Bear To The Bone (Bear Claw Security 1) (16 page)

“Which is?”

He sighed. It all sounded so weird to anyone human; he was sure. He’d never realized how insecure he was regarding Carrie until she’d seen him as a bear and Willow had exposed his truth. And then the deep-down fear of her hating what he was had struck him and he’d run.

He could face down killer conditions and lethal enemies to accomplish his missions, but something about looking into her faithful blue eyes and letting her see all of him scared him to the core.

Would she really still want him? Once they calmed down from the adrenaline and him saving her? Did she want someone with this inside him? Something not human?

“What are you thinking up there?” she asked, looking up at him.

“Just… I’m lucky to have you,” he said. “And I hope you’ll still forgive me when it’s all over.”

“You know, animals aren’t the only ones who can fall in love at first sight,” she said. “If that’s what your bear even felt.”

“It was love,” he said. “I was still inside that bear’s body. I was still seeing a girl who was incredibly brave and beautiful and wanting her for myself. Wait, what?” He blinked as he realized what she’d just said. “What do you mean love at first sight?”

“Well, I didn’t fall in love with your bear, although I’m not sure what made me take the risks I did last night. I could have been eaten.”

“Never!” he exclaimed.”

“That’s what bears do!” she teased.

“Not this bear,” he said. “Well, I guess I do want to eat you.” His eyes raked over her body, and he loved the heat that hit her, the way her eyes darted from his as her cheeks colored. “But don’t change the subject. What did you mean love at first sight?”

“When I saw you as a boy,” she said. “You had an impact on me that never went away. Do you think there were no other options in town? There were.”

He snarled in jealousy, but she put a hand to his chest, steadying him.

“Easy, big guy,” she said. “What I meant was there was no one else for me. I guess you could say my heart caught sight of you and held on, not much different from what your bear did.”

“I see,” he said, feeling warm down to his toes at the thought of her accepting him. “I was worried when I told you that you would run.”

“It’s different,” she said. “It’s definitely something I never imagined.”

“I bet,” he said. “My mother was one, a shifter. But she left early, and I was the only one at the Aces compound that I knew of. I always had to hide it.”

“Well, if it’s your bear that makes you so freaking strong, I think I like him.”

“That and a lot of specialized military training,” he said. “I guess I can tell you more about that stuff, too, now that I don’t have to pretend to be an Ace.”

She seemed to remember how mad that made her and turned to give him a hard punch to the arm.

He laughed and rubbed, pretending it did anything but tickle him. “Okay, I deserved that. I’m sorry.”

“So what?” she asked. “Willow contacted you and you just came back to end the Aces?”

“I always wanted to end the Aces, and I always wanted to come back and see you,” he said. “Willow just gave me an excuse to do it.”

“By asking you for help?” she asked.

“No,” he said. “She just said you were in trouble. That I needed to come back and help you.”

She looked at him, face softening. “So it
was
for me?”

He nodded. “They were harassing you at the bar. She thought it would escalate. I agreed.” He walked a little forward, still thinking. “I knew deep down that if anything was off, Willow would tell me. Or watch out for you. I told myself I was doing things right. I wanted to get rich, to be successful, to give you as many reasons as possible for you to accept me when I finally came back.”

“So you came back as an Ace?”

“It was the only way to get inside,” he said. “I knew the only way to get you away from this town was if you knew it was going to be safe.”

She blinked up at him. “Man, I misunderstood you a lot.”

“Did you?” he asked, walking forward to put a hand under her chin and tilt her face to look at him. His thumb grazed her velvet-soft cheek, loving that this woman was about to be his. He could feel it now, no barriers between them.

He didn’t even know what he’d said that made a difference, but he was glad.

“So it was really for me?” she asked. “Not just some dumb kind of revenge or a job?”

“You really don’t understand men in love,” he said, pushing hair behind one of her ears. “Everything was for you. Everything was about you. Every mission, every step I took with my business, everything I planned here. All roads led to you. They had to.”

She blinked in surprise. “I knew you wanted me, but…”

“I love you with every piece of my soul,” he said solemnly. “I don’t know how else to communicate that to you.”

