Sheriff Bear: BBW Paranormal Bear Shifter Romance (Bears of Pinerock County Book 1)

by Zoe Chant

  Axl closed the door and sat down on the bed next to her, leaving a little space between them. His bear immediately alerted to the fact that he was alone in a room with his mate. Axl quashed it firmly. He couldn't fail to notice how good she smelled, though, or how nicely her breasts rounded out that shirt.

  "I wish you had cell service up here," she said.

  "Why?"

  "Because I really want to look up shifters on the Internet," she sighed. "Except it doesn't matter, because I don't even have a 4G phone right now. I left mine behind at my dad's and I've been making do with burners."

  She didn't seem angry anymore, just unhappy and baffled.

  "Tara, I want to apologize for not explaining myself better when we were down by the barn earlier today," Axl said. "You must have been confused when I pulled back, and I didn't know how to tell you what was wrong. I've never really had to explain it before."

  "It's another shifter thing, isn't it?"

  "Yeah, pretty much."

  Tara ran her tongue over her lips. The simplest of gestures did him in; as much as he was trying to keep his mind on the business at hand, he could feel himself growing hard.

  "In the kitchen," she said, "you called me your mate. That sounds very, uh ..."

  "Primitive?"

  She blushed and looked away. "Actually, I was going to say hot."

  His brain went scrambling sideways, trying to keep up with the conversation. "That's not what I thought you were going to say."

  "It's not what I would have expected either," she admitted. "All I can say is that watching you fight with Alec about me—listening to you defend me and protect me and call me yours, made me want to wrestle you down to the floor and take you right there."

  Okay, now he was really hard. Achingly hard.

  "No one's ever really stood in my corner like that before. I thought it was always me and Dad against the world, but when it came right down to it, when I needed him to stand up for me against Dick, he failed me. I've never had someone stand up for me like you did."

  She was looking down at her lap now, where her hands were wrapped around the hairbrush. Axl put one of his hands on hers, folding his big, work-roughened fingers around it.

  "I'll always stand in your corner, Tara. No matter what."

  "I know," she whispered. She raised her face and looked up at him, her blue eyes wide. "I know that, but how can I? We just met today. You were about to arrest me. How is it possible that I trust you like this?"

  "Because we're meant for each other." There it was; it was out. "Bear shifters aren't like human men. When we give ourselves to another, we give everything, heart and body and soul. And we give it forever. That's what being someone's mate means, Tara."

  "But you just met me."

  His lips quirked in a smile. "And I'm still getting to know you, and I'm enjoying that. I'm looking forward to every little thing I learn about you in the future. But the minute I saw you, my soul knew yours. Everything from here is just adding to what I already know: that your soul is beautiful, and it's compatible with mine."

  "How can you say things like that?"

  "Because I know them." He touched his chest. "My bear tells me so."

  Tara put out her hand and laid it against his chest, her spread fingers pressing against his breastbone. She smiled. "Your heart is beating fast."

  "That's because I'm close to you."

  "Is that right?" She leaned closer and whispered, "I think mine is beating fast, too."

  Her lips were hot and sweet on his. She pressed against him, the space that had separated them gone as if it had never been.

  "Tara—" He pulled back to look down at her, red hair gleaming in the lamplight. "Tara, are you sure you want this? There are no takebacks. From here on out, it's not going to be you and me; it's going to be us."

  "Shouldn't that be my line?" she asked gently. "You're taking on me and all of my problems."

  He smoothed a lock of fiery hair back from her face. "None of that is the slightest burden, not if I get you along with it. If you want me, that is."

  "Yes," she said. "Yes."

  And she kissed him again, mouth wide in joyful abandon. He kissed her back, letting the walls fall down at last, and opened up to her, body and soul.

  Chapter Six: Tara

  "Yes." A simple word that encompassed so many possibilities. She couldn't help wondering if she'd made the right decision, to give herself someone else to worry about—someone else to lose—when her future was still so uncertain.

