"More kissing?"
"More than kissing." I force myself to meet her eyes, to let her see the hunger there. "It's not satisfied with just this. It wants… Fuck, Autumn, it wants to claim you. Right here, right now."
Her eyes widen. "Claim me how?"
I should sugarcoat it. Should use gentle language. But the bear is too close to the surface, and it demands honesty.
"It wants our bodies to become one," I say bluntly. "It wants me inside you. Wants to fuck you until you smell like me, until every other male knows you're taken. Wants to make you mine in the most fundamental way possible."
I brace for her to pull back. To realize this is too much, too fast, too intense.
Instead, she surprises me.
"If that's what the bear needs," she says slowly, "then I'm okay with that."
I stare at her. "You don't… Autumn, you don't have to—"
"I know I don't have to. But being with you means being good for both of you, right? The man and the bear?" She steps closer, placing her hand on my chest again. "I want to be good for both."
"You don't understand what you're agreeing to."
"Then explain it to me."
"It won't be gentle. The bear doesn't know gentle. It knows taking and claiming and possessing."
"Will you hurt me?"
"No. Never. But it'll be intense. Primal."
"Okay."
"Okay?" I repeat incredulously.
She smiles, and there's something shy in it but also determined. "I might be a virgin, Rhett, but I have desires too. And I want this as much as you do. As much as the bear does."
Virgin.
The bear roars its approval. *Ours. Only ours. No one else has touched her. Perfect.*
"Autumn—"
"Stop trying to talk me out of this," she interrupts. "I'm saying yes. I want you. Both of you."
The last thread of my control snaps.
The bear surges forward, and I let it. Let it flood my system with its strength, its needs, its absolute certainty that this woman belongs to us.
I move forward, and she gasps as I drop to my knees in front of her.
"Rhett—"
I kiss her leg. Just above her knee, where her jeans end and bare skin begins. She's wearing the hiking pants she had on yesterday, and they're rolled up slightly, showing her calves.
Not enough. I need more skin.
My hands go to the button of her jeans, and I look up at her, giving her one last chance to stop this.
She nods.
