One-and-done, she thought, but this time she didn’t think it derisively. It made sense, really. How else could Rick function? The poor man had been driven half-mad by his bear and now he lived a life of solitude, at least when it came to females. Oh, he wet his willy when he needed it, but that was it. His heart wasn’t in it at all. That he kept locked up inside him, masked by his insufferable grin. Only he wasn’t grinning now. He was as sober as she’d ever seen him, his soul laid bare before her.
“You must feel very alone,” she said, and laid a hand on his thigh—why, she didn’t know. It just seemed the right thing to do.
It was. He seemed to sort of relax at her touch. Take comfort in it.
“I never thought I’d find a mate,” he said, not looking at her.
She heard the silent but in that sentence.
“You don’t think …” She couldn’t finish the rest of the thought.
Now he turned to her. He moved so suddenly that it startled her, and when he stared into her eyes she felt like she was looking into his innermost being. He gazed at her with the most tender, wounded, and yet somehow desperate look she’d ever seen on a man. He wasn’t faking this. This wasn’t just some line he used on difficult women to get in their pants. He meant this.
“I think I may have found her,” he said softly.
Double gulp. “I don’t … I don’t think …” She tried to find words but none materialized.
He didn’t give her time to locate them. He wrapped an arm around her and hugged her to him. Unconsciously, her face tilted up, and his lips shoved against hers, hard. They were hot. She mashed her eyes shut, overcome by desire. His tongue probed at the seam of her lips, then thrust inside, and she let it. She played her own tongue against it.
The hand that had been on his thigh squeezed it. His muscles were so firm. When she opened her eyes she saw that his cock had become instantly hard, and it stood out huge and proud from between his legs.
“Oh, wow,” she said. It was even bigger hard than she’d imagined.
Slowly, she trailed her hand up his thigh, running her fingers through the fluffy patch of his pubic hair, then tracing his giant shaft from its thick base all the way up its ridged, vein-y length to its bulbous tip. She ran her finger lightly up it, but even though her touch was light it seemed to have an impact. He gasped, and his cock bobbed up and down, pulsing.
“Uh,” he said, sort of a grunt, and his eyes closed just a little.
Feeling emboldened, she grinned and encircled his shaft with her fingers. It was huge, but she managed to wrap her hand about it. It was so warm, almost hot, and as firm as steel against her palm. Gripping him hard, she jerked down, then up. He gasped and shuddered, and a bead of white gathered at the tip of his cock. She bent down and licked it up, then opened her mouth and took him inside. He moaned loudly as she bobbed her head, taking him deep inside her, as deep as she could (and maybe a little more). She loved having him inside her this way, loved the taste of him on her tongue. She’d never been very good at giving head and had a shallow gag reflex, but where there’s a will there’s a way, and she wanted him in her.
She bobbed her head up, then down again, and he gasped. One of his hands supported his weight while the other ran fingers through her hair. She loved his touch. He didn’t try to shove her head down further but was only delighting in the feel of her hair—just as she was loving the feel of his flesh.
“I want to see you,” he said.
She stopped and looked up, with him still in her mouth.
“I want to see your body,” he said.
She bobbed her head down again. She cupped his balls with one hand and the base of his shaft with the other, squeezing both gently. He moaned again and lolled back, almost overcome, and she could feel him swell inside her mouth. She drew back, letting him emerge past her lips, then licked him, starting with the bulging, cum-filled balls and going all the way up, taking her time on the shaft, then running circles around his cock. She grew so wet she thought she’d scream.
“No,” he said, and she could hear the strain in the word. He was right on the brink. “I want to see you. I want to be inside you.”
She felt her cheeks burn. She was still clothed.
“I don’t know,” she started. She ran her tongue around her mouth, loving the taste of his pre-cum.
“Don’t tell me you’re shy,” he said.
“Maybe a little.” The truth was that she was a little embarrassed of her body, which was maybe a little too curvy, at least according to the magazines and movies.
