Page 31 of Cocky Secrets

My breath catches, and I nod, my heart pounding in my chest. “I think the business part is behind us.”

“Is it?” he asks, licking his lips. “Okay, it’s not business then, but thereisplanning and strategy ahead of us. We’re partners in this.”

“Because of my family.”

He’s so close to me now. “Because of what they are. What they don’t want me to be.”

“We’ll be careful,” I whisper, a pool of warmth in my core, opening my flower, calling to him.

The hills are alive with the sounds of nature, a tranquil contrast to the roaring engine we just left behind. I glance away and back to Bear, and he gives me this wonderful crooked smile that sends shivers down my spine. There’s something primal about our connection, something I cannot understand and I’m not sure I need to.

“These freckles of yours.” He steps even closer, and the air thickens with unspoken desire. “Freckles with your naturally tan skin and red hair. It’s just…” Bear pauses. “You’restriking.”

“No one’s ever told me that before.”

“Have you been with a man?”

“I’m thirty!”

“Almost thirty,” he smirks.

“You know what I mean.”

“Answer the question.”

I blink, drop my gaze to his jeans, blush, and go lower until I’m staring at his work boots. “It’s really none of your business.”

“I think it is.”

My gaze lifts and I reach out, tracing my fingers along the stubble on his jaw. He catches my hand and pulls me to him, our lips crashing together in a heated kiss that’s brief. We break free, panting. Bear’s eyes slice down my face, then stay on my parted lips. “You’re a bad girl who’s been forced to be good, aren’t you?”

My breath catches, but I say nothing.

“Let’s find a place,” he grunts.

We hike down a path until we come upon a lovely patch of soft grass in a forest of trees. The sun filters through the leaves, casting dappled shadows on the forest floor as I follow Bear in. The air is thick with the scent of pine and earth. Each step feels charged with anticipation, and I can sense power radiating off him.

We pass the first option to go deeper in, and find a secluded clearing, hidden away from prying eyes. The sounds of the forest envelop us. This is our escape, a world where we can be ourselves, free from judgment.

Bear turns to me, his gorgeous eyes searching me for something, and I hold his gaze, my heart racing.

“Take off your clothes,” he rasps, voice filled with certainty, desire, authority, as we stand beneath a canopy of oak and pine trees. I nod, my pulse quickened.

My leather jacket is easy to remove, nothing exposed underneath but my braless tank top. It’s that which is hard for me, and I pause as my fingers touch its worn hem. Slowly I pull it over my head, breasts falling free, full and round. I meet his eyes, looking for his reaction and smile as he gazes at me openly, with admiration. With lust. With abandon I toss the cotton onto my jacket’s crumpled leather, and reach next for my jeans’ button, carefully unfastening it and tugging down the zipper one half-inch at a time. He watches me intently, keeping his distance. I push down my jeans past my white, lacy g-string, down my thighs, my calves, and pause at my boots. “Oh,” I giggle, “Just a second,” bending over to pull them off, socks next, breasts swaying under gravity’s hold, nipples peaked. “There,” I whisper, and step out of everything until I’m standing before Bear in just my g-string. “Now you.”

“You’re not naked,” he says.

“Neither are you.”

“I was ready to be naked, then you didn’t show up,” he reminds me. “Now it’s your turn.”

“You’re making me pay by going first?”

“That’s right.”

Heat rages between my legs as I reach for the flimsy white lace and tug it down ever so slowly, exposing my red curly hair to him bit by bit. His lips part, and his breathing comes heavy as I step out of my last bit of armor, nothing left between me and his desire.

Bear steps closer, closing the distance between us. The intensity of his gaze sending shivers down my spine. He reaches out, brushing a strand of hair behind my ear, and I lean into his touch, craving more, standing naked before him.

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