Some Bear to Love: BBW Bear Shifter (BWWM) Romance Standalone

by Terry Bolryder

  But she simply understood what it meant to him, and it made him love her. It somehow made sense that he’d made love to her for the first time on the ocean, rocking in a boat together. But what did she love?

  She walked out to look at the view. It wasn’t fancy. The suite was very high up so the beach and the people on it were blurry and small. But the view of the ocean? Unbeatable, rippling in blues and greens out into eternity, or at least until it met the silvery line of the horizon.

  He joined her and leaned on the railing. The wind brought her scent to him and breathed it deeply, knowing it was going to be one of the things he missed most about her when she was gone.

  She looked at him and the sunset reflected in her gray eyes. He could see himself in them, reflected just as he was, and it made him want to be a better man. A better person. And worthy of her.

  But these were silly thoughts. They were just two people who would give in to their animal urges for a week and then go back to being the rational beings they were.

  They had nothing in common. They didn’t make any sense together. But somehow he still wanted to know everything about her.

  He brushed her hair back and pressed a kiss to the base of her ear where it met her jaw, and she shuddered against him. “What do you love, Kim?”

  “What do you mean?” she said huskily as he continued to kiss along the shell of her ear. She gasped as he ran his tongue along the inside.

  “I mean, you know what I love. The ocean. What do you love?”

  She frowned for a moment, as if she’d never considered it. Then she sighed as his fingers played at the nape of her neck, tickling her lightly. “I guess adventure,” she gasped out. He stopped teasing so she could finish what she meant to say. He wanted to hear all of it.

  “I guess I always want to have adventures. I never want that to stop.”

  “Even when you’re mated?” he asked.

  “Especially then,” she said. “I guess I’ll just have to hope the man I marry has a sense of adventure. He’ll be a bear, so that’ll probably work for him.”

  “You’re a bear too, correct?” he asked.

  She nodded. “Brown. You?”

  “Polar,” he said. “Probably some Kodiak in there too. We don’t know that much about my mother’s side of things.”

  A normal person might have left it there, assuming there was something painful about his mother he didn’t want to talk about, but not Kim.

  “Why not?” she asked. “What happened? I mean, you don’t have to tell me, but I’d feel dumb if I didn’t ask.”

  “Kind of rude,” he said.

  “Maybe,” she said. “But I’d rather seem rude than disinterested.”

  He raised an eyebrow. “As if anyone could ever think you disinterested,” he teased in a low voice.

  She grinned and he found himself loving that smile. It was lighting his world, like a sunrise on the ocean, and he wanted to keep it around forever.

  He kissed down her neck to her back and then along her shoulders, moving her hair as he went, enjoying the ocean wind and her scent and her soft sighs as he took his time touching her. There would be time for rough lovemaking later. Right now, he just wanted to savor the moment and watch the sunset with her.

  “Sebastien?” she asked, her voice hoarse.

  “Yes?” he asked.

  “If you don’t take me into that bedroom and make good on your promises right freaking now, I’m going to burst.”

  He chuckled and continued his teasing, torturous kisses. “Just so you know, I hope you have many adventures.” He stood and wrapped his arms around her from behind, pulling her back against his chest, holding her tight. “If the man you marry doesn’t give you adventures, make sure to write and let me know.”

  He knew it was an absurd thing to offer. Why should she care to let him know? But he found himself needing her to say she would. He needed to know she was okay. She was his mate after all. Even if he didn’t believe mates were all they were cracked up to be, he’d felt too much for her too soon to be able to write it off completely.

  No, he would always worry about her some, even if he knew they couldn’t possibly go together. She was a New York lawyer with a family expectation for whom she would marry, and he was a sea captain who had no responsibility for anything but his job.

  It’d be a horrible match. But when she leaned up and whispered in his ear for him to take her, he found himself not giving a damn. He picked her up and carried her to the bedroom.

  She giggled in pleasure. At least in this one way, they seemed to be perfectly matched.

  8

  When he laid her on his bed, all he could think was she looked perfect there against his sky-blue sheets. A goddess with beautiful braids and a curvaceous, strong body he wanted—no, needed—to run his hands over completely.

  He whipped off her bikini and tossed it beside the bed. Her breasts were even more beautiful in the light of his room than they were in the darkness on the dinghy when he could barely see them. So beautiful, perfect, and round with dark nipples that begged for his attention. He immediately acquiesced, loving one and then the other with his mouth as she cried out in pleasure and arched, giving him even better access. He used his strong hands to gather the mounds together and licked a line along the inner curve where they met, and she cursed and then grinned at him to let him know it had been the good kind of cursing.

  He continued to lick and play as one hand dipped to play with the waistband of her bikini. He loved the feel of her soft curves all around it, her full, voluptuous thighs and wide, curvaceous hips. She was generously built, and he could barely wait to be inside her. But he also wanted to savor every minute of their time together.

  “I can’t wait,” she said. “I’m already wet for you.” She reached for his hand and drew him over her. He looked into her sparkling gray eyes as heat surged through him. She was wet all right and ready. The feel of her was heaven.

