She had never dreamed it could be like this.
He pressed his fingers into the backs of her hands and grunted as he kissed her, thrusting deep into her, sending her soaring out of her mind. She quickened her pace, breathing hard between each frantic clash of their lips and fierce meeting of their bodies. Each brush of his body across her sensitive nub sent waves of tingles spreading through her, upwards to her belly where they swirled together, steadily building towards a crescendo.
She released his hands, gripped his shoulders and groaned as she rode him, desperately seeking release. He grasped her backside and seized control, helping her maintain a ferocious pace as he drove every inch of his cock into her, taking her harder.
“Eloise,” he grunted and she pressed her cheek against his, unable to do anything but moan as she soared higher, spiralling upwards, almost within reach of her climax.
He thrust deeper and faster and she cried out as her body slammed against his and she shattered into a thousand pieces, fire blazing through her bones and shimmering over her thighs and up her belly. She clutched his shoulders and moaned with each hard meeting of their hips as he thrust more frantically, his forehead pressed against her cheek and his breath hot on her neck.
“Gods,” he groaned and then growled. It rolled into a roar as he shoved her down, pinning her onto him as he spilled himself inside her, throbbing and sending aftershocks of pleasure rippling through her.
His grip on her slowly loosened as he breathed hard, out of sync with her own panted gasps for air.
Eloise sagged against him, struggling to bring herself down. Her bones had turned to rubber and her body felt too heavy to move. He wrapped his arms around her and she pressed her cheek to his shoulder, too tired to move from his lap or untangle their bodies. She liked the feel of him inside her as tiny tremors ran through him and he slowly softened, spent from their lovemaking.
The wind howled across the mouth of the cave again.
Eloise still didn’t care.
She could regret everything tomorrow.
Today she was going to live.
She was going to seize this moment with Cavanaugh.
Even when she knew in her heart that he was right.
There was no way for them to get what they wanted.
There would be no forever after for them.
Chapter 11
Cavanaugh lay propped up on his right elbow with Eloise tucked against him, watching her as she dozed beneath the blanket with him. His beautiful, and surprising, fated female. He had wanted her to initiate things between them, but he hadn’t anticipated what had followed. His Eloise had grown stronger and more courageous. He wanted to be proud of her because of that, but in his heart he feared that her new courage and strength was the result of all the pain and suffering she had endured.
He softly stroked a rogue strand of her wavy dark hair from her forehead, smoothing it into the rest, and sighed as he looked at her.
He hadn’t wanted to argue with her, but he was glad that some things were out in the open now and they could find a way to move past them. He needed to find the way to tell her everything else he had wanted to say too. His courage had failed him though, and he had only managed to let her know that he wanted her and that was the reason he had left. She had every right to be angry with him for how he had handled everything, but he hoped that she could forgive him.
Could she?
If he told her that she was his mate, what would she say?
Would she be happy? Or would she be sad because his status stood between them and a bond that was both special and precious?
Most snow leopards never found their mates.
Unlike other shifter species, a snow leopard’s fated mate was always another snow leopard. With their numbers dwindling, their long life spans and their prides spread across the world, it was hard to find their fated mate. Most of his kind found love without finding their mate, settling down to produce offspring and ensure the future of their race. Others scoured the Earth for their fated one, driven by a relentless need to find their other half. Even if a snow leopard travelled to all the prides, there was no guarantee their mate was with one. There was a high chance their mate would be born long after their visit.
But Cavanaugh had found his.
She lay in his arms.
And she had stolen his heart long before he had ever realised that she was his fated mate.
“Why are you staring at me?” she murmured sleepily and yawned. “I can feel you staring.”
“I was thinking.” He dropped a kiss on her cheek.
“About what?” She cracked her eyes open and squinted at him, the start of a smile curving her rosy lips.
“How beautiful you are.”
She shoved him in his chest, making him jerk backwards, and scowled. She thought he was joking. Never. In the short period they had been together as more than friends, he had never told her enough times that she was beautiful. He meant to make up for it now. He meant to make up for a lot of things he had done wrong.
“I was.” He let her see the truth in his eyes as he looked at her, thinking about how beautiful she was, with her honey-coloured eyes, her sweet heart-shaped lips, impish button nose and her hair mussed from making love with him, and her bare body tucked close to his.
“Not just about how beautiful I apparently am.” She cast a pointed look down between them and then looked back into his eyes.
Cavanaugh shrugged. “Call it evidence of how your beauty affects me.”
He caught her right hand and brought it down between them, settling it over his aching hard shaft.
When he released her, she took her hand away, and he frowned and pouted. She rolled onto her back, propped herself up on her elbows and looked down the length of their bodies, towards the cave entrance, her eyes narrowing. He could feel her focus sharpening, her senses growing stronger as she honed them on the world outside.
Cavanaugh pressed a kiss to her bare left shoulder. “It’s still snowing.”
She huffed and looked across at him. “Your senses always were better than mine.”
Because he was male, and because whenever he was around her, he was on high alert, everything sharpened and focused.
