He groaned deep, clearly not anticipating my response. His next thrust was even wilder, and was met enthusiastically. Again, he slammed into me. There was no finesse in the meeting of our bodies. I was too frantically clawing at him, need overtaking everything, and Leif couldn’t seem to keep control, not while I was writhing under him. He pushed into me and I bucked with each thrust, screaming out my pleasure. It felt like my body was moving through one continuous orgasm, and I kept coming. I could feel my pussy tightening and flexing around Leif as he stroked inside me, hammering harder and faster deep within my core. All the while, his mouth worked on mine, and I screamed my pleasure against his lips.
Then I was shattering all over again, stars exploding behind my eyes. My back bowed and my entire body trembled, my senses on overload.
“’Lina,” Leif panted. “Oh god, ‘Lina. Can’t hold out — so sorry—“
He groaned, body stiffening over mine, and then I felt the hot flood of his come deep inside me as his thrusts became wild and shuddering. A moment later, he collapsed on top of me, and I went limp under him as the ceaseless orgasms seemed to finally die off.
I sucked in deep, long breaths, trying to re-orient myself. My entire body throbbed and felt twitchy. The slightest touch, and I felt like it’d set me off all over again. The deep, terrible aching was gone, like a toothache that had been soothed. It seemed to linger just below the surface, though, and I knew from hearing others talk about their personal heat experiences that it’d take more than one round of sex to rid myself of the feeling.
But I clung to Leif’s body, enjoying the press of his skin against mine. He was covered in a fine sheen of perspiration, his body damp. His control had been shot to hell by my wriggling and insistent touches. Poor man. I smoothed a hand along his back, feeling the muscles and tendons that twitched under my touch.
He struggled to his elbows and looked down at me, panting hard. There was a dazed look in his expressive blue eyes. “‘Lina…you okay?”
I gave my body an experimental, testing wiggle. I didn’t hurt, though I suspected I’d probably feel like hell in the morning. “I’m fine. How are you?”
Leif gave a small, wry laugh. “I’m not the one in heat. Speaking of, are you…?”
“It’s going to take more than just one round,” I told him. “I can still feel it in my body. You have time to catch your breath before we go again, though.”
He gave a wry snort and moved off of me, and the small cot creaked as he moved to my side. “Why do I have a feeling you’re going to work me into a boneless puddle before the day is over?”
I didn’t correct him. Even now, I was fighting the urge to roll over and pin him down on the bed and take what I needed from him. “Did I exhaust you already?”
Leif rubbed a hand on his face. “It’s not that. It’s…I don’t know.”
I frowned, rolling onto my side to face him. The movement pushed my breasts against him, and I thrilled at the contact of our skin. “What is it?”
“I…I keep thinking of the first time I saw you here on the island. I didn’t think you were real. I’m still half afraid to touch you for fear of hurting you.” A haunted look crossed his face. “Hurting you again,” he corrected. “I hate that I did that to you.”
I ran my fingers over his breastbone. “That was as much my fault as it was yours. I didn’t realize just how…feral you’d be.” Or completely out of your mind. “Once you realized what you were doing, you stopped.”
“After you kicked your way free,” he grumbled, and there was self-loathing in his words. Apparently it still weighed heavily on Leif’s mind. “If you hadn’t been strong enough—“
“But I am,” I reminded him, and slid my fingertips over to one of his nipples to tease it. Were his as sensitive as mine? A light furring of chest hair darkened his skin on each pectoral and met across his breastbone. It was fascinatingly soft, and I tickled the hairs with my fingers as I explored his body. “I’m just as strong as you, so there’s nothing to worry about.” It wasn’t a total lie - I was much stronger than a normal human girl, but a were-bear male in his prime would always be stronger than a were-bear female. Still, he’d know what I meant.
As I watched, his body twitched in response to my light, exploring touches, and he reached out to grasp my hand. “What are you doing, ‘Lina?”
“I’ve never touched a man before. Can I?”
“Never?” He released my hand and placed it back on his chest. “I thought you were promised to someone…” His brow wrinkled as he tried to recall.
“I was,” I said. “Ramsey Bjorn. Remember him? When he was fifteen, he was exiled for breaking the laws, and he never came back. After that, everyone just seemed to kind of ignore me.”
My few attempts at dating human boys had encouraged such scorn from my father that I’d given up. Better to be lonely and accepted than reviled, right?
“Poor ‘Lina,” Leif murmured. His hand brushed my hair off my cheek, and he couldn’t resist touching my nose ring again. “He’s a fool for leaving you behind.”
I shrugged, inwardly pleased at his words. “I was just a gawky girl when he left. He probably wasn’t thinking about me at all.” But that didn’t explain the later years, when I’d grown into my adulthood and still Ramsey hadn’t returned, despite knowing full well that there was no mate for me if he didn’t.
It had been incredibly selfish of Ramsey to leave me behind while he took off to live a life of exile, and I still burned with the resentment of that.
“He’s in your past,” Leif said, and there was a possessive note in his voice. His hand brushed over mine. “And you’re welcome to touch me any way that you like, though I’ll probably need some time to recover my stamina before pleasing my woman again.”
I giggled, the sound high and girlish. Your woman? But instead, I just said, “Is it because you’re so old now?”
Leif gave a mock growl in his throat.
I tangled my fingers into his chest hair and then slid them lower down his stomach, following the darker trail of hair down his stomach. It arrowed down to his belly button and then widened again, and I slid my fingers even further down, exploring his groin. I enjoyed his sucked-in breath, and my experimenting grew bolder. I reached down and cupped his balls, fascinated by the softness of the skin that covered them, and the heat of his body. Touching Leif felt good.
Then, I brushed my fingers over the soft length of his cock, now flaccid against his leg, and watched as it stirred to life. “Well now,” I said in a low voice. “That’s interesting.” The heat between my legs had begun to pulse again, excitement flicking through my veins.
“I think my body likes you,” Leif mused, and his hand began to smooth over my shoulder, caressing my skin.
His words ruined my teasing mood. His body was responding to mine because of the pheromones I was throwing off. That was the heat, not me.
Uncertainty leapt up again and I pulled my hand away. “Leif…you know that this will mean a baby, right? We’re not using protection and I’m not on the pill.” And females only went into heat when ovulation was assured. That was why a female shifter’s heat was such an important event in her life - they didn’t come often. My own mother had only gone into heat once in her life - and I was the result.
“I know what this means, ‘Lina,” he said softly. “Don’t worry about that.”
“But…I just want you to know,” I began, then paused. The words tore out of my throat haltingly, as if they didn’t want to come. “You…it doesn’t mean you have to be the father, though.”
He tilted his head, frowning up at me, as if trying to understand where I was going with this.
“I mean, you will be the father, of course.” I felt my face become red as I tried to put the words out into the air. “Just that you and me…right now…it doesn’t mean you have to be involved in the baby’s life if you don’t want to be. I can do it on my own. I don’t want you to feel obligated.”