She reached up and brushed hair off his forehead. “I can think of one way at least.”

Her eyes were hot as they stared into his, and he got her meaning immediately. He swept her up in his arms and jogged the rest of the way to her house, putting her down only to let her get her keys out and unlock the door.

Then he swept her up in his arms again, kicked the door shut behind them, locked it with one hand, and carried his mate up the stairs to her bedroom.

Time to claim what was his.

C
arrie loved
the feel of Cage’s warm arms around her.

Everything he’d said made sense, in that way that things make sense when you have love to glue in the cracks left by reason.

As long as Cage loved her, as long as he really had been acting in her best interest, even when it had been misguided, then everything else could be worked out.

He’d really come back to protect her. Even made himself one of them just to end them for good, because he knew she would want it before leaving.

She caught her breath at the sacrifice in that, how it must have felt to put on the leathers of the men he had even more reason than her to hate, and how it must have felt for him to take her censure and anger over something that wasn’t true.

She didn’t blame herself either. She’d acted as if everything he showed her were true. That was part of her being trusting and always taking things at face value, and she didn’t think Cage wanted that to change about her.

He set her down on the bed, and his dark head turned to the side, looking at the window. Then he stood and strode over to it, pulling the curtains closed.

He looked back at her, dark blue eyes sparkling with excitement but a hard expression on his masculine, handsome face. Even in his stolen clothing, scratched from the fight, he was gorgeous. She got off the bed and walked to him, lifting the shirt to see his wound.

She gasped, not knowing what was leftover dried blood and what was actual injury. She pushed him to sit on the bed, and he frowned.

“At least let me take care of you, one more time,” she said. When he let out a growl of protest, his muscles flexing as he rested on his hands, she clucked her tongue. “I’m not making love to you with blood all over me.”

He nodded but didn’t look too pleased about it.

“You’ve waited ten years,” she said. “You can wait a while longer.”

She opened the cabinet under the TV and pulled out a small first aid kit. As she turned to stand, she felt strong, masculine arms around her. She caught the scent of pine and just leaned back against him for a moment, savoring it.

“So impatient,” she teased.

“Mmm,” he said gruffly against her head as he buried his nose in her hair. “I can’t wait any longer. I never did get to tell you everything about mates.”

“Oh?” she asked. “You can tell me while I clean up, then.”

He nodded, sitting back on the bed and pulling off his shirt, wincing only slightly as he threw it to the side.

She knelt in front of him on the bed and pulled out an antiseptic wipe and started rubbing. She’d cleaned Cage up before, so it was almost kind of an intimate, familiar sensation. It said something about their relationship that they could wipe up blood as a kind of foreplay. She supposed it was just because they’d been taking care of each other as long as she could remember. They were truly bound together in that way.

“Tell me about mates,” she said.

He put a hand in her hair, playing with a strand as he twirled it around his finger, his serious, intense eyes on hers as she wiped at the wound on his side.

It was already nearly healed and didn’t look bad at all once cleaned.

“Amazing,” she said, pulling out another wipe to clean the rest. She enjoyed the feel of his rippled bumps of muscle under her fingers.

He caught her hand in his and kissed the knuckles as she looked up at him.

His eyes met hers. “To mate means to take you forever. I claim you in a way that means no other shifter will look at you. I claim you in a way that means I’ll never look at another woman, even though I never did before. It means you’ll be a part of me, bound to me, and never able to leave.”

“I already was, silly,” she said.

“I’ll come inside you without anything between us, and when we come together, that will complete it,” he said.

“That’s why you were so careful about a condom,” she said. “I thought you just didn’t want kids.”

“I would love kids with you, Carrie,” he said. “But we don’t have the same fertility rates as humans. Not as bad as bears in the wild, but not great.”

She shrugged. “There are other ways to be parents. I just want a life with you, whatever that means.”

He hugged her close. “You don’t know how long I’ve waited to hear you say that. If you really want, we could stay here in Winter Falls. We don’t have to go.”

