Brew Bear (Bear Shifter Paranormal Romance) (Rescue Bears Book 4) (11 page)

“It’s like unwrapping a present,” he said, pulling down her panties.

Quinn quivered and gushed, unhooking her bra and throwing it away from the bed. Drew sucked her needy breasts, making her pussy throb to be licked and filled. Quinn gasped and bit her lip. Drew ran his tongue down her belly and slowly slid downward, spreading her legs open. He inhaled deeply as he focused on her core.

“You smell so sweet. Like a ripe berry. I want to lick up the taste of you.”

Quinn shuddered, propped up on her elbows to watch Drew focus on her slick sex. His wide, thick tongue lapped up the length of her core, making her quiver with excitement. She threw her head back, squeezing her eyes closed.

She could feel his beard caress between her thighs and across the planes of her ass as he ravaged her with his tongue. Quinn laid down, grasping her breasts with a needy moan.

“Drew,” she gasped as the first tendrils of orgasm began to unfurl inside her.

Drew slid a thick finger into her, and her release broke free. It radiated through her, and she groaned into the intensity of it. This whole time she’d been dreaming of Drew’s touch. No matter how guilty she’d felt, she could never erase the memory of their night together and the love they’d shared.

He climbed over her and rolled onto the bed beside her, running his hands over her sensitized skin. She could feel him hard against her back as he grasped her breasts and pulled her back against his chest. He angled his cock against the slick space between her legs, rubbing back and forth.

Quinn was so alive with desire, he buried himself inside her with one thrust. She gasped, her mouth falling open. Drew licked the back of her ear and rolled her nipples between his fingers as he moved in a slow, rocking motion with his hips.

She tilted her face back, hungering for his kiss. Their tongues danced as they made love. The connection between them cycled in an exponentially increasing rhythm that lifted Quinn into another world where everything was perfect. Their love elevated everything, and she never wanted to be let down.

Drew slid his teeth over the mark he’d left the last time they’d made love. The mark she’d begged him to give her. In that moment, with him deep inside her body and soul, she would have begged him to do it again.

He sucked her neck and flicked the tight bud between her legs, pushing her arousal to the breaking point. Drew was everywhere, all around her. She’d never felt more safe or more loved. In that perfect moment, they both let go. Quinn’s body clenched as Drew’s seed shot deep and hot into her core.

He growled behind her and then went still, holding her gently in his arms. She looked back at him, searching his face. Slowly, he pulled away, and she turned to him. Drew enfolded her in his arms and she laid against his muscled chest. This was what she’d been missing.

How had she let her parents’ hatred rob her of this love? She squeezed her eyes closed, regret gripping her heart and mind. Tears leaked from her eyes and dripped onto Drew’s chest.

“Quinn, are you crying? What’s wrong?”

She sniffled, facing his gaze. “It’s nothing,” she said, blinking away the tears.

“No, it’s not. You’re upset. Did I hurt you?”

“It’s not that. I just…I can’t believe I missed out on this for almost a year.”

“Oh, baby. I know how you feel. Come here.” He held her closer and angled her face up to his so he could gently kiss her lips. Quinn laid her head against his shoulder to rest. “Don’t regret the past. There’s nothing we can do about it now. All we can do is focus on the future.”

“You’re right. That’s all that matters.”

“I want us to be together. Really together now.”

“I want that too. So much,” she breathed.

“Good,” he said brightly. “Now. Let me make you some dinner.”

Drew climbed out of the bed and pulled on his boxer shorts. Quinn watched him walk out of the bedroom and into the small kitchen across the hall. He opened the ancient refrigerator and bent down to look inside.

“You still have the steaks,” he said.

“I haven’t gotten around to cooking them.”

He grabbed them out of the fridge and began preparing to fry them in a pan. Quinn rose from the bed, wrapping herself in a pink bathrobe she’d brought with her. She slid her feet into her slippers and walked into the kitchen, hugging Drew from behind as he stood in front of the stove. He grasped her hands with his and let out a satisfied sigh.

“You have no idea how good this feels.”

“Yes, I do,” she said into his back.

