What a Bear Wants (14 page)

          She nipped his palm and when he reopened his eyes they were no longer those green flecked amber irises. Good, that meant he was about to lose control. “Is the end goal of your game plan to fuck me hard enough that we find out exactly how sturdy this bed is?” Fallon asked when he pulled his hand back.

          “No.”

Her brows dipped and he smiled softly as he brushed her still damp hair away from her face. “It’s to show you that it’s okay to be a little selfish sometimes.”

Selfish? Fallon wasn’t exactly sure she knew the meaning of that word. She put her time and energy into making sure that everyone else was taken care of because that’s what a good alpha did. She had families that depended on her decisions to keep them alive and well so being selfish was never an option. Sacrifice and compromise were her constant companions and she’d come to understand that it had to remain that way so she could continue to be an efficient leader.

Ransom’s snort drew her attention back to his amused face. “You can’t do it can you? You have no idea how to simply receive without wondering what you have to give in return.” He waved a hand around her room. “How long did you debate with yourself about keeping the flowers?”

For
hours.
Fallon had stared at each arrangement, contemplating what exactly to do with them before she decided she couldn’t give them up. The candy and the gift baskets she’d given away to different pack members, even some of the residents at the lodge, but the flowers...she loved them too much to hand them over to someone else. Anyone could pick out a card or a teddy bear but the time it took for these elaborate bouquets to be made wasn’t lost on her. And knowing Ransom as she did now, she realized that it wasn’t a task he’d passed on to his assistant or some employee. No, he’d clearly done each one himself and that wasn’t something she could overlook.

“Look at me, baby.” Ransom quietly demanded.

She focused on him again, noting that his eyes had shifted back and he’d clearly gained control of his baser urges again.
Goddammit.

“My gifts and emails started off with what I
thought
was the intent of getting you to agree to a meeting so you could look over blueprints and business plans and then sell Wilder Lodge to McKenna Co.; walking away from the deal with a pretty penny in your pocket and the world as your oyster.” He smirked. “I’ve realized how full of shit I really was because there’s no goddamn way I would’ve been able to watch you amble by me.” His fingertips stroked just below her belly button and she desperately wanted to push them down to her slowly moistening core.

“And I don’t think you would’ve been able to amble away either.” Ransom’s stare rose from where his fingers played and back to her face. “Because we both know what we are to each other. Don’t we, baby?”

          Fallon swallowed and nodded, unable to say the actual words out of the fear that she’d jinx whatever was happening between her and this large, strange male with the crooked smile and innate silliness. Yes, she was well aware of what happened to a predator when they found their mate and all signs pointed to that very thing transpiring between them but that didn’t necessarily mean Ransom really
wanted
to be mated to her. Maybe the newness of having a she-wolf held him to her at the moment. Or maybe he simply
thought
he was ready to be tied to one person for the rest of his life. There was still so much that they had to learn about one another. This...
thing
between them was fragile, immature. It had the potential to grow but the fear that it wouldn’t thrive kept her admission silent.

          She’d never really thought about a mate or a family of her own but the way Ransom touched her, kept touching her, made her wonder how it would feel to come home to this every day.

          “You don’t have to say it, Fallon.” He whispered, pressing into her relaxed form as he rested between her legs and balanced his weight on his forearms. “I just need you to acknowledge it.” Ransom leaned down and kissed her once then again. “Because you have to understand that I belong to you and it’s been that way for the last few months.” His eyes crinkled at the corners as he grinned. “Ever since that very first email.”

          Before she could respond to that he captured her mouth with his own right as his hips moved and his cock slid against the creamy folds of her pussy, the underside rubbing across her clit until she arched upwards with a yelp. He lifted a bit to place her left leg on his shoulder and she had a brief moment to feel exposed before he let go of her lips to wrap his around one of her nipples, using his teeth to gently bite down on it while pulling and sucking.

