Page 125 of Stolen By the Alpha Hunter
She turns in my arms and runs her hands over my chest and shoulders. Her brown eyes are red and puffy, her brow furrowed. She’s been crying…and I hate that I’m the one who made her cry.
“I thought you were a goner for a bit there,” she says quietly. “I’m so glad…”
Her voice breaks and she buries her face in my chest.
I sigh into her wild curls. “I’m so sorry, Peach.”
“For what?” her muffled voice says.
She’s always forgiving me when I don’t deserve forgiveness. I take her gently by the shoulders and meet her teary eyes, gazing down at her.
I love her so fucking much. I know I don’t deserve this sweetness, that I did nothing to earn her love, but I can’t ever let her go.
Maybe that makes me selfish.
Maybe that’s how all men feel when they have something as good as this.
“For taking you in the first place,” I say. “Not trying harder to get you out of there, losing my mind when you needed me most of all.”
I squeeze my eyes shut and huff out a breath, but her hand comes to rest on the center of my chest, over my heart.
“Javi,” she says softly. “It’s okay for you to need me too.”
I open my eyes again and lift her chin. “I think I’ve always needed you, Peach.”
I bend to kiss her, Peaches standing on tip-toe to reach me. She melts into my chest as our lips meet, her hair brushing over my knuckles when I place my hands on the small of her back. She’s so tentative, soft, gentle.
It could be because she thinks either one of us might break after what we’ve been through, now that we’re in this safe place.
She clings to me with her arms around my neck, snatching little kisses from my lips, across my jaw, on all the scratches and bruises that haven’t healed.
“You can’t ever do that again,” she whispers, nose to nose. “Promise me.”
“I swear, Peach.” My voice cracks. “I promise I’ll never leave you again.”
I wrap my arms around her like I’m afraid the world might take her from me if I don’t hold tight enough. She melts againstme and I lift her off the ground, carrying her toward the bed. My legs are shaky, not from weakness anymore but from something heavier—love, relief, the unbearable tension finally breaking apart.
She keeps her hands on my face the whole way, her thumbs sweeping beneath my eyes. And when I lower her gently to the mattress, she doesn’t let go.
“I missed you so much,” she says, and her lips follow the words—soft, wet kisses over my jaw, the bridge of my nose, the corners of my mouth. Her mouth finds the bite she left on my shoulder and she kisses it open, slow and reverent, her tongue a silky heat that makes me shudder.
This is the mark that made me hers. The one that changed everything.
She’s still wearing one of those thin little sweaters, and nothing else but pale pink underwear. And she’s wet already—I can smell her, sweet and aching for me. The sight of that darkened spot between her thighs nearly undoes me.
I settle between her legs and slide my palms over her hips, slow and wide, like I’m rediscovering her from the outside in. Her legs fall open for me without hesitation. No fear. Just trust.
I lean in and press my lips to the inside of her thigh—right over the bond mark. She gasps, her whole body tightening at the contact.
“Right here,” I murmur, kissing the same spot again. “This is where I lost myself the first time.”
“Do it again,” she whispers.
I drag my tongue over the mark once more, then hook my fingers into the waistband of her panties and start to ease them down. Inch by inch. Reverent. I kiss her bare skin as I go, and the bond pulls taut at every shift, tugging me closer even when I’m already kneeling between her legs.
Her scent is dizzying. Her body glistens in the low light, and I’m so overwhelmed by her beauty that I have to shut my eyes just to breathe.
When I look again, she’s watching me—cheeks flushed, lips parted, eyes glassy with emotion.
