Page 28 of Sweet Silver Bells

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE.

T he dark green sheets clung to Olivia’s skin like moss to bark, wrapping around her limbs as she twisted and arched beneath his weight.

She reached for them instinctively, grabbing fistfuls of the bedding like she needed to hold on to something real.

Her hands fisted near her ribs as her chest heaved, and she let out a sound—half gasp, half squeal—that went straight to his blood.

This was new. All of it.

Her.

Him.

Together.

And she bloomed.

Hunter knew she hadn't done this before—not like this, not with anyone who wanted her the way he did.

Her every reaction was unfiltered, untrained, purely her.

The way she trembled when he brushed his knuckles along the inside of her thigh, the way her breath hitched when his head dipped lower, the little strangled cry she made when his lips finally met the heat of her—those things undid him.

Tore through his practiced self-control like it was paper.

He had thought he’d known desire. He hadn't known it like this.

Not how her fingers curled into his hair like vines desperate for an anchor.

Not the way she choked his name on a whimper when his tongue found the sensitive spot just above her entrance and began to work her open in slow, reverent circles.

Not her taste—both dark and bright, earthy and sweet. Like black coffee on the coldest morning. Like sap from a tree cracked open midwinter.

She was wildness and warmth, forest fire and frost.

And somehow, with his mouth pressed against her most vulnerable place, he felt safe.

Her hips bucked as she gasped again, louder this time, a sound full of shock and need.

He anchored her with one arm across her belly, keeping her from floating away.

His mouth never left her, tongue tracing patterns like he was writing a love letter she’d only feel, never read.

And when he added the light swirl of his finger just beneath his lips, her body seized—a violent, beautiful quake.

She moaned like it was being dragged from her soul.

Hunter groaned into her, half-mad with how soft she was, how wet, how absolutely devastating it felt to know she was unraveling because of him.

The way she tasted, it was endless. A cool, gushing stream across his tongue, salt and sweetness, and the coppery buzz of power humming beneath her skin. A sacred offering.

He wanted to drink from her forever.

He wanted to ruin her for anything else.

And he wanted her to know through every flick, every kiss, every whisper of teeth, this wasn’t just hunger.

It was worship.

He pulled back just enough to look up at her.

Her eyes were half-lidded, dazed, and glowing in the lamplight.

Her lips parted, chest rising and falling fast, her skin slick and shimmering as if the room had pulled the moon down to rest on her body.

And when he reached up and kissed her inner thigh, softly this time, her hand shot out, fingers grasping blindly for him.

“H-Hunter …” she stammered, the name a prayer, a plea, a tether.

He smiled, dark and tender, and kissed her again, higher this time.

“I’m right here,” he murmured. “I'm not going anywhere.”

“You better not,” she sang out into the air between them, her face flushed with heat, proof of the fire she had just experienced. “I need more, Hunter. I demand more.”

Hunter cocked his head and smiled. The timidity in her was gone, the innocence that he knew was there under a terrifying facade, gone. Here she was, his tree siren, the most powerful woman to ever exist, who took control of what she needed and wanted.

Even if it was nearly unbelievable, what she wanted was still him. Only him. And he would give his body and soul over to her indefinitely. She would consume him, and he would let her gladly.

Rising, his knees pushing against the edge of the bed, straddling Olivia, Hunter inched over her, not letting his body touch hers despite her protest.

He prolonged every moment, being able to look into her eyes again as his body planked over hers, fully nude, fully erect, just centimeters of space before it would nudge against her pelvis.

“Why are you waiting?” She pouted her bottom lip out. “I said more.”

Hunter chuckled. “I wanted to hear it, I wanted to see it.”

“See what?”

“You plead for me.”

Olivia’s pout changed instantly, recognizing the challenge that he was presenting her. She let out a high-pitched growl, her upper lip snarling as she grabbed his dick with her hand and gripped hard.

Hunter nearly yelped out as he pulled himself together; the shock of it almost had him spilling all over her, and he wasn’t ready for this to be over. It was just getting started as far as he was concerned, and it would never end, not if he could help it.

He was feral for her touch, a wolf let out of his cage.

The time for tension was gone, the time to make her plead and want was over as he pulled his hips back and his erection moved between her upper thighs until it hit tender flesh, until he could feel that slick wetness against his tip, her heat and her fire.

Olivia gasped as he pushed in, only an inch, his body in control despite the tight warmth that wrapped around him, that invitation to come in, to wrap himself inside of a tree to never again exit the forest.

“Are you okay?” He pulled himself back but was surprised when Olivia bolted up to her elbows, giggling.

That fucking giggle.

“Why did you stop?” she asked.

“The sound you made, I wanted to make sure I wasn’t hurting you.”

