Chapter Nine

Ivy wrapped her arms around herself and watched as Colton and Hunter stood together, talking in low whispers.

She stared at their tense faces, questioning what exactly she'd walked into here. Nobody seemed to be giving her any answers, either. Some she wasn't ready to ask for, like the state of her father's finances. And some nobody was willing to tell her—like what the hell a dead body was doing in their pond.

Her gaze shifted from the men to the dull red shirt of the dead guy in the water. At that moment, Hunter turned his head and saw the line of her stare. He moved to block her view.

Colton said something to him, and he nodded. Then he drew away from Colton and set off toward Ivy.

Their gazes connected. What she saw on his face was totally at war with the sensations she was feeling as he grew closer and closer to her. That kiss. The feel of his lips lingered on hers even now.

Why had he done it? She never expected it. Never thought in a million years that Forest's friend would grab her and curl her toes that way. He'd been so tender with her.

Yet his lips were so firm.

His entire body was hard as iron yet he'd bent around her as if to protect her, shield her.

As he got within three feet of her, she gulped down the nervous energy that coiled inside her.

"Let's walk."

Ordinarily, she'd be annoyed by his command. After all, she wasn't one of his SEALs taking orders. But she wanted to get out of here as fast as possible.

They set off walking. The land curved around a hill and up an incline. She matched him step for step.

"How are you keeping up with me?" His question brought her out of her head.

Startled from the dark turn her thoughts had taken about the things nobody was telling her, she looked up at his face. His rugged features were carved into a mask, but she saw the fine lines of strain around his steel-gray eyes.

Why had she never fully noticed the color before? Maybe she'd never examined him so close. Every exchange between them seemed to take a downward turn, leaving her agitated and Hunter throwing out insults about her being a princess.

Spanking her.

Or kissing her.

The confusion rising inside her made her want to look away, but he held her stare captive.

What had he asked her?

Oh yes. Now she remembered.

"I've hiked all over Europe. I wasn't on one of those backpacking trips, but I wasn't only hanging out in cafes drinking foreign coffee."

"You hiked alone?" The sharp edge of his tone brought her gaze back to his.

"No, with groups. Excursions people book with a guide."

"But you were on your own, without your friend."

"Look, don't bring this up in front of Meadow. She'd only worry, and there isn't any point now, is there? I'm home."

With a dead body in the pond where they used to swim in summer.

She shuddered.

When they reached the front porch of the house, she mounted the bottom step. Hunter faced her, still inches taller despite her being on the stairs.

"Stay in the house until Colton or I come talk to you about this."

Dazed, she nodded.

He started to turn to walk away, and she caught the front of his shirt, pulling him back.

"Don't leave. Tell me what is happening. Do you think that man died of natural causes? That he got drunk, fell in the water and drowned?"

The shivers she'd felt sliding through her on the walk home hit full force. She clamped her trembling fingers into fists and tried to keep Hunter from taking notice.

"Christ, Ivy. You're shaking like a leaf. Come here." He rubbed her arms, his touch on her bare skin warming her fast.

When a bigger quake hit her, there was no concealing it. Hunter gave her a sharp look before wrapping his arms around her and yanking her against him.

She sucked in a deep breath, and her nose flooded with the masculine scent of bodywash tinged with musk. Oh god, he smelled so good. He was so big and strong and…

She tipped her face up, lips on offer.

His eyes roamed over her features—then locked on her mouth a split second before he slammed his lips over hers.

Dark need washed through her. A squeak escaped her throat as he took command of the kiss.

His firm lips were unutterably soft as he angled his head and applied the barest pressure. Another murmur broke from her, and he tightened his hold.

At the same moment, they gasped as if breaking the surface of a sea they'd been drowning in for far too long. Their tongues met, and he plundered her.

Ivy swept her tongue across his, tasting him, learning what made his chest vibrate with a groan. Her body heated. Her shivers fled.

She lifted her arms to loop around his neck, leaning into him and matching him stroke for stroke.

She forgot about the pain of the loss she'd lived with for so long that it had become a thick fiber of who she was. She stopped thinking about all the creditors her father owed—or why.

She lived, breathed and felt Hunter.

Suddenly, he tore from the kiss. "Stop! Ivy, we have to stop."

"No." She followed him, covering his mouth with hers until he responded and kissed her back.

Again, he twisted his mouth free. "Ivy—"

"Don't stop, Hunter. I want you."

With a groan, he locked his hands on her waist and lifted her off the bottom step, setting her firmly on the porch.

Chest heaving, she stared at him. "I want you."

"You don't always get what you want." His chest moved as if he couldn't figure out how to fill his lungs with enough air. "Didn't anyone ever tell you that?"

Holding his stare, she reached for his hand. He stared down at it for several aching heartbeats. Then he spun to go.

She'd played her hand of cards. Seeing that he didn't want her the same way she wanted him, she whirled to the front door.

She took all of two steps before the heavy thump of boots on the porch reached her.