          Fallon found herself completely lost in the need to have him inside of her. “Ransom...”

          Her right leg soon met the same fate as her left, becoming hooked over his forearm as he spread her wide, his dick still moving against her in a steady rhythm that had her hips rising as heat built in her core and began to spread outwards. She heard moaning and slight snarls, realizing it was her before she turned her face into the pillow beneath her head.

          “Let me hear you.” He insisted. “I love it when you moan for me.”

          The walls of her pussy clenched down, seeking what was so close yet seemed so far away. “Ransom...please...now...”

          “God you feel so good.” His voice was no more than a low rough whisper. “So fucking wet. Just for me. Tell me it’s just for me.”

          “It’s just for you.” Fallon sobbed out as she felt the crest of her orgasm building. When Ransom suddenly pulled away, she jerked upwards. “No!”

          “Shhh,” He pushed her back down into the bed before standing. “I’m not going anywhere.” She watched his dick bob as he headed into the bathroom and reappeared with a strip of condoms in his hand.

          Waggling his brows as he rolled one down his length, Ransom said, “Like a boy scout, baby...like a boy scout...”

          The laugh in the back of her throat got stuck as he repositioned himself over her, pinned her right leg to the bed and lifted her left before shoving inside of her, the way made easy by the arousal he’d so effortlessly caused and she felt it all the way down to her toes. He held her down more firmly, groaning as he withdrew and thrust back in, tapping her womb and causing her mouth to open on a silent gasp.

          “See how good submission feels?” Ransom rasped as he let her right leg go and brought them chest to chest, keeping the left one bent. “Don’t you
like
when I take control?” He nipped her collar bone. “Don’t you
like
the way every inch of me fills up every inch of you?”

          Fallon curved her arms over his shoulders, kneading the thicker muscle mass between the blades with her claws. “Yes...” Her pussy pulsed around him and she could feel every steel-hard part of his dick.

          Her eyes closed as the pleasurable shocks taking place between her thighs began a muted throb in her pussy that seemed to be rapidly peaking into something that felt as though it would twist her inside out. Ransom’s hips pistoned as he fucked her harder, his cock tunneling in and out of her core with the clear intent to make her scream.

          She found his earlobe with her teeth and bit down. He gave a short roar and reared upwards, the punch of his hips now stronger as they shook her bed with every thrust. Fallon gave a trembling cry as the head of his length brushed against the small mass of nerves deep inside her. He mashed their pelvises together, grinding into her clit with every movement until she heaved in one deep breath and let it out on one deep groan before the tide of her climax swept in and pushed her off the edge she’d been dangling on. “Fuck...fuck...fuck...fuck...”

Ransom kept up his body’s incessant motion, causing her to break again on a muted howl. He let go of her leg to slap his palms against the comforter before his head went back and his roar rattled the windows as he came.

          The only sounds in the room were their harsh breaths as they each came down from the rush of their satisfaction.

          Her grizzly grunted as he slowly pulled out of her and dropped off to the side.

          “Okay,” Fallon panted. “Maybe I
do
like you.”

          She tried not to be insulted when Ransom went off the edge of the bed laughing.

Chapter 13

          “Wait, your parents are
where?”

         
Fallon chuckled as she looked up from their intertwined fingers and gazed at Ransom’s face. His expression was purely curious,
slightly
confused bear and it was adorable. “Alaska.”

          He blinked. “Why?”

          “Why what?”

          “Why are they in
Alaska?”

         
“Why
wouldn’t
they be in Alaska?”

          His eyes narrowed. “You’re trying to make me crazy again aren’t you?”

          She gave a cheeky grin. “I dunno, am I?”

          He moved as if to roll over on top of her and she held up her hands. “Alright! Alright!” It was a game they’d been playing since this morning had come and gone, fading into the afternoon. Leaving Fallon’s bed clearly wasn’t something her grizzly was interested in because each time she mentioned getting up, he tried to crush her. Meaning Ransom would roll over and comfortably place his weight between her legs and press her down into the mattress before fucking her back into lucidity. It was...well it was pretty great but at this rate they were going to run out of condoms and her vagina was going to attempt detaching itself and making a run for it
.

