Page 32

Chapter 31

SIXTEEN MONTHS IN HIDING

“You made this?” Dane asked, looking with suspicion at the cake with its silky smooth white frosting and multicolored sprinkles.

“I made the frosting and the cake layers—which were only slightly crooked, I might add—and then took them to Barry. He worked his magic on it.” I made a grand gesture over the pretty confection. “And voilà! A perfect masterpiece for my husband’s birthday.”

Dane’s smile was huge. “No one has made me a birthday cake since…” A hint of sadness dimmed the curve of his lips.

“Since your mom?”

He looked over at me and nodded. “Yeah.”

“I’m sorry,” I fretted. “I didn’t mean to upset you.”

His arms wound around my waist and pulled me hard against him as he silenced me with a toe-curling kiss. Pulling back an inch, he pecked the tip of my nose. “Don’t apologize. I love it. Thank you, baby. And for the record, I wouldn’t have minded if it had been crooked with lumpy frosting.”

I couldn’t help my giggle. “I can bake, but my decorating skills are abysmal.”

“Is this where I’m supposed to lie and say you’re an excellent decorator?” he asked, and I smacked his chest.

“Yes! You’re supposed to tell me my cupcakes are pretty.”

His large hands slid down to cup my bottom and give me a squeeze. “This cake is really pretty. I’m a huge fan.”

“You’re a huge perv,” I corrected, pushing away and pulling the pan of lasagna from the oven. “Let me just pop the garlic bread in, and then we’ll be good to go.”

Over our dinner of salad, lasagna, and bread, we talked about his day at the bakery. As we cut into the cake, I shifted the conversation.

“I met a lady named Maz today. She’s one of the veterinarians at the Turtle Hospital. I called them because I found a male loggerhead in distress this morning on the beach.”

“That’s that big green building up on the highway?”

“That’s the one. They do rehab on injured or sick sea turtles and then release them back into the wild. They also do a lot of research and collaborate with universities.”

“That’s cool,” he said, taking a bite of cake and closing his eyes as he savored it. “This is really good, Eden. The flavor is amazing.”

“Thank you,” I replied before veering back to the turtle topic. “There’s an outreach program where workers visit local schools to teach kids about conservation and about the animals.” I poked at my cake. “Maz asked if I might be interested in helping out with that.”

I watched him for a reaction, my shoulders sagging with relief when he smiled. “That would be awesome, babe.” He picked up my hand and kissed the back of it. “You’d be really good at that because it’s something you’re passionate about. You can talk turtles in your sleep.”

That made me laugh. “So you think I should do it?”

“If you want. I thought you were going back to school though.”

“This job is only part-time. I can do both. Plus, my degree will be in marketing, and this could be considered a type of marketing. Like I’m selling turtle conservation.”

Dane tilted his head to the side in thought. “That’s true. I think you should go for it. They’d be lucky to have you.” He reached out and stroked the back of my hand, gently asking, “Is the turtle okay?”

Warmth spread through my veins at his praise and his concern. It wasn’t that I needed his permission to take the job—because fuck that shit—but it felt damn good to have his acceptance.

I turned my hand over and linked my fingers with his. “They took him back to the hospital. He’s going to be fine in a couple months.”

As I used a ladle to pour scented water over the hot coals, Dane leaned his head back against the top bench of the sauna and closed his eyes. He was seated on the bottom bench, his body on glorious display with only a white towel wrapped around his waist. What was it about a man in a white towel that was so freaking yummy?

“That one smells good. What is it?” he asked when I sat beside him with my towel draped around my torso. We’d been testing out different drops you could add to sauna water to infuse the space with various scents.

“Chamomile and lavender,” I replied. “It’s supposed to be good for relaxation.”

“Mmm, it’s working,” he said dreamily, reaching for my hand.

We relaxed for a few minutes, both of us with our eyes closed. It had taken a while for me to be comfortable in the confines of the sauna. I still didn’t go in alone, only with Dane. That helped a lot.

When I opened my eyes and crooked my head to look at him, I found the first droplets of sweat dotting his body. He had a little bit of dark hair—not too much—on his chest, and it tapered down across his abs and straight into that damn towel.

“What?” he asked, peeking one eye open and seeing my heated gaze. One side of his lips crooked up in understanding. “Oh. You hungry, baby?”

My attention dropped lower, finding a tent beginning to form beneath his towel. I tugged the knot at his waist and pulled back the edges, watching as his cock continued to grow against his belly.

