Babysitter Bear Read online

  Austin concentrated. The return shift was faster and smoother; his griffin body collapsed back into the lanky body of a teenage boy, clothes and all.

  "Yeah, I think he must be," Austin said, the words spilling out in a rush. "That's why I had to find him, to ask him—but, are you sure? I've heard of griffins, I just didn't know what they were. Is that really what I am?"

  He was so excited that he was nearly babbling. Dan grinned and clasped Austin's shoulder with his good hand.

  "You're fine," Dan said. "I've never seen a griffin before either, but there's a first time for everything, right? Tomorrow I can see about trying to help you find your dad, if that's possible. Right now, though—"

  "Home," Austin said. "Yeah."

  "And food. I wasn't kidding about that part." Dan's stomach was cramping with hunger. "Shifting takes it out of you, especially when you aren't quite used to it yet. If you're not hungry yet, you're going to be starving soon."

  Austin flashed a quick grin. "I'm always hungry. Mom says as soon as I hit my teens, I developed a hollow leg." As they got back in the car, he grew pensive. "What are we gonna tell Mom? I hate lying to her."

  "Me too, kid. We'll have to figure out a way to tell her."

  "She doesn't know you're a bear either, does she?" Austin asked, looking over at Dan as he buckled his seatbelt.

  "No," Dan admitted.

  "Are you going to tell her?"

  "Of course I am," he said, putting the car into reverse. "It's not something I feel right keeping from her. It's just ..."

  "You don't know how."

  "Right."

  "Can't you just do like we did tonight, and take her out in the woods, and turn into a bear?"

  "And what do you think she'll do at that point?"

  "Uh ... probably scream," Austin admitted.

  "Yeah."

  "But I didn't scream."

  "But you had already turned into a griffin at least once," Dan pointed out. He carefully backed onto the deserted country highway. "So you knew it was a thing. It didn't come completely out of the blue for you."

  "Yeah," Austin said. He looked down at his hands. "How are you gonna tell her?"

  "I have absolutely no idea. But I promise you one thing, kid," Dan added, looking over at the teenage boy hunched in the seat next to him. "Your secret is safe with me. I'll tell your mom about shifters first, and then you can break it to her if you want, or I can do it for you, or we can just wait for a while. But either way, I'm not spilling the beans unless you tell me it's okay."

  "Thanks," Austin whispered.

  Dan wished he had a hand free to reach over and scruff Austin's hair, but his good arm was on the wrong side. He settled for grinning at him, and reluctantly, a little shyly, Austin smiled back. It was the smile of a shared secret, a burden halved, the two of them sharing a strange wild magic that neither had to deal with alone.

  "No problem," Dan said. "Now let's get some burgers and go home."

  Paula

  Paula was waiting up when Dan and Austin pulled into the driveway. One look at her son's drawn, pale face, tears standing in his eyes, told her that running away had been almost as traumatic for him as it had been for her. She gave him a tight hug and sent him up to bed, and then threw her arms around Dan.

  "Thank you," she sobbed into his shoulder, muffled. "Thank you, thank you."

  She had managed to keep it together in front of Austin, but feeling Dan's arms come up gently around her, one strong and muscled and one made of metal and plastic, broke some wall inside her. She didn't have to deal with this kind of thing alone anymore. She had someone to lean on. She had help.

  "It's okay," Dan said. He patted her back awkwardly, and then just held her. "I, uh ... I brought you back a burger if you want it. Except I realized you probably don't, because you serve hundreds of them a day."

  She choked on a wet laugh. "Hundreds? I wish." But that helped pull her together, enough to realize that she was standing in the open doorway with all the heat escaping. She took the greasy paper bag. "Come on in. You must be exhausted. Do you have to go back to the Rugers' tonight?"

  Dan shook his head. "I texted them from the car. They know what's going on."

  He stamped snow off his boots on the entryway mat and then slipped his feet out of them. Somehow he'd gotten snow on his socks too, and there were damp patches on the legs of his jeans. It looked like he'd been rolling around in a snowbank.

