CHAPTER NINETEEN（Untitled）Naomi

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Naomi

I don’t know what’s hotter, watching Wranth fight for me with all the ferocity of a primal god of war or seeing all of that coiled strength turn to gentleness the moment he touches me.

Both, I realize. Why choose? Knowing the first exists makes the second even hotter.

Though I’m beginning to think gentleness isn’t the only thing I want from him.

His dark eyes stare at my lips with fascination, his mouth only inches away.

My entire body comes to life, a tingle of attraction rushing through me like a wave.

God, I almost freaking died! But I didn’t, thanks to Wranth.

I’m alive, and I want to revel in it. I want him on me, in me, making me feel more alive than ever.

Shadow’s voice fills the air, penetrating the bubble that surrounds the two of us, reminding me we’re not alone. Suddenly, it’s super important that we are—it’s the most important thing in the world.

My hand fists in his shirt, pulling him closer. “Wranth.”

A zip of electricity shoots through me. In a blink, I’m no longer at the den but instead sitting by the side of the pond we found earlier, the waterfall filling the air with the sound of rushing water.

Wranth came with me. But this time, instead of landing behind me, he kneels in front of me in the same position we were in back at the den.

“What?” He leans back, his head swiveling as he takes in our surroundings. “How?”

“I guess my magic finally got better.” I grin.

“That time felt completely different,” he says. “It wasn’t like being thrown across the world. Instead, I was there, and then I was here.” He snaps his fingers. “As easy as that.”

“That’s what a regular teleport feels like for me,” I say. “I think I brought you along as a… purposeful passenger this time, instead of the tether jerking you after me.”

His sharp eyes latch onto mine. “What makes you say it was purposeful?”

“I wanted to be alone with you.” I meet his gaze with a direct one of my own, refusing to mince words. This teleport is a surprise, but a happy one, my magic working to give me my wish. I know what I want, and I’m not afraid to ask for it. “I wanted it very badly.”

“Why here?” His voice is a husky growl.

“It’s beautiful. It’s private. And it reminds me of one of my favorite places from home.” I give a one-shoulder shrug. “I really like waterfalls.” I stand, my hands going to the hem of my shirt. With one quick move, I strip it off over my head. “And I absolutely love skinny dipping.”

If I had any doubts about what Wranth thought of my big body, they melt away under the heat of his gaze. I cock my hip and place a hand on it. “Like what you see?”

He launches upward, his arms sweeping me off my feet as he straightens, crushing me to his chest. His mouth crashes into mine, his tusks nipping at my lips, demanding entry.

Fuck, that’s hot.

I moan, giving him full access, and he takes it, licking into my mouth like a man starved. Wranth’s kiss is heat and hunger and pure primal need . It pulls an answering craving from me, my whole body straining toward his, wanting everything.

My breasts, my clit, my core—every inch of me aches for him.

“Naomi,” he growls between kisses, “my bride. Mine .”

Normally, that possessive kind of talk is not my thing, but with him like this? Oh, hell yeah. My thighs clench.

His arms loosen enough that I slide slowly down his body until my feet touch the ground. “You will explain this ‘skinny dipping.’”

“How about I just show you?”

I step backward, hips swaying, and start to dance. My breasts wiggle, the full tops of them rising above the cups of my satiny pink bra in an impressive display of cleavage.

His eyes focus on them with an intensity I can feel like a touch on my skin, leaving goosebumps in its wake.

My cheeks stretch in a smile. Oh, yeah. Someone likes what he sees.

Toeing off my sneakers, I unbutton the top of my jeans. The denim parts, showing the soft swell of my stomach. I gyrate my hips and spin, shaking my butt at him.

Wranth’s answering groan makes me grin. Fuck, it feels good to be with him, to be wanted on a visceral level.

Leaning over, I push my jeans over my hips and slide them slowly down my thighs and off.

When I straighten, my fingers tease along the waist of my pink panties as I toss a glance over my shoulder. Before I can do anything, he’s on me, his huge body catching me from behind. His growl’s so hoarse and deep it almost doesn’t sound like words. “Fuck, you’re glorious.”

Desire shoots through me, and I wiggle back into him, feeling leather and fabric. No. I need skin, need touch. “Too many clothes.”

Wranth growls and gives my shoulder a nip with his tusks, the sensation shooting straight to my core. When he sets me down and steps back, I turn to face him. He strips his shirt over his head, muscles rippling with the movement, his long black hair settling around his bare shoulders.

The fabric falls from his hand, forgotten, as he stares at me, heat burning in his eyes.

I stand naked but for my bra and panties, and that’s a lot of bare skin.

And all of it’s beautiful. The awed look on Wranth’s face makes me feel more beautiful than ever.

He unfastens the front of his leather pants, and if I needed any more proof of how much he wants me, I get it. His cock, huge and hard and thick, springs forward. The dark green head is so swollen it’s blushed with purple. Silver glints of metal run down the underside of his shaft in two rows of small balls.

“You’re pierced!”

“When I was inducted as a warrior.” He fists his cock, and creamy fluid pours from the end. So. Much. Fluid.

My thighs squeeze together.

As his hand slides forward, a larger piercing shows, mounted right above where his cock juts from his body. As I watch, it starts to glow blue, and a tingle of magic zips through the air. It’s positioned right where it can touch my clit when he’s fully inside me, and I bite my lip, imagining what that will feel like.

God, it’s like this man was made just for me!

An untamed joy fills me with bubbling energy. Everything in me vibrates. I’ve never felt so alive, and I want more of this wild feeling he brings out of me—a freedom I’ve never felt before.

When he bends over and pulls off one boot, I make my decision. There’s something I’ve fantasized about for years, ever since I read it in a spicy paranormal romance book. If not with Wranth, who with?

“You like to track, to hunt,” I say, my breath catching as I force out the next words, “to chase?”

His head snaps up as he balances on one foot, caught working on the second boot.

I spin and run for the trees.

The answering growl behind me makes me shiver, and a delighted little shriek escapes me—I can’t help it.

Then I’m under the shade of the trees. I can feel him behind me. How much of a head start did I get? I can’t afford to look back.

Logic says his long legs will catch up to me within seconds. Logic says the tether will snap us together if I do happen to get very far ahead.

Logic can take a flying fuck. It has no place here in what’s happening between us.

My feet pound against the dried pine needles, toes digging in with each step. Ferns brush my calves, and needle-covered branches tug at my curls, but I pump my arms and run harder. Everybody assumes because I’m big I must be out of shape. Hah! Shows what they know. I work out three times a week.

But I push to my limit now, needing this overwhelming feeling of moving, of doing, of being alive. I can’t hear anything over the gasps of my breath and the thumping of my heartbeat in my ears. Every touch on my skin is electric.

Another growl from behind and to the left makes my pulse kick even higher, anticipation sizzling in my blood. The hairs rise on the back of my neck in a full body tingle. I instinctively pivot right. I want him to catch me, but I also want this chase to last.

I throw up my forearms to push between two pine trees, the long needles sliding over my skin like a tease of what’s to come. On the other side waits a tiny glen, the moss-covered ground soft under my feet.

A hard body slams into me from behind.

I shriek, heart skipping in shock. I had no idea he’d gotten so near.

One of Wranth’s arms wraps around me, holding me close as the other reaches out to halt the brunt of our fall. We land, my chest pressed to the moss, his weight on my back, pinning me down.

My panties are soaked, my breath coming in excited pants. I’ve never been this turned on in my life.

God, he’s naked. Naked, naked, naked. All skin and muscle and need, straining against me. His cock is an iron bar pressing against my butt, so big another jolt of desire makes my core clench.