Bear the Burn (Fire Bears Book 2) (7 page)

He took his eyes off the fork in the dirt road once, then twice, his eyes steady on her, as if he was waiting for her to take it back. “You aren’t thinking right. It’s been a long day and a lot has happened—”

“Why are you trying to convince me of what I can and can’t accept, Dade? Is this your way of trying to chase me off of anything real with you?”

“No,” he said, shaking his head for emphasis. “That’s not what I want. I just want you to go into this with your eyes wide open.” He pulled to a stop in front of a dark cabin and turned to face her. “This is a shock to me, as well. You asked what being mated feels like to me, and it scares the shit out of me, Quinn. Truly. I’ve lived all this time responsible for myself and for my crew, and that’s it. Chasing a bond wasn’t something that ever crossed my mind.”

“You’ve been with other women. A man like you…” She frowned. “I know you’ve had relationships with other women.”

“No, I’ve had sex with women. Empty sex. I haven’t ever stayed until breakfast, and now I feel like I want to pledge my entire life to you. It has my head all messed up.”

“I’ve only been with Jay.”

Dade went rigid, equal parts horror and confusion in his eyes. “What do you mean?”

“I mean, I’ve only slept with Jay, and the first time wasn’t until our wedding night. Not for any reason other than we wanted to wait and make it special.”

“More proof,” Dade said in a hoarse voice, “that I’m a terrible match for you.”

“You should’ve worked through that before you made me care for you!” Quinn flung the words at him, then slid from his pickup and climbed the porch stairs. Chin lifted high, she waited at the front door for him to let her in.

Dade sat in the truck, gripping the wheel, eyes downcast. Good. He should feel like worm slime after trying to push her away like that. She could practically see the war he waged within himself to keep her close or to keep her at arm’s length, but he needed to pick a side. She’d known love. The good kind where she and Jay had respected each other and talked through their problems.

Dade was a different beast altogether.

She could be patient and wait for him to come around, but ultimately, he would have to be the one to decide whether to jump all in or not.

Dade shut the truck door a little too firmly. Gravel shuffled behind her, and his shoes made hollow sounds on the stairs as he strode toward where she stood on his darkened porch. She closed her eyes as a delicious wave of warmth crashed through her middle when he reached around her to unlock the door. He smelled amazing, like soap and pine sap, and something heady that belonged only to Dade.

He pushed open the door and took the duffle bag from her, then flipped a light switch inside. She gasped in surprise as she did a slow circle in the living room to take it all in. The cabin was small—one of those big front porch, tin roof, log siding models. But inside, the space was so open it looked much larger than from the outside. Wood walls, wood floors, an old fashioned stone hearth, sparse furnishings, and dark light fixtures gave the home a mannish feel. In the kitchen, the appliances were stainless steel, a contrast to the old-timey wooden cabinets and countertops. Along the back wall over the kitchen was a set of stairs that led to a single door.

She rented a cabin just outside of town, but it didn’t have character like this home did.

Dade busied himself with folding a blue and orange blanket that had been left wadded on the dark leather couch, but every few seconds, he cast his eyes her way, as if he needed to see her reaction to his place.

“This place is amazing. And unexpected.”

“How so?” Dade asked, draping the folded blanket across the back of the couch.

“Well, you’re a bachelor. I thought there would be dishes stacked high in the sink and TV trays of old microwave dinners sitting out.”

Dade smiled and hooked his hands on his hips. “Ma didn’t raise a slob. If she came over and my place was a mess, I’d have to hear about it for a week. Besides, I like my living space tidy. My bear gets restless around clutter. I start feeling like I need to come up with escape plans.” He dropped his gaze. “That sounds weird.”

“No, it doesn’t. You’ve been through a difficult life and have had to hide what you are. My new instincts are overwhelming. I can’t imagine what it’s been like for you, but your animal liking a tidy home isn’t weird.”

Dade’s blond brows drew down as if he was uncomfortable with the turn in conversation, so she gave him an out. “Where is your bathroom? It’s been a long day, and I want to clean up.”

