“I really like you.”

Huh? What? What the hell was he rambling about? Shit on a stick! Couldn’t this wait?

“A lot.”

Yeah. Sure. Whatever. Just finish!

“So I want to make this exclusive.”

Wait. What?

“We’ll see how that goes.”

She sensed she should be debating with him for some reason, but his mouth was on her again, and Gwen’s eyes rolled back in her head, her legs shifting restlessly against his sheets, and she started making this mewling sound that on any other day she’d be too embarrassed to make.

“Okay?” he asked after another few minutes.

Huh? What?

“Okay?” he asked again while his fingers tugged at her nipples and although that kept her on the edge it wasn’t his mouth. It wasn’t those lips. “Tell me that’s what you want, too.”

Fine! Whatever! “Yes. God, yes!” She gripped his head between her hands. “We’ll make it exclusive. I’ll be your girlfriend. Go with you to weddings, help you pick out underwear—whatever you want. Anything you want. Anything.”

She saw that adorable little-boy smile of his right before he said, “Okay” and lowered his head, taking her nipple back into his mouth. He twisted and tugged until she cried out, her hands clinging to him as she came hard.

She crashed to the bed, spent, but she saw his arm reach out to snag a condom before he was inside her, fucking her. She laid there, willing to let him do whatever he needed to after getting her off so perfectly, but to her shock, her body began to respond.

No, she tried to tell him, I can’t do this again. Not again. But she couldn’t manage to speak the words, because she was too busy panting and mewling, and instead of trying to push him off, her arms were wrapping around his shoulders, holding him tight, and instead of trying to get out from under him, her legs were going up and around his waist.

It briefly crossed her mind that this might be how addiction started, but she couldn’t focus on the thought for more than a second or two as the big bastard managed to throw her over that edge again. She screamed against his chest as she clung to him, felt him come with her, his hips jerking against her, burying his cock deeper inside her.

Even after coming like that, he was thoughtful, pulling out of her and moving off to the side before he crashed onto the bed. Thoughtful, but she still didn’t like the loss of his heat and strength when he moved away.

Still panting, she rolled to her side and closer to him. He immediately reached for her, pulling her against his body. She could feel him trembling and knew he had no shame over it. She might have liked that more than anything else.

When she knew she had her voice back, she asked, “So I’m your girlfriend now?”

“Yup. We’re going to attempt what’s knownin the nonintellectual world as a rel-a-tionship.” He sounded the word out and Gwen struggled not to laugh.

“That was a little tricky,” she accused. “Asking me at that particular moment.”

“I know.” Yet he didn’t apologize, and that made her smile. Bears could be fascinatingly tricky, and she liked that she could no longer pigeonhole them as mere teddy bears with a honey fetish or psychotically unstable killers when frightened.

“Are we still going to be friends?” Because she liked him, too. No, really. She did.

“During my research I’ve discovered that friendship is a large part of it.”

“Your research?”

“Yes. Knowledge is a powerful thing and can lead to many new discoveries.”

Geek. “All right, but don’t whine to me later when I piss you off.” And she would piss him off. She always pissed them off.

“I won’t. Besides, you make me goofy-happy.”

Gwen leaned her head back so she could see his face. “Goofy-happy?”

“Yeah. When you can’t stop smiling? That’s what you do to me, Mr. Mittens. I figure feeling goofy-happy is completely worth the pissing-off risk.”

Gwen nodded, realizing that at this moment, she completely understood what he meant by goofy-happy.

“Yeah,” she said, smiling and loving the smile she got in return. “I guess you have a point.”

CHAPTER 19

Gwen woke up starving and annoyed someone woke her up. But it was Lock, and she stopped feeling so annoyed. “What’s up?”

He held out his cell phone. “It’s for you.”

“Me?” She’d forgotten Mitch still had her cell phone. It was probably him, too. Good. Let him find out she’d spent the night with a bear.

Sitting up, Gwen ran her hands through her hair and glanced at the clock on the side table. It was almost noon. She took the phone and said, “What?”

There was an incredibly long pause and when she didn’t hear her brother say anything, Gwen squeaked out, “Blayne?”

“You’re with the bear?”

“Blayne Thorpe—”

“Ha-ha-ha!”

Then her best friend disconnected the call. “Goddamnit!”

Laughing, Blayne closed her cell phone. When it rang again two seconds later, she yanked out the battery and threw it out of the wild dog’s dining room.

“He’s in!” she cheered, arms in the air, and the wild dogs who’d invited her over for Sunday brunch cheered and badly howled right along with her.

Lock watched as Gwen kept redialing Blayne. She must have tried six times before she threw the phone across the room, flipped over, and buried her head in the pillows.