Hunter's Choice (17 page)

When our meals were finished we ordered a
second round of drinks and settled in to finish listening. The sun’s glimmer
faded completely and the water became lovely dark and deep outside the windows,
sparkling faintly with its rise and swell under the limited lights from the
town.

Hunter rose and held out his hand and I took
it, not quite understanding what it was he wanted, but then he pulled me tight
against his hard body, his other hand splayed at the small of my back, and with
a small smile spun us out onto the tiny dance floor. I laughed and we danced
sweetly to the slow lamenting song. This was simple, beautiful and perfect. I
felt free, loved and at ease with this man and for a short time I was able to
push everything away.

There was no difference in age, I would not
grow old while Hunter stayed young. There was no looming trial date for the two
men who had attacked me, which was set for two weeks from then. There were no
worries about money, or hospital bills that weren’t covered by my insurance as
a result of the attack. There were no concerns about having enough space to
care for more owls… There were no worries about any of it right then. Right now
it was just me and Hunter, his gentle hands holding me close, the brush of his
warm breath against the shell of my ear as he murmured that he loved me.

Right then, in that moment, nothing else
existed except the sway of our bodies and the gentle lull of sound encouraging
us into each other’s arms.

Right then, in that moment, everything was as
it should be, everything was absolutely perfect.

Hunter

I loved that Jessamine loved her surprise but
this was a night of many and I wasn’t quite through. We had a while to wait to
see what Gwydion’s audience with Arawn would bring but whatever it was I was
certain of one thing, I loved Jessamine, and there was nothing in either this
world or the next that would stop me from loving her.

I closed my eyes and relished the feel of her
in my arms as we gently swayed from foot to foot around the small space cleared
for dancing. Another couple joined us on the floor and I smiled. The way the
diffuse light shone in the coppery strands of Jessamine’s hair had me
transfixed. The smell of her lavender sandalwood and vanilla soap soothed my
soul as we gently rocked.

I was home when I was with her. A sense I had
never before been given the opportunity to fully appreciate. I wanted a mortal
life with this woman. Children with this woman, to grow old together, to travel
if the fancy struck us, to learn from her and with her, to teach her and hold
her when she cried, to laugh with her and to be the rock she raged against when
she was angry. And oh was she stunning when she was angry. I smiled to myself
and drew back from her, spinning her and drawing her back to me. Her laugh was
like high silver bells and I swelled with pride that she was here, with me and
that she wished to be.

The song ended too soon and we retook our
seats. Jess was looking out the window over the water, a faraway dreamy look in
her eyes and I wondered what she was thinking about, yet at the same time didn’t
have the heart to ask. I didn’t want to break the spell she was under, at least
not yet. Instead I enjoyed the play of candle light against her creamy skin,
her straight copper locks touched with fire where they lay along her face and
shoulder. The small swell of her breasts pressing against the thin material of
her blouse drove me slightly mad with passion for her and I suddenly couldn’t
wait to get her home.

She turned and caught me looking at her, and I
smiled as her eyes dilated and her supple pink lips parted. She captured the
bottom one with her teeth and blushed a pretty shade of pink and I found my
hand raising as I scanned the tables quickly, looking for our waiter. She was
busy writing in her little notepad when I finished asking for our check.

Are you ready to go? I know I am.
She gave me a delicious little smirk and I found myself shifting in my
seat. I smiled, a wry twist of lips and paid the waiter quickly and
efficiently. I held her jacket for her to shrug into and let my fingertips
graze the nape of her neck gently. I did not miss her little shiver and to know
that even so light a touch would garner a reaction turned me on all the more.

It was as if the air had become thinner,
harder to breathe when she turned and I caught a matching naked heat in her
expression. Sometimes I swore it was as if we were of one mind, one heart and I
loved her with everything I had in those moments and then some.

I held out my hand and she laced her fingers
with mine and we left the little pub, descending the long staircase before
slipping out onto the street. The wind blew rather stiffly and I tucked Jess
into my side. We jogged up the block to her truck and she unlocked it. Once
safely inside our mouths clashed, tongues exploring. She tasted sweet, the
lingering taste of apples from her cider combining with that unique flavor that
was so heady and purely Jess.

“Drive.” I growled and forced myself back to
my side of the bench seat. She turned her key in the ignition and switched on
her headlights. Exhaling loudly she pushed in the clutch and maneuvered the
stick shift into first gear. The capability and grace with which she did
everything captivated me.

