Gambling on Her Bear (Shifters in Vegas) (10 page)

Karen grinned. “There is a beauty to that, I have to say.”

“They assigned me the job infiltrating Schiller’s operation and setting something up.”

“Something? Like what?”

He chewed another mouthful and washed it down with a swig of Tsingtao beer, buying time. Could he trust Karen with his secret?

She trusts us,
his bear said.
We can trust her.

But it wasn’t that easy, was it?

Sure it is,
his bear said.
Just make it easy.

Man, he could see the look on the faces of the clan elders if he came home to say he’d not only fucked things up, but he’d done so after blurting secrets to a woman he barely knew.

“How about we eat first?” he said at last, and she immediately made a face. “Not because I don’t trust you,” he added quickly.

“No?” She glared at him and pointed her fork. “Then why not tell me?”

He bit his lip. “Because I don’t trust myself.”

“What’s not to trust?”

He snorted. What wasn’t to trust? Instinct. Emotion. Deviation from the original plan. Plus his bear, who kept insisting this woman was his mate. If he didn’t watch it, he’d be on his knees with a ring in no time.

Karen regarded him in a way that said she didn’t understand what about him was not to be trusted, which scared the crap out of him. Having the clan trust him to pull off the impossible was bad enough. Having a gorgeous dragon shifter trust him, too…

A good thing that busybody of a waitress bustled in then, this time with a baby panda on her hip.

“Aren’t you a cutie?” Karen cooed, petting its ears.

Tanner expected his bear to get all jealous at that, but the grizzly inside him turned to mush.

So cute,
the bear murmured.
And someday—

Whoa, buddy,
Tanner cut the bear off with a long, hard slug of his drink.
One thing at a time, right?

And just like that, his focus zoomed right in on Karen. On her sparkling eyes, her mile-a-minute lips making baby sounds, her silky hair. Everything else ceased to exist, and it was just the two of them again.

He’d end up telling her, of course. He knew already he would. Every last detail of his plan — and the fact that it was going down tomorrow, and where and how and the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help him God, because there was no way he could lie to his mate.

His half-dragon, half-witch mate. Jesus, would he have a lot of explaining to do if he made it back to Idaho alive.

Daunting as that was, though, he warmed at the idea.

This is Karen,
he’d say, holding her close while he introduced her to his family.
My mate.

His bear nodded his approval and practiced the throaty growl he’d let out if any fool tried protesting such a crazy match.

My destined mate.

It kind of had a ring to it.

When the old lady took their dishes and left, Karen tilted her head at him. “You should see your expression right now. What are you thinking about?”

“You,” he murmured. “You.”

She reached over the table, took his hand, and ran her fingers over his. Her skin was soft and nice and warm, and he couldn’t help but close his eyes.

“What are you thinking of now?” she asked very quietly.

“Touching you,” he whispered.

A silent second ticked by, and then she whispered back.

“Where?”

And,
whoosh!
The little inner flames that had been flickering with lust for her throughout the past hour suddenly blazed into a giant inferno.

“Everywhere,” he answered truthfully as his jeans grew tight.

A slow, sultry minute ticked by, and a bead of sweat formed on his brow as she undressed him with her eyes.

“And what else?” Her husky voice made his toes tingle, his blood heat.

“I’m thinking of kissing you. Everywhere.” He imagined exactly where he’d start — on the sweet spot just under her ear — and where he’d go from there. Like the hollow of her neck, the curve of her collarbone, the rise of her breast. “I want to make love to you all night and all day.”

She chuckled quietly, “You sure you mean me?”

Only you,
his bear chipped in.
There is only you. No one else. Never.

“You,” he whispered, letting his thumb tango with hers.

“You and me?” Her voice became sultry. Hungry.

He nodded. “You and me.”

His eyes were still closed, but he could picture the room. The silky wallpaper, the rich color of the red lamps overhead. Behind the smell of burning candles came the unmistakable scent of arousal. His, hers, wrapped around each other in the first steps of a very close samba. He took a deep breath.

“You and me…” she prompted, running her hand up his arm. Sparks shot through his body.

“You and me, together, like that night under the stars,” he whispered.

Her hand stayed on his while she stood from her chair, and it scraped against the floor. The space to his left warmed with her presence as her hand pulled slightly to the side. He pushed his chair back and let her slide into his lap. Smoothly, as if she’d done it a thousand times before. Eagerly, as if she wanted to do it a thousand more times in the future, maybe even in front of a roaring fire in that log cabin he kept picturing whenever he thought ahead.

Her lips brushed over his, and she whispered softly in his ear. “You have that motorcycle somewhere nearby?”

His heart pounded harder. He nodded slowly, and her lips stayed on his ear, moving up and down with him. Moving around, massaging his skin. Making every nerve in his body scream for her.

His arms slid around her — one around her waist, the other around her shoulders — without even a peek to guide him. His body knew hers instinctively. And when he opened his mouth to whisper, her lips were right there, so he couldn’t tell if he started the kiss or she did. Didn’t really care who it was, frankly, because a hundred delicious flavors filled his mouth and nose as he drank her in.

Beautiful,
his bear murmured, already in ecstasy.
So beautiful.

She squeezed closer. So close, her nipples pressed into his chest, about as erect as his cock was inside his jeans. The buttons of that tight silk dress pressed against him, too, and he pictured popping them open, one at a time.

“Not sure I’ll make it all the way to the bike and out to the hills,” he murmured, letting his left hand curve over her ribs.

“Not sure I will, either,” she said, kissing him down the side of his face and along his neck. She nibbled as much as she kissed and ran a hand inside his shirt.

