Grace lifted her nose into the air when she heard the door open to their rented flat. “There better be one of those heavenly cheese sandwiches in there, or you’re going to be in trouble.”

Travis set the bag down on the table and gave her a smile. “Yes, I brought you two of those, but I wouldn’t mind being in trouble as long as you’re the one doling out the punishment.”

She gave him a wink and a smile that she knew would have him hard in moments. When he groaned under his breath, she knew she’d been right.

“Grace,” his voice rumbled out of his throat and she saw his eyes go dark, “are you almost done with that postcard?”

“You’re lucky I didn’t decide to write letters in each city.” She waggled the end of the pen at him. “If I’d done that I might be lying here for hours.”

He gave her a look that trapped her in his gaze. “I can keep you lying there for hours. Remember last night?” He opened the closet, and reached in to hang up his jacket.

She bit out a curse under her breath.

“I heard that.” His voice was only a tad bit muffled by the door.

“That’s not fair,” she complained, “you and your superhero hearing.”

She heard his warm chuckle as he closed the closet door.

Leaning on an elbow she rocked back to give him a half-smile and arched her brow. “What if I don’t remember?”

He heard the soft moan in her voice and knew she remembered exactly what he was talking about. “Finish up and I’ll give you a replay.”

Grace added the last few sentences to her postcard and drew a pair of lips next to her signature like a little kiss. “Done. I told my aunt I had to end the card because you were being mean.”

“She’s not going to believe that,” he chuckled at the thought.

She echoed his laughter. Even with the odd start to their life together, they’d remained in Grayslake to help out her aunt and uncle until Nellie was more than healthy enough to return back to work. From there, Travis had surprised her with a trip to the first of her wish-list trips to Paris. The surprise had started with a picnic and ended with Grace naked and breathless in the long grasses by the lake on the Bear Clan property, her soft curves wrapped around his hard body.

The memory brought an almost feral smile to his lips and a growl to his throat.

While the feel of Paris hadn’t been something he’d expected to enjoy, Grace had been so excited to discover the culture and art of the city and the lush countryside that he’d been drawn into her enthusiasm and they’d made some amazing memories together.

His bear had even enjoyed the cuisine in part. The French ate their share, and then some, of meat. The problem was that they really did know how to cook it so it was good and truly dead, and when you ask them to keep it rare they gave you this strange look like you’d offended their ancestors and spit on their graves. Still, the bear needed something a little less… what was the word Grace had used, tweezified.

Looking at Grace on the bed in a pair of bright red boy shorts and his tank top gaping at her side and giving him a mouthwatering view of her breast, he was hoping that after they finished their food, she might be willing to let him peel it from her body.

“I see that look, Travis.” Grace’s soft laughter almost purred from her lips. “I can also see the delicious strain you’re putting on your jeans. You should take those off before you burst the seams.”

He didn’t waste time on her suggestion, and with a twist of his fingers he popped open the button at the waist and peeled the denim off and left it crumpled on the floor.

Kneeling on the bed at her feet, he picked up her foot with one hand and trailed his fingers along the inside of her ankle.

Her head fell back against the pillows when he leaned closer and traced his lips along the same path. “I love the way you remember exactly where I-” she bit her teeth into her lip as she shivered from head to toe as he swept the flat of his tongue over a pulse point.

The phone in his discarded pants chose that moment to ring, putting a momentary halt to the path of his lips. Once he recognized the ring he continued on, making it just past her knee when she touched his head with her fingers.

“Who’s calling?”

“Someone trying to ruin a great afternoon.” He scraped his teeth over a sensitive spot and ground his back teeth together when her nails scratched lightly against his scalp. “Come on, Grace.”

“Don’t you try to distract me, Travis. Whose ring is that?”

He pressed a kiss to her leg and lay back on the bed. “My cousin, Reid.”

“You should answer it. It could be important.”

“I think I know what’s important.” He slid his hand along the inside of her thigh. “So let me focus on this right here.”

The phone went silent and Travis crawled up along the bed to take Grace into his arms. “See? Now, where were we?”

“So slick, Travis, you know where we were.”

He pressed his lips to the base of her throat. “Right here is a good place to start again.”

The phone started to ring a second time and Travis bit back a curse and Grace set her palm on his chest. “Travis, answer the phone.”

Knowing he wasn’t going to get anywhere until he did it, he turned over on the bed and fished the phone out of his back packet. He gave Grace an indulgent smile and put the phone to his ear. “Hey, Reid. Make it quick, the roaming charges are- never mind where I am. What do you want?”

He listened and shook his head. “Yeah, I don’t think so. I’m mated now and- no, I wasn’t going to tell you.” He felt Grace take his hand and place a kiss on his shoulder. “Because she doesn’t need to get caught up in what your father’s doing to Arcadia. No, yeah… I heard you, but-”

He felt his bear rising, fur sprouting along his back and fangs from his gums. Grace fanned her hand over his chest and he felt his bear calm, lean into her touch.

Grace started to speak just as Reid was starting in again. ‘Reid, dammit. Just wait a-” Travis looked at his mate and brushed a kiss on her temple. “Reid. Give me a minute.”

He turned to Grace and gave her an encouraging smile. “What is it, babe?”

Her grin made him tremble with need for her.

“What does he want?” He saw the concern in her eyes and felt the warmth of her love over every inch of his body.

“Reid says I need to go back home,” he winced at the word that still connected him to Arcadia. “He said they need me there, but I told him I’m not going. You don’t need-”

“I need you, Travis.” She moved closer and straddled his hips. He felt his body heat rise by several degrees, the heavy length of his erection rising to press deep against her body. “And whether you realize it or not, you need to go back there. You’re not a man that walks away from the people you love.”

He laid his head back and took in a deep breath as Grace’s fingers traced his arms from his shoulders to his wrist and back again. His growl, that would have reduced grown men to quivering messes, only made Grace laugh. “You’re going to kill me, Grace.”

She leaned closer, pressed a kiss under his jaw and then flicked her tongue over his Adam’s apple. “Not trying to, I like having you alive and thick inside me, and as hungry for me as I am for you, but you need to go back, Travis. And now you have me to go with you.”

He lifted his head and looked into her eyes. They were changing, just like his were. Her eyes had darkened with his bear just as she was providing him with the needed calm to deal with the tumult of anger inside of him. “Are you sure?”

“I’m your mate, Travis,” she covered his heart with her hands, “I can feel what’s inside you. And I know that we,” she made sure that he’d heard her, “need to go.”

He leaned forward, placing his forehead against hers. “See? I told you, you’re going to kill me, woman.”

Travis leaned back and caught her gaze, filled with laughter. “Your woman,” she reminded him.

Placing the phone back up to his ear he told his cousin. “When we get back to the U.S. I’ll let you know. But we’re on our way.”

He hung up the phone and tossed it down onto the floor a moment before Grace pushed him onto the bed.

“Here’s the plan,” she told him as she pulled his tank top over her head, “I’m going to ravage you until you’re begging for me to stop.” She sat back on the bed and pulled off her boy-shorts and dropped them to the floor before crawling over his legs. “And then we’re going to book some tickets home while we eat.” She took him in her hand and placed the thick tip of his erection between her folds and slowly lowered herself over him until she felt his thighs under her backside. “Okay?”

Travis reached up his hands and grazed the tips of her breasts with his thumbs, pebbling her nipples with a second gentle touch. “There’s just one problem with your plan, honey.”

“What-” She arched her back and he cupped her breasts with his large hands. “What’s the problem?”

He tightened his abs and sat up on the bed, his hands still on her skin, and placed a kiss in the pale valley between her breasts. “I’m never going to beg you to stop.”