40. Arden
40
ARDEN
The cold water had already tightened my nipples to the point of pain, but at Linc’s husky command, they twisted so tight my knees nearly buckled.
Linc’s eyes darkened, the green turning stormy, practically swallowing the gold altogether. Like a lake in the middle of a hurricane. “I said, on your knees, Vicious.”
A shiver racked me. But it wasn’t one of dread, it was one of promise. My mouth curved. “Shouldn’t you have to work for it a little harder?”
Linc took one step and then another, his powerful thighs straining against his jeans. “You don’t think watching you sit on that horse for hours wasn’t torture enough? Watching those breasts move with each step? Staring at those thighs clenching?”
My lips parted on an intake of breath.
“But you love knowing you torture me, don’t you?”
My mouth curved. “Maybe.”
Linc shook his head as he stepped closer, venturing into the water and not giving a damn that the bottoms of his jeans were getting soaked. He moved so slowly that I wasn’t prepared when he struck with the speed of a viper, his hand sliding into my hair and pulling on the strands so my head was tipped back and my neck exposed.
Then his mouth was there, tongue running down the column of my throat. “You live to torture me. It’s only fitting that I return the favor.”
I could barely suck in a breath before Linc was moving again. He took me with him this time. I stumbled, trying to keep up with him, and it was just the off-balance upper hand Linc needed.
He dropped to the log near the shore, taking me with him and folding me over his lap, where I landed with an oomph . The air fled my lungs through force and excitement. My thighs pressed together as the air swirled against my overheated skin.
There was no warning before his hand came down hard on my ass cheek. A sting, then heat. Heat that pooled and spread. My thighs started to clench again, but Linc wrapped my hair around his hand, pulling hard as he made a tsking noise. “No relief for you. Not yet. A little torture before your pleasure.”
My lips parted, a pant leaving them as wetness gathered between my thighs.
“That’s my girl,” Linc praised, his hand ghosting over the globe of my ass, coaxing a little more from that heat. “But you still have to pay for making me suffer through three hours of riding with a goddamned hard-on.”
A soft giggle left my lips.
Linc’s hand tightened in my hair. “Are you laughing at me?”
Before I could answer, his hand came down again, a little harder this time. My body bowed. The flicker of pain, the rush of heat, it was all so good I couldn’t help the moan that slipped from my lips.
Linc’s hand coasted over my ass to stroke between my thighs. “Fuck. You love it. Pussy’s weeping already.”
I shuddered against him. “Linc.”
“So beautiful when she begs.” He slid two fingers inside me.
My back arched as I pushed against him, so damn desperate for more .
Those fingers were gone in a flash, and Linc’s palm came down in another strike. “My girl’s greedy, too. Always ready to take what she wants. What she needs. But right now, you’re going to take what I give you.”
My head turned as I cast furious eyes on him. “Gonna give you blue balls if you’re not careful.”
Linc laughed, the sound full of mischief and heat. “You think I’m not already walking around in that permanent state because of you?”
My mouth curved, the power of that statement coursing through me.
Linc’s eyes hooded. “You love that. Live to torture me. My vicious girl.”
Those fingers were back, three this time, gliding in and out. I whimpered. They felt so damn good, but it wasn’t quite enough. I pushed into Linc’s hand, needing deeper, more.
My walls fluttered with the briefest shudder on the way to the edge. Then, Linc’s hand was gone. I let out a sound of protest, and his palm came down on my ass again. It was almost enough to send me over the edge, the pleasure and pain. Linc gave me both.
He stood in a flash, bringing me with him as he released his hold on my hair. “Hands on the tree,” he growled.
It was only two steps to the thick trunk, but each one had my skin burning hotter, the air feeling like a snowstorm in comparison. I didn’t look back as my palms pressed against the rough bark, but I heard Linc: the sound of his zipper like a cannon in the quiet, the rustling of his clothes until his big body curved around mine.
Linc’s hand twisted in my hair again, pulling my head back. “Tell me I can take you.”
My core clenched as I pushed my ass against him. “Take me.”
Linc slid his tip along my slit, teasing up to my clit until I whimpered again. He moved back to my opening, and that hand fisted my hair as he slammed into me. The force of it had my eyes watering and my mouth falling open. It was nothing but pure power and sensation. Nothing but everything Linc could give me.
The rough bark dug into my palms as he took me, but I didn’t give him supremacy. I gave as good as I got. Met him thrust for thrust. Because the thing about me and Linc was that it was always a battle. We were never afraid to fight for what we wanted. And that made it beautiful—the honesty.
Linc muttered something nonsensical as he hit a spot that had light dancing in front of my vision. Those fingers tightened in my hair. “Need you with me. Always with me.”
“I’m with you.” The words were punctuated by gasps, my lungs stealing all the air they could get.
“Not close enough,” Linc gritted out. “Finger on your clit. Find it with me.”
My body obeyed without my brain stopping to consider the concession. One hand dropped from the tree and slid between my thighs. I let out a curse at the first sensation of my finger circling that bundle of nerves.
“That’s it. So perfect,” Linc praised.
My body sparked at his words.
“Tease it. Closer,” he ordered.
Yet again, I obeyed. My body shuddered as sparks lit beneath my skin. Linc picked up speed, powering into me until I was all but lost.
“Fight for it,” Linc growled. “I know my vicious girl battles like no one else. Fight for it with me.”
And I knew he meant more than an orgasm. He meant he wanted me to fight for us. To make this something real. Something that could mean forever.
Terror swept through me, but I didn’t stop fighting because he was with me. My finger circled tighter, sweeping across that most sensitive flesh and sending me spiraling. It wasn’t a light and airy fall; it was a violent plummet. The orgasm racked my body with a fury that took us both down together in beautiful agony.
Linc cursed as he emptied into me, lengthening the fall with each thrust. But he never left me. We fell together. And as his forehead dropped to my shoulder, his breathing heavy, I felt all of him.
“Like nothing else, you and me. Like I can be whoever I need to, and you’ll take me just as I am,” he whispered hoarsely .
My throat constricted. “I know,” I croaked. Because I felt the exact same way. And it scared the hell out of me.
“Do we have to leave?” Linc asked, pouting like a little kid as late-morning sunrays cast shadows over his face.
I couldn’t help but chuckle. “We don’t have to, but I think we’ll be hungry by tonight,” I said as I tightened the strap on the saddlebag, but the truth was, leaving was the last thing I wanted to do.
“Can’t have my girl getting hangry on me.” Linc stuffed the last of our camp’s trash into the bag we were packing up.
I crossed to where we’d set up camp, bending to check my pack. Satellite phone, first-aid kit, snacks for the trip back, plenty of water. “You definitely do not want that,” I said with a chuckle.
Linc moved into my space and wrapped his arms around me. “Thank you for giving me this. For knowing me well enough to give me exactly what I needed.”
That foreign feeling in my chest shifted again. “I wish I could really fix it.”
Linc brushed the hair from my face. “Well, you did offer to challenge my dad to a fight to the death. That’s good enough for me.”
My lips twitched. “I’d take his ass down.”
“I have no doubt.” Linc gave me a quick kiss and then released me.
I bent to lift the pack just as a crack sounded. It was almost like a tree branch snapping in the wind, only there was no wind today.
My brain tried to put the pieces together, reason out what it was, when Linc’s body hit mine full force. Just as another crack sounded. And that’s when I registered the sound.
Gunshot.