“Aurora,” I whisper, pressing my forehead against hers. “I should have told you everything from the start.” My voiceroughens. “From this moment on, no more secrets. I swear it. Anything you want to know—anything at all—I’ll tell you.”
Her hands rest against my chest, not pushing away, not pulling closer. Just feeling my heartbeat.
“When Jax took you...” My throat tightens around the words. “I couldn’t sleep. Couldn’t eat. For the first time in my life, I was completely out of control.” I close my eyes. “I can’t function without you. I’ve spent my entire life not needing anyone, and now I can’t breathe when you’re not here.”
Her fingers curl into my shirt. “Hunter...”
“I love you.” The words I’ve never said to another living soul come out with startling ease. “Not just want. Not just need. I love you, Aurora.”
She rises on her toes and presses her lips to mine. Gentle at first, then hungrier, more desperate. I lift her onto the table, maps and satellite photos scattering beneath her. She pulls me closer, her legs wrapping around my waist.
“Show me,” she whispers against my mouth. “Show me how much.”
I sweep the remaining papers to the floor with one arm, laying her back against the polished wood. My hands find the hem of her shirt, sliding underneath to feel her warm skin. Every touch is a promise. Every kiss a vow.
Her fingers work at my belt, urgent and demanding. When I hesitate, her eyes lock with mine.
“I need you,” she says simply. “Now.”
Nothing else matters—not Jax, not Olivia, not the Vipers. Just Aurora beneath me on the table where minutes ago I’d been planning war, her body arching into mine as I claim her mouth again.
I pin her wrists above her head with one hand. Her surrender—this beautiful, fierce woman willingly giving herself to me—ignites something primal in my chest.
“Look at you,” I murmur, my free hand sliding her shirt higher. “So fucking perfect. All mine.”
Her eyes flutter closed as I lower my mouth to her exposed stomach, tasting the salt of her skin. My teeth graze over her ribs, making her arch against my hold.
“Hunter, please,” she whispers, straining against my grip.
“Stay still,” I command, tightening my fingers around her wrists. “Let me have you. Let go, Aurora.”
The subtle yielding in her body sends heat coursing through my veins.
“That’s it,” I praise, dragging my tongue along the underside of her breast. “Give yourself to me, beautiful girl.”
I press my hardness against her center, still clothed but unmistakable. Her breath catches when I rock against her, the friction making her whimper.
“You’re going to take me right here,” I growl against her throat, my teeth finding the tender spot where her pulse hammers. “Going to spread those gorgeous legs and let me inside that perfect cunt.”
But even as the filthy words leave my mouth, I’m pressing kisses against her jaw, her temple, the corner of her eye. Gentle in contrast to my crude promises.
“I’ve dreamed of this every night since you were taken,” I confess, undoing her jeans with one hand. “Not just fucking you. Worshipping every goddamn inch of you.”
Her eyes open at that, meeting mine with something vulnerable in their depths.
“No one else gets to see you like this,” I murmur, sliding her pants down her thighs. “Just me. My Aurora, my heart. My perfect fucking goddess.”
The tenderness in my voice surprises even me, woven between filthy promises that make her breath hitch. But I mean every word—the crude demands and the reverent praise alike.
“I’m going to ruin you for anyone else,” I tell her, releasing her wrists to shed my own clothes. “And then I’m going to put you back together with my hands, my mouth, my cock.”
Aurora reaches for me, pulling me down to her with surprising strength. Her eyes—those impossibly blue eyes that have haunted me since the first moment I saw her on that cliff—lock with mine.
“I love you,” she whispers, her voice breaking with emotion. “Every dark, twisted part of you. The monster and the man. All of you, Hunter.”
A dam I’ve built over decades crumbles in seconds. I capture her mouth in a bruising kiss, swallowing her gasp as I push her thighs wider.
“Say it again,” I demand, my voice barely recognizable.