I rode in silence the rest of the way home,
just drinking in her lovely features and imagining everything I wished to do to
her and with her in great detail.

Jessamine

The drive back to the house seemed to take
twice as long as it should have. Hunter was watching me and I was just the
tiniest bit put out that I had to watch the road. I finally made the turn that
dipped off the highway and down off the steep gravel grade that was my
driveway. I wound my way and smiled at the easy going of it. Hunter’s driveway
repairs holding and making a vast difference.

I pulled up in front of the house and killed
the engine. My driveway was lonely, Charlie and Aaron’s truck absent. I turned
to Hunter.

“It’s just you and me tonight love.” He said
softly in the dark and silent hush of the cab. He opened his door and I opened
mine, slipping into the cool dark of my front yard. An owl or two called from
the enclosures out in the yard. Hunter’s warm hand closed over mine and we went
into the house.

The front door clicked shut behind us and he
invaded my space, I tipped my face up and his mouth pressed to mine. I sighed
in contentment and he swallowed the sound with a groan. My jacket slipped from
my shoulders and hit the slate entryway in a heap. I smiled against his mouth,
a slow curl of lips and wound my arms around his shoulders.

He pulled my shirts from where they were
tucked into my jeans, his work calloused hands skating across the skin at my
waistline before plunging beneath the denim at the small of my back. He pulled
me tight up against his body and I gave a throaty moan. I could feel my pulse
quicken with anticipation, the throb and beat of it sourcing out through my
limbs.

I toed off my boots and pulled Hunter’s tee
from his waistband, seeking the warmth of his skin against my hands. I ran them
over his ribs and skated them gently over his ripped stomach, flattening palms
against his chest, arms against him, just trying for as much skin on skin
contact as I could get.

He growled into my mouth and ripped his shirt
off over his head, mouth crashing back over my own as soon as the material
cleared his lips, my blouse and camisole joined his shirt a moment later. We
stood, kissing fervently in the growing wreckage of our clothes and couldn’t
get enough of each other. I made a begging mewling sound in my throat and
distantly wondered of this wanton woman was really me.

He fumbled at his belt as I fumbled at my own
and I giggled. We weren’t anywhere close to the bedroom but I think both of us
were passed caring. I stepped on the cuff of the opposing leg and dragged the
pants off my leg, extracting my foot in a one legged balancing act. Hunter’s
arms around me the only thing keeping me from falling over.

He pulled the straps of my bra down my arms as
I kicked free of my jeans, I stripped out of my socks much the same way. My
hands went to his hips, pushing at the denim trapping them and he laughed
against my lips. He unclipped my bra and we came up for a little air. I pulled
at his waistband and his pants dropped to around his knees.

I wrapped my fingers around him and he
groaned, eyes slipping shut. I smiled and got down on my knees and replaced my
hands with my mouth, licking and sucking until he threw his head back, his
fingers tangled in my hair, holding it back from my face as I drew him in, lips
carefully wrapped around my teeth, until the tip of him touched the back of my
throat.

“Gods above and below Jess!” he half gasped half
cried and I smiled inside.

I slowly drew back off of him and let him pop
from my mouth, he stooped, strong fingers wrapping around my upper arms he
dragged me to my feet, mouth crushing down over my own in a demanding kiss just
this side of violent. I loved it. Pulse fluttering in my throat with excitement
I put hands to his hips and pulled myself flush against his body. The length of
him hot and burning to the touch where it pressed between us.

He walked us backwards into the living room
and I followed eagerly. By now he was nude and I was clad only in my thin
cotton brief panties which were soaking through. Moisture coated the insides of
my thighs and I couldn’t remember a time that any man had ever had such power
over me. I was wild and untamed and so completely freeing and I knew that
shouldn’t make sense but in our world it did, it made perfect sense and I never
ever wanted the feelings he evoked in me to ever go away.

I clung to him and kissed him as if he were
the last drink of water and I’d just stepped out of a dessert. The backs of my
thighs connected with cool leather and I jumped. He’d backed me up against the
back of the couch. He broke his mouth from mine and I raised my eyes from mere
inches away to meet his. The color had bled again, his owl’s eyes looking back
at me and it was as if the very breath was stolen from my lungs. It didn’t
bother me anymore, instead the sight was striking, hauntingly beautiful.

