“Oh no? Why don’t you examine Exhibit A - my pounding fucking heart!”
He obediently places a hand on my chest, his eyes hot as coals as he squeezes my breast. “Definitely skipping a beat. But you don’tsmellscared.” He thrusts a thigh between mine, rubbing his knee against the damp fabric of my panties. “You smell fucking delicious, actually.”
My pride prickles despite the praise, and I shove his chest again. “Did you ever stop to wonder if I really was trying to get away?”
He chuckles again and plants an open-mouthed kiss on my neck, his scruff prickling my skin. “You’re too good a fighter for that, butterfly. If you’d wanted to kick my ass and steal my bike back there, I’d be thumbing a ride right now.” His dark eyes sparkle as I glare back at him. “But you wanted to run, and you wanted to get caught.”
It’s true, and we both know it. I could have taken him down a dozen different ways between the lookout to this spot, and not a single one of them got further than a twinge of muscle memory. Of course, when I’ve had fantasies about being chased in the past, it was usually by Wings, and only around our apartment. This is on a whole other level, but there’s no denying that some of the blood fizzing in my veins is from excitement. “So, now that you have me here, what are you planning to do with me?”
“Isn’t that obvious? I’m gonna kiss every inch of your body. You’re not gonna leave here until you’re wearing my scent from head to toe.”
My excitement is now laced with arousal, but I keep my chin up, my eyes narrowed. “And if the rain washes it away?”
“Then I start again.” He dips his head and nuzzles at the soft skin under my ear. “We’re gonna stay out here, Abbie Taylor, until you’re mine in every way.”
I bite the edge of my tongue, the urge to moan like a fist in my chest. He drags his lips across my cheek and I’m relieved when he seals his mouth over mine, swallowing the helpless sound. There’s nothing languid about his kiss now, his lips all hard possession as his tongue ravages my mouth. I grip his cut tighter, but I’m already falling as if that train really did plow into me and knock me flat.
“Ark!”
“That’s it, gorgeous,” he says, grinding his knee between my thighs. “Accept the inevitable. If you run, we’re always gonna chase you. And we’re not gonna stop until we catch you, butterfly.”
Even with him pressing kisses along my heaving collarbone, his use of the plural isn’t lost on me. “And you’re speaking on behalf of my pack now?”
“Pretty sure they’d agree with every word.” He pauses to cup my cheek, his eyes swirling with moonlight and shadows. There’s still enough light from the parking lot for me to see his face, but the trees looming up on both sides of us give the illusion of darkness. Of being in our own world, where the only thing he can see is me. “I feel like I’ve been running my whole life,” he murmurs, stroking his thumb over my cheekbone. “The only thing that ever made sense was you. If I did enough, if I tried hard enough, then one day you might be at the end of everything, waiting for me.”
It’s on the tip of my tongue to ask him why he didn’t hurry the hell up, but I bite it back. He had enemies to defeat and a club to rebuild. He wanted to have a refuge for omegas and a home that would be worthy of my return.
“I’m sorry I took so long,” he murmurs, like he can read my mind, “but I’m here now, and I’m asking you to accept me as your mate.”
Butterflies explode inside me, a hurricane of happiness. The hurt, the anger, the push and pull that has always dogged us, suddenly fade away. I can fight it, I can run, but I’m going to end up back here in the end because it’s exactly where I want to be.
Until an actual physical breeze whips at my hair, and I narrow my eyes at him. “Are you proposing to me in a muddy ditch, Arkin Wallace?”
“That depends.” He looks around at the churning shadows. “Are you thinking about saying yes?”
“Well, I might be persuaded...”
I don’t get another word out, because Ark is devouring my mouth again, and I kiss him back, just as greedily.How long have I wanted this man?It feels like an eternity, and my body hums to finally have him in my arms.
Any fight that was left in me now channels into something hotter, hungrier. He’s pressing me down into the dirt, but I barely notice our surroundings anymore. In fact, it excites me that he’s brought me here, that he didn’t try to woo me with candlelight and silk sheets. He’s the most controlled, methodical man I know, and yet he wanted to chase me through the dark woods. He wanted us here, tearing at each other’s clothes with insatiable hands. Maybe even fantasized about it. Like he said, there will be a hundred more chances to make love in our pack bed, but right now this is exactly where we need to be.
Our tees are both gone, my skirt stripped away. The first press of my mouth to his chest rips moans out of both of us. He’sbigger and broader than my other mates, with a strip of dark hair that I devour with my tongue. I pounce on his nipples and bite at them, while he tears my panties off singlehandedly. I groan again, trying to kiss my way down to his stomach, but he pulls away. “Wait. I want you to wear this…”
He plucks his cut from the ground, shaking it out before slipping my arms through the vest holes. It settles around me like a warm skin, the scent of leather and violets filling my nose. “It looks good on you,” he says, running a finger between my breasts and hooking around my dog tags. “And it’ll protect your back.”
I nod, even though I haven’t given my scar a thought since he stripped me bare. “Thank you. For the cutandthe tags. It took me a moment, but I’m guessing that’s you protecting me as well?”
He smiles, but instead of answering, he quickly presses both of my wrists back to the ground. I think about fighting him, but then he licks a broad stripe over my claiming bites and my brain whites out. “Ark!”
I can feel his smile against my throbbing scent gland. “Sensitive, sweetheart?”
“You try having two big-mouthed alphas gnaw onyourneck!”
“Just as long as there’s room for me,” he smirks, taking pity on my throbbing flesh and dipping down to my breasts. I groan as he feathers his beard over the straining peaks. “Didn’t feel like a bra tonight?”
“Well, I didn’t think I was going to be running through the woods…”
“Or is it because these sweet nipples are too sore? One of your mates likes to nibble on them, by the looks of things…”
