Free Love Me If You Bear: Werebear/BBW Paranormal Romance by Roxanne Sweet Page A

to get back, I was sure. After he had declared his love for me and then nearly killed me, I didn’t feel I owed him any favors.
     
    In the parking lot of my building, I took his hand timidly into mine. He accepted it, and we walked silently the rest of the way to my apartment. My heart pounded; he had been over there before, but not in a situation like this. Not that there had ever been a situation like this before – not in my life, and maybe not in the history of this planet!
     
    “No one's here,” Asher said with surprise as I opened the door into my place.
     
    I read the note on the fridge. “My roommates will be out for a while,” I said, and led him into my room.
     
    Once we were inside that safe place, I wrapped my arms around him and pulled myself up tall to kiss him. He kissed me back, an expression of surprise muffled by my mouth on his.
     
    “What are you thinking?” he asked when I finally let him pull away.
     
    “I’m not thinking anything. Just... that I love you.”
     
    “You told me that already,” he said, trying to smile even though I could tell this conversation wasn't easy for him. “What does it mean, though? Can you live with dating a werebear?”
     
    I looked at him, his gentle brown eyes and his furrowed brow - not to mention his muscled bare chest and powerful body. “I don't know,” I told him. “But... I think I want to try.”
     
    “That's all I'm asking you for,” he said, a huge smile bursting across his face before he pressed his lips to mine once again. My heart felt like it was going to explode. I didn't know if I was making the right choice or not, but my heart knew what it wanted.
     
    We kissed again and again, finally making our way onto the bed where we lay side by side, rediscovering each other with gentle caresses. I cuddled up against his strong, naked chest, and he ran his fingers along my back.
     
    His fingers wandered between the hem of my shirt and the waistline of my jeans. All I wanted was to lie with him and feel protected. So he pulled me closer against him, murmuring words of comfort.
     
    I dozed on and off, the stress of recent events slowly leaking out of my body. When I awoke fully and looked at him with his sweet face, sleeping there like a baby, I could hardly remember what he had ever done to make me unhappy with him.
     
    How had I been almost ready to give up on him earlier? He was perfect - everything that I had ever wanted or needed. And he had saved my life. It didn't matter if he was a werebear, a werewolf, a vampire, or a zombie. I had to be with him.
     
    “Asher?” I asked softly, not wanting to wake him up if he was really sleeping.
     
    His eyes opened and he smiled at me. A wave of love washed over me - I could call it that now, he had accepted my love for him, and had even said he loved me back.
     
    It might have been just because of lying next to a gorgeous, muscular man for hours on end, but at this point, the area between my legs was aching.
     
    “Asher, I was thinking...” I started.
     
    “Yes?”
     
    “I love you,” I said. “I really do. I just wasn’t sure before if I could trust you.”
     
    “I know,” he said, his eyes downcast.
     
    “But now, after the way you rescued me earlier… After all the things that have happened between us…” I paused for a long moment, unsure of how to say what I wanted to say. “I think I might be ready to really trust you.”
     
    He pushed himself up onto one elbow, his hard, hairy body on display for me alone. “What are you saying, Eden? You want to have sex?”
     
    “I don't know. Maybe. You don't want to?” I was starting to regret having brought this up. He didn't seem to be interested at all.
     
    “I want to,” he said slowly. “If you’re comfortable, and you’re doing this for yourself and not for me, I’d absolutely love to have sex with you.”
     
    I smiled, seeing that his hesitation was only out of concern for me. “I am,” I said.
     
    He