You’re not misreading anything....

"Hate sex," Eden breathed.

Johnny's entire body stilled. "Hate sex?"

He had the sudden, angry feeling this wasn't what he wanted at all. Not like this. But then her hand was on his chest, splaying directly over one of the handprints there, and the look in her eyes.... Jesus. How could a man resist her?

"You. Me. And everything that burns between us."

He was losing the battle. They could discuss their situation later. Right now, he just wanted his hands on her. It fired through his brain, and then suddenly it wasn't enough to just touch her.

Johnny grabbed the back of Eden's scalp, dragging her into his arms as he lowered his head.

Their mouths met, Eden's body wilting against his as a moan echoed in her throat.

It wasn't the sort of kiss he'd given her before; a taste, a tease, something a little more chaste than this....

This was pure, unrelenting mouth fucking. Days of frustration. Years of guilt and twisted memories running him ragged. He stabbed his tongue past her lips, forcing her to open for him, and feeling the lush stroke of her own tongue as she yielded. Kissing Eden was better than all his feverish imaginings had led him to believe. There was doubt in her eyes when she looked at him, but all of it evaporated the second he laid hands on her. She kissed as if she wanted to steal his breath—his soul—as if she couldn't survive another moment without the feel of his mouth on hers.

The drumbeat in the cavern echoed through his veins, and the kaga felt like someone had lit his blood on fire. Johnny pushed into her, his aching cock pressing against the hollow between her thighs. Not enough. Never enough. He wanted inside her now.

Somehow he broke the kiss, panting as he leaned against her. The kaga made it hard, but he wasn't about to mistake a single thing here. "Last chance to say no, Eden."

Hands slid down his chest. "Don't stop."

Permission to unleash every last ounce of hunger he felt upon her. All his dreams were coming fucking true.

And suddenly he couldn't hold himself back anymore.

She kissed him as though someone had lit the fuse and fire sparked along it, about to hit the powder keg. Hands tearing at the buttons on his jeans, her teeth sinking into his lower lip.

Johnny captured her hips and lifted her as Eden wrapped her legs around him. Then he was striding blindly toward their room, her greedy hands raking up his back, the bite of her nails digging into his scars.

He hissed as he shoved through the curtain that was all that shielded them from the outside world. Wrenching it closed, he managed to set her back to the wall, and then he was thrusting against her, his tongue invading her mouth with urgent need.

He grabbed the hem of her tank and hauled it up, revealing the soft skin of her abdomen beneath his hands. Fuck. His cock felt like a battering ram. Eden broke the kiss just long enough to drag the tank over her head, and then she was tossing it aside, both hands capturing his face between them, as her lips met his again.

Years of desire bloomed within him.

This woman. Damn him for a fool, but this woman got under his skin in a way no one ever had.

She'd been young and innocent as a girl, heart-stoppingly lovely.

In every letter she’d written her brother, there'd been an aching loneliness and love that shone through. He'd craved some part of that affection on those long, lonely nights out there in the Wastelands alone, when he couldn't resist opening one of them and pretending they'd been written for him.

His dreams of her had been relentless, an odd mix of guilt and desire.

But Eden McClain in the flesh was like a bomb going off in his hands. Under his touch, she ignited like wildfire, hands sliding up his chest, then dancing low, teasing along his belt buckle.

He grabbed her hand and curled it around his erection, drawing back to gasp a breath. This close, he could see the glazed shock of lust in her eyes, and she squeezed him, biting her lip.

Not once did she look away.

"Bed," she breathed.

Johnny kissed her throat, biting just hard enough to earn a gasp. Hauling her away from the wall, he staggered toward the pile of furs on the floor.

"I don't have condoms." Getting his hands on one was difficult, as production was strictly controlled by the Confederacy and they cost too much on the black market.

And it had been a long time since he'd needed one.

Three or so years, right before a village in the badlands sold him out to slavers and made him realize he couldn't trust anyone.

Eden's hands clasped at the back of his neck. "I had my injection a couple of months ago. I'm safe for another month at least. And I'm clean."

Johnny sank to his knees, his hands cupping her ass. The second he hit the furs he pushed forward, spilling her onto her back. "So am I."

Just one more benefit of being a warg.

"Are you sure about this?" he gasped, a single moment of hesitation rocking him as he knelt over her. "Because you're not going to be able to pretend this didn't happen in the morning...."

Eden grabbed the amulet around his neck and hauled him down. "Shut up and kiss me."

Sounded good to him.

Johnny captured her mouth again.

Her heated hands slid up his chest and over his shoulders, nails raking down his oiled skin. Johnny worked his way down her throat, trailing his tongue along her pulse.

Eden's bra was black cotton, and he delved beneath her with one hand as she arched her spine. Then it was off, and he dragged it aside, capturing her nipple with his heated mouth.

"Oh, God!"

Laving attention across her breasts, he somehow managed to get the straps off her arms without breaking his kiss. "You have the best fucking tits," he breathed, suckling hard. "You don't know how much I've wanted to get my mouth on them."

