The Way to a Bear's Heart

by Ophelia Bell

  Sliding her fingers between her thighs, she found her clit, slick and hot and unbelievably swollen with need. She couldn’t help but gasp as she gave herself one light stroke, her eyelids fluttering closed at the intensity. Her channel clenched hard around him and he emitted a low growl of encouragement as he rose up to meet her downward thrusts.

  Biting her lower lip, she couldn’t help but watch his face as he watched her. She clutched one breast, squeezing and pinching her nipple while she swirled her fingers between her thighs in quicker strokes, a rush of sensation already flooding her lower extremities.

  Gaius’ lips parted and his chest heaved. His eyes blazed with need and he dropped his hands to her hips, squeezing and urging her to a quicker tempo.

  He’d taken over control, easily guiding her up and down his cock as he rocked his own hips into her with increasingly needy, violent thrusts. Nessa’s eyelids fluttered half-closed and she let out a long, rough moan when her orgasm blasted through her. Gaius looked completely enraptured at her crumbling, and a second later, he slammed hard into her and held her tight against his hips as his cock pulsed. The slow throbbing beat of him sent prolonged tremors through her body and she licked her lips, exhausted yet unwilling to move just yet and interrupt the delicious sensations.

  His body relaxed by increments, his cock slowly softening inside her. He reached up and pulled her down to his chest, kissing her deeply and wrapping his strong arms around her torso. She settled against him, oddly content and more sated than she’d ever been after sex.

  12

  Nessa returned to semi-consciousness later. She must have dozed for a while, because the room was dark, the moon having moved across the sky and no longer bestowing its light on their little tryst. Gaius held her close, body curled around hers, his warm, hard chest pressed against her back. It had grown chilly, but she was toasty warm, thanks to the blankets he must have covered them with while she slept.

  She felt so damn good she didn’t want to leave, but spending the entire night in the man’s bed would set a terrible precedent. They could only coexist professionally. The fact that they’d had mind-blowing sex for hours that night didn’t change how they would have to act toward one another during the day.

  Nessa eased herself out of his embrace, hoping the evening fog hadn’t descended yet and soaked her clothes through yet again where they hung on his clothesline outside. She could sneak out, take the rest of the weekend to come to her senses, and shake this weird need she’d acquired since visiting him—the need to stay despite all indications that it was a bad idea.

  She swallowed when she saw how far the edge of the bed was. Had the thing somehow gotten bigger while she slept? Slowly, she crawled toward the far end, practically holding her breath so she didn’t wake him. She barely made it a couple feet when he reached out, gripped her wrist, and squeezed.

  “Oh, no you don’t,” Gaius rumbled. He rose up and toppled her over, pressing her back into the bed as he straddled her.

  “Gaius,” she breathed. “I should go home. This was nice, but . . .”

  “But what? You don’t like my bed? If you want, we can move back to the stairs.”

  “Your bed’s fine. I just need to go.”

  “For what? I know Ig and Bry are gone all weekend for the annual League banquet. You don’t need to be anywhere but in my bed. You’re staying.”

  Nessa bristled. “I don’t need a reason. If I want to go, I’m going!”

  Gaius shook his head and settled himself between her thighs. His elbows sank into the bed on either side of her and his face hovered just above hers, his breath tickling her lips. Nessa’s heartbeat sped up when she realized he was hard again, his cock hot and heavy against her hip.

  “The thing is, I don’t believe you really want to go, do you?” He drifted his lips across her cheek from the corner of her mouth to the sensitive skin beneath her ear. His beard tickled in the most delicious way, sending a tingling rush of sensation to her nipples and straight between her thighs. “You wouldn’t have even gotten into my bed to begin with, if you didn’t want to be here.”

  “Gaius, we need to be adults about this. The sex was great, but it’s a bad idea to get comfortable.”

  His mouth and tongue tickled over her shoulder as he slipped lower, one big hand palming her breast before he tweaked her nipple, making her gasp. “Like I said, the stairs are right over there. But you’re not going home until I’m done with you.”

