“Wilder. I want to do this. I want you inside me. Do I have permission to come aboard, sir?”
“Aye, aye,” he ground out, tugging her down. She slid until there was no more room. Until she was full and he was deep.
“You feel that?”
“So much that I almost can’t stand it.”
“Why is it so good, so hard to bear?”
“Don’t know, Trouble.” He stroked the side of her neck, tracing her clavicle, his voice gruffly tender. “But let’s see how much we can take.”
She braced her knees on either side of his hips, his ass firmly set against the hot spring’s sand. Wind trembled the trees’ overhanging branches while just beyond the pool, the water raced, not paying them any attention, and they stayed in their own little eddy, lost and churning against each other.
“You’re so fucking sexy,” he ground out.
She rode him harder, the water splashing against him. He stared and she was glad. Her heart seemed like it was expanding, filling her chest, rattling her rib cage. His gaze couldn’t tear away from her, and she wasn’t sure if he’d blinked. Good, let him see what he did. Let him never think he wasn’t man enough.
Once she’d ridden on the swings at an amusement park and after the ride was over didn’t want to get off. The ride operator was too busy texting to notice so she stayed on for another go and then another. Until the world got a little lopsided, surreal as if somehow everything kept spinning in a mad orbit and she stood apart from that, observed, watched.
That’s how she was now, dizzy, seeing herself from a slight distance, watching her body filled with Wilder. Never had it been this way, these constant contractions.
“Be here.” He slammed into her. “Be here now, with me.” The ragged rhythm of his breath was punctuated by a rough huff. His hold on her tightened and he threw his back into it, pumping harder.
Every thrust broke against her barriers, the ones that said, “Don’t let him in. Don’t let him in.” Too late. Maybe it was a mistake but he was here. A cry of pleasure burst from her throat as his hold increased. A hot jolt shot through her body. God, she was close, right there and yet as much as she loved the anticipation, she wanted more, longer.
“Don’t let me come yet.”
“Why not?”
“Don’t want this to stop.”
His teeth grazed her earlobe. “Doesn’t have to.”
“What do you—oh. Oh God.”
He gripped her ass, keeping her grinding pressure right there, right at the edge.
“Trouble, you come for me now like a good girl and I’ll let you come again.”
“Again?”
“Fuck, honey. You know you can do this all night, right? You aren’t a guy.”
“I’ve heard that, but my body doesn’t work that way.”
“Wanna bet?” Two more thrusts and he had her right where he wanted, plunged into the fire, every nerve tingling. He fanned the flames of her desire, burning off her need to reveal the core, the looming power that rose up. Her thighs trembled as she clamped down, milking his shaft in powerful currents.
“That’s it. That’s it exactly.”
She shut her eyes and fell forward, wanting to rub her cheeks on his pectorals’ hard swell of muscle.
“Oh, we’re just getting started.” He shed all vestiges of gentleness, set a rhythm that was fast, almost brutal, but exactly what she wanted. “You like that, don’t you?” He smirked at her whimper because she did, she loved it.
“You don’t come once with me,” he said. “It’s too good watching you lose that pretty head.”
“I’ve never—”
“No past. No future, remember?” He pumped his hips harder. “Just you, feeling what I give you until I say you come again.”
“So bossy.” Her head lolled and it started to happen, impossibly, her body so spent with pleasure began to fill again, like a bucket in the well. The friction and his filthy words bringing her back as if she hadn’t just come her brains out.
“But this—if I—it might kill me.”
“Nah, I’m going to take you to heaven.” He grabbed her ass, bracing her in place as he rolled against her.
She studied the place where they were joined, the slick glide of their flesh, then turned toward his face where he stared back with an elusive smile and a heavily lidded gaze. Amazed that this brutal man possessed her and yet she didn’t feel threatened or frightened; if anything she was free.
He let out a grunt as she inwardly gasped. If she did this again, she might implode or explode, hard to know if coming with Wilder was a burst out, or an inward push.
“Quinn.” He was strong, big, and suddenly vulnerable here at the end, ragged in his need. “Are you with me? Are you with me, Quinn?”
And she was. Her body was responding, except this time, it was more—more intense, more powerful, more consuming, more everything.
“This still a mistake?” he gasped.
“The best.”
“Am I the best you’ve ever had?”
Had there been others? Of course there had, but they seemed like nothing now, far away and out of focus, a memory that she never lived but was only told about.
“Best ever.”
“Goddamn right.” His mouth slanted over hers, sucking in her gasp. There was a last flurry of thrusts and the world shrank away until all that was left was her blood pulsing in her ears and his hard body.
“Now, now, baby, please.”
It was the please that put her over, that pulled from her what she didn’t know she could offer. If the last orgasm cracked her in two, this one shattered her into pieces that would never fit back together. Everything she had thought and planned for these last few months was gone and there was only Wilder, holding her close as he pulsed against her, teeth set as if he were in pain, contrasting with the fierce triumph in his gaze.
The world began to return but she was anchored here, to his shaft still half thick and buried within her.
He rested his cheek against hers with a heavy sigh. “So this is what it feels like.” His tone was soft, reverent even.
“What it feels like?”
“Living.”
And as their hearts pounded against each other she grinned. “Yeah. I think so.”
“It’s good.”
“Perfect.” She glanced up and there beside the moon was a small star. At least she thought it was. Please don’t be a satellite. She wanted to make a wish. A simple wish really. All she wanted was for everything to work out. For her brain not to fall apart, for Dad not to run away again, and for Wilder to choose peace.
Let us have a shot, she wished. Please give us the chance.
Maybe it was a mistake to have hopes and dreams given everything she was up against, but this guy in her arms was worth the risk.
Chapter Fifteen
FOR THE NEXT week and a half, it seemed like Quinn had gotten her wish. Dad stayed calm and even smiled a few times while watching Ghostbusters. Wilder accompanied her on visits to Mountain View Village, sitting beside her in Dad’s room, holding her hand, barely watching the movie because all he did was stare at her.
It was good. Perfect really.
And if sometimes she woke in the night, fear squeezing her heart and uncertainty sucking away the room’s oxygen until she could barely breathe, with Wilder’s arm heavy over her waist and the pesky old idea “this is a mistake” ringing through her skull, it was gone by morning light.
Mostly.
So far her phone didn’t ring, at least not with a call from the doctor. Each day without news was another to kick the can of worms further down the road.
It turned out that Edie’s bakery sustained minimal damage, to the relief of the townsfolk who had come to depend on her baked goods as a normal part of their daily routine. The shop had been closed for a few days while a thorough check was done to determine everything was safe.
As it was Wednesday again, the Chicklits were meeting at the big table in the back of A Novel Experience arguing over next month’s selection. They’d decided it was time for a romance and there was a strenuous debate over whether a billionaire BDSM should trump a sweet friends-to-lovers contemporary romance. Quinn took a sip of water from her bottle and accidentally splashed some down her “Reading Is Sexy” t-shirt. Wiping at it, she called out, “Maybe you guys can just split the difference? The half of you rooting for whips and canes can choose that book and the other half that wants movie dates and walks in the rain can go that route.”