So he could protect her.
But he had failed to do that.
He eased his left hand under her right one, drew it up off the covers and rubbed his thumb over the scars on her wrist. She stilled and he sensed the trickle of fear that ran through her. She didn’t want him to ask about them, but he needed to know.
“What happened here?” he whispered, keeping his eyes locked on her wrist so she didn’t feel pressurised into telling him straight away. He had all the time in the world.
Neither of them were going anywhere for a while, not until the storm had abated and the winds had cleared the path up the cliff face.
It was just the two of them, trapped in a small cave, together again at last.
“Stellan punishes any he thinks are working behind his back.” Her voice was quiet and distant, and he could sense the pain in her, the hurt he was causing her by asking her to remember the terrible things that had happened to her.
Things he should have been there to stop from happening.
He should have been there to protect her.
“Were you working behind his back?” Cavanaugh ran his thumb over the scars. They had been made by ropes, and looked as if it hadn’t been just one occasion when she had been bound and punished.
She shook her head.
“Then why did he punish you?” Dread settled in his stomach the second he finished his question, churning it until it burned and fire sprinted through his veins, chasing back the ice that had shot through them. He closed his eyes and gripped her slender wrist. “Because of me. He punished you because of me.”
She didn’t answer him. She didn’t need to. Silence stretched between them, thick with the things she didn’t dare to voice. Stellan had known of their relationship and he had targeted her because of i
t.
“Gods, I’m sorry, Eloise,” Cavanaugh whispered and brought her hand to his lips and pressed a kiss to her wrist.
He rested his lips against her warm skin, breathing her in, using her sweet scent to calm himself and reassure himself that whatever had happened to her, she was safe now. He would never allow anything to happen to her, never again.
“It wasn’t your fault.” Her voice was as quiet as his own, raspy with the emotions that poured from her and into him through where they touched and the threads that tied them together.
He had always felt a deep connection to her, a sense that they were bound in some way, and he hadn’t been surprised when his instincts had finally told him that she was his fated one. The connection he felt to her, and was sure she felt to him, was that uninitiated bond at work. When they finally mated, it would awaken to its full potential, linking them physically and emotionally, giving them the ability to sense each other over great distances, and to know when the other was hurt or in danger.
“It was… I should have been there, Eloise. I can’t forgive myself for failing you.” He drew in another deep breath and then started when she shifted her right hand in his and cupped his left cheek.
She was soft and warm against him, too wonderful for him to bear as she gently held his face, a wealth of emotions in her light caress. They undid him, ripping down the strength he had been clinging to for years, leaving him weak and vulnerable, and at her mercy.
“I’m not saying that what you did was right, because there isn’t a minute that goes by where I don’t wish you had taken me with you, but I know now why you did it. I understand, Cavanaugh, and I forgive you for it.” She smiled when he opened his eyes, seeking the truth in hers. They shone at him, filled with the forgiveness she had spoken of and an overwhelming amount of affection. He clasped her hand to his face and her smile widened, softening at the same time, giving him the comfort he craved.
When that smile began to fade, and her feelings altered course, a fierce need to stop her from talking welled up inside him, because he knew the direction she was about to take their conversation in and he didn’t want her to talk about what lay ahead of them.
He wanted to savour this moment with her and pretend the rest of the world didn’t exist. Here in this cave, with her, he wasn’t the alpha of a pride. He was only her Cavanaugh, and that was all he had ever wanted to be.
Cavanaugh wrapped his fingers around her wrist and moved his arm, bringing hers over his left shoulder and drawing her closer to him. His gaze fell to her mouth, to the tempting sensual curves of her lips, and he almost groaned when her tongue poked out, sweeping across them, an invitation he wouldn’t turn down.
He leaned towards her, rolled her onto her back and captured her lips with his, eliciting a soft moan from her that had him hardening again and instantly hungry for more. He managed to keep the kiss light and slow, not wanting to rush this time.
He wanted this moment to last forever.
He wanted to shower her with the love that beat in his heart for her.
Cavanaugh released her wrist and she wrapped her arms around his neck, her kiss as soft as his, bare sweeps of her lips across his. They tingled in response, each caress making him feel lighter inside, until he felt sure that they were floating and the world around them fell away. Her breasts pressed against his bare chest, her soft body cushioning his. He lifted his left leg over her, nestling it between her thighs. She moaned as his thigh settled against her mound and his hard length pressed against her hip.
Her kiss grew more demanding and he surrendered to it but refused to let her turn it as wild as it had been when they had last made love.
She skimmed her hands over his shoulders and pressed her short nails in as he kissed down her jaw, following the line of it to her neck. She tilted her head to one side, giving him access to her throat, and he growled as he kissed and licked it, a primal need awakening inside him. He kissed towards the back of her neck, pulling her hair away from it with his right hand and exposing it. She moaned and arched against him as he tongued her nape, a slave to his need to taste her there.
To sink his fangs into that soft flesh and pin her while he mated with her.
