Free Ranger Bear (Rogue Bear Series 1) by Meredith Clarke, Ally Summers

you’re my mate. And we’re going to spend the rest of our lives together.”
    “Holy shit,” she whispered. Her eyes darted back and forth across his face. Her grip on his shoulders tightened.
    “Yeah. Exactly. Holy shit.”
    He waited for a question. A comment. A slap. But she stared at him.
    He had faced burning buildings. Gunfire. Kidnapping. But nothing scared the shit out of him like the silence he was holding in his arms.

20

Whitney
    S he wished she had been drunk or could pinch herself into an awakened state. Clearly, she was delusional. She had just had the most fucking amazing sex of her life. The man of her dreams had walked out of nowhere, declaring his love for her, but the perfect dream was an illusion. Some kind of psychosis she had conjured in her loneliness.
    Maybe if she held her hand over the frying pan she would wake up. She stood from Kyle’s lap and walked toward the stove.
    “What are you doing?” He rushed over, drawing her back from the frying pan.
    She looked into his eyes. Those deep pools of blue that mesmerized her.
    “I have to wake myself up,” she replied.
    “You’re awake. I promise.” He gripped her shoulders.
    “I can’t be. You just told me you’re a bear.” She blinked.
    “I am a bear.” He placed her palms flat against his chest. She felt the smooth planes, warm under her hands. “I’m real. This is all real.”
    “How? How is that possible?”
    But she almost didn’t need his answers. The pieces began to fall in place. His strength. The way he could survive when no one else could. The power in his hands. The way he made her feel. It wasn’t just amazing sex, it was actual magic coursing through her.
    “Oh,” she whispered.
    She wanted to take a step back. She needed to take a breath and process it, but her hands were against his chest and she didn’t want to break the connection they had. She could feel the steady beats of his heart.
    All she could think about was for the past month how she felt without him. The emptiness almost swallowed her whole. She cried at night, wondering if was alive. She moaned for him in her sleep. She buried his memory, trying to protect herself.
    If she took a step back all that pain would come back. Instead she pressed her palms firmly, revealing in the feel of his flesh. He was here. Alive. Hot. And hers.
    It didn’t matter who he was. She didn’t care that there was another side to him. The only thing she knew was that she didn’t want to live without Kyle Brake.
    Instead she reached for the zipper on his jeans, sliding the tab down. His eyes shot to hers. She raked her teeth over her lip.
    “Take me,” she whispered. She pushed herself on the kitchen island, dragging her T-shirt over her head. She threw it on the floor.
    Kyle stood between her legs. His head lowering to her breast. He pinched her nipple between his fingers until she groaned, then he pulled it into his mouth, soothing the pain with his warm tongue.
    Her head reeled back as she pushed his head tighter to her chest. He had to know she would give him everything. Her body was his. Her breasts were his to suck. Her nipples hardened under his touch and she cried out when he moved to the other side.
    He clamped over the hard peak, sucking forcefully. She felt the rush between her legs. He could make her come like this. The tightening in her core was relentless with each flick of his tongue.
    Her hands fisted against the back of his head. He drew a long, slow lick over her nipple, before he reached for her panties.
    “Right here?” He dragged them over her hips, then pushed her knees wide, so she was on display for him. He growled, his chest vibrating. He licked his lips.
    “Yes, right here. Right now,” she whimpered. “I need this to be real. I want to feel how alive we are together.” It felt right to offer herself to him this way. To show him her body was his. It had been. There was no denying it.
    Kyle’s jeans fell to the floor and he stepped out of