He made a low growling noise in his throat, one that was more animal than man, had a thrill chasing through her as he grabbed her backside and lifted her, and carried her to the wall. She moaned as he pinned her against it, looped her legs around his waist and couldn’t stop herself from rocking against him, her breaths coming faster as she kissed him, each one choppy and wild.
Fierce.
He pressed his hips forwards, tearing a groan from her as she felt his hardness, and tore another from her as he broke the kiss and pulled his t-shirt off, revealing glorious rope after rope of muscle.
Before she could get her fill of touching him, he had his hands on the hem of her own t-shirt and was lifting it, forcing her arms above her head. A flare of self-consciousness burst inside her, and she wanted to cover herself as he tossed her t-shirt aside and gazed at her, but the way he groaned, the hunger that lit his eyes, need breaking through in their stony grey depths, had her letting him get a good look at her curves.
“Fuck, you’re beautiful, Ivy,” he breathed and swooped on her lips again, sending heat flashing through her.
She arched against him, moaned as she kissed him and his body pressed against hers, silk over steel, all hard to her softness. He gripped her backside and kissed her harder, his desperation matching hers, and she felt as if everything had been building to this, to a crescendo that stole all control from her and made her a slave to sensation, to the needs pouring through her.
Ivy plastered her hands against his chest, groaned and trembled as his muscles flexed beneath her palms, his strength beneath her fingertips, stirring a deep primal need in her, one that had her desperation mounting. She needed him, and she needed him now, wanted him inside her, was sure she might die if it didn’t happen soon.
He groaned as she drifted her hands down his chest, over every delicious peak and valley of his abs, her pulse pounding faster, nerves threatening to rise as she inched her caress lower, moving closer to the waist of his jeans.
“Ivy,” he husked, a plea in his deep voice that was her undoing.
All control shattered and all that mattered was touching him, feeling him.
Having him.
She wrestled with the buttons of his jeans, her breaths matching his as they came faster, and he lowered his head to her throat, each sweep of his lips and his tongue sending shivers down her spine, cranking her belly tighter.
She moaned in time with him as she twisted her hand towards him and slipped it into his trunks, skimmed her palm down the rigid hot length of him. He paused against her throat, big body shaking against her as she stroked him, thumbed the tip and smeared the bead of moisture into it.
His breath was hot on her throat, coming in sharp bursts as he remained frozen against her, hemming her in against the wall, his hands shaking against her backside as he held her aloft.
She swore she could feel his need, that it ran through her too, urged her to free his cock so she could stroke it properly, could feel every inch of him.
She released him and pushed at his jeans, shoving them down to his thighs, and he growled and kissed her throat again as she moved towards him. She circled his length with her hand, managed a few strokes that elicited grunts from him before he drew back and dropped her to her feet.
She didn’t stop him as he tackled her dark grey trousers, unbuttoning them and pushing them down her legs. He groaned as he revealed them, looking like a man starved as he gazed down at them through hooded eyes that looked more gold again.
Ivy toed her boots off and helped him, desperately kicked off her trousers and didn’t give a damn where they landed. She reached for her black panties but he beat her to it, slipped his fingers into them and teased her with a brush of their tips across her mound, ripping a moan from her and sending a thousand volts shooting through her entire body. She sank against the wall, a little breathless as he pushed her underwear down her legs, too slow for her liking, torturing her.
When he reached her ankles, she lifted each foot in turn, helping him because she wanted him back against her, needed his flesh on hers, his lips on hers, was going to go insane if he didn’t come back to her soon.
He groaned as he dipped his head and kissed up her thigh, his breath teasing her skin, cranking that need even tighter. She couldn’t do slow, wasn’t sure how he could, not when this need had been building inside her for what felt like an eternity now.
She threaded her fingers in his thick hair, gripped it and earned a growling sound from him, and pulled him up to her. He caught her legs as he rose onto his feet, lifting them as he moved between her thighs, and she tipped her head back and moaned as his cock brushed her slick heat.
He answered her with a low moan of his own and seized her mouth again as he rocked between her thighs, rubbing himself up and down her cleft, driving her mad and making her breathless.
“Rath,” she murmured, unable to hold back the plea as her need mounted, made her restless and pushed control beyond her grasp again.
His low groan stirred the heat in her veins, stoked the fire into an inferno that swept through her, burned all her reservations away and had her reaching between them and grasping his cock.
She was done with the teasing.
She grabbed his shoulder with her free hand and lifted herself, guided his blunt head down through her folds and moaned as it pushed inside her.
His entire body tensed.
He snarled, the raw and feral sound startling her.
And plunged deep inside her, filling her in one hard stroke that had a gasp bursting from her lips and her head flying back, her hands gripping his powerful shoulders and clinging to him.
He grunted and pressed her against the wall, held her there for a moment, his heart thundering against hers.
“I can’t…” he muttered, his voice strained, and she shook her head, was right there with him, couldn’t do this gently either, needed it too much.