  "You look wet," she said with a laugh, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand. "What'd you have to do, chase the kid down and wrestle him back to the car?"

  "No, he was totally cooperative. He's a really good kid, Paula."

  Dan's tone was sincere and earnest, almost pointedly so. Paula got the feeling, strangely, that he was trying to convey something that he couldn't quite put into words.

  "I know," she said. "I probably don't tell him that often enough. I mean, obviously I don't, since he ran away."

  "It's not you," Dan said, again with that strange tense sincerity. "He's just working through some things."

  "Did he talk to you about it? Is—" She dropped her voice and glanced toward the stairs. "Don't ever tell him I asked you this, but is it ... drugs?"

  "What?" Dan said. "No! I mean, if there's something like that, he didn't tell me. Look, Paula, we did talk about some things in the car, man to man. I'm going to try to get him to talk to you too, but for now, I promised him it would stay between us. He just needed a male adult to confide in, I think."

  He looked down and away as he said it, but Paula hadn't been the mother of a teenage boy for all this time without figuring out that there were some things boys didn't want to tell their mothers, and she also recognized that teenage boys, like everyone else, were entitled to their privacy.

  "Okay," she said. Taking a deep breath, she went on, "I told you I trusted you. And I do. But I also trust you to tell me if anything he told you affects the rest of us. Like ... say ... if he's gotten involved with his father's loan sharks or something."

  "No," Dan said quickly. "No, nothing like that."

  "In that case, I won't pressure you to break your promise." She took him by the arm and led him toward the kitchen. "Come on in here and have a cup of coffee or cocoa or something. But just, since you now know more of what's going on with him than I do, I'm going to trust you to tell me if it ever turns into something the rest of us need to know about."

  "I will," Dan said. He gently detached her grip. "I'd love a cup of coffee some other time, but right now, I can't stay."

  "You said you don't have to go back to the Rugers' tonight."

  "I know," he said with a rueful smile. "But I've just realized that's where all my dry clothes are."

  Paula leaned in, close enough to feel the heat of his body through the damp fabric. "You could dry them here," she said quietly, looking up at him.

  She heard his breath catch in his throat. He touched the side of her face lightly. "Are you sure?"

  All she could do was nod.

  He leaned down and his lips met hers. They were chilled from being outside, but warmed quickly, igniting a heat in the pit of her stomach.

  This is happening. We're doing this.

  Dan's hand rested on her waist and a thumb slipped under the loose edge of her blouse. She gasped against his mouth as his thumb stroked across the bare skin above her jeans waistband. Then she broke the kiss.

  "Okay, we need to not do this here," she whispered. "I'll show you where the laundry room is."

  She put the burgers in the fridge for later, and they tiptoed through the house, giggling and clinging to each other. It was amazing how he made her feel like a teenager in the best possible way. Except instead of sneaking around to avoid her parents, she was sneaking around avoiding her own kids. The thought made her laugh out loud.

  "What?" Dan whispered.

  "I'm just ... happy." And she was. Happier than she'd been since she left Terry. Happier than when she was with Terry. Maybe happier th
an she'd been ever.

  She let him into the laundry room and turned on the light. It was a cramped space off the living room, halfway between utility room and closet. There were no windows in the small space, just walls of bare white-painted drywall and a clutter of typical utility-room items: washer and dryer, mops and brooms, folded linens and towels, plastic crates of cleaning supplies. Paula shoved a basket heaped with clean, unsorted laundry out of the way with her foot so that she could get inside and close the door behind her.

  There was very little room with just the two of them in here, as cluttered as the place was. She couldn't move without brushing against Dan, not that it was a problem; every touch heightened her awareness of him, tingling through her body.

  She leaned past him to open the dryer, and sighed when she found that it was full of socks. "Lissy was supposed to sort these, but I guess the last week has been hectic for everyone." She raked out an armful and dropped it into the nearest hamper, on top of a bunch of towels that she was pretty sure were clean. "Here, put your things in. If they're muddy, we can run them through the washer first."

