She felt a hand on her waist and jumped, but turned to see Sky reassuringly behind her. He let her just breathe for a moment, and then started swimming a few feet above the bottom and gestured for her to follow.
She felt weightless, and was careful not to disturb the bottom as they swam. As she adjusted, she started to get the feeling that she was flying. The sun from above them streamed in lazy waves over the pale sand beneath them. She looked to her right and saw corals, and then, as he made an odd hand gesture, she realized he was pointing at a large, slowly swimming green creature.
It was a turtle. She squealed with excitement into her reg and he looked at her and gave the okay signal to check if she was okay. She emphatically was. The longer she was down here, the better and more perfect it felt.
They swam together, him showing her corals and making sure she was careful, checking her air levels and her dive computer.
When they finally had to head to the surface, she was surprised to find herself disappointed. Already she wanted to come back and stay down here. Maybe she was a maritime bear after all.
He turned and could see the disappointment in her eyes, and his face seemed happy with excitement as he seemed to realize that she truly loved being there with him. They needed to go up and make their safety stop, but first, he took her hand and gently turned them both onto their backs, staring up at the sun, floating like sea otters.
She gasped in her reg as she saw the crystal blue sky and the sun and clouds all reflected at her through the crystal blue water. She felt suspended in space and time, and as she looked over at Sky, she knew there was nowhere else she’d rather be.
He’d shown her a new sky, one she’d never have been able to see without him. And she knew, mate or not, she was clearly falling in love with him.
After a moment, he helped her turn back over and they swam to the first safety stop. As they waited for their computers to tell them it was safe to go higher, he gave her a grin and took out his dive slate. He pulled out a writing instrument designed to work under water and scribbled something on it before turning it towards her.
“After this, you’re mine forever,” it said.
She nodded vigorously and reached for the slate. She started to float slightly upwards and he reached for her vest to pull her back down to him. He was much better at watching his buoyancy and he helped her let a bit of extra air out of her BCD. She wrote clumsily but when she turned it around, she could tell by the stunned, aroused expression on his face that he understood what she’d written completely.
“Damn right, I’m yours,” it said. “I want you to take me completely.”
He grinned from behind his reg and gave her the okay symbol, and she gave it right back. Then she took his hand and they completed their stop and swum for the surface. Towards happiness.
* * *
HE CARRIED their equipment out of the water because it was heavy, and she didn’t complain. For once, she savored the feel of the water licking her legs as they walked out of the water along the small stretch of private beach that was theirs to use alone.
So spoiled, he had his own beach and it was fenced on either side. All she could think about was what she wanted to do to him on that sand.
“I’ll drop these off and meet you back at your room. Want to take a shower real quick?”
Heck yes she did. She could already feel the slight itch of the salt water, and she wanted to be clean for the first time they were together. “Yes,” she said simply.
“Great,” he said. “I’ll come join you, after I order room service.”
She grinned. He was pretty insistent about mealtimes and making sure she ate, despite her ample figure, so it must be a bear thing. But she didn’t mind. She loved food and she tried to stay fit but he seemed to love her body just the way she was. Simply because she was his mate.
She supposed she should be disturbed by it but she couldn’t. She waved goodbye to him and walked up to her room. She locked the door behind her and went into the bedroom to change. A few moments later she was in the shower, letting the hot steamy water wipe her stress away.
There was a knock on the bathroom door. “Come in,” she said, knowing it could only be Sky who had the key to her room. Gosh, a few weeks ago she’d have thought this was crazy, but now that she knew this side of her existed, it didn’t feel crazy at all.
He walked into the room, a towel around his waist, and she stepped out of the water so she could hear him better. She let him see her fully naked, steamy and soaking wet, her curls dripping around her face.
His eyes glowed intensely and a little muscle at the side of his jaw tightened. His body looked taut, ready for action.
“You are so fucking beautiful,” he said, eating her up with his eyes and looking like he’d like to do the same with every part of his body.
“Then come in here and show me,” she said, pushing the shower door wide so he could join her.
He let out a little growl and came behind her, circling her body with his large arms and wide hands. He spread his palm and fingers over her stomach and then reached lower, playing in the curls at the apex of her legs. “Mmm, you feel amazing.” He dipped lower. “Waiting for me?”
She nodded, throat tight.
He dipped his fingers lower, moving one gently inside her. She squirmed against him but he braced one hand against the wall of the shower and helped her stay steady. She felt completely supported in his arms, like nothing could ever happen to her there. His finger played, delving in and out of her depths, and she writhed and moaned. Then he pulled out to play lightly just above, where she was so sensitive she didn’t think she could take it.
He gently swirled as he kissed the back of her neck, and then moved down her back, kissing over her shoulders until he was kneeling behind her. He lightly nipped the side of her hips and then came back up to stand tall and press her body back fully against his.
“Damn, you feel like heaven,” he said. “I don’t know how I ever got so lucky.”
“Me neither,” she said. “I don’t even think I remember entering the contest that I won to come here.”
