At his searching glance, I tell him quietly, “It’s all at your place.”
Eyes narrowing, he pushes me back against the wall. “Our place.”
“Our place,” I agree breathlessly as he lifts me.
Then he’s deep inside me, so deep, pumping his thick cock into my drenched heat, stretching me so deliciously that I whine and push back against him.
“Two days,” he snarls. “Only two days, baby. And it felt longer than the whole fucking year without you.”
Forever. It felt like forever. “I missed you, too,” I tell him, clinging to his shoulders, licking his throat, kissing his jaw. “So much.”
“And you were alone through so goddamn much.” With a growl, he pins me against the wall and fucks me harder, my breasts bouncing with each thrust. “Your first change. Your first run. And I wasn’t with you in that fire.”
“I was okay.” And he’s here now. Oh god, he’s so here. Driving that massive erection so deep, filling all the empty, aching hollows that his absence left inside me.
“I know you were. But I missed you. And I need you, baby.” He takes my lips in a rough kiss. Then another, scorching and wet, before angling me up higher, pumping deeper with long strokes that send pleasure bursting through me in white hot flashes. “I need you so fucking much, Alicia. It should scare you how much.”
“You don’t,” I pant, then nip the side of his neck, wrapping my legs tighter around his waist when that teasing bite makes him snarl and buck his hips against me, harder and harder. “You don’t scare me at all.”
With Ranger, my world is filled with the opposite of fear. Only hope. Only love. Only joy.
Only ecstasy, as he fills me over and over. I cry out against his neck as the heat and tension and need all begin unraveling inside me, as his heavy grunts become faster, more erratic. The edges of the world blur as the bliss sharpens, and there’s only Ranger now, only Ranger harshly growling my name, the hot and wet sounds of our frantic mating, the salt of his skin beneath my tongue. Then the world splinters and I cling to him, his solid body my only anchor as an orgasm shatters my senses into razored shards of pleasure. Ranger’s groan is a tortured rumble against my ear, and he drives into me for two more hard pumps before stilling. His mouth captures mine as his thick cock pulses deep inside me, claiming my lips as if he would possess my very breath, though I’m already all his. Even the beat of my heart is only for him.
As my shudders ease, Ranger breaks the kiss—but only barely. A mere breath separates us as he says, “I want to be married by next week, Miss Simmons.”
“Sounds good to me, Ranger Ranger.” Fingers buried in his hair, I hold him tighter. “Afraid I’ll run away if you don’t lock me down?”
“No, baby. I just want the whole damn world to know you’re mine. So you won’t be Miss Simmons much longer.” The sparks flaring through his eyes glow bright. “If you ever tried to run away, I’d simply hunt you down.”
Oh. I never had any intention of running away…but that sounds kind of fun. Breathlessly I ask him, “What would you do when you caught me?”
“One day, you’ll find out. But not tonight,” he says with a kiss, then begins carrying me across the room. “Because before you can run, first I’d have to let you leave this bed. And I’m not doing that for a long damn time.”
That sounds good to me, too. Though I’m already wondering how far I’ll get before he finds me…and fucks me.
Oh god. “So I just have to wait until you let me go?”
“Let you go?” He pushes me onto the bed, pins my hands over my head. “No, baby. I’m never doing that.”
And he doesn’t.11EpilogueRangerOne year later…This time, I’m the one being hunted. Alicia’s gotten better at it. She’s had plenty of practice learning to be quiet, to stay downwind while I’m tracking her. Now she’s turning all of that knowledge around, seeking instead of hiding—though the last few hunts, I suspect that I only found her so quick because she wanted me to.
It’s the same reason that I step on a twig now.
The moon’s high and full, but that’s not why we’re out here. Alicia has complete control. It’s been a couple of months since we’ve done this, though. Not since Alicia got nervous about transforming while pregnant, even though it’s safe. So this is the first time since our baby girl was born, and only because Samantha volunteered to watch our little Emma so that Alicia and I could have a date night.
And we can do dinner and a movie at home. So this is our favorite kind of date.