She treasured the feeling of him shaking inside her as he pumped out his release, and dug her nails in as her own pleasure reverberated inside her in answer to his. She cried out his name and he answered, and they moved together until they were sated and he slumped forward over her body on the couch.
She caught her breath, listening to the pounding of her heart and feeling his heart racing against her. He was still panting with the exertion, and when he lifted his eyes to meet hers, she could tell he was just as shocked, just as satisfied, as she was.
She took a few more deep breaths and waited for her mind to come back to Earth, for reality to settle in. But as she held him and savored the way her body felt after a good loving, she couldn’t bring herself to regret what they’d just shared together.
It didn’t matter what came after. That was wonderful and always would be.
Ryder snuggled into her and murmured something against her neck. It sounded like, “My mate.”
Did she hear that right? That seemed a little odd. But as she stroked his head and felt herself grow sleepy from the orgasms, she decided she must have misheard him.
She’d ask him later. Right now, she needed to sleep and hopefully not have to face the consequences of this for a little while.
Chapter 5
Ryder let her fall asleep beneath him, pleased she was sated and seemed happy for the moment. But as his pleasure receded, guilt twisted his stomach. He picked Janna up and carried her to the bedroom they’d be sharing together. He hadn’t planned to bring her to his cabin in particular, but he could keep an eye on her better here, in case rival bears got any ideas. He also found himself too jealous at the thought of potentially sharing her company with his brothers or their rowdy friends.
No, for now, Janna was his. And at least for those few moments in his arms, she hadn’t seemed to mind. He’d seen the doubt and fear in her melt away, leaving her a supple, beautiful woman open to loving and being loved.
And it had left him breathless.
The bear in him had gone into full-on seduction mode, and he knew no woman could easily resist. At the same time, he’d carefully watched her, not wanting to rush her, not wanting to scare her.
After having her, he was surer than ever.
This was it, his mate. And when he’d blurted that out, she’d given him a weird look. How to explain? Look, I’m a bear, and we mate for life, usually instinctively when we find our mate, and I want to make you happy forever. Even though I barely know you.
No. That didn’t sound good. He tucked her in and looked at the clock by the bedside. Maybe he should let her sleep while he called Riley. Perhaps Riley had more experience with these things. Ryder had been with women before, sure, but he’d never had this kind of response. This need to claim. He found himself shaken to the core by his reaction to her.
He stepped out of her room and shut the door behind him. Then he pulled on his clothes and got out his cell phone, staring at it pensively.
Cursing himself for not having anyone better to ask, he dialed Riley’s number.
No answer. After a few rings, Ryder cursed and hung up. Then he dialed Ryan. It was humiliating to ask this of the youngest brother, but since they were so close in age, it shouldn’t be. That’s what he told himself. He put a hand to his forehead. He hadn’t been planning for things to go this fast.
He’d wanted to have a nice dinner. Maybe make out a little. See where things went. And then his bear had come roaring to life, demanding to take his mate, and she’d been so warm and willing and… well.
But he didn’t yet know how she’d react to him being a bear.
Unlike Riley, Ryan picked up promptly.
“Hey.” His voice was rough and serious as usual.
Ryder sighed. “Hey.”
“Ryder? What’s wrong?”
“Nothing,” he said quietly, eyeing the bedroom, wondering if Janna could hear him if she woke up. He decided not to take any chances and walked outside the cabin and shut the door behind him. “I may have screwed up.”
“Screwed up how? Did you pick up the chick you were interested in?”
“Sort of,” he said, ashamed at how nervous, how unsure he sounded. He had ownership in some of the biggest companies in the world, yet he was here, floored because of a beautiful, giving woman that had taken him to heaven when she made love to him.
“What happened? Wait, Riley wants to talk to you. Hold on.”
“Bro!” Riley’s voice echoed into the mic, and Ryder shook his head and put the earpiece a little ways from his ear.
“Yes.”
