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.
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.”
She smiled as if I’d given her the best gift in the world. “I know.”
I laughed, groaning under my breath as my cock throbbed in her body. “What else do you know, Della Ribbon?”
“I know that you’re inside me. And you’re just delaying what you truly want to do.”
My eyes hooded. “And what’s that?”
“You want to fuck me.”
My entire body rippled in impending release. “Quiet. You’ll make me come.”
“Well, you shut up and fuck me.”
I thrust once, both of us hissing with searing pleasure.
“I can’t believe—” My voice hitched as I thrust again. “—we’re talking at a time like this.”
“I can’t believe you’re still talking.” Her hips rocked up, rubbing herself on me. With a sexy moan, she dug nails deeper into my ass. “Shut up, Ren.”
I kissed her, speaking into her lips. “You’re such a menace.”
“And you’re a tease.”
I laughed again, awed that even in this new act we could joke like old times. “Tease? Oh, I’m many things, Della, but I’m not a tease.”
My knees dug traction into the leaf-littered earth, driving into her again, deep, so deep.
Her head fell back, and her fingernails dug into my ass, yanking me harder into her.
I stared at her in total fucking awe.
How had I never seen?
How had I never known?
She was my other half, not just in friendship and family, but in everything else, too.
“You want me, Della Ribbon?” I murmured, my cock throbbing inside her.
“Yes. God, yes.”
I moved.
I thrust hard, driving her into the ground. “Have me.” Thrust. “Have all of me.” Thrust. “You already have my heart. Now you have my soul.”
I thrust in anger for how true that was.
I bent to kiss her again, and something snapped inside her. The same thing that’d snapped inside me. She bit me, pushing my shoulders and fighting against me to roll me onto my back.
For a second, shock rendered me pliant, and I rolled over, staying inside her, pressing her hips down onto mine. I coughed, unable to comprehend why I was on the floor instead of her.
She sat on top of me, her eyes heavy and lips swollen, and although she looked absolutely stunning with leaves crowning her tangled hair and dirt smudging her cheek, she didn’t belong up there.
She belonged beneath me.
Rolling again, I pinned her to the ground, grabbed her wrists, and slammed them above her head. My hips rolled, locking her in place. “I call the shots, Della. Not you.”
Something flared in her eyes as she struggled to free herself.
I only fucked her harder, my fingers tightening around her wrists as I thrust fast and deep. “Argue and I’ll argue back.” My face contorted with black agony as I let go a little more,
biting her neck, arching my hips until every inch of me pounded into her. “Then again, fight. Let’s see what happens if you do.”
A look of rebellion etched her face, then melted into pure, glittering lust. “You think you’re punishing me?” Whatever fight had been there siphoned into utmost surrender. “Ren, you’re giving me exactly what I need.”
Something hot twisted in my belly, bathing in her submission.
The need to own every part of her made me slip straight into the animalistic aggression I tried to hide.
I couldn’t stop it.
I’d never been able to stop it.
But with her so beautiful and aroused beneath me—fighting back, matching my thrusts, biting me, scratching me—I’d found my equal.
I’d found home.
“What are you doing to me, Della?” Rearing up, I ploughed into her. Not caring she inched upward, dislodging twigs and leaves with each thrust. My knees burned from digging into earth. My back cramped for bowing into her, forcing everything I could inside her. “I promised I’d never hurt you. And now you’ve driven me to the worst.”
I was a rough lover, but this…seeing her come undone in the most basic way possible, covered in earth with the scent of nature all around us, I lost it.
Dropping on top of her, I didn’t care she bore my full weight or that I’d trapped her, smothered her, captured her.
She was mine, and she’d take what I gave her.
“Hurt me because nothing has felt this good in my life.”
Grabbing her around the neck, I kissed her furious and vicious. My fingers twitched to squeeze. My nails ached to mark.
“Make me come, Ren. Please make me come.” She moaned as I drove into her with all the finesse of a raging bull.
Burrowing my face into the crook of her neck, I drove again and again. “You’ve ruined me. Fuck, you’ve ruined me.” Harder and harder I rode her until the forest was full of skin slapping and animals rutting.
She cried out as I thrust faster, crueller, driven by her fight and surrender.
“Della.” My forehead crashed against hers as I panted and raged, wanting to climb deeper, cursing her and myself. “Fuck.”
Pinching her wrists with my left hand, my right soared down her body, squeezing her breast with nasty fingers before finding the place where we were joined.
We were wet and messy and scorching hot.
It turned me on.