With something that was a growl, a yawn, and a satisfied rumble all collapsed into one, he rolled onto his side, one arm coming over her to cage her loosely as he buried his face in her hair.Good morning, Moonbeam.Not words exactly, more like she could take a feeling and put his voice to it. He’d asked her last night if that bothered her, the way the bond leaked through their thoughts. She might want to ask him, at some point, if there was an off switch—she didn’t particularly need him to know when she had to use the bathroom, for instance, or tospoil a surprise, or to hear the more chaotic loops of her brain at two in the morning. But the rest of it? Him, warm, solid, and bleeding contentment into her without meaning to? No. That she didn’t mind at all.
“There’s a way,” he murmured into her hair. “To close it off, when you want it.”
“I want to learn it, then. But I like it. This is very convenient and also extremely sweet, and I’m not giving it up.”
“You don't mind.”
“No. No, I really don’t.”
She untangled herself from the blanket enough to reach for him and found warm, smooth skin and the hard planes of his chest. What an exceptional chest. She’d never considered herself particularly moved by chest hair, but people grew and changed, and she had, apparently, undergone a full conversion overnight, because she ran her hand across it slowly, enjoying the way his heart stuttered slightly under her palm even though the rest of him stayed perfectly still.
Which was lovely, all of it. But it was morning now, and there was light, and she couldseehim.Allof him, if she just—
She extricated herself fully from the blanket and nudged him onto his back. He went with a small frown, brown eyes questioning. She sat up and looked at the display of absolute physical perfection laid out in front of her, entirely unconcerned, golden in the early light. She was going to need a moment. Possibly several. “Are you in a hurry to be anywhere?” she asked.
“No.” The corner of his mouth curved into the least innocent smile she’d ever seen on a face. He put both hands behind his head, completely at her mercy and appearing to know and enjoy it. “Pack’s quiet. We have a day off after Letha. We can stay here as long as you want.”
And she, a woman with a perfectly ordinary sense of propriety in every other context of her life, had absolutely nohesitation stepping off the blanket in all her naked glory and swinging a leg over to straddle him.
The wave of want that hit her wasn’t entirely her own. It rolled in hot and forceful, his desire flooding through the bond until it tangled up with hers, and she couldn’t have told you which was which. She felt him go taut underneath her, felt the effort it cost him to keep his hands behind his head. Good. She had plans in that direction. Because last night had been... There weren’t words, actually, she’d need to invent some, but she’d been too caught up in the current of it to take her time. And there wasa lotof him to take time with.
She started at his chest. Spread her palms over the strong planes of his pecs, the impossible breadth of his shoulders, learning the geography of him with her hands first, then her mouth. He was warm everywhere, almost feverish, and she felt every small sound he swallowed, every muscle that jumped under her lips. She worked slowly, with great personal satisfaction, trailing down over bones, muscles, and skin. It made him shiver when she pressed her mouth to them. This enormous, controlled man, shivering because ofher.And then further, to that deep cut of muscle between his hard belly and—
He was a big man. She’d known it. Had felt it in more ways than one. She had not fully appreciated thesightof that.
He was already hard, thick and flushed, and so obviously ready that her mouth actually watered, and she took exactly one more second to appreciate the view before she looked up at his face. Which was when he moved to sit up. “Don’t you dare, Rex.”
He stopped. Held her gaze for one long moment. Then he lay back, jaw tight, one hand behind his head and one pressed flat against the grass like he needed something to grip. She could feel through the bond the white-knuckled effort of holding still, the want coiled in him, and it was the hottest thing she had ever experienced in her life.
Officer Growly. The big bad wolf. Entirely in her power.
Cruel, came through the bond, rough at the edges.
“You won’t be mad in about ten seconds.”
It was a promise. One she kept. She took him into her mouth and felt him pull a sharp breath through his teeth. The taste of him, of them both from the night before, hit her all at once. She worked him slowly at first. Lips, tongue, the careful edge of her teeth where she’d learned he liked it, and his pleasure came back through the bond like a current, electric and direct, pooling low in her until thinking straight required actual effort. She took him deeper. His hand found her hair, not directing, just there, as if he needed to touch her. His thighs were steel under her palms. She sucked until she felt him start to fracture, untilpleasecame through without words, and she couldn’t see past her own greed for him.
She pulled off, climbed up, and sank down onto him in one long slide.
For a heartbeat, everything went still. Everything was settled, whole and right; a sound she hadn’t known was missing had finally resolved into the chord it belonged to.
And then she started to move.
His hands found her hips as she rolled into a rhythm he met, felt the double current of both their pleasure running through her. His head pressed back into the grass. Her name in his mouth sounded like a plea. She chased it, chased the wave of it, until his cock started swelling, the morning went white, and she came apart, his hands the only solid thing in her world. He followed her over the edge with a sound that scared the birds out of the trees.
She collapsed onto his chest.
His arms wrapped around her immediately, both of them breathing hard, hearts slamming in approximate unison.
“Good morning,” she said, into his collarbone.
The rumble that came out of him was deeply, profoundly smug.
EVENTUALLY, THEY HADto pack up and leave.
They folded the blanket, found their clothes in the grass, and a new set for Rex in the backpack. Rex shouldered it, while Zoe took one last look at the clearing before stepping into the trees.
She noticed it on the trail. The way the light sat differently in the leaves; the way the air tasted distinct and clean. The birdsong had individual layers to it that she hadn't been able to pick apart before. She wasn’t sure if it was the sex, or him, or the bond now sealed between them, or simply that something inside her had rearranged overnight into a shape that fit better, but the world looked and sounded like someone had adjusted the contrast.
