Lauren couldn’t breathe. She started to say something, to reassure him that he didn’t have to stay or do anything to help her, but when she paused, Finn’s whole demeanor changed. He tensed and the air crackled between them. He was close but somehow not close enough and too close at the same time. Every cell in her body focused on where he touched her leg.
She thought of that morning, when he held her close. Thought of the way he looked at her, the way his eyes dilated and his breathing deepened. Thought of all the things she’d been missing the last month or so on the run, the security of sleeping next to someone she trusted, someone who could at least wake her up if the cops broke down the door. She wanted to feel safe. She wanted to feel protected and cared for. And she wanted to feel, above everything else, loved.
And for some reason, Finn looked at her like he loved her. Like she was a gift he’d received unexpectedly and couldn’t wait to open.
It wasn’t like she had anything to lose, after all. What if she just went with it, for once? He was already so close…
Lauren leaned forward, ready for a kiss, and Finn’s eyes widened. He froze in place. “Wait…”
Her heart sank at the rejection. She just wanted to feel good before people hunted them down in the morning or she had to run away. She wanted to know what it was like for a guy like Finn to kiss her, to touch her. She wanted to know if he was as generous in bed as he seemed to be out in public.
Finn gulped comically, but he didn’t run away. “That…isn’t a good idea.”
“Are you sure?” she whispered.
“No.” Finn pinched the bridge of his nose. “No, I’m not sure at all.”
Her heart sped up again. So definitely not a rejection. He wanted her. He did. But he probably had the same questions about her that she had about him. Granted, she had some impulse control issues but spending the night together made sense from a strictly survival standpoint, too. It was still cold in the cabin, and they didn’t have much in the way of blankets and sleeping bags, so…
Lauren met his gaze and didn’t dare look away in case she lost her nerve completely and they’d have to spent an awkward as hell night avoiding each other. “Then maybe we should figure it out.”
Finn groaned and caught her face, dragging her mouth to his in a sudden rush. It took her by surprise and for a second she almost panicked, almost resisted and fled. But his hold gentled and the kiss seared her lips until the rest of the world disappeared. She definitely couldn’t breathe or think, lost in the warm strength of his hands. Lauren held on to his wrists as he held her cheeks, and kissed him back as fiercely as he’d reached for her.
He retreated, breathing hard. “I want you, Lauren. I want all of you, right now. Tonight, tomorrow, as long as I can have you. I want to taste every inch of you. And I don’t know if I’ll be able to stop. I need to know what you want—if it’s only making outor something more or…everything. I don’t want to push you. I won’t. But you should know what…what I’m thinking.”
Heat flashed through her. She’d hoped he wouldn’t just steamroll right into taking off her pants and making himself at home, but to hear him hit the brakes on what he wanted to check in on what she felt… Her throat burned as emotion surged, and for a long second, she struggled to keep from throwing her arms around his neck and declaring that she loved him. No one ever asked her that. No man had ever really cared, they would have taken the kiss and her not smacking them as permission to go all the way to third base.
Lauren swallowed the knot in her throat and nodded. She couldn’t breathe. “Yes.”
“Yes what?” Finn’s thumb brushed her cheek in a gentle caress, at odds with the intense fire in his gaze.
“Yes I want you too,” she said. What the hell. “But I need…”
She trailed off, uncertain. But he didn’t interrupt her, didn’t jump in with a comment or a threat or anything. Finn waited patiently, gazing at her and touching her cheek, like he’d wait there as long as she needed.
She was in way over her head with him. She knew it. She’d never known a man like Finn. Ever.
“Tell me what you need,” Finn murmured. He leaned in for a soft kiss, making a grumbly pleased noise that ignited a deep fire in her core, and bumped his nose against hers. “Anything you want, baby. Everything you want. Just say the word.”
It was too much. Too much pressure, too much goodness and sweetness. Why wasn’t he a regular asshole who just starting groping and demanding? She didn’t know how to deal with a considerate guy.
Plus he turned into a bear. She couldn’t forget that part, either. The thought slammed the brakes on the urge to push him down on the mattress and ride him like a Harley.
Finn must have sensed her distraction, because he eased back. Disappointment crossed his face but he didn’t pout about it. “You’re not feeling it, I get it. It’s completely your call, it’s been a long day, and I thought…”
“Wait,” she said. Lauren caught his shoulders and then couldn’t let him go. Finn sat and she didn’t let herself think. She didn’t hesitate. She swung up to straddle his thighs, facing him, and braced her hands on his chest. His wide eyes would have made her laugh her ass off if she hadn’t wanted to immediately grind against the enormous, very hard proof in his lap of how much he wanted her. “I just wasn’t… I mean, I wondered whether you would turn into a bear if we…did anything, and obviously I’m not going to sign up for…relations with a freaking bear.”
A smile flashed through his beard and his arms circled around her, pinned Lauren to his chest. Finn chuckled and nuzzled behind her ear, his breath tickling the sensitive spot on her throat that made her shiver all over. “We don’t do that. I promise. I might want to eat you like honey, but it’ll just be the man, not the bear.”
Her face flushed. Lauren tilted her head back as his mouth left a heated trail down her throat to her shoulder. He sucked and nibbled and teased, one hand cupping her butt and the other worked into her hair, until Lauren almost lost her mind. She closed her eyes and just enjoyed it, just lived with the feeling of someone doing something for her, someone makingherfeel good.
His weight shifted and she braced for disappointment but also the anticipation his naked skin finally next to hers. She wanted to sleep with him, wanted to know what he felt like, but she also wondered whether he was the kind of guy who held off on his own enjoyment until after she got hers.
Finn leaned back, shoulders propped on a wadded up sleeping bag. His hands trailed down her sides and then back up, inside her shirt, as the firelight made his eyes flash. He tugged on the end of the sweater, lifting his hips in a slow bump and thrust that made her breath catch, and murmured, “Take what you want, baby. I’m here for you. Use me.”
Lauren went light-headed as she looked down at him. Somehow he looked completely relaxed, despite the massive hard-on in his pants, while she was ready to fly apart at the seams. “What…what do you mean?”
He grumbled again and squeezed her waist. “You tell me what you want, when you want it. Clothes on or off, mine or yours. Maybe I can only use my mouth or my hands or just breathe. Maybe I don’t get to touch you at all and you take your time.”
