by Sable Sylvan
“Oops, rookie mistake,” said Talia with a laugh.
Cedar ordered half the menu in the restaurant, as he was just as famished as Talia was. Talia had a big pile of waffles, covered in whipped cream and blueberry syrup, while Cedar noshed down on hen house worth of eggs and a full pig of bacon. It had been a hellish night for him as well, as he hadn’t eaten anything the entire day before, and neither had Talia, as the hospital food was basically inedible, even the fruit-flavored gelatin cups. An IV drip had pumped her full of fluids but that didn’t exactly fill her up like a five course meal. Cedar ordered them both two thick coffee milkshakes, to give them a caffeine and sugar rush, and Talia ate until she could eat no more, with Cedar eating the last of her scraps, not wasting a single serving. He tipped the waitress a generous forty percent before heading out with Talia.
“I’m stuffed,” said Talia. “I couldn’t eat another bite.”
“That’s too bad,” said Cedar coolly as he backed the car up. “Because I could just eat you up.”
“Too bad there’s nowhere for us to do that,” said Talia.
“Yeah, I guess that’s too bad,” said Cedar. “Because there’s nothing I’d rather do that ravish my smoking hot fiancée.”
“Well...we can’t go to my place, or to your grandma’s house,” said Talia.
“You know, we don’t have to do it in a house,” said Cedar.
“I don’t get what you’re suggesting,” said Talia.
“Just trust me,” said Cedar, turning on the radio, tuning it to a country and rock station before driving faster down the main road and then, down some spiraling roads until he was outside the city limits by a few miles. Cedar pulled up to a small cottage.
“No frikkin’ way,” said Talia. “We can’t just use some stranger’s cottage.”
“This isn’t a stranger’s house, it’s mine,” said Cedar. “What, you thought I only had that cabin? I bought this place for business meetings down here, and sometimes, my cousins use it, but it’s all mine this week...and you’re all mine this afternoon.”
Cedar picked Talia up and opened up the door one handed, carryng her through the opulent house, past crystal vases and oil paintings, up to his bedroom. In the center of the bed was a carved wooden bed. Each of the four poster’s posts was carved to look like a tree, with branches that spread away from the bed, and the bed was all one piece of solid wood. The sheets were a dark hunter green, with black sheets. Cedar didn’t even have time to pull the sheets away: he placed Talia down on the bed and ordered, “Strip. Now.”
Talia didn’t have to be told twice. She got changed out of her clothes, a change of clothes her aunts had brought her at the hospital, a comfy pair of jeans and a shirt, and lay back on the bed, on her back, her breasts exposed to Cedar as she undid her bra.
Cedar took off his flannel shirt, practically ripping it in the process, lowered his jeans, and took off the shorts, revealing his hardness, a hardness he’d barely been able to contain since Talia had accepted his proposal.
“How come you don’t smell gross?” asked Talia.
“I bribed the nurse to let me shower,” said Cedar.
“You could’ve just gone home to shower!” said Talia.
“Yeah, but I didn’t want to leave your side,” said Cedar. “Get on all fours, Talia, I can’t hold this back for long.”
Talia got on her elbows and knees and looked back at Cedar as he ripped away her panties, the fabric tearing in his hands as easily as a spider’s gossamer web. Cedar pressed the tip of his hardness at Talia’s slit and felt her natural wetness. “God, you’re so wet, Talia,” said Cedar as he filled her to the hip, gripping her tightly around the butt and then, around the waist, moving his hands along her ample curves.
“You’re not the only one who gets turned on by engagements,” said Talia. “You think I can spend five minutes around you without getting absolutely frikkin’ wet?”
“Of course not,” said Cedar, pulling out, and then sliding back in. “You’re so darn tight, Talia. Holy frik.”
“Or maybe you’re just frikkin’ huge,” said Talia turning back to look at Cedar, one finger in her mouth. She was so innocent but so naughty, a combo that turned Cedar on like no other, and he slammed into her again, harder, his fingers digging into Talia’s hips, feeling just how far he could push into those curves.
