“I can’t.” She bit her lip, looking me up and down with such pain-filled greed, my belly clenched. “I’ll never be able to do that.”
Everything about me burned. On fire. Seconds away from erupting into fury. “You’ve always pushed me. Forever tested me.”
“And you’ve always indulged me. Forever protected me,” she breathed shallowly, her gaze locking onto my lips. “I’m sick of you protecting me.”
Our chests brushed as I sucked in a breath, knowing it would be my last one for a while. I was about to drown in her. And I didn’t care if I damn well suffocated. “If I kiss you now…it’s all over.”
“Stop trying to scare me off and do it.”
“So bossy.” I smirked.
“I don’t know how else to tell you I want you, Ren.” Her eyes flashed with temper. “I don’t want to talk. I don’t want to stop. I don’t want you to treat me kindly or gently or softly. I want you to show me. I want you to take me, just like you said you—”
I snatched her into my arms and kissed her so damn hard our teeth clacked.
I showed her.
And then I showed her again.
And again.
I kissed her harder than I’d ever kissed her.
I let our week-long foreplay drag us down and down, deeper and deeper where heartbeats and blood reigned and the only thing we needed to do was connect.
Connect in the most primitive way possible.
She cried out as I plunged my tongue past the seam of her lips, forcing her to accept me, commanding she dance to the same feral song.
We fought to get closer—her wedging into me and me bowing over her. My hands turned to claws, holding her cruelly.
Nothing was enough.
No scratch intense enough. No bite painful enough.
There was nothing civil about us.
We were animals.
Dirty, filthy animals that had reached a dirty, filthy level and had nowhere else to go.
Teeth and nail and sullied, snarling lust.
Lowering her to the ground, I didn’t care we had no tent or shelter. I didn’t care sticks and leaves would be part of what we were about to do.
I didn’t care.
I had no capacity to care.
The only thing that mattered was getting inside the one person I needed more than air.
Della went without a fight, letting me brush aside as many twigs as I could before pressing her onto her back and smothering her instantly with my weight.
She squirmed beneath me as I grabbed her jaw and kept her still so I could deepen the kiss to exquisitely harsh.
With my free hand, I shoved up her t-shirt and cupped her bra-free breast with eager fingers. Her back arched, revealing the perfection of bare skin. Her legs kicked out wide, welcoming; her hips raised off the ground, seeking.
My brain short-circuited.
A flicker of persecution needled me as my hand drifted down the delectable length of her belly, ripped at her belt, and tore at her zipper. Image after image of Della in similar undress. Of her changing after late night baling and getting covered in prickly dried grass. Of her sitting on a rock by the pond in her swimsuit, pretending to be as worldly as Cassie but failing for being so young.
Bang. Bang. Bang.
Caution. Caution. Caution.
Even though I loved that little girl with all my heart, I no longer bowed to her.
I bowed to this new mistress instead.
I wasn’t clutching that child or kissing someone I shouldn’t be kissing. I wasn’t committing some heinous act, or stepping over lines that should never be crossed.
This was Della.
Girl and woman.
A girl with a ribbon in her hair, and now a woman with a tattoo on her foot.
I was kissing my goddamn soulmate, and who fucking cared how we’d met or how long we’d known each other? Fate had decided to throw us an unconventional beginning by giving her to me the moment she was born.
Her lips parted as I kissed her with renewed violence, ignoring sudden breathlessness and overwhelming heat.
Moaning, she slung her arms over my shoulders as I managed to unzip her jeans and yank at them without finesse. Frustration bubbled as the tight material refused to move. “Are you trying to kill me?”
She smiled beneath our kiss, her lips stretching tight with the same kind of delirium I suffered. “You mean…you need help stripping me?”
“Don’t taunt me, Della. Now is not a good time.”
“Why? Because you’re a little worked up?”
“Because I’ll die if I don’t get inside you.”
“Oh.” She blushed, pleased and sexy. “In that case…”
I glowered as she pushed me away and hooked her fingers in her jeans. With a coy, almost shy look, she shoved them down her legs, leaving baby blue bikini briefs.
I groaned.
“Do you have to be so fucking gorgeous?” I fell on her again, kissing, attacking, worshipping. Her heat promised me all kinds of sinful things as I ran my hand between her legs, just once, unable to stop myself from claiming.
She jolted as my fingers trailed over her inner thighs, wrenching her knees apart to give me more room to settle between them.
Keeping my weight on my elbows, I fisted her hair, morphing the kiss from deep to downright devouring. My body ached with a fever born from needing her so badly. With our mouths locked, I pressed my hips into hers, surging upward, searching for every part she’d give me.
My hand lassoed around her neck, squeezing for that perfect taste of submission.
The flash of surrender that I so desperately needed.
Her mouth popped wide as I held her tight.
Our eyes locked.
For a second, she stared as if she didn’t know me then, in a wash of pure acceptance and obedience, she corrupted me with bliss.
She licked her lips, arching herself deeper into my control.
“Fuck.” I fell on her again, holding nothing back, driving her into the dirt, squeezing her gorgeous throat, stealing everything I could.
