Nailed (Black Mountain Bears Book 3) (7 page)

Chapter Seven

A
idan knew he was in trouble the second the drenched young woman uttered the words, “Thank you” in his ear. The hoarse, breathy voice held a deeper plea, and he became acutely aware of the true reason why she’d done such a reckless thing.

But she was still terrified, her heart thumping so hard he could hear it even over the din he’d lived with daily for the past week since arriving at Gaia’s Falls.

He lifted her into his arms, cradling her gently as he carried her over to the low bed he’d crafted his first day here out of fallen trees and dried grass, covered with his unrolled bedding.

“Are you hurt?” he asked when he laid her down.

She shook her head and coughed, then pressed a hand to her lower abdomen, wincing.

Gaia sure had a wicked fucking sense of humor, didn’t she? He’d spent the last week up here, communing with his goddess and hoping for a little enlightenment. Of course she’d see fit to send him a young she-bear in the middle of her estrous. At first when he’d seen her with the pair of males, he was sure they were a mated trio, but then the two males had gone off together, leaving her behind, something no mated male would ever do.

“What’s your name?” he asked. He grabbed another blanket and crouched down before her, wrapping it around her wet shoulders.

She finally raised her eyes and met his gaze. A jolt of recognition shot through him. He’d seen those big brown eyes before, only a week earlier. They’d been in the face of a male who gazed at his Autumn with such unabashed love it left Aidan feeling inferior.

Jade Stonetree.

“Jade,” she said and gave him a little smile, her cheeks flushing prettily. “I guess that’ll teach me to turn the pulse setting on high?”

“Ha!” Aidan blurted. “Yeah, a waterfall is sexy from afar, but pretty damn dangerous up close. I’m Aidan . . . ” He started to add “Sundance,” but cut himself off. He wasn’t a Sundance anymore. He wasn’t anything anymore. He frowned and stared down at his hands.

She glanced around his little hideaway, then back at him. “You’re too good-looking to be a crazy hermit living on a mountain. Why are you here?”

“Maybe I am a crazy hermit,” he said, smiling. She was sweet and blunt, which he liked, but if she were a true Stonetree, she was likely impulsive and stubborn, too.

Suddenly her curious expression was split with a grimace and she let out a gasp, doubling over.

“I think I’m in trouble,” she said through her teeth. “I know we just met, but . . . oh, God, I didn’t know it would be this bad. Why does it have to hurt so much?”

Aidan cursed to himself and to his cock, which had decided to wake right up the second he caught a whiff of her fertile aroma. He placed a finger beneath her chin and urged her to look at him.

“Tell me where the males you were with went. I can bring them here for you.”

She let out a soft groan and shook her head. “Not them, please. I don’t want to do this to them.”

“But it’s their
job
, Jade. And the fools should have never left you alone.”

“They’re not fools. They want me too much, and I pretty much told them I don’t want them. They didn’t know this would happen.”

Her voice quavered and her shoulders began to shake uncontrollably. Sweat broke out on her upper lip.

Aidan pressed the back of his fingers to her forehead and cursed aloud at the nearly searing heat of her.

“Please help me. You can, can’t you? It has to be a male and you seem . . . older. Like you’ve done this before.”

He nodded, pushing away the memory of how very recently he had done it, in fact. He could still taste Autumn on his tongue.

“Tell me what you need,” he said. He knew the answer already—there was absolutely no question about what she needed, but he said it out of a sense of propriety anyway.

“Fuck you,” she said, glowering at him. “Fuck
all
of you. Tell me what
you
need for a change.”

She surprised him by reaching out a shaky hand and gripping his cock through his shorts and squeezing.

“There are rules,” he said gruffly, standing and moving away from her. He stared at her sidelong. Her arms wrapped tighter around her torso and she gritted her teeth. Her entire body shook now, and her eyes were red-rimmed as though she were wracked with fever, though it wasn’t an illness that gripped her.

“Fuck the fucking rules,” she spat. “I don’t have the patience to walk you through what I need, and I’m pretty sure you know much better than I do, anyway. Please, help me.”

He watched her for a moment longer, a glimmer of an idea sprouting in his mind. This was Jade Stonetree, one of the highest-ranking females in the Sanctuary. Not even Autumn possessed such a rank. If he could please her well enough to choose him, his prayers would indeed be answered. He would have a mate, and a name again.