Cedar slammed into Talia, hard, and then again, and again, faster and faster. Talia’s head bobbed up and down as her hair got in her face, and Cedar pulled the hair back for Talia, so he could watch her mouth make small circles as she moaned aloud.
Talia pushed back onto Cedar’s cock, pressing into him over and over again. “Cedar, it feel so good,” moaned Talia. “God, you’re so good at this.”
“I am to please,” teased Cedar as he ran one hand around to find Talia’s clit. He rubbed against her clit with two fingers extended, flat and pressed together, and once he found her clit, he pressed it into the crevice between the fingers and rubbed more forcefully, Talia’s clit growing underneath the space and getting bigger as Talia’s natural wetness lubricated Cedar’s hand.
“Holy shizz, Cedar,” moaned Talia as Cedar pressed hard against her, rubbing her while he thrust into her, over and over again, each wave of pleasure crashing into the next coming wave of pleasure. “Gosh, Cedar, is there anything you can’t do?”
“Nope,” said Cedar wickedly as he thrust harder into Talia and pressed his fingers against her, hard. “You said we only had time for a quickie, so I’m giving you a quickie. Whatever your heart desires, Talia, you can have...even if it’s a quick fuck with a billionaire.”
Talia backed that ass up and looked back at Cedar before she let out a small snarl. Cedar had never heard Talia make such a primal noise, and it turned him on as he thrust harder into her, reaching forward to place his fingers in Talia’s mouth. Talia bit his fingers, not drawing blood but actually managing to hurt Cedar, who pressed his fingers back into her mouth, savoring the pain.
Talia letting lose and doing whatever she wanted in bed turned him on like nothing else could: he’d turned the virgin into a bad girl in merely a few fucks, and there was no telling how exciting she’d be over the lifetime they had left to share, as her tastes had evolved even in the course of the quickie. His cock harden more, hitting against Talia’s G spot, pressing against that spot and rubbing, back and forth, over and over again, sending waves of pleasure through Talia with each thrust.
Cedar kept rubbing Talia, inside and out, but each time, as Talia felt herself near the brink, she held back, because although this was supposed to be a quickie, she didn’t want the experience with Cedar to end, and she didn’t want the spell between them to be broken.
Part of Talia’s subconscious was afraid she was still in a dream, that maybe, she’d never woken up, but the sensations and the feelings she was experiencing were too real to be a dream, and she no longer felt like she was floating and watching the scene. She was in the scene, there, with Cedar, and she felt alive again for the first time since she’d choked, the primal love making the realest thing she had ever felt.
The proposal had been sweet and was absolutely unforgettable, but like Cedar, it was romantic and dreamy and something that she wasn’t altogether sure she hadn’t just dreamt...but the hard and fast experience of being had by a bear shifter? There was no way her imagination could come up with something so intense and trick her body into believing it was being used this way.
As Cedar kept rubbing back and forth on her G spot and her clit simultaneously, Talia felt the pleasurable sensation growing past the breaking point and she couldn’t hold the orgasm back any more. Cedar had wound her up into a knot and then, pulled the knot apart, and she burst, her folds flickering against Cedar’s cock as the pleasure pulsed through her body and she moaned his name, over and over.
“That’s right, come for me, baby,” said Cedar as he kept rubbing her clit, bringing Talia back to the edge, before pressing even harder, giving her an eve
n harder second orgasm. Two orgasm in one quickie was a personal record for Cedar, and he would’ve tried for number three if the second orgasm Talia had hadn’t been intense enough to drive him past the brink. Cedar exploded inside of Talia as she came the second time, his hot fluids filling her as his cock twitched.
Cedar rolled over onto his back and pulled Talia tight.
“That was amazing,” said Talia. “You know...during my coma, I saw us.”
“Yeah?” asked Cedar.
“Yeah...I saw everything we did,” said Talia. “My life literally flashed before my eyes, until I got to the part where I met you, and it slowed back down. It was like my life started when I first met you...and then, I remembered us having sex.” A smile made its way across Talia’s face as she thought about her first night and first morning with Cedar, barely a day ago to the hour.
“Talia, I was so worried about losing you,” he said as he brushed her hair back to give her a kiss on the nape of her neck. “Because when I met you in that store, it was like I’d final found something to live my life for.”
