Parking in front of the bed and breakfast wasn’t hard to find, but there was a little gravel here and there. There was no way that he was going to let Grace walk to the door. That, and there was an old fashioned boy inside of the bear shifter shell.

By the time he’d made his way around to Grace’s side of the cab, he was ready to get her alone. Heaven help the person who tried to stop them and make small talk. The only small talk Travis was interested in was Grace telling him where and how to touch her and Grace calling out his name when-

Travis groaned. Picturing the moment in his head wasn’t helping.

Opening the door, he reached behind Grace and picked up the blanket he kept draped over the back of the seat. Grace slid down to stand on the runner, her bare toes a delightful distraction as he wrapped the woolen blanket around her amazing body.

He wanted to feel her silk robe against his skin, but he wanted to have her in private first. Scooping her up in his arms, he elbowed the door closed and took her up the front steps.

The clerk wasn’t at the desk when they entered the lobby, but it didn’t matter. Walking up to the desk, he pointed his chin at the carved bear. “Go ahead, baby, pick up the bear and grab the key.”

Grace did as he asked and she laughed at the room key. “How?”

“Questions later,” he told her and his words were punctuated by the bear inside of him, growling for a little speed.

The room had been a little on the frilly side for him but it hadn’t mattered much at the time. It had served its purpose before, a clean place to lay his head and where he’d hoped to bring Grace.

And now she was here and the look on her face made the drive worth it. His bear had been ready to spread the blanket on the grass beside the road, but he’d graciously agreed that their mate was deserving of a soft bed.

That, and if the soft throaty sigh that fell from her lips were any indication, Grace liked what she saw.

“I wanted to bring you here,” he told her, and is voice trembled in his throat, “and now you’re here. It’s hard to believe that it’s real.”

She lifted a hand to touch the side of his face and he gently lowered her to the ground before him. He toed off his boots and kicked them aside, watching her carefully. The soft rug beside the bed was thick and he felt her wiggle her toes, rubbing the tips against his own even through the soft cotton. “Do I feel real?”

He could feel the bear within him push against his skin and Travis had to remind the grouchy bear that their mate deserved to be wooed and gently seduced if he could manage it. “I don’t think I can be convinced with just your toes.”

Her eyes widened just the littlest bit. “Huh, well, what would it take,” she wondered, “for you to be sure?”

“We like touch,” he told her, reaching out his hands and setting them on the sweet curves of her hips.

“Your touch is pretty spectacular,” she reached for the ties to her robe and tugged it open and shrugged it off of her shoulders and let it drop to the floor. “Anything else you’d like to touch?”

His hands shook, fairly vibrating where they curved over her hips. He stroked his tongue over his lips as his fingers slid down to the hem of what he could only name as a slip. “I want to put my hands on every inch of your body, Grace. And then I want to taste you all over and feel you against my tongue.”

She shivered and his eyes ghosted over her bare skin, slowing when it met the pale lace that covered the tops of her breasts and came to rest at the tips, watching as her nipples pebbled under his heated gaze.

“You’re just trying to kill me, admit it.” Her breath was shallow, her eyes dilating as she swayed closer. “And maybe after tonight, you can play hard to get, but if I don’t get your hands on me soon, Travis, I’m going to have my way with you and when I mark you, what are all the other bears going to say?”

The idea of Grace, gorgeous, curvy, feisty Grace, sinking her teeth into the skin at the base of his neck, his blood coating her tongue- he couldn’t breathe. His bear was the only part of him thinking at the moment. And the thoughts were very simple.

Mate. Forever. Grace.

And his bear was not willing to entertain any more delays. Blood coursed through his body, heading both North and South to two very vital areas.

He started to move, fingers fisting in the hem of her negligee, an almost silent growl rolling out over his tongue. “They’re going to say that I found the perfect mate for me. I need to get this off of you.”

Travis started to tug on the hem, stopping when the backs of his fingers brushed against the wet silk of her panties at the apex of her thighs. Slowly, he moved his hand back down an inch and felt her hands grip his arms and tops of her thigh press closer.

“I think you like touch too.”

She nodded and trembled when his knuckle brushed over a spot. “Yes, especially there.”

He walked her backward toward the bed until the backs of her legs bumped into the elegant duvet where it fell over the side of the bed. “Open up for me, Grace.”

Her eyes met his and he could read the eager hunger in her eyes.

“Seduce me later,” she told him, her voice as sharp as the fangs sliding free of his gums, “I need you, Travis. Don’t make me wait anymore.”

Travis lifted her negligee up and pulled the silk confection off of her body and then bent down on one knee to help her remove the silk that was covering her heat. Once she stepped out of her panties he added them to the pile of silk on the floor. As he got back to his feet, he took in a long breath that gave him a lung full of her desire mixed in with his own. She was right. They were both beyond the sweet explorations of a first time. That could come later. He needed to be inside of her.

