Page 19 of Dream Weaver (Spellbound in Sedona #3)

COOPER

I tried taking things slowly, but I failed. Within seconds, I’d backed Abby against the shop wall in a series of kisses that rapidly grew out of control. Abby didn’t seem to mind, though. Not judging by the happy sounds she made and the way her hands roamed.

Still, I slammed the brakes on long enough to check.

“Too fast?” I panted. I wanted her that bad.

She shook her head and tugged me closer. “I want this. I want you.”

If I were in bear form, I would have reared up and roared. But my human body could do better, like kissing. Touching. Exploring.

And, wow. Maybe Abby had a secret shifter side, because she was as uninhibited as a bear. In no time, her hands had wandered down my body and worked my belt loose.

She stopped suddenly. “Uh…too fast?”

I couldn’t help laughing, and she gave me a play-glare. “Are you suggesting I couldn’t have my wicked way with you if I wanted?”

I grinned. “I know there are no limits to what you’re capable of.”

She looked pleased.

“Luckily, I’m all in with your evil plan,” I finished, diving into another kiss.

“Evil plan?” she said between stuttery breaths. “Says the guy who put on a candlelight dinner.”

“That was the restaurant guy’s fault,” I mumbled, working my way down her jaw.

She tipped her head back, directing my nips and kisses to her neck.

“Was he cute?” she asked.

My laugh bounced off her skin and back at me. God, did she smell good.

“Didn’t notice,” I mumbled back. “I have too much of a thing for my boss for that.”

“Your boss, huh? Isn’t that kind of taboo?”

Ha. Not as big as the taboo bears held against witches. But I was long over that.

“To hell with taboos,” I whispered.

“Me, I have a thing for a firefighter,” she admitted. “Kind of a cliché, huh?”

I slid my hands up from her waist, bumping over the edges of her ribs before reaching a soft field of flesh.

“I don’t know,” I mused, cupping her breast. “Is he cute?”

She laughed, then shook her head. “Nah. Not sure what I see in him, actually.”

I laughed, but a second later, she tensed. “Wait. Stop.”

I froze, terrified she would call this to a halt.

She put her face in her hands, then jerked up again. “I take that back. Bad joke. I see so much in you. More than I deserve. You’re kind and sweet and patient. You know when to help and when to back off. You listen — you really listen — and you don’t play games with my heart.”

All that came out in a torrent, and I stared, not sure how to respond.

Her eyes shone with near-tears. “But me…I’m not nice. I say bad things. Mean things, sometimes. I’m quick to judge, and I don’t judge well.”

I took her hands because, damn. Wasn’t she being a little hard on herself?

“I don’t know,” I whispered, going for a joke. “I think you’re judging pretty well right now.”

She flashed a thin smile, then hid her face against my shoulder. “First time in my life, maybe.”

I hugged her tightly. “I doubt that. And as for deserving… You deserve as much happiness as anyone. More, maybe, for all you have to deal with.” Then I winced. Why highlight the hard parts of her life? So I quickly added, “Like the world’s worst apprentice. A bear, no less.”

“Nicest bear I know,” she whispered, hugging back.

I was probably the only bear she knew, but hey. I would take what I could get.

Gradually, my pounding pulse calmed, and hers did too. A minute later, she raised her head. “Sorry. Didn’t mean to ruin this. Can we maybe…um…move on?”

Relief washed over me. Holding her was great, but loving her was even better.

“Absolutely. I think we were right…about…here,” I said, easing my lips over hers.

She opened her mouth under mine, and just like that, I was on fire again. The best kind of fire.

“Actually, I think you were more like here…” She guided my hand back to her breast.

“And you were about here…” I tugged her hand to my jeans.

The metal shop was stiller than ever, while the night pulsed with life. Cars passed on the main road, but the building buffered the sound, pushing the rest of Sedona far, far away. The night was chilly, but my body blazed with need.

We belong together. Forever, my bear roared, high on the scent of desire.

“Cooper…” she whispered, pressing her hips against mine.

Well, she tried, but with the height difference…

I hoisted her up, and she wrapped her legs around my waist.

“Perfect.” She surged against my body.

It was perfect, because with the wall at her back, I could press in close and hard. Closer…

Her breaths came faster and faster, and she changed the angle of her legs.

It was heaven, but it was hell, because we were close but still fully clothed.

