by Tessa Clarke
“Oh yeah. Oh my God,” she cried, riding him now with abandon, his hands clenched on her ass while her breasts bounced and slapped against his face, only caring about how fucking good it felt to fuck him up in stars.
“I’m going to come,” he said, and he arched his back and let out a wild growl and she felt him shoot his load into her, and she climaxed herself, screaming her pleasure out to the star-filled sky.
He stayed inside her, rocking slowly against her, his lips on her neck, while the last vestiges of her orgasm ebbed away in sweet pulses of bliss.
They’d crested the top of the mountain, and the gondola station was only a few towers away. The full moon illuminated a sparkling path on the snow.
“I love you, Jolene Winters,” Dylan said, his mouth close to her ear. “I know it seems soon for you, but I knew it as soon as I saw you.” He drew back, and his amber eyes glittered in the moonlight. “I’m a shifter, and I think you know what that means.” He paused letting her absorb his words. “In my mind, I’m already mated for life. I’ll cherish your sweet and sexy soul until the day I die. I hope that you decide you feel the same way about me, but for now, I just want you to enjoy this night, and let me show you what the rest of your life could be like.”
“Oh,” Jolene breathed, speechless. This was all so much. She wanted Dylan more than anything, to have him inside her, on top of her, all around her, to consume his sexy scent and lick and nip his soft skin. She might already love him. Was this all-consuming desire and feeling of absolute connection love? Was it love for life? She wasn’t sure.
Dylan extended one finger and pressed it to her lips. “No need to respond yet, beautiful one. Just say you’ll spend the night with me up here in the stars.”
Jolene glanced out of the gondola window at the glistening mounds of snow. Where would they be sleeping, she wondered. But she turned her eyes back to Dylan who was watching her with such intensity it almost made her choke up. “Yes,” she said. “I’d spend the night with you anywhere.”
They returned their clothing items back to their original positions and Dylan collected the duffel bag, then they exited the gondola at the deserted station at the top, a single light marking their way. Once they were off, Dylan unzipped the duffel bag, and removed a radio. “We’re good, Ed. Thanks. See you tomorrow,” he said. He placed the radio back into the bag, and the gondolas came to a stop, the air that had been filled with the grind of the bullwheel suddenly echoing with an expansive silence, as they stood in the dark under the canopy of stars. If stars could make a noise, Jolene thought they might sound like a glittering symphony of distant bells.
“I took the liberty of borrowing a pair of Alissa’s boots,” Dylan said, pulling a pair of fur-topped boots from his bag. “I didn’t think you’d want to walk to the lodge in those.” He gestured at the red shoes. She leaned on him to kick off her shoes and plunged her feet into Alissa’s slightly too big boots.
Dylan placed the shoes in the bag, zipped it up, and held out his hand. “Shall we?”
“Where exactly are we going?”
Dylan gave her a cheeky little smile. “I want to show you my world, in every way possible. The Timber Wolf Lodge has a honeymoon suite upstairs. It’s ours for the night.”
They set off hand in hand through the snow, their boots making soft crunching noises. Jolene marveled at the magic of the night, the brilliance of the moon, and the pounding of her own heart.
Dylan unlocked the doors to the lodge and ushered her in to the relative warmth. Someone had built a fire in the fireplace in the center of the grand room where the wedding reception would be held the next day, and it flickered and crackled a welcome. Music played softly over a sound system.
“I planned to dance with you at the pre-wedding party tonight,” Dylan said. “But I thought something a little more private would be more enjoyable. Flynn is the big dancer out of the three of us. I prefer to slow dance, preferably naked.” He shot her that wicked smile again and Jolene’s knees went soft and her pussy clenched at the prospect. She could go again in a heartbeat.
He set down the duffel bag, retrieved her red shoes, took her coat and motioned for her to take off the boots. She complied and he knelt and slipped her shoes back on, feeling up the length of her calves and inner thighs as he did.
“Now,” he said. “For some light.”
