by Anna Lowe
Thank goodness for whatever instinct made him whip off his jacket and wrap it around her shoulders. Maybe she wouldn’t take him for a total caveman.
The thing was, he didn’t just place the jacket over her shoulders. He wrapped his arms around her, too, and she squeezed in immediately. So tightly, he could feel the push of her nipples against his shirt. So close, he could feel the warmth of her belly and chest. So intimately, his bear got all kinds of bad ideas.
“Hi,” she murmured.
When he’d spoken, his voice seemed to invade the peaceful space, but Summer’s seemed part of it, like the whisper of one branch over another or the soft flutter of a bird’s wings. But there was a sad note to it, too, and that gutted him. There was so much he wanted to say, but none of it came out.
Summer, put the past behind you. Step into the future with me.
Summer, you’re the most amazing person I’ve ever met. Don’t you know that?
Summer, I dream about us sharing a life together. Do you dream it, too?
“Hi,” was all he could get out. “You found me.”
A shy smile spread across her face, warming him. “I found you.”
He wanted to ask how, hoping it was her heart and not her nose that had led her here. But they didn’t have all night, and he really ought to get down to business, right?
We have a couple of hours, at least, his bear growled. Plenty of time.
“You found me,” he echoed like a complete dunce, and her smile grew.
Every instinct told him to step even closer and share his body heat with her. But damn it — habit made him take half a step back. Somehow, that always happened. That back-and-forth. It was as if his inner bear couldn’t get close enough to Summer and wanted to erase the distance between them, while his human side knew he had to give her space. She was her own person, not his, and he couldn’t presume she wanted him as badly as he wanted her.
But damn, did he hope she did.
“You always do that,” she murmured, pulling him closer.
“Do what?”
“Step close, then step away.” She pulled again, inviting him into her space. So close, she had to tip back her head to look at him. Or more precisely, to look at his lips.
“You’re cold,” he murmured.
She shook her head and gave him a naughty grin. “I’m hot.”
He groaned inside. How the hell was a bear supposed to control himself in a situation like this?
“No need for control,” she whispered, tickling his ear with her lips. “Not tonight.”
He did a double take. Could she read his mind now? Or had the look on his face given him away?
No need for control, his bear echoed as she unbuttoned his shirt.
“I need this so bad,” she whispered. Her breath hung before her, a tiny cloud of condensation in the crisp night air.
See? his bear chuffed. She wants us. Needs us.
He pulled her closer, wrapping her in his warmth. He didn’t dare ask what this was, though he could see it in her eyes. He could feel it in the pull of her body on his.
She slid a hand up his chest, and it caught in the fabric of his shirt. A shirt he was ready to tear the rest of the way off — anything to be skin to skin with her.
“Drew,” she whispered. “I need you so much.”
Her eyes were aflame, and her breath hitched just like his did. His cock hardened in his jeans, pushing against the denim.
Summer, he nearly said. I need you, too.
He wanted so much. Her body. Her love. Her company, day in and day out. He wanted a future with her. He wanted her as his mate.
But if that didn’t make him a greedy prick, what did?
So he backtracked and focused on her. “Tell me what you need. Tell me what you want.”
“You,” she said, letting her hand stray downward again. She rested it on his abdomen, a good six inches higher than he would have liked. “I want us.” Then a cloud passed over her eyes. “But I’m scared, too.”
“Of what?”
“Remember who I am, Drew.”
Well, that was easy. “You’re the most amazing person I know. The person I want.”
She stared at him then shook her head. “Isn’t it wrong for me to want you after what I did?”
“You did what you were forced to do. And wrong?” He took her by the shoulders. “You didn’t do anything. Hate is wrong. Love… Love is right.”
“Love?”
He nodded firmly. “God, Summer. From the second I met you, I wanted you. I still want you. For forever, I mean.”
She bit her lip. “I knew it before I even saw you. Even before you stepped in the door, I knew.”
“So why fight it? Don’t you feel it, too?”
“I feel it,” she murmured, but she still looked so sad. As if she was determined to deny herself happiness for the rest of her life.
No way, his bear growled. Not letting her do that.
Without thinking, he stepped closer, barely leaving an inch of empty space between their chests.
“You feel this, right?” he asked in a husky voice. This was the heat that built between them, the crackle and lick of invisible flames.
Her eyes fluttered, telling him she did. And how could she miss it? He could feel the threads of destiny wrap around them both like the strands of a cocoon. He could hear the earthy voice of fate chanting, mate, mate, mate.
He wrapped his arms around her before she could revisit her past, then dropped his chin until he was within kissing distance of her rosy lips.
“You must feel this,” he said, sweeping his hand through the space between them. “This energy. This need. The call.”
“The call…”
“The call of my mate.”
There. He’d finally said it. She might slap him or call him crazy or run away, but at least he’d said it.
“Mate?” Her lips trembled.
“Mate,” he said.
His bear gave him a high five.
Summer took a deep breath and nodded. “I feel it. I want it, too.”
The words just about made him explode. She wanted him, too!
Every star in the sky seemed to cheer him on. So kiss her! Kiss her! Come on!