But at what cost? She would be stuck with a broken man for her mate, never able to have children, thanks to his personal affliction. And he felt like he owed it to her brother
not
to do that to her. No, she was better off with the two fools who had left her. Except they weren’t here right now, and Aidan was.

Letting out a deep sigh, he knelt down before her again. “Lie back,” he said.

Her brows twitched uncertainly. “Why?”

“You said it yourself: I know better than you do what you need, so just do what I tell you and I’ll get you through this, all right?”

“Thank you,” she whispered and lay down on his bed, her hands still tightly clutching her abdomen.

Aidan gently moved her hands away and opened the blanket, revealing one of the most beautiful, luscious bodies he’d ever seen. She was smaller than Autumn, but fuller in both breasts and hips. Her breasts were large, but still possessed a firmness that betrayed her youth.

His cock pulsed in appreciation. His goddamn cock, the bane of his existence, just had to have an opinion, but it wasn’t going to get the better of him this time. As lovely and irresistible as she was, she didn’t need a man like him. He’d keep this as impersonal as he could and just hope she didn’t get attached.

“By the sound of your argument, I take it this is your first estrous. Have you ever had sex before, when you lived Outside?”

Jade shook her head, but otherwise watched him steadily through fever-glazed eyes.

That did change things a little. A virgin going through her first estrous was tricky. He could simply service her and be done with it the way he had with Autumn the week earlier, but he knew Autumn’s body like the back of his hand, and Jade was entirely unknown to him. He’d have to take his time if he wanted it to at least not be traumatic for her.

He urged her to move over a little and lay down beside her, propping his head up on one hand.

“I’m going to touch you now,” he said. “Please tell me if anything either hurts or feels really good. I want this to be good for you.”

“Okay,” she whispered.

Gaia save him, but he was looking forward to just touching her way too much. He had incredible self-restraint after nearly two centuries of practice, but this might prove difficult even for him. The power she exuded left him just a little bit dizzy from desire. But she was the one in need here, not Aidan.

He rested his hand gently on her hip and slid it up, reveling in the softness of her skin. She had faint remnants of a tan line, but signs that she’d been sunbathing nude lately. With his fingertips, he traced the outline of that faint difference in coloration on her breasts. She let out a soft sigh and smiled up at him.

Even a touch as light as his could provide some relief and his fingertips tingled slightly from the magic seeping from her skin and into him. He had wondered if he would even be capable of absorbing a female’s excess power, what with his newly infertile status, but it seemed that part of his physiology still worked just fine, as did his cock.

Lightly, he brushed his fingertips over the small, pink peak at the tip of her breast. She let out a little whimper and he tested her by pinching lightly.

“Oh!” she exclaimed, her chest arching into his touch.

“Feel good?” he asked, smiling at her.

“Yes. Um . . . ” Her eyebrows twitched and she bit her lip bashfully.

“What is it, Jade? If there’s something you want, you can tell me. I’m pretty intuitive, but communication is kinda key.”

“Will you kiss me?”

Aidan closed his eyes at the breathy request. He’d hoped to get through this without going that far. A kiss was far too intimate to come back from easily, especially if he took this to its necessary end. He’d gladly put his mouth on every other part of her, just not there.

But when he opened his eyes and met Jade’s gaze again, he was greeted with an intense longing that he didn’t think he’d ever seen in a female before. Not even when he and Autumn were together for the first time had he seen such raw hunger. In that second, he knew without a doubt that it was a hunger he could feed, and would relish being devoured by her.

He tilted his head down and pressed his lips against hers, moving them slowly, gently. She was a virgin so it was possible she was inexperienced enough to have never been kissed. The hungry need he’d seen in her eyes seemed to take over, and her mouth responded with ardor, clasping at his and opening, her soft, sweet tongue lashing out, searching for his.

Aidan groaned and kissed back, clutching at her breast and teasing her nipple more fervently.

In the heat of the kiss, he was only dimly aware of her hand moving between them. Again, she gripped him through the fabric of his shorts, and he gasped, pulling away from her.

“Don’t,” he said.

“Why not? You want it as much as I do. Let me make you feel good, too.”

A growl emanated from deep in his chest and grabbed her hand, pushing it above her head and moving to hover over her. Her other hand went to his waistband and he grabbed it, too.

“Because it’s difficult enough to resist you as it is, without you touching my dick. Now let me help you.”

