Mate Fur Hire (Bears Fur Hire #3)(44)

“You love me,” she said.

He shut the door to the stove and nodded. “Very much.” More than anything.

“I can tell by the way you look at me.”

“Mmm,” he rumbled, his bear pushing a satisfied growl up his throat. Clever mate.

Tobias pulled her waist to his, then tugged the hem of her dress over her head. She was wearing the red lacy bra he’d bought her when he had flown a delivery from Anchorage. Vera liked feminine things, and here and there he had bought gifts he thought she would like. Sweet pea bubble bath soap and tiny bottles of different shampoos. The pair of snow boots she wore tonight and a new nightgown. She always gave him the biggest smiles when he surprised her, and then she always grew all self-conscious and said his gift was, “too much.” She was so damned cute. She didn’t realize it, but he gave her gifts for selfish reasons. He felt normal when he made her smile like that—less like an animal and more like a man.

Unsnapping her bra in the back, he reveled in her sexy sigh. Hooking his finger in front, Tobias pulled her lingerie gently off her arms and let it fall to the floor. Unable to resist her a second longer, he kissed her. Tasted her. Felt her. She let off a sexy, helpless moan, and his bear pushed for more. This was their last time…

Pain left a gash in his middle as he deepened their kiss, desperate to rid himself of the thought of what he had to do. Leaving felt impossible when he was here with her. Fingers fumbling with his need to be inside her, he pushed her tights down as she kicked out of her boots. Vera was burning up like a beautiful brush fire in his arms, growing hotter and more volatile with every touch of his lips and brush of his fingertips.

He cupped her full breast, and she arched for him, his sexy Vera.

Breath coming in short pants, she shoved his sweater upward and ran her palms down the curves of his chest and abs to the waist of his jeans.

“Vera,” he murmured as she dipped her fingertips inside and brushed his cock. He was so hard already, so hungry to be buried inside of her.

“Touch me,” she pleaded as she stood on her tiptoes and teased his lips with hers.

Tobias backed her against the wall and cupped her sex. So wet already. He was losing his mind. Bear was snarling, pushing. Wanted her so bad. She writhed against his palm and cried out his name when he slid two fingers inside her. Sensitive mate. She always came so easily for him.

“Oh. Oh!” she panted as she threw her head back and bucked against his hand. Her orgasm came quickly, gripping his fingers in sexy pulses, hard at first, and then softer as her pace slowed.

Desperate to feel the last of her aftershocks, Tobias unbuttoned his jeans and shoved them down just far enough to unsheathe his dick. Then he spread her knees farther apart with his own and eased the head of his cock inside of her. So damned tight. Perfect. He gritted his teeth at how good she felt all wrapped around him. Wet. Warm. Ready. He couldn’t stop anymore. No going slow. He slammed into her over and over, the pressure in his balls growing with each stroke into her. He snarled and gripped the back of her hair as she grazed her teeth where she’d left her claiming mark. It had healed but still tingled anytime she got close to biting him again. Arm behind her back, he pulled her hard against him as he slid into her faster. She was yelling now, lost to the feeling like he was, crying out his name, over and over. Fuck yes, he loved when she called him. He thrust into her one last time and froze as he came. His hips jerked as he throbbed into her, mimicking her own orgasm as he emptied himself.

Breath ragged, they stayed locked like that, pressed to the wall, hands gripping each other like they never wanted to be parted. And he didn’t. If they could stay locked in this moment forever, he would gladly do it.

He could feel it—the bone-deep fatigue. The heaviness seeping through his limbs, hour by hour. Tonight had been perfect. Tonight had been torture.

“Change with me,” he ground out against her ear.

“Into my fox?” There was hesitation in her voice. They’d never been in their animal forms together, save the moments she’d attacked Clayton with him. They’d never enjoyed time together out in the woods, though. She hadn’t been brave enough, but Vera was different now. She was invincible, if only she saw in herself what he did.

When Vera eased back, she looked sad again, as if deep down she knew this would be goodbye.

“Okay, Tobias. We’ll Change together.”

He slid out of her and felt an immediate chill. She led him out of the shed and into the night. He didn’t get cold often, but Vera had been warm and alive against him, and the painful thought of his lonely, snowy winter den made him wish he could rip his own heart out so that he would feel nothing at all.

She lay down in a clearing, out of the safety of the evergreen canopy, exposed to the falling snow. And then he watched her body break apart and reshape into the fox that had changed everything. Only when she was safely sitting next to the trunk of a white-bark birch tree did he let his own beast out.

And when he towered high above her on all fours, he blasted a roar, his breath steaming in front of his muzzle, expelling the pain of the impending separation from the only person who’d ever really seen him.

Tonight, his fox shared her woods with him. She showed him every place she had attached to over the weeks. Every nook and cranny and frozen creek. And when their backs were covered in white, she turned them for home and Changed straight back, just like he knew she could. It was her fastest shift yet, and the last thing he needed to go into hibernation.