Chapter Eight #2
The meeting isn’t half as interesting as gathering information with Sylvie was.
I sit beside her as she presents her case to people who look half-bored to be there, but somehow, my passionate little conservationist draws their attention.
And for the ten minutes she’s given, she shows these people—most of whom have never set foot on Adak Island—the beauty of the land and the animals they would be endangering by approving the resort.
She shares footage from locals, including one of Acca, who shares an emotional account about sea lions being integral to the Aleut culture and history, on how she grew up on the island with Stellar sea lions.
Amakvik talks about fishing with his grandfather and how experiencing the sea lions was the best part of it all.
More and more of the people she filmed share eye-witness accounts and stories of Adak Island and their endangered animals.
When the footage runs out, she shares her research, and I see it on their faces—the way they follow along with her.
I can tell she’s convinced the senate to uphold the protections around the Aleutian Islands.
As I watch her, I fall in love with her all over again, and hell, Acca was right. Not that I would ever tell the old woman that in person, but she was right.
I was a fool to let her go.
The ride to her hotel is quiet, her hand firmly clasped in mine.
I read the question in her eyes when I kiss the back of her hand, but she doesn’t voice it.
We don’t talk as we walk across the hotel lobby or stand in the elevator up to her room.
I ought to push everything back and celebrate the win she brought us today.
Call home and inform Acca and the rest that there will be no resort taking root on our island.
I should order champagne and celebrate all the effort she put into this, but I don’t feel deserving of sharing her joy, not after leaving her to do it alone for a week.
But first.
I turn to her the second the hotel room door closes behind us. “Sylvie.”
The words are barely out before I find myself against the wall and lips, soft like the petals of a rose, pressed against mine.
Need sinks into me like an animal, clawing at my chest until I forget the need for a conversation.
My arm circles her waist as the other drops to her ass, lifting her clear off the ground and spinning us around so her back is against the wall.
My mouth opens on hers—filling me with need and hunger unlike anything I’ve ever felt for anyone in my life before.
“Missed you,” she whimpers into the kiss, her fingers settling on my shoulders, cupping my face and dipping into my hair. “Missed you so damn much.”
Fuck.
The weight of her words is like a punch to the gut. And yet again, Acca was right.
“I shouldn’t have let you leave,” I say raggedly, my pulse quickening with every breath that passes between us. “I’m sorry, baby. I shouldn’t have let you leave Adak alone. Not without making sure you’d come back to me.”
She pulls back, those beautiful blue eyes peeking at me through long eyelashes. “You wanted me to come back?”
“I never wanted you to leave in the first place.”
“I thought...” she sighs, dropping her forehead against mine, and I hear her visibly swallow. “I’ve been working myself into a frenzy all week thinking this is the sort of thing you do with other women. I had to force myself to work, or I would have driven myself crazy thinking about it—”
“There’s no one else, Sylvie. There never has been,” I rasp, seeking her lips in a desperate kiss meant to possess. To reclaim what’s mine. “I have never wanted anyone else as much as I want you.”
“Then why did you let me leave?”
“Because you’re perfect and deserve so much more than to be tied to a flawed man like me.”
“And now?” she whispers, her soft breath brushing mine. Her voice needy and her touch gentling in my hair. “Do you still feel the same?”
“Yes, I still think you are the most perfect human, inside and out, and deserve to be with someone much better than an antisocial grump. But the difference is now, I’m not going to let you go. I’m not letting anyone else have you!”
“Good,” she whispers in a shuddering breath. “I want to be with you. Be yours. Remind me I’m yours, Wyatt..”
My cock is hard as nails as I carry her to bed, pulsing achingly behind my zipper, but I ignore it as I’ve done the past week. I didn’t even jerk off when I thought of her—I was punishing myself for letting her go when I could have had the best thing in my life.
No more.
I lay her down on the bed, eyes locked on hers as I press my weight down on top of her.
“I love you,” I say, watching as those beautiful eyes light up with surprise, but I don’t give her much time to react before pressing my lips to hers and sliding my tongue along hers, seeking her flavor.
