An owl hooted softly in the distance, working late to bring home the daily bread—or mouse, in its case. You and me both, I thought to myself with a wry smile. It seemed like ages since I had seen the sun, and it also seemed like there couldn’t possibly be enough time to get everything ready before tomorrow.

It was the last night before the big expo, and there was no way I was getting any sleep. Not when every time I tried to lie down, I thought up another last minute touch that would make everything just perfect and go off without a single hitch. So I’d given up on my guesthouse bed and headed to the dining room of the manor, not for the first time cursing both Hunter and myself for agreeing to put our personal relationship on the back burner until we had this new business stuff figured out. What a stupid idea that had been. Stupid, stupid, stupid. A few hours in his bed and I knew my nerves would be nothing but a distant memory. But it was too late to go back on my word now, and I wasn’t pathetic enough to go pound on his door and beg for him to let me in like a cat in heat. Then again…no! Focus.

For now, I’d distract myself by going over all the presentation graphics for the umpteenth time. Sandra had really outdone herself, tweaking the concepts we already had in place for the first campaign into something distinctive and completely new. I hadn’t caught any imperfections so far, but I couldn’t stop fussing over them. What if I missed something?

What if I didn’t miss anything and it still didn’t work?

It had to work. It just had to.

“How’s it going?”

Hunter was lounging in the doorway, a black V-neck tee clinging to his chest and shoulders, cargo pants hanging loosely around his hips. Mmm-hmm. Talk about midnight snack. I took a minute just to drink in the sight of him before I replied. “Fine. Nervous, but fine. You know how it is.”

“I do indeed,” he said with a warm, kind smile. “Can I offer the nervous but fine lady a drink?”

“I won’t say no to that,” I said, leaning back from the table and stretching my tired shoulders. “What’s on tap?”

He pulled out a bottle from behind his back, looking sneakily pleased. “Oh, just this old thing.”

I took it from him and sipped; it was delicious, like an iced tea lemonade all grown up and squeezed into a cocktail dress. “Mmmm, that’s good. What’s this one?”

“A new flavor I’m experimenting with. I take it you approve?”

“If they’re all half as good as this, you can put me on taste test duty anytime,” I told him. I hesitated before adding, “I’m glad to see you so…enthusiastic again. Excited. You’re lit up, like you’re back to being this unstoppable force.”

“It feels good,” he admitted, taking a seat next to me, his knee pressing against mine. “To be building something on my own now, to know that I can build something, that I wasn’t just following in the family footsteps because I couldn’t do anything else. I think…” He ducked his head, oddly shy for a moment. “I think my grandfather would have approved.”

I reached out, ran a gentle hand through his hair. “What was he like?” I asked softly.

“Hard as nails,” Hunter said with a rueful grin. “My parents would drop me off here so they could attend business meetings in the big city without worrying about me, and I’d sulk my head off—no movie theater to walk to? What was the world coming to?” He gave a little laugh. “But my grandpa took me out to the woods each day. Didn’t say much, would just start whittling, or looking through his binoculars, or setting up a duck blind or a fishing pole. He’d let me rant and rave and whine and when I’d finally tired myself out, there he’d be, with this little smile on his face, like he was in the best, most interesting place on the whole planet, like he was privileged to be there. Eventually I got so tired of whining I gave up and gave paying attention like him a try. And when I saw what he saw—the plants and the animals, the earth and the air and the water, the way they all fit together like pieces of some grand plan—when I saw that, I knew he was right.”

“That’s beautiful,” I whispered. I cupped his cheek. “I feel the same way about this place—it’s the most amazing land I’ve ever seen. I want to know all its secrets.”

Hunter smiled. “I just wish I’d told him, before he passed. How much he taught me.”

My heart broke for him. “Oh, Hunter…”

“It’s all right,” he said. “I’ve learned from that mistake. I’ll always tell people how much they mean to me from now on.” He put his hand on my knee, his thumb making circles on my skin. “I couldn’t do this without you, Ally. I’ll never be able to thank you enough.”

