“I’d say this is pretty far from cramped,” Dawn said, putting her hands on her hips as she examined the trailer that seemed fairly spacious compared to her tiny size. “Maybe I should have just moved into a trailer, saved the trouble of building a house out here.”

“Believe me; you’ll be glad you didn’t.” Garrett closed the door behind him and locked it, feeling sexual tension build just from the sheer proximity they were forced into.

To a bear, though, almost everything felt cramped.

Of course, Garrett knew he couldn’t tell her that he was, in fact, a bear. Or that bears preferred running wild with nothing but open sky and untamed land stretching forever in every direction.

But even that seemed to pale in comparison to having a home, even if it was a tiny shack, as long as Dawn was there with him.

“Cozy chair, nice,” Dawn said, sitting in a green La-Z-Boy chair across from the kitchenette that Garrett usually passed on using for cooking outdoors instead.

“That’s Grayson’s,” he said matter of factly. Grayson would most certainly be aware of the fact someone had sat in it, which of course would make him angry.

Which was perhaps all the more reason for her to use it at her leisure.

It was Garrett’s trailer, after all.

“Oh, would he mind?” she asked, looking up at him with grey eyes brightened by the overhead lighting.

“Not at all,” Garrett lied. Grayson could deal.

“That definitely seems unlike him. Is the bedroom up there?” She rocked back and forth a bit, pointing up a few stunted steps that led to a raised area at the rear of the trailer.

Garrett mustered a nod. He could see the slight redness in her cheeks as she looked up at him expectantly. She popped out of the chair and went to the back, walking up and opening a small door and going inside.

She fumbled for a moment, trying to find a light switch, when Garrett reached from behind her and clicked it, turning on an overhead lamp.

“Cozy,” she said, appraising the room. Luckily, he’d made a point of cleaning up the place so everything was tidy and neat.

The “bedroom” would normally have felt larger in a trailer this big. But he’d insisted on installing a king-size bed himself, which left almost no space on the sides and foot of the bed to walk around it. Still, it beat sleeping in a tent or a hotel after a long day of work.

Garrett stepped into the room behind her, ducking to miss the roof and putting him in painfully close proximity to his mate. By accident, his foot caught the door, pulling it shut behind him, and he bumped into Dawn on accident.

Dawn turned around, looking up at him, her gaze warm, her sweet scent filling the room.

“Very cozy,” she remarked, a smile curving those full red lips of hers. Garrett could feel his own pulse in his neck throbbing. The air felt like it was getting warmer by the second.

Dawn put her hands on his shirt, her weight shifting from one side to the other. He reached a hand up to pull her into a kiss, but when she arched up to meet him, moving slightly backward, she hit the foot of the bed. Suddenly, Dawn stumbled backward with a surprised squeak, both hands grasping his shirt and pulling him forward down onto the bed.

Garrett’s animal reflexes kicked in, and he caught himself with one hand on the bed, the other hand around her as she fell into the memory foam mattress, which gave way compliantly to both of their weight. For a moment, he just held her, then remembered they were on top of a bed and in dangerously close contact, and he let his arm wrapped around her go.

“I think I like your trailer a lot,” she said, breath racing from the shock but watching his lustfully.

Garrett couldn’t hold back any longer, her curves beneath him pressed against his body, tantalizing him, and he leaned down, fully claiming her lips for his own as he’d been wanting to ever since they left the lake earlier that night.

She relaxed against him, opening her mouth and letting him enter. Garrett stroked hungrily inside, tasting and owning her as he stroked, flicked his tongue against hers, soaked in the muffled sounds of her moans into his lips.

A part of him still knew Dawn was figuring things out. Knew that she didn’t yet feel about him the way he felt about her. How could she? Humans didn’t mate instantly like bears.

But at this point, it didn’t matter. All he could do was love her, protect her with everything he had, and hope that was enough to win her heart, even in spite of the whole shifter thing that had yet to be broached.

Surely, fate had brought them this far. Why would it turn on them now?

He pressed their kiss even deeper for a moment, then separated, letting Dawn catch her breath.

“I’m glad you like it,” Garrett said, watching as Dawn’s eyes lit up, her body warm beneath him and entirely too clothed right now. “It certainly has its perks.”

“Like not smelling a hundred years old like my hotel room?” Her hands were in his hair, catching strands between her fingers and running the tips of her nails over his scalp, the sensation arousing and tingly.

It was hard to not get caught up in wild fantasies of living together in the home he was now working hard to finish. Fun days of exploring the endless woods around them. Going fishing, going out on dates, and retreating to the solitude of the house to let their affections flourish again and again. But he had to keep that to himself for the time being, or he’d risk sinking it all with his haste.