I wanted to treat her as kindly as I’d always done, but she knew me now.
She knew enough to understand I wouldn’t be sweet.
Not in this.
I reached between us for my own belt. “Don’t move. I won’t last much longer if you move.”
But she disobeyed me, wriggling a little higher to slip her hands over mine and grab the buckled leather instead. “Me.”
That simple possessive word made me harder than I’d ever been. “Christ, Della.”
A thunderstorm percolated in my blood. Rumbling thunder and crackling lightning gathered like eager sinners in my lower belly, howling at her to do whatever she damn well wanted.
I couldn’t breathe as her shoulders bobbed, her hands busy below. The tug of her yanking the leather through the buckle, the slight give as it fell to the sides, the incineration of her fingers on my sensitive skin as she unhooked the button and eased my zipper down.
And when she touched me…when her fingers feathered over my hardness for the first time. When she bit her lip as if shocked and awed that I’d finally, finally permitted such things. When her touch turned from feather to forceful and she wrapped her fingers around me, I motherfucking broke.
My mind fractured, and I sucked in lungsful of tainted air.
And by breaking, memories I’d been ignoring drowned me.
Of Della teaching me to read.
Of Della smacking a kiss on my lips under the mistletoe that first Christmas at the Wilsons.
Of Della…
Della…
Della.
Fuck.
I panted as if I’d run to Mclary’s and back. My eyes saw double. My heart beat triple. But even though I bordered obsession filled with disgust for what I was doing, I couldn’t stop.
For a week, I hadn’t remembered.
Now, those memories were determined to play a part—to ensure we were prepared for the
aftermath of pleasure. To prove we were ready to accept that we could never go back, only forward.
I accepted.
I wholeheartedly flung myself into the future and fisted both hands into her hair, smashing her lips to mine.
I stole her breath as my tongue dove deep, tasting her, condemning her.
She writhed, her legs scissoring tight around my waist, caught up in the whirlpool of erotic thirst and carnal hunger.
Our bodies strained with violence, already grinding, punishing, needy.
For years, I’d suspected Della was just as volatile as me when it came to sex, and now, I knew. She was just as unleashed. Both of us dangerous. Both highly unstable.
A fatal recipe.
Beasts driven to mate on the forest floor.
She nipped my lip, digging her nails into my scalp.
With a rumbling groan, I attacked her again, twisting in a vortex of young Ribbon and the present. My touch turned nasty, bruising her as I tried to take and take.
We kissed hungrily, savagely.
I wanted to hurt her for the power she had over me.
I wanted to punish her for making me this crazed.
Della slid a hand between our tight, overheated bodies and grabbed my cock, jerking me with vicious command.
I snapped and kissed her again, teeth and tongue and torment.
Deeper and deeper, over and over.
She cried out as twigs and debris scratched her while I devoured her. Thorns and sticks were nothing compared to the delicious pain her nails granted as she fought me back, bruise for bruise.
There was nothing gentle about any of this.
Both of us drunk on wildness and frenzy.
And when our battling wasn’t enough, I bit her bottom lip.
Hard.
Too hard.
She cried out, pulling back with a look of fiery desperation and a thread of wariness.
I’d told her I couldn’t control myself. But as fresh air filled my nose and common-sense returned, my heart became master over my traitorous body, dousing my lust with ice. “Ribbon…I-I’m sorry.”
She breathed as hard as me, quicksilver desire in her eyes. “I’m not.” Rearing up, she captured my mouth again, enslaving me to her for life.
Our mania reached a new level of velocity.
All the years between us, each precious in their own way, were now barriers we had to smash apart immediately.
I needed her instantly.
She needed me urgently.
I loved that we both raced to the same chaotic beat.
Her body wriggled beneath mine as she shoved her underwear down her legs.
I froze, knowing she was naked, and I only had to lean back to look.
I wanted to look.
I desperately wanted to look.
But if I did, this would be all over.
Everything about this was too much.
Too much.
Della didn’t pause, moving to undress me fast and ruthless, almost as if she wasn’t sure I’d go through with this. Grabbing my jeans and boxer-briefs, she inched them down my ass.
I shivered as her fingers kissed my bare flesh and couldn’t stop my hips from arching, giving her room to shove aside the unwanted clothing. Once they were mid-thigh, she fell back, then wrapped slim arms around me, pulling me tight.
I hissed as my eyes snapped closed against the most incredible thing I’d ever felt.
Her naked against my naked.
Her heat against my hardness.
I groaned low and loud as she burrowed closer, my hands balling where they wedged into the ground.
Her arms looped around my neck, her lips on my ear as she breathed, “You didn’t look.”
I knew exactly what she meant. “I couldn’t.”
“Why not?”
“Because I’m barely holding on as it is.” Inhaling her gorgeous scent of wilderness and melons, I grunted, “Seeing you naked…fuck, Little Ribbon.”
Her right hand slid from my shoulders, following the contours of my chest, leaving a trail of fire in her wake. “You didn’t let me look, either. Can I?”
All my life I’d given her what she wanted. How could I deny her now?
I gulped as I pressed off her a little, her eyes searing my cock as she melted into the ground. “Look at us, Ren.”
