“Please what?” Matt cupped her sex with his palm and slammed into her from behind again.
Aw, hell, she didn’t know. Couldn’t think straight right now. Not when he was touching her like this. Worshipping her body, giving her what she craved. If he bit her, it would take away the uncertainty. She’d have to stay here with him. But if he bit her, she wouldn’t be in control of her life anymore.
When she didn’t answer, he stroked into her at a punishing pace, palm on her clit, shooting waves of pleasure through her nerve endings. She crashed back against him, blow for blow, gripping his neck as he clamped down on her neck with his teeth. Not deep enough to draw blood. Not deep enough to Turn her, but erotic enough to make her scream his name. Pressure built, and her insides tingled. Every thrust brought her closer to release, and Matt’s hips were jerking fast now, as if he’d lost control. Usually he was gentle, but not today.
He shoved her forward through the waves until her knees hit the bank and her hands fell onto the sandy bottom. Waves lapped at her wrists and knees.
“Fuck,” he gritted out as he bent over her, slamming into her from behind. He stretched her, filled her, brought her pleasure with a hint of pain. So big. Faster and harder until she exploded around him.
Squeezing her eyes tightly closed, she let off a helpless yell. Matt slid into her one last time and froze, gripping her hips. Inside of her, he swelled and shot warmth into her in a pulsing rhythm, over and over until his cum trickled down her thighs and into the waves that rolled against her knees. Holy hell he was hot. Matt the gentle love-maker had been sensual and seductive. But Matt the man afraid of losing his mate, the man who’d just faced down his past to share it with her, the man who’d fucked her like an animal to let her body heal him, was sexy as hell.
She was boneless as he lifted her and dragged her back into the waves. He was quiet as he stroked her sex, washing her gently in the current.
I don’t want you to go, he’d said.
After what he’d shared with her, and after finally exposing his primal side, she couldn’t imagine leaving him.
She’d have to find a job in Saratoga, find an apartment, and get used to a long commute to see Matt and the Gray Backs. It would all be worth it, though, if she could keep this sense of belonging with the man she loved.
With a small kiss on the smooth skin of his neck, she whispered, “I’ll stay.”
Chapter Twelve
Pain, pain, pain.
So scared.
Cold.
Skin tingling. Millions of needles. Can’t breathe.
Sun hurts. Too bright.
Legs won’t run!
Something big and terrifying growling. So close. Breathe!
Gasping, choking, vision blurs.
Woods, trees, sun too bright. Saturating everything. Turning it gold.
Hurts so bad.
Dying.
Roaring.
Roaring.
Screaming.
With a terrified gasp, Willa sat straight up in bed. Chest heaving and a whimper in her throat, she looked around. It wasn’t dark anymore. It had to be midday. Head pounding, she felt her scalp to see if she’d split it, but there was no blood. Not even a knot.
So if she hadn’t hit her head, why was she hallucinating that she was out in the woods?
Wake up, Willa. Wake up now.
She was completely naked, and her body was covered in cuts. She stared down at a long gash across her thigh that was shrinking by the second. “What the fuck?”
She was panting, breathing so fast she’d pass out if she didn’t relax.
Birds called and cicadas sang in waves. Louder, softer, louder, softer. Branches creaked in the wind.
Wake up.
She stood and looked down at the bloody mattress in horror. Stained red, it was ripped up, exposing springs from the long, jagged gashes of something big. Why was her body covered in blood?
Matt’s dream. He’d dreamed this, and now it was happening in her dreams.
A long snarl bellowed from her throat, and she sobbed in terror and searched the woods for the thing that was hunting her.
She felt sick. Her stomach was filled with something awful that didn’t belong.
Stepping away from the bloody mattress, she stumbled on a tree root and fell hard on her backside. Air whooshed out of her lungs, and she couldn’t suck it back in. She rolled from side to side, gasping. She wasn’t supposed to feel pain in a dream, but her entire body ached. Cuts, scrapes, bumps. Her insides were burning.
The cicadas were growing louder until nature’s song was deafening. The birds were bursting her eardrums. “Shut up!” she screamed, holding her hands over her ears.
Matt did this to you.
Willa froze and drew her first deep breath. No. He wouldn’t have. He’d told her before they went to sleep last night that he’d never claim her like that. He liked her human, and that’s exactly what she was. A human.