Bear Me Away (Alpha Werebear Paranormal Romance) (A Jamesburg Shifter Romance) (20 page)

I eased Damon to the ground, and he used his hands to get into a halfway comfortable position. At first I stood over him, then I crouched, and then he grabbed my hand and pulled me onto his lap.

“Oh hey!” I giggled. “Watch where those hands are going! Hurt or not, fresh is still fresh.” He smiled and poked my cheek where my left dimple popped up, but only when I was
really
serious about smiling.

“Tell me,” he said. “What’s got you twisted up?”

I didn’t want to. I really, really, didn’t want to tell him that I was a dumb girl in love with a guy I screwed up a relationship with. Especially not with him hurt this badly. I fought it with every shred of willpower in me, but then it all came out anyway.

What a surprise. Me with my heart on my sleeve, even when I thought I was
so good
at being guarded and closed off. Well, maybe with anyone else, sure, but not with Damon.

“How do you continually make me admit things that I’d never admit to anyone else?” I asked, absently stroking the side of his neck with two fingers.

“Would you accept ‘werewolf magic’ as an answer?”

Damon’s smile, I thought with a giggle, needed to be licensed as a lethal weapon.
God, those cheeks!
I wanted him so bad to grab me in his big arms and squeeze me and kiss me and ravish every inch of me with affection. I wanted him to kiss
all
over me, throw me against the wall and have his way with me, I – really needed to calm down.

“Remember,” I said, desperate for something to break the tension between us, “when you forced me to leave the house and go to the sophomore prom?”

A smile danced across Damon’s face. “It was the least I could do. You were so upset about your parents, watching you hurt just killed me.”

“It was just so sweet... you brought me those lilies because you’re a cornball and you had that dress I bought right before my meltdown. I’d never had anyone do anything like that for me before you.”

“You have no idea how much it hurt when you left. I deserved it though.” He looked away for a moment. “I mean, I never blamed you. I know it was my...”

I touched his lips with my fingertip. For a moment, we just stared at each other. The flush on my cheeks was painfully obvious, but luckily it’s hard to see blush in a cave light only with a campfire.

“Anyway,” Damon whispered, breaking the silence. “What’s bothering you?”

Playfully, I shook my head. “I’m learning to believe a whole lot of wild stories, but I think that might be stretching it even for my newly open mind about all this Fox Mulder stuff.”

“Who’s that?”

I laughed a little. “Not much for 90s television?”

Damon twirled a lock of my hair around his finger, pulling just a little. That little tug sent a thrill creeping down my back. I needed him to get this all over with, no matter how embarrassing it was to admit, or I’d be the world’s biggest mess.

“You’re not going to get out of this, pretty lady.” Damon pursed his ruby red lips and kissed me right in the sensitive spot behind my ear.

I could have straight up died. The ache between my legs had me so hot that I was a vaguely afraid of jumping his bones and breaking this giant of a man in two with over-eagerness.

“Talk,” he whispered into my ear then sucked my earlobe gently, clipping his teeth together when he pulled away. “Or I’ll torture you until you
do
.”

I purred. I
never
purr. “I bet you would. But are you sure that’s a good idea with you all busted up?”

Damon let out a loud laugh, followed immediately after by a groan and a wheeze. “Oh God, yeah probably not. I can still tease you though, right?”

The last time you lost me it was because you wouldn’t even go that far. Or was it me?

Taking a deep breath, I said, “Is the only reason I’m here because I have to be? For... destiny or whatever it is? Or is it because you actually want me here? You can be honest. I’d rather know the truth now than have it come out later when—”

He kissed the question right off my lips. With his tongue slowly exploring my lips, then diving down and running behind them, there was nothing I could do. I was utterly, completely powerless to this man, and even if he didn’t know it, I sure as shit did.

“Damon,” I said softly, “I... I don’t know why I gave you up the first time.”

“Because I was scared of going too fast. I was afraid that if I really fell for you, and we did all this stuff back then, that I’d become, well, this.” He gestured down his body, indicating the thicker-than-normal hair on his muscled legs.

“Poko says you’re going to be in control of it,” I replied. “He says that once you go through the big transformation ordeal, you’ll be able to shift back and forth and that’s how you’re supposed to,” I swallowed my words before I said ‘fight Devin’ because I really just didn’t want to admit that reality to myself.

Damon shook his head, taking a second to kiss me again before he did. “I just don’t know. But back then, I was really scared. I didn’t have anything to go on. My dad told me some stories, and then just kinda left me to figure it out on my own.”

I opened my mouth to protest, which Damon stopped with another deep, sweet kiss.