“I’m very hungry. You should feed me,” I purred.

His brown irides flamed hotter than the sauna as he urged me to my knees on the floor between his thighs. “Wait,” he said, reaching for a clean towel and wedging it beneath my knees. Then he spread his legs and leaned back like a god waiting to be worshipped.

And I did. Starting at the root, I traced the thickest vein with the tip of my tongue, inhaling the scent of chamomile, lavender, and aroused male. It was a heady combination.

When I reached his crown, I made my way back down, finding the trail of another beautiful vein that required my attention. Then I flattened my tongue and licked a wet stripe all the way up the underside of his impressive length.

“Happy birthday,” I told him before taking his head into my mouth and sucking. Hard.

“Dear god,” he cried, his hands immediately sinking into my hair. “You have the best fucking mouth, Wildcat. So damn hot and wet. Touch me, please.”

He pulled my head down until my nose pressed against his groin, and I worked my throat around his tip with gulping pulses. With one hand, I cupped his tight, swollen balls, rolling them in my palm as my other hand stroked up his abdomen and over his chest. I’d learned what he liked during the past few months, and he loved the touch of my hands while he was in my mouth.

“Goddamn, Eden.”

Pulling off him, I looked up into his hooded eyes. “I like the way you say my name.”

Then I went back to work as he chanted my name like a filthy prayer. “Eden, Eden. Yes, Eden. So fucking good. I have the dirtiest little wife. ”

I increased my pace, bobbing my head up and down faster and faster with every tug of his hands in my hair. As soon as I felt him pulsing against my tongue, I readied myself for the inevitable spurts of his release, but he pulled me away from my task.

His chest rose and fell with his heaving breaths. “I’m coming in that sweet cunt of yours, but first, I’m feeling a little hungry myself.”

“I just fed you cake,” I teased as he bent down and lifted me by the waist.

“Stop being a smartass and sit up here.” With little effort, Dane had me seated on the top bench while he kneeled on the lower one.

He growled before pulling off my towel and burying his face between my breasts. With long, slow licks, he dragged his tongue up and down my torso.

“Dane, stop it. I’m all sweaty,” I protested, trying to push him away, but he refused to relent.

“I know,” he murmured, continuing to lap at my feverish skin before finally diving in between my legs. My husband was always ferocious when he went down on me, using his tongue, lips, and teeth to maximum effect. He fucking loved it as much as I did.

“That feels amazing,” I breathed, pressing my palms against the wooden seat as Dane yanked my legs further apart. I looked down and watched him devouring me, perspiration dripping down my face and naked body. One of his hands slid up to squeeze my breast as his other one wrapped around his turgid cock.

“Nothing tastes better than you,” he groaned, licking through me before lapping at my clit with long, slow strokes. “I come so hard when I have your taste on my tongue while I fuck you.”

He continued using his mouth to bring me higher and higher, his dark head tilting from side to side as he ate every single inch of me. I reached down to grasp the back of his head, grinding myself against his face until I screamed out my orgasm to the cedar roof.

Dane’s grin was wrought of satisfaction when he lifted his wet face to look up at me. My own smile crept across my lips as he took one last lick, coating his tongue with… me.

Then he surprised me when he stood, walking to the pan in the corner and spitting onto the hot coals. The sizzle filled the air as he turned to me and said, “Fuck chamomile and lavender. I want this place to smell like my wife’s pussy.”

Well.

Dr. Dirty Talk has entered the chat.

A second later, he had me pushed to my back on the bench and was stretching his long body over mine, his cock pulsing at my entrance. With his burning gaze locked on mine, he pushed into me in one sharp thrust, causing both of us to groan.

The wood was warm against my back, but it had nothing on the heat radiating from Dane’s body as he began to move inside of me. His hair was pulled back at the nape of his neck, and I reached up to pull the elastic out, allowing it to form a curtain around us. There was something so intimate about that, and my heart squeezed in my chest.

I love you.

The thought slammed into me like a runaway freight train, and I spoke before I could stop myself. “Dane, do you love me?”

He immediately stopped moving, his brown eyes widening in shock and… something else.

Shit. Shit, shit, shit.

Before I could even attempt to think of a way to brush off my hastily asked question, Dane pulled my legs around his waist and began thrusting into me again.

“Baby girl, every single molecule of air in my lungs belongs to you. Every drop of blood in my veins is yours. When my heart beats, it’s your name it calls.”

