“I wasn’t crying for what you are, you ridiculous man. I was crying about missing you all winter.”
He stopped pushing her and strode around front. “What?”
“You’re a bear, okay. I can deal with that. It’s a lot, yeah, but I thought about it, and the animal side of you isn’t a deal breaker. Not after you used him to save me. It’s hard to swallow being away from you for half the year, though. I already miss you.” She shrugged helplessly and repeated softer, “I already miss you.”
His chest rose with his deep inhalation. “Well, we have options on that.”
“What options?”
“I can sleep six months as a bear, holed up in a den somewhere, or I can hibernate human. I’ll wake up for about an hour a day to eat if I do that. The upside is that we’ll be together an hour a day, the downside is I’ll take up more of our food, and we’ll have to work harder to feed us both through the winter.” Ian squatted down between her legs and looked at her eye-level. “I don’t want to leave you for winter either, Elyse. I wish I was human and normal for you, but I can’t avoid this part of my life.”
“So, if you hibernate human, you can stay here?”
“Yeah, but I’ll be boring as fuck. My body slows down so much, I literally only revive for food so I don’t starve. If I’m a bear, I don’t need food. My body is more efficient at hibernating as a grizzly.”
“So, technically speaking, if I had an hour, and you ate quickly, would you have enough energy for anything else?”
Ian gave her a baffled smile. “Like what? Card games?”
“Like sex?”
“Oooh,” he said, lifting his chin as his eyes sparked with humor. “You’re worried about your needs all winter.”
“Whose selfish now, bear-man?”
“Still me…and that’s bear shifter. I have no right to ask you to be okay with this.”
“Will it hurt you to hibernate human.”
He shook his head as the smile dipped from his face.
“Then will you do it for me? I don’t want to dread the winter alone. I’ll take care of your body when you’re sleeping, and I’ll have food ready when you wake up every day. I’ll protect you.”
His eyes went soft, and he leaned forward, pressing his forehead between her breasts. “Are you saying I can stay?”
“Well, if it’s between having you half the year or not at all, I choose you, Ian. That’s an easy decision for me.”
Ian’s striking blue eyes jerked up, and he searched her face like he couldn’t believe what he’d just heard. “You choose me?”
“Mate,” she whispered, running her fingers through his hair.
That sexy growl rattled his throat as his eyes rolled closed. “Say it again.”
“My mate.” The word felt strange, but exactly right on her tongue.
Ian let out a shaky breath and pressed his lips against hers. She still couldn’t get over how easy it was to kiss him when he was clean-shaven for her, and with a happy giggle, she laid kisses over his cheeks.
Ian growled and bit her neck softly, and her instinct to freeze overpowered everything else. Ian wasn’t being playful now. He was being sexy as hell. Feeling brave, Elyse slowly arched her head back, giving him more access to her throat, and as she did, his teeth disappeared and were replaced by his lips, gone all soft. A delicious shiver worked its way up her spine, and she let off a soft gasp as he lifted her off the swing.
“Careful,” he rumbled deep in his throat as she brushed his hip with her bad ankle.
She was straddled on his waist but didn’t have to do any of the work since her bear-man seemed to have infinite strength and carried her like she weighed less than a feather.
Her eyes rolled closed against the saturated morning sunlight as he sucked harder on her neck. The man knew how to use his lips.
Miki bounced along somewhere in the vicinity of Ian’s feet, yipping in his little puppy bark as Ian toted her smoothly up the porch stairs and into the house. Anticipation zinged through her as he took a sharp turn directly into her bedroom. Oh, her mate was on a mission now, and she nuzzled his neck and smiled against his skin, then inhaled deeply. He smelled so good. Soap with a hint of oil from the machinery he’d been working on.
“Are you sniffing me, woman?”
“Maybe.”
“Clever little human, using your nose like an animal. I like the way you smell, too.”
“You do?”
Ian lowered her to the bed and spread her knees, then leaned down and clamped his teeth gently on the zipper of her jeans, then blew a puff of warm air through the denim. It tingled and, dear goodness, it felt better than almost anything she’d ever felt before. “I like the way you smell here best,” he murmured.