Page 56

She propped herself up and framed his face in her hands, making him meet her gaze.

“Because I’ve seen you with Echo. A monster wouldn’t have been so patient with her.

” She kissed him lightly at the corner of his mouth.

“With Oliver. A monster wouldn’t take several hours out of his day to rescue imaginary pets.

” Another kiss at the other corner. “With me. A monster wouldn’t have spent hours learning exactly how to touch me so I’d never be afraid. ”

He stared into her warm brown eyes, searching for any hint of doubt or fear, but found only certainty. Only love.

She smiled and traced the line of his jaw with her finger. “I heard what Oliver said to you earlier, and I’m not going to lie, I’m a bit annoyed he beat me to it.”

His breath whooshed out of him in a shaky rush. “What?”

She straddled him and leaned down until her hair blocked out the world around them. “I love you, Jax,” she whispered against his lips.

He froze. His whole body went rigid, his lungs forgetting how to pull in air. Those three words—he hadn’t heard them directed at him in so long he’d forgotten what they sounded like. Forgotten what they felt like.

Too much. It was too much after Oliver’s declaration earlier, after the cats, after everything. The emotion welled up inside him, threatening to drown him.

“I don’t deserve it,” he choked out. His eyes burned, and he blinked hard, but it was no use. The tears came anyway, hot and humiliating as they slid down his temples into his hair.

Twice in one day.

He couldn’t remember the last time he’d cried so much.

Nessie’s palm was warm against his cheek as she caught one tear with her thumb. “Let me love you anyway,” she whispered, then kissed the wetness from his skin, her lips soft against his cheekbones, his eyelids, the corner of his mouth.

He couldn’t say it back. Not yet. The words were there, lodged in his throat like broken glass, but he couldn’t force them past his lips. Instead, he pulled her down to him, capturing her mouth with his, pouring everything he couldn’t say into the kiss.

She understood. Of course she did. She always seemed to understand the things he couldn’t put into words.

He rolled her beneath him, and she went willingly, her body pliant and trusting under his hands.

“I need you,” he murmured against her throat. “Fuck, Nessie, I need you so much.”

She arched beneath him, her nails scoring down his back. “I’m yours to take.”

The raw desire in her voice sent heat surging through him. He kissed her deeply, his tongue tangling with hers as his hand slid between them to cup her breast. Her nipple hardened against his palm, and he rolled it between his fingers, drawing a gasp from her lips.

“More,” she breathed, her legs wrapping around his waist to pull him closer.

He obliged, trailing his mouth down her neck to her collarbone, then lower still until he captured her nipple between his lips.

Her skin was an addictive blend of salt and sweetness, surpassing even the finest baked goods in her bakery.

Her back arched off the bed as he sucked harder, his tongue flicking over the sensitive peak.

“Jax,” she moaned, her fingers tangling in his hair. “Please...”

He wanted to take his time, to worship every inch of her body, but the need building between them was too urgent, too raw.

His hand slid between her thighs, finding her already wet and ready for him. He groaned against her breast as his fingers stroked through her slick heat, circling her clit with just enough pressure to make her gasp.

“So fucking greedy,” he murmured, lifting his head to watch her face as he slid two fingers inside her. Her eyes fluttered closed, her lips parting on a silent moan. “Look at me, sweetness. I want to see you.”

Her eyes opened and locked with his, full of love and trust. He curled his fingers inside her, finding the spot that made her spine snap bow-string taut.

“Oh God,” she gasped, her hips slamming up to meet his hand. “Right there. Don’t stop.”

He slowed his fingers, just enough to make her whine with frustration. There was nothing more intoxicating than having Nessie under him, her body trembling, her eyes begging for more.

He leaned in close, biting her earlobe gently before murmuring, “You need it, sweetness? Need my cock to fill you up?”

A stuttering gasp, then a needy nod against the pillow. “Please.”

He grinned, drunk on the knowledge that he could do this to her, that he was the only one who’d ever wrung those sounds out of her throat.

He pulled his hand away and pushed them into her mouth. “Taste yourself. How sweet you are.”

She took him in without question, lips closing over his fingers, tongue swirling as if she meant to devour him.

Jesus Christ. The sight of her like that—obedient and wild at once—nearly took him out.

“God, Nessie, you’re so fucking perfect,” he groaned, watching her cheeks hollow around his knuckles.

He pulled his hand free and cupped her jaw, thumb stroking the corner of her mouth.

“I want to fuck you so deep right now, but we don’t have any more condoms.” He’d meant to pick up a pack while in town today, but after the run-in with the sheriff, then Brandt and Trevor Pace, he’d forgotten entirely.

She reached up and touched his cheek, her thumb brushing across his stubble. “I’m on birth control. Have been for years. And I trust you. I love you.”

He didn’t let himself overthink. She’d said she loved him. She wanted him—no barriers, no reservations, not even a thin layer of latex between them. He was so hard it hurt, and the thought of fucking her bare made his brain short-circuit and his cock jerk against her thigh.

“You want me like this, sweetness?” The words came from somewhere guttural and animal inside him. “You want me to fuck you raw?”

She nodded, eyes wide, pupils blown and dark as midnight. He could feel her heart hammering in her chest, matching the thrum of his own, wild and out of control.

He lined himself up and pushed inside, savoring the slide as her heat swallowed him whole. It was almost too much; he had to squeeze his eyes shut to keep from coming the instant he bottomed out.

Jesus fuck, she was so wet, so tight, gripping him like she never wanted to let go.

“Fuck,” he groaned into her neck, “nothing’s ever felt this good.”

It was true. No one else had ever made him feel like this—every inch of him wanted, welcomed, worshipped.

He rocked into her, slow at first, letting her adjust to the stretch of him.

She clung to his shoulders, her nails digging crescent moons into his skin.

He could smell the salt of her sweat, the sweetness of her hair, the faint ghost of flour and sugar that never quite left her skin.

She lifted her hips to meet him, and he picked up the pace, slamming into her with deep, rolling thrusts that shook the whole bed.

“Jax,” she gasped. “Oh, God?—”

He caught her mouth with his, kissing her so hard their teeth knocked together. He wanted to merge with her, erase every boundary.

“You love me, Nessie?” His hips snapped forward, punctuating each word. “Say it again. Say you love me while my cock’s inside you.”

She moaned so loud and long that he was sure it would wake the entire ranch.

Well, let them hear.

Let the whole goddamn world know she was his.

“I love you, Jax. I love—” Her words broke off in a whimper as he shifted his angle and drove in, deep and relentless. She writhed under him, sweaty and wild and begging for more.

“That’s it, sweetness. Take it. Take all of me.” He reached down and thumbed her clit, and she nearly bucked him off with the force of her orgasm. Her pussy clamped down, spasming around his cock so hard he saw stars. “Jesus, Nessie?—”

She was sobbing now from the pleasure, from the intensity of it, and he couldn’t hold back any longer. He buried his face in her neck, breathing in the vanilla and cinnamon scent of her as she wrung him dry.