so many times - kissing him properly. She would have settled for it meaning nothing. That was all it could ever be. He was a Strauss. She had always been far too aware of what that meant.
Lydia’s hand slid up Eric’s chest and back down again as they kissed, slow and hot. She unbuttoned his jacket and pushed it off his shoulders, scrambling to untie his tie and undo a few buttons.
“Oh God, Liddy,” Eric said against her mouth. “I’ve never wanted anybody so badly…”
“Me either,” she gasped, struggling to control her voice. It would have been nice if she could seem calm and in control. But she was at his mercy and knew it. “Not ever.”
She pulled his shirt out of his pants and when her palms touched the tight, rippling muscles of Eric’s stomach, he growled again. It made her giggle. That growl was somewhat incongruous with Eric’s personality. He had always been pretty assimilated as a shifter, but he could get swept away by the urgent desires and heightened emotions of his bear like any other bear shifter and when he did….he growled a lot. It was sexy and just a little bit amusing.
He bit her bottom lip as he kissed her again, presumably in retaliation, and she whimpered, spreading her fingers along his chest, raking her nails through the dusting of dark hair there.
“You think this is funny?” Eric whispered. He nipped at her lips again and abruptly tugged on the belt of her robe so that it fell open, exposing her naked body. She flushed, swallowing hard, bowing her head so that it rested against his.
“Why don’t you make it not funny?” she murmured.
Eric complied. He shoved the robe off her shoulders and she sucked in a breath, refusing to cover herself at all. They hadn’t seen each other completely naked as humans since… She had to think they’d been kids - maybe skinny dipping in the woods their sleuths had shared.
It had been a long time.
“Be sweet,” Lydia whispered.
Eric nodded. His gaze swept over her body with a sense of awe and reverence and he kissed her softly this time, just a touch to let her know she was okay. His hands rested at her hips and squeezed gently, seeming to perfectly mold to her curves.
“I’m going to make you feel so good,” he said. “And that’s all we’ll talk about. Give me a yes.”
“Yes,” she said. “Please, yes.”
At that, he swept her up into his arms and spun, carrying her determinedly to the bedroom. She hugged his neck and kissed his cheek and his throat as he carried her. Just the thought of what was to come had her wet and her clit throbbed with need. He could likely make out her desire by scent and it was egging him on even further. That was the way with shifters sometimes.
In the bedroom, Eric kissed her once, hot and deep. He nudged up against the bed and laid her down on her back. He spun around and went to the door to flick the lights on and marched back to the foot of the bed just to stare unapologetically at her as she lay there, naked before him.
Lydia raised her hands above her head and forced herself to spread her thighs, to open herself to him without shame. Eric looked wild with desire. His pupils were blown, his hair mussed and falling into his eyes. He unbuttoned his shirt and tossed it on the floor, his eyes always raking slowly up and down her body as he went about undressing. She watched his erection tent his perfectly tailored trousers and smiled at the thought that she had done that to him.
Eric whipped off his belt and then he groaned, palming himself when she tentatively reached to tweak her own nipple.
“What are you going to do to me?” she whispered. She wasn’t scared. Mainly, she was impatient.
Eric took a deep breath. He disposed of his trousers and his socks and in his tight, black boxer-briefs he looked like some kind of modern god. He kept himself pretty chiseled, that was for sure. He wasn’t as bulky as his oldest brother, Connor, or even Nathan, the handyman. He was a little leaner, but he was tight and his muscles were well defined.
Lydia licked her lips and shifted on the bed, squirming. Every naughty thought she’d ever had about Eric was coming to her mind. She thought about licking his abdominal muscles, biting his bicep. Her hand