Bear His Bond: Wylde Den Two (Alaskan Den Men Book 9) (2 page)

Crimson brushed a wide length up her spine and settled in her cheeks. “I do have a soft spot for the stuff. I should have warned you I like it on everything.”

God, he could devour her night and day.

Could this be love? He shook his head and dashed away the joke his senses were playing.

No way. He saw it every day between his older brother and his new mate. It looked nothing like the fling he and Pepper shared. He had to admit, having her at his mercy, beneath him and calling to his bear flared something else to life in the pit of his soul. He dared to let his gaze slide down her arched back to fall on her exposed bottom.

No, this was only lust.

With a hand around her waist, he flipped her over to land in the soft bedding. Having her ass up in the air affected his senses.

Harsh breaths tore from him, and as he stared into her eyes, the surprise he saw gunned his instinct into overdrive. Everything—the wind, the faint birds beyond the windowpane and even the elk grazing a few hundred yards away—hit his heightened senses. As did the faint uptick of Pepper’s heartbeat.

She draped her arms around his neck, her tied wrists pressed into the back of his neck. He let loose a chest deep growl and jerked away her blindfold. He bent over, pressing their combined weight into the mattress. “I’m going to fuck you until all you know is my name and the way I make you feel as you reach your end. God, Pepper, stop looking at me like that.”

Another whisper of her thoughts brushed his mind and he jerked back, eyes wide. Instead of vague lights and colors, this time he saw more in-depth images. Images of him with her with a look on his face that didn’t say weekend fling by a long shot. “That’s not supposed to happen.”

She stared up at him in confusion before her eyes slipped closed. Their thoughts momentarily synced and her pleasure became his. He watched as Pepper realized what was happening.

“What was that?” Pepper tightened her thighs around his waist while her fingers buried into the long lengths of his hair.

He jerked to his knees, taking her with him, and the connection snapped.

“Your eyes. They’re gorgeous. What’s going on, Everett?” Her voice barely above a whisper but crystal clear to his keen hearing. Hunger and need burned brightly in her eyes. Lava would be colder than the hellfire that flowed through his veins. Heat beyond what a normal man would bear carved a path through him and his mind shut down for a brief second. One second too many.

Pure instinct filtered his every thought and movement. Blinded by the need to mate, he drove forward and sank his full length into her waiting channel.

Starbursts of lights shattered any remnants of control, and he let the wave of ecstasy carry him through.

Talons cut into his back and the sharp inhale of pleasure from his mate snapped his eyes open.

His heart rate rattled and thumped wildly. Every breath just as haggard. A sweet ache in his mouth told him his bear was serious about this one.

Hell.

Was this it? It couldn’t be. As though anchors moored his eyes closed, he fought back the encroaching takeover of his body and slowly regained enough control to withstand sinking his teeth into her flesh and bonding her to him.

That could never happen. Not if he wanted to live beyond loving her.

He pulled his gaze away from her. “Just feel, sweetheart. Let me carry you away. Trust me.” Though he didn’t recommend it. Tying her to him meant she’d lose in the long run. Offering her all of him meant more than he could sign on for.

As he spoke, his lips moved against hers. He captured her moaned acceptance as he delved into the sweet confines of her delicious mouth.

With an arm around her waist, he held her close and groaned when her fingers tightened in his hair as he took their kiss deeper. He slowly relented control and gave over to her curious exploring. Anything to have her focus shifted from what just happened. He didn’t have answers to give. But he did know how to answer what her body asked from him.

She met his thrusts as he drove into her long and slow.

Damn the Draeonians and their meddlesome ways. As first otherworldlies, they discovered the power hidden within the ley lines that crisscrossed the planet and bound the strongest of spirits to the human race fierce enough to wield their energy. Dragons, witches, shifters, fae—they all derived from the same forces of magick. In order to keep a balance within the energy gifted by the supernatural forces of their planet the Draeonians also destined werebears to mate with humans. But no one ever said finding their true mate would be out of his control and damn near instant. That was the part he didn’t like. Instinct didn’t need to drive him into the arms of a woman. That part was his choice, not some invisible force he had no control over. And no desire for.

He pulled out and peered down his chest to see the crest of his cock slip from her channel, her swollen folds parted around him.

Spread wide, he ran the tip of his cock along her seam and groaned when the scent of her arousal hit him full force. It was all he could do not to slam into and ride her hard, all finesse shoved aside for another time.

He reached beneath her and cupped her ass, angling her up, and in one thrust settled his full length in her tight sheath. Muscles trembled around him and nails bit into shoulders.

He broke their kiss and reached behind him to free her hands.

Even though they didn’t share a full connection, he could feel the hum of her thoughts as they reached out, searching for the connection he knew she didn’t understand. As if his bear worked on forging a bond despite his efforts to stay disconnected.

