Forever Wild: A Camden Ranch Novel

by Jillian Neal

  “Oh, sugar, you are treading on dangerous ground.”

  “I like dangerous. Always have. Always will. Remember our deal? You keep me sane. I’ll keep you wild. Right now, I’m needin’ a whole lot of sanity, cowboy.”

  “Indieanna, the wedding party has been asked to dance! Why aren’t you moving?” Carolyn’s screeching tone stabbed through the palpable need between Luke and Indie at the same moment her garishly red fingernails stabbed into Luke’s shoulder. He turned to glare at the woman, equally furious at both what she’d interrupted and the claw marks dug into his arm.

  Rolling her eyes, Indie jerked Luke out of his seat. “We’re going, Mother. I see no one’s thought to Xanax your punch cup yet. Have to remember to do that before big events.”

  Gnawing on the inside of his lip to keep from unloading all of his murderous thoughts on Indie’s mother in front of the entire town, Luke eased Indie into his arms and started to sway.

  “I’m sorry she’s such a bitch,” Indie sighed.

  “It’s fine, darlin’. Come here and dance with me.”

  It wasn’t fine, but he refused to point out that her mother had always been and would always be a bitch. He kept his eye ever on the prize. She needed precious little justification for leaving the Glen because of her mother. He’d be damned if he was going to give her the ammunition to kill him with.

  Some song Luke didn’t know played from the band, and she nuzzled her head against his neck. She was in his arms, her breasts teasing his chest with each sway, her ample ass just below his fingertips, and the sweet scent of her hair played in his breath. His left hand seemed to have a mind of its own. It slipped lower, longing to cup her lower curves and squeeze. Self-control be damned. The thong in his pocket burned a hole in his resolve. The entire fucking town was watching them. The savage beast housed in his soul that no one could summon but her shook its cage.

  “I ain’t gonna make it through this song, Indie. I told you, my patience is gone.” Trying to be discreet, he rocked his hips forward ever so slightly, letting her feel what she was doing to him.

  A soft moan hummed from her. “Can’t really sneak out right now without a distraction.” And there it was. That sexy as hell sly grin that always turned him inside out formed on her face. She stepped back and clutched her side.

  Trying not to laugh, Luke plastered on a worried expression. “You okay, sugar?”

  “Yeah. Damned dress is pinching me. There’s a tag or something. It’s leaving a mark. Can you help me?” she announced just a little too loudly. Then she took his hand and glided out of the crowd and up the deck stairs. All eyes were on Tuck and Melony. No one seemed concerned about Indie.

  Racing into the house, Indie almost toppled over one of the caterers carrying out a tray of those ridiculously tiny sandwiches no one at the party really understood. Indie assumed her mother and her stepfather’s cohorts were only pretending to conceptualize why someone would make sandwiches that one needed to consume twelve of to feel full.

  “Please watch where you’re going, Miss. Guests are supposed to be outside,” the caterer scolded.

  “This is my house. I’ll be wherever the hell I want to be.”

  Luke’s quiet chuckle and her hand tucked safely in his spurned her on. Heady rebelliousness fed her soul. So, there were people downstairs. No problem. Heading into the grand living room that Indie despised, she took the marble steps two at a time with Luke hot on her heels.

  She halted abruptly on the upstairs landing. Bile flooded her throat. An enormous portrait of her mother stared her down. Their eyes were exact duplicates. Indie fought to keep down the thirty-five finger sandwiches she’d consumed in the last few hours. Eyes were the worst possible thing you could inherent from someone you despised. Malaise roiled in her gut. How could she be certain that she didn’t somehow see the world the same way her mother did? She had her eyes. How could she be sure she wouldn’t do to Luke what her mother had done to her daddy? It was all right there in the spite penned in her mother’s pine green eyes.

  Brazen defiance lit through her veins. She turned the corner into what had once been Miranda’s room. Pulling open one of the bedside drawers she located a bottle of lube and handed it to Luke.

  He stared at it like she’d just gifted him gold bricks. “This mean what I think it means?”

  “I’m certainly hoping so. Come on.” Racing to the end of the long hallway, she didn’t stop until they were in her stepfather’s home office.