  Nessa groaned, partly from frustration and partly from the delicious pleasure that flooded her when he captured her nipple between his lips and sucked hard. She involuntarily lifted her hips, aching for more contact between her thighs. Her entire body craved more of him. It was crazy she could want more after the night they’d already had, but she did.

  “You are infuriating,” she complained, but didn’t move when he slid down and knelt between her thighs. He slipped his hands down over her sides, beneath her legs, and pushed them wide. There was no mistaking his intention, and her core flooded with want for exactly what his gaze promised.

  Gaius licked his lips as he parted her folds with his thumbs, sliding one digit through the flooded channel before sinking it into her.

  “Pretty sure all this has nothing to do with the idea of climbing into your own bed alone.”

  “Please . . .”

  “Please what? I know you want to tell me, Ness. You want my dick, or my tongue? Your choice.”

  He slipped his thumb back out of her and began rubbing slow, tight circles over her clit.

  Her body buzzed with need and she tilted her hips up into his touch. Then he stopped.

  She glared at him.

  “You’re the boss here, baby. What do you want?”

  Her bear was already beside itself, ready to pounce on him. He had asked for a decision. Either-or. But she wanted it all.

  “Your tongue,” she finally said. “Lick me. Make me come with your mouth. Then I want you to fuck me, but . . .” The image of what she craved—what her she-bear growled for—flitted through her mind.

  “But?” Gaius prompted.

  “When you fuck me, do it from behind.”

  He bared his teeth in a salacious grin. “You got it, babe.”

  He immediately settled against the mattress, his broad shoulders pressed against her backside with his palms holding her spread open as far as she could go. Beginning with a slow lick, he traced her cleft with the tip of his tongue all the way from her ass to her clit, drawing out the action until she groaned. He seemed intent on teasing her, probably because he wanted to make her beg again, but she wouldn’t give him the satisfaction.

  He tortured her for several more minutes with long, slow licks, each one greater proof of how fucking amazing he was at using that tongue. Nessa began to mentally plot her revenge, and the very idea of having her mouth on his cock drove her need to greater heights.

  Finally she lost patience and tangled her fingers in his hair, forcing his mouth over her clit. “Suck, damn you. Use your tongue there, on my clit.”

  His shoulders shook and a low, amused rumble rolled from him, sending pleasant waves of vibration through his mouth and straight into her core.

  “My pleasure,” he murmured against her flesh. A second later, he assaulted her aching clit with the perfect combination of sucking and licking, so quick and relentless she completely lost track of all sensation except what she felt between her thighs. Within moments, he had her at the edge and flying over with a loud yell, yanking at his hair and bucking up into his mouth.

  Before she’d even had a chance to come down, he grabbed her hips with both hands and flipped her over. He dragged her hips up off the bed and slammed his cock into her soaked pussy so hard she let out a yelp of surprise.

  Gaius’ rough grunts and rutting thrusts had her soaring again within seconds, and when he slid a thumb between her ass cheeks and pressed into her tight hole, she lost her mind completely. Her body clenched around him with her most mind-blowin
g climax yet, her cries this time coming out as hitching, gasping sobs that sounded completely unlike her. But he sounded less than himself as well, his voice rising in a roar that might have shattered glass if his house had windows.

  He hunched over her as his cock pulsed into her, teeth grazing her shoulder and leaving a tingling sensation and a weird longing behind. It was as if he’d thought to mark her, but decided against it, and she was both grateful and strangely disappointed.

  He hooked his arm around her waist and held her tight as he rolled them onto their sides, his cock still solidly buried deep in her. She reached for the blanket and tugged it partway up her body, Gaius grabbing the edge and covering them both as he settled against her with a low rumble of contentment.

  “You’re staying,” he said again, as if the argument hadn’t already been settled when he promised her oral sex.