He rose to his knees, and blue eyes warmed a point on his chest and begged him to look her way. He could feel what she wanted without the words. His breath quickened, and his heart damn near tumbled out of place. But he kept his gaze glued to his cock as Pepper took his full length.

He eased back and thrust home.

“Like what?”

He worked his dry throat while she took all of him into her.

“What?” He brought his head up. How could this woman keep any thought straight at a time like this? What did he miss?

Pepper waited patiently, watching, hopeful and waiting. “Don’t look at you how? Like I want you to promise you’ll erase all my memories of sex with anyone else?” She reached between their bodies and wrapped her delicate fingers around his shaft. Sweet heavens. He groaned and nearly lost himself when he pushed back in. Her channel clenched around him, replacing the tight grip of her hand. She nearly had his eyes rolling out of his head.

“Seems fair
if
you don’t stop until I’m all you can feel beneath you. Until you can’t think anymore, no?” she continued, unaware of the internal war tearing him apart. Otherwise, he was pretty sure she’d be trying to give him CPR.

Instead, she gathered handfuls of cotton as he tightened his fingers around her sun-kissed thighs and buried himself deeper.

Tingles of magick coursed through him, and the mark on his arm flared with invisible current.

Fuck.

Balanced on his knees, he pushed forward as he pulled her in closer, her legs wrapped around his waist. His efforts returned with a deep moan and the sight of her beautiful breasts thrust in the air sent a surge of blood south to engorge his cock further.

He’d meant to take things slow. Enjoy a nice plane ride, show her the sights while she performed her job as a wildlife veterinarian. The second her pink lips wrapped around his shaft at three thousand feet over the national reserve, slow was no longer an option, and his meticulously laid out plan to distance himself took a steep nosedive.

“God, woman, you’re so fucking tight and wet. Fuck... so wet.”

He hauled her into his arms to rest on his spread thighs. She sank deeper onto his shaft, and he marveled at how the dusky tips of her breasts beaded under the soft, warming sunlight.

Anchoring her thighs tight around his, and with his hands firmly on around her waist, he lifted, driving in as she tightened her hold with her thighs. Everett spoke her name on a whisper. Just like yesterday she loved taking control as much as she loved giving it.

He rewarded her wicked, daring look with a flicker of a smile. “If you make me come too fast, I’ll fuck you again and this time, I won’t untie you until I’ve had my fill.” It would kill him, steal every ounce of control he harbored but anything to see the look of pure, unabashed ecstasy in those deep green eyes.

Desperate, he ground his knees into the bed and fought the urge to come until every breath they took came out ragged and torn and they were both coated in a fine sheen of sweat. Claws raked over his shoulders and back. He drove into her harder, earning him a few more love marks. His balls drew tight against his body.

Gripping his hands, Pepper’s head fell back and the loud scream of release came just in time. Hot ribbons of his sperm released into the confines of the condom as her core quaked around his shaft, extending his orgasm.

After long seconds, with her hands pressed into his shoulders, Pepper let her head fall back. Hand to God, the sun caught her raven hair in a way that made him swear he had an angel in his arms.

They fell into the waiting mound of pillows, and he pulled her closer still. She began that maddening play she did with her fingers along his tattoo when she wanted his attention. Mesmerizing, but the more she touched the mark of his den, of his ancestors and the mark he shared with his lost twin, the more he wanted her. The more he couldn’t have her.

“Does it count if we come together or do you still want to punish me?”

Everett took a long breath. His devilish angel would be the death of him.

CHAPTER TWO

She was in trouble.

One more day with him and she’d never be able to leave.

Pepper batted at the cloud of mosquitoes that took up residence in her personal space the second they stepped outside and relented to give any of it back. Despite the ton of lotion, she used they seemed to be fixated with her blood.

“Little blood-sucking, pestering vampires.” She scrunched up her nose and swatted at the air to no avail.

Every step she took through the long grass around the lake kicked up more bloodsuckers to join the feast.

Fresh mountain air, lightly fragranced from the spill of wildflowers, threaded through the long grass along the lake’s bank to create a sweeping symphony of feather-light whispers. As though fairies sang for Mother Nature and they were privy to the supernatural delight.

She smiled, causing her confounded glasses to slip a little down her nose. Why could she never remember her contacts?

Her father would say all because of her daydreams— fancy flights from reality and then hand her a broom to sweep the flower shop he’d built from the ground up with her mother. Half for her mother’s hardcore botany thumb, and half so he could bring her flowers every day. Her mother was lucky.

With every anniversary they celebrated the more Pepper wanted a love like they shared.

