The house noise is muffled out here. We’re half in shadow, half in moonlight. Close enough that I can smell her shampoo, that soft, familiar note that has no right to punch straight through me.
She sucks in a breath when I press her back into the tree. “Aleksander,” she whispers, warning and plea tangled together. “What are you doing?”
“Checking you’re not a ghost,” I say. My thumb traces the line of her hip through the dress, feeling the shiver that runs through her. “You keep disappearing on me.”
Her fingers curl into my shirt. She looks up at me like she wants to bite and bolt in the same second. “There are people inside who want to kill you,” she hisses. “This isn’t a joke.”
I can’t help it. My mouth curves into a slow, wolfish grin. “Is that concern I hear, solnyshko?”
She glares up at me, but her body betrays her, pressing closer, chest rising with each unsteady breath. My fingers trace the line of her jaw, then drop to the hollow of her throat. She’s soft and warm, alive under my hands, everything I’ve wanted and everything I can’t afford to lose.
“Maybe I should let them try,” I murmur, leaning in until our lips nearly touch, my breath mingling with hers. “Would you miss me if I was gone?”
Her answer is a gasp, a tremor that runs straight through her. My grip tightens on her hip and I crush my mouth to hers, swallowing any thought she has left.
I expect resistance. A shove. A slap.
Instead, she inhales sharply and kisses me back.
That sound alone almost breaks me.
Her hands curl into my jacket like she’s afraid I’ll disappear again, and that’s it. Whatever restraint I had left snaps clean in two. I deepen the kiss, slow and claiming, tasting her like I’ve been starving for years because fuck, I have been. She’s warm and frantic and so familiar it hurts.
I pull back just enough to look at her. Her pupils are blown, lips swollen, chest rising fast. She should tell me to stop.
She doesn’t.
I drop to my knees in front of her, the damp grass biting into my trousers, my hands already pushing her dress up her thighs. She gasps, one hand flying to my shoulder.
“Aleksander—”
I hook my fingers into the waistband of her panties and rip them down in one sharp pull. Fabric gives way easily. I don’t care. I want her now, raw and real and trembling above me.
“God,” I breathe, spreading her thighs with my hands. She’s already wet, already open, like her body has been waiting for mine even while her mind tried to run. The scent of her hits me full force and my cock throbs painfully in my pants.
I look up at her once more, giving her one last chance to pull away.
She looks down at me, flushed, eyes dark, and nods.
I don’t waste another second.
I press my mouth to her, slow at first, savoring the first taste like it’s sacred. She cries out, head falling back against the tree, fingers tangling in my hair. I lick her deliberately, learning her again, drawing my tongue through her folds, teasing, taking my time even though every nerve in me is screaming to take more.
She shudders, hips jerking forward, trying to chase my mouth.
“Fuck,” she whispers. “Aleksander…”
I grin against her and flatten my tongue, licking her properly now, deep and unhurried, like I intend to ruin her. I know exactly what she likes. I remember every sound, every reaction. I circle her clit slowly, then suck it gently, and she almost collapses.
I keep my mouth on her, slow and deliberate, like nothing else exists while I keep her upright, pressing my body into her. I kiss her there, open-mouthed, lingering, then lick her again, deeper this time, my tongue sliding over her slick heat until her legs tremble. She makes a sound she’s trying to swallow, hips rocking helplessly against my face. I grip her thighs, holding her exactly where I want her, breathing her in. Her scent fills my head, grounding me, cutting through everything else like a single point of focus.
I circle her clit again with my tongue, sucking gently, then harder, listening to how her breathing changes, how her fingers dig into the bark behind her. I slide two fingers inside her slowly, curling them just right, feeling her clench around me. She’s soaked. Desperate. Mine in this moment, even if she won’t admit it.
I hear movement behind me.
A heavy footstep that doesn’t belong to the night.
I don’t look back.
