Bearly Hanging On (The Jamesburg Shifters #6)(41)

"Neither am I," the voice came in a whisper. A moment later, a hand clamped over her mouth. A hard hand slid around her belly, pulling her backward against a muscled torso that was covered in something soft and cottony and halfway buttoned. "Shhhh," he said with a chuckle on his lips. "How's it feel to get snuck up on?"





-12-


“Holy hell, you can hit a lot harder than I thought!”


-Ryan


With a sharp elbow pointed backward and up, Jamie drove an elbow into her attacker's solar plexus.

"Damn!" Ryan grunted, still laughing, as his grip loosened and he lurched backward. "Hold on!"

But "hold on" is not something you tell an enraged bat girl after you surprise her with a hand on her mouth. Jamie whirled, claws flashing, and Ryan dodged backward at exactly the right time to avoid losing a chunk of ear. "Damn, you're serious!"

With a snarl, Jamie jumped at him, nails catching his forearm, and leaving a hot, painfully red trail. They snagged in his flannel shirt sleeve, but she was so panicked, so terrified, that she just went at him again, ripping away her nails and lunging again.

He twisted at exactly the right time, sliding past her wild clawing, and caught ahold of one of her wrists. "Quit trying to kill me!" he was still laughing, but he was also starting to get slightly winded.

All Jamie heard was his breathing get harder. She wrenched her arm down, then up, catching him with a backhand that stunned more than hurt. Ryan backed up again, batting away another flurry of strikes, and then trying once again to pull her into a bear hug, suddenly more for his own safety than because he wanted to feel her against his body, but... well there was that too.

Her eyes were a mixture of slate gray and blood red as she whirled past the vague light coming through the cave's entrance.

"Jamie!" Ryan shouted, suddenly very aware that his little joke was possibly not the best idea. "Jamie, it's me, Ryan! Ryan Drake!"

She hit a deep crouch, like a linebacker ready to absolutely murder a quarterback. Her eyes cleared, and her eyebrows furrowed. A low, rumbling growl escaped her lips.

"Are you in there Jamie?" he asked, chancing a step closer. "Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you, I—shit!"

She lunged again, backhanding the bear with surprising force.

"What the hell was that for?"

Jamie wasn't responding. She glared, cold and hard, sending a shiver up Ryan's back. "Jamie!" he called again.

Jamie dove, and as he lifted his hands to defend himself, she slid to the ground, between his legs. With impossible agility, she entwined one of her legs between his, straightened it, and sent the huge bear sprawling to the ground. He caught himself, but still landed with a dusty thud and a grunt.

The next second, she flipped him over, and was straddling his chest, holding his arms pinned with her knees. "What the hell?" he was saying over and over. "What are you doing?"

She glared down at him and leaned close enough that they could both feel each other's breath. His was hot and heavy with surprise. Each inhale lifted her a couple of inches and every exhale caressed the bare skin of Jamie's neck. She leaned closer, only an inch from his lips.

"Don't ever write me any more dirty limericks," she whispered. "Next time, I'll kill you."

He opened his mouth to answer, but before he could, Jamie pushed his head back against the ground, forced his lips open with hers, and kissed him as deep and hard and hungry as she'd ever imagined a kiss could be. She closed her eyes and let him get his arms free. Up her back, then down, he ran his hands, his calluses rasping over the smooth fabric of her bunched up dress. The hotness between her legs, on his belly, gave Ryan a burning ferocity he'd never felt before, never known.

In the next second, he grabbed Jamie's hips, holding her against him so that she ground up him, then down, and then flipped her over, settling her gently against the floor of the cave, and pushing between her legs with the muscles of his lower abdomen. She was smiling now, mouth opened in a silent gasp.

"I thought you were gonna kill me that time, and the limericks worked, didn’t they? You’re here, aren’t you?" he asked, with a half-smile before he forced her head backward with a kiss. Swirling his tongue inside her mouth, Jamie felt her bear stir inside those tight jeans he wore, and slid her hand along the thickness she felt. He let out a rumbling groan as she squeezed; she moaned softly as he pushed, the buckle of his belt cold against her clit.

"If you'll keep doing this," she gasped between breath-drinking kisses, "you don't have anything to worry about. I couldn't kill anyone that can make me feel like this."

With a rough hand on one side of her face, Ryan held Jamie's head and kissed her neck, her ear, and sucked a line of kisses from her chin to the hollow of her throat, where the button down part of her form-hugging dress had fallen open.

"Were you here the whole time?" she asked as he opened another button and let his fingers trace the line of one of her breasts up to the nipple. "Just sitting there watching me?" Her breath got hotter, heavier with desire. She sucked air through her nose, inhaling his sweat, his musk, the smell of wood that lingered on his skin, and the smell of her own lust heavy in the air.

"Yes," he said simply, pulling his lips from her throat long enough to answer. "I watched, I stared, I wondered if what I was doing was wrong. I wondered if I was making a mistake."