He smiled against her neck and planted another hot, searing kiss there. “I think my dad probably had something to do with that. He knows a lot of bear families. My guess is he was trying to do some matchmaking, since he’s bored and misses my mom.”
“I don’t want to talk about your dad while we’re in the shower,” she joked.
“Me neither,” he said. “But whatever brought you here, I’m just glad you’re mine.”
“Me too,” she said, and he resumed stroking and caressing. His hand played between her legs and then smoothed up over her belly, over her ass, her waist, her back, her shoulders, as if he had to feel all of her. He pushed away from the wall and turned her to face him and just held her against him in the hot water, slick skin to slick skin.
“You’re so beautiful,” he said, making every curve of her feel loved.
“You’re so handsome,” she replied, reaching over to squeeze his taut, delicious ass in her hands. Damn, he felt good. She could feel his tight, stiff, gigantic erection between them and moaned slightly as she pressed herself against it.
He knelt in front of her on the floor of the shower and wrapped his hands around her thighs, holding her steady. “Damn, I love the taste of you,” he said, placing a kiss between her thighs, making her want to melt right down into the tile.
He licked and played and held her steady so she didn’t fall, as she moaned and cried out as his tongue worked against her. She’d never been kissed there, like that, and it was setting off a steady heat inside of her that was quickly rising in waves. The hot water beat over her body, making the whole situation even hotter and steamier, and she put a fist to her mouth to bite down on to keep from crying out too loudly.
“Let me hear it,” he growled, looking up at her with glowing blue eyes.
So she did, wrapping both hands in his hair and holding his head as he made love
to her with his lips in her most sensitive area. He licked and stroked, getting more and more focused on her center until she cried out, and then he pressed down and held her as she convulsed against him, as pleasure wracked her body and she shook wildly from the force of it.
He stood and she collapsed against him, shaking from the intensity of the orgasm and her rising feelings for him. The excitement they’d had in the ocean, the wonderful few days she’d spent with him, free of stress.
She reached up on her toes and pulled him down so she could whisper in his ear. “Stop teasing me and take me,” she said.
He shook his head and looked down at her, hair dripping sexily, water running in rivulets down his taut, muscled body. “Not yet. Not here. No way I could control myself. Besides, when I make you mine I want it to be out there, by the ocean, under the stars. Together.”
She wanted to argue but that did sound amazing. “Alright,” she said. “But this time you’re not getting away without letting me return the favor.” She reached for him and he made a choked noise.
“There’s no need—” He bit down, cutting off whatever he’d meant to say, as she stroked her hand firmly up the length of him.
He was so thick, so hard. No need? There was absolutely a need. She needed to feel all of him. Preview what she would get to experience tonight, and see his face gloriously tight with ecstasy and need when he came. When he came for her, because of what she was doing to him.
She wanted to see him lose control.
She was going to, based on the way he cried her name and braced both hands on the sides of the shower. He groaned as she knelt and took the tip of him in her mouth, sucking and kissing before standing back up and leaning against him as she took him in both hands again. She’d just wanted to taste him, he was far too big for more, but she could tell just that moment of her lips against him had driven him wild.
His body was shaking slightly and he wrapped one arm against her and pressed his lips to the top of her head as she stroked hard, getting faster as his breathing got more harsh and ragged. “No one in the world could ever make me feel like you do, Leah. No one—” He let out a choked breath and she slid slowly up and down his length once more.
“Damn straight,” she said, feeling all the power in the world because she could make him feel this way. This hot, tall, powerful man in the palm of her hands. And she loved him. “No one could love you like I do.”
His eyes brightened and locked on hers. “Never leave me,” he said.
“I never will.”
“I’ll never let you,” he grated out.
“Good,” she said.
And then he closed his eyes tight and went rigid in her hands. He turned to the side and spurted his seed on the floor of the shower as his hands snaked around her, holding her tight. “Gosh, I wish I was inside you, making you mine. I don’t know how I can wait until tonight.”
“It’s not far away,” she said. “I can’t wait.” She gave him a final stroke, pressing lightly at the base of him, just above his balls, and he jerked once and then twice more, then sighed and sunk against her.
“You drive me crazy,” he said. “You don’t even know.”
“I know,” she said, nipping his ear and listening to his slight gasp. “Because you drive me that crazy as well.”
He laughed and caught her up in his arms and rinsed them both once more, smoothing body wash over her and laughing with her as they rinsed. Then he carried her with shaking legs out of the shower and set her down to wrap her in a soft white terrycloth robe. When he was satisfied that she was warm and safe, he did the same for himself.
“Damn,” he said. “You’re beautiful when I touch you. Well, you’re beautiful all the time, but I particularly like the way you glow when you—”
She blushed and cut him off with a glare and then strode off to the bedroom. Her heart was still pounding wildly, the excitement of the sex receding so that she was left with both a satisfied feeling of pleasure and a wanting for something even more intense.
