Page 330 of Heat of the Everflame

The air rushed from my lungs as he crushed me back against a tree, his mouth capturing mine and forcing me to breathe him in. All my angry thoughts turned liquid, carried away by the tide of desire.

I shivered with pleasure as the pressure of his body filled in all my curves and hollows. My hands tore at him with a desperate kind of urgency, my nails raking over his chest, his back, his neck. I wanted,needed, to feel him everywhere, needed the searing touch of his skin to burn through my pain.

I gasped as he broke the kiss and nipped at my lip, my senses held captive by the sharpness of his teeth in my flesh. His hand slipped beneath my pants, and he rumbled with approval at the hot wetness he found waiting between my thighs.

“Are you sufficiently distracted?” he teased as his fingers teased me, luring my pleasure to the surface.

“You can do better,” I purred, my husky voice and writhing body giving away my lie.

He growled at the challenge. His fingers plunged in without warning and dragged a loud moan from my throat. His other hand clamped across my mouth as he smirked. “Careful. There’s all kinds of dangerous beasts in this forest. Although...” He hooked a finger inside me to knead that hidden, sensitive spot, and my back arched as my grip on him turned bruising. “...I caught the most dangerous beast of them all.”

His mouth lowered to my shoulder and scored a sizzling hot trail up the column of my throat. With every muffled cry, hisfingers pushed harder, deeper, and simmering energy built in my core.

I fought the looming cliff of release with everything I had. Iwantedthe tension, the unbearable pressure, the feeling like I might implode. I relished the way my mind clouded and I felt his touch and nothing more. The pain of the buildup was so much more enticing than the pleasure of letting go—because that would mean coming back down to earth, where all my troubles lie in wait.

Luther knew it, too. Every time I clenched around him, my thighs squeezing in trembling protest, his movements would slow just long enough to let my pleasure recede, keeping me permanently wobbling on that perfect, excruciating edge.

“Distracted now?” he asked. His face was alight with a thrill I’d only ever seen from him in battle.

I pulled his hand from my mouth down to my neck, curving his fingers around my throat. His thumb brushed over my pulse where it throbbed against my skin, and his eyes flared with a predatory gleam.

“Not yet,” I taunted. My hands dropped to his waist and fumbled with the clasp of his trousers. “Maybe I need to take matters into my own hands.”

My fingers curled around his cock, and his grip on me twitched. His hips ground forward, urging me on.

Ceding to his control of my body in Umbros had been bliss, but demanding the same from him now was an exhilaration like no other. When his gaze turned glassy and his words devolved to quiet grunts, I felt utterly invincible. This powerful, intimidating man, this force of nature, this fearsome warrior—reduced to a panting, speechless beast by just my touch.

I smirked at my triumph, and his expression turned savage. The haze of lust cleared from his eyes, and his fingers resumedtheir torture, teasing me with gentle circles before pumping in deep, aggressive strokes.

Our hips rocked against each other’s hands as our desire pulsed in matching rhythm. We smothered our moans in a brawl of a kiss that demanded a surrender neither of us would give. Release edged nearer, and we were both too stubborn to stop.

“I want more than your hand,” I pleaded breathily.

“Not like this. Not against a tree.” His tone was gruff, but his resolve wavered. “Not the first time.”

My head fell back with a groan. “I grew up in a forest, Luther. All my first times were against a tree.”

My breath caught as his hold on my neck slid higher, taking me by the jaw and forcing my gaze to his. “I am not the men you’re used to,” he snapped. “And I refuse to be just another lover to you.”

I pulled his hand away, then laid a kiss, delicate and feather-light, on his scar where it plunged down his neck. “You’re not just anotheranythingto me.”

He let out a deep, satisfied rumble. “I’ll be your distraction, if that’s what you need. But mark my words, Diem Bellator...” He pushed another finger inside of me, and I cried out at the exquisite fullness. “This is just a taste of what I have planned for you. Our night is coming, and when it does, I’ll be the lastfirst timeyou ever have.”

His voice was rough, all fire and lust and heady promise, but the emotion behind it shone bright in his eyes. It hit me with an unexpected flash of clarity. I hadn’t needed a distraction from my problems—I’d needed a reminder I wasn’t facing them alone.

I’d hated Luther, I’d run from him, I’d shielded my heart and built walls that I warned him might never come down, and he’d never swayed an inch. He was steady and unyielding, the island of calm in my tumultuous sea.

“Luther.”

His name poured out like a breathless confession, representing so much I wanted to say but couldn’t put into words. He kissed me—this one sweet and tender, full of his promise that, whatever I felt, he felt it, too.

My restraint crumbled. The pressure became a new kind of exhilaration, because I was no longer afraid of letting go.

His cock thickened in my hand as his release grew as imminent as mine. My legs began to tremble, pleasure overwhelming every sense. I buried my head in the crook of his neck as the urge to scream his name hovered on my tongue. My core was throbbing, my skin prickling, my body melting. We were close,so close. One more stroke, and—

“Get the hell away from her!”

A blur of motion flew past my face, and a harsh rush of cold air replaced the warmth of his body. I blinked in confusion as my mind floundered to make sense of the sudden change—only to find my mother clutching a blade and looking ready to kill.

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