by BETH KERY
His crudity was arousing her. He knew it had on other occasions in the past. Her cheeks burned and her breathing was coming fast and erratic. The ability to think rationally was fogged by lust.
“Say it,” he bit out softly, nuzzling her lips with his nose and then his mouth.
“I deserve a nice. Hard. Fuck.”
If there was such a thing as defiant begging, Alice had just done it.
He grunted softly, his mouth slanting into a hard line. He turned her in front of him forcefully. When she staggered because her clothing had gotten twisted on her ankles, he steadied her, his hands cupping her shoulders. He pressed his face to her neck, his hot, openmouthed kiss making her gasp and put her hands on the tree trunk to steady her swaying world. She sensed him working to unfasten his fly.
A moment later, his naked cock slid between her thighs, the top of the rigid shaft rubbing against her sensitive, damp outer sex. He gave a restrained, rough groan that vibrated in his throat. Biting her lower lip to suppress her own arousal, she leaned into the tree, bending at the waist. The feeling of the bulbous head of his cock pushing into her channel felt exciting and forbidden.
So damn good.
He held her hips steady with his hands and firmly pumped his cock into her. The fact that she couldn’t scream her pleasure made her want to yowl like a cat in heat. Her choked wail burned her throat. His cock felt huge and heavy inside her. When he finally pressed his full testicles to her outer sex and paused, squeezing her to him, she opened her mouth in a silent scream.
“Quiet,” he muttered tensely behind her, and Alice wondered confusedly if she’d whimpered aloud after all. In the distance, she heard the footsteps on the path. Her follower had realized he’d lost her and was retracing his steps, his pace faster than it had been previously.
They went still in a tableau of frozen, incendiary pleasure. It was unbearable. Dylan throbbed inside her, his cock steaming into her flesh. God, she needed to move. She couldn’t stop her muscles from convulsing around him, from squeezing his rigid length. Behind her, she heard him make a small, choked sound. Somehow it helped, knowing she didn’t suffer alone.
But not much.
Her follower’s footsteps faded while they mutually sweated. Just when she thought she couldn’t take it anymore, he began to thrust in and out of her, his strokes deep and even a little harsh. Alice loved it. Her body jolted at the impact of him against her. His unrelenting cock plunging into her and the sharp friction he created became her sole focus. Dylan. Dylan. Dylan. She chanted his name in her head like a mantra every time his pelvis thumped against her. She closed her eyes, bit her lip, and counterstroked with a firm, fluid pump of her hips. It felt hot and forbidden. So right.
She was so deep in the zone, it jarred her to the core when Dylan suddenly stilled her bobbing hips, his thumbs digging into her buttocks. She heard distant footsteps approaching. The man was back, retracing his trail.
“Damn,” she heard Dylan say behind her, the single muted word practically bursting with sharp frustration.
“You put him up to it,” she hissed over her shoulder, her whisper barely audible.
He squeezed both her buttocks in a taut reprimand. Alice tried to get air, but it was like her body had grown confused under the influence of rampant, stifled arousal. Her lungs didn’t seem to want to expand, even though she needed oxygen desperately. Dylan’s hands moved slightly on her ass, peeling back her ass cheeks, making some kind of lascivious display of her. There was nothing she could do about it, either.
Except scowl over her shoulder.
He was indeed staring down at her ass. As if sensing her gaze on him, he glanced up and met her stare. The gleam in his smoky eyes, his small knowing smile and the lurch of his cock deep inside her made her scowl evaporate. In the distance, her follower’s footsteps retraced the path. The Cigarette Man was growing increasingly alarmed. Soon, he was going to leave the path and comb the woods, looking for her.
Dylan must have thought the same thing, because he started to move. Obviously, he was in agreement with her that the only course of action was forward.
No going back now.
She winced at the friction, holding his stare, her chin on her shoulder. She couldn’t look away from his rigid face. It was wrong. The man was only sixty or so feet away. He might notice some tramped-down grass and identify where she’d left the path. He could step off the trail and be upon them in a moment. It would be humiliating to be discovered.
