CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
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Ryder
VESPER SHUDDERED IN MY EMbrACE.
I hadn’t meant to say such things. It was too soon and probably unwise, but I didn't really give a flying fuck. We’d spoken about things we shouldn’t have spoken about. We’d admitted how deep we’d fallen. We’d addressed just how terrifying our connection was.
There was nothing wrong with honesty. Time had no relevance here.
Not today.
Not when the sun was out, the water was pure, and the dogs’ selfless energy and joy infected us to be carefree, stress-free, and so damn grateful for what we’d found in each other.
Away from society and family and the dos and don’ts of a new relationship, it was just us. And if I wanted to tie her into naming what this connection was—even if it only lasted a few days or weeks or months—I would.
Vesper wasn’t a woman I was shagging. She wasn’t my veterinarian. She was my woman. My girlfriend. And I would never get over being allowed to call her that.
Dragging her into deeper water, the surface crept up our bodies as our feet danced on the rocky bottom, cushioned with algae and water reeds.
We had no soap or shampoo, but it didn’t stop me spinning Vesper around and pushing her under to wet her hair.
The blonde curls instantly became dark crinkled threads. She was stunning no matter her appearance—dressed or naked, wet or dry.
I was fucked.
Utterly and truly fucked with how much I wanted this girl.
With her back to me, I looked around where a zoo of dogs threaded in bushes and reappeared with mud splattered on their multi-coloured coats. I’d have a terrible time trying to bathe them with minimal running water while the plumber did his fixes.
Forcing myself to remain light-hearted and not chase her running up the riverbank from my heart-filled declarations, I chuckled. “Seeing as you won’t agree to be my girlfriend, let’s agree to seal the deal in another way.”
She giggled and looked at me over her shoulder. “I say that’s the best idea you’ve had all day.”
“Really? I’ve had a few.” I grinned. “I admit that making you stay the night and spending the day with the dogs was a genius one.”
“Well, I only agreed to that because someone rather good looking mentioned it as an option.”
“Rather good looking?” Taking her hair, I wrapped it around my fist and tugged her head back. “Just rather ?”
She moaned as I bit her throat, licking at water droplets. “You want it on a sliding scale?”
“I want it in inches.” I pushed my cock against her ass again.
“In inches?”
“Seems a good measurement.” I laughed. “Seeing as you’re about to get all the inches I possess.”
“Suddenly my powers of conversation have been replaced with an overwhelming need to sample those inches rather than just discuss them.”
I chuckled. “Oh, really? Is there something you want from me, Ms. Fairfax? ”
Her ass pushed backward, activating the heavy throb in my balls. “I can think of one thing I want very much.”
“And what if I want to give you something different first?”
“Like what?”
“Oh, I dunno. How about something to sweeten the girlfriend deal? How about I wash your hair for you?” I kissed her nape, following the beads of her spine down to her shoulder blades.
She moaned as I licked my way back up.
“Aww, you’d do that for me?”
I kissed her ear. “I’m guessing I’d do just about anything for you now. You’ve put quite a spell on me.”
“Sweet talking disguised as persistence.” She shivered dramatically.
“Only when I know what I want.”
“Oh, I like that. Say that again.”
“What? What I want?”
Her head lolled back to rest on my shoulder. “Yes.” She paused. “Tell me what you want.”
My arms tightened around her. “You. I want you, Vesper. I want you so fucking much I can barely breathe with needing to be inside you.” I drove my hard cock into the crack of her ass. “You’re mine. I want to hear you say it.”
Her hips rocked backward, pressing against me. “So many demands today.”
I bit her earlobe. “Say it.”
“That I’m yours?”
I nodded, shaking my head a little the way a dog would with its prey, ensuring my teeth sank into her ear with just enough pressure. “Yes.”
When she took her damn time, my hands wrapped around her breasts, pinching her nipples. “Do it, or I’ll have to force you.”
She gasped as my touch dropped down her flat stomach, grabbing her between the legs. “Say it, or I’ll take this the way I want to take it. ”
A gush of warm silk doused my fingers from her desire. My cock grew impossibly harder. “You like that? Being threatened?” Inserting a finger inside her, she gave up decorum and panted.
“Yes. Hell yes.”
“You want to know what I’ll do to you if you don’t agree to be mine?”
She nodded, her lips parting as I inserted another finger. The fact I’d been inside this woman almost made me come against her back. I pressed on the ridges of her inner walls, causing more arousal to coat my fingers—so different to the cool water we stood in.
“If you don’t say you’re mine, I’m going to march you to the water’s edge, shove you onto all fours, and mount you.” My nose nuzzled her wet hair as my heart jackhammered at the image. “I wouldn’t tease you. I wouldn’t touch you. I’d just line up behind you like a feral animal and slam inside you so fucking hard, so fucking deep, you’d scream.”
A guttural groan tumbled from her lips.
“Do you want that, Ves?” I couldn’t stop my hips rocking. My cock bellowed to make such a fantasy a reality. Fisting her hair, I yanked her head back again. “Yes or no.”
She licked her lips. “I—
Cutting her off, I crushed my mouth against hers. Her heart strummed through her back while mine answered in a crescendo of agony and need. Tearing our lips apart, I grunted, “Say you’re mine and I’ll stand here and wash you so sweetly, so tenderly, then make love to you on the bank in the sunshine.”
She shivered as I inserted a third finger into her wetness.
“And if I don’t?”