Maybe when the house was finished, he could tell her everything. Maybe then she could believe him.

“That and a few other things.” He reached over and pressed a button. Above them, a panel opened mechanically, revealing a large, glass skylight above the bed. Moonlight poured into the bedroom as he pressed another button, turning the light off as they bathed in the blue light of the clear, starry heavens shining down upon them.

“So pretty,” Dawn said, marveling at the stars for a moment, grey eyes glittering, reflecting the twinkling stars above.

“So beautiful,” Garrett muttered, looking down. Dawn’s eyes locked with his as he said it, and she looked to the side bashfully.

It was the closest thing to being outside without actually being outside. And it called to the bear in him, feral and excessively possessive of the woman who was as surely his mate as the moon was round.

He buried his face at her neck, sucking on her soft, warm skin, and she gasped, tensing from arousal. Her hands were on his chest now, pulling him closer, and he moved up to her ear, taking the lobe and rolling it between his teeth and his tongue, nibbling gently.

Garrett didn’t care how crazy it might sound out loud. Every reaction, every tiny breath, every twitch of a muscle or moan from her lips was his now, all for him and only for him.

“Don’t stop. Never stop,” Dawn pled, words soft like velvet.

“Never.” He promised, moving lower down her neck, pressing his body lightly into hers as he pulled her sweater aside so he could reach her shoulder.

And then he wanted to kiss past where he could reach. For a millisecond, he considered simply tearing the pliable fabric off entirely, but there was a chance Dawn wouldn’t necessarily find him ripping off her clothes like some animal particularly sexy. So he opted to simply help her out of her sweater and bra the old-fashioned way, which she was more than happy to help with. He then pulled off her jeans and panties, wanting to get them out of the way so he could pleasure her entirely without any further interruption.

For a moment, he just admired her short, curvy shape in the cool blue light of the moon, so beautiful the image was carved into the permanent stone walls of his soul.

“I want to see you in the moonlight, too,” Dawn said, watching him with the kind of hunger he felt for her, and he complied. However, Garrett stood a little too quickly, wanting to get back to his primary focus—making her come— and he momentarily forgot about the height of the bedroom, bumping his head into a corner of the wall. The loud sound reverberated through the trailer, and it rocked a little back and forth from the force of it.

Dawn giggled, then looked worried.

“Are you okay?” she asked, grinning as she spoke, trying to suppress another laugh.

“My bad. Jumped the gun a bit,” he exclaimed, taking off his shirt and trying to not break anything else in his excitement to resume what he was doing.

Of course he was fine. And seeing his mate smile was a terribly tiny price to pay compared to bumping his head (and maybe cracking the ceiling of the trailer).

By the time he was undressed, Dawn’s mirth was gone, replaced by a look of pure want as she devoured him with her eyes. It only turned him on more, knowing that he had that effect on his mate.

First he kissed down her collarbone and to her breasts, tasting the blue moonlight on her nipples with his tongue, her skin sweet on his lips. And as he sucked on them, torturing each tip as he took the flesh in his hands and squeezed them, she moaned more loudly, interrupting the distant sounds of crickets and cicadas.

Then he moved to her belly, licking down the side of one hip, then the other. She squirmed, the bed pushing against her as it absorbed their movements. Finally, he reached the apex of her legs, and he spread them gently before letting his tongue clash down over her clit hungrily.

Dawn thrashed against the sensation, hands gripping the shallow headboard behind her. Gently but firmly, he held both her thighs with his hands and kissed her center again, this time not stopping as he licked over and over between her soft folds, keeping her trapped against the bed as it enveloped her.

Holding her down seemed to only intensify Dawn’s arousal more, and before Garrett expected it, she orgasmed, crying out unintelligible words to the midnight sky above them as he sat back, reveling in her release.

But he wasn’t finished with her, and by the time Dawn was composed enough to be able to breathe normally, he was at the apex of her thighs again, licking and swirling his tongue over her in every possible way he could imagine to stimulate her.

Dawn mewled with pleasure, pushing against him but not escaping his grip as he flicked up against her clit more rapidly with each passing second. Her cries got louder, shorter, closer together as he could feel her entire body quaking, tensing as she neared another release. Her breasts heaved with each inhale as her hair began to escape its braid, unfurling in soft red waves beneath her on the bed.

Then everything paused for a moment, even the moon stopping in its rotation as Dawn came once again, so hard it seemed to have the strength of two orgasms.

