Bearly Passing: Saylor and Ryan Read online

  Bearly Passing: Saylor and Ryan

  Bearly Passing, Volume 1

  Roxxy Muldoon

  Published by Roxxy Muldoon, 2015.

  Copyright

  Bearly Passing: Saylor and Ryan

  Copyright © 2015 Roxxy Muldoon

  Cover by Sam Thompson

  Special thanks to Eliza Phillips.

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  Published by Muldoon Publications

  Bloomington, MN 55438

  This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents that occur in this book are works fictitious. Any resemblance to any persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

  All rights reserved. No part of this work may be used or reproduced in any manner without written permission with the exception of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

  Property of Roxxy Muldoon July 16th, 2015

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Teaser

  Dedication

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Epilogue

  Author's Note

  About the Author

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  Further Reading: Bond of the Mates

  Also By Roxxy Muldoon

  About the Author

  Teaser

  "Have you," he asked, "ever had sex before."

  Saylor batted her eyelashes, looking up through him in her best impression of a kitten. "I have never felt the touch of a man before, mister. Are you going to show me how to be a woman?"

  Ryan flushed and stumbled over his words. Saylor broke out into a peal of laughter.

  "Of course I have had sex before!" She said. "Not good sex, but sex enough. Your face when you thought I was a virgin though, it was almost like you were into it."

  Ryan laughed and swept Saylor into his arms. She screeched as he lifted her. It was so easy for him, he smiled at her and brought her into the cabin like he was carrying in the mail. She reached around, pulling him into a kiss as he carried her through the cabin and into the back bedroom.

  The only pieces of furniture in the room were a King bed in a log frame and a small desk to the side. This place needs a woman's touch, thought Saylor, It's a good thing I am here now.

  Ryan threw Saylor back on the bed. She bounced and laughed as the covers and pillows were all mussed. Ryan jumped in after her, nuzzling her face with his newly sprouted beard. She giggled as the rough hairs scratched at her face.

  "We are getting you naked," Ryan said, pulling at her shirt, "so I am not the only one caught with his pants down."

  Saylor kissed him while he unbuttoned her jeans, wiggling out of her pants as he pulled them down. The shirt came next, tossed carelessly to the side. She lay before him in only a cotton bra and panties. He grinned down at her hungrily.

  "I'm going to eat you up," he said.

  Dedication

  To Eliza and Sam, for always putting up with my puns, even when it felt like pun-ishment.

  Chapter One

  Saylor sighed, chewing on the end of her pencil. Astronomy was her last class of the day and the lengthening days of spring did not help her focus. She was tired! Running a hand through her long, light brown hair, Saylor did her best to pay attention to the lecture.

  Professor Ryan Paulson talked about the constellations that were now visible in the spring. He gestured excitedly at the diagram displayed on the screen. Saylor sighed. Her professor was another big distraction. He was hot.

  He dressed like a total geek, he had that much in common with her other professors. For this lecture, he sported a white shirt and black tie under a forest green sweater and too tight khakis. Not an outfit most people could pull-off. Yet somehow, Professor Paulson looked good, really good.

  Saylor's eyes wandered from the diagram of the night sky on the screen to looking-this-good-in-khakis-should-be-illegal Professor Paulson. His broad shoulders threatened to burst out of his sweater every time he pointed at the screen, muscles barely visible through his clothes. His stance was strong and movements confident, as though he played football in high school.

  The sweater pulled tight across his stomach, and Saylor could just make out abs under a thing coating of pudge. She smiled, imagining how he looked without his shirt. A little pudge never hurt anyone, especially after a long winter. It was Michigan, after all, who didn't gain a few pounds of blubber to shield the cold. Saylor certainly had. She shifted in her seat, jeans pulling tightly at her own belly.

  Saylor moved her gaze down, abandoning thoughts about her Professor's possession, or lack, of toned abdominals. She found herself staring at the fabric pulled too tight around his lower region. She hated khakis, as a rule, but was learning to love them on Professor Paulson. The unforgiving fabric left little to the imagination, and when the professor stood the right way she could make out a distinct, and large, bulge.

  Not that she really would know what to do with it if the barricaded bulge presented itself. Twenty years old and the only sexual encounter Saylor could boast was clumsy fumbling in the back of her high school boyfriend's car after graduation. He finished after a measly sixty seconds and they broke up shortly after. Her busy school life plus shy disposition made it just short of impossible to get a boyfriend. Still though, the things she wouldn't give to-

  "Perhaps Saylor can tell us," said Professor Paulson.

  Saylor yanked her gaze from the tempting bulge between the professor's legs and met his twinkling green eyes. Heat pooled in her cheeks and, most embarrassingly, between her legs.

  "Um," said Saylor, berating herself for not being more eloquent, "I'm sorry, can you please repeat the question?"

  Professor Paulson smiled at her from the front of the lecture hall. Astronomy 101 was a large course, and they were in a room with stadium seating. Saylor was just one of over one hundred in the room, but when the professor looked at her with those bright green eyes, she felt like they were the only people in the entire university.

  He ran a hand through his perpetually untidy brown hair. His hair stuck up at all angles, reminding Saylor of post-sex bedhead. Her blush deepened.

