Smoke (Bearpaw Ridge Firefighters Book 7)

by Ophelia Sexton

  Mine. All mine now.

  “Hey, what do you say we dry off and move to my bed?” He grinned down at her, glowing with happiness.

  Because of me. I did this to him. The realization awed and humbled her.

  “I mean, our bed,” he corrected himself. His smile deepened and became something that heated up her arousal a notch. “I want to see if I can make you scream my name again.”

  Mary couldn’t help returning his grin. His happiness was infectious, and it made the warmth inside her glow and expand like a miniature sun. “Challenge accepted.”

  * * *

  Over the next few hours, Mary learned three things about her new mate: he took wagers seriously; he had incredible stamina; and his bed was extremely comfortable.

  Feeling as warm and boneless as melting butter after the best sex of her life, she was now cuddled against him.

  “I’ve never been so happy to lose a bet in my life,” she murmured sleepily.

  Tyler rewarded her with one of his rumbling laughs and stroked her bare stomach. “That was fun. And you’re incredibly sexy when you’re screaming my name.”

  “I can’t believe we used up a whole box of condoms,” she said.

  His laugh this time sounded smug. “Well, it was a pretty small box. Remind me to buy a decent-sized box tomorrow.”

  “I’ll make an appointment with my doctor in Salmon as soon as I can and get a birth control prescription,” she promised.

  There was short silence, then Tyler asked, “Hey, do you want kids?”

  Mary hesitated. This was the kind of conversation that they really should have had before sealing the mate bond. “Yeah. I mean, if you want kids too.”

  “I don’t know.” Tyler curled his big, warm body around her, spooning her. His breath stirred her hair and sent shivers down her spine as his hand came around to cup her breast. “I mean, I really like my cousin Eddie’s kids. They’re cool and fun to be around. But I worry that if I have any of my own, I’ll fuck up by treating them the way that my dad treated me.”

  Her wolf growled softly at the idea that Tyler had been mistreated as a child.

  “You won’t, because you’re worried you will,” she said, reaching up and putting her hand over his. “And if you mess up, I’ll let you know. But I know that you’ll try your best to be a good dad.”

  He blew out a long breath, and she felt him relax against her. “Yeah, I’ll do everything I can to be an awesome dad. That’s all I can do, right? Try my best?”

  “Hey, don’t sell yourself short. Your best is pretty damned impressive.” She wriggled her butt against him and added, “I’m going to be lucky if I can walk in the morning…and you heard the sheriff. I have to be out at Hawkins Hardware bright and early.”

  “Don’t worry,” Tyler assured her. “I’ll take care of you.”

  * * *

  “Ooh, naked-man coffee! My favorite kind,” Mary said the next morning as she sat up in bed—his bed, which made Tyler happier than he cared to admit—looking sexily disheveled.

  She let the sheet slide to her waist, revealing adorably freckled shoulders and her gorgeous breasts…and a big blue bite mark on her left shoulder. Tyler felt a twinge at the sight—he’d been trying to rein in his bear’s enthusiasm last night.

  But Mary didn’t seem to care.

  She stretched and yawned, then looked him up and down with an appreciation that warmed him to his toes. Her gaze lingered on the steaming mug in his hand, made with a generous splash of milk, no sugar, just like he remembered from their breakfast together yesterday.

  “So you’ve had naked-man coffee before?” Tyler asked, unable to suppress a tiny spark of jealousy.

  Mary grinned up at him. “Only in my dreams. But it’s definitely something I could get used to.”

  Tyler tried to keep a straight face as he handed her the steaming mug, made just as he remembered from their breakfast together. “So…that’s a hint?”

  “Well, I suspect you don’t take orders well,” she shot back.

  He laughed, more with relief than anything else, and sat on the edge of the bed to drink his own coffee.

  Though their mating last night had taken him by surprise—and her too, by the sound of it—Tyler felt drunk with happiness about being mated at last.

  He’d dated a lot of women, both shifter and Ordinary, during his years in Portland. He’d had a great time with most of them, had relationships with a few of them for weeks or months, but none of them had ever made him feel the way Mary did.