  Luke eased the door closed. The click of the lock spiked her blood.

  “Had a feelin’ you’d pick here.” His cool blue eyes ate her up with a hunger that bordered on possession. He caged her up against a wall and branded her lips with a drugging kiss. His tongue took ownership of her mouth, punishing and forgiving in a rush of carnal heat.

  He spun her around and backed her towards the massive oak wood desk in the center of the room. In a brutal showing of male intention, he shoved a newspaper, a few files, a ridiculous marble name plate, and an acrylic desk set off the desk and into the wide leather chair. She’d obliterated his endless control. The ultimate aphrodisiac. His raw power drew her in like a drug she required to exist. Her entire body honed in on his. She needed to be devoured, needed to be fucked so hard she forgot who she was, and far more importantly, who she came from. He pulled the pins from her hair and let it cascade down her back. His hands were up her dress a half-second later, gripping her hips, rocking his erection against her mound.

  “Lift your dress, sit back on the desk, spread your legs, and be quiet for me, sugar. I’m hungry.”

  “Oh, fuck yes.” Her ass collided with the edge of her stepfather’s desk as she complied.

  “More. Lean back on your arms. That’s it.” His commands were laced with greed, and she wanted nothing more than to misbehave with Luke Camden.

  He fell to his knees, placed his massive hands on her inner thighs, and spread her out wide. She gripped the far edge of the desk behind her as his tongue traced up and down her slit.

  “Already nice and wet for me aren’t you? You need it bad don’t you, sugar?”

  “Now.” She shuddered as his lower teeth slide along her drenched folds.

  “And my beautiful girl’s wanting it dirty. So damned perfect.” He leaned her back an inch or two more and his tongue spun anxiously over her taint. Her entire body quaked with need. The hard wood under her ass juxtaposed the tender worship of his tongue.

  “Pretty little rosebud. All for me.” That was all the warning she received before he moved his ministrations to the puckered opening of her backside, painting it with his tongue.

  Her entire body clenched. “Relax for me, sugar. Just relax.”

  Indie felt the rough calluses on his thumbs gently ease her lips apart. A loud moan flew from her lungs as he drew her clit into the fiery heat of his mouth and suckled.

  “Quiet, baby. I ain’t near finished.” He fucked her opening with his tongue, jamming it inside of her, driving her to the brink of sanity.

  She managed to quell her moans to soft needy sighs.

  “Please, Luke, I need more.”

  “I know precisely what you need, Indie. I always know.” With that, he took one long draw on her clit and then released her as he stood. He flung off the tux jacket and bowtie then rolled up his sleeves, revealing his powerful forearms. His lips were sheened with her heat.

  She sank her teeth into her bottom lip to keep herself from pleading again. Next came the buckle on his belt. His prominent erection protruded and sprang free when he lowered his briefs.

  She watched him grip his thickened shaft. Pearly beads of pre-cum glistened on the head of his cock. She licked her lips. Her body rocked anxiously on the desk. Easing her legs apart once more he pressed the side of his shaft against her slit tempting her clit with his crown.

  “Oh, yes,” she gasped. He pressed harder, back and forth against her. The exquisite friction almost more than she could bear. “Oh, right there,” she g
roaned when he hit the perfect spot. The next second, one hand covered her mouth and the other continued its delectable torture as a guide for his cockhead. Back and forth with unrelenting pressure right where she desperately needed him.

  “I said quiet, baby. Be nice and quiet and let me give you what you need.”

  Her body undulated with the slide of his shaft. Every pulse point timed itself to the strokes of his cock against her. Warmth licked up her spine. Her racing pulse throbbed in her clit. Her pussy wept out its pleasure. She rode the delicious friction until pure, unadulterated bliss erupted from her core. She broke on a muted scream against his hand.

  He gave her no time to recover. The aftershocks of her orgasm cinched around his cock as he pounded inside of her, as he gave her precisely what she required.

  Okay, she needed to go on the pill. Clearly, condoms were just not going to happen with them. Given the heavenly feeling of his satin-covered steel member thrusting inside of her, she couldn’t find it in herself to care.

