Free Wild Bear by Terry Bolryder

guy you slept with.”
    She nodded.
    “So that’s what you want from me? You want me to sleep with you, please you, and let you go?”
    She didn’t really know. She didn’t like the idea of ever leaving Maverick, but they belonged in different worlds. And why shouldn’t she feel only lust for him? That was all he seemed to feel for her. It was fair.
    “Yes,” she said, knowing she might regret the words as soon as she said them.
    “So you could be with me again and just walk away?” he asked.
    “Hell yeah,” she said, tilting up her chin in challenge. He was hot. He was strong. But he was a caveman and she wasn’t made to live in a cave.
    And it was clear he couldn’t change himself to be more of what she’d need. At least not for more than a few hours at a time.
    “So what now?” he asked, folding his arms. “I take you, it’s amazing, and then in the morning, we pretend it didn’t happen until I see you again?”
    “Yeah,” she said defiantly. “Why not? It’s not like you love me.”
    The words were out before she could stop them. Was that what she wanted? Was that what was bothering her? That Maverick wasn’t the type to romance? That he’d only ever talked about wanting her and owning her, but never about caring for her?
    She half expected him to claim he loved her. He had a habit of trying anything to get his way. But instead, he just tilted his head to the side, looking slightly confused.
    She knew it.
    “I’m not… I don’t really… That doesn’t apply to me,” he said, narrowing his eyes as he thought it through.
    “So you’d expect me to just stay here, just wait around in a cabin for a man who doesn’t love me?”
    “I would be your mate,” he said. “I would protect you. We would have young.”
    She threw up her hands. “Oh my gosh, I can’t believe how you talk sometimes. It’s so ridic—”
    She was cut off when he caught her lips with hers, stifling her words with a harsh kiss that seemed to echo into eternity. His whole body pressed up against her.
    “My feelings aren’t ridiculous,” he said. “Even if you can’t accept them.”
    “Your feelings don’t exist,” she said. “You said so yourself.”
    “So because I don’t love you, as people would say, because I’m not made that way, you don’t want me.”
    She blinked back the pain. “I want someone to love me, yes,” she said.
    He pushed away from her with a growl, showing her his wide back as he thought it over.
    “Possession, lust, isn’t enough for a relationship,” she said.
    “I wasn’t asking for a relationship,” he said. “I was asking you to mate me.”
    “And I don’t even know what that means!” she spat.
    “Fine,” he said. “Then just have sex with me. You’re fine with that as long as I don’t ask for more, right? That’s all you want from me?”
    She lifted her chin. It wasn’t all she wanted, but it was all she was going to get. And she doubted she could resist his body anyway. “Yes.”
    His expression darkened. “Then that’s what you’ll get.” The next moment, she was over his shoulder and he was carrying her out the front door of the lodge toward his cabin.
    “No more grunting about me being yours after sex,” she said. “And you will use protection.”
    “Yeah, I’ll use protection,” he said. “And I’ll keep taking you until you beg to be mine forever.”
    She sighed as he took long, harsh steps toward the cabin. Even as her brain was saying this was ridiculous, her body was shouting, Yes, please!
    She’d just have to hope that at the end of this, she could somehow rectify the two.

9
    M averick plunged deep into Harmony , savoring each of her little groans as he stroked in and out.
    Several days had passed since their fight, and things were almost easier now that they were both on the same page.
    During the day, she spent time with Bonnie or Ruby, and at night, he gave it to her as hard and as hot as she wanted. Any way she wanted.
    But she loved