Complete Bear Creek and Bear Bluff Box Sets: Including brand new exclusive book Best Man Bear

by Harmony Raines

  With an outstretched hand, he was nearly alongside her. If she wanted to, she could barge him out of the way and be out of the barn before he knew what hit him. Her horse planted four hooves firmly on the ground. That was not going to happen.

  Ciara smelled his hand, blowing air over it to caress his palm. She saw him shiver, and saw something else flicker across his eyes. Whatever animal he was, it was fighting for release. But Ryan kept firm control of it.

  The first touch of his hand made her shudder, her skin moving under his fingertips. He ran them firmly over her shoulder, and along her back. “My, aren’t you a beauty,” he said, in that same sing-song reassuring voice. “I have never seen anything quite so majestical.”

  She could listen to him all day, and then she realised that was what he was doing, persuading her to stay. What would he do next, stick a saddle on her and attempt to ride her? The human Ciara snapped back into control and, in an instant, had transformed.

  “Good evening, Ciara,” he said, smiling at her.

  “I think it’s probably good morning, to be precise.”

  “You might be right. And so I have to ask you, what you are doing here in my barn at this time in the morning?”

  “I came to see Sapphire.”

  “And?”

  “I wanted to find out what was wrong with her. The bloodwork told me nothing. And you were so concerned, I wanted to check she was OK.”

  “You can talk to other horses?” he asked.

  “Yes, sort of. It’s all body language. I’m not telepathic or anything.”

  “What a pity.” His eyes flashed in the dark and there was that animal again, lurking just under the surface. She longed to touch him, to make him bring his own beast out of hiding, but he scared her. This man was not a horse; he was a predator, through and through. And oh, how she wanted him to devour her.

  “I should be going,” she said, feeling hot, so very hot for him.

  He moved to stand in front of her, blocking her way. “You came all of this way to see Sapphire. Over the mountain.” He leaned forward and sniffed the air around her, sending thrills though her body. “I can smell the earth and trees on you.”

  “I thought it was the safest way.”

  “You could have just knocked on my door; I would have been very welcoming.”

  “It was late.”

  “For you, it’s never too late.” He breathed in her scent again and there was a slight groan under his breath. She wondered how much self-control he was using not to take her in his arms and make love to her right now.

  “I’ll call you in the morning, we’ll talk then.” She made to walk past him, but he didn’t move. This was the thing she had feared. That he would trap her here, and make her do his bidding. The predator and his prey. She had been stupid to come tonight, she knew that now.

  And then he moved, standing to the side to allow her to pass. She took a step forward, and he whispered, “Don’t go, Ciara. Stay. One night. Just one night in my bed and then if you want to leave, I won’t stop you.”

  “I can’t.”

  “Why? Do I scare you?”

  She looked at him, just making out his features in the dim light. She was so close to him, she could feel the heat from his body, and she wondered if she touched him, whether she would be able to read his body language and interpret his desires. Then she let her imagination wander and realised she didn’t need to touch him, she could read his thoughts from here.

  Sex, marriage, and children. It’s what all men wanted once they found their mate. No thought to what their female wanted. Her career would be over and she didn’t want that. She had worked too hard for it. Made a success for herself in her own right.

  “No, you don’t scare me. I just don’t want this … this whole mating thing. It’s not what I’m cut out for. I have a career, I don’t want to just fall at your feet and then be ‘wham bam, you’re pregnant, ma’am.’”

  He laughed. Really laughed, aloud, which made her mad.

  “See, you do not take me seriously. It’s why I left my hometown. I didn’t want to be just another brood mare. I didn’t want to end up like my mother.” She shut her mouth tight, knowing she had said too much, revealed too much of herself. But it was the truth. Watching her mom bring up four children, whilst all the time pining for the job as a research scientist she had given up. The role of mom had kept her busy enough and perhaps fulfilled, but when they had bolted from the stable, she had been left with nothing.

