by Bella Jacobs
I cup her cheek in my hand. “Whenever we decide to have children… If we decide to have them… They will be so lucky to have you as a mother. They will never doubt that they’re so loved.”
She blinks faster. “Stop or you’re going to make me start crying again and I’d really rather get naked. If you’re up for it. Even fraught, super emotional sex is probably pretty great, right?”
Wonder blooms in my chest. “I wouldn’t know. I’ve never had that kind. I think it’s called making love when you do it that way.”
She holds my gaze, nodding slowly. “I think so, too.” She threads her fingers gently into my hair. “Would you like to try it? With me?”
“More than anything in the world,” I promise, standing and lifting her into my arms, ignoring the hot pain that flashes through my still-wounded leg and foot.
I’ll nurse my injuries tomorrow.
Tonight, I have to prove to my mate that we’re both still alive and that no one can take this bond away from us.
I carry her to the closest of the two beds in the room and pull down the ugly flower bedspread to reveal the sheets. They smell of bleach and laundry detergent and other civilized scents that seem to promise we’ll find a way to bring order to a world gone mad.
But before we bring our people together, I need to fall apart with my woman.
Chapter Nineteen
Willow
The chemistry that ignites in my blood when we touch is the same as it was before, but so different, too.
I don’t know if it’s the perspective I’ve gained in the past few days or the fact that Maxim and I are finally being honest with each other, but as he lies me on the bed and lengthens himself on top of me, just that small, sweet closeness is enough to make my heart feel big enough to hold the entire room.
I cup his face in my hands as we kiss, slowly exploring each other, taking our time with each slip and slide of our tongues and press of our lips.
And all the while, I’m fluttering madly beneath my skin. A swarm of moths has been set loose from my bones and Maxim is the bright, beaming light they can’t bear to be parted from for another instant.
“How can you make me want you so much?” I murmur against his delicious mouth. “Just with a kiss?”
He groans softly, shifting until his hips are nestled between my legs and the thick, heavy ridge of his erection presses against where I ache for him. “All you have to do is look at me, little wolf. One flash of those green eyes and I’m helpless.” He cups my breast in his hand through my sweater and his breath rushes out. “As I suspected…”
I smile against his lips. “What’s that?”
“No bra,” he says, squeezing me through the soft wool. “You should never wear a bra. Ever.”
“You should never wear clothes,” I say, tugging at the bottom of his sweatshirt.
“Especially not clothes like these,” he says as he strips the shirt off and tosses it on the floor before bringing his hands to my waist and gliding both under my sweater. “They definitely gave you the nicer things from the charity box.”
I bite my lip, breath coming faster as he captures both my breasts in his hands and sweeps his thumbs back and forth over my nipples. “It’s Colette’s actually. She insisted on giving me something from her closet.”
“We’re going to make an enormous contribution to their charity.” He abandons my breasts long enough to strip the sweater over my head and toss it aside and then his mouth is where his hands were a moment ago. He drags his tongue over my electrified nipple, sending hunger pulsing between my legs as he adds, “Massive amounts of money. And several vehicles. And a Harley with a side car.”
Arching into his mouth, I pant, “Why a Harley with a side car?”
“Felicia mentioned in passing that she’d sold hers to pay off the mortgage on the building.”
“That’s sweet, big bad.” I fist my fingers in his hair, rolling my hips against his waist as he licks and sucks my nipples like he’s never tasted anything as delicious.
“You’re sweet. I want to devour every inch of you,” he growls, nipping at the underside of my breast, summoning an answering rumble from my throat.
“Then get to it, mister,” I say. “My pussy isn’t going to kiss itself.”
He glances up, surprise and pleasure mixing in his gaze. “What was that?”
I grin. “I want to know what it feels like. I heard it’s pretty great, but if you’re not into it…” I shrug, before adding in a faux casual voce, “Or not good at it…”
He smiles, that big, fearless Maxim smile I’ve only seen a few times, but already love so much it’s probably dangerous. I could become addicted to that smile, willing to do whatever it takes to make him flash that grin my way.