But the moment was too volatile. What was happening between Dylan and her wasn’t going to end anywhere but in explosion.
For a moment, she lost count of where the man was. Dylan wasn’t thumping his pelvis against her bottom anymore. Instead, he was stopping just short of making contact, his hips moving fast, fluid, and furious. It was enough. It was more than enough. Blood was pulsing in her ears and pooling in her sex. She’d never known a man could fuck so silently, yet so forcefully. She bit her lip, stifling a moan with effort. It wasn’t something she could control.
She was going to come.
Maybe Dylan sensed her agony, because suddenly he transferred one hand to her shoulder. His other hand slid over her mouth. The feeling of his glove against her lips sent her over the edge. He silenced her cry with his pressing hand. She shuddered in climax, biting down on the soft leather with her front teeth. Pleasure gushed through her, hot and forceful. He fucked her while she came, using his hold on her shoulder to power his thrusts.
She blinked open her eyes a moment later as her orgasm waned. She’d heard the snap of a twig, and then silence. Dylan thrust into her, and then went still as well. Alice held her panting breath. She tried desperately to hear past her roaring heartbeat. Slowly, and very deliberately, Dylan stepped closer, sliding his cock into her to the hilt. He pressed. Alice’s eyes sprang wide at the pressure.
Her lungs burned with a need to breathe, but she was stifling her pants.
Then she heard it. The man’s footsteps on the path. He was jogging in the direction of the stables. Now he was running.
A deep, ominous growl vibrated in Dylan’s throat. His hand slid off her mouth. He clutched at her hip and thrust hard. She whimpered at the sensation of his cock swelling inside her. He shuddered behind her, and she knew he was coming. His warmth filled her. She tried to move, to stroke his cock a little as he climaxed, but he gave a small grunt and fixed her in place with his hands.
She clamped her eyes shut, experiencing his sweet agony along with him as he emptied himself at her farthest reaches, his big body shuddering behind her.
SOONER than either of them was ready for, he withdrew. She stung a little. He hadn’t ridden her as forcefully as he had in the past, but he hadn’t lied about coming deep and hard in her. The second he was gone, she felt empty.
He immediately bent and straightened her shorts and panties around her ankles. He drew them up her legs and over her hips. She straightened, helping him furtively by pulling them up. She watched him as he drew up his boxer briefs and hastily fastened his jeans. When he was nearly finished, he glanced up, his gaze moving over her face.
“I hope you thought your little game was worth getting him fired.”
“You’re going to fire him from Durand?” she asked, straining to mute the anger in her tone.
“No,” he said, glancing into the forest. “From this assignment, though. You’re coming back to the castle at night. His services aren’t needed anymore.”
She opened her mouth to protest his cocky assumption, but he cut her off. “Let’s move before he returns. Kar Kalim is back this way,” he said, referring to his horse. He gestured with his head toward the northwest. Alice nodded, too dazed following their illicit, outrageous tryst to say much of anything coherent.
She followed him, their progress slowed by brush and thick foliage. They finally reached a slight clearing. On the far side of the clearing, Alice noticed a horse path. She saw Kar Kalim tethered loosely to some low-lying bushes. He was even
bigger than Quinn, the horse on which Dylan had given her first lesson last week. His coat color reminded her of Dylan’s eyes—so dark brown it was nearly black and so lustrous it shone. The horse regarded them as they walked into the clearing, his gaze striking Alice as intelligent and regal.
“How did you know where I was?” Alice whispered as Dylan approached Kar Kalim and reached for the tether.
Dylan merely pointed west. Alice stepped back and saw the break in the trees. In the distance, there was a clear shot of a stretch of the beach and a pale blue Lake Michigan.
“You saw me jogging?”
Dylan nodded. “I knew Janocek would be following after a bit.”