  Ciara had watched her, and seen her mourn for the lost years. Years where she could have been out in the world making a difference. She did not want that life for herself. However, the pull of the bond was too intense now he was so close to her. One moment of weakness and she would be lost.

  “Ciara, that’s not what I expect you to do. I would never make you give up your career.”

  “What about children?”

  “Of course I want children. But I would look after them; the farm is a great place for kids.”

  She felt herself swaying towards him, as if the thread linking them was drawing them closer together. Reeling her in, the hook so firmly attached there was no way to get off the line. “You say that now. But once I’m pregnant and the child comes, then it will change.”

  “I give you my word, Ciara.” He reached out, pushing her hair back from her face. Then he leaned in and touched his lips to hers. Lightly at first, not touching any other part of her, leaving her free to bolt for the door if that was what she really wanted.

  Yet in that one touch, he had won; there was no way she could run from him. Not now, and probably not ever.

  Chapter Ten – Ryan

  She trembled at his touch, whether from excitement or fear he didn’t know. He could sense the thrill of her body, but it was laced with a resignation. That if he took her to bed her life, as she knew it, would end. He didn’t want that. She was wild and free, and he wanted her to stay that way. He would never pen her in. And he certainly didn’t want to break her.

  As she opened her mouth to allow his tongue to slide along her lower lip, he stroked her cheek with his fingertips and then fisted her hair. His lips grew firmer, his arousal stronger. If she said no now, he might have a fight on his hands. A certain bear knew he had won. Or, at least, hoped.

  However, when she wrapped her arms around his neck, he began to relax. Maybe she wanted this too, or at least didn’t want to fight it anymore. It must be as hard for her as it was for him. The feeling of being split in two when she had walked away earlier had left him incomplete. He had spent the rest of the day, after she left, feeling that some part of him was missing. Only now, with her in his arms, did he feel complete again.

  Desperately, he wanted to take her over to his house, but he was afraid if they left the barn she would just run. No doubt her horse ran faster than a big old bear, so he didn’t want to take the risk. He had let her go once; he was damn sure he wasn’t going to do that again. But he didn’t want a fight.

  Picturing the inside of the barn in his head, he remembered the clean stall towards the end of the barn. It was filled with hay; he would take her there. Gently guiding her backwards, hoping she wouldn’t resist, he moved towards the stall. When they reached the door, he groped for the latch, not wanting to let go of his hold on her. His lips still pressed against hers, stirring up all kinds of wonderful sensations in his pants, which now felt far too tight across his cock.

  Thankfully, the latch opened with ease and they were inside, heading for the hay before she had pause to think. In a bid to keep things that way, he slipped his hand up and cupped her breast, rubbing his thumb over her nipple. The little bud hardened under her clothes, and he longed to strip her, to taste her skin. But one slow step at a time.

  Lowering her down, he couldn’t make out her features in the dark, but he let his instincts take over. His mouth nipped at her neck, while his hand now slid down to the ache she must be feeling between her thighs. He could smell her arousal, now he wanted
to feel the heat contained there.

  With his thumb pressed against her clit, he moved his hand along the length of her slit, pleased when she eased her thighs wider open for him. If anything told him she wanted more, that did. A sigh escaped her lips and he turned to kiss her, while his finger pressed against her opening.

  She was so wet he was sure it was seeping through her jeans, and he longed to remove every stitch of her clothing and make her come once more. Deciding to act, his fingers closed around her zipper and eased it down. For a moment, she tensed, but then she helped him, pushing her jeans down over her thighs.

  Deep inside his head, a certain bear thought all of his Christmases and birthdays had come at once. He was leaping for joy, and Ryan’s heart jumped with him.

  Chapter Eleven – Ciara

  A voice in Ciara’s head screamed at her. What was she doing? Throwing away everything she had worked for. But it didn’t matter, nothing else mattered other than Ryan and his hands on her body. Oh, he was working to undo her zip. This was it. She either gave herself to him now, or pushed him off and ran away forever.