But just because her father came off as a hopeless romantic didn’t mean he understood Pepper’s need to explore. Or why she needed to ‘run off’ to Alaska. But he supported her even if he did shake his head at her the whole time he kissed and hugged her goodbye at the airport.

Sun draped across the open expanse of field and across the pristine blue expanse of water as though precious gems scattered across the surface. She loved the heat and the way the light warmed her from the inside out. After an unusually long winter, she made it a personal goal to soak up all the sunshine she could get.

Pepper let her eyelids slip closed as she raised her face, loving the warmth after three weeks of hellish snow as winter refused to relinquish its hold. Used to sand and brine, the fresh mountain air was a welcomed change.

Everett brushed a hand over her shoulder and pointed to an elk splashing and playing in the water several yards from them.

“Maybe a dip in the water is just what the doctor ordered?” Everett spoke up beside her, placing her satchel on the ground and moving in with a mischievous smile.

Anything else he had to say got lost as she devoured his easy glide and the way his pants clung to his hips. He’d pulled off his shirt several yards back on their hike and she’d had a hard time looking away since.

Now, the sunlight caught the raised edges of his marking along his right shoulder and down his arm. It shimmered like the water and proved hard to look away from.

But, they were here for a job. Truth of the matter was, the closer he came the hotter the air sizzled. So hot her skin flushed with a heat she couldn’t blame on the warm weather. Another foot closer and she wouldn’t be responsible for showing him her bad girl charms could match his play for play.

She backed a couple of steps away from the water’s edge and shot him a wide-eyed look. “Don’t you dare! We’re here to work. You know that thing we do to make a living and the whole point of my being here?”

“Ah, yes. You mean you’re not here because I placed an order with the Universe for a raven-haired beauty in cutoffs, a messy ponytail, and the sexiest blue scarf?” Everett fingered the soft material of her scarf before he reached around to tug the long strands of her ponytail hanging down her back. He chuckled, the deep rumble smoothed over her like a tall glass of iced tea. But that wasn’t what had her heart sputtering to a stop mid-beat.

The dimples on that man. She barely managed to hold back a silly high school sigh. With a gasp Pepper pressed up on her toes as Everett swept down briefly and curled an arm around her waist.

“Be careful the scarf comes off, like everything else,” she teased in a husky tone she didn’t recognize as her own as he scooped her into his arms. Before she knew her feet had left the ground, he had his lips on hers. One leg at a time she curled herself around his waist made to support her, and every nerve ending he calmed fired to life.

Besides, if he threw her in the lake, he was going down with her.

She rocked her hips in small circles and felt the length of his shaft grow hard against the apex of her thighs.

“You’re a dangerous girl, Pepper Cambridge. Pure sin and temptation.”

With the free hand not clutching her protective water gear, she ran her fingers through the mass of thick chestnut hair and groaned at the soft feel as it feathered through her fingers. “You’re not so bad yourself.” She shrugged. “For a werebear, ya know.” A sly smile inched the corners of her lips up when he pulled back in surprise. She nipped his lower lip with a playful tug before unhooking her legs.

“Liar. You can’t say that with a straight face.”

Busted. He straightened and his chest filled out the full expanse of his well-worn tee. Every muscle that flexed under her touch had a direct line to her libido. All he had to do was dial her number with those simmering golden eyes and she’d be hung up forever.

“No going back after you’ve had a Wylde man, Doc. Thought you knew that,” he crooned close to her ear as he lightly deposited her back on Tierra Firma with a final kiss to the tip of her nose and a rueful grin. “It’s the way lust goes.”

Ever since they crawled out of bed he’d been a little distant. Not wanting to make too much eye contact and even now with her light teases, he didn’t take the bait. She scrunched her nose. With one word he doused whatever remained of the flames.

Damn him. “Doc, huh?” She paused with her thumbs hooked in her back pockets and away from the trouble he conjured in her. “Did you practice that line since junior high?” She flicked over her shoulder as she turned to gather her gear.

Over the past few weeks of their friends with benefits scenario when she sensed things get too serious, he’d stack an invisible wall and hide behind jokes and her profession rather than her name. It took a while for her to read the clues, but she got the hint after one night of hanging out at his brother’s bar. One slow dance and what would have been a night of salacious orgasms and breaking headboards back at her house turned into him needing to prepare for a climb the next day and a, “See you later, Doc.” Before hitting the door.

He didn’t want personal, only fun times. She got that really, but the little pang that pierced her heart told another story.

She blew out a deep breath through her nose. Frustration wanted to break the happy bubble encasing their early morning and now the beautiful hike, but she dashed it away. She’d never understand him. Not now and maybe not a year from now when she looked back on her time in Alaska. Better to stay in the here and now.

