Page 26 of Hunt

He takes a shuddering breath, his forehead coming to rest against mine. I feel his heart hammering against my chest, matching the frantic rhythm of my own.

"I love you," he confesses rawly. "I'minlove with you, Belladonna. Have been for years, even when I was just your bodyguard. Watching you, being near you but never able to touch unless you asked for it, it was torture. But I did it, because being close to you…”

Sam's confession hangs in the air between us, raw and exposed. His dark eyes bore into mine with an intensity that steals my breath.

"I love you," he repeats fiercely, his hands sliding from my shoulders to cup my face. His thumbs brush over my cheekbones reverently even as his grip remains firm, unyielding. "I've loved you for so long, even when I knew I shouldn't. Even when every fucking rule said a beta bodyguard had no business falling for his omega charge."

My heart hammers against my ribs, each beat screaming his name. Sam, Sam, Sam. This man who's been by my side for years, my silent shadow, my unwavering protector. I think a part of me has always known his feelings ran deeper than duty, but to hear the words spill from his lips now, with such unbridled passion, it ignites something ravenous inside me.

"Watching you all those years, so close but never close enough... it was a special kind of hell," he rasps, his voice low and gravelly with emotion. "Seeing those alpha pricks sniffing around you, knowing they only wanted you for status and power, not caring about the incredible woman you are... Fuck, it killed me. But I stayed quiet, stayed in my place, because I thought that's what you needed from me."

He shakes his head, a wry, pained smile twisting his lips. "But I can't stay quiet anymore.

Sam's grip tightens on my face as he presses me firmly against the wall, his body molding to mine. I can feel every hard plane and angle of him, the coiled strength thrumming just beneath the surface.

"I can't stay quiet anymore," he repeats, his voice a low, urgent rasp. "Not when you're in danger. Not when they want to take you away from me and sell you off to some undeserving bastard."

His eyes blaze into mine, twin pools of inky darkness swirling with fierce devotion and barely restrained desire. "I won't let them, Bella. I won't let anyone take you from me. You're mine, damn it. You've always been mine, even when I couldn't have you."

Sam's words pour over me like molten lava, igniting a conflagration in my blood. The intensity of his confession, the raw, unbridled need, it steals my breath and sends liquid heat pooling low in my belly.

"Sam," I breathe, my hands coming up to clutch at his shoulders. The sculpted muscles bunch and flex beneath my fingertips. "We can't... It's too dangerous. If they find out?—"

"I don't care," he growls, cutting off my weak protest. "I don't give a damn about their threats or their archaic laws. All I care about is you. Keeping you safe. Making you mine in every way that matters."

Sam claims my mouth in a searing kiss, his lips demanding and desperate against mine. I gasp into the kiss and he takes advantage, his tongue delving deep to stroke along my own. It's a kiss of possession, of claiming, and I melt into him, my own desire rising up to meet his.

His hands slide down my body, gripping my hips and yanking me flush against him. I can feel the hard, insistent press of his arousal against my stomach and I moan, my hips rolling instinctively to create delicious friction.

Sam tears his mouth from mine, trailing biting kisses along my jaw and down the column of my throat. "I need to feel you on my cock, omega."

His teeth close over my pulse-point and I cry out, my head falling back against the wall. He laves the sting with his tongue before sucking hard, no doubt leaving a vivid mark. A mark of his claim.

"Sam, please," I whimper, my nails digging into his shoulders. The heat of his body, the scent of his desire, it's overwhelming, drowning out the rest of the world until all that exists is him and me and this all-consuming need.

With a growl, Sam reaches down and hitches my leg up over his hip, opening me to him. His other hand makes quick work of the ties on my bathing suit bottom and then he's pushing the scrap of fabric aside, his fingers delving into my slick heat.

"Fuck, you're so wet for me already," he groans, his fingers stroking and searching until they find that sweet spot that makes my hips buck against his hand. "So fucking perfect."

I cry out, my head thrashing against the wall as pleasure races through me like lightning. "Sam! Oh god..."

He drinks in my cries, his eyes black with lust and possession. Withdrawing his fingers, he brings them to his mouth and licks them clean, his tongue swirling obscenely. The sight makes me clench with need.

"You taste like heaven," he rasps. “I might not be an alpha, but I’m claiming you anyway.”

His words, so filthy and erotic, send fresh pulses of desire through me. "Then do it," I breathe. "Make me yours, Sam. Claim me."

With a snarl, he frees his straining erection from his shorts and notches himself at my entrance. In one powerful thrust, he sheathes himself to the hilt, stretching and filling me so perfectly. We both groan at the exquisite sensation.

Sam sets a punishing pace, his hips snapping against mine as he drives into me over and over. The wet slap of skin on skin echoes in the pool room, mingling with our harsh pants and guttural moans.

"You feel so fucking good," he groans, his breath hot against my neck. "So tight and perfect around my cock. Like you were made for me."

Each powerful thrust seems to brand his claim on my body, my very soul. I cling to him, my leg hitched high on his hip, opening myself fully to his possession. The drag of his thick length against my nerves is exquisite torture, stoking the inferno raging in my blood.

Sam changes his angle slightly and I see stars, a choked scream escaping my lips as he hits that magic spot deep inside. "There!" I keen. "Oh fuck, right there, don't fucking stop!"

"Harder, Sam! Please!" I beg, my voice breaking on a sob of pleasure as he continues his relentless pace. My nails rake down his back, scoring his skin and urging him on.

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