He pushed a plug into the wall and the entire room lit up with thousands of little fairy lights. With the giant timber rafters, floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the Starlight Bowl, and glow of the fire, the effect was magical.
“It’s absolutely perfect,” Jolene said.
“I agree,” Dylan responded. But he was looking at her, not the room. He placed his hand around her waist, and started leading her out to the middle of the room. “Shall we dance?”
Chapter Ten: Dylan
Dylan’s cock was hard again by the time they reached the middle of the room, imagining the things he could do to her, with her, with that tight little pussy, and those gorgeously plump lips. Her hair was mussed from their gondola escapade and she looked sexier than hell. And heaven for that matter.
He took her in his arms and pulled her to him. Jolene felt his arousal immediately and drew back with an amused smile. “So soon?” she said.
He shrugged and gave her a smile that he expected was both sheepish and wolfish at the same time. “I’m a shifter.”
They’d started moving together and the sway of her hips and groin against his shaft was intoxicating. His breathing had already become a bit uneven, and he ran his thumb over her breast where it emerged from her dress, wanting to free her again, feel the hard nub of her nipple in his mouth and see her fully naked. But he hesitated.
“Are you okay with that?” he asked. “We can talk first if you want. Or just talk.” He wondered if this was true, if he’d be able to keep his hands off her, and his cock out of her, if she said she wanted to talk.
Jolene’s own breathing accelerated, and she gave him an arch smile while her hand slipped down to his uninjured ass cheek to pull his groin more firmly against hers.
“Sure,” she said. “We can talk.”
She slipped her fingers between the buttons of his shirt so she was touching his skin, and one by one started to unbutton them, as Dylan tried to get control of his body, to reel it back in from the precipice of desire. If his mate wanted to talk, he’d damn well talk.
“Tell me,” she paused with a smirk. “Would you rather me ride you on that chair over there, or do you want to bend me over the table?”
Dylan’s cock twitched, and the thought of her ass tipped up over the table nearly made him explode on the spot.
“The table,” he said hoarsely.
“Great,” she replied, pulling his shirt out of his pants and easing it off of him, then running her lips and tongue down the length of his abs, pausing just below his belly button, and giving his cock a caress through his pants. “And would you like to undress me, or do you want me to strip for you?”
“Have I mentioned that I love your conversation style?” Dylan said, when he managed to get control of his voice.
“Either way, you’ll have to help me with my zipper.” She turned and presented him with her rounded ass.
He grasped her hips and pulled her ass hard against his cock, his left hand reaching for her breast and nipple, while he felt for her zipper with his right. As the dress fell away, he slipped his fingers into her bra and cupped her full, round tit, while his other hand snaked into her panties and the warmth that lay within. He stroked her until he heard her gasp, and she started rocking on his fingers. She was so wet.
“Turn around,” he growled. “I want to see that curvy body.”
She pivoted slowly on those red heels, her eyes downcast as if she might be embarrassed, and he drank in the sight of her breasts spilling out of her bra, rounded hips, and shapely legs. “Hey,” he said, placing his hand on her chin and lifting her eyes.
“Where’s the woman who was about to strip for me?”
She gave a wry little smile. “Just hoping you like what you see.”
He bent and placed a kiss directly on her belly button. “I love what I see.” He reached back and unclasped her bra, cupping and massaging each breast, eliciting sighs and moans from his mate. Then he pulled a chair out from one of the tables and slowly knelt, leaving a trail of kisses down her abdomen and across the pink lace covering her mound. He pulled the material of her panties away, revealing her wet slit. He slipped his forefinger in first, then two fingers, and three, watching her writhe in pleasure above him. Then he guided her into the chair and pressed his face against her warm pussy and began to lick and suck her clit, increasing the speed of his stroking until she was shaking with the orgasm about to erupt out of her and his cock ached to be inside her.
“Please,” she said. “Please fuck me now.”
