The chaotic beat of the music playing from her earbuds continues to hammer in my ear, spurring me on. I grip her ass and tug her body tightly to mine. My erection is straining behind my athletic shorts, and if I thought I was sweating before, that was nothing. Heat radiates from my body, my need for Echo a fierce flaming beast trying to claw its way out from under my skin. With one hand, I wrench my shirt over my head and toss it to the side as she watches me with wide, stunned eyes.
I duck back in and nip at her gorgeous lips, letting a low growl of desire rip from my throat.
She pants against my mouth, her facial features twisting into something I don’t understand. A moment later, she’s gotten her hands free and is whaling on me, hands crashing into my chest and arms.
“Go ahead. Fight me. Bruise me. Show me how you hate me.” I shift, grasping the back of her thighs and sweeping her legs out from under her. Lifting her into my arms, her back collides with the tree. Her bunched fists pause their assault on me as her mouth hangs open in dismay of the position she’s found herself in.
A moment later, her hands unclench so she can grab my shoulders, and her legs clamp viciously around my waist. I groan aloud in pleasure, even as her nails rake into my skin. She gasps as my mouth and teeth find her throat, and she lets out a strangled cry. In response, I thrust between her legs, feeling her heat like her pussy’s calling me home. I’m so fucking hard for her, my mind is threatening to melt, and I grind there for a moment as I breathe her in. I need this girl, need to remember the way we were together. My tongue darts out, and I lick a savage path from her collarbone, up her neck, to the back of her jaw before I catch her earlobe between my teeth. Her breath hisses from her, and her body shudders.
I trail my hand up her satiny thigh, then squeeze it hard enough to leave my mark. My fingertips dive under her lightweight cotton shorts, and she sucks in a breath. “You’ve missed my touch. The way I know exactly how to make your cunt weep for me.” With no hesitation, I plunge my fingers under the fabric of her panties and rub them through the arousal that’s scenting the air all around us. Her breath skitters out past trembling lips, and she quakes in my arms as she coats my fingers in her juices. “You’re soaking your panties, little liar.” I plunge a digit deep into her pussy, then a second one. Poor girl can’t even deny it. She’s soaking wet. I finger fuck her while she thrashes and heaves in my arms. She claws at me, and I can’t fucking wait to see how she’s marked me up. And the thing is, this is the way we’ve always played.
As I bring her closer to the edge, flicking my thumb over her clit, I whisper in her ear, my voice lethal, “I told you if you ran, I would catch you. If you hid from me, I would find you. And if you stayed, I would make you regret it. Are you regretting it now, baby?”
Her jaw clenches for a second as she stares into my eyes, but then the orgasm rips through her. My name is torn from her lips as she screams into the night.
TWENTY-FIVE
ECHO
My pussy throbsand throbs as the orgasm pulses through me. This is fucking insanity. I shouldn’t want this, shouldn’t want him. Every hateful word I want to spew at him is locked up tight in my throat. And really, I should direct them and all my anger at myself anyway. I’m so fucking pissed that he knows precisely what to do, what to say. That our past history has blended with his need to come after me now and created the perfect storm of frustrated want and need that’s playing out here on the forest path.
Fuck, the way my heart sped up the second I realized it was him in the woods with me… My body had reacted immediately, too, the surge of arousal shocking the hell out of me as I ran from him.
And now he’s caught me. Do I regret it? That was his question. I probably will the minute it’s over. And right now, I refuse to let him know how good he’s making me feel. His hands are rough on me, but his touch is achingly familiar. It makes me dizzy with the want of our past lives. I just want to go back. Do everything differently. Fix us. Tears well in my eyes. But I can’t. I fucking can’t. All we have is the sorrow that dwells in the here and now. And the memories of a love lost.
He gives my clit a little smack, making me gasp aloud before pulling his hand free of my shorts and wrenching my shirt up and a bra cup down. The wetness of his tongue lapping at my nipple snaps me out of the thoughts crashing through my head. Before my lips can form a word, my back arches, thrusting my taut, needy flesh into his waiting mouth. He groans, sucking it deep while my hands clutch at his arms, fingers digging into his skin as I grapple with the idea that we aren’t done here. Far from it. My hunter hasn’t taken what he wants yet. And I know, like always, he’ll want to take a bite out of his prey.
Excitement zips through me, tangling with the anger I’ve directed at myself. All of it fuels my actions. I grip the back of his neck with one hand, holding him to my breast, all while I rub myself greedily against his dick. Memories shoot through me of other times just like this. Other times where he took from me what he wanted. Other times … when we were in love.
Oblivious to the thoughts in my head, Royal grunts in pleasure, going after my other breast. He makes these animalistic noises, moans really, as he consumes me. His teeth scrape over my nipple, sending electricity through my body. I surrender to all of it. I feel alive in a way I haven’t in a long, long time.
“That’s it. Use me. Use my cock.”
Flames wash over my face. I can’t imagine what we look like, writhing up against a tree, against each other, as we are. The suction of his mouth sends jolts of pleasure from my chest down to my clit. I can’t handle much more. “Put me down,” I gasp out, one breath after another heaving from me.
“You know what happens if I do,” he rasps after letting my breast go. My flesh being bare to the night air has a ridiculous effect on me. Then again, I’ve always felt like this with Royal. I’ve been naked with him in the woods. I’ve let him chase me, catch me, and fuck me. Untamed need rockets through my system.
His brow quirks for only a second before he lets my feet hit the ground and steps away. He nods.
And I run, heart in my throat. After a count of ten, he’s tearing through the woods behind me at a ridiculously fast pace. Blood roars in my ears, and my lungs struggle to deliver air as we crash through the forest. I haven’t a fucking clue where we are, whether we’re closer to Greek Row or the road or somewhere between. I shoot to the right to duck behind a tree. Wild excitement batters me from the inside out and in the same breath, I wonder what the fuck I think I’m doing.
Not hearing Royal, I push from the tree.
I realize my mistake a moment later when he grasps my shoulders and spins me to face the tree. “Caught you.” He jerks my hips backward, then pins my hands above my head. There’s some rustling from behind me, and next thing I know, he’s stripped my shorts and underwear down, baring me to him. “Regret this yet?”
I suck in a breath, my chest expanding to take in the damp forest air. I grit my teeth. There’s this power he has over me that I can’t describe. I shake my head furiously, refusing to let the words out.
He slips his hand between my legs and grunts. “Fuck, you’re wet for me.”
It’s not humiliation that washes over me. It’s fire. A fever. Delirium.
I meet his gaze over my shoulder, breathing hard. It’s as if we were never apart. As if we didn’t ruin everything. He’s shucked his shorts over his hips, and one look at his erection has heat flashing through me. He’s long and thick, and the way he’s using my arousal to lubricate himself has me dying on the inside.
“I caught you,” he rasps as he rubs the head of his cock through my wetness. He’s fucking toying with me now, teasing. He knows I’m not going to stop him. Another ripple of desire moves through me. “You’re mine, Echo. You’re fucking mine.” And with those words, he thrusts inside my body for the first time in years.
I cry out at the feeling of absolute fullness. It’s like I’m a virgin all over again, the way my body clenches down in alarm at his intrusion.
“Fucking hell. You’re so motherfucking tight.” He groans. “Leave your hands where they are.”
