Chapter 10 - Rhett
I'm kissing her and it's everything.
Her lips are soft, yielding, but also demanding. She kisses me back with an eagerness that makes my head spin, her fingers digging into my shoulders hard enough to leave marks.
I don't care. I want her marks on me. Want evidence that this is real, that she's choosing this, choosing me.
The bear is purring so loudly I can feel the vibration in my chest. It's content in a way I've never experienced: not in combat, not in isolation, not ever. This is what it's been waiting for. What we've both been waiting for without knowing it.
*Mate,* the bear rumbles. *Ours. Mine. Perfect.*
I break the kiss long enough to trail my mouth along her jaw, down her neck. She tilts her head back, giving me access, and makes a small sound that goes straight to my cock.
Fuck. I'm already hard, have been since the moment our lips touched, and every little noise she makes just makes it worse.
Better. Makes it better.
The bear stirs, pushing forward. Not aggressively, not violently, but with purpose. With need.
*More,* it demands. *Want more. Need more. Claim her.*
Claim.
Not just kiss, not just touch. The bear wants to claim her in the most primal, irreversible way possible. Wants to mate with her, bind her to us completely, make her ours in a way that transcends any human concept of relationship.
My cock throbs at the thought, straining against my jeans, and the bear growls its approval.
I step back abruptly, breaking contact.
Autumn makes a sound of protest, her eyes flying open. Her lips are swollen, her cheeks flushed, her breathing uneven.
"What's wrong?" she asks, reaching for me.
I catch her hands before she can touch me again. If she touches me right now, I won't be able to stop.
"The bear," I manage, my voice coming out rough, almost guttural. "It wants more."
"More kissing?"
"More than kissing." I force myself to meet her eyes, to let her see the hunger there. "It's not satisfied with just this. It wants… Fuck, Autumn, it wants to claim you. Right here, right now."
Her eyes widen. "Claim me how?"
I should sugarcoat it. Should use gentle language. But the bear is too close to the surface, and it demands honesty.
"It wants our bodies to become one," I say bluntly. "It wants me inside you. Wants to fuck you until you smell like me, until every other male knows you're taken. Wants to make you mine in the most fundamental way possible."
I brace for her to pull back. To realize this is too much, too fast, too intense.
Instead, she surprises me.
"If that's what the bear needs," she says slowly, "then I'm okay with that."
I stare at her. "You don't… Autumn, you don't have to—"
"I know I don't have to. But being with you means being good for both of you, right? The man and the bear?" She steps closer, placing her hand on my chest again. "I want to be good for both."
"You don't understand what you're agreeing to."
"Then explain it to me."
"It won't be gentle. The bear doesn't know gentle. It knows taking and claiming and possessing."
"Will you hurt me?"
"No. Never. But it'll be intense. Primal."
"Okay."
"Okay?" I repeat incredulously.
She smiles, and there's something shy in it but also determined. "I might be a virgin, Rhett, but I have desires too. And I want this as much as you do. As much as the bear does."
Virgin.
The bear roars its approval. *Ours. Only ours. No one else has touched her. Perfect.*
"Autumn—"
"Stop trying to talk me out of this," she interrupts. "I'm saying yes. I want you. Both of you."
The last thread of my control snaps.
The bear surges forward, and I let it. Let it flood my system with its strength, its needs, its absolute certainty that this woman belongs to us.
I move forward, and she gasps as I drop to my knees in front of her.
"Rhett—"
I kiss her leg. Just above her knee, where her jeans end and bare skin begins. She's wearing the hiking pants she had on yesterday, and they're rolled up slightly, showing her calves.
Not enough. I need more skin.
My hands go to the button of her jeans, and I look up at her, giving her one last chance to stop this.
She nods.
I undo the button, lower the zipper, and peel the denim down her legs. She steps out of them, leaving her in just her underwear and shirt.
Her thighs are thick and soft, marked with faint bruises from yesterday's fall. I kiss each bruise gently, working my way up.
She spreads her legs slightly, and the scent of her arousal hits me like a freight train. Fuck. She's wet. Already wet, and I've barely touched her.
The bear growls its pleasure, and I grip her thighs, kissing higher. Her skin is so soft, so perfect. I want to mark it, want to leave evidence of my mouth all over her.
"Rhett," she breathes, her hands coming down to tangle in my hair. "Oh God."
I reach her inner thighs, so close to where I want to be, and breathe in deeply. Her scent is intoxicating. So sweet and musky. The bear is practically vibrating with need.
*Taste,* it demands. *Need to taste her. Now.*
I hook my fingers in the waistband of her panties and pull them to the side. And there it is. Pink and glistening and absolutely perfect.
I lean forward and run my tongue along her slit, and the taste explodes across my senses.
Holy fuck.
Is this how a fated mate tastes? Like heaven and sin and everything I've ever wanted but never knew I needed? I could eat her out every single night for the rest of my life and never get tired of this.