Olivia shook her head in disbelief, like looking at a sad, lost puppy begging for warm milk. “I gasped because you were so soft, so smooth. Much better than what I used to make out of the trees. Come inside me, Hunter. I want to feel you.”

He didn’t have any more will, any more restraint left after those words, after the encouragement to let himself go inside her. The last hour of foreplay, of kissing, of touching her, after consuming her had brought him here, a man ready to claim his reward.

She’s no reward, you fool. You are beneath her.

He knew it; he accepted it, and he would do everything in his power to show his appreciation.

With a tilted, gentle push, Hunter had to stop his body from spasming as he entered Olivia, as her lips parted and air rushed out with a light, soft moan, a feminine praise.

“Fuck, Olivia.” Hunter focused on the words, trying to desensitize himself, “You feel incredible. Indescribable.”

Her tender flesh hugged him, the perfect opening that treated him as if he were the king, as if it were her that was worshiping him.

Stay focused on her.

Hunter kissed Olivia’s neck, moving down, sucking gently as he moved delicately, finding every angle possible to hit inside her, the head of his cock leading the charge to victory, to her ultimate pleasure.

Control yourself, Hunter.

It was becoming impossible, impossible to contain himself so that he could focus only on her, but he was determined.

That was until Olivia decided to take control, to hold his balls in her very hands as she wrapped her legs around his torso and violently rolled to the right.

Hunter was quickly on his back with her mounted on top of him, her face up toward the ceiling, her hair wild, tangled, cascading down her shoulders and back as her hips moved forward and back rhythmically as if she were riding a horse.

You’re a damn lucky horse.

“I’m almost there, Hunter,” she moaned, her fingertips brushing her navel and traveling up her breasts, up her neck, finding her lips, her mouth, as she sucked and moaned as she rode him harder and harder.

“I’m not going to make it,” Hunter yelled. “Not when you move like that.”

His whole body was moments from seizing. She was a force, her movements something he had never had before. He grabbed onto her hips with force, pulling her forward, not letting her roll back, trying to stay with her, trying to make sure that she didn’t get left behind at that moment.

But the way his cock twitched inside her, the way her slit slid against his pelvis when he grabbed, must have been the stars, the moon, that she had been looking for, praying for, because in that moment Olivia arched back, her pussy so tight, her thighs shaking against the side of his as she pulled every muscle in.

Her head fell back, and she let out a howl, a musical note that promised all things macabre, a deathly sexual release that reached all things spirits and wind and trees.

Hunter let himself go too, and the room started spinning as he spilled into her, as he gave all of himself to her. She now had some of him inside of her forever to keep, forever to manipulate, forever to obey, and he would gladly do it all over and over again.

As their panting and gasps were still at a high, a wave of shock flooded through Hunter, because for the first time ever, his orgasm was responded to with a force, with destruction and horror.

An explosive roar burst out, a monster, a dragon, there to scream into Hunter’s ears, and he wondered if he would ever hear a normal sound again.

Protectively, he flung himself up and around Olivia, tossing them both off the side of the bed, thudding against the floor as he shook over her from adrenaline, among other things.

The house trembled, and broken glass joined the symphony of destruction as the perfect percussionist. Hunter just listened, still holding her, not moving as his body started to feel the impact of their tumble down. He was sore, with a huge ache in his neck that he hoped was not an injury.

After the commotion calmed, Hunter blinked and looked into Olivia’s eyes with panic, a sudden reminder that a person was wrapped in his arms. He pulled back, looking into her pupils. No dissociation, just that mischievous smile, that eyebrow raise.

He was human, so it seemed the only appropriate thing to ask, despite that look she gave him: “Are you okay?”

Olivia broke out into a full laugh, so melodic and filled with beauty, with joy. She clapped her hands together and lifted her chin to look over the bed.

“Did you see what we did?” she asked him. “Did you see what you did?”

What I did?

“Every moment I’m with you,” Olivia continued, “is confirmation that the right person sang for me.”

Hunter carefully got to his feet and stood.

Olivia watched him rise, his queen on her knees before him.

His cock twitched as the thought flashed through his mind.

It disappeared quickly, which was very unfortunate for him, as he now had something new to look forward to, to feel her mouth, her tongue, with his full length pushing toward her throat.

Instead, he saw what had happened—the monstrous noise that brought chaos and destruction—just on the opposite side of the bed. He had been right to roll the way he did, because if he had chosen the other way, they might not have made it.

The walls and windows of his room were destroyed, completely pushed down in half as bricks lay loose like debris after a bombing. It was no dragon, no monster; the cause was something entirely too familiar but also unrecognizable.

Hunter stared at the tree in his front yard after it had fallen violently into his home, bringing coldness and darkness with it. Olivia beamed, proud, as if there were no greater accomplishment.