“No, we do,” she said. “Even Willow agreed. She said I needed to go if you asked me to.” She wrinkled her nose. “That sneak knew you had a business and didn’t even tell me.”

“Thank goodness,” he said. “At least I got to tell you one of my secrets.”

“Well, Mr. Bear Shifter,” she said, making a mock salute, “I’m ready to be claimed.”

He put a hand down over his side and felt around. Then he looked at her with a grin. “Looks like we don’t have to worry about me bleeding on you anymore.”

“Good,” she said, getting off the bed, pulling off her shirt, and loving the way his eyes followed every movement of her hands, then fell on her breasts, pushed up in her bra.

She didn’t even feel self-conscious of her tummy, which was rounded and full like her hips. Or her curvy, short legs. He looked at all of her like he’d never been hungrier, and it made her wet faster than anything else ever had.

She unzipped her jeans and dropped them to the ground, and he stayed where he was, his hands gripping the edge of the mattress as he watched her strip.

Next, she reached for the clasp of her bra, her eyes twinkling at him as she undid it and let the straps fall away from her shoulders. The bra hadn’t even fallen to the floor before he was there, pressing his body against her, feral and hard and raw with desire.

But there was tenderness, too, as his hand brushed her hair back. And wildness, as one hand reached down and literally tore her silk panties away from her in one painless movement that left her bare and gasping.

“Cage,” she said, digging her nails into his bare shoulders as he lifted her into his arms and pressed her to the wall. He undid the zip of his jeans, fumbling with it in his haste. Then he dropped the jeans and stepped out of them and stood there, totally naked against her.

Her legs were wrapped against his firm, hard waist, and she loved the feel of his sweaty skin against her heat. She could feel his hard member just beneath her.

He buried his lips in her neck, his hands still holding her under her thighs like she weighed nothing. She loved the feeling of being weightless, completely helpless while he supported her. “I can’t wait any longer,” he said. “I have to be inside you.”

“Then do it,” she murmured into his ear.

The next moment, he adjusted their position and then slid inside her, bringing them together again with her tight, wet heat exploding with the feel of him filling her. So tight, so hard. She writhed and held on to his shoulders, unsure how to adjust.

But within seconds of him kissing her, his tongue diving deep as his hands caressed her thighs and him staying pressed into her, his cock twitching as she slowly relaxed down there, the uncomfortable pressure began to turn to pleasure, and she sighed.

“That’s it, sweetheart,” he said. “Let me have you.”

“You already do,” she said, knowing she sounded cheesy. “So much.”

She writhed against him, wanting more of the delicious friction. She loved how close she was to his chest, how her breasts rubbed against him, the sensitive nipples burning. How easy it was to pull back and kiss, how easy it was to bite his neck or for him to suck deliciously on her earlobe.

He did all of these things as he slowly began to move. She gasped in shock as he slid just slightly out and then back in. Lightning-sharp shocks of pleasure went through her, and she growled for more.

He pulled out farther this time and then pounded in hard, and she gasped as the tip hit her wall and utter pleasure waved through her, making her heady and weak. She initiated the next thrust, pulling away as he pulled out and then tightening her legs around him to bring them together until they finally found their rhythm.

Pressure built in her rapidly as she held on to him and they thrust together again and again, skin slapping, chests pressing, hands feeling. She felt like her heart was going to stop as the feeling inside her reached a fever pitch, like a tea kettle about to go off, like a tsunami about to crash down over a city.

She screamed and pressed into the wall as she came, unable to see or think as wave after wave of delicious sensation swept through her. Cage growled and came against her, pressing so close they felt like one as he held her through the aftershocks. She could feel herself squeezing around him and gasped at the tightness of it.

Then she felt her body start to relax, and Cage began thrusting again. She was immediately back in it, running with him toward a pleasure almost impossible to comprehend unless in the middle of it, and by now, he had found her rhythm, found just how she liked him to hit up inside her, deep and strong, rubbing against a sensitive place that felt like fire and burned twice as hot.

