BearyMerryChristmas (2 page)

Chapter Two

“What do ye think, Duncan? Is she dead?”

“I dinnae know, Jamie.”

Lara ignored the words. All she wanted to do was sleep. She was finally warm and she just wanted the two voices to leave her alone. “Leemme lone.” She shook her head. “Wanna sleep.”

“She’s alive!”

“I dinnae know about you, Jamie, but she looks like an angel to me. A real Christmas miracle.”

“Aye, that she does.”

Lara scowled. Why didn’t the two voices just leave her alone? “Shuddup, will ya?” She was able to fall asleep and the two idiots with the big mouths wouldn’t leave her alone. Something niggled at the back of her brain. It was something important, but she just couldn’t remember what it was.

“Come on, lass. Wake up. You’re suffering from hypothermia. Ye dinnae want tae die out here, do ye?”

The deep voice moved through her, warming her in places long forgotten, and Lara started to shiver just a bit. She smiled, though her teeth chattered. “I don’t wanna wake up. I like the sound of your voice. You have a sexy Scottish accent. I could sit here and listen all day.”

“She’s definitely not herself,” one of them said with a chuckle. “Something tells me if the lass was in her right mind, she wouldnae be telling us our voices are sexy. It would give us ideas.”

“Speak for yourself, man. I already have ideas. She’s a bonnie lass, isn’t she?”

“Aye, that she is.”

Grumbling, Lara cracked an eye open and glared at the two men who stood in front of her, smiling down at her as though they were two cats and she was a bowl of cream. “You two have to be the rudest men I have ever had the misfortune to meet.” She stared up at them, her vision blurry as they continued to laugh down at her.

Unfortunately, they were as gorgeous as they sounded with their thick Scottish accents and deep rumbling bass. Both were tall and dark if you didn’t count the highlights the one had in his hair. One had twinkling blue eyes, the other a gray-green that took her breath away. Both of them were large, very large. Their wide shoulders tapered down to narrow waists and hips to legs that rivaled the tree trunk she rested her back against.

“Tell me, lass, are ye warm?” The man with the sapphire blue eyes squatted down in front of her.

“Yes, damn it. I was so cold and when I fell asleep, I got warm. Then you two had to come along and wake me up.” She crossed her arms and sat up, though it was difficult to do so. The more she moved, the more she began to shiver. “Now, I’m cold again, thanks to you.”

Reaching out, the man began to massage her arms. After a minute or two, he stood, unzipped his coat and pulled her to her feet, wrapping his arms around her, he drew her into the warmth of his embrace. “Ye feel warm because you’re body temperature has dropped. You’re freezing tae death, lass.”

Now, her teeth were chattering and she was so cold, she could barely stand it. Lara burrowed deeper into his coat, soaking up his warmth.

“One of us has tae change, Jamie. We’ll never get her back home in time tae save her otherwise.”

“I’ll do it, Duncan. After I change, set her on my back and cover her with your warmth. Between the two of us, we should be able to keep her alive long enough tae get her back home.”

What were these two goons talking about? Change into what? Lara didn’t much care. All she cared about at the moment was the warmth that continued to soak into her as she stood in this strange man’s embrace.

After a moment, blue eyes, which she thought the other called Duncan, turned her around, picked her up and sat her on the warmest fur rug, she’d ever seen. “Oh, my God!” She gasped when she realized it wasn’t a rug, but a real, live polar bear. Stiffening, she tried to climb off the bear’s back but couldn’t. Duncan held her in place, sandwiched between his body and that of the giant bear. Soon, the warmth began to soak into her again and she calmed, realizing that the bear wasn’t growling, snarling or otherwise acting aggressive.

Where the other man, Jamie, went, she wasn’t sure. All she knew was she was having the most bizarre dream of her life. First, she followed turtledoves into the forest like an idiot, then she dreamed of riding an impossibly large polar bear. Whatever happened to her, she wasn’t awake. She couldn’t be. Closing her eyes, Lara decided that since she was dreaming, she would try to get some rest.