Abby fumbled with my shirt, then growled in frustration and dropped her legs to the floor.

“Call it a technical time-out,” she murmured apologetically while shoving down my jeans.

I went for hers, but she wrapped her fingers around me first, and my brain short-circuited. I stuck a hand against the wall to fight the sharp bite of need.

She chuckled. “Don’t forget to breathe.”

A smart aleck answer popped into my head, then vaporized when she switched from stroking down to up. Slowly. Agonizingly, deliciously, brutally slowly, in the best possible way.

When she switched again, I croaked. “You’re killing me there.”

“Want me to stop?” Her cocky tone said she had her money on no .

She would be right. This was the kind of death a guy could die a thousand times, with no complaints.

“Don’t you dare.”

She laughed, stretching out her next stroke. “I did warn you about my wicked ways.”

“Wait till I get my turn.”

Her breath hitched, and I felt her pulse skip.

Just wait, my bear vowed, and I grinned.

“I’ll look forward to that,” Abby assured me. “But first…”

She changed direction, moving a little faster.

My breath rattled as I rocked against her hand.

My eyes were closed, but I imagined ribbons of fire twisting around us like a cage. Or maybe sanctuary was a better word, because I never wanted to leave. All around me, flames pulsed, danced, and swayed.

Then my bear growled, and I grabbed Abby’s hand to stop her.

“As I see it, we have a few choices,” I said, panting hard.

Abby’s eyes sparkled. “Other than what we’re doing right now?”

“More like where,” I managed.

I’d been dreaming of this moment for too long to let it all go by in a rush. But sex was like a wildfire. It dictated its own pace, and sometimes, all you could do was go along for the ride.

“Like what kind of where?”

I took it as a good sign that her sentence structure was off. My mind was just as incapable of coherent thought.

“Like a bed, maybe?”

“Overrated.” She reached for me impatiently.

Still, I held her back.

She made an exasperated sound. “For the first time in years, I have a night off — and a guy I want. I need .” Her voice cracked, and she tilted her head to the right. “Seriously. We could do it on that workbench for all I care.”

Which was exactly where we found ourselves seconds later, feasting in an entirely different way. Abby perched on the edge of a workbench that was the perfect height — for more than just pounding metal, as it turned out. While I moved the candles aside, she’d stripped out of her lower layers, lightning-fast, and even done a contortion act inside her shirt.

“Here.” She handed me her bra and lay back.

I chuckled. “My teenage fantasy just came true…about fifteen years too late.”

Then she winced. “I don’t suppose your teenage fantasy comes with condoms, does it?”

“As a matter of fact…”

I tore myself away from her long enough to riffle through my wallet. The condom had been in there, untouched, for a long time. I’d had plenty of offers to use it, but none of those women had really tempted me. But now…

My hands shook as I tore open the packet and rolled it on.

Her chuckle was husky. “I get to do that next time.”

Next time. I liked the sound of that.

I leaned over to kiss her, shuffling nice and close. So close, my cock ached.

“You sure?” I whispered over her lips.

“Well, let’s triple-check.” She guided my hand down to her slick, warm core. Her inhale cracked into pieces when I slid one finger in, then two.

“Definitely need to triple-check,” I murmured, making good on my vow to shatter her self-control.

Abby arched, biting back a moan. She danced under me, then clutched my shirt and panted.

“If this doesn’t count as ready…”

I grinned. “That was double-checking. You said triple, right?”

It was only half a joke. She was pretty small — not that I dared say so — and I was pretty big. For this to feel as good for her as it did for me… Well, triple-checking made sense.

“I didn’t mean it literally—” Her protest broke into a gasp when I slid a third finger in, but then she exhaled. “Okay, maybe another minute of checking is good…”

Her body danced under my touch, assuring me she meant that in a good way.

“Oh… Ah…” she murmured, moving in time with me.

A car pulled into the lot next door, and we froze. We were out of sight, but not by much. Then, whew. It made a U-turn and pulled out.

I exhaled, then chuckled.

Abby looked at me. “Not an exhibitionist, huh?”

“No. Plus, do you realize how sketchy this looks?”

She waited, grinning at that echo of our trip to the vortex.

“A small woman under a big guy in an empty workshop at night…”

She stuck a finger at my chest in warning. “I’m not small. And you’re not that big.”

