by Marie Mason
Dirk had never wanted anything in his life the way he wanted Mercy.
Picking her up, he carried her to his bedroom. The large room had the same view as the one in the living room, nothing but trees and mountain ranges could be seen through the tempered glass. He’d furnished the room with a large pine bedframe he’d carved himself. Simple, yet functional. On it he’d placed a king-sized mattress to fit his body and bought a down filled comforter the color of spring to keep him warm at night.
Now, if he could reach out and take what he wanted, needed, he’d have Mercy in his bed to keep him warm through the long winter.
He’d be a damn fool, that’s what he would be, if he walked away from this. He knew he didn’t deserve a woman as pure and beautiful as Mercy. He was terrified that if he admitted his feelings, his whole world would change. And it would. It would change for the better.
Was he ready to accept all that a mate could bring to his life?
The good and the bad.
He’d vowed when his family had been murdered that he would never allow himself to feel that depth of love for anyone ever again.
Now, well now, he didn’t know if he could stop it. Mercy was his mate. A mate who filled his heart with joy and happiness.
He let her body slide to the floor, relishing the feel of her soft curves against the contours of his hard body. Damn, she felt good. She felt perfect. If he had been a cat, he’d be purring in contentment right about now. But he wasn’t a cat. He was a bear. A damn horny bear.
He stepped away from her, tugging his jeans down his hips. He heard her gasp and allowed his ego to swell for a minute. He knew what she saw. He wasn’t egotistical by any means, but he knew he had a body that women found attractive. He also had an aching dick. A thick cock rooted in dark, curling hair that hung between his muscular thighs.
He took his hand and stroked his length, thinking of sliding inside her warm heat. He could smell her arousal, knew that she wanted him.
“I need to see you, Mercy. Take off your clothes.”
CHAPTER FIVE
MERCY TENSED BENEATH Dirk’s gaze. The part she’d known she would dread most. The first time a lover saw her without her clothes. When she thought of this moment she always imagined being able to keep her shirt on. Seeing the hungry, almost angry look in Dirk’s dark eyes, she knew there would be nothing between them, nothing to obscure his perusal of her body. Her damn curvy body.
The light spilling from the hallway slid over his broad shoulder, that flat-ridged belly, the straining cock he was stroking. Damn, the man was big. He was long, and thick and hard. Hard for her. A full body thrill rippled through her at the thought of having him inside her. He was so big she knew the pleasure would border on pain until she grew accustomed to his size.
“Mercy.” The command in her name had her slipping off the coat she still wore and tossing it aside. Next, she sat down on the edge of the bed, bending over to unzip her boots. While she had dressed to please him this morning, she hadn’t really believed the day would end with her stripping for him. But, she was glad she’d dressed in thigh high tights and lacy underwear. Once her boots were off, she stood again, reaching behind for the zipper on her dress. Now was the moment of truth. Soon he would see her heaving breasts, the soft flesh around her middle, the abundance of her hips and thighs. Her… pussy. Slowly, she lowered the zipper, pushing the sleeves from her shoulders, then over her chest and past her hips. The red fabric pooled at her feet and she stood there before him, completely vulnerable.
His hands fell to his sides and his hands clenched into two big fists. She saw his chest heaving under the deep breaths he was taking.
Oh, please, she prayed silently. Please let him still want her. She was under no illusions as to what this was. A night to lose themselves in each other. To forget their pasts, their futures, even the present. To simply… love, however they could.
She shivered when Dirk stepped forward and pushed her hair to the side, scraping his teeth across the place where her shoulder met her neck and nipping at her skin. She knew it was probably just instinct for the bear to do so when it had a female in its arms. She knew what happened between shifters when they found their mates. The male would mark the female who would carry the sign forever, warning away any other male. Heaven help her, she thought, closing her eyes. She wanted that. But no, she reasoned with herself. She wasn’t this bear’s mate. She was just a human who had fallen in love with the wrong man.
