Bear Naked by Jessica Sims Page A

you’d forgotten how to speak English last week? Pretty fucking clueless.”
    “Okay, fair point,” he said, stepping back out of my reach. “But you’re the first person that’s come looking for me in sixteen years. You’re an old family friend, and a bear shifter going into heat. It’s not hard to put the pieces together, even for my scrambled mind.”
    He knew…and he knew I was an awful person. Because I’d known he was grieving, and I still came after him, waving my pheromones under his nose so he’d have to pay attention. It was selfish. I’d manipulated him until we were both backed into a corner. “This is wrong,” I told him.
    “Does it matter at this point?”
    Hot tears began to seep from my eyes again because no, it really didn’t matter at this point. Our paths were set since my heat was here. I didn’t have any other options, and since Leif hadn’t abandoned me, he’d have no option either.
    “Nikolina,” Leif said, and he sat on the edge of the rickety cot. His hand cupped my jaw and brushed my cheek, the feel of his skin against mine so sweet that it started a new round of tears. “Don’t cry. What is it that you want from me?”
    His tone of voice was so kind and understanding that I felt even worse. I sobbed. “I want a mate. I want you to come home with me. I want us to be accepted by the clans as a mated couple. I’m tired of being a spinster.” Of being so utterly alone and unwanted.
    Leif’s thumb continued to stroke my cheek. “And this is that important to you that you’d risk your life - and the possibility of your child - to come after me?”
    “It’s what I’ve always wanted,” I said between hiccuping sobs. To be accepted and loved instead of rejected? To have my own family of people that cared for me instead of a father who was more interested in clan politics than his daughter?
    That was my dream – unconditional love.
    His thumb brushed my cheek, followed the curve of my mouth. After a long moment, he said, “Sometimes what we think we want is not always the truth of the matter.”
    My cheek followed the light touch of his fingers, leaning into his palm. It was hard to concentrate on his words - his fingers were on my face but they might as well have been between my legs, diving against the slick, needy flesh there. “What do you mean?”
    “Nothing,” he told me softly. “I’m simply talking because I’m nervous.”
    I frowned at that, even as his thumb brushed over my mouth and I bit down on the tip. “Nervous?” I asked breathlessly. He was delicious and I wanted him so badly. I flicked my tongue over his fingertip. Why was biting on his thumb so incredibly erotic?
    His gaze seemed glued to my mouth, to where I licked and sucked at his thumb. “It’s my first time, too.”
    I stilled. “Um…what?”
    “I said, it’s my first time.” And he had the gall to smile at me.
    I struggled to sit upright, pulling away from him so I could think without his touch driving me nuts. I stared at his handsome face, unable to believe what I was hearing. “Are you kidding me?”
    As I watched, his ears turned bright red. “Why would I joke? Why is it bad? It will be special for both of us.”
    I wanted to cry all over again. “It’s bad because I want one of us to know what the hell we’re doing!”
    Leif laughed at my expression. He slid a bit closer on the bed, and I automatically shied away, because my body wanted to fling him down on the rickety cot and do bad, nasty things to him. “I’m a guy, Nikolina. I have instincts. I think I can figure out what goes where. And I can think of plenty of things I’ve been picturing doing to you.”
    That made my breath catch in my throat. “You’ve been picturing doing things to me?”
    “Are you kidding?” His hand moved back to my jaw and he brushed his fingers along it. “You’re incredibly beautiful. You’re strong and brave…and I’m a thirty-four year old man that has never had sex. Of course