by Ophelia Bell
“No. That view is probably the second-best thing about this place.”
He nodded, though she couldn’t see. “You’re right, the falls are what caught my eye first.” He squeezed her a little tighter, enjoying the way her small, soft body fit against him and hoping to offer whatever comfort she seemed to be asking for with that lean into him.
Nessa shook her head. “The falls are just part of the view.” She twisted her head around against his shoulder and peered up at him. “The best part is you.”
Gaius’ heart stopped beating.
10
The big, gruff bear froze, his blue gaze fixed on Nessa’s upturned face. Her heart pounded so hard she worried she might faint if he didn’t respond. She’d taken a leap, but it was no lie. Gaius’ half-built house had vision, but somewhere along the way, he’d lost it. There was no mistaking his original intention with the way he’d focused the basic design on the surroundings. It just proved how aware he was of his environment, yet he’d forgotten about the most important part of his plan.
His heart. His heart had clearly been in the game when he’d chosen this site and started building, but for whatever reason, that part of him had lost interest. There was only so far she could go with her ideas to jump-start his interest in finishing. The rest had to come from him. And despite her conviction that she wasn’t the future mate he’d envisioned, she wanted to be there to see this place completed, to see him happy in it.
Maybe it was selfish of her to want this. The more she’d seen, the more she wished this place could be part of her dream as much as it had been his at the start. Everything about it called to some deep part of her as much as Ig’s offer of a position on his staff had screamed, “This is your future!”
Gaius didn’t really want her for the long-term; he’d made that clear. But she’d be happy to see him through even the short-term, if it meant being able to see this place’s potential fully realized.
But when he closed the distance between them and his mouth found hers, her desire found its true target. It wasn’t the house at all that she wanted. It was the man who’d built it.
And oh, god, did she want him.
He tightened his arm around her waist and lifted his other hand to cup her face, tilting his mouth across hers to deepen the kiss. She moaned into him when his tongue swept deep, sliding hot and wet against her own, as though he craved a taste of her every bit as much as she’d wanted a taste of him.
He slipped his hand lower, grazing his fingertips across her collarbone and down the center of her chest. With his index finger, he hooked the fastened button between her breasts and slipped it open, then slid his hand inside and cupped her heavy breast. His thumb grazed her nipple and she gasped from the pleasure, breaking the kiss and turning back to the view as she arched into his touch.
He slipped his hand back out of her shirt and slowly unfastened the remaining buttons, dipping his head to graze his lips and teeth along the side of her neck.
Nessa’s entire body quivered with a need she’d never felt in her life—the need to be devoured by one man, claimed and fully possessed to the point the rest of the world ceased to exist.
Gaius unfastened the last button and grazed his hands up her belly to gently cup both her breasts. He growled low and deep as they filled his palms, and he thumbed her nipples in slow, tortuous circles.
She started to shrug out of the shirt, but he caught it and tugged it back up.
“I want you in this,” he said, his voice low and rumbling so deep it vibrated down to her core. “Just this when you’re here in my house.”
He turned her in his arms and pulled the collar of the shirt up to her neck, fingering the threadbare fabric. The light contact against her neck sent little jolts of pleasure through her that grew more intense as he slipped his hands down the open sides and spread them around her bared breasts.
“Gaius . . .” His name emerged as a plea on her lips, though for what, she didn’t know. He silenced her with his mouth, stooping to lift her and set her on the open windowsill.
She wrapped her arms around his neck and hooked her ankles behind his thighs to hold on. When he broke from the kiss, breathless, he reached back and unfastened her hands from his neck, then leaned away from her with his fingers twined in hers.
Gaius raked his gaze over her exposed body, her chest heaving from the need to catch her breath after the desperate hunger in their kiss. Moonlight from behind her caught the silver glinting in his beard and the hints of age-old longing in his eyes.