“Sorry I missed your call. We’re having an awesome party in the penthouse up here. You should bring your lady and join.”
Ryder gritted his teeth at the thought of her being around that kind of company. “No thanks.”
“So what’s up? You need my advice with some lady issue?”
Ryder hated that Riley was right with his guess. Ryder liked being in control, being the one who knew what was happening. But how did a responsible person deal with what looked like a one-night stand? What if Janna felt disrespected or pressured? What if she hated him and wanted to go home? How could he explain that he hadn’t intended what happened. It had just felt so right. For once, he felt like things had gone very far out of his control. He itched to transform into his bear and run it off, but he knew he couldn’t leave his mate here without him to watch out for her.
When he’d been deep inside her, he knew. She had bear blood.
With the promiscuity of wandering male bear shifters and the fact that they’d been increasingly breeding with human women in an attempt to sow wild oats, there had been more and more shifter children born unable to shift but with at least a little shifter blood inside them.
Perhaps that was a little of what had called to him initially about Janna. And her perky, plump breasts, delicious curves, and sassy red lips hadn’t helped things. No, he was smitten, and his bear had made up his mind. Whether she could shift or not, she was like him. He’d felt her bear call to his, and they’d nearly mated.
Now he’d protect her with his life, billionaire or not. He just had to figure out how to explain it to her.
“You there?” Riley asked. “Dude, what happened? You sound shaken.”
“I… my bear responded to her. She’s mine. She has to be.”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Riley said nervously. “You don’t think that stuff about fated mates is just old wives’ tales? I mean, supposedly that’s how it was with our parents, and look how that worked out.”
Ryder frowned. Riley had a point there. What if he changed his mind, turned out like his father? He couldn’t hurt Janna like that. But then again, it was his choice, wasn’t it?
“You know the best thing for the race is to sow wild oats. It’s rare that attempts at reproduction are successful,” Riley said.
Ryder frowned. Maybe he didn’t care about continuing bear kind. Maybe the lack of monogamy had contributed to the low survival rate of young bears and females. Either way, he was doing it his way or not at all. He wouldn’t leave a trail of broken hearts the way his father had.
“Ryder?” Riley asked, perturbed by the silence, as he usually was.
“I think you sow enough wild oats for the rest of us,” Ryder said sardonically. “I don’t know. I’ve never wanted someone like I wanted her. We nearly mated. I was ready to claim her.”
“You’ve known her for like a day. Cool it, bro. Maybe you just need more experience with women.”
“You’ll know it when it happens to you,” Ryder replied, rubbing his chest to ease the tension coiling there. “You know what Dad’s will said. The heart wants what it wants, and he wishes he had listened. I mean, did Dad have any other offspring with other females? We know he slept around, but he was most successful with our mother and us. I think he realized that near the end of his life. So maybe just one…”
“Whatever floats your boat, dude. Personally, I can’t imagine having just
one,” Riley grumbled, and Ryder heard Ryan scoffing in disgust in the background.
“Look, I didn’t come just because of the will. I’ve gotten where I am in business because I followed my gut. And my gut led me here. And my gut says she’s the one.”
“Are you sure you aren’t just being lazy? Not wanting to look a little harder?” Riley asked doubtfully.
Ryder growled. “I’m sure. Now help me not screw this up.”
“Fine, fine. What do you mean screw it up?”
“I slept with her,” Ryder said, feeling ashamed even as he said it. He’d never been a man to take advantage or move too quickly. If anything, he’d always been so calculating and slow that sometimes women had given up. And that had been fine, until he met Janna.
It was Scott’s fault, he thought grumpily. He’d have had more time to study the proposition of courting Janna if such a persistent rival hadn’t been right there, eyeing her like he wanted to eat her up.
But now Ryder had Janna’s body, and not her heart, and for all he knew, she’d wake up hating him for disrespecting and seducing her. Though he knew she’d technically been with him every step of the way.
