He pulled back, then thrust in, and she cried out again. She closed her eyes and tipped her head back as he set into a pounding rhythm, trying not to scream her pleasure to the whole neighborhood. The wall behind her vibrated with every swift slide, just as his back muscles twitched under the clawing of her nails.
“Look at me,” he whispered—the only part of his body language that was asking, not telling. Begging, almost. “Look at me.”
She cracked her eyes open and held his gaze. A fiercely determined gaze that suggested he was being subjected to some great test.
Mine. Mate.
She’d really need to get her ears checked sometime. But for now, all she could do was moan and hang on and marvel at a passion she’d never seen in any man’s eyes. A passion she never imagined she’d see, not even in her dreams.
“Cody…” she cried, two breaths away from total meltdown.
“Not yet.” He gritted his teeth. “Not yet…”
She hung on and fought off the urge to let every tense muscle go until his rhythm broke on a raspy groan. “Yes…”
She gathered every thin strand of control and clenched her inner muscles, squeezed them over the length of his cock, then unraveled completely as he shuddered inside her.
She cried out again and again, letting everything go. The tension of the last crazy weeks. The uncertainty. The constant fear. For the next blinding instant, her whole world was warm and safe and dreamy. Nothing was impossible.
He leaned heavily against her as she went limp, and she wondered what was holding them up. Could it be love?
“Cody,” she murmured over and over as his thumb tapped her skin. Three times.
I. Love. You.
She focused on that instead of the truth gnawing at a distant corner of her mind. She was a woman on the run. She had to give Cody up before the beast that hunted her finally chased her down. Or worse—before Cody got caught in the cross hairs.
But for the moment—that single, impossible moment—Cody was hers.
Mine, she wanted to cry out loud. Mate.
From the Author
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Queen of Bears
A steamy Royal Bear shifter romance
by Emma Alisyn
An excerpt
Part of the Royal Bears series
About this scene from Queen of Bears
A Bear Queen. A Clan Chief. The secret Talogren civil war threatens Izobelle's borders, penetrating her palace. Even as the Clan Chief attempts to penetrate her heart...
In this scene, a dominant female Bear awakens in a strange room with an emerald-eyed, snarly male she knows is her mate — but she doesn't remember her name, or his. She does know that she isn't anyone's docile kidnap victim — and blood will be spilled if she doesn't get answers, and soon.
Queen of Bears
An excerpt
“Izobelle.”
She frowned, the name jarring her into wakefulness. Opening her eyes, brilliant green orbs fixed on her face. The male crouched several feet away, the slant of his shoulders both wary and…something she couldn’t quite name.
Her body seized. A sensual cramp in her lower belly, incongruous and inexplicable. Breasts swelling with animal heat, unwanted and unfamiliar. She froze, battling instinct she didn’t understand. Desire she hadn’t felt in over… Her head throbbed, shutting down the stray thought.
The male was a stranger.
But her body reacted as if he were a… mate. Unacceptable.
“You’re too close,” she said, voice a low, rough growl. She didn’t recognize the timber of her own vocal cords. Didn’t recognize. It was as if she were listening to a stranger speak across a crowded room. “Back up!”
He moved back, holding up both hands. Slow, predator slow. Moving away but not giving ground.
Pressing a hand to her temple, she tried to stifle the throbbing with pressure and sat up slowly. The bed underneath her was bare, and not entirely clean. Looking around, the mattress matched her surroundings. Bare walls made of weathered wood planks. A simple floor and window with shutters rather than glass.
Glancing at the male again, she considered her options. “Where are we?”
“I’m not certain,” he said after a moment, watching her. “How does your head feel, Izo?”
How did her head feel? Empty, except for the pain. Bear was silent. Normally She rattled in the human cage, wanting to get out, to be let loose. For some reason, she understood that people around her thought she simply had a quick temper. It wasn’t true. Bear was simply so strong, she was obliged to grasp any reason possible to let her out, keep her pacified. She knew this, even though she didn’t remember. The knowledge was instinctual, elusive. If she tried to grasp the tendril of memory it slipped through her fingers like rivulets of clear water.