Stripped Bear (8 page)

“Not if I have anything to say about it.”

“What about food?”

He cocked a brow. “We’ll order out.”

“Groceries?”

“Delivery.”

Leah licked her bottom lip and Cade’s gaze heated. “Laundry?”

He smirked. “I have a service.”

She laughed. “Well, we have to go to work.”

A shadow passed over Cade’s expression, and Leah realized that she had no idea what Cade did for a living. She’d always sort of expected that he lived off his family’s fortune. One of the leisurely rich. His earlier mysterious phone call proved that there was so much that Leah didn’t know about him.

“What?” Cade’s expression grew serious. He climbed onto the bed and stalked toward her. A predatory glint shone in his eyes, and Leah’s heart beat a frantic rhythm in her chest. “What thoughts are running around in that pretty head?” He bent over her and kissed her instep, her ankle, her calf, and the underside of her knee. The inside of her thigh, her hip, across her stomach where he paused to dip his tongue in her bellybutton, and over her ribs. He kissed the swell of one breast, and then the other before kissing his way across her collarbone and up her throat. A shuddering breath left Leah’s lungs. Even the most innocent of touches from Cade drove her wild with desire.

“I can’t make myself think of anything when you touch me like that,” Leah said on a breath.

Low laughter rumbled in his chest. He brought his eyes to hers and a corner of his lips hinted at an arrogant smile. With his gaze still locked on hers, he took one nipple into his mouth and sucked. A rush of liquid heat spread between Leah’s thighs. A twinge of regret tugged at her chest as she thought of the lost years they’d left behind them. Leah refused to wallow in past regret, though. They had
now
. They had a future. And she wasn’t going to waste another second of her time with him.

Leah gave herself over to sensation. The swirl of Cade’s tongue over her nipple, the light sting of his bite as he took it between his teeth. His skin burned against hers, almost feverish. Leah arched up as Cade rose above her and braced on an elbow to keep the bulk of his weight off her. When his mouth found hers, it was hungry, urgent. The desperation of his kisses ignited her blood as a haze of lust settled on her brain.

A shock of heat met her core as the head of Cade’s cock slid against Leah’s clit. Her hips rolled to meet his in anticipation of the next thrust. He adopted an easy rhythm. Cade teased her as he continued to move without penetrating. Each stroke fired her nerve endings as he rubbed against her clit, not hard but with a silky glide that drove her wild. Leah spread her legs wide, opening herself fully to him. Cade groaned into her mouth as his tongue thrust against hers with every drive of his hips. He cupped her right breast, kneading the flesh before rolling her nipple.

Pressure built low in Leah’s abdomen. Sensation tingled from the tips of her breasts, through her hips and inner thighs. Desire unfurled like a length of ribbon fluttering through her before pulling into a tight knot that pulsed like its own heartbeat.
So close
. God, she was so close. Tighter her insides coiled until Leah felt small, a tiny molecule in a vast galaxy. Her breath raced as it mingled with Cade’s. She dug her nails into his shoulders as she pressed herself as hard as she could against the rigid length of his erection. He continued his measured pace, sliding against her slick flesh, an innocent tease, and yet, it drove her to a state of mindless want. She broke their kiss as a moan escaped her lips. She ground against him, desperate to come.

“Look at me, Leah,” Cade demanded. Her eyes fluttered open to find his gaze locked on hers, his expression bordering on pain. “I want you bare to me when you come.”

Cade angled his hips and the head of his cock pressed against her clit with delicious pressure. Leah’s eyes wanted to close, all she wanted was to
feel
, but Cade’s command kept her gaze locked with his. He thrust again and Leah teetered on the edge. Her breath came in desperate pants that ended on whimpering cries. Another press of his hips, and the pressure built until she could no longer take another second of it. His body met hers again and she cried out. His fingers found her nipple and pinched.

Leah’s world broke apart once again.

The intimacy of the moment combined with the intensity of sensation caused tears to prick at Leah’s eyes. Any notion of her physical body evaporated under the pulsing waves of pleasure that built and crested before crashing into her. The turquoise depths of Cade’s irises swallowed her whole and a connection arched between them that Leah recognized on a soul-deep level. Her breath hitched as she shuddered beneath him, and her throat grew ragged from her cries.