Hunter yanked her into his arms and captured her mouth in a kiss to end all kisses. The blazing way he slipped his tongue over hers, again and again and again, dizzied her. Dark need coiled in her core, reminding her that underneath all the layers of grief and worry she hadn't been able to outrun even after nine months in foreign countries…she was a woman.

She clung to him, rubbing her body against his hard one—and the stiff bulge in his jeans. Between sweeping kisses, she murmured, "My room!"

Out of control, he bit at her lips. Locked his hands on her ass, pulling her into his erection, and ground his hips. Flooding with desire, she moaned into his mouth, which spurred him to action.

He whipped open the screen door. She reached behind herself to fumble with the door handle. In a tangle of lips and roaming hands, they fell through the door. The house was empty, she knew, because Meadow was out training horses.

When he picked her up, she wrapped her arms around his neck and her legs around his waist. They barely came up for a breath of air as he navigated through the house and reached the hallway.

"Which door's yours?" His voice was all gravel and growl. The syllables warm strokes to her senses.

"Left!"

He kicked the door in. It banged off the wall, but he whirled with her and slammed it shut behind them. In two strides, they hit the bed.

"What is all this?" He picked up her unicorn pillow and threw it on the floor.

"My childhood." She giggled and reached for him again, pulling him down on top of her.

They went still, staring into each other's eyes.

"You know what happens when a commoner touches a princess?"

She nodded with enthusiasm. "Undeniable pleasure. Give me your mouth again."

With a low growl, he did, kissing her until she was gasping and rocking her aching pussy into his cock.

She ran her hands over the chiseled planes of his back, learning the strong flex of his muscles. When she tugged his shirt up and over his head, he moved to help her, rolling his body like a hot male dancer on a stage.

She was aching for him. She needed him inside her—now.

"Hunter!"

Dipping his lips to her throat, he teased her with small bites and sucking pulls of his mouth that drove her so crazy she thought she'd lose it. Patience fled, and she tore at his fly.

He refused to move faster, just nibbling on her neck from her ear to her collarbone and back up.

Desire pulsed in her core. Her panties were a flooded scrap of French lace. Madame Marie had designed the undergarments for this very occasion, right? She reached between their bodies and unfastened her jeans. Wiggling out of her top was much harder—the stubborn man refused to move his lips from her throat.

When she finally yanked the top over her head, she stared up into his eyes and saw a glimmer of appreciation in the steel-gray depths.

"I need to feel your skin on mine," she rasped.

She dug her fingers into his spine, dragging his bare chest down on top of hers. They both froze.

He lifted his head and pierced her in his stare. "Christ, princess. I should not be touching you."

She tightened her hold on him and locked her thighs around his waist for good measure. "Don't you dare stop now. Don't you dare deny how much you want me too."

* * * * *

The scorching feel of Ivy's skin against Hunter's blew his goddamn mind. His cock surged. His balls throbbed.

He couldn't recall a time he'd ever wanted a woman this bad. Or when he ever would again.

He shouldn't have Forest's sister half naked underneath him. Or want his lips on the tantalizing buds of her nipples.

He should not be reaching for the open fly of her jeans…brushing his fingertips over the lace V there.

"Ivy." His throat worked on a long swallow. The throb of want pounding through him was barely staved off.

She lifted her head off the bed and bit into his bottom lip, tugging lightly but with an insistence that told him what a wild one she'd be between the sheets.

Fucking hell. He wasn't going to stop this insanity train, was he? He was going to stop manning the brakes and let it crash and burn.

Any coupling between them would be just that too—a deadly fire that incinerated everything in its path. He didn't know how he knew that—he just did.

The soft patter of her fingers on his spine stole the last fragment of his mind. He took her mouth in a kiss that spiraled out of control while he popped the clasp of her bra and stripped it off her.

As he cupped her breast, she moaned into his mouth. Arched into his palm.

Seeing that dead body made him remember how quick life could end. How many times had he and his fellow SEALs talked about grabbing each day and living it to its fullest?

When he moved his mouth from Ivy's throat to the stiff peak of her nipple, he issued a groan of reverence. She echoed it with a soft moan that stole into his soul.

Trapping the hardened bud between his lips, he sucked in tender pulls that made her writhe. He lapped the tip with swirls of his tongue that made her dig the points of her nails into his shoulders.

"Oh my god! Yessss!"

He had to taste every single inch of her because once he left her bed, he would never return. He'd walk out that door and never lay a hand on her again.

As he tasted her other breast, and brushed his lips across each of her ribs, he positioned himself between her legs. Looking into her eyes, he hooked his fingers in her jeans and tugged them down her body.

She rolled her hips to assist him. When they reached her boots, he took a moment to admire the soft, supple leather that clung to her calves and ankles like they'd been made for her.

After her boots were removed, he continued to tug her jeans down the creamy skin of her thighs and off her feet.

His head dropped forward, stunned at the sight of her in the sexiest pair of lace panties he'd ever seen in his life. The deep red seemed to glow against her pale skin. The barest shadow of the seam of her pussy had his gut clenching with the need to pound into her hard…fast…until she only knew how to form his name.

