“I know you like it when I’m in your space.”
I should be running, fighting harder to free myself, but I have stopped moving, trembling with anticipation now. With his body so close to mine, I get a whiff of his scent, the last thread snapping into place as a lemony cologne with a hint of cigarette smoke makes its way into my head.
“Fuck me, Toma.”
He stops breathing, his hand flexing on my hip, and I smirk.
He wasn’t expecting it.
I wait with bated breaths for a response, for him to growl against my skin and rip my joggers down to impale me on his cock. I’m so needy with lust I feel like I could come just at the thought of his hands against my clit again.
Slowly, carefully, he lifts his head and meet my eyes. Wonder shines through and my breath hitches. Instead of arousal and the darkness that swirled inside just a few moments ago, something else greets me.
A vulnerability I’m not used to from anyone.
The hand at my throat lifts, before he pulls down his mask to reveal his full face. I should have recognised the proud brow and floppy brown hair. His jaw is clean shaven, his moustache begging me to lick his full lips parted open in awe.
Mesmerised, I take my time to devour the sight of his beautiful face, as if it were the very first time. The air between us grows taut with potential. My hands travel to his jaw, his cheeks, his lips. I caress the plump lower lip and he gives my fingers a reverent kiss.
Threading my hands behind his neck, he lets me pull him down to meet me in a kiss that shatters me from the inside out. My eyes flutter close when our lips touch, his arms gathering me to his chest. It starts slow before it devolves into a hungry clash. If he could get closer, he’d try. I slide my fingers through the strands of his hair, clutching him to me, lips devouring. Ourmouths move in sync to learn the taste of each other, the shape of the other.
I moan into his mouth and Toma clasps his hands through my hair, pulling at the roots to send a shiver from my skull to my toes.
“Lucie.”
My name on his lips is the answer to a prayer, filled with devotion and unshakeable desire. Weeks of wanting him in secret culminate to this moment, tongues dancing with hunger, hands roving his muscular back. I might have not known who he was but my subconscious did, always feeling safe in his presence, supported and held before I could ever get into his strong arms.
I want him. I want him so bad I forget my fall and my now-swollen ankle. I step forward and moan with discomfort.
Toma freezes and breaks the kiss.
“I’m fine,” I say before he can ask the questions, chasing his lips, but his hold on my hair stops me and I whine, low in my throat.
“What happened?” he asks sternly, frowning. His expression is murderous and I snicker. If he could kill the tree that hurt me, he probably would. And why does that warm my heart? It must be broken, that’s why. I have no other reasonable explanation.
“I… fell?” I say it like a question and bite my lip, because I already know what’s going to happen. I don’t want him to berate me, I want him to fuck me senseless. “But I’m fine, I promise.”
Yet, his grip remains like steel into my hair. When he finally lets me go, his fingers hover over my skin like he wants to learn every shape of my body. Then, he drops low and swoops me into his arms like I weigh nothing.
“Toma,” I squeal. “Let me down. I can walk.”
“Negative.”
He saunters back towards the path that leads to the main trail, bending at the knees to catch his helmet with one handwhile still carrying me with the other. I’m a bigger girl than most of my friends. None of my lovers or anyone around me has ever said anything to make me feel bad about it, but it’s a very different ballgame to watch the man I want to climb like a tree carry me one-handed like I weigh nothing.
Lust pools inside me.
“I’m too heavy,” I complain and he pauses, looking me straight in the eyes with a dangerous edge of darkness lacing his next words.
“You’re perfect, Lucie. One mean word about yourself and I’m spanking your tight ass until you cry, got it? You already have multiple strikes against you, don’t make it worse by running your mouth.”
My throat goes dry and my thighs squeeze involuntarily. Strikes? What did I do? I want to push, to find out how deep his obsession with me goes, what his dark words promise.
His smirk is blinding, a reminder of the cocky motherfucker I remember from this summer. And I just know he’ll do it, too. There’s something about Toma switching between easy smiles and dark threats that has me enthralled.
“Yes, Sir.”
The monicker comes out unbidden and Toma growls against my neck, biting playfully, sending a shiver up my spine.
