Page 132 of Rugger: The Huntress

“I love you, Teddy.”

Though the words didn’t come from my mouth often, he felt it. So did I. What was understood between us didn’t have to be explained often.

“In this lifetime and the next.”

“I’ll come searching.”

“And, you’ll find me, baby. Every time. Every fucking time.”

I caught the butt of my gun and pulled it closer. My hand lowered, fitting into the grooves of the grip. My index finger slid through the guard of the trigger and rested on the trigger itself.

I slid the gun from underneath the pillow as footsteps grew closer. Just as I prepared to aim, a cold hand covered my mouth. Citrusy, cedar notes toyed with the strands of hair inside my nose. I relaxed against the chest that I’d been longing for since he’d left.

“Shoot first. Think later, Gazelle,” Sonnie whispered in my ear.

He was cold. He was warm. He was everything.

“It’s January third.” I reminded him.

I’d known it was him entering from the moment my bedroom door crept open. He was magnetic. The pull was instant.

“I don’t give a fuck if it was May second,” he chastised, using his birth date to support his argument.

Simultaneously, he loosened the string of his joggers. His skin pressed into mine after a split second.

“I’ve missed you,” he confessed.

His whispers cut through the dark, stopping my heart momentarily.

“I’ve missed you.”

He bit into my neck, forcing the curling of my spine. My ass hiked in the air. My nakedness gave him unrestricted access to all of me.All that was his. His to have. His to hold. His to love.

He slid his rigidness up and down my slipperiness. And, when the time came, he entered my garden.

“Uhhhhh,” I moaned, happy to be reunited with his tool.

“Rugger.”

Hearing my name fall from his lips was too much too soon.

“Rugger,” he called out, again, stroking me from behind with his face buried between my neck and shoulders.

“Yessssssss?”

“I’m no good anymore. I’m gone, baby. I can’t hide it anymore.”

“Sonnnnie–”

He felt like magic. He felt like medicine. He felt like mine.

“I love you,” he breathed out, “I love you deep. Wide. Left. Right. All the fucking way around. More than I’ve loved anything or anyone.”

He stroked me with precision.

“Sonni– Uhhhh.”

“You hear me?” He asked, deepening our connection. “You hear me, baby?”

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