Bearllionaire: (BWWM) Paranormal BBW Bear Shifter Romance Standalone (11 page)

He took a step forward and put an arm around Janna’s waist, pulling her against him. She turned in his arms and looked up at him. Damn, she seemed small compared to him. Small and precious.

But she was a woman. Capable, smart, and strong. If she chose him, it would only be because she wanted to.

“We don’t have to do anything tonight,” he said. “I don’t want you to feel pressured.”

Her eyes blinked up at him and her jaw tilted stubbornly. “What makes you think I feel pressured?”

“You seemed nervous that your friends were leaving. But if you were worried I’d suddenly come on to you, you shouldn’t have.”

“Ha!” she said, putting her hands on his chest, warming the skin there. “I was hoping you’d come on to me.”

His groin tightened at that and he bit his lip against a groan.

“Honestly,” she said. “The only thing worrying me is how little control I seem to have around you. My rational mind just flies out the window. I want you so badly I can barely walk.”

He tilted his head and looked down at her, and a slow smile curled the corners of his lips. “I can carry you.”

She reached her arms up toward him. “Yes, please.”

He grinned and swept her up in his arms, not caring who saw as he carried his mate bridal style out of the lodge and to the cabin they shared.

It was going to be a good night.

T
hey were already pulling
at each other’s clothes as they fell in the cabin door together after Ryder set Janna down. She pulled at his suit coat, which was tight across his wide shoulders.

He looked so freaking good in that suit, but she had a feeling he’d look better without it. His dark hair was combed back and swept off his forehead, and his handsome features were tensed and focused as he reached around her with a growl and unzipped her dress.

She laughed. “Take off my coat first!”

He growled. Literally growled. “I have to taste you.”

She dropped her arms and let her coat slide to the floor and then grabbed at his coat again until he mumbled a curse and shrugged out of it for her. His tailored white dress shirt was taut across his chest and he fumbled with the buttons as his mouth claimed hers.

Her dress was barely hanging on, and when he finished unbuttoning his shirt and shrugged out of it, leaving him only in an undershirt, he swept his hands over her shoulders and down her waist, smoothing the dress off her body until it let go and pooled on the ground in a puddle of black silk.

She growled and reached up on her toes, trying to wrap her arms around his neck, and he caught her up and lifted her so she could wrap her legs around his waist. Damn, she felt tall up here, perched above his long legs, her soft thighs enjoying the taut feel of his rippling abs. He held her up with one strong hand and pulled off his undershirt with the other, leaving her warm belly pressed to his searing hot skin. He felt literally on fire, but in a good way.

His hand cupped her ass, thumb playing with the waistband of her panties, and she sighed as his other hand moved to hold her back so he could lean forward and press a kiss to the side of her neck. She gasped as he nipped the skin there and turned around and walked her back into the door they’d just entered through. There were no open windows in the cabin. They’d shut them all before leaving so they didn’t have to worry about anyone seeing them.

It was just them alone, a man and a woman ensconced together with wilderness all around, the snowy mountains a distant witness to their lovemaking.

He loved her tenderly, with his mouth, his hands, warming her and getting her ready by treasuring each inch of her skin he could reach. Feeling, caressing, stroking, pinching, laving.

He got her bra off and raised her up so he could take her nipple in his mouth. As he tasted it and she threw her head back in ecstasy, he seemed to lose all control. He walked quickly forward to drop her on the couch, then looked it over as if it weren’t good enough and picked her back up in his arms and carried her against his chest into the bedroom.

A little thrill went through her. They’d have a full time together tonight, not a rushed interlude on the couch.

The mattress was soft and large, and he settled her on it gently but then crawled over her with a growl, his large body covering hers as he nearly purred with satisfaction.

If this was the kind of passion Ryder Hart used to acquire companies, then she could understand why he was a billionaire.

He kissed her neck as he slid her panties off her legs. He lifted his head and his sapphire eyes darkened to nearly onyx as he breathed in the air in the room.

“You smell amazing.”

She swatted him with her hand. “Ew, don’t talk about it.”

He dipped his head between her legs and inhaled again, let out a hoarse oath, and came forward to claim her mouth with a potent strength unlike any she’d ever experienced. When he was done ravaging her mouth and she was gasping for air and imagining wickeder things he could do to her, he lifted his head and smiled that cocky smile that made her knees go weak.

He wasn’t a man to smile often, but when he did, it was a knockout.

