I nod and feel her tense up, feel the gap widening between us, yawning wide and dark and dangerous. It takes every bit of strength I have, but I push the words deep down, trying to respect her wishes even though I desperately want to force her to listen.
It’s quiet for a long few minutes, the tension slowly melting as we wander through the past in our minds, in our hearts. We stay close, our bodies pressed against each other, even if the distance of our souls stays static, much to my frustration.
We wait as the afternoon stretches on, not saying much as we wait. When my watch says it’s getting close to four, I recock her crossbow and set a hunting broadhead into the groove.
I get my gear ready too, my bow poised in case Ana needs it. About thirty minutes later, I hear the first rustles in the woods, and coming down the game trail is a doe, still skinny after a long winter. But that’s not what we’re here for, so we let her pass.
Ten minutes later, there’s another rustle, and a boar emerges. The Bear Mountains actually have more boar than bears nowadays, too many hunters looking for a trophy and too many developers taking the bears’ territory. Boars, though, are officially vermin by the state because they’re so prevalent, and they’re fair game.
But this boar is small, likely still young, and not suitable to hunt yet. I whisper to Ana, “Not this one.”
We wait for over an hour, watching the sun dip toward the horizon and the forest come to life with nocturnal creatures. But though we see a few more deer, no more boars come near our hunting post. I do need to hunt to restock my freezer supplies, but I’m just enjoying being wrapped around Ana, her back to my front as the orange light casts a glow over us.
Finally, we give up and head carefully back to the ATV for the ride back to the cabin. We might not have had a successful hunt, but I feel like Ana is slowly warming to me, even if she did shut me down on having a serious discussion again. But I’m wearing her down, and if nothing else, she’s getting more comfortable around me, letting her guard down more and more, letting me in. Eventually, she has to listen, or maybe we can just pretend the past never happened and move forward from here.
We don’t have fresh meat for dinner, but luckily, I’m always well-prepared and Ana really did stock up for her vacation. Rex is practically drooling on the ground as the low flames lick at the chicken breasts we’ve skewered and placed on a makeshift grill that lays on the open firepit.
“So this is what your life is like,” Ana says as I turn the skewers. “You do this often?”
“More often than not. Usually not chicken, though I’ll admit I go into town to get some things.”
Ana shakes her head, looking at me sideways. “I’ve imagined what you’d be like, where you’d be, many times over the years. Never expected this. You were so . . . different.” She chuckles. “You were about as far from a loner as it gets. And look at you now!”
I swallow, looking down. It’s the first time we’ve mentioned our pasts, and suddenly, it’s my time to feel nervous. “It’s what I had to do to survive.”
She can see the darkness in my eyes and turns, tilting her head as she looks at me carefully. “What do you mean, to survive?”
I stare at her long and hard, trying to think up a way to start because this is the opening I’ve been waiting for, my chance to explain how my life went sideways and I left her behind, even if I didn’t want to.
Before I can answer, a growling sound with a familiar stench wafts our direction.
“What the hell is that smell?” she cries, backing away. “God, that’s fucking rank!”
“Skunk,” I growl. “The fire scares it so it’s scenting, I guess. Probably just wants food.”
Rex barks in the skunk’s direction, the scruff of his neck rising.
“No, Rex!” I command, hoping Rex remembers. The last time he tangled with a skunk, he got sprayed. It took a day for him to see right and a week of tomato juice baths to get the smell out of his fur.
“Let’s get back,” I growl, pointing toward the cabin. “You don’t want that smell getting into your clothes and your skin, trust me.”
Ana doesn’t need any more convincing, running while Rex stays with me as I follow, limping along. I think about how funny it is. The conversation I’ve worried about having for years . . . and it’s stopped in its tracks by a skunk.
Chapter 14
Aubrey
“Oh my gawd, that smell!” Ana gags, out of breath. My ankle’s not too bad, but I’m glad that we’re stopping. Ana shakes her head, waving her hand in front of her nose. “I’ve never smelled something that bad . . . and I work in a hospital!”
