Page 57 of Hunting Harbor

"I've dreamed about fucking you again in these woods since the day you ran from me in terror," he growls against my collarbone as he works my jeans down over my hips. "Watching you through my cameras, seeing how wet you got when you thought about it, alone in you apartment, trying so desperately to get the words out of your head. Did you think I couldn't hear those little whimpers you'd make while touching yourself? Did you think I didn't know exactly what you were imagining?"

Heat floods my face, but I don't deny it. Can't deny it when my body is betraying me so completely, already slick and ready for him.

"I need—" I start, but he cuts me off with a bruising kiss, his tongue invading my mouth the way his hands are invading every other part of me. When he finally pulls back, we're both breathing hard.

"I know exactly what you need," he says, and the confidence in his voice makes my knees weak. "Turn around."

I obey without hesitation, turning to face the tree. The trunk is rough against my palms and breasts as I brace myself, legstrembling with anticipation. Behind me, I hear the sound of his zipper, then feel his hands grip my hips hard enough to bruise.

"Spread your legs wider," he commands, kicking my feet farther apart with his boot. The position makes me feel exposed, vulnerable in a way that sends another rush of heat between my thighs.

One of his hands slides up my spine to tangle in my hair, pulling my head back at an angle that forces a gasp from my lips. "You're going to feel me for days," he promises, his voice a dark caress against my ear. "Every time you sit down, every time you move, you'll remember who you belong to."

Then he's pushing into me in one powerful thrust that steals the breath from my lungs. There's no gentle buildup, no careful preparation—just Kairo claiming what's his with a ferocity that makes stars explode behind my eyelids. The stretch and burn of his invasion is almost too much, balanced on that exquisite edge between pleasure and pain that I've only ever found with him.

"Fuck," I manage to gasp as he sets a punishing rhythm, each thrust driving me against the rough bark of the tree. My fingers scratch on the trunk, nails digging into the wood as I try to brace myself against the force of his possession.

His grip on my hair tightens, pulling my head back further until my back arches at an almost painful angle. "Is this what you wanted?" he demands, his voice ragged with exertion and desire. "To be hunted and caught and fucked like an animal in the woods?"

"Yes," I sob, the admission tearing from somewhere deep inside me. "God, yes."

His free hand snakes around to find my center, fingers circling with precise pressure that makes my legs threaten to give out. He knows exactly how to touch me, how to push me right to the edge of madness. Of course he does. He's been studying me, learning me, obsessing over me for longer than I've realized.

"Give in to me, Harbor," he growls, punctuating each word with a thrust that drives me higher, closer to the edge. "Let me destroy you."

"Take it all," I gasp, the words nearly lost in the sounds of our bodies moving together, of skin against skin, of my own desperate moans echoing through the otherwise silent forest. "Everything I am."

Something in my surrender seems to break the last of his control. His movements become even more frantic, his fingers digging into my flesh hard enough to leave marks I'll discover tomorrow in the shower. Marks I've come to love.

The pressure builds inside me, a white-hot coil of tension winding tighter and tighter until I can barely breathe. My entire world narrows to the points where our bodies connect. His hand in my hair, his fingers between my legs, his cock driving into me with relentless precision. Everything else falls away. The forest, the night, my own identity… until I'm nothing but sensation and need.

"Come for me," Kairo demands, his voice strained with his own approaching release. "Let me feel you."

The command is all it takes to send me hurtling over the edge, my body convulsing around him as wave after wave of pleasure crashes through me. I cry out his name as my vision blurs and my knees finally give out. Only his arm around my waist keeps me from collapsing as he continues to drive into me, chasing his own release with single-minded determination.

When he finally follows me over that edge, his whole body goes rigid against mine, a guttural groan tearing from his throat as he empties himself inside me. For several long moments, we remain frozen in that position—me braced against the tree, him pressed against my back, both of us trembling and gasping for breath.

Slowly, tenderly, he eases his grip on my hair, his hand sliding down to stroke my back with surprising gentleness. He doesn't withdraw from me immediately, seemingly as reluctant as I am to break this connection. Instead, he turns me in his arms, cradling me against his chest as my trembling legs threaten to collapse.

I look up into his face. It’s flushed with exertion, eyes still dark with the remnants of desire, a thin sheen of sweat making his skin glow in what little light remains and feel something unfurl in my chest. Something warm and fierce and terrifying in its intensity.

Trembling arms wrap around his neck as I press my forehead to his. "I love you," I whisper, my voice fierce with need and something softer, more precious. The words feel torn from somewhere deep inside me, raw and honest in a way I've never been before.

Kairo's rough fingers brush away a strand of hair from my face, tucking it gently behind my ear. His eyes, so predatory and cold when he wore the mask, are now warm with an emotion I never expected to see there.

"I’ve always loved you, Harbor," he murmurs back.

Our bodies still against the rough bark become a promise, the forest holding its breath around us as our hunger gives way to a fierce, enduring tenderness. His arms tighten around me, cradling me against his chest.

And perhaps that's what makes our love so perfect, so complete—that I can be both to him. Prey and treasure. Conquest and equal. The object of his obsession and the keeper of his heart.

As the stars begin to appear overhead, visible through the canopy of leaves, Kairo scoops me into his arms and begins the walk back to our cabin. Our real home. I rest my head against his shoulder, feeling the steady beat of his heart beneath my palm.

"No more running?" he asks, his voice soft in the darkness.

“No more surprises?” I press a kiss to the underside of his jaw, tasting salt and earth and him. "No more running," I finally promise. "Unless you want to catch me again."

His answering laugh reverberates through his chest and into mine. And I know, with absolute certainty, that I've finally found exactly where I belong.

***