  He ran his hands lightly over her breasts again, loving the silky softness of them, the heft in his hands. “You’re so damn beautiful,” he said.

  She arched in response, loving his touch. He leaned forward to kiss each breast, licking and swirling his tongue until each nub was hard and aching and wet. Then he took each between his thumb and forefinger and pinched lightly. She gasped with a little scream and rolled sideways. He reached in the top drawer of his bedside table for a silvery tie. He grinned at her as he held it out in offering. He didn’t mean to bind her for his own enjoyment, though he knew he’d enjoy seeing her writhe beneath him. No, he meant to bind her so she could get more enjoyment than even her sensitive body would allow.

  He wanted to make her feel so good she felt she would explode, and then make it so she couldn’t run away.

  He looped the tie over one wrist and secured it in an intricate knot before tying it to his elaborately carved headboard. Then he took another and repeated it on the other side. Her breasts shook as she looked from side to side, then gave him a sly grin and parted her legs for him. Damn, he should tie those as well, but he didn’t have time for that.

  He stood and went to the bathroom to grab a condom. He carefully unwrapped it as he walked back into the center of the room to stare at his captive princess on the bed. He undid his pants and enjoyed the widening of her eyes and the way she bit her lip as his member sprang free. He was large, but he’d try not to hurt her. Hopefully, she was experienced. He liked a woman who knew what she was doing.

  He slid his pants all the way off and pulled his shirt over his head. All the time, she stared at him like she wanted to eat him. Well, the feeling was mutual. His heart was threatening to beat out of his chest, he was more painfully hard than he’d ever been before, and an aching realization of just what she meant to him was starting to settle uncomfortably in his chest.

  He knelt between her splayed legs and gently removed her bikini bottom. It was pretty, but what was beneath it was much prettier. He parted the lips gently and ran a finger a
long her, exploring and playing before dipping inside to test her.

  He swore. She was so tight. He dipped another finger, then a third, stretching and stroking as she writhed and muttered expletives at him for taking so long. But one look at her heated, panting face told him she was enjoying it.

  And he had to know she was ready. Every impulse in his body made it impossible to hurt her. To the contrary, all he wanted to do was protect her, make her happy, make sure no harm ever came to her. And he needed it like he needed his next breath.

  He’d never known anything like it before, and suddenly, he needed to forget the strange sensation. So he put his hands on each of her soft knees, parted her legs, and then drove into her with one smooth motion.

  It was a mistake. Being inside her didn’t make him forget the uncomfortable feelings of love welling inside him. It intensified them by a hundred degrees. He settled over her, one hand on either side of her face. She looked up at him in wonder. Was she feeling these confusing things too? It was just supposed to be sex. It wasn’t supposed to be so… cosmic. Right now, inside of her, he felt like they were part of something greater than them, and it was an incredible feeling, one he wanted more of and to escape from all at the same time.

  She was his mate. He knew it more than ever. And he wanted to please her, so he began to move inside her. She uttered his name and wrapped her hands around his forearms as he pulled almost all the way out and then drove inside her.

  Her tight velvet walls encompassed him, homing him and grounding him, and her little gasps of pleasure each time he moved drove him wild. Her body was quaking beneath him, beautiful breasts quivering each time he drove inside. Legs moving to encircle him. Tension building within him at an incredible pace. All he could see was her face, so beautiful, whether she was laughing in the sun or biting her lip and rolling her eyes back in anticipation of hopefully the best orgasm of her life.

  He could tell the tension was building as he reached up and put a hand in her hair and dragged slowly through her braids, pulling slightly. She murmured for him to hurry, then told him to slow down, then said to hurry again. Her glazed silver eyes seemed just as lost as he felt.

  He reached between them to stimulate her externally as well as internally, because he felt like he was close to losing control inside. Her long-lashed eyes blinked up at him in amazement and her lips parted in a silent gasp that seemed to go on and on as her head flew back.

  She was coming, gasping as she clenched around him, her velvet walls threatening to milk him clean before he was done pleasuring her. But he bit down and silenced the beast inside. He would give her more orgasms, pleasure her so thoroughly she couldn’t walk right, even if it killed her.

  He wanted her to remember him with every step she took.

  * * *

  The sensations rumbling through her seemed to go on and on, tearing at her very being, making her feel so very in love and so very heartbroken at the same time.

  She’d had sex, but it’d never felt like this. She knew more than ever that he was her mate, and they were definitely playing with fire. Stars kept exploding behind her eyes like fireworks as her muscles twitched deliciously, and she loved the thick feel of him, keeping her grounded, so totally there with her. What would it be like when he was no longer there with her?

  She could tell he was close to losing control. His heavy muscles were heaving with the exertion, sweat gathering on his beautiful brow. With the evening light streaming through the window, he was a beautiful golden bronze, and his eyes glowed like blue flames burning low.