  Knowing he was now bonded to someone who had his back filled a space inside him that had been empty since he was a kid. She was so perfect in every way—beautiful, funny, great in bed—and she thought he was a good person.

  He’d stayed awake for a while after she drifted off to sleep in his arms, worried that she’d wake up with regrets about the fact that they had somehow managed to seal a mating bond on their very first date.

  And to think that just yesterday morning, I was worrying about moving too fast and scaring her off…

  “What’s on your mind?” she asked, when he’d been lost in thought for a few minutes.

  Okay, here goes…what was that thing that Grandma Betty always said? “In for a penny, in for a pound?”

  “From now on, I don’t want you sleeping in my spare bedroom,” Tyler said firmly. “You’re my mate, and I want you here, next to me, each and every night. I promise I’ll bring you coffee naked every morning if that’s what it takes to convince you. “

  Mary was sitting with her head bowed over her mug of coffee, and her tangled hair hid her expression.

  He froze. Did I just fuck this up?

  Then he saw her mischievous smile and felt the pressure ease.

  “Well…” she said slowly, “I guess that would be okay. I mean, you don’t snore. Much.”

  “You don’t snore at all, as far as I can tell,” he informed her.

  “And naked-man coffee every morning pretty much seals the deal,” she told him. “I’m yours, baby.”

  He laughed with relief. Then he sobered up, and it was his turn to study the depths of his coffee mug.

  “Uh, are you okay with…this?” He waved his hand to encompass both the bed and their mating. “Being with me?” He swallowed hard. “Being my mate? I’m not sorry about that part,” he hurried to assure her. “But you know all hell is going to break loose when everyone finds out about us, right?”

  Mary lowered her mug and stared at him for a long moment. He felt her gaze pierce his soul, but he had no idea what she was thinking. Despite her words to the contrary, was she sorry about what had happened? Was she feeling trapped?

  “This feels right. Like I belong here, with you,” she said finally. “I don’t understand how this happened so quickly, but yes, I’m your mate now, and everyone else can just—“

  “Fuck off?” he suggested helpfully.

  Joy bubbled up inside him at her acceptance. No matter how he felt about Mary, he sure as hell hadn’t wanted her as an unwilling mate.

  “—go jump in a lake,” she finished with mock severity.

  Then she leaned forward and kissed him, long and deep and slow.

  Even after all the times they’d had sex last night, the touch of her lips against his still felt like a live wire connected directly to his cock.

  Tyler plucked the coffee mug out of her hand, plunked it down on the nightstand, lifted her onto his lap, and proceeded to show her just how sexy she was in the morning.

  His bear felt a primal need to thoroughly mark her with his scent before she left the house and spent all day in the company of other males.

  And his human half just plain loved driving her crazy with desire. It was a fucking ego trip to see how she responded to his every touch and kiss with honest passion.

  Tyler had always loved showing his dates a really good time, because it usually led to an even better second date, but making love to his mate opened his senses to a whole new world of intense
pleasure.

  Just kissing Mary was enough to give him a hard-on, and when he was buried in her hot, welcoming depths, it felt like coming home.

  If “coming home” feels like a mind-blowing orgasm, then yeah, I won’t ever get tired of doing this every night and every morning.

  Like right now. She was straddling his thighs, her back to his chest, impaled to the hilt on his hard cock. Her slick, hot flesh fit him like a glove, and he had both hands on her soft, deliciously sensitive breasts as she arched and writhed on his lap.

  Tyler buried his face in her shoulder-length mass of sweet-smelling golden hair and played with her breasts, enjoying every gasp and movement as the scents of their arousal intensified the experience.

  “Tyler…please…” she moaned as his fingers plucked at her nipples.

  “I want to feel you come,” he growled and nipped the nape of her neck.

  He released one breast and slid his right hand over her stomach and down her belly. His fingertips skimmed over her pussy, the folds pulled taut around the place where they were joined. He found and stroked her clit with a feather-light touch at the same moment that he pinched her nipple with his left hand.