  Nessa smiled to herself and bit her lip as she clenched her core around his half-hard shaft. “I’m a little trapped, so I guess I have no choice.”

  Gaius let out a low noise of approval, pushed his hips into her, and then relaxed.

  Nessa let go of the worry as well as she could. The truth was that she really didn’t want to leave. But that was the problem.

  The next time she woke up, the room was awash in a dim glow and Gaius’ callused hands were sliding over her body in slow caresses, squeezing and touching every inch of her he could reach. Heavy thickness stretched her core, the delicious fullness of his cock instantly heating her blood once again. How the hell could she still long to be fucked? She’d never been such a crazed, wanton female in her life.

  But good god, she still wanted him.

  She let out a moan of pleasure and pushed back into him, enjoying the languid rocking of his hips into hers from behind. He kept up the rough caresses, his mouth pressed to her ear and his panting breaths gusting hot across her cheek.

  “Can’t fucking get enough of you, Ness. Fuck, what you do to me . . .”

  “Don’t stop,” she said, even though he had shown no signs of ever stopping. He slipped a hand down her leg and gripped her knee, lifting her leg high to give himself better access. Behind her, he shifted positions, adjusting his legs and lifting his hips to spear her more directly.

  Nessa twisted her torso so she could see him. At that moment, one of Nova Aurora’s two suns broke over the mountains outside and gilded Gaius’ body in a beautiful glow. Instead of silver, all the gray threads in his hair and beard turned gold. His intricate tattoos stood out against his lighter skin now backlit by the sunrise.

  Nessa’s breath escaped her at the glorious sight, with his curly mop of dark hair shot through with silver half-hanging over his bearded face, his blue eyes intense as he slowly fucked her. He looked weary, yet for all the world, still intent on her pleasure. His cock thickened inside her and he shuddered, his mouth falling partway open. Without any cue from her, he slipped his hand down her thigh and found her clit, rubbing it in the perfect rhythmic tempo to drive her to the brink with him.

  They came in a tangle of limbs, Gaius wrapping his arms around her as he continued thrusting into her. At the very moment of their shared orgasm, the second sun burst over the horizon, flooding the entire house in brilliant light.

  Gaius landed on his side in front of her, their legs still entwined. He gave her a semi-irritated look belied by the twitching pull of a smile at the corner of his mouth. “I’m too damn old for this.”

  Nessa giggled. “Don’t blame me. If you’d let me leave last night, you could’ve gotten more sleep.”

  As if roused by the sunrise, both their bellies rumbled in unison. They gave each other equal looks of shock, then burst into laughter. When their mirth subsided, Nessa said, “I saw breakfast fixings in your fridge out there. I’ll go get something started.”

  She started to slip out of bed, hunting around for his old shirt as she made her way to the edge.

  “Not a chance,” Gaius said, easily climbing out of bed and ambling naked toward the door to the deck. “My house. My kitchen. I cook.”

  Nessa stared after him, filled with both envy and disappointment. She had yet to have him eat a meal of hers, but she couldn’t very well bully him out of his own kitchen to prove herself. With a little huff, she snatched up the shirt off the floor and tossed it on, following him out the door.

  It was hard to sulk for long. She sat by the dormant fire pit and propped her elbows on her knees, opting to enjoy the view of a big, naked, and perfectly proportioned bear cooking for her.

  “I could get used to this,” she said in a warning tone.

  Gaius chuffed and glanced at her as he whipped up whatever passed for breakfast to him. Then he came over and stoked up the banked coals until a low fire burned in the pit.

  “Better get comfortable, Ness, because I plan to make sure you get used to it.”

  13

  Gaius wasn’t sure exactly when he’d decided he had to have her as his mate. For all he knew, the desire could have been building since they first set eyes on each other, or when he’d first seen her naked. Possibly it was when she’d tended to his aching knees with such no-nonsense, yet tender care. Or maybe it was during the fifth or sixth time he made her come that first night and still craved more.