“Don’t be,” he said. “I think you’re the hottest piece of ass I’ve seen in a long time.”
She had to laugh. His words made her feel more open, though. She rose up and removed her jacket, then unbuttoned her water-stiffened shirt. He leaned forward and helped, which was good; her fingers were shaking.
“Why so nervous?” he said.
“I-I’m not nervous.”
Amusement danced in his eyes. The firelight glowed on his hard abs and tight pecs, and on the giant shaft sticking up from below.
“You smell nervous,” he said.
Damn his shifter senses and lack of tact. “You know,” she said, “just because you can smell something doesn’t mean you have to report on it.”
“But you’re a cop! You need information.”
“Bullshit.”
He helped her tug off her shirt, then helped her shimmy out of her pants. That left her in nothing but bra and panties, all very utilitarian and unsexy. His gaze roved up and down her, and she held in a breath, realizing it was too late to suck in. She needn’t have bothered. He liked what he saw, she could tell that right away. Sparks glimmered in his eyes, and his face took on a different look. A look of hunger.
She swallowed. Heat pooled in her center. His nostrils flared, and she knew he was scenting her increased arousal. For once he didn’t comment on it, though. His own arousal seemed to increase, too. His cock throbbed visibly, and another drop of pearly white gathered at the tip. She bent down and licked this one up, too. Then, feeling impish, she surged forward, still on her hands and knees, and let her breasts enfold his member so that it rested against her chest between them, angled up toward her chin.
“Naughty sheriff,” he said, and she didn’t correct his use of the word.
Seeing what she wanted, he planted his palms to either side of himself and lifted himself off the ground, just a little, sliding his cock up between her breasts. She felt his balls push up against her ribs. He pumped his hips, thrusting his cock forward, slicked with her spit and his own pre-cum, then back, then forward again. She kissed the head of it when it came to her mouth, then again.
She realized she loved his cock. He had a gorgeous, handsome manhood, thick and long and well-shaped. Her previous experiences with men were few and far apart, and she’d never been particularly impressed with any of those men’s members, but Rick’s was different. Kissing it and tasting it just made her wetter and wetter. She ached to have him inside her womanhood.
Bracing her knees, she used her hands to squeeze her breasts in, giving him a tight, firm valley to move inside. That way the ground dug into her knees, though, and anyway she couldn’t take it anymore. She wanted him inside her for real.
She splayed her fingers against his rock-hard chest and pushed him down with his back flat on the ground, then straddled his middle. His large firm hands caressed her hips, then ran up her belly to cup her breasts. He squeezed them, then half rose up to suck on her right nipple. Meanwhile his other hand played with her sex, thumbing her clit.
“Like that?” he said.
“Mmm,” she said, nodding. “I want you—now.”
She reached back and grabbed his cock, positioned it at the entrance of her cleft, then shoved it in. She cried out as he entered her, even though it was just an inch. Suddenly, though, he pumped his hips, shoving deeper into her, and she moaned as he filled her. He pushed deeper, stretching her, and a shudder coursed a
ll the way up and down her body. He felt so good, so right. Planting her palms on the ground for balance, she thrust her hips against him, then pulled back. He pumped inside her, and she bit her lower lip in pleasure. She moved again, then faster, then faster still, and his rhythm matched her.
Unable to help it, she mashed her eyes shut and whimpered when she felt his cock pulse inside her, and she imagined his balls filled with his seed ready to squirt into her, a glorious white fountain spraying deep into her. She moved her hips faster, faster, ever faster. At last she opened her eyes to see his face taut and his eyes devouring her. He was into this! Into her. She thrilled to see that lustful look in this studly, confident bear-shifter’s eyes. She was inciting him to this frenzy, making him wild.
As he pumped into her, he had to arch his body, and his chest gleamed with sweat. She trailed a hand over his hard abs, then squeezed one of his firm pecs. He was glorious, like a sculpture of some Greek god come to life.
His cock throbbed inside her again, exciting her even more.