  She squeaked in the most appealing way, and her hips jerked as if he’d just applied an electric shock to her. Her inner flesh squeezed his cock like a fist, and it felt like fucking heaven.

  He grinned with satisfaction and set to work.

  It didn’t take long before he was able to push her over the brink. He loved how she panted and gasped his name as her inner muscles rippled powerfully around him.

  Her response drove him crazy, and he began to move, driving eagerly upwards into her slick heat as his own orgasm gathered like a storm deep inside him.

  Every muscle in his body tensed as he came. It started at the base of his spine and poured out of him like a river of white-hot lava, a rush of heat and fire and intense pleasure that threatened to melt his spine.

  “That was almost better than naked-man coffee,” she murmured afterwards, when she was cuddled up next to him, flushed and a little sweaty.

  He’d already figured out that his new mate had a wicked sense of humor under her usually serious expression. He liked that.

  “Almost?” he asked in mock outrage, gathering her in and kissing the top of her head. “Almost?”

  “Well, you make really good coffee,” she said and turned her head to kiss his chest.

  Mary apparently caught sight of his bedside alarm clock as she did that, because she immediately pushed up in sudden alarm. “Crap! I need to get ready for work!”

  She scrambled out of the bed and ran for the shower. Tyler’s bed instantly felt lonely and cold.

  “I’ll make us breakfast,” he called after her.

  Chapter 12 – Weathering the Storm

  “What’s this I’m hearing about you and Mary Jacobsen? You’re actually dating a cop? You?” Phoebe Swanson demanded as she marched into the kitchen of her house, her brisk footsteps muffled by the layer of FortiBoard protecting the new hardwood floors.

  Tyler nearly jumped out of his skin as she spoke behind him. He hadn’t heard her coming, because he had his music turned up high enough that he could hear it over his power tools while he installed the brand-new white kitchen cabinets.

  The renovation was nearly done. Yesterday afternoon, he’d put in the order for the new marble countertops and tile she’d selected. With any luck, and if she didn’t change her mind again, they would arrive seven to ten days from now, and then he could install the new fridge, wall oven, and cooktop currently being stored in the garage.

  “Hi, Mom,” Tyler said dryly, putting down his cordless screwdriver and his level. “Nice to see you too.”

  “I didn’t even know that you two were dating, much less that things had gotten so serious!” She came to a halt in front of the new kitchen island and put her hands on her hips, glaring at him. “I’ve had three different people phone me already, asking what on earth was going on between the two of you.” Her head whipped around, and she glared at his portable iPod speakers. “And would you please turn down that awful music?”

  Tyler sighed at the refrain from his teen years and hit Pause. Mom had never been a fan of heavy metal. “I forgot how fast news travels in this town.”

  “That’s not an excuse, and you know it, Tyler!” Mom looked genuinely upset. “Do you know how embarrassing it was for me to have to admit that I didn’t even know that she was living with you?”

  As always when his Mom was upset, Tyler’s protective instincts flared up, and he moved to soothe her. “I’m sorry I didn’t have a chance to tell you,” he said, his tone apologetic, “but she’s only been my housemate since her house burned down yesterday.”

  Mom didn’t look mollified by this news. “But how long have you been involved with her?”

  Tyler bit the inside of his cheek, hard, to keep from grinning like a fool. He still couldn’t believe that Mary was his…forever. I’m the luckiest bastard alive.

  “Uh…since yesterday morning?” It sounded crazy when he said out loud.

  Mom’s mouth dropped open. “You’re kidding me, right?”

  He shook his head. “Nope. I’ve always had a thing for her. And it turns out that rescuing her from a burning house made her take a second look at me. We, uh, really hit off.”

  Which was a really lame way of trying to describe the ball of warm happiness that had lodged itself in his chest yesterday evening and showed no signs of fading away.

  Mom’s lips thinned. “I don’t think she’s good enough for you,” she stated firmly.

  Tyler felt his eyes bulge out in astonishment. “Not good enough for me? Hell, Mom, I’d have bet you’d see this the other way around!”