She moans, hands reaching for my shoulders and tugging at my jacket.
I help her by shrugging it off, and slowly, we undress each other until we’re both naked on the bed, kissing like we’re in the deep end, drowning.
Mine.
The thought slips in as I drag my mouth along the curve of her neck, caressing my hand on the sensitive spot behind her knee.
My mouth moves down to her breasts, dragging my nose over the pink of her flesh before closing my lips hotly around her pebbled nipple.
Her back arches off the bed with a moan, hands tugging my hair as she pulls me hard against her chest. I roll my tongue around the bead even as I slide my hand up her thigh and between her legs.
“Wyatt,” she sighs, moaning when I slide my middle finger between her folds. I groan when I find her wet, and when her pussy clenches hard around my finger, I damn near come in my pants. She tugs at my head, pulling my lips back on hers. “Wyatt… I need you.”
“Let me seduce you, baby,” I breathe, adding a second finger and making a come-hither motion to stroke the sensitive part inside of her. She cries out, hips rising off the bed. “Let me apologize for making you wait.”
“Later,” she pants, reaching between us for my cock. I groan when her fingers wrap around my shaft, stroking me and nearly sending me off the edge. “Apologize later. Need you inside of me.”
“Tsk, so impatient,” I say despite my body roaring to take the woman I’ve thought about for the past week.
“Wyatt!”
I push her thighs wider and fist my erection, watching her as I sink my shaft into her.
“Fuck!” I growl as I bury my aching cock deep inside of her tightness and the familiar warmth of her pussy.
Her arms circle my shoulders as her channel tightens around me.
“Goddamn, baby, you’re so fucking tight.
I must’ve lost my fucking mind to let you leave. ”
“Take me,” she cries out, nails digging into my back and urging me on. So I give in to my baser needs and wrap my hand under her knee and hook it over my hip. I let go of the guilt that’s been hounding me for days and pump hard into her.
“Oh God, yes. Faster,” she cries out, scratching my back as I start to hammer into her, fast and violently.
Time warps as I thrust into her, drinking up every pleasured expression that crosses her face.
Every wild tremor that rolls through her body.
Every moan and sigh that slips through her lips.
Our slick bodies slide together in an erotic dance as I bear into her, every stroke into her slick pussy sending me closer and closer to the edge.
“Come with me baby,” I rasp against her lips, dropping a hand between her legs to tease her clit.
Not long after, she comes apart in my arms.
She orgasms with a scream, her body trembling underneath me as I drive into her, grinding my cock harder, breath ragged, as I chase my release.
When it comes, it floors me. “Goddamn!” I bellow, flattening her to the bed and thrusting into her, faster and harder.
She sobs as I drag her into yet another orgasm, nails tearing at my shoulder as she comes, legs shaking as I pour my cum into her in greedy spurts.
“Wyatt,” she gasps, her body thrashing on the bed with every fevered stroke into her body, every move meant to mark and claim her.
Mine.
“You’re mine,” I roar, pushing my mouth against her ear. “You belong to me, Sylvie. I am not letting you go again.”
“Yes,” she sobs, arms tightening around me as our bodies tremble together. Her pussy flexes around my cock, milking me until I have poured everything into her. Heart and soul too. I collapse on the bed, pulling her into my arms and holding her tight. Her soft body against my hard.
“I love you,” I whisper into her hair, kissing her temple.
Sylvie pushes back and levers herself up, draping her arms over my chest as she looks down at me. I let her look her fill, those beautiful eyes scrutinizing me. “You really mean it.” It’s not a question, so I don’t take it as one.
“I love you.”
There’s warmth in her eyes, and I see it before she leans down and presses her cheek to my chest, listening to the beat of my heart. “I love you,” she whispers. “Those two weeks I spent on Adak were the best of my life, and I want many more like those.”
“They’re yours,” I rasp, my hold tightening around hers. “Forever if you want.”
“I do,” she whispers. “I want forever.”
And just like that, the tight band that’s been squeezing my heart from the moment I boarded that plane finally snaps away. Then everything is perfect.