A Taste of Honey (8 page)

Violet silently thanked God that she was lying on Ronnie’s bed, curled in the center of the mattress where he’d left her. She wasn’t sure she was capable of doing anything else besides resting against the quilt that smelled intoxicatingly of honey and spice, evidence of the nights he’d spent lying in the bed without her. That was about to change.

Little tremors of sensation zipped throughout her entire body, lighting up her every nerve with leftover sensation. As she pressed a hand against her belly, her thighs still trembled. Never had she imagined that anything could feel as amazing as what Ronnie had just done to her. It was like her body had just come to life for the first time, elevated to a new plane of existence by her new connection with him, by what he’d just given her…  And they’d only just started.

Her breath caught in her lungs when the bedroom door swung wide open and Ronnie appeared in the doorway, still naked and still hard. Her gaze swept slowly downward, gravitating toward the thick rod of flesh between his hips, and she just couldn’t help staring. His erection had pressed against her belly as he’d carried her from the bathroom to the bedroom and the sensation of it digging into her soft flesh had been so exciting, so dizzying that for a few breathless moments, she’d been left lightheaded. The same sensation plagued her again as she locked eyes with him.

He crossed the room in a few strides, his muscles shifting and flexing beneath his skin, his cock rising and falling with each step. His motions were smooth but the sight of him in such a state, moving with such purpose gleaming in his eyes, jarred her thoughts. She knew what was about to happen – felt it deep in her bones and shimmering across every last inch of her skin –  and the idea was both thrilling and intimidating. What would it be like to make love with him – what would it feel like and what would he think of her?

He leaned over the bed and reached out to touch her, trailing his fingertips across her cheek. A shiver raced down her spine as they glided over her skin, blunt and faintly rough. The hints of callouses reminded her of the work she’d seen him do with his hands, carpentry and construction he’d helped Jack with.

She’d spent a couple afternoons watching him work on the addition to Jack’s cabin and had experienced a shiver of desire each time she’d laid eyes on him or sensed him standing silently across the room. She’d barely been able to work up the courage to flirt then and had mostly suffered shyly as his scent had driven her crazy, hoping he’d show signs of returning her interest. If she’d known then that he’d eventually drop to his knees, press his mouth between her thighs and give her pleasure she’d never dreamed of...

“That was someone calling from the ranger station,” he said, running his fingertips down the arch of her neck. “The man they apprehended seems to be a tourist – some guy who took a concealed weapon onto park land illegally and freaked out and shot a bear when it wandered close to the trail. I think they’re probably right about him being a regular guy with an unhealthy fear of nature, but I’ve got to make sure before I can tell everyone to stop worrying. The whole ordeal is being investigated as we speak. For now, though…”

“They’ve got him in custody, right?” Would her body ever stop shivering in response to his touch or would that prove to be a permanent thing? Strong bolts of sensation kept racing up and down her spine, causing her skin to pebble and her nipples to ache as his fingertips played over her skin. “I mean, he’s not out there, armed in the woods or on the streets.”

“Right,” Ronnie breathed, finally closing his hand around her shoulder, allowing his grip to dent her flesh lightly as he sank down, settling beside her on the edge of the bed. “You feel it too, don’t you?”

Her heart picked up pace as the mattress sank beneath his considerable weight. “Feel what, exactly?” She was feeling a lot of things. Most of all, the irrepressible urge to bind herself to him, and vice-versa – to claim and be claimed. The desires were new and almost frightening in their intensity, but they were definite – more real than anything she’d ever known.

“What’s meant to be between us. You taste like honey to me. What do I smell like to you? I know wolf shifters detect their destined mates by smell… Is my scent special to you even though I’m a bear?”

“Yes.” Even as they discussed it, his scent clouded the air around her, heightening her desire and her senses – intensifying everything that mattered and causing her to forget about anything that didn’t. “You smell like honey to me. Honey and spices. It’s been driving me crazy ever since I first met you.” Since before then, actually, but no way was she going to ruin the moment by bringing up that embarrassing story. “When I breathe in your scent, you’re all I can think about. I’ve never felt anything like it.”

