Her Bah Humbug Bear (A BBW Paranormal Holiday Romance) (5 page)

His hands snapped in place on her arms, holding her away, or waiting to drag her forward, she didn’t know. She knew which one she wanted. To be drawn close to the perfectly masculine body just inches from hers.

“What are you doing?”

“Kissing you?”

He gave a grunt but she was rewarded by what she considered a smile curving his full lips as he asked, “Aren’t you sure?”

“Not really.”

“Then whoever has been kissing you hasn’t been doing it right.” His voice was a low rumble, part man, part bear. It did delicious things to her insides, like soak her pussy. Her body shivered reading the intent on his taut face. He was so going to do it right she thought, clenching her thighs together. She hoped with every fiber of her turned-on-body that he would be doing everything right.

When she’d shown up unexpectedly on his property, she’d expected him to tell her leave, to stop bothering him. Instead, he was looking at her with hunger in his eyes. He moved slowly, laying his hand along the side of her face. She tensed knowing exactly what would happen. Her bones seemed to liquefy and her senses spun out of control. She looked up and saw a muscle jerk in the hollow of his cheek, and felt the strength of his body, perhaps even a hint of the animal he carried inside. The deep gray color of his eyes danced with fire. She had plenty of time to pull back. Instead, she leaned into his touch, wanting it more than she’d ever wanted anything in her life.

“Dirk.” Her breath floated across his lips.

His breathing grew heavy and then he was lowering his head and capturing her lips with his.

And it wasn’t just any kiss.

He dragged her up against his chest, his lips covering hers in a kiss filled with passion and power. Because she wanted him so much, she opened her mouth willingly beneath his. His tongue thrust instantly inside, sweeping past her teeth, tangling with her tongue. Her arms curled around his neck, trying to pull him even closer. Oh, yeah, he was right. The few men who had kissed her hadn’t been doing it right.

One of his large hands cupped the back of her head, tilting her head to a new angle. Now he was thrusting in and out of her eager mouth, challenging her to keep the pace. After several moments, she had to pull back in order to draw air into her lungs. “Wow. Feels forbidden… and fantastic.”

He growled a throaty purr of agreement against her throat. “More.”

She felt his breath against her neck and before she could answer, he was kissing her again. A tremor moved through her, followed by a wave of heat that burned through her body right down to her toes. His lips worked their magic as he coaxed hers apart with his teeth and his tongue. Each nip of his teeth on her bottom lip had her head spinning. Each quick flick of his tongue made her tremble. She felt as if she were burning up with a fever, inside and out.

Suddenly the touch of his mouth wasn’t enough. She wanted him to touch her everywhere. Her breasts, and heavens above, her pussy. She wanted him to stroke the fire that burned in the very heart of her. She wanted him to stroke her desire, then hold her as she exploded. Her need made her greedy. Briefly admiring the broad chest of burnished copper, she ran her hands over hard muscle and dark hair then down the well-hewn plane of his belly. Her hand slid down his tight stomach and undid the top button of his jeans, then the zipper. Before she could touch him, he placed a hand over hers, stopping her even though his eyes were hot with the same raw need, the same need that burned in her.

“I don’t think you know how close I am to fucking you.”

Mercy slipped her hand free and found her way inside the denim of his jeans. He wore nothing beneath the rough fabric and all she touched was warm, hard flesh. She trailed her fingers over his groin. She squeezed his cock before dropped down to cup her hand over his balls. The arms he had braced to either side of her head at her first touch trembled and his jaw tightened.

“Mercy,” his growl grew deeper as she released his balls and ran her small hand up and down the length of his cock.

“I need this, Dirk. I need this so badly, I can barely breathe.”

Dirk’s bear roared inside him as its mate confessed she was hurting. He could sense it, smell it on her. She did need this. But more than that, she needed him. Still, something, some civilized part of him needed to give her the chance to back away. Leave before something was forged between them that they’d never be able to break away.

“Be sure, Mercy. Be very sure.”

The smile she gave him threatened to buckle the big bear’s knees, but he needed her to say the words.

“I’m sure. So very, very sure.” Again she stood on her tiptoes and placed a feather light kiss on the corner of her mouth. A kiss so chaste and sweet, so opposite of the lust pulsing between them, pulling them closer and closer to that edge of no return.

Dirk had never wanted anything in his life the way he wanted Mercy.

