“Wait…” Hunter abruptly pulls back, leaving me to whimper in protest at the loss of his lips. Sinking back to my heels, I'm mentally curling into myself as my body tenses.
Hunter reads my reaction, his eyes softening as he shifts to his knees and leans in, tentatively reaching for my face with one hand.
“No, Delilah, don't get me wrong,” he whispers, cupping my cheek as I continue sulking. “I want this more than anything, but I want us to take our time. I wantyouto be ready.”
“I am,” I murmur through puckered lips, feeling a bout of anxiety threatening to spill from my eyes. “I am ready.”
Hunter's brows knit as he stares deeply into my eyes and bites his bottom lip. “Are you sure? What happened between us was so severe, and I don't want to rush you into anything you might regret later.”
“I'm ready, Hunter…I'm sure…” I whisper, realizing his hesitation must be brought on by my strange mood swings and snapping at him for the silliest things. Dropping my gazeshamefully, I sigh, a lump forming in my throat. “I—I don't want you walking on eggshells around me. Please…”
Hunter instantly swoops in, cradling my cheeks with both hands and searching my face with a look of sincere regret in his eyes.
“I don't wanna be walking on eggshells either,” he admits, the slight movement of his eyes to my lips indicating that he wants this as much as I do.
It's enough to let any doubts leave my mind, compelling me to say, “Then don't.”
That's when the distance between us is closed, our lips meeting for a kiss so passionate my toes curl as I push myself forward. His hands roam the sides of my body, guiding me onto him until I'm straddling his waist, his tongue in my mouth sending tingles through my body as I feel his length, hard against my core.
I break the kiss only to stare into his eyes—the pause is a metaphorical pinch of my skin that tells me this is real. Our breaths are fiery pants that have me wondering why I ever believed it was a good idea to just be friends.
We're married.
We're fated mates.
And the fiery passion in Hunter's eyes attests to the fact that we could never just be friends.
Chapter 20 - Hunter
Pausing on the kiss, I'm stalling for time only to make sure Delilah is ready to cross this threshold with me. Even if she's said it, I need to see it, and I see it in her eyes when I find them glossed over with dark, unabashed lust.
Carding my fingers through her hair, I watch as she bites her swollen bottom lip, and I savor the deliciousness of her essence mixed with the richness of the fruit she just ate. Staring at me as if she's seeing through my soul and speaking to it telepathically while she bats her eyelids seductively has my cock throbbing with a desire I've never felt before.
It's unlike anything I've experienced, and I was so certain that I felt the height of my existence between Delilah's thighs. Yet, here she is, speaking life into my being as she stares into my eyes, and it's simply because I've opened up to her.
There aren't any walls holding me back, keeping me from finding the truth in her eyes. Absentmindedly, I touch the single gray strand on Delilah's head, my heart clenching with a pulse so tight it’s as if she wrapped her fingers around the organ and squeezed.
The seconds freeze over to clear my mind enough to realize that I am in love with Delilah. I've always been in love with her; I was just too caught up in my past to make sense of it.
Now that I know, our next kiss feels more intense, more profound as my lips crush against the lips of the woman I love. Every nerve fiber in my being ignites with a fire that's been buried for so long that it feels as if it spans lifetimes of denial until I was truly ready to take the leap and discover my undying love for her.
My hands stroke her thighs, slipping beneath the hem of her dress as her arms wind around my neck. I sigh on the kiss as if it's the last breath I'm taking, but it's only the first when she breathes life into me until we somehow land on the blanket, our limbs tangled.
The kiss is hot, passionate, and desperate as my greedy, hungry tongue devours her mouth. I slide my hand to the apex of her thighs, applying pressure with the heel of my palm on her pelvis. She moans into my mouth, breathing more arousal into me through the vibrations as I find the waistband of her panties and slip my fingers underneath.
Her folds are drenched with arousal, her slick coating my fingertips as I stroke her warmth, my cock twitching with aching need as I break the kiss to give her a chance to breathe when a moan rips through her throat. Her head lolls back against my arm, and my fingers slide through the hair at the back of her head to impatiently pull her lips back to me.
I hover at her mouth, breathing in her scent as I purposely strum her folds and work her toward orgasm. Her moan escalates again, but before she can throw her head back, I seize her lips, pushing my tongue inside her mouth just as I thrust my finger through her drenched hole.
Her warm walls open up to the digit before clenching around it, her orgasm flooding my finger as I rapidly tap on the soft, spongy spot that I know where to find. I continue tapping until Delilah's fingernails dig into my shoulder blade, her climax trembling her body and curling her into me.
She's shuddering and spilling onto my finger while she fists uncontrollably at my shirt, ripping buttons in a desperate attempt to get me shirtless.
I'm just as desperate, breaking the kiss only to pull her dress over her shoulders. Between sporadic kisses, we somehow manage to get naked on the picnic blanket, and I have her beneath me, kissing her jawline as I'm about to make the descent on the rest of her body.
“Hunter…” she whimpers as her body reacts to my caresses on her hip, her back arching into me. “I need—hng—I need—” Her voice is strangled between moans, cutting off when I clamp my teeth on her erect nipple, lightly biting the nub.
Grazing her nipple gently as I pull away slowly, I lift my eyes to find her staring at me, her brows tight with frustration.
