Bearing It All (Alpha Werebear Shifter Paranormal Romance) (10 page)

“You aren’t running,” he said. His bear voice was leathery, smooth and incredible. Every breath, every sound he made sent rumbles all the way from my head to my toes. “If you aren’t running how can I chase you?”

“Oh! Right!”

I blasted off.

The pads on my paws lightly skirted the ground. When I get going – I mean
really
going – I feel almost like I’m flying. My feet barely touch the ground, I just go and go and go until there’s no more juice left in the tank.

This time, I thought, maybe I’d
want
to run out sooner than later.

I turned toward Ash and yipped when I saw him just watching me. He had a smoldering, penetrating look on his face. One side of his mouth was curled up in a grin that I recognized; it was a grin that made my deepest places ache for him.

“What are you doing?” I called back. “What about chasing me?”

I took a few more steps and then stopped.

“Go on,” he growled. “I’m just giving you a head start.”

I threw my head back, laughing. I liked how it felt to be so free – no, I
loved
how it felt. Reid or Lex, they never would have played along with me, much less started something like this in the first place.

But more than that, I felt like I found someone who actually
did
like me for me, instead of just saying so to get between my legs.

“Head start?” I asked. “I can climb trees!”

With a deep throated laugh, Ash made my whole body, my whole soul, tremble with excitement. “You climb them,” he said. “I’ll knock them over. I ain’t letting you get away.”

I was spinning on my heels by the time he said knock, and dashing through the woods by the time he said ain’t.

Across the little stream I went, hopping nimbly from tiny rock to rock. When I was across, I turned to look, and giggled as he just barreled across the rushing expanse. He splashed through, making a huge wave as he came, relentlessly following me as I burst through some undergrowth.

As fast as I was going, with leaves and trees disappearing into a blur, I couldn’t keep ahead of Ash. He was bashing through bushes, breaking off limbs, and basically destroying the ground underneath him like a tank barreling through the woods.

It reminded me of those old war videos with a big, giant tank knocking down trees.

Except this tank was really, really hot.

I chanced another glance backwards and almost jumped out of my skin when I felt Ash’s breath hot on my heels. He was running, sure, but without even a hint of effort on his face. He was grinning, and flashed his eyes when I looked back with a glance that told me a thousand words.

He wanted to do things to me, I saw in those eyes. He wanted to pin me down and make me his.

I gulped as I stumbled over the
second
obstacle of the run.

And I
never
stumble.

He wanted to do all the things to me that I wanted him to do, but then again, I also wanted more from him than was possible. I mean, he was leaving the next morning. He couldn’t be mine – I couldn’t be his.

And then, I stumbled a third time, and he was on me.

I rolled through some leaves, laughing despite myself, and when I finally opened my eyes, Ash’s face was an inch from mine.

His heavily leather, spicy, musky scent filled my nose, stinging and thrilling me.

“You’re leaving, aren’t you?” I asked as my fur vanished and I didn’t remember until too late that I was completely naked. “After today you’re leaving and...”

“Not right now, I’m not,” he growled.

Before I knew it, his fur was gone and he was pressed against me. His muscled stomach and chest flexed deliciously with every breath he took. Never once did Ash’s eyes leave mine. His shaggy hair hung in a loose cascade around my face, and when he lowered his head to taste my lips, he took my breath with a kiss.

Or at least I thought it was a kiss.

When I opened my eyes, he had lowered himself until our lips were touching each time one of us took a breath. He was just hovering there, watching me. I ran my hands down his muscled arms, then back up along the taper of his shoulders.

“I didn’t spend much time looking at these the first time we met,” I said, talking about his tattoos. “They’re beautiful.”

The smile he gave me melted my heart and then melted me somewhere else. I felt him thicken and harden and move against me, and it was all I could do to keep my hands on his back. I allowed myself the indulgence of sliding them down to the top of his muscled ass and kneaded gently.

“Not as beautiful as what I’m looking at,” he whispered.

God, but I could have died. The heat from his body had me helpless underneath him. On either side of me, his massive arms flexed and relaxed in time with my breathing.