I chuckle. “Good thing you’re a city girl then. It’s happened to me a few times out here. Never pleasant.”
A shudder rushes through her, so I move closer. “You’re shivering. From the cold or the smell?”
The stars twinkle above us like diamonds glittering on blue-black velvet, and Ana takes a half-step back, turning so that I’m hugging her from behind as she looks around. “Both maybe. Maybe something else though.” She looks around, scanning the darkening tree line, and I catch a hint of a smile as she notices the sparking lightning bugs who have come out for the evening. “This reminds me of our special place. I wouldn’t even remember how to get there from here though.”
I nuzzle at her neck and kiss her just below her ear. “I know where it is. Too far of a walk right now, but this can be our special place for tonight.”
Ana moans softly, pressing back against me as I bring my hand around and cup her breast, the perfect handful for my touch. Her breath catches, and she looks back, her eyes two more diamonds in the moonlight. “Uh, should we go in the cabin?”
I look over my shoulder at the cabin then back to Ana. “I don’t think I can make it. Might have to stay right here.” I grin as her face goes from an expression of ‘oh, no’, thinking my ankle hurts too much to let me walk the handful of yards to the cabin, to one of sexy sassiness as she gets my meaning.
Ana nods, reaching up to cup my neck as I lower my lips, tasting the curve of her neck as I pull her tighter, my hands roaming her body.
We sink down to the grassy earth, our hands exploring each other as we shrug off our jackets. I pull Ana on top of me, stroking her thighs and ass. “Ana . . . my Sweet Ana.”
“I think part of me has always been your Sweet Ana,” she whispers, nipping at my neck. The confession feels big, an acknowledgement of what we once were to each other. “But I’m more now.”
I slip my hand inside her jeans, humming happily as I cup her pussy. “I’ve noticed.” I slip a finger along the edge of her panties, dipping in to tease at her slit. “You’ve grown, inside and out,” I say, placing my other hand on her heart.
“So have you. Everything about you is bigger.” She gasps as I tease her pussy. “Or maybe I’m just imagining things.”
“It’s in the food up here,” I joke, rolling her over to kiss down her neck. It’s pretty chilly, so I suck on her nipples through her shirt, saying, “I don’t want you to freeze, so we’ll have to do this half-dressed, okay?” She moans, which I take as agreement considering her back is arching as I tug on her stiff nubs, so I push her pants lower, leaving her trapped with them around her knees. “God, you’re fucking beautiful.”
“Aubrey?” Ana says, twisting her hips. I get up, and she turns over, getting to her knees to present herself to me. “Please?”
I can’t resist the sight of Ana, her eyes gleaming in the starlight and her ass swaying hypnotically back and forth in front of me. Reaching forward, I grab her ass, spreading her cheeks wide to let me see her wet pussy, relishing the heady punch of her arousal that hits my nostrils. “I need a taste.”
“Oh, fuck, Aubrey, yes,” Ana cries out as I bury my face in her ass, my tongue lapping at her pussy from behind as I feast on her. She’s so delicious, and I squeeze the handfuls of her ass again and again, kneading her flesh and knowing I’m likely leaving fingerprint marks on her skin. “Oh, fu
ck . . .”
I jab my stiff tongue deep in Ana’s pussy, tongue-fucking her forcefully before pulling out to stroke her clit, covering my mouth and lips in the sweet wine. I give her all I have, trying to show her that I’m not the boy who left her . . . that I’m more, that I’ve grown like she has.
Ana trembles, her fingers digging at the soft grass until she cries out, her back arching as she comes, calling out my name softly. “Aubrey . . . oh, God, you make me feel so good.” It’s a breathy confession that pulls at my heart.
Give me a chance, and I always will, I want to promise her, but instead I pull back, shoving my jeans down my thighs and freeing my cock. I’m ready, and I can feel my pulse through my skin, precum already oozing from my tip.
I tease my head along her folds, coating myself in her slickness and taking a moment to lock down my control. “Are you ready?” I ask. “Ana, I feel like . . .” My voice is soft, a whisper in the open air, but the strain is evident.