He sensed the Stonetree stubborn streak from the blaze of irritation that crossed her face and decided to keep hold of her hands. He could do what he needed one-handed.

He kissed her again, hard this time to emphasize who was in charge here, then bent to her breast, latching on and sucking her nipple while his free hand roamed lower.

“Oh, God yes,” Jade gasped when his fingertips slid between her spread thighs and found her wet and oh, so hot.

“You’re fucking molten,” Aidan murmured, pulling back from her breast to gaze into her eyes. “Does this feel good?” He rubbed her engorged clit in a tight circle with two fingers.

Her chest heaved and she nodded, her hips rising and lowering rhythmically. Her forehead was coated with sweat and she was even hotter than before, but soon she’d have relief.

Gently, Aidan eased a finger into her, gauging her reaction. “You tell me if it hurts,” he said gruffly. She clenched tightly around him and his cock throbbed sympathetically.

She only stared at him, transfixed, her lips parted and desperate little pants escaping between them.

He pressed a second finger to her entrance and she merely spread her legs wider.

“You want more, I’ll give you more.” Sliding two digits in and out of her, he pressed his thumb to her clit again and rubbed.

Sweet Gaia, he would have loved to be the first cock to sheath itself in this luscious snatch of hers. It occurred to him that technically he
could
without fear of disaster. That thought only made his cock pulse harder between his thighs.

As if reading his mind, Jade said, “I wish you could fuck me right now. I know it’s against the rules to even ask, but what I really want is for you to just not hold back.”

Chapter Eight

A
idan froze so abruptly Jade worried she’d pissed him off.

He drew away from her slowly, his piercing, gray gaze never leaving hers. A lock of his straight, dark blond hair fell over his eyes and he cursed, brushing it back heedless of the juices still coating his fingers.

“I’m sorry,” Jade said, struggling to hold back a groan when her abdomen clenched again with need. Aidan knew exactly how to touch her, and in ways she hadn’t even known she would like. Every single thing he’d done so far had been perfect, but she needed more.

“Please, don’t stop,” she said. She raised up on her elbows and reached out to touch his stubbled face, noticing a sprinkling of silver hairs in the scruff, though otherwise he didn’t appear to be that old. Older than Sten and Orrick, definitely, but she knew they were her age. And she knew that ursa could live for centuries.

Aidan gripped her hand in his and held it against his cheek. He shut his eyes tightly, as though he might be in some kind of pain. Taking a deep breath, he pressed his lips to the center of her palm, and then brought it down to his groin. He gripped her hand and squeezed, urging her to close her fingers around his hard length.

“This is what you think you want, Jade, but trust me, you don’t. Because I’m broken. I don’t want you to wind up wanting someone who can’t fill you up with cubs someday. I can’t give you that and will never be able to. You
should
choose the other two. They can give you what I can’t.”

“You don’t feel broken to me,” she said, squeezing him through his shorts. “And I think I should be able to choose who I want to. Thank you for telling me, though. Just don’t . . . ” A fresh wave of aching need gripped her and she groaned, doubling over and clutching her belly.

“Don’t what?” Aidan asked, laying a comforting hand on her side, the caress just enough to calm her spasming core slightly.

“If you really do want me as much as you seem to, please don’t hold back. I need you, and if there’s no risk of knocking me up, then please,
please
, don’t hold back.”

“It should be a fertile male who you’re ready to choose for life who takes your virginity, Jade. Not a broken old male full of two centuries of regrets.”

She hated the sound of defeat in his voice, wished like hell she had time to find out what it was he regretted so deeply, but all she could do was grab the front of his shirt and pull him down to kiss her. He returned her kiss with an abandon contrary to his attitude and Jade got the feeling it had been a long time since anyone had shown him any true affection or desire.

“I want you so much,” she said when he pulled back. “Forget the rules, all right? I don’t think they apply to you anymore anyway.”

The cautious look he’d had in his eyes since pulling her out of the water disappeared, replaced by pure, unadulterated lust. He stood up and pulled off his shirt, revealing a well-muscled torso that had seen a few scrapes. He didn’t have an ounce of softness to him the way Sten and Orrick had, and he was even harder from the waist down, with thick, ropey bulges in thighs that looked strong enough to hold up the world.

The hardest part of him was just as impressive as the rest, and a little intimidating to Jade. He’d only had two fingers inside her earlier, and his cock was as thick as her wrist. But her pussy ached so painfully she knew the discomfort of being filled by him would be nothing compared to how much agony she would be in if he didn’t.

