Chapter Thirty-Two
ALL AT ONCE, HUNTER got why people risked everything for love. As Emma stared up at him, the sheer joy that filled him was almost too much to bear. He was a freaking cartoon character with hearts in his eyes, a lightbulb going off over his head.
And Emma was right, of course. There was no need to rush into cohabitation, or anything else for that matter.
But he had no doubt in his mind now that they were building a life together.
They’d sort out the details in their own time, but they were done playing it safe. All their cards were on the table.
And if fate decided to mess with them now? If everything ended up going to shit? They’d handle it. Together. The feeling welling up inside him, with her in his arms and their whole future spread out before them… It was worth it.
Especially when she threw herself at him and basically attacked him with her mouth.
He kissed her back, all the banked desire he’d been trying to hold at bay while they’d been talking about their feelings breaking loose at once.
“Hunter,” she groaned.
His name in that low, needy tone went straight to his erection. It hadn’t flagged a bit, even during the most serious parts of their conversation, but he somehow grew even harder.
“Anything else we need to talk about?” he panted.
“Yeah—”
Shit. “What?”
Her hot gaze met his. “The fact that we’re wearing way too many clothes.”
“Oh, thank God.”
With that, he really let go, hauling her in against his body. He got his hands on her perfect, round ass and lifted her. She was right there with him, climbing his body, grasping him by the back of his neck and wrapping her legs around his waist.
A rough growl of pure desire escaped him at the feeling of her hot center pressing against him through their clothing. He had similar complaints about all the offending fabric in the way, but how was he supposed to let her go long enough to take it off?
He kissed her and kissed her, one hand supporting her, while with the other he tried to take in every inch of her. He clasped her hip and traced a palm up her side, cupped her breast, before threading his fingers through her silky hair.
What the hell had he been thinking? Even considering walking away from this—from her? Just because someday he might lose her?
“Never letting you go,” he rasped between kisses, the words too reverent for the filthy way he was rocking his body into hers.
“Never letting you let me go,” she agreed, and then she slid her lips down his jaw and sucked on the tender spot at the side of his neck.
His erection kicked, and he clutched her closer. He couldn’t get enough, and this was stupid—making out in the middle of her living room.
While she turned him inside out, sucking on his pulse point, he staggered forward. Her bedroom was around here somewhere, but his brain had gone offline.
He made it as far as the hall, and he couldn’t take it anymore.
He pressed her into the wall, and oh, yes—holy hell, yes.
She moaned as he ground against her properly.
With the wall helping him hold her up, his hands were more free to explore.
He caressed her breasts and kissed her mouth and returned the vampiric favor, licking a hot line down the column of her throat.
Tipping her head to the side to give him better access, she slipped her hands under the hem of his shirt. He growled and shrugged his flannel off, but he couldn’t do any better like this.
Regretfully, he set her down on her feet. He reached behind his head to grasp the T-shirt he’d had on underneath and tore it off, before grasping her shirt and shoving it upward. She helped, and he got her bra undone.
When he pulled her in again this time it was all skin on skin, her nipples tight beads of desire, and she choked when he rubbed the sensitive peaks between his finger and his thumb.
He kept kissing down her chest, kneeling to take one breast in his mouth and then the other.
Arching backward, she scraped her nails through his hair, and it lit him up inside.
He pulled away to look at her, and his cock throbbed, and his heart did, too.
“You’re so beautiful,” he managed to say.
Her soft lips curled upward, and she drifted her fingertips over his beard and down his neck. “So are you.”
He laughed, because he didn’t know about that. But he’d never, ever felt better than he had with her. He’d never felt so wanted or so seen. Everything was beautiful, and the world was full of color.
He pressed his brow to her stomach, and for a second, he just breathed.
Then, slowly, he looked up. And he curled his fingers in the waistband of her jeans.
Emma’s body was on fire, her breath coming too fast. Her legs trembled as Hunter gazed up at her in question. Without a beat of hesitation, she nodded.
Kneeling in front of her, he undid the button of her jeans, then pulled the zipper down tooth by tooth.
He tugged the denim down, along with the silky fabric of her underwear.
As he did, he leaned in and ran his lips along the hollow of her hip, dipping lower.
Her breath stuttered when he pressed a soft kiss to the top of her sex.
Together, they got her clothes the rest of the way off, but before she could move to return the favor, he was pressing her back into the wall, one big, proprietary hand splayed wide across her belly.
He slipped the other between her legs, touching her where she was all wet and swollen and so, so ready for him. He licked his lips and raised a brow.
“Yes, please,” she breathed.
He smiled and dove in, spreading her with his fingers and licking all along the length of her opening.
She widened her stance and curled her hand around the nape of his neck, and it felt so wanton—standing there against the wall, holding his head between her legs. She felt powerful and sexy and adored.
And good lord, the man knew what to do with his tongue.
Raking her nails through his scalp, she arched into the motions of his mouth against her most sensitive parts.
He teased her at first, dipping in and out of her, darting occasionally up to her clit and back down.
But as her moans got louder, he zeroed in on his target.