  "I asked the class what constellations can be seen in the spring time," said Professor Paulson, his low voice honey in her ears. "Can you help us out?"

  Saylor flipped through her notes. She knew she had written this down last night, it was in the reading. Where was it... oh! There!

  "Bootes, Corvus," she blurted, "Ursa Major, Ursa Minor, Cancer, Scorpius-"

  "Whoa, whoa, very good! That's enough for now," the professor said, winking at her.

  Saylor thought she would melt, right there, in the middle of a lecture hall.

  "As we went over in this lecture," he continued, "there are now celestial bodies that were unavailable to us before. That is why your homework this evening will be to go out, locate some of the constellations we talked about, draw their positioning, and take a photograph."

  The class groaned, Saylor included. She didn't have time to go out tonight. Her junior year of university was winding down, there was so much that still needed to be done.

  "Don't give me that," said the professor, "I remember what it was like in undergrad. You have all the time in the world to go out with your friends but you don't think you can stay out doing homework for a few extra hours. No complaining or I'll give you field
assignments all next week."

  The class gave a collective sigh and a chuckle. Professor Paulson was new, just out of grad school. Saylor knew he couldn't be older than thirty-one or thirty-two, and he was notoriously an easy grader. That's why she was in this class in the first place, science credits needed for an English Lit major. Threats of extra homework worked, but everyone knew he was kidding around. Mostly.

  "All right," the professor waved at the class, "get out of here. Go out, learn, and come back with something to discuss tomorrow. Have a good night!"

  As Saylor filed out, she snuck one more glance at her favorite professor. He stood bent over his desk, scribbling something down in his notes. His shirt was untucked at the side, riding up. Did she detect some muscle tone?

  He looked up, catching her eye, and gave her a dazzling smile. Saylor smiled back, then hurried out the door. Yeah, she was hopeless.

  Chapter Two

  "Jasmine," Saylor called as she swung the door of their apartment closed, "I'm home!"

  "I'm in my room," Jasmine said through the door.

  Saylor dropped her books on the kitchen table and slipped into Jasmine's room. Her roommate lay sprawled on the floor, books in a circle around her head. Her cotton shorts rode up on her ample butt and Saylor felt a familiar pang of jealousy.

  They were both bigger girls, clothing sizes firmly in the teens – the upper teens, but Saylor felt that Jasmine wore it better. Where Saylor felt frumpy, Jasmine was curvy. Where Saylor felt paunchy, Jasmine was voluptuous. With long dark hair always tied back into a shiny ponytail, a love of all things sports, and an intoxicating laugh, it was no wonder Saylor felt lost in the crowd when she was with Jasmine. But they were best friends and roommates. Jasmine was one of the kindest people Saylor had ever known.

  "Guess what?" Jasmine said, pushing herself up so she was sitting.

  Saylor plopped down next to her, moving some textbooks aside.

  "You know Theo from my history class? The obnoxious jackass who thinks he's funny?" said Jasmine.

  "Of course," said Saylor, trying to find a comfortable position on the scraggly beige carpet, "you never shut up about him."

  "Good," Jasmine continued, "because this is going to blow your mind. Theo... is a werebear!"

  Saylor's eyes widened. Weres, or shifters as they were sometimes called, were not wholly accepted by the student body of Northern Michigan University. It wasn't that they weren't allowed to be here, anti-were laws had been overturned in 2009. It was just that, well, some people thought they were dangerous. To have a prominent student, and TA no less, come out as were was a big deal.

  "Shut up," said Saylor, brushing some of her light brown hair out of her eyes. "How did you find out?"

  "He emailed the class!" Jasmine said, grinning widely with excitement. "He said that even though he is a senior this year he is sick of hiding who he really is, blah blah blah. And how he wants to use this opportunity to remind us that the dehumanization of shifters is un-American blah blah blah."

  "He didn't say 'un-American,'" said Saylor.

  Jasmine waved her off. "Okay, not that exactly. But basically that's the gist. It was crazy!"

  "What happened?"

  Jasmine shrugged, finally putting aside her laptop and the premise of study. "My professor made a snide comment this morning about misuse of the class email list and some of the people in my class were sort of uncomfortable, but nothing much. It was just a regular class. I don't think there is that much discrimination anymore."

  Saylor bit her lip, "I don't know, there aren't that many proud shifters on campus. I think there would be more if discrimination was really dead."

  "Don't go all bleeding heart on me right now," Jasmine said, "I want to tell you the best part. Guess what kind of were he is!"

  "I don't know, wolf?"

  "Bear!" Jasmine squealed, rolling around and then ending on her side, looking up at Saylor. "Isn't that so dreamy?"

  "Who says dreamy anymore?"

  "I do!" Jasmine said, mock pouting before pulling her face into a smile again. "I'm even more into Theo now that I know he is a TA in the streets and a bear in the sheets. Does that make me a bad person?"

  "I don't think so," said Saylor, "a lot of people have a thing for weres. Remember that movie we watched last summer?"

  "'Bearback Mountain?' I thought it was going to be about something else," said Jasmine.

