“So you didn’t sleep with anyone after her?”
“Didn’t say that, but it was always a onetime deal and never serious.”
“Oh.” Her heart sank, and she focused on eating.
Jason watched her thoughtfully, his dark eyes gone serious. “Georgia, I’m not going to lie to you. Sugar-coating that stuff would only hurt you later on when you found out the truth.”
“No, I know. I just…I don’t like competition for you.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, I already have to compete with the ghost of your mate. I don’t get any of your firsts. You had this really huge life-altering relationship with her. She Turned you for goodness sakes, and it’s not like you’ve been able to mourn her passing. She’s still here.”
“I know, but sex with other women—”
“I get it. I do. I did the research, and bear shifters have needs to keep their animals sated. I understand, really, but to me, you’re already more than a friend. You feel like mine, and I don’t like thinking about you with other women.”
“But I wasn’t with those women. I only slept with them.”
“Sleeping with someone is really special to me.”
“Wait, are you a virgin?” Jason’s eyes went wide and apprehensive.
“No! I slept with my ex-boyfriend. But it was special, and I made sure it was the right time when I wouldn’t regret it. And your callous disregard for what love-making can actually be makes me nervous. I don’t want to be like those other women to you.”
The confusion washed from Jason’s face as he smiled and shook his head. “Georgia, you’re not. And I’m not pressuring you to sleep with me. I’m fine with taking this slow if it means I get to keep you. Do you know what sex was like with the three other women that I’ve slept with besides Tessa?”
“I don’t want to know.”
“Unemotional, boring humping with Tessa standing over the bed hurling insults that I could hear but my partners couldn’t. I felt awful afterwards. Sick. Crazy. It was impossible to concentrate and impossible to enjoy. It was sex for my bear’s sake so that maybe I could keep him steady for a little while longer. Do you know what happens to a bear shifter who loses control of his animal?”
“No.” Cora Wright’s pro-shifter website definitely hadn’t said anything about this.
“It’s the alpha’s responsibility to put that shifter down.”
“You mean…kill you?”
“Yeah. I got lucky and found Creed, and I told him about my mate passing and begged him to take me in, because rumor had it, Creed would hold onto his crew longer and give them a chance to fix what was broken. Sex wasn’t this emotional need to connect with another person. It was a Hail Mary desperation move when I knew I couldn’t hold control over my animal anymore. It bought me time.”
“Oh.” She frowned. Georgia wanted to keep her ruffled feathers because she didn’t like the idea of Jason sleeping with women just for the sake of sleeping with them. But it had bought him enough time to make it to her. And if she had to choose between Creed killing Jason or him doing what he had to do to stay alive, she would choose Jason’s life any day.
“Well, I slept with my ex-boyfriend, Evan, a lot, so there.” She cracked a grin.
Jason narrowed his eyes. “Yeah, I don’t really like that.”
“Sucky feeling, isn’t it?”
“Did Evan make you come?”
Georgia pursed her lips at his unexpected question.
His voice had gone all deep and husky, and he leaned over the table again. “Did he?”
Trapped. Georgia was trapped in his gaze, unable to escape the question. “Yes.”
“How many times?”
“Twice,” she whispered.
Jason jammed the table out of the way, its legs groaning across the floor. He lifted her into his arms as his lips collided with hers. The chair behind her fell backward and, a moment later, her shoulder blades hit the wall. Jason’s lips moved against hers with a desperation that enflamed her middle in an instant. He ground against her, pressing his hard erection onto the seam of her jeans. God, that felt good. He was right where she was most sensitive, but still, it didn’t feel close enough. She wanted to feel his skin.
He trailed kisses down her neck and grazed her sensitive skin with his teeth. She gasped and fumbled with the button of his jeans. She needed more of him, or she’d go mad.
She yanked down his zipper and shoved his pants and briefs out of the way, unsheathing his long dick. Holy macaroni, that was not going to fit inside of her. Desperately, she pulled his sweater over his head. His dark hair was all mussed in that sexy, just-woke-up look as he kicked out of his pants completely.