Chapter Forty-Two
A SCREAM SPLIT the night, piercing enough to cut through the quiet.
I caught her before she stumbled back, hands circlin’ her arms. “Easy,” I murmured. “It’s just me.”
Her wide eyes found mine in the dark, chest risin’ fast. “Chain—God, you scared me.”
“I know.” My grip eased, but I didn’t let go. The moonlight hit her face just enough for me to see the shine of tears she hadn’t wiped away. “Didn’t mean to sneak up on you. Saw you head out and figured I’d make sure you didn’t wander too far.”
She looked past me toward the tree line, still jumpy. “I thought I saw someone.”
“Probably just a shadow,” I said, glancin’ over my shoulder anyway. Habit. “You shouldn’t be out here alone, not this late.”
“I wasn’t ready to go inside.” Her voice cracked around the words, soft and raw. “I just needed to think.”
I nodded. “Yeah. I figured.”
The night pressed close around us, heavy with the smell of pine and wet earth. Somewhere, a frog croaked near the pond, breakin’ the silence.
“I don’t know what to think,” she said finally. “About what I saw. About you.”
“That why you’re out here—runnin’ from me?”
Her head snapped up. “I’m not running.”
“Then talk to me.” I stepped closer, slow enough she could pull away if she wanted. She didn’t. “What you walked in on, it wasn’t what you think.”
“She was naked, Chain.”
“I know.” The words came out rough, even but tight. “And if I could erase that image from your head, I would. She came in tryin’ to stir shit up, tryin’ to tempt me to fuck her. I told her to get the hell out. Fired her on the spot.”
Her eyes searched mine, doubt flickerin’ like a heartbeat. “Ruby told me that.”
“Then you know it’s the truth.” I dragged a hand through my hair, fightin’ the frustration that kept clawing at my chest. “You think I’d ever touch that woman again after you?”
Her breath hitched, a soft sound in the dark. “I don’t know what to think anymore,” she whispered.
I took another step, closin’ the space between us until the heat of her body met mine. “Then don’t think,” I murmured. “Just look at me. Do you see a man lyin’ to you right now?”
She didn’t answer, but her gaze didn’t move either.
The air stretched tight between us, thick with everythin’ we hadn’t said. Her hands trembled once, then steadied against my chest like she couldn’t decide whether to shove me away or hold on.
“You scare me sometimes,” she admitted.
I tilted my head. “Yeah? Why’s that?”
“Because you make me feel things I don’t know how to handle.”
I exhaled slow, the sound rough. “Guess we’re even then, darlin’.”
She didn’t move. Not when my hand slid from her arm to the curve of her waist, not when I bent low enough for her breath to brush my lips.
“Say the word,” I said, my voice barely more than a growl. “And I’ll back off.”
But she didn’t. Her breath hitched again, mouth partin’ just enough to make my pulse kick hard.
“I shouldn’t want this right now,” she whispered.
“I know.”
Her fingers curled tighter against my chest, like she meant to push me away, only she didn’t. She stayed.
The silence stretched, hummin’ with tension, with restraint, with every second she didn’t walk away.
And then she leaned in, just enough for her forehead to rest against mine, her voice barely audible.
“I hate how much I want you.”
That broke somethin’ in me. I closed the last inch between us, my hand slidin’ up her spine, the other threadin’ into her hair.
“You think I don’t feel the same?” I whispered against her lips. “You think I don’t wake up at night pissed at myself for wantin’ you like this?”
Her breath ghosted over my mouth, shaky and warm. “Then why—”
I cut her off with a kiss.
Not gentle. Not soft.
A collision. Heat and ache and all the twisted emotion between us finally snappin’ loose.
She kissed me back like she’d been drownin’ and I was the only air left in the world. And when she moaned into my mouth, hands fisting in my cut, I knew whatever line we’d been walkin’ just shattered beneath us.
The kiss deepened, turned hungry fast, her fingers draggin’ down my chest, catchin’ in the hem of my shirt like she needed somethin’ to anchor herself to. I didn’t give her time to second-guess it. Didn’t give myself the chance either.
My hands gripped her hips, walked her back until her spine met the rough bark of a pine. She gasped as her back hit it, the sound swallowed by my mouth as I kissed her again, deeper this time, slower, but no less desperate.
She made a sound in her throat that wrecked me—somethin’ soft and wanting—and I felt her body press up, seeking more contact, more friction, more of me.
“You sure about this?” I murmured against her skin, my lips brushin’ down the side of her neck, slow and heated. “Because if I don’t stop now, I’m not gonna.”
She didn’t answer at first. Just arched into me, her breath warm in my ear as her hands slid beneath my shirt, palms flat against my stomach.