“Tell me now if you don’t want this, because once I’m inside you, there’s no going back.”

“God, yes, I want you,” Jade said, reaching up for his hand and tugging him down to the bed.

Aidan moved between her thighs and lowered himself to hover over her. Impulsively, she reached between them and gripped his naked cock, giving it a long, exploratory stroke. The velvet heat of him surprised her. For some reason, she’d expected cooler flesh than that.

“No more of that, or you’re going to make me come and then I can’t fuck you.” He gripped her hand and pushed it over her head again, snagging her other hand as she tried the same stunt with it.

Jade couldn’t help but smile at the state she found herself in, even though she still ached painfully to be filled. The intensity of his gaze made her quiver in excitement. This was what she’d always wanted. And even as the head of his huge cock pressed against her, stretching her opening painfully, she sighed in contentment.

“Yes,” she whispered, wrapping her legs around his hips and relishing the slow push of his thick length into her. The relief of being filled far outshone the brief moment of pain at the beginning.

He smiled. “Baby, we’re only getting started. You may have created a monster.”

As his cock slid further in, she gasped in unexpected pleasure. Aidan paused, looking at her in concern.

“Bad or good?” he asked.

“Good . . . good,” she said, pushing her hips up into his to try to repeat the sensation.

Aidan pulled out of her slightly and pushed back in. The delicious pleasure washed through her again and she moaned.

“Oh, God,” she said. “Just fuck me.”

Aidan chuckled. “It’s always safer to ask for what you want,” he murmured into her ear as he shoved to his hilt inside her.

Jade clung to him, unable to find her bearings with his cock plunging in and out of her with swift, hard strokes. He became her anchor, keeping her grounded through the pleasure with the press of his lips against hers and the soft murmurs of sweet words throughout.

Aidan never once released her hands, but his fingers twined through hers and she held on. She was relegated to observer in her own body, a slave to the divine sensations he gave her and the way he made her feel with every sure, deep thrust into her.

Kissing her thoroughly, he paused and pulled out of her. She stared up, perplexed.

“Turn over, on your hands and knees,” he said.

She did as he said and looked over her shoulder. His fingers found her sodden core and stroked gently, toying with her clit in a way that made her world tilt. Abruptly he shoved into her again, this time the depth of his thrust hit another part of her that sent even more intense pleasure through her.

The acute agony of her estrous was only a fading memory now, replaced by his glorious cock filling her up over and over. When his fingers reached around between her thighs and found her clit, she lost all comprehension of the world around her. Nothing existed but the pleasure and her need for him to never, ever stop what he was doing.

Her orgasm exploded from her in a blast of imagined starlight. With her eyes clenched shut and her entire body spasming, all she could see was the swath of the Milky Way displayed above her that first night of this trip. She became one with the stars, drifting in darkness and sparkling so brightly she feared opening her eyes. Then Aidan let out a loud roar and clutched at her hips, his final thrust wresting a second orgasm from her. Suddenly it wasn’t darkness and starlight, but the blazing heat and blinding light of the sun she saw.

He collapsed breathlessly beside her and tugged her close. Jade barely had enough control of her body to go, but he seemed content to reposition her and tuck her into him comfortably.

She lay silent and buzzed for a few moments before turning to look at him. His eyes were closed, a deep furrow between his brows, and he was breathing in and out so quickly she knew he couldn’t be asleep.

“Aidan, what is it?” she asked, brushing a fingertip over the deep dimple of worry that marred his tanned forehead.

“You are everything I prayed for up here on this mountain, Jade. But I don’t deserve you. Please promise this will only be until your friends get back. You should mate them and let them service you through the rest of the month. It shouldn’t be me.”

She scowled at him. “We just had sex. Why does that automatically seem to equate to a lifelong bond to you guys?”

“Because it is that quick a bond, for most of us. We usually know who we want after one exchange of magic. The clan leaders often attempt to arrange matings for their cubs, but it backfires a lot. Did you know your cousin was supposed to mate me? If you and your brother hadn’t been near death, it may have actually happened, but it didn’t. Yet she managed to find a bond with two other males within a
day.
Tell me she’s miserable with her choice and I’ll back down, but I’m guessing she isn’t.”

He raised his arms and crossed them beneath his head, staring at her in challenge.

