Bear Fur Hire (Bears Fur Hire Book 2) (15 page)

She wasn’t, though. His sweet mate didn’t see that he was the lucky one.

“Are you happy?” He could see it in her eyes, but damn, he wanted to hear it right now.

“Yes. I never thought I could be so happy. I feel like I finally belong somewhere. You did that, Jenner. I don’t have to run anymore.”

“You won’t ever have to run again. I’ll take care of you.”

“And I’ll take care of you because we are a team.”

“Team Silver.”

She cupped his cheeks again and laid a lingering kiss on his lips. Easing back, she grinned and whispered, “Team Silver.”

She couldn’t pull her eyes from Jenner. It was his smile, a grin she’d only seen flicker across his face now and again, but here, in the glowing lantern light of their new cabin, it stretched across his lips, transforming his face.

Short, dark scruff graced his jaw, and she ran her fingertips against it. His dark hair had fallen forward over his forehead, making his eyes look even brighter in the fading evening light.

“You haven’t shaved since I left,” she accused.

“I haven’t done much of anything since you left except stare at this picture I took of you.”

Her stomach filled with a fluttering sensation that had her melting against him. With a sigh, she rested her cheek against his chest. “Why did you let me leave then? If it hurt so bad, why did you let me go?”

“It’s not that I didn’t want you, Lena. It’s that I wanted better for you.”

“Well, that’s not how love works, you ridiculous man. You don’t set someone free against their will.”

Jenner’s lips pressed against her hair, lingering as he swayed slowly from side to side. At last, he whispered, “Can I see the cabin?”

Lena nipped his chest, then pulled his hand, leading him up onto the small porch with just enough room for the two rocking chairs that swayed gently in the breeze. She pushed open the door and watched his face as he ducked under the frame and stood to his full height. The smile still lingered at the corners of his lips, but his clear blue eyes pooled with some deep emotion she couldn’t fathom. She’d spent the last two days frantically trying to fix it up, but tried to see the cabin from his perspective.

It was split into two primary rooms with smooth wooden floorboards and heavy log walls. There was a single couch in the small living room, right in the shadow of a stone hearth. The butcher-block kitchen counter took up the back wall, speckled with appliances, and on the wall by a two-seater table was a black and white picture of her and Jenner. It was her favorite, and she’d had it printed in Galena today as the finishing touch on this place. She’d thought they were both grinning at the camera when she’d taken it, but while she was cheesing, Jenner had his forehead pressed against her temple, eyes closed like he was taking in the moment with her. They both looked blissfully happy.

Jenner’s gaze hesitated on the picture, framed in rough wood, and the emotion in his eyes deepened. God, he was stunning.

“I always wanted a record player, but I haven’t stayed in one place long enough,” she murmured.

“I’ll get you one. We’ll find whatever records you want, maybe put it over in that corner,” he said, pointing to an empty space near the hearth.

“That’s what I was thinking, too. Do you want to see our bedroom?”

“Our bedroom,” he repeated softly.

She led the way, but turned at the doorway. “This is my favorite room in the house. As soon as I saw what Link had done, this place just felt like home. Ready?”

Jenner leaned down and sipped her lips softly, then nodded.

Lena pushed open the door and was taken aback all over again. Along one entire wall was a picture window facing the sunset, and on the floor was a large mattress, covered in new, warm, forest green bedding. A small, circular wooden table, grayed with age, sat beside the bed and matched a rustic dresser on the wall opposite the window. Jenner didn’t seem to notice anything but the window as he padded toward it.

She held her place near the door just to watch him. She’d imagined it, how he would react, but now that he was really here, this cabin felt complete. He stood against the sunset, his tight black sweater and dark jeans stark against the colors there. Jenner cut a powerful silhouette with his wide, muscular shoulders, tapered waist, and long, commanding legs. When he turned to glance at her over his shoulder, his eyes practically glowed with contentment.

“Come here,” he said, holding out his hand, palm up.