“No,” Ana says, looking back at me. “Aubrey, I understand what you’re doing. You want to be tender and sweet, show me that I’m special, that this space is special. Want to know what’ll make this special?”
“What?” I ask, curious.
“You . . . just be you. Don’t hold back. I want you to pound the fuck out of me like the big beast that you are. Blow my fucking mind like only you can.”
It’s a dare, and part of me knows she’s trying to avoid the emotions that are thick in the air, using the darkness inside of me as the smoke screen instead of her usual light banter. It almost angers me, the way she keeps minimizing what we were, what we are. But it intrigues me too, the thought that I don’t have to hold back with her, that she wants me wild, rough, untamed.
The animal, the beast, as she calls it, roars in response, and I grab her hips, pulling her back against my stiff cock. “Is that what you want?” I snarl, biting her neck. “To get fucked on your knees on the ground like an animal?” My filthy words excite her, judging by how she’s pushing back, searching for my cock. “Then take it all.”
I thrust all the way in with one stroke, deep into Ana’s tight pussy until my hips smack against hers. She cries out, screaming my name in pleasure and pain as I pull back and pound into her, bottoming out with every long, deep stroke, my balls swinging up to slap against her clit.
Ana tries to push back, but I’m too strong, and I take over, pulling her pussy onto my cock as I thrust, controlling the tempo, the depth, and not giving her any space to limit anything. I growl in her ear, “This is what you want? To be taken, fucked, overpowered?”
“God, yes,” Ana moans, her body flattening out. I let her stretch out, straddling her thighs and hammering her tight pussy as I pin her to the ground, pressed into my jacket and the ground as my cock swells. “Fuck, Aubrey, I—”
She never completes her statement as I roar, my climax jolting me like a bolt of lightning as I fill her pussy with everything I have, gasping as she clenches around me, another orgasm sweeping through her. A strangled cry that sounds like my name reaches my ears, but I’m still riding high, her name inarticulate on my lips behind a locked throat.
We collapse, and I immediately roll to the side so I don’t crush her, cradling Ana’s tiny figure in my arms. She stays there, the two of us looking up at the stars together until my cock softens and slips out of her. She twists to lie on my chest. “Well, I asked for it.” There’s a smile in her voice, but I need to be sure.
“Are you okay?” I ask, stroking her hair softly. “I didn’t want to hurt you.”
“You didn’t,” Ana says, laying a hand over my heart and feeling the racing thunder in my chest. “It was amazing.”
It’s quiet for several minutes, both of us lost in our thoughts . . . of the spectacular fucking we just had, of the stars blanketing us above, of the past.
“You know, it’s been so long, I can only remember some parts of our days together. I feel like bits and pieces are so vivid, but others are hazy, lost to time,” I whisper, holding her close and praying she doesn’t shut down on me. “The good parts, mostly. We had a lot of good times.”
“I can remember all of it,” Ana whispers back, but while there’s a little sadness in her voice, there’s a mix of other things too. Things that make me feel encouraged.
“Can you?”
“Yes,” she says before chuckling. “Like when we first . . .”
Chapter 15
Ana - High School – Junior Year
“That should stop the bleeding,” I say, putting on a Band-Aid for my friend who cut her hand while doing a cartwheel during gym class. Of course, how someone cuts their hand doing a cartwheel is pretty damn fantastical, but for some reason, Coach Smoak insisted on our having class outside on the soccer field today . . . and nobody checks those fields for sticks and rocks in the off-season.
“Damn, girl, you should be a doctor,” my best friend, Marissa Palmer, says. She and I have been friends since elementary school, but she won the puberty lottery and the skinny, kinda geeky girl I used to do sleepovers with turned into Great Falls’s teenage dream. Blonde, blue-eyed, and a body that leaves boys drooling behind her, but she’s still sweet and we have lots of fun, even if most guys just see me as a stepping stone to get them closer to her. And that’s if they see me at all.
“It’s just a Band-Aid,” I point out, closing the kit. “Coach didn’t want to send you to the school nurse.”
