The Bear Essentials (Siren Publishing: The Stormy Glenn ManLove Collection) (5 page)

He wanted what the heat in Rob’s eyes promised but he was afraid to reach out and grab it. So many things in his life had gone bad that he had begun to think if he didn’t have bad luck, he wouldn’t have any luck at all.

Every time he thought he had found something—or someone—good in his life, it got yanked away, and usually painfully. He was afraid to hope because it felt like this time mattered so much more. It also felt as if he lost Rob, he wouldn’t survive it.

“Rob.”

The large bear towering over him shuddered. Casey’s jaw dropped as he felt bones reshape themselves. Muscles stretched and popped. The soft fur pressed against him receded, leaving behind tanned skin smattered with dark hair.

In mere moments, a man stood where a bear had been…a very naked man. Casey swallowed hard as he tried desperately not to let his gaze drop. “Rob,” he said again, a little more breathlessly. “You’re naked.”

Rob chuckled as he reached for his jeans and pulled them up his legs. “You’d better get used to seeing me naked, cub. Once we’re mated, you’ll be seeing it a lot.”

“A–and wh–when will that be?” Casey was equal parts needy and scared. He wanted to feel Rob’s body against his but he was afraid to voice what he wanted, afraid to ask for it and be rejected, or even worse, laughed at.

Rob grinned as he buttoned up his jeans and then stepped into Casey’s personal bubble space. A needy little whimper left Casey’s throat as his gaze slid over the ruggedly handsome man. He couldn’t remember any other bear looking this good.

Rob’s fingers tangled in Casey’s hair, giving a gentle tug until Casey tilted his head back. He lips pressed against Casey’s, and then gently covered his mouth. His tongue traced the soft fullness of Casey’s lips as he explored. The caress of Rob’s lips on Casey’s mouth and the longing in his body set Casey aflame.

Rob’s tongue pushed between Casey’s lips, demanding entrance into his mouth. His kiss was slow, thoughtful. His moist, firm mouth demanded a response, leaving Casey’s mouth burning with fire.

It was a kiss for his tired soul to melt into.

Rob’s lips left Casey’s mouth and seared a path down his face to his neck. He kissed the pulsing hollow at the base of Casey’s throat. He sucked hard at the light skin there, pulling fresh blood to the surface, marking Casey as his for the entire world to see.

Their lips met again, but this time it wasn’t the slow, tender, and gentle thing it had been before. This time it was out of control, maddeningly frantic, needy. By the time Rob lifted away, Casey’s knees felt too weak to hold him.

Rob’s lips brushed against Casey as he spoke, “I want nothing more than to claim you right now, cub.” Rob grabbed Casey’s hand and pressed against the hard bulge in his pants. “See how much I want you?”

Casey whimpered, swamped in need.

“We’ll only get one first time, Casey,” Rob murmured in his ear. “And I want it to be special. Not some hurried fumbling in my parent’s living room.”

Casey gasped. “You’re a romantic.”

“Don’t tell anyone.” Rob winked. “It will ruin my bad boy reputation.”

Casey quickly slapped a hand over his mouth when another giggle escaped. He really needed to stop doing that. He’d have to hand in his man card for sure.

His eyes rounded when Rob grinned. “I love that sound.”

Casey managed a tremulous smile. “It’s not too girly?”

Rob’s hand moved over the side of his face, caressing his skin. “It’s the sweetest sound I’ve ever heard, cub. Don’t ever let anyone tell you otherwise.”

In spite of himself, Casey giggled again. This time he didn’t try to stifle it. He allowed the sound freedom. When Rob’s grin grew and the big man wrapped him up in his arms, Casey knew he had made the right decision.

Rob pressed another quick kiss to Casey’s lips before stepping back to sit on the couch to pull his boots on. “Hand me my shirt, cub. We need to get down to the river if we want to enjoy some of this sunshine.”

Casey reached down and picked up Rob’s shirt off the floor, holding it in his hands as he watched the man finish putting his boots on. He sucked in his bottom lip and chewed on the corner. “Are you sure you want me to go down to the river with you? I could just meet you somewhere tomorrow or something.”