         
Fallon had to admit that this was the first time in a long time she just decided to be lazy. She liked it. She liked that she had her own personal teddy bear even more. When he wasn’t trying to push her into an inexcusably obscene of orgasms he simply wanted to listen to her talk. It was...
sweet.

In the last few hours she’d learned that he didn’t
think
he was completely obsessed with honey—even if he had a Bee Farm down south that personally made his supply. He was clearly close to Maddox and adored his parents even when they were frustrating him. He loved his work because it gave him the opportunity to travel and if he didn’t
have
to wear a suit, he wouldn’t.

Ransom’s sense of humor was dry but made her laugh hysterically when he explained to her exactly why he’d been taught to “guard his balls and go for the jugular” while hunting. Apparently there had been an incident with deer hooves that had put him off of being an omnivore for a whole two weeks. He was book smart but he wasn’t arrogant and he’d been incredibly sheepish when he told her about being a honor student all through high school and college. He loved to swim and he actually preferred catfish and bass over salmon.

At thirty-four he lived a well-balanced life that he seemed to be genuinely happy with—which was good because no one wanted a depressed grizzly running around.

          “They’re in Alaska because they occasionally like to go and run with the full arctic wolves.” She smiled softly as she finally answered him. “It’s a traditional thing for the elders to return to where their pack originated from when they retire as leaders. I’m sure you noticed that at least thirty percent of the pack is Native American.”

          “Kind of hard to miss, baby. You have United Nations living on your land.”

She chuckled. “Well there’s a reason for that. We’re descendants of the original
Athabascan
tribe, named by the Cree Indians who resided in the interior parts of Alaska; some would say the
harshest
parts.” Fallon’s fingers ran over his chest. “Legend has it—”

“I’m sorry,
legend has it?
Did I just stumble into darkest recesses of the library where there may be decapitated bodies buried—which is the reason it smells like death but everyone ignores it because they’re too afraid to find out if their theory is correct? ”

Fallon brought her open palm down on his stomach, satisfied when he winced. “I’m trying to give you a history lesson. A tale of triumph and pain. A tale of my people. Quiet down,
Snuggles.”    

          He laughed but didn’t interrupt again.

          “Now,” She continued, adjusting herself in his hold. “Legend has it that the conditions along the
Kuskokwin
—the river they had settled near at that time—became so unbearably hard during one winter that the
Dena—
also known as
the people—
began to find themselves lacking supplies. They used every available source for food but the struggle to survive increased because there were some things they just couldn’t do, some skills that they lacked being that they were full human. They couldn’t hunt as well as the predators around them as the days went on because they weren’t equipped completely to handle the conditions of their territory. It was the one time their natural resources seemed to be failing them.”

          “Which meant that people began to die.” Ransom murmured in clear understanding.

          She nodded. “Yes. An elder of the tribe, their Shaman, had watched so many,
too
many, of his own slowly wither away and he knew that as an old man his time was surely closer than anyone else’s so he made a decision to do something to stop his tribe from definite extinction.”

          “What did he do?” Those eyes stared down at her like a little boy’s waiting for the finale of a bedtime story.

          “The
Athabascan
deeply believed that all creatures and some inanimate objects had spirits that were active and powerful.” Fallon explained. “These spirits enabled an animal to know more,
feel
more than what was immediately apparent to them. So if they—as people—did something to displease an animal’s spirit, the animal itself would stay distant. The Shaman believed that at some point, his tribe had done this, that they’d caused offense to the spirits around them which was why hunting became so hard. Their natural sources of food eluded them because they’d been upset at some point. He figured the only way to right this offense was to beg forgiveness and to sacrifice his own spirit as an offering.”