Gray Back Bad Bear(24)

“Willa,” he rasped out, pumping into her faster. “God, I can’t stop anymore. I can’t—”

“Shh, then don’t. I don’t want you to. Ah!” She closed her eyes against the pressure building inside of her. The pleasure was so intense with each stroke, she couldn’t form thoughts anymore. Couldn’t do anything other than absorb each sensual blow.

Matt stroked into her faster and faster, holding her so tightly against him. A growl ripped through his chest and brought her closer to the edge.

Matt closed his eyes tightly, but opened them again, silver, churning, his animal right there, looking at her like she was everything good in his world. His breath shaking, muscles twitching, riding her harder, and she didn’t care about the sting of pain in her middle. Not when it felt this good to be with him.

The growl settled in his chest, and he yelled out just as a pulsing orgasm exploded through her. A shot of wet heat filled her, and then another as Matt gritted out her name. She met his hips, crashing together as release filled them both.

Matt slowed, breathing hard, but his eyes on her—always on her. “Are you okay?”

Another aftershock pulsed through her, and she giggled, feeling high as a kite. “Better than okay.” Was she sore? Yes, but that didn’t take away from the beauty of this moment with the man she was falling hopelessly in love with.

She dragged kisses across a long scar near his collar bone, then nuzzled her face against him. “You did good, Griz. I knew you could be gentle.”

Matt chuckled and eased out of her. A gush of warmth pulsed from between her legs.

“Shit,” he said, startled. “You’re bleeding. Not a lot, but I can smell iron.”

She sat up as he looked down between them where they’d been connected. “Stay here.” His voice had gone hard.

Had she done something wrong? Maybe she hadn’t been as good at this as she’d felt a minute ago. Her confidence plunged as Matt disappeared into a small bathroom. The sound of the tap was loud in the sudden silence. It seemed to run forever before Matt turned it off and returned. He held a gray washrag, and when he pressed it between her legs, it was warm and comforting.

“I’m so sorry,” he murmured in a broken voice.

“Hey.” She cupped his cheek and pulled his attention to her. “I’m not sorry. That was always going to happen. Especially the first time.”

His nostrils flared as he inhaled, then let out a long breath. “I thought I hurt you.”

Stunned, she whispered, “I’m not a virgin anymore.” A smile stretched her face. “It feels so weird. I’ve been waiting and wondering what it would be like for so long.”

“And?” he asked, pulling the washrag gently across her sex again.

“And it was more amazing that I could’ve ever imagined.”

Matt huffed a relieved sigh and kissed the nub of her oversensitive clit gently before he crawled up on the bed beside her. Curling his body around hers, he brushed his lips onto the back of her neck and said, “I’m glad you waited for me.”

Willa smiled at the cream-colored wall of his room as happiness flooded her. Pulling at the edge of the comforter, she threw it over their legs and snuggled back against Matt. Her Matt.

All safe and warm and his, she whispered, “Me, too.”





Chapter Seven




“No!” Matt yelled, rocketing out of bed.

Willa’s heart pounded against her ribcage as she sat straight up and squinted her eyes against the darkness. “What is it? Matt, what’s wrong?”

He was crouched in the corner of his room, encased in shadows, the moonlight streaming through the window, illuminating his eyes and making them glow. His breath was loud, ragged, and the look on his face terrifying.

“It was a dream,” he rasped out. “Only a dream. You’re okay. Are you okay?”

“Yes, babe, come here. I’m okay.”

Matt slunk to the bed, his gait uneven and hitched, as if his bear was still wary of danger. She pulled him down against her. “Tell me the dream.”

“It doesn’t matter.”

“My mom always told me that when you have a bad dream, you should tell someone so it won’t come true.”

Matt’s skin was clammy and cold under her hand, and she rubbed his back over and over to work warmth back into him.

He swallowed audibly in the dark. “You were in the Menagerie with me and Cassie, and Reynolds was taking you away to the tissue sample room.”

“What’s the Menagerie? And who is Reynolds?”

“And I was beating on the window, screaming for them to bring you back to me, but they dragged you into the room, and I couldn’t see you anymore. And then I heard you screaming. Pain. I couldn’t Change to save you. My sister and I beat on the window until our fists were bloody and the glass finally broke, but your screams had already died to nothing. I threw open the door, but it wasn’t the tissue sample room anymore. It was woods. Piney woods. Hot. Sun shining through the canopy. And you were laying on this bloody, ripped up mattress, and I thought you were dead. So much blood. But you opened your eyes and…and…”