Winter

by Reina Torres

  He loved the way her skin colored when she blushed. The rosy glow seemed to add to the heat building inside of him.

  “You thanked me all the time, Cel. Having me at your table. Playing those board games with your family. Even the days when we’d sit outside after cutting and raking up the yard when the kids were still running around like crazy people and you and I sat on the stairs and drank iced tea together. Every moment you gave me with you… with the kids… they were gifts to me.

  “And why I’ve been afraid to ask for more. I didn’t want to upset the balance we’ve created over the years.”

  Taking one more sip, she scooted a little closer to him on the bed and he could smell the soft scent of curiosity on her skin. He could see the feeling echoed in her eyes. “And yet you did ask me to come here. You wanted to show me your home. Your town. And Mystic Mountain.”

  He nodded. That’s exactly what he’d done.

  “But last night,” Celeste leaned across his body and set her mug on the nightstand beside his, “you stopped on the side of the road and you told me I had to wait until we were here.”

  His bear was breathing hard deep inside of him, his barrel of a chest expanding and contracting over and over as he remembered the scent of her arousal the night before.

  “Aaron?” Her palm touched his chest and pressed against his skin tight enough that he knew she could feel the thunder of his heartbeat. “I think I’d like another kiss.”

  Stunned. Celeste had stunned both of them, man and bear, with her simple statement.

  “Another one?”

  Her head dipped down and he could see the slight pinch of tension between her shoulders. “We kissed last night by the side of the road.”

  He wanted to tell her she didn’t have to remind him, that just the hint of it brought forth vivid images into his brain and sent blood rushing south. At this point he was struggling to keep a hold on his instinctual need to take her and make her his mate. She still didn’t understand everything about him, but he didn’t think he could wait much longer.

  Taste her.

  Ah, his overly helpful bear sent him several instructional images to remind him exactly how he would fit into her body.

  His bear was trying to kill him.

  “I… I remember,” he told her, trying desperately to get the images out of his head. It only took him a moment to wrest control back from his bear. He just had to look at Celeste.

  And then he was nearly pulled back under by the look in her eyes.

  Oh, Celeste Olwin had always been the most amazing mother, full of maternal love and pride, but the woman looking back at him wasn’t a mother in that moment.

  She was a woman, full of desire and all its earthly power.

  And Celeste was directing that power into him.

  Snow. He could smell snow in the air.

  Could feel the tiny prismatic flakes touching his skin.

  The whisper of a winter wind against his cheek.

  “Aaron?”

  “Hmm?”

  She rose up on her knees and set one hand on the wall above the headboard. “Do I have to beg you for another ki-”

  His mouth was on hers, swallowing her surprised gasp.

  She wanted a kiss.

  She was going to get what she wanted.

  And more.

  He didn’t give her a chance to pull away, not just yet. He slipped his fingers through the long waves of her hair, curling them around the nape of her neck. Changing the angle of his kiss, his lips tugged against hers, opening her lips further as he traced the curve of her lip with the tip of his tongue.

  Her hands grabbed at his shoulders and she nearly stumbled against him as her knees caught in the bedding.

  Aaron caught her up with his free arm around her lower back, hauling her up against his broad chest. He felt the air rush out of her lungs and into his.

  Celeste dug her fingers into his shoulders. She’d never had sharp nails that could have hurt him, but he couldn’t help but wish she had. He’d love to feel the bite of her nails into his skin, the nip of her teeth against his lip.

  But what he felt, heaven help him, was her tongue. It swept over his, a tentative touch that had him pulling her tighter against his body.

  Again, her tongue moved against his and he swore he could taste her moan of pleasure.

  Something was tangled in the bedding beneath them, but he didn’t let that stop them. Her hands smoothed up his shoulders and moved along his neck until her palms moved over his beard. She held him close as she tried to deepen the kiss.

  If he had half a thought, he could have gently set aside her hands and told her that she was already as deep within his mouth as she could manage, but he didn’t dare dampen her enthusiasm.

  She tugged on the back of his neck, bringing him over her. Stretching his bigger form over hers. Sinking his hard muscles into her softer flesh, pressing his hard length against her thigh.

  His tongue danced against hers as his hand moved from her lower back and over her hip to anchor her against the soft piles of bedding.

  Celeste was no shrinking violet. She never had been. But she had been timid around him for years.

  And now she held him close, pressed her hips up to meet his rigid erection.

  His beast was suddenly there, a heartbeat below the surface, wanting to be free of his mortal form. Hungry for her taste. Needing her touch.

  Her soft murmurs had become a moan and she managed to wiggle a leg out from under his larger form. Like the twist of a hand-held puzzle, their bodies sank together, fitting his hard and aching form tight against the apex of her need.

  The sudden movement pulled a cry from her lips, raising her hips to rub his length against the tight, aching, core of her sex against him.

  “Wait…”

  Aaron heard the word and went still, leaving their bodies aligned the way they had been, but doing nothing to continue the delicious friction they were building between them.

  He looked down into Celeste’s eyes and saw a myriad of emotions swirling together. Desire, fear, confusion, need… he could feel the tremors that worked through her body and through his as well considering how connected they were.

