She put her plate down by the side of her, and slid across to him. “That’s not why I nearly choked,” she said, stroking his hair, making his appetite for food disappear, only for it to be replaced by a different appetite.
“Then why?” he asked.
“My mom would be highly amused by you thinking I could cook that well. She always said I needed to either meet a man who could cook, or who earned enough to buy takeout every night.” Amanda looked across to the food. “I made the sandwiches, but everything else is store bought. If you live with me, you are going to miss your mom’s home cooking.”
“It would be worth the sacrifice,” he said, and pulled her head down so their lips met.
They didn’t need money; this was the most perfect date, food, a fire and his mate. Perfect, and Amanda seemed to agree, as she returned his kiss and sighed contentedly.
Chapter Nine – Amanda
“The food will be ruined,” Amanda said, pulling back from him.
“I don’t care,” he said, holding her tight against his body. “You are everything I want, everything I need at this precise moment.”
She giggled nervously. “I’m not sure if I want things to move that fast.”
“Why not?” he said, pulling back from her enough to look into her eyes. “I thought we had come to an understanding about this whole fated mates thing.”
“We have. I just…” She sighed and sat up, hugging her knees.
“It’s just what?” he asked, coming to sit beside her. “I know I’m not exactly the most successful man in the world. I admit I do not actually own anything other than a few pairs of faded jeans and some seriously dodgy T-shirts. But I will try to make you happy.”
Amanda turned to him, quickly saying, “It’s not you. Not at all. It’s me.”
“And you don’t want to tell me. I don’t care. What’s past is past. Unless it’s likely to rear its head again, in which case, I’m a bear. I can bite it off. Any head. Any time.” He put his arm around her and gently pulled her towards him. “I know this is weird, it’s too quick. But it’s also right.”
“I know it’s right. But what if I’m wrong? Wrong for you.”
“Not possible. Fate always gets it right. That’s what we shifters are brought up to believe.” He turned her face to his, gently tilting her chin up to face him. “Why don’t we forget about everything except this moment? The past, the future, they can’t touch us in the present.”
“I hope you are right,” she answered. “And whether you are or not, I’m willing to believe you.”
“That’s my girl,” he said, and his lips pressed against hers and he kissed her.
Amanda melted into him, her hands on his arms to keep herself steady as his mouth drowned her senses. Jed slid his tongue along her lower lip, sending shivers along her spine, and she opened her mouth to allow him access. In and out he teased, with a rhythm that heightened her arousal, leaving a hot ache between her thighs, and a stirring in her stomach that was all for him.
She had to trust in this mating bond, and if it turned out to be a whole load of hogwash, then the more fool on her. At least she would have had a chance to experience something wonderful, and that had to be worth a risk.
“Shall we go inside?” she asked, pulling back from him.
He leaned forward and nipped her bottom lip. “I don’t mind where we go as long as I can make love to you. I want to lick every inch of your body and kiss you until you can’t think straight. And then I’m going to...”
She placed her hand over his mouth. “That part can be a surprise,” she said hoarsely, her body unable to cope with the thoughts and sensations his words conjured up.
Breaking away from him, she got up, taking a moment to gain her balance. Her legs were shaky, and her eyes a little disorientated. Jed rose to stand by the side of her, and took her hand. “You seem to be under the influence of something exotic.”
“Exotic?” she asked. “I haven’t been drinking.”
“I was thinking more of love.” He kissed her again, this time putting his arm around her waist to keep her upright. “Or lust,” he breathed in her ear.
Hot damn, he turned her on. “You are a terrible tease.” She straightened up and slipped away from him, and began to pack everything away.
“I am not teasing,” he said, coming to help her. “This is most definitely a promise.”
“Just help me get everything into the cabin.”
“And then?”
“And then I am going to make us some coffee to see if I can rescue my senses from you.”
He chuckled. “You can try. But I have a power over you that is hard to resist. I will bend you to my will.”
“Is that right?” she asked, not so sure she liked the idea of that. The last time she had fallen so hard she had been terribly used.
“Yes. But you’ll bend me even more, make me beg like a dog if you deny me.”
“I can’t see you ever begging like a dog,” she said, packing the last of the sandwiches away.
“That is because you have no idea of the pull you have on me.” He came around and stood by the side of her. Taking her hand, he placed it on his heart. “When I’m near you it’s as though our hearts beat to the same rhythm.”
She took her hand away. “You are teasing me again.”
“No. I’m not, Amanda. I would give you my world if you asked.”
The intensity in his eyes was almost too much. “I would never ask it.”
“I know. But I’d give it all the same.” The words stood before them endlessly. She frowned, shaking her head as if she could shake the intimacy away.
“Jed. Please slow down.” She started to walk towards the house. “Sex is one thing, but I can’t swear undying love to you. Not now, not when we have only just met.”
“I understand. But that doesn’t stop me wanting you to know how special you are to me.”
“I get that. But enough with the words.”
“I thought women liked to hear their men tell them they are special.”
“We do. I do. But I don’t feel worthy of those kinds of words. Let’s take a step back and, I don’t know. Talk.” Did she want to talk? Yes, she did.
