by Ward, Alice
I stopped when the forest broke, along with the dense canopy of leaves overhead, to allow the sun to beat down upon us. It was the first time since we left the city that the sun was fully visible. My eyes trailed past Atlee, to a sight so different than the lush green vegetation that had surrounded us all this time.
To her right, there were huge, black diggers and bulldozers in the distance, parked beyond the hill. And stretching seemingly everywhere, for miles and miles, was dry, parched land.
The rain forest had been razed.
“I need to what?” she snapped, her voice tart and full of sass as she cracked one eye open.
She frowned at my expression, then started to sit up, following my line of sight.
My stomach lurched. No. I couldn’t let her see the ruined landscape in front of us.
If she did, I knew it would hurt her. So, I did the only thing I could think of.
I clamped my hand under her chin, drawing her to me as I met her halfway, and I crushed my lips onto hers.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Atlee
“What… what are you doing?” I said as he broke the kiss, only long enough to reverse us down the hill. He pulled to the side of the road, juddering to a stop, and yanked off his seatbelt.
“Come here.”
I didn’t hesitate. Against all good judgement, I climbed toward him. Because of the enormous empty space between us that held only the stick shift, there wasn’t really anywhere to go. I looked around helplessly, then decided that only one thing would do.
I hiked my skirt and straddled him, pressing my breasts against his chest as I ground my sex into his growing hardness. “Is this what you had in mind?”
He kneaded the globes of my ass and growled, “In my mind, we were wearing a lot fewer clothes.”
From my position, I was inches above him, and he wrapped his hands around my ass, gazing hungrily up at my mouth. Then his eyes met mine. He reached up, and very slowly, lifted my glasses off my nose. “There you are.”
I licked my lips, feeling more self-conscious, more cute, without the barrier. “You don’t like glasses?”
“No, I… I want to see your face. Every inch of your skin. Every inch of you. I want nothing between us.” He placed the frames aside, and his hands returned to my ass. “Feel all of you.”
I spread open his shirt, toying with the first unopened button about halfway down. He had just the right amount of sexy dark hair smattered with beads of sweat. More evidence that he did perspire. Thank god.
His eyes went down to my cleavage, and his finger traced along the lace edge of my top and the little buttons there. “Take that off.” When I reached for the hem, he added, “It’s time to reapply bug spray.”
I froze. “Bug spray, huh?”
His dimple appeared, and the teasing glint in his eyes made me smile too. “Yeah. I’ll be very thorough. I promise.”
“Well, I don’t think I can really argue with that logic, jungle boy.”
Not that I had a lick of logic in my head at that moment anyway. I actually had nothing in my head but pure lust.
Leaning back, my spine connected with the steering wheel, and the horn blared.
I yelped, jumping from surprise, my thighs clenching around him. I hadn’t realized how caged I was between the steering wheel and his hard body. I pitched forward, and he caught me in the hottest, most intense, openmouthed kiss that I’d ever received. Hard and soft, teeth and tongue, his breath hot and his mouth demanding, it set my world spinning.
When we broke it, I saw spots, and my body was practically pulsing with desire, electricity zinging through my every nerve.
He reached into the back of the truck and pulled out a blanket. His voice was ragged and gruff with need. “Come with me.”
I didn’t remember him opening the door. I didn’t remember stepping to the ground or Wyatt taking me by the wrist. All I remembered was him kissing me again before placing his hand on the small of my back, leading me deeper into the jungle. The truck was still in view when he looked around, and apparently satisfied that we were alone — and there weren’t any creepy crawlies in the vicinity — laid the blanket on the earth.
“Tell me you want this, Atlee,” he said against my lips.
There were so many reasons to say that I didn’t, to run back to my dingy little hotel, and then back to America where I’d move on with my life. And there was one reason to stay.
Him.
The man I loathed.
The man I wanted to crush with my viral words.
The man I’d only met twenty-four hours ago.