  Her hand closed over his, indecision still paramount, but his lips moved to hers and she was lost. As his tongue flicked in and out of her mouth, she helped him remove her jeans, lifting her hips to allow him to ease them down over her thighs.

  For a moment, he broke away from her, pushing her jeans off her feet, and then he slid his hand up the inside of her thigh and pressed them wider apart. She complied. His fingers slid her panties to one side and pushed inside her sex, working in and out, the evidence of her arousal blatantly obvious in the wet, slick noises that met her ears.

  She wanted to curl up in embarrassment, but she couldn’t . This was what she wanted. Really wanted. His fingers, pushing inside her and then drawing up to stimulate her clit. Ciara curled her fingers around his hand, feeling him push in and out of her, until she knew she was going to explode.

  Her breathing became laboured. While her brain seemed to switch off, the only part that worked was the pleasure receptors and they seemed to be set to overload. She turned her face into his chest, trying to handle what he was doing to her. The intensity almost blew her mind. And then her body tensed one final time before she came, a release that took her beyond anything she could imagine.

  Crying out, she buried her face deeper into his chest. As wave after wave of pleasure swept over her, she found herself sobbing, the sensations too much. When she eventually calmed down, instead of trying to penetrate her while she was lost to any reason, he held her close. She breathed in the comforting scent of him, sweet hay and horse, and rested her head on his chest while he told her everything was OK.

  But he didn’t know her world had shifted on its axis. The next step was pivotal in the way her life would be from this moment on.

  In the dark, he reached up and smoothed the hair back from her face, somehow finding her lips and kissing her gently. For an instant she froze, and then she kissed him back, with all the passion she could summon. This was something she didn’t want to run from. Which was what she had been doing for the last few years of her life. He had to be right. They could make this work. She shouldn’t have to choose between a career and her mate.

  “Promise me we’ll work this out. That you won’t make me do anything I don’t want to, just because we’re mates.”

  “I promise. I’d promise you the moon if I could reach it and pluck it from the sky. But I can’t so let’s just stick to what I can promise you. Is that OK?” His voice was quiet, filled with emotion and hope.

  She lifted her face to his and kissed him again, her hand slipping down between their bodies to stroke his cock. Already hard, he stiffened further as she stroked him, feeling brave as her hand slid up and down his hard length. He groaned and pressed forward into her hand, encouraging her.

  Then he placed his hand on hers and stopped her. “I want to be inside you, Ciara. I want to feel you warm and tight around me.”

  She swallowed her panic. This was the right thing to do, she kept telling herself; she wanted this. But the more she told herself this, the more she wondered if it was just her horse trying to persuade her to be with her mate, for purely carnal reasons, than because it was the right thing for her. But he had promised.

  Taking control, she undid his zipper and then his button to push his jeans off his thighs. Her hand brushed his hardness and panic threatened her. But she swallowed it down, this was right; she knew if she ran away now she would always be wondering what if.

  Once he was naked from the waist down, he sat up and pulled his shirt off, discarding it to one side. With fingers that she was sure trembled as they worked, he undid the buttons of her shirt. Pushing it back from her shoulders to reveal her breasts, swollen with arousal, threatening to spill out of her bra. But of course, he couldn’t see, so instead he used another sense.

  Touch. His fingers traced along the edge of her bra, sending tendrils of desire flaring out across her skin. Then he leaned forward and pressed his lips to the soft flesh that swelled over the top of the cups, and her skin felt as though it rose to meet him, wanting to be in contact with his mouth as he left butterfly kisses along her breasts. All the time his finger inched towards the clasp that contained her soft curves. Then he undid it, and she spilled forward, her nipple caught immediately in his hungry mouth.

  Jolts of pleasure coursed through her. All signals shooting down to the place where her thighs joined, the place where her clit throbbed. Ryan rolled his tongue over the taut bud, and then sucked it in sharply. Ciara drew her knees up in response, wanting to find comfort from the onslaught of pleasure he was unleashing on her.