“I should be thanking you,” I whispered, and I was going to say more but then our lips were so close, and then our lips were touching, hesitant at first until he pressed back more firmly; my tongue darted out and teased into his mouth, stroking and caressing in the way that I knew would make him groan into me, move his hand to the back of my neck and press me closer, yes, just like that.

Back burner, what back burner? Who’d said anything about a back burner? Not this girl.

His hands slid up my waist to cup my breasts, his thumbs teasing over my nipples, hardening against his touch until I squirmed in my seat. Another slow, teasing circle, and I couldn’t take it anymore, had to clamber into his lap, my skirt riding up to my waist as I pressed my cunt against the thick bulge of his erection.

I wasn’t wearing any panties, and by the way Hunter groaned and bucked up into me, he could tell.

I slid down the length of him, blowing a warm stream of air against his fly, making him groan and jerk his head back against the table. I smiled wickedly as I slid his pants down, freeing his hard cock. I stroked him, savoring the length and breadth of him, my pussy clenching tight at the thought that he would soon be inside me.

“Oh God, Ally, amazing, you’re so amazing, that feels so good…”

“This will feel even better,” I promised, and I took him into my mouth.

Now that we weren’t in a restaurant bathroom, I had the luxury of really taking my time with him. I laved the bottom of his cock, my tongue searching downward to flick softly against his most delicate spots before I licked my way back up to the tip and sucked him deep into my throat.

At the sound of Hunter’s moan, I released him to tease at the sensitive skin under his head, then took him deep again. He groaned as if there were a road’s worth of gravel in his throat, his hand finding the back of my neck and massaging it with grateful fervor, his strong fingers digging into the muscles of my shoulders. I hummed around him, finding my rhythm, savoring the taste of him and the way he writhed under my ministrations, helpless before the touch of my lips and tongue…

He groaned again, and pulled me away and upwards. “Need you,” he growled against the shell of my ear, pushing me back onto the table, spreading my legs as he clambered on top of me. The papers behind me on the table rustled as he settled his weight over me and thrust his hard cock into my wet, waiting pussy.

“Oh!” My hands scrabbled at the polished wood as he filled me up, gripping futilely at the edges of the table before coming up to dig into the small of his back. He was still wearing his shirt, why was he still wearing his shirt—I ripped it off, threw it across the room, and pressed myself up against him, wrapping my legs around his hips as my hands explored the planes of his chest and back, that sweat-slick skin, so smooth and perfect—my tongue flicked out, licked a drop of sweat from his neck, and he moaned, thrust harder into me, his head falling into the niche between my neck and shoulder, his breath coming in hard fast pants that made my pussy clench tighter around his dick.

“Want to sink into you,” he murmured against my skin. “Want to sink into you and be with you always, be strong with you, feel you with me, feel you around me—”

“I’m with you, I’m with you,” I moaned, biting at his shoulder, clawing at his back, God, I needed him so badly, needed more and more of him and more was never enough—“You feel so good inside me, don’t ever want you not inside me, come in me, Hunter, fuck me hard and come in my pussy—”

He ripped my nightshirt open, the sweat-soaked fabric sticking to the table as he bent his head further and sucked on my right nipple, hard, his fingers twisting and pinching my left. I yelped, practically levitating off the table as the sensations shot through me. “Oh God, Hunter, oh, Hunter, Hunter, Hunter—”

He thrust harder, then harder again, and then I felt him come inside me, and that sent me over the edge of my own orgasm, stars bursting behind my eyelids like a thousand galaxies as I came harder than I ever had before.

* * *

When we could both walk again, Hunter scooped me up in his arms and carried me to bed—his bed. He laid me out like a work of art on the cool white sheets and kissed the pale skin of my ankle. My eyes fluttered shut as I gave a contented sigh, and his warm lips traveled further up my leg, his tongue stroking along the sensitive skin on the backs of my knees, teasing along the edge of my thigh. I whimpered, pressing upward, needing more.

“Tell me what you want.” His whisper was a flame licking along my skin.

“Wait. I—I thought we were putting all this on hold.” I hated myself for betraying my lust, but I didn’t want either of us to have any regrets later.

Hunter paused. “We can, of course. If that’s what you want.”

