Chapter 5 Tilly
Chapter five
Tilly
My pulse pounds in my ears as we pull into the driveway. Davin parks and kills the engine, and we sit in the sudden quiet. Snow falls in lazy flakes outside the windshield. Inside the cab, anticipation coils tight between us.
He turns to me, and his hand reaches to cup my jaw. “I need you to tell me what you want.”
“You.” The word comes out breathless. “I want you.”
“Be specific.” His thumb brushes across my bottom lip. “Tell me exactly what you need.”
Heat floods my face, but I hold his gaze. “I want you to take me inside. I want you to show me what it means that you claimed me in front of everyone.”
Something fierce flashes in his eyes. “We let the town see us together. Let them see you’re mine.”
“Yes.”
“Now I’m going to show you what that means.” He leans closer, his breath warm against my mouth. “I’m going to worship every inch of you. Make you come so hard you forget your own name. And then I’m going to hold you while you remember that you’re not alone anymore.”
My thighs clench, and I feel my panties dampen. “Davin—”
“Inside. Now.”
We move together, his hand finding mine as we cross through the snow to the front door. He unlocks it and pulls me through. The moment the door closes behind us, his mouth is on mine.
This kiss is different from the ones before. Hungrier. More urgent. His hands grip my hips and pull me flush against him, and I feel his hard cock through his jeans. I make a sound against his mouth that’s pure need.
He breaks the kiss and presses his forehead to mine. “Bedroom?”
“Yes.”
He takes my hand and leads me through the cabin, past the crackling fire that throws warm amber across the walls.
The bedroom glows with slanted afternoon gold pouring through the windows, turning everything soft and molten.
When he turns to face me, the intensity in his eyes wraps around me.
It’s dark, unblinking, stripping me bare before his hands even move.
“You’re sure?” His voice is low, edged with restraint that’s already fraying. “Because once we start, you’re mine.”
“I want to be yours.” I close the distance, palms gliding up the hard planes of his chest, feeling the rapid thud of his heartbeat beneath my fingers. “I want all of you.”
A rough sound rumbles from his throat. He hauls me flush against him, bodies colliding with deliberate force, my softness yielding to his solid frame.
His mouth crashes onto mine, no gentle coaxing this time: lips demanding, tongue sweeping deep in hungry, claiming strokes that steal my breath and leave me dizzy.
Heat radiates from him, woodsmoke and something uniquely him clinging to his skin, mixing with the sharp edge of arousal.
His fingers find the hem of my sweater and drag it upward, savoring the reveal.
The fabric whispers over my skin before it’s gone; cool air kisses the newly bared curves, but his palms are there instantly.
His hands are large, warm, sliding along my ribs like he’s mapping territory he’s already claimed in his mind.
“You were so strong today,” he murmurs against my lips, voice thick with pride and something darker.
His hands rise to cradle the full weight of my breasts through my bra, thumbs brushing slow, deliberate arcs over my hardening nipples.
“I don’t know what Claire’s agenda was, but we set her straight. We both did.”
“Davin—”
“You didn’t need me to defend you.” He reaches behind, unhooks my bra with one smooth flick, and lets it fall. His gaze devours the soft, heavy spill of my breasts, nipples drawn tight under his scrutiny. Reverence wars with raw hunger in his expression. “I wanted everyone to know you’re mine.”
He lowers his head and takes one nipple into the wet heat of his mouth.
The suction is firm, insistent, with his tongue swirling in tight, teasing circles before he draws me deeper, cheeks hollowing.
Sparks race straight to my pussy. My gasp turns into a moan I can’t stifle.
His other hand kneads the neglected breast, fingers splaying wide to appreciate the generous curve, thumb and forefinger capturing my nipple and rolling it with slow, exquisite pressure that makes my hips twitch forward.
“So beautiful,” he breathes against my damp skin, switching sides to lavish the other breast with the same devoted attention.
“So capable. So fucking perfect.” The words vibrate through me as his tongue lashes, then soothes, teeth grazing just enough to make me arch into his mouth, my fingers knotting in his hair to hold him there.
Pleasure coils low and hot in my pussy, panties already damp with want and need.
He releases my breast with a soft, wet pop and trails open-mouthed kisses down the center of my torso.
He lingers over the curve of my waist, the lush swell of my belly, nuzzling the soft roll above my hips like it’s sacred.
His hands move to my jeans. “Can I?”
“Yes. Please.”
The button gives; the zipper slides. He peels denim and lace down together, kneeling as he eases them past the flare of my hips, the thickness of my thighs.
I step free, suddenly naked, while he remains clothed.
The contrast makes every inch of my skin feel exposed, electric.
His eyes burn with worship, tracing every curve like he’s committing me to memory: the generous roundness of my hips, the soft give of my stomach, the full press of my thighs.
“On the bed,” he rasps. “Let me see you.”
I back toward the mattress and sink onto it, reclining against the pillows.
The sheets are cool against my heated skin.
He strips his shirt off, his scarred muscle shifting under the golden afternoon light, powerful shoulders rolling as he kneels between my parted legs.