“What are we doing?” I asked. “I mean, this is crazy. Tomorrow you’ll be gone and I’ll still be here and...”

Then he did it.

The kiss I thought I’d felt before finally enveloped my lips. Ash sucked my bottom lip between his and pulled back gently. His teeth clacked as I slipped out, and then he went back, harder than the first time.

For a blissful moment, our bodies felt like they were one. He swelled against my softest place. I thought he was just going to slip inside, but he pulled back as his tip tested me.

A soft sucking of his mouth leaving mine was the only thing I could hear in the entire world. His tongue back against mine was the only thing I wanted.

“We’re doing what feels right,” he said. There was a deep earnestness in his voice, almost a hungry desperation. “I’ve never acted on these feelings before, Violet.” He paused for a second. “Actually, I’ve never had them.”

With that, I threw my arms around his neck and clutched him like I was trying to keep him from running away, like I was holding on to him for dear life. Really though, it was more than that. Somehow my heart was already gone well before my brain allowed me to admit it was.

“Is this what you want?” he asked. “I don’t want to be just a night of fun. I want this to be real. I want it to be real because I know deep down that it is.”

My soul pretty much twisted itself in a knot when I heard him say that. “But how?” I asked. “You have to go, right? You’re going to leave early you said. How can you want more than a stupid fling if you’re—”

He silenced me with another kiss, and a finger that slid down my body, between my breasts and between my legs. I let out a soft, muffled whisper as he slid it inside me and rotated it slowly. Ash rolled to one side and pushed my legs apart, going deeper.

But then, he pulled away from me, his fingers slid out and left me yearning for more.

“No one tells me what to do,” he said, with a dangerously thrilling hint of malice in his voice. “No one controls Crag Morgan. I might look like I’m all together and got my head on straight, but I’m just barely keeping this charade going. I’m just barely...
barely
keeping myself from ripping that asshole...” He shook his head. “Never mind. Not right now. Right now, we have each other and that’s all that matters.”

I gulped and bit my lip. Reaching down, I felt how big he was in my hand. How big, and smooth and hard. But it didn’t matter. It hadn’t mattered since the second I saw him.

“It’s okay,” I said as I stroked him. “You said it. We have each other. You make me calm, so maybe I can do the same thing for you?”

For a second, he watched my face, and then when I squeezed his swelling tip, he let out a surprised groan. “Yeah,” he said, smiling. “I guess so.”

“You caught me,” I said. “I ran, you chased me, and you caught me. I guess that means I have to give you whatever you want, huh?”

That finger drove deeper, spun so good inside me that I couldn’t keep from letting out a yelp and then a moan. “I can’t wait anymore,” I whispered. “I need you. I’ve needed you since the first time I saw you. I don’t know why, but... Oh!”

Deep, slow, and driving, Ash gave and took until he had somehow managed to get two fingers all the way inside me. All I could do was wrap my hand around his cock and pull, matching his speed, wishing it was
him
inside me instead of his fingers.

Leaves crunched underneath us, scratched against the bare skin on my back. For a moment both of us were just breathing, just being. He pushed harder, deeper, and before I knew it, the crunching leaves started to scratch. They started burning, just a little, but not enough to hurt – just enough to bring the skin on my back to life.

I started tensing, my muscles going rigid as Ash stretched me to my limit, then curled his fingertips sweetly against my sweet spot. “Is this real?” I asked. “Can it ever be real, or is it just a passing thing? Am I just a girl on the road for you?”

Ash closed his brown eyes tight after he stared deep into me for a second and leaned his head back. All the cords in his tanned neck stood out, taut and hard, against his perfect skin. I reached down and grabbed him like an axe handle, pumping a little harder than before, just like he was doing to me.

“I told you I’d catch you,” he hissed. His words were punctuated by quickening gasps.

Sweat ran down one side of my face, along the line of my jaw, and then down between my collarbones were it pooled.

“When’s the last time a bear caught a fox and let her get away?”

He pushed, I pulled, and we both squeezed tight. The muscles inside me tugged at his fingers, constricting involuntarily as he turned his fingers. I gripped him hard, all the way up, then all the way down. I wanted to feel his heat, to have him inside me.