“Janocek? That’s the name of the guy you’ve had watching me at night?”
His mouth was drawn in a tight line of dissatisfaction. “As much good as it’s done me. Either I have a highly incompetent security team at Durand, or you’re damn near impossible to guard,” he said, his swift, annoyed glance telling her loud and clear he knew which option it was. “I saw you glance back, like you knew you were being followed. There was something on your face. Rebellion. Then you took off like a shot. I had a feeling you were about to pull something.”
“I don’t like being followed. I don’t like being watched all night, either,” Alice said thickly, finding it difficult to meet his eyes. In truth, she was a little embarrassed. Her actions suddenly struck her as juvenile.
“Then you’ll just have to sleep at the castle every night, won’t you.”
It wasn’t really a question, so Alice didn’t respond. She was too embarrassed to meet his stare. Her gaze clung to his boots and hard jean-covered thighs. The truth was, she didn’t want to be anywhere else at night but by his side. It was just that sometimes, she felt like if she surrendered too easily to him . . .
She’d somehow lose herself.
“I . . . I never got to tell you more about what happened that night. About what I remembered . . . about Addie,” she said, her voice sounding a little congested. She’d surprised herself by bringing it up in this situation. Until that moment—until seeing him again—she hadn’t realized how much she longed to share the incredible experience with someone.
Not just someone. Him.
She started slightly when he placed his glove-covered hand on her chin and forced her to meet his stare. She blinked when she saw the emotion that blazed on his usually impassive expression.
“I want to listen.”
Her lip trembled at his stark honesty. He noticed.
“I’m not what you’re making me out to be in your mind, Alice. I don’t want to control you. It’s a complicated situation, to put it lightly. I’ve told you I was in love with you. Do you believe me?”
She swallowed thickly, trapped in his stare.
“Yes,” she whispered. “I think so.”
“Do you need to hear it more, less . . . or not at all?”
Her heart squeezed unpleasantly in her chest at his expression of grim inevitability.
“It’s not that! Of course I want to hear it,” she grimaced. “I’m just so confused right now,” she mumbled miserably, because she’d withheld the truth. Not the part about being confused. That was pretty much becoming the everyday air she breathed. No, it was that he’d told her he loved her twice now, and it was like a concise rapture on both occasions, a joy too acute for her to truly comprehend or absorb, let alone communicate.
“Do you want to be with me at night, Alice?”
“So much.”
“Then stop fighting it,” he bit out, white teeth flashing.
A small spasm of emotion shook her. She nodded. He dropped the reins and took her into his arms. His mouth captured hers. She sunk into his strength. His heat.
God, she was like a moth to a flame. Did the moths consider it worthwhile, even as they were being incinerated?
There, in that moment, under the influence of Dylan’s kiss, Alice thought maybe they did.
TEN
Kuvi asked her that afternoon if she wanted to join her and some of the other counselors at the Lakeside Tavern in Morgantown that Friday night. Alice soberly explained why she couldn’t. She’d agreed to meet Dylan in the woods tonight and to resume their previous routine—if being with Dylan Fall could be even remotely called routine.
She had all day long to anticipate seeing him, to worry about it . . .
Relish it.
Her kids were in a manically enthusiastic mood that evening because they’d come out tops in the wall climb challenge that afternoon. It seemed that Alice’s initial matchup between Noble D and Judith for the zip line had been inspired.
While things might still be prickly between the pair, she noticed that the physics of attraction were definitely coming into play. D and Judith used to invariably end up on opposite sides of the common room at night, Judith regally ignoring D’s curious, longing glances from afar. Now that they’d been thrown together, however, something new was happening. They were both smart, competitive kids. Scheming for success turned out to be a language they could comfortably use to communicate. The pair had masterminded the logistics of the wall climb today, coming up with a creative solution for various team members’ challenges and strengths. Alice had largely remained hands-off. Relinquishing control and giving the two of them the freedom to handle the task had been a personal challenge for her—Alice. Watching them all work together so successfully had been her reward.
