by Alice Bello
He dried me off and led me into the bedroom. It was obviously the room he’d slept in, in his youth, for there were signs of a teenager, but from four or five years ago.
He lay down on the bed and pulled me in after him, positioning me up against him, litte spoon position, as he pulled the covers over us.
In moments I was enveloped in warmth—weres generate body heat like space heaters.
The feel of his muscular body against my backside was heavenly. My aches and pains melted like ice cream, and before I knew it I was falling deliriously right into sleep.
***
What seemed like hours later I woke up. Maddox hadn’t moved, still pressed up against my backside. I could feel his cock, still half-hard against my hip.
I slowly turned over until I was facing him. His eyes were closed, and his breathing was regular, so I was pretty sure he was asleep.
One more time…
I wanted all the memories of this, of him, as I could bear to carry.
I kissed my way down his torso, over his unbelievable chest, down his rippling abdominals, and then down to his now completely hard cock.
He sighed when I took him into my mouth, and as I flicked my tongue over the sensitive nerve endings, and sucked him deeper into my drooling mouth, he dug his hands into my hair, not pushing me down, but definitely urging me on.
I could feel myself getting wet, my sex was getting hot, and that just made me suck harder.
“You’re trying to kill me…”
Really?
I forced myself down on his prick all the more, making him gasp as his length snaked farther down my throat. I suddenly couldn’t breathe, so I was pretty sure I had him most of the way in.
“Fuck…” he growled, and I pulled up on him until his throbbing cock head was ready to pop out of my mouth, and I could swirl my tongue around it.
Down I went again until my air supply was cut off, and I felt his balls pulling up against my chin.
I reached down and took his beefy balls in hand, pulling at the bulging orbs in their velvety soft sack.
Maddox writhed, bucking his hips up, fucking my mouth.
I tasted the salt of his precum.
“I’m going to…”
I know…
It’s what I want…
To taste you…
And suddenly he came in my mouth.
I didn’t want to waste a drop, so I pushed him into the back of my throat and swallowed. It was wonderful, salty and sweet, and instantly addictive.
His hands bunched up in my hair as he slowly fucked my mouth. Oh god, how he smelled, a mix of sex and him and his animal.
Once he was finished, and his hand let go of my hair, I slowly pulled up off his still hard cock.
That was…
“Good lord, woman. That was amazing.”
Amazing was a good word to describe it.
My pussy throbbed as I looked at him, stretched out before me, sweat glistening on his skin, accentuating every muscle. And how beautiful his cock was, still hard, shiny from where I’d been sucking on it.
“Okay,” he said, reaching over and pulling me up atop him. “You look about ready to catch on fire.”
I gasped as he pushed his cock inside.
I just couldn’t get used to how big and hard he is… and that’s after he already came.
“You don’t have to—” I tried to say, but them he pulled out halfway and slammed back into me again.
“Sure I do.” His hand slid down my stomach and stopped only once he had his thumb rubbing against my clit.
Shiiit…
He kept pounding up into me, harder, faster, his thumb strumming my clit with brutal efficiency.
“How?” I gasped as I started to feel my orgasm building.
He rammed up into me, pushing me up off the mattress so I was suspended in mid-air for a moment, his hard prick as far up in me as was possible
“It’s a gift,” he said, breathlessly, leaning up and kissing me, his mouth demanding on mine.
Hell of a good gift.
Between his cock up inside me, his thumb roughing up my clit, and his lips feasting on mine, my orgasm welled up inside me and before I could even take a breath…
Boom!
I swear there was an earthquake in that bedroom. I swear I blew into a million itty bitty pieces all over the place.
But as I fell forward against Maddox, I knew none of that had happened.
Maddox had happened.
Chapter 10
It was 3 am when I woke again.
This time I wasn’t hungering for more of Maddox.
I was missing home.
And somehow, I just knew I needed to go back.
I was needed.
I just knew it.
And I also knew I wasn’t ready for the man sleeping in the bed beside me.
Mating mark or no, I was not ready to be anyone’s mate.
Inside I was a mess.
My grandmother had just died.
And I was so out of it I’d taken off on my family when they’d needed me the most, just so I could drive away from my problems.
I couldn’t even think of how much I’d hurt mom, Roxy, and Billy.
Gram had been our rock.
I borrowed a pair of ridiculously too large sweat pants and a t-shirt, then went and bandaged over where Maddox had bit me.
It was already healing, but I still didn’t want to have to see it in the rearview mirror all the way home.
I scribbled something on a notepad I found and left it on the kitchen table, then snuck out the kitchen door, out the back and through the woods until I was at my truck again.
Nonna was waiting for me.
“Taking off so soon, little medicine woman?”
I pulled a pair of sneakers out of my duffle bag. I’d never tried to drive barefoot.
“I need to get back home.”
“This could be your home.” The way she said it, so simple… it almost sounded true.
I shook my head, letting my hair spill over to hide my face from her. I was starting to cry, and I needed to get away from her—and him—before I completely fell apart.
“I already have a home. That hasn’t changed. And they need me.”
She looked up into the moon above—a rather bright half moon. “You’re right. They do need you. But so does Maddox.”
Oh, you bitch.
“I think I’ve helped him plenty.”
But truth be told, I didn’t want to leave him.
Ever…
I sat up and looked the old woman in the eye.
“I’m not ready for him.”
Her urgent gaze softened and she looked away.
“He’s not ready for me either, is he?”
She chuckled. “Might take a few years… might be next week. But he will be ready for you. Men are like that.”