Casey wasn’t sure how he felt about meeting all of Rob’s friends. He’d had one or two friends over the years but they had usually moved on, sometimes moving out of town or just getting new friends.

The only one constant in his life had been his Aunt Viv, and she wasn’t even really his aunt. She had been a foster mother that hadn’t been able to keep him after she fell and broke her hip. Someone, somewhere, had decided that she was too old to care for him.

“If I have anything to say about it, cub, and I do, you won’t be leaving my side again for a very long time.”

Casey blinked up at Rob. “But my job,” he said. “If I miss a single day, they’ll fire me, and I need my job.”

Rob’s eyebrows raised a fraction. “Aren’t you in school?”

“I was, but today was my last day.”

“How can you go to school and work at the same time?”

Casey shrugged. “I need the money. The state won’t give me a check when I have to leave my foster home in three months. They just sign some paper stating I’m done with foster care and let me go. If I want a roof over my head when my foster parents kick me out, I have to work.”

Rob’s low growl rumbled through the room. “Not anymore. I’ll provide whatever you need, Casey.”

Casey’s jaw dropped. “You can’t be serious?”

“I am very serious. We’re mates and mates take care of each other.”

“If what you’re saying is true then we take care of each other and that means I still have to work. Money doesn’t fall from trees, Rob.” Casey swallowed hard when Rob’s jaw firmed. “I’m sorry,” he said quickly. “I’ll do—”

“Baby, don’t.”

Casey pressed his lips together as he dropped his eyes submissively. He really needed his job but he needed his head attached to his shoulders even more.

Rob sighed. “Casey, look at me.”

Casey slowly raised his eyes.

“Casey, I’m not going to hurt you. I realize that it’s going to take time for you to believe me, and I’ll spend as much time as you need. I have a lot of patience.” Rob’s callused hand curved around the side of Casey’s face. “I don’t want you to ever be afraid to stand up to me either. If you have an opinion about something, tell me.”

Casey gulped and then said, “I don’t want to quit my job.”

“Can you tell me why?” Rob asked.

“It’s a good job,” Casey replied, a little astonished that Rob was willing to listen to him. The man wasn’t trying to strong arm him at all. “I’ve had it since I was sixteen and I’m really good at it.”

Rob’s head tilted just a fraction, a frown pulling his eyebrows together. “Where do you work?”

“Partly Sunny Bakery.”

“The one down on Fifth Street?”

Casey nodded.

Rob groaned. “Oh man, they have the most delicious honey buns.”

Casey felt pride puff out his chest. “Those were my creation.”

“You created honey buns?”

Casey nodded. He started to smile when Rob licked his lips and his breath caught, mesmerized by the simple gesture. “I can make you some if you want.”

“I want. I want.”

Casey laughed as happiness welled up inside of him. “I guess what they say is true. The way to a man’s heart is through his stomach.”

“There are a lot of ways to this bear’s heart.” Rob leaned in to whisper in Casey’s ear. “And I’ll show you every damn one of them just as soon as we’re alone.”

Casey shuddered as a wave of need swept through him that almost took him to his knees. He dropped Rob’s shirt to the floor and then flattened his hands on Rob’s chest, sliding his fingers through the fine layer of hair that covered his tanned skin.

And then he leaned in and breathed.

“You smell so good,” he murmured as he dragged his nose through the thick chest hair. The strong masculine scent made him want to rub himself all over Rob, from head to toe…and then maybe back up again.

“All yours, cub.”

“How?” Casey knew he should accept the good luck that had seemed to drop in his lap, but he just couldn’t, not without some answers. Stuff like this didn’t happen, not to him.

“We believe that our Earth Mother is the giver of all life. When we were created, our soul was divided into two parts. One, we kept. The other was given to our true mate. Only when we find our true mate and claim them as ours will our souls become one again.”

“Oh,” Casey whispered. He didn’t know what made him glance down at his chest, but he did. It wasn’t like he could see his soul or anything. He wasn’t even sure they were anything more than a mythological ideal. “So, we only have half a soul then?”