Cade kissed her mouth, kissed her temple, below her ear and her throat. The motion of his hips became shallow and soft until the only thing that remained was the heat of his erection resting in the crease of her pussy and the deep throb that radiated from her core.

“What are you thinking now?” he asked quietly as he brushed her hair from her temple.

Leah’s breath raced, her heart beat in a wild flutter in her chest, and her brain buzzed with the high of her orgasm. “I’m thinking that I might have to quit my job because I want to stay naked and in this bed forever.”

Forever
. The thought sent a trickle of anxiety into Leah’s bloodstream. Could she have that with Cade? Or would he turn her away again like he had all those years ago?

Eight

Forever
. Leah saw forever as an abstract concept through human eyes. Shifters didn’t enjoy the benefits of immortality like other supernatural creatures did, but that didn’t mean Cade was quite so fallible. He possessed preternatural strength and senses. He healed quickly from wounds that would kill a human, and he didn’t experience any weakness when exposed to silver like werewolves or dhampirs did. He aged, though more slowly than a human would. Cade could easily live to see one hundred and fifty years or more if his work for the Sortiari didn’t get him killed sooner. Leah wanted forever? He’d give her every day of the rest of his life. The thought that he’d outlive his mate filled Cade with a fear so intense that it squeezed his heart.

The bulk of the Sortiari’s membership was made up of mages. He’d do whatever he could to make sure that one of those sanctimonious fuckers did something to ensure that Leah could stay with him for as long as possible. They had to be able to do something to extend her life, even if they couldn’t give her supernatural invulnerability. Cade would protect her though. With his dying breath if he had to. Nothing would ever hurt her. No one would ever touch her.

In a few short days, Leah had uprooted his life. She was precious to him. She’d claimed him and made him hers. From the moment she’d touched him they’d become inextricably entwined. His want of her bordered on obsessive as he gave in to the urge to join his body with hers and solidify their bond once and for all.

The simple tease of her soft skin as it glided over his cock had nearly brought him over the edge. Her cries as she came shivered down his spine. The gentle throb of her clit against his shaft fogged Cade’s mind with lust. Every inch of him vibrated with awareness of her. His muscles ached from holding himself in check. His shaft pulsed and his sac tightened between his thighs. Need rose within him like water held back by a dam. He needed to fuck her, to drive his cock so deep inside her that he no longer knew where their bodies separated. Cade smoothed Leah’s dark hair back. He stared into the endless depths of her blue eyes. Those eyes had haunted him for over a decade. He’d left home, turned his back on everything he knew, in order to get away from her because of some contrived sense of decorum. He should have trusted his instincts and told the world and its preconceived notions of taboo to fuck right off. He should have waited for her instead of abandoning her. Nothing in his entire life felt more right than this moment, his body over hers, her breath warm on his lips.

“Gods, Leah.” There were no words for her beauty. “I need to be inside of you so badly that it fucking hurts.”

The soft curiosity of her expression caused his heart to clench. Her lips twitched with amusement. “Then what are you waiting for?”

What indeed? Cade lowered his mouth to hers. The kiss was crushing, passionate, and goddamned desperate. Leah returned his ardor. She nipped at his bottom lip and then flicked out with her tongue as though to soften the sting. Their tongues met in a wet tangle. Cade kissed her deeply, enjoyed her taste, her scent. They kissed until they were both breathless.

“Cade,” Leah purred against his mouth. “Fuck me.”

His hips plunged forward and he slid home. Leah cried out as she arched up to meet him. She wrapped her legs around the backs of his thighs and dug in with her heels to urge him deeper. Her tight heat enveloped him. The pressure on his shaft felt so fucking good that Cade worried he’d go off with the slightest movement of his hips. He stilled against her, panting from the intensity of sensation. Her inner walls flexed, and he shuddered. Leah couldn’t have been more perfect.

Made for me and me alone
.

The blue of Leah’s eyes deepened with her pleasure. She held Cade’s gaze—he couldn’t look away if he tried. As his mate, Leah held a sway over him unlike any creature on the face of the earth. She could command him with a look, seduce him with nothing more than a smile. Her needs would come before all others, including his own. She hadn’t just claimed his body with her touch. He belonged to her mind, body, and soul.

