Wild Angels

by May Dawson

  “Hey, you.” He growled into my ear. I laughed as he suddenly picked me up and threw me over his shoulder, taking a few quick strides with me into the woods. He threw his flannel shirt over a waist-high stump that I hadn’t even noticed, setting me on the edge; even through the fabric, I felt the bite of the wood into my ass. As if all my senses were on fire, taking in every second of this.

  Ryker stood between my thighs, and I twined my legs around him, holding him close to me. The rain was soaking us now, splattering down on my head and shoulders. I shrugged the jacket off, folding it once and throwing it over a nearby branch to hang. I ran a finger under the collar of my t-shirt. “This isn’t doing much for me anymore,” I said.

  He glanced down at the curve of my bra, visible through the wet material now. “Nope. But I don’t mind.”

  I pulled my shirt over my head in one smooth motion. And just as quickly, Ryker ran his fingers up my spine, leaving a trail of sparks in his wake, to the clasp of my bra. I nodded my permission at him, and he unbuckled it; my bra fell down my narrow arms, and I tossed it away too, after wherever my shirt had fallen in the muck.

  Ryker palmed one breast in his big hand, his palm brushing against my nipple making me gasp, and leaned forward to kiss the top of the other breast, his lips tender, almost reverent. My thighs tightened around him, desperate for more.

  His fingers unbutton my jeans. I wrapped my arms around his neck, trusting my weight to him, so he could ease my jeans down around my hips and thighs. He peeled the wet jeans down, yanking them away. Then he leaned down between my thighs, pressing a kiss to the inside of my thighs. I gasped at the intimate kiss. The look in his eyes as he glanced quickly up to me was pure mischief. His hair was spiky from the rain as he pulled my jeans down the rest of the way, his lips tracing their path; he kissed the inside of my knee, my calf. Every kiss sent another powerful thrum of longing through my body.

  “Ryker,” I begged. My hands caught his shoulders as he knelt in front of me. He pressed another kiss to my thigh. “Please.”

  In response to my plea, he stood again. “Mm?”

  “I need you,” I said, my fingers fumbling with his belt. Naked there, surrounded by the shivering pines in the sudden storm, I felt like only his body could heat me, could satisfy me. His fingers brushed over mine, unclasping his own belt, and he let his jeans slide down his hips. “Now.”

  “So demanding,” he teased, running his thumb along my jaw, still looking into my face. He kissed the corner of my mouth, and I turned my lips to his, desperately seeking him.

  I felt him press against me, and I gasped, wanting him inside me. I wrapped my thighs tightly around his waist.

  He finally pushed inside, filling me, stretching me, and I gasped. I heard him inhale, and his fingers tangled in my hair, holding my head still as his lips met mine again. I felt myself tighten around him, my muscles already trembling; I had wanted him for so long.

  He eased back out, brushing against my thighs, and then slid home again. I rested my forehead against his, needing to brace myself, because I was already trembling; his arms held me tight, safe, as he eased in and out, and I could see those bright green eyes, flecked with gold, still on mine as he filled me again and again.

  I tightened around him. “Oh!” I said as my toes curled, as my body rocked against his. I’d had sex before, but it had never been like this before; the feel of Ryker deep inside my body was so intense that it was almost painful, my muscles tensing, my core throbbing for him, and then suddenly that tension fell away as I orgasmed. My head fell back, the rain falling against my face, cold and shocking, but my body was hot.

  I felt him suddenly pull out, leaving me behind, and he leaned forward to kiss my breast. His lips were still, hovering just over my heart, as he held himself together, emptying out into the pine needles beneath us.

  “I’m sorry,” I said, swiping wet hair back from my face. “I didn’t think…”

  His lips quirked up in a smile against my breast. “Firestarter, I’d rather have you any way I get you than not. Even in the middle of a storm.”

  He picked up my jacket and shook it out like a gentleman, offering it to me to slip on. I let the cold, wet leather slide over my skin for decency’s sake, for our trek back, because nothing could dull the fire that blazed over my skin. That blazed in my heart.