He still had me by my upper arms and my hands
were raised, pressed between us, palms flat over the smooth expanse of muscle
of his upper chest.

“Stop me if you need to love. Just say the
word.” He murmured and spun me around. His hand pressed between my shoulder
blades and I was bent over the back of the couch. I put my hands flat against
the seat cushion and gasped. Hunter was bent over me, I turned my head to the
side and he kissed my cheek.

“Keep those hands where they are.” He half
purred half growled into my ear and I shivered with anticipation.

He placed a gentle, chaste, kiss where my hair
began at the base of my skull, followed by another just below that, traveling
in a straight line down the back of my neck. I moaned and pressed my thighs
together. I felt his lips curl into a smile against my skin.

“I want you to hold still for me love.” He
murmured against my skin and continued his descent, laying kiss after gentle
kiss down my spine, his fingers hooked into the waistband of my panties and he
gently tugged them down over my ass. His knuckles gently grazed my hips,
ghosting down my outer thighs. His lips paused at the base of my spine and
lifted.

“I mean it Jess, stay put.” His breath was
warm against my skin and then his heat left me as he knelt down behind me,
hands grazing the outsides of my knees, panties pooling at my feet in a pile of
damp cotton.

I was getting a bit of a head rush, bent over
the way I was, but I obediently stayed put. I trusted Hunter implicitly and I
was enjoying myself so I had no reason to not go along with what he wished. His
large hands pressed into the backs of my thighs to either side of my sex,
opening me to him.

“You’re so fucking perfect.” He murmured,
breath tickling me and he pressed his tongue to my opening. I arched thrusting
my hips back to meet him and he growled in warning. I giggled and went back to
my original positioning.

He thrust his tongue into my opening as far as
he could and I gasped. It was different from this angle, not unpleasant, just
the opposite. What it was, was very teasing, tantalizing, enough to set me on
fire, ride that razor’s edge but leave me maddeningly unfulfilled. I whimpered
and writhed as much as he’d let me until finally he pulled back, standing
behind me.

“Teasing you too much?” he asked. I nodded, my
vocabulary jumbled and words all but fled. I felt heavy with need and
thoroughly riled up but I was left wanting, craving, that final release. Hunter
chuckled behind me and I felt him slide the head of himself up and down my
slit.

“Please…” I begged and felt a surge of triumph
both at having gotten the word out clearly and at the steady full sensation of
Hunter pressing himself inside me. I cried out, a mixture of gratitude and
ecstasy and pressed back onto him.

He stayed that way for several heartbeats,
seated as deeply as he could go, simply resting there. His hands still and warm
on my hips, the sound of our heavy breathing echoing back at us. He drew back
and surged forward, sliding in my wetness finding a pace that hit all the right
places, sending quicksilver sparking through my body.

His fingers dug into my hips on either side
with near bruising force and I didn’t care, I just wanted him, all of him. Our
breath came in ragged pants, and I could feel that deep well begin to fill. He
changed angle a few times until I cried out and then with a satisfied grunt
drove himself deep, the head of his cock slipping over that place inside of me
that had me coiling tight like a spring. He tortured that place deep inside me
so sweetly until I flew apart in his arms, collapsing over the back of the
sofa, cheek pressing against the cool leather seat, Hunter’s warmth pressed
over the back of me.

We came back down to earth slowly, both of us
gasping. He withdrew from my body slowly with an inarticulate cry from being
oversensitive. I knew exactly how he felt, shivering deliciously beneath him,
echoing his cry with one of my own. 

He robbed me of all sense when he did this to
me.

His arm slid beneath my shoulders and across
my chest above my breasts and he helped me upright. My wrists creaked a bit,
unaccustomed to supporting me the way they had for as long as they had but I
didn’t care. He turned me and pressed the front of our bodies together. I clung
to him and he to me as our pounding hearts fell out of sync, slowly returning
to their normal rates.

“Was that okay?” He asked, searching my face.
I nodded enthusiastically, smiling, the expression on his face causing my smile
to slip momentarily until I realized why he was asking.

“Th-th-that w-was better th-than okay. That
w-w-was am-m-m-azeballs!” I grinned and he threw back his head and laughed. The
loudest and richest laugh I had ever heard him make. So amazing it made my toes
curl like when he kissed me.

“I love you.” He said, wiping tears from the
corners of his eyes.

“L-l-love you too.” I murmured against his
chest, and I did.

I really did.

Best.

Date.

Ever.