Chapter 9
Serena
The roar that came from Gavin shook through me like thunder in a wild storm. Except there was no rain, and the only lightning was the crackle of energy between us.
Gavin was a bear. Shifter. Bear shifter.
It was the craziest thing I’d ever heard, even as my brain just said, “Sounds about right.” As if there was more to the world than what I already knew, and part of me not only understood, but held open a space to accept the way a man’s arm turned into a bear paw, claws and all, and then turned back.
I looked into Gavin’s eyes. The flash of cinnamon-gold was back, his dark brows and lashes framing the truths that had been there all along.
He loved me. He wanted me. He saw me.
And now I saw him. All of him. There was still so much more to learn, but we had a lifetime together.
I understood the risk he’d taken, knew he’d pushed past the reality of possible awful consequences, and chose happiness. Not just for himself, but for us both. For me.
“Gavin, I love you.”
His body shook against mine, and he closed his eyes for just a moment, as his lips moved in a silent prayer.
“Sunshine—”
“I trust you. With all of me.” I traced my free hand along his jaw and pressed my thumb on his bottom lip until he parted his mouth to reveal wicked fangs. I drew in a sharp breath.
His mouth was hot, hotter than his skin, and I needed it on me.
I needed to be burned and bonded, marked and mated.
They were thoughts in my head, but somehow I’d voiced them, and they hung for a moment in the afternoon sunshine, before a dark roar erupted from Gavin.
He surged to his feet, taking me with him.
I wrapped my legs around his waist, as he crushed his mouth to mine.
This was not the sweet kiss of a few moments ago. This was hunger. Fierce and raw and wild.
“Mine.” Gavin’s voice was rough, guttural, not fully human.
I loved it.
The red-hot glint in his eyes was back. “You’ve given yourself to me, and you’re mine. I’m never letting go.”
“Same.” I smiled at him, and bit down on his lower lip. “Now, show me.”
His gaze darkened at my demand, the animal he’d thought to protect me from shining through.
I shivered, my core empty and clenching, the ache in my pussy unsatisfied by the mere contact of my center pressed to his waist.
His lips were fire as they met mine, licking and teasing until I gasped. He sucked on my lower lip, and twin points of pain surged through me.
“I. Am. In. Charge.” He grunted out the words, and I wasn’t totally sure he was just talking to me.
He licked my lip, his kiss soothing the sting, but not gentling. Warmth spread from my lips through my limbs, and I wanted to stay on, to wrap tighter around him.
But he reinforced his rule with a sharp smack to my ass before kneeling on the bed. I fell back but didn’t unwind my legs. My shoulders were flat, but my breasts continued to jiggle with the motion of being dropped.
If I thought he’d looked hungry in the forest, the look on his face now was one of a ravenous beast with a bounty spread out before him.
He raised his hand, and the claws were back. He slashed downward, and my cute plaid shirt was shredded open, the tattered pink satin of my bra falling away, exposing me to his sight.
My nipples were hard and pointed, but there wasn’t a scratch on my skin.
I thought I’d been prepared for Gavin in beast mode. I hadn’t been prepared for his savage control.
He dragged a claw across my neck, down the center of my chest, down my soft belly, down to the top of my pants.
I whimpered. I needed more. But I liked this pair of jeans. Finding cute jeans that fit my ass and waist and thighs, and my short legs? That was a miracle. But they were a sacrifice I was willing to make.
I lifted my hips in offering.
He shook his head. “Who’s in charge, Sunshine?”
I wanted to scream in frustration. He liked it when I showed him what I liked, said what I wanted, didn’t he?
“You are.” My response was petulant.
“I am.” He leaned forward, his lips tracing the path his claw had blazed along my tender skin. He paused every so often to nip and lick as he made his way down to my waistband.
I was whimpering, writhing, my vulnerable skin abraded by his beard, dampened by his tongue, prickling with a thousand points of energy shooting straight to my clit.
“Please.” I gasped. He was so close and yet so far. Just like my orgasm.
