Epilogue

“How does it feel to be Mrs. Verner?” Theo whirled Fern around the dance floor, holding her close, lending his strength to her tired body. The vision of his first glimpse of her in her white dress, her face only a shade darker as she battled her nerves, played on repeat in his mind, while Fern rested her head on his shoulder, lost in her own thoughts.

“It feels good.” Fern lifted her hand, her fingers splayed out as she admired her new gold band. “It feels very good.”

Theo kissed her, their lips pressed together, his hand inching lower over her bottom. A low guttural groan escaped him, and he pulled back, his hand returning to its place on the small of her back. “Do you think anyone will mind if we leave now?”

“I like that idea.” She snuggled into his neck. “I am so tired.”

Theo stopped dancing and took hold of her hand. “Then let’s get to our room before you are completely exhausted.”

“Yes, it’s going to take the last of my energy to take this dress off.” She smoothed her hand down her dress.

“I can help you with that,” Theo said quickly.

“You are so thoughtful,” Fern told him. “Always thinking of me.”

He stopped. They were at the edge of the dance floor. “Are you teasing me, Mrs. Verner?”

“I might just be,” Fern said. She knew how long he had waited for this night, because she had waited too. Several times they had so very nearly made love, but Theo got it in his head that waiting was the honorable thing to do, and she found it sweet. OK, she found it really hot that he wanted to be all traditional. She figured it stemmed from her past, and a need to show her he wasn’t after one thing. Even today, with his ring on her finger, his love and loyalty shone through; sex would be the icing on the wedding cake.

“Thank goodness for that,” Theo said with some relief.

“Hey, you two. Ready to leave?” Carter asked as they approached.

“How could you tell?” Theo asked. During the day, Carter and Theo had made an extra effort to talk, and Fern was happy to watch them make friends, even if most of the talk was about hops and honey. Now that Walt was stronger, Theo was ready to dive in with helping at the brewery, while also starting up Bear Creek News. Yes, the name had stuck, and word was spreading.

“The way your tongue is hanging out is a dead giveaway. Every Bear Creek wedding I’ve been to seems to end with the groom looking that way,” Caroline said.

“We should thank everyone for coming,” Theo said, his hand gripping Fern’s as if he never wanted to let go.

“I’ll do it,” Carter said. “They’ll all understand, especially all the married couples here. Shifters in particular know that urge.” Caroline thumped her husband’s arm.

“Inappropriate,” she warned.

“I blame the beer.” Carter held up a bottle of Bear Creek Honey Beer, his contribution to the wedding—all the beer their guests could drink.

“Maybe you have had enough.” Caroline took the bottle from his hand. “Now, go round everyone up, so this happy couple can say goodbye.”

“I love it when you are bossy, Swanky Tanky.”

“Is he drunk?” Fern giggled as Carter swayed across the dance floor.

“Oh, yes. So very drunk. But still standing.” Caroline shook her head, and turned to Fern and Theo. “He’s so happy for you both. Truly happy.”

“Thank you.” Fern kissed and hugged Caroline. “For everything, it must have been hard when I came back into Carter’s life.”

“But it worked out right.” Caroline hugged Theo. “And you have this man. Which makes us all happy. We know he’ll look after you. And you’ll look after him.”

“Every day, forever,” Theo agreed.

“I can’t wait for you to have kids,” Caroline said. “And I never thought I would say those words. But when you have them you’ll understand.”

“One day…” Fern began.

“Hey, we are needed.” Theo offered Fern his arm. “Shall we make a run for it?”

“In this dress and shoes, I am going to settle for a nice sedate walk,” Fern replied.

“Anything you want, Mrs. Verner. That is never going to get old.” He led her across the dance floor, to where their friends and family were waiting, men on one side, women on the other. With happy faces, they joined hands to make a tunnel, and Fern and Theo moved along, giving kisses, receiving hugs, and wishes of luck in return, before they swapped sides and did the same all over.

“Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do,” Teagan told Fern.

“Make sure he knows who is boss,” Fiona said with a wink.

“Welcome to the family.” Cathy gave her a hug and a kiss on the cheek.

“I couldn’t have wished for a better daughter-in-law,” Walt told her.

Fern thanked them all, and cried, and thanked people again for their generosity, until she was standing beside Theo once more. This was it, their wedding night was about to begin.

“Today could not have been more perfect.” Fern looked up at the ceiling of the elevator as they rode up to their room, fighting back tears of joy.

“No, it couldn’t.” Theo stood in front of her, his hands either side of her head as she leaned back against the wall. “And tonight will be perfect too.”

Color invaded her cheeks. She couldn’t meet his eye, until he tucked his finger under her chin and directed her gaze to meet his. “What if it’s not perfect?” Fern voiced her fears.

“It will be. No matter what, it will be.” He leaned forward and kissed her lips, awakening the tendrils of desire she had kept tightly under control.

The elevator doors opened. He took her hand and they walked side by side, her head resting on his shoulder, to their room. Theo unlocked the door, tucked the key in his pocket, and then bent down and lifted her up. “It’s not our threshold, but it will do.”

She giggled as he maneuvered them through the doorway, kicking the door closed behind them, and heading straight for the bed. He laid her down, dress, shoes, and all. “Is there a knack to taking off wedding dresses?”

Fern rolled over and pointed to her back. “You start at the top, and work down.”

Theo knelt on the bed next to her, his fingers tickling her back as he began to unlace the bodice of her dress. As he exposed her flesh, he kissed her skin, inch by inch. Picking her up, he flipped her over. Fern kicked off her shoes, and with some helpful wriggling, Theo slipped her dress down over her thighs, then her feet, until she lay in her bra, panties and stockings.

“Something blue,” he murmured, his fingers tucking under the garter Teagan had given her. He pulled it down, and then carefully removed her stockings, his lips pressing against her inner thighs.

Fern ached for him, a desperate need to consummate their marriage consuming her. But for that, he needed to be naked too.

Theo slipped her stockings off her feet, the cool air tickling her skin. Smiling, Theo stood up and with trembling fingers he began to undo his jacket. As he worked, his eyes never left Fern, and the intensity she saw there, the longing, made her arousal bloom, her fears forgotten. Theo was right: perfect or not, this night was theirs, and theirs alone.

He draped his jacket over the chair in the corner of the room, adding his waistcoat, and shirt, before tugging his belt buckle and dropping his pants. Fern’s eyes widened. He was certainly bigger than she had expected. But then, she had nothing to compare it with. Men had always been a mystery to her. Her combined experience of her stepdad, and her humiliation over the Carter incident, had left her wary of having any kind of relationship with a man beyond platonic.

Theo changed that, the moment he entered her life.

“Are you OK?” he asked moving toward the bed, a predatory beast. Her predatory beast.

“Yes,” Fern answered firmly. She would meet him halfway, not shy away from him, not try to hide. Fern reached for him, her hand hooking around his neck; she drew him to her, her lips meeting his. She was fierce, hungry for him, her mouth moving against his, sucking on his tongue, biting his lower lip, driving his arousal to the point he tore off her remaining clothes, leaving her exposed to his hands.

Theo stroked her skin, her upper arms, where the skin was soft, and sensitive, across to cup the swell of her breasts, his thumb brushing against the hard bud of her nipple. His cock, molded from hard rock, pressed against her stomach, and she longed to feel him inside her, for him to claim her as his woman.

Theo inched down the bed, moving to slide between her thighs. Fern drew her knees up, opening herself to him. With one hand, he guided himself toward her, the head of his cock pressing against her entrance. Teasing her with his mouth on her lips, his hand on her breasts, and his cock against her sex, he drove her to new heights. Heights which she longed to leap from, to drown in a deep pool of pleasure, with Theo. Always with Theo by her side. Or inside her.