Picking her up, he carried her to his bedroom. The large room had the same view as the one in the living room, nothing but trees and mountain ranges could be seen through the tempered glass. He’d furnished the room with a large pine bedframe he’d carved himself. Simple, yet functional. On it he’d placed a king-sized mattress to fit his body and bought a down filled comforter the color of spring to keep him warm at night.

Now, if he could reach out and take what he wanted, needed, he’d have Mercy in his bed to keep him warm through the long winter.

He’d be a damn fool, that’s what he would be, if he walked away from this. He knew he didn’t deserve a woman as pure and beautiful as Mercy. He was terrified that if he admitted his feelings, his whole world would change. And it would. It would change for the better.

Was he ready to accept all that a mate could bring to his life?

The good and the bad.

He’d vowed when his family had been murdered that he would never allow himself to feel that depth of love for anyone ever again.

Now, well now, he didn’t know if he could stop it. Mercy was his mate. A mate who filled his heart with joy and happiness.

He let her body slide to the floor, relishing the feel of her soft curves against the contours of his hard body. Damn, she felt good. She felt perfect. If he had been a cat, he’d be purring in contentment right about now. But he wasn’t a cat. He was a bear. A damn horny bear.

He stepped away from her, tugging his jeans down his hips. He heard her gasp and allowed his ego to swell for a minute. He knew what she saw. He wasn’t egotistical by any means, but he knew he had a body that women found attractive. He also had an aching dick. A thick cock rooted in dark, curling hair that hung between his muscular thighs.

He took his hand and stroked his length, thinking of sliding inside her warm heat. He could smell her arousal, knew that she wanted him.

“I need to see you, Mercy. Take off your clothes.”

MERCY TENSED BENEATH Dirk’s gaze. The part she’d known she would dread most. The first time a lover saw her without her clothes. When she thought of this moment she always imagined being able to keep her shirt on. Seeing the hungry, almost angry look in Dirk’s dark eyes, she knew there would be nothing between them, nothing to obscure his perusal of her body. Her damn curvy body.

The light spilling from the hallway slid over his broad shoulder, that flat-ridged belly, the straining cock he was stroking. Damn, the man was big. He was long, and thick and hard. Hard for her. A full body thrill rippled through her at the thought of having him inside her. He was so big she knew the pleasure would border on pain until she grew accustomed to his size.

“Mercy.” The command in her name had her slipping off the coat she still wore and tossing it aside. Next, she sat down on the edge of the bed, bending over to unzip her boots. While she had dressed to please him this morning, she hadn’t really believed the day would end with her stripping for him. But, she was glad she’d dressed in thigh high tights and lacy underwear. Once her boots were off, she stood again, reaching behind for the zipper on her dress. Now was the moment of truth. Soon he would see her heaving breasts, the soft flesh around her middle, the abundance of her hips and thighs. Her… pussy. Slowly, she lowered the zipper, pushing the sleeves from her shoulders, then over her chest and past her hips. The red fabric pooled at her feet and she stood there before him, completely vulnerable.

His hands fell to his sides and his hands clenched into two big fists. She saw his chest heaving under the deep breaths he was taking.

Oh, please, she prayed silently. Please let him still want her. She was under no illusions as to what this was. A night to lose themselves in each other. To forget their pasts, their futures, even the present. To simply… love, however they could.

She shivered when Dirk stepped forward and pushed her hair to the side, scraping his teeth across the place where her shoulder met her neck and nipping at her skin. She knew it was probably just instinct for the bear to do so when it had a female in its arms. She knew what happened between shifters when they found their mates. The male would mark the female who would carry the sign forever, warning away any other male. Heaven help her, she thought, closing her eyes. She wanted that. But no, she reasoned with herself. She wasn’t this bear’s mate. She was just a human who had fallen in love with the wrong man.

He kissed her neck, then moved his lips to the valley between her breasts. He cupped them with his callused hands, his thumbs circling the hard nubs of her nipples beneath the satin of her bra. “Beautiful,” he whispered before he closed his mouth over the aching tip, fabric and all.

She arched into the velvet heat, moving her hands to his hard shoulders. His muscles were coiled tight, his breathing labored and she knew he wanted this as much as she did. Her inhibitions slowly started to fade. She pushed her breasts into his mouth, urging him to take more, do more.

Her action forced a groan from his throat and she gloried in the raw power that seemed to flow between them. Him to her, her to him. They were both in control, yet they were both at the mercy of the other.

