Billion Dollar Bear

by Catherine Vale

  “Oh, she has nothing on you,” he said, rubbing slow, lazy circles across the back of her hand with his thumb again. “You’re breathtaking.”

  Becca knew it would be best to pull her hands from his, to nip this flirtatious conversation in the bud before it went too far. But the excitement of it all was rushing through her veins, and she couldn’t quite curb herself. “What’s she like, your fictional heroine?”

  “Strong-willed and sassy, with a huge streak of independence,” Jericho said, his lips curving into a smile. “Like someone else I know.” He stroked the backs of his fingers along the curve of her cheek.

  “Mmm,” she said, fighting against the impulse to lean into his hand and purr like a shameless little kitten. If his fingers felt this good on her cheek, how would they feel as they roamed other places? A lick of heat stroked against her lower abdomen at that thought, and she shivered a little. “And just what did the hero in your story do, after he spoke those words to his strong-willed, sassy heroine?”

  “Just this.”

  Jericho pressed his mouth against hers, and she gasped. His lips were warm and soft and gently demanding as they moved over hers, coaxing the flicker of heat in her belly into a ball of flame with just that simple touch. Eyes fluttering closed, she swayed into his embrace, and he caught her, pressing her gently against his chest as he continued to kiss her. The muscles beneath his shirt were wonderfully warm and hard, and she wrapped her arms around his neck so she could press herself more firmly against him, and soak in his heat as well as the spicy, masculine scent that enveloped her.

  Jericho growled as she kissed him back. It had been a bold move, taking the opening she’d so neatly presented him, and he hadn’t been entirely sure she’d meant to offer up her lips for the taking. But here she was, crushing her breasts against his chest as she enveloped him with that addictive vanilla-cinnamon scent of hers, and a fierce hunger took hold of him, a hunger that demanded he taste her, that he possess her fully.

  The bear within him stirred, its primal growl rumbling in his chest with encouragement. The fact that both of his halves were in agreement with taking Becca only made her that much more desirable to him. Ravena and the clan be damned, there was no way he wasn’t having her at least once before he returned home.

  Even if it meant he had to leave a part of himself behind with her when he left.

  He slid his fingers through her silky curls so he could cup the back of her neck, then angled her head so he could slide his tongue inside her mouth and deepen the kiss. She offered no resistance at all, her mouth opening in a groan that spurred him forward, and he took all that she had to give, plundering her mouth with reckless abandon.

  Becca clung to Jericho for dear life as he devoured her with a kiss so intensely passionate she felt like he was laying claim to her soul. A spark of fear tried to ignite in her chest, but it was swept away in the whirlwind of desire and passion ripping through her, pushing aside all rational thought and doubt, and leaving nothing behind except a raw, aching need for more. She didn’t know how far she was prepared to go with this, but she knew that there was nothing on earth that could make her stop, not now, not with his tongue in her mouth and his hands in her hair.

  She leaned her head back a little, trusting the weight of her skull to the firm hand that still supported it, as Jericho nipped her lip and began tracing a path down her neck with his tongue. She whimpered when his hot, wet tongue found a sweet spot near the hollow of her throat, and he stilled. For a moment there was no movement at all, and then he bit down and suckled on the sensitive spot, wresting a cry from her lips.

  “Jericho!”

  Oh God, Jericho thought. He’d hardly done anything yet and she was already crying out his name. If she kept that up, it wouldn’t be long before he ripped her jeans off and claimed her as his own. His cock was throbbing so hard he could barely contain himself.

  He licked gently at the bruise he’d made on her peach-colored skin, and then lifted the hem of her shirt so he could nibble at the soft skin of her abdomen. She squirmed beneath his lips, murmuring incoherently, gasped when he dipped his tongue into her navel, then stilled when he reached for the front clasp on her bra.

  Jericho lifted his head to gaze up into her heavy lidded eyes. Her face was flushed, her lips swollen from his kisses, and yet… “Is something wrong?”

