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six

LAUNA

The tension lingered through that day, and the day and a half that followed. Parker was gone, which didn’t bother me in the slightest.

There was never a moment for us to slip away together.

Avoiding the other guys meant avoiding Kyle too.

The next challenge was a classic—mud wrestling—and I didn’t even need to watch to know who was going to come out on top.

I did watch, though.

I watched closely.

There was something ridiculously hot about seeing Kyle fight with, and defeat, a bunch of massive, gorgeous fae.

He was the biggest, and the strongest.

The man was absolutely covered with mud when the challenge ended, but he grabbed my hand and lifted it high in the air as he whooped about his victory the way he always did in the past seasons.

The other guys laughed and shook their heads.

Typical Kyle , they were thinking.

They had no idea what had happened between us—and that made my toes curl into the sand a little.

Kyle’s hand was on my back as he led me to the helicopter that would take us to the volcanic hot springs we were spending the rest of the day at.

That touch was typical for him, too. Typical enough that no one would think twice about it.

Despite it being normal for him, and despite the mud all over his hands, I relished the touch.

It had been a long, lonely ten days since our time together. My chest ached, and my stomach hurt.

As soon as the helicopter’s door shut, he sat down on the bench seat and pulled me with him. His side pressed against mine, and his muddy hand gripped my thigh as the helicopter rose from the ground.

Jordan followed behind us, flying with his wings rather than in the copter.

The show had stopped allowing the men to carry the compatible women through the sky after the second season. I was pretty sure it was part of their effort to make the women feel more comfortable, and appreciated that. I didn’t want to fly in anyone’s arms except Kyle’s, even though I couldn’t admit it to anyone but him.

The helicopter landed twenty minutes later, and we both stood. Kyle’s hands were on my hips as he led me out, lifting me before I could step down.

I loved the way he manhandled me, as ridiculous as it sounds. The big hands, the dominance, the bossiness…

I didn’t think I’d ever get enough.

The hot springs were gorgeous, smooth pools of black stone surrounded by palm trees. There was thick, soft-looking sand on the beach nearby. I figured some kind of human or fae intervention had made the place as idyllic as it was, because it looked like something straight off a travel blog.

Kyle only gave me a moment to take the sight in before he had me pinned against a palm tree, and his mouth crashed into mine.

My fingers wrapped around his biceps as I kissed him back just as passionately as he kissed me. Our tongues and mouths fought, his erection hard and thick against my abdomen.

When he finally pulled away, his gaze was intense. Our chests heaved together, rising and falling quickly.

“Oz said you talked about books,” he growled.

I nodded. “We talked about my favorite series on the way back from the reward. The rest of the trip was awkward.”

“What series?”

“It’s called Forbidden Mates . I couldn’t believe he’d read them too. When I get talking about books, it’s hard to stop.”

“You’ll tell me about them.” The words were an order.

The fact that he was commanding me to tell him about books?

It was sexy as hell.

“Deal.”

He kissed me again, with less anger behind it. His muddy hands slid into my messy, undone hair. I’d been dying to braid it back again ever since I washed it at the spa, but I didn’t know how to do the French braids the stylists had given me before I started the game.

I kissed him back, sliding my arms around his neck and using the position to pull myself up a little higher.

He realized what I was doing, and lifted me off my feet.

My legs wrapped around his waist, and he pressed his cock against my center. Despite the fabric separating us, it felt amazing.

The kiss went on for ages before Kyle finally pulled away, growling, “If there weren’t cameras here, I’d be fucking you against this tree right now.”

My entire body was already flushed, but his words didn’t cool me down any. “Is there anywhere private we can go?”

He looked backward. “A bathroom. It doesn’t look big.”

“Big enough, though?”

His eyes gleamed. “I like the way you think, Beautiful.”

It had been too long since I heard him call me that.

Way too long.

There was a shower nearby with three wooden walls and a flimsy curtain to give you just enough privacy while you washed up. Kyle carried me there, first, and dropped his shorts so he could rinse the mud off him. My t-shirt followed, since he’d covered that too, and a glance at my shorts showed that they needed the same treatment.

I slipped out of them while he scrubbed himself clean with soap, his back to the flimsy curtain to block everyone else’s sight.

His gaze was on me as I stripped, his attention hot and heavy. “Beautiful.” I wasn’t sure if he was using the nickname or just complimenting me. Either way, it made me blush.

I looked down at my swimsuit, and realized the muddy water had leaked through to it too.

My gaze lifted to Kyle’s, and my body burned when I saw his fist wrapped around his cock.

My hands went around my back, and I tugged on the bow until it came undone.

His chest rumbled, and he stroked his cock slowly.

I pushed the bottoms down my thighs, and stepped out of them.

He growled. “Come here.”

I stepped up to him, and he wrapped one arm around my ass before hauling me up off my feet.

My back hit the wooden wall, but thankfully, it remained planted where it was without shaking too much.

“Turn off the cameras,” Kyle said, raising his voice.

Jordan sighed loudly.

“Get everyone out of here, too.”

