42. Chapter Forty-Two
MATT
Matt led Anna through the trees that formed the property line between Mrs. Campbell’s property and his parents’. She came with him willingly, as eager as he was for some time alone. And thank God for that. He had been afraid her feelings for him might have cooled over the last few weeks, but he should have known better. Croies didn’t work that way.
Yes, he’d finally accepted the truth that he’d been so desperate to deny. Now that he’d be staying in Pine Ridge, there was no reason not to admit it. His decision to move forward had nothing to do with his uncles’ threats to kidnap them both and lock them in a one-room cabin in the middle of the woods until they sorted things out.
Although being locked in an isolated cabin with Anna for days or even weeks on end sounded pretty good. Maybe he’d book one for the fall, when the leaves were ablaze with color, and they could spend cool nights naked in front of the fire …
Given how she’d recently been abducted, however, he didn’t want to do anything that would dredge up those memories. When they booked that cabin, she’d be one hundred percent aware and on board.
“Get in,” he said, opening the passenger door of the Rover. He put his hands around her waist and lifted her into the seat, stealing another kiss as he did.
Jogging around to the other side, he got in, started the engine, and hit the gas. Phase one—acquisition—was complete. Now that he had her, he was anxious to get to phase two.
She patted her pockets. “Wait. I don’t have my phone.”
“You don’t need a phone.”
“I should let Mrs. Campbell know.”
“She knows.”
“She—” Anna halted abruptly, her beautiful mind putting the pieces together. The arrival of his mother and siblings. The impromptu game night. The request to go to the shed. All preplanned. “This was a setup?”
His answer was a grin. She laughed, the sound like music to his ears.
“You’re seriously not going to tell me where we’re going?”
“It’s a surprise. You trust me, don’t you?”
The question sounded light and innocent enough, but her answer was really important. He wanted her trust as much as he wanted her.
She didn’t answer right away, but when she said, “Yes,” his chest felt like it was filled with sunshine.
Matt drove down into town, then crossed the river into Birch Falls. Bypassing the town proper, he proceeded up the mountain to a lake.
Yes, he’d taken a page out of Kieran’s playbook.
The first time Matt had been here, he’d been fourteen years old. Kieran had “rescued” him and his mother from Mrs. Campbell’s annual matchmaker barbecue and brought them here, to a sixty-foot custom-built houseboat kept at a private dock owned by the Connellys, the Birch Falls branch of the clan.
And like he and Faith had been then, Anna was dutifully impressed. Especially when she discovered the baskets of five-star cuisine, personally prepared by the head chef at the Celtic Goddess—who just happened to be Matt’s aunt Lexi—and the dozens of battery-operated lanterns placed around the open sky deck, waiting for them.
“Are you kidding me right now?” she breathed.
“Not even a little. Make yourself comfortable,” he said, pointing to the deck chairs. “It’s a big lake. It’s going to take a bit to get to where we’re going.”
“Where are you going to be?” she asked.
“Driving the boat.”
She worried her bottom lip, then asked, “Can I be with you instead?”
If his heart didn’t already belong to this woman, it would have in that moment.
Matt maneuvered the craft expertly, just like Kieran had taught him, to a secluded area on the uninhabited side of the lake, where he lowered the anchor. Matt’s plans were to eat a candlelit dinner in the windowed cabin, then have wine on the deck and look at the stars. Romantic. Respectful. No pressure.
Those plans went to hell when Anna came up behind him, put her arms around his waist, and laid her head against his back. Her touch, the feel of her body pressed against his, were like IEDs to his self-control.
Then, her hands slipped under the hem of his shirt and touched his bare flesh. Over his abs. Up to his pecs. Her fingers teased the piercings in his nipples, sending fiery-hot bolts of lust right down his cock.
“What are you doing, Anna?”
“If you have to ask, I must be doing it wrong.”
There was absolutely nothing wrong with what she was doing. In fact, she was doing everything incredibly right.
“If you keep touching me like that, I’m not going to be able to remain a gentleman.”
“I’m okay with that.”
His heart kicked into high gear, along with other parts that wanted to go along for the ride.
He turned in her arms. She looked up at him, her obsidian eyes reflecting the stars beneath heavy lids. Her lips were slightly parted. Against his chest, he felt her hardened peaks through the thin layers of cotton that separated them.
He wanted her. So badly. His mind was a whirlwind of want and need, coming up with dozens of ways to get her naked, to pleasure her, to connect to her in the way only true croies could. But before his lust carried him too far away from rational thought, he should probably tell her that?—
She reached between them and ran her palm along the length of him, effectively sending a cease and desist to that rational nonsense.
“Anna,” he breathed.
He watched in rapt fascination as she unfastened his jeans, reached into his boxer briefs, and bare-handed him.
“Fuck!” He closed his eyes and dropped his head back.
She felt so good. He wanted to drown in her touch and stay there forever.
Then, he felt her tongue. His head whipped back so fast, and there she was, on her knees before him, like his hottest erotic fantasy.
But he couldn’t allow her to do this. He was already so close to the edge just from being around her, and his first time with his croie was not going to begin like this.
He cupped her under the arms and lifted her up in a swift, smooth movement.
“What—” she began to protest.
“Hush,” he commanded, striding away from the helm and toward the deck. There, he laid her out and began to unwrap her like a present, silencing any further protests with his mouth on her flesh.
When she was completely naked, he sat back and looked at her. She was glorious. Her skin, flushed with passion, glowed beneath the moonlight. Her eyes, heavy-lidded and lust-drunk. Her hair, fanned out around her.
“You’re so beautiful.” His voice was nothing but a guttural growl, but she seemed to like it.
She opened her arms and spread her legs in invitation, and he was so there. He shed his clothes quickly, then positioned himself between her legs, letting his cock sit heavy above her sex.
Was it fast? Yes.
Did he care? Not a damn bit, not as long as she was right there with him, egging him on.
She lifted her hips, trying to get him where she wanted him, but he wanted to savor the moment. There would be many, many more times like this, but they would only ever have one first time.
He relished the feel of her body beneath his. Her perfect breasts pressing against his chest. The smooth glide of her inner thighs along his hips. Her nails dug into his shoulders. His back. His ass.
Coaxing. Encouraging.
When he could stand her begging pleas no longer, he positioned himself at her entrance. His wet tip slid right into place in her slick sex. Then, he eased forward, spearing her, basking in the feel of her legs wrapping around his hips, pulling him in deeper.
He made love to her beneath the stars, witnessed only by the sky above and the water below. Slowly and thoroughly, wanting to imprint himself on her so deeply that she felt him inside her always. Only when she gasped his name and clenched around him so hard that he saw stars of his own, did he give himself over to his own release.