  Her body inhaled his. His hands lifted her ass, giving himself the perfect angle to hit every single one of her hotspots. The question was no longer could she stand to move back to the Glen. It was how on earth would she ever give this up if she couldn’t.

  “So. Fucking. Tight,” he grunted. She watched his jaw flex as he took her fast and furiously. He slowed only long enough to lube up his fingers. “Lay all the way back for me.”

  She’d never been more compliant with anyone in her entire life. She laid out on the desk letting the skirt portion of her dress fall over her stomach. His slick fingers rubbed at the opening of her backside and then gently eased inside the tight ring of muscle.

  Her breath caught on a slight moan of incoming pleasure. “Feels so good when I touch you here, doesn’t it, sugar?”

  “Yes,” she managed as her body drew him in further.

  A greedy growl thundered from his lungs. “God, I can feel myself, Indie. I can feel my cock inside of you. Drives me fucking wild.”

  All the times they’d been together, all of the kinky things they’d shared in the last week, she’d never seen him quite like this. His eyes shimmered with lust, open in half-slits of pleasure. His expression loaded with undiluted sin. Every muscle in his body tensed. All sense of the man she loved burned away into primal savage beast. All because of her. The heady cocktail of lust, love, and power made her believe in that moment that she could love him forever.

  “You don’t want me to come in your pussy though, do you? If I pull out, I’m gonna unload all over your pretty little dress. So, tell me. Tell me where you want my cum, darlin’. You want it right here?” He twisted two of his fingers together, added more lube, and pressed fully inside of her ass. “Sweet little rosebud. I’m gonna open it wide.” He did indeed spread his fingers wider, readying her.

  “YesOhGodYes,” bled together into one long plea.

  He granted her one more thrust in her pussy before he withdrew. Her body shook with the unwanted vacancy. He quickly edged her ass to the very end of the desk, applied more lube, and then eased just his cockhead inside her opening.

  “That feel good?”

  “Oh, hell yeah,” she writhed against the desk. It wasn’t lost on her that he was fucking her ass in her stepfather’s office. She exulted in what her mother would surely call heresy. Always her perfect partner in crime. Her perfect lover. Her best friend. She really couldn’t ask for anything more than Luke.

  “Breathe for me, baby. Just breathe. That’s it.” Tension was visibly locked in his agonized expression. Sweat glistened on his temples. “God, sugar. I’ve got to move.”

  “Yes. It feels amazing. I need more.” She relaxed her body and pressed outward against him.

  He surged inside of her, still trying desperately to go easy.

  “I’m fine. Just take me.”

  That did it. He pulled away, added another round of lube, and pressed in, quickening the pace with each pass. His fingers moved back to her clit, strumming her like an instrument only he knew how to play.

  She shook. Her body rolled in exquisite desperation. Another orgasm throbbed behind her mound. Every nerve ending in her body sizzled with need.

  “Every single part of you is mine, Indie. All of you. You understand that? All mine.”

  His words shattered her thoroughly. The quick flexes of her orgasm against his cock milked his climax from him as well. They came together, gasping for breath and groaning out their mutual pleasure.

  “Just relax.” He soothed when he’d caught her breath as he steadied her body carefully. “Everything feel okay?” She gave him a quick nod, since she’d never felt better in her entire life. Gently, he eased out of her and grabbed tissues from the box now on the floor to clean her up.

  “Come here to me.” He helped her up and then before she quite got her footing, he scooped her into his arms and settled them in an oversized leather chair in the corner. Tucking herself against him, she wished for several long moments that she could stay right there curled up in his arms forever.

  “That was amazing,” she whispered.

  “You’re telling me. Making love with you is always incredible, but that … that was something else.”

  She brushed a tender kiss on his neck, tasting the tang of his sweaty musk. His pants were still undone. She could feel the cool metal of his belt buckle against her ass and the elastic of his briefs along her thigh. The sensations of being completely absorbed by him soothed her soul.

  “Guess we have to get dressed and go back out there.” Regret weighted her words.

  “Just sit with me for a few more minutes. I need to hold you.” He cradled her closer. She certainly didn’t mind until the sound of footfalls echoed down the hallway.