My guard’s grumble made me bite my lip. “Kyle…”

“Yeah, Beautiful?” He dragged the tip of his cock over my clit, and whatever I’d been thinking died instantly.

“Never mind.”

He teased me with the head of his erection again, and my head tipped back, my eyes closing. I could hear people leaving around us, but with him touching me like that, I didn’t care.

Not even a little.

“You remembered who you belong to you on those rewards, right?” he asked, his voice low.

“Always.” My whisper earned another stroke of his cock against me, and I moaned.

He lifted me a little higher. “Did anyone touch you?”

“Of course not.”

He worked me again.

“Did they make you laugh, or smile?”

“No.”

And again.

And again.

“I need you,” I said, the words coming out as a plea.

“What did I say about asking, Beautiful?”

My body may as well have caught fire, I was so hot. “Give me your cock, Kyle.”

“That’s my girl.” He lined himself up with my entrance, and filled me slowly.

My lips parted.

My mind spun.

It had been ten days—and he’d never taken me in that position before.

It was intense.

So, so intense.

I was insanely full. So full, I could barely breathe.

“Kyle.” My chest rose and fell quickly. I didn’t know why I was saying his name. I just was.

“You’re so damn good to me,” he growled, lifting me a little before he pulled me down harder.

I gasped as he bottomed out inside me.

“So fucking wet. Tight. Responsive.” He squeezed my ass, and I moved against his cock, earning a growl. “Mine.”

“I’m yours,” I moaned, remembering the way he’d asked me to say it. Something about the words felt sort of… powerful.

He swore viciously, driving into me hard and dragging me over the edge with him as he did. I came with a cry, holding tightly as he fucked me against the wooden wall. It shook with the force, but I was too lost in my pleasure to care.

We were both breathing hard as he came down from the high, one of his hands buried in my hair and the other gripping my ass. “You can’t say that while I’m inside you, Beautiful. Not until the game’s over.”

I frowned, worry clenching my abdomen.

Had I done something wrong?

“I’m sorry,” I said quickly. “I?—”

“No, Sweetheart. No. Don’t apologize.” He growled the words at me. “That’s how we seal the bond. I want to hear the words on your lips—and feel them on mine. I want it badly. Both of us say the words while we’re fucking—that’s all it takes to become mates. But we can’t until the game is over. We have to survive this first.”

Oh.

Wow.

No wonder the words had felt powerful.

“That’s why you like hearing them?” I asked.

“Yes.” He moved his hips a little, making me suck in a breath. “And it satisfies the possessive beast inside me.”

He was a dragon—I knew that from the previous seasons. Shifting took a lot from the guys, so I’d never seen him or any of the others shift.

I wanted to, though.

Almost as much as I wanted to see him wild with need again. That one was far more accessible.

“Does it hurt anything if I say the words and you don’t?” I asked.

“No. Just makes it hard to keep myself under control.”

“Why do you need to stay under control?”

“Because if I shift, my cock will grow, and I’m fucking huge. Even for a fae.” The words were matter of fact, though there was still that sexy pride in his eyes.

“Okay.” I acted like I was dropping the subject and leaned toward him, pressing my lips to his. He adjusted his grip on my ass and kissed me, parting my lips with his tongue.

He moved inside me slowly and smoothly, dragging me back to the edge as we made out.

I pulled away before I came again, lifting my lips to his ear and murmuring, “I’m yours, Kyle.”

He snarled, his body shuddering, then swelling.

I screamed my pleasure as I came harder and faster than ever, his erection growing bigger as he fucked me.

One climax became two, then three, when the heat of his release flooded my channel.

“I wasn’t done with you, wicked little thing.” His words were gravel, his eyes bright and hot.

I arched on his cock, still panting as I tried to recover from my climaxes. “You can only get off twice.”

“Until I recover.” He carried me out of the shower, still impaled on his cock until we reached the nearest hot spring. He set me down on the ledge and slipped into the water, opening my legs wide before he looked up at me. “You’re so fucking beautiful.”

“You make me feel like I am,” I admitted.

His chest rumbled, and he kissed my core until I was coming again, on his mouth.

Then he fucked me again.

When we finally settled into the hot springs, his arms were wrapped around me and I was sitting on his lap. The tension between us was gone completely, and I felt good.

Really, really good.

Jordan and everyone else returned shortly after that, and when they did, they brought food. I tried not to make eye contact with any of them at first, feeling awkward as hell, but Kyle chatted with them and thanked them as if nothing had been weird at all.

So, my awkward feeling faded.

We sat on the rock ledge, letting our feet dangle into the spring while we ate.

When we were done, we sank back into the water, and Kyle asked me about my favorite series. He remembered the name of it, and when I launched into a basic explanation of the plot, he asked all the right questions to keep the conversation going. We talked about it for hours, and I enjoyed the discussion with him even more than the one I had with Oz.

Kyle was just… fun.

And funny.

He made things easy, and he made me happy.

I couldn’t think of any more important trait I wanted in a man, other than the basics of honesty and loyalty and whatnot. But I knew him well enough from seeing him play Survival month after month to be confident that he had those traits too.

And every time we interacted, I was even more sure that I’d chosen right.