* * * *

Jamie walked through the snow, keeping his eyes open for humans. The last thing they needed was for someone to see them. Humans hunted his kind and other shifters to near extinction. They didn’t want them to realize that they hadn’t hunted them until they no longer existed in Britain after all. The first thing the humans would do would be to try and capture them, lock them in cages and put them on display. That was the least that could happen. The worst would be truly hunting his kind to extinction, because they didn’t want large predators in their lands. They couldn’t allow that to happen. If he saw humans, he would have no other choice but to lie down in the snow and try to hide.

They were miles away from the keep. It was a good thing that Duncan had been full of angst this night. Had he not been, they may not have found the woman freezing to death in the woods. He thought about the way she looked with her long golden hair and large blue eyes. Every muscle in his body clenched at the thought of her natural beauty. His cock ached and his balls actually grew heavy. No woman had ever made him feel like this. What did it mean? Did it mean that she was the one destined to be his mate?

He thought about Duncan, knowing that any woman he took to bed would have to accept Duncan as well. He wasn’t certain he could live without the other man now that he thought on it for any length of time. He wondered how Duncan felt about the matter.

What do ye think of this woman, Duncan?

I’m not sure what ye mean, Jamie. I think she’s freezing tae death and needs our help.

Taking a deep breath, Jamie tried to find a way to explain his feelings to his friend.
I wondered how ye felt about the lass. I cannae seem tae get her out of my head. Thoughts of her body pressed against mine and imagining the heat of her woman’s flesh pressed against my back is nigh driving me wild. I cannae think of little else as long as she sits on my back, her legs wrapped about me like a lover.

I know what ye mean, old friend, I feel it, too. What do we do when we get her back tae the keep? Everything inside me screams tae keep her as my own, yet you seem tae feel the same.

Jamie wasn’t certain how he felt about that. Part of him liked the fact that his best friend wanted her, too. He’d never thought about what it would be like to take a mate and have to leave Duncan behind. Perhaps he wouldn’t have to after all.
What do ye think of sharing her, old friend?

Duncan grunted behind him.
I’m not sure she would want that.

What else could they do? If they wanted it and they didn’t want to live without each other, wouldn’t it make sense to share her between them?
We may nae hae a choice in the matter. If she’s destined tae be mate tae both of us, which one of us would ye hae living the rest of his life alone?
He knew he didn’t want it to be him, but he also knew he didn’t want his best friend left out in the proverbial cold either.

His friend was silent for a few minutes.
I know we’ve shared women a time or two in the past, but do ye think we can live that way for the rest of our lives?

I dinnae know, old friend, but I would rather try that than live without you or a mate. Hell, Duncan, I dinnae even ken what has me thinking like this. What if we feel nothing more than a healthy lust for this woman?

If that’s all it is, we keep her for as long as she’ll let us and let her go when we’ve sated it.

Jamie sighed. One thing was certain. Whichever way the lass led them, it would be a merry chase indeed.

* * * **

Lara woke slowly, reluctantly. Blessed warmth surrounded her as the bed swayed back and forth with a strange rhythm. On her stomach, she almost felt as though she was draped over some great beast that was so warm, she was tempted to sit up and take off her coat. Surrounded by warmth at her front and her back, Lara felt limp, relaxed. She wasn’t sure she had the strength to sit up and remove her coat. Besides, after being so cold for so long the warmth felt good.

Burrowing deeper into the warmth, Lara rubbed her nose against the soft fur beneath her head. She frowned. Soft fur? Blinking her eyes open, Lara tried to see what kind of bed she was on. It was as strange as it was warm, the way it kept swaying back and forth.

“Shh, you’re safe now, lass, and warm I’d bet,” a deep voice with a wonderful Scottish burr whispered against her ear. “Are ye warm now, lass?”

Strong arms tightened around her and Lara realized the heat at her back radiated from the man pressed so tightly against her. Lara stiffened and tried to sit up.

“Dinnae fash yourself, lass. You’re safe. Jamie and I wouldnae let any harm come tae ye.”

There was that deep and delicious voice again. Lara shivered more from arousal than fear or cold. Something deep inside her told her if they wanted to harm her, they wouldn’t have bothered to rescue her in the first place.

“I heard you talking before, didn’t I? Your name is Duncan, isn’t it?”

“Aye, lass. My name is Duncan.”

“Where are you taking me?” At least she had a name to put with the voice.