Hot pleasure bloomed within her, growing with every soft lap of his tongue.
Then he slipped two fingers inside, and she gasped aloud.
“That’s it.” She gave his hair a tug, her eyes falling shut as she tipped her head back. “Right there.”
He chased her pleasure, licking faster and faster until there was nothing left to do but melt. Her climax burned through her in a blaze—only it wasn’t enough.
The second she came back to earth, she snapped open her eyes. He pulled away, wiping the back of his wrist over his mouth and gazing up at her with such reverence in his eyes that her chest ached.
She sank to her knees, too, and kissed him. He tasted like her, and she pulsed inside as she reached for his fly.
He groaned aloud when she pushed his pants and underwear down. His huge length sprang free, thick and hard and glistening at the tip.
“We should—” he panted, but he lost the thread when she curled a hand around his hardness.
Kissing his words from his mouth, she pushed him backward.
He landed on the hardwood floor with a groan, and she settled astride him.
She braced her hands on his shoulders, soaking in the solid strength of him as she grazed her teeth along his bottom lip.
Groaning, he cupped her breasts. His hot, rough hands had her nipples straining, and jolts of electricity shot to her needy center.
Slowly, she lowered herself down until she was gliding along the length of him.
The sound he made as her hot flesh met his reached right inside her.
“We should,” he breathed again, his hands going to her hips as if to stop her, and he was right. They should get a condom or go someplace more comfortable or at least get off the floor, but she didn’t care.
“I’m protected.” She glided back and forth over him again, grinding her clit against his crown and fluttering inside.
He froze. “Are you sure?”
She loved that he asked. “Yeah. Yeah.” She kissed him again, still moving against him. “Want to feel you…”
“Emma,” he groaned, “God, yes—”
The next time she slid forward, she kept going, and then the thick head of him was pressed right up against her opening. Her breath caught. He reached a hand between them to angle himself just that little bit higher.
When she sank down on him, it was with nothing between them. No secrets, no holding back.
“You feel amazing,” he babbled. “Holy hell, Emma, Emma—”
“You do, too.” All hot and thick and filling her up, her wetness easing the way.
When her hips met his, she stilled, her mouth open against his as the sheer pleasure of having him inside her ignited sparks behind her eyes.
She just held there for a minute, as joined as two people could be, rocking gently.
Her swollen clit throbbed with pleasure.
It didn’t matter that he’d just made her come with his mouth two minutes ago.
Being with him like this was a kind of completeness she’d never felt before. Had never imagined could be hers.
“I love you,” she breathed, starting to move.
He moaned, laughing with pleasure, eyes rolling back in his head. “I love you so fucking much.”
She kissed the profanity from his lips and rose and fell on the delicious length of him, over and over. He guided her with one hand on her face and the other at the dip of her waist.
The floor was killing her knees, though, her legs jelly. She kept going for a beat before asking, “Can we—?”
She leaned to the side, and he groaned. “Oh, hell, yes.”
A gasping whine of absolute pleasure fell out of her as she landed on her back, his body still buried within her.
She was spread so wide like this, speared on him.
Hooking her ankles behind his back, she let her hands roam the firm muscles of his shoulders and down his spine.
He kissed her throat and the point of her jaw and her ear, and then his mouth was on hers again.
Sucking on his tongue, she arched into his every stroke as he set up a fast, hard rhythm that had her ready to shatter within minutes.
“Perfect,” she breathed. “You’re so perfect—”
He shook his head.
“Perfect for me,” she managed to clarify, and all rational thought was flying out of her brain, but it didn’t matter. Some truths were too obvious to deny.
He laughed hoarsely, slowing his pace and driving in deep, deep, deep.
His gaze met hers. “Emma…”
“Hunter.” Her vision blurred, her love almost too much to bear.
Staring deep into her eyes, he pressed into her again and again, steady and smooth. The crest of oblivion was falling over her, but there was no rushing it or holding it back. She met his every stroke instead, pulling him closer until their breaths were one.
“I’m—” he started.
“Me, too.”
He slammed into her half a dozen more times, grinding in deep and putting exactly the right pressure on her clit. Flexing her muscles, she pressed up into him, and then she was there.
She cried out his name, and he moaned hers, kissing her as they both fell into ecstasy together. The warm pulse of his body within hers set off fresh waves of aftershocks that extended her pleasure until he was collapsing over her and breathing roughly into her hair.
They lay there like that for long minutes. He was so careful not to crush her, but she luxuriated in the weight of his body grounding hers. The lingering power of connection radiated through her.
Finally, he slipped free and rolled over onto his back beside her. As he did, he laughed.
He gestured with a limp hand down the hall. “There’s a bed! Right there!”
“I know.” She laughed, too, snuggling into his side and pressing her mouth to his shoulder. “But it was fun to try something new.”
He hugged her closer. “Tell me that when both our knees are bruised tomorrow.”
“Worth it.”
Craning his neck, he captured her mouth once more. His eyes were soft and his hands softer. “Absolutely.”
But she was pretty sure he was talking about a whole lot more than just their knees.