The man… I wanted with everything in my soul.
At least just this once.
“I want this,” I told him, lifting my hands to his shoulders. “I want you.”
He took my face in his hands, his incredible eyes searching my expression. “What are you doing to me, Atlee?”
I had no answer for that. Had no time to search for one because his mouth was on mine again.
A hand slid down my body to my back, pulling me harder against him, the pad of his thumb arcing over my skin. I was damp from head to toe with perspiration, my breath tight and fast with anticipation.
He lifted his head and looked down at me with such passion it made my stomach flutter. Radiating between my legs was a pure, hot flame. Sweat trickled down my ribcage and puddled in my cleavage. I wouldn’t have been surprised if I started to steam.
The heat.
Around us. Between us. In us. In me.
I didn’t want to fight it. Couldn’t fight. If this were the fires of hell, I’d gladly plummet into them if he promised to not stop touching me.
“You’re so damn beautiful,” he said.
“So are you.”
At least that’s what I thought I said. I couldn’t even remember my own name when he looked at me like that. My heart was practically pounding out of my rib cage, my whole body tightened in need, one single chord, ready to be struck.
His hand slowly trailed down to my throat, fingering the pulse point in the hollow there. He had to know I was desperate for him, my pulse fluttering like a hummingbird’s. His thumb caressed my damp skin.
“You’re hot,” he murmured, his lips at my throat. “So hot.”
It wasn’t a question, but I opened my eyes and looked up at the canopy above us. “Yeah. Jungle. Equator.”
“Allow me to fix that.”
As he nibbled on my collarbone, I vaguely wondered how he thought he was supposed to fix the weather. Maybe he was a god. If the heavens had opened and it had started raining, I wouldn’t have been too very surprised.
“Fix it, Wyatt. Fix me.”
He growled, and his mouth slammed down on mine. I was clinging to him, feeling his muscles and damp skin through his shirt. His tongue licked out, setting me practically on fire. He lifted me until I was on my toes and my breasts were squashed against his chest. His body was an inferno, and I melted against him.
“That isn’t working,” I murmured when his tongue grazed its way down my jaw to the tender flesh of my neck. He licked his way down to my collarbone again, his hands flirting with the straps at my shoulders.
He pulled away from me, giving me that arrogant look of his, before easing my spaghetti straps down over my arms. He licked his way over my chest and then practically dove for my breasts, dropping a kiss between them before lowering the fabric down all the way, exposing me to the humid air.
He licked at one and then the other, molding them, pressing them together. He took a nipple between his lips and sucked so hard I could feel the pull from his mouth into my toes.
“Ah, god.”
My fingers worked through his thick hair as he continued to swirl his tongue over my nipples, making them so hard they ached. The sensation made my stomach flutter, my sex clenching and unclenching in raw, animal need.
Working my hands past his shoulders to his back, I found that he too was covered in sweat. I could feel it through his shirt. I
t turned me on, how slick we were. I’d bet his skin tasted deliciously salty too.
As if he read my mind, Wyatt pulled his mouth off my nipple with a loud, obscene sounding pop. “Mmmm. You taste good. I could stay here and eat you all day.”
I moaned. Actual words escaped me. I couldn’t imagine a better way to spend a day, truthfully, with him giving my breasts such rapt attention. He sucked one breast, then the other, so hard, as if he couldn’t get enough. The pleasure that spiraled through me was almost too much until he sank his teeth around my nipple and bit down.
I cried out.
He washed his tongue over the hurt, and I quickly forgave him, even when he bit me again. The edge of pain seemed to intensify the pleasure, and I wanted more, but he’d already begun trailing his tongue southward, pushing my top down to my waist. He kissed my abdomen as his hands encircled my body, reaching their way up my ass. “Panties, huh?”
I tried to think of something witty to say, but nothing came. It was like my brain shut off, and now my sexy parts were in the driver’s seat.
