Bonnie sat up, pushing all thoughts of Jesse out of her mind as she looked forward to spending time with her friend. “Won’t Shane mind?”
“Nah,” Ruby said. “Maybe because he met you and Harmony early, but he's always understood how important my girlfriends are to me, and I like that a lot.” She went to the door. “Fanny outdid herself with the sloppy joes tonight. I’ll be right back so you can taste them. You have no idea what you’ve been missing out on.”
Bonnie frowned as she tilted her head and considered her friend’s words. Ruby was right. She didn’t even know what she was missing out on, not having sex or romantic love in her life.
Maybe it was time to find out.
* * *
Jesse was putting things away in his cabin and getting ready to turn in for the night when he heard a knock on the door that made him stand ramrod straight with awareness.
He’d never heard a knock like that before. Quiet. Feminine.
And the haunting scent that wafted through the wood to him, bitter wildflowers and rain.
Bonnie.
But what was she doing out there this late at night? He hadn’t seen her at dinner when he’d eaten with his brothers, and he’d missed her presence even more than he expected. Maverick had noted his restlessness, which was impressive because the black eye he had from Jesse’s fist after leaving Bonnie out there alone made it hard to see anything.
But Jesse had remained quiet, not knowing what he’d say to his brothers, if anything, and simply come back here after dinner to sit alone in his living room and listen to the rain that was hitting off and on and had been all day.
He loved the sound of it on his roof, on his windowpanes. All around, rhythmic and soothing.
When he’d seen Bonnie lying in the field, looking tired but so peaceful, he’d wondered if they really were kindred spirits in more ways than just being mates.
He took a deep breath, steeled himself to have control, and then walked to the door and opened it. The sight in front of him took his breath away.
Bonnie in a nightgown with a robe over it, her red hair drenched in rain from running out from the main lodge. And she was holding an overnight bag. Like she was planning on staying…
He took her by the arms and yanked her inside, slamming the door behind her as possessiveness rammed through him, thinking anyone could have seen her like this.
She was his. His.
But her face, hesitant, pale, but with a flush on her high cheekbones, stopped his angry thoughts in their tracks. His eyes trailed down to her parted, plump lips, down to her pointed, feminine chin, down her beautiful column of a neck, and to the swells of her breasts rising up from her buttoned nightgown, squeezed together by the tightly tied robe.
His mouth went dry, making any attempt to swallow pointless.
There was only one reason he could think of that she’d be here at this time of night, dressed like this, but he was afraid to hope for it.
“I…” she said, looking around her. She bit her lip and let out a little breath of relief. “You have a lovely cabin.”
“Thank you,” he said, sinking onto a couch in disbelief that she was here. Then he realized it was rude and stood again, guided her to a soft chair across from him and then sinking onto the couch again with a groan. This little female was killing him.
“I didn’t mean to bother you,” she said, twisting her pale hands in her lap as she spoke. Damn, that lap looked soft and inviting. She had the kind of killer curves that started fights in this territory. Wide, generous hips, a cute, curved stomach, and gorgeous breasts that would fill his hands and then some.
And he had big hands.
He bit the inside of his cheek to keep from saying anything stupid and told his body to wait and see what the little female wanted.
No rush, boy.
“Like I said, I didn’t mean to bother you. It’s just… I was wondering if you’d have sex with me.”
His jaw fell open. Of all the things he expected to come out of that sinfully beautiful mouth, that was the last one. His heart thudded in his chest as he shifted position to hide the hardness rising between his legs at the thoughts that arose from her request.
He was torn at this moment, between his want for her, the hot fantasies he’d been having ever since she came back, and the knowledge that she was still hell bent on going back to another man.
“What about Seth?” he asked tightly. He couldn’t give his everything to her if she was going to leave. He just couldn’t.
She shook her head, looking sad, and he hated himself for asking. But he felt honesty was always the best policy, and if they were going to do something so personal, so connected, he wanted to know everything was open between them.
“He isn’t coming,” she said. “I guess I wanted him to. I wanted the whirlwind romance. But I’m accepting that’ll never happen.”
“So you’re done with him?” he asked tightly, trying to keep his body reined in. The bear in him was roaring.
Claim the mate. Claim her.
“I want to be honest with you,” she said. “Things are complicated for my species. We… get matched at birth. There are rules.”
“I’ll break all of them for you,” he said. “You’re meant for me. Can’t you feel it?”
She shook her head. “I can’t. I don’t know how it works for bears, but we aren’t taught to listen to feelings like that.”
“I don’t know,” he said, kneeling in front of her chair and tilting her chin. “There’s so much we don’t know about the wild nature that makes us who we are. But I know I want you. I know you should be mine, and I know I’d fight an army if they came for you.”
She nodded. “But I want you to respect that I have to make my own choices.” She sighed. “But in all likelihood, Seth won’t come. He's always gone along with our pairing because it was convenient. Because his family liked it. But he hasn’t ever really wanted me. We haven’t even had sex.” She looked up at him, and the shame shining in her eyes distracted him from the shock of what she’d just said.