“Yes,” he gasped, and she knew he was on the edge of delirium.
His cock pulsed again, stretching her even more, and that’s all it took. She screamed out his name as a golden wave of pleasure carried her up to giddy heights and her nerve endings exploded. She detonated around him, pounding her hips rapidly against his. He screamed out a split-second later, then erupted inside her. She gasped to feel his hot seed explode in her core and shoot up deep into her.
Feeling his cum still emptying into her, she gasped and collapsed onto him. She still shuddered and gyrated her hips, wanting to feel him inside her for as long as she could.
“Yes,” she said, panting.
Then he did a surprising thing. Their faces were right next to each other, and he tilted his face toward hers and kissed her, right on the lips. She was so surprised that she flinched. For some reason she’d thought this was just sex to him, not actual romance, despite what he’d said, and certainly he wouldn’t be kissing her afterward. But kiss her he did, and after a moment she responded, pressing her lips against his. She opened her mouth to him, thrusting her tongue against his.
He pumped inside her again, then squeezed her ass and grunted inside her mouth. At last he pulled back, gasping.
“Did you like it?” she said, wincing at the desperate quality of her words. It was as if she were begging him for a favorable report.
Instead of answering directly, he put his forehead against hers and stared deeply into her eyes. They stayed that way for a long time, looking into each other, even as his cock continued to throb occasionally and spurt inside her.
Overhead the stars twinkled, and the fire in the pit began to ebb.
“I’d better build that back up,” he said. “I don’t need the heat, but you do.”
In answer, she gripped him with her vaginal muscles and pinned his arms to the ground. Inside her, he began to stiffen once more. She rocked her hips, and he hardened still further.
“Not a chance, buster,” she said. “You can keep me warm.”
He grinned and pumped his hips, thrusting into her. With a moan, she moved against him, too.
Chapter 9
Rick woke up with a start, sweat on his brow and his bear raging inside him. It was growling and slashing in his core, wild and uncontrollable, as if it were clawing his soul to shreds.
One of his arms was around Barbara, and when he lurched up it disturbed her, and she woke, too.
With a gasp, she said, “What is it, Rick?”
He turned away from her, not wanting her to see his face. “I’m … fine,” he said, but even he could hear the raggedness in his voice.
She laid a hand on his shoulder, and at first he started to jerk away from her touch—his animal was really going crazy inside him, as it did sometimes—but then something strange happened. Her touch … seemed to calm his bear. It had been raging and gnashing its teeth just moments before, but as soon as she touched him it began to grow mellower, more tractable.
Shocked, Rick turned back to her.
“You,” he said.
Her eyes widened in alarm. “W-what?”
She must have thought she’d done something wrong. He laughed and hugged her to him, and at the contact his bear mellowed even more, at least subsiding altogether.
“You’re amazing,” he said, completing his earlier thought.
“I … what?” She blinked and rubbed her eyes. “What just happened? What am I missing?”
He kissed her on the mouth, and after a moment she kissed back. Then drew away.
“I’ve got sleep breath,” she said, covering her mouth with a hand.
“Your sleep breath tastes like roses. Barb, don’t you know what this means?”
“That your human nose kind of sucks?”
He grinned and stood up. It was early morning and the birds were just beginning to chirp in the trees. The sun was sluggishly heaving itself over the peaks to the east, casting warm orange light over the falls and making them seem to glow from within. The light made Barbara look even more beautiful than before, and it didn’t hurt that she was naked except for the bra and panties she’d put back on. She’d thrown her clothes over herself as a blanket, but they’d fallen away when she sat up.
“It means that you’re my mate,” he said, as if it were obvious.
“Your mate,” she said. She sounded shocked—but not horrified. After all, they’d talked about it last night, or at least he had. They hadn’t mentioned it since, though.
Her reaction encouraged him. He nodded and held out a hand to her. After a moment, she took it and let him pull her to her feet. He wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her against him, and instantly he could feel himself begin to harden against her belly. His bear growled inside him, and he growled, too, but this time it was a different sort of growl. A lusty growl.