  But right now there was no time for regrets or worries about what might come. Right now there was only the heat of his mouth on hers, his hands on her body.

  Something she had already noticed about Sheriff Axl Tanner was that he was a man of single-minded focus. It wasn't obsessive; it was just that, when he was doing something, his mind didn't wander. She'd noticed it when she was telling him her story, and again when they were feeding the chickens. When his attention turned to something, it was a hundred percent there.

  And right now, his attention was focused entirely on her.

  He kissed her passionately and thoroughly, exploring her mouth and then trailing kisses over her face and down her shoulders, making her shiver. Carefully he unbuttoned the borrowed shirt, stripping it off her arms, kissing in its wake. Then he sat up and smiled as he looked down at her bare arms.

  "What?" she wanted to know.

  "I wondered if the freckles went all the way down." He stroked his fingertips over the smooth skin above the bra-covered mounds of her breasts, where there was a light spray of cleavage freckles that she'd always tried to cover up with makeup whenever she wore a low-cut dress. Now, he touched them as if they were beauty marks.

  "You sure you're not a natural redhead?" he asked teasingly.

  "You're about to find out, aren't you?"

  His eyes darkened with desire, the pupils spreading wide. God, that was a good look on him.

  Impatiently she hooked her fingers under the bottom edge of his shirt and pulled up. Maybe he could wait around forever, but her little satin panties were already wet. The shirt peeled off to expose the broad, hard expanse of his chest, with a light scattering of curly hair a shade darker than the hair on his head.

  "You, on the other hand," she murmured, running her hand across it, "are definitely a natural blond."

  His laugh was a low rumble that she could feel through her hand resting on his chest. "Want to see how far down it goes?"

  Her eyes were drawn down as if by magnetism, following his dark blond treasure trail across his sculpted abs, down to where it vanished into his low-slung jeans—and the massive bulge straining against the zipper.

  He grinned at the look on her face, and cupped his hands under her breasts, caressing them through the bra. When he bent his head to find her nipples with his tongue, she was already straining forward in anticipation. The flick of his tongue across the firm bud of her nipple, even through the bra, made her gasp.

  Axl looked up at her, still with that raw desire burning in his eyes, and then mouthed across her breasts, rubbing each nipple with his thumb as he pleasured the other.

  Aching to feel him between her legs, she climbed into his lap. This made it easier for him to reach her breasts, and it meant she could rub her aching clit against his rock-hard abs, wrapping her legs around him. Clothing still separated them, but there was a hot thrill as she ground herself against him and he licked and teased her breasts.

  Her pussy was so wet already, it must be soaking through her borrowed pants. She writhed against him, wrapping her arms around his neck and feeling the firm flexing of the muscles of his back.

  He reached around behind her and undid her bra. It fell away and now he had unfettered access to her breasts. But that wasn't what she wanted most. She wanted him to touch her, needed him to touch her—

  As if he could read her mind, he put a hand between her legs. His fingers worked her wet pussy through the crotch of the borrowed sweatpants. T
he soft cloth provided little barrier. She gasped and threw her head back.

  Axl gave a low chuckle. "Not so hasty. I haven't even tasted you yet."

  Her breath caught at the idea of his tongue between her folds. "Yes," she managed, her mind half blown out with need. "Now!"

  He pulled down her pants and underwear, and she raised first one leg, then the other to kick it off. Now she was in his lap completely naked, her breasts rubbing against his chest. He kissed her again, and as he held her mouth in his, he put his hand between her legs and slipped a finger into her.

  Oh. It felt so right. She bucked her hips, wanting more, wanting him deeper, wanting to be filled.

  Two fingers, then three, slid in and out in shallow, slick thrusts. His thumb flicked lightly over her clit, just a brush, but enough to make her hips jerk in a fast stutter. When he pulled his hand out, she gave an inarticulate moan.

  "Stand up," he murmured, and put his hands under her buttocks, lifting her. She tottered to her feet, ducking her head to avoid the ceiling. Now she was standing on the bed with Axl between her legs.