  She sniffed. “She’s divorced. I didn’t know that shifters could even get divorced.”

  “They can if they’re not mated to their spouses,” Tyler explained.

  Mary had told him about her failed marriage last night, as they snuggled between bouts of mind-blowing sex.

  He continued, “It’s a shifter thing. Matings are forever, but marriages are an Ordinary thing, a purely legal thing.” He paused, then blurted out, “Speaking of matings…Mary and I are mated now, by the way. It, uh, kind of took us by surprise.”

  Now it was Mom’s turn to do the bulging-eye thing. “M-mated?” she sputtered. “For real? To her?”

  Tyler’s bear growled softly at the insult to his mate. “Yeah, for real. And I feel like the luckiest guy alive,” he said fiercely.

  “But…after just one day?” Mom asked incredulously. “And she’s not even a bear shifter! How can you possibly be mated?”

  Tyler shrugged. He didn’t actually know the answer to his mother’s question, but he didn’t want to admit that in the face of Mom’s open skepticism.

  “I know I’m not a shifter, but your father and I were married—mated—for a long time. What’s wrong with Mary that she couldn’t mate another wolf shifter?” Mom shook her head. She continued, “God knows, there’s plenty of them in this town and more every day, along with all kinds of other shifters, including those troublemaking sabertooths.”

  “I thought you liked shifters,” Tyler shot back, his temper rising. “Since you mated one.”

  “There are good ones and bad ones,” Mom shot back. “Just like regular people.”

  Tyler took a deep breath. “There’s absolutely nothing wrong with Mary. She’s great, and I’m incredibly happy about being her mate. If anything, her family is going to be wondering if I’m good enough for her.”

  “You’re a Swanson!” Mom said indignantly. “Of course you’re good enough!”

  That took him by surprise. He took a moment to savor the acknowledgment, then said, “And now Mary is a Swanson too. Or will be, as soon as we settle on a wedding date.”

  First, I have to ask her to marry me. And buy her a ring.

  He figured that asking his mate to marry him was as close to a guaranteed “yes” a
s anything was, but he still felt weirdly nervous.

  “You’re not getting married in Portland, are you?” Mom asked warily.

  “I don’t think so,” Tyler answered. “I mean, our families are both here, so it makes sense to hold the wedding in Bearpaw Ridge. Especially since we’re probably going to be living here.”

  “You’re actually thinking of staying?” she asked, as if she didn’t dare to believe it. “But I thought you were running my dad’s construction company these days.”

  “Yeah,” he acknowledged. “This has all been kind of sudden. I haven’t actually had a chance make any real plans yet. But Mary’s on track to becoming sheriff when Bill Jacobsen retires in a few years, so she’ll probably want to stay here rather than move to Portland.”

  He didn’t really care where they lived, as long as they were both under the same roof and in the same bed every night. He loved Portland, but he told himself that he’d just have to learn to love Bearpaw Ridge too.

  “Oh,” breathed Mom. “I see.”

  Watching her expression change was like seeing the sun come out from behind a cloud.

  Mary was right, he thought. Mom really does want me to stay here.

  It felt strange but gratifying.

  Mom stepped forward and hugged him hard. “Oh, Tyler, you took me by surprise, but this is wonderful news! You tell Mary that I want to meet her for coffee and that I’m looking forward to welcoming her into the family.”

  * * *

  “Glad you could join us, Officer Jacobsen,” Uncle Bill said with heavy sarcasm as Mary came jogging up.

  Mary felt her face, already hot from the sweltering morning temperatures, grow even warmer. “Sorry,” she apologized. “Rough day yesterday. I overslept.”

  You couldn’t lie to another shifter, but you could stretch the truth by omitting certain facts. And yesterday had been a rough day, considering that she’d lost her home and nearly everything she owned.

  Mary fought the urge to rub her shoulder, where a concealed bite mark was aching pleasantly. Something primal in her reveled at this reminder of last night’s unbridled passion.

  She was wearing yesterday’s uniform again, but thanks to Tyler, she’d had a chance to shower and eat before leaving the house.