Page 38 of Heart of the Hunter (Band of Bastards #3)

There was nothing clumsy about this kiss.

Hunter nipped, tugged, and licked at her mouth, eliciting soft moans from the unexpected pleasure of their tongues entangled so intimately.

She didn’t think anything could be as wonderful as kissing Hunter, and she let out a little whimper of protest when he slid his mouth away from hers.

“Anora,” he said in a slow drawl as he brushed his lips over her face and down to her neck. “I’ve wanted to kiss you since the first day I knew you.”

She tipped her head back as an exquisite wave of sensations rolled through her body. “If I’d known it could be like this,” she said, every word punctuated with a breathless pant, “I’d have coaxed you into kissing me a long time ago.”

He chuckled as he trailed torturously slow kisses down her neck, stroking his tongue over the sensitive skin.

With a contented sigh, she skimmed her palm up the corded muscles of his bicep and over the solid contours of his shoulder until her fingers slid into his hair at the nape of his neck.

Her contentment quickly turned to a restless yearning as her body responded to his touch, tingling and tightening in anticipation.

His thumb brushed against the underside of her breast, and it sent a fissure of shock straight to her core.

Both of her breasts suddenly felt heavy and tight, and she let out a cry of relief when he cupped one globe in his palm and rubbed the calloused pad of a finger back and forth over the thin, wet material of the chemise covering her beaded nipple.

When he gently squeezed her breast, her belly clenched as her body pulsed with an ache that longed for release.

He slid his mouth over her collarbone and down to her other breast to take the nipple into his mouth and tease it with his teeth.

Even with the added obstruction of her chemise, his breath was hot and the touch of his tongue like fire.

She fisted her hand in his hair and arched her back, wanting him to take more of her into his mouth.

Her hips pressed into his and she let instinct take over as her body cradled the hard bulk of his erection.

Fascinated by the heavy thickness of him pressing against her, she shifted her hips slowly to rock her pelvis against him, the movement making her body clench and coil.

“Oh, God, Anora,” Hunter groaned as he slipped his hand down her back and cupped her bottom to add more pressure to the rhythmic rubbing of their bodies.

She grasped at the wet chemise tangled around her legs and pulled at it until she could lift her leg and hitch it over Hunter’s hip to bring him closer.

He immediately hooked a hand beneath her knee and brought his mouth to her ear to suck the lobe into his mouth.

She wound her arms around his neck and lifted her other leg to hook it around him.

“Hunter,” she gasped. “I want…”

“I know, angel,” he said in a raspy voice. His arms wrapped around her waist as he lifted her higher against his body and walked toward the shore of the pool. Anora wriggled her hips against him restlessly. “Oh, God, love. Don’t do that.”

The soft breeze blew against Anora’s skin as Hunter emerged from the water, sending ripples of gooseflesh over her already overly sensitive skin. He had to pry her arms from his neck after he set her on her feet.

“No, Hunter,” she protested as he released her. How could he push her away when her entire body was throbbing and aching for him? The sight of his lithe, muscular, naked body glimmering in the moonlight as he walked toward the tree trunk where their bags rested only made her body ache more.

When he turned back to her, he had his blanket in his hands. He shook it out with a snap and spread it out on the ground in front of her. Her breath caught in her throat as he stepped slowly across the blanket toward her, giving her a full, unhindered view of his prominent cockstand.

She’d never seen anything like it, and she couldn’t take her eyes from it.

“It’s magnificent,” she said in awe as he stopped in front of her.

Fascinated, she reached her hand out to touch it, wanting to know what it would feel like in her fingers, but he grabbed her wrist to stop her.

She lifted her gaze to his face, her protest ready on her lips.

“No, angel.” He released her, then reached for her chemise, and pulled it over her head, baring her completely to his gaze.

She thought she’d be mortified to ever let anyone see her fully unclothed, but with Hunter, she wanted to be naked, wanted nothing to keep her from feeling his skin against hers.

He took a half step backward and let his eyes blaze a slow trail down the length of her body.

He didn’t touch her, but his gaze set her on fire as he took his time looking at the curves of her body.