For what seemed like ages, he just stared at her, and she worried he’d come to his senses and decided cradle-robbing wasn’t his thing. Then he smiled and said, “This is the view I was missing.”
Then he was on her again, hungrily devouring her mouth and moving lower. Nessa gasped as he wrapped his lips around one nipple, sucking while he kneaded her other breast. She tangled her fingers in his hair and tilted her head back with a groan, pushing against his hips when they pressed tight against her core, his length hard and urgent beneath his towel.
Anxious to feel his skin against hers, she dipped her fingertips into the twisted fabric beneath his navel and tugged. The towel unfurled and fell away from his hips, and instantly his searing heat slipped along the soaked channel between her thighs.
He let out another low, rumbling growl that echoed through the empty house. His hands left her breasts, dropping to her hips to yank her hard against him so her folds spread across the base of his shaft.
Nessa gasped from the abrupt pressure against her clit and the delicious slide of his thick length as he tilted his hips and grazed his cock along her tender flesh. He stared down between them, holding her legs wide while he slowly stroked his cock back and forth along her flooded channel.
He lifted his gaze to hers, the moonlight reflected in his eyes highlighting the hunger that blazed deep within him. There was only the hint of a question when he slid his cock down her channel again until the broad tip was nestled right at her opening. Her entire body throbbed with the need for him to follow through, yet he waited wordlessly.
Nessa’s she-bear let out an impatient growl she was sure he’d heard. She translated the needy beast’s message in case there was any misunderstanding: “Fuck me already!”
Gaius answered with a roar of his own as he plunged into her with one powerful stroke. He hooked a hand into her hair at the base of her skull and tilted her head back as he thrust hard into her. His teeth grazed the line of her throat, tongue licking and sucking at her sensitive skin and sending little jolts of ecstasy that all met at her core, fanning her flames hotter with each new touch.
She needed more of him, but had no leverage to get it where he had her poised on the narrow ledge of the unfinished windowsill. The sides of the shirt fell down her arms as she lifted herself up, gripping his broad shoulders for support.
“Over there,” she said, darting a glance at the stairs.
Gaius slowed his strokes and grunted in question.
“Carry me to the stairs. I want . . . more.” He pushed deep into her and she gasped, rolled her head back, and then shot another blazing look at him. “Please, Gaius.”
He wrapped his arms around her backside and hoisted her up, his thick cock still solidly buried inside her. His big chest bunched under the strain of holding her weight, though he made no complaints as he carried them toward the stairwell. Setting one foot on the bottom step, he’d just begun to tilt her down when she pushed at his shoulder.
“No. You first,” she said.
Gaius’ brows twitched and his lips curled up. “Should’ve guessed you’d be bossy in bed too.”
She clenched her core tight around his cock and he shuddered. “I’m not bossy just because I know how to ask for what I want.”
With a low, rumbling laugh, he turned. Gripping the banister, he slowly lowered himself down to the unfinished wood step. Nessa’s knees met the hard surface and the roughness bit into her skin, but she had the angle and
leverage she needed now.
She leaned into him and he fell back to recline along the steps, returning his hands to her hips. His knees came up behind her as he set his feet one step higher to get the leverage to fuck into her. Nessa reached to brace her hands on the step his head rested on and lifted her hips, sliding off his deliciously thick length and back down, meeting his thrusts with urgent undulations of her hips.
The angle at which she braced herself above him placed her chest right at eye-level and he hungrily devoured her nipples, cupping and squeezing her breasts with both hands while his cock continued to slam up into her. Every stroke sent waves of pure pleasure through her body that were only amplified by his mouth on her breasts.
The angle was perfect in so many ways, the depth of his thrusts driving her to the brink in a way she’d never felt in her life. He was so big, so perfect, and the pleasure he gave her utterly divine. She’d often had her desserts described as “better than sex,” but god, nothing she cooked had ever been better than this.
