Page 63 of Coveted By the Bear

His lips found the tripping pulse at my throat and he thrust into me again, a little deeper this time. He was trying to be gentle for my first time, but I felt an acute desperation for more. Rolling my hips against him, I let out the moan that had filled my throat. He pressed in farther, filling and stretching me. It hurt, but he’d done well to prepare me and make sure I was ready for him. The pleasure outweighed the discomfort, and I rocked with him again.

As his arms flexed, I ran my hands up the strong curve of them. He seemed to be holding back so I said, “Look at me.”

Another shallow thrust, and he gritted his teeth, easing back. His eyes were the most alluring color. Golds and greens, fire and woods, and as he settled his gaze on me, he looked utterly helpless for a moment. “I can’t stop.”

Why would I want him too? “Good. Then don’t.”

With a feral growl, he pressed into me until I could feel his hips against mine. I cried out at how good it felt when he pressed onto the sensitive nub nestled in my slick folds. Tangling his hands with mine, his gaze never left me as he eased into me again, filling me until my insides pulled tight. As I moved with him, he closed his eyes for a moment, and his lips fell to mine. His mouth moved against me, and I opened to allow his tongue to brush mine in a delicious mimic of the penetration that had me straining for release.

The muscles in his arms shook as he gritted his teeth. He turned away for a moment before returning his gaze to mine—a glimpse of the raw lust that he was trying so hard to control. Someday, we’d buck and crash into each other and scream. That much was promised in the barely controlled power Caleb held in check now, but for tonight, he was determined to make this first time comfortable for me. He wouldn’t risk hurting me when I was so new and raw. With the realization, I loved him even more.

His hips moved faster and faster until the pressure inside of me became too much. He froze just as I came, and his shaft swelled inside of me and began to pulse in rhythm to my own orgasm.

“Jesus, woman,” he rasped against my neck. His teeth grazed the tender skin there, and I held him tighter. “My animal…I feel different.”

“Good different or bad different?”

He pulled back, panting. The color of his eyes still blazed unnaturally, but a small smile crooked his sensual lips. “You feel like you’re mine now, Mira.”

I couldn’t help the grin that took my face. That was the best combination of words I’d ever heard. “I was always yours.”

“Yeah, but this feels…” His eyes had taken on a faraway look. “It feels really important. Like we’re linked or something now. You’re my woman.”

“No, Caleb. I’m your mate.” The word felt right. I was more than his woman or his girlfriend. Something life-altering and permanent had been happening to us since the day I found him bleeding on my land. Tonight had sealed whatever fate we’d fallen into. No more trying to set the other free, or trying to stay away from each other. From here on, it wasn’t an option to be apart. Everything in me knew it was true. Caleb disliked what he’d become. He regretted the bear, but that animal side of him had given us something no normal couple could have.

He’d just bonded us.

Chapter Twenty-Two

Caleb

I awoke in the dark. Surprising, because I was an early riser, just not this early. Motionless, I waited for the subtle something that had peeled away the layers of my slumber to reveal itself. Mira lay with her head on my chest, and I stroked her hair to remind myself that she was real. That she was mine.

Silence.

I relaxed, and she stretched her legs with a faint sleep noise. I bent down to kiss her forehead but stopped when light passed over the bedroom window. I lay frozen, hoping my inner bear’s gnawing instinct to wake her and flee was wrong somehow. And then I smelled it.

“Mira,” I whispered. “Mira, wake up.” I shook her gently but urgently.

She tensed and sat ramrod straight. “I smell gasoline.”

It wasn’t just my imagination then.

“He’s here,” she said, fear dripping from her strangled whisper. She jolted up and searched in vain for her clothes in the dark. They still sat in a wet puddle in the washer. The best she could do was my pull on my oversized shirt she had worn earlier. “Where are your guns?”

I pulled on my pants and shook my head. “In a gun safe at my dad’s house.”

“You don’t have any weapons here.” She hadn’t asked but stated it with a twinge of defeat in her voice.

I yanked the phone off the receiver and pushed the talk button with more force than necessary. No dial tone. “Phone’s not working.”

“He cut the phone lines. You have a cell phone?”

I checked my cell for the hundredth time since I’d moved in with the same results. “Zero reception out here. I have to drive up the road by your place to get any bars.”

She cursed quietly as I led her into the kitchen. I pulled the biggest knife I owned out of the butcher’s block and secured it into the back of my jeans. The metal was cold and unforgiving against my skin, but I didn’t mind. It reminded me that it was there.

“McCreedy, send my girl on out here,” a man drawled. The voice of Angus French was as cold as the blade behind me. “My beef ain’t with you.”