Max opened the doors to the little carriage house behind the Rhododendron Grove Bed & Breakfast and gestured for Sarah to follow him in.

It was late, but Mrs. Clintoch, the owner, had left the key under the mat for them. Kate had explained to Max that Mrs. Clintoch loved the Harkness kids, who often helped her to her car with her purchases on her frequent visits to the farm, so she had made the arrangements, no questions asked.

Which was good, because Max would not have wanted to explain that he had to arrive late because he had spent the early part of the evening as a bear.

He was impressed when he flicked on a light and saw the vaulted ceiling with skylights, finished pine floors covered in Oriental rugs, and the enormous sleigh bed in the center of the room. Each bedside table was adorned with a small pot of bright yellow mums that he suspected came from Harkness Farms.

He placed their overnight bags on the dresser.

“Wow,” Sarah breathed.

“Not what you expected, right?” Max asked.

Sarah shook her head. “Nothing in this town is.”

He chuckled and nodded. She was right.

“So you really haven’t seen any of those people since you were a baby?” she asked.

“No,” he said. “But they do feel like family. Is that strange?”

“Not at all,” she said. “Sometimes you just know, right away about someone. In this case, it’s just… a lot of someones.”

“I knew right away about someone,” he told her, taking her hands.

She smiled up at him.

“Not right away,” she said softly.

“Oh yes,” he told her, lifting one of her hands to his mouth and pressing a lingering kiss to it. “Right away. I knew you were my mate from the first time I met you. It just took a while for you to catch up.”

Her lips parted slightly as she watched him kissing her hand.

Suddenly the significance of the moment hit him.

He was alone with her, his ring on her finger, a bed taking up most of the room and hours ahead of them in which to satiate their hunger for each other.

Or try to satiate it. He had a funny feeling that no matter how many times he made love to her tonight he would not have his fill.

“You look worried,” Sarah said. “Is everything okay?”

“Yes,” he told her, walking her backwards to the bed. “Everything is very okay. As a matter of fact, everything is perfect. I’m only wondering how fast I can get those clothes off you.”

She giggled, actually giggled and he wished he could drink in the sound.

But when she tugged at his shirt the mood turned serious.

He whipped his t-shirt over his head, flexing his muscles just a little to get a reaction out of her.

Her response was so adorable that he wished he could have filmed it. Those green eyes flashed and her mouth dropped open slightly.

He peeled off the rest of his clothes and straightened up, pausing to let her look her fill. He was glad she liked the look of his body.

She gazed at him hungrily. Her cheeks turning pink when she saw how hard he was.

“Don’t be embarrassed, Sarah,” he murmured. “That’s what you do to me.”

She laughed nervously.

He stepped over to her, took her chin in his hand and tilted her face up.

“I love you,” he told her. “Are you ready?”

“Yes.” She smiled up at him, her giddiness forgotten.

Max slid his hands under her shirt, enjoyed the soft warmth of her skin as he pushed the fabric over her head.

She nuzzled his neck and the lace of her bra tickled his chest.

He swept her hair off her shoulder and bent to kiss her neck. This sweet, fragrant spot was where he would bite her and claim her once and for all.

Slowly, slowly, he begged himself inwardly.

He slid his hands down her arms, unfastened her jeans and pulled them down over her hips.

The scrap of emerald lace beneath matched her bra.

Max looked up at her, wishing he could memorize the anticipation in her eyes, her downy skin and the tantalizing lingerie that matched her eyes.

“Max,” she whispered pleadingly.

A corresponding wave of need threatened to overwhelm him.

He rose, led her to bed.

She crawled in and held her arms out to him.

Max stretched out by her side.

The bear urged him on, desperate to stake their claim.

Easy, boy.

But Sarah sighed, a sweet needy sound, and he nearly lost his cool.

“You’re so beautiful,” he told her, wishing he had a better word to describe the way the sight of her made his heart ache.

She smiled up at him, reaching out a hand to tentatively stroke his cheek.

He turned his mouth to her palm, trailing kisses down to the inside of her elbow.

“Max,” she whispered again.

The bear rumbled in his chest.

He kissed her ruby lips gently, then slid down to nuzzle her neck and rain feather-light kisses on the pale tops of her breasts until her pouting nipples poked at the lace.

“So beautiful,” he whispered, sliding a finger under one cup to release her left breast.

He licked her nipple into his mouth.

She shivered and he felt her nails sink into his biceps.

He pulled down the other cup and lavished her breasts with attention until the quivering of her hips told him she needed more.

She whimpered when he abandoned her breasts.

“Easy, baby,” he told her as he kissed his way down her belly.

He could have said the same to the bear, who raged in his head.

Sarah lifted her hips and Max pulled her panties off.

He caught the scent of her in the air, like rain on a meadow, and he nearly lost control.

“Max,” she whimpered, clenching the sheets.

“Easy,” he murmured into her creamy thigh, as much to himself as to her.

She cried out the moment he licked her opening.

He groaned into her fragrant heat, and lapped at her, loving the way she opened for him like a flower, loving the insistent throb of her little clit against his tongue.

“Please,” she begged.

He meant to take his time, tease and torment her until her climax was intense enough to blind them both.

But her pleading was his undoing.

He pressed a finger into her heavenly heat and quickly sucked her clit into his mouth, flicking it mercilessly with his tongue.

Sarah moaned his name and he swore she almost lifted off the bed as she convulsed around his finger again and again.