He grabbed her hips and pulled her closer, pressing an open-mouthed kiss over the sweet curve of her belly. One day she’d carry his cubs safely within her body, but today was just for them. “Last chance, Grace. This isn’t ‘just until,’ this is forever.”

Looking up into her eyes, he felt every doubt fall away. He could almost see the midnight dark of his own beast in her eyes, but he could feel her warm humanity surrounding him. “You’re giving me the choice, Travis and I’m taking it.” She pushed her fingers through his hair and leaned forward to press a hungry kiss to his lips. “Make me yours, now.”

He didn’t need his bear to push him along. He was ready to give her what she wanted and what he needed.

With a shrug he removed his shirt and heard her indrawn breath of surprise. A twist of his fingers opened the button on his pants and from there it was the push of need that helped him peel off his jeans and discard them on the floor at his feet. Perhaps it was the speed of his movement that had impressed her, or maybe the size of his body, this close to his bear, this close to his mate, Travis walked the line of his shift by a hair.

And then, he felt her hand on his skin, her fingers wrapping around the swollen girth of his erection, her hand squeezing just the littlest bit and stealing a measure of his control. If he didn’t take charge soon, he would lose his mind.

* * *

“Get up on the bed, baby,” he drew in a shuddering breath. “On your knees,” his voice was rough, but not angry... needy. Needing her.

And so she went. Getting up on hands and knees before him, feeling almost feline in grace. The thought almost made her laugh. She was with her bear; why couldn’t she have a little measure of animal power within her? So she gave Travis a look that told him how much she loved his request.

“Put your hands on the end of the bed.” The sleigh bed, with its thick wooden headboard on one side also had a curved board on the other end.

Taking hold of it in her hands she looked up and almost purred. There was a mirror on the far wall. A mirror that reflected her image at her. She saw her eyes, bright with the power of her arousal coursing through her veins.

She saw her hands griping the bed frame, knuckles white with anticipation, and her breasts, flushed with a deep pink, her nipples tight and swollen from his mouth. A little rush of heat pooled between her legs and just a whisper of it coated the inside of her thigh where it met her core.

Grace heard a growl and her head snapped up, staring into the mirror.

Travis was behind her, right behind her, and gloriously naked.

For one moment she ground her teeth together. Goodness knows that she’d seen him undress in her dreams, but the reality was spectacular.

She felt his hands close over her hips and a shudder rolled through her body. Her eyes started to close as his fingers bit into her lush curves and she groaned, the sound almost a growl.

He shifted against her and her eyes flew open, meeting his in the mirror, her startled brown and his midnight black. He moved again and this time she was prepared for the long slide of his erection against the warm curve of her backside.

“Travis,” she tried to push back and change the angle of his slide, tried to take him into her waiting body, but he wasn’t letting her, “please.” She had an entreaty in her voice, but the look in her eyes was nearly a demand. “I want this.”

“I know.” His eyes may have shifted with this bear, but his face and body were all human. Thick, gorgeous, and every inch a hot human male. “This is forever, Grace. I will always be yours. If you decide I’m not enough. If you want out…”

Her breath hitched in her body, fear adding a sharp bite to her arousal.

“I’ll still be yours. I’ll always be yours and that will never change even if you decide to leave.”

She met his eyes in the mirror and knew how much it cost him to say those words. How much it hurt to think that she might leave him someday.

She felt her heart squeeze tightly in her chest. They were quite a pair. Both needing the other and still worried that the other wanted out.

Knowing that she still might be doubting what they had between them, he’d given her his word. Given her his promise. And damn, if the fear inside of her disappeared, replaced by a burning love, that had only been simmering beneath the surface. She needed his mark and soon. That would settle things between the two of them. Cement this bond the way it should be.

“I’m tired of running from what I feel, Travis. Tired of denying what I’ve felt for you since the moment we met.” She licked her lips as her gaze slid over his massive form where he knelt behind her. “You scared me, but in a good way. I’m just tired of denying myself and that’s why I came after you tonight, because I realized that whatever my mother felt, whatever she did was about her, not me.”

Travis shifted his hands, easing the bite of his fingers to smooth his palms over her hips to the tops of her thighs and then back again.

“And me… I don’t just want you, Travis. I need you. The future I see when I close my eyes is you by my side. I don’t even care where we are. You’re all the future I need.”

His chest expanded from a new breath, deeper than any breath he’d taken before. “Then I’m going to make you really happy, Grace.”

“If you want to make me happy,” she narrowed her gaze slightly and shifted her position on her knees so she could see more of him, “then you’re going to have to put that gorgeous body of yours to work. I want to see you put your back into it, Travis. I want to see you sweat.”

He grinned and the smile, coupled with the heated depths of his midnight eyes made her shiver. “What the lady wants,” he paused for a moment as he leaned closer, his hand slipping between her thighs, his fingers sliding between her heated, aching flesh, “the lady gets.”

She had a little sarcastic comment at the tip of her tongue, but before she could give it voice she felt the heavy push of his cock in place of his hand. The thick tip slipped just beyond the lips of her sex and a gasp burst from her mouth as she widened her knees.