“That’s right. You do.” His voice was light and happy.

He patted her hand then threw the steaks into the pan, dusting them with salt and pepper.

“Why don’t you go make yourself comfortable, baby? I’ll have this ready for you in a few minutes.”

Quinn kissed his back and wandered into the bedroom to put her clothes back on. The little cabin had central heating, but it was still pretty cold. The rain had started up again and was pelting the shingle roof so hard it seemed like she could hear each drop. When she was done dressing, she went into the living room and turned on the TV. The broadcast came from the satellite dish attached to the side of the house, and she wasn’t getting very good reception in this rain. Quinn turned a few channels and then decided to turn it off. It all looked terrible and the sound was out of sync.

A moment later, Drew came out of the kitchen with two plates of steak, salad, and toast. He slid the plates onto the table and went back to the kitchen. Quinn took a seat, and Drew came back with big glasses of ice water for them both. He sat across from her in his boxer shorts, his chest naked and shining with drying sweat. He looked magnificent.

Quinn cut into her steak and took a bite. The meat melted in her mouth and the flavor lapped over her tongue. Post-sex food cooked by her mate seemed to be better than any food she’d ever eaten before.

“I’m not sure if it’s the food or the company, but this is delicious,” she said.

“Maybe a bit of both,” he said, smiling over a forkful of salad.

He shoved the crunchy lettuce into his mouth and chewed, his grin not leaving his lips. Quinn was so overwhelmed by the feeling of contentment and joy, it was hard for her to contain. She’d never felt so happy before, so full, so cared for. She’d never dreamed that she could feel so much love. Quinn reached across the table and grasped Drew’s hand.

“This is so good,” she whispered meaningfully.

“Better than good,” he said, caressing her knuckles with his thumb.

“What took us so long to get here?” she said, giggling.

“I think you and I are equally stubborn.”

“Really? Equally stubborn?”

“I could have come to find you a long time ago. Corey could have found you in about fifteen minutes if I’d let him.”

“Why didn’t you?”

“I didn’t want to find you if you didn’t want to be found.”

He looked thoughtfully out the window into the forest beyond the cabin.

“I can understand that. I’m not sure what I would have done if you’d come to find me.”

“Would you have turned me away?”

“Who knows? I might have taken out a restraining order.”

Drew looked at her, hurt and frustration in his eyes. She’d meant it as a joke, but it had backfired.

“I’m kidding. Honestly, who knows? Maybe we could have gotten here sooner if you had come after me.”

“Or you could have called the cops.”

“I wouldn’t have done that, Drew. I was really just joking.”

“We’ll never know now, will we? It sounds like staying away was the best choice.”

“Drew. I was kidding. Really. I might have gone home with you. It’s just as likely. I was really confused. Seeing you again is the only thing that helped me come to my senses.”

“Don’t worry, Quinn. I’m not upset,” he said, picking up their empty plates and taking them back into kitchen.

They obviously still had a lot to work out. She shouldn’t have made a joke like that, not when their togetherness was still so new.

“Will you stay with me tonight?” she asked, seeing the darkness descend outside the window.

“If you want me to,” he said, coming back out of the kitchen.

“I do. More than anything.”

“I’ll stay as long as you need me.”

14

D
rew walked back into the kitchen and started washing the dinner dishes. He couldn’t help feeling hurt by Quinn’s thoughtless joke. There was something too real about what she’d said. For all he knew, she really would have taken out a restraining order on him. She seemed really sorry that she had said it, and all he could do was try to forgive her.

Drew needed to forgive her for everything that had happened over the last nine months. If he wanted things to work out between them now, it was essential that he find a way to get past all of his hurt feelings.

Even after making love to Quinn, he still felt as if he was taking a chance by letting her inside him again. Now that he’d opened himself up to her, she had the power to destroy him like never before. He knew that he couldn’t take it if she left him again. It would be too much for him to bear, and he would be lost.

