Stripped Bear (7 page)

“Leah? Are you okay? Talk to me.”

“What in the hell are we doing?” she asked in a burst of incredulous laughter. “This is insane! I should be calling the cops right now, not spreading my legs for you.” She shook her head. Nothing about what was happening right now could be considered rational. “Jesus.”

A shadow passed over Cade’s expression and for a moment Leah thought that a gold spark had lit in his eyes. “Insane? You want this as much as I do. There’s nothing insane about what’s happening between us.”

“You don’t even care that I’m getting married tomorrow?” True, she’d cancelled the wedding already, but Cade didn’t know that. “And that you stole me right out from under another man’s nose? Cade, you kidnapped me. That’s a federal offense.”

Leah wasn’t so stupid that she didn’t realize she’d started this argument to put some distance between them. She couldn’t breathe when he was close. Couldn’t form a single rational thought. There was no black and white, right and wrong when he put his mouth on her. Stroked his hands along her skin. There was only Cade. He became her entire universe. It was dangerous to want someone with that kind of totality.

“Your life before last week means nothing to me. My life before last week means nothing.” Cade reached out and stroked his fingers along Leah’s bare thigh. Goose bumps rose on her skin and she sucked in a breath. “Your touch claimed me, Leah. So no, I don’t give a single shit that you’re supposed to be married tomorrow or that another man thinks you’re his. Because I can guarantee you, after tonight no other man save me will know your body ever again.”

His heated words caused a knot to gather low in her abdomen. She cocked a challenging brow and tried to disregard the raw lust that coiled inside her. “How can you be so sure?”

Cade’s hand traveled up the length of Leah’s torso. He cupped her breast in his large palm and feathered his thumb over the stiff, aching peak of her nipple. Leah’s mouth parted on a breath, and a liquid rush spread between her legs. He repeated the motion and she swallowed down a moan. “Tell me you don’t feel the truth of my words in every inch of your body.”

With a single touch, she was ruined. Cade was right. Her body came alive from the slightest contact as though a spark had been ignited in her core. She
burned
. And the only thing that could quench the flames was the exact same thing that fueled them.

Leah’s lips barely moved with her response. “You know I do.”

“Then stop fighting this, Leah. Don’t fight
us
.”

“There is no us, Cade,” she whispered. “You can’t show up after almost two decades and say something like that.”

“Bullshit.” He reached out and caressed her cheek. “Stop trying to talk yourself out of this and just
feel
.”

Cade seemed intent on his seduction and Leah had run out of reasons to try to stop him. Hell, she’d wanted him from her earliest memory of him and she’d been too young to even know what her feelings meant. She’d wanted him when she was a demanding teenage girl who’d been too stubborn to acknowledge the reasons why she couldn’t have him. That want of him had never diminished, even after he’d left. She’d wanted him from the moment she walked into Luanne’s room a week ago and saw him standing there.

Leah reached for the hem of her top and peeled it off. Her breath raced in her chest as Cade’s gaze once again grew heated, greedy. He reached out and covered her breasts with his hands, suffusing her skin with a delicious heat. She leaned into his hands as he massaged her flesh before pinching lightly on her nipples. Leah’s core tightened and need coiled in her center as he teased her with feathering strokes and light pinches. When he increased the pressure and tugged, she nearly came from the intensity of sensation.

“Do you like that, Leah?” His smug expression told her that he didn’t need her confirmation but wanted to hear it anyway. He pinched again and gave a gentle tug and another rush of heat blasted through her.

“Yes,” she said on a breath. She should have been embarrassed of her wantonness. In the dim light of Cade’s bedroom though, with his eyes drinking her in, his hands doing wicked things to her, Leah felt no shame.

“Do you want more?”

“God, yes.” Anything and everything he wanted to give her. She wanted it
all
.

Seven

For a moment, all Cade could do was stare. Leah sat in the middle of his bed like an offering, her long legs tucked beneath her, pale skin gleaming in the low light, her upturned breasts—fuller at the bottom—bare to his gaze. Her dark hair tumbled wildly around her shoulders and spilled over her chest to tease the pink tips of her nipples. His fingers itched to pluck at that fruit one more time, and Cade indulged himself while giving Leah exactly what she’d asked for.