Barbara laughed but pushed herself away. “Can you explain just a little bit about what’s going on?”
“Don’t you see? No woman has ever been able to handle my bear before. But here you are, and at one touch from you my bear chilled the hell out. You’re my mate!” He threw his head back and whooped. The birds stopped chittering for a moment, then resumed with even greater volume than before. “See?” he said. “They’re singing for us.”
She knelt beside the lagoon and splashed water on her face, then rinsed out her mouth and spat.
“I think you need some of this cold water, too,” she said.
He joined her, washing his face and rinsing out his mouth. Barbara became strangely quiet, and he grew worried. Had he frightened her off? Playing the exchange back in his head, he realized he may have come off a little strong. Maybe even a little crazy.
“I’m not crazy,” he said, facing her. Her cheeks glistened with water, and some of it had gotten in her hair, making it shine.
“Are you sure?” she said.
“Well, no crazier than usual, anyway. But I’ve been looking for the woman that could live with my bear for … well, ever since I got the bear. And not only can you live with him, you can soothe him. Music to soothe the savage beast. Only it’s not any music you can hear.”
She sort of smiled. “It’s music of the heart?”
“Exactly!”
Still smiling, she shook her head, and droplets of water rained out. “I still think you’re nuts, Rick.” But she said it in a warm way, an affectionate way, and her tone of voice sent shivers all throughout him. “Besides,” she said, “I don’t want to be your mate, or whatever, just because your bear likes me.”
Ah. Laughing again—he was suddenly in a very good mood—he grabbed her hand and kissed it. “Trust me,” he said, “all of me likes you. See?” He glanced down, to where his cock was beginning to stir.
“Whoa, there,” she said, but her eyes lingered on his manhood for a moment. With an obvious effort, she wrenched her gaze away. “And I don’t mean him, either. I mean you.” She placed her hand over Rick’s heart, and he knew she
could feel it hammering. “I mean here. I want you to like me here.”
Clapping her hand against him, he said, very solemnly, “I feel it here, too,” he said, then added, “Especially here. And it’s more than ‘like’.”
She swallowed. Clearing her throat, she pulled her hand back and said, “We need to concentrate on practical matters before any more … er, mating.” Her cheeks flushed. “We need food, and we need to get back to Pine Ridge. I wouldn’t be surprised if there was a search party out looking for me by now. People will be worried, and if I don’t have a damn good story about why I didn’t call in, and just what happened to me, well, I could lose my job.”
Frowning, he stood, then rooted through the storage hole his crew had dug. Finding various supplies, he let out a cheer when he found the fishing net, then returned to the stream and began casting it. It wasn’t as much fun as fishing in bear form, but he needed some calories in him before he could summon his bear for any length of time again. His bear required a lot of food.
Barbara seemed to like watching him cast the net out, then draw it back. Smiling, he made sure to bunch his muscles in all the right places as he moved. It must have worked, too, because soon he could smell the scent of her arousal even from here. After he’d caught a half dozen fish, he made another fire and began grilling breakfast.
“Wish we’d stocked some carbs,” he said. “Some biscuits would go great with these. But how would we store them?”
“A freezer, maybe. An ice box, I mean. No electricity required.”
“Hey, that’s not a bad idea.”
It was her turn to smile. “Your mate ain’t no dummy.”
His heart smashed against his ribs. Staring at her, making sure she wasn’t making fun of him, he said, “What did you say?”
She glanced away. “You heard me,” she said softly.
He reached out, gently grabbed her jaw and turned her face toward him. Her eyes were glistening with moisture, and her lips were trembling. Feeling suddenly overcome, he crushed his mouth against hers, and she kissed back, starting to get into it. They only separated when he smelled the fish burning.
Bear Mated: A BBW Bear Shifter Paranomal Romance (Pine Ridge BBW Bear Shifter Paranormal Romance Series Book 2) Page 6