But it looks like all it takes is…being myself.
Because he’s still grinning when he promises, “I’m a man with many flaws, little wolf, I’ll grant you that. But being selfish in bed isn’t one of them.” He curls his fingers into the waist of my jeans. “And eating pussy happens to be one of the things I’m best at.”
“After being insufferably bossy and looking really good naked?” I tease as he pops the button on my jeans and drags the zipper down.
His dark eyes glitter. “Yes. After both of those, but before grilling steak so damned succulent your taste buds will come nearly as hard as I’m about to make your body come right now.”
I bite my lip and murmur, “Promises, promises…”
“That sassy mouth of yours is going to earn you a spanking one of these days,” he says, stripping my jeans and panties down my legs in one swift movement, leaving me completely bare to him.
“Oh, I hope so,” I whisper as he settles between my legs and brings his warm hands to my thighs, dragging them farther apart.
He meets my eyes across the landscape of my body, his breath coming faster. “Fuck, Willow. You smell so good.” He glances between my legs, an almost pained expression on his face as he adds, “You’re so sexy like this. So wet and ready for me.”
I squirm beneath his gaze. “You make me crazy. I want you so much.”
“But you want me to pull out this time, right?” he asks, reaching up to rub my nipples as he presses a kiss to my thigh that makes me shudder and my womb tighten. “I need you to tell me now. As soon as I feel you coming on my mouth, I’m not going to be able to get my cock in you fast enough, baby. And I’ll probably be past the point of stopping to ask these kinds of questions.”
“No, I—” I break off with a gasp as his mouth moves to my pussy and he presses the softest kiss to my clit.
Even that gentle touch is enough to make me moan and arch my back, shamelessly bringing my sex closer to his mouth.
“No, you don’t want me to come inside you?” he murmurs, his tongue tracing slowly around the top of me, making my head spin and my nipples pull even tighter beneath his fingertips. “Or no, you don’t want me to pull out?”
“No, I…don’t…I…” I exhale, rocking into the firmer, skilled strokes of his tongue. “How can that feel so good? How is that even possible? God, Maxim, your mouth…”
“My mouth belongs to you, little wolf.” He cups my ass in his big hands, lifting me off the bed and angling his head so he can get even closer to where I ache. “But I need an answer. Now.”
“Yes, oh, yes, now,” I pant as his tongue presses into my channel and does this rippling thing that’s probably unnatural, but who cares when it’s so mind-blowingly good? My blood rushes faster and the tension coiling low in my body becomes a swirling storm.
And then he covers my entire sex with his mouth and begins to suck with deep, rhythmic pulls and I shatter. Heels pressing into the mattress I grind into his brilliant, perfect, talented mouth as pleasure rampages through me, twisting and pulling and reshaping me in ways that bind me even close to this man.
I don’t need to have direct experience with other mouths to know his is the best. And even if there is someone out there better at t
his than him, I don’t want to meet them. This bliss is already so intense it’s almost more than my nervous system can handle.
By the time I start to come down from my pleasure spiral, I’m trembling all over and my heart is about to burst from my chest.
And then Maxim shifts his position, focusing all his attention on my clit as he pushes two fingers deep into my core and the wheels inside begin to wind tighter all over again.
I’m seconds away from coming a second time when he pulls away and swats the side of my ass hard enough to make me yip and my closed eyes fly open.
“Tell me what you want, Willow,” he demands, his breath nearly as ragged as mine. “Am I pulling out or not? Tell me now. Because all I want is to come so deep inside you, little wolf. I want to put my baby in you so badly it’s making me fucking crazy.”
I prop up on my elbows, watching the way his eyes rake hungrily from my breasts to my pussy and back to my eyes as I move, leaving no doubt he thinks I’m beautiful and sexy and oh-so-desirable.
