Chapter 54
Chapter Fifty-Four
CALEB
“ H ow is this hike harder than it was in June?” Brielle asks where she walks a few steps ahead of me. “I’ve been hiking and riding all summer. It should be easier now.”
Her hair swings with her gait, the high ponytail leaving the phoenix tattoo fully visible behind her ear. I eye the longest tail feather. Fuck, my bite’s going to look fucking perfect on either side of it. My dick presses against the zipper of my jeans.
Shit, this hike is harder for me, too. When I mutter as much, Brielle looks over her shoulder, an eyebrow raised and her lips pulled into a smirk.
“I’ll just politely remind you that this was your idea,” she says with a laugh.
Yeah, it was. And I don’t regret it at all.
This week has been a fucking fever dream. Waking up with Brielle in my home, watching her interact with Camden, getting to see my son fall just as in love with her as I have? They’re dreams I didn’t realize I had.
And seeing Ethan relaxed and content for the first time in years is a nice change, too.
I did end up taking a leave of absence, not that Sam minded. I had to in order to not be called back out to a fire until September. The proof of our scent match was enough to keep any of the really big problems from landing on my head, at least.
My phone vibrates, and I check it out of habit. Ethan’s single text waits for me.
Just finished. Ready for Sunday.
Great. Thanks, man.
Don’t fuck it up this time.
As if the last time was actually my fault.
I roll my eyes and focus on the gorgeous woman in front of me again. Her jeans hug her ass in a way that has my mouth watering. She’s wearing a simple tee I’ve never seen on her before, but the dark blue is gorgeous against her skin. She picks over the rocks in the trail, her breathing growing ragged as we work up the worst of the grade.
“Nearly there,” I tell her, needing to soothe her.
She doesn’t stiffen this time, simply looking over her shoulder with pursed lips.
“Someday I’m going to find a hike that you have to work for, too,” she says, full of sass I’ve never heard from her.
Giddiness floods my chest. I grin and grab her hand, lacing our fingers together.
“Oh, I’m working for it,” I say, sliding my phone back into my pocket and readjusting my hard as fuck dick. Her cheeks flush. “Any trail where I’m behind you, I’m working for it.”
She shakes her head in exasperation as the trail opens into the small meadow. The creek runs lower than it did in June, and most of the wildflowers are gone, leaving only the longer prairie grasses and low growing shrubs behind. It makes it more green than before. I soak it in, committing it to my memory. Every single detail of this afternoon with her deserves to be remembered.
I slip my phone out of the pocket of my jeans and take a couple photos for good measure. As I’m putting it away, Brielle turns to me.
“So who did you bribe for this picnic?” she asks, another devious smirk on her lips.
She runs a finger along the backpack’s strap on my shoulder. I pull her to me and kiss her until she’s breathless and writhing against me, her lavender scent filling the air.
“Mom,” I tell her when I finally pull away. “I don’t want anyone else to know yet.”
Her look softens. “Know what?”
I kiss her nose and then cup her cheeks.
“That I’m claiming you today,” I whisper.
Her breath hitches, and her eyes widen. But her scent only grows stronger as she covers my hand with hers.
“Really?” Her voice is a whisper between us. I run my thumb along her cheek, soaking her in. When I nod, she smiles, the movement lighting up her eyes. “Well, at least I won’t accidentally drop into my heat this time.”
I laugh, and she leans into me, my hips bumping into her stomach. Shit, she’s tiny.
“Definitely a bonus,” I murmur. And then I’m kissing her again, not pulling away until I’m hard and aching and she’s whimpering into my mouth.
“Let’s at least get the picnic set up,” I say, humor dripping from my voice. “So I can pretend this was romantic and all that.”
And to keep me from pushing her up against a tree and taking her hard and fast. But I won’t admit to that out loud. She smiles and steps away, walking deeper into the small clearing.
