Chapter Sixteen
“Run.”
Was he serious?
Gina glanced down at her feet, cursing the trendy booties she wore. They were so not designed for a frolic through the woods. But not one to back away from a challenge, she lifted her chin and met his wolfish gaze. “Catch me if you can, rock star.”
Matt grinned.
“One hundred. Ninety-nine…”
Calmly, she moved past her brothers, securing the bumbag around her waist, and inhaled thick night air steeped in the smells of popcorn, beer, and cotton candy.
In front of her, a crew carried equipment off the stage.
Behind her, the band’s tour bus and a line of town cars idly waited.
She could stick to the smooth, paved running trail that meandered through the park.
Whether Gina went left or right, either direction would take her to First Avenue, but that’s not where she wanted Matt to find her.
“Ninety-three. Ninety-two…”
Gina took off her boots, and with one in each hand, she looked toward the trees and ran.
One second, warm asphalt heated her feet, and the next, cool, tender blades tickled the bottom of her soles.
Crazy how this swath of forest grew amid towering concrete and steel.
Scrambling through bushes, she rested her frame against the rough bark of a mighty oak.
Gina couldn’t hear him anymore, but she counted along to the rhythm of his cadence in her head.
Sixty-nine, sixty-eight…
She closed her eyes. The distant din of the festival had faded, replaced by the call of a cricket, the faint, whirring buzz of cicadas.
Gina could almost imagine herself in the middle of a haunted wood, mist coiling around her ankles, the big, bad wolf on the hunt for his prey, closing in from behind her.
Would he take her with a ferocious hunger and tear at her pretty clothes?
Or lay her down gently on the forest floor and lift the hem of her dress?
With anticipation mounting, her heart thumped wildly in her chest.
Forty-seven, forty-six…
She’d lost her bearings, and unsure which way she should go now, Gina darted to a tree up ahead.
Eventually, she would come upon the tall iron fence that bordered the park on the south, the east, and the west. While Coventry Park didn’t come close to Lincoln Park’s twelve hundred acres, it was sizable enough.
Densely forested at the rear and along its winding trails, how would Matt ever be able to find her?
Twenty-five, twenty-four…
Should she pick a spot and stop running? Because zig-zagging from the trunk of one tree to another in her bare feet had her winded already. Nothing looked familiar. Sweat clung to the fine hairs standing on her skin. Dried leaves crunched beneath her toes.
Three.
Two.
I’m coming for you, bunny.
Gina stood still. She looked around and, seeing no one, hid herself beneath the brambles, nestled in a stand of trees. Something small, dark, and furry scurried out from under her, and drawing her knees up to her chest, she let out a shriek.
Did Matt hear it?
The swaying old oaks groaned in response.
She was alone.
Minutes felt like hours. Where the fuck was he? Shouldn’t he have found her by now? Perhaps Matt had meant for her to stay on the lamplit path. Maybe she’d hidden too well. Second-guessing herself, Gina crawled out from beneath the tangle of branches.
A soft, deep chuckle.
She whipped her head around, scanning the trees in every direction, but no one was there. “Matt, is that you?”
Even the crickets were quiet.
A twig snapped.
The hair on the back of her neck prickled. Her heart pounding, Gina took a careful step, and then, with a surge of adrenaline, she ran.
Something or someone was behind her. Was it a coyote? Because just the other day, they spotted one in the subway—it was on the news! Gina couldn’t see it or hear it, but she could feel its eyes on her.
And whatever it was, it was getting closer.
Fanculo! Fucking hell.
Her feet stung. A thorn piercing the tender skin, she yelped. Tired and out of breath, she didn’t see the gnarled root protruding from the ground and fell onto her knees.
Panting, Gina rested. Just for a moment. Just until she could catch her breath.
Who’s afraid of the big, bad wolf? Not me. A coyote, though? Yeah, maybe.
She wet her lips and, digging her fingers in the dirt to gain purchase, Gina sought to get back up again.
An arm shot around her middle, gripping her against solid warmth like a vise. She smelled the familiar, masculine scent of him, and with relief flooding through her, Gina sagged in his hold to rest her head back on his chest.
He didn’t say a word.
Warm breath fanned her hair, fingers pulling up her dress. Matt reached inside her panties, a soft growl in her ear. She was soaked.
The hardness inside his jeans pressed into the split of her ass. Clutching his forearm, Gina pushed back against him in a silent invitation to fuck her. Here. Now. Amongst the trees. Let the stars above be witness to her undoing. Right then, she didn’t care who might see.
With his fingers pumping in her cunt, he leaned her forward. She braced herself on the wide trunk of a giant oak, the rough bark biting into her palms. Matt kicked her feet apart, and plunging deeper inside her, his teeth raked across her neck.
Fuck me. Please.
As good as it felt, Gina wanted more than his fingers.
She heard the button pop, his zipper open.
Hot, hard flesh prodded at her needy, wet hole.
And with one savage thrust, he drove his cock inside her.
