Page 84 of Winter’s Teeth

I was three seconds away from bursting into tears when a muted, familiar bird cry echoed through the shadows. Watery and high, it mimicked a call of no bird that lived around here, yet it instantly had me smiling.

It was the call of a black eagle.

I took another step back, this time deliberate and playful.

The shadows drew closer, no longer menacing, but mischievous as they stalked me.

“I wasn’t gone for that long...” I chided. “Did you really need to hunt me down?”

The answering chuckle from the dark reverberated in my chest, shooting straight into my stomach. Only because it was Fox, I decided I very much enjoyed being stalked.

I narrowed my eyes, trying to pinpoint him in the distance. My challenge was plain. Catch me if you can. Then I turned and fled, running deeper into the forest so he would have something to chase.

My ankle barely hurt. Floating through the forest, I skipped more than I ran. I was lighter than air, buffered by the thrill of what would happen when he caught me.

There were times where he went completely silent behind me. Like I was being chased by a ghost. Whenever I stopped to listen, looking over my shoulder, he would always make a sound, be it a rustle or a soft eagle’s call to let me know he was still there. Still coming for me.

After circling back, I ended up under the original tree where our gear remained. Stepping onto the bed of needles, I walked backward, eyes trained on the trees and the shadow I thought was him.

My heel caught on a root, and my arms shot out, windmilling as I fought to stay standing.

He came up from behind, faster than I could gasp at his sudden presence. Only instead of catching me, he turned my body into his arms so that we went down together. He cradled my head and waist, stopping the fall from hurting me in any way.

I stared up into his dark eyes gleaming like the surface of a black lake in starlight. His unknowable thoughts elicited more shivers, even if heat radiated off him in waves. Tresses of soft ebony framed his forehead, hanging forward to tickle the bridge of my nose as he dragged his gaze up and down my face.

When his eyes dipped low, his hand suddenly shot out to wrestle the hatchet out of my grip. He chucked it at the tree with all our other supplies, far out of reach.

Tipping my head back, I spied the upside-down hatchet embedded in the bark, right above the bag. “Wow. Incredible aim. You should come with me next time to the ax throwing—”

His lips crashed into mine, hungry and demanding. I barely had a second to catch up before his tongue was past my lips, swiping against the roof of my mouth, grazing the rim of my teeth.

A moan built in my throat, working its way up. If it ever left my mouth, Fox swiftly muffled it, swallowing it up like he’d just been pulled from the frozen river, and I was his sweet, fresh air.

My fingers threaded into his hair, interlocking on the back of his head. Drawing him in close, my knee popped up to frame his hips, and we instantly shifted, fitting together like perfectly matched puzzle pieces.

We had two hours to kill, and yet it wasn’t going to be enough. I already knew it. If he stopped kissing me like the world was ending, then the inevitable would come. The world very well could end.

I wasn’t ready for it.

My head pushed up off the ground, meeting his fervent kisses with an equally desperate tempo of my own. Desperate noises built in the back of my throat while I tried to push him over. Tried to crawl into his lap.

Fox snatched my wrists, pinning them to the ground. Needles poked against my exposed skin where my sleeves rolled up. The scent of pine, sweat, and his lingering sandalwood shampoo filled my nose, making him the only thing I could smell or taste. Every one of my senses were engulfed by him, and it still wasn’t enough.

His lips trailed hotly down my jaw. I gasped for air as soon as my lips were free, but I couldn’t catch my breath when his mouth found purchase on my neck—right at the tender point of my pulse.

He kissed so softly... So deliberately. Slowing down to prove his point.

I writhed, hips lifting to rub against him.

Fox growled. A warning. An attempt to tame me.

But I couldn’t be tamed. Again and again, I lifted my hips. Every soft swipe of his tongue on my neck elicited another roll of my hips. He tried to slow the pace, but I grew more frantic the slower he went. Something hot coiled tighter and tighter in my core, threatening to burst violently if I didn’t find relief for the pressure soon.

“Fox, please,” I whined breathlessly.

“Slow down, Rae,” he rasped with his head tucked under my chin, lips ghosting over my collarbone.

Slow down? Was he mad? He started this when he stalked me, chased me, and pinned me down to the ground. He made me frenzied when he kissed me like I was the most delicious thing he ever tasted.