“I’ll talk about it if I want,” he said. “I love everything about you.” He drew his lips down the center of her chest, kissing the inside curves of her breasts as he gathered them gently in his large hands. It felt so good to be held by a man. If someone could invent a bra that cupped her like this, she’d buy ten of them.

A week.

Her breasts felt treasured. Every part of her felt awake and alive as his touch moved over her. He seemed determined to trace his ownership on every inch of skin, grazing her ankle and toes, kissing her inner thigh and turning her over to do the same with her back. When he sat back on his knees and lifted her hand to press a kiss to the tips of her fingers, she squirmed in anticipation. Her whole body felt more sensitive the longer he continued. The foreplay was torture.

When he sucked one of her fingers into his hot mouth, as no one had ever done before, she was shocked by the powerful pleasure that rocked through her.

The sight of that huge, strong man gazing at her with lust as she relinquished her hand and came forward over her tortured body nearly did her in, but he pressed his mouth over hers and slowed things down as he gently stroked with his tongue and wrapped his arms around her.

He moved and whispered against her ear in a way that tickled. “Can I taste you everywhere?”

“I think you have,” she gasped out, unable to keep from smiling.

“Not everywhere,” he replied in a husky voice, drawing one finger over the soft thatch at the top of her thighs.

“Oh,” she gasped. “That. Um, sure.”

It was something she’d never let Scott do, something she’d been too embarrassed to ask for, though he’d demanded blowjobs. She got the sense he was slightly grossed out by the idea. But Ryder seemed positively hungry, and she longed to be appreciated that way. To feel that no part of her was dirty as woman. To be loved even where she was most insecure.

His hands kneaded her belly gently as he moved down the bed. “Relax,” he said, smoothing a hand over her soft middle before using his other to part her legs in one smooth motion.

He was so strong. She knew he could do whatever he wanted whenever he wanted, but he’d asked. He’d been gentle and concerned about her feelings.

Ryder Hart was definitely too good to be true. And she was no fool. But even if this ended up breaking her heart, it was worth it. A memory to keep for forever.

She’d never forget him.

As he lowered his mouth and kissed her center gently, she felt her muscles tense up further, desperate for release. She reached down and dug her hands in his hair. She was already so close from everything else he’d done. Everything he did had an impact on her.

“Harder,” she gasped.

He sucked down right over her center and then swirled his tongue in a slow circle around and over it, and she screamed and arched back in the most intense orgasm she’d ever had.

But he didn’t let go, licking and sucking and kissing as she writhed against him and was sent into another rhythmic orgasm, her body contracting all over as waves of pleasure and relief roared from head to toe. Even the fingers where he’d kissed her. Every inch of her body, like he’d been setting it up that way just by paying that kind of attention to her.

She let go of his hair and twisted her fingers in the sheets, but he was relentless, moving against her with his strong tongue until the build started again, and then rushed her over the edge of another orgasm and into a rush of oblivion followed by seconds of sheer, screaming pleasure.

She screamed his name, not caring who heard, and she could swear she felt him grin against her pussy.

When he finally raised his head to gaze down at her as she lay there, exhausted from coming but not even close to satisfied, the pleasure he’d gained from pleasing her was evident on his face. When he made to lower his head again, she sat up slightly with a growl and shook her head. She grabbed his face in both hands, kissed him hard, and then growled into his ear.

“Take me now.”

A deep rumble in his throat was his assent, and he pressed her back with one hand and pulled off pants and boxer briefs in one smooth movement. His manhood sprang free, and he reached for a condom, ripped the packet open, and slid it on.

Then his hands were on either side of her head, his eyes gazing into hers, glowing with sapphire intensity, and then he was inside her, stretching her, pushing her body to the edge of its limits of pleasure. Making the sensitive place inside her light up like it was on fire, the best kind of fire that heats but doesn’t burn. She let her body adjust and took a couple deep breaths and then wrapped her legs around his waist, locking her legs at the heels. She wasn’t letting him out.

He closed his eyes as he started to move. She felt her body moving with him, staying joined and then pulling a little apart, so that delicious friction that resulted from each ridge of him stimulated every space inside her.

She’d never felt so filled, so complete, and at some point during the heights of the ecstasy between them, she looked up into his eyes and realized she no longer knew where he ended and she began.

