He tore off her clothes.
She didn’t give him a cool stare and remind him that clothes cost money. Her body arched under his, her skin flushing a creamy rose. He kissed his way down her throat, over her right breast, to her nipple. When he bit, she pulled hard at his hair. He shuddered, did other bad things to her.
His tongue in her pussy made her scream; his fingers digging into her butt had her fighting him for control; his stubble rubbing against her breasts had her locking her legs so tight around him that he felt owned. “Fuck, I missed you.”
Silver didn’t speak.
She scratched him, she bit him, and then she pushed at his shoulders until he let her be on top. He took the chance to squeeze her ass as she undid his pants. Drunk on her scent, he gave up on the momentary good behavior and hauled her up with a single powerful motion to press his lips to her pussy once again.
She gave another little scream.
Valentin was more than strong enough to hold her in place while he lapped her up like honey. She came so hard her body shuddered. He would’ve kept going forever if his cock hadn’t been a stone rod in danger of snapping in half if he didn’t get inside her.
Throwing her limp body onto the bed beside him, he tore off his pants and underwear and rose over her. One hand on her breast, he squeezed, fondled, branded. Mine, said the bear. He didn’t realize he’d spoken the guttural word aloud until Silver’s eyes, eyes gone that mysterious dark, locked on to his mouth.
Still fondling her breast, he kissed her. Not gentle and loverlike. Uncivilized and bearlike. Releasing her breast only so he could stroke down her body to grip her hip, he bit at her lower lip before rising above her. “Are you wet enough for me?”
She spread her thighs for him, her hands on her knees and her core slick.
His brain lost all thought. He sank into her in a single thick thrust, gathering her close and crushing her to him as he filled her body with his—but as her arms and legs came around him while her pussy clamped down on his cock, he was the one who was claimed. By Silver Fucking Mercant.
“IT wasn’t the skin privileges,” Silver said to him some time later, his well-satisfied mate lying with her head on his shoulder, her hair sweeping across him. He, of course, had his hand on her butt. Why the hell not when she was naked in bed with him, and he was sweaty from being totally and utterly wrung dry?
“Hmm?” he play-growled. “Sure felt like naked skin privileges to me.”
Silver stayed lax against him, pure satisfied female. He smiled, smug. Okay, yes, he’d lost it and rutted on her exactly like a feral bear, but he’d also made her come three times. Not his best effort, but he planned to make up for it.
He slid his hand from her ass to between her legs, cupped her. “Are you sore?”
“You are rather well-endowed, but the ache is one I like.”
He kept his hand right where it was. Possessive? Him? “What were you talking about before I got distracted by how soft you are”—he ran his fingers through her folds—“and how good you smell.” Rolling over onto her, he nuzzled and bit at her neck.
Silver pulled at his hair again to make him pay attention. His displeased rumbling had zero effect on her. His mate would never fear him. His bear swaggered around like an asshole, pleased with his choice of this strong, sexy woman.
“I’ve been feeling more and more,” she said, her eyes locked to his. “And I’ve been trying to justify my responses in various ways.”
Valentin couldn’t hide his hurt. “Why would you do that, Starlight?”
Her hand on his jaw, a petting caress. “Don’t you understand, Valyusha? I was justifying it to be with you, to do things with you. I couldn’t explain why when my emotions were meant to be gone.”
“Bears are stubborn fools,” he said with a baring of his teeth. “The mating bond wasn’t about to let go.” It was anchored in a part of the psyche so primal even the operation couldn’t sever it.
“Neither was I. You’re mine.” Flat, no room for argument.
Hurt retreated under a wave of smug pleasure.
“I want no confusion about that.” Silver’s fingers gripped his jaw hard. “I want no one believing we might not be a unit. Not our clan, not your family, not mine. And never, ever you.” Her gaze was pure steel. “If that means embracing emotion, so be it.”
Happy as he was, Valentin worried. “Your audio telepathy?”
“Nonexistent, though I’ve clearly reaccessed my emotions far faster than anyone could’ve predicted.” Playing with his hair again, Valentin’s dangerous, beautiful mate said, “I’ve always had a sense of it at the back of my mind. That sense is gone.”
“And physical contact?” he asked, remembering how she’d overloaded in his arms. “Not just skin privileges with me, but tactile contact with the clan. Since you and I, we’re forever”—it was hard to breathe through the joy crashing through him—“we need to protect you from overloading.”
“There’s no need,” Silver replied. “My time in Denhome taught me that I can manage the impact—our bears are baffled by but respectful of a clanmate who needs time alone now and then.” Fingers still in his hair, her touch proprietary. “And I have a strong feeling the mating bond helps, too. We balance each other.”
Valentin’s happiness threatened to explode out of his skin. “I can’t wait to grow old with you—and to see you turn into a hard-ass like Ena.”
She didn’t smile. “I hurt you. I’m sorry.”
Not liking the pained guilt on her face, he shifted onto his back again and hauled her up on his chest so he could cuddle her close. “It was tough having you distance yourself from me, but it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be.”
He tangled one hand in her hair. “Partly because I was too fucking stubborn to believe you when you said you didn’t want me, didn’t want us, but mostly because you were always right here.” He tapped a fisted hand against his heart.
Silver propped her chin up on her hands, looked inside her mind. There it was, the primal bond that connected her to Valentin. It dared anyone in the PsyNet to touch it, just dared. She hadn’t thrown a shield around it this time, and following her lead, neither had Arwen.
Silver had a feeling anyone who got too close would get a riled-up bear’s welcome. “I don’t know where our bond was hiding all this time,” she murmured, “but I have my suspicions.”
The lazy-eyed bear who was now stroking her back, all the way down to her buttocks and back up, demanded a kiss. She gave it, demanded another one herself. “The PsyNet is alive in a way most people don’t understand,” she told him afterward.
“Of course it is.” Her bear rolled his eyes. “All those brains in one big psychic network. If it wasn’t going to become a sentience of its own in some way, what else was it going to do?”
Silver narrowed her own eyes and moved until they were nose to nose. “You’re much, much smarter than you like to make out, Mr. I. M. A. Medvezhonok.” Not that she hadn’t known that from day one.
Smiling at her in that smug bear way, he fondled the side of her breast. “Tell me more about this sentience in your PsyNet. What do you think it did?”
“I think the NetMind and its more erratic twin, the DarkMind, make decisions for the good of the entire network.” The majority of Psy didn’t know about the NetMind’s dark twin, but Silver was a Mercant. “And—Oh.” She scrambled up to sit astride him.