He didn’t wait for an answer, anyway. He rolled them down over my hips, past my thighs, my knees, jiggling them a little at my ankles until I stepped one boot, then the other, out of them.
“That’s better.” He rolled my skirt up, so now all my clothes were bunched at my waist.
He cupped my sex, sending liquid heat straight up my spine, and rubbing the pad of his thumb on my clit in languid circles, placed a kiss on my thigh. My breath burned in my lungs as I held it in anticipation, then it burst out of me in disappointment when he laid down on the blanket instead.
“Come here and let me taste all of you.”
For a moment, I didn’t know what he meant, then suddenly, I did.
Ride my face.
Oh god. Could I do this? Would I do this?
He crooked a finger at me, that damn dimple winking.
Damn straight I would.
Straddling his chest, I took the hands he offered to me and sank down until my knees were on each side of his head.
Fingers linked with mine, he stared up at me from between my thighs, the pupils of his eyes almost fully eclipsing the blue.
“I’ve wanted this since I first saw you, Atlee.”
I didn’t know it then, but I wanted this too.
Slowly, I sank down on his waiting mouth, then nearly jolted back up as pleasure speared through me. Pure heat coursed through my body as he licked and sucked my clit. Letting go of my hands, he wrapped his long fingers around my thighs, pulling me harder down on him, his tongue arrowing into my body.
Grabbing handfuls of the blanket, I spread my legs, giving him better access as his tongue worked circles, darting in and out, bringing me closer to the edge.
“Oh,” I moaned, grinding harder into his face as my spine curled. I had a hard time keeping erect. I curled in on myself, looking up at the palms above, as sensation built on top of sensation. “That feels so good.”
His breath was hot under me. “I’m far from done.”
I looked down at him, watched his mouth working as he pleased me. His tongue speared inside me, and I felt it curling against the walls as he rubbed my clit with his thumb.
That got me. I came so hard that I thought I’d rip apart. I screamed so loud that even though it felt like we were in the middle of nowhere, I was sure someone had to have heard.
He didn’t stop. In fact, my orgasm seemed to have ignited him and he worked me harder… faster… almost brutally. Until I came again.
This time I collapsed, my trembling core unable to sustain my weight a second longer.
As I shuddered, he pulled me down and turned us until we were face to face and our tongues met together in a frantic dance. I tasted myself, salty and musky on his mouth as we tangled together, touching, tasting, exploring.
My fingers roamed over his chest, his muscles rippling under my touch. I ran my hands up his skin, pausing when I heard a button pop. He pushed up to his knees, then growled and ripped it out of the waistband of his pants, lifting it over his head and casting it aside.
And then it was like Christmas, and I’d just gotten the toy I’d waited all year for. All that promise that I’d pictured below the shirt was even better, just a glorious, ripped, tanned and smooth playground of adult fantasy.
Sitting up, I kissed down the spattering of dark hair at the center of his chest, to his pectorals, and clamped my teeth on his nipple. He growled at me.
I grinned. Turnabout was fair play.
Which was probably why he became more aggressive, and he delved two fingers deep inside me, making me gasp.
I stroked my fingers along the front of his pants, feeling his hardness. I wanted him with a need that I couldn’t control. “I want you inside me now,” I begged. “Please.”
In one fluid movement, he stood up and made quick work of the button and zipper. He pushed the pants and boxers down his thighs, and his cock popped free, a drop of pre-cum glistening on the tip. Reaching into his pocket before tossing the pants aside, he pulled a condom from his wallet. I watched, fascinated, while he ripped it open and rolled it over the fat head and down the thick shaft.
“Were you a Boy Scout?”
He grinned, the dimple winking at me again, then did something very un-Boy Scout like. He flipped me over. One second, I was facing him. The next, I was on my hands and knees, my ass high in the air.
I didn’t even protest. The position actually seemed right. We were in the middle of the jungle, after all, and missionary position would have been a little too… tame.