He kissed her neck, then moved his lips to the valley between her breasts. He cupped them with his callused hands, his thumbs circling the hard nubs of her nipples beneath the satin of her bra. “Beautiful,” he whispered before he closed his mouth over the aching tip, fabric and all.
She arched into the velvet heat, moving her hands to his hard shoulders. His muscles were coiled tight, his breathing labored and she knew he wanted this as much as she did. Her inhibitions slowly started to fade. She pushed her breasts into his mouth, urging him to take more, do more.
Her action forced a groan from his throat and she gloried in the raw power that seemed to flow between them. Him to her, her to him. They were both in control, yet they were both at the mercy of the other.
With another growl that sent moisture flooding her pussy, he tore the clasp of her bra apart and pushed the cups aside, kneading the heated flesh with a hard, desperate touch. His fingers plucked the nipples until they were standing ripe and ready. Ready for him.
He flicked one hard with his finger before closing his mouth over the other. She gasped as she felt the touch of his teeth on the thick round bud, closing around it, then biting down. Not a light, playful touch, but one that showed her he meant business. That he was so hungry for her, that he was being driven by the need to taste her. To have her.
“Touch me, baby,” he groaned against her skin.
Mercy happily obliged and closed her hand over his heated length. Her fingers wouldn’t meet around his girth so she used both hands to stroke him up and down. The move pressed her breasts together and he growled in approval. Soon his mouth was working both nipples, licking, biting and sucking at the tender flesh.
When his hand cupped the slick flesh between her legs, she cried out.
“So wet, so damn wet.” An arm of steel closed around her back and he pulled her closer, trapping her hands between them, but with enough room that she could still pump her hands up and down his cock.
His fingers brushed through the curls she’d left on top of her mound, twirling them, playing with them. She could tell they were soaked with her juices and she almost winced in embarrassment. Was this normal? Or was it the floodgate of twenty-some years of desire and lust bursting forth?
One long, thick finger slid between the lips of her pussy and suddenly she didn’t care why she was so wet with longing. Just that she was. His finger slid, smooth as glass along her flesh, parting her, giving her the first touch of a man who she knew truly wanted her. Would bring her pleasure beyond imagining.
“Oh, Mercy, what am I going to do?” The words were breathed in a deep, low rumble against her throat as he touched her, stroking through her folds, getting ever closer to the bundle of nerves at the top of her center.
“I have a few suggestions,” she said, reluctantly letting go of his cock to grab his wrist and bring his touch to where she needed it so damn badly.
He made a sound between a laugh and a groan as he allowed her to manipulate his touch on her body. She sighed in pleasure as the tip of his finger ran across her clit. The pressure was light, not giving her nearly what she needed, but still it was a start. She tried to press his hand tighter against her body, but she couldn’t budge his arm.
“Dirk, please.” She whimpered as both her hands encircled his wrist.
He raised his head and looked into her eyes. His were darker than she’d ever seen them, so intense. But they held a look of such contentment it made her grow still. Yeah, not exactly the look a woman was going for when she was in the a
rms of a man, but somehow it made her feel so sexy. As if she was giving him exactly what he wanted. What he needed.
“I know what you need.”
You.
The word flittered through her head even as he was picking her up and placing her on the bed, pressing his body against hers. Then he was kissing her again as if he hadn’t kissed a woman in a long time. As if he had years of wanting and needing locked up inside him, waiting for release.
Resting his weight on one arm, his hand burned teasing circles on her abdomen and she moved involuntarily, seeking his touch. Again. She cried out when he moved his hand to trail a tantalizing line up the velvety skin of her inner thigh. He stroked her again, this time, lowering his head to take a hard nipple in his mouth. She grasped the back of his head and pulled him close, moaning with pleasure as his fingers found her folds just as he bit down on her nipple.
Mercy felt his tremble as his hands explored her. His movements were strong and sure, almost rough, but she loved it. When his passion rose, she felt a strange connection to him, something calling to her from deep inside him. Was that his bear she wondered briefly before his mouth on her stomach distracted her.