  Probably it was when he’d first seen her wearing his old shirt.

  Whenever it was didn’t matter, because despite spending an entire weekend either making love in his bed, under the waterfall, or around his unfinished house, he could tell she was holding something back. When he was inside her, she was all his, giving herself to him wholeheartedly. But when they took a break to eat or, god forbid, sleep, he sensed her distance herself from him bit by bit.

  The end of the weekend came far too soon for his satisfaction. She’d been either naked or in his old shirt for two days straight, but when she slipped her own clothes back on, it was like a wall went up. She was still chipper and as bossy as ever, giving him final instructions on the liniment recipe for his knees. The only difference was that the bossiness made him want to take her back to bed just to hear her beg.

  But he restrained himself, settling into quiet contemplation after her transporter disappeared down his driveway. He wasn’t sure how to break through that resistance, even though he was damn sure they were meant for each other.

  Shaking his head, he wandered back into his house, deciding to take advantage of the remaining afternoon light to scratch a different itch.

  He threw off the tarp that covered his building materials still stacked in the middle of the empty house. He’d need to order more soon, but he had enough to get started on the bedroom. He was damn sure going to have her in his bed again, but the next time she came, he wanted a proper bed to make love to her in.

  14

  Nessa hesitated on her way out the door of the garden cottage. She was already late getting breakfast started for Ig and Bry, who would be finishing their dawn training and starving before too long. But for some inconceivable reason, Gaius had decided to show up early that morning, and the sounds of power tools and hammering had thrown her off.

  She wasn’t ready to see him again. What the hell had she been thinking, spending the entire weekend with him? She’d probably given him entirely the wrong idea. And now she’d have to face him and deal with the consequences—the inevitable cold, growly dismissal.

  Bracing herself, she let out a sigh and pushed through the doors, stalked across the garden, and in through the open door to the construction zone that would soon be her kitchen in Ig’s big house. It wasn’t until she stepped in that it occurred to her she could’ve easily walked around the house the long way to get to the lower level.

  But it was too late. Gaius saw her and immediately turned off the saw. “Morning, Ness,” he said with a smile and a wave.

  “Hi! Morning!” she chirped. “I’m late, gotta go.” She hurried past him without a glance back. If she didn’t hang around, she wouldn’t have the opportunity to say something dumb that would se
t him off and make him stop liking her.

  After breakfast, she sat with her meal planning notebooks, struggling to focus. The damn dumbwaiter carried every single sound down from the new kitchen, and along with the rhythmic sound of Gaius hammering, she couldn’t help but picture his muscles flexing. At first it was just the image of him wielding his hammer like the pro he was, but eventually the image of him above her, pounding into her with rhythmic precision, was the thing that got stuck in her head.

  “Hey, Ness. Ready to go tear out some vines?” Levi said, popping his head through her door.

  “God, yes.” Nessa hopped up and followed him out the door. At least Levi’s constant chatter would distract her from thoughts of the big bear.

  She managed to avoid seeing Gaius for the rest of the day. The hammering sounds stopped around mid-afternoon, signaling that he’d probably finished for the day and gone home. She went about the rest of the evening meal prep in a better frame of mind, now that the distraction of his work wasn’t bombarding her.

  She accepted Ig’s invitation to sit with him and Bry for supper and entertained herself listening to their banter about the recent banquet and their various conquests. Ig was ahead this year on their annual bet to see who’d bed the most female fans during the off-season. She felt sorry for the pair—when they finally met their actual mates, their dragons would have nothing to do with the bet anymore.

  Still, they were two of her closest friends, and sharing a bottle of wine and chatting with them made her feel somewhat normal, and at least sane again. There was no harm in enjoying a weekend of fun with Gaius, so she just needed to get over her sense that she’d left something unfinished with him.

  It was probably just a side-effect of all that amazing sex. She wanted more, but she’d survive without it. The man wanted something different, or else the matchmaker would probably have matched them up already. She had both their details, and had for some time.