“I don’t like this,” he murmured. Dragging sad eyes to her, he said, “I screwed up in the truck. I let the conversation turn, and before that, we’d been having fun. I got in my own head, and now you’re talking to me like we’re strangers again. And I don’t like that.” His voice dipped lower. “I like when you are smiling and happy with me.”

“Well, I like when you aren’t trying to push me away.”

His chest heaved as he inhaled a deep breath. Nodding his head toward the stairs, he said, “I’m going to make you some dinner. Food, meat especially, will help you heal faster. Take your time.”

Quinn padded up the stairs and made her way through the door. His room was like the rest of the house, tidy and clean, not even a streak of dust on his dresser. His bed, however, was covered in jumbled sheets and a dark, disheveled comforter, as if he’d slept rough last night.

With a grin, she spun and landed on the soft mattress. Rolling on her side, she inhaled his pillow. Some of her new bear powers were pretty cool. Imagining the monster that would rip out of her again in a week or so was terrifying, but being able to smell every detail on Dade, to be able to pick his scent out of all the rest, was awesome.

“Are you sniffing my bed?” Dade’s deep voice sounded from the doorframe.

With a squeak, Quinn sat up and clutched her chest. She shot a horrified glance at the bed, imagining how ridiculous she must have looked, then scrunched up her nose. “I’m sorry.”

Dade pushed off the frame where he’d been leaning and approached slowly, as if he was stalking prey. “You don’t have to say sorry for anything, woman. I came up here to apologize and found you on my bed, looking hot as hell in those little cutoff shorts.”

The heat in her neck drove up to the tips of her ears. She probably looked like a ruddy tomato right now. “The bandages take away from my sex appeal.”

“Says who?” he asked, pulling her ankles until her backside hit the edge of the bed. He placed her palm against the rigid roll of his erection pressed against the seam of his jeans. “I think your sex appeal is just fine.”

Dade knelt in between her legs.

“What are you doing?” she asked, jerking her knees in reflexively and bumping his ribs.

Dade pressed her thighs wider and said, “Not what you obviously think I’m doing. I’m going to take your bandages off because I want to show you something.”

“Okay,” she said softly.

Dade canted his head, eyes serious. “You ever had a man eat you before, Quinn?”

Her breath caught at his dirty words. Heat pooled between her legs just thinking about his head bobbing between her thighs. “No.” She and Jay had been young, and he’d never offered.

“Mmm,” he said, tugging at the bandage on her right leg and unrolling it slowly. “If you ever want me to, just say the word. I’ve been wanting to taste you since I met you.”

“That sounds uncomfortable for you. I’d…feel bad asking.”

Dade laughed and folded up the first bandage, then removed a long pad of gauze Moira had put over the burn. “It would be my fuckin’ pleasure to make you come with my tongue. I bet you’d be a noisy little thing.” His hungry eyes held her frozen in his gaze, churning blue-green that dipped her stomach to her toes. “Now, look at what your bear has done for you.”

She gasped at the pink scar across her thigh. It barely hurt past a dull ache anymore and looked weeks old. “I don’t understand. I knew I was healing fast, but this is insane.” She scrabbled to remove the other bandage, and when it was in a little pile on the bed beside her, she looked in amazement at the matching scar on her other leg.

Dade ran his fingertip along the line of the mark on her right leg, conjuring gooseflesh with his touch. “Damn, woman. You’re gorgeous.”

“Even scarred?”

“Especially scarred. Tell me, why were you so far away from the door when I found you?”

She shook her head as emotion crashed over her at the memory of that awful fire. “The cats,” she whispered. “They were so scared. I could hear someone banging on the door, trying to let me out, but the cats were screaming, and I thought if the wall caved, they could maybe get out. I was opening their cages when the beam fell from the ceiling.”

Dade gripped her knees and spread her legs wide, then brushed his lips against the sensitive skin of her inner thigh. “I knew it as soon as the cats ran past my legs. I knew you’d taken a risk to save them. Brave, selfless, beautiful woman.”