  “Shit!” She leapt out of his lap, ignoring the twinge of discomfort in her backside.

  Luke quickly buttoned up and attempted to restore the desk. “There’s lube on this desk pad thing. Pretty sure we’re had.”

  “Who cares? Just come on.” As soon as Indie righted her dress, they flew to the door. Pressing her ear against it, she tried to discern who was talking on the other side.

  She leapt backwards when whoever it was jangled the doorknob. “What are we going to do?!”

  Luke’s quick gaze flitted around the room. There was nowhere to hide. A few filing cabinets stood along one wall. They could hide on the side of them for a moment, but as soon as whoever was out there fully entered the room they would be seen.

  “Easy, sweetness” Luke soothed. “Just play cool. I got this. We were in here talking. I was helping you with your dress.”

  The commanding thrum of his voice, sure and steady, eased her slight panic. She reminded herself that she didn’t really care who knew she’d been in there. An inopportune memory played in the periphery of her mind.

  “Easy, baby doll. I got this.” An overly-confident, seventeen-year-old Luke Camden had escorted her hand in hand to the student parking lot right after first period. They hadn’t gone out the gym doors or snuck out the back door near the Science labs. Nope, he’d marched her right past the front office and the lunchroom. Her daddy had gone to Lincoln for parts and they were going to skip a crappy lunch, an English quiz, and Mr. Dunlop’s unending droned-lecture on the rise and fall of the Roman Empire to ride her horses all day.

  Her heart had raced the same way it was currently. She heard a key slide into the lock on the office door, but the memory kept playing out in her mind.

  They’d been stopped by the Vice-Principal. “Going somewhere, Mr. Camden?”

  Luke had nodded as if walking out of the school was a perfectly normal thing to do. Always quick on his feet and smart as a whip, he supplied, “Yes, sir. Mrs. Bowen asked us to get some ropes out of my truck. She’s using them for the levers and pulleys assignment today. Indie’s daddy sent in some old wheels and axels. We’re getting those as well.” Miraculously, his is cocky smirk hadn’t given them away.

  “Oh. Well, don’t be long.”


  “We won’t. Gotta get everything back to class … sir.”

  And that had been that. They’d slipped into his truck and had driven away without anyone ever finding out.

  The office door pushed open and Ernie and his secretary Tiffany stepped inside. Luke scooped something off the desk and shoved it in his pocket. He crossed his arms over his chest. “All I’m saying, Indie Jane, is that maybe my daddy doesn’t know what he’s talking about.”

  Indie spun on her stepfather. “We’re in the middle of a discussion. Do you mind?” Pretending the other person was in the wrong. Always the way to go when you’re caught.

  “This is my office!” Ernie huffed. Finally, it occurred to Indie that perhaps her stepfather was in the wrong.

  “Yes, it is. And why exactly are you and Tiffany up here during the reception?” Her mind spun. Guilt taunted Tiffany’s chocolate brown eyes. Another memory overwhelmed Indie. The moment she’d walked in on Ernie and her mother in her parent’s bedroom caught red-handed. Oh my God. Oh my God he’s doing it again! The hair on her arms and the back of her neck stood straight. Her heart pounded somewhere in the vicinity of her throat.

  Luke was behind her a half-second later. “I’ve got you. Breathe for me,” he whispered. “That is an excellent question, Mayor. What are you doing up here?”

  “I do not have to answer to the likes of you, Luke Camden! Just what are you two doing in my office? As if your daddy isn’t bad enough, keeping tabs on everyone in town. Policing everything the way he sees fit.”

  “Mmm, mmm, mmm, Mayor. You know, my daddy has a sayin’, ‘Man who’s always cryin’ wolf usually has a steak in the trap.’ Seems to me maybe you ought to stop worrying about my old man and start worrying about whatever’s making you slither like a snake right in front of my eyes.”

  Indie’s stomach turned. Even her cool hand Luke looked shocked. His words were calm. His threat substantial enough to make the mayor squirm, but his eyes said there was an incoming storm, one he wasn’t certain he could stop.