“I remembered your family’s home,” he told me. “Once I got here, it was easy for me to follow your scent.” Leif smiled down at me. “All I had to do was look for the most delicious, feminine smell I’d ever found and follow it here.”
My hands ran over him, learning the changes. I touched his smooth-shaven jaw, his new clothes, everything. “Your parents…were they happy to see you?”
“Initially,” he said. “Then I got the same ‘you’ve been exiled’ talk from them. As if we weren’t consenting adults.” He rolled his eyes. “The elders council is going to wait a week to decide my fate.”
“A week?” I hated the thought of this torture dragging on for so long. “But…I don’t understand. They could all meet tonight and get this over with. Why won’t they?”
“Well, that’s easy,” Leif said, brushing the backs of his fingers along my cheek. “They want to make us sweat, so we’ll remember what it’s like to disobey them and never do it again.”
I frowned at that. It did sound like something my father would do. Jesus. The council of elders was like having five disapproving parents instead of just one. “I don’t like how they’re treating you. How they’re treating us.”
“I don’t either, but as long as we’re in the bear clan, we must play by their rules.” At my unhappy look, he leaned in and brushed his mouth over mine. “It’s okay, ‘Lina. Really. I’ll just spend my time pretending to be repentant and work on brushing up on my carvings. I’d like to have some ready to sell soon, since we’ll have a baby coming. And at night, I’ll just come here.” His mouth curved into a smile.
That warm smile took my breath away. “You’ve got it all figured out.”
“Well, they think they can separate us as part of their punishment,” Leif said. “You know they want control. But I’m not about to leave your side.”
“No?” The word came out more tremulously than I’d have liked. Stupid hormones.
“Never,” Leif told me, and his mouth captured mine again. Then, it slid to my cheek and pressed a kiss there. “You’re my mate, remember?”
And he lightly nipped at my neck, right over where he’d left the mark.
I moaned, desire rushing through me in response to the playful caresses. It had been a week since we’d made love, and it had easily been the longest, most tension filled week in my life. I needed Leif, wanted him so badly that I ached. My hand slid down his stomach and went to caress his cock, pleased to see that it was already erect underneath his jeans. It seemed like we were on the same wavelength. “I’ve missed you.”
“I’ve missed you, too,” he murmured, licking and nibbling at my neck. “And I can’t tell you how glad I am to see that you’ve got a queen-sized bed.”
I giggled at that. “Wanna break it in?”
“Absolutely.” He grabbed my hips and hefted me into the air.
I clung to him, wrapping my arms and legs around him; it was good that Leif was so tall, considering I was six foot, myself. But were-bears weren’t built small, and Leif was more than big enough to handle my weight and long limbs. He carried me to the bed and then gently lay me on my back.
And suddenly, it was like the world didn’t exist outside of us again. I smiled up at him, all suddenly right in my world.
“My lovely ‘Lina,” Leif murmured as he moved on top of me. “When you smile at me, I feel like I can do anything.”
I love you, I wanted to tell him, my heart aching with love and affection for this warm, tender man. But I remembered my father’s harsh words.
You do realize Leif didn’t want you?
And so I kept my declaration to myself. I didn’t want to blackmail him with confessions of feelings, or make him feel more trapped than he already was. So I simply kissed him, and poured my emotions into that.
His tongue slicked into my mouth, welcoming my kiss, and I moaned when it brushed against my own. His hands went to my breasts, caressing the tips through my shirt. I began to tear at his clothing, greedy for the feel of his skin against mine.
Leif’s growl of response surprised me. “That’s one thing I miss about the Antarctic,” he murmured, pressing hot kisses to my mouth between words. “Too many clothes here.”
I had to agree. My fingers tore at the buttons of Leif’s shirt, until I’d loosened them enough to reveal a patch of bare skin underneath…and snarled in frustration when I found an undershirt. “How many layers are you wearing?”
“Too many,” he said with a laugh, and began to tug at my own jeans.
It took a few minutes for both of us to wriggle out of our clothing between kisses, but then we were naked, skin pressing against skin. I gave a sigh of pure bliss as I felt Leif’s familiar weight settle between my hips. Surely nothing felt better than that.
He pressed his cock between my legs, rocking there, and I wrapped my legs around him.
Leif’s mouth immediately covered mine, muffling my throaty sounds. “Hush, love,” he said. “You don’t want someone hearing you and investigating. This isn’t our island. You can’t scream my name anymore.”
I nodded understanding, but I wasn’t about to let a little something like ‘neighbors’ interfere with my need for Leif. I brushed my tongue against his, whimpering quietly when his hand moved to my breast and teased my nipple into a peak. He knew just how to touch me. In response, I sucked on his tongue, because I knew he liked that and it always made him lose control.
I liked making him lose control.
This time, it was Leif that groaned, and I felt his cock thrust against my warmth, sliding between my folds. His hand left my breast and searched between my legs for my sex, and groaned when he found me wet. “It doesn’t take much to turn you on, does it?” he whispered.
“Your kiss is enough for me,” I told him, and ran my tongue along his lower lip, then bit down on it, enjoying the way that dazed, sexy expression swept over his face. Just that look in his gorgeous blue eyes would turn me on, if I was being honest. The very sight of him, aroused and warm, was enough to make me wet.
“Foreplay tonight?” He asked between kisses, and I felt his fingers glide over my clit.
I moaned in response, only to have the sound muffled by his mouth on mine again. Whoops. When the kiss broke, I told him, “Sex now, foreplay later.”
He chuckled at that. “I think that’s backwards.”
“We’ll just have to do it until we get it right, then,” I murmured, and brushed a thumb over one of his flat nipples, enjoying the crispness of his chest hair against my skin. “I’m game if you are.”
His response was to push my legs further apart and place his cock at my entrance. His mouth covered mine, and then he thrust deep.
My cry of delight was swallowed by his kiss, which was a good thing, because I’d entirely forgotten my promise to be silent.
His mouth continued to cover mine as he began to thrust deep, his body pushing into my welcoming one. I whimpered into his mouth as his tongue thrust in time with his cock, until I was a panting, mindless bundle of need. It was a good thing we’d skipped foreplay - I was going wild with his touch as it was, and my swallowed cries were growing louder and louder.
I came in the next minute, and Leif raised his head and pressed his hand down over my mouth, drowning out my shout under his palm. His own orgasm was silent in response, but I loved watching the emotion play across his face and ripple over his muscles, and I clung to him as he collapsed on top of me, his strokes becoming uneven and jerky as he came inside me. Our breaths panted and mingled as we lay in my bed, and for a moment, all was right in my world again.
As long as Leif was with me, everything was fine. I pressed my nose into the curve of his shoulder and inhaled his delicious scent.