Alpha Bear Detective: BBW Bear Shifter Paranormal Romance (16 page)

"Yes,” she whispered into his mouth. "You." She curled into him, content.

*              *              *

Epilogue: One month later

Maria hung up the phone and sighed. “She’s not giving in.”

“Sweetheart, it’s all right if you want to have the wedding in Chicago,” Levi said from where he was stretched out on the bed. “It won’t kill my family to go to the city for a couple of days.”

Maria shook her head, frustrated. “I don’t want to have the wedding in Chicago! My
mother
wants to have the wedding in Chicago, so all of my second cousins can show up and scrutinize this man I’m surprising everybody with and interrogate me about how we met and what our future’s going to be like and why we wanted to get married so fast. It’s like she thinks I did it on purpose to mess with them.”

“I know how you feel.” Levi glanced at his phone, which had been ringing over and over again lately, too. “My parents are half-convinced I made you up. They need everyone I’ve ever met back home to get a look at you. I told them I’m not going to let everyone stare at you and make you uncomfortable
on our
wedding day
, but they won’t listen.”

Maria sat down at the foot of the bed. “I do want to meet your family.”

“I know, sweetheart.” It still gave Maria a thrill whenever Levi called her
sweetheart
—even though he did it at least a dozen times a day. It reminded her that this gorgeous, amazing man was actually
hers.
Her mate.

And even with the overbearing relatives, she was the happiest she’d ever been in her life.

“I want to meet your family, too,” Levi continued. “I just think that our wedding should be about
us
. Not them.”

Maria nodded glumly. “We could put it off…”

Levi sat up immediately and pulled her into his arms. “
No.
”

She smiled into his shoulder, and agreed, “No.”

They spent a minute snuggling—Maria would never have characterized herself as a snuggler, but bears apparently wanted to curl up close as much as possible, and it turned out she didn’t mind that
at all
.

Still, there was a problem at hand. “What if…” She wasn’t sure if Levi would go for this.

He sat back so they could look at each other. “What if what?”

“Well, we both want to meet each other’s families. We both want to get married as soon as possible. But we
don’t
want our wedding to be about them and not us. Right?”

“That about sums it up.” Levi started to smile, his eyes lighting up. “Are you suggesting that we get married…first?”

Maria bit her lip. “It’s a little impulsive.”

Levi took her hand—the left hand, with her engagement ring sparkling on the ring finger. “Maria Hernandez, my mate and fiancée…”

Maria was starting to giggle. “Yes?”

“Will you do me the honor of eloping with me, so that I can introduce you to my family as my mate and wife?”

Her giggling tapered off, until she was just smiling with utter bliss. “Yes.”

Levi kissed her. “I don’t think it counts as impulsive if it’s what’s right for both of us.”

Maria kissed him back. “You’re right. When do you think we can—oh!”

Levi had tumbled her back onto the bed. “Let’s figure it out later.”

“Later,” she agreed breathlessly as he unbuttoned her pants. She squirmed out of her blouse and tossed it away where it couldn’t get ruined—she’d learned her lesson in the last month—and arched her back as he pressed his mouth against her panties and breathed out softly.

The warm wave of pleasure flowed up through her body, and she tugged him up to be level with her. There was a time and a place for hours of foreplay, and right after agreeing to elope was not it.

Levi slid his hands behind her back to unhook her bra, while she held herself up off the bed with her arms wrapped around his shoulders. She kissed his neck, behind his ear—he groaned—and along his jaw, stubble rasping against her lips.

“Now you,” she gasped when he had her bra off. She tugged off her panties while he stripped, admiring his long golden body, and pulled him down again the second he was naked.

He kissed her hard, then pulled back for a second and grabbed her left hand, pressing a kiss to her ring finger. “Can’t wait until there’s a wedding band there too.”

“Then you’ll have one too, and I can return the favor,” she pointed out, and his eyes kindled. He kissed her engagement ring again, and then her mouth, and then they were too caught up in each other to sort out who was kissing who.

When he slid his hand down between their bodies, Maria let her legs fall open, tilting her hips back. He was so good at this—his fingers teased at her clit, finding her pleasure unerringly and bringing her to the very edge of orgasm.

“I love you,” he whispered as he drew his hand away.

“I love you,” she gasped back, and he pushed inside of her.

Levi’s cock was as big as the rest of him, long and thick and driving her out of her mind. She always felt so full of him when he was inside her. He thrust slowly at first, while she panted and moaned.

“God, you’re beautiful.” His eyes never left her face.

“Faster,” she murmured.

“Your wish,” he murmured back, and picked up speed.

Maria loved the way Levi felt like this—not only inside her, but over her and around her, surrounding her with his body. She shuddered underneath him and lifted her head to kiss him once—twice—she clenched hard around him and started to come.

He kept up the pace through her spasms, pushing her higher and higher with each thrust, drawing out her orgasm until tears were leaking from the corners of her eyes. It felt almost
too
good.

Almost.

Only when she’d started to subside, shivering in pleasure, did he finally let himself go. He pulled her in close as he came, his hard grip making her feel like he was trying to join them together into one.

Afterwards, he breathed in her scent and said into her ear, “I can’t wait to marry you, sweetheart.”

“As soon as we can.” She pressed close against him and felt him kiss her temple. “I love you.”

“I love you.” His voice rumbled through them both. Her mate.

The End

A note from Zoe Chant

Thank you for buying my book! I hope you enjoyed it. If you’d like to be emailed when I release my next book, please
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Alpha Bear Detective
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Page down to read a special sneak preview of
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The cover of
Alpha Bear Detective
was designed by Belle Arden.

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