Page 3 of It's Kind of a Bunny Story
This time, he was the one to initiate the kiss—one that would have melted my panties off if I’d been wearing any beneath the ill-fitting sweats.
“You’ll stay?” I asked between feverish kisses.
His lips trailed down my neck. “Yes.”
There was just one more thing I needed to remind him.
“Fletcher?”
“Hmm?” His tongue teased along my collarbone, making it hard to remember what I was supposed to tell him.
“If we do this…” Even with my body on fire, I could still feel my cheeks heat at what ‘this’ meant. “I’ll bond to you. It’s not something I can help. But you don’t have to accept me?—”
Fletcher brought his mouth back to mine, cutting me off with a surprisingly tender kiss. When he pulled away, he asked, “Will you be my mate, Charlee? I’ve always known you were the only woman for me.”
If he’d told me that a day before, I would have burst into happy tears. But thanks to my raging heat, my response was asingle husky word as I ripped away the clothes that were the last thing keeping us apart.
“Mine.”
You’d think the fact that I was practically ripping the pants off a man would’ve been enough to ease my heat and allow me to enjoy bonding with my mate. But I was getting the distinct impression that my inner beast didn’t trust me to follow through with what I started. Because instead of easing it, the pain grew more unbearable with each garment tossed to the ground and every brush of his skin against mine.
I tried to shove the bone-melting pain into a box and close the lid, but that was about as effective as trying to nail Jello to the wall. And when Fletcher pulled the oversized cotton shirt over my head, then bent his head to suck the hardened peak of my nipple into his mouth, I couldn’t help it. I cried out.
“Did I hurt you?” Fletcher gasped, pulling his head back. “Did I hurt you? Am I going too fast? I’m sorry!”
“No!” I protested, catching his face and practically yanking him back to my chest. “Please don’t stop. It’s the heat! The longer I keep putting off mating, the more devastating the effects are becoming on my body.”
Despite my reassurances, Fletcher hesitated. He placed a gentle kiss on my breast, rather than trying to devour me as he had a moment before.
“The pain isn’t going to ease until you’ve bred me.” That was only partially true.
From what I’d been taught, the initial onslaught wouldn’t back off until I’d been bred two or three times. Especially since my heat had been brought on early by stress. Worse, I’d delayed mating, rather than asking Fletcher for help sooner. Even after completing the bond with Fletcher, I was going to be in trouble.
As if in response to that, though, another wolf howl echoed down the tunnel, as though assuring me he was coming. He was close, likely only minutes away. My heart skipped a beat, then raced.
It was a very real possibility that the two wolves would race into the cavern, succumb to their predatory instincts, and decide to have rabbit tartar for dinner. I really wanted to take Fletcher as my mate before my untimely death, but time was running out.
“We have the rest of our lives to make love, but I need you inside me.” My fingers frantically worked to unbutton the fly of his jeans. “Now.”
Fletcher reached between us and undid his stubborn pants. “I’ve spent years imagining our first time together, but this wasn’t how I’d planned for it to go.” The touch of amusement in his tone told me he wasn’t upset over the change of plans.
Hooking my thumbs on the waistband of his jeans, I pushed them down as far as I could reach. His erection sprang free as though prepared to slay a monster. I licked my lips at the sight of his pocket sword, beyond ready for a good stabbing.
“Hurry!” I pleaded, shifting my hips to line him up with my slick entrance.
Fletcher buried himself deep inside in a single hard thrust, our voices mingling in a single moan. I’d hoped that once he was filling me, the cramps wracking my body would ease. But those hopes were quickly dashed. Instead, it was as though he’d torn the thin wall that had withheld the full force of my heat.
If I’d been needy before, I was on the verge of desperation now. I growled, fighting the urge to flip Fletcher onto his back and take what my body demanded—anything to ease the turmoil that swelled inside me like a living thing. My nails bit into the palms of my hands from the effort of keeping myself from clawing at his back.
All color seemed to fade from the world around me, and my vision tunneled.
My humanity crumbled away as the simplistic nature of the beast repeated one thought like a loop in my head.
Mate. Mate. Mate.
This was how our species had survived for hundreds of years—giving in to that animalistic instinct to breed, thus ensuring the future of our kind.
Any hopes or dreams I held as a human didn’t matter while my shifter nature was in control. She had one job—make sure I got laid.Lots.