“He didn’t do anything wrong. That’s how my people work. They raise me, and then they give me over to the elder. Poko told you all that stuff though. I’m not sore at my dad or anything. Anyway, that’s not what we were talking about. We were discussing you, I think?”

His fingers curling against the back of my head was just so comfortable, so right. I never wanted him to stop.

“I just,” I trailed off, massaging his shoulder. “I don’t want to ruin it again. I’ve got you, and I think that’s what I want.”

“You’ve got me, yeah,” he said softly. “Can I admit something to
you
?”

I ran my fingertip along the razor-thin scar that stretched almost all the way between Damon’s eye and his top lip. “Anything.”

“I thought you were going to leave.”

“Why would I –”

He put up a hand. “You seemed spooked by that whole fated destiny, soul-mate business, and I couldn’t blame you if you were. When I went berserk, or well, one of the times I went berserk, I was panicked. I thought for sure there was no way you’d stick around. And you know what? I wouldn’t go after you.”

“But Damon,” I protested, “if what Poko says is true, that’d be the same as dooming yourself to these uncertainties, to shifting back and forth and all that. Why would you endure that kind of torture?”

Damon let his hand fall from the side of my face to his shoulder, and he pulled me close against his chest. “Because I would never hurt you Lily, not even if it meant losing my humanity. I’d rather live in the constant agony of waking up cut to pieces and not remembering what I’d done or where I was than cause you a moment of pain.”

I opened my mouth to respond, but my breath and my voice caught in my throat.

Finally, I answered. “I don’t know what to say to that.”

“Then don’t say anything.” He stroked my hair, tucking it behind my ear and kissing my cheek before turning my face to his and staring straight into my soul. “You don’t have to say anything. I’ve always loved you, Lily. From the second I saw you when I moved here, I knew I’d either have you or I’d have no one at all. This whole werewolf business just got in the way.”

Kissing his lips, then his chin, I rested my head against his chest. “Only you, Damon King,” I said smiling.

“Only me what?”

“Only you could be casual and flippant, and somehow unbearably sexy when you talk about turning into a wolf. And one other thing.”

“Yeah?”

“The only reason I
didn’t
run?”

I twisted in his arms, turning to face him. I drank in his eyes, his face. I wanted to remember every single detail.

“Is because it’s you.”

F
rom USA TODAY and NEW YORK TIMES best-selling author Lynn Red comes a steamy, seductive, hilarious and delicious alpha werebear romance.

Curvy, witty, carrot-topped Violet Larue is a fox shifter with a goal – she NEEDS to find herself a mate before she goes absolutely nuts.

After a string of bad relationships that left her heartbroken, and a bunch of dates that were more pie-in-the-face than swept-off-her-feet, Violet is just about ready to throw in the towel. She wants someone to chase her, to possess her, to make her his mate.

Somehow convinced to attend the only cage fight she’s ever seen, Violet has no idea that she’s about to lay eyes on just the bear for her.

Muscled, inked-up and one of the most dangerous fighters in the world, “Crag” Morgan is the bear of Violet’s dreams. With a dark past and an even darker present, love is nowhere near the top of Crag’s to-do list... until he’s looking around the crowd and catches a glimpse of a redhead with eyes that make his heart skip a beat.

He is everything she ever wanted. A self-assured, massively powerful alpha with a waist just perfect for wrapping her legs around? Uh, yes please! But little does Violet know that in the split second Crag spied her in the audience, she stole his heart. The bad boy fighter decided then and there to do whatever it takes to claim her... forever.

Note: THE JAMESBURG SHIFTERS is a series of standalone novels each featuring a unique hero and heroine and a satisfying HEA ending. No cliffhangers here! Books can be enjoyed in any order you like!

Excerpt

His skin was warm. So warm that it was a little bit like touching a person after they just finished a round on the bench press. “Do you... trim your arm hair?” I asked him as my hand ran along his muscled forearm. “You don’t have very much for a bear.”

That was the first time I saw his deep brown eyes sparkle. “All the time,” he said, never taking those burning eyes off me. “Clippers once a day. And you thought it was rough shaving your legs, huh?”

Bashfully, I whispered, “I don’t do that as often as I should,” in Crag’s ear.

He froze completely, like went absolutely rigid. He opened his mouth really wide, and let out one, single, bellowing “HA!”

I’ve never heard anything like it. The one body-shaking laugh was followed by more, louder somehow, until the giant man with his hand on my shoulder was red in the face and doubled over. I just stood there, grinning, and looking back and forth like I’d just shot someone. When he finally came back to reality, Crag wiped the back of his hand across his face.