Just when she thought she’d perish if he didn’t touch her, he took her hand in his and pulled her to the center of the blanket, then gently laid her down and covered her body with his.

It was a new and very welcome sensation to feel the weight of him pressing her into the blanket, and she sighed contentedly as his warmth enveloped her.

She wriggled against him, delighting in the feel of the coarse hair on his legs rubbing against hers.

But what thrilled her most was his undeniable desire for her as evidenced by his thick erection pressing into her hip.

He braced himself on his elbows as he brushed a strand of hair from her forehead and took his time looking into her face and rubbing his thumbs over her cheek bones.

“You act like you’ve never seen me before,” she whispered after a long moment.

His lips quirked with a little chuckle. “I’ve not seen you like this, spread out on a blanket with the moonlight in your hair.” He brushed a kiss over her lips. “You are so beautiful.”

Anora had never cared whether or not she was considered beautiful. She strove to be considered clever and capable. But in this moment, the reverence in Hunter’s eyes and his worshipping words made her want to be beautiful for him.

The weight of his body as it pressed down on hers was the most delicious feeling Anora had ever experienced, and she basked in the pleasure of his warm breath tickling her ear, the heat of his skin sliding over hers, and the dizzying intoxication of his long, languid kisses.

She lifted her hips and pressed into him restlessly, wanting to feel more of him.

As though he understood her need, he shifted his weight onto one elbow and put his other hand over her breast to knead it gently as his mouth worked its way down her neck to the other breast. She tangled her fingers into his hair and arched up into him wanting more.

“Hunter,” she pleaded. The heat coiling in her core pulsed and ached for him and she didn’t want to wait any longer. “I need you.”

“Where, angel?” He lifted his head and looked at her face even as he swirled his tongue slowly around one breast and flashed her a wicked grin.

Anora locked her gaze with his, unable to look away, mesmerized as he flicked the tip of his tongue against her taut nipple.

The sight of him touching her, and watching her body respond, excited her in a way she couldn’t explain.

Never had she imagined the pleasure to be had from the touch of another.

No, not just another. From Hunter.

A cry escaped her lips when he grazed his teeth over her sensitive nipple. His eyes widened and he looked as though he wanted to devour her.

“Where?” he asked again as his fingers teased over her thigh.

“Here,” she said as she lifted her hips and pressed into his heavy erection nestled between them.

With his eyes still locked on her face, he dragged his tongue between her breasts and further down her stomach. She let out a little yelp of surprise when his tongue swirled around her belly button then continued lower.

“Wh-what are you doing?” she asked as she pushed up on her forearms. She wasn’t experienced in the intimacies between men and women, but she couldn’t imagine this was how it happened.

She felt completely vulnerable and exposed as he nudged her legs further apart with his elbows, but before she could protest, he blew gently on the apex of her thighs.

“Would you prefer I tell you what I am going to do?” He nipped her inner thigh. Anora rolled her lips between her teeth as she inhaled sharply, startled by how much she liked the little bite.

“Or should I show you?”

“Tell me.” She loved the gravelly sound of his voice when it was thick with passion and the way the deep rumble vibrated through her when he spoke. Anora bit her lip to keep her focus when he chuckled and nuzzled his nose into the mound of her sex.

“I’m going to make you see stars, angel.

First with my fingers…” He ran the tip of his finger over the wet folds between her legs and Anora released a shaky breath.

“Then with my tongue.” He flicked his tongue between the folds.

It was just once, but it was enough for Anora drop her head back with a hum of satisfaction.

When he slid one long finger between her folds, caressing the ache that pulsed at her core, the strength drained from her arms, and she dropped back onto the blanket with a moan. “Oh, yes.”

“Good girl,” he praised, as his fingers slid in and out of her passage in an excruciatingly slow rhythm that left her gasping for air.

When he added another finger to the motion and found a particularly sensitive spot to circle with his thumb, her back arched involuntarily and she clutched at the blanket with her fingers.

She didn’t know what was happening, and her body was responding in ways that were completely out of her control, but she felt like she’d perish if he stopped.

Exquisite pressure was coiling at her core and rippling through her body in gentle waves.