“You!” With a fierce growl, Xavier forgot everything—where he was, why he was there—and leapt on top of her, forcing her to her back on the soft moss. Snarling down at her, he rasped, “You…Dammit…You…”
She gazed up at him, breathing so hard, she could hardly get the word, “What?” out of her mouth.
“You make me crazy,” he growled.
She raked her hands up his chest. “Good.”
“You make me hungry,” he continued, his eyes narrowed slits as he ground his hips, his hard cock, against her sex.
“Finally,” she uttered, grinning, her hands moving down, over his stomach toward his hips.
He groaned, knowing where she was headed. “You make me…God, Amalie…”
“What, Xavier? Tell me. Please, tell me.”
“You make me so fucking happy.”
The words were out of his mouth before he could take them back. Not that he wanted to. They were true. He’d never felt anything close to this with anyone. He wanted her. Not just a night—or three—of hot, mindless fucking. No. He wanted her.
Amalie’s hands froze near his hipbones and her eyes searched his. Within their incredible green depths, he saw her heart. Saw how she felt about him. How she’d always felt about him. And if he wasn’t mistaken, he saw his own heart reflected there, too.
Suddenly, her face broke with a grin, and she whispered, “By the way, I don’t think anyone would be having their mating night here.”
“Why not?” he asked, his hands cupping her face. Her soft, beautiful face.
“It’s just not very romantic. The swamp, the bugs.”
He ran his thumb across her lower lip. “You sure you’re a Hunter, Amalie?”
Her soft, sexy laughter went straight to his dick. “All I’m saying is that when you mate, or marry as the humans say, you want that first night to be special.”
His expression grew serious and he leaned down and kissed her lower lip. “No bugs?” he whispered.
She nodded, lifting her chin instinctively. “Preferably.”
He kissed her top lip, then swiped it gently with his tongue. “No swamp?”
“If one can help it,” she said breathlessly, her arms wrapping around his waist.
Heat surged up from her skin into his and he stifled a groan. “What if one can’t help it?”
Her eyes cut to his mouth and she licked her lips. “Xavier…”
“Because I don’t think I can help it. I don’t think I want to, Hunter.”
She smiled softly, sweetly. “That’s ‘Beautiful’ to you.”
“Yes, it is.” He kissed her, a kiss that conveyed his hunger and his need, but there was so much more. More he had to say. The one vital thing that would change everything between them. He pulled back and forced her gaze to lock with his. “I want you, Amalie.”
She arched her back and purred, “Then have me.”
His cock felt so hard it was painful. “It’s your first mating.”
“I know,” she thrust her hips up, ground her sex against him brazenly. “I want it to be with you. I’ve always wanted it to be with you.”
Pain and pleasure battled within him. “I want that too. Fuck…”
“Then take it,” she said harshly, desperately.
“Here? Now?”
“Do you care where we are?” she demanded. “Do you care who sees us right now?” She cursed. “Do you care if everything is put on hold for however long we need? However long it takes for this to happen between us?”
“Fuck no. Fuck. No.” His mouth was so dry. He needed her, her heat, her saliva, her cream. He didn’t give a shit about where they were, but he needed her to understand something. He needed her to know what he was asking of her. “Amalie, I won’t take it unless I can keep it.”
Her eyes widened, a flash of confusion moving through them. “What do you mean?”
“You know what I mean.” He rose up, his eyes pinned to hers, but his fingers moving to the waistband of her jeans. “I want you. But not for a night or three.” He flicked the button, eased down the zipper. “I want you always, forever, until the Wildlands are no longer filled with magic and we are dust that a new species calls their home.”
For a moment, all Xavier heard was her rapid breathing and the sounds of the water and the wind through the cypress.
“I love you, Amalie,” he said in a hoarse, desperate voice. “Fuck, Beautiful, I always have. I don’t care about anything or anyone. Not anymore—not ever.”
Tears sprang to her eyes, turning them a shocking leaf green in the light of fading sun.
“I love you, too,” she uttered. “But you know that. You’ve always known.”
He nodded. “Tell me,” he nearly begged. “Tell me before I die of longing. Tell me before I strip you bare and taste you, fuck you, claim you. Tell me I’m yours and you’re mine.”
“Are you sure?” she said as he pulled down her underwear and jeans and tossed them aside. “Forever is—”
“What I want more than anything in the world, Beautiful,” he said, easing her tank over her head and her bra from her shoulders. “There’s nothing, no one, who can stop this, can stop me from claiming you.” His eyes flipped up to lock on hers. “Except you.”
Shock barreled through Xavier as Amalie grasped both sides of his T-shirt and ripped it up the center. The sounded echoed across the bayou, but he barely heard it. Her words next drowned out everything else.
“Mate me, Xavier,” she said, her eyes flashing. “Mate me for life.”
She had the black fabric off his body in seconds and was working his jeans down his hips before he had time to register her movement. Once he did though, he was like a male possessed, growling, taking over, his jeans off and discarded, and his head between her thighs.
The liquid heat that hit his tongue made come leak from his cock. She tasted like heaven, like honey, and he licked her over and over, nothing gentle, nothing sweet. Fuck no. Right now, he just wanted to eat her. And if the way her hips were jacking up, pumping hungrily against his mouth, was any indicator, she liked his slight roughness, his need to consume her.
“Oh god, Xavier,” she said on a moan. “I can’t…it’s too much.”
Damn right. It was all too much. But so what? They both needed this, needed each other. More was good. More made her buck and groan. More made her pussy so wet and warm and soft, he couldn’t wait to get inside her.
Her fingers plunged into his hair, her nails digging into his scalp as he tongued her deep, then pulled out and suckled her clit.
“You’re making me crazy,” she whispered, then gasped as he pressed his tongue against her and jerked his head up and down.
Xavier felt her violent shudder beneath his mouth, coming hard and intense against his tongue. His entire body went up in flames as her juices rushed him. He lapped at her, drank her up, but left enough wet heat to coat her pussy walls and make his thrust easy and pleasurable.
With one last possessive suckle to her swollen clit, he rose over her, catching his weight on his elbows, holding his position so they were face to face. Breathing heavily, her eyes filled with heat and deep desire, Amalie wrapped her legs around his waist, arched her back and brazenly and seductively licked him from chin to nose.
“Mmm,” she uttered, her eyes lifting to his. “I taste good on you.”
Xavier, the male, died.
While the animal within him flared to the surface of his skin and took hold, took control. His cock poised at her entrance, the head hard and wet with pre-come, he growled. “Mine.”
She nodded. “Yours.”
And he pushed inside her.
He was deep.
Breathstealingly deep.