He leaned in slowly enough for her to pull away, but she didn’t.
“I want it, too,” she echoed quietly. “So much.”
Enough of a green light for you? his bear demanded.
The dam in him broke, and a tingle of anticipation zipped through his chest.
He figured he’d better go for the world’s softest kiss, but they ended up coming together with a bang, because she reached forward at exactly the same time as him. And for one shaky second, their lips searched awkwardly for the perfect fit. But the moment they did…
Summer moaned and shifted closer. Her breasts squeezed against his chest, her hips swung forward, teasing his cock. Her hands ran up and down his arms. She opened her mouth the same moment he did, letting him taste deeply.
He wrapped his arms around her and let them travel slowly down. And down and down to the perfect curve of her ass. Summer moaned, and he nearly did, too.
Make her do that again, his bear demanded. I need to hear her want us. Do it again.
He reached a little farther down, spreading his fingers wide, and then shuffled one leg forward to spread hers apart.
Summer made a needy, desperate sound, and he did, too. He couldn’t see. He couldn’t think. All he could do was inhale her heady scent. God, the taste of her — like all the flavors of summer, wrapped into one. Honey. Strawberries. Rose hip tea, warmed by the sun. Like freedom, because that had a taste, too, even if it was harder to pin down.
“Drew,” she murmured, sliding her arms behind his neck. Not just his shoulders but his neck, demanding he kiss her harder. Deeper.
He smothered her in a kiss that had been waiting days — weeks, even — to be released. So it wasn’t gentle and it wasn’t soft, but neither was hers. When she reached unde
r his shirt to touch his skin, his blood rushed, and he consumed her in another kiss. Really consumed her like he could never get enough. He backed her right up to the edge of a picnic table while she stripped him out of his shirt. Even then, he kept going, just barely hanging on to his self-control.
“Drew,” she whispered again and again.
He spread his shirt on the picnic table behind her and kept right on kissing and touching and leaning until she was flat on her back. He pulled away just long enough to check that she was all in.
“I’m all in, bear,” she murmured, pulling him closer.
Damn. Had she read his mind?
More, his bear demanded. Want more!
“Help me with these,” she whispered, yanking at his jeans.
He kicked off his boots and jeans and cast them aside, and when his boxers followed, his cock stood straight up.
Take her! his bear screamed. Need my mate!
“Drew.” Summer curled into a half sit-up. Her eyes fluttered to his erection, and when she met his gaze again, her face was flushed, her lips parted.
I want that, the glow in her eyes said. I want you inside.
And man, he’d never felt such a rush in his life.
“You sure you want this?” he managed.
She laughed and settled down on her back, laying herself out like a feast. “Do I look sure?”
She lifted both legs until her heels rested on the edge of the table. She bent her knees, opening her core, inviting him in.
Yeah, she looked sure, all right.
He bent over her body. One more kiss with some measure of control, and then he’d give in to his animal side. One kiss to tell her this was more than just one body craving another.
This was about him and her. About the future. About love.
His lips covered hers, and she rose under him, reaching for his cock. She stroked it gently, the way his tongue stroked over her lips. But then her grip grew harder, the way his movements did.
More, his bear agreed.
He plundered her mouth and tugged her body closer to the table’s edge. Then he practically kissed her through the table until her moans filled his ears. She clutched him the whole time, telling him to keep going, not to hold back.
And there was no holding back now, anyway. Not with his bear firmly in control. He nibbled his way down her neck and chest until he was gorging on her right breast, scooping the flesh closer, flicking his tongue over her tight little nipple. It hardened immediately and stood erect in his mouth as he laved his tongue over it again and again.
“Drew,” she moaned, arching into his touch.
His heart pounded in his chest. His brain sent a thousand mixed messages, ordering him to touch her in a thousand different ways at once. More of her soft breasts. More of the flat expanse of her abdomen. He found himself licking her belly button without even remembering how he got there. He bobbed back up, suckling from her breast, then dipped down, spreading her legs with his hands.
“Drew,” she cried, guiding his head lower.
He spread her with his thumbs. Rested his head against her inner thigh and let his chin scrub a path all the way to her core, where he inhaled her scent, then flicked his tongue.
She tasted like honey. Like berries, ripe for the picking. Like home. He got drunk on that taste and sucked it up — desperately, like a bear feasting at the onset of fall, because who knew what the future would hold.
Summer jolted against him, and her hands fluttered over his shoulders, begging him to go on.
“Yes. Please, yes,” she murmured again and again.
So he licked. Sucked. Practically drank — and drank and drank, like a goddamn castaway in the desert. Like a knight with the Holy Grail. He consumed her like no man had ever consumed a woman before.
He wasn’t even aware of his own movements, only her responses. The buck of her hips. The pressure of her hands. The quiver of her skin. When he drove his fingers deep, she sucked in a shaky breath. And when his lips zeroed in on the nub of her clit, she cried out desperately. Her whole body writhed and danced as he gulped and feasted until he was drunk and gorged. Drunk on his pleasure and on hers.
My mate likes this. Loves this, his bear chuckled inside.
