AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Smiling, he grabbed the end of the blanket, gently stroking the softness of it across my jaw. “Soft and precious just like you.”
Tingles raced over my scalp, so intense it massaged my brain. The euphoria of that feeling lingered, and I clung to the drowsiness it momentarily afforded.
“You like the blanket I picked out for you, princess?” His voice was just added comfort. Added tingles across my scalp.
I nodded. “Thanks, bear.”
The air of surprise around him made me look up.
“Bear?” he repeated, voice slightly hoarse.
My face heated with embarrassment. “That’s what you feel like to me. Big. Warm. Soft. Comforting.” I paused, fidgeting with the end of the blanket. “You hug tight too.”
His Adam’s apple bobbed. “You just gave me a nickname.”
“Is that okay?” I asked, self-conscious. Maybe I should have pointed out he’d given me three.
Well, if calling me by my actual full name counted as a nickname. It did, right? No one else called me that.
When he said nothing, I scowled. He hates it. “Bear is better than princess.”
All the breath whooshed out of me when my back hit the mattress. He hovered over me, blocking out everything else and holding me captive with an intense glittering stare. Dark hair fell over his forehead, and his arms caged me in.
“You know you only give nicknames to people you plan to keep around,” he told me, words husky in the slight space between us.
The unspoken question settled heavily between us, and I knew if I answered, everything going forward would likely change.
I hate change.
But I’m so in love with him.
I should have been freaking out. Trying to climb out of my own skin. But in this moment with his blanket around me and his body over me, all I felt was settled. Like this was where I should be. Where I wanted to be.
Looking at him from beneath my lashes, I nodded. “Do you like it?” Can I keep you?
“Do I like it?” He scoffed, lowering onto his elbows so the length of our bodies touched. “I love it,” he confided. “I’ll be your bear, baby.” The backs of his fingers stroked across my cheek. “There is literally nothing I want more.”
18
Arsen
Bear.
One word.
A silly nickname.
A hand reaching right into my chest.
Kruger said Matthew was thinking of rearranging his life for me. But it was me who would move heaven and earth. Me who was spilling over with the urge—the undeniable need—to give him everything he needed. And then add more.
My heart might still reside in my chest, but it was no longer mine. His hands were wrapped around it, an unfamiliar sensation but one I could no longer live without.
And fuck me, his smile. It turned me into literal goo.
This close, I could see his heart in his eyes, and it gave me a new understanding of the walls so tightly erected around him. Something so precious, so fucking pure, needed all the protection it could get.
Yeah, I’d be his bear. Soft and comforting for him but ferocious to anyone who dared hurt what was mine.