  "Probably best. I don't want to get your dryer dirty or anything."

  Dan rolled his shoulders and slipped out of the prosthetic, which he laid carefully on top of a crate of floor-cleaning supplies. His T-shirt followed, and Paula sucked in her breath. She hadn't been ready for the glorious sculpted pecs, the smooth flat belly with a trail of dark hair vanishing under the waistband of his jeans.

  Dan grinned at her. "Like what you see?" He gave a little pelvic thrust in her direction. "Here, give me a hand with this."

  "Give me a—oh, funny," she muttered, but she didn't hesitate. The button of his jeans and the zipper were warm from his body heat, and when the jeans fell away from his narrow hips, she discovered that he was a briefs man and there was a pointed bulge.

  Paula swallowed.

  She looked up at Dan, and saw him looking down at her, eyes dark with wanting. And suddenly the electric charge that had been growing between them grew to a lightning bolt, a flood of current pouring heat through her body.

  She pulled down Dan's jeans with hands that trembled with the intensity of what she was feeling. He stepped out of them. It was like a slow-motion strip tease. Even fully clothed, she was already wet.

  "I think you might need help with these too." Her voice came out in a whisper as she hooked a finger under the waistband of his briefs. She heard his intake of breath, the only sound he made as she pulled his briefs down to his knees.

  His cock sprang free, erect and already beaded with moisture at the tip.

  Paula swallowed and pulled down the briefs to the floor. Every move made her thighs tingle. Dan's hand came to rest lightly on her head, stroking her hair. He wasn't pushing her in any direction. She breathed in the smell of him, kissed his inner thigh, and then gathered the clothes together.

  "Washing machine," she said hoarsely. She was almost shaking with the effort of keeping herself together and not flinging herself all over that. She stuffed the clothes down into the machine, closed it, and had already pushed the button to start it before remembering that she hadn't added soap. Oh well, who cares.

  Dan rested his hand in the middle of her back. Without saying anything, Paula leaned over the machine as it began to vibrate. She spread her legs under the skirt, tingling with need.

  Dan lifted her skirt, moving it out of the way. As she had done for him, he hooked two fingers into the waistband of her panties and slid them down. The cool touch of air on her wet heat drew a shuddering breath from her.

  She couldn't see him, but she could feel him, bending down behind her as he pulled down her damp underwear. She lifted one sock-clad foot, then the other, stepping out of her panties.

  The washing machine was going now, agitating its contents and shuddering its vibrations through her body. She could feel the vibration in her clit.

  Dan was still kneeling behind her. His hand came to rest on her thigh, sliding her legs a little farther apart.

  She leaned forward, her overheated forehead resting against the back of the machine.

  Dan's breath stirred the curls between her legs. She shivered again.

  The touch of his tongue was an electric jolt that snapped through her spine.

  She clenched her hands into fists underneath her chest on the vibrating machine and squeezed her eyes shut, focusing on the sensations.

  Dan ran his tongue up her folds, exploring her. He flicked his tongue lightly across the top of her clit, and she jerked. The heat of arousal pooled in her hips. She felt molten.

  The light, teasing movement of Dan's tongue flickered lower down, skirting the edges of her opening. She was dimly aware that his hand was no longer touching her thigh. From the small sounds behind her, she realized that he was touching himself while he licked her.

  She spread her legs wider as his tongue flicked in and out. She was so aroused she could barely breathe. Then abruptly he withdrew, leaving her gasping.

  Before she could voice her wordless complaints, his hand settled firmly on her buttock, pressing her against the machine. The vibration shivered through her clit. His fingertips were wet. She groaned.

  Dan leaned over her, and she groaned again as he pressed into her from behind. She was wet and open, and he slid into her, filling her.

