He slams into me in one hard, long stroke, pinning me against the tree as he impales me on his length. I gasp at the sudden overload of sensations as the bark behind me digs into my skin and my core clenches around the sudden intrusion.
“Too hard?” he rasps, his hips freezing.
“No.” I wrap my other arm around his neck too, holding on to him as I try to catch my breath. “Perfect.”
He draws his head back a fraction of an inch, just enough to get a better look at my face without opening up any space between our bodies. His rugged features are full of nothing but warmth and desire as he stares down at me, all the heartbreaking rage from earlier wiped away.
“I fucking love you, moonlight,” he murmurs.
My heart seems to expand in my chest, and I nod slightly. “I love you too.”
As if those words were the only thing in the world he needed to hear, Dare draws out of me and slides back in, dropping his lips to mine as he does. We kiss as hard and deep as we fuck, our teeth clashing together as his thrusts grow faster.
I was right. He was already close to coming. I can feel it in the tension that gathers in his shoulders, the harsh way he breathes as he drives into me.
There’s something almost… violent about coming together like this, something animalistic and rough. I’ll be bruised later, my neck and thighs marked by him and my back scratched by the bark of the tree. He’ll probably have marks on his back from where my fingernails dig little crescent-shaped divots into his skin too.
But everything about it, even the slight pain, feels so damn good.
If we were trying to purge our demons earlier, they’re gone now—at least, for the moment. All that’s left is me and Dare and the consuming love that burns between us, driving us to cling to each other, to grope and kiss and grind against each other as if we’re trying to force our bodies closer than is physically possible. As if we’re trying to crawl inside each other’s skin.
The intensity of my need for him is almost frightening, but instead of shrinking away from it, I give myself over to it, sliding my tongue over his as I drink up his hot kisses.
“Fuck. Oh God, Sable. Fuck!”
Dare wrenches his lips away from mine on a grunt. His hips stutter and jerk as he thrusts in two more times and then circles them against me, pressing me harder to the tree as his cock pulses in my channel. I squeeze around him, wanting him to feel every bit of me as he comes, wanting to draw out every last drop of his release.
As my muscles clench tightly around his length, a second orgasm catches me by surprise, spreading outward from my core. I let out a little squeak, my toes curling as my arms tighten around his neck, clinging to him as the unexpected pleasure nearly bowls me over—not that I could go anywhere, pinned between his large body and the tree.
He chuckles, his breath warming my skin as his cock slowly stops throbbing inside me. “I don’t think I’ve heard you make that noise before.”
I grin, my body going lax in his arms as my muscles unclench. “I don’t think I ever have.”
He nips at my neck, and I know his teeth are grazing over the spot where he gave me a hickey earlier. “Good. I want more of your firsts, moonlight. I want more of you.”
“I want more of you too.”
The words fall from my lips automatically, so full of truth that I don’t even have to think before I speak them. My fingertips ghost over his broad shoulders before trailing up the back of his neck and delving into his hair.
I’m not ready to let go. I’m not ready for this moment to be over yet.
I barely notice the rough bark digging into my back as my legs wrap tightly around his waist. My head feels light in the wake of my orgasms, and we breathe against each other as we recover.
Still buried inside me, he presses his face against my neck, his breath warm on my skin. He trails his lips higher, over the edge of my jaw, toward my lips. I turn my face to meet him, my mouth parting as it connects with his. His kiss is slow and thorough now that the fierce need between us has ebbed a little. But there’s still so much possessiveness and tenderness in it that I can hardly breathe.
Every moment of my relationship with Dare has been volatile and confusing.
He was the mate who claimed me the most fiercely the night he found me beside the creek, but he was also the mate who rejected me the most painfully after my transition to witch. Pressed against the rough bark of the tree, sharing this space, sharing our bodies, I suddenly feel like we’re on solid ground for the first time in… well, maybe ever. Things between us make perfect sense in this moment. Maybe we just had to take a few detours along the way to reach this point.
7
Sable
Dare kisses me again and then draws back, brushing my hair from my face. “I’m not the man I used to be.”
“How so?” I ask quietly, trailing my fingertips over his broad shoulders. His skin is like satin and warmer than a ray of sunlight. “If you mean what just happened, you’re plenty of man. I thought we were going to knock over this tree.”
He laughs out loud, throwing his head back as amusement glints in his brown eyes. His reaction sends a flash of warmth and affection through me. I’m not used to being the