  “We should wait.” Aaron’s bear bellowed his displeasure loudly in his head.

  She managed to keep her gaze on his even though he could sense how much she wanted to look away.

  “I’m sorry, Aaron.”

  “No, no,” the words were almost a mantra in his head, “there’s nothing to be sorry about. It’s a lot all at once.”

  The smile that graced her lips was easy and soft, warming her complexion. “I must seem like a big baby to you.”

  His look of confusion was honest. “Why would you say that? Because you need time to think? Time to understand what we’re working toward?” Gently, he managed to sit up, kneeling on the bed with one leg between her own. “You’ve always thought through everything so carefully, Celeste. You wouldn’t just think of things one step ahead, you’d think years ahead and what things would mean in the long run.”

  “And now,” she managed to sit half-way up on her elbows, “I’m here with you and I don’t want to think about every little possibility. I don’t want to think much beyond how you make me feel.”

  He smiled down at her and set his hands on his thighs to keep his hands to himself and give her space.

  “But then I feel myself tipping over the edge, losing the same control that I know I want to lose and all of a sudden I’m putting the brakes on and looking like a skittish fool.”

  His urge was to surge forward, pounce on her in a way that showed her he had no problem seeing her as a desirable woman, but this wasn’t the time.

  “Don’t put yourself down like that, Cel. You need to tell me these things. I need to know what you want… and what you don’t want. That’s the only way this is going to work.”

  His bear swelled with pride inside of him, approving of Aaron’s care for their mate, but that only last
ed for a moment before his bear reached out and gave him a smack for making them wait for so many years.

  She should be ours by now.

  She is ours, Aaron replied and ignored the impertinent way his bear stuck out his tongue in protest, now let me talk to her.

  Then talk. His bear hunkered down and closed his eyes. Before the mountains fall down around our ears.

  Shifting around on the bed, Aaron held out his hand. Celeste grabbed onto it like a lifeline and sat up with a smile. “I’m going to try not to send you mixed signals.”

  He shrugged. “You can send me any signals you like. I’m just happy to have you here with me.”

  With us. The words echoed in Aaron’s head.

  “I want to feed you.”

  Celeste’s shoulders shook with gentle laughter. “Feed me?”

  Aaron leaned slightly to the side and looked at the clock. “I want to take you out for breakfast and then drive you around town for a bit.”

  He saw a slight downturn of her mouth. “I can cook for us if you like. You don’t have to make a special trip for-”

  “If we stay here,” he lifted her hand up to his mouth and nipped at the tip of a finger with his teeth, “I’m just going to end up losing my resolve to give this time to develop between us and we’ll end up right back in bed again.”

  He saw the resolve in her eyes flicker, but they both knew he was right.

  “Okay,” she nodded and let go of his hand as she scooted across the bed to the edge, “let’s go so you can feed me.”

  As he watched her walk to her bag that he’d set down against the wall in the bedroom, he couldn’t help but take a long look at the sway of her rounded hips. That was all it took for his bear to rear back up again, growling in a different kind of hunger.

  It was going to kill him to wait for her, but he would because she was, as she always had been, worth it… and more.

  Five

  As they traveled into town, Celeste kept rubbing at the window, trying to keep it clear so she could enjoy the scenery as it rushed past. Aaron didn’t say anything to her about it, but whenever she looked over at him in the driver’s seat she saw his smile.

  Throughout the winter season at the Bed & Breakfast they might see a few days of snow drifts, but there wasn’t much of a build-up on the ground. In the time that her family had lived there, they’d only had enough snow on the ground to build snowmen two or three times.

  “Is it always like this?”

  Aaron’s laughter was a warm, rolling chuckle. “The snow?”

  She couldn’t help rolling her eyes as Julia liked to do. “Of course the snow. Does it build up through the whole season or does it come and go? Do you have to shovel the road to get out onto the road? Who clears the roads from town so you can get back and forth?”

  When she stopped for a breath, he reached over and set a hand on her knee. “Which question do you want me to answer first?”

  His words startled her and made her laugh again. “I’m sorry, Aaron. It’s just so much to take in. I’ve always loved the snow. As long as I can remember, I felt safe when I feel snow on my face.”

  A dark memory intruded on their moment. Long shadows and shallow breaths stirred his heart to beating like a rabbit starting at movement in the brush.

  “To be honest,” he wanted to put his thoughts aside, but he couldn’t quite seem to keep himself quiet, “I was worried that you wouldn’t like the snow. Some people,” he licked at his lips, listening for any sounds of fear from his mate, “don’t like the winter here. It’s too dark for some.”

  She shook her head, her expression a mix of confusion and curiosity. “Well, we’ve never had a lot of snow back at the Victorian, so I guess I’ll find out for myself, right?”

  There was such an innocent joy in her voice, a curiosity brimming in her tone. Celeste seemed so eager to discover what the winter would be like and part of him was too.

  The other part of him, the one that remembered that long night in the rental cabin, twisted up inside of him.