For a moment she tensed. What woman wouldn’t have. A toned, athletic body she did not have. She was fluffy. Curvy. Soft. Then, common sense took hold. It didn’t matter. Dirk was with her at this moment, loving her like no tomorrow. She mentally pushed away all the negative thoughts she’d ever had about her body, imagining herself standing on the edge of a volcano and throwing them inside.
Oh, wait, the heat wasn’t coming from her imagination, but the big bear shifter moving slowly down her body. Right now, his nose was nuzzling the curls on her mound.
“Dirk!” She was excited and frightened all at the same time.
“I love it when you scream my name.” he looked up at her, grinned, and for a moment she wondered how she could have ever considered him a grumpy bear. Right now, he was anything but.
He was virile, exciting, mysterious.
And about to go down on her.
His large hands spread across the tops of her thighs. “Just relax, Mercy.”
She closed her eyes and let her hands fall to her sides. She felt him grip her knees, pushing her knees up and out, exposing her to his eyes. She wasn’t prepared for the long, hungry lick of his tongue against her center. He tasted her from the small, puckered hole of her bottom, to the throbbing bud of her clit.
Again and again, he licked her until she was pushing against his mouth. Raw desire coursed through her. She felt as if she was drowning, drowning in sensation, wonder, passion. Love.
As her passion swelled so did her heart.
Dirk buried his face between Mercy’s legs and inhaled the sweet, sweet fragrance of her arousal. Tasting her body’s sweet nectar. The juices coating her pussy was honey nectar to him and his bear. He licked her pussy, memorizing her taste, savoring her surrender to his touch. Mercy instinctively reacted, her body curving up, reaching to meet him. He plunged his tongue inside her, making her shudder. He continued to eat her, his bear rising to the surface as he did. He felt his body wanting to change. His fangs wanting to drop and claim her.
No, no.
He needed to make her come, so he could take her. He closed in on her clit, sucking the tight little bud inside his mouth. As he did, he slid a finger inside the moist cavern of her body, fucking her with his finger.
Her moans of pleasure were muffled as if she were trying to stifle them. He imagined her hand in her mouth. Which was immediately replaced with an image of his cock in her mouth. His bear growled in approval. Next, time bro. Next time.
He continued to ravish her with his mouth, sucking and licking, knowing it was just a matter of time before…
Oh, yeah, that was it. He thrust another finger inside her as the walls of her pussy clenched around his finger. She was almost… there…
Biting down on her clit as he curled his finger inside her, he was rewarded with her lusty cry and the taste of her release flowing over his tongue and down his throat. He licked and sucked, savoring her essence.
Slowly, he pulled away, his body crawling over hers. He latched onto her mouth, sharing the taste of her sex. Unafraid, her tongue met his. “Mercy,” he whispered. “I need you now.”
His hand closed around his cock as he raised his eyes to meet hers. He knew the usual gray depths were glittering with gold, a sure sign his bear was near the surface. He latched on to the animal, corralling it so it couldn’t take control.
“I’m sure,” Mercy whispered, and his mouth crooked into a small grin as she answered his unspoken questions. She had come to know him so well in such a short amount of time.
He rubbed the length along her wet slit before settling against the entrance to her body. Her hot, wet, entrance. He pushed forward, holding himself above her, the mat of hair on his chest sliding along the hardened tips of her breasts. She moaned and lifted herself into him.
When Dirk slipped his hand beneath her, lifting her, positioning her, Mercy could feel every beat of their hearts as he slid his cock into her waiting depths. Heaven help her he was big. “Easy, babe.” He tilted her pelvis as he pushed his hips forward, easing more of his hot length inside her. Fullness. Pleasure. A bite of pain. She panted, as he took her, giving her every inch of his cock.
“That’s a good girl,” he growled. His movements were slow at first as if he were trying to build a raging fire. If she could have breathed, she would have told him there was no need for that. She already burned out of control for him.