  She had never experienced anything like this. He filled her and covered her from behind, moving his hips with small thrusts that moved him inside her without ever letting up on the pressure. She tried to match those small movements. When she pushed forward, the vibration of the machine against her clit was so intense she had to struggle to control the molten heat rising in her; when she pushed back, her buttocks pressed into his groin and he filled her so deeply that the hot ache turned her bones to jelly.

  She was rising toward climax faster than she would have thought possible. Every tiny movement, as they shifted back and forth in sync, pushed her higher. The washing machine covered any sounds they made. Paula rolled her hips against Dan's groin and was rewarded with a throaty gasp. She realized he was as close as she was, struggling just as hard to ride the edge without going over.

  His movements paused, and Paula moaned, teetering on the edge. Dan leaned forward. His lips brushed the back of her neck, which right now seemed to be connected straight to the hot core of her.

  She spread her arms, gripping both sides of the machine as Dan began to move again while he licked and nipped at the back of her neck. "I can't ..." she gasped out, her voice all but covered in the noise of the machine as it hit the spin part of the cycle. The vibration was almost more than she could bear.

  With Dan's lips pressed to her neck, she felt more than heard the answer.

  "Then don't," he whispered. "Go for it."

  That sent her over the edge. Waves of pleasure rose in her and crashed over her, blotting out the world for an instant as she lost herself in the pure sensation of it. As she began coming back down, she felt Dan shudder into his own climax, and the heat of his release, to her own shock, sent her into a second, less intense wave, a mini-orgasm following the big one.

  For a little while she lay draped over the machine with Dan on top of her, sweat sticking his bare chest to her back, both of them breathing deeply as their heart rates slowed. Eventually the discomfort of being on tiptoe with her chest pressed to the lid of a running Maytag started to penetrate.

  "I think I need up now," she got out, and Dan's weight immediately eased.

  He pulled back and she let her skirt down. Her knees were wobbly. She turned around and leaned against the machine and took some slow breaths. Dan was still gloriously naked, and the machine vibrated against her backside, making her aware that she was completely bare-assed under the skirt.

  She wondered how many times a woman pushing forty could come in a row.

  "Wow," she whispered. "You know, I've always fantasized about doing that."

  Dan grinned. He leaned forward to kiss her. His lips were slightl
y salty.

  "I hope I can make all your fantasies come true," he whispered.

  "Gotta say, you're doing great so far." She drew in a ragged breath. "Okay, as amazing as that was, I'd rather sleep in a bed than a pile of laundry, so let's get upstairs and—oh. Hmm. Problem."

  "My clothes are in there," Dan said, pointing to the washing machine.

  "Yeah."

  "Maybe there's something in here I could wear."

  "I really doubt it. Even my skirts probably aren't going to fit you."

  But there were lots of linens. They ended up wrapping him securely in a sheet. Paula dropped her panties in the dirty-laundry hamper, and Dan picked up his prosthetic arm.

  Feeling terribly exposed, Paula opened the door and looked around the dark living room as if there were onlookers lurking in the corners. But there was no one around. The kids were deeply asleep. Dan and Paula tiptoed upstairs to her bedroom without incident.

  Paula closed the bedroom door firmly and breathed a sigh of relief. She turned on a lamp.

  "So here it is," she said.

  It was a different experience to look around her bedroom and see it through a stranger's eyes. At least it wasn't a total mess, and she'd just changed her sheets that weekend, though the bed was rumpled; she hadn't bothered to fix it that morning, and there were some items of clothing thrown on the bedspread. Paula raked them off and dumped them on a chair, and then looked over to see how Dan was taking it.

  Dan was holding his prosthetic arm, looking slightly embarrassed about it. He looked around.

  "Where do you want me to put this?"

  "Anywhere. It doesn't matter. The chair there, I guess?"

  Dan set it down on top of her discarded clothes, and dropped the sheet. Paula sucked in a breath. She still couldn't get over this amazing naked man being here, for her.

  Dan smiled, his uncomfortable look softening into something warm and loving and meant only for her. "That was amazing," he said quietly, "but I feel like you might still have too many clothes on."