My jaw clenched as I looked down to the trimmed dark blonde curls and glisten of Della and the steely hard cock of me.
It didn’t matter I’d seen her body grow through every stage. It didn’t matter she’d seen me go from boy to man. All that fucking mattered was how perfect we looked together now.
“You’re making me lose my mind.” My hips dared to press closer, making me hiss again against the blistering heat of her.
“I lost mine years ago.” She sucked in a breath, her hand shaking as it continued its path down my chest.
My heart suddenly crucified me, hating me for all the wasted moments we could’ve shared. “Why was I so blind?”
“Because your morals were killing you.” She smiled softly. “But also because you knew it wasn’t right. I was too young. I wasn’t ready.”
“And you’re ready now?”
“This is the best moment of my life. Does that answer your question?”
I bent to kiss her, my back tight with tension, keeping me aloft. “I love you, Della.”
“I know.”
“I’ve loved you since that first moment I found you.”
“Liar. You hated me.”
I chuckled. “I wish someone could cuff me around the head as a ten-year-old and tell him his entire world was in that backpack.”
“Well, your entire world wants you to stop talking and touch her.”
She successfully stole every word, slamming me back into the swirling speed we’d shared before.
Her fingers locked around me, making me jolt. She shivered as if touching me affected her more than any summer breeze or dusk-shrouded forest ever could.
I’d had a lifetime of being held by her, loved by her…but this? It was fucking everything.
My hands moved as she touched me harder. Digging my left hand into the dirt, I ran my right down her side, my thumb kissing the side of her breast.
I wanted to mark her, brand her.
She moaned, her hand twitching around my cock.
I wanted to take my time and fondle her, lick her, bite those perfect nipples, but there was a demon in my blood howling for other things.
Dropping my touch down her waist, I marvelled at the shape of her, then lost my goddamn mind as I found the pulsating heat between her legs.
No barriers.
Just satin and silk and everything Della.
I disintegrated.
Everything ached.
My thumb found her clit, and my finger, shit, that drove into her with no sweet sonnets or requests. I couldn’t help myself from spearing deep, twisting my existence with how perfectly hot and wet she was.
Her back arched as I withdrew, smearing her slipperiness against my other finger, rubbing her clit just once before I drove both into her.
I drove so hard, her body inched higher up the bracken littered ground.
Her mouth opened wide. “Holy fu—”
“Enough talking, remember?”
Leaves crackled as she squirmed. Breaths panted. My mind was awash with greed.
The wondrous sensation of being inside her ought to be enough. I ought to linger in this magic and take my time learning what she liked.
But it was too late for that.
“Condom. Where is it?” I bit out, thrusting my fingers deeper.
She searched blindly in the dirt beside us, finally holding up the foil packet.
“Put it on me,” I snarled, thrusting fingers into her body while my cock wept with punishment. If I didn’t get inside her now, I’d come. I was so close. Too close.
Her hands trembled as she ripped the foil, grabbed the rubber, and cupped my length.
&
nbsp; I growled under my breath as her tiny touch rolled the condom over me, squeezing my base as if determined to make me explode.
Knocking her hand away, I ripped my fingers from her and angled my hips.
“Tell me to stop, Della.” My voice wasn’t my own. It was black and dripping and demonic.
“Never.” Spreading her legs, her hands landed on my ass, pulling me into her.
A small ribbon of blood decorated her arm from a sharp twig.
A shadow of a bruise marked the creamy flesh of her throat.
I wanted to feel bad.
I didn’t.
The first welcome of her body blew my existence into tiny smithereens, and I no longer cared about the pieces. I didn’t care if I’d be the same person after this. I didn’t care about right and wrong.
This was right.
So, so right.
I fell on her, crushing her into the earth as I pushed inside her. I wasn’t slow. I wasn’t gentle. I was everything she’d made me become.
She tensed beneath me, her body tight, unyielding.
Parts of me cried for what I was doing, for the desecration of the purest thing I’d ever loved, while most of me rejoiced at finally finding the one person I’d been searching for.
“I’m sorry.” My mouth slammed on hers, and my hips shot forward, driving through that tightness until her body gave way in a rush of welcome, her legs wrapped around my hips, and her moan filled my lungs.
She wanted me.
And I took her.
Hard.
Fast.
Ruthless.
My eyes snapped closed as everything inside wanted to erupt. Her heat. Her scent. The fact that this wasn’t some faceless, nameless woman I couldn’t stand but the girl I’d loved my entire life. The girl I’d die to deserve.
My heart swelled to four times its size, suffocating in its ribcage, desperate to sacrifice itself to her.
I was the luckiest bastard alive.
Connected.
Finally.
Together.
Finally.
Shock crashed over us that we were no longer separate, but one.
Tearing my mouth away, I locked eyes on hers and begged to see what I needed to see. The same violent fire. The same undeniable desire. Plucking a leaf stuck to her cheek, I groaned, “Look at what you’re making me do.”
“I don’t care.”
“I’m inside you.”
“I know.”
“I’m fucking mad for you, and you’re wedged on the forest floor. You’re bleeding for fuck’s sake.”