  His curved lips were tight in concentration as he started working her toward another orgasm. Each in and out was sheer torture in the most delicious way. He was so huge that almost every move made her feel she couldn’t possibly hold him. Then when he came inside, she felt so fully stretched, so fully stimulated, it was almost an out-of-body experience. And then she’d look at his face, so cut, so handsome, so intent on her pleasure and almost tender in his focus, and she’d relax and just feel the pleasure of his embrace. The wondrous feel of him hitting the G-spot each time he moved, the way his finger played against her, bringing her toward another incredible orgasm.

  She held her breath as it happened again, wondering at how she could feel so good and so awful at the same time. It was the most intense pleasure she’d ever known, but it was like tasting the most divine air only to know you’d never breathe it again. Wouldn’t it have been better not to know? Her body didn’t think so as wave after wave of pleasure assaulted her senses, melting her to a little blob that wanted to cling to him and never let go.

  His eyes burned as he watched her and his arms trembled. What was going on behind that stern, focused expression? She felt like her face told him everything. Her agony, her ecstasy, each tremor of hot pleasure. But his face hid so much.

  She wanted to see him lose it, wanted to see him come apart. She started to thrust against him, locking her ankles behind him and rising to meet him, increasing the speed even as he cursed and tried to slow them. He reached between them again and rubbed the sensitive nub that was still aching for his touch even after two explosive orgasms. He worked it quickly, savagely, determined to give her another orgasm before she could get him off and end everything. They fought a battle for pleasure for one another, and neither had ever experienced anything so exhilarating.

  He won, and she cursed as she threw her head back in pleasure. She bit back a scream as her body shuddered and white-hot heat spread through her in waves. From her fingertips to her toes to the very top of her scalp, she was so alive and aware of him. She never wanted this to end.

  But she wanted to see him go. Wanted to see her stern sea captain cry out her name on a hoarse shout. Somehow she knew just how he’d sound. She wanted to make him do it for the rest of her life. Wanted their bears to run together. Could hear the wild part of her howling for satisfaction, to see her mate pleased completely.

  She drove harder against him, taking him deep inside her and enjoying the pained but pleasured look on his face as his blue eyes met hers, looking as roiled as an angry ocean. He might be trying to look calm, but he was definitely feeling something intense behind those sea-blue eyes. Something cosmic and eternal just like she was feeling.

  She could almost count the thrusts it would take. But his finger moved between them to take her with him. Three. Two. One. She heard his hoarse shout just as pleasure rippled through her in her final release for the night. Through the intense sensation, she struggled to look up at him. His muscles tensed and his tremendous arms went rigid. His features went slightly soft as he called her name.

  He was the most beautiful man she’d ever seen, and she loved the feel of him jerking inside her, spilling his seed into the protection between them. He was so warm, so strong, and she longed to wrap herself in his arms.

  He seemed to hear her silent request and fell against her, shielding her with his huge body as his orgasm finished. Then he quickly pulled out and grabbed a small towel he must have carried in from the bathroom and put it between them. Then he stayed over her, shaking slightly, like what had just happened had impacted him as much as it had her.

  And it had impacted her down to her core.

  He was so heavy, so huge, but he was a welcome weight, and she wrapped her arms around him and let her heart swell with joy just at having him so close. It didn’t matter that she’d barely known him. It didn’t matter that they were from different worlds and had different temperaments.

  He was her bear, and it would hurt like hell to ever be apart from him.

  She tried to keep tears from falling, but it was fruitless. She knew he heard her sniffles when he sat up and stared down at her.

  “Kim,” he said softly, looking at her with wonder, looking just as devastated as she felt. “I can’t do this to us anymore.”

  Her heart was cold at his words, but she knew he was right. She sat up slightly as he rolled off her to sit at her side, still wrapping himself in a towel. He s
till looked magnificent, with bronzed, heavy shoulders and perfect, rippling abs. Bear shifters were known for being large, and he was no exception. His beautiful hair was coming loose from its ponytail and softening his face.

  When he wasn’t angry, he was almost angelically beautiful. Maybe that was why he tried to look so stern. But given his build and his sense of presence, she doubted there was anyone who wouldn’t be scared of him if he wanted them to be.

  She leaned in against him, and he stiffened but allowed it. “We’ve really done it now, right?” she asked. “I mean, we’re wholly unsuitable, but—”

  He cut her off with a gentle touch to her lips and then put an arm around her and drew her close. They stayed like that as the sun finished setting. She could hear the gentle beating of his heart, and she grinned against it. She loved that heartbeat.

  They were so different, but she knew in other circumstances, that would have just made it fun to get to know each other. He could have taught her about life on a ship, she could have encouraged him to go on more adventures. It would have been amazing.

  She wondered if he were having similar thoughts. “What now?” she asked.

  “I said you could have my nights,” he said. “But I don’t think I can do that anymore. I’m already… We’re getting…” He shoved a hand angrily through his hair. “I can’t do it.”

  “Getting attached,” she said. “I know.” She didn’t say the word mate. She didn’t need to. The way he was acting, so possessive, so warm, given what a cold and distant man he was usually, told her everything she needed to know.

  He was amazing. He was everything that could make her happy. She knew there was only one way either of them could let this go.

  “Tell me why you can’t commit,” she said.