When Cade felt as though he could finally take a breath, he began to move. The first slow roll of his hips coaxed a moan from Leah’s lips. He pulled out to the tip and plunged back in, and she rewarded him with a sweet gasp of breath. He rode her slowly, each motion full of wicked intention.

“Leah, you feel so good.”

Cade refused to look away. To let her look away. They were fused in the moment together. The evidence of pleasure on her face was as heady a thing as Cade had ever seen. Her raw sensuality intoxicated him. Her body tempted and teased him. He couldn’t get deep enough. Couldn’t fuck her hard enough to satisfy the lust that burned through him.

“Harder, Cade.”

Their needs were one and the same. The mate bond created a wild desperation between them and Cade answered it for both of them. He pulled out and thrust deep, increasing his pace as he pounded against her silken flesh. Her pussy clenched his shaft, pulling him deeper, and he ground his hips against Leah’s. Each cry from her lips became more wild, more impassioned. He’d be damned if he came before she did, and he clenched his jaw as he drove deep. His fingers dug into the soft flesh of her ass and he angled her hips up until his shaft hit just the right spot. Leah’s eyes went wide and her nails dug into his shoulders as her back bowed off the bed.

“Cade!”

His name exploded from her lips as she came. He pounded harder, faster, until his ears were filled with their mingled breaths, the sound of their moans, and the primal slap of flesh against flesh. This moment had no comparison. No equal. He’d found where he belonged and with whom. Cade had come home.

Pressure built as his shaft swelled within her. His balls tightened and a tingle traveled from the base of his spine, over his hips, and between his thighs. He came with a shout, each spasm more powerful than the last. Heat swamped him, sweat beaded his skin. Leah’s name was a mantra as wave after wave of sensation stole over him. He thrust until his hips refused to move another inch, and he shuddered against her as he drew in deep lungsful of breath. His cock twitched inside of her, brushing that secret spot that had sent them both toppling over the edge. Leah continued to move beneath him, shallow rolls of her hips that sent spasms of sensation through Cade’s shaft.

He collapsed on top of her. The press of her full breasts against his chest was heaven. Her breath in his ear sent chills over his skin. Leah’s fingers traced an idle pattern across his shoulders and teased the hair at the nape of his neck. Long moments passed in the blissful aftermath of their passion. The sound of their slowing breaths lulled Cade, and he put his mouth to Leah’s temple as he gathered her in his arms. Her legs uncoiled from around his thighs. He pulled out, missing the constriction of her wet heat as he rolled to his side and tucked her body against his.

Strands of Leah’s hair slipped through Cade’s fingers like silken threads. He stroked her hair in the still quiet until the sound of his racing heart no longer echoed in his ears. Contentment spread from his chest, outward, infusing him with warmth. Damn McAlister, the Sortiari’s agenda, and L.A. Cade didn’t give a shit about that lone vampire the guardians of Fate were hell-bent on eliminating. His place was here, with Leah. He wasn’t going anywhere.

*   *   *

Leah missed Cade’s weight as he withdrew from her and rolled to his side. Her inner walls clenched as the aftershocks of her orgasm rippled through her, making Cade’s absence from her body all the more noticeable. A strange sense of rightness overwhelmed Leah, and she trembled in Cade’s arms. It frightened her how natural it seemed to be here with him when only a week ago she’d been convinced that her life was meant to follow another path. She’d been stupid to think that there was any path for her life to take that wouldn’t lead her to Cade. The truth of it left her shaken. He’d always been her endgame, whether she’d lost her way over the years or not.

In hindsight, she realized that she’d always known it. Even when she was too young for anyone to believe that she truly knew her own heart. Why had it taken Cade so long to recognize it? Why had he wasted so many years that they could have spent together in denial of that unmistakable connection? He combed his fingers through her hair. Leah shivered at the slight tickle as he let the strands fall around her shoulders. Tomorrow, she’d planned to be someone’s wife. And instead of honoring her vow to Adam, she’d broken off their engagement. All for Cade. Anything for Cade.

“You kidnapped me,” she said sleepily.