Page 36 of True Ruin

As instructed, her hands stayed knotted in the woolen rug as he devoured her.

It was only near the end, her vision dimmed to a pinprick of amber firelight, his groans mixing wildly with her own, that she caught his head in her hands—now, he was on the rug with her—and lifted into an orgasm that nearly took her down with it.

Gabi didn’t hold back, her cries echoing off the walls of the cabin as Dallas stayed with her to the final second. One blissful wave after another, a rush of blood through her veins, her heartbeat ringing in her ears. Minutes later, she was barely aware of him getting to his feet with her in his arms and carrying her to the bedroom.

Stopping by the bed, he slid her down his body, cradling her cheeks as her feet hit the floor, sinking into a languid, devastating kiss. She tasted herself on his lips, their scentcoupled on his skin, the sharp fragrance and flavor shooting a jolt of blind desire through her.

Out of patience, she closed her fingers around his cock. “Now, Hotshot.”

“Do you think you have any strength left after that?” His voice was hoarse, his grin curving against her cheek. “For a girl who can’t with oral, that was some show.”

She ran her thumb over the moisture on his crown, smirking as he groaned and leaned into the touch. “Maybe.”

“Let’s see,” he whispered, giving her a gentle push that sent her back onto the mattress.

The bedroom was small, mountain quaint like the rest of the cabin, curtains open at the lone window, moonlight throwing shadows across Dallas as he fished in his backpack and came out with a strip of condoms. She rose to her elbows, her legs sprawling open, amazed at how comfortable she was with him. She’d never been this confident, this sure, of anything in her life except being Sam’s mother.

She licked her lips, crooking a finger.Your turn.

He halted just out of reach. “Hell, no,Wilder. After that stunning display”—he jacked his thumb in the direction of the living room—“I’ll last two seconds if your mouth gets anywhere near my dick. I’m already a little worried since I thought I might arrive, shall we say, along with you back there, which wasn’t the plan. Hard has taken on new meaning, do you understand?”

Gabi giggled, never havinggiggledduring sex. “What can I say? I shake you up.”

Looking adorably embarrassed, he scrubbed his hand over his jaw. “If I promise,promise, Boy Scout’s oath”—he drew a quick cross over his heart—“that you can give me the second best blowjob of my lifelater, because you can’t beat your first, can we do it my way now?”

Gabi flopped back on the mattress, ridiculously, utterly thrilled to her toes.Best of his life.“Have your way with me, then.”

Stopping beside the bed, he rolled on the condom as his dark gaze drifted over her. “You’re the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen, Gabi Wilder.” The mattress dipped as he climbed onto the bed and settled between her thighs, forearms braced by her head. “I think you should know that before I do more unspeakable things to you.”

She curved her hand around the nape of his neck. “Were you really a Boy Scout, Dallas True?”

“Yeah, for two months, until I got kicked out for setting fire to a tent,” he whispered, then sank into her.

His weight was glorious, his body trapping hers, hard where she was soft, warm everywhere. For once, she didn’t want space; she wanted confinement. As if he knew, he toyed with her, drawing out her pleasure. Fingering her, sucking her nipples, nipping the skin above her collarbone, beneath her ear, the rounded side of her breast, all the while whispering thewhere, how, whyof it. Helpless, mind and body merged, sound, touch, and taste fusing into one incredible flood of awareness. A thousand images, each one brighter than the one before.

She followed along, doing every little thingshe’dfantasized about. Biting, teasing, exploring. Bargaining, while recording his reactions, halting at the one that really got him: drawing her nails forcefully down the sleek line of his back.

It worked, because he growled a curse, pinning her arms to the bed.

“You undo me,” he ground out, adjusting his cock, sinking inside her, just the tip, then the rest of his shaft in deliberate, achingly slow degrees. “And I’m not used to being undone.”

Gabi buried her gasp against his throat as he eased into her, so gentle, giving her time to open around him. Wordswere meaningless once they met hip to hip, their movements instinctive after that, nothing more. They made promises, gave warnings, but she’d never recall what exactly. Because for the first time, sex was awe-inspiring. A raging fury one moment, a graceful exchange the next, the shifts in pace bewildering her in the best way.

Dallas released her wrists, and her hands curled around his shoulders. They rocked together, grinding, friction setting off a rhythm between her thighs, along the backs of her knees, down to her feet. She hadn’t known her body could answer so quickly, so completely. For once, she didn’t have to think her way through wanting, urge it to arrive. She only had to feel it.

“There,” she panted. “There.”

He tilted her hips, found the place inside her that made her breath tear, then drove into it again. Again. Each thrust moved her higher on the bed, the sheets twisting beneath her, her strength giving way beneath his. The headboard began a dull thump against the wall, steady and shameless, somehow the flawless accompaniment. Proof that this was happening. That he was losing himself with her,sharinghimself with her.

That she was allowed to want this much and take it.

“Come with me, Gab. I’m close,fuck, I’m so close,” he whispered into the curve of her neck, his brow damp, his words choppy. He didn’t give her time to answer, or even think about it. He just lifted her leg high on his hip, adjusted the angle, and that was all it took. That, and the sight of his fingers fisted in the cobalt duvet, his knuckles pale from the force of his response.

He shuddered, deep,deepinside her, his cock pulsing as she closed around him. They shattered, crying out, straining, clinging, the sounds torn from them and swallowed by the final knock of the headboard settling behind them. Damp skin, hot breaths, trembling hands. The room smelled like smoke andwine and sex, like his soap, like lavender in the ruined sheets beneath them.

For a bit, neither of them moved. They only breathed, hard and uneven, his mouth pressed to her shoulder, her hands still locked on his back as if she hadn’t quite remembered how to let go. He collapsed atop her, but only for a moment, bracing his weight before it could become too much. Then, with a rough sound against her neck, he gathered her close and rolled them carefully to their sides, taking her with him instead of away.

“Don’t forget this” was all he said as he tucked her against his side, then promptly, sweetly, fell asleep.