His possessive hands glide up the outsides of my thighs, then hook under my knees and spread me wide, thumbs stroking the tender inner skin until I tremble.
“You let me claim you in public,” he says, gaze locked on mine, voice gravel-rough. “Now let me claim you here.”
He lowers himself slowly, with hot, deliberate breath fanning over my pussy, making me clench in anticipation. Then his mouth is on me: no tentative licks but a long, firm drag of tongue that makes my back bow off the bed. He groans low in his throat, the sound vibrating straight through me.
“That’s it.” His strong hands grip my thighs harder, holding me open, fingers digging into plush flesh with just enough pressure to anchor me. “Let me hear you.”
He devours me with focused intensity, his tongue circling my clit in tight, relentless spirals, then flattening to lap with unhurried strokes that build pressure in devastating layers.
He explores lower, dipping inside to taste deeper, curling to stroke my sensitive walls before returning to suck my clit gently between his lips.
The wet sounds of his mouth on me fill the room, obscene and intimate.
When he slides two thick fingers into me, I cry out. My hips lift to meet his thrusts. He curls them upward, finding that swollen spot inside and rubbing with rhythmic pressure while his tongue never stops its merciless dance on my clit.
“So wet for me,” he murmurs against my pussy, voice reverent and filthy at once. “So responsive. This perfect body opening for me like it was made to.”
The dual assault shatters my control. Pleasure stacks higher, tighter, with my thighs quaking around his shoulders. My hands claw at the sheets. My breath comes in broken sobs. Every stroke of his fingers, every flick of his tongue pushes me closer until I’m teetering on the edge.
“Davin, I’m going to—”
“Come for me.” The command is raw. “Show me how beautiful you are when you let go.”
He sucks harder, fingers curling faster, and the fierce, blinding wave breaks, ripping through me in shuddering pulses that make me sob his name.
My inner walls clamp around his fingers; my hips buck wildly against his mouth.
He doesn’t relent; instead, he draws out every tremor, softening his tongue only when I’m gasping, oversensitive, weakly pushing at his head.
Finally, he eases back, pressing slow, tender kisses along my inner thighs as aftershocks ripple through me. He climbs up my body and gathers me close, chest to chest, one hand stroking the length of my spine in long, soothing sweeps while the other cups the back of my head.
“Okay?” he whispers, lips brushing my temple.
“More than okay.” My voice is wrecked. “That was—”
“Just the beginning.” He tilts my chin up, eyes dark with promise. “I’m nowhere near done showing you what it means to be mine.”
He kisses me, and I taste myself on his tongue. The intimacy makes my eyes sting. He cradles my head with a gentleness that contrasts with the intensity of what just happened.
When he pulls back, he reaches for the blanket and pulls it over us both. “Water?”
“In a minute.” I curl closer to him, my body loose and satisfied. “Just hold me.”
His arms pull me closer. “Always.”
We stay like that without speaking, my cheek pressed to his chest where his heartbeat thuds slow and even beneath his warm skin. Outside the window, the sun continues its descent. Here in this cabin with his body solid around mine and his breath warm against my hair, everything else fades.
“I’m falling for you,” I say. The words feel inevitable, like they’ve been building since the moment he shut down the auction and chose me.
His body goes still beneath me. Then his hand slides into my hair, tilting my face up so he can look at me. “Say it again.”
“I’m falling for you.” My voice is stronger this time. “Falling hard, and I’m not afraid to say it anymore.”
“I’ve already fallen, darling.” His thumb strokes across my cheekbone. “Have since the moment I saw you struggling in your shop window. Since before the auction. I just needed you to be ready to hear it.”
My vision blurs. “You’ve been waiting for me.”
“I’d wait forever if that’s what you needed.” He kisses me again, tender and claiming all at once. “But I’m glad I don’t have to.”
He reaches for a glass of water on the nightstand and hands it to me. “Drink.”
I do. The cool water soothes my throat. He takes the glass when I’m done and sets it aside, then pulls me back against his chest. His hand resumes its soothing path along my spine.
“Tomorrow, we finish the shop,” he says. “Get everything ready for the opening.”
“Together,” I say. The word settles warm in my chest.
Eventually, things begin to blur with exhaustion. The combination of emotional intensity and physical release has left me limp and drowsy. Davin notices, and his voice goes softer.
“Sleep,” he says. “I’ve got you.”
“Stay with me.”
“I’m not going anywhere.” He kisses the top of my head. “I’m exactly where I belong.”
I let my eyes drift closed, his heartbeat a steady rhythm beneath my ear.
His hand moves up my spine, steady and grounding.
Outside, snow falls in the gathering dusk.
Inside this cabin with his arms solid around me and his breath warm against my hair, home stops being a place and becomes something more: him, us, the weight of his body anchoring mine.
Not a place. A person.
This man who claimed me in public and worships me in private. Who sees my strength and celebrates it. Who makes me believe good things might be permanent in my life.
I’m keeping him.
And tomorrow, we’ll start building the life we both want.
But tonight, I rest in his arms and let myself believe that forever is possible.