Something certainly had changed, Alice observed wryly as she entered the common room that night. D, Judith, Terrance, and Matt sat in a loose circle around a table, reliving a few exciting moments from the wall climb. Judith was silent as she listened to Terrance describe his harrowing moment on the top of the wall when he didn’t know which direction he was going to crash to the earth. But as Alice approached, she noticed the girl was listening closely and enjoying herself. She was definitely allowing herself to be part of the group.
“If you stayed on top of that thing any longer, I was worried the wall would decide which direction you were going by falling over itself,” D said. Terrance and Matt laughed loudly. Judith was unable to repress her amusement any longer.
“You were like a giant balanced on the head of a pin there for a few seconds,” Judith snorted with laughter. They all busted up even louder. Alice slowed her pace, grinning as she observed the type of moment that comes only through achieving a goal through personal challenge and teamwork. Dylan had been right. He’d told her before that an important part of leading was delegating tasks. Alice felt the truth of that firsthand at the moment.
Judith wiped a tear from her eye. “But you pulled through, Terrance. We couldn’t have done it without you.”
Terrance looked pleased by the rare compliment from Judith.
“Crystal knows we’re up to something, by the way. She’s been watching you, me, and Justin like a hawk,” Terrance said in a hushed tone to Matt after they’d all quieted. He referred to their very experienced night cabin supervisor, who had just arrived and was greeting a group of girls across the large room. “But if we’re good enough to come out on top on the wall climb, there’s no way we shouldn’t be able to . . . you know,” Terrance said shiftily to Matt and Judith. Judith glanced up and noticed Alice slowly approaching them. She gave Terrance a repressive glance.
“Steal Bang?” Alice finished pleasantly, coming to an abrupt halt next to them.
Judith’s, Terrance’s, and Matt’s expressions ranged from panic to convincing noncomprehension. Noble D just stared at the table uncomfortably.
“What’s a bang?” Terrance asked, pointing at Alice and giving Matt an “insane-lady alert” look.
“You know,” Alice said with the air of musing quietly to herself and ignoring Terrance. “It occurs to me that a team that strategized so brilliantly on the wall climb should be able to recognize that the candidate or candidates to send on a . . . oh . . . say a secret mission or something, isn’t necessarily the obvious one or ones, because that per
son or persons would have the spotlight turned on them.”
Terrance scowled at her cryptic statement. “You okay, Alice? Did you eat dinner? You light-headed or something?”
“I’m fine,” Alice said blithely, because while Terrance and Matt were looking confused, D had slowly raised his head and Judith was regarding her through a narrowed gaze. Alice had paused behind a couch. She idly picked up a throw pillow. “And it also occurs to me that a team should consider the ultimate goal of any task. Is it really the obvious goal?” Alice wondered as if to herself, keeping her voice low so that only the four kids heard her. “Or is the real goal something symbolic? Could the goal be achieved in some alternative way without taking any unnecessary risks? Taking anything, really? That’s what I wonder about.”
“You and me both,” Terrance said, rolling his eyes. Alice smiled innocently, flipping the throw pillow and catching it.
“I was just thinking about things, that’s all. It’s a good night for thinking . . .”
“Or going nuts,” Terrance muttered under his breath.
“. . . about goals, and how the most brilliant of plans often achieve more than one purpose,” Alice continued. She abruptly tossed the pillow. Despite his hunched-over position, Noble D straightened and caught it with the reflexes of a natural athlete.
Judith blinked at the sudden move. Her stare transferred from D to Alice, her eyes widening.
Message received.
She pointed at Terrance. “We’re running in the morning. Don’t be late. Night, you guys,” Alice said before she sauntered away.
DYLAN’S last kiss in the woods—that hot, deep, tender one—rode her consciousness as she crept out of her cabin that night at nine thirty. She’d never known it was possible to be both anxious and relieved to the point of euphoria at the idea of seeing another human being . . .