“Coffee it is, then,” he said, hiding his disappointment well.
Inside the cabin, she put on a fresh pot of coffee. Jed helped her pack everything into the fridge, and then she poured him a large mug full of the hot strong liquid. Luckily, he seemed to have calmed down, his mouth no longer swearing undying love to her.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “I am usually a man of few words, I have no idea what came over me.”
“Love sick,” she said carefully.
“Love sick, you are right. It’s like this strange feeling swept over me. If I’d gone on any longer, I would have started quoting poetry.”
She laughed, nearly spraying her coffee across the kitchen. “I never took you as a poet.”
“Hidden depths.” He smiled. “What about you? Tell me something that you keep hidden from the world.”
Her face clouded and her heart beat faster. Now would be the time to tell him about Mason. To warn Jed off her. But she didn’t want to. The longer she watched him as he stood only feet away from her, drinking his coffee, the more she wanted to quit with the words and let his mouth work on her in other ways.
“The thing I keep most hidden,” she said, putting her coffee cup down on the counter, and sidling up next to him, “is how much I love to work in the kitchen.”
He looked at her, frowning. “I thought you said you weren’t a very good coo…” She slipped her arms around his neck, pressing her body against his and moving up and down as she rubbed against his hard length. “Oh.”
“Why don’t you finish your coffee? You might need the energy boost from the caffeine. After all, you have already worked a hard day.” She pressed her hips forward, tilting her pelvis up to change the angle of her body. Jed groaned, not bothering to drain his coffee before he placed the
mug on the counter.
“I have enough stamina to work all day and all night,” he said, reaching out for her and pulling her close. “Don’t worry about me.”
His hand slipped under her shirt and cupped her breast, her nipple hardening as he tweaked it through the fabric of her bra. “It’s awfully hot in here.” She stepped back from him, and began to undo her shirt, one slow button at a time. He probably thought she was being seductive, teasing him by taking her time. If only she was that kind of woman: being naked in front of a man had never been a comfortable experience. This was no different; her fingers were not picking up the transmissions sent from her brain, which seemed to be short circuiting.
“Want a hand with those?” he asked, and his large hands covered hers, taking control.
In seconds the last of her buttons were undone, at least one of them hitting the floor in his haste. Her bra followed, his fingers moving inhumanly fast to undo the clasp, and then catching her voluptuous breasts in his hands. A groan escaped him, and her arousal grew. He wanted to see her naked, and his eyes grazed her soft flesh, before he lowered his head and kissed her skin.
She gasped, his mouth closing over his nipple, sucking the taut bud, sending a jolt of electricity though her body. Amanda clung to him, her hands on his upper arms, while she watched him, connecting the movement of his head to the exquisite pain that shot through her body when his tongue circled her nipple.
“I want you,” he said, raising his head to capture her eyes, his voice ragged.
She couldn’t formulate the words to tell him she wanted him too. Taking a step away from him, she tried to show him, her hands now under her control as she undid the button of her jeans and pushed them down over her hips and stepped out of them. All that protected her from him was the thin layer of fabric of her panties.
Swallowing down her nerves, she hooked her fingers through the elastic and pushed them down too. Her eyes fixed on his.
Jed watched, standing for a full minute staring at her body before sparking into life and stripping his own clothes off with superhuman speed. It was Amanda’s turn to watch, and to drool. He was amazing, his body sculptured out of muscle and bone and wrapped in a layer of tanned skin.
Taking a step forward, she reached out to him, wanting not so much to tickle this version of Jed’s tummy, but to run her fingers down his washboard abs, and lower.
Her hand wrapped around his hardened cock, stroking him, scratching her nails lightly over his balls, and driving him insane.
His arms locked around her and he lifted her up into his arms, and she thought he might carry her to bed. He didn’t. Turning, he sat her down on the edge of the kitchen table, his body between her thighs. One finger ran along the length of her sex, testing her readiness for him. Then he guided himself into her, the head of his cock spreading her outer lips, before he entered her slowly, giving her time to adjust to his wide girth.
Jed’s body nestled against hers, and she could feel the heat radiating out from him. Bear heat. She was in her grandma’s kitchen, making love to a man who turned into a bear. A bubble of laughter rose up inside her, threatening to spoil this moment of intensity, as Jed buried himself balls deep inside her. But when he fisted her hair with his hand, and tilted her head back, claiming her mouth with his, the laughter dissipated, leaving in its wake a sense of connection, of belonging.
This wasn’t sex. She had expected him to claim her hard and fast, to exert himself over her. He didn’t. This was lovemaking, coming from a need to be with her, the one fate had chosen for him, and he wanted her to enjoy it. She felt it in the way his lips moved against hers, in the way his hands caressed her skin, and in the way he moved in and out of her, his hardness grazing her inner walls, the friction incredible.
Her orgasm rushed towards her, the sensations he invoked in her body building to an earth-shattering crescendo. Then he erupted inside her, filling her with his essence, and she followed him over the edge to drown with him in a sea of pleasure.
When they were both completely spent, he lifted her up in his arms and carried her to the bedroom, where they slept, bodies entwined. As her eyes closed, she let go of her past, and knew she was holding her future in her arms.