  He dipped his head in for a taste. She brought her hips forward and spread her legs, opening herself to him. He lapped at her folds and she shivered as waves of pleasure rolled through her.

  "Not yet," she gasped. She was getting close and she wanted to hold on, to make it last. "I want to feel you in me."

  He gave a low groan. "Not half as much as I want to be in you."

  She let him lower her to the bed, going down limply, her whole body quivering with arousal. Even the brush of her legs against him as he knelt above her was enough to make her shiver. He undid his jeans and slid them down over his narrow hips. His boxers followed them. His cock stood out in a nest of dark gold curls, huge and heavy, swollen to its full girth for want of her.

  She was so wet and open that he slid into her without resistance. She moaned as he filled her, pressing on her sensitive inner walls. His first strokes were slow and gentle, but she threw her arms around him and pulled him to her.

  "Harder," she whispered. Her teeth seemed to vibrate with the intensity of the pleasure building in her. "Harder. I want you to feel you all the way down."

  That was all the permission he needed to stop holding back. On his next powerful stroke, she rose to meet him, and then he pounded her as if his life depended on it. The bed creaked under them. She thrust back, stroke for stroke, and felt herself building toward an explosive climax.

  "Can't hold back," he gasped. "Tara—"

  "Me either," was all she could get out.

  Axl dipped his head to bite at her neck, a sharp surge of mingled pleasure and pain, and for some reason that was what did it. She came so hard that fireworks went off behind her eyes. His body bucked as he came, too, filling her with heat.

  She came down slowly, quivering with aftershocks. Axl was draped over the top of her, head resting in the crook of her neck. She felt sticky and sated and pleasant.

  Axl pressed a kiss lightly against her collarbone. He propped himself up on one arm and looked down at her, his face soft with affection.

  "That was amazing," she murmured. "I don't think I'm going to be able to walk tomorrow."

  His expression changed in an instant to one of concern. "Did I hurt you?"

  "No, no. The opposite." She was aching pleasantly in all the right places. She'd be able to feel him every time she moved—and that was exactly what she wanted.

  "You were incredible," he whispered, and touched her neck lightly with his thumb.

  It still stung a little. She raised her hand to touch the place where he'd bitten her. It was slightly sticky. "Did that break the skin?"

  "Do you mind?" he asked anxiously. "I thought you were okay with it."

  She rubbed her thumb over it. The pain was already fading. She could still remember vividly how the sharp press of his teeth had been the thing that tipped her over the edge to an explosive orgasm. Just thinking about it was getting her slightly aroused. "No, not at all. Is this part of the ... the bear thing?"

  "It's a claiming mark," he explained. "Every bear shifter who sees it will know that you're mated, and therefore off limits."

  "Oh." She pressed her thumb against it, feeling the soft ache. "Will it leave a scar?"

  "Only a tiny one. The world knows about us, but this is something we don't tell anyone outside the shifter community. Most of the human world won't notice it. But we will."

  The thought gave her a deep thrill. A special mark, just for the two of them to share.

  The bed was just wide enough for the two of them to cuddle together. "Are you going back up to your room tonight?" she asked.

  "Sounds like too much work."

  "This bed is pretty small."

  "Guess we'll just have to hold onto each other tight, then."

  She didn't have a single problem with that. If Axl was holding her, then nothing bad could get at her.

  "Any regrets?" he asked softly as she laid her head on his shoulder.

  "No." She'd never regretted anything less in her life.

  Sated and safe, in her mate's arms, she quickly fell asleep.

  Chapter Seven: Axl

  He woke at dawn, as always. Even in midsummer, when calving season was over and the winter storms were nothing but a memory, the day on a ranch started early. Actually, by Axl's standards, he'd slept in. The gray light coming through the curtains was already bright enough to see by.