“Here, hold these, will you?” Pepper handed over her environmental testing kit and bent down to pull on her knee-high waders.

Too much contact with him would end up with them both taking in massive amounts of sunlight with their naked bodies, which she wasn’t opposed to, but the way he slipped those damn aviator glasses over his eyes gave her pause. He stood over her, his attention sliding to the surrounding wooded areas.

After kicking off her hiking shoes, Pepper plopped down in the soft grass and craned her head back. Shielding her eyes from the sunlight, she watched one large brow arch over the rim of his sunglasses.

With a soft touch to her cheek where a dimple was located in his own, she kept her tone light. “I bet you use those angel kisses on everyone, don’t you? I’m simply the latest victim. Admit it. You’ve lured me to the backwoods where no one can hear my screams.”

He stared down at her for a moment before his face took on the same shocked look he got when accused of pulling a prank on his unsuspecting siblings. He gasped with the full hand-to-the chest effect and let his mouth fall open. What a faker. But he made her smile, and the way his grin spread across his lips worked magic on dissolving the hurt feelings from a moment ago.

“First, if you’re talking about my smile and smashing good looks, then you might be right. Between you and me, I’ve been known to flash Mrs. Marty down at the donut shop a few smiles for one of her heart-stopping, double-dipped chocolate fudge brownies.” He licked his lips and raised his face up to the sun as if praying for one to fall into his hands right that minute. A small laugh slipped and she bit at her lips to hide the smile. Damn him. He always knew how to make her laugh, especially when she desperately tried not to.

Before arriving in Claw Ridge two months earlier, she had no idea such a sinful brownie existed. As a Los Angeles native, she was no newbie to the delicacies a coffee shop offered. After her stay here, she’d have a hard time breaking her own addiction, in more ways than one.

“Oh really. So if I learn how to make those what would you flash me?”

The tips of his mouth curved up into a purely evil grin. It reached into the amber depths of his eyes until they brimmed with a mesmerizing mischief.

She crossed her hands over her breasts and the motion pulled the T-shirt beneath the dangling ends of her scarf tight across her chest, earning her a hot look. With one army-green wader on and the other momentarily forgotten to the side, she squinted her eyes and shot him a quizzical glare. “Everett Wylde, what are you thinking?”

“How good you would taste as a chocolate caramel, double-dipped dessert.” Emphasis on caramel. The man’s sweet tooth would be her downfall.

Pepper bit back a gasp that threatened to be a deep groan as she imagined the sensation his fantasy whipped up. “Don’t let anyone ever accuse you of holding back.” She
tsked
and returned to her task. “Be good and let me get my work done and you might find out what chocolate tastes like on this caramel dessert.” She stroked her hands down either side of her body and winked.

He was dangerously too easy on the eyes. If she did not watch it, it wouldn’t only be the brownies she missed when the summer fun ended and she returned to her life back in California. A shudder crossed the back of his shoulders before he slipped his gaze behind a pair of aviator glasses. What a shame.

“So what’s the second thing?” She bit at the inside of her lower lip to rein in the grin wanting to spread across her face from the obvious way she affected him. He could try to hide it all he wanted.

He offered her a hand and hauled her up. A deep crease formed between his brows in a way that almost had her convinced of something serious to come.

“Second,” he leaned until their noses almost touched and slid those damn sexy glasses down a fraction to peg her with a look that said he was being one hundred percent honest, “I’m not the one that packed enough scarves to rescue Rapunzel from her tower or, as I fear, tie up a helpless werebear.” He rose to his full height, pushing his glasses back in place. “Wait.” He clasped both hands over his mouth. “I fell into your wicked trap, didn’t I? Admit it, woman. You’ve lured
me
here to where no one can hear
my
screams!”

Everett barely got his last words out before Pepper gave him a stiff jab to the ribs. “Oh shut up, you big silly bear. Not that I’ve ever witnessed your shift. And everyone that knows you would never use helpless as a way to describe you.”

“Oomph.” Rubbing at his side, he backed up with the biggest grin on his face. “Really, how would you describe me?”

She gathered several vials from her kit, avoiding making any eye contact.

It took everything she had not to tackle him to the ground and show him how damn irresistible she found him. Make him really scared of her and what she could do with the piece of rope she had in her satchel and her imagination. This deep in the woods, no one would hear either of their screams.

Everett doubled over, his hands braced on his knees laughing.

“You’re insufferable, that’s what I think. How do any of your family put up with you?” Pepper giggled, sidestepping his question for the most part.

Waves of cool air swept up from the lake to ruffle the loose strands by her face. Everett reached between them and caught a long piece teasing the corner of her lip.

He drank in the sight of her from rubber boots to her sloppy up-do bun and crop top. “And you are beautiful in full doctor mode.”