Quinn exhaled slowly, her breath shaking as she leaned back on locked arms and let him kiss her other leg. His soft smacking sounds pooled wetness between her legs. “If we do this, you’re in this with me. No half-in, trying to convince us both we’re not right together.”

Dade’s eyes snapped up to hers, and a slight frown took his face. “Quinn, we don’t have to go that far right now. You and Jay took your time, and I can wait, too.”

Heat flooded her cheeks. “I thought you said I was your mate.”

“You are.”

“That sounds serious.”

“It is.”

“Then I’m asking you.”

Dade’s eyebrows arched high, and two dimples bracketed his sensual lips as he offered her a surprised smile. “Asking me what?”

“I’m asking you to be with me. Not just intimately either. I want to feel like you have my back, no matter what we go through with shifters coming out to the public. I want to know in my heart you will be there for me, like I’ll be there for you.”

“Quinn, sex doesn’t have anything to do with that.”

She smiled sadly and pulled at his shirt until it came off his head, leaving his hair mussed. His skin was smooth between the shrapnel scars. She understood now how big an injury had to be to leave a mark like that on a bear shifter, and he’d somehow survived everything that had marred his body. She traced the chemical burn on his throat, and this time he allowed it, though his eyes lost their smile. “You’ve trained yourself to not feel sex, Dade. It has to be different with me. I want all of you. I don’t want you to fuck me like you’ve trained yourself to do with other women. I want you to
feel
me.”

At her words, he weaved like a drunk man, his eyelids closed half-mast, and now his hands were stroking up and down her legs rhythmically as if he didn’t know he was even doing it.

“I want you to stay for breakfast,” she whispered.

“I won’t be any good at this.”

She leaned down and kissed the burn on his throat, then whispered in his ear, “Make me come slow.”

“Fuuuck,” he said on a sigh, pupils dilated. Stretching up, he kissed her.

His lips turned soft in an instant and molded to the shape of hers. His thumb drew little circles just under the hem of her knotted up shirt, and when he pressed the palm of his hand upward and against the flat plane of her back, she gasped and arched toward him. His touch brought fire in its wake, igniting her nerve endings. She’d always been sensitive to touch, but with Dade, it was different. It was more.

He pulled her hips closer until she hovered at the edge of the mattress, until his taut torso pressed against her sex. Rolling her hips gently, she bit her lip as her clit brushed against her jeans.

She’d pulled her hair back in a ponytail earlier, but now Dade reached behind her and tugged the hair band from her locks, freeing them. He lifted the hem of her shirt, then tugged it over her head and unsnapped her bra with a practiced
snick
of his fingers.

She closed her eyes for a moment, hoping he would like what he saw. For years, she hadn’t been bare in front of a man, asking them to enjoy her body. And even then, it had been Jay, who she’d known for years. When she opened her eyes, Dade was drinking her in with a stunned gaze that settled her thumping heart. The corner of his lip turned up slightly, then fell as he lifted his eyes to hers. “You’re perfect.”

She traced a moon-shaped scar on his shoulder and whispered, “So are you.”

He cupped her head and kissed her again, slowly this time, gently sucking her bottom lip before easing back and then kissing her again. She loved him as he was, wild and on edge, but Dade like this, tender and affectionate, plucked at her heartstrings and attached them to him, one by one.

He trailed soft kisses down her throat as his hand gently pressed her lower back until she bowed closer to him. His taut chest was warm against her. Lips soft, he pulled her nipple into his mouth and lapped at her gently. She ran her fingertips through his hair and watched his jaw move as he brushed his tongue against her sensitive skin, his sensual affection pooling wetness between her legs. When he looked back up at her, the fire had died from his eyes, and only adoration remained. Slowly, he unsnapped his jeans, then pushed them down until they joined their shirts on the floor. Taking his time, he pulled at her shorts, careful they didn’t touch the scars that should’ve been painful if Dade hadn’t saved her from the burning. Her panties tickled her ankles just before he pulled them off. Tiny kisses brushed the inside arch of her foot as he worshipped her. Soft bites trailed up the inside of her leg, and when he reached her scars again, he touched his lips to the fevered flesh on both legs, soothing the burn with his attention.