Despite my fear that the shifters might appear at any moment, after a strange meal of spam, baked beans, and tinned peaches, I manage to fall asleep nestled beside Marshall on the thin, lumpy mattress.
Later, when I wake up, it’s mostly dark and the only light in the cabin is coming from the fire that I can tell is slowly burning itself out.
Since Marshall joined me in having an afternoon nap, I slip off the mattress as quietly as I can and pad over to the fireplace to place more wood in the grate one by one, watching it carefully to make sure I’m not about to extinguish the fire.
“You look like you know what you’re doing there, jellybean,” Marshall says, startling me.
I dart a glance behind me, finding him stretched on his back, one arm tucked beneath his head and his green eyes glowing in the darkening room.
It isn’t hard to imagine that Talis had romance in mind with her little ploy. If we didn’t have shifters after us and had actual food rather than a random assortment of tinned fruit and meat, I can’t help but think that this would come pretty close to it.
“I had a bit of practice while you were asleep,” I say, placing one more piece of firewood that I hope the fire will burn all the rest of the night.
Soon, probably tomorrow, I’m going to have to go back and get more wood. That’s if I can’t find any dry twigs or wood close by. But the way my luck has been of late, I’m not feeling hopeful.
Finished tending the fire, I rise and turn to Marshall, who watches me approach.
His gaze dips to my-or rather, the hiker’s, khaki t-shirt that hits me at mid-thigh. “While I appreciate you not wanting to leave me in a permanent state of distraction by wearing that, I’m missing the sight and the feel of the beautiful body beneath it.”
I take one look in his eyes, and I shake my head. “Marshall, no. You’re hurt. We’re being hunted by unknown shifters, now isn’t the time for that.”
He grins up at me, completely unrepentant. And as always, the sight of his wide, radiant smile makes me soften. “That sounds like the sort of movie I’d like to watch, complete with the stunning blonde with dangerous curves.”
“I’m strawberry blonde and I don’t have dangerous curves. You should be sleeping so you can heal.”
“I want you naked beside me, Jenna.”
“No,” I say, not taken in by his husky voice because the sight of the growing bulge under the thin blanket is making it very clear what his true intention is. “That is not what you want.”
“If you were honest, it’s not what you want either.”
No. It isn’t. But he’s hurt, so even though I feel my need for him growing, I hesitate. “Marshall…”
“I won’t move. I’ll just lie here. Promise.”
I don’t believe him for a second. “This is not a good idea.”
Marshall holds a hand out to me. “Lose the shirt, jellybean. I need to feel you.”
After hesitating another moment, I grip the hem of my shirt and ease it over my head. Marshall’s eyes burn as they move over me, and the bulge under his blanket grows even larger.
He takes my hand and urges me closer. “Come here, the way you sat before,” he says when I move to lie beside him.
Marshall shoves the blanket down his legs and when I sit, it’s not on his blanket-covered legs or lap, but on a rock-hard erection.
“We shouldn’t do this,” I breathe as I place my hand on his chest and fight the urge to rock on him.
As he strokes his hands up and down my hips, his eyes sweep over my nakedness, the heat in his eyes warming me all over. “You’re so beautiful, jellybean.”
I shake my head. “I haven’t showered, my hair is a rat’s nest and-”
“You might as well stop right there, baby, because nothing you say is going to make me think any different.”
I lean over him and press a brief kiss on his lips. “I don’t want to hurt you.”
“And you won’t.” His kiss isn’t soft, nor is it brief. It’s deep and lingering and despite my intention to convince Marshall us doing any more than kissing is a bad idea, I rock against his hardness.
Marshall groans against my lips and almost immediately breaks our kiss. “I’m not going to last long with you grinding yourself on me like that, baby. A second. Maybe two.”
I bite my lip. “I’m not going to last long with you inside me. I want you too much.”
His eyes flare with new heat and his cock twitches between my thighs, making me shift against him. When he grips my arms and moves me back on him so the tip of him probes my entrance, I can’t silence my deep moan at how good it feels.
“I need you, Jenna, and you need me too. I can feel your need, I can scent it. Give us what we both need.”
Even before he’s finished speaking, I’m clutching his shoulders as I rise before sinking on him, taking him into my body, unable to wait for a second longer.
At that first joining, we both groan. For a long moment, I don’t move again, just spend that time adjusting to the feel of him filling me, stretching me. When his hands leave my hips and stroke up my body, caressing my curves and teasing my nipples, I throw my head back on another moan as I ride him.
The fire crackling serves as a background to our lovemaking. It’s a slow ride, and I draw an unexpectedly deep pleasure from taking Marshall into my body in a way I never have before.
Always, he’s been on top, always the dominant one in the bedroom, but this new way of coming together feeds a part of me I didn’t know was hungry. To see his open appreciation of my body, and read the pleasure tightening his jaw because of what I’m doing to him is an aphrodisiac unlike any other.
Soon, I struggle to hold back the tide of my rising climax that I feel building with each motion. My eyes fasten on his as I lose my rhythm. “Marshall…”
“Harder, baby,” Marshall growls, his hands gripping my hips as he thrusts up to meet my downward motions.
I force my body down harder, crying out at each impalement as my stomach tightens and breathing becomes impossible.
“Fuck, I need to kiss you, come here.” He tangles a hand in my hair and jerks my head down before plunging his tongue into my mouth, kissing me with a desperation I can feel in my bones.
Now there’s an urgency in our frantic pace. As we feast on each other’s lips, I stroke my body down on Marshall and he pumps his hips up to meet me halfway.
He tilts my head a little to kiss me deeper, and somehow it changes the angle of our body coming together. It has me whimpering as my body tightens greedily around his.
Before I know what he intends, Marshall rolls me onto my back. With a low growl, and his face a harsh grimace, he falls between my open thighs, thrusting with an urgency and a power I can’t hope to meet.
I curve my legs around his thighs and hold on. Deep inside, I feel him swelling as my release edges closer with each firm drive of his hips against mine. All the while, his tongue plunders my mouth, capturing and swallowing my moans and whimpers, just as I swallow his growls.
Marshall breaks the kiss. His hands go to my face, framing it, holding me still as his gaze meets mine. “Jenna…” he gasps. And then he hammers into me with a harsh groan, and I cry out as I explode around him.
The pleasure washes over me, over us both, like a wave that has my hips moving, rocking involuntarily against Marshall’s slowing thrusts.
I stroke my hands over his sweat-dampened back as he continues to peer into my eyes. When he lowers his head, I rise to meet him, drawing his head down as I tell him in every way I can that I love him, that I will always love him.
Long minutes pass before he shifts us so we’re lying side-by-side. I burrow as close as I can get with our arms and legs wrapped tight around each other and his softening cock still tucked inside me.
After smoothing the hair back from my face, he presses a kiss on my brow before hauling me even closer. “I love you, jellybean,” he murmurs tiredly.
I kiss his jaw. “I need to check your bandage.”
His lips curve in a smile I can feel as he rubs a hand up and down my back. “Tomorrow, baby. Now tell me you love me and go to sleep.”
“For a guy who isn’t an alpha,” I mutter, “you sure act like it.”
“This guy has to with such an argumentative mate.”
I still. “Mate.”
He kisses me again. “Yes, mate. I don’t need to have bitten you for me to know that you’re mine, jellybean.”
I pull back so I can look him in the eye, and I’m just in time to see his eyes flutter closed. For several seconds I study his face relaxed in sleep, though when I try to shift back to check his bandage, his arms tighten around me.
I smile. “Okay, you win. This time.” I kiss him lightly on the lips. “I’ll check it in the morning. I love you, Marshall.”