The floorboards sounded hollow under her boot steps, and she smiled as her hand slid against his. The cabin had been lifted with metal beams for a reason. “I like the idea that in the winter when I sleep on our bed, you will be hibernating just below me.”

Pulling her close to his side, Jenner stared at the colorful streaks across the Alaskan sky. “I’ll like sleeping close to you, too.”

“Can you imagine it, Jenner? Watching from our bed as the leaves drop in the autumn, and when the first snowfall hits, watching big flurries falling down?” She swallowed hard at the swelling emotion filling her chest. “The second I walked in here, it felt like it was meant to be ours.”

Jenner turned her gently in his arms and kissed her, backing her against the smooth wooden wall. Heat flooded her middle as his fingertips brushed up her ribcage to her neck. Angling his face, he slipped his tongue past her lips. A helpless moan filled her chest as she stood on her tiptoes to better reach him. And when the soft rumbling growl that she’d grown to adore vibrated between them, Lena smiled into his kiss. “I love you, I love you, I love you,” she whispered.

Leaning forward slightly, Jenner gripped the backs of her knees and lifted her until she was pinned between him and the wall, her legs around him, and his thick erection hard between them. “Woman, I love you, too.”

“Never push me away again.”

“I can’t even if I tried. It’s me and you now, Lena. Whatever comes…it’s me and you.”

His mouth moved smoothly against hers, his tongue brushing hers in a delicious tease. Closing her eyes tightly, Lena gripped his sweater. She could never be close enough to him, and now she understood what Elyse had meant. Winters would be hard and long, but it would make their time together more potent. It would make every kiss and every touch mean more.

Jenner pushed his hips against hers, brushing right where she was most sensitive. His hand gripped the back of her neck as he dropped those nipping kisses to her throat. He sucked hard and ground against her again.

“Jenner,” she gasped out on a desperate breath.

He pressed harder against her, then eased off, taking her with him, languidly walking them to the bed. Easily, as if she weighed nothing at all, he lowered them down.

The plush mattress sank under her. Soft bed, hard-as-steel Jenner, encompassing her, blanketing her, making her feel safer than she ever had before. Lena arched back against the comforter as he lifted off her just enough to remove his shirt. His hair came out mussed and sexy, and she ran her hands through it just to touch him. His arms flexed as he lowered himself to her, and with his teeth, he pulled the bottom of her sweater up her stomach, brushing her skin lightly as he rucked it up. The second his lips brushed her ribs, she shivered.

A deep chuckle reverberated from him. “You like that, don’t you?”

Breath hitching, she nodded and pushed his head gently lower. The smile he flashed her was nothing shy of wicked before he pulled her jeans down her hips and let them slip from his fingertips onto the floor. Lena hadn’t ever done this with anyone else, but she was safe with Jenner. Safe to try what she wanted, safe to ask for what she wanted. He moved farther down and kissed the inside of her knee, running his hand up her outer thigh. Her breath was shaking now, but the nervous flutters in her stomach only added to her anticipation. Slowly, he worked his way up the inside of her leg with those sexy lips of his until he clamped his teeth gently onto her inner thigh. She gasped and rolled her hips toward him. Hands sliding under her hips, he pulled her closer to him and ran his tongue the length of her seam, then lingered on her clit, sucking gently, encouraging her to spread her knees wider for him.

He laved his tongue against her again, teasing. How could anything feel so good? Lena rocked against him, fingers gripping his hair as she bowed her neck back and whispered his name. When his soft humming growl vibrated from his throat against her clit, she nearly lost it completely. Jenner slid his tongue inside of her, and she was gone. Couldn’t think. Couldn’t do anything other than heed the pace he set and move against him as the pressure in her middle built. Over and over he pushed into her until she tipped over the edge completely. Lena cried out as an orgasm crashed through her.

“Need to feel you come,” he gritted out.