  I love you, was on my lips. But I just smiled at him as he knelt with my jeans, dressing me with tenderness, caring for me first.

  “Come on, Firestarter,” he said. “Let’s go to bed.”

  “A bed seems so boring after that,” I teased.

  “Not with me,” he promised.

  I was pretty confident about that too.

  Chapter 27

  The heady feeling I had disappeared when Ryker opened his bedroom door for us just as Levi turned out of the door of his room. His lips fell open slightly when he saw us, and I knew I must have been quite the picture: my hair soaked, clutching my leather jacket closed over my naked breasts, my cheeks still flushed.

  Levi nodded at us without comment and headed towards the stairs. His face was neutral, but I felt a sudden sense of loss, of something slipping away, no matter how much Ryker had assured me that they were prepared to share me.

  I turned to Ryker, my lips parting, and he nodded. “Go to him,” he said softly.

  “Are you sure?”

  “I’ll be here,” he promised me. “I’ll always be here for you. No matter what.”

  I nodded, believing that he meant it but still amazed by my luck to have found even just one man who loved me like that.

  Ryker closed the door between us. Just for now. Giving me my privacy with Levi.

  “Wait,” I called softly down the hall. Levi turned, and I closed the distance between us quickly. I looked up into that cool expression, those deep, crystal-blue eyes. “Can we talk?”

  “Yeah, of course,” he said. He crossed his arms over his chest, leaning against the wall. “What’s up?”

  “I just…” I just had no idea what to say. I just wanted to know if he was okay.

  There was a long awkward beat between us while he waited for me to come up with words. But when I didn’t, he said, “It’s okay, crazy girl. You don’t have to explain yourself to me. You don’t have to be sorry.”

  I tucked a wet strand of hair behind my ear nervously. “How do you always know just what I’m thinking?”

  “I pay attention,” he said fondly. He finally unfolded his arms, rising from the wall, and tucked the opposite strand of hair behind my ear. “I couldn’t help paying attention to you if I tried.”

  I pulled a face. “Ryker told me about how you guys don’t have a choice.”

  “It doesn’t bother me,” he said. “That it feels like you’re the only woman in the world. So don’t feel bad about that on my account.”

  I licked my lips tentatively, trying to figure out what to say next. “Can we talk in your room?”

  “Yeah.” He walked down the hall ahead of me, his shoulder briefly brushing against mine in the narrow hall when he passed me, and I breathed in that Levi-scent, the pheromones that made me want to throw myself at him too. And yet I knew that I loved Ryker already.

  Could it really be okay to let myself love them both? Completely and hopelessly, the way I knew I was falling?

  In his room, he pulled the chair away from the desk and turned it around, taking a seat. He looked at me expectantly as I closed the door. Of course he did; I had asked him if I could talk to him in private. Even though I really had no idea what to say. I couldn’t make sense of my own riot of emotions.

  I leaned against the foot of his bed. Even though we were only a few feet apart, I felt a gulf between us I wasn’t sure how to close.

  And so I blurted out, “I think I love Ryker.”

  He nodded. “Okay.”

  I bit down on my lip. Well. There was so much to say besides that. “I… don’t want you to be hurt. Ryker and I just—”

  “I k
now,” he said quickly.

  “Ryker explained the harem to me. That… you don’t necessarily get jealous. Not that you would get jealous. Over… me.” Well, this had descended into sounding like something about my ego. I shook my head. “I’m sorry. I’m doing a bad job with this conversation.”

  Levi leaned forward and took my hands in his, and I looked up from the floor in surprise as his warm hands wrapped around mine.

  “I hope you’ll get used to the idea of the harem,” he said. “But I’ll wait. I want you to be happy. And if what makes you happy is Ryker… just Ryker… we’ll still be powerful together as fighters. It will be fine.”

  “That wouldn’t be fair,” I said, my voice small, imagining this man who was bound to me never being able to have another woman, but not having me. And of course, I wanted him too; even now, from just his thumbs brushing against the inside of my wrists, I felt a longing for him as well.

