The air was hot and dry outside. The faint hint of dust and pine filled her lungs as she gasped for air. Somewhere far away, she thought she heard the rush of water. The forest pressed in close around them, nearly swallowing the sun bleached woodshed and the narrow driveway Dom parked so haphazardly in the middle of.
She didn’t have time to get her bearings, though. She didn’t even have time to properly shut the door.
Seconds after her bare feet made contact with the dusty driveway, Dom was on her. Hoisting her against the side of his truck, wrapped her legs around his hips and devoured her.
His big, callused hands wrapped around her waist as he ground himself against her, his hips moving with a rhythm that made her toes curl. She dug her claws into his shoulders and hung on for dear life as her mate finally let himself take what he wanted.
The hot, dry air, the blazing warmth radiating off of her demon, the feeling of sweet friction as he ground his straining erection against the seam of her jeans… Charlotte tore her mouth away from his to gasp, trying in vain to catch her breath as Dom slid his hands under her backside and staggered away from the truck.
She made a sound of surprise and wrapped her arms around his neck. “Where are we going? Into the cabin?”
“No. Too far.” Dom’s voice was a gravelly rumble against her jaw. His lips moved restlessly along the curve before he found her ear. Giving her earlobe a sharp nip, he grunted, “Forest. Shadows. Safe.”
Before she could really process what he was trying to tell her, Dom stumbled off the driveway and into the treeline. Immediately, the heat lessened. Cool shadows brushed her in ways that might have felt unnatural a week ago, but now felt an awful lot like coming home.
Her heart beat a staccato rhythm as Dom dropped to his knees on the forest floor. His hands and shadows went to work removing her clothing, desperation in every jerky movement. Seams tore and buttons flew, but she didn’t care. Her skin flashed with each strike of her heartbeat, calling to him to ease the furious lust that made her squirm in his lap.
Somehow, he was even less careful with his own clothing. Dom tore at his shirt and jeans, shucked his heavy work boots, and all but destroyed his underwear. Charlotte watched him move with a dry mouth, her eyes glued to the play of muscles under his deep bronze skin and the way his shadows writhed, pushing out and retreating, as if they couldn’t decide which form he should take when they joined.
There was a certain headiness to seeing someone as steady and reliable as Dom absolutely lose it.
Charlotte sat back on her knees to admire him. Of course, she’d had the privilege of seeing him shirtless before, but he’d been so careful about holding himself back that she was denied seeing everything.
“Gods,” she whispered, blinking hard, like clearing her vision might make Dom more real, less beautiful.
He was thickly built, with ropes of muscle that were not the perfectly sculpted kind that came with a gym membership, but the slabs of pure strength built from years of hard work and outdoor activity. His skin was a beautiful dark gold, liberally sprinkled with hair that led the eye down to thick thighs and an erection that made her breath freeze in her lungs.
Gorgeous there, too. Not that Charlotte had ever really thought about the relative beauty of penises before, but there was no denying a perfect specimen when it was inches from her.
He was hard, flushed, and ready for her. His cock bobbed against the flat plain of his abdomen, the tip glistening with pre-come, when he crawled toward her. Shadows flickered around him, through him, and the sight of his most primal form breaking loose as he advanced on her made Charlotte unspeakably needy.
Shadows curled around her ankles. She didn’t fight them when they spread her legs for him. Nothing in her wanted to fight him, this. Charlotte submitted to the press of them; the strange, electric sensation of his shadows stroking her nipples as he dropped down to bury his face between her legs.
Her wings sang as he wrenched a hard orgasm from her with his teeth and tongue and insistent, sucking pulls. Nothing about it was gentle or coaxing. It was intense, almost brutal. She didn’t feel the bite of rocks or pine needles under her naked skin. She didn’t feel anything other than being consumed by him.
