Chapter 21
The man was radiant when he smiled, and it wasn’t just his blond hair and blue-eyed good looks.
There was a lightness in his being that softened the angles of his body, eased his hard jaw, and made his lips kissable instead of tightly pressed.
After the confessions of the last few hours, it was beautiful to see him happy.
Even better, she’d been the one to bring it out in him.
He tugged her close and she fell willingly into his arms. “You’re so beautiful,” he said.
She smiled. “I was just thinking the same thing about you.”
His hands flowed down her back and shivers made her arch in response. “I want to go slow,” he said, “but I want you so bad right now.”
She teased her lips along the seam of his. “Want some wine to go with that cheesy line?”
“Nope,” he said. “Just you.” Then he flipped her over on the bed, and straddled her.
She slid her arms over his shoulders and into his hair. “Are you really okay? I mean physically and emotionally. No aches? No pains?”
She thought he’d come back with another corny line, but he paused as he thought about her question. He took a deep breath and she felt his lungs expand and his groin thicken against her.
“Body’s fine,” he said with a grin. “And you feel great.”
“What about the rest?”
He arched a brow. “Am I still messed up in the head? No more than you are.” He glanced out the window. “There’s a whole world of trouble out there. But you and I are in here, and we can’t do anything about out there.”
“So gather ye rosebuds while ye may?” she asked, quoting her favorite high school English poem.
He shrugged in a why not gesture. “You wanted to make love to me, and I want to give you so many orgasms you pass out and forget all about everything else. You okay with that?”
She jerked her chin at the nightstand. “I still got condoms in my purse.”
“Thank God.”
“You’ll have to get off me if you want me to grab them.”
“In a minute,” he said. Then he began licking her lips, tasting her mouth and her face in a way she recognized though had never experienced before. It was an animal thing, this exploration with tongue and teeth. Wolves did it, but only with their closest friends and always in wolf form.
She arched her head back, exposing her neck to him. Throat, belly, even her groin was his. Sure, he’d had her back in Noelle’s apartment, but that had been a thing of the body. This was deeper, more intimate. And with every brush of his tongue, she felt herself relax into his attention.
He pressed kisses into her neck and she felt her heartbeat flutter. She held onto his shoulders, squeezing as he tasted her pulse point and purred against the underside of her jaw.
“I want my legs free,” she whispered. Her feet had caught into the cotton sheet as he’d flipped her over. She wanted to grip him with her knees and scrape her toes along his calves.
He responded quickly, leaping off her with gratifying speed.
He pulled the sheet completely off the bed, freeing her legs to move as she wanted.
But he didn’t stop there. He tugged at her T-shirt and she sat up so he could strip it away.
She unhooked her bra while he headed for her hips.
She didn’t hesitate to lift for him, and a moment later she was free of all restraint. No sheet, no clothing, no doubts.
“Kiss me,” she said. “Everywhere.”
“Planned to,” he said.
“No. Like a bear. Like one with his mate.”
He paused, and his nostrils flared. No doubt he took in her scent, the musk of hunger and of something more. His hands clenched at his sides then released. She could tell he was aroused by what she said. His eyes burned bright and his organ pulsed thick and hungry before her. But he didn’t move.
“You want me to pretend we’re bound together?”
“It’s possible, isn’t it? Between wolf and bear?” Cross-species mating wasn’t unheard of, but it wasn’t exactly common. Every single one claimed to be a love match. No reason to buck the animal demands for anything short of love.
“Of course, it’s possible.” He swallowed. “But are you ready for that? Or is this us playing house again?”
Was this pretend? She wanted him desperately. She was wet with lust. He also eased an ache inside her. He had from the very beginning.
“What do you want?” she asked.
He didn’t answer. He held her gaze though, as he crossed to the nightstand. He found her condoms quickly enough, and she watched as he put one on with sure and steady hands. Then he spoke, and she heard a tremor beneath his words that betrayed his need.
“I can’t think clearly when I’m this hungry for you.” He crossed to edge of the bed, drawing her down it with a quick tug on her thighs. She was open for him, her musky scent thick in the air. “So how about this? The first O is for fun.” He grinned. “Just to take the edge off.”
“And the second?” Because she guessed that with him, there was always going to be a second.
“That’s when we’ll get real.”
It was already real for her. She knew it deep in her bones.
She was in love with him. He believed in her, he centered her, and most of all, he saw her.
Exactly as she was, faults and all. But she couldn’t forget that she was on borrowed time.
That at some point her brother and the pack he controlled would come for her, and she wasn’t likely to survive.
So what harm could it do if she allowed herself to commit to a man now?
To bond with a bear who had shared his burdens with her even as he eased hers.
Why not make it real for now? Just so long as she didn’t tell him how deeply she was in love with him.
Just so long as he didn’t tumble as far into bonding as she was with him.
She didn’t have a future, but he did. And she wouldn’t steal that from him.
“Okay,” she said. “First one just to take the edge off.”
He grinned as he leaned forward. He pulled her legs up and spread her knees, inhaling deeply as he did. He settled right where she was most open to him. Pelvis to pelvis, penis to opening. Then he pressed his lips to hers.
“Well,” he hedged. “Maybe a little tasting.” He licked her lips and her mouth. He nuzzled into her hairline and ran his teeth along her cheek and the curve of her ear. His breath was hot and sweet, and she smelled his scent as hungry as her own.
When her breath grew ragged just from the scent of him, she clutched at his shoulders. He was tugging on her earlobe, the nip of his teeth as erotic as the stroke of his tongue. And then he thrust.
She’d been ready for it. Hell, she’d been dying for it, but even so the rhythm wasn’t what she expected.
It felt like he had tried to hold back, but couldn’t.