She makes a high, keening sound above me, her fingers tightening in my hair. Her legs are already trembling, and I've barely started.
I do it again, slower this time, savoring every inch. My tongue parts her folds, finding her clit and circling it gently.
She cries out, her hips jerking forward.
"Oh fuck," she gasps. "Rhett, I—I need to sit down. My legs—"
She's already moving backward toward the couch, and I follow on my knees, not willing to break contact for even a second. She collapses onto the worn cushions, and I settle between her spread thighs, gripping them to hold her open for me.
"Perfect," I growl against her skin. "You're fucking perfect."
Then I dive back in.
I run my tongue back and forth over her clit, learning what makes her gasp, what makes her moan, what makes her thighs try to close around my head. I inhale her scent with every breath, letting it fill my lungs, my mind, my very soul.
The bear is in ecstasy. This is what it was made for: pleasing our mate, making her feel good, showing her what it means to belong to us. I probe her entrance with my tongue, and she's so wet, so ready. Her body is responding to me like it was designed for this, for us.
I alternate between fucking her with my tongue and sucking on her clit, and her moans get louder, more desperate. Her hips are moving now, grinding against my face, and I fucking love it.
"Rhett," she pants. "Oh God, Rhett, I've never… Fuck!"
The curse falling from her sweet mouth makes my cock pulse. I'm so hard it's almost painful, straining against my jeans, begging to be released.
The bear roars its agreement. *Inside her. Need to be inside her. Claim her properly.*
But not yet. First, I'm going to make her come on my tongue. Going to taste her pleasure, feel her fall apart because of what I'm doing to her.
I suck her clit hard, and she screams. Her whole body goes rigid, her thighs clamping around my head, her hands yanking on my hair hard enough to sting.
And then she's coming, pulsing against my mouth, flooding my senses with her taste and scent and the sound of my name being torn from her throat.
It's the most beautiful thing I've ever experienced.
I don't stop. I work her through it, gentler now, helping her ride out every wave of pleasure until she's pushing at my head, oversensitive and trembling.
Only then do I pull back, looking up at her.
She's wrecked. Her hair has come loose from its braid, her face is flushed, her chest heaving as she tries to catch her breath. She's staring at me with wide, dazed eyes.
"That was—" she starts, then stops. "I can't… Words don't—"
"Good?" I supply, probably sounding way too smug.
"Understatement of the century." She laughs breathlessly. "Is it always like that?"
"I don't know. Never done it before."
Her eyes widen. "You've never??? But you were so good! How did you know—"
"The bear knew what you needed. I just followed its instincts."
"Well, the bear's instincts are fucking incredible."
I stand up, and her eyes immediately drop to the obvious bulge in my jeans. Her tongue darts out to wet her lips.
"Your turn?" she asks hesitantly.
"Only if you want to." I'm barely holding on to control. The bear is demanding I take her, claim her, fuck her until she can't walk. But I won't do anything she doesn't want. Won't push her further than she's ready to go.
She reaches for my belt buckle. "I want to."
"Autumn—"
"I want you inside me, Rhett. I want to feel what it's like. I want you to claim me."
Fuck. Hearing her say it in her own words, with that mix of shyness and desire, nearly breaks me.
I help her with my belt, with the button and zipper of my jeans. My hands are shaking, from restraint, from need, from the sheer overwhelming reality of what's about to happen.
She pushes my jeans down, and my cock springs free, hard and throbbing.
Her eyes go wide. "Oh. That's... that's big."
"We'll go slow," I promise, even though the bear is screaming at me to just take her already. "If it's too much, if it hurts, you tell me and we stop. Understood?"
"Understood." She reaches out and wraps her hand around my length.
I hiss through my teeth at the contact. Her hand is small, soft, and the sight of her fingers barely able to close around me makes the bear preen with masculine pride.
"You're so hard," she murmurs, stroking it. "Is this all for me?"
"All for you," I confirm roughly. "Only for you. Always for you."
She strokes me a few more times, and I have to grab her wrist to stop her.
"If you keep doing that, this is going to be over embarrassingly fast," I admit.
She grins up at me. "Really?"
"You have no idea what you do to me. What you've been doing to me since the moment we met."
"Then show me."
I pull her up from the couch and kiss her. She can probably taste herself on my tongue, and the thought makes me groan. My hands go to the hem of her shirt, and she raises her arms, letting me pull it off. Her bra is simple, practical, and somehow sexier than anything I could have imagined.
I unclasp it and toss it aside, and then she's naked in front of me.
"Fuck," I breathe, drinking in the sight of her. "You're so goddamn beautiful."
"I'm not—"
"You are." I cup her breasts, feeling their weight, thumbing her nipples until they peak. "Perfect. Every fucking inch of you."
She moans, arching into my touch, and I know I can't wait anymore. I need to be inside her. Need to claim her. Need to make her mine in every way possible.
"Bed," I growl. "Now."
She goes willingly, and I follow, already knowing this is going to change everything.
And I can't fucking wait.