He fucked me with a vigor I had never experienced before, his body sliding up and down mine, lubricated by our combined sweat. The sounds of flesh on flesh met my ears, and I cupped his beautiful face, completely mesmerized as he continued talking in a low rasp.

“You are my everything, Eden. My morning, noon, and night. I would conquer the world for you… drain the seas and burn down the forests if it meant you would be mine.”

Oh. My. God. That was the best declaration I’d ever heard, and I tangled my hands in his hair and yanked his mouth to mine. We shared a groan as the head of his cock found a spot deep inside me and hit it with every hard thrust. When he circled his hips, my knees slid up his ribcage, giving him a new angle, and I dug my heels into his firm ass, urging him on.

Dane set a relentless pace with his hips, though his tongue remained unhurried in my mouth, tasting me with gentle, passionate lashes. An orgasm tingled along my nerve endings, and my butt lifted and fell in a perfect counter-rhythm to his body. We were both drenched in sweat, and he slid one hand down my slick body to cup my ass and tilt my pelvis up another inch.

“You’re perfect for me,” he murmured against my lips. “Your pussy forms around me until it’s in the shape of my cock. We were made for each other.”

And that pushed me over the edge, the wildfire of my climax eating me up as Dane rode me through it. I was sobbing when he lifted his head to look at me, and panic flashed across his gorgeous face.

“I’m sorry, Eden. Did I hurt you?” he asked, stilling inside me and brushing my soaked hair from my forehead. “I’m so sorry. I got carried away.”

“You didn’t,” I promised him. “It was just intense but so perfect.”

He breathed out his relief, kissing away my tears before resting his forehead against mine. “Thank god. I was so worried I went too far. I never want to—”

“You don’t have to treat me like a china doll,” I broke in, feeling two lines form between my eyebrows. “You can be rough with me, Dane. You can even… fuck me from behind.” I could hear the glimmer of hope in my voice with those last words. He hardly ever took me like that, and when he did, I could tell he was holding back.

His erection—still hard as stone since he hadn’t come yet—jerked inside me. He wants it as much as I do. “I want to, but I always worry it will trigger you since… you know…”

“Don’t treat me like I’m damaged,” I told him, my voice sharp. At his startled look, I softened my tone and cradled his cheeks in my hands. “I’m tired of being a kidnap victim. I just want to be a woman. I want my husband to hold my hips and drive into me from behind without worrying that I’ll have a panic attack. I’m not afraid of you, Dane.”

He studied my face for a long moment, a muscle twitching in his jaw, and then he pressed a kiss on my forehead, my nose, my mouth, before pulling slowly out of me. “Turn over, Eden. Get on your knees and drop to your elbows.”

I almost broke my damn neck turning over and assuming the position. Dane growled, a feral sound that reinvigorated the throb between my legs.

“You have no idea how goddamn sexy you look, baby girl,” he said, gripping my hips with both hands as he notched the head of his cock against my pussy. Then he took me with a brutal thrust that almost knocked me over. Bracing myself on my forearms, I accepted the onslaught of his ferocious fucking. He was definitely not holding back now.

His big cock tunneled into me over and over, and he slid one hand up my spine and gripped the back of my hair. “Yes!” I cried out, pushing back against him as he rode my ass with loud slaps of his hips against my bottom.

“Mine,” he grunted. “All fucking mine.” Dane was a beast, primal and wild, and my mouth dropped open, trying to deal with all of him. He’d never been this deep inside me, this rough and uninhibited.

“That feels so good,” I moaned. The scent of hard sex mixed with sweat in the humid air, and my fingernails clawed against the wood beneath me.

“You’re so beautiful and strong, Wildcat. You may have cracks, but you’re not broken.” He leaned over my back, sinking his teeth into my shoulder and sucking hard enough to mark me. “I want to break you, though. I want to tie you to the bed and break you into a million pieces.”

His lips moved up the side of my neck until his voice was right in my ear as he continued to fuck me like an animal. “And then I want to glue you back together with my kisses, Eden. I’ll be your maker, and you’ll belong only to me.”

Dear god. This man…

“I’m already yours,” I panted, tilting my face for a kiss. His tongue dominated mine, and I felt his dick swell inside me, the telltale sign that he was about to come.

“Eden, I’m right on the edge. Can’t hold back anymore.” Reaching between my legs, he massaged my clit with two fingers, applying the perfect amount of pressure.

And he took me over the edge with him.