Bearing Your Burden (BBW Shifter Erotic Romance) Read online

  She saw the things she'd always wished she could soothe away in him, from the very first moment she noticed that he was soothing them away in her.

  She didn't have to think twice about it – or even, think about it at all.

  She simply reached forward, and caressed the side of his great, bear's head – what she still thought of as his cheek.

  “Yes... I...” she faltered a second – out of residual fear, or shyness, she couldn't tell. “I do want to live with... this.”

  ///\

  \///

  Bryan didn't know what to do.

  He wouldn't have known what to do, no matter how she'd reacted. But in those fearful seconds after he'd spoken, a half dozen scenarios had flashed through his head: her screaming, and running out. Her fainting, and him having to make sure she was alright, but leaving before she woke up. Or, if she just stood there frozen, he'd imagined himself turning around and cutting a dramatic exit... though how he would have navigated the closed door was beyond him...

  But certainly, he hadn't imagined this.

  And now, his mind had been reduced to the state of white shock which he had inflicted on her earlier – if anything, he was worse off than she had been.

  “I... I...”

  The sound of his voice shocked him. He didn't know what he wanted to say, only that he didn't want to say it in that unearthly boom.

  Hesitantly, almost bashfully, he shifted back.

  His tremendous, fearsome muscles folded into themselves, and shrunk to merely huge proportions – large and powerful by human standards, but nothing on the scale of his bear form.

  He shrunk down – if the word “shrunk” can ever be used about such a large man – and into the alien comfort of the skin he had been born in. The fur retreated – though his chest, forearms, and legs were still covered in thick hair, but of a totally human variety, this time.

  It was only then that he remembered what had happened to his clothes.

  He looked down, to see himself as naked as Adam.

  He hurriedly looked back up.

  Lizbeth's eyes had gone larger and rounder than they had when he had transformed into a 10-foot tall bear in front of her. Her mouth hung open in a totally un-selfconscious gawp, as she stared somewhere between his legs.

  With a panicked jerk worthy of a schoolgirl whose skirt had just been flipped, he moved his great (human) paws in front of himself, to cover the last remnants of his modesty.

  “I... I... Oh fuck...”

  Lizbeth's mouth still remained in that gaping... almost inviting O, but she flicked her eyes up to meet his. Somehow, that was even more embarrassing, which shouldn't have even been possible.

  “I'm sorry. I... I'll put on some clothes...”

  He turned to go, before realizing he had instinctively headed towards the front door.

  He did a heel turn, considerably gracefully under the circumstances, and almost shyly tried to scamper towards the bedroom. It was a disconcerting motion to see, in a man so confidently large.

  “W...wait!”

  That one word took Lizbeth more courage to say than anything ever had in her life.

  More courage than it had taken her to spend weeks planning her escape in secret, hunting down clues to track down the only man she knew would understand how she felt toward her father. More courage than it took her to walk out of everything she knew in her life, and hitch-hike the countless miles all the way here, to the back end of nowhere...

  And with that word, she reached out, and laid a delicate, trembling finger on his great bicep as he tried to rush past her.

  Somehow, that tiny force managed to hold him back.

  Bryan could only dumbly force out a few words. She had totally depleted his daily stock of shock.

  “I... you....... what?”

  Lizbeth's face, which had so few seconds earlier been blanched white, now flushed a bright shade of crimson.

  “It's just... I meant to say... that I guess you don't have to put on clothes if you... if you don't want...to...” And then, in a flurry: “I mean, umm, I've seen it all before, right?!”

  “You have...?”

  “Yeah, though, umm, I guess you were a bear at the time, so maybe it doesn't count...”

  She laughed weakly, wishing secretly that people could die out of sheer shame.

  Bryan, though, after so many months and years without meaningful human contact, had been dealt one too many sucker punches to the mind, and was reeling internally, his tongue cruising on auto-pilot.

  “I... don't understand. You want me to... not get dressed?”

  “Aaaagghhh, Bryan, you idiot!”

  She usually would have dealt with this better. But going from heart-clenching terror to heart-throbbing embarrassment was just a little bit too much...

  And the next thing he knew, Lizbeth was hitting him, with all the force she could muster in her distracted state – which, against his corded muscles, wasn't much. She stood there, flailing weakly at his chest, shouting that he was a “dummy”, and a “jerk”, and an “idiot” again.

  He stared dumbly down at the commotion for a few seconds, totally lost, until one of her exasperated punches unbalanced her, and she stumbled. He reached out to steady her, his hands wrapping almost completely around her arms.

  She let her head fall against his chest, and took in a few breaths, inhaling his deep, clean, manly musk. If anything, it made her even more dizzy.

