Page 48 of Heart of the Hunter (Band of Bastards #3)

“Are you going to tell me where you disappeared to for the last four days?” Her voice was whisper soft, the question gentle instead of accusing.

“Aye, later,” he responded as he spread his knees wider and reached for her. He caught her around the waist and pulled her toward him, relieved when she didn’t resist but moved eagerly into his arms. “I can’t think about anything else when you’re this close.”

Her smile was radiant and blinded him with its honesty. She wrapped one arm around his neck and placed her other hand on his shoulder. “Did you think about me at all while you were gone?”

“More than I should have been,” he admitted.

She’d been a constant distraction, and the only reason he’d been able to focus at all was because anything incriminating he found against Baron Payne for Hawk’s purposes would also serve his purposes to keep Anora safe from the brute.

“Every time I closed my eyes, I was on the blanket by the stream with you in my arms, remembering the feel of your silken skin under my fingers and the sweet taste of you on my tongue.”

The tempo of her breathing increased, and her eyes turned a deeper shade of blue. “For a man of few words, you can certainly create an image.”

He nuzzled her neck, breathing in her scent, then kissed along her neck to her ear, relishing the way she couldn’t seem to catch her breath. He scraped his teeth over the lobe of her ear and said in a low voice, “What did you see when you closed your eyes?”

“You,” she gasped as she leaned into him. “You standing in the pool with water running over your chest and arms.”

“Mmm,” he hummed against her delicate skin as he kissed along her jaw line. He skimmed his hands around her back and pressed her to him, the feel of her in his arms again felt like balm to his soul.

“Hunter?” she asked breathlessly.

“Aye?” He pulled back to look her in the face, certain she was going to ask him to stop. It would be torture, but it would save them both from where they were headed. If she didn’t stop him, and she let him love her, he would never be the same. He would be ruined.

She put a hand on either side of his face and looked into his eyes. “I don’t want to leave here tonight with regrets.”

He took a deep breath and loosened his grip on her, grateful at least one of them had the sense to let reason prevail over passion. “You are right.”

“No,” she said as he started to withdraw from her.

She turned his face toward her again, her expression earnest. “I mean, I do not want to leave here without knowing what it is to be a woman in a lover’s bed.

Whatever my future holds, I want to have this night to carry with me always. I want this night with you.”

“Anora—” She put a finger to his lips before he could tell her that he would never be satisfied with just this night.

“Just love me, please.” She replaced her finger with her lips against his, the touch so gentle and tender, it nearly broke him. “No questions. At least not yet.”

He traced the curve of her cheek with his fingertips, then skimmed them lightly down to her throat. He brushed his thumb under her chin and wrapped his fingers around the back of her neck. “I am yours to command, Anora.”

Her eyes widened and a grin curved her lips just before she pressed them to his for a kiss that was not nearly as deep or as long as Hunter desired. “Then I command you to remove your surcoat.”

“As you wish.” He leaned back to remove his belt then pulled the garment over his head and dropped it on the floor.

She smoothed her hands over the shirt covering his shoulders, then pulled the ties free at his neck and loosened them.

His skin rippled like gooseflesh when she brushed her fingers along his collarbones as she pulled the neck of his shirt wide.

He liked the way her eyes drank in the sight of him, pleased that she was taking her time to look at him, but he had to clench his hands at his side to keep from touching her and pulling her to him to bury his face in the crook of the neck.

When she tugged at the front of his shirt to pull it up over his chest, he impatiently reached behind him and pulled it off in one smooth move, tossing it in the pile with his surcoat.

She took a step back to get a better view of him as her fingers traced over the contours and planes of his chest and abdomen.

Her touch was like molten fire on his skin as she tormented him with her excruciatingly slow inspection of him.

“How did you get this?” she asked as her finger slid along the thin line of a white scar on his ribs.

“I got arrogant,” he rasped. “Thought I was invincible and tried to fight more men than I could handle.”

She lifted her gaze to his face, her eyes wide. “How did you escape?”

“I can be fast on my feet when needed.” He smiled sheepishly. “I was young and stupid, but I learned a valuable lesson.”

“Not to take on so many men at once?”

He laughed. “I learned to be stealthier and attack from the shadows instead of running straight into the fray.”

“That sounds dangerous,” she said as she continued her perusal of his torso.

He gritted his teeth as her fingers brushed across his navel, then dropped to the ties at his breeches.

His cock was already hard and twitching in anticipation as she loosened the draws and pulled the waist open.

When she looked up at him with wide eyes and a wicked grin, he couldn’t take it any longer.

He wrapped his arms around her waist, picked her up off her feet and brought her to the bed to flop her down on her back.

She laughed, the melodic sound the most beautiful thing he’d ever heard, and he couldn’t help but laugh with her.

He came down on top of her and kissed her.

She sighed into his mouth as she arched into him and purred in contentment.

After a long, intoxicating kiss, she pushed on his chest until he rolled off her and onto his back.

“You are meant to be mine to command, remember?”

He groaned. “I do.”

She pushed off the bed, then scooped up his leg and tugged one boot off, then the next. He dug his fingers into the blanket spread over the mattress as he looked up at Anora standing over him like the goddess she was in his fantasies.

“Anora,” he growled when she tugged his breeches over his hips and down his legs.

When he was stripped completely naked, she stood between his splayed knees where they hung over the edge of the mattress and looked her fill at him.

His cock throbbed painfully, and he feared that if she touched him even once, he’d be done.

She dropped to her knees on the floor and ran her hands up his legs, her touch the sweetest torment as she glided her fingers over the fine hairs on his thighs.

He gritted his teeth as he lifted his head and watched her studying him in fascination.

He’d hold still if it killed him to appease her innocent curiosity.

He almost came apart when she wrapped her fingers around him and rubbed her thumb over the bulging head of his cock. She released him when he groaned, asking, “Did I hurt you?”

“Only in the best possible way,” he growled. He sat up and grabbed her under the arms to pull her up on the bed, then flipped her onto her back and looked down at her. “If you continue that torment, I’ll be spent in an embarrassingly short time.”

“But I want to touch you and taste you the way you did me.” She was looking up at him so earnestly, he almost laughed, if only because she had no idea how much he wanted exactly that.

“Another time, angel. Tonight is for you.”

“I want it to be for both of us.” She brushed a lock of his hair from his forehead, the tiny gesture overwhelmingly in its tenderness. “It should not be just me who has all the pleasure.”

He did laugh at that. “Did you think I didn’t get any pleasure from the other night?”

She shrugged and her cheeks reddened. “You didn’t…”

Her embarrassment was endearing, and a reminder of just how inexperienced she was with men.

“Until tonight, that night was the most pleasure I’ve known.

There will never be anything sweeter than seeing your pleasure.

” It was the truth. He’d had other women, though not as many as most men, but never had he experienced anything like the taste of Anora as she came apart in his arms.

“I want to see your pleasure.”

He sat back on his knees and reached for one of her legs.

As he pulled the boot from her foot, he said, “Oh, you will.” He pulled the other boot off, then ran his hands up her legs under her gown, relishing the way her tongue darted out to wet her lips at his touch.

“If you want to see my pleasure, command me to ravish you.”

She tipped her head back with a deep-throated laugh. “Ravish me, Hunter. I command it.”