  Aaron knew that he’d have to talk to Hammish about it later, but he wasn’t quite sure how to tread over these moments which could go from innocent to painful in a heartbeat. He wasn’t eager to trigger any dark thoughts, not this early in her visit. They had other issues to contend with and he wasn’t looking forward to the inevitable moment of pain that she was going to relive.

  He had no idea what to say next. Aaron really didn’t know how to pull himself out of this awkward malaise. Thank goodness, Celeste did it for him.

  “Oh, look!” Leaning forward with her hands on the dash, she narrowed her eyes to peer through the light snowfall and looked ahead of them on the road. “That’s the town, right?”

  Aaron let out a little breath of relief. While Celeste hadn’t been living in a metropolitan area, the town she’d lived in until now was home to at least twenty thousand people from one border to the other. Mystic had a year-round population of nearly two hundred.

  To say that it was quaint was giving it more spin than it warranted. With two main streets and a handful of side spokes that stuck out in all directions. The spoke that was closest to his cabin would bring them to Main Street in a few minutes, bringing them past a few houses first and then the Post Office.

  “It’s like one of those Franklin Mint village things.”

  “Franklin Mint?”

  She tilted her head to the side and gave him a look. “You know, they put those pullout ads in the magazines or they have those late night infomercials and they sell the whole village set of houses and town buildings and they can be lit up from inside and displayed at the holidays… and you have no idea what I’m talking about.”

  “I’m not sure we read the same magazines.”

  Her whole body shook with laughter. “Yeah, I’m not seeing you getting a subscription to Victorian Magazine or Better Homes and Gardens.”

  “I’m more Woodsmith and Farmer’s Almanac.”

  “Ha!” She reached out and gave his shoulder a light shove. “I bet you could write articles for Woodsmith. We shipped the trunks that you made for the kids to their schools.”

  Aaron felt his chest puff out with pride. Making things for Celeste and her cubs was something he enjoyed. Something that gave him a bone-deep satisfaction.

  “I’m glad they’re going to keep using them.”

  “And once I figure out where I’m going to live while they’re at school, I’ll have their beds and dressers moved into the house or in storage.”

  “You can always leave the furniture with me, Cel. No matter what happens, I’ll always be there to help you and the cu-kids.”

  He felt her warmth against his leg and darted a glance down to see her hand covering his knee.

  “I’ve never doubted that, Aaron. I know how much you care for the kids. You’re the most patient man in the world! There were days when the noise level was threatening to burst my ear drums and you didn’t seem to mind.”

  Shrugging, he lowered the hand closest to her and covered her hand with a gentle squeeze. “The only part of the noise that bothered me is when you were in pain. The way you’d cover your ears sometimes and tears would gather in your eyes.

  “That’s when I worried… when I would try to ease the volume or maybe take the kids outside and give you a break. Taking care of you was always the first thought in my head.”

  Her hand moved under his and he looked down again and saw the way she folded their fingers together. “I know I thanked you… a lot, but it was never enough, Aaron. Never enough to truly tell you what you meant to us over the years. I always wondered what we did to make you come back time after time to help us.”

  “You didn’t have to do a thing.” He lifted their joined hands and pressed a kiss to the back of her hand before releasing her hand to rest back on his thigh. Flicking on the turn signal of the truck he turned onto another road. “I helped you because I care about you. Everything I did was to make sure that you were happy and h
ealthy. That’s what matters to me.”

  The silence that descended in the cab of the truck wasn’t an uncomfortable one. As he turned on the signal to pull in behind the diner, he felt her thumb gently stroking back and forth across his knee.

  Just having her near him, touching him… went a long way to soothing his bear’s increasing demands.

  There was an empty spot beside the door so he pulled in and set the brake as quickly as he could. He felt the movement in the car as she reached for the door and lifted her hand from his leg.

  “Wait.” Aaron was quick, instinctually reaching out to capture her fingers gently between his own. “I’ll come around and open your door.”

  He caught sight of the smile on her lips and as he slipped out of the truck on the driver’s side his eyes fixed on her as he rushed around to her side, taking great care to keep his speed within the guise of a human.

  Opening the passenger door, he felt heat building within his chest as she reached for him without hesitation. He reached out for her too and filled his hands with the solid curves of her hips. It didn’t escape his notice that her cheeks warmed to his touch and deep within, his bear chuffed a happy, satisfied breath into the space between them.

  When he had her feet on the ground and stepped aside with her wrapped carefully in one arm, he closed the truck door and took a half step closer. The bulk of her clothing kept some distance between them, but her scent was full in his nose. She was warmth and sugar, comfort and honey, and before he knew what he was up to, his nose and mouth were pressed into the skin along the side of her neck and his breath was hot just below her ear.

  Celeste’s hands fisted into the fabric covering his sides and he was suddenly holding her tight against the side of his truck.

  With their closer proximity, the natural part of his lips brought his tongue closer until the very tip of it licked at her skin.

  The quick intake of breath in her lungs pressed them even closer together and arched her back putting a tiny bit of air between her back and the truck.

  “Aaron?”

  His name hadn’t come from her lips, or at least that’s what she could recall.