Sooner than she wanted to, Mercy felt the sensation in her body that told her she was about to find that mind-boggling pleasure again. Only this time she knew it would be ten-fold with him inside her. She gripped his shoulders, almost afraid to allow it to happen.
“Dirk, help me.” She pleaded against his throat, a brief vision of her biting into his flesh filling her mind.
He grunted in response to her plea and for a moment she didn’t think he was going to do anything else. Then, he was changing the angle of his thrusts, the depths, as he plowed into her, hard, and fast. “Do it, Mercy,” his rough voice commanded. “Come all over my damn cock. Show me how much you want me.”
With another downward thrust that rammed against her clit, Mercy was lost. Lost in the sensation of this man taking her, dominating her. Capturing her heart all over again. In the vast wilderness of sensation he had thrust her into, she saw and felt him joining her, hearing his cry of completion even though she was too weak to make one of her own.
****
Hours later, breathing heavily as they came down from another joining of their bodies, they rested beneath the warmth of the cover on his bed. She lay on Dirk’s chest, her hand curled beneath her chin as she watched the soft fall of snowflakes through the large bank of windows. It was early morning, the skies heavy with its winter bounty. The rise and fall of his chest almost lulled her to sleep. He had awakened her an hour ago, as eager to have her body as she was to give it to him.
The last twenty-four hours had been magical. Her fingers ran along the warmth of his skin, along the hard muscles of his shoulders, his chest, down his stomach. As her fingers slipped beneath the edge of the cover, he moved, capturing her fingers in his hand before she could find the heated flesh tenting the cover over his groin.
“Don’t start something you can’t finish, baby.”
“Ohh, a challenge from the big, bad—Bah Humbug—bear.”
“Bah Humbug, hey?” Dirk chuckled, surprising them both with the sound. His laughter choked into a gasp when she sat up in bed, throwing back the cover. The sudden change in temperature didn’t affect him. In. Any. Way. His cock was still hard. Rock hard. She licked her lips, staring down at him. She tucked a strand of dark hair behind the enticing shell of her ear.
His gaze took her in. Her shoulders, white and creamy in the morning light. Her breasts—his bear growled as her breasts rose and fell, pushed together by her arms as
she knelt beside him, gorgeous and naked. Ready to take.
He lifted his hand to pull her on top of him, needing the feel of her wet flesh closing around him. She smiled at him, dodging his hold. Smiling at him defiantly, she flipped her hair behind her shoulder and took hold of his length, squeezing it against the palm of her hand. Her smile was more beautiful than sunshine. She pumped his cock in her hand as she slowly lowered her head.
Suddenly, he couldn’t draw a deep breath, the air having left the room as her mouth closed around the mushroom head of his dick. Still holding his gaze, he felt the rough texture of her tongue stroking across the slit. She hummed as if she loved the salty taste of his precum. He felt his body quickly producing more.
He lifted his hips and she took more of him in her warm, waiting mouth. She closed her eyes as she swallowed his length, stopping only when he bumped the back of her throat. Lifting her head, she let him slide almost free before taking him deep again. The pace she set was agonizingly slow, but oh, so sensuous. A part of him, his bear, wanted to thrust his hips high and hard, forcing her to take him down her throat. The other part of him, the part savoring this time with her, wanted the sensation of her sucking his cock to never end. In compromise to his warring needs, he threaded his fingers through her hair. “A little more, baby. Please, just a little more.” He applied gentle pressure to the back of her head, helping her take more of him on the next deep stroke.
“Yeah, just like that.” He closed his eyes and held her head to him, taking her mouth in small, short strokes. “Just. Like. That.” The sensations overcame him and the next thing he knew he was shouting as he came, his cum spurting down her throat.
When he came back to his senses, he realized what he had done. “Damn, Mercy, I didn’t mean to—”
His words stopped abruptly when he looked down at her, her mouth still moving slowly up and down his length. Even with the amazing release, he’d lost little of his hardness. Her hand pumped the bass for several more moments before she lifted her head, kneeling back beside him, smiling and licking her lips as if she’d just finished her favorite treat.