Chapter 15 - Bryan
The security briefing runs an hour longer than expected, and by the time I finally escape, the sun has already begun its descent toward the tree line.
James kept us late going over patrol rotations and backup plans. His concern about Rafe’s prolonged silence was evident in the way he kept circling back to worst-case scenarios. He just couldn’t seem to let the discussion end.
Connor shared intel from his contacts in neighboring territories, and none of it was good. The Cheslem remnants have been spotted moving in patterns, testing boundaries, and probing for weaknesses. Everyone agrees an attack is coming. We just don’t know when or where.
My mind is still churning through tactical possibilities as I make my way back to the cabin, but all of that evaporates the moment I round the corner and see Skylar.
She’s sitting on the porch steps with her knees to her chest and her arms wrapped loosely around them.
The fading golden light catches the copper threads in her hair like a halo.
Something has changed since I left this morning.
I can see it in the set of her shoulders and how she’s watching me so nervously.
My wolf stirs beneath my skin, recognizing something in the way she’s looking at me that makes him want to howl.
“Hey,” I say as I climb the first step. “Everything okay?”
She doesn’t answer. Instead, she rises to her feet and keeps her eyes locked on mine. For a long moment, she just stands there, close enough that I can smell the faint sweetness of her skin underneath.
Then she turns and walks inside without a word.
At the doorway, she glances back over her shoulder. The look she gives me is an unmistakable invitation.
So, I follow.
The cabin is quiet except for the sound of our footsteps on the wooden floor.
Skylar walks through the living room without stopping and heads straight for the bedroom.
My heart pounds against my ribs as I trail behind her, watching the sway of her hips and the way her fingers brush against the doorframe as she passes through.
She stops beside the bed and turns to face me.
“I’m tired of fighting it,” she announces unprompted. “I’m tired of pretending I don’t want you, and I’m tired of lying awake every night knowing you’re just on the other side of that wall.”
“I need you to be certain. After everything that’s happened between us, I need to know this is what you actually want.”
She crosses the distance between us and places her palm flat against my chest, right over my racing heart. “Does that answer your question?”
I cover her hand with mine and flatten it harder against my sternum. “Say the words.”
“I want you, Bryan. I want this. I want us.”
Some final barrier I didn’t even realize I was still holding in place crumbles to the ground.
I gather her face in my hands and bring my mouth to hers, kissing her slowly, thoroughly, with none of the frantic desperation of our first time together.
This isn’t about releasing pressure or giving in to urges we couldn’t control.
This is a choice. A conscious decision to move forward instead of staying frozen in the wreckage of our past.
Skylar melts into me, fisting her hands in the fabric of my shirt as she pulls me closer.
I walk her backward toward the bed, never breaking the kiss, savoring the soft sounds she makes when my tongue strokes against hers.
When the backs of her knees hit the mattress, I ease her down gently before following her onto the bed and bracing myself above her on my forearms.
“You’re beautiful,” I mumble against her lips. “Every single inch of you.”
She tugs at my shirt, and I lean back long enough to pull it over my head and toss it aside. Her hands find my chest again within a second, and she runs her fingers along the lines of muscle and scar tissue with a tenderness that makes my breath catch.
“I missed this,” she muses, almost to herself.
“Missed what?”
“Touching you. Being able to touch you whenever I want. I keep telling myself I don’t want to. But I do. Every single day.”
Instead, she reaches up and drags her fingertip over one of the longer marks, following its path from my collarbone down to my ribs. “Do they hurt?”
“Not anymore.”
“Good.” She pulls me back down to her, and her soft curves pressing against my bare chest makes me groan into her mouth.
I take my time undressing her, peeling away each layer like I’m unwrapping a gift.
Her shirt goes first, revealing a simple cotton bra that somehow looks sexier than any lace could.
I press my lips to the swell of her breast above the fabric, and she arches into the contact with a gasp.
I reach beneath her and unclasp the bra and pull it away to reveal the full, heavy weight of her breasts.
My mouth waters at the sight of her nipples, already peaked and waiting for my attention.
I lower my head and draw one into my mouth, sucking gently while my hand cups the other, kneading the soft flesh.