“No, cub. We have a whole soul. I have half of yours and half of mine, just as you have half of yours and half of mine. When we mate, our souls settle back into the right body and we become whole.”

Casey raised his eyebrow, curious. “Does that mean we would no longer have a connection then?”

“Not at all. We believe that once a soul has been returned, it retains the essence of the one who carried it up until that point. It actually makes the connection between true mates unbreakable.”

“Un—” Casey swallowed hard. “Unbreakable?”

Rob’s smile was soft, but the suspicious sheen in his gray eyes spoke louder than words. “It’s forever, cub.”

When Rob leaned down to brush their lips together, Casey eagerly leaned into the kiss. As much as he wanted to take the kiss deeper, he knew from the gentleness he could feel in the way Rob held him that this wasn’t about passion. It was about connecting.

Casey tried to remember that Rob believed their meeting was a cause for great celebration. As much as he wanted to believe that as well, he wasn’t a bear. There was no mythological connection for him…even if he did feel something for Rob he had never felt for another living person—longing.

“Rob, I don’t know if any of this is real,” Casey whispered when the man finally lifted his lips. “I’m not a bear.”

There was a flash of sadness in Rob’s eyes, but then he blinked and it was gone. “It’s real, Casey.” Rob’s smile was bittersweet as he brushed the hair back from Casey’s face, tucking it behind his ear. “How about I believe for both of us until you can, hmm?”

“You’d do that?”

Rob’s smile this time was real and happy. “I told you, cub. I’ll do anything for you.”

“Will you kiss me again?” The words were whispered with a quiet desperation almost as if Casey thought Rob would reject him.

Nothing could be farther from the truth.

Rob smiled as he nuzzled at the younger man before tenderly stroking sweat-damp hair from the angelic face. “There is nothing in this world that I wouldn’t do for you, cub. Nothing.”

Rob fisted a handful of Casey’s hair and pulled gently until the man’s head was tilted back and then he
lowered his head, pressing their mouths together in a gentle kiss
.

There was a quality to kissing Casey that was unparalleled to anyone Rob had kissed in the past. Casey didn’t just press his lips to someone’s and move them around a little bit. He leaned into the kiss and put his entire body into it.

As his tongue explored at its leisure, Rob gently stroked the lissome body pressed against him. Needing just a little bit more, Rob slid his tongue inside the warm heat of Casey’s mouth, tasting him, devouring what the man had to offer.

As he pulled back, he nipped Casey’s bottom lip with his teeth.

“I ache, Rob.” As if to emphasize his words, Casey rocked back and forth and rubbed himself against Rob, leaving no doubt as to what he meant. Casey’s cock was like a steel rod in his pants.

Rob swallowed hard as the lust igniting in his gut burned away his ability to breathe. He glanced toward the kitchen where he could hear his parents talking in low voices. He knew he would get his head handed to him if he took Casey upstairs and claimed him as he really wanted to do. But that didn’t mean he couldn’t take the edge off until he could find a more suitable place.

He lifted Casey up in his arms and carried him out of the living room and down the hallway to the guest bathroom. He stepped inside and set Casey down on the bathroom counter before turning back and locking the door.

Once he turned back to Casey, he leaned in for another kiss.
Their lips met again, but this time it wasn’t the slow tender and gentle thing it had been before. This time it was out of control, maddeningly frantic, needy. Blood pounded in his brain, leapt from his heart, and made his knees tremble.

Casey’s skin was flushed, his beautiful face transformed by the heat of the desire burning between them. Rob hadn’t thought Casey could get any better-looking, but staring down at the man, he knew he had been wrong. His mate was breathtaking.

He was one lucky bear.

Rob leaned forward, inhaling Casey’s scent from collarbone to ear, taking in the scent of cinnamon and apples. The sweet fragrance rushed back into Rob in a wave of intoxication. Smelling Casey was hardening his cock. Rob loved the smell of the man, was addicted to his delicious flavor.

There was a pull that was almost maddening in his mind. Rob wanted to sink deep into the man’s soul and never come out. It was a need so strong that Rob let it wash over him and carry him under.