Chapter 22
Chapter 22
Chapter Twenty-Two
My wolf growls.
We’re back in this ‘other’ place.
It’s the darkness between wakefulness and sleep. A dream, but not.
I don’t see death–but I sense it.
It’s hovering like a mist at the edge of the woods.
I’m not sure how I can find my way to this space, but it’s an instinct ingrained in me.
“Hey beautiful.” Cameron stands beside the lake. Petals fall from the cherry blossom tree at the
shoreline. My dad planted this tree with my mom. I always felt closer to her here.
It must be spring, this tree only blooms for a few days when the weather first turns warm. It’s a
welcome sign that winter is over.
Cam’s blonde hair curls over the collar of his shirt and his beard is trim. He looks good. When he
smiles, I’m a young girl again and that grin of his lights me up from the inside.
“I’ve missed you.” He walks closer.
My wolf is snapping and barking. Which makes no sense. Nala loves Cameron. She never gave up on
him.
“I’m not sure how much time we have,” he tells me.
I feel the urgency too.
I glance at the forest, the mist is dark and ominous. Waiting.
I step closer toward the tree, toward the light.
Cam moves in front of me. His huge body blocking out the sun and his scent blowing to me–heat and
earth and desire. It blends with the scent of cherry blossoms and the lake, creating an unforgettable
memory.
Familiar and yet new.
When his hand reaches out and touches my face, I cry.
It’s joy and pain. Love and hate.
Desire and apathy.
“No,” he whispers. “Don’t let the pain in.”
I feel it then–his pain and mine.
Cameron hurts so deeply. It’s agony.
“I’m sorry,” he tells me.
I know he means it.
His other hand comes up, until they’re both cupping my face. This belongs © NôvelDra/ma.Org.
His eyes are beautiful, bottomless, the brightest green.
Then his lips are dipping toward mine.
I shouldn’t do this. I shouldn’t.
I need to break away and find my way out of this place.
“This isn’t real, Cam.”
His lips brush mine. They’re so soft and full. So gentle.
He’d often kiss me like this. Gently, reverently, like I was some precious thing to cherish. Maybe not
when the heat of the moment was upon us, but afterward. After he fucked me senseless.
My body remembers, and it stirs. Slickens. Heat pouring down my limbs and between my legs.
His nostrils flare. He loves the smell of me, the taste. I don’t think there’s a position we haven’t tried or
an inch of my body he hasn’t explored.
His lips brush mine again. Tempting, teasing.
This isn’t real, I tell myself.
And since it isn’t…
I go up on my toes.
His arms circle me, lifting and dragging me up against his tall strong length.
There are a thousand reasons why I shouldn’t.
A million reasons to break from this dream and not fool myself into thinking the past can have any
chance in the present.
But instead, I let him lift me higher, his mouth scorching against my throat, his tongue lapping at my
skin, like he wants to devour me.
His hands mold to my breasts, tugging the tips.
My hips rock against his thick length.
Was he always this big?
I drown in Cam’s arms and scent and strength.
“I love you, Mia,” he mutters. “Always.”
Then we’re stripping and touching and words are lost to gasps of pleasure and shuddering breaths.
When his fingers first touch me, I drench his hand.
He swears and drops to his knees. I hold his head and let him feast. When he drags one of my knees
onto his shoulder, I shatter against his mouth, and he adds his fingers to send me into another orgasm
that rolls through my body seemingly without end.
My lower muscles are still clenching when he finally fills me.
He’s bigger somehow. Or maybe it’s just been so long…
All thoughts dissipate as he thrusts, setting a rhythm that has me arching and screaming and mindless.
He doesn’t stop and as I cling to him, I glory in this man.
He had my heart from the start, and all these years and all the harrowing events that hit us, there is still
some tether that keeps us from breaking apart.
Maybe it is love.
I’ve always loved him.
He comes with a roar, and as he pulses inside my body, I clench and climax around him again. He
drags me up and rolls so I’m sprawled across his chest.
We stay there. For minutes. Hours?
The only sound is our breathing and the steady thump of his heart beneath my head.
He occasionally twitches inside me and that fullness sends a ripple through my body that makes him
chuckle.
He does it again.
“Stop it.”
“Never,” he says proudly.
He shifts to his side so I lie beside him, our bodies still connected. One of my legs thrown over his hip.
“I won’t let you go,” he tells me.
“Don’t.” I think I’m the only thing tying him to the real world. I could be wrong, but something about this
place feels as peaceful as it does dangerous.
His hand trails down to my stomach. “I want you to have my baby, Mia.” He smiles crookedly. “Do you
think we can get pregnant here?”
Here, meaning this…place.
I don’t know.
Nala makes a sound, it’s a rumbling purr of sorts. Yes, she tells me.
Her voice is so strong and clear I realize: It’s not can we make a baby…
We just did.