He exhaled, his breath rushing against her face and shoulder in what must have been a sigh of relief.

She felt the same way when he wrapped an arm around her waist, drawing her a little closer. “Honey doesn’t really do it justice,” he said, his lips tickling her ear as his voice dropped, becoming gravely. “You taste like heaven. Your mouth, your pussy…  Even your skin tastes sweet.”

His words lit a spark in her core. It tightened, aching.

“I’m so glad this isn’t one sided,” she breathed as he caressed one of her breasts, cradling the lower curve of it in his palm and teasing her nipple with his fingertips. “I worried that you might not feel the same attraction since you’re a bear.”

“I was afraid of the same thing. I’ve wanted to taste you since I first met you, but I held out until I couldn’t stand it anymore. I thought that if you weren’t the one… Well, I didn’t want to be disappointed.”

Butterflies erupted into flight inside her belly as he squeezed her breast. A sense of awe washed over her at the thought of him thinking of her, savoring the sense of possibility between them and not wanting to risk shattering it. If she’d known, she would’ve let him know how his scent affected her sooner. “It’s strange, isn’t it? Finding your mate, I mean.” A week ago – heck, a day ago – she’d been on her own. Now she sat beside the one who was destined to be her partner for life, her mate.

“Yeah, but it feels right.”

It did. It didn’t matter that they’d only met a few weeks ago, or even that she was a wolf and he was a bear. It was impossible to dwell on those differences when one glorious similarity united them – they were meant for each other,
craved
each other. The pull she felt toward him was stronger than gravity. Everything else seemed insignificant in comparison as she inhaled his scent, growing dizzy as his nearness, his touch and his aroma combined to make her head spin. “It feels amazing.”

“It’s going to feel even more amazing, I promise,” he said, sliding a hand to her hip and scooping her up, pulling her effortlessly into his lap.

His erection pressed against her thigh as she settled, her legs draped across his. Could he feel how damp her pussy was against his skin? He had to, and he had to know it wasn’t just because she’d recently emerged from the shower. A fresh burst of butterflies filled her stomach and as he leaned forward to kiss her, his shaft pressing even more firmly against her, she was seized by the urge to come clean. “I’ve never done this before.”

He was silent for a moment, his lips hot but still against the side of her neck. When he spoke, his voice was absolutely, definitely a growl. “Never?”

“Never. I’ve never even…” Heat singed her cheeks. Never what – never sat naked in a guy’s lap and felt his hard cock against her skin? Or even touched one, for that matter. “I mean, I don’t know what I’m doing.”

 The remote part of Alaska she’d lived in hadn’t exactly been overflowing with desirable bachelors and she’d never really wanted to get intimate with any of the men she’d met there. She’d wanted someone she could reveal her whole self to, someone she could actually have a future with – her mate.

“You’re doing just right,” he said. “Perfect.”

The heat in her cheeks intensified as he kissed her neck, his teeth scraping her tender skin. All she was doing was sitting in his lap, but then, it
was
obvious that he was turned on. This was happening, here and now – she’d just have to go with her instincts. They’d led her to him; they should be able to serve her well now. With her fingertips tingling with the urge to touch him, to please him, she reached down and wrapped her hand around his cock.

He groaned, sounding bear-like again. The sound sent a thrill through Violet that felt like an electric current washing over her skin.

 Encouraged, she gripped him a little more tightly and pushed her closed hand to the base of his erection, her motions slow as she became acquainted with the feel of him. The combination of his smooth, soft skin and the hardness beneath it was a paradox that made her nipples shrink to hard points, more affected by the contact than they would’ve been by a winter breeze.