Looking over my shoulder, I watched him guide that big, hard thing toward me, felt it pressing at my entrance.
“No regrets?” he asked, dragging the tip up my slit. “Tell me to stop and I will.”
If I were facing him, I would have kissed him, shown him through my actions just how much I wanted this. Instead, I pushed back, taking the head of his cock into my body in one smooth stroke.
Regrets?
Maybe an hour from now. Or tomorrow. Next month. Next year. Next lifetime.
But not right now. I needed him as much as he apparently needed me. My only regret would be to walk away.
Hands on my hips, he slammed into me, tearing a scream from my throat. A scream so loud, it seemed to quiet all the other noises in the jungle.
He stopped, giving my body time to stretch around the sudden intrusion. He was big, thick and long, and he filled me in a way I’d never been filled before.
His hand moved down my spine, to the back of my neck, and he pressed until my cheek was on the blanket. Putting me at his mercy.
Which was exactly where I wanted to be.
“Tell me to stop,” he said, and I could hear what the words cost him.
“Don’t stop,” I managed to pant out. “Please. I need you. Need this.”
I pressed my mouth into the blanket to quiet myself as he withdrew, dragging over the sensitive tissues. Then I was jerked forward when he thrust into me again.
“Yes. Harder. More.”
As if my words had lit a fuse, he exploded. Not in orgasm, but in action.
Holding my head down, the other curled around my hip, he moved in earnest, thrusting and thrusting, harder and faster, driving into me, the sounds of our bodies connecting cracking into the surrounding vegetation.
I gave as good as I got, pushing back to meet each thrust, as wild as he. I rocked with him, feeling him plunge, finding the very end of me.
Sinking his fingers into my hair, he pulled until I was on my knees, my back flush against his chest. And still he thrust, grunting and growling and digging his teeth into my back, biting me hard. All I could do was beg for more.
He was such a fucking man. Born and on this earth to do just this. It didn’t seem possible he could do anything better.
“So. Damn. Good.”
I had to agree, and when his hand fell to my clit, rubbing in circles, I exploded, my vision graying at the edges as my body
felt pleasure I didn’t know existed.
He shouted my name and gave several balls-deep thrusts before I felt him coming too. I fell to my hands, then to the ground as I took his weight, his face buried in my hair.
He rolled off me, and I could breathe again. And as oxygen entered my brain, I had one thought… what the hell had I just done?
Rolling onto my back, still panting, looking up into the leaves of the jungle around me, I hated myself.
I wasn’t a shark. I was a slut who was led by her emotions.
I wasn’t saving the rain forest. I wasn’t doing what I set out to do. I’d let myself be led by… emotions.
Tears pricked my eyes, and I swore I’d jab them out if a single tear fell.
No regrets.
Total bullshit. I was a liar on top of everything else. Because I already had regrets.
But not about him. Or this.
About myself.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Wyatt
Atlee jumped into the driver’s seat before I’d even gotten my pants back on.
I buttoned them, threw on my boots, leaving them untied, and lifted the blanket and my shirt off the ground. Watching her carefully, I stuffed it all in a pile on the back seat as I climbed into the passenger’s seat, all while not complaining about her clear desire to drive.
I knew she wouldn’t want me to litter, so I was still holding the tied off condom and wrapper, which I’d toss away at the earliest convenience. I made a mental note to thank Ryan.
“What’s your rush?”
She had buttons on the front of her tank top, which she hadn’t bothered to close, so it gaped open, leaving enough cleavage to make my cock jump again. Glasses back on now, she turned the key in the ignition and didn’t look at me. “It’s getting late.”
I forced myself not to touch her as she sat with her hands wrapped around the wheel. “You know how to drive a stick?”
She scowled at me and threw the car into gear. Hell, being with her was like being caught up in a tornado. Once she had her sights set on something, she was hell-bent. I was quickly learning that I had to just hold on and wait, hoping the damage wouldn’t be too bad.