Breath shallow, she shoved the straps of the backpack from his shoulders and set his gun gently against the wall. She took her time unzipping his jacket. And after she shoved it off his shoulders, exposing his sweater with the top button undone, she traced the strong lines of his muscular neck down the deeply shadowed indentation between his pecs.
He’d never shared this place with anyone else. He’d never shared this part of himself, but for her, he’d opened up and let her in. And she knew how scary that was because she’d been learning to trust him, too, and damn it all, it was terrifying to let another man really see her after Cole had stripped her bare and exposed the ugliest parts of her.
But Ian wasn’t running. He wasn’t throwing his hands up and telling her she was “too much work.” He wasn’t leaving for town just to escape her. Instead, he was showing her the bottomless adoration a good man was capable of. He was telling her without words that she deserved everything he could give her.
That she was worthy of unconditional love.
That she was enough.
Ian slipped her headlamp off and let it fall from his fingers to the floor, then he cupped both of her cheeks and kissed her. This wasn’t the desperate passion-saturated love-making they’d done in the barn. This was an apology for hiding from her before. It was a promise that he would always be with her, trying. It was a declaration he would work as long as necessary to gain her trust back after his secrets had been exposed.
“I hated sleeping away from you last night,” she whispered against his lips.
“Then I won’t do it again.” He undressed her slowly as his lips moved gently against hers. He shifted his weight from side to side as he removed her clothes. Angling his face, he slipped his tongue past her lips.
She melted against him as he slid his hands up her bare ribs. How were his hands so warm? Somehow, he seemed to run hotter the closer to winter it became.
Writhing against him, she gripped the back of his hair and brushed her lips against his throat. Tugging at the neck of his sweater, she exposed the mostly healed bite she’d given him. She kissed it gently, and a shudder took his shoulders. A soft growl filled the small space, and she smiled. It was easy to tell when she had him.
He dragged her waist closer and rocked his hips against hers in just the right spot to draw a gasp from her lips.
“Ian,” she sighed, and the name echoed off the cave walls.
The jangle of his belt and the slow rip of the zipper dumped warmth into her middle, and now his teeth were on her, grazing, nipping down her neck, and working back up until his lips crashed onto hers. God, she loved him. Loved him claiming her body in his den, making her a part of this place.
His eyes were dark in the muted light that her discarded headlamp provided. Here, in the place he’d spent so much time, vulnerable and asleep, she felt more connected to him than ever. She felt safe here and could understand why he’d chosen it as a den. Outside, the world spun on. It was harsh, cold, and the constant struggle for survival was unending, but in here, with the man she loved more than her own life, she was safe. For the first time ever, she felt whole.
Ian lifted the back of her knee and deepened his kiss, stroking his tongue against hers as he brushed her wet entrance with the tip of his swollen cock. A needy sound wrenched from her throat as he pushed in an inch and slid back out, teasing. She clawed down his back to punish him, but he smiled against her lips as though he enjoyed it.
“Please,” she whispered.
Holding her close, Ian pushed into her, stretching her slowly as she arched her head back and gasped at the intense pleasure building in her center. He eased out slow, then slammed into her. Closing her eyes against the cold cave walls and shutting her senses off to the lingering smoke, she pushed her nose against his throat and inhaled his scent instead. She plucked at his skin there with her lips, then sucked hard as he bucked into her again.
She rocked with him, meeting him with each blow until his body shook and his control slipped. His next thrust was faster and harder, and he pulled her off the ground completely, wrapping her legs around his waist as he slammed her backward against the cold, smooth cave wall. It should’ve hurt, but she didn’t feel anything past the way he was filling her. Her mate wasn’t gentle by nature, not when they were together like this. He tried for her, but it always ended up satisfyingly rough. The room filled with the slick sound of their love-making as he rammed into her faster, pressing her against the wall as the snarl in his throat turned feral. One arm around her waist, he pulled her hand above her head with the other into a submissive position that begged her to trust him.