A fresh layer of heat settled over her already-warmed body when he laid his hand over hers, closing it so that it enveloped her fist. His shaft was almost velvety and his palm rough in contrast. Sparks might as well have been flying from where his fingertips dented the back of her hand. “That feels so good, Violet.”

Warmth rushed into her cheeks, but she barely noticed – satisfaction had welled up inside her and it was infinitely more potent than the slight self-consciousness she felt. In fact, that seemed to be fading, giving way to an all-consuming desire to be closer to him, to be
one
with him, as the saying went. They were mates, and that made them two halves of a whole. As he gently guided her hand up and down his shaft, it was impossible to think of anything besides what it would feel like to be united for the first time. Earth-shattering, the butterflies in her stomach told her.

The blunt head of his cock slid smoothly against the edge of her palm and he stilled her hand, removing it from his erection and clasping it tightly within his own. Before she could blink, his lips were against hers, soft one moment and firm the next, always hot. He slid his tongue deep into her mouth and a low moan rose from the pit of his chest, tickling her lips with tiny vibrations.

She inhaled, breathing in a lungful of his scent, trembling slightly as she considered how he’d said she tasted to him. The notion and the effects of his scent combined to make her head spin and she registered only the feel of his arms around her body as he embraced her.

Then the quilt touched her back, soft and cooler than his furnace-like body, which he’d pressed over hers, settling between her thighs and pinning but not crushing her despite the considerable difference in their sizes.

He broke the seal of their kiss and as the air began to chill her inflamed lips, she met his eyes.

Silence reigned for a few moments and it was a mark of how strongly the knowledge that they were mates had already connected them that it didn’t feel awkward. Up close, she could see that his eyes were a little less dark than they appeared from a distance. Among the almost-black fields of his irises were what looked like flecks of gold and drops of honey. They made his gaze feel warm as she lay beneath him, her belly against his and her breasts brushing his chest. She let herself get lost in a silent, breathless study as his heart beat against her and his cock pressed into her thigh.

“Your eyes,” he said. “They’re so blue and beautiful. Like the sky.”

A small smile tugged at the corners of her mouth as he continued to meet her gaze.

“They were the first thing I noticed the first time I met you. They were what made me want to taste you.”

As she recalled, she’d spent a lot of time looking at the floor when she’d first met Ronnie. That just made it even more flattering that he’d noticed her eye color.

“Your scent was the first thing I noticed,” she said, “but you can’t blame me for that – it’s a side-effect of being a wolf. If I was a bear, though… I think I would’ve noticed your shoulders first.”

“My shoulders?”

“Yeah.” Her gaze was irresistibly drawn to them and she raised a hand as she admired the strong bronze curves and the broad stretch of muscle between them. His skin was a healthy shade of bronze with warm reddish undertones, appealing to the eye and hot to the touch. Beneath it, his muscles were tense.

“I used to like visiting Jack and Mandy’s cabin when you were there so I could watch you help with the addition. I would watch your shoulders while you were working whenever I had the chance.” She’d been tortured by so many autumn breezes, which had carried his scent to her as he’d labored, his shoulders always straining his t-shirt as he’d lifted, hammered and done all the other things that had transformed a previously empty space into a cozy nursery for the alpha couple’s unborn baby.

“If I’d known I would’ve come over to Jack and Mandy’s to help more often,” he said, still looking solemn.

A part of Violet wanted to laugh, but she couldn’t – not when he was on top of her and nearly inside her. Just an easy motion or two, a few inches higher up the inside of her thigh and they’d really, truly be together. His gaze quelled her nerves – mostly – but a few phantom pangs of anxiety rippled through her consciousness, overshadowed by desire. Teetering on the edge of doing something so significant for the first time, it was easy to feel nervous, but breathing in his scent while looking into his eyes and feeling his heart beat made it even easier to feel eager, and that sense of readiness trumped everything.

He smoothed a lock of hair away from one of her eyes, then let his fingertips trail over the curve of her jaw. “I want you, Violet.”