  He propped himself up on his elbow and watched his mate sleep. Her hair was a bright-red spill of fire around her face. Her eyelids flickered as she dreamed, and her lips curved up in a sleeping smile. Axl wondered if she was dreaming about him.

  He touched a stray lock of red hair, brushing it away from her shoulder, dappled with the tiny freckles he had already come to love so much. The mark he'd cut with his teeth had scabbed over, and now there was nothing but a tiny red mark that would be almost invisible when she put a shirt on.

  But other shifters would know. They'd be able to tell not only by the mark but also by her smell that she had been claimed.

  Alec would be able to tell.

  Cross that bridge when we come to it, I guess.

  Alec might be the clan alpha, but he couldn't, wouldn't, come between Axl and Tara. Axl wouldn't let him. And at this point, it almost had to come down to a challenge. Alec had as good as ordered him not to mate with her yesterday. This mark said clearly, I don't care.

  Because he didn't, and neither did his bear. Tara was his heart and his future. None of the rest mattered.

  He could have stayed here forever, watching her sleep. But the rest of the household seemed to be up. There were voices outside in the yard, probably Cody and Alec, and a rumble as an engine started up.

  Axl quietly slid out of bed, careful not to disturb Tara, who didn't even stir. He pulled on his jeans and padded off to take a shower.

  Even in the shower, he couldn't help thinking about her. Looking down at his body as he soaped up made him remember having her under him last night, the way his tanned skin contrasted with her pale smoothness, her little gasps and cries of delight, the way she'd arched back as she came ...

  And now he was rock hard. Great.

  He had a strong temptation to go back to the bedroom and wake her up to join him in the shower. But, no. He wanted to let her sleep as long as possible. It might have been months since she'd been able to sleep with this kind of abandon, casual and unconcerned. And he wanted her to be able to enjoy it.

  He wanted her to know she was safe here. Axl and his bear wouldn't let anything near the ranch that would harm her.

  As he toweled dry, the rational part of his mind told him that he might not have a choice. It wasn't just the hitmen her father's business partner had sent after her. That, he could deal with—would be very happy to deal with, from the way his bear stirred restlessly in his chest when he thought about those thugs coming here. But Tara also had the law on her tail, and that was going to be a much more diffic
ult threat to overcome.

  Especially since he was a lawman himself.

  If he had to choose between his job and his mate, though ... it was no choice, really. He didn't even have to think about it. He wanted to be with her, even if it meant going on the run with her.

  Isn't Alec going to love that.

  At least his brother, he could handle. He hoped.

  He changed into a clean uniform and went down to the kitchen. Outside the window, the day was gray and overcast, and his bear could smell rain on the way. There were signs of a hasty breakfast of eggs and toast. Alec and Cody had probably headed out already, most likely to the upper pasture to check the stock before the bad weather hit.

  Having them out of the house sounded great to Axl. If they were up in the mountains, then he and Tara had the house to themselves, without fear of interruption.

  And the shower is big enough for two ...

  Down, boy.

  He scraped the cast-iron skillet clean, and opened a package of bacon from the freezer. Elsewhere in the house, he heard the shower start running. The bacon was sizzling nicely and he was cracking eggs into a smaller skillet when Tara wandered into the kitchen, yawning. Her hair, dark and wet from her shower, fell unbound over her shoulders, and she was wearing the oversized plaid shirt from yesterday, the tails falling around her wide hips like the bottom of a short dress. She was wearing the dark blue skirt too, holding it up with one hand. Under that, her legs and feet were bare.

  "Wow," was all he could think to say.

  Tara smiled and took him in with her eyes: standing at the stove in his freshly pressed uniform, with a spatula in one hand.

  "I feel like this should be a pinup for my Sheriff of the Month calendar," she said. "You got any safety pins around here, Mister July?"

  "You have a sheriff for every month?" he asked, wrapping an arm around her and pulling her in for a kiss. Her lips were soft and sweet, her skin still damp from the shower.

  "Luckily one is plenty for me. You can tell the other sheriffs to go away."