Bearly Enough (7 page)

She looked at him, her eyes wild, and for a moment Stone
thought he could
see
her, really see her. She was a caged animal, simply
waiting to be set free.

But then the look was gone and she squeezed his hand back,
flashed him a tiny smile and hopped out of the truck.

Stone watched as she got into her car and drove away,
feeling strangely empty.

“Motherfucker,’’ Stone muttered as he pulled into his
crumbling driveway. He had debated going to the Falls Diner where Lucy could
serve him lunch, but he had a feeling that there was going to be trouble
waiting for him at home.

And he was right.

He threw his truck into park and got out, feeling his bear
roar angrily inside. He could let his bear free now, though he certainly didn’t
feel like ruining his clothes by shifting and shredding them to bits.

“What do you want, Evan?” he growled, turning toward the
short yet bulky man standing on his steps.

“Nice to see you, too,” he sneered.

“I don’t waste time on niceties. Tell me what you want.”
Stone didn’t mince words and he sure as hell wasn’t going to stand here and
pretend to play nice with a shit like Evan.

Evan’s dark eyes looked beadier and angrier than usual. “I
didn’t like the way our call ended.”

“Of course you didn’t. You didn’t get your way.” Stone
waited a beat and when Evan made no move to leave his property, he spoke again.
“You need to get the fuck off my land.”

Evan laughed. “Is that a threat?”

“Call it what you want.”

“If you were smart, you would do things my way.”

Stone let out a hard laugh. “And maybe that’s why you aren’t
the alpha,” he couldn’t help replying.

This only made Evan angrier. “My brother-’’

“Your brother is dead!” Stone snapped.

Evan paused for just a moment. Then he puffed out his chest.
“You’re a fool,” he hissed, stalking past Stone to leave.

Stone simply shook his head. He watched Evan walk off his
property, heading down the steep hill and then turning right before
disappearing behind a grove of trees.

Stone was surprised Evan left as quickly as he had; he
usually caused more of a scene. Once he was sure Evan was gone, he turned and
went inside his small house. While the house was small, it certainly had an
open feel. That had been Stone’s intention when he knocked out most of the back
wall and replaced it with glass. Turned out Stone had a knack for construction
and remodeling; he had done pretty well for himself by helping some of his
neighbors and other clan members with their own remodeling.

After he had replaced the back wall with glass, he had
slowly moved onto the kitchen, ripping out the busted cabinets and shoddy
appliances, replacing them with nicer and newer ones.

He refinished all the hardwood floors and splurged on a flat
screen TV. The great thing about the TV was that it could be seen from pretty
much every corner of the downstairs. He could check out sports if he was in the
kitchen, the living room, or sitting at the small dining room table.

Stone set his keys down on the table and peered out the
floor-to-ceiling glass windows, which overlooked the woods, and then went
upstairs to change his clothes. His bedroom was sparse but comfortable, and
Stone quickly put on a pair of shorts and a t-shirt. Even though it was cold
out, he always ran a few degrees warmer than other people. Another one of his
quirks.

There were two extremely small bedrooms at the top of the
stairs, one that housed a twin bed that had belonged to his little sister, Joy.
After Joy’s death, his parents closed the door to her room, and probably would
never have opened it again. After Stone moved out of the house, he convinced
his parents to go through her stuff and clean out her room. They gave him her bed,
and while he changed the sheets and comforter from her lacy purple one, he
still knew it had belonged to her, and it filled a very, very small space of
the huge, gaping hole she had left in his heart.

The other bedroom was an office; Stone used that term
lightly. It had a rickety old desk, a beat-up chair, and Stone’s computer.
Stone realized that he was either going to have to do some schoolwork, or
pretty quickly convince Lucy to come to the clan lands with him.

Shit.

The last thing he planned to do was actually complete
schoolwork, so he needed to fast track his plan and get Lucy back to the
Cruentus lands.

Given Lucy’s behavior in the car, that shouldn’t really be a
problem. She was even wilder and more reckless than he had first assumed. But
he was developing a conscience, and it didn’t feel right to take advantage of
Lucy like that.

What the hell?

When had he overthought a blowjob?

And besides remodeling, having sex was probably his best
skill.

A loud pounding rang through the house as he came back
downstairs. He felt his temper flare. He was going to knock Evan in the mouth
if he was at the door.

He inhaled deeply as he approached the front door and was
relieved not to smell Evan, but he wasn’t too happy about the visitor
regardless.

Jeremy stood there patiently, his short brown hair making
him look even younger. “Can I come in?” he asked, when Stone didn’t greet him.

“Sure.” Stone held the door open, running a hand through his
unruly locks.

“How are things with Lucy?” Jeremy didn’t waste time.

“They’re fine.”

“Have you befriended her?”

“Yes.”

“Does she seem to trust you?”

“Yes.”

“Have you gotten closer?”

“Yes!” Stone exclaimed. He sure as hell wasn’t planning on
divulging the details of Lucy’s blowjob skills. “Damn! It’s been a few days,
Jeremy!”

Jeremy’s gaze was hard. “Every day is another day wasted. I
want this to happen quickly. I want her brought here within a week.”