“Wait, what?” he asked. “You’re a virgin?”
She nodded shyly. “In my species it’s not necessary until we want to breed.”
“If the rules are so stringent, then why doesn’t your ex-fiancé seem to care about them?”
“He hasn’t had to,” she said, hanging her head. “He gets to live how he wants and get admiration at the same time. He probably assumes I’ll crawl back, afraid of my family.” She met his eyes with fire in their green depths. “But not this time. I’m not going back to him this time. Even if I go back to New York, it won’t be to him.”
“That’s all I need to know,” Jesse said, picking her up and making her squeak in alarm before throwing her arms around his neck.
“What are you doing?”
“Taking you to my bed to do what Seth should have done long ago. And what I would have killed him for doing.”
Her eyes widened, auburn lashes fluttering in shock just before his lips lowered over hers in a promise. That he would take care of her, please her more than she knew what to do with, make her happy.
He wouldn’t claim her, but he’d make sure she knew just what it meant to take a bear as a mate. And if Seth ever did come, he’d be happy to kick his kitty ass.
“I love you,” he said as he kicked open the door to his bedroom. “And now I’m going to show you just how much.”
Chapter 5
Bonnie didn’t know what she’d expected when she’d shown up at Jesse’s front door, asking for sex. But it wasn’t this.
He loved her?
She screwed up her brows in confusion. “You can’t love me. You barely know me.”
“Bears can have fated mates,” he said gruffly, looking unbearably handsome as he set her gently down on the bed and then started to unbutton the top of his work shirt, making her mouth water.
He was such a big, beautiful specimen of a man. Bear shifters really were something else.
“When we see them, we know they’re ours,” he said. “We feel a deep love for them that can’t really be equated to human love. It’s a possessiveness, a state of belonging. It’s been torturing me since I met you and found you were promised to another man.” His bright-blue eyes were blazing heat. “But I had to wait for fate to work things out. You’re my mate, and I knew you'd come to me.”
He shed his shirt, revealing a beautiful, tanned torso worthy of a male stripper. He unbuttoned his jeans and left them like that, revealing a trail of dark-blond hair that made Bonnie swallow nervously at how much she wanted to see what was lower.
“How did you know?” she asked, scooting back as he came onto the bed.
“I just did,” he said. “I can’t explain it.” He backed her up until she was on her back, nearly at the headboard, and he was over her, one hand on either side of her head, hot and virile and ready to go.
She found the thought of being dominated by all that male strength unbelievably hot.
“But what if we can’t breed?” she asked. “What if the species thing…”
He shook his head. “I don’t know. It doesn’t matter, though. Breeding or not, you’re it for me. If not you, I wouldn’t be with anyone, so no point in thinking about it.”
She didn’t even know what to make of that. She couldn’t make him any promises other than she wouldn’t go running back to Seth on her own.
She’d had it with him.
“You’re so overwhelming,” she said, leaning in to bite the skin of his neck as he let out a groan. She dug her nails into his back. “You keep coming at me, saying I’m yours. Confusing me with this mates thing.”
His muscles felt incredible, soft and hard at the same time and so big. He pressed down against her, melding his hard chest with her soft breasts and she let out a sigh at the satisfactory feel of his weight.
“I know,” he said. “I don’t know how to do anything halfway.”
“I’m not making any promises,” she said.
“I’m not claiming you,” he said. “Yet. When you realize you’re mine, you have to do it on your own. Not feel like I’m pressuring you.” He licked the shell of her inner ear, making her shudder. “But I’m going to give you what you asked for. I’m going to show you what you’ve been missing.”
“Okay,” she said, feeling an ache inside her she’d never felt before with Seth. She literally felt there was a space inside her that Jesse needed to fill. That would ache forever until he was there, joined with her.
She writhed against him, pressing her hips to his, but he put a hand down, slowing her.
“We have to wait,” he said. “You’re probably tight down there, and I’m… not easy to accommodate.”
She flushed and nodded, and then jealousy flooded though her. “Have you been with someone?”
He nodded, eyes wary. “I have. I didn’t know I had a mate.”
She shook her head. “It doesn’t matter. We aren’t together. It shouldn’t matter.”
“Hush,” he said. “It’s okay if it does. But there’s been no one but you since I met you.”
She nodded, feeling mollified by that slightly. “Okay.”
“I need to make you ready first, okay?” he asked.
She suddenly felt nerves well up in her. “Okay.”
“I know this is going to be awkward, but I need to ask how far Seth went with you,” Jesse said, kneeling over her in just those tight, open-at-the-top jeans that pressed so hard against his gigantic, tight thighs.
“I… just making out,” she said.
“Did you ever get wet?” he asked, raising a blond eyebrow as he took a band off his wrist with his teeth and tied his hair back tight into a short queue.
“I… don’t know…” she said.
He grinned, looking slightly wolfish as he did. “Then you didn’t.”
She wanted to tell him she’d gotten wetter kissing him in the barn than she’d ever been with Seth, but she decided to keep that particular thought to herself. Jesse already seemed way too confident.
“I guess not,” she said.