“I can’t stop myself,” I whispered into the cool night air. “You’re making me... you’re...”

With one hand behind my head, Ash clutched me, and rolled over so I was on top. My clit ground against his bulge. He grabbed my hands, locking my fingers between his, and all I could do was slide my sex up and down him, leaving him slippery with my wet heat.

Throwing back my head, I let out a purring, mewling sound – and I
never
purr.

“Scratch me,” he said. “Drag those nails down my... chest... yes, yes... like that,” he moaned.

Driving upward with each twist of my hips, Ash had me teetering on the brink. “I’m so close,” I said. “Are... are you...?”

“Squeeze my hands,” he commanded. “And open your eyes.”

I fell forward just slightly as he pushed against me, the underside of his cock hitting
exactly
the right place. He caught my hands in his. When I opened my eyes, his were burning and dark and stormy.

“Does this feel real to you?” he asked. “Say yes or say no, but say
something
.”

There was no hesitation in his voice.

I chewed my lip, trying to push my pleasure, my ecstasy, back for one more second.

“Yes,” I whispered. “It feels real.”

He let out a half groaning roar and squeezed my ass, driving against me one last time.

“Then it is,” he said.

The tension between my legs exploded in a wave of heat that came from my center and went out in every direction, thrilling me all the way to my fingertips. I was quivering, trembling, shaking... and hadn’t ever felt so good in my entire life.

We stared into each other’s eyes, our breaths coming in time with one another. He closed his eyes and I pushed myself all the way up him. His cock pulsed between us. Ash clutched me desperately, groaning as he erupted

By the time we both started breathing again almost normally, reality came back to hit me right in the face. I collapsed on Ash’s chest, lulled by the rise and fall of breath filling his chest.

His arm was draped across my back, his forearm so thick it felt like it went from shoulder to shoulder. He curled his fingers sweetly against my side. He collected the tatters of his flannel shirt, and gently cleaned our sweat – our sex – off my belly.

“When do you have to leave?” I asked, immediately sad that I had said anything.

Ash’s answer was a soft chuckle that reverberated through
me
somehow. “Don’t worry about it,” he said. “For once, just don’t worry about it.”

If only you knew
, I thought.
If only you knew.

––––––––

“Y
eah, yeah, I’m comin’, okay? Pipe down.” Marlin bit the end off of a cigar, spat the butt out the window to the dust-covered ground, and stuck the frayed end in his mouth. He swirled his extended tongue around it, swallowed the bits of tobacco he gathered, and then slid the cigar to the corner of his mouth.

There it would stay until it started disintegrating in an hour or two. He didn’t have time to worry about that, though. Not this morning.

His star fighter was nowhere to be seen, and worse than that, whoever had been delivering the loaded, unmarked envelopes hidden in candy boxes for the last month was set to meet with him today. He’d delivered four of the girls she wanted, but five was better than half of eight, which is what she asked.

The fifth girl he’d only managed the night before – and without Crag around, that was pretty much the hardest job he’d ever pulled. He shot a glance and the trunk in the corner of his trailer that kept rocking every so often, and hissed “shut up!” in its direction.

Marlin took a deep breath, hitched up his sky blue slacks, checked his fly and button one last time, and then pushed open the door of his trailer, squinting into the sun.

At the bottom step leading up to the center of his grand empire – which consisted of eight trailers, six tents and a couple of equipment trucks – stood a woman.

A very stern looking woman, who was wearing a black bonnet, a black shawl, and a black dress that left only the tips of her black boots sticking out from underneath. Marlin placed one hand on his belly, and watched her for a second.

She, in turn, just watched him right back.

Completely still, totally stiff, this woman’s eyes were fixed on Marlin’s. He stared, she stared, and finally Marlin blinked.

“Humph,” the woman scoffed. “I expected far more than a fat carny.”

Her mouth barely moved when she spoke. The thin line between her lips revealed no red, not even a shade of pink to the woman’s mouth. When she spoke, her voice was thin, rattling, and obviously very old. Even with her age, he knew there was some incredible power emanating from the black clad figure standing before him.