She sat on the bed and waited for him and looked out the open window at the private beach. This world was a world away from hers.
Her phone beeped faintly.
Now that she’d promised never to leave him, there was only one thing left to do. But she knew he’d take her to see her family. Help her figure out the legality of moving here. And she couldn’t say she would miss her job, now that she wouldn’t have to see Ignus anymore.
Yes, just one thing left to do. Call her boss and tell him she wasn’t coming back. She’d found her mate and she’d stay here and keep getting to know him. And she couldn’t do that with the constant beeping and the fear and interruptions.
Besides, she had no reason to be afraid of him. He was just her boss. He’d have to accept her resignation and leave her alone. There was no way he could leave the company and come here, right?
She picked up the phone and scrolled through the messages. Sky was humming in the bathroom as he changed, and she grinned.
She used to be Leah, stressed office manager with no real future. Now she was going to be wife to a scuba instructor in the Caymans. It was crazy to anyone who wasn’t a bear shifter. She picked up the phone and dialed.
“Ignus?” she said when he picked up. He started ranting but she ignored him and talked over her. She needed to get this done before she lost her nerve, before Sky came out and heard everything and tried to intervene. She needed to do this on her own. “Ignus, listen to me. I quit.”
A rant of swearing launched at her, but she looked over at Sky’s happy face and just focused on that as she closed the phone, silenced it, and threw it aside.
Take that, Ignus.
7
Sky felt his heart thud in his chest as he watched his mate set the phone down. Just a few more hours, and then he’d make her his completely.
And then they had the rest of their lives to get to know each other. Their bears were already acquainted, already knew they were a perfect pairing, and their humans would just have to catch up.
“Who was that?” he asked. “Did you just quit your job?”
She nodded, but when she looked back at him, he was stunned to see tears glistening at the corners of her eyes. He wrapped his robe tighter around himself and wiped her tears away with both thumbs.
“Hey, it’s gonna be okay now. Don’t worry.”
“I don’t know why I feel so relieved, but so worried at the same time.”
He sat on the bed and patted the spot next to him, motioning for her to join him. “Maybe you should tell me about it.”
She nodded. “I started working young. I felt guilty, you know, for everything my adopted parents had done for me. I worked all through college, and when I graduated, Ignus found me.”
“What do you mean, found you?”
She swiped at her eyes and took a deep breath, finally composed. “I mean, one of those things where you go to all the booths for different companies. He got me to come work for him. It was fine at first.”
“But then?”
“But then, as the years went by, he demanded more and more. And as I’d invested more time there, I didn’t want to be fired. And then, of course, he threatened not to give me a good recommendation if I left, which was so unfair.”
“What was it about the job that you hated?”
She shrugged. “I liked my coworkers. I liked learning things. I liked managing the office, after I got promoted last year. But I didn’t like that it came with him texting, calling and emailing constantly. Like at hours that weren’t appropriate for work stuff.”
He nodded, putting an arm around her and holding her close. Something was really off about the whole situation, but he couldn’t put a finger on what. She was a vibrant, vivacious woman who loved to try new things. She loved her family and friends, and was loyal to those around her and quick to love new people.
There was only one thing in the world that stressed her, and it was this job for some reason. “I still
am not sure I get it. I mean, I know he threatened not to give you a referral, but did he really have that much power over you?”
She nodded. “I don’t know why. I just sort of felt afraid to say no to him.”
He hugged her tight. “Well, you said no to him today. And if he doesn’t listen, I’ll sort him out.”
She hugged him back. “Back there, in the shower, you made me promise not to leave you. What was that about?”
He snorted. “You don’t need to know.”
“I do,” she said. “You made me talk about my weakness, it’s only fair.”
He shrugged. “I guess I worry that when I find a mate, she’ll leave me like my mom left my dad. I don’t want a mating that just produces children. I want a life together. I guess deep down I worry that a female will take what she needs from me and go. That I don’t have enough to make her stay.”
She looked up at him with soulful brown eyes and he felt that she could see straight into his soul. “I’m sorry. No woman in her right mind would leave you, so I really don’t know what is up with your mom. But I’d never leave you for sure.”
He blinked. His heart seemed to be beating even more rapidly. The more he was coming to care for this woman, the more the thought of her leaving scared him.
He’d never grown to care for another female again, so he really hadn’t had to face his fear of abandonment. Now that he did, a part of him just felt like it was pulling back, and he didn’t know why.
“So, did you always want to be a scuba diver?” she asked, moving back against the headboard and pulling him to join her.
An afternoon wind started up and made the curtains flap. “Should I shut that?” he asked.
“No, it feels good. Nice and cooling after you heated me up,” she said, grinning and holding onto him.
He smiled. It felt good to have her on him. Felt good to touch her body. From the minute he’d looked into her perfect, heart-shaped face, and those deep, wonderful eyes, he’d known she’d be his.
Bear-ever Yours: BBW Bear Shifter (BWWM) Romance Standalone Page 5