It only takes me a few minutes to lay out the blanket and arrange the picnic, the small containers of food sitting centered between our outstretched legs. Once we’ve worked our way through most of the food Mom packed, Brielle relaxes on the blanket, leaning back on her hand in mirror of my own laid back pose. Her hand brushes mine, and cinnamon bleeds out from me. The forest moves around us, birds chirping and the wind brushing through the trees. The creek burbles, and I close my eyes, relaxing into the feel of it all.
“Strawberry?” she asks. My eyes flutter open to find her grabbing one of the large fruits from the dish.
I’m not overly interested in one, but I won’t miss a chance to flirt.
I let my lips brush her fingers as I take a bite, and her breath hitches, lavender swirling around us. Her cheeks flush, and her throat moves with her swallow.
“Caleb,” she whispers. It’s full of the same breathless anticipation that’s making my entire body focus on her. “Knot me.”
She doesn’t need to ask me twice.
I wrap my hand into her hair, palming the nape of her neck, and pull her to me. Her lips are soft but ravenous, and it’s only a few moments before I’m a raging inferno of need.
Her skin, her scent, her whimpers. Fuck, I need them all. I need her slick dripping down my my dick while I bond her, claim her like I’ve wanted to do from the moment I smelled her perfume in Mom’s coffee shop. I roll us until she’s sprawled on her back, her hair falling out of its ponytail and draping around her, falling over the edge of the blanket.
I strip her out of her clothes in record time—and that’s saying something. She forces my shirt higher as I drag my tongue across her clit. Her nails bite into my skin, but I relish the burn of it, the stinging ache it leaves behind.
“So do I?” I ask before pulling her clit between my teeth. Her hips arch into my mouth, her back bowing with her need.
Brielle moans. “Wh-what?”
“Do I eat you better than he did?”
Probably shouldn’t bring up that asshole right now, but the possessive need in me has to know. It’s what I’ve wanted to know since I first brought her to this meadow in June. And that protective, territorial part of me has to take every fucked up thing he did and make new memories right over the top. Just like I’m going to with that phoenix tattoo that covers the flowers.
She shudders, squirming under me as I blow on her clit. She mewls, her nails biting harder into my back. When I run my tongue along her skin, avoiding every single part I know will have her hurtling toward her release, she whines and whispers, “Y-yes. Holy God, yes, you do.” She tilts her hips. “Please, Caleb.”
“Good.”
I scrape my teeth over her clit, and she shatters, her legs tightening around my shoulders as she throws her head back on a desperate cry. Before she’s fully come down, I have my jeans low enough to free my dick and I’m easing into her. She grips me like a too-tight fist, and I groan into her shoulder.
“Fuck,” I mutter.
I keep a slow pace, trying to draw this out, trying to make it the best moment she’s ever fucking had. And yet, the release barrels toward me, the heat building at the base of my spine.
“I’m not going to last.”
It’s a whispered confession into her skin.
Her laugh is desperate as she twists her hand into my hair, keeping my lips pressed against her throat. I let my teeth scrape along her collarbone, and she arches, her cunt clenching around me. I groan, the sound low and mournful.
“Mark me,” she whispers. “I want to know what it feels like.”
I drop any pretense of keeping things slow and sensual, claiming her body until she’s shaking under me, her cries echoing through the trees and her lavender perfume surrounding us. My orgasm races through me, stealing my vision and making me fingers fucking tingle. I bite her, right over top of that damn phoenix feather, as my knot swells.
Her scream is shrill. I wrap my hand in her hair, keeping her immobile, even as she pants and squirms against me. Her desire, her overstimulation, her love flood my chest, and I groan.
“Caleb,” she whispers. Her nails bite into my neck as he tightens again, a third orgasm ripping through her. “Oh God, oh God. Caleb .”
I kiss my bite and then trace the phoenix with my tongue, enjoying the fuck out of feeling her come down from the ecstasy of knotting and bonding.
“I love you,” I whisper, letting my lips brush the shell of her ear. She shivers and whines under me. “So fucking much, Omega. So fucking much.”
Her love rushes through the brand new connection, more intimate than any words she could ever whisper. She covers my hand with hers and kisses my temple.
“I love you, too,” she says.