The hand he’d been sneaking upward suddenly decided to go down, and he let it glide over her thigh, making her surge closer. He found the hem of her dress and tugged it higher. Higher. Higher…

“Tanner,” she whispered.

A door opened and closed somewhere down the hall, and he popped his head up, looking and listening.

“Don’t stop,” Karen begged, pushing his hand back to where it had been.

“Don’t want to. But I really don’t want Grandma Panda interrupting us now,” he said, barely holding back. God, she was even more beautiful when she was turned on.

Karen pulled away from him, wearing a sly smile.

“I rented a room upstairs,” she said, sliding slowly off his lap. “A small room with a very big bed.”

“Show me the way, sweetheart,” he said, rising with her, keeping firm hold of her hand. “Show me the way.”

Karen led Tanner out of the room, down a hallway, and up a creaky set of stairs. She didn’t make it far, though, before pausing for another kiss. A quick kiss, a little taste of him to tide her over until they reached the privacy of her room.

Somehow, though,
quick
turned into
long
and
little
turned into
deep,
and she whimpered with the pleasure of it all. It only got better when Tanner backed her up and pinned her against the wall with his body. His big, hard body.

Her dragon purred inside. This kind of manhandling, she liked.

His hands tugged at the hem of her qípáo dress, and she congratulated herself on her choice of evening wear.

“You like this dress?” she murmured between kisses.

“I like this dress so much I need to take it off you very, very soon,” he growled, pressing into another kiss. The firm line of his lips guided hers open, and his tongue plundered her mouth, exploring, celebrating, claiming all that territory as his.

A dozen alarms should have gone off in her mind, because everyone knew bears were the most territorial shifters of them all. She really ought to be on guard against that. She was her own woman, after all.

But she’d had it with being her own. She wanted to be his. To let him consume her. Mark her. Claim her. She wanted to be part of a bonded twosome rather than the occasional one-plus-one. Even if it was only for tonight.

Not just for tonight,
her dragon rumbled.
Forever.

His body language all but screamed,
My woman,
and hers echoed the emotion back to him. Every rough scrape of his stubble over her cheek, every touch of his big hands wound her higher as he marked her with his scent.

I’m all yours,
she told him through little gestures and touches. The message was coded into the way she rolled her head to the side, into the way she surrendered to his tongue, into the way she wound her leg around his.

His hips pushed against hers, and she climbed his leg like a boa.

“Here,” he panted, hitching her leg higher. A second later, she was moaning incomprehensibly.

Jesus, they were moving fast, but once the tidal wave of lust hit her, there was nothing to do but try to ride it out.

Not lust,
her dragon corrected.
Love. This is my mate.

“Mate?” she whispered, then winced. She hadn’t meant to say it out loud.

Tanner’s eyes shone with a deep, intense light, and he nodded. “Mate,” he whispered back.

For a moment, she got lost there, gazing into his eyes as if they weren’t two glassy points of light but crystal balls full of swirling mist that veiled her future. Then his mouth cracked open, and she dropped her head for another kiss. And another, and another, until the motion of him carrying her up the stairs rocked them apart.

“That one,” she murmured, pointing to the door he nearly carried her past.

Tanner shoved it open with a foot then shouldered it shut without letting her go. From the looks of it, he might never let her go, and she was just fine with that.

She sniffed around his neck as he slid his hands lower, pushing her dress up and spreading her legs wider. Which was perfect, except for one thing.

“Too many layers,” she mumbled, loosening her grip around his waist.

“Too many layers,” he agreed.

Blue neon lights washed in from outside the windows, framing Tanner in a smoky glow. A group of tourists walked down the alley one story down, and a laugh rang out.

Tanner splayed one big hand over her ribs while running the knuckles of the other over the front of her dress.

“Too many buttons.”

She shook her head. “Just enough buttons, I think.”

“Just enough for what?” The look he gave her was so dirty, so scorching, she wavered the slightest bit.

“Enough to make this fun,” she shot back. “I can always start if you want.” She reached for the button of his jeans.

A deep, dangerous rumble sounded in his chest, and for a moment, she thought he’d pounce.

“Start where?” His voice was low and rumbly, like thunder behind a mountain ridge.

“Right about here,” she whispered, popping the button. She ran a finger up the line of the zipper next, teasing him, then cupped him with one hand. A hand that was nowhere near big enough to hold all of what was straining that denim.

Just as she started to wonder why Tanner would let her take the lead, the answer came to her. A man with such intensity would have easily dominated every woman he’d ever touched. Maybe having her lead was a novelty. Maybe he liked it.

He definitely liked it, judging by the gleam in his eye, the hitch in his breath. The question was, how long would he let her run with it? How far could she push him?

All of a sudden, she really, really wanted to find out.

“Let me see,” she said, though
seeing
wasn’t what her hands were busy doing with his jeans. “How about you lose these?” She made it a command, not a request, and his nostrils flared.

She hurried on before he might intervene, unzipping the fly and slowly pushing down his jeans.

“Oops. Shoes,” she murmured.

He went to reach for them, but she caught his hand.

“On second thought, leave them like that. I like you trapped. Helpless.”

His right eyebrow arched. “Helpless?”

“Helpless,” she replied. As helpless as a two-hundred-pound bear shifter could be, at least. Even if that wasn’t much, she was having too much fun to stop now. “This way, I can proceed with my diabolical plan.” She ran her hands down his chest, inching gradually south.

His body was tense, his eyes full of lust, and his mouth crooked in the slightest smile. “An actual plan?”