My brow wrinkled in confusion. “I thought that’s what you wanted. So we could focus on the business, and the expo coming up.”

He shook his head. “I agreed to that because I thought it’s what you wanted.”

A grin spilled across my face. I didn’t know what to say. We’d been so stupid.

Hunter climbed up next to me, turning me toward him on my side so we were eye to eye. “Look. I’ve had enough of this tiptoeing around bullshit, all the trying to hide how we feel from each other, the constantly forcing ourselves to ‘do the right thing’ thing. Enough’s enough.”

His hands reached down to grip my ass tight and he pulled me against him roughly, the line of his cock edging between my thighs. “So tell me what you really want, Ally. Because I want you.” The look in his eyes was dangerous, hungry, full of desire.

“Lick me,” I gasped, and he did.

He pressed me back against the sheets and kissed his way down my body, pausing along the way to nip and suck at the sensitive skin of my breasts and belly. When I could barely stand how much I needed to feel his mouth on me, he finally pushed my knees apart and spread me wide open, his broad tongue making a long stroke up the center of my pussy before circling around my clit.

“God, yes,” I panted. This was exactly what I wanted.

He dipped low, his tongue plunging into my cunt to stroke its walls, his nose rocking against my clit as his fingers ghosted over my thighs to my waist, gripped tight against my hips, pulled me firmly against his eager mouth so I could ride his tongue.

I writhed against him, lost in a sea of overwhelming sensations… “Oh, Hunter, please…”

I could feel him grin against me, the heat of his breath only fanning the flames of my aching need. I felt as though I would burst, my fingers clenching tight around his powerful shoulders. He kissed me even more deeply, his lips soft and avid, his tongue stroking, teasing, demanding—his hand slid around my thigh and his fingers entered me, crooking slowly at first and then more quickly, building to a frenetic rhythm as I bucked against him, whimpering.

“Oh, Hunter, Hunter, I…” So much I wanted to say, and I couldn’t say it, the words lost in the heat between my legs, the beating of my heart. I pressed up against him instead, whimpering as he nipped at my thigh, nuzzled and then sucked hard enough to leave a hickey. I gasped. “Oh, oh, oh…”

“Tell me what you want.” His voice was low, harsh with desire. It made me dizzy, made me bold. “Say it.”

His touch was making my whole world spin, there was only the feel of his skin, the touch of his fingers and lips and the way I opened up to them, only the soft wet sounds of our bodies coming together…

“You,” I managed. “You, always you, only ever you…”

He pulled back and flipped me onto my stomach, the cool fabric exquisite agony against my stimulated nipples. He spread my legs, one hand holding me open as the other slid up to cup my breast.

“You ready to take my cock?” he growled against the back of my neck.

I nodded, and then he was inside me.

He thrust into me hard, and I shrieked, the feelings all the more intense for not being able to see him, for having to trust him, for being completely at his mercy as his strong hands held me hostage and his long hard cock slammed into my pussy, again and again, filling me up, stretching me, lighting up my nerve endings and electrifying my veins.

With a moan I pushed my ass up against him, wanting him deeper still, and the hand on my hip stole around to stroke my wet pussy, his long fingers tweaking my clit as I clenched around his cock. As he rocked into me I let go of everything bad I felt inside, everything that had been hurting me or dragging me down for years. Grinding into his hand, feeling the steady beat of his cock, hearing his gasps of pleasure behind me, the ecstasy pushed me higher and higher, until I found myself falling over the edge.

We came at the same time, moans wrenching through us, calling out to each other. Finally we collapsed boneless onto the bed, Hunter’s weight like a comforting blanket settling over my body as he tucked me back against him. I reached up behind me to stroke his hair, the smooth skin of his powerful shoulders.

He pressed a soft kiss to my neck, just below my ear.

I had never felt so much a part of another person, so connected and together, so warm. I never wanted to leave the safety of his arms.

“I’m glad you’re here with me,” Hunter said, his words barely more than warm puffs of air against my skin. He squeezed me tight. “You make me strong.”

I twisted around just enough to press my lips to his jaw. “You make me strong here.” I found his hand, interlaced my fingers with his. “I’m glad we’re in this together.”