  “I don’t care about fair,” he said, his voice low and sure. “I care about you.”

  He was so tender and kind.

  His lush lower lip called out to me.

  I leaned forward and pressed my lips to his. His lips parted against mine and he kissed me back, hard, his lips passionate and bruising, the perfect counter to the way he was always so kind and gentle.

  I slipped my arm around his neck, coming into his lap, and he took my jaw in one of his blocky hands. “You sure you want this?”

  “I’m sure I want you,” I said. “I just… I didn’t know if it was really all right.”

  “How could it be wrong to love and be loved, silly girl?” he asked, his voice warm with affection. “Forget what the world says. We’re the ones who stand between the normal world and the evils in the night—we don’t have to follow their rules. We make our own.”

  I kissed him again, feeling the spark of lust between us. He ran his thumb over the waistband of my jeans, stroking my naked skin just above the jeans, and said, “You’re soaking me through, you know.”

  “Sorry.” I stood from his lap, standing between his knees now, and let the rain-splattered jacket fall from my shoulders. His breath caught, taking me in.

  “You’re beautiful,” he told me, tangling wet strands of my hair around his fingers, winding me up. His fingers stroked over my belly to my jeans, and he pushed down on the wet fabric; it clung to my hips, and he knelt, pulling them roughly off. “You must be cold.”

  “Not with you near me,” I whispered.

  But he picked me up suddenly, cradling me against his chest with one arm under my back and one under my knees, and I grinned, one arm slipping over his shoulders automatically. He carried me towards the bed and instead of laying me down gently, he tossed me onto the bed.

  “Am I going to be the only one naked around here?” I asked, pushing myself onto my elbows to look at him.

  “Guess that wouldn’t be fair,” he said. I watched as he pulled his shirt over his head, admiring the way his abs rippled and his pecs emerged. Then his head popped out of his shirt, which temporarily caught around one wide bicep, and he swiped the shirt off and tossed it over his shoulder. He unbuckled his jeans and stepped out of them and his boxers in one go, leaving them in a puddle on the floor.

  He climbed onto the bed, one leg on either side of my thighs, and leaned forward to kiss my stomach. His lips were soft, for once, like a butterfly’s kiss just below my navel, and I squirmed, wanting more of him already. I ran my fingers through his long blond hair, rifling it playfully, and he turned his face into my hand. He caught my hand and pressed a kiss to the inside of my wrist. My knees rose in the air, my heels sliding over the soft sheets, independent of my will; I had never known that a man’s lips on my arm could send such a shiver of longing through me.

  “Wait,” he said, reaching for the bedside table. He quickly pulled out a condom and rolled it on. I watched him curiously, enjoying the sight of him, his width and length; he was such a satisfying weight when he finally brushed between my thighs. He held his weight carefully braced over me, his arms in a push-up position to either side of my head, as his tip teased between my thighs.

  Unable to bear it anymore, I reached down and grabbed him, and I felt his soft intake of breath when I held him in my hands. I guided him between my thighs, caressing myself with him as if he were my toy, and each circle he made around my core just made me that much more achingly desperate for him. I tried to guide him inside me, but he held himself just out of reach.

  “Please,” I said softly, but even before I vocalized my need, I could feel him sway towards me, his hips meeting mine. He buried himself deep in me. He was so big, which I should have guessed from his height and those broad shoulders, and he filled me up to a point that was almost painful but also so, so pleasurable.

  His eyes met mine, gauging my reaction. While I recovered from his size, he pressed a kiss to the side of my jaw, and I felt my head fall back, inviting his kisses. He kissed my throat, my ear. He bit down on the lobe of my ear, a nip just hard enough to send pleasure coursing through my body but also to make me yip, and he grinned, self-satisfied, as he pulled back slightly. He rocked out of me and then in again, filling me up over and over, and any sense of pain faded away because I just wanted him, wanted him inside my every time, over and over.