“Not big?” I brought her hand to the straining condom to illustrate my point.

“Okay, medium.” Her eyes sparkled with the thrill of a challenge, and she slid her leg up along mine. “You think I can’t handle you?”

“You can handle anything,” I said, dead serious.

Her expression softened, and she cupped my cheek.

“You, Mr. Lundsven, are a good man.” Then her eyes sparkled, and she slid her left leg around my waist. “And if you don’t screw me senseless right now, I will scream.”

I grinned, then pressed over her for a kiss. A kiss that quickly grew deep and desperate. I pressed closer…closer…

Then I pushed into her, and she gasped, throwing her head back.

The candles I’d moved to one side flared, and their flames blurred.

Slow, my bear warned as I slid deeper into her hot, tight sheath.

How the beast thought slow might be possible, I had no idea. Still, I forced myself back an inch.

Abby ran her hands up my chest. “Much as I love this shirt…”

She meant the flannel, not the Henley shirt I wore underneath. I yanked off both in one move and tossed them aside.

“Better?”

“Definitely.” Her eyes roved for a moment before she gave herself a little shake. Then she grabbed my ass and yanked me back in no uncertain terms, howling as I pressed back in.

I plunged deeper…deeper…up-to-the-hilt deep. I gritted my teeth, then withdrew and pushed back in.

“Oh…” Abby cried, bucking against me.

We didn’t gain momentum so much as having momentum grab us and sweep us away. But that wasn’t too surprising. We’d had plenty of practice in achieving perfect rhythm over the past few weeks. Why not now?

“Yes…” Abby groaned.

The playful ribbons of fire I’d imagined grew into towering flames. They roared in my ears, urging me on. Our pace quickened, and our movements grew sharper. Louder, too, with each hard thrust punctuated by a heady moan or cry — hers and mine.

Usually, I fought fires. But this was one inferno I was happy to surrender to.

“Yes!” Abby cried out, tensing in her high.

I powered in one…two…three more times, then exploded with a roar.

We clutched each other, blind to the world, unable to speak, move, or think.

I was just about to slump over when Abby arched in aftershock. Not a time to leave your woman hanging, so I obliged by pressing hard and deep. Bears knew duty when they saw it, dammit. That brought us both to a whole new level of pleasure, which whirled around my soul for a while.

The next thing I knew, I was lying down, savoring Abby’s scent with every panting breath. She trailed her hands absently over my back, then wrapped her arms around me and squeezed me tightly.

I nuzzled her cheek and squeezed back. If she thought I was going anywhere, she was wrong. When bears loved, they loved good, long, and hard.

Forever, my grizzly whispered inside.

I kissed her, then grinned. “We’ll have to compliment Walt on his workbenches on Monday.”

“Don’t you dare.”

“I don’t know,” I teased, tracing the grain of the wood. “Not just sturdy, but multipurpose too.”

She grinned. “Metalworking, dining, sex…”

We kissed, then slowly straightened. I pulled Abby to a seated position. Her hair was a mess, and her shirt was twisted to one side from our…er, haste. I didn’t dare tell her how beautiful she was, but it was true.

“I have a proposition,” I finally said, choosing my words carefully. This was a woman who kept her heart in a fortress. Too much, too soon, and she would spook.

She waited, watching me closely.

“There’s this thing in the cabin I rent,” I continued. “I think they call it a bed.”

She laughed, and the little bit of tension that had threatened to arise evaporated.

“A bed, huh?”

“Yep. Not as multipurpose as this, but more private and probably just as sturdy.”

She gave me a saucy look. “Does that mean you haven’t tested it yet?”

I shook my head. “I never had anyone to help run a test.”

“And you want me to help?”

I nodded while my bear leaped and pranced. “I do. If you were okay with that.”

“Hmm. Going home with a stranger…” She tapped her lips.

“A stranger?” I motioned to the ax heads we’d made, stacked neatly on a shelf. “After sweating through all those with you?”

Her eyes twinkled, and she ran a hand over my hip. “Sweating, huh?”

My cock twitched.

“I guess we’ll have to test that too,” I said.

I kissed her, then turned away to grab the clothing we’d left littered around.

“Promise me I get to take this off next time,” I said, handing over her bra.

“I promise.” She grinned.

Thirty seconds later, we were speeding down the road toward my place.