With another growl that sent moisture flooding her pussy, he tore the clasp of her bra apart and pushed the cups aside, kneading the heated flesh with a hard, desperate touch. His fingers plucked the nipples until they were standing ripe and ready. Ready for him.

He flicked one hard with his finger before closing his mouth over the other. She gasped as she felt the touch of his teeth on the thick round bud, closing around it, then biting down. Not a light, playful touch, but one that showed her he meant business. That he was so hungry for her, that he was being driven by the need to taste her. To have her.

“Touch me, baby,” he groaned against her skin.

Mercy happily obliged and closed her hand over his heated length. Her fingers wouldn’t meet around his girth so she used both hands to stroke him up and down. The move pressed her breasts together and he growled in approval. Soon his mouth was working both nipples, licking, biting and sucking at the tender flesh.

When his hand cupped the slick flesh between her legs, she cried out.

“So wet, so damn wet.” An arm of steel closed around her back and he pulled her closer, trapping her hands between them, but with enough room that she could still pump her hands up and down his cock.

His fingers brushed through the curls she’d left on top of her mound, twirling them, playing with them. She could tell they were soaked with her juices and she almost winced in embarrassment. Was this normal? Or was it the floodgate of twenty-some years of desire and lust bursting forth?

One long, thick finger slid between the lips of her pussy and suddenly she didn’t care why she was so wet with longing. Just that she was. His finger slid, smooth as glass along her flesh, parting her, giving her the first touch of a man who she knew truly wanted her. Would bring her pleasure beyond imagining.

“Oh, Mercy, what am I going to do?” The words were breathed in a deep, low rumble against her throat as he touched her, stroking through her folds, getting ever closer to the bundle of nerves at the top of her center.

“I have a few suggestions,” she said, reluctantly letting go of his cock to grab his wrist and bring his touch to where she needed it so damn badly.

He made a sound between a laugh and a groan as he allowed her to manipulate his touch on her body. She sighed in pleasure as the tip of his finger ran across her clit. The pressure was light, not giving her nearly what she needed, but still it was a start. She tried to press his hand tighter against her body, but she couldn’t budge his arm.

“Dirk, please.” She whimpered as both her hands encircled his wrist.

He raised his head and looked into her eyes. His were darker than she’d ever seen them, so intense. But they held a look of such contentment it made her grow still. Yeah, not exactly the look a woman was going for when she was in the arms of a man, but somehow it made her feel so sexy. As if she was giving him exactly what he wanted. What he needed.

“I know what you need.”

You.

The word flittered through her head even as he was picking her up and placing her on the bed, pressing his body against hers. Then he was kissing her again as if he hadn’t kissed a woman in a long time. As if he had years of wanting and needing locked up inside him, waiting for release.

Resting his weight on one arm, his hand burned teasing circles on her abdomen and she moved involuntarily, seeking his touch. Again. She cried out when he moved his hand to trail a tantalizing line up the velvety skin of her inner thigh. He stroked her again, this time, lowering his head to take a hard nipple in his mouth. She grasped the back of his head and pulled him close, moaning with pleasure as his fingers found her folds just as he bit down on her nipple.

Mercy felt his tremble as his hands explored her. His movements were strong and sure, almost rough, but she loved it. When his passion rose, she felt a strange connection to him, something calling to her from deep inside him. Was that his bear she wondered briefly before his mouth on her stomach distracted her.

For a moment she tensed. What woman wouldn’t have. A toned, athletic body she did not have. She was fluffy. Curvy. Soft. Then, common sense took hold. It didn’t matter. Dirk was with her at this moment, loving her like no tomorrow. She mentally pushed away all the negative thoughts she’d ever had about her body, imagining herself standing on the edge of a volcano and throwing them inside.

Oh, wait, the heat wasn’t coming from her imagination, but the big bear shifter moving slowly down her body. Right now, his nose was nuzzling the curls on her mound.

“Dirk!” She was excited and frightened all at the same time.

“I love it when you scream my name.” he looked up at her, grinned, and for a moment she wondered how she could have ever considered him a grumpy bear. Right now, he was anything but.

He was virile, exciting, mysterious.

And about to go down on her.

His large hands spread across the tops of her thighs. “Just relax, Mercy.”

She closed her eyes and let her hands fall to her sides. She felt him grip her knees, pushing her knees up and out, exposing her to his eyes. She wasn’t prepared for the long, hungry lick of his tongue against her center. He tasted her from the small, puckered hole of her bottom, to the throbbing bud of her clit.