But we’re going to need more than raging mutual attraction to make it for the long haul. And I don’t want to make a decision like this because of a prophecy or fear or even the biological drive to reproduce with my fated mate.
“Do you really want to? Really?” I ask. “Or do you just think it’s the best strategic move?”
“I’ve wanted to breed you since that night in my apartment after the attack in the theater,” he says, without a beat of hesitation. “Long before I knew about the prophecy or thought I wanted kids or was ready to admit that what I felt for you was a hell of a lot more than lust.”
“Even then?” I ask, tingles of awareness dancing across my skin as he presses his thumb to my sensitized clit and begins to move it in gentle circles.
“Even then,” he says softly. “I missed the entire show. I only wanted to watch you. Everything you felt was right there on your face and I…”
I reach down, brushing his hair from his forehead, silently willing him to say whatever he’s holding back.
He swallows and adds, “I wanted you to feel things for me. I wanted you to trust me to take you on an adventure the way you trusted the people on that stage.”
“This adventure is going to be bigger than anything on any stage,” I say, bliss swelling inside me again as his thumb moves faster.
“So much bigger,” he agrees. “I want everything with you, little wolf. That includes babies and a family and proving to everyone who sees us that you are the most important thing in my world. And that hurting you would be the stupidest—and the last—thing they could ever do.”
Breasts rising and falling faster, I put my hand over his, stopping him before he can make me come again, needing my wits about me for a few more seconds. “Then come inside me, big bad. I don’t think the timing is right for conceiving, but that shouldn’t stop us from trying.”
Wonder and uncertainty mix on his face. “Really? Even after…everything?”
I nod. “If we’re pregnant, then other people will have to stop trying to get me pregnant.” His brow furrows, but I push on before he can speak, “And there is no one in the world I want to have a baby with other than you. I want your baby, Maxim. I want you in my bed and by my side and in my life for as long as we make each other happy.”
“Then I guess I’m going to have to keep you happy,” he says, lengthening himself on top of me. “Because I want forever.” He kisses my forehead, my cheek. “And I’m very fucking stubborn when it comes to getting, and keeping, the things I want.”
“So, I’ve heard,” I say, lifting my chin. “But I’m just as stubborn.”
He kisses me, his lips moving against mine as he says, “Thank the stars for that or I wouldn’t be in this bed with you right now. You saved my life.”
“And you saved mine,” I say, threading my fingers into his silky hair. He smells like the river we plummeted into what feels like ages ago and fresh air from having the windows down as we drove and home and safety and all the adventures waiting around the bend.
I want him inside me so much the hunger gnaws at my heart like a starving beast, but before we make love for the first time, I need him to know one more thing. “Also, when all the madness is finally over, I want a big wedding.”
“The biggest,” he promises.
“With a weekend afterparty in the woods, like they used to do in the old days,” I say, helping him pop the button on his jeans and boxers and shove them lower on his hips.
“I’ll rent a private island.”
“And my parents will come live with us,” I say, gasping as his newly freed cock brushes against where I need him so badly. “For keeps. And you have to be really nice to them.”
“Best son-in-law ever,” he says, kicking his jeans off and settling fully between my thighs. He rocks against me, rubbing his fever-hot length between my folds, but not making any move to push inside. “Is that all?”
“And a cat,” I breathe as I wrap my legs around his waist. “I want a cat. I’ll find one that isn’t afraid of shifters. And it will live with us and love us and sleep in our bed.”
“Hard no on the cat in my bed,” he says, reaching between us to rub my clit, making me moan and beg, “Inside me, please.”
“Not until you promise this is the only pussy allowed in my bedroom,” he says, the feel of his erection teasing at my entrance making me dizzy with need.
“All right. It’s a deal,” I say. “Let’s fuck on it.”
“Yes, let’s,” he says, a smile in his voice that becomes a groan of pleasure as he positions his cock and drives inside me, filling me with one delicious thrust.
