When he lowered his mouth to hers, he had no conscious thought. He couldn’t afford to think. He’d spent the return trip on the ATV reliving the feel of the hatch’s cold wheel under his hands. He heard once again that rogue gunshot. He saw the uniformed guard’s head blow up.
He remembered the red spray in the air.
As he kissed Lydia, as he licked into her mouth, all of that receded. None of it was with him, anymore. She was the great eraser.
And it was more than the present she took with her. She took his past, too.
Without warning, Daniel threw himself into her, bending her backward until she gripped his shoulders and his strength was the only thing keeping her off the floor. He kissed her harder and harder, and then he kicked the door shut and cleared her desk off with his arm, things hitting the floor, something breaking.
Like either of them cared.
He laid her down on the top, her body thumping against the wood. “I need you,” he said. “I have to …”
Her answer was a scramble with her hands at her pants as she released the button, yanked at the zipper. When she kicked off her boots, they banged against the side of the desk, and bumped as they hit the floor, and then the jeans were gone—
He tore her panties. Just ripped the cotton right off of her.
He wanted to keep going, get her all naked, take his time.
But that wasn’t happening in her damned office.
Daniel did a yanking of his own, and his cock exploded out of his fly. Planting his palm by her shoulder, he leaned over her, grabbed the back of her thigh, and pulled her to the edge of the desk. As her naked ass squeaked on the wood, she cried out and her legs fell open.
He backed off a little and looked down. When he saw her glistening sex, bared to him, hungry for him, he felt his balls tighten.
Oh, no you don’t, he told himself. We’re not going that route again.
Taking hold of himself, he growled, “You’re mine.”
Gritting his teeth, he stroked the head of his erection up and down her core, and in response, she jerked up, her spine arching, her mouth falling open. With her hair spilled out around her, loose and shining, and the flush on her face, and her gasping and straining for breath, she was life to his numb heart, warmth to his cold soul.
In another time, in another destiny, she would have been the path he walked, the way through his mortal landscape.
But they had met out of sequence—
Daniel thrust inside her and she grabbed on to his shoulders while she called out his name. Dropping his head, he started pumping. He meant to go slowly. He couldn’t stop. He was not in control. His body was working independently, slapping into her, clapping against her. As he bent over and fucked her, he was grunting like an animal, totally unhinged, and underneath him, she was taking everything that he had to give her.
He’d gotten it wrong.
She wasn’t his. It was the other way around.
She owned him.
Underneath her lover, Lydia’s body absorbed the powerful thrusting, Daniel’s hips swinging at the base of his spine, his erection penetrating her deep and then retreating, penetrating her and ripping back out. It was hard—it was rough. It was raw.
And she wanted the sex to last forever.
That was her thought as a release shattered through her, torqueing her body, making her feel a rush of sensation she had never known before. And just as she flew, Daniel locked against her, his arousal kicking inside of her, making the pleasure crest again—
His mouth found hers, and they were kissing as the orgasms kept going.
And then it was over, as fast as it had begun.
Yet the sex was so intense, she felt like she had been gone for a hundred years as they fell still. In the aftermath, they were both breathing hard, and Daniel collapsed on her, his weight pressing her into the desk. Which could have been a down mattress for all she knew. Or cared.
“Fuck,” he muttered against her ear. “I’m sorry. This is not what …”
Running her hands through his hair, she wrapped her legs around his hips and crossed her ankles. “What are you apologizing for? I wanted it, too. And don’t worry … I can’t have children. I’m not—there will never be any pregnancy.”
He blinked, as if she’d shocked him. “I, ah … I should have thought about that.”
“As I said, you don’t have to.” When he pulled up a little and looked awkward, she shook her head. “It’s not something to be emotional about. To use a phrase of yours, it is what it is.”
“I’m sorry.”
She stroked his face, marveling that he was inside her. “Let’s not ruin the moment. Come on, let’s just … be here, where we are.”