This time Garrett came over her, and Dawn wrapped her arms tightly around him, clenching her fingers into his skin as she called out his name.

“Garrett. Garrett.” Each time she said the word, it seared his being, branding his soul with white-hot want.

Then finally, she relaxed in his arms, going limp as she exhaled a long held-in breath. For a moment, he just held her, admiring the way the moon lit up the gentle expression on her face as she looked up at him like the world ended and began with him.

She then raised an eyebrow at him, a mischievous glint in her eyes, and he felt her hands reach down, grasping his shaft.

“I can think of one more thing I want to do in the moonlight,” she said suggestively.

He reached down to his jeans and pulled a condom out of his back pocket, tearing it open and sliding it on before positioning himself between her legs.

Garrett ached inside to make Dawn his mate. To claim her with nothing separating the two of them as they came together. But he also knew it was a serious thing, a decision not to be made in the heat of the moment.

The sight of Dawn biting down on her lower lip in anticipation snapped Garrett back to the amazing reality of the moment, and he focused, slowly pushing into Dawn and gauging her reaction as he did.

For a second, her expression tensed, eyes closing as she tried to focus past the sheer tightness of their fit. Then, as Garrett made it all the way in, finally hip to hip, her face calmed.

“Wow, that still… takes some getting used to,” she exclaimed eagerly, shocked arousal starting to show in her eyes.

“Hopefully worth it,” Garrett said, feeling oddly vulnerable, worried maybe he was a little too much.

She managed a tense laugh. “Understatement of the century, Garrett.” There was another short pause, and then she moaned as he felt her body totally relax beneath him. “It’s like nothing I’ve ever experienced before.”

Before Garrett could respond, to his shock, she shifted her weight beneath him, withdrawing slightly, then pushing back onto him. His entire body went rigid from arousal as Dawn’s did the same, even the slightest amount of friction enough to make his nerves scream with tension.

She grinned widely at that, raising her eyebrows suggestively as he answered her invitation by withdrawing and thrusting back into her slowly, intensely. Dawn quickly lost control, hands digging into the sheets at her sides as they came together again.

“That’s more like it…” Her throat was tight, words trailing off as he moved again, this time faster, starting a rhythm that made it impossible to say anything more as tight, wet heat demanded focus on the moment at hand and nothing else.

Seconds drew out into minutes as they joined and separated in quickening succession. With each thrust, Dawn moved more to meet him, body glowing with exertion in the pale moonlight on her creamy, flushed skin. Garrett’s fingers pressed against the thick foam of the bed as he held back his own release, the sight of his beautiful mate and their fevered lovemaking almost too much to hold back the quickly approaching release wanting to tear forth from his body.

But he held back, watching every reaction from Dawn. Waiting for her even as she struggled to hold herself back. Her hair had completely become free now, and it undulated like a wave of the ocean as they rocked together and apart, some metal joint on the trailer squeaking as his weight shifted to and fro.

Then Dawn’s eyes rolled back, her nails digging into his shoulders where she held him, and he felt her slip into a powerful orgasm as he thrust into her one last time.

Her sex clenched around him, and Garrett felt tight, hot spurts as his entire body burned like a fire on his skin, muscles going taut then relaxed in rapid succession as Dawn called his name out, just once, before she slipped back into orgasm so powerful it made speech impossible.

They both rode out an incredible joint release as the rest of the world faded into moon-swathed nothingness around them. Even as his own body came back to normal, Garrett could sense little aftershocks rock Dawn’s body until she too came back to earth, eyes focusing on him again in a haze of post-orgasm pleasure.

I love you.

He wanted to say the words more badly than he wanted his next breath. But he kept it in, not knowing how she would respond to the admission, especially if she thought it was simple post-coitus obsession.

He was obsessed, for sure. But he would make his move when the time was right. When Dawn had no doubt in her mind of his feelings for her.

Garrett slowly pulled out and used a towel from a nearby cupboard to clean up before joining her back on the bed. Dawn didn’t object as he wrapped an arm around her, spooning her from behind. An owl hooted in the distance, then there was silence once again as the moon dipped farther over the horizon beyond Garrett’s little trailer.

Dawn muttered a half-lucid, “Good night,” before dozing off in his arms.

“Good night, Dawn,” he whispered. She fidgeted a bit, but didn’t respond. Slowly, he moved closer to her, brushing her wayward hair slightly, and this time she didn’t stir. “I love you.”

There was no response, and Garrett relaxed on the pillow beneath him as sleep slowly crept over him, plans on what to do next swirling in his mind, giving him hope for the future.

Dawn would be his.