He kept his two fingers inside her slick channel while he shed his pants and boxers, his shaft rock hard and throbbing. “You mentioned a table,” he whispered.
She leapt from the chair and bent over the table, her ass lifted and ready, and he plunged into her, holding her bucking hips to steady her, while she cried out. He drove himself into her again and again, sometimes deeply, sometimes pulling back so that just the tip of his cock was inside of her, pleasure and need rippling through his body, taking himself to the edge then falling back, building the intensity of his orgasm, watching her beautiful ass as he fucked her.
Jolene came again and again, raucously crying her approval each time, clutching the edge of the table to ride out the pleasure of her climax, her cunt rhythmically gripping his cock and nearly sending him into orbit. When he couldn’t stop himself anymore, he sped up, thrusting his cock deep into her until he was coming, as she jerked against him.
Still moving with her, drawing out the last seconds of their lovemaking, he bent and kissed each of her sweat-covered vertebrae, and pulled her back into his arms, while they both stared out into the wondrous starry night.
Chapter Eleven: Jolene
His arms around her felt so right. The sex had been exquisite, and she already hungered for more. But she had just met him. Could she love a shifter? What would he expect of her? What if he wanted a ferocity and wildness that she couldn’t deliver? Besides, she’d sworn off doctors.
Dylan dropped his lips to her ear and whispered, “Let me show you our room for the night.”
One night. She’d take this night of bliss.
They gathered up their things, and Dylan led her up a curving staircase that was marked “staff only.”
They emerged on a mezzanine that overlooked the ballroom that they’d just occupied. What a sight they must have made, Dylan fucking her in all his muscled glory. It still made her shiver to think of him inside her. Would she always want him this much?
Always…
Her thoughts implied an assumed future, not just one night. Her heart had already started to go down that path. But could she really commit her whole life to a man she just met? Could he really mean all of the things he’d said on the gondola? She knew that shifters mated for life. But what if he’d made some mistake? He could have any woman. How could he know she was his mate? It had been easier for Alissa to believe Cade’s claims when she and Cade first met. Alissa had shifter blood, and thought her shifter blood helped her know that Cade was her mate. Jolene had no shifter blood to fall back on. She only had desire to go on.
Desire. She certainly had that locked down. Even now, having just been with him, she still wanted to see him naked, to feel his skin against hers, to revel in the electricity of their connection.
Dylan withdrew a key from his bag, unlocked one of the doors along the mezzanine hall, and ushered her into a room out of her dreams. A massive white-duvet covered bed occupied one side of the room, flanked by a pair of cozy leather couches. A raised, jetted tub for two sat by the floor to ceiling windows, and wood lay beside the fireplace ready to light.
Jolene walked through the room, her fingers grazing the soft cotton of the bed cover. The room looked out over the sheer edge of the mountain on the other side of lodge from where they’d come in. Unlike the Starlight Bowl, which was steep but had some gentle terrain, this side of the mountain was comprised of narrow snow-filled chutes separated by jagged rocky ridges.
“The Starfall Chutes,” Dylan said. “Out of bounds for the resort, but some of the craziest skiers still persist in skiing them.”
“Do you ski there?” Jolene replied, eyeing the steep drops with some awe.
“No,” Dylan said. “But Cade does, sometimes, when he’s feeling pent up. And both he and I hunt there, along the ridge. That’s part of the reason we own the resort, to ensure we have easy access to the backcountry. Humans aren’t so fond of seeing big cats roaming in their midst, even if they are shifters. Up here at night, we can run as we please.”
Jolene turned back and studied him, the contours of his cheekbones, his strong jaw, and those amber eyes that watched her so intently.
“I brought you up here, not only to be with you, but also to show you this part of my life.”
Jolene nodded. He’d moved closer to her, and she felt that hunger that proximity to him yielded. Could hunger be trusted?
“Will you come and watch me run, just for a bit?” Dylan asked. He gestured to the bag. “I brought some warm clothes for you.”