"Jesus, Colton." Fingers dug into his hair as she lifted her head off the fur. "I want you. Now."

Before she could reach for his jeans, he reared up onto his knees. "I'd like to oblige, darlin', but I've been dreaming of what I'm going to do to you for days."

He undid her belt, even as she ran her pale hands up to cup her tits. Fuck. He bent as he jerked her jeans open, kissing the smooth skin of her abdomen. The wet, musky scent of her cunt drew him to her, and he dragged her panties aside and nuzzled into her pussy, barely able to get a taste. He needed her jeans all the way off.

"Oh, God," she moaned, her fingers curling in his hair.

Tugging her jeans down her long legs, Johnny threw them aside, and then hooked both thumbs under the hem of her panties. Half tempted to rip them off, he dragged them slowly out from under her bottom, revealing the thatch of brown hair between her thighs.

"Are you wet for me, angel?"

He couldn't resist any longer.

Wrenching them down her thighs, he buried his face in that hair, breathing her in. The second he got her panties free, her thighs parted and Johnny tongued her wet slit, getting his first full taste of her. Eden cried out, her spine arching and her thighs clamping around his head. Forcing them wide, he settled in to feast, smelling the soap she'd used earlier.

Hate fuck or not, he didn't intend to rush a damned minute of this.

Eden McClain had haunted him for years.

He wanted to imprint every second of this encounter in his brain, until he couldn't remember their hateful past, only this. New memories to replace the old, an encounter forged out of the forgiveness he desperately needed from her.

Tilting his head, he suckled hard on her clit, alternating that with the slow, heated lap of his tongue. Every gasp that came from her lips felt like victory, and he teased her as the pressure built within her, tracing slow, lazy circles, flicking his tongue lightly against her when her fingers dug into his scalp and her body silently begged him to lick hard.

"Colton," she breathed as he thrust his tongue between her slick folds. A soft scream broke over her lips, and she arched in response, her thighs clamping around his head.

Nothing had ever tasted better than the slick wetness of her desire. Nothing had ever sounded as good as her soft cries of ecstasy as she came.

I could spend all day eating Eden McClain out.

But her fist was in his hair, dragging him insistently up.

And as much as he wanted to prolong this, he also knew he was getting dangerously close to the edge himself. Jerking the buttons of his jeans open, he kissed her throat again, shoving her hips wide.

"Ready?"

"Yes!"

He thrust into her wet heat, his jeans still half-on.

Eden cried out, flinging her head back as her spine arched.

Johnny buried his face in her throat, fucking her with short, ferocious thrusts. Her body sheathed him like a glove, molten with heat. A good thing he'd worked her over, for he could sense the warg within him climbing to the surface. It wanted to fuck. Hard and fast, and brutal. The last thing he wanted to do was hurt her, so he ground his teeth together, fighting back against the rush of blood through his veins.

It was as if she felt him trying to rein himself back. "Harder," she breathed, nipping at his lip and digging her heels into the back of his thighs. "I want to feel it tomorrow. I don't mind the bruises."

So be it.

She'd called it hate sex—he'd even been the one to jokingly suggest it—but there was nothing of hate in this. Only pure, rapturous pleasure. The chance to worship her body with his, to take what he so desperately wanted from her.

Pinning her wrists to the fur, he gathered them in one hand and slid the other down to drag her knee up between them. The angle made her cry out.

"That's it, angel." Burying his face against her throat, he bit his lower lip as the pressure in his balls began to mount. "Come, mi alma."

Her body clenched.

"Eres una mujer hermosa y obstinada," he whispered hotly, in her ear. "Eres hermosa. Eres mío. Mi dulce sabor del cielo...."

"Sweet Jesus," she breathed. "What are you saying?"

He gasped against her throat. She liked that. Every inch of her clenched around him until he was seeing stars.

"Scream for me," he panted, arching his hips to ride over that spongy little spot deep inside her. "Scream my name, darlin'."

Can't hold on much longer....

Fuck. He gritted his teeth together, his thrusts slowing. Eden's spine arched, her breasts meeting his chest as he pinned her wrists down and told her how fucking much he loved this in Spanish.

"Oh, God," she breathed. "Oh... my... God. Colton!"

The word burst out of her in a rush as her body gave a spasm around his. Johnny captured her scream with a kiss, feeling his own orgasm hit him like a lightning bolt. Pinning her beneath him, his spare hand fisted in her hair, he bucked into her as heat swept up the back of his spine and he came.

Thousands of nights alone.

Thousands of blood-soaked days beneath a blistering sun.

And for one perfect moment, it was all worth it for this one glimpse of heaven. Johnny collapsed atop her, sweat slicking both of their skin as he gasped for breath. Boneless. Empty.

At peace, for the first time in years.

And whether she hated him or not, for that one moment her hand clasped the back of his neck as she dragged him into her embrace, and Johnny Colton finally knew what it felt like to not be so alone.