Page 48 of Coveted By the Bear

The words hurt. I didn’t want to scare him. All I wanted to do was make him happy. “I don’t mean to.”

He wrapped his arms around my chest and pulled me close. Inhaling deeply, like he was smelling my hair, he leaned his cheek against mine. “I know.” The words rumbled against my back, and the soft brush of his lips against my neck made me shiver.

“What was that?” he asked, a smile in his voice as he froze against the sensitive skin of my throat.

“It feels nice when you touch me. I think about what we did in your truck a lot.” The admission brought heat to my cheeks.

His breath shook as moments stretched on. I twisted, leaning my cheek against the tripping pulse in his throat. His eyes were a raging storm when I eased back, and he searched my face for something I couldn’t fathom. Slowly, I lifted my lips to his.

His lips crashed onto mine with none of the patience or restraint he’d shown at the parade. Out here, we could be us, and right now, I didn’t want gentle either. I wanted him to show me how much I meant to him without words. His mouth moved against mine, stroking, lapping, enticing my lips to open for him, and when I did, a helpless-sounding growl escaped his throat. His hands tangled in my hair, and then he turned me to face him. His tongue stroked against mine and made me yearn for more.

As he palmed the back of my head, the soft sound of his growl rattled against my ears. I relaxed my neck and let him have my lips. Commanding and powerful, he drew more and more from me until I was left breathless and wanting. His hand brushed my collarbone and trailed down to my waist, dragging fire as I wrapped my arms around the back of his neck. It still wasn’t enough.

How long we stayed there like that, wrapped up in each other, I couldn’t guess. The sun was lower, and clouds had come in from the east, but that seemed less important than Caleb’s burning touch. He pulled my shirt to the side and kissed the circular scars, and I couldn’t find it in me to care about the memories they caused. Caleb was healing me with his touch. With his mouth urgent against my skin, I moaned and gripped his hair as he reached the base of my throat.

“Caleb,” I pleaded.

His arms tensed around me. “Did I hurt you?”

“I want more. I feel like I want—” God, what did I feel? Everything. Rightness. I wanted more of him, but what did that even mean? I tugged on his earlobe with gentle lips.

“Mira, I didn’t come out here to take advantage,” he rasped, his hands clenching my sides as I nestled even closer.

“Stop,” I implored. “Words like that taint what this is. I know what I want, Caleb.” As I straddled his lap, his breath hitched.

His hands ran up my back and gripped my shoulders, pulling me against him as I rocked gently.

“Shit,” he gritted out, as I rolled my hips again. “Mira, we’re not ready. This isn’t how I want it for our first time.”

My instinct was to feel the slap of rejection. I hadn’t ever been intimate with a boy besides him, and insecurity told me I was doing this wrong. But then again, I liked the way he’d said that. “Have you thought about us together before?”

I raked my fingers through his hair, and he leaned back against the tree with a sigh. “Of course, I’ve thought about it.” He grasped my hips in an almost painful grip. “I saw you without a shirt on, remember?”

Pleasure filled me at affecting him so deeply. I hadn’t had much time to worry over vanity since I had moved here, but his admission made me feel beautiful. “So, you don’t want our first time to be here?”

“It’s not my first time,” he said, the smile dropping from his face. “But it’s yours. I want it to be better.”

“You mean special?” My heart was expanding so fast, I’d burst.

“Yeah, Mira. You’re special. And our first time is going to be important. It feels like it, right?”

Unable to speak, I nodded.

“We’ll remember it for a long time, and I don’t want that part of our relationship to happen too early. And I definitely don’t want it to happen out in the woods on an old blanket.” Caleb lifted his hands to my neck and massaged it gently. “I want to take you out. Do this right.”

“Are you going to ask me on a date, Caleb McCreedy?”

“I am, but not right now.”

“Why not?” I rocked against the hard seam of his pants again, and his eyes rolled closed.

He stopped my motion by gripping my waist and leveled me with a serious look. “Because right now I’m tempted to ask you out tonight so I can take you back to my place as soon as possible. It kind of defeats what I’m trying to do for us.”

With an explosive sigh, I fell backward onto the blanket and stretched out, frowning at the leaves above. “Who’s driving who crazy now?”

****

Caleb