She dressed in the warm gear that he provided, and they went out onto the balcony and descended a set of stairs that led to the ground. The snow was tracked almost to the edge of the cliff. When they got to the end of the tracked snow, he undressed and handed her his clothes.
“Don’t worry,” he said. “I’ll come back. I’ll always come back.”
Then he became a cougar, majestic and yet terrifying, his head nearly as tall as her shoulder. She wondered briefly, as her breathing quickened, what would happen if his animal form didn’t know her, but Dylan wouldn’t have asked her to come out here if it would put her in danger.
He examined her through those amber eyes, and came closer, and closer until the soft fur of his head brushed her cheek. She suppressed a gasp at the feel of his breath on her skin, and she heard a rumbling purr, and she wrapped her arms around his neck and absorbed the weight and wildness of him.
All of a sudden, he sprang away from her and flew through the snow at a speed unimaginable, the powder spraying out behind him. He ran until he became a tiny speck and she began to shiver a bit, the cold weaving into her bones as she stood beneath the canvas of stars. She felt the loss of every moment he was gone, and she realized that she couldn’t imagine her life without him. Just when she was starting to feel the acuteness of his absence, of once again being alone, the speck began to grow infinitesimally larger again, and after a few minutes, a large cat, no less terrifying than before—at least from the perspective of her instincts—reappeared, and became Dylan and took her in his arms, naked.
Her Dylan. Her shifter. How could she ever have thought she could live without him? That this could be only for one night. He smelled of sex, and sweat, and fresh snow, and a starlit sky, and suddenly she knew that she loved him.
But could she find the courage to tell him?
They shed most of their clothes, lit a fire, and grazed on the midnight snack that Dylan had packed, their bodies entwined on the carpet in front of the flames, their bare skin glowing in the light.
Somewhere between their talk of cubs, working in hospitals, and traveling, Jolene felt her hunger for him rise again. Would she really get to lie with this man, to lust for him for the rest of her life? Dylan traced the curve of her breast with his forefinger and she felt that unmistakable surge in her groin. He leaned in and kissed her long and hard, his tongue searching her mouth and caressing her lips. His fingers had already slipped between her legs, and the hard knob of his erection pressed against her bare leg. He pulled her on top of him, and she sat up, riding h
im lazily, watching the muscles in his washboard stomach while he cupped her gently bobbing breasts. She was getting wetter and wetter as she rubbed her clit along his shaft. Ready for his cock.
“Strip for me,” he commanded.
She looked at her lacy bra and panties and gave a throaty laugh. “It won’t take very long.”
He grinned. “That’s good because I want your tight pussy riding my cock very soon.”
Jolene rose to her feet. She slipped her straps off her shoulders and reached behind her back to unclasp her bra. She grasped the end of it and dangled it above the floor before dropping it.
Dylan reached into his boxers, withdrew his rigid cock, and began to stroke it. “That’s good, really good. I love those beautiful titties.”
Jolene bit her lip, her cunt nearly shaking with need. She wanted him so badly. She placed her fingers around the string of her thong and gently eased it down. Dylan started moving his hand faster, his eyes hooded. “Babe, you are so stunning. Now touch yourself, I want to watch you.”
Jolene obediently slid her fingers into her warm slippery mound, choking out a yelp of pleasure. She massaged her clit, and tweaked one of her nipples with her other hand, then started to jerk her fingers in and out of her pussy rhythmically, bringing herself closer to the edge. Dylan matched her speed, and she saw that his shaft had become slick.
“Yeah, that’s right,” he murmured. “Keep going.”
She increased her speed, spreading her legs a bit and jamming three fingers into her channel, while she played with her clit with her thumb. She thought about riding him, feeling him come inside her, while her pussy throbbed and clenched around his hard dick. She moved her fingers faster and faster, arching her back, stiffening her legs, thrusting her hips forward, while she watched him jerk off with a practiced hand. She wanted that cock.
Then she saw stars and she was coming, her cunt spasming around her fingers.