“But you have your work, and your charity...and enough money to do whatever you want,” said Talia, confused, turning to face Cedar. She pushed his dark hair out of his face.
“All I ever wanted, my entire life, was to find my fated mate,” said Cedar.
“And now?” asked Talia.
“I don’t want to find one: I’ve already found her,” said Cedar, pulling Talia in close, and pressed his lips to hers, giving her a soft kiss before pressing his forehead to hers. “Now, I can be whatever I want: a lover, a husband...a dad.” Cedar rubbed Talia’s stomach and she giggled at his touch.
That giggle was enough to set Cedar off: Cedar rolled on top of Talia and whispered into her ear, “Ready for round two?” he asked his fiancée.
“Of course,” said Talia, pulling Cedar close. “Always.”
Epilogue
Nine Months Later
During the next nine months, Talia’s life changed in many ways. Talia still helped her aunts out at Spinning A Yarn, until they kicked her out and hired a replacement for her own good, so she’d go and explore the world with Cedar. Cedar took Talia on many of his business trips and she got to see countries in Asia and Africa, as well as cities around America. People were charmed by Cedar and Talia wherever they went and they were a strong couple that kept each other grounded through even the most stressful of ventures: the planning of their wedding.
While Talia would have been satisfied with something small, Cedar and his family wanted something big, big, big. Cedar talked it over with his family and came up with a compromised: there’d be a huge grandiose ceremony and a reception up at the Asher Manor in Seattle, but Talia and Cedar would bow out whenever they wanted at the reception, and the wedding would be like any other family get together, just with tuxes, gowns, and the tossing of a garter and a bouquet. It worked for Talia.
It wasn’t until midway through the wedding planning process that Talia learned she was pregnant, and that her due date was for two weeks after the wedding. Right away, Cedar signed Talia up for prenatal yoga, put her on a special baby diet, and of course, went out at all hours of the night to pick up whatever foods she craved, mostly butter pecan ice cream (full fat), and pickles. Their nights were no longer as spicy, as Cedar wanted to be careful and make sure the baby was healthy, but they were still a very intimate couple: Cedar rubbed Talia’s feet and shoulders every morning and every night, and taught Talia bear shifter lullabies to sing to the baby, by singing the lullabies right to Talia’s baby belly.
On the day of Talia’s wedding, she was round and proud of it. The next of the Asher cubs was going to be born and the entire Asher Manor was abuzz on the day of her wedding. Cedar’s aunt Jennifer Asher, mother to Aspen Asher, had insisted they use the manor as the setting for their wedding, and once Talia met Jennifer, she fell absolutely in love with the entire Asher clan. They weren’t hoity-toity like she’d feared. They accepted her with wide, open arms, and more than a couple bear hugs, and soon, she was just like one of the family.
Of course, the whole point of the wedding was the joining of the two families. While Martha was obviously put in jail and not set an invite, Talia’s aunts, and the rest of her extended family, all came to the wedding, many of the estranged relatives finally making peace with Talia’s aunts, who of course, gracefully accepted their apologies.
Talia Ackerson walked down the aisle in a pastel dress designed by her aunts, based on the birthday dress she’d adored so much. They had hand sewn it, and the train was attached to the dress as an overskirt bustle, the train crocheted out of pale pink and blue yarn, each color blending into the next to create various shades of purple. The veil was a pale shade of violet.
Cedar looked amazing, in a gray tuxedo with a hunter green tie that matched his eyes. Cedar took Talia’s hands as the priest started talking. Neither of them focused on the words, until it was time for them to read out their vows.
Talia went first. “Cedar Asher, you’re the most amazing man I’ve ever met. I’ve asked for so little in life, but received so much. You’re the latest in a series of blessing I’ve received, because each person who is important in my life has been a blessing: my aunts, Helen, Lorraine, and Bertha blessed me with the gifts of kindness, intelligence, and courage, and you’ve blessed me with the gift of love...and of life. Do you accept me as your wife?”
“I do,” said Cedar, and Talia placed a thick golden ring on his finger. The ring was engraved with a pattern of intertwined branches of cedar.
