Page 116 of The Hunter
She could feel the urgency rising within him. His knee wedged between her legs and spread her wide beneath him.
Millie put a staying hand on his chest and he froze. His eyes closing, as though he knew it was over.
“Look at me,” she ordered, reaching up to cup his face.
He flinched, turning his head and clenching his jaw, staring into the dark fireplace past the foot of the bed. His muscles instantly went from molten to cold steel, and his hand tightened in her hair.
Millie was afraid to lose him, but in this moment she knew she had to forge ahead. “I see you, Christopher Argent. I know who you are,” she soothed, running her hands over his powerful naked back and up the swells of his biceps. “I want you to see me. I want you to know me.”
Exerting gentle pressure, she pulled his obstinate features around to face her, and his gaze hovered right below hers.
“I want you to feel this, not just with your flesh. But here.” She touched his chest and felt the kick of his racing heart. She kissed him gently and then settled her head back against his palm. “Lookatme,” she commanded again.
Millie thought she was prepared for what would be in his eyes when he obeyed. How wrong she’d been. In her defense, she didn’t believe anyone would be capable of holding the intensity of his gaze for very long.
But she didn’t dare look away, lest he read it as a rejection.
Words didn’t exist to describe what she saw in the depths of his eyes.Possessionwasn’t strong enough.Desiredidn’t cover the half of it.Vulnerabilitycouldn’t touch the silent, searing profundity of it.
Millie almost regretted what she’d done, for in that moment she realized she might have unleashed something from a place wilder and more wounded than she’d originally thought. Perhaps Christopher Argent didn’t need redemption. It was deeper than that, infinitely more complicated. Millie had a suspicion that what he needed was deliverance. Release. For though he’d been out of prison for some time, a part of him was still locked away there, in the past.
More than she’d desired anything in her life, Millie wanted to be the one to set him free. And this was the perfect place to start. “This isn’t fucking,” she whispered, running her thumb tenderly along his cheekbone. “Not this time.”
His nostrils flared, but he nodded, his unflinching gaze holding on to hers as though it were a lifeline. “Not this time,” he agreed tightly.
His possession was unbelievably slow as he sank inside of her, filling her with a heat she’d not known existed. For a moment they stayed like that as his cock stretched her slick channel and throbbed inside her welcoming body. They both stared, stunned by the incomprehensible intensity of the moment. It was like a thousand bolts of lightning converged within them, between them, and they somehow had joined more than just their bodies.
But fused their souls, as well.
“What have you done to me?” he lamented as he took her again, this thrust stronger, gaining a rhythm that set them both to gasping.
Millie met his every stroke with an encouraging lift of her hips as he surged deeper inside of her with each thrust.
He caressed her tenderly, her breasts, her shoulders, her throat, his fingers curling around the soft, delicate column in a gentle imitation of strangulation.
Millie lifted her chin to receive his descending lips, demonstrating her trust, daring him to trust her back.
It didn’t take long for her pleasure to build. She fought it, wanting to stay here in this moment. Wanting to watch him as he watched her. But, it seemed, the more she strained against it, the stronger it became, until it broke upon her like the waves against sea cliffs in a tempest. The violence of it was shocking, so much so that his pleased growl was lost in her blissful cries.
Christopher gave her no quarter, the tempo of his hips changed from tender to urgent, then fierce, full of unrestrained power, grinding into her and ripping another climax from her before the first one was quite finished.
She held on to him as he rode her, as the last pulses of delight turned into drugging satiation. He was a wild, primitive beast, his muscles bunching and cording beneath his skin. His head buried in her hair as he made guttural noises with each of his merciless thrusts.
The lantern cast erotic shadows on the ceiling, and Millie watched them with a soft glow filtering through her entire body.
As he flung his head back and buried himself deep inside of her, shouting and straining with the force of his release, Millie wanted to weep. In fact, tears pricked behind her eyes and she blinked them away.
She’d found that word for what had burned down at her from his eyes. Sheknewwhat was happening between them. Understood why they weren’t just fucking.
They both knew it.
This time, they were making love.
***
Untold minutes passed in blissful silence as they lay next to each other in the golden lantern light. Millie listened to Christopher’s breathing regulate, almost as though he commanded it to do so. She wished she were inside his head. That she were privy to the thoughts of a man such as him. He was an enigma, really. A hard man to understand and an even harder one to read. Those small moments of insight she had into his broken psyche only made her want to dig deeper, to burrow in like a mite until there was no way he could be rid of her.
Nuzzling the muscled length of his arm, Millie lifted its heavy weight and wriggled beneath it, settling her head on his chest. Listening to his heart beat was fast becoming one of her favorite things to do. As she nestled into his warm, solid body, it tensed for an uncertain moment, and then reacted in exactly the way she’d hoped. Arms closed around her, leg bent to make room for hers to entwine with it, even his cheek settled atop her crown.