Travis rocked against her, pushing forward into her heat.

“Oh,” the single syllable was all she could manage as her body stretched and bathed his tip, trying to accommodate his size. When he rocked forward again she felt another inch of his erection push inside of her and her skin started to tingle. “More. Please, Travis, I need more.”

“I know,” he groaned and rocked forward again, his hands cupping the thick outer curve of her thighs, “trust me, Grace, I know.” Another slide and she felt him even further. “I can’t wait to feel your thighs against mine, to know I’m all the way inside of you.”

And the image in her head seemed to do the trick. For once she didn’t roll her eyes at her over-active imagination. She saw his tanned flesh, sprinkled with thick curly hair pushing against the pale skin of her thighs, heard her needy sigh and imagined the sweep of his length sinking deep into her body.

Her eyes snapped open as he twitched inside of her body and she met his eyes in the mirror. This time, as he bent his knees and pushed forward, she finally had all of him and it felt, “So damn good.”

He growled in reply. “Just wait, it gets better.” And Travis was a man of his word. A few long glides, left her empty and then suddenly full over and over. She held still at first and then pushing back to meet his rhythm and take them higher, faster, and ever so much closer.

They both knew where this was going and it seemed as though they were both in a rush to get there. With every gasping breath and every deep thrust they urged each other higher.

Energy burned along her skin and inside of her she felt the building heat of a fire catching in her soul like a wick to a match.

This was the true strength of their connection taking root within her heart.

And she began the rest of her life with her eyes wide open. A nod, that was all it took in the middle of the storm of their need. Travis smiled, a feral twist of his sexy lips. Bracing her hands on the base of the bed she felt the first deep thrust of his hips, one long stroke that slid every inch of his thickness against every wet inch of her core. She swore under her breath, but when he thrust again she pushed back against him and earned a guttural moan from his throat.

“You’re killing me, Grace.”

Her laugh ended in a soft grunt as he filled her again. “There’s no fun in that.” And again. “Oh yes.”

And then there was no more chit chat from Grace. She clutched the wooden base of the bed and met Travis’ need breath by breath until she felt as if she was dangling over a cliff, her hands clutching desperately to the rocky edge when all she wanted to do was fall.

“Then fall, baby,” She heard Travis’ voice deep in her ear a moment before his teeth scraped the tender flesh of her earlobe and then her throat. “Fall, and I’ll go with you.”

She didn’t have words to answer him. Lifting her gaze to meet his in the mirror she tilted her head to the side, baring the pale perfection of her skin and she could almost feel the pulse of blood beneath the surface, begging for release.

And that was what it got.

Travis leaned over her shoulder and bit down on one last balls-deep thrust.

Stars peppered her vision on a breathy cry from her throat and if Travis hadn’t had the preternatural reflexes of his bear, she would have fallen forward over the edge. He wrapped an arm around her middle and held her to him as she trembled in his embrace. A long thin trail of blood escaped the hungry kiss of his mouth, curved along the swell of her breast.

She could almost taste her own blood in her mouth, feel the sweep of his tongue against her own even as he bathed the marks on her skin.

There wasn’t a hint of pain burning inside of her, it was all heat and passion and abiding devotion riding wave after wave of her orgasm. He pressed flush against her back, his muscles a hard wall against her curves, and he clung to her as his body pulsed deep within her, filling her with his seed.

She leaned her head back on his shoulder and smiled as he lifted a hand and brought it up and over the soft swell of her stomach and brushed his palm over her nipple before cupping her breast in his hand.

“So is that what all the fuss was about?” She sighed and let her breath slip languidly from her lips as she wiggled against him.

One hand tried to hold her still, the other brushed along her skin, striking passion like a match on her slick skin. “Oh, there’s more where that came from, Grace.”

“And I have the rest of my life to enjoy it,” she turned her head and he shifted her slightly so he could taste her kiss, “with you.”

“Yes, ma’am,” his tone was as sweet as brown sugar, “you’re mine and I’m yours. Whatever you want, I’ll-”

She shifted and he slipped free of her body.

He growled and then quieted down as her hand wrapped around his still-hard length. “Grace?” His tone was hard with need, but she felt him burning for her.

“What I want is for you to lie down, Travis Owen and let me have what I want.” She watched him lower himself down, his incredible abs like rungs of a ladder she was eager to climb.

When he was laid out before her on the sheets, one hand behind his head, the other casually laid out at his side, drawing her attention to the thick erection curving toward his stomach. “What is it, Grace? What do you want?”

She crawled over to him, carefully placing her knees as she went, and straddled his stomach, leaning forward until the tips of her breasts caressed his chest. “I want you, Travis.”

He took hold of her hips, growling in satisfaction when he found her skin slick with heat. “Then you’ll have me, Grace. As long as you want me.”

Guided by his hands, she sat back and took all of him deep into her body. “Then you’re going to be busy for a very long time.”