Page 68 of The Bear's Blooming Mate

Cool air caressed his butt as she pulled the towel from his waist and curled her hand around his hardened length. He groaned as she stroked him up and down and thrust his fingers deeper into her in a steady rhythm that matched her hand. But he didn’t want to come yet. He wanted to come inside her.

Edging her closer to the bed, he eased her down, and then joined her, hovering above her.

“Oh no,” she said, pressing her hand against his chest and rolling him onto his back. Then she pulled the towel from her head, and her damp hair fell around her shoulders.

Without taking her eyes from his, she straddled him, hovering above him, while he grew painfully harder. Slowly, she moved, guiding his length toward her entrance. With her hand around him, she teased the head against her slick heat, and he raised his hips off the bed, needing to feel her around him.

“Patience,” she said, toying with him until he thought he would explode.

Finally, she inched down on him as the lightning flashed and the thunder shook the house. But he hardly noticed. All he could focus on was the exquisite sensation of her warmth enveloping him, the perfect fit of their bodies joined together.

She inched down lower until she was fully impaled on him. The feel of her around him was incredible. His breath was ragged as she stilled, her inner walls gripping him as she ran her hands over his chest, teasing his nipples with her fingertips. The sensation sent electricity racing through his body, making him gasp.

After an agonizing moment, she rolled her hips in a slow, deliberate circle that made Philip’s vision blur. He cupped her breasts in his hands, his thumbs brushing over her nipples until they hardened beneath his touch. A low moan escaped her lips as she rose on her knees until only the tip of his length remained inside her.

Philip flexed his hips instinctively, desperate to feel her warmth surrounding him again, but she placed her hands firmly on his chest, pushing him back down.

“Patience,” she whispered, her voice thick with desire.

Philip surrendered, lowering himself to the bed as she took him again, slowly sinking down until he was buried to the hilt inside her. She rolled her hips, moving in a circular motion that created an exquisite friction as he stretched her inner walls. The sensation was overwhelming, threatening to push him over the edge too soon.

Philip gritted his teeth, focusing on his breathing as she rose again before taking him fully. Again and again she took him, riding him with increasing urgency as the storm outside matched their passion with its fury.

Unable to remain passive any longer, Philip sat up and held her close, his mouth finding her breasts, kissing and sucking her nipples as he sensed her approaching climax. Her breathing grew ragged, her movements more erratic.

She was close. So close.

He could barely hang on as they raced together toward release, like a storm sweeping across the mountains, wild and unstoppable. Her nails dug into his shoulders; her head thrown back in wild abandon. Then she came with a cry that mingled with the thunder, her inner muscles clenching around him in rhythmic waves.

The sensation triggered his own release. Philip jerked upward, filling her with his seed as lightning illuminated the room in stark flashes. The thunder seemed to shake the very foundations of the house as they clung to each other, trembling in the aftermath of their shared pleasure.

Our mate,his bear growled with satisfaction as Philip held Elsbeth’s trembling body against his chest, both of them breathless and sated.

Then they collapsed together onto the rumpled sheets and lay in each other’s arms, watching the lightning through the window, listening to the rain beating against the glass. Gradually, their breathing slowed and deepened, their heartbeats returning to normal. Outside, the storm began to lose its intensity, the gaps between lightning and thunder growing longer.

It’s moving away,his bear observed.The worst is over.

Philip kissed Elsbeth’s shoulder, breathing in the scent of her skin. “Coffee?” he asked, his voice still rough with spent passion.

She looked up at him and nodded, her eyes soft with contentment. “That sounds perfect.”

He slipped from the bed reluctantly, missing her warmth immediately. As he pulled on clean work clothes, his mind turned to the small velvet box hidden in his sock drawer. He’d been carrying it with him for days, waiting for the right moment.

This is it,his bear urged.After facing the storm together, there’s nothing we can’t handle.

Philip dressed quickly, his heart pounding with renewed anticipation. By the time Elsbeth joined him in the kitchen, dressed in clean clothes and with her damp hair combed back from her face, the coffee was already brewing, filling the room with its rich aroma.

While he poured the coffee into two mugs, she went to the window and peered outside. “It’s not as bad as I feared,” she said, relief evident in her voice. “The tarps held. We got to everything in time.”

Now,his bear said insistently.This is the moment.

Philip set the mugs down on the counter and reached into his pocket where he’d slipped the ring box. His hands trembled slightly as he approached her. When she turned around, he dropped to one knee before her, the small velvet box open in his palm.

“Elsbeth,” he began, his voice thick with emotion, “from the moment I sensed you, I knew you were mine. When you accepted all of me—man and bear—you made me the happiest man alive. Will you marry me?”

Her eyes widened in surprise, filling with tears that spilled onto her cheeks. For a heart-stopping moment, Philip wondered if he’d made a mistake.

“Happy tears?” he asked hopefully, his heart in his throat.

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