My name was a soft sigh on her breath, the sound of it making me ache for her in more ways than one.
“I missed you, too.”
She looked up at me through lowered lashes, her eyes darkening with desire. With raw, unfiltered lust.
Quirking her lips into a sexy grin, she slid her hand down my chest, dipping her fingers into the front of my pants. I was instantly hard, desperate to feel her, skin on skin.
“Gray,” I moaned, kissing her again as her fingers closed around my cock. She tightened her grip, stroking me just right.
Her touch was perfect.Shewas perfect.
Fuck,I couldn’t wait another minute. I had to be inside her. To feel the soft, wet heat of her body. To make her shudder around me. To feel her warmth, her energy, the spark of life that made her unmistakably Gray. Unmistakablymine.
Sebastian thought he could stop this. That he could wave his pen and his contracts and his threats in front of my face and dictate the boundaries of my own heart.
Hell, maybe he could. I’d made worse deals in my life. But this was the Shadowrealm, outside the bounds of all other laws—even his. There were no deals here, no bargains, no Prince of Hell lording over us.
Gray squeezed me tighter, a sigh of pleasure escaping her lips, and I couldn’t hold back another second. I grabbed both of her hands and pinned her wrists up over her head, crushed her against the tree, rocking into her hips, claiming her hot, wet mouth in a kiss that made both of us weak.
“You good?” I panted, and when she replied, “God, yes. More than good,” I pulled back just long enough to spin her around, facing her toward the tree. She put her hands against the bark and arched her back, and I hooked my fingers into the back of her cargo pants and tugged, sliding them down to reveal the soft, perfect mounds of her ass.
I nearly came at the sight of her bare flesh, her curves, the soft gasp she unleashed as the chilly air hit her skin.
She was fucking beautiful. Everything about her.
Gray deserved to be loved. She deserved to be worshipped and pleasured and touched, slowly and deliberately. She deserved to be laid on a bed of rose petals and made love to with a thousand kisses for a thousand nights.
I might never be able to give her that. But I could give her this, right here, right now, tucked away in the ponderosa forest in another realm where nothing else mattered but one raw, intense, wild moment.
I fumbled with my pants and freed my aching cock, sliding it between her thighs, teasing her entrance.
“Yes,” she said, arching her backside higher to give me access. “Right there.”
I didn’t need to be told twice. I plunged inside, sinking deep into her slick, perfect heat. For one brief moment I stilled, curling a hand around her hip, bracing the other against the tree, resting my head on her shoulder. This, too, I wanted to memorize. The sweet, butterscotch smell of the ponderosa pine mingling with her scent. The silky touch of her hair tickling my nose. The sound of her ragged breath cutting through the silence of the forest. The cool air on my skin. The perfect fit of her body, slowly tightening around me.
In the ancient span of my lifetime, I’d only known Gray for a few heartbeats. Yet somehow, the woman had become my entire world.
I grabbed both of her hips, then pulled back, slowly sliding inside her once again. Gray moaned in pleasure, but it wasn’t enough. I needed more. Deeper. Harder.
I rolled my hips, increasing the intensity of my thrusts, slamming against her perfect ass. Gray braced herself against the tree and matched my fevered pace, pushing back into me, urging me to take more.
“Harder,” she demanded.
I ran a hand up her back and fisted her hair, pulling her head backward as I slammed into her from behind, taking her hard and deep andfuckI never wanted to be more than a heartbeat away from this woman, this witch, this beautiful soul who’d claimed my heart so long ago I couldn’t even remember a time when it hadn’t beat just for her.
“Ronan!” she gasped. “That’s… Yes!Ronan!”
I clamped a hand over her mouth, trying to quite her screams before the others came running. She teased my fingers with her tongue, then took them into her mouth, sucking me, stroking me, making me absolutely lose it.
“Fucking hell, woman. What are you doing to me?”
She bit down on my fingers as her body clenched tight around me, and I absolutely fucking lost it. I came hot and hard and fast, pumping into her as she trembled through her own orgasm, both of us sweating and wild and completely unbidden as if the entire realm had been created just for us. As if nothing else mattered but this brief moment of pure, uncut perfection.
When Gray finally turned around to face me again, she offered a smile that damn near melted my heart. Her cheeks were pink, her eyes dark and seductive, her skin glowing. Blonde curls stuck up in every direction, as if she’d just stepped out into a windstorm.
She looked like a damn wood sprite. Like something out of the pages of a fairy tale book about magical forests where monsters didn’t exist, and the night was full of beauty and wonder instead of terror and pain.
I wanted to pin her down inside that book, to keep her just like this forever. Keep her safe. Keep her mine.