“That’s because ol’ Sourpuss didn’t want to get in trouble. Thankfully, I’ve got the best doctor this side of Meredith Grey on my side!”
I laugh. Marissa’s more into the sexy drama of the new show than the actual medical side of things. Meanwhile, I geek out and look up the medical jargon to check for accuracy. “Trey always tells me that, but I don’t know. Med school is a lot of work and takes forever. But I love helping people so I’m thinking along the lines of a social worker or vet. Probably social worker. I love animals, but some of them scare me.”
“Ha, good point,” Marissa says before biting her lower lip, looking as if she’d rather not say what she’s about to say but is forcing herself to do it anyway. “Hey, girl, I’ve been meaning to ask you something.”
“What’s up?”
Marissa looks down, blushing a little. “Well . . . does Trey ever ask you about me?”
Uh-oh. Marissa gazes at my brother with stars in her eyes every time she comes over, sometimes even resorting to obvious flirting. He’s older and cooler, and even I can see that he’s cute. I can see where this is going, and while Trey’s never told me . . . I mean, he is my brother. I sort of know these things or at least suspect. But it’s not my place to share his business. Time to play it dumb. “What do you mean?”
Marissa shrugs, looking like she’d rather be anywhere else right this instant. “Like . . . you know, don’t make me spell it out! Every time I try to talk to him, he’s just . . . uninterested.”
I pause. I don’t know what to tell her. “Look, he’s kinda in a different world than we are. He’s graduated and has all this pressure to be an adult. I think he just sees me as a kid still, and by extension, you too.” It’s the truth. Well, one of them at least. I’m pretty sure Trey doesn’t swing this way, but even if he did, I’m not sure a high school kid would be on his radar considering the throngs of people at the university, even if we are only a couple of years apart and have always been close and part of the same bigger group of friends.
The bell rings, and for once, I’m glad I have math on the far side of the school. I’ll have to haul buns to get over there in time. “Gotta go. I’ll meet you at lunch!”
Marissa looks chagrined but doesn't argue. “Okay, girl, catch you later.”
I rush all the way across campus, hurrying up the stairs and getting into class just as the bell rings. I sit down, pulling out my pre-calc book, but just as I do, I feel the hair on the back of my neck prick up. Oh, God, he’s looking at me.
I can’t help but glance back to see Aubr
ey O’Day, the cutest boy in school, looking at me. Tall, lean, and with a body that’s made him star of both the football and the basketball teams, Aubrey’s been the biggest jock to come out of Great Falls in years. There are already rumors that come next year, it’s not going to be a matter of if he’s going to get a full-ride scholarship to some big college, but which ones.
Just about every girl in school’s got a crush on him . . . well, except for maybe Marissa, and rumors abound about whom he’s going to ask to homecoming.
Aubrey winks at me, and I feel like someone just turned a blowtorch on my face. I blink rapidly, gasping in shock. My heart pounds as I turn back, trying to focus on what a derivation is for and failing miserably. It’s like a scene from some old teen movie . . . the nerd that can’t handle even the slightest bit of attention from the object of her crush. Is he laughing at me and my awkward response? I would be. If only I had a scriptwriter setting the scene for the big turnaround moment where he realizes he loves the quiet nerd. As if, I snort to myself.
Can’t blame me for freaking out though. He’s just so hot. He’s been the most popular guy in school since last year, when he ran for the touchdown that made us district champs.
All the hot girls are always crowded around him like a pack of groupies whenever he’s in the lunch room or even just hanging out with the guys before class. Seriously, for Aubrey O’Day, school is nothing more than easy pussy on parade . . . if he wanted. Which I don’t know anything about, because I try desperately to not hear any gossip about that.
I’ve caught him looking at me from time to time in class, but he never talks to me, and that just reinforces my thoughts that he’s secretly and silently making fun of me, even if he’s never given a single indication that it's true. Teenage insecurity? Definitely. I’m probably right though. I think he likes just looking at me to mess with my head because I’m not popular in the least.
Untamed (Irresistible Bachelors Book 9) Page 11