  Becca’s heart was drumming so loudly in her chest it was a wonder she could even hear Jericho’s voice. “I…” she struggled to put the heavy feeling in her chest to words. “It’s just, I’ve made it a point to avoid one-night stands my entire life. Because I don’t want to end up like my mother.”

  Jericho’s eyes darkened with understanding and anger. “Your father… he abandoned you?”

  Becca shook her head, glancing away. It felt odd to have this conversation while they were in such an intimate position… and yet it needed to be said. “I doubt he ever knew I existed. It was just one foolish night, during one of my mother’s wilder episodes. And she had no idea he was anything other than human until the first time I shifted, when I was just six weeks old.” Becca chuckled weakly. “According to her, one moment I was just a little baby suckling at her nipple, and the next I was a bundle of fur and tiny claws. Freaked her the fuck out.”

  Jericho shook his head. “I can’t imagine how that must have been for her,” he said, then moved away from her, to give her space. She felt a moment’s disappointment at the absence of his warm hard body – a disappointment that she knew she shouldn’t feel, since she’d essentially asked him to stop – and then he surprised her by gathering her into his lap, and cradling her against his chest. She could still feel his rigid cock beneath her, but other than singular expression of his lust he seemed content to just sit there with her.

  “I wish you’d had your father, or at least someone who could teach you the ways of being a shifter,” he murmured in her hair. “I imagine your life might have been a little bit easier then.”

  She lifted her head and gazed into his eyes, astonished at the sincerity burning in their cobalt depths. “It’s incredible that a shifter would even think to say such things to me,” she murmured, brushing the back of her hand along his stubbled jaw line. She enjoyed the rough texture against her skin.

  He gave her a lopsided grin that simply melted her heart. “Yeah, well, I’m no ordinary shifter.”

  She kissed him again, unable to help herself from wanting to feel those soft, sculpted lips against his. He responded immediately, his arms banding more tightly around her, and she lost herself in the sensations engulfing her – the delicious warmth pouring off him and into her, the heady, addictive scent that filled her sinuses, the current of energy that seemed to run like a live wire beneath the skin covering his wonderfully hard muscles.

  Jericho groaned aloud as Becca shifted in his lap, her thighs moving apart, and bringing her heated core into direct contact with the bulge straining against his zipper. Christ, he wanted her, and he could tell she wanted him by the heady scent of arousal wafting from her. But just because her body was crying out for him didn’t mean her mind was ready to follow just yet.

  And besides, she was wise to worry about pregnancy. It would be an utter catastrophe for him to return home and mate with Ravena, only to discover that Becca was carrying his child. Yet even that horrific thought wasn’t enough to purge the burning lust from his body. There had to be a way…

  “Let me please you,” he rasped hoarsely against her mouth.

  Jericho’s husky words barely penetrated the cloud of lust fogging up Becca’s mind. “Huh?” she said blankly.

  “We don’t have to go all the way.” He nipped at her bottom lip. “Let me touch you. I just want to feel you, to taste you on my tongue.”

  He traced the lower edge of her lip with said tongue, sending another hot shiver of desire through her. In answer, she simply kissed him fiercely, grinding her aching core against the steely bulge in his pants. He growled in response, wrapping her legs firmly
around his waist as he rose from the couch and carried her up the stairs.

  Vaguely she became aware of stepping into a dark room, and then with a flick of his hand, a light turned on, illuminating the surroundings. In the next second, she was being lowered onto a cloud-soft mattress covered with a satiny, red bedspread that felt cool against her heated skin. She watched with hungry eyes as Jericho paused to remove his shirt, tossing it on a nearby chair.

  My God, he is magnificent, she thought. All tawny, glistening skin poured over muscle that looked as though it had been carved from the smoothest marble by a master sculptor, every dip, cut and valley so exactingly precise, as if honed with a blade’s edge.

  “You’re gorgeous,” she thought, reaching up so she could pull him toward her. Greedily, she ran her hands over the powerful muscles in his chest and abdomen, reveling in the warm, smooth skin, and the way his muscles bunched and curled beneath her touch.