“Yikes,” Riley said after a pause. “That’s fast. What happened?”
“I don’t know. I was just going to kiss her, and then…”
“Then?” Riley sounded altogether too eager, and Ryder bristled.
“None of your business.”
“Gotta know the deets if I’m going to help.”
“We had sex, okay? Geez.”
“Wow, go Ryder. I didn’t know you—”
Ryder groaned and put a hand up over his flushed face. “Can you please shut up and tell me what to do now?”
Riley sighed. “Well, she’ll want to know it’s not some one-time thing and that you don’t think differently of her. She’ll still want to be wined and dined. I’d order dinner in and talk with her.”
“About sex?” Ryder asked.
“No, jackass. About her. Get to know her so when you make your move, she trusts that you really want her for her, you know?”
“You’re good at this,” Ryder murmured. “Too good. Is there a romance going on that I don’t know about?”
There was a pause on Riley’s end. “No, just had a few flings. I’m not ready to settle down.” Then Riley grumbled something under his breath that Ryder couldn’t make out.
“All right. Dinner and talking,” Ryder said.
“Right.”
“And then?”
“And then let her sleep alone, like a gentleman, and restart things in the morning. You have some time with her, right?”
“Right,” he said.
“So yeah, just slow things down again.”
“What if I start to, what if my bear…?”
Riley sighed. “Go for a run if you need to. I can keep an eye on your girl. You know now that you’re paying attention to her as a grizzly, any smaller bears in the area that couldn’t have sensed her before will realize she’s a viable mate.”
“I know,” he says. “But like hell I’m leaving you alone with her.”
“Good man,” Riley said. “I guess you’ll just have to learn to control yourself with her, then.”
“Fine,” Ryder said, voice sharper than he meant it to be. But the reminder that his interest as a grizzly would perk the interest of other shifters in his potential mate made him as grumpy as his type of bear was purported to be. “I’ll call you later. Don’t trash the penthouse.”
“I’ll try,” Riley said. “I’m trying to get our little bro to loosen up. I’ll let you know how that goes.”
Ryder sighed into his hand. “Don’t corrupt him, Riley.”
Riley just laughed. “We’ll see.”
Ryder exhaled in frustration as he hung up the call. He paced in front of the door and then heard something smash from inside the cabin. His heart stopped for a second, and then he charged in the front door, worried something had happened to Janna.
He shut the door and stopped dead when he saw her wrapped in a blanket, flushing deeply, standing in the doorway to the bedroom. Her eyes were angry.
Uh-oh.
“Why is your stuff in the closet here?” she asked, anger infusing her tone. “And just what were you planning to do with me?”
Chapter 6
Ryder licked his lips and tried to think of a good response. The clock by the bedside was broken at her feet. She must have thrown it.
He knew how it looked. He’d brought her to a cabin and implied it was hers, when all of his stuff was set up in it.
And then he’d bedded her on a couch and been gone when she woke up.
She bit her lip nervously and looked at the clock she’d broken with adorable guilt in her eyes. He couldn’t help surveying her generous form and wanting to just take her to bed and make it better, but…
“Were you just thinking I’d be easy?” she asked, brown eyes blazing fire. “I guess I proved you right. You pretend like you want to work together, get me up to your ‘cabin,’ screw me senseless, and then just get up to take a phone call?”
He winced. How to explain? He was so good at high-pressure negotiation, yet now, with his gorgeous mate spitting all kinds of words that made sense but were totally wrong, he couldn’t seem to perform.
“You don’t understand,” he said, dodging a plate she threw his direction. She was small compared to him, but damn did she scare him. Still, he’d expect nothing less from his strong-minded potential mate. “I wasn’t planning that. I was just as taken aback as you were. It’s been a long time since I’ve… been with someone. Dated someone. You were… irresistible.”
Her expression softened, but her lips stayed pressed together. “You expect me to believe Ryder Hart just couldn’t control himself with me?”