“Cage, I…” She trailed off, pulling at his hair as she felt her body overtake her again, overwhelming her in an orgasm that felt like an explosion of all her nerves. She felt it down in her toes and curled them tight as she pressed into him, screaming out her release. “It feels so damn good,” she choked out.

He held her, trembling with his own need, and when she squirmed, he started moving again. “This time, together,” he said.

She nodded. She wanted to feel him shooting inside her. Wanted to feel every bit of his heat, wanted to see his whole body tighten, lost in pleasure, and know she’d done that to him. That she was the only one who would ever do that to him.

That’s what mates meant, and she was totally okay with it. More than okay. He was hers. Hers. She doubted any grizzly could be as possessive as she felt at the moment, with his thick length inside her and his hard body against her and his strong arms supporting her. He was every fantasy come to life, and he was about to be hers forever.

“Cage, take me,” she murmured against his ear. She was ready.

C
age tightened
as he heard her words, which tested his already breaking control. She was so hot, so soft and willing and sensual as she came again and again in his arms, grasping him, calling for him.

He was intoxicated from her scent, from her love, from the way she openly wanted him. As he sped up, thrusting deep, bringing them so close it was hard to tell what was her and what was him. He felt a little shockwave move through her and her nails dig into his back.

She was close, and this was going to be a strong one. He only hoped he could feel it, watch it, when his own took him over the edge. He let himself move with her toward release, slowly letting up on the tight hold he’d kept on himself while trying to please her.

The sheer joy she seemed to feel from his dick hadn’t made it easy.

He felt his body on the verge of exploding with every thrust, each time his hard chest came up against her soft breasts and hard nipples, each time her soft little hand went into his hair or over his back, each time her nails dug in, letting him know she was on the way to being completely lost.

He growled as images came to his head as he started to get close. The first time he’d seen her, every time thereafter. Their first kiss in that window seat at Willow’s place. When they’d said good-bye. When he’d come back. It was all coming together, along with a view of the forest and his bear running inside it.

Everything was coming together inside him with a pressure so strong he didn’t know how he’d stand it. And she was writhing against him, so ready to go at any moment, near wild from the feel of it.

He reached between them and stroked over her clit because he couldn’t wait any longer, and as soon as he heard her scream and felt her nails dig in, he let go, too, letting his release shoot out of him as she clenched around him, milking it, sucking him dry.

She was everything. She was all he could feel, smell, and see, and that was perfect. He reveled in each little twitch as he spilled himself inside her, as the bear in him roared with pleasure. He held her tight as she screamed out her pleasure and let the pleasure in him mingle with what was truly important. The knowledge that she was his and his alone.

He growled into her neck as she slowly came down and then he pressed her to the wall with all his weight so neither of them lost balance. He felt utterly lost in the moment, unable to do anything but stay as close to her as possible.

When he could breathe evenly, he pulled back and ran a hand over her damp hair, down over her cheek, caressing her swollen lips.

“Mine,” he said. “I love you.”

“I love you,” she said, wrapping her legs and arms tight around him, stroking soft fingers over his back, which was probably crisscrossed with her scratches.

Just the way he wanted it.

He carried her back to the bed and plopped them both on it, naked and sweaty. She arched into the bed, still lost in her afterglow, and her body, curvy and soft and perfect, took his breath away once again.

He ran to the nearby bathroom and grabbed a towel, quickly cleaning her as best he could and then himself so he could gather her in his arms under the sheets.

He held her tight, wrapping his arms fully around her, realizing how small she really was compared to him. He’d protect her forever. She was his to take care of. The thought made him happier than anything so far.

She was safe. She was his.

She looked up at him from under sleepy lids. “That was amazing,” she said, snuggling in. “You really know how to exhaust a girl.”

“Of course,” he said, playing with her hair while keeping her in the circle of his arms. “How else am I supposed to keep her around?”

She laughed. “It’s a pretty surefire method,” she said, resting her head on his shoulder in a way that felt like his body had been molded just for that purpose.

“Good,” he said. “Now you aren’t allowed to ever leave.”

“Like I ever wanted to,” she muttered against him. “Now you’re mine as well, and don’t you forget it.”