Pure pleasure pooled in her lower extremities, perfect little vibrations of ecstasy that increased in intensity with every deep stroke of Gaius’ cock. His tempo increased, thrusts became harder, deeper, and Nessa’s grasp on reality escaped her.
He tilted his head back and let out a roar when his orgasm took him. The hot flood of his seed blasted her core. She was so close, but too breathless to ask for what she needed.
Gaius kept pushing into her, his eyes clear and bright as he looked up at her. She was too lost with need, chasing the pleasure that hovered just at the edge of her grasp.
“You need more, baby?” he said, resting one hand on her hip as he slipped the other between them and found her throbbing clit.
“Yes, please!” she begged when he began to stroke her, his cock still hard and filling her with excruciating pleasure. Gaius slid his other hand up to her head and pulled her down, grazing his lips across hers as he drove her to the brink with his steady fucking and perfect circular strokes over her clit.
“Come for me, Ness. That’s right, baby. Let go.”
Then he kissed her, the soft cushion of his beard tickling her skin as his tongue plunged between her lips, and she lost it. Her entire body shot through with wild, electric ecstasy and she slammed down onto his cock, arching her back as the sharp jolts rocketed through her.
Gaius kept his hand at the back of her neck, gripping her tightly. His gaze was fixed on her face, intent and every bit as hungry as it had been the entire time.
“Fuck, you’re beautiful when you come,” he said, grazing his thumb over her cheekbone when her tremors ebbed and she could focus on him again.
Nessa laughed. “You’re pretty fucking epic. I think you probably scared off half the wildlife with that roar.”
Her body felt languid and boneless, and she sank against Gaius’ chest with a satisfied exhale. Her core still pulsed slightly around him, and she realized he was still fully hard.
With a little tilt of his hips, her desire surged again. He let out a groan as he gripped her ass and squeezed, holding her tight against him while he pushed deep into her.
His mouth grazed the edge of her ear. “Fuck, Ness. What are you doing to me?”
She pulled back to look down at him and lifted a shoulder. “Inspiring you, I hope?”
Gaius rumbled a half-laugh, half-growl and slipped his arm up her back. She abruptly found herself flipped and pinned against the hard ridges of the steps, her hips uncomfortably sandwiched between his groin and a sharp edge. But when he pulled back and slammed into her, she forgot everything but the pleasure of his cock buried deep inside her.
He gripped her by the knees and leaned back, his own knees resting on a lower step. When her legs splayed, he grabbed her hips and yanked her hard against him, her head bumping down onto the next step.
“Think you need a bed,” she said, laughing when the stars stopped spinning and the pleasure started growing in her core again.
But he soon had her gasping again and crying his name, begging for him to fuck her harder. This time he slipped his hand between them early, rubbing her clit in tandem with the heavy, quick, thrusts of his cock. He drove her to the brink and stopped as if he knew exactly how close she was. Then he bent low, bracing his elbow on the step her shoulders rested on. The shift in angle pushed the tip of his cock harder against her sensitive inner wall and she gasped, pushing up into him and practically begging for him to make her come.
“Together, baby. This time, I’m waiting for you.
He pulled back out and pistoned into her, rubbing her clit harder. She clung to his back, nails digging in, her head tipped back as the unbearable ache grew to a peak and exploded within her.
“Gaius!” she cried, gripping him to her for dear life.
“Ness, fuck!” he yelled as he thrust into her once more, his cock swelling and erupting in a second flood of hot semen.
Gradually, the pleasure waned. He remained half-kneeling, hunched over her so he didn’t crush her with his mouth pressed against her shoulder. His cock had softened, but as she started to move out from under him, he slipped his arm around her and held her, pushing deep once more, and once more spectacularly hard.
“My god, you’re not seriously ready to go again?” she asked, staring up at him in astonishment.
“It’s been a while, and you feel really fucking good.”
“You know what doesn’t feel good? Having my spine cut in half by these steps. Can we try a different spot now? Perhaps with a pillow?”