  She looked back up at him, opening dewy-wet eyes.

  It was at this moment that Bryan really registered that he was completely naked, holding a beautiful, young woman in his arms.

  He felt the panic rise in him again.

  “Lizbeth, I–”

  “Just kiss me already, you stupid man.”

  And with that, she stood as high as her 5 feet 4 inches would let her go on her tippy-toes, reached her hands up around his neck, and pulled him down to meet her.

  He let himself go down, and felt softness blossom on his lips.

  It was so unexpected, on both their parts, that it was a little awkward at first, but Lizbeth's heart was too full of the rush of first fulfillment that she barely even noticed.

  Her calves started to ache from the position after a few moments, though, she let herself drop, breaking the kiss.

  She reflexively looked down, saw Bryan's thick member stirring between his legs, and hastily looked off to the side.

  “Sorry Bryan, I–”

  But she didn't get any farther than that. No sooner were the words out of her mouth than she felt a hand wrap gently around her chin, tilting her face upwards and to one side, while another hand grabbed the small of her back, and pushed her up and into Bryan's leaning kiss.

  This time, their lips met perfectly, and any doubts or embarrassment dissolved in the pure transport of physical love.

  His lips pressed against hers firmly, then softly, then he nibbled gently at her lower lip, bringing a gasp from her. His stubble rubbed against her cheek, the wonderful rasp of it sending shivers running down her neck and radiating all over her back.

  Then she opened her mouth for him, and he took her invitation, sliding his tongue smoothly and insistently into her, swirling it along to her lead in wet, swooshing motions.

  He took his tongue out, and she following it back, tasting the inside of his mouth – a faint, fresh trace of pine, with a barely detectable hint of fresh meat...

  They broke apart for a second, enough to take in a breath, then kissed again, and again, to feel the pleasure of their lips meeting.

  After what felt like hours, but must have been minutes, Bryan broke the lock of their lips, and stood up.

  He gazed intently into her eyes, which were clouded over with the glowing embers of growing lust.

  “Lizbeth... are you sure you're OK with this?”

  It took her a while to register what he was saying, so lost was she in this wondrous new world of his body.

  “OK... what... this... oh! Yeah, yes, um
, I'm OK!”

  He seemed to have taken her hesitation for something else, though, because he started to look troubled. After a second or two, he looked away.

  “Bryan, what's wrong? Please, no, I want this...”

  “But...this isn't right...”

  “Why? Why wouldn't it be right?!”

  “I... Lizbeth, you were a child the last time I met you...”

  “Maybe I was, but I was old enough to fall in love. And I'm damned well not a child anymore, that's for sure...”

  “I... I suppose you aren't... but–”

  “Bryan Knudsen. If you don't pick me up and carry me to your bedroom right now, I swear to you I'll... I'll... I'll set your house on fire.”

  He seemed taken aback, and for a moment Lizbeth was scared that she'd said something weird, or way too forward. But the next second, she heard his low, hearty laugh – the first time she'd heard it in so many years – and knew everything was going to be just fine.

  “Well, if you put it that way, I guess I don't have much of a choice then, do I?”

  He wrapped an arm around her shoulders, and stooped to slide the other one along the back of her legs.

  An unpleasant doubt flew through her mind for a second.

  “I, oh, no, you don't have to actually do that, I'm maybe a little heav–eeeeeeee!”

  Before she could finish the word, he had flipped her into the air, and she lay snugly against his chest in a princess-carry. He looked down at her with a raised eyebrow.

  “You've got to be kidding me...”

  She didn't have anything to say to that. She had double vertigo: once from being pulled up into the air so abruptly, and a second time, from falling just that little deeper in love.

  \///

  ///\

  They didn't break eye contact as Bryan strode easily into his room, pushing open the door with a foot, nor as he lay her on the bed, and ran her wavy brown hair through his fingers, reaching up to delicately caress her cheek with his other hand.

  His finger ran down her jaw – lingering for a second upon her lips, promising more kisses to come – and traced elegantly down her neck, between her collarbones, until he reached the top button of her plaid shirt. She regretted, for a split second, not wearing something more feminine – but then again, it had taken a serious hike to get up to this place, and she wasn't so idiotic as to wear a flimsy white camisole for that...

  He unbuttoned the shirt, unhurried, revealing – once again, to a twinge of embarrassment from her – a large, functional white bra.

  When he came to the last couple of buttons, however, she pushed her hands out, and said:

  “No, wait, stop!”

  He felt a weight drop to the pit of his stomach, cold and hard like a stone. He closed his eyes, gulped back his regret, and opened them slowly.