  Jericho could barely breathe as Becca ran her hands over his body. Her dark, hungry gaze seemed to devour him as she glided her hands across his skin, seeming to savor the feel of his body beneath her fingers. Goosebumps cropped up along his flesh, but it was a blazing heat she left in her wake rather than a chill, a heat that threatened to undo him completely.

  “My turn,” he rasped, grasping both her wrists in one hand and pulling them over her head. He pressed the length of his body against hers and kissed her deeply until she was lost in the passion of their embrace once more. Only then did he venture south, lifting her shirt and discarding it, then popping off the clasp on her bra before she had a chance to change her mind.

  Her breasts sprang free of their trappings and directly into his waiting hands, filling his palms perfectly. He almost moaned as he weighted them in his hands, gently squeezing and caressing. They were perfectly shaped, high and round and full, with rosy puckered nipples just begging for a taste.

  “Squeeze them,” she pleaded, her eyes half closed, and a red-hot wave of heat swept through him as she demonstrated, lifting her long, elegant fingers to her right breast. Her lips parted on a breathy sigh as she rolled the nipple between her thumb and forefinger, and she reached up with her other hand to give her left breast the same treatment.

  Jericho beat her to it, leaning in and flicking his tongue across the tip of her left nipple. A strangled sound escaped Becca’s lips, turning into a full-on moan as he drew the nipple into his mouth and sucked gently. Her hands slid into his hair, nails lightly scraping against his scalp as she held him to her breast, making throaty “Mmmm” noises in the back of her throat that were sexy as hell. Wanting to feel how wet she was, he slid his free hand beneath the waistband of her jeans, and cupped her through her damp panties.

  Becca’s hips jerked off the bed as Jericho cupped her pussy with the fullness of his hand, sending more waves of heat through her core. Her fingers tightened against his scalp as he began massaging her gently through her damp panties, tightening the ball of sensation in her lower belly and making her even wetter.

  “More,” she demanded, reaching for the top button on her jeans. “I need to feel your hands on me.”

  Jericho gave her a devilish grin as she pushed her jeans off her hips, and kicked them onto the floor. “Someone’s impatient.” He nudged her knees apart so he could settle between her thighs, and then peeled off her panties using just his teeth, slowly dragging the scrap of fabric down her legs until she thought she would scream from all the anticipation.

  “Mmm.” Jericho unhooked Becca’s panties around her ankle, then lifted the damp fabric to his nose and inhaled the potent fragrance of her arousal. “You smell so damn good.” His hungry gaze moved back to the space between her legs, where her pink folds glistened wetly beneath a curly thatch of reddish brown curls. “And you look good enough to eat.”

  Becca trembled as he moved down between her legs, his face hovering so close to her pussy she could actually feel his warm breath against her clit. She watched with bated breath as he slid two fingers between her lips, opening her up, all the while never taking his eyes from hers, a wicked fire burning in his incredible blues. She swore she’d never seen anything so erotic in her life, and it only made her burn for him more.

  “Please,” she said, lifting her hips toward him. “Lick me.”

  Jericho growled in response, then slid his hands under her ass, and brought her pussy to his face.

  “Oh, I plan to,” he murmured. Becca opened her mouth, momentarily looking as if she were going to protest, and then gasped when he slid his wet tongue inside of her. His breathing stopped as he felt the walls of her pussy clench around him, trying to draw him in, and for one excruciatingly long moment he struggled against the instinct to rip off his jeans and bury himself inside her so he could feel her pussy clenching around her cock.

  No, he reminded himself fiercely. You promised. Tonight is all about her.

  Becca groaned low in her throat when Jericho lifted his mouth from her, only to slide his fingers inside of her, massaging her g-spot. Fiery sensation spiraled through her core, tightening her inner muscles so that they pulsed and throbbed with need. Part of her wanted to lean back and close her eyes, but she couldn’t look away from the wickedly hot expression on Jericho’s face as he finger-fucked her.

  “Do you like the way this feels?” he asked softly, his hot breath gusting against her swollen clit.