She arched into his touch, a look of pure bliss transforming her features, making her look both angelic and wicked. Wanton.

Beautiful.

Cade fumbled with the buttons on his shirt in his haste to be rid of it. He needed the skin-on-skin contact like he needed fucking air. He’d suffocate if he couldn’t feel Leah’s softness against his bare chest. He ripped the shirt from his shoulders and tossed it somewhere behind him. Leah shifted on the bed, drawing Cade’s attention to the barely there boxer shorts that gaped away from her thighs and gave him an unhindered view of her swollen lips.

He grabbed her by the thighs and pulled her down to the mattress. Touching her exposed skin came second to his desire to see her thighs spread and her gorgeous pussy bare. Their first time together couldn’t be a mindless pounding. It was something to be savored. And Cade was going to enjoy every delectable bit of her.

He slipped off her shorts and ran his palms up the inside of her creamy thighs. He urged them apart and Leah’s knees fell open. Cade hissed in a breath. Her arousal glistened on her skin, which had been waxed almost bare. A growl rose in Cade’s chest; the knowledge that she’d done this in preparation for another man set his temper ablaze. He reminded himself that the prize was his, that she’d unabashedly opened herself wide for
him
. With the pad of his index finger, Cade traced a pattern over her outer lips and then moved inward, through her inner lips until he reached the tight bundle of nerves at her core. Leah cried out at his first tentative touch and Cade increased the pressure as he circled her clit. It pulsed against the pad of his finger and that physical evidence of her passion further hardened Cade’s cock until it pressed painfully against his fly.

He could take the bite of pain. Welcomed it. The relief would come when he sank into her tight channel. He wanted her to come for him. He wanted to hear her cries echo throughout this bedroom that had become theirs the moment he’d carried her past the doorway. He’d christen this sacred space with her orgasms, and tonight he’d make sure she experienced many.

“You smell so good, Leah.” A haze of lust settled on his brain as Cade ran his nose along her inner thigh and inhaled deeply. Leah squirmed and a soft whimper escaped her lips. He’d barely touched her, and he sensed that she was already so close to the edge. “Do you taste as good?”

Her breathing increased with his words, tight pants of breath that caused her lush breasts to bounce in an erotic display. Cade reached up and captured one nipple between his thumb and finger as he sealed his mouth over her sex. Leah’s back bowed off the bed and she drew in a sharp breath that she exhaled with a husky moan.

Gods, yes
. Her responsiveness sent him close to the edge of his control. He sucked the tight knot of nerves into his mouth before releasing it with a scrape of his teeth. Leah writhed beneath him and her hips took up a gentle rhythm as she rolled them to meet his mouth. Cade pushed himself up and grabbed Leah around the waist, shifting their position so he lay on his back and she sat on his chest. He guided her legs so that her feet rested on either side of his head. If his mate was intent on fucking his mouth, he wanted her in the best position to get it done.

Mate
. Leah truly was his, bound together even after death sent them to another place. For a split second, Cade wondered if he’d imagined the claiming. If not for the veins of sensation that spread outward from his chest, he wouldn’t believe it still. Cade dug his fingertips into the cheeks of Leah’s ass and scooted her forward until his vision was full of her sweet pussy. He flicked out with his tongue and Leah bucked forward. Her arms shot out to brace herself on the headboard and her thighs began to quiver. Cade didn’t plan to stop until he tasted the proof of Leah’s pleasure on his tongue, felt the throb of her clit against his mouth. He wanted to
devour
her.

“I need to come, Cade.”

His name on her lips was heaven. He lapped at her greedily, alternating between slow licks with the flat of his tongue, gentle flicks that teased her, and deep hungry sucks that caused her to cry out. He reveled in her taste, her scent, the wetness that spread over her thighs onto his chest. He couldn’t get enough of her cries, her quick pants of breath, and the way her hips moved against his mouth in a slow, undulating motion as she tried to increase the pressure.

Cade wasn’t ready to let her slip off the edge. He gripped her hips and forced her to stay still. With slow, gentle passes of his tongue he teased her clit. Wet, swollen, and throbbing, he kept her on the edge until Leah sobbed her pleasure. Her thighs trembled, her muscles contracted. When he sensed she’d reached the point where she could take no more, he drew her clit into his mouth and sucked hard.

