Page 43 of The Bear's Fated Mate
Oh, his eyes were filled with wonder, and his expression was adoring, as if he were looking at a miracle.
“Lara? I love you.”
A thrill shot through her so hard she felt it in every cell of her body. “Seriously?”
He stroked her cheek so tenderly. “No demands you say it back. Not until you’re ready, but just so you know, I plan to work my ass off to make sure you feel the same—”
“You’re my mate,” she confessed. “My fated mate, as in, it’s a wolf thing. I’ve known for months, but that’s not the important part because I love you too.”
Hopefulness mixed with confusion. “You’ve known I was your mate for months and you never said anything?”
She made a face. “We weren’t exactly bosom buddies.”
Alex looked horrified. He rolled off her and sat upright. “You knew we were mates when you handcuffed me to the handrail? I mean, when I was an idiot and tried to trick you into trusting me, and then you handcuffed me to the handrail as I so rightly deserved?”
“Yes, but could we get back to where we were a moment ago with you on top of me and us about to—”
Alex pinched the bridge of his nose and shook his head as if his brains were rattling around and he was trying to make them settle. Then he lifted his head sadly, hand reaching to grasp hers. “Now it makes sense. There were so many times I couldn’t figure out what the hell was going on, and why you weren’t just flattening my ass, but it was because you were trying not to burn bridges.”
She fought to keep from smiling. “It’s a little hard to try and convince someone you’re worthy of forever when you’ve got them in a headlock on a regular basis.”
“But that’s not all, is it?” He scooped her up, and suddenly she was sitting in his lap naked, his fingers stroking delicately along her collarbone and down her shoulder and biceps. “I’ve heard stories. Knowing that I was your mate and not getting to be with me—God, that must’ve been killing you.”
“I was pretty happy to share mating fever with you, even though it wasn’t a forever thing,” she admitted.
The heat rising in his eyes said it all. “I swear I’ll make it up to you,” he promised. “Every one of those months you spent in pain, I’ll give you pleasure ten times over. For every month your wolf was lonely, I’ll give you decades of companionship.”
Accepted, her wolf shouted.Signed, sealed, and delivered, please.
Lara giggled.
Alex raised a brow.
She pressed her hand to his chest and wiggled in close. “My wolf would like to know if we could consummate that proposal with a bit more than a handshake.”
“With pleasure.”
He took control and proceeded to kiss every inch of her body, sliding over the mattress and adjusting her as he pleased until she was quivering with need and trembling on the edge of the precipice.
Of course, that’s when he pulled back, eyes widening as he stared down at her where he had her pinned, his cock hovering at the entrance to her sex. “I just realized something.”
Lara shrieked, pounding her fists on his shoulders. “Oh my God, I’m going to kill you. Sex now, revelations later.”
“No, this is important,” Alex insisted. “You see, during the mating fever, you already knew we were mates. So did your wolf and my bear, which means that wholeeverybody needs to be on boardthing? The only holdout keeping us from becoming full mates wasme.”
She hadn’t thought of it that way. “And…?”
A steady forward thrust of his hips brought his cock into contact, and as he slipped into her body, something magical happened.
Perfection wrapped tight, comfortable and yet binding in a way that she knew meant never being lonely or separated, no matter the distance between them. Pleasure streaked up her spine, radiating into her limbs and tingling up the back of her head.
“When James and Kaylee went through the mating fever, he accepted it and felt the possibility of it right away, but she didn’t. It wasn’t until she accepted the bond that it came into being.” Alex was moving in her now, joined intimately as he leaned his lips next to her ear and whispered. “I choose you. I want you. Iloveyou.”
“I love you too—”
He notched his mouth against the curve of her shoulder. A sharp pain seared through her as he bit down. Words vanished and a blinding light filled the room.Oh my God, this is really happening.
Alex groaned, hips pumping until he came as well. Spine arching, a cry of fulfillment on his lips. He lowered himself gently, their chests still heaving and bodies shaking with satisfaction.