  My body flushed hot. My toes curled on the sheets. The world was just Levi and me, moving in the moonlight, rocking together. Then the moonlight through the window shattered into a thousand pieces, and my world was a silver blur as I came hard around him. I heard him gasp into my hair.

  He fell to one side of me, still buried deep inside, his arm wrapped around my waist. He buried his face in my hair, and I turned towards him, throwing my leg over his, snuggling as close as I could to the warmth and comfort of his body. I felt my legs still trembling with the aftershocks of that mind-blowing session.

  He ran his fingers over my jaw, looking at me tenderly. I knew he wondered what I was thinking.

  “Maybe I can get used to this harem thing,” I teased.

  He nodded. “Might just be a good idea.”

  “King of understatement,” I said, running my hand down his chiseled abs.

  Chapter 28

  I lay with my head on Levi’s shoulder, feeling safe and content with his fingers twined in my hair. We had gotten up to dress, and I was wearing one of his soft t-shirts, although it was so big that it fell to mid-thigh on me. Then we had curled up again together. I felt his fingers gently tugging on my hair, a sensual and sweet feeling on my scalp, as he caressed my head, and then his fingers stilled as his breathed evened out and he slipped into sleep.

  I could finally go to sleep. And yet, I felt restless, my mind wrapped up in so many things to think about.

  Winning Jacob over.

  Growing strong as a team.

  Finding the Fourth.

  Rescuing my sister.

  Protecting my family. The family I’d been born to, mother, sister. And the family I’d just found here in this house.

  Loving not just one man, but four.

  I heard a faint sound in the hallway, the creak of a floorboard under a foot, and I wondered what Ryker was doing, wherever he was. I sat up in bed, looking at Levi’s handsome, still face under the starlight that seeped through his window. He was so gorgeous and I wanted to lean over again and kiss his face, but I was afraid I’d wake him. We all needed our rest.

  I slipped out of bed and padded across the room, opening the door to the hall.

  Ryker was just disappearing around the corner to the stairs. I ran after him, and my foot caught the same creaky floorboard, which let out a low groan. So when I turned the corner, Ryker was stopped on the stairs, looking back over his shoulder at me.

  “Can’t sleep?” he asked in that low, sexy voice.

  I shook my head. I held my hand out to him.

  Ryker turned and came back up the last few stairs. I wrapped my fingers around his wrist, suddenly anxious; I knew what I needed, but I didn’t know how he
would feel.

  But he let me tow him down the hall. Into his brother’s room. I slid under the blankets, pushing my spine back into Levi’s broad, muscled side, and tugged Ryker down into the big bed with me. He hesitated and then I felt him give; he slid into the bed, settling down beside me, and I rested my head on his shoulder just like I had that first night in the old asylum.

  “Good night, Firestarter,” he murmured into my hair.

  “Good night.” I ran my hand over Levi’s hard-angled side, behind me, and I felt him stir slightly, his fingers catching mine, twining with mine.

  “Night,” he murmured, and I knew he was conscious of Ryker there on the other side of me, but he just turned over and went back to sleep.

  Between the two of them, I was held.

  Warm.

  Safe.

  Loved.

  I felt myself start to fall into a world of sleep, and I knew that for tonight, at least, it didn’t matter what we might face in the morning.

  Nightmares wouldn’t find me. Not here.

  A Note From May

  Hello, and thank you for reading Wild Angels. Ellis’ story continues in Fierce Angels (January 2018), Dirty Angels (currently available for pre-order, and coming out March 13th, 2018) and Loved Angels, the conclusion of this series (coming in June 2018). You’ll find a sneak peek of Fierce Angels if you turn the page.

  To stay in the know about new releases and sales,

  please consider signing up for my reader’s group at http://eepurl.com/c_yMPf

  As a thank-you for being a reverse harem reader and sharing my love of this fantastic genre, I’ll send you a copy of Dream Stalker, which reveals Ryker’s perspective on some of the events in Wild Angels.

  You help indie author like me so much when you leave a review, so please consider reviewing Wild Angels. If you do, thank you so much!

  ~May

  Part I