Free Bear Love by Belinda Meyers Page A

the touch. His heart sang.
    “Oh, Mike,” she said.
    “Jess …”
    He bent his face toward hers. Hers
inclined up at him. She licked her lips, then bit them cutely. He couldn’t
resist. He crushed his lips against hers, and she pressed back. He plunged his
tongue into her mouth, and her tongue flicked against his. His bear growled
savagely. Almost unconsciously, their pelvises pressed against each other. His
cock swelled and shoved against his jeans, then pushed against her. Oh, she was
so wet! Her juices filled his nose and drove him wild.
    She laid a hand on his bulging
right bicep and squeezed, then moaned softly, even with his tongue still inside
her mouth. She shoved her tongue against him, almost challenging him, and now
she was in his mouth. He grabbed her ass and lifted her up, and she locked her
legs about him.
    “Oh, Jess,” he growled.
    “Mike …”
    Her groin shoved up against his,
rocking, and his cock strained against his jeans. It drove him crazy that her
womanhood was only millimeters away but separated by all that denim. He wanted
to tear it all away and had to restrain himself.
    Then something changed. Jess stopped
kissing him. Her face drew back. Her cheeks blazed red, and her lips had
swollen, but some strange light—caution? fear?—had entered her eyes. She
pressed her groin against him one more time, then unwrapped her legs from about
his middle.
    “Let me down,” she breathed, and he
obeyed, not understanding.
    “What … ?” he said, or tried to.
His mind was awhirl. All the blood had gone to his cock. His bear screamed
inside him, denied fulfillment. “What … ?”
    She shook her head. Tears quivered
at the corners of her eyes. “I’m so sorry. I can’t. I can’t use you as rebound
lover, Mike. I … I …”
    “Yes?”
    She bit her lip again. “I care for
you too much.”
    He made a fist, but it wasn’t her
he wanted to punch but Andrew. What a number that bastard had done on her! Mike
wanted to hunt that human down and rip him in two.
    Jess seemed to realize that his
fist didn’t hold any danger for her. She laid a hand against his quivering abs.
    “I’m sorry,” she said again.
    “Me, too.”

Chapter 12

 
 
    The pain in Mike’s eyes tore at Jess. Her mind still
churned, and her loins screamed to continue doing what they’d been doing. It
was all she could do to remove her palm from his rock-hard abs and step away.
    “I guess I’ll go to bed, then,” she
said, hearing the misery in her voice.
    He didn’t say anything, so she
turned back toward the bedroom Mike had shown her. It had come complete with
sheets and pillow, though they all had to share a bathroom at the end of the
hall. Jess had been worried about that bathroom—she couldn’t imagine what a
clan of bear shifters would have done to it—but she’d taken a peek at it
earlier, and it was spotless.
    She reached her room and turned
back to Mike, but he still stood there, as if stricken, staring off into space.
Again she ached to go back to him. Instead she entered the room, closed the
door, and threw herself on the bed. She felt sadness well up in her, and
frustration. She would just let it take her, have a crying fit, but silently,
because she knew he could hear her, and then she’d feel better afterwards.
She’d get it out of her system and move on. Maybe in six months or a year she’d
look Mike up. Maybe.
    Someone knocked on the door before
she could issue her first sob.
    “Mike?”
    The door opened, and he stood
framed in the doorway, huge and handsome and holding some fierce emotion in
check.
    “Jess,” he said, twisting his giant
hands together. “I …”
    She made herself firm. “I haven’t
changed my mind.”
    “I know. That’s not why I came.
It’s only, you said you weren’t tired. I’m not, either. And there’s something
I’d like to show you.”
    She blinked slowly. “Show me?”
    “Yes.”
    “It’s not ….” Her gaze traveled to
his crotch, which was still