Chapter 27 #3
Hunter brings his face to mine again and nips at my lower lip. The slight sting makes me gasp. He pulls my body impossibly close. A jolt of desire runs through me at the sound of his shuddering breath along the shell of my ear. I moan, unable to stop the animalistic sound from escaping.
Hunter’s hands move down the sides of my breasts, then over my ribs, before he reaches around to grip my ass, hard. I feel the shift in his body as he thickens against my inner thigh. Without thinking, I reach between us and take him in my hand. He groans, his eyes slipping closed for a moment.
Something hungry unfurls within me. This is what I crave—here at the edge of the world, with darkness pressing in. I need to feel something real, before it all slips away.
“I want you,” I say, breathless. I brush my lips down the side of his neck, to kiss the spot where his pulse thrums beneath his skin.
He lets out a guttural noise from deep in his chest. “Sienna, I’ve wanted you every day since you left.”
I push him back onto the damp moss and leaves. Our chests rise and fall as we stare into each other’s eyes. My breasts just barely trail over his chest as I lean forward. He grows even harder, pressed against my sex.
“Then take me.” I say, slowly, urgently.
He does.
Hunter wraps his arms around my back, flipping me onto the soft ground. Scarlet and gold leaves tangle in my hair. He bites my skin as he trails his mouth down, down, down my body until he’s a breath away from the parts of me that ache with need. The parts that hunger for more.
He gives me a very un-Hunter-like grin, one that promises something illicit.
Something seductive. He wraps my legs over his shoulders and dips his head, as if in prayer.
He tastes me like I’m the sweetest flavor he’s ever had, taking his time, making me want to scream out in rising need.
I grab his hair like I’m going to fly away and he’s the only thing keeping me grounded.
Hunter moves his tongue in gentle circles, exploring every corner of my hidden places. My legs clench involuntarily around his neck as heat travels up my body, toward my flushed face.
Is this what love feels like? The ecstasy of a man’s touch?
The trust of another person, so complete, that you’ll allow them to feel your most vulnerable places?
Even as the thought flickers across my mind, I know that I want this to be love …
but I’m not convinced I’m capable of that emotion anymore.
What I do know, without the shadow of a doubt, is that I need to feel the weight of his body so desperately, I can hardly focus.
“You,” I gasp. “I need you.”
He comes up for air. “Are you sure?” He’s breathing heavy now, his chest rising and falling. I sit up and grab his chin, his stubble rough against my fingertips.
“I’m sure.” I kiss his mouth, slow and deep, the taste of me still on his lips.
He moans as he gives in. Tension coils deep in my body, begging to be released. Hunter cradles my head in one hand and lowers me back onto the moss. The late afternoon sun haloes around him as he pauses above me, his blond hair catching the golden light.
He holds my gaze as he settles between my thighs. Every nerve pulls tight with anticipation. Hunter leans in, kisses me softly, and sinks deep into me with a breathless reverence. Sparks flash behind my eyes as I finally feel the pressure, the fullness I craved.
“Harder,” I beg.
As if that’s all the permission he needed, he loses himself in the moment.
Hunter forgets about being the sweet, lovestruck gentleman.
He thrusts into me, hard and needy. I completely unravel as he does it again and again, our bodies growing slick against each other.
I am an animal of the deep, dark forest, consumed by need rather than thought.
It feels so good not to think. Not to worry, or plot, or care. Just to be here together, alive.
“More.” My nails scrape across his back in my desperation to pull him closer.
He gives it. All of it. We are gasping, clawing at each other.
Our chests rise and fall as one as he takes me to a place I’ve never been.
To a delicious pain I never knew existed.
His breath grows quicker, louder, mixing with mine in a slurry of abandon.
Out here in this enchanted forest, the rules and limits of propriety are gone.
We lose ourselves in the intoxicating nectar of illicit lust.
The world fractures, the tension inside me shattering in a rush.
Light flashes behind my eyes and my limbs tremble as I gasp, helpless against the surge of release.
My body tightens around him and he thrusts once, twice, then pulls away just in time.
He meets me here, in this place of indescribable bliss.
After, we cling together on the leaf-covered ground, unwilling to let the real world seep back in, like water hovering along the edge of a page. As we lie on the cool forest floor, I know one thing for certain.
I almost lost Hunter today. But now, he’s mine forever.