“Do I feel unsure?” she whispered, her voice breathless, shakin’.
That was all it took.
I claimed her mouth again, rougher this time, all heat and hunger and days of frustration burnin’ through me. Her legs parted without hesitation, and I stepped between them, one hand slidin’ beneath the hem of her shirt to feel the soft, bare skin of her waist.
She trembled when I touched her—whether from nerves or want, I didn’t know, didn’t care. My thumb stroked slow circles just beneath the line of her ribs, and when she moaned again—quiet but wrecked—I bit down gently on her bottom lip before releasin’ it.
“You don’t know what you do to me,” I muttered, forehead pressed to hers. “You think this is just lust?”
“I pray it isn’t,” she said, breathless.
My hands slid up, dragged her shirt with them, barin’ her inch by inch to the cooling night air and my heat. She raised her arms without a word, and I pulled the shirt over her head, lettin’ it drop to the forest floor.
Moonlight kissed her skin—pale, smooth, perfect—and I took a second just to look, to drink her in.
She reached for me next, yankin’ at my cut and t-shirt, until I let her pull them off, her hands skimmin’ up my chest like she’d been starving for this touch, for me.
Our mouths met again—hot, open, unrestrained—as I pressed her back to the tree and let my hands roam.
Her nails scraped lightly down my back, draggin’ a groan from deep in my throat.
I kissed down her neck, across her collarbone, tastin’ the salt of her skin, the heat of her pulse, the way she gasped when my mouth brushed lower.
There was nothing gentle left in me—just need. And her.
And the feel of her body against mine in the dark.
The forest seemed to vanish around us, no wind, no night sounds, only the press of breath and heat and skin.
I dragged my mouth down her chest, bitin’ just enough to make her squirm beneath me, just enough to leave a mark. Her fingers tangled in my hair, holding me there like she didn’t want to let go—or maybe couldn’t.
“You feel this?” I murmured against her neck, my voice soft, dangerous. “This is what you do to me.”
Her only answer was a sharp intake of breath when my hand slid beneath the waistband of her shorts, knuckles grazin’ soft, sensitive heat. Her thighs tensed around my wrist, but she didn’t stop me, only let her head fall back against the tree, lips parted, chest heaving.
I kissed her throat, her jaw, then caught her mouth again—open, frantic. She was already so close to breakin’ and I hadn’t even undone a single button.
Her hands tore at my belt with tremblin’ fingers, desperate, impatient. I grabbed her wrists, pinned them above her head against the tree with one hand.
She gasped. That sound, it lit something in me I didn’t bother hidin’.
“You like that?” I growled, eyes locked on hers, dark and hungry. “Being held like this?”
She nodded, breath catching. “God—yes.”
I freed her with one hand while the other worked to open her shorts, draggin’ them down along with her underwear.
I dropped to my knees, let my mouth replace my hands, tasting the heat of her while she clutched at the tree for balance, her legs trembling, curses spilling from her lips between moans.
When I rose again, she was pantin’, undone, but not enough. Never enough.
I lifted her effortlessly, her thighs wrapping around my waist like instinct. Pressed her back to the tree. The bark scraped her skin, but she didn’t care. Neither did I.
Her nails bit into my shoulders as I entered her—deep, slow, the sound she made like a sob and a cry tangled together.
The world narrowed to her. The way she clenched around me. The way her eyes fluttered shut, then flew open again as I drove into her harder, deeper, one hand braced behind her head to keep it from hittin’ the tree.
It wasn’t slow. It wasn’t sweet. It was rough, desperate, fever-hot.
Our bodies collidin’ in rhythm, her moans muffled against my throat, my name a broken thing on her lips.
“Say it again,” I demanded, breath ragged. “Say you hate how much you want me.”
Her mouth found my ear, her voice cracked and raw.
“I hate it,” she breathed. “I hate that I’d let you ruin me just to feel this again.”
I thrust harder at that, relentless, devourin’. “Then I’ll ruin you, darlin’. Right here.”
And I did.
She shattered around me, body convulsing, legs locked tight as she came with a cry that echoed through the trees. I followed seconds later, teeth clenched, buried deep, growlin’ her name like a curse or a prayer.
We clung to each other, breathless, shakin’—sweat cooling on skin marked by bark, dirt, teeth.
For a long time, neither of us spoke.
When I finally eased her down, she stayed against me, legs still unsteady, lips parted like she didn’t know whether to kiss me again or run.
My voice was rough when I finally broke the silence. “I warned you not to come out here alone.”
She looked up at me, dazed and wild-eyed, like she couldn’t tell if I’d just claimed her or consumed her whole.
Maybe I had.