He turned on the hot water and squirted soap into the stream, watching the bubbles rise in the sink. He rinsed the other dishes and began to wash everything. Quinn stepped into the room, leaning against the door frame, her arms crossed. She chewed on her bottom lip, her eyes cast down to the peeling linoleum floor. His heart ached for her. Deep down, he knew that Quinn was trying. Not believing her intentions was hurting her too.

Drew pulled his hands out of the soapy water and dried them off, walking across the room to place his hands on Quinn’s shoulders. He rubbed up and down her arms with a sigh and looked deep into her eyes.

“We’ll work this out. I promise.”

He pulled her into his arms, and she melted against him. Her belly rested on his hip, and he could feel the stirring of the child within. He took a surprised breath and drew back.

“Was that the baby?” he asked her.

“Uh-huh,” she said. “Give me your hand.”

She placed his palm against her belly. He could feel the strong kicks of his cub pushing against his hand. His eyes grew wide and his mouth dropped open. His child was so close. He would be born in a few short weeks, and Drew was completely unprepared.

Usually, new parents found out about their children nine months before they were born. Drew didn’t get that luxury. His baby would be here within a month. Not only did he have to figure out how to make things work with the mother, he had to sort out all his feelings about fatherhood as well.

Drew had grown up with good parents. His mother was a human and his father was a shifter who’d stayed in hiding most of Drew’s life. They had been largely unaffected by the turmoil that followed the Great Shifter Council’s announcement that shifters existed. His parents had been kind to him, and he’d had an idyllic human childhood, even though he knew he was a shifter all along. Keeping the secret of his identity hadn’t been particularly difficult. His parents had coached him from the very beginning that he had to keep it hidden. Having a shifter for a father had definitely helped.

He knew that Shane’s mate Lily had been raising a shifter child by herself before Shane turned her. Lily had been a single human parent who had no idea how to raise a shifter child. Little Theo was constantly giving her trouble. But that was not the way it had been for Drew.

He didn’t come out of the closet as a shifter until he was a young man, living on his own and working in a brewery for a boss who was also a bear. His boss had convinced him to come out. Unfortunately, as soon as he had, that’s when the war had broken out, and Drew had been drafted.

He didn’t resent coming out, and he didn’t resent fighting in the war. Mostly he saw it as his duty to his country. Now that things were so different for shifters, it was all water under the bridge. What Drew needed to do was figure out how to let go of his hurt feelings over Quinn the way he had let go of everything else in his life.

With Quinn, the knife had cut far deeper than being drafted into a human war. She was his mate and she left him. For a shifter, nothing hurt quite as much as being betrayed by a mate. In some ways, Drew could understand why Corey refused to sign up to Mate.com. Fated mates could really hurt each other.

Unlike Corey, Drew had always wanted someone in his life. The pain he felt over the last nine months was slowly dissipating in the hours since he’d made love to Quinn. As he felt his baby stir inside her belly, a calm sense of security wrapped around him like a blanket. Maybe they could make it work. He took a deep breath and let it out, just imagining how wonderful it would be if they could get it together.

Drew wanted nothing more than to spend the rest of his life with Quinn and their child. It was all he wanted, really. He would have given up everything else in his life just to ensure that they would be together from now on.

“It’s amazing, isn’t it?” Quinn said about the feeling of the child quickening within her.

“It’s the most amazing thing I’ve ever felt,” he said, wrapping her in his arms. “Except for maybe the feeling of being inside you.”

She giggled and then sighed, holding him tight.

“When will you be able to forgive me, Drew?” she said.

“I’m trying, Quinn. I promise you.”

“What else can I say to make it better?”

“I just need time, baby,” he said, kissing the top of her head.

“Time is all we have now,” she whispered.

“We don’t have that much time before the baby gets here.”

“That’s true. But I don’t think we’re going to have all this worked out before the baby arrives.”

“Let’s just not talk about it now. I want to spend some alone time with you. And not let the rest of the world interfere with our peace.”

“You’re going to stay with me at the cabin?”

“I just want a couple of days with you. I’m going to call the brewery and make sure that my shifts are covered for the next several days so we can figure some things out.”

“That sounds wonderful, Drew. And I’m going to go get in bed. I’m exhausted.”