Chapter Ten – Jed
“Arriving for work together,” Dylan observed.
“Your point being?” Jed asked with a raised eyebrow. “Amanda might have simply given me a lift.”
“But the look on your face says you claimed your mate.” Dylan sat at his desk, working at his computer. Jed had come in to see what his work orders were for the day, while Amanda was in the outer office checking messages. He looked out to where she was standing with the phone to her ear, and her eyes on him. She would know they were talking about her.
“Is he giving you a hard time?” Steph, Dylan’s wife, asked Jed as she entered the office. Jed had met Steph when they were younger; he couldn’t remember whether she was on the list of people whose lunch money he had stolen or not. He hoped it was not.
“Not really,” Jed said.
“Don’t worry.” Steph went over to Dylan and nudged him in the ribs. “You can tell him to mind his own business if you want to.”
“I’m only interested in the health and well-being of my employees,” Dylan said in his own defense.
“Nosy, that’s what I’d call it.” Steph rubbed her back. Her belly was swollen with the baby she was carrying, but she looked happy. “Are you going to show me this house or not?”
“You’re coming with us today?” Jed asked surprised.
“Yes. I have a day off from the B&B; my mom and Paul can handle things.” She rubbed her stomach. “Although the number of days off I have left is numbered. Once this little cub is born, we are going to have our hands full.” She looked at Dylan, and he pulled her close.
“We’ll manage, together. How hard can it be?” Dylan asked and kissed Steph.
“I’ll go load the truck,” Jed said, feeling a little uncomfortable when Dylan kissed Steph.
Quickly leaving the office, he went out to where Amanda was sorting through the mail, and a twinge of unease spread through him. How were they going to manage? Financially, he was a million miles away from being the provider. That was the male’s job, to provide for his female and his cubs. He had seen only too well what happened when things went wrong and there was no male provider. The idea that they would be so poor his kids might turn to theft was almost too much. But if he stopped supporting his siblings through college, they would be forced to abandon their own dreams.
“What’s wrong?” Amanda asked, picking up on his mood.
“Nothing,” he said, emphasizing it with a shake of his head.
“That face says differently.” She put the letters down and came around her desk to him. “Tell me.”
“It’s stupid.”
“Tell me anyway.” She put her arms around his neck and pressed her body to him. “Please.”
“I see Dylan and Steph. They both have businesses; hell, Dylan is a millionaire. He went away for years and came back rich, I went away for years and came back broke.”
“Money isn’t everything,” Amanda said. “There are some things that are necessities in life, but a load of money is not it.”
“No, but it is sure better to have it than not.” He was torn between providing for his family, and providing for Amanda and their own children.
“Listen, before I came back here, I was in some trouble.” She looked worried, her eyes flitting to the office where Dylan and Steph were still wrapped up in each other. “It made me realize one thing; I would rather have a poor man who I can trust. Because before I met you, and found out what you are and what that means, the mate bond, I had decided that I wasn’t going to have anything to do with men ever again.”
A part of him, the primal, protective part of him, reared up and he struggled to keep his breathing even. Someone had hurt Amanda. Really hurt her, enough that she was willing to shut herself off from the chance of love
and happiness. It certainly explained their first meeting, and how she had been adamant she did not want a mate.
“Then I am glad I am your mate. I promise, I will never do anything to make you doubt me, or to put you, or us, in danger.” He stroked her hair back from her face and then bent his head to kiss her. “Whatever happened, if you want to tell me, that’s fine. If you don’t, that’s fine too.”
She buried her face in his chest. “I’m just scared it will come back and bite me in the ass sometime.”
He tilted her chin up so he could look into her eyes, fixing her with a look that he hoped conveyed his sentiment much more than words ever could. “The only one who is allowed anywhere near your ass is me. Anyone tries to hurt you again, you need to tell me. I will deal with it.”
She slipped her arms from around his neck. “That is what worries me.”
“Hey,” he said, pulling her back to him. “That does not mean you can’t come to me. I can control myself.”
“Let’s just hope it never comes to that.” She went back to her desk. “Only my mom and step-dad know this is where I came to live. So let’s drop it.”
“Drop what?” Dylan asked, coming out of the office, and the look on Amanda’s face told Jed the conversation was over. For now, at least.
“Nothing. Amanda is coming over to dinner with my folks tonight,” Jed said, covering his worried expression.
“Meeting the in-laws already. Do I hear wedding bells soon?” Dylan asked.
“Dylan! Just because you rushed me down the aisle, doesn’t mean everyone else has to.” Steph pushed Dylan out of the outer-office and into the sunshine. “Take your time, Jed. Good to see you again, Amanda.”
“Good to see you, Steph.” Amanda watched Dylan and Steph leave. Jed knew she had the same thoughts. If only their own lives were as blessed as that of their boss and his wife.
“They had problems too,” Jed blurted out.
“Not the same kind of problems,” Amanda said.
“Worse. Dylan went to juvie for killing a boy.”
Amanda looked shocked. “Dylan?”
His Bear's Necessity: BBW Bear Shifter Paranormal Romance (Return To Bear Bluff Book 2) Page 5