Charlotte was still blinking away spots when Dom let loose a bone-chilling rumble, grabbed her waist with both hands, and flipped her over. Pine needles and forest debris clung to her sweaty back. A sharp pebble bit into her left knee. Her wings vibrated too violently for Dom to properly cage her in, but Charlotte didn’t care.
When he surged inside her with one hard thrust, stretching her with a delicious burn, she melted into the forest floor. Her claws curled into the dirt and small, scrubby plants. It might have reminded her uncomfortably of her time in the terrarium if Dom weren’t there, the center of her whole universe, breaking her apart and putting her back together again with each brutal thrust.
She tried to breathe, to meet his rhythm, but she couldn’t manage it. All she could do was let him sweep her away into something so intense, she could barely process it.
Pleasure and discomfort mingled, an ebb and flow that was as unpredictable as it was exciting. When he picked up speed, his movements jagged and so deep she could feel him in her damn lungs, Charlotte felt the change come over him.
The hands pressing bruises in her waist got bigger, the blunt nails sharpening into claws of living shadow. She could feel the air change behind her. Could feel him change inside her, and her entire world narrowed into the space between their bodies as he took and took and took.
Shadows pulled her legs wider. They stroked over every inch of her. They stroked her aching nipples and scraped against her scalp. They kissed her lips and found every sensitive patch of skin. They slid downward to lick against the slick skin where they were joined and made her cry out hoarsely. As Dom angled his hips just right, Charlotte let out a broken cry and convulsed around him, her skin flashing in time with her thundering pulse.
Dom followed her over with a tearing sort of growl that sent goosebumps prickling over every inch of her skin. Sinking his claws into the flesh of her hips with just enough pressure to hurt but not injure, he surged forward one last time before locking them together to spill inside her.
She sagged into the forest floor, her ears ringing and her muscles gone liquid. Charlotte lost all ability to comprehend time as she waited for her post-orgasm glow to fade and for reality to return. Hadn’t they just been in his truck? It felt like another lifetime, like she was another woman.
Reality didn’t return, though. As soon as she began to come around again, Dom was there, his big hands stroking her back and sides with blatant ownership. Still buried to the hilt, he rolled his hips once, twice, and rasped, “You okay, glowbug?”
It was all she could do to pillow her cheek on her forearm and turn her head to peer over her shoulder. Dom was on his knees behind her, his head lifted proudly in the air, antlers a striking shape against the shadowy trees; half man and half shadow. Good gods, she thought, her muscles giving an involuntary squeeze. She watched his expression change when he felt the rippling pressure and let out a sigh of pure admiration. He’s the hottest fucking demon in the world.
Her voice was raw when she answered, “Yeah. Gods, yeah. I’m… I’m great.”
She watched Dom bend over to place a warm, reverent kiss between her wings. They didn’t buzz quite so loudly as before, but with his touch, they gave it a college try. “Good,” he whispered against her skin, “because I’m not done with you yet.”
Charlotte blinked at him. “But… how?” She squirmed a little. He was huge and heavy in her yet, and she could swear that she felt his thundering heartbeat through their connection. “Didn’t you finish?”
Dom scraped his teeth against the sensitive line of her spine. His huff of laughter was dark and deep, sending a thrill of anticipation through her core. “This is just the start, glowbug.”
In what felt like the blink of an eye, he had her repositioned on her back. One strong arm was a band across her spine, carefully keeping her delicate wings from being crushed against the forest floor, as he dragged his mouth against hers in a deep kiss.
She shuddered, the new angle providing an immediate and almost overwhelming stimulation. “Did you say this would go on for two months?”
Dom slicked his tongue against her lower lip before he bothered to reply. “Two months.” His amber-on-black eyes lifted to pin her with a hard, hungry look. “This is barely the start. You think you can handle it?”
Charlotte swallowed. Desire was a low-burning fire in the pit of her stomach, growing stronger with every second that passed. Reaching up to curl her fingers around the base of his antlers, she dragged his mouth back to hers. “I don’t know,” she mumbled, “but I’m not a godsdamned quitter.”