It was my turn to laugh.
“How pathetic am I when I’m getting love life advice from a ghost.”
She put her finger to her nose and gave me a knowing look good enough to have been one of my Gram’s.
“My advice has been sought after for decades, little medicine woman. And I’m more than just a ghost, or has it escaped your notice.”
I shook my head. “I don’t know what I’ve noticed. What I do know is I’m tired and confused… and I’ve got a long drive ahead of me, so let’s just…” I stared at her, beseechingly.
She rolled her eyes and walked over to the side of the road, away from my truck.
“Fine, go. Become what you need to.”
“Oh, great, now you’re riddling me like Gram…” Like Gram used to.
“I’m not giving up, though. You’ll be seeing me.” She looked in the direction of her house, meaningfully. “And him. Bears mate for life.”
That, I hate to admit, made an excited quiver erupt inside me.
I wanted to see Maddox again so very badly.
I blinked and Nonna was gone.
&
nbsp; I was standing there on the side of the road, only my Chevy as my companion.
“That’s a hell of a thing,” I said to the wind, and to Nonna. I was sure, even if I couldn’t see her, she was around still.
“I don’t think I’ll ever get used to seeing dead people.”
I hopped up into my truck, slammed the door and started the engine.
A minute later I was rolling along at a good clip, the road wet with newly fallen rain, and the Grayslake sign glowing in my headlights as I passed it on the way out of town.
I almost stopped.
I slowed down as I passed the sign, half-expecting Nonna or Maddox to be standing there, but the sign stood alone. So I hit the gas and started home.
Chapter 11
Two years later…
Maddox
Drilling for natural gas is… well, it’s a hard, long, dirty job. And for the last six months I’d been on a crew in North Carolina, staying at a boarding house in Ashland. Usually I went out into the woods twice a week and let my bear out.
I’d always been afraid of letting my bear loose, but ever since that night, with Stormy, my bear and I have had an understanding of sorts. I let him out from time to time, and he stopped trying to tear his way out of me.
Even when things get hairy in my life, and stressful, he lets me handle it.
Running into other shifters is rare, but when it does happen my bear gazes through my eyes and the shifters usually leave me alone.
A lone bear is nothing most shifters want to mess with.
Today I showered at the site and pulled on some clean clothes. I’d worked an early shift, which was fine with me, but then I’m always restless afterward.
I paid my rent—always early.
I picked up some extra sweats, jeans, underwear, and t-shirts at Walmart—a werebear/fracking miner can never have enough expendable clothing.
I picked up a cart full of snack food and lunchmeat. Werebears eat like pigs.
I gassed up my truck, a sleek red Silverado I’d paid off earlier this year.
This took only a couple hours out of what was left of my night.
Maybe I could stay in town, go to a movie, grab a pizza…
But none of that seemed to appeal to me.
I was more than restless tonight.
I was thinking about Stormy.
Shiiit… I didn’t even know the woman’s last name.
I didn’t know where she was from. Nothing.
All I had was that letter she’d left me, folded up in my billfold.
Maddox,
I’m not ready for this, for you… for us. I’m too messed up, and so are you.
But… someday, when you’re ready, I hope I will be too.
Stormy
It still smelled of her, barely. The woman was all kinds of hot, and brave and good.
But would it have killed her to leave me an address?
A phone number?
Her last name?
I gave up killing time. Maybe once I was home I’d find something to occupy my time.
I got what I wished for.
It was raining when I pulled up to the boarding house.
Nonna was waiting for me when I got out of the truck.
She sat on the rain-slicked steps, prim and proper as always, not a hair out of place in her gray bun… and not a drop of rain on her.
Death had its benefits, I guess.
“So,” she’d said, popping a mint in her mouth, “You ready to go find your mate?”
I hadn’t thought about it, but I realized right then and there that my bear was healed. Had been for a while.
And he and I both wanted just one thing now.
Stormy…
“Fucking right I am,” I’d said.
“Language, Maddox,” Nonna had chortled.
I packed my few belongings, packed up my truck and got behind the wheel.
“Which way?” I asked her.
“West, dear boy. Your mate is due west.”
West.
“That’s good for me,” I said.
As long as I was headed toward Stormy.
My Stormy…
***End***
Want more of Stormy and Maddox? Their HEA? Check out Claimed Bear: Ferro Mountains Book 1. Out now!
And Risen Bear: Ferro Mountains Book 2
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Also by Alice Bello
Better Off Dead: A Lucy Hart, Deathdealer Novel
Not Dead Yet: A Lucy Hart, Deathdealer Novel
Dead and Buried: A Lucy Hart, Deathdealer Novel (TBA)
Min’s Vampire
Andromeda’s Knight (TBA)
Hope Breaks
Hope Entangles
Hope Rises
Bette’s Turn
Raphael’s Way (TBA)
Broken Bear: Grayslake, More than Mated
Claimed Bear, Book 1: Ferro Mountains
Risen Bear, Book 2: Ferro Mountains
Found Bear: Grayslake, More than Mated (TBA)
Hate Him (Book 1)
Hate Him (Book 2)
Hate Him (Book 3) (TBA)
Lance’s Choice (TBA)
Want Him: Prequel to Hate Him
Girl Rush: A Novel (TBA)
Un-Dateable: A Novel
About Me:
Let me introduce myself. I'm forty-four, and a proud indie author. I write New Adult, Contemporary and Paranormal Romance. I love sexy alpha males, brooding and sparkly vampires, and I love, love, love pizza… chocolate and bomb pops.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11