  “I'm sorry, Lizbeth, I was moving too fast, I'll–”

  “No, nono, you were fine... it's just...”

  “Well, then... what is it?”

  “It's, just... well... I know I'm not very pretty, and, well... my last boyfriend... well, my first boyfriend, but he's also my last boyfriend... he said I would look alright if I lost some pounds, and I tried, really I did, but no matter how much I worked out or dieted, I just can't seem to...”

  She rambled nervously for a little while longer, but Bryan just shook his head in disbelief.

  He could never bring himself to understand what sick kind of society could make such a beautiful girl think herself ugly.

  He interrupted her gently.

  “Lizbeth... if you don't mind, I'm going to continue.”

  “oh... what? Oh... uh... OK, yeah, if you... if you're sure you want to, that is, I–”

  “Damn, girl...”

  Bryan leaned forward and covered her mouth with his, to shut up the doubts and self-hatred coming out of her mouth.

  Her whole body jolted a shudder of shock or arousal, he couldn't tell which, before she opened herself to him again, and sucked hungrily at his tongue.

  With one hand, he undid her jeans. Without separating their mouths, they worked them off, along with her socks, until she was only wearing panties down below.

  He finally pulled his tongue free from her embrace, and kissed his way down to her neck, biting firmly at her, just barely strong enough to leave a mark. No other male could doubt she was his if they saw those. She moaned her acceptance and her joy.

  He moved his hands under her back, propping her up for a second while he undid the clasp on her bra. When he brought his hand out from under her and hooked a pinkie through the center of it, pulling it off, her beautiful, bountiful breasts finally fell free.

  “Oh, god, no, I'll stink...”

  She had dusky pink nipples, one of which was slightly inverted, over wide areolae and perfectly pale white breasts. With just the feeling of his breath on her, the shy nipple started to protude, and harden.

  Bryan buried his face hungrily between them, taking in her scent – so well and truly her. He gnawed gently at the swell of her breasts, before taking one nipple into his mouth, and teasing gently at the other with the nail of a finger, bringing sharp gasps from her, and sending little spasms down through her legs.

  As he continued to nibble at her chest, him broad hand ran its way lovingly down her downy skin, grabbing at the meat of her thigh, before tickling his way to the inside of her leg. This drew giggles from her, which turned to aching, guttural breaths when he made his way between her legs.

  He cupped her mons over her panties, and rubbed his whole hand over her, slowly, back and forth, while he kissed her mouth, and moved back down to lick at her collarbones, until her panties were soaked through.

  Then he moved his fingers into them, scratching affectionately at her trimmed pubic hair, before edging tantalizingly downwards. She was breathing hard and fast now, and he didn't make her wait too much longer before he slid a finger into her.

  She didn't know whether to inhale or exhale, and so strained for many moments, feeling her lungs start to burn, to match the sodden wet fire between her legs.

  She finally gasped and sucked in air, and he moved his hand around, the meat of his palm rubbing against her clit.

  When he worked a second finger inside, and started to move his hand more vigorously – inwards and outwards, rubbing against the rough patch at the front of her vagina with each withdrawal – it started to make sloshing sounds, and he began to smell the sharp, sour tang of female sex, mixing with the seductive scent of her sweat. He waited patiently, his cock quivering, a bead of pre-cum starting to trickle down the broad, meaty head.

  She was bucking against him, grabbing at his hair as he occasionally kissed her breasts, and run his tongue down the side of them and into her armpits, all the better to taste her.

  Before long, she was moaning insistently, and she felt an orgasm starting to rise.

  “Bryan... Bryan... oh, god, Bryan... I'm going to cum soon... I'm–”

  “Not just yet, girl.”

  These words, delivered huskily into her ear, nearly sent her over the edge just by the thrill of his breath. But the next moment, he had taken his fingers out of her.

  The next thing she knew, he was kneeling beside her, and trying to work her panties over her ample ass.

  She hurried as fast as she could to help him, not giving it a second thought as she lifted her legs to free herself of that sodden piece of fabric, and thrashing off the plaid shirt which had draped unbuttoned from her.

  Finally, he was kneeling between her legs, and she was totally naked, flat on her back.

  She craned her neck up, to see him press the massive head of his cock against her opening, feeling it cover her entrance completely, and press its soft firmness against her clit as he worked it up and down, lathering it in her juices...

  She gulped, barely able to imagine it going inside her... it was bigger than any of the dildos she'd seen in her kinkiest friend's collection – even that ridiculous bright purple one...
>
  But then her eyes met his, and the doubts evaporated, leaving only the certainty that she needed him inside her.

  She reached her hand downwards and gripped his shaft – she wasn't even able to wrap her hand around the whole of it!