“Cavanaugh,” she whispered breathlessly, her own need slamming through him, driving him into surrendering to his urge to bite her.
He breathed hard, fighting it, unwilling to give in to it when everything was still up in the air and she was unaware that he was her mate. He couldn’t force a bond on her, not when she believed he was going to return to being the pride alpha, a role that would see them separated again.
He licked her nape one last time and reluctantly dragged himself away, kissing down over her shoulder towards her breasts instead. They were as far as he could go with his mouth while remaining inside the covers. As much as he wanted to kiss between her thighs, tasting the arousal he stirred within her, he had to content himself with kissing and suckling her breasts. Night had fallen and the temperature had dropped dramatically. Kissing between her thighs meant stripping open the double sleeping bag, and he didn’t want her to get a chill.
It wouldn’t do much for him either, not when some parts of the male anatomy didn’t take kindly to frigid temperatures.
His cock jerked and he groaned as he kissed her breasts, swirling his tongue around her left nipple. He would have it somewhere hot and moist soon enough, nice and warm.
Eloise moaned as he danced the fingers of his left hand down over her belly, feeling it flutter beneath them, and he joined her with a groan of his own as she edged her thighs apart, inviting him in.
He settled his palm over her mound and slipped two fingers between her plush petals, and groaned again as he felt how wet she was already, eager for him. His cock throbbed again, nudging against her leg, and he sucked her nipple harder, tugging on it as his desire got the better of him.
She tipped her head back and unleashed a sweet cry of pleasure as her hands fumbled with his shoulders and his head. She twisted her fingers into his hair and clutched him to her as she panted, her breaths coming quicker as he stroked her aroused nub, swirling his fingers around it at the same time as he suckled her nipple. The scent of her desire filled his senses, awakening every male and primal instinct. They demanded that he satisfy his female.
He obeyed.
He slid his left hand lower, seeking her centre, and she cried out again as he eased two fingers into her sheath. He groaned against her breast as he pumped her, feeling her slick heat encasing him. Gods, he wanted to be in there, buried deep, filling her and feeling her gripping him.
“Cavanaugh.” His name falling from her lips as a plea shattered his restraint.
He pulled his fingers free of her and wedged himself between her thighs. She moaned and ran her hands down his back, pressing her fingers into his spine above his bottom and bringing him down against her. He shuddered as his hard shaft pressed against her wetness, her heat scalding him.
“Eloise,” he whispered and braced himself on his hands above her, one either side of her head.
Her honey-coloured eyes met his, desire darkening them, passion and need that he could satisfy. His female needed.
She needed him.
Her right hand skimmed around his hip and he followed her silent command, easing back and allowing her to wrap her fingers around him. He grunted when she brushed her thumb over the crown, teasing him, and she smiled and slowly guided him downwards.
Cavanaugh held his breath.
She eased the tip of his cock into her and he groaned in time with her as he slid forwards, driving himself into her hot tight sheath. She gripped him hard, her body clenching around his, ripping a grunt from him that she smiled at again.
He moved his arms to either side of her ribs, dropped onto his elbows and wiped the smile off her face by sliding deeper still, filling her completely. Her lips parted and he swooped on them, swallowing her moan as he began to thrust, long leisurely strokes that had him almost coming free o
f her before he eased back inside.
She raised her hips, allowing him to slide even deeper, so he left no part of her untouched as he drove into her.
He grasped her hip with one hand to support her and kissed her as he slowly pumped into her, battling his need and every urge that commanded him to go faster and harder.
Not this time.
This time he was going to make love with her for the first time.
The very first time in his life.
It was so much more than he had imagined it could be. Every experience he had, it had happened with her, and it had always been frenetic, a passionate and wild coupling.
He had thought it couldn’t get better than that.
He had been wrong.
Moving inside her like this, slow and unhurried, his mouth fused with hers in a tender kiss, rocked his world and shook him to his core. More than their bodies were linked. They were joined in every way, from their bodies to their hearts and right down to their souls.
She moaned beneath him, her fingers tangling in his hair, her kiss as soft as his own. Her feelings flowed into him, mingling with his, echoing them and heightening how good everything felt. Every plunge of his cock into her and every withdraw, every sweep of her tongue across his lips or fusing of their mouths, all of it shook him, until he felt sure he was dreaming, experiencing a vivid fantasy that wasn’t really possible in real life.
“Cavanaugh,” she murmured against his lips and he felt the need building within her as she clenched him, flexing her body around his. Her scent and her feelings spoke to his instincts, warning that she was close.
He clutched her hip and drove deeper as he kissed her harder, steadily building them towards a crescendo. She moaned and writhed, her need pounding through him. He gave her what she needed, a willing slave for her, consumed by his need to satisfy his female. She cried out as he pumped her harder, curling his hips to strike her deepest point and her sweetest spot.
She broke away from his mouth and pressed her forehead against his, clinging to him as he thrust into her. Her breathless moans were music to his ears and he closed his eyes and grunted as his balls drew up, his cock growing thicker as release coiled at its base.
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