“You . . . were supposed to mate Emma? Wow.” Jade thought about her cousin and how flushed with joy she’d been after Jade and Jasper had been revived. She’d seen the pair of males Emma had clung to that first day, and the disappointed look Jade’s aunt had given her, followed by simple resignation.

Their mating had saved her life, so she was grateful, but it had never occurred to her that Emma had done it out of necessity. Or at least, not
entirely
out of necessity. Julian and August were amazing men, as far as she could tell, and her cousin was head over heels for them both.

“It might have been Gunnar, if it wasn’t them. Your aunt wanted a higher-ranking mate for her. But Gunnar wanted . . . someone else. He only suggested the union to help Emma get who she wanted, and to help
him
get who he wanted.”

“He wanted Jasper and Autumn,” Jade said, remembering the tearful exchange she’d had with her brother when he was hot on the trail of his missing lover.

When she looked back into Aidan’s eyes, she saw a deep pain there, but he smiled through it and raised a hand to her cheek, brushing a stray tear away. “You don’t need to cry. They found each other. They’re happy now.”

“I know, but you’re the one who almost ruined it for them, aren’t you?” She sat up, more sure of that than anything. Now that her blinding need had subsided, she recognized him from the glimmers of sight and sense she’d received from Jasper during his emotional chase to find Autumn. It was Aidan’s scent Jasper had found in the woods, and Aidan’s face she’d seen in a dream early in the morning after Jasper had left.

“How could you know that?” Aidan asked.

“Jasper and I are twins. I see what he sees sometimes, feel what he feels. Right now, he’s happier than he’s ever been and it’s because he’s with them. They’re his soul mates, and you gave up something for them—I can’t figure out what it was, only that he admires you for it. That and the bastard is
home
and I’m a little bit homesick lately. So tell me, what made you do what you did? And why are you up here now, hiding from the rest of the world?”

Jade wasn’t quite prepared for the tale of love and loss that came next. Aidan’s hurt over his and Autumn’s tragedy was clearly still raw for him, even after so long, and his loss of what was essentially his manhood was definitely the root of his self-loathing now.

When he finished, Jade wiped tears from her eyes and lay down again, pulling him down with her.

“You’re not broken, Aidan. You’re wonderful, and you are right—I can feel a bond to you. It’s hard to explain because I’ve never felt like this before, but when I was with Sten and Orrick, I wanted them, but they simply didn’t kick that switch for me. You did.”

Aidan closed his eyes and sighed, wrapping his arm around her. “You need to want someone who can give you a cub. There’s a war coming, and we need to do our part to help win it.”

Jade stiffened. She knew about the conflict going on with their enemy, knew about the other races involved. Her parents had filled her in as much as possible. “Even better reason
not
to get pregnant. Why would I want to bring a child into a world on the verge of war? If I have a child I want it to be for love, not for war.”

“It would be for love, Jade,” Aidan said, raising up and hovering over her. “For love of the next generation. If I could give you a cub, I would, because our own child in twenty-five years might be the one who turns the tide. You are new to our world, so you haven’t seen the carnage the enemy leaves behind. Trust me when I tell you it would be for love—of our world, the worlds of our sister races, and for each other.”

The earnestness in his gaze made her relax again. “Fine, but that doesn’t change the fact that I want you,” she said in a small voice. “What am I supposed to do with that? Doesn’t the female get to make the choice?”

“You do,” he said. “But I’m begging you to choose them. They’re young and will learn to please you if they don’t already.”

“You already please me more than they did. They wouldn’t . . . ” She turned her gaze away, realizing her argument’s fault.

“They wouldn’t fuck you, and for good reason,” Aidan finished for her. “I’ve had a taste of how alluring you are. The first time I gave in to a female in estrous, it nearly killed us. It
did
kill our unborn daughter. I’d sworn to never fuck again before you showed up and it’s been what . . . a few hours since I met you? I am honestly in awe of their self-restraint. And, come to think of it, not at all surprised that they left for a few days.”

She turned away from him, displeased by his logic, then turned back and pressed her face into his chest, comforted by the scent of him and the way he immediately wrapped his arms around her and held her close.

“Is there a limit?” she asked, peering up at him and rubbing her palm over the light dusting of gold hairs on his chest.

His brows twitched. “A limit to what?”

“To how many mates I can have. Because I will choose them under one condition: that I get to choose you, too.”