“There’s more to it,” Ryder said nervously, scrubbing the back of his neck with one hand and wondering what to do about the bear thing. “I just… can’t explain it all yet. How about we have dinner?”
Her eyes flashed, but just then, her stomach made a betraying growling noise.
“I promise that won’t happen again,” he said. “Unless you want it. Even then, we’d have to talk first. Despite what it looks like, that’s not what I want from you, Janna. I know this sounds crazy, but I want you. Just as you are.”
“You barely know me,” she said darkly.
“Do you believe in love at first sight?” he tried weakly.
“No,” she said.
He sighed. If he didn’t have his bear, he wouldn’t either. But he knew his animal had wisdom about this that he didn’t. He would trust it and hope it would lead him to the right way to win her.
“Give me a chance,” he said. “Let’s try and put this behind us for now.” She blushed, and he swallowed, trying to press on despite the delicious thoughts of her that kept coming to his head. Janna writhing beneath him, Janna moaning his name, Janna crying out for him, and his bear answering…
“Just give me the week you were going to give me,” he said. “Forgive me for this mistake.”
Her eyes flashed in anger, and he realized that was a bad way to word it.
“No,” he corrected. “I mean…” The stubborn part of him had enough. “Woman, I’m getting dinner. And you’re going to eat that and then listen to what I have to say.” He eyed her sternly, hoping that sent the right message.
Instead, she looked at him for a moment and then burst into laughter. Then she sashayed away into the bedroom.
Suddenly, Ryder wasn’t sure who was in control after all. Damn. His mate was a one-in-a-million woman.
* * *
Janna sank against the door, grateful she’d had a chance to shut it in Ryder’s face before her mocking laughter turned into something more hysterical. She covered her mouth with her hand, waiting for her heartbeat to return to normal.
Even angry with him for leaving her alone in bed, even yelling at him for bringing her to his cabin and not telling her, he had an e
ffect on her.
Tall, handsome Ryder Hart was just as devastatingly gorgeous when he was hemming and hawing over making a mistake as he was when he was making love to her.
A deep part of her said, Let’s keep him.
Another part said, We’ve been wrong before. He could leave us. We have no promise of anything. And to be fair, when she made love to him, she hadn’t demanded anything but the pleasure he could give her. She had no right to be angry with him for something that had been her choice.
But that was when she’d thought he’d been just as carried away as she was. Heck, she’d only been alone with him for two minutes before she practically jumped his bones. Gone was the practical accountant; in her place was a feral animal eager to get any piece of him.
It wasn’t like her. She rubbed her chest over her heart, still not feeling fully like herself. Perhaps it was just the sex, but she still felt exhilarated. More alive than ever before.
And damn, could he do sex.
But then she’d seen the clothes in the closet. He hadn’t changed his mind and brought her to her own private cabin, as she’d initially thought. He’d brought her to his place, like a presumptuous first date who assumed he was going to get some. Worse, she’d proven him right.
But even as her logical mind chastised her for her indiscretion, her body ached with relief that they’d been together. It had felt wonderful, been exactly what she needed, and he’d used protection. So what was the harm? She wasn’t old-fashioned enough to feel that it should affect his opinion of her. And yet, she still wanted him to know she didn’t just jump into bed with every hot billionaire that wanted her.
Crazy as it sounded, there had been something between them. Something she wanted to explore, even though she knew better than to hope for something to happen this quickly with one of the most powerful men in the country.
Ryder Hart. Ryder Hart had been making love to her. She could barely believe it.
He was waiting out there. She giggled again at his attempt to be commanding. Sure, it had made her go weak in the knees. But she also knew now she had equal, or maybe more, power over him now. His attempt to command her had simply stemmed from his adorable sense of frustration at the situation. And looking at his crumpled brow, rumpled clothing, and huge muscles that could nonetheless not get him out of this mess, she couldn’t fight back a laugh.
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