“I really hope you’re the one he wanted me to meet,” he said. “I don’t think I could handle not having someone like you in my life.”

“Someone like me in your life?” I asked. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

Crag looked at me like I was crazy. “Just saying,” he said. “I don’t know the last time someone made me laugh like that. Anyway, as soon as your friend and my cousin took off, I wanted to—”

“They left?” I interrupted.

He smiled again and nodded. “Uh-huh. They took off to the back of the apartment a little bit ago. Just the two of us,” he said. “I’m just a big, dumb brute of a bear, and you’re a cute little fox, and we’re standing around in someone else’s living room.”

Those deep brown eyes charmed me. I was just helplessly lost, adrift without a hope of getting away. Then I felt his heavy, warm hands on my neck. Burning hot, just the gentle brushing of his fingertips against my skin started a fire in my core.

A second later, those hands slid down just a little.

“Hey!” I said, swatting at him. He kept them right where they were, just underneath my shoulders. “What do you think you’re doing? You haven’t even taken me on a date yet. We can’t do something like this
before
the first date,” I said.

“I don’t see why not,” Crag said. He flashed a grin. Once again, those eyes just trapped me. “I can tell you want me, and you can probably tell how much I want you. So, what’s wrong with giving in sometimes?”

I stifled a laugh. God I always laugh at the wrong times. “I just, I mean, getting all hot and heavy on the first date is tricky enough. But before it? That’s like a whole new world of—”

I didn’t have time to finish whatever silly joke I was going to make before Crag bent down and his lips enveloped mine. He brushed them along my trembling mouth and along my jaw. The two hands on my shoulders moved to the small of my back.

He pulled me tight, cradling my neck with one of his hands and holding me helpless with the other one. When he went back to my lips, he sucked the bottom one with such gentleness that it surprised me. The hand holding my neck extended until his thumb was on my chin, pulling my mouth open just a little.

“Oh,” I gasped. “Oh my, I don’t know if I’ve ever...”

“Shut up and kiss me,” Crag said. Then he did the work for me. “I saw you in the crowd tonight, and I couldn’t take my eyes off you. Almost got me plastered in that last match. Didn’t you notice?”

He leaned low, sucking a kiss on my neck and then behind my ear.

I
had
thought that maybe he was looking at me, but I didn’t want to admit it. That was a level of crazy I wasn’t ready to try and handle.

“I... oh wow, that’s incredible,” I breathed as he slid his rough thumb along my jaw, tickling me just a little. “I never do stuff like this. I mean
never
.”

For a second, Crag pushed my head back with his thumb and stared straight into my eyes. “For something you never do, you’re certainly enjoying it,” he said. “But me either. You just... you’re doing things to me.”

Then he kissed me.

Oh God did he kiss me.

It was deep and hard and relentless from the very first second. His tongue explored mine, slid around the deepest parts of me. He seemed to pull the breath out of my lungs. When he finally left me, I almost hurt with how much I wanted him back.

Did you love
Bear Me Away (Alpha Werebear Shifter Paranormal Romance)
? Then you should read
Bearly Breathing (Alpha Werebear Shifter Paranormal Romance)
by Lynn Red!

Bear-shifting, rogue biker Orion Samuelsson is on the run and nursing more than a little bottled up rage. For years, he’s been haunted by the cruel, brutal leader of his old club, the Dirty Devils. Love? Happiness? All distant fantasies. That is, until he lays eyes on a gold and black lynx-shifter dashing through a river.

Clea Kellen is the owner of Jamesburg's most popular daycare. And on top of that, she’s a lithe, witty, pointy-eared lynx shifter whose biological clock is tick-tick-ticking away. Even though she’s part-time mama to a whole bunch of bouncing cubs, one of her own is a forgotten dream. That is, until she catches a glimpse of a golden bear with pale brown eyes, watching her in the distance.

On a daycare camping trip, Clea’s whole world – in the form of a giant fir tree – comes crashing down. She dives to cover one of her cubs, sure she’s done for. When she finally opens her eyes, she can’t believe the massive, golden bear standing in only feet away with fire in his eyes and a tree on his back.

As he stares into Clea’s soul, straining under the fallen fir, Orion’s buried desire for a mate, and a family to call his own, burns deep in his heart. Right then, he knows he’s found her. He knows he won’t rest until she’s his, until he possesses her, takes her for his mate... forever.

But, with Orion on the run from his former gang, and Clea’s brain telling her to put on the brakes while her heart is screaming for her to hit the gas, will these two fated mates give in to love... and to each other?

The Jamesburg Shifters is a series of standalone novels - no cliffhangers here!

Read more at
Lynn Red’s site
.