She grabbed him by his jaw and kissed him hard, pressed her heels into his ass and spurred him on. He groaned, clutched her backside and thrust into her, slamming her against the wall with each powerful one, knocking the breath from her lungs.
She moaned and rocked her hips, writhing on his cock as pressure mounted, need rising higher still, until she was sure she was going to burst. Each long stroke of his cock had her sailing higher, her breath coming faster as he drove into her, sent waves of tingly heat cascading over her thighs and belly.
“Ivy,” he grunted against her lips, his kiss as wild as his thrusts.
She buried her fingers in his hair and clung to him, kissed him hard, her tongue tangling with his, fighting him for dominance as she rocked on him, needing more.
He growled and twisted with her, pulled her away from the wall and planted her ass on the kitchen counter. She squeaked as he tugged her closer, slipped his arms beneath her knees and lifted her legs, spreading her. When he thrust this time, he went so deep she couldn’t hold back the moan that exploded from her lips, savoured his answering one as he curled his hips and drove into her, his long cock filling her up and his pelvis brushing her sensitive bead with each meeting of their hips.
“Rath,” she breathed, clutching him with both hands, heart thundering now, her body alive with sensation.
She wanted to tell him not to stop, that she was close, to keep doing what the fuck he was doing because she was going to scream if he didn’t.
She screamed because he did.
It tore from her throat as every fibre of her being shattered into a thousand pieces and she threw her head back, arching her breasts against him as her entire body quaked, fire licking through her, tingles racing down her shaking thighs.
He grunted and kissed her neck as she clung to him, frozen in place, awash with sensation that overloaded her.
She couldn’t move, could only stare at the hazy ceiling as he pumped her harder, faster, his breath hot on her skin as he licked and nipped at her neck, whispered her name against it and gripped her hard.
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p; His big body tensed.
He bowed backwards as he bellowed her name, driving deep into her, his cock kicking, throbbing as his heat scalded her, and she moaned and shook as bliss swept through her again, the reaction so fierce it caught her off guard and left her breathless.
Rath held her as he breathed hard, muscles straining with each sharp exhalation, his body trembling against hers as he continued to pulse inside her.
The tension suddenly drained from his shoulders and he sagged over her, his fast breaths washing across her neck as he held her.
“Damn,” he muttered against her throat and exhaled hard. “That was…”
“Yeah,” she whispered, still right there with him as she drifted in a haze, every inch of her warm and sated, and she was sure she wouldn’t be able to move for hours, was going to be floating for a while, completely useless to the world.
He peppered her throat with kisses as he pulled out of her, and as he bent over her, sweeping his mouth downwards towards her breasts, and another delicious shiver went through her, she amended her thoughts.
She could be useless later, after she’d had another taste of Rath.
He reached her breasts, swept his palms over the satin of her black bra, and pressed his thumbs into the edges of the cups. He groaned as he pushed them aside, popping her breasts free, and swooped on her right nipple.
Ivy moaned and thrust her breasts towards him as a hot shiver bolted through her, had need rising again as he kissed and licked her nipple, swirled his tongue around it and sucked the bead into his mouth, tugging on it.
Rath swept her back up into his arms and she wrapped her arms and legs around him as he carried her up the stairs, his lips not leaving her flesh, and his feet not missing a step. He dropped her on the soft sheets of his bed, covering her with his body, and continued his assault, driving her wild all over again.
His lips broke away from her breasts and she wanted to moan, wanted to complain, but then he kissed below them, forming a trail down her belly. She stretched her arms above her head and sank into the bed, anticipation coiling inside her, making her impatient as he lingered to swirl his tongue around her navel.
The first press of his mouth on her mound had her hips jacking up off the mattress. He laved his tongue over her flesh, each stroke sending shivers through her, making her breath come quicker, and she groaned and trembled as he wrapped his lips around her bead and suckled it, teased it with his teeth and then stroked it with his tongue again.
Ivy clutched the bedclothes, bunching them into her fists, and planted her feet on the mattress, unable to stop herself from lifting her hips and pressing herself into his mouth, urging him on.
He flicked his tongue over her pert nub. A hot shiver cascaded through her and over her thighs in response.
“Rath,” she moaned, screwed her eyes shut and tipped her head back. “More.”
He groaned and complied, swirled his tongue and flicked again, a faster stroke this time, one that had her hips shooting higher and need spiralling through her.
“More,” she demanded, and fought the temptation to fondle her breasts, to tease her nipples to heighten her pleasure as he teased her with his mouth.
He found another way to heighten it for her.
He pressed two fingers into her core, sliding them as deep as he could get them before withdrawing them a little and rubbing her in just the right spot.
“Oh, God.” She bit down on her lower lip, unsure she could survive such an assault.
Rath groaned and suckled her as he stroked her core.
Stars detonated across her eyes and she cried out as she broke apart, her body flexing around his fingers. He moaned again, slowed his strokes and lapped at her, and damn him, it only had her need mounting once more.