“Oh, yes,” I say, relief and bliss throbbing through me in equal measure as we begin to move. “Yes, this is it. All I need. All I’ll ever need.”
“Everything,” he agrees, kissing me hard and deep. “You are…everything,” he promises, and then he makes me believe it.
Chapter Twenty
Maxim
Fucking hell…
Sex has never felt this good.
Nothing has ever felt this good.
Making love to Willow is intense and incredible and so damned hot I find myself fighting the urge to come almost immediately.
It’s like I’m seventeen again and in bed with my first woman, but even more overwhelming because I have the experience to know how special this is. How special she is. My heart is in her hands and my cock is hers for life, so I’d better make sure she’s pleased with it.
Forcing myself to slow down, I pull in a breath and hold it as I roll over onto my back, carrying her with me so that she’s on top with her hands braced on my chest. “You set the pace, little wolf,” I say, squeezing the delicious fullness of her hips. “Show me how you like it.”
“I like it all,” she says, rocking forward and back, finding the rhythm she prefers. “Oh, yes. This is… God, Maxim, you’re so deep inside me. I love feeling you so deep.”
“So damned sexy, baby,” I say through clenched teeth as I begin to recite multiplication tables in my head.
Because this? Her on top, riding me with her breasts bouncing and her cheeks flushed with pleasure? It’s even hotter than having her under me.
“Fuck, Willow,” I say, biting my lip hard enough to send pain flashing through my jaw as she begins to move faster. “You destroy me. Fucking destroy me.”
“No, never,” she pants, her nails digging into my chest as her thrusts grow almost frantic. “Never. I won’t destroy you. I love you, Maxim, I love you so much.”
“So much,” I echo, crying out with her as she comes, her bliss so intense, I swear I can feel it vibrating in my bones.
As she collapses on my chest, I cradle her head in one hand as I squeeze her ass tight in the other. “I love you so fucking much, baby,” I say, continuing to pulse against her with my hips, rocking into her clit, wanting to draw out her release as long as possible, to prove to her that her pleasure will always come first for me. “You are all I
need. All I want. Oh, fuck, sweetheart, your pussy feels so good squeezing my cock. I love making you come.”
She whimpers and bites down on my pectoral muscle, making me growl and smack her ass before squeezing it again. “Bite me as much as you want, little wolf. I like your sharp little teeth on my skin.” I fist my hand in the hair at the nape of her neck, pulling her head back until I can watch the expression on her face as I add, “I’d also like to fuck you from behind while I put my teeth on you. Permission to mount you like my little bitch, baby girl?”
Her breath rushes out through parted lips as she says, “Yes. Make me yours, Maxim. Mount me. Mark me.”
She doesn’t have to ask twice.
In seconds I have her on her belly on the bed and I’m behind her, pushing back into her slick heat as I guide her hair to one side and fist my hand there again, holding on tight as I drag my teeth lightly over her shoulder. She shivers and I begin to move, whispering against her skin as I fuck her, “I’ve got five more minutes in me, baby. If that. I’m so close to coming in you. So damned close.” I haul in a ragged breath. “So, if you want to come again, you’d better listen up and follow instructions. Spread your legs wider and put your fingers on your clit.”
She moans and obeys, her thighs parting as she moves her hand, allowing me to drive deeper with my next thrust. She cries out in response, pushing her ass back against me as I trap a mouthful of her shoulder muscle in my teeth and bite down.
“Yes,” she pants, the fresh heat slicking her pussy and the way she writhes beneath me as I move faster proving this is getting to her as fast as it’s getting to me. “Oh yes. Yes, Maxim. Give me everything. Everything. All of you.”
I growl against her sweet flesh and obey, slamming into her cunt, hammering her so hard the sounds of our bodies colliding fill the room, underscored by Willow’s sexy-as-hell whimpers and moans. And then she screams my name and her pussy grips me so tight I have no choice but to join her at the edge of oblivion.