Bear Flesh Delights

“Yeah, you’re probably right,” she agreed. “Will you ask him for me? I feel too stupid to do it myself right now.”

“Of course I will,” Amelia agreed. “A good night of sleep and you should be feeling a whole lot better.”

“Yeah, maybe I will,” she agreed. “Thanks for being so nice to me, Amelia. You’re an all right kind of girl. You must be a great teacher.”

“I wish I could say that I was,” she sighed. “But after the year I’ve just been through, I’m more of a neurotic mess. I just can’t seem to get through to those kids at all. I desperately needed to get away from that whole mess.”

“So neither one of us has a clue what we’re doing?” she smirked. “Glad I’m not the only one.”

“Come on, let’s get out of here,” Amelia suggested. “I’ll get Skylar for you.”

Coming out of the bathroom, Amelia motioned to Skylar and he stepped over to where she and Ashley stood by the door. Joe watched from across the room as Amelia asked Skylar to take Ashley home. When the two of them left together and Amelia came back over to sit with him, he cast her a curious look.

“Is he taking her home, then?” he asked with a smirk.

“Yeah, they’re going,” Amelia confirmed with a nod. “I think Ashley has finally realized her girlish crush isn’t going to work out.”

“That’s good,” he nodded. “I’ve been trying to figure out what to do about her for years.”

“I know the feeling,” she said. “Some of the boys in my school tend to crush on me as well.”

“I find that easy to believe,” he told her.

“Well, if I’m going to go fishing tomorrow morning we probably shouldn’t stay too late either, don’t you think?” she asked him, trying not to blush.

Judy chose that particular moment to bring Seth over. “It really is all right,” she insisted as he hung back. “Come on, Seth.”

“West,” he said with a nod. “Is Skylar heading out, then?”

“It appears so,” Joe replied warily.

“Why is Ashley leaving?” Judy wanted to know.

“She wasn’t feeling well,” Amelia said. She wasn’t about to tell her she was totally drunk.

“I’ve come to let you know,” he said. “Judy has agreed to let me take her home. I assume there are no objections?”

“Judy can do what she likes,” Joe shrugged.

“Great, I’ll see you guys later then,” she said, and the two of them left again.

“I guess that just leaves you and me, Amelia,” Joe said with a smirk. “Do you want to go home right now, or hang around just a little while longer?”

Sighing, Amelia replied, “Not to be a party pooper, but maybe I ought to go home. I’m getting pretty worn out after such a long day.”

“Do you want to stop by the grocery store and get some chocolate?” he smirked, and Amelia’s jaw dropped.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“It’s Friday night, and you’re going home early and didn’t invite me to stay,” he pointed out. “Sounds like a chocolate kind of a night to me.”

“Oh, really?” she smirked.

“Yup,” he replied. “Unless of course you decide to invite me. I taste a lot better than chocolate, and you wouldn’t run out of your supply.”

“I don’t believe we’re having this conversation when we only met three hours ago,” Amelia gasped, still laughing. “Would you please take me back to my cabin so I can get a few hours of writing in and catch some sleep before fishing time?”

“Sure, sure,” he said innocently. “Just putting it out there.”

“I appreciate it,” she said. “But after what else you’ve been talking about, I suspect you’re just hoping Skylar will look for me in my bed and find you already in it.”

“You might be right,” he chuckled. “We do like to share things, especially when it comes to pretty women who are in dire need of some fun.”

Amelia blushed hotly. “Okay, we should stop talking now,” she told him.

“Too soon?” Joe grinned. He got to his feet and extended his hand. Amelia shyly took it and allowed him to bring her to her feet. He didn’t let go as he headed toward the door, and she didn’t try to move away from him either.

Joe stopped by the store, and Amelia chuckled as she followed him inside. He bought her a chocolate rose and asked if she was missing anything in her kitchen.

“I don’t have any bread,” she remembered, and went to grab some. She also bought a couple of two liter sodas and some chips.

Back in the van, Joe started to drive home. They were quiet for a while, but then he chuckled.

“Dare I ask why you’re laughing now?”

“You like salt better than sweet,” he said.

“So?” she smirked. They were outside her cabin now, and Joe reached for her hand, drawing it up to his lips to kiss the back of it.

“I did just drink a margarita if you’d like a taste,” he told her with a little smile.

“Maybe just for a taste,” she conceded, and let him lean over further, take her by the chin, and plant a chaste kiss on her lips.

Bemused, she stared into his soft blue eyes from barely an inch away as he held her there for a few moments before he said, “Mm, you taste pretty good, too. Have fun with Skylar later, will you? And be sure to taste him too.”

Amelia’s eyes popped open, and she quickly moved out of the van, grabbed her groceries, and headed for the door. She couldn’t believe they had such a strange conversation. But at the same time, she already knew, in the pit of her stomach, and by the clenching of her woman’s core in that special, very sexy way, that she liked it. She liked it very much.

Suddenly the straight-laced literary piece that she’d been planning to write canceled itself in her mind and was replaced by a torrid romance. Before she knew it, she had already been writing for hours and she was staring at three finished chapters and a grandfather clock chiming twelve times.

“If I hope to get any sleep at all, I’d better do it now,” she told herself with a shake of her head, and she went straight into her bedroom, falling on top of the covers and drifting off to sleep within five minutes. She forgot to set the alarm.