Page 16 of The Bear's Fated Mate
Her head dropped back, and he pressed his mouth against her neck, suckling hard enough to leave a mark. This was madness, it was impossible, but as he rocked, fire building up his spine, the coming explosion was inevitable.
He twisted his hips, adjusting enough to make perfect contact with the heat of her core. Slowing now, he moved deliberately. Rubbing them together in a steady, demanding rhythm that left her quivering under his grasp.
“I… Oh,my—”
“Say my name,” Alex demanded. He caught hold of her earlobe with his teeth before sucking it into his mouth. A low keen escaped her lips. “Say it.”
How she’d understood him, he didn’t know. His words had been nothing more than a guttural growl, but the next thing he knew she’d shoved one hand into his hair and pulled his head back far enough to look him in the eye as she breathed out his name in about twenty-seven syllables.
“Allleeeeeeeexxxxxxx.”
He crushed her mouth under his, drove his hips faster, and as she broke apart in his arms, he captured her cry with his lips then joined her in release. Pleasure streaked through his system hard enough his legs were on the verge of collapse.
His weight against her was the only thing keeping her vertical, and their rapid breathing echoed in the small room.
Satisfaction, yes, followed instantly by the desire for more, and there in the darkness, Alex laughed softly.
Lara stiffened under him. He murmured soothingly as he offered a soft nudge with his nose along the smooth side of her neck. “Not laughing at you, sugar. Just thinking my brothers told me to be on my best behavior tonight. I’m trying to decide if they would rate this a plus or minus, because I sure the hell tried my best, considering the circumstances.”
She snorted before coughing daintily. “My sister told me to make friends. I don’t think she meant friends with benefits.”
He chuckled again. “Who knew that the two of us could be so cooperative?”
Truth.
They pulled things together and straightened themselves up in the darkness. Alex was thankful for his bear-sized pocket handkerchief to deal with the mess, but he couldn’t stop grinning. It was clear that some of the tension between them had faded. He still didn’t trust her—not completely. But he was more willing to take a chance and see exactlywhatshe was up to before judging her dangerous.
Because one thing was certain—there needed to be more ofthisheaded into the future.
8
Lara rubbed her temples, willing the ache to subside. Her entire body was on pins and needles, and her wolf was ready to go feral.
It had been five days, twelve hours, and fifty-seven minutes since she last saw Alex—in passing, at the grocery store. And she’d comethisclose to tackling him to the ground and stripping him right then and there.
Five days, twelve hours, and fifty-eight minutes.
Yes, she’d been keeping count and wasn’t embarrassed in the least by that fact. Timing it gave her something solid to think about, and that meant she wasn’t slipping outside to shift to her wolf so she could track his ass down to get what she really wanted.
That sexual experience in the dark a week earlier had opened a door better left closed, and now the cravings were getting worse.
The only way to get through this impossible situation was distraction and routine. She picked up the mail she’d grabbed from the pack’s post office box, stacking the pile neatly on the left side of her desk.
Letter opener in hand, she slit open the first envelope, working hard to not imagine running that blade along the front of a certain Alex Borealis’s shirt. With her mind working overtime, she pictured buttons flying everywhere before the freshly pressed material parted to reveal his lickable chest—
The letter opener slipped, jabbing her ring finger. Lara cursed, and shoved the punctured digit in her mouth to soothe the pain.
Great. Fantastic. Peachy keen, and awesome.
Now she was not only hurting because she wasn’t allowed to touch the man, she was hurting herself whilethinkingabout touching the man.
For the next fifteen minutes, she willed her wolf to behave so she could concentrate enough to keep at her task. Bills in one pile, correspondence for Midnight Inc. in another. Junk mail to be recycled in the third.
She was nearly done when a gold envelope revealed a simple three-by-four-inch cardboard voucher.
Congratulations!
You’re this month’s recipient of an all-inclusive, three-night stay at
