Page 100 of Wild Games
Still, the restlessness won't settle. I need to move, to do something with my hands. Cooking will help.
I pull ingredients from the fridge, humming as I work. Chicken, vegetables, the herbs from the small garden we started. Simple fare that will taste like heaven after days of elaborate palace meals.
Knife work is soothing, familiar. Dice the onions, slice the peppers, crush the garlic. The oil is just starting to sizzle when the door crashes open.
Jax stands there, chest heaving, sweat running down his face and neck. His shirt clings to him, dark with perspiration, and dirt streaks one cheek. He must have run the entire way from the packhouse. His eyes lock on mine, pupils blown wide, and the intensity in them makes my breath catch.
I barely have time to set down the spatula before he's across the room. "Jax, what?—"
His mouth crashes into mine, cutting off my words. His hands frame my face, holding me like I might disappear if he loosens his grip. Through our bond, desperation and need crashinto me like a physical force, three days of separation condensed into pure wanting.
"Too long," he growls against my lips, already walking me backward.
My hips hit the counter, hard enough to bruise.
"You were gone too long."
"Three days," I manage between kisses, but my protest is weak. Deep in my gut, our mating bond tells me exactly how those three days affected him—restless nights, the constant ache of my absence, the wolf pacing endlessly. "It was only?—"
"Too. Long." He reaches past me to turn off the stove, all four burners click silent. His body cages me against the counter, all hard muscle and barely leashed need. "Dinner can wait."
His hands slide to my waist, gripping tightly before lifting me easily.
The dining table is closer than the bedroom, solid oak we picked out together last month. My back hits the wood, and I have just enough presence of mind to be grateful we haven't set it yet.
"The door isn't even closed." I protest weakly as his hands work at the button of my pants. "Someone could walk by and see?—"
"Let them." His eyes flash gold, wolf close to the surface. He yanks my boots off and tosses them aside. "Let the whole pack see who you belong to."
The possessiveness in his voice should bother me. I've spent three days being the one in charge, making strategic decisions coordinating security and protecting royalty. But here, with him, all that authority melts away.
Here, I can just be his.
"Need to taste you," he says, yanking my pants down with my underwear in one motion. The cool air hits heated skin, making me shiver. "Need to be inside you. Now. Can't wait."
He drops to his knees between my spread legs, and any thought of protest dies. Gripping my thighs, he spreads them wider, and the first touch of his tongue makes me arch off the table.
"Fuck." I breathe, hands scrambling for purchase on the smooth wood.
"Missed this," he murmurs against sensitive skin, the vibration making me squirm. "Missed your taste, your scent, the way you move when I?—"
He demonstrates with a particularly skilled swirl of his tongue, and I lose the ability to track his words. He devours me with single-minded intensity, like a man starved.
Every trick he's learned about my body over these months, he employs now. Two fingers slide inside while his tongue focuses on my clit, curling just right, and I shatter embarrassingly fast.
"Beautiful," he says, but he's already standing, shoving his pants down just enough to free himself. "My turn."
He lines up and drives deep in one thrust.
We both groan at the connection, the bond flaring brightly between us, completing a circuit that's been broken for days.
"Fuck, you feel perfect," he grits out, hands gripping my hips hard enough to bruise. "Always so perfect for me. Made for me."
He sets a punishing pace immediately. No buildup, no teasing. Just his body claiming mine with desperate intensity.
The table creaks under us, the rhythmic sound mixing with our harsh breathing. I know I'll have marks on my back, and anyone walking by can probably hear us, but I don't care at all.
"Never leaving again." He growls, punctuating each word with a deep thrust. "Can't stand it. Need you here. Need you safe, where I can touch you, taste you, protect you."