"You're fucking beautiful." He sounded as though he'd run a marathon up a mountain with a fully loaded backpack and a weapon slung across his chest.

The way she stared up at him, her eyes glowing and her lip trapped in her teeth, damn near stole every bit of control he ever possessed.

Running his fingertip over that shadow peeking between the lace pattern, he found her panties soaking wet.

"Fuck!" He claimed her mouth while ripping her panties off. When he strummed his fingertips over her drenched folds, she bucked her hips and thrust her tongue into his mouth in a kiss that blazed out of control.

She rocked into his hand. He tunneled his finger between her folds and found the stiff bud of her clit.

"Oh god! Hunter, yes! Please." Her long moan spurred him on. Pressing down on the nubbin, he tasted the desire on her tongue and stole the cries off her lips. She arched and writhed at his touch.

He slicked her juices over her clit, swirling around and around and then applying pressure that launched her hips off the bed.

Braced on one arm, he leaned away to watch the pleasure take over her beautiful face and continued his torment until she was shaking and begging him to enter her.

"I need you. Your cock. Please!"

He didn't have a lot of time for showing the other women he took to bed a good time, but he did want to make this good for Ivy. Especially knowing it would be their last.

The look in her eyes urged him to take off the rest of his clothes. As soon as she saw his stiff cock bob free from his boxer briefs, she sucked in a gasp.

That sound made him think of entering her. Of being balls-deep.

He froze. "I don't have a condom."

The last thing on his mind when leaving the hospital for America had been to stop and buy protection. He was going to be sleeping in a bunkhouse with other men, and if he got lucky with a woman in the nearby town, he'd just buy some at that point.

Now regrets flooded in.

She shook her head, reaching up for him. "I'm on birth control. I'm clean. And I want you, Hunter."

He wasn't going to argue, not when his cock was hard enough to hammer metal. He threw himself on top of her, anchoring his body between her splayed thighs, and looked into her eyes as he filled her in one hard thrust.

Christ, she was wet. Silky. Tight as hell. And he wasn't going to leave her bed, was he?

He sank inside her gripping sheath and let out a low growl. Her insides locked down on his length, milking him, showing him how much she wanted him too.

Her soft rasping breath in his ear was the sweetest music he'd ever heard. With a rock of his hips, he withdrew from her tight walls, inch by maddening inch.

She dug her heels into his back and clutched at his shoulders, her lips twisted in bliss as he began to move.

Each hard thrust drove them toward a screaming finish. A point of no return.

Their bodies moved in furious tandem. His insides tightened with a pending release so huge that he questioned if he'd survive it.

As her insides began to rhythmically tighten around his length, he looked down at her and realized she was coming on his cock.

The soft moan burst past her lips and the feel of her release drove him over the edge.

He sank deep, his cock stretched to the brink. The first spurt of cum that left him drew a sharp cry from Ivy. She threw her arms around his neck and kissed him as she let go with him.

His mind blanked on the haze of sexual pleasure that stretched on and on for long minutes. When he finally lifted his head and searched Ivy's face, the dazed expression made him feel like thumping his chest.

He also became aware of his phone ringing in the pocket of his wadded-up jeans on the floor.

Climbing off Ivy left him feeling hollower than it should for a one-night stand, but he buried the thought and snatched up his phone.

"Where the hell did you go?" Colton's voice filled his head.

He scrubbed a hand over his face and caught the smell of Ivy's desire still clinging to his fingers. The urge to lick them and know her taste flooded him.

"Uh. Where are you?"

"Gathering up a group of guys to check out the body." Colton didn't sound pissed off as much as bewildered.

"Give me two minutes. I'll meet you outside."

Ivy met his gaze, hers wide. "He can't know you were with me!" She pitched her voice low in an urgent whisper.

He darted a look at her window. Seeing his line of sight, she jumped out of bed and began chucking his clothes at him. When she got to his shirt, she brought it up to her nose.

He yanked on his boxers and jeans, then reached for his shirt.

She clutched it against her chest. "I'm keeping it!" she whispered.

He shook his head. Colton needed him. The last thing he needed to do was show up shirtless.

Holding out his hand with more insistence only made Ivy back away and shake her head harder. Her just-had-sex hair hung over her beautiful bare breasts. He hadn't spent nearly enough time worshipping that body with his eyes or hands. Now he was out of time.

"I'll meet you by the barn." He ended the call with Colton and tried to snag the shirt from Ivy.

But she put it on.

And she looked fucking adorable in it.

"Fine! It's a souvenir!" Of their one time together.

He strode to the window, threw open the sash and pushed the screen out onto the ground. When he dropped to the grass, boots clutched in his hand, he looked up and spotted Colton standing not twenty feet away.

His buddy's lips twisted in a grin.

With all the pride of a SEAL, Hunter straightened to his full height and held up a palm. "Not. One. Word."