  “Yes,” she moaned, arching her hips closer to him as she fisted her hands in the sheets.

  “Do you want more?” He pressed his thumb against her clit and she cried out, shuddering.

  “Yes! Please, yes,” she panted, and then bucked wildly beneath him when he put lowered his mouth to her pussy once again. He licked and sucked gently on her clit, fluttering his velvet-like tongue over her sweet bud, sending wave after wave of pleasure through her body, all the while pumping his fingers in and out of her pussy. The combination drove her off the edge, and she dug her fingers into his hair as she screamed his name, drowning in her own desire.

  Jericho hardly noticed, too caught up in the fierceness of her climax. He watched her coffee-brown eyes go blind as they opened wide with pleasure, watched her sensuous mouth fall open as she screamed his name, her beautiful body shuddering beneath him.

  “Oh my God,” she breathed, her grip on his head relaxing as she sank into the bed. “That was… incredible.”

  “You were incredible.” He lay down beside her and pulled her pliant, sated body next to his. “And you tasted amazing.”

  Becca giggled, curling against his chest. She felt so comfortable, so right, cuddled up against him. A little too right, a voice in her head warned, and she stilled. Just what was she doing here, exactly, anyway?

  “Becca?” Jericho tilted her chin up so that she was looking into his eyes. His cobalt blue gaze shimmered with concern for her. “Are you alright? I didn’t… hurt you in any way, did I?”

  “No, of course not.” The idea that anything he’d done to her tonight might have been construed as pain was laughable. But the fact that the concern in his eyes threatened to melt her heart worried her deeply, and she pushed away. “I have to get back, though.”

  Jericho sat up, frowning as he watched her retrieve her clothing. “You’re not going to stay the night?” A deep sense of loss filled him – he’d been looking forward to curling around her naked body, and holding her close. Of tasting her more and hearing his name on her lips again and again.

  Guilt burned a hole in Becca’s chest at the hurt in Jericho’s voice, and she refused to look at him, not wanting to look into his gorgeous eyes because she knew they would undo her. “I’ve got a cat at home that needs feeding,” she explained as she shoved her legs into her jeans, “and I don’t have a change of clothes. I really ought to get home now.”

  “Alright.” Jericho sat up and reached for the cell phone still tucked into his jeans. Disappointment still simmered in his chest, but he understood her position and knew that if he pushed he would only distance her. “Le
t me call you a cab, at least.”

  Becca pulled her shirt on over her head, then flashed him a quick smile. “No need,” she said, shoving her feet into her shoes. “I’ve got it. See you tomorrow morning, okay? We’ll meet in the lobby.” And then she disappeared, her feet pattering light and fast down the carpeted stairway, and in the next second the apartment door clicked shut.

  She was gone.

  Chapter Seven

  Jericho rolled over to look at the alarm clock on the nightstand, and then groaned. 3:00 A.M., the digital readout blinked obnoxiously at him, and he flopped onto his back, staring up at the ceiling, wondering if sleep would ever come tonight.

  Every time he closed his eyes, all he could think about was Becca. The way her reddish-brown hair curled becomingly around her face, the way her whiskey eyes sparkled when she talked about historic monuments and priceless pieces of art. Her vanilla-cinnamon scent lingered in his nostrils, and he could still taste just a hint of her pussy every time he swallowed.

  She was embedded in his system, as firmly as any of the strands of DNA encoded into his genetic makeup, and the idea terrified him.

  How the fuck had this happened? He’d only intended to slake her lust, and maybe a little of his own, and now he couldn’t get the woman out of his head. His cock burned and throbbed, every time it brushed against the sheets, and he gritted his teeth, trying to fight against a serious case of blue balls.

  Think of Ravena, waiting for you back home, he thought. That should kill your erection.

  He tried to summon up the image of the prissy she-bear, and slowly a picture of her elegant beauty formed in his mind. But as he stared at her, the sharp lines of her face softened into the shape of a heart, and her cloud of blonde hair cascaded into reddish brown curls that gleamed in the lamplight.