“Don’t and I’ll fuck you like a beast. I’ll lie across your back as my cock slams inside this delicious pussy I’m currently fingering. Don’t and I’ll act out one of my debased fantasies with no shame or apology. I’ll let myself go. I’ll show you just the sort of man I am when you get me so hard and insane.”
She squirmed in my arms, breathless and wanting. River droplets rolled down her overheated skin as she made eye contact with me over her shoulder. “In that case, Ry. I’m not yours. I’ll only be yours if you show me what happens when I refuse to give you what you want.”
“Christ.” Grabbing her chin, I wrenched her face to mine.
Our kiss was sloppy and messy and fast. Her tongue fought mine as we both gave in to whatever chemical intoxication drugged us.
She wanted to be free with me.
I wanted to be free with her.
I wouldn’t fucking argue.
My fingers slipped from her pussy but we never stopped kissing as I hoisted her into my arms and waded back to the river bank. We made noise. Lots and lots of noise as the depths let us return to shore and soft lichen and moss lined a green area ahead.
The moment my toes met softness, I slammed Vesper onto her feet and without a word, shoved her between her shoulder blades.
She fell like a damn angel. Invisible wings carried her elegantly to the ground. I followed like a disgraced devil, slamming to my knees behind her.
There were no talks of condoms or contraceptives. We knew each other was clean. Precautions would have to come later. Insanity had taken away common sense.
Lining up my quads with the back of her thighs, I folded my torso along her back. Shoving her hair away from her nape, I bit her like a beast would before mounting.
Planting my hands over hers in the dirt, threading our fingers together, I allowed instinct to guide my cock to find her drenched entrance.
There was no touching. No words. Nothing but animalistic desire.
The moment I felt her heat on my crown, I slammed inside her.
Her back arched.
A scream fell from her lips.
And fuck, fuck, fuck I’d never felt anything so good as my stomach sticking to her ass as my cock took her fully.
So this was what nature felt like at its crudest form.
How bloody fantastic sex could be when two people wanted the same things.
Her fingers clawed around mine as her ass rocked backward. She whimpered for more as my teeth sank deeper into the back of her neck.
I pulled out.
She cried in frustration.
I slammed inside her again.
She screamed in bliss.
I grunted like a monster as I pulled away then thrust forward. I cloaked her with my body, giving her nowhere to run as my cock penetrated her over and over.
There were no thoughts anymore.
All I lived and breathed was this woman on all fours and me on top and inside her. The slap of my balls against her clit as I drove inside her made me mad. The slickness of her need and the pounding pain in my dick made me lose that final frontier of humanity.
Giving her my entire weight, my chest pinned her down while my hips lost control and fucked.
I fucked her like an animal.
But I cared for her like a man.
My teeth unlatched from her nape only to reattach on her shoulder. Holding her under me in case she had any ideas of running.
This wasn’t sex.
This was mating.
This was crude and crazy and even slightly cruel, but shit, it was the best thing I’d ever done in my entire life.
And when she moaned and whimpered and her pussy clenched and melted, I couldn’t do it anymore.
My teeth clamped tighter on her shoulder and my hips flew.
I grunted as I speared into her again and again, relishing her screams as her pussy fisted my length, coming over and over.
Only once she’d finished did I let go of whatever control I’d been able to keep.
The sensation of cum ricocheting up my length and spurting into this woman made me black out and all coherency fly from my head. My stomach glued to her flesh as I impaled myself so damn deep inside her, I had no doubt I’d done what nature intended as a man mating with a woman and forced my cum as deep as it would go.
The bands of bliss as I gave her every drop made shooting pains erupt from my chest. I felt everything so intensely.
I didn’t know how long I came for but I blinked into vision as Vesper collapsed beneath me, pressing her cheek against the lichen, her ass still in the air where we joined.
“Christ…” My voice was jacked and shaky. My heart a gong. My head a bowling ball. Falling to my side, I gathered her close, cupping her breast, vibrating in time with her rapid heartbeat.
We lay like that for minutes, panting and still joined below, my front cradling her back. When the lust had left us broken breathing things, slowing returning us to human, I brushed aside her hair and kissed her cheek.
The teeth marks I’d left would most likely bruise, but I hadn’t broken her skin. Even after the best orgasm of my life, my cock hadn’t deflated and the simplest of moves amplified the feeling of still being inside her.
As we calmed, fear filled my overly relaxed state.
What have I done?
What did I do?
How could I treat her like that?
Shakes hijacked my muscles. I sucked in a trembling breath, closing my eyes tight. “Vesper…shit, I’m sorry.”
She sucked in a breath; the noise of dogs splashing upriver was the only sound apart from sparrow chatter in the willow above us.
She didn’t reply.
Panic replaced my fear.
Hoisting myself up onto an elbow, I rolled her onto her back and gazed down. I was terrified I’d find tears and disgust. Mortified and horrified that I’d ruined the best thing that’d ever happened to me.
Only, her face was pink and shiny. Her lips puffy and red.
Her eyes captured mine. “If you ever do that to me again, Ryder Carson…”
She didn’t finish.
My mind ended her sentence with every terror I felt.
If you ever do that to me again, I’ll report you. I’ll tell the town what a monster you are. I’ll kill you.
However, her lips didn’t twist into hatred. Her hand came up to cup my cheek, pulling my face down to hers. As our lips met, she murmured, “That was the single most amazing insane sexual experience of my life. And if you ever do that to me again, I’m going to have to marry you.”