  "That was about a human and a were-bear," Saylor finished. "And it was kind of... hot."

  She blushed again and Jasmine laughed, poking her knee.

  "You totally are into weres!" She said, laughing at the blush that worked its way up Saylor's face. "I'll find you one after Theo and I hook up! I bet he has friends for you. Or are you still hung up on the sexy professor."

  "Shut up!" said Saylor.

  "You didn't deny it! You have a thing for older men in sweater vests."

  Saylor said, "He is barely older than me! He's like thirty! And I have never seen him wear a sweater vest."

  "Whatever," said Jasmine, "you're thirsty for some P.H.D."

  "God," said Saylor, covering her face with her hand, "why did I even tell you that?"

  "Who knows," said Jasmine. She rolled back over, and picked up her laptop. "Unfortunately, as much as I love teasing you about your lack of sex life and penchant for professors, I have to get back to these notes. My professor split up our midterm into three parts and I have one on Monday."

  "Sucks," Saylor said, standing up and pulling down her peplum top, "good luck with that. I probably won't see you tonight. I have to go take pictures of the sky in the woods for astronomy."

  "Sucks," Jasmine echoed, shooting Saylor a mischievous smile, "unless you're really going to get lucky at Professor Sexy's."

  "Goodbye Jasmine," Saylor said, shutting the door.

  Chapter Three

  Saylor was not built for the woods. She loved the outdoors. In the daytime. With other people. This walking around in the forest at night, alone, with limited cell phone reception was not one of her better ideas. Saylor was, however, built to be a model student, so suffer for homework she must.

  Saylor pulled down the hem of her sweatshirt. The weather warmed up faster than she expected and a sweatshirt was not the ideal choice. She wanted to take it off, but she didn't want to be forced to carry something else. She already tripped, twice, and needed her hands as free as possible.

  The sky was clear and moonless. The stars reflected on Lake Superior giving the illusion of an eternal sky beyond the crest of the trees. Saylor smiled. She had grown up in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, a forested oasis in the overdeveloped United States. While many of her friends longed to escape the wilderness and small town life, Saylor couldn't.

  She loved the smell of fresh leaves and clear air, the way she could actually see stars at night, how she saw more trees than buildings on her drive home from school. Luckily, she had been accepted to Northern Michigan University which bought her time. She shuddered, worrying for the millionth time about the future. The chances of finding a job and, let's face it, a boyfriend in the UP? Unlikely. Still, how could she live anywhere but here?

  Shaking the worries out of her head, Saylor lifted her head to the sky. Damn, too many trees. Walking further into the woods, Saylor searched for a clearing. There! A few hundred feet ahead she found an opening in the trees and a perfect view of the star dappled sky.

  She pulled up a star map on her phone, or tried to load. Drat! No service at all, foiled again by technology. With a shy, Saylor located the constellations herself. It took forever, everything looked different outside the book. Finally she took a few pictures on her cell phone. She would make drawings from her photos. It was late, almost one in the morning, before Saylor was able to go back.

  Except, fuck, which way was the way back? Saylor turned around in the clearing, all the trees looked the same.

  "Shit," she whispered to herself. Of course this would happen. The question now was, did she wait for the
sun to come up and try to find her way back in the day? Or did she risk getting more lost?

  Saylor sighed and turned toward the direction of the lake. She was exhausted, there was no way she was going to sit in the gross, buggy, woods and wait until the sun came up. Maybe she could follow the coastline of Lake Superior back to campus?

  Saylor picked her way through trees, managing to step in every puddle and trip over every root that presented itself to her. Her jeans were dirty, time ticked on, and she was starting to get scared. What if there were serial killers in these woods? Or predators, sexual or otherwise?

  A twig snapped to her right and Saylor froze. She stood about 50 yards from the beach. She could run for it, but what if a serial killer broke the twig.

  Saylor slid behind a tree, peering out in the direction of the noise. Oh good, she thought, it was only a bear. Her heart stopped. There was a fucking grizzly bear about twenty feet away from her. It was huge, easily six feet tall and hundreds of pounds. Its coat was a shiny brown, ruffled and unruly, but clean. It lumbered along, heading to the lake.

  Shit, she thought, how am I going to get home if there is a bear on the beach? I especially can't wait until morning now that I know there is a grizzly bear on the loose in the woods.

  Everything Saylor knew about avoiding grizzly bear attacks went out of her head. Was she supposed to make herself really big? Was she supposed to climb a tree or stay on the ground? Should she make a loud noise and scare it off?

  She held her breath as the bear stopped and sniffed. Oh god, could it smell her? The bear made no indication that it smelled anything out of the ordinary and continued its walk to the edge of the clearing. Saylor decided to follow it, a few steps behind. She would watch its behavior from the tree line. Hopefully, it would leave the beach after some time and she would be able to find her way back to her apartment. Or at least back into cellular range so she could call Jasmine to come pick her up.

  Saylor followed, careful not to make any more noise. The bear broke the tree-line, picking up its speed as it closed in on the lake. When it hit the water it leaped, jumping in to the fresh, cool water with a large splash. Saylor caught her breath, thankful for the extra distance between her and the creature.