Leah pushed away from the headboard and threw her head back. Her fingers dug into his shoulders as she came in deep, powerful spasms that throbbed against Cade’s tongue. Her hips thrust against his mouth and Cade brought her down slowly, easing up until he once again lapped at her with slow soft passes of his tongue.

He could easily become drunk on her taste.

She moved to roll off him, but Cade kept her right where she was. He welcomed the weight of her on his chest. The cooler temperature of her skin was a balm that soothed him. Her racing breaths, music to his ears. He’d heard stories of what it felt like to be claimed. The instant sense of comfort and completion. A fierce need to protect. The desire that stole all rational thought. Cade felt all of that and more.

As he kneaded the satin-soft skin of her ass, Cade brought his head up and kissed at the apex of her pubic bone, which had been waxed and trimmed down until nothing remained but a short dusting of hair. Her hands reached back to grip around his ribs, and the slight bite of her nails caused Cade’s cock to twitch. The ache that throbbed at the base of his shaft couldn’t distract him from the sight of Leah perched atop his chest, her legs spread wide. Her clit protruded from between her inner lips, and he brushed the pad of his thumb over the delicate flesh.

“Cade…” She said his name on a slow, contented sigh.

His chest swelled with satisfaction that he’d pleasured her. In fact, he planned to pleasure her many more times before the night was over. He’d tease her with the head of his cock next. It would be a sweet torture for them both. And after that, he’d use his fingers, slide them slowly in and out of her tight warmth while he suckled her tantalizing breasts. He’d bring her to orgasm with nothing but his words. A symphony of sensual talk that would reach its crescendo with her cries. He wanted to look into her eyes as she came, see the evidence of that bliss transform her soft features. Nothing could possibly be more beautiful than the sight of his mate in the grip of desire.

As though she were made of spun sugar, Cade gently rolled her onto her back. She stretched out on the bed with feline grace, her expression soft and content. He shucked his shoes, pants, and boxer briefs as his eyes drank in the sight of her. She cocked a brow, her expression bemused when he grabbed her calves and dragged her to him.

“I plan to make you come again and again until we collapse from exhaustion.” He might not stop even then. Cade doubted he’d ever get enough of her.

Leah’s full lips curved into a sensual smile. “I have amazing stamina.” Her husky tone caused his gut to clench tight. “I hope you’re up for a challenge.”

Good gods
. Leah had surely been made for him.

*   *   *

Leah had always laughed at her friends who described sex as a religious experience. But she’d just had an orgasm that made her consider converting to the church of Caden Mitchell. The connection she felt with him bordered on spooky, and the intensity of it sent riots of butterflies swirling in her stomach. She’d yearned for passion all of her life, and in a span of minutes, Cade had given her everything she’d wanted and more.

He burned with the heat of a forest engulfed in flames.

As he shucked his slacks and underwear, Leah drank in every detail.
Magnificent
didn’t begin to describe the power of Cade’s body. There wasn’t an inch of him that wasn’t corded with lean muscle. She devoured him with her gaze, savoring his broad shoulders, wide chest, down the taper of his waist to his six-pack abs and his narrow hips. Her eyes lingered on the V that cut from his hips to his upper thighs. Her breath hitched as his erection sprang free from his underwear, thick, long, and standing out from his hips. A bead of moisture formed at the glossy tip and dripped down over the crown as though daring her to lick it clean. If there was a better representation of perfection, Leah hadn’t seen it.

Sweet lord
.

She couldn’t take her eyes off of him. Would it be weird to ask him to stand there for a while? Maybe turn a slow circle. A wicked grin lit Cade’s face, as though he knew exactly what she wanted. “I can promise you, this is a sight you’ll be seeing regularly from here on out.”

Hallelujah!

Something feral gleamed in the depths of his eyes. A wild ruthlessness that sent a burst of anxiety through Leah’s veins. She’d never noticed it before, that dangerous streak, but she sensed that Cade was a man whose bad side you didn’t want to land on. “We’ll have to get dressed sometimes,” she teased.