He dipped his head down to my jeans-clad pussy, his hot mouth hovering above the material.
“I can smell you. I can hear your heartbeat. You’re so close.” His words were hard rasps, lined with a hint of awe. He lifted his gaze, lust and love breaking past the lurking animal.
“It’s for you, Gavin. Because of you.” I held his gaze, somehow knowing he needed this reassurance that I wasn’t scared of any part of him.
That if I pushed at his rules, it wasn’t to push him away.
He could pull out the claws and fangs and roar as much as he wanted.
He’d have to get used to the idea that I wasn’t so pure and fragile I would break in the face of his need.
I wasn’t turned on in spite of who he was, but because I accepted every part of him.
There was no way to hide my reaction, to hide my love and attraction from a man who heard my heartbeat race or could actually smell the way he turned me liquid. He’d get to growl and assert himself as much as he wanted, because I’d never stop butting up against that line.
He let out a shaky breath.
And then I was stripped out of my jeans so fast I lost my own breath.
He pushed my free hand up over my head, stretching me until I felt the headboard brush against my knuckles. He opened my fingers and wrapped them around a post.
I’d barely looked at the bed when we came in here, but it felt nubby and knotted like a tree branch, yet smooth under my hand.
“Don’t let go.”
I nodded.
He trailed his hand down my side, and I wriggled away from the tickling sensation.
“Sunshine,” he growled a warning, and I stilled, biting my lip to keep from giggling.
He cupped both breasts, and pinched one nipple, hard enough to halt my laughter.
He brought his head to my other nipple and swirled his tongue around the tip, scraping a fang across the bud, then alternated pinching and sucking, licking and scraping, until I thought I’d break the bedpost with how hard I was pulling.
But I never let go.
Gavin moved his way down my body, wedging his wide shoulders between my thighs. He’d managed to keep my panties on as he’d disappeared my jeans, and the damp fabric clung to me under his heated gaze.
“Fuck. Your pussy smells like the best parts of summer: vanilla sugar icing and lemonade.” He pressed his mouth over my mound, sucking at me through my panties.
He groaned and ran a finger under the fabric to separate it from my skin.
The brush of his finger against my clit had me arching uncontrollably.
He did it again and again, until I was mewling for more.
“I love that sound,” he said. He pulled his finger away and hooked a claw under both sides of the material where it rode low on my hips, and then it was gone, and I was bare to his gaze.
Bared to the bear. My laugh caught in my throat as he used his thumbs to part my swollen pussy.
“Perfect,” he breathed out. “So pink and wet and waiting for me.” He met my gaze, his eyes hard as rough huffs of breath rolled along my skin. “Just. For. Me.”
“Just you, Gavin. Only you.” I didn’t have an animal inside me—yet—but that same fierce place that forced my anger to the surface in the forest rose again as I said the words.
His grin was quick and sharp and gone as he put his mouth where I needed it most. He lapped at my center.
Small licks with his tongue curled, up and down, dipping into my center.
His thumbs pinning my puffy lips in place, spreading me wide despite the slick slide of my arousal making everything slippery.
His groans and growls filled the room, mixing with my own panting breaths and pleas for more.
One hand was pinned in place by my promise while the other was restrained by the handfast tie, limited to move in tandem with his. My body was tense and taut, every muscle strung tight as the sensations raced over my skin, heating my blood, chasing the final piece that would send me over the edge.
He grunted, and plunged two fingers inside my aching core, turning them up and pulling forward as he sucked my clit in his mouth. I screamed as the mounting pressure snapped with a near audible pop, my thighs clamped tight to his shoulders, as my orgasm ripped through me like wildfire.
He kept licking and sucking, lapping and stroking as I quivered in place.
“Sunshine, that was the sexiest thing I’ve ever seen.” His voice was muffled against my thigh. “I can’t hold back much longer. I need to be inside you, all the way. I need to make you mine, to mark you as my mate.”
He surged upwards to kneel over me, caging me. I looked down and swore under my breath.