He could tell from the play of her fingers over his back, the tight grip of her thighs around his head. She was arched so far back, he could scoop both hands around her ass and keep her close, like a greedy man holding a platter up to his mouth.
“Please,” she begged. “I’m so close.”
Any other woman would have been limp and exhausted by then, but Summer hung on and on, denying herself release as if she could sense how much more he wanted to learn about her.
He teased her, traveling from her sweet core to her pink, peaked nipples and back again until her belly was red with scrub marks from his beard. He didn’t just want to make her feel good. He wanted to launch her straight off the earth. So he explored, discovering what moved her, what shook her, and what brought her to the edge of joyous tears. He memorized all the combinations, piece by delicious piece, until he was finally ready to put it all together and let her fly.
“Drew,” she gasped, and her voice shot higher.
Yeah, she was close, all right.
He slipped two fingers deep inside her and curled them against a spot that made her leap halfway out of her skin, then massaged her clit with his tongue. Harder, faster — the way her body demanded. And when he caught the nub of it between his lips—
“Drew,” she moaned, exploding beneath him.
He hung on, lapping up her juices, gripping her body, listening to the sounds she made. Just when he thought she might waft back down from her high, he pushed in again with his fingers and tongue to wring a second orgasm out of her, right on the heels of the first. And when she came out of that one, panting and limp and murmuring incoherently, he laid his head on her belly and held her tight.
My woman, his bear growled, ridiculously pleased with himself. My mate.
His highly satisfied mate. He could hear it in her dreamy sigh, feel it in her needy touch. Yes, his cock was aching for its own release, but that could wait. The world could wait, damn it. He wrapped his arms around her, closed his eyes, and breathed her in.
“Beautiful,” he murmured.
“Beautiful,” she echoed in a dreamy, faraway voice.
He smiled into her stomach, drew a heart with a finger, and tried not to get carried away with thoughts of the future. This was just one night. One little night.
A night he would draw out forever if he could.
Chapter Seven
“Drew.” Summer slid her tongue over her lips, savoring the taste of him. She’d been flying through the stratosphere, barely able to speak after the high he’d licked her into. She paused for a quick check, just in case. Were her lips working again? Could she produce more than a moan or a cry?
“Drew,” she whispered.
Lips, check. Fingers?
They flexed and traced a hard line of muscle on his arm.
Girl parts?
Her body gave a slow, sultry thumbs-up.
She figured she was ready to croak something other than his name. But what?
Drew’s fingers moved across her skin, sending little ripples through her overwhelmed nerves. One by one, her synapses woke up, going from la-la land to…to…
Shit, to all-out desire.
She lay perfectly still as a second heat wave roared through her body. Was it even possible to want more after an orgasm like that?
Her wolf stirred inside and flicked its tail from side to side.
Apparently so.
Maybe she’d blame it all on the three-quarters-full moon, shining on her like a spotlight from above. Stars crowded around, winking like so many Peeping Toms. The clearing was surrounded by pines, their boughs drooping with snow — a reminder that, technically, she ought to feel cold. But Drew lay over her like a lead blanket, keeping her warm. The jut of his cock against her thigh t
old her he was giving her a chance to recover before seeking his own pleasure. Pleasure she didn’t want to deny him a minute longer.
She shifted under him and let a foot snake up his leg.
“Summer…”
Her stomach heated under his muffled breath, and her whole body prickled with the realization of how hungry she suddenly felt. Starving. Ravenous. Desperate for him to fill her over and over again.
“At the risk of sounding bossy…” she ventured.
He picked his head up and looked at her with eyes that blazed.
“I want you inside me. Now. Please.”
And she didn’t mean with his fingers or tongue — as unbelievably satisfying as that had been. She wanted it all. She needed to be filled. Stretched. She needed to feel the full force of him pounding into her, again and again. Every thick, hot inch of him.
She shook her head at herself. Since when did she have such a dirty mind?
Pretty simple, her wolf shot back. Since we met our mate.
She’d been with a few men in her time — hell, every she-wolf had her needs — but she’d never, ever been as hungry, as screw-or-die desperate as she was right now. Her wolf was yowling inside, begging for more.
“Need you to fill me, my mate,” she whispered.
A rumble built in his chest, and heat flared between her legs.
“Drew,” she begged, guiding him closer with her legs and hands. Trembling with anticipation as his body lined up with hers. “Come to me, bear.”
The grumble grew deeper, and his cock nudged against her folds. She was wet enough for him to glide right in, but damn it, he was doing that slow-and-careful thing again. Like the routine he’d developed when entering the café. That hesitation on the threshold, that stepping up then stepping back.
“Don’t tell me you’re turning into a gentleman now,” she groaned.
He shook his head vehemently. “Not a chance. Just admiring.”
“Admiring what?”
She’d never, ever seen Drew look greedy before now, and damn did it turn her on.
“You,” he whispered, smoothing her hair back from her face.
His gaze traveled down her body, heating her every inch of the way. His lips cracked open when he focused on her breasts, as if he hadn’t already spent long, luscious minutes worshiping them, and her nipples peaked all over again.
