Their shared pleasure went on and on. Tiny little lightning bolts of pure erotic bliss that saturated him down to his soul, hers too if her noiseless cry was anything to go by.
He shivered and she trembled with it, the pleasure holding them both as they clung to each other. On and on it went, until they were both too boneless to move.
Afterwards, Tonic cradled Maya close, tucking her into his side and covering them both with the flat sheet from his now hopelessly messy bed.
The sounds of her even breathing reached his sensitive ears and he held her with possession running through his veins while she slept.
Mine.
Brushing her blonde hair back, Tonic breathed in her scent and felt his animal rumble happily inside of him. He wondered what he was going to do now.
He was vulnerable for the first time in his life. She was his weakness. His Bear did not like that thought. Not one bit and his fierce growl told him so.
He’d held himself apart from others for so long, the animal did not relish thinking about returning to those lonely days and nights. Not now, not when he’d finally claimed his mate. But the future was an unknown quantity, and Tonic didn’t know if he trusted in the Fates as willingly as everyone else seemed to.
One thing he did know for sure, Tonic was never letting her go. He’d walk through fire, fight the Devil himself for Maya. She was part of him now.
Mine.
Eight
The days following their mating sped by like a blur. Full of work and things to do at the bank and for the store, Maya hardly had one minute unaccounted for. Then, of course, there were the nights.
Oh, those nights! Sigh.
Maya could hardly believe what she’d been doing the past few nights in her new home in the cabin she shared with Tonic. Even more wondrous was the fact she could still walk.
She knew sex was important to Shifters, hell, it was important to normals too, but Tonic made love to her like a starving man at a feast. Like he thought she was a dream that was going to disappear the moment he woke up.
Some nights he hardly walked into the house before his mouth was on hers and he was stripping their clothes off. They’d christened the kitchen, the bathroom, the living room, the stairs, the bedroom, and the hallway outside the bedroom. Not that she minded.
Um yeah, that’s a hard NO on the minding. Yowza.
Maya had never felt so good and as for being sore, hell, she didn’t mind that at all. Truth was, Tonic was so careful and gentle most of the time, and the times he wasn’t, well damn, she looked forward to them.
Too often had she been privy to the sobbing stories of mated or married females, friends and customers, who’s relationships suffered because they felt their spouses had forgotten the sexual attraction that had brought them together in the first place. It was a shame. And really, it made no fucking sense.
How many women in her book club had caught their husbands watching porn? How many of them ignored their wives in favor of some other flirtation at work or the market? How many sad lonely unhappily married people were there out there?
She never understood those unhappy men and women. If they just had sex with each other once in a while, there would be no need for misunderstandings. Normals especially didn’t seem to realize the importance of intercourse in a relationship and the reassurance that sex gave each partner.
No wonder marriages ended so miserably. Physical closeness was just as important as communication, in fact, the way Tonic made love, sex was communication of its own kind. Talking was good too, but both were needed in a happy and healthy marriage, or mating in this case.
She and Tonic had the physical part down, but as for the talking, well, she had yet to confess to the big guy that he was her fated mate. That is as far as she knew or felt from her own far-away she-Bear.
She’d already told him she was falling in love, and he seemed happy about that even if he didn’t quite say it. Fact was, Tonic was her fated mate and he should know.
She would tell him at the right time, but so far she’d been unwilling to break the news. Afraid of rejection, she supposed. Their arrangement was unusual to say the least.
“Hey,” Nita rubbed her belly from her perch on the winged armchair that sat against the wall in the flower shop, “earth to Maya? What are you thinking about?”
“Sex,” she blurted then immediately regretted it.
Her BFF practically jumped on her after that. Maya was never one to kiss and tell, but Nita was her oldest and closest friend. There wasn’t a thing the women didn’t know about each other.
“OMG! I knew it. Is he good? I mean, Locke is, well, damn girl, I know I told you my Locke is pretty amazing,” she sighed and rubbed her expanding waist once more, “he does this thing with his tongue and his lips, I swear Bears really do have it down-”
“Nita, please!”
“What? You can’t be upset by my sex stories now that you are getting a little somethin’ somethin’ yourself!” she snorted and Maya rolled her eyes.
“Nita!”
“Okay, I see. You live vicariously through my sex life for months and when I want a little info, you get all cold on me. So, that’s how it’s gonna be?”
“Fine,” she blushed, unable to resist bragging just a little bit, “Tonic is amazing. Like really, really, really amazing.”
“I knew it! Is he all cool and collected during sex or is he a yeller? Like is he all like ‘Go on, get it Maya, get it, get it!’ Come on, tell me!”
“OMG! NITA!” Maya yelled, and tossed the ribbon she was holding at her BFF while the two of them dissolved into a fit of giggles.
“Hello!” the bell over the door rang and Maya turned to greet her customer with a smile, while pinching Nita on her bottom for sex talk in the shop.
“Yelp!” Nita rubbed her butt and scowled at Maya.
“Hi there,” Maya smiled at her customer, “Can I help you?”
“Yes, I think you can. My name is Lacey,” the vibrant blonde woman smiled warmly at Maya and Nita.
She was holding a beautiful designer bag and reached inside to grab the matching wallet, “I was hoping you could help me. You see, it’s my husband’s birthday tomorrow, and I heard you can handle specialty arrangements?”
“Sure, I can. It is kind of late notice, but tell me what you are looking for?”
“I know and I am so sorry, but I just had this idea,” she bit her lip and Maya nodded.
She understood all too well. She smiled while the familiar looking woman talked. Unaffected by the extra work her idea would present, she listened happily.
Maya really was in such a good mood and it was obviously because of him.
Tonic. Her mate. Sigh.
“Mama!” the little girl whose hand the woman was holding was so cute, Maya knelt down to hand the child a daisy and the sprite laughed delightedly with her flower.
“Yes, Mia, give Mommy one second and I will be right with you,” she smiled at her daughter and said thanks to Maya.
“Mama, I got a pretty!”
“Yes, baby, that was very nice. Say, thank you,” the woman grinned lovingly at her daughter and turned back to Maya, “well,” she bit her lip and her eyes sparkled, “My husband is Daniel Devlin-”
“The Head Enforcer?” Maya blurted and slapped her hand over her mouth.