Skylar moans and buries her fingers through my hair, holding me against her.
I lavish attention on one breast, then the other, licking and sucking and nipping until she’s writhing beneath me with her hips rocking up in search of friction.
Her jeans follow next; she slides them down her legs, and they join my shirt on the floor.
I kiss her stomach as I work my way lower, pausing to swirl my tongue around her navel before continuing my descent.
When I reach the waistband of her underwear, I look up at her face.
She’s watching me with hooded eyes, with her lips parted and her chest heaving.
“I want to taste you,” I tell her as I hook my fingers under the elastic. “I want to make you come on my tongue before I’m inside you.”
She nods frantically as she lifts her hips to help me remove the last barrier between us. I drag the fabric down her legs and toss it aside, and then she’s completely bare underneath me with her soft skin and generous curves laid out like a feast.
I take my place between her thighs and breathe her in. The musky sweet scent of her arousal makes my cock throb against my jeans. I press a kiss to the inside of her thigh, then the other, teasing her as I work my way toward her center. She squirms impatiently, and I chuckle against her skin.
“Bryan, please.”
“Please what?”
“You know what. Stop teasing me.”
I give her what she wants. I drag my tongue through her slick folds in one long, slow stroke. The taste of her explodes across my tongue, and I groan against her flesh. The vibration makes her cry out. She’s soaking wet, and her arousal coats my lips and chin as I feast.
I circle her clit with the tip of my tongue, then pull back to tease her entrance, dipping inside to gather more of her sweetness before returning to that sensitive bundle of nerves.
Skylar’s thighs tremble on either side of my head, and her fingers hold onto my hair so tight it stings.
I love it. I want her to use me, to take whatever she needs from my mouth and hands and body.
I slide two fingers inside her while my tongue works her clit in steady circles. Her inner walls immediately suction onto my fingers with desperate need. I curl them forward, searching for that spot that made her scream last time, and when I find it, her entire body bows off the mattress.
When she speaks, her voice has gone high and breathy. “Yes! God, Bryan, right there, don’t stop.”
At her urging, I pump my fingers in and out of her tight heat while my tongue flicks against her clit, building her higher with every stroke, every lick, every press of my lips against her most sensitive flesh.
She’s getting close; I can feel it in the way her muscles are starting to clench and the way her moans are climbing in pitch.
“Let go,” I plead against her. “I want to feel you come apart.”
She shatters with a scream, bucking her hips against my face as release takes hold. I drink in every tremor, every aftershock, working her through the orgasm until she’s gasping and pushing weakly at my shoulders.
I crawl up her body and kiss her deeply, letting her taste herself on my lips.
While our tongues tangle, I shove my jeans and boxers down my legs and kick them off, finally freeing my aching cock.
I position myself at her entrance, the swollen head nudging against her slick folds, and our gazes lock.
“I love you.” The words spill out before I can stop them, but now that I’ve started, I can’t stop. I need her to hear them. “I’ve always loved you. Even when I was gone, even when I was trying to convince myself I’d made the right choice, I never stopped. Not for a single day.”
She doesn’t say it back. I didn’t expect her to. But she pulls my mouth down to hers and kisses me, and for now, that’s enough.
I push inside her slowly, inch by inch, letting her feel every bit of me as I fill her. She breaks the kiss to gasp, and her nails bite into my shoulders as her body stretches to accommodate me.
This is the woman I’ve loved since I was barely more than a boy. The woman I walked away from to protect, even knowing it would destroy us both. The woman who somehow, impossibly, just might give me another chance.
I pull back slowly, then push forward again in a long, smooth stroke. Skylar moans and wraps her legs around my waist, urging me deeper. We move together in a rhythm that builds gradually, each thrust pushing us both closer to the edge.
I brace myself on one arm and slide the other beneath her lower back, tilting her hips to change the angle. The new position makes her cry out as I hit deeper than before.
“You feel incredible,” I groan against her throat. “So tight, so warm. Like you were made for me.”
I drive into her with increasing force, tapping the headboard against the wall with every thrust. The sounds filling the room are obscene and perfect: the slap of skin against skin, her moans, and my ragged breathing.