her gorgeous breasts under her long-sleeved t-shirt, she held up one hand in classic stop position.

“I’m still mad at you,” she said. But before he could open his mouth to protest, she continued. “I might ruin your clothes. Strip.”

It took a few seconds for that to sink in and when it did, he started to laugh.

One of her pale brows lifted but he saw humor flare in those pretty green eyes.

“God, Carrie. I missed you so freaking much.”

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Stephanie Julian

She smiled. “Me, too. So shut up and get naked.” She started to pull at her clothes and he watched as she bared each inch of sweet flesh while he removed his own clothes. He ripped off his shirt as fast as he could so he only missed a few seconds of her show.

She seemed to be in as much of a hurry as he was because her clothes lay in a pile on the floor before his did. And she had more to take off.

Fully clothed, the woman took his breath away. Naked, she was a goddess to be worshipped. So he dropped to his knees.

Grabbing her around the waist, he lifted her off her feet and laid her out in front of him on the rug. With his hands on her thighs, he spread her wide and put his mouth on her.

He ate at her like he was starving. And he was. A week without her had been hell.

He never wanted to be without her again.

Hoped like hell she wasn’t here for a quick fuck and then would leave again.

With that thought, he pushed everything else from his head and focused only on making her come.

He sucked her slick lower lips into his mouth for a second before moving his mouth to focus on her clit. He nibbled the tiny bundle of nerves, her throaty moans pumping more hot blood into his cock. Her thighs tried to close around his head but he kept her spread open with his hands on her thighs.

He spent long minutes feasting on her, his hands massaging her thighs as her hands tangled in his hair and tugged, not hard enough to be painful. At least not painful enough to make him stop.

“Tim.” Her lust-heavy voice made his cock throb and his balls draw up hard as rocks.

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Size Matters

Alternating nibbles on her clit with thrusts of his tongue into her sheath, he worked her, wanting to feel her orgasm. Her hands began to tug on his hair, harder. The pain made him burn hotter, his hands tightening on her thighs.

She moaned his name this time…right before she convulsed as she came.

Her body writhed, her hands releasing his hair to reach for his shoulders.

He drew it out as long as he could but his desire began to claw at him with a life of its own.

With a growl, he crawled up her body, putting his mouth on hers and plunging into her body with one deep thrust.

Sweet Jesus. Heaven.

He tried to go slow but his body wasn’t having any of it. His hips hammered into her, his mouth devoured her lips.

She didn’t seem to mind. In fact, she urged him on. Her hands reached behind him to grab his ass, kneading the muscles as her legs rose to wrap around his waist.

He was deep but not as deep as he wanted to be.

And he couldn’t see her.

He pulled out of her slick sheath, battling her clinging arms and legs. With a quick twist, he reversed their positions, lifting her above him as she reached for his cock to pull it up and impale herself on it.

She started to ride him immediately, planting her hands on his stomach and proceeding to drive him toward his own climax.

The blissful look on her face made every nerve in his body leap with joy. He reached for her hips, just to have that additional connection to her body. Her skin was slick with sweat, sleek and warm.

Their gazes connected and held. She smiled, so sweet he thought his skin might melt.

And he exploded.

69

Stephanie Julian

* * * * *

“Here, I want you to read this.”

Several long minutes after they’d finally caught their breath, Carrie rose, gathered the papers he’d tossed and handed them to him as she sat on the floor in front of the fire.

He took them, though he didn’t start to read right away. Just continued to stare at her. Waiting. She knew what he wanted to hear.

“I think it’s the best thing I’ve ever written.” His heart nearly stopped until she continued.

“Kinda sucks it’ll never see print,” she continued.

His cock throbbed. “Does that mean you’re gonna stick around for a while?” She gave him a little eye roll as her hands moved to her hips. “Does that mean you want me to stick around?”