“Talia Ackerson, I looked around the world for my fated mate, and never would have thought I would have found her when visiting my grandma,” said Cedar. “You’ve appreciated the simple things in life with me, and now, I want to share with you the best things in life, as my lawfully wedded wife. Do you accept me as your husband?”
“I do,” said Talia, and Cedar placed a matching ring on her finger, a ring with the pattern of cedar wood grain. Cedar pulled Talia in for a kiss, a kiss that was almost as passionate as the one he’d given her in the hospital when he had saved her life, but more appropriate for a family audience, before pulling away and leading her down the aisle of cheering friends and family.
The vows had gone off without a hitch. Rose petals. Doves. Kisses. It was a wedding that was big enough for the Ashers and restrained enough for Talia, and she even found herself enjoying it.
So why did Cedar catch Talia wincing towards the end of the reception?
“Talia, what’s wrong?” asked Cedar.
“Nothing...except, oh, I’m going into frikkin’ labor,” whispered Talia while still smiling for the photographer who was at the table.
“Labor?” said Cedar. “Holy shizz. We’ve got to get you to a hospital.”
“I don’t want to make a scene,” said Talia. “But please, do get the driver, Cedar. I’ll meet you at the front of the house.”
“I don’t want to leave you alone,” said Cedar.
“Get. The. Driver,” ordered Talia.
“Say no more,” said Cedar, and he slipped out to call up the driver.
Talia made her way through the crowd to the front of the house, where the limo was waiting, with cans attached to the back, to take Talia and Cedar to their honeymoon...but once they were inside the limo, with people waving them away, Talia slipped her shoes off and Cedar told the driver to get them to Asher Medical.
When the limo got to the hospital, Talia was whisked away in a wheelchair to the maternity ward, with Cedar following after.
“Remember: breathe in, breathe out, breathe in, breathe out,” said Cedar.
“I know how to breathe, I’ve been doing it for the last twenty five frikkin’ years of my life,” said Talia. “It’s going to be fine, Cedar.”
“Do you want to be with her during the labor?” asked the doctor.
“Of course, what kind of a husband wouldn’t be?” asked Cedar. “I don’t want to leave her side, even for
a second.”
“Cedar, I’ll be fine,” said Talia. “But...can you get me some ice chips?”
“On it,” said Cedar. Pulling himself from his mate’s side during the birth was hard but he did deep breaths to keep himself calm while he headed down the hall to get the ice chips.
“Doctor...she’s going to be two weeks early,” said Talia quietly. “Is she going to be alright?”
“She’s a bit premature, yes,” said the doctor. “And we’ll want to keep her in the hospital under observation for a few days, but there were no red flags during any of your checkups, and you’re a healthy woman with big hips, so this birth should be an absolute cakewalk.”
“It doesn’t feel like it,” said Talia. The pain was excruciating and she wasn’t going to take any painkillers as she wanted the most natural birth she could have. The couple had considered doing a home water birth, but had settled on a regular home birth with a midwife. Talia made a mental note to call and cancel.
Cedar came back with the ice. “Here,” he said.
“Great, you should chew on some too, to keep your mouth occupied,” said Talia. She chewed on the ice cubes and got near-instant but fleeting relief. The baby was pushing, hard.
After only three more hours of breathing, holding Cedar’s hand like she had the night she was in the hospital, Talia felt the pain get stronger, and Cedar went to get a doctor.
The doctor got down and pushed Talia’s medical gown up. “It looks like you’re already crowning,” said the doctor with a frown. “You sure this is your first pregnancy?”
“I think I’d know if I’d had other babies,” said Talia with a frown.
“Of course, of course,” said the doctor with a nod. “It’s just...the head’s already out.”
“What?” asked Talia. “Is that good? Is that bad?”
“It’s a birth,” said the doctor. I
“This is one of the easiest births I’ve ever handled,” said the doctor. “You two were really prepared! And of course, those child birthing hips didn’t hurt either, eh?” The doctor winked and Talia and Cedar both laughed. Her curves had really come in handy for bearing a big shifter baby.