This wasn’t exactly how Matt had planned it.
He’d intended to chase his beautiful bunny to the house, corner her in the back garden, tear off that pretty white dress, and fuck her beneath the silver moonlit canopy, on a bed of soft, green grass.
But then, she fell.
And with her pliant body cushioned against his, he realized Gina didn’t know the code to the park gate, anyway.
So, this would do. It was better, even. Hidden inside the arms of an ancient oak, nobody could see them here. No one would hear her cries when she came.
She taunted him, rubbing her sweet little ass against his dick. And after four months of pursuing her, Matt was done waiting. His baser nature prevailed and, wrapping her hair around his fist, he slammed himself home.
Fucking Christ.
Gina tightened around him, her silky, wet warmth fitting like a glove that was one size too small. Matt could stay here, inside her like this, not moving, and die a fortunate man. But the animal that dwelled within had other ideas.
He wanted to rut.
To conquer.
To claim.
Moonlight flickering through the leaves made patterns on her skin.
He released her hair and watched it fall to the side, then pressed his fingers down her spine, tearing through the thin white straps that crisscrossed her back as he went.
In appreciation of the delicate beauty before him, a growl rose from his chest. Matt tried to hold back, to keep himself in check, but he’d been wanting Gina for so long, and now, he’d never get enough of her.
He gripped her hips, driving his cock even deeper inside.
Gina met him thrust for thrust, and every time, a sound he’d never heard before bellowed from deep inside her throat.
He wasn’t sure how to describe it. A whimper?
A cry? A moan? None of those were right, but no matter what the sound was, he didn’t want it to stop.
They spurred him on, urging him to go faster. Harder. To make her come for him.
Sweat dripped from his brow to sting his eyes. Matt tipped his face up toward the sky and closed them, savoring the sublime sensations of her body. Gliding in warm butter, he could feel the tiny grooves of her wondrous walls stroke the head of his dick.
His pleasure and hers.
Submerged inside Gina, nothing else mattered.
Matt could feel it. Every ridge of her insides.
Balls tightening, his cock heated and swelled.
Close to the point of no return, he pressed into her clit as electrical pulses shot up his shaft, and that indescribable sound she made—a keening cry.
It echoed in his ears, drowning out the roar that came with his release.
Matt lifted Gina into his arms, legs shaking, her knees close to buckling. He kissed her. And holding her close to his chest, he carried her home.
“What happens now?” she asked as he set her feet down on the mosaic tiles of his bedroom en suite.
Smiling, he plucked a twig from her hair. “Now, I get to take care of you.”
Gina clutched her dress to her breasts, her gaze clouding, as if she didn’t quite understand his meaning, and that was okay. He’d show her. The loving doesn’t end with an orgasm. It’s only the beginning.
Matt took her hands in his, and as he kissed her fingers, the tattered cloth she held within them drifted to the floor. He kissed her neck, along her jaw, and when he reached her tender lips, he whispered, “I love you.”
Skin to skin, he held her to his chest. With those enchanting eyes gazing up at him, her fingers twined in his hair, and he kissed her, soft and deep and slow. She was his now, and nothing could ever take her from him.
He reached into the walk-in shower and turned on the water. Then, taking Gina by the hand, Matt led her inside. She stood just out of the spray, watching him as he poured some Japanese hinoki body wash into his palm. “C’mere.”
Gina came closer, and starting at her nape, he massaged the fragrant cleanser into her skin. His fingers traveled over her shoulders, along her collar bone, and down between her breasts to her tummy. Gently, he pressed in until her shapely ass rested against his thighs.
With a dreamy sigh, her head fell onto his shoulder. “God, what are you doing to me?”
Fine mist falling onto her beautiful face, Matt poured more soap into his hands. “Has no one ever seen to your needs before?”
“No.”
“Then he was a fool.” He turned Gina to face him, his thumbs grazing her nipples, and she gasped. “But I’m not.”
His knees dropped to the tile floor, and with his soapy hands sliding between her thighs, Matt spread her legs apart. He buried his face in her pussy, inhaling the musky scent of what he’d left inside her, and, with no hesitation at all, his tongue sought her sweetness.
“Matt,” she squeaked, trying to wiggle out of his hold. “We just…”
But ravenous, he held her firm. Licking her slit.
Slurping on her opening. Juice from her cunt flooded his mouth, and he groaned.
Her thighs trembling, Gina held onto his shoulders.
Matt pushed two fingers inside her, then with his free hand, retracted the hood of her clit, exposing the extra-sensitive glans.
His lips brushed over the sentient nub of flesh before sucking it into his mouth.
He held onto it with his teeth, all the while pumping his agile fingers in and out of her.
Gina’s knees gave way. Matt caught her, and easing her body down onto his, they lay together on the shower floor, its warm, gentle rainfall washing over them.
“Didn’t I tell you I’d catch you, bunny?”
Her face burrowed into his neck.
He pressed his lips to her brow.
“You’re mine to care for now.”
Forever and always.