Ivy grabbed his hair and tugged, pulling him up to her.
He covered her body with his again, hooking her knees over his elbows and rubbing his hard length along her core as he kissed her, giving her what she needed.
She kept her right leg where it was as he lowered his hand, sighed as he eased his hips back and the tip of his cock penetrated her.
He held it there, just the head nudged inside her, and hooked his arm under her leg again, and then seemed to think the better of it. He released them both, lowered his body over hers, so his chest brushed her nipples, sending a fiery ache through her. He clutched her shoulder in his left hand, gripped her hip in his right and lifted it from the bed, and swallowed her moan in a kiss as he plunged into her, filling her again.
She kissed him hard as he drove into her, as fierce as before, his need flooding her, mingling with her own. He grunted as she clenched his cock, shuddered and pumped harder, and she moaned into his mouth. Each stroke of his length was divine, had her hips jacking higher, a need for him to go deeper rushing through her. She clung to him as she kissed him and writhed in his grip, the pressure building again, stealing control from her grasp.
Rath growled against her lips and loosed a low guttural surprised sound as his entire body jerked against her and his cock throbbed, pulsing hard, flooding her with jets of his seed. She moaned and quivered as she joined him, slumped beneath him and struggled to breathe as another release swept through her.
He groaned with each throb of her body around his, his shoulders shaking as she clung to them, and sagged against her. She sighed as he rolled onto his side, taking her with him, and wrapped his arms around her.
She wasn’t sure how long they laid there, locked in each other’s arms.
But as the delicious haze lifted, a trickle of fear went through her.
Fear she might have just made the biggest mistake of her life yet.
Not sleeping with Rath.
But falling in love with him.
CHAPTER 11
Rath stood on the deck, a mug of coffee warming his hand and keeping the morning chill off him as he stared at Ivy where she prowled the fringes of the trees by the river, stalking a male black bear.
He wasn’t sure what to do.
He wasn’t like the man who had hurt her, but sleeping with her might have been a mistake, not because he didn’t like her, because he did.
Gods, he did.
It was because he couldn’t let her stay, knew he had to make her leave today, before more cougars arrived, and that it was going to hurt her and she wouldn’t understand. The alternative would produce the same results though. If she remained, and discovered what he was, what everyone who came to Cougar Creek was, she wouldn’t understand then either.
Fuck, it hurt.
He rubbed the spot that burned the fiercest beneath his dark green fleece, right over his heart.
He didn’t want to hurt her, didn’t want that smile she had finally found again to be stolen from her by him, for her to suffer as she had when the man had treated her so callously.
Was he a bastard for wanting to send her away?
Absolutely.
But he had to protect her.
That need ran deep in his blood, in his soul, an urge he had to obey no matter what, because her safety came first.
It killed him that he wouldn’t be able to give her a reason when he made her leave, because the only way to make her see the real reason she had to go was to tell her what was about to happen at the creek. How the fuck was he meant to explain a gathering of males coming to service the needs of females in heat?
No matter how he worded that, it would sound wrong to her, debauched, and would probably make her think he was fucking crazy, a delusional son of a bitch who had lost his mind out here in the wilderness.
Could he tell her that he wanted her to go and find the spirit bears?
A growl rumbled through him, not the first to peel from his lips this morning. The thought of her leaving tore at him, ripped at his strength and his heart, pulling him to pieces.
He could ask her to come back in a few weeks.
Would she?
Fuck. He scrubbed his free hand over his dark hair, tunnelled his fi
ngers in the thick mass of it and growled again, the thought she might not come back, that he might never see her again, driving through him like a thousand spears, each sharper than the last, until he felt as if he was bleeding out.
Was going to die without her.
He paced the deck, his footfalls hard on the timbers, the energy boiling inside him impossible to contain. It needed an outlet or he was going to go insane, or worse.
His fragile control over his instincts as a male, her male, would snap and he would shift, his need to make her stay, to remain with him, forcing the reaction from him so he could dominate her and drive her into submission.
Her leaving was his fucking idea, so no damn way he was going to go cougar on her like that.
He stilled and looked across at her, a pained growl curling up his throat as his face crumpled, his heart growing heavy in his chest.
She couldn’t go. He needed her too much.
Yesterday had shown him that, their moment of madness revealing something that he could no longer deny.
Ivy was his fated female.
His one true mate.
Rath watched her, aching to go to her, but afraid of it at the same time, because if he neared her, he would want to kiss her again, would want to keep kissing her until she agreed to be his.
It wasn’t taboo to take a human mate. Many cougar shifters found their fated one outside of their species. He couldn’t turn her, but bonding with her, mating with her, would extend her life by tying it to his.
They could live together.
He released a shuddering breath.
A fucking ridiculous dream.
The last time he had allowed himself to believe in forever, it had lasted only a decade before it had been taken from him, and it had left him jaded. Broken.
He couldn’t believe in forever again, and he knew that if Ivy stayed, he would start wanting that with her.
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