She's wrecked. Her hair has come loose from its braid, her face is flushed, her chest heaving as she tries to catch her breath. She's staring at me with wide, dazed eyes.
"That was—" she starts, then stops. "I can't… Words don't—"
"Good?" I supply, probably sounding way too smug.
"Understatement of the century." She laughs breathlessly. "Is it always like that?"
"I don't know. Never done it before."
Her eyes widen. "You've never??? But you were so good! How did you know—"
"The bear knew what you needed. I just followed its instincts."
"Well, the bear's instincts are fucking incredible."
I stand up, and her eyes immediately drop to the obvious bulge in my jeans. Her tongue darts out to wet her lips.
"Your turn?" she asks hesitantly.
"Only if you want to." I'm barely holding on to control. The bear is demanding I take her, claim her, fuck her until she can't walk. But I won't do anything she doesn't want. Won't push her further than she's ready to go.
She reaches for my belt buckle. "I want to."
"Autumn—"
"I want you inside me, Rhett. I want to feel what it's like. I want you to claim me."
Fuck. Hearing her say it in her own words, with that mix of shyness and desire, nearly breaks me.
I help her with my belt, with the button and zipper of my jeans. My hands are shaking, from restraint, from need, from the sheer overwhelming reality of what's about to happen.
She pushes my jeans down, and my cock springs free, hard and throbbing.
Her eyes go wide. "Oh. That's... that's big."
"We'll go slow," I promise, even though the bear is screaming at me to just take her already. "If it's too much, if it hurts, you tell me and we stop. Understood?"
"Understood." She reaches out and wraps her hand around my length.
I hiss through my teeth at the contact. Her hand is small, soft, and the sight of her fingers barely able to close around me makes the bear preen with masculine pride.
"You're so hard," she murmurs, stroking it. "Is this all for me?"
"All for you," I confirm roughly. "Only for you. Always for you."
She strokes me a few more times, and I have to grab her wrist to stop her.
"If you keep doing that, this is going to be over embarrassingly fast," I admit.
She grins up at me. "Really?"
"You have no idea what you do to me. What you've been doing to me since the moment we met."
"Then show me."
I pull her up from the couch and kiss her. She can probably taste herself on my tongue, and the thought makes me groan. My hands go to the hem of her shirt, and she raises her arms, letting me pull it off. Her bra is simple, practical, and somehow sexier than anything I could have imagined.
I unclasp it and toss it aside, and then she's naked in front of me.