“Let me see if I do it,” he said, pushing her robe aside and leaving her bared in her nightgown. He shoved it up around her waist and gave a pleased look at her panties before dipping a finger inside.
A smile lit his face as he withdrew his finger and sucked it into his mouth, keeping those blazing blue eyes on her all the time. In his tanned face, they looked like fire, blue flames. He had oddly dark lashes that gave them a sultry look. The kind of lashes women would kill for.
But from his hulking shoulders to his rippling abs, Jesse McAllister was definitely all man.
He leaned over her, kissing her lips as he explored with his finger again. “You’re wet for me already. I love that.”
She murmured in embarrassment against his lips, but he caught her words and stifled them with a swift, erotic swipe of his tongue over the entirety of her mouth, and she sighed at the feel of it as the tip of his finger played over her heat, swirling over a sensitive spot with a playful gentleness.
“Have you ever pleased yourself?” he asked.
She bit her lips. “Yes.”
“Good,” he said. “You should have had all the pleasure in the world. Now I’m going to give it to you.”
She swallowed as his finger played more boldly, running over and around her clit as he explored the pressure she liked. She showed him with small gasps and moans, little writhes of her body, rewarding him when he found just what she liked.
All too soon he was a pro, his deft finger swirling over her and sending her rushing headlong toward an orgasm faster than she ever had in her life.
She reached up to grab him with her arms, not wanting to be alone at this moment, when so much feeling was about to come, and he grinned, eyes burning and pleased.
“That’s it. Hang on,” he said. “I’m here to ride the storm with you.”
She groaned as the peak hit, arching as ecstasy flooded her, so strong it was almost painful. His breaths were harsh as he watched her, ecstasy reflected in his eyes just from giving her pleasure.
The sight of him there, commanding, demanding, was so hot she nearly went again.
But she didn’t until he began stroking against her again as she still trembled in the aftershocks of the most powerful orgasm of her life. He kissed her deeply, swirling his tongue deep in her mouth, against hers, in a promise of what was to come when he finally went inside her. He pressed hard over her just as she hit the peak, and she went tumbling over the edge with him, freefalling into beautiful pleasure that was unlike everything she’d ever felt.
It felt like he was taking her higher and higher, freewheeling with her into this new world, patient all the way.
And he was so hot, so gorgeous that she was impatient to see all of him. Panting, she reached for the top of his pants.
“Not so fast, wildcat,” he murmured, reaching lower with his finger and dipping into her, testing her wetness. “I need to know I won’t hurt you.”
“I don’t care,” she said, thrusting up against him, needing him out of his pants and inside her. The animal inside her had woken and needed her mate.
“Just wait,” he said, dipping his whole finger inside her and lighting up nerve endings she didn’t know she had. She arched against him, loving the feeling but needing more of it. “Damn, if you keep being this hot, I’m going to lose it in my pants like a schoolboy. And I’ll never forgive you if you make me do that,” he teased.
“I don’t care. Just hurry,” she grated out, tugging at his waistband as he felt inside her with one and then two fingers, stretching her, testing her.
She didn’t care what he did as long as he was inside her, now. She growled as she tugged harder on him, but he was still feeling inside her, gently stroking.
With a ferocious growl she bucked against him, knocking him off her and reversing their positions.
His blue eyes widened as her nails lengthened to claws
while she straddled him, reaching for his jeans.
He started trying to push himself back, but before he could, she’d run a long nail down either side of his pants, tearing them off and baring him to her. His huge member sprang free, and the cat in her meowed.
She shed her nightgown and rubbed herself over him, arching like a cat in heat. She didn’t care anymore. The animal in her was awake and she was in charge.
Bonnie would finally have what she’d wanted from the moment she’d seen this handsome cowboy.
And after all, they didn’t call this position cowboy style for nothing. She tore off her panties, ignoring his shocked expression, his harsh breath as she lowered herself over him, not happy until he was sheathed fully inside her, stretching her from every angle and making the ache in her abate.
Pain shot through her, intermingled with pleasure, and she panted as she waited for her body to adjust.
He was staring at her with lowered brows and pursed lips, but she could see the heat in his eyes, the tightness in his muscles.
Then he broke into a smile and raised his hands to run them over her waist and feel her breasts. “Looks like my little wildcat finally broke free.”
She simply growled at him and tried to figure out what to do next.
“You feeling okay?” he asked, looking unbearably handsome beneath her. His hips fit perfectly under hers, his waist amazing under her hands, and his gorgeous face amused by this turn of events, as long as she was okay.
She nodded curtly, still overwhelmed by the soothing yet intense feel of him inside her.
“Want me to keep going?” he asked.
She nodded, and he reached for her waist, gently lifting her while pulling back with his hips. She gritted her teeth together as pleasure shot through her, as his head rubbed a particular spot that was hungry for him. Then he set her back down, plunging into her with speed and precision that had her gasping and then moaning at how good it felt.
He groaned and then gently lifted her off of him and set her beside him. The next second, he’d reversed their position on the bed.
Rancher Bear: BBW Bear Shifter Romance (Bear Haven Book 2) Page 4