Need overpowered him, so that when he thrust, both of them were surprised.
But she was so wet, he slid right in and moaned in delight at the stretch.
He was big, and she wanted so badly for him to fill her.
She heard the shudder in his breath or maybe she felt it move between both their bodies. But either way, he moaned low into her ear. A deep vibration that echoed down her spine and straight to her womb.
“Don’t stop,” she whispered.
“Can’t,” he panted, though he wasn’t moving below. And yet she felt him, thick and hard. A pulse deep inside her. Not orgasm, but the prelude. “Trying. To. Last.”
“Next time,” she whispered as she squeezed him tightly. His inhale cut off on a startled gasp.
He thrust again. The movement was more jerky than smooth, but she loved it all the more for his break in concentration.
And then it was like he couldn’t stop. He drove into her hard and the impact on her clit made her see stars.
Again, he slammed against her. He had his rhythm now, hard and increasingly fast. She matched it, wrapping her legs around his hips.
She arched as he impaled her. She threw back her head and rode him as if she were on top.
She wasn’t, but he lifted her with every impact and her breath caught every single time.
She gripped his shoulders as he pushed a thumb down between them.
He didn’t need to do it. She was already at the edge. But at his next thrust, the pad of his thumb bore down onto her clit, and she crested right over with a cry. He joined her a split second later, his whole body pulsing into hers.
She felt his release, and she greeted every throb with happiness.
As if they really were bonded. As if their children were a foregone conclusion.
As if they had a glorious future stretched out before them, and she felt it everywhere.
Their shimmering life together, and she embraced it with every part of her.
She held it strong to her heart just as she held him when he collapsed on top of her.
And she kept her eyes closed so that she could see it all so clearly for a moment longer.
So that she felt perfect union with him for a moment longer.
A—
He exhaled close to her ear, his breath hot, nipping her erotically with his teeth.
Moment—
She held him tight, but he eased to the side. He was trying to keep his weight off her. Considerate of him, but she didn’t want to be spared. She wanted to hold him.
Longer…
She felt the magic hovering, just on the edge but not quite locking in.
She knew instinctively what it was: a magical bond between shifters that created mated pairs.
She’d never heard of it happening between cross-species though, and maybe that was why it didn’t land.
Bear and wolf didn’t mix, not even in magic.
Her mouth opened on a frustrated cry. She wanted that connection with him. And when she looked into his eyes, she saw indecision there. Did he feel the same thing, too? Did he know what had almost happened?
Maybe. Because he pressed his lips to her neck. A kiss. A lick. Then he spoke, his words low and barely audible even though his mouth was right next to her ear.
“I had to wait until the edge was off. I had to hold it back until we weren’t so desperate.”
“I’m not—”
“Shhh. Just listen.”
She quieted. Her entire body stilled. She didn’t breathe, and she wasn’t even sure her heart was beating. Every part of her strained to hear him, but he didn’t speak right away. Instead, he pulled back far enough to look into her eyes.
“I feel like you’re my home,” he said. “Like you could be everything to me.” Then he grimaced. “You are everything. It’s already happened, Frankie.”
Her eyes widened as he spoke. Her heart lurched inside her chest, and her breath seemed to burn.
“What I’m saying,” he continued, “is that this is more than playing house to me. It could be love. The forever, bonding kind of love.”
Her hands tightened on his shoulders, squeezing just to be sure that he was real. “It didn’t lock in,” she whispered. “Did you feel that? We didn’t—”
“I don’t care about magical bonds, Frankie. It’s you. It’s me. I’m all in.”
Her breath caught. She couldn’t be dreaming this. He was committing to her. A bear promising himself to a wolf. And the magic of that was enough for her.
“Me, too,” she said. “All in.”
She expected his expression to lighten then, to burst into the kind of joy she felt bubbling inside her.
And it did, though not nearly as fully as hers.
Instead, he drew his body back from her.
Not far. He still pressed her down into the mattress.
She still felt him thick and alive inside her. But she also sensed him drawing back.
“Frankie,” he whispered.
“Yes?”
“Don’t betray me.” She heard the meaning in his words. They were both an order and a plea. After everything he’d been through, he couldn’t be hurt again. Not by her. Not after he’d just become so vulnerable to her.
“I won’t,” she answered. “I swear it.”
And she did. With every cell in her body, every aspect of her soul, she promised not to hurt him.
She’d never turn on him, she’d never turn away even though he was a bear and she was a wolf.
In that moment, he became her pack, and she shuddered at the implication of that.
But she also welcomed it. Lost no longer, outcast no more.
He had called her his home, and now he was hers.
Suddenly she was pushing him over. She didn’t let him fall out of her as she straddled him, pinning his shoulders and his hips to the mattress. His eyes widened, but he didn’t comment. Especially when she began to lick him.
She did everything a wolf did with her mate.
She tasted his skin, she bit gently at his throat.
She nuzzled into his belly. The position forced them to separate and she helped him clean up as well.
And then she licked his thighs and his hips.
She inhaled his musk deep into her lungs, and she licked his organ.
He was thick and hard as she took him deep into her mouth.
She thought she’d finish him off that way, but he didn’t let her.
Well, not exactly.
He lifted her off the mattress and twisted her around. She pulled off him to support herself on her elbows while he began to taste her in the way of a bear. Broad flat licks, rumbling nuzzles, and suction in surprising ways, special places.
She moaned her delight with every caress. And as she allowed him to touch every part of her—including her vulnerable belly—he settled deeper into her soul. One pair, one pack. They claimed each other, and when orgasm hit, they did it together.
Joy pulsed from her to him and back.
Together.
And maybe it went just a bit further.
Her eyes shot open in shock. Maybe it went a lot further.