Stone knew he could do that, but it still seemed a little
unreasonable of Jeremy to ask. “You’re not giving me much time, Jeremy.”

“I never said you could have a lot of time.” He moved toward
the door. “Next week,” he repeated, as he turned to leave.

Stone watched him walk down his driveway.

“Ass,” he muttered.

He walked slowly to his large windows, gazing out at the
woods, lost in thoughts of Lucy.

Lucy couldn’t focus at work, and twice Jimmy had to stop and
ask if she were okay. Even Mac seemed to be leaving her alone. Either that, or
she was just completely oblivious today.

It was barely two in the afternoon, and already she had
served Diet Coke instead of regular Coke, a cheeseburger instead of a
hamburger, and had somehow wrote down chicken tenders instead of fish sticks.

Her tips were severely lacking.

JC, the other waitress, finally pulled her aside. “Honey,
are you okay?” Her dark eyes were concerned, and Lucy found herself longing for
JC’s gorgeous copper complexion.

Lucy wanted to crawl out of her own skin today.

“I’m fine,” Lucy insisted, pushing a stray hair out of her
face.

“You sure don’t seem fine,” JC said, placing her hands on
her hips and staring at her.

JC was only a few years older than Lucy, but she was already
married with two kids.

It was the kind of thing that happened all the time in
Russet Falls.

People didn’t bother doing anything with their lives, and
instead just got married, settled down and had babies.

JC worked a few shifts a week during the busier hours, while
her mom watched her kids. Her husband traveled a lot, so JC was never able to
work full-time, but she seemed perfectly content waiting tables on a part-time
basis.

Clearly JC wasn’t buying her fib. She gave Lucy another long
look. “You let me know if you want to talk about anything.”

Lucy nodded and hurried off.

What the hell had she been thinking?

She cut class, something she swore she was not going to do
since she was actually paying to go to school now.

Which was ridiculous in itself. At least she didn’t have to
pay for the tortures of high school. She actually had to pay
money
to
keep going to college and do work.

What a crock.

So, not only had she technically wasted her money today, but
she had also snuck off with Stone.

And then what happened in his car…

How had she let that happen?

It was one thing for her to suck off some random guy at a
concert, or at a party when she was drunk, but to just go down on Stone in the
middle of the day, while completely sober–

Well, that was a new low for her.

And she had loved every second of it.

Crap.

She had been so turned on, so aroused.

She had been wild and reckless in the best possible way.

She felt her heart quicken when she thought of Stone’s body
had tensing up, the way he had throbbed in her mouth…

She knew he had loved it just as much as she had.

But oh! How was she going to look at him on Friday! She had
only known him for three days!

Three!

Gabby would be horrified if she knew what Lucy had done.

And as mortified as Lucy was, she found herself thinking
about Stone non-stop, already counting down the hours until Friday morning.

She was sick, sick, sick.

And then, as if Gabby had been manifested right out of her
worries, there she was, stepping into the diner, looking more polished than
Lucy had ever seen her.

She felt a pang of jealousy.

Of course, she felt bad immediately, because she didn’t want
to be jealous of her older sister.

“Hey Luce!” Gabby exclaimed, flashing her a smile.

Lucy waved back and made her way toward Gabby as Jimmy sat
her in a booth.

“Hey! Wasn’t expecting to see you again so soon!” Lucy said,
hoping it didn’t come out like an insult.

“Well, I had to run to the bank, and I thought I would stop
in for a quick bite.” She glanced at her watch. “I don’t have much time,
actually,” she apologized, “but I wanted to see you.”

“Sure! What can I get you? I’ll put it in right away, since
you have to be fast.”

Gabby didn’t even open the menu. “Cheese fries,” she smiled.

Lucy nodded and hurried off, placing the order on the
counter and making her way back to Gabby.

She had already screwed up half her tables’ orders, so she
figured it wouldn’t be a big deal if she sat down and talked to Gabby for a few
minutes.

“How are things?” Lucy asked, checking out Gabby’s cream
dress and black leggings. She was also wearing tall black boots that looked
brand new.

Something was different, but she couldn’t put her finger on
it.

Then it hit her.

On Gabby’s left ring finger was a huge, sparkling diamond.

“Oh wow!” Lucy exclaimed, grabbing Gabby’s hand and staring
at it.

Gabby smiled shyly. “It’s really nice, isn’t it?”

“Nice! Holy shit—it’s great, Gab!” Lucy said.

Embarrassed, Gabby pulled her hand away. “I didn’t come here
to brag. I actually,” she paused, looking embarrassed again, “well, I wanted to
tell you that we’re going to get married this weekend.”

Lucy’s jaw dropped. “What?”

“I know, I know. It’s so fast. But like I said before, it’s
not going to be very big, and I want to do it outside, but it just keeps
getting colder. And the next couple of weekends are busy for us,” she trailed
off, looking over at Lucy.

Lucy tried not to act surprised but she couldn’t mask the
shock on her face. “I mean, it’s your wedding, so you can do what you want. But
that’s really fast, Gabby.”

“I know! Please tell me that you’re free this weekend,
because I cannot get married without you there!”

“Of course I’m free! And even if I wasn’t, I would make
myself free.”

“I found a really great dress for you, too,” Gabby added. “I
hope you like it.”