And before her aftershocks had even subsided, he was undressed. Up on locked arms, staring into her eyes with such hunger, Jenner slid his swollen cock deep into her. Chest heaving, he closed his eyes and froze as she pulsed softly around him. Only when her orgasm was completely finished did he move, slowly at first, and the pressure in her middle began to build again.

The second she clamped her teeth gently over his pec, Jenner turned them over and sat up. Straddled around him, connected so deeply, Lena gripped the back of his hair and rolled her hips, setting their pace now. He’d given her control. This big, dominant, growly, strong man had pushed Bears instincts to the side so that she could have her way here in their den.

Jenner hugged her tightly as his body contracted and relaxed, contracted and relaxed. He was strung impossibly tight, and he gritted out her name as he swelled within her. So close now. When Lena sucked gently on his earlobe, the growl in his chest turned feral. He buried his face against her neck, but she wanted him to see how he owned her, body and soul.

“Look at me,” she whispered, pulling the back of his hair until those intense, darkening eyes of his were steady on her. She bit his bottom lip as punishment when he closed his eyes, and when he opened them again, they were dark as pitch. “My bear.”

She slid over him again, and his body contracted and held. He gritted out a snarl and froze inside of her. Throbbing jets of seed shot into her, over and over as her own release pounded through her. Jenner spun her so fast her stomach dipped. He pressed her against the bed, then slammed into her with a helpless groan. God she loved him like this. Dominant. Primal. Barely in control as he emptied himself completely into her. And when his pace slowed and smoothed out, when he buried his face against her neck and his breathing had steadied, she dragged her fingernails lightly up and down his back, her face stretching with a happy smile.

“I thought I lost you,” he murmured against her throat.

“Never.”

Jenner eased out of her and lay behind her, big spoon to her little spoon. Propped up on one elbow behind her shoulder, Jenner leaned forward and kissed her cheek.

“Are you watching the sunset with me?” she asked, as quiet as a breath. The final colored streaks were adorning the horizon in deep, fiery colors.

“No. I’ve seen a hundred sunsets. I don’t want to take my eyes off you.”

Happiness unfurled in her belly as she snuggled closer against him. She lifted his hand from her hip to her lips and let her kiss linger on his knuckles. “Jenner?”

“Yeah?”

“I’m glad Bear chose me.”

With a single, soft laugh, Jenner brushed his scruff against her cheek once, then whispered, “How could he not? Loyal, protective, beautiful, strong woman. You’re everything I could’ve wanted in a mate.”

“Can I tell you something?”

“Anything,” he rumbled.

As the last streaks faded from the evening sky, she sighed and pulled his hand against her cheek. “I miss you already.”

Jenner was quiet for so long she turned in his arms to face him. He rested his cheek on his arm and brushed a strand of hair from her face. “For the first time since my first hibernation, I hate that part of myself.” His eyes tightened as he brushed his gaze over her hair, then back to her eyes. “I don’t want to do it.”

Lena gave him a reassuring smile and ran her hand down his side. His tan skin was webbed with the silver scars Tobias had given him all those years ago. Her mate—so strong, but allowing her to see a side of him he shared with no one else.

“It makes no difference if you have to go to sleep or not,” she whispered, holding his gaze so he could see the honesty of her words. “I’ll be here when you wake up. Always.”

Jenner hugged her tightly against him, his heart beat steady and strong against her cheek. And as the shadows lengthened across the room—their room—he murmured the words that had become medicine for her soul. Words that she would never tire of hearing because they’d gone through so much to get right here. “I love you, Lena.”

And because of his devotion, their future together now stretched on and on. He had come in and pushed her barricaded heart open. The changes and growth she’d gone through had been painful and scary, but with Jenner, she’d finally felt like she could close her eyes and jump off the edge, knowing he would catch her. Today was the first day of the rest of their lives. And as she pressed her lips against his warm skin, his earlier words brushed her mind.

Whatever comes…it’s me and you
.

For the first time in her life, she didn’t feel alone. She wasn’t a ship lost at sea.

From now until forever, Jenner would be her anchor, as she would be his.