It was a cosmic feeling, the best in the world, and also a little frightening. She wrapped her hands around him as her orgasm came, and he held her tight with one hand and thrust a few more times until he found his own completion. He uttered a low oath and then her name and then something she couldn’t quite make out.

She dug her nails in as her orgasm resonated against his where they were joined and held him as they rode the waves together.

When it abated, she dropped back against the pillows and he fell over her. She ran a finger through a lock that had come free, and he sighed hoarsely.

“Would it be crazy to say I love you?” he asked.

“Yes,” she said, knowing she could feel similarly if she let herself, but wouldn’t.

“I don’t care, I’ll say it anyway. I love you, Janna. Spend your life with me.”

She froze, pleasure still waving over her, his body still pleasantly ensconced in hers, and his warm strength covering her like he wanted to protect her from everything in the world.

“I’ll make sure you’re always happy,” he said. “I’ll never let anything happen to you.”

She stroked his hair, loving the dark softness of it. He had so much. So much of everything to offer really. So why couldn’t her heart get on board and trust him?

Stupid Scott.

“You don’t have to say that,” she said. “I know that’s not what this is.”

He flinched and lifted himself, narrowing his eyes at her as his jaw tightened. “What?”

She waved a hand weakly. “I just mean I’m already going to stay with you this week. You don’t need to make this out like it’s more than it is. I prefer honesty, and it’s not like I wouldn’t stay with you anyway.”

His expression darkened and he pulled gently out and caught himself with a towel. Then he rolled to the side of the bed to clean up.

She couldn’t help but feel tenderness as she stared at the sight of his large, wide back, the hunch of his shoulders as he worked.

“What kind of man do you think I am, Janna?” he asked, giving her a dark expression as he crossed to the closet and flung open the doors. He pulled out a pair of soft-looking pajama pants in navy blue and pulled them on with hasty motions. “You think I’d use you like that?”

She shrugged, hating this had to happen while she was still enjoying her afterglow. “We’re both adults. We’re having fun together, right? I mean, I know men feel like they have to say I love you every time, but let’s be honest. You barely know me.”

He flinched like she’d struck him, and she couldn’t tell why he’d be hurt by that. It was true. Any woman would probably think twice about believing a man loved her and wanted to spend his life with her after only two days.

What made him so different that it should be believable?

“What if I told you I knew, deep down in a special part of myself, that I’m meant for you and you’re meant for me?” he asked, still facing away.

He was striking too close to home, to those romantic fantasies she’d once had of meeting the one and living happily ever after with a prince. And she’d been hurt too much before by believing them. He couldn’t expect her to do that now. Not yet.

“I’d say you were crazy,” she said. “And maybe just getting a bit caught up.”

He growled and strode toward the bed. His magnificent bare chest caught the lamplight as he lunged onto the bed and took her mouth in another fierce kiss. This one was claiming, harsh, a sign of ownership, and when he pulled back, she found herself once again unable to think rationally.

And that scared her.

“I’m not crazy,” he said. “I don’t just say this to women. I don’t use women who I know are looking for something long term. I knew when I looked at you, just by how Scott had hurt you, that you’re the type a man keeps forever. I’m looking for forever, Janna.”

She turned away on a sob. “I don’t know if I can believe in forever anymore,” she said. “And it’s just too good to be true. You don’t know how it felt. To move out here to the middle of nowhere, to the wilderness, because I thought I was going to be loved, protected. Instead, I wound up alone. Poor. Nowhere to go. Anything could have happened to me.”

“No,” he said. “You’re strong.”

“I didn’t feel strong,” she said. “I felt helpless. Angry. I never want to feel like that again.”

He pulled her into his lap on the bed and cradled her, pressing his lips to the top of her head in a gentle, soothing kiss. He seemed to understand now that what had hurt most wasn’t just the cheating; it was the abandonment. And it was feeling like she was the one to blame because she’d known it should be too good to be true yet still blindly believed in it.

“I never should have moved for him.”

“You did nothing wrong,” he said, his voice clearly trying to contain the anger he was feeling over the Scott situation. “You did what a good woman would have, and if he’d been a good man, it would have been fine. That was his job, to be a good man. A trustworthy man. He failed at that.” He held her tight. “I won’t, Janna. I promise.”

She leaned into him. She was tired of not being able to trust. Tired of planning to spend her life alone because she didn’t want to be hurt again. Tired of Scott showing up at the store as if he thought he could take control of her life again just by stalking her.