“We’re taking ye tae our home, lass. Soon, you’ll be inside and out of the cold where ye can rest in front of the fire or soak in a hot bath.”

There it was again, that deep, sexy Scottish accent breathed into her ear, driving her wild.

“Wasn’t there two of you before and what are we riding?”

There was a short pause. Lara got the feeling he spoke to the other man, but he couldn’t have. She would have heard him. Instead, she heard a strange hum inside her head and the sway of their conveyance almost lulled her to sleep once more. Almost.

Lara stiffened and tried to sit up again. “I know we’re riding some kid of animal. I can feel us swaying. What are we riding, some huge plow horse or something?”

Duncan chuckled. “Aye, you’re riding an animal.”

The way he said it almost made her wonder what kind of animal. She loved the warmth that radiated from it, but she didn’t want anyone laughing at her and she had the feeling that Duncan was doing just that.

“Stop this animal right now.”

“Why would we want tae go and do that when we ken it would only frighten ye, lass?”

Why would it frighten her? She had a faint memory of seeing a giant white bear before she fell asleep and dismissed it as ridiculous. “Why?” she asked with a laugh. “Are we riding some giant, gleaming-white polar bear that would eat me if he found out I knew he existed here in Scotland?”

“Believe me when I tell ye, lass, if Jamie or I decided tae eat ye, you’d love it.”

God, that seductive voice did things to her insides that should be illegal. Lara shivered again. Gooseflesh covered her body at the thought of the two men she’d thought she dreamed up doing things to her that she had no business even imagining. What was with her these days? Ever since she got to Scotland, she’d done nothing but dream of staying here with not one but two men. Never had she even thought of having an affair with two men at the same time. Her face heated at the memory of the dreams that started to plague her almost the minute she stepped foot in Great Britain. She wasn’t a loose woman. Hell, she’d only been with two men in her life and at almost forty years old, that was saying something. Maybe it was just because she was horny. After all, she’d just broken up with John a little over a month ago.

John, the jerk, had been a fixture in her life for the last two years. She’d even had dreams of settling down with him and having a baby before it was too late. However, while Lara’s biological clock had been ticking away, John had other ideas and, apparently, more wild oats to sow. She’d kicked him out the night she came home from work sicker than a dog to find him in
her
bed with another woman—a younger woman. Lara wasn’t sure what hurt the most, the betrayal or finally realizing that she was nearly over the hill and had no prospects of ever finding the one man who could give her a family and make her life complete.

Maybe it wasn’t one man ye needed, lass, but a pair of them tae keep ye happy.
The sound of Duncan’s voice in her head, followed by that low, whiskey-rough chuckle made her jerk and try to get away from the man.

“What’s the matter, lass? You’re acting as though you’ve seen a snake.”

She didn’t just hear his voice inside her head. It was her subconscious trying to make her do something outrageous and totally out of character while she was on vacation. She needed this vacation after John’s betrayal. Maybe she needed a torrid affair as well. “No, I was just thinking about a snake.” That was a good description of her ex if she’d ever heard one. She turned her head, her lips coming precariously close to his. “What’s it to you?” God, that sounded rude! She should be ashamed of herself. She felt her face grow warm once again.

Duncan chuckled. “I just wondered where your thoughts took ye, lass.” His breath, warm and minty, washed over her face. “Jamie and I thought that perhaps ye might like tae stay with us a while and immerse yourself in our culture for a few days, perhaps a week or two.”

Or ten.
Lara had three months, three glorious months in Europe before she had to return home. Most of that time she had planned to live out of the car she’d rented, but if they were offering her a place to stay, she might just take them up on it. After all, if they’d wanted to hurt her, they would never have picked her up out of the cold forest in the first place. She had half a notion to throw caution to the wind and agree to stay with them right now, but decided to think about it for a while first.

“That’s a good lass,” he whispered in her ear. “Think on it a bit and rest.”

Something about his voice made Lara think he knew what was on her mind. No matter how ridiculous it seemed, she wondered if he did. “Whatever I decide, I want to know what kind of animal we’re riding when we get to where we’re going. That’s a condition of my thinking about your invitation…” She paused for a moment. “Deal?”