He doesn't say anything at first, just presses forward, his presence wrapping around me like smoke and shadow, his hand smoothing over my hip.
"Asher always plays it cool," he murmurs, voice husky, wicked at the edge, "but I know you, sunshine. I can feel how badly you need more."
I whimper, but it's not a protest. I can't refuse. Not when I'm this wet, this open and deliciously wrecked.
His fingers slide through the mess between my thighs, where I'm slick and ready. His low groan is almost a growl. "Gods, you're dripping."
And then he's there—thick, hard, pressing right at my entrance.
No teasing or waiting, just the hot, blunt push of his cock slipping into my pussy with maddening ease. My body stretches to take him.
Kayden isn't gentle. He doesn't try to be. He slams into me hard enough to rock me forward against the tree, one arm wrapping around my waist to yank me back onto him again. My hands scramble for purchase on the bark, my moan cut off by the sheer force of him filling me.
"Fuck, yes," he hisses behind me. "You were made for this. Taking both of us. Stretched and ruined and still begging for more."
And I am. At least in this moment, I am completely theirs.
My body answers before my mind can, arching, clenching around him, chasing the edge he's driving me toward with brutal efficiency.
He fucks me with full force. Each thrust punches a cry from my lips, each shift of his hips sending jolts of unbearable pleasure straight through me. My skin is fever-hot despite the chill, my legs shaking as he holds me up.
And when his fingers slide down to find my clit, rubbing fast, relentless, I splinter. Another orgasm hits—raw, violent, blinding—and I cry out, the sound stolen by the wind in the trees. My knees almost give, but Kayden doesn't let me fall.
He keeps thrusting through it, riding my climax until his own catches up to him. And when it does, it's fierce. His whole body tenses as he buries himself deep, coming with a grunt that's more animal than man.
Then he rests there, forehead on my shoulder, his breath ragged and warm. We stay like that, tangled and panting, the cold forest forgotten. My body is aching, spent, but more alive than it's ever been.
For once, I don't want to run. And that's the scariest thought right now—I really don't want to run away from them.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Sage
After a quick wash in a freezing spring water, we head back, my body still humming with their touches, like I've been lit from within and the flame refuses to die down. I smell like them. I feel them everywhere. Their fingerprints are ghosts on my skin. I'm still faintly trembling, not from cold but from the aftershock of being so thoroughly claimed.
Kayden wraps his arms around me and lifts me like I weigh nothing.
"I can walk," I grumble.
"Sure, sunshine. You can. I've seen you run barefoot like a little forest spirit. But it's cold, and your feet are turning blue. Consider this an act of mercy."
Only now do I realize how frozen my toes are. I huff, half amused, half melting against him.
"What's so funny?" Asher asks from my side, in step, watchful, like he's guarding my flank.
I glance between them, lips twitching. "Just thinking about the contrast. You wreck me against a tree like you're at war and then carry me like I'm something precious and breakable."
Asher's response is quiet but firm. "You are precious."
And just like that, my chest does that stupid ache. I was teasing. He's not.
Kayden hums, far more playful. "Yeah, and we get to desecrate your holy forest goddess body and then worship it afterward. Best of both worlds."
I shake my head, trying to laugh it off, but the sincerity beneath the teasing is louder than their words. We crossed a line—twice now. And the second time, it was in the forest. My domain. That has to mean something, whether I want it to or not.
No one says anything, but we all move in sync. Asher slides behind the wheel, Kayden into the back with me like it was decided in silence.
"Come here," Kayden murmurs, patting his jacket folded neatly over his thigh. "Rest, if you want. We did exhaust you."