  But he placed his thigh over hers and instead pushed his fingers back inside her sex, massaging her inner walls, bringing her arousal back to fever pitch. Then he made his move, slipping between her thighs, his cock pressing against her thigh, and then he guided himself towards her sex, the head pressing against her outer lips.

  She opened for him, although she wanted to close up, to stop him from taking her. Would it hurt, would he be rough with her, controlling? With her fingertips, she reached out and touched his face, feeling the roughness of the evening stubble on his chin. She caressed his lips, her thumbs brushing them, following their contour and wondering at the fullness of them.

  He leaned forward and kissed her lips, while he pushed inside her. She gasped against him, but he pushed deeper, filling her for the first time. Slowly she yielded for him, her sex feeling stretched, as if he was too big. Pulling back, he thrust forward again. This time she felt pain, a stinging sensation that made her cry out. Ryan stopped moving for a moment, and then he turned his head and took her nipple in his mouth, sucking it hard, grazing his teeth over the hard little bud, while he began to move inside her again.

  The two sensations mingled together, and the pain and discomfort in her sex melted away as the erotic pain of his mouth on her breasts took over. He pushed deeper, almost filling her before pulling back to thrust hard one last time. Too much: she tensed but tried to breathe through it, her senses overloaded. However, when he slid back out of her again, his solid cock stroking her inner walls, it felt so much better.

  Gradually she relaxed, and his movements took her higher. In and out, he moved, her arousal rising a notch with each stroke of his cock inside her. If she stared at the roof of the barn she was sure she could see the stars that glistened outside, it was as though they were watching over her, shining down on her, and she rose to fly with them through the night sky.

  Her orgasm hit her hard. A cry escaped Ciara, the intensity surprising, making her call out his name as wave after wave of pleasure washed over her. Then he came, his voice mingling with hers as he ground out his orgasm. A roar, loud in her ear, telling the world he had claimed his mate. If anything, his voice made her orgasm peak higher; the sense of being owned by him was both delicious and very unnerving. As he jerked deep inside her, perhaps already making a child, the fears she had returned.
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  Would he stick to his word? This man who made her feel complete, made her feel alive on a level she had never experienced, could he keep his promise? Would they work things out so they could both be happy?

  As he slumped forward, down onto her, his breathing laboured, she hoped so. Kissing his neck, she once more breathed in his manly scent and let it tingle her nose. There was no doubt of their bond, and the bond was always right. As she wrapped her hands around his neck and held him close, feeling the heat of his body, she hoped this would work out.

  Chapter Twelve – Ryan

  He carried her to his house and laid her in his bed. There was a feeling of triumph in his heart, but he kept that from her. She didn’t need to hear the bear inside his head as he roared in defiance. He had claimed his mate, and she was his; she would breed his cubs and live in his den.

  Yes. The bear would stay cooped up for now, until he could be trusted not to frighten Ciara away. “Can I get you anything?” he asked, looking down at her black hair as, just in his dreams, it spilled across his pillow.

  He reached down and touched it, letting the silky tendrils slip through his fingers. Leaning down, he kissed her lips. “Anything?”

  “No, thank you. I just want to sleep.”

  “Do you mind if I lie with you?” he asked.

  She turned and half smiled. “It’s your bed.”

  “I know. But I don’t want to force myself … my company on you.”

  She moved over and then lifted the covers for him. “Hold me.”

  He didn’t wait to be asked twice. Sliding in next to her, he pulled her close, his arms wrapped around her, never wanting to let her go. Listening to her breathing, he knew the exact moment she drifted off to sleep, but he couldn’t bear to leave the real world for the world of dreams. What if he woke up and she was no longer there? What if all this had been a dream?

  He lifted his hand to stroke her hair, allowing the soft strands to tangle with his fingers, making sure they were real and she wasn’t some fantasy he had conjured up from his deep need to be with her. The scent of her hair was like coming home, rich citrus mixed with the smell of the mountain where her hair had tangled with the trees. He loved it, in the same way as he loved everything about her.