She groaned when he inched forward, the head of his cock breaching her inner walls, stretching her, filling her. New and exciting sensations ripped through her body, the deep ache of longing switching to a different ache as her inner walls yielded to the onslaught of his lovemaking.

Theo held back, his breathing labored as he fought his own needs. If she were more experienced, he would be buried deep inside her by now. But he fought and won, keeping his movements slow, deliberate, and incredibly sensuous. Skin sliding against skin, every nerve ending on fire as he drove deeper into her. Only at the last moment did his need win, and he pulled his hips back and thrust forward, impaling her completely on his hardness.

They lay together, neither moving as she adjusted to him. He gasped against her ear, and then said, “I love you, Fern. I have waited for this moment my whole life, and now it’s here, it is perfect. You are perfect.”

Fern turned her face to his and kissed him, her hands stroking his hair, and then his back, and lower, to press against his ass, encouraging him to make love to her. Her inner walls ached, and a deep-seated throb of need pulsed through her body, searching for a way out. Theo was that way out. His hands, his mouth, his thick cock, all driving her towards her climax.

Arching her back, she offered her breasts to him, and he lowered his mouth and sucked on her nipples, teeth grazing the hardened bud, before his tongue flicked over it. She whimpered, her clit throbbing, stimulated by his body as he moved in and out of her. All her nerve endings were on fire, and every part of her was in tune to him.

Braver now, as her orgasm danced before her eyes, Fern bit his earlobe, running her tongue along the edge and driving him wild. His hips bucked, and he jabbed into her, short, sharp thrusts. Gripping her knee, he tilted her body, her clit fully exposed, to each movement of his body.

“Oh. Oh.” Her voice rose, and she had to bite down on her lower lip to keep herself from crying out louder. Everyone in Bear Creek probably knew what they were doing, but they did not have to hear her.

In and out, empty and then full, he took her to the edge of her orgasm, and then he came, his cock filling her with his essence, and she followed him over the edge into the abyss. He was right, it was perfect. Her body ached, her muscles were sore, but the pleasure was incredible, it rushed over her like a tsunami, wave after wave, until she was utterly spent.

Theo’s rhythm faltered, slowing until each movement was minuscule, but her oversensitive body experienced each one. In and out, his hips circling, he brought her back to a point of arousal from which she wanted to take off and fly, and he took her, again, and again, until she was sore, but utterly and completely sated.

When she could take no more, he used his tongue, licking her clit, his tongue probing her, awakening a new need to come. With his fingers and his tongue, he made love to her. Theo’s stamina was unlike anything she could have imagined. As was the pleasure he opened her up to.

Who could have guessed a mouth could bring so much pleasure to a woman? But Theo was an expert. He sucked her clit, his tongue flicking out to torture her, while two fingers worked inside her, finding a special place on her inner walls and rubbing her there while she thrashed beneath him. Fern thrust her fingers into his hair, and pressed herself down onto his face, while his teeth grazed her clit, before he covered it with his mouth and flicked his tongue across the tortured bud again and again.

When she came, she was a shuddering mess of emotions, her nerves strung out to breaking point. Her orgasm hit her squarely, and took her breath away; her body quivered, taken to beyond its limits, and yet still she would have begged him for more, he was a drug, all-consuming.

“I love you, Theo,” Fern admitted at last, as she lay in his arms. “I never expected to say those words, I never expected to believe them so completely.”

He held her close and kissed her shoulder. “I’ve been all over the world. Done some crazy things. And yet I feel as if I’m on the edge of my biggest adventure yet. And I want to share each incredible moment with you.”

She closed her eyes and thought of the events that had brought her to this moment. And this time, when she thought of Carter, there was no compelling need to touch her scars. When she thought of her mom and stepdad, there was no impulse to hide her emotions. Theo had freed her, and she loved him for it. She loved him more than a bear loves honey.

***