He tripped backward, his jeans slipping to half-thigh. Landing on his ass, he snapped out of whatever trance I’d put him in and shook his head. “No.” Standing up again, he begged, “Let’s go rent a room somewhere. Or pitch the tent. Somewhere it’s just us. I want you, Della. And you’re right, I need you. But…this place is too much.”
“Please, Ren.” Colliding with him, I dug my fingers into his hair and wrenched his mouth back down to mine. “Please.” I kept my fingers lashed in the soft copper strands, piercing my tongue into his mouth.
And finally…he snapped.
His hands clamped on my ass, hoisting me up with impressive strength and encouraging my legs to wrap around his hips.
The moment I latched on, he moved until he slammed me against the wall. My spine bruised as he wedged me tight, rocking into me, his lips harsh and dominating as the kiss I’d given him turned into one of crushing need from him.
His hands trailed upward, squeezing my breasts before cupping my cheeks and holding me steady.
And then he kissed me.
Truly, deeply, deliciously kissed me.
His mouth opened wide, his tongue dancing with mine, our heads shifting and breaths hitching as he consumed my every thought.
“You just had to push, didn’t you?” He nipped my lip, biting and licking his way down my jaw to my throat. There, he sank sharp incisors into my flesh, making me cry out and claw at his shoulders. “Had to make me do this. Had to make me accept.”
My hands fell to his hips while he continued to rock into me, making me wet, ensuring my entire body throbbed for his.
Luckily, I wore a skirt. My one and only skirt with a grey sweater with silver thread.
His touch found my thighs again, swatting the material away, hooking his fingers into the cotton between my legs. “I can’t stop. I doubt I’ll ever be able to stop.”
I expected him to put me down and wait until I’d removed my underwear, but I’d pushed him too far, and he merely yanked the fabric aside and drove two fingers deep, deep inside me.
“See, Della?” He withdrew and plunged inside me again. “This is what happens when you push me.” He wasn’t gentle. He wasn’t kind. He was ruthless and merciless and I loved it.
His hand cupped me as his fingers pulsed, dragging heat from everywhere. “Is this what you want? Tell me this is what you want. Tell me this is okay. Goddammit, Della, tell me you need me as much as I need you because I’m going out of my goddamn mind.”
I convulsed as he rocked his fingers so deep, a sliver of pain cut through me. Pain that only made my pleasure all that more intense. “Yes. God, yes.”
“This is what you pushed me for? This is what you’ve broken me for?”
“Yes!”
His touch rocked up, pulsating in the perfect way he knew I loved. I moaned as my body responded with tingling, tangling bliss.
“You’ve always driven me wild.” He kissed me again, his tongue lashing and cruel. “Always been too bold.” His kiss turned deeper still, making me breathe him, ensuring my body wasn’t just made up of my cells, but his too. A synergy of bodies. A blending of him and me and past and present and the lovely, lovely knowledge that whatever distance had been between us was no more. “Always been too much for me. So much braver than me.”
“No,” I cried out as he thrust his cock against my leg in time to the fierce drive of his fingers. “You’ve always been braver. I understand now how hard it would’ve been—”
“Hard?” His teeth found my neck again, biting, licking, consuming. A small cough nudged my fear. “Hard is nothing compared to how hard I am now. How fucking hard I am for you.”
I had no reply, only a boneless sigh and a desperation that had a will of its own.
A desperation I’d always had.
A desperation that had always wanted Ren in any way it could have him.
This had always been our future.
There was no way we could fight an attraction like this. No way of denying a connection like this.
This was destiny.
Pure and simple.
Dragging my hips closer to his, Ren broke the kiss and stared down. His lips were red, skin flushed, hair a mess. He looked savage. Clothes were wrong on him when he seemed so primitive and free.
In a flash, I saw him naked in rippled resplendent glory, standing in his chosen home—the forest where we’d shared our childhood. With the trees we called friends, and the river we called parent, behind him.
That was where Ren belonged.
That was where a man so much more than human should be.
With fingers inside me, he cupped my cheek with his free hand, trembling even now, but this time with lust so vicious it tore pieces off our hearts.
We stared at each other.
Him and me.
Us.
And he said, “I told you I loved you, Della.”
“I know.”
“I told you I always have.”
“I know.”
Withdrawing his fingers, he grabbed his cock and lined up with my body. “Are you happy knowing I can’t deny you? Are you pleased with yourself that I have you pinned against the wall and can’t stop? Are you happy that after this, I’ll never know if I loved you the way I should have? That I’ll forever wonder? Forever think of fucking you here, in this room, and no longer care about any of it?”
“Yes. So many times yes.”
“Good.”
I smirked. “Fine.”
He thrust, filling me with one quick impale. “This is what you make me become.” He didn’t wait for me to adjust, just rocked deeper again and again. “This is the power you’ve always had over me ever since I woke up and saw my soulmate and not just my friend.”
My fingers clawed at him.
I gasped as he sought my lips and kissed me as ferociously as he took me against the wall. “This is what I was hiding from you as well as myself.” He thrust. “This.” He drove deeper. “Fuck.” He roared as he tried to climb inside me. “This. It has always been this. Always been you.” His forehead crashed on mine as his rhythm lost any melody. “Fuck, it’s always been you, Della.”
Tears sprang with the heartbreak in which he admitted such a thing.
Love melted my soul with the shock in his eyes that he’d finally seen.
“Ribbon…” His gaze glittered as he blinked in disbelief. Disbelief that it had taken him two years of being together to finally snap and admit to himself.
“I-I don’t care anymore.” He smiled with sharp teeth and sharper joy. “I don’t care what people think. I don’t care if they judge. I.” Thrust. “Don’t.” Thrust. “Care.”
“Finally.” I laughed as he suckled my neck, driving into me again and again. His lips were poisonous and his tongue venomous, slowly killing me as I scratched him, marked him, begging him to treat me worse.
And he did.
We raged and fucked and claimed.
A battle.
A war.
Love at its rawest.
And it was right.
Unbelievably right.
Threading my fingers in his hair, I moaned, “It’s always been you, Ren. It will always be you.” My oath triggered the rest of his undoing, and whatever gates he kept locked blew wide apart.
“You’re mine.” He growled.
“I know.”
“And I’m yours.”
“I know.”
“Fuck.” His breathing turned to heavy grunts, a cough rattling just once as he rode me faster, climbing higher, driving and demanding.
Our kisses were messy and out of control.
Our hands heavy and greedy to touch.
His lips bruised mine, injecting need and desire into my blood until I shivered uncontrollably.
His body hardened inside me until he groaned in pleasure-pain.
He thrust faster.
On and on, affirmation after affirmation, love after love.
And when he pressed his fingers to my clit and rubbed in perfect rhythm to his thrusts, I was no longer fighting but sprinting toward the promise only he could give.
My body spun and spindled and shattered outward, rippling around his invasion, making tears prickle my eyes.
The second my orgasm finished, Ren buried his face in my hair, swallowed a howl, and drove so hard, so deep, I was sure we’d end up in the stables beyond.
“I can’t stop. I’m-I’m…” His rumbling, hungry groan tore from his throat as his body quaked in mine. He went taut, dangerous. Then his body pulsed over and over, hot splashes marking me as his, finding his release as quickly as I’d found mine.
For a long moment, neither of us moved.
Our hearts clanged like church bells.