Page 42 of Grin and Bear It

Oh fuck…

It felt as if all of his strength was being put to work. I stifled a moan as I felt tight muscles and fascia start to release, his hands holding me in place and relieving the pressure as he went back again and again. I was doing my best to keep my eyes on the screen. The TV show was coming to a climax, the cutest boy finally confessing his feelings to the female main character, but… wow, my focus was shot.

Big strong hands rubbed the top of my foot, and the sensual feel of his calluses rasping against my skin totally shook me out of the fantasy on screen and shoved me right into the one happening in real life. Even though I felt it was a little ridiculous, I kept sneaking sidelong looks at Lin as he worked. He had my feet in his lap, so surely I could look at him, right? But somehow that felt more intimate. Then, as I took another quick look, his eyes met mine and he smiled.

“Come here.”

“What?”

He let go of my feet and then patted his lap.

“I promised you a head massage too, right? Put your head here and I can work on that while you watch the show.”

Right. OK. I could do that. He smirked as I struggled to go out of the nest he’d created, but then set to work rearranging the pillows before I went to settle back down. And then, as I got closer to his lap, I saw it.

Derek had been like a lot of guys I’d known. If he got hard, that was somehow my fault and I needed to deal with it, then and there. So when I looked down and saw the lump in Lin’s jeans my reaction wasn’t disappointment, more a fatalistic sense of calm. Of course he wanted my head in his lap. This wasn’t going to be about me; it was all going to be about him. He’d massage me apathetically and then turn to unzip—

“Ah…” He grinned sheepishly, moving to tuck his hard cock to one side. And I was struck by a totally different reaction.

Awe.

Holy fucking shit! How big…?I glanced up and he was still smiling.

“So you want my head in your lap?” I asked, then looked down. “Or some head in your lap?”

His smile softened a little, even as his gaze seemed to intensify and heat.

“I want a whole lot of things, Ellie. I have since you first walked into that conference room at your school. It was really fucking awkward, getting a boner while we find out all the shit our nephews have been up to, but I managed it. I’ll continue to manage it right up until the point you decide you want to take over. So…” He patted his massive thigh. “Put your head here, if you feel comfortable with this.”

I did as he asked, but almost as a way to determine his character. He’d either do as he said and make me feel good, or this would turn into a hellish situation as he tried to push me into what he wanted. When his hand landed on my hair and stroked along it, a sigh escaped me. As he went to work my tension just faded away. I lost interest in the show, and my eyelids relaxed to half mast.

Lin did exactly as he’d said he would, massaging my head and neck, then stroking his hand down my spine and with each pass, I felt most glorious sensation of warmth. It transmuted somehow, almost like a golden light that seemed to fill me up, leaving me simmering in a beautiful state, right as my eyes finally fell closed.

Chapter22

Lin

I didn’t want to leave. I wanted to stay right where I was, breathing in Ellie’s suddenly sweet scent, which deepened and became richer the more she relaxed. I wanted to feel her body under my hand as I stroked through her hair, down her neck, then along her spine. I wanted to run my hands over every single one of those curves she thought she was hiding in her baggy PJs. They just made me to want to look harder to see her shape. I wanted to discover her, turn her pain into pleasure and then plunder…

Patience.

That was the one good bit of advice my dads had told me.

“Take things at her pace,” one of them had said over beers one night.

“Stop. Then think, and tune into her. Most blokes are all rush, rush, rush, thinking women are like beers,” one of my other dads had said. “All they do is crack them open and then suck down everything they’ve got to give inside.”

“A bear shifter has one thing in his bag of tricks that will outstrip any man trying to get close to his mate.” Dad winked at me. “You can smell her scent, get a feel for what she wants and needs. Slow down and pay close attention to that, because if you do?”

“Drinking with our son?” Mum said, walking into the room and Dad pulled her down onto his lap.

“Telling him the facts of life,” one of them replied.

“I thought we did that already?” she said with a fake frown before winking at me. “He’s twenty years old now. He knows where his dick goes in.”

“We were just telling him the advantage bear shifters have over men,” the one holding Mum close said. He nuzzled into her neck and I groaned, the excessive PDA they all engaged in grossing me out as well as filling me with hope.

Because I knew that could be me one day, with my sleuth and my mate on my lap, schooling my son on all the ways he’d need to win over his mate.

---