Husband Fur Hire (Bears Fur Hire #1)(38)

His eyes went soft, and he leaned forward, pressing his forehead between her breasts. “Are you saying I can stay?”

“Well, if it’s between having you half the year or not at all, I choose you, Ian. That’s an easy decision for me.”

Ian’s striking blue eyes jerked up, and he searched her face like he couldn’t believe what he’d just heard. “You choose me?”

“Mate,” she whispered, running her fingers through his hair.

That sexy growl rattled his throat as his eyes rolled closed. “Say it again.”

“My mate.” The word felt strange, but exactly right on her tongue.

Ian let out a shaky breath and pressed his lips against hers. She still couldn’t get over how easy it was to kiss him when he was clean-shaven for her, and with a happy giggle, she laid kisses over his cheeks.

Ian growled and bit her neck softly, and her instinct to freeze overpowered everything else. Ian wasn’t being playful now. He was being sexy as hell. Feeling brave, Elyse slowly arched her head back, giving him more access to her throat, and as she did, his teeth disappeared and were replaced by his lips, gone all soft. A delicious shiver worked its way up her spine, and she let off a soft gasp as he lifted her off the swing.

“Careful,” he rumbled deep in his throat as she brushed his hip with her bad ankle.

She was straddled on his waist but didn’t have to do any of the work since her bear-man seemed to have infinite strength and carried her like she weighed less than a feather.

Her eyes rolled closed against the saturated morning sunlight as he sucked harder on her neck. The man knew how to use his lips.

Miki bounced along somewhere in the vicinity of Ian’s feet, yipping in his little puppy bark as Ian toted her smoothly up the porch stairs and into the house. Anticipation zinged through her as he took a sharp turn directly into her bedroom. Oh, her mate was on a mission now, and she nuzzled his neck and smiled against his skin, then inhaled deeply. He smelled so good. Soap with a hint of oil from the machinery he’d been working on.

“Are you sniffing me, woman?”

“Maybe.”

“Clever little human, using your nose like an animal. I like the way you smell, too.”

“You do?”

Ian lowered her to the bed and spread her knees, then leaned down and clamped his teeth gently on the zipper of her jeans, then blew a puff of warm air through the denim. It tingled and, dear goodness, it felt better than almost anything she’d ever felt before. “I like the way you smell here best,” he murmured.

She writhed and gripped his hair. This should be embarrassing, but Ian was kissing all of the discomfort out of her. And as he rucked her shirt up and laid those sexy lips to her stomach, fingers gripping her sides, she forgot exactly why she was supposed to be embarrassed. Ian was touching her as if he knew the exact map of her body, and his confidence eased any leftover nervous flutters.

Unrelenting, he pulled her shirt over her loose hair and unsnapped her bra, then slid it off her arms. His fingers were steady—slow and controlled. Heat pooled in her middle as he unsnapped the button of her jeans. The material tickled as he pulled it past her hips and knees, slower at her bandaged ankle, then off completely with a smile at the messy pile he was leaving on her floor.

The smile lingered as his gaze went first to her eyes, then lower and lower. His breath caught as he stared at her body. Running a soft touch over her knee, he shook his head as though he’d never seen anyone more beautiful. “I’ve imagined…” Ian swallowed hard. “It’s not the same.”

She wanted to cry at his admiration. Softly, she admitted, “I haven’t ever let anyone see me like this. In the light.”

A slight frown marred his face, making the color of his eyes intensify somehow. “Good. I want to be the only one who sees you like this.” He ran his finger over the top of her thigh and whispered in a distracted voice, “Perfect. Your skin isn’t even scarred.”

Regret had tainted his tone, so she lifted her knee and rested her injured leg up on the mattress. “I have scars now, too, Ian. We match.”

Pulling his oil-stained T-shirt over his head, Ian murmured, “I want to feel your skin against mine.”

“Wait,” she said as he settled a knee on the bed to lower himself. “I want to look at you, too.”

Ian hesitated for a moment, then stood back up and rested his hands at his sides, clenching his fists, as if being scrutinized made him as uncomfortable as it used to make her. Strong, wide shoulders and a thick neck. A deep, shadowed indentation between his muscular pecs delved down to a defined eight-pack that flexed with every breath. There were scars, but now they’d been explained away. He was a bear, a big one, a dominant brawler who had been born to bear the long, red marks. She didn’t mind them at all. In fact… “I think you’re perfect, too.”

His chin dropped, and his gaze lowered to the mass of red on his ribcage. For as strong and confident as Ian was, being marked by the struggles of his existence obviously bothered him. Elyse sat up and ran her hands lightly over his chest and the muscular curves of his arms, then down to his ribs to the scars. Pressing forward, she pursed her lips softly against the uneven skin there. “This,” she whispered, “means you’re still alive and here with me. Whatever happened and however you got it doesn’t matter.” She kissed it once more and looked up at him, then unbuttoned the top clasp of his jeans. “Have you shown them to anyone else?”