Gaius pushed into her once more, settling so deep she thought she could feel every single inch of his thick length, and it lit her up again like wildfire. But she was just as relieved as she was bereft when he slipped out and stood up. He gave her a long, hungry look before walking off, grumbling something about bossy women being the death of him.
11
Nessa slowly rose, slipping the shirt back up her shoulders and resting her elbows on her knees. She let out a shaky breath and propped her chin on her hands, staring back out at the view. The ache of longing she’d had when she first saw the sunset had grown to a shamefully strong bout of pure envy. But buried deeper in her desire to have this place was the burning fire Gaius had ignited with that first kiss.
There wasn’t much to the house itself, beyond her unshakable vision of what it could be if he found his inspiration again. But there was so much more to him than she’d realized. Even though he had a stubborn streak almost as wide as her own, she couldn’t help but feel like she’d found her home.
And she didn’t mean the place where her parents lived, or where she’d grown up. Her parents’ house would always be home to her.
This was different, this bone-deep conviction that she was exactly where she belonged, and the very idea of leaving it, even to go back to her kitchen at Ig’s and the little cottage in the garden, made her unreasonably sad.
Homesick. Which was a ridiculous thing to feel for a half-built house she’d only just set foot in that afternoon.
When Gaius stomped back in with a big bundle in his arms, her pulse quickened and she forced herself to shake off that feeling. Whatever this was, it was temporary, so she may as well enjoy it while she could. Perhaps they could at least stay friends once they got this out of their systems.
Because one thing she was sure of was that she wasn’t finished with that big bear’s body yet. Sweet fuck, the man was majestic, and he certainly had the stamina of a Champion despite his old injuries.
Gaius unfastened a buckled closure on the thick roll he held in his arms and flipped it out in the center of the big room. The moon was higher now and cast his shoulders in silvery light, enhancing the way his tattoo-adorned muscles bunched and rippled while he completed his task.
A hiss slithered out of the object he’d laid on the floor, and he stepped back as it expanded into a thick, narrow rectangle. He stooped down once and poked at a glowing button in the center of a little pad at the foot of the mattress, an
d it suddenly sprouted wings that flipped out and then lay flat as they inflated.
Nessa sat transfixed by him, even though all he did was stand there waiting for the bed to build itself. The man was all muscle, and lots of it. She would have loved to have seen him compete, but over the past week, she’d had ample opportunity to see him in action. He wielded his tools with perfect skill, so she could easily imagine him in the arena. Except when she witnessed him work, he was dressed in jeans and a t-shirt, which he wore exceptionally well, and focused his attacks on expertly cut lengths of lumber with a hammer and nails.
But he certainly hadn’t worn those clothes better than he wore his own skin.
Nessa hopped off the steps and walked over to him, slipping up behind him to wrap her arms around his torso. He tensed for a second, then relaxed, a low, contented rumble vibrating through him as she pressed her breasts against his back and lay her cheek between his shoulder blades. He slipped the fingers of one hand through hers and raised it to his mouth, kissing the center of her palm. It was a tender gesture that made her heart beat faster and was completely at odds with the wild fucking they’d been doing moments ago.
He’d been ready to go again, but now Nessa was conflicted. Some part of her wanted nothing more than to just stay like this, with her skin flush against his and their breaths coming in tandem. The silent intimacy she shared with this man she’d barely gotten to know filled a hole in her she hadn’t even known existed until tonight, and she dreaded the moment it would inevitably end.
Gaius turned in her arms and gazed down at her, the look in his eyes telling her he felt the same—that the moment was more precious than either of them were prepared for, and that neither of them were in a hurry to let it end.
Bending his head, he captured her mouth, sealing that silent communication with a confirmation that it didn’t have to end yet. His hands drifted down her back and slipped up beneath the hem of her shirt to squeeze her ass and caress it. Nessa tilted her hips into his and found he’d roused to full hardness once more.