Again and again, he licked her until she was pushing against his mouth. Raw desire coursed through her. She felt as if she was drowning, drowning in sensation, wonder, passion. Love.

As her passion swelled so did her heart.

Dirk buried his face between Mercy’s legs and inhaled the sweet, sweet fragrance of her arousal. Tasting her body’s sweet nectar. The juices coating her pussy was honey nectar to him and his bear. He licked her pussy, memorizing her taste, savoring her surrender to his touch. Mercy instinctively reacted, her body curving up, reaching to meet him. He plunged his tongue inside her, making her shudder. He continued to eat her, his bear rising to the surface as he did. He felt his body wanting to change. His fangs wanting to drop and claim her.

No, no.

He needed to make her come, so he could take her. He closed in on her clit, sucking the tight little bud inside his mouth. As he did, he slid a finger inside the moist cavern of her body, fucking her with his finger.

Her moans of pleasure were muffled as if she were trying to stifle them. He imagined her hand in her mouth. Which was immediately replaced with an image of his cock in her mouth. His bear growled in approval. Next, time bro. Next time.

He continued to ravish her with his mouth, sucking and licking, knowing it was just a matter of time before…

Oh, yeah, that was it. He thrust another finger inside her as the walls of her pussy clenched around his finger. She was almost… there…

Biting down on her clit as he curled his finger inside her, he was rewarded with her lusty cry and the taste of her release flowing over his tongue and down his throat. He licked and sucked, savoring her essence.

Slowly, he pulled away, his body crawling over hers. He latched onto her mouth, sharing the taste of her sex. Unafraid, her tongue met his. “Mercy,” he whispered. “I need you now.”

His hand closed around his cock as he raised his eyes to meet hers. He knew the usual gray depths were glittering with gold, a sure sign his bear was near the surface. He latched on to the animal, corralling it so it couldn’t take control.

“I’m sure,” Mercy whispered, and his mouth crooked into a small grin as she answered his unspoken questions. She had come to know him so well in such a short amount of time.

He rubbed the length along her wet slit before settling against the entrance to her body. Her hot, wet, entrance. He pushed forward, holding himself above her, the mat of hair on his chest sliding along the hardened tips of her breasts. She moaned and lifted herself into him.

When Dirk slipped his hand beneath her, lifting her, positioning her, Mercy could feel every beat of their hearts as he slid his cock into her waiting depths. Heaven help her he was big. “Easy, babe.” He tilted her pelvis as he pushed his hips forward, easing more of his hot length inside her. Fullness. Pleasure. A bite of pain. She panted, as he took her, giving her every inch of his cock.

“That’s a good girl,” he growled. His movements were slow at first as if he were trying to build a raging fire. If she could have breathed, she would have told him there was no need for that. She already burned out of control for him.

Sooner than she wanted to, Mercy felt the sensation in her body that told her she was about to find that mind-boggling pleasure again. Only this time she knew it would be ten-fold with him inside her. She gripped his shoulders, almost afraid to allow it to happen.

“Dirk, help me.” She pleaded against his throat, a brief vision of her biting into his flesh filling her mind.

He grunted in response to her plea and for a moment she didn’t think he was going to do anything else. Then, he was changing the angle of his thrusts, the depths, as he plowed into her, hard, and fast. “Do it, Mercy,” his rough voice commanded. “Come all over my damn cock. Show me how much you want me.”

With another downward thrust that rammed against her clit, Mercy was lost. Lost in the sensation of this man taking her, dominating her. Capturing her heart all over again. In the vast wilderness of sensation he had thrust her into, she saw and felt him joining her, hearing his cry of completion even though she was too weak to make one of her own.

****

Hours later, breathing heavily as they came down from another joining of their bodies, they rested beneath the warmth of the cover on his bed. She lay on Dirk’s chest, her hand curled beneath her chin as she watched the soft fall of snowflakes through the large bank of windows. It was early morning, the skies heavy with its winter bounty. The rise and fall of his chest almost lulled her to sleep. He had awakened her an hour ago, as eager to have her body as she was to give it to him.

The last twenty-four hours had been magical. Her fingers ran along the warmth of his skin, along the hard muscles of his shoulders, his chest, down his stomach. As her fingers slipped beneath the edge of the cover, he moved, capturing her fingers in his hand before she could find the heated flesh tenting the cover over his groin.