“You can—I can—Hurry.”

Oh.

The head of his cock is so broad and so hot, but in a way that makes me want to sink down farther, to feel his heat deeper. I would too, if it weren’t for the sheer fucking size of him. I can say with utter confidence that I have never experienced anything like it.

I reach behind me to tangle my fingers in his hair, pulling his face closer to my throat to encourage him to keep going. His kisses are sloppier now, with a staccato rhythm, as if he loses just a little more focus with every inch that he gives me. I can feel warm breath puffing against my skin from his nostrils in that same sharp rhythm as he holds his breath again and again like he’s simply forgotten how to breathe properly, and I tilt my head back in pleasure as he fills and fills and fills me until it feels like he’s touching every part I knew about and a few that I didn’t know even existed.

“Fuck.” His entire palm flattens between my legs to cup me, and he slides a finger on either side of where we’re joined. “You’re so tight.”

“I can handle it,” I urge.

He tenses above me. “I don’t want to hurt y—”

I let my hand slide down my body to circle him, feeling the throbbing length of him between us as I urge him forward. He hisses when he bottoms out, and I can’t help the whine that escapes me at the feeling of being so full of him.

“It’s…Fuck. I don’t want to come yet.”

That is the opposite of what I want to do. I would like to come very much. I even press back against him to try to wordlessly let him know, but this only makes him groan into my hair as he shivers.

“Hunter,” I practically beg. “Can you—? I need you to—”

“I could come just like this.” His hand slides back up between my legs, only enough so that he can press his fingers against the swollen bud of my clit, rolling it in a steady pattern as I sort of rock into it. “But I want to fuck you. I wanna feel you come.”

“I’m—Keep doing—Yes, yes, right there.”

Honestly, this alone would probably be enough for me if he keeps touching me like that, but then I would be robbed of the utterly decadent sensations that spark inside me when he starts to move. Even with the extreme fullness, it’s an easy glide in and out, given that I’m probably more aroused than I’ve ever been, and I find myself chasing after each thrust, trying to push down onto him even when he’s barely pulled out. Not to mention the subtle swell of his knot inside me, something I never could have anticipated would feel so good. Right now it’s only a hint of what it could be, but still, something inside me wants it more than my next breath.

“Don’t move,” he grunts. “You’re going to make me—Fuck. I just want to feel you a little more.”

Another thick arm works its way underneath me to wrap around my middle, effectively trapping me and holding me in place as he continues that same dizzying circling of my clit that has me fighting to chase after more.

“Be good,” he coos. “Be still for me.” I feel goose bumps pebble over my skin despite the warmth of the fire and the heat of his body, his lips finding my ear so he can nibble at the lobe as he whispers praise that has me half out of my mind. “You feel too good,” he huffs. “Can you come like this?”

“So close,” I manage. “Just—Don’t stop—Just keep—”

His mouth goes a little slack against my neck when he pushes a little deeper, a little faster, a little harder—hitting some spot inside me that has hot, liquid pressure swelling deep in my belly and between my legs, even bleeding warmth down my thighs as everything seems to tighten like a coil that’s being wound too tight.

“Hunter. Hunter.”

“You’re squeezing me so much,” he groans. “So wet. Can you take my knot, Tess?”

A tremor of unease runs through me at the unknown of it all. “Will it hurt?”

“You’re so slick for me,” he says, rolling his hips so that his cock glides in and out to accentuate his point. “Feel that?”

“Uh-huh,” I breathe.

“It’s going to feel so good when I knot you,” he promises, and the feel of him has my eyes rolling back. “You were made for me. You can take it, can’t you?”

“Oh. Oh. Yes. I can.” I’m babbling, not even sure if that’s true but wanting it all the same. My body seems to be on board for it, in any case. “Just like that. Please.”

I’ve read about “toe-curling orgasms” since the summer of my fifteenth year when I would hide downstairs at my grandmother’s and sneakily read her Harlequins. I’m well acquainted with the phrase; I simply thought it was a crock of shit until now.

But when that coil stops winding, when that pressure inside spills to give way to the all-over rush that seems to explode inside…my toes actually curl. Hell, if it weren’t for the way Hunter is holding on to me, keeping me pressed tightly against him, I suspect my entire body would curl. I shake and shiver and make noises that are probably going to haunt me later when I recall them—but I don’t think Hunter will notice anyway. Not with the way he practically shouts against my skin before biting down on my shoulder, shaking a little himself.

I’m so full of him that I can actually feel it when he lets go, the pulsing warmth as he fills me seeming to last forever. I feel everything when it happens—when his knot swells to proportions that I’ve only felt with my hands—and the fullness nearly steals my breath as it thickens inside me. As it touches me in ways I’ve never dreamed of being touched. Like I’ve spent my entire life missing something and now I’m complete.

“Oh.”

“Does it hurt?”

I shake my head. “Feels good.”

“I don’t…I don’t smell your heat dissipating.”

“What?”

“Normally, after you…Well. Normally it starts to fade after.”

“What does that mean?”

He inhales deeply from my throat, sighing softly. “That it might not be over this time. This might be the real thing.”

“So I’m…?”

“Going into heat? It’s possible.”

“But you’ll…” There’s a sudden flash of fear at the unknown, but his arms around me keep it at bay somewhat. “You’ll help me, right?”

His fingers find my chin to tilt my face back so I can meet his eyes, his gaze intense and singular. “I’m not going anywhere.” He shifts his hips so that his knot tugs a little, and I whimper as sparks of pleasure flit through me. “I want you right here on my knot for as long as you need me.”

“Good,” I tell him with a relieved sigh. “That’s good.”

He places lazy, sporadic kisses against my neck that feel impulsive, like he doesn’t even realize he’s doing it, and lying in the afterglow of what we’ve just done might be one of the most singularly satisfying moments of my entire adult life. I couldn’t have known how complete I would feel with his knot swollen inside me, my back tucked against his front, fitting like I’m meant to be there. Even if I feel so full that I might burst with it.

God, Ada wasn’t too far off with the splitting analogy.

That makes me laugh without being able to help it.

“Something funny again?”

I shake my head even though I’m grinning like an idiot. “I knew you wanted to kiss me.”

Hunter snorts as he nuzzles my hair, seeming to be in no hurry to pull out of me. “Give me a minute, and I’m going to do it again.”

“Wow, again? At your age? What if you mess up your whittling arm? Maybe we should—”

His hand at my chin and his mouth over mine don’t really leave room for jokes.

I absolutely forget what I was going to say anyway.

It’s much colder in the gray light of morning, even under the pile of quilts from the two makeshift beds—which became one makeshift bed in the course of the night—and I stir, feeling Tess shiver as she burrows deeper into my side. She still smells faintly of heat; it’s slight, nowhere near what it will be when it fully hits her, and based on her scent…we have some time.