The pressure built again, somehow more intense than before. It started deep in my core, a hot, heavy coil that wound tighter with every thrust of his thumb. My hips began to rock, seeking more of the delicious contact.
“You’re going to come for me again,” he announced, his voice a low, rough rasp against my ear. “And this time, you’re going to scream my name.”
His thumb slid deeper. A jolt, sharp and electric, shot through me.
“Griff,” I gasped, my body arching, my nails scrabbling against the rough bark of the log. “Oh, god, Griff?—”
“You’re so tight,” he growled, a note of satisfaction in his voice. “So perfect.”
The pressure inside me built to an impossible peak. I felt stretched to my breaking point, every muscle in my bodycoiled and ready to snap. My orgasm ripped through me, stealing away my breath and my sanity. A scream tore from my throat, and my legs started to tremble.
“Griff!”
My whole body started to convulse. Wave after wave of bliss crashed over me, leaving me shaking and moaning. My inner muscles fluttered, a desperate, hungry rhythm that milked his fingers inside me, trying to draw him deeper as I moaned. Fiery sensation burned through me like wildfire.
“Good girl,” he praised.
He kept his fingers pressed inside me as he worked me through it, drawing out the pleasure until my body stopped quaking. When the tremors finally subsided, he slowly withdrew his fingers and thumb. Fully spent, I lay draped over the log, my cheek pressed against the damp moss, my body humming with a deep, resonant satisfaction.
I heard the soft rustle of clothing behind me, the quiet sound of a zipper pulling up and a button being done. He was dressing. Then his hands were on me, gentle but firm, turning me over. I was too weak to resist, too sated to care. He pulled me up to a sitting position, and I blinked, my vision slowly coming back into focus. I was a mess. Mud and leaves clung to my skin, there was dirt on my knees, and I had grass stains on my hips.
I looked up at him. He was fully dressed again, all hard lines and coiled energy, but there was a softness in his eyes I’d never seen before. He reached out, his thumb gently wiping a smear of mud from my cheek. His touch was surprisingly gentle right then. It was a stark contrast to the dominant, demanding intensity from only moments before.
“Come on, little mate,” he coaxed, pulling me to my feet. I stumbled, my legs still shaking, and he caught me, pulling me close. He was solid and steady, a rock in the swirling chaos of my senses. He reached down and grabbed his coat from the ground, wrapping it around my shoulders. The heavy fabric, warm with his scent and his body heat, was a comforting weight.
Then he lifted me off the ground with one arm banded around my back, the other under my knees. I gasped, my arms flying up to wrap around his neck as he turned and started walking.
“Griff,” I protested. “Put me down. I can walk.”
He didn’t even glance down at me. “You will walk when I tell you to. You will be carried when I want you to be.”
I didn’t argue. I just tucked my head into the crook of his neck and held on, breathing in the scent of him, of us.
We walked in silence for a few minutes, the only sounds the crunch of his boots on the forest floor and the steady beat of his heart in my ear. The forest was a blur of green and brown, the world narrowing to the solid warmth of him holding me.
“Are you okay?” he asked, his voice rumbling through me.
I nodded against his shoulder. “Yeah,” I breathed. “I’m okay.”
He stopped then, just at the edge of the tree line, and set me down on my feet. I swayed, and his hands came to my waist, steadying me.
“You need to understand something, Tamsin,” he said, his gaze intense, serious. “This… what happened between us… it changes things.”
“I know,” I said, my voice quiet.
He studied my face, and then he shook his head. “I don’t think you do,” he said, and then he kissed me.
This kiss was different from before. It wasn’t a demand, a punishment, or even a claiming. It was slow and deep, and so tender it made my chest ache.
When he finally pulled back, I couldn’t help but bite my lip, emotion swirling through me in spades.
“Let’s go back to the others,” he said, picking me up once more. “They will have been looking for you, same as me. They’ll want to know you’re okay,”
I didn’t even think about fighting him. I just wrapped my arms around his neck and held on, burying my face in the crook of his neck and breathing him in.
The others. Nox. Bishop. Eamon. And Elias.
My five new mates.
