Page 67 of Love in the Wild

“Heavens, look at me, weeping like a watering pot.” She pushed at him. “Andyouare cold and wet. Go on upstairs. Wash that lake water off and get some rest. I’ll have dinner sent up soon.”

Thorne kissed his aunt’s forehead before Eden led him upstairs to their room. She was quiet, too quiet, which bothered him. Her towel was wrapped tight around her, and she watched him with wide eyes as he closed the door.

“Eden?” He spoke her name with as much love as he could.

“This is just ... It’s so much, Thorne. Was I right in bringing you home? Would you have been happier if you had stayed in the jungle?” She wiped at the tears that were now trailing down her cheeks. “I came into your life, and now, what have I done? I stole you away from your home. From Keza and Akika ... even Tembo.”

Thorne cupped her shoulders and smiled. “Tembo will remember me, but he does not need me. This is also true for Keza and Akika.”

“But you needthem. You’re a part of the jungle. I can’t help but think you belong there. I know your aunt and uncle are so happy to see you again, but I feel like I’ve turned everyone’s world upside down.”

Thorne put his hand under her chin and lifted it up so she had to look at him.

“I am a child of two worlds, with two lives. You returned that second life to me, Eden. Do not cry.” He lowered his head to hers, his mouth gentle as he caressed her trembling lips.

Her towel fell to the floor, and Thorne led her back with him into the bathroom. He paused in his kisses long enough to turn on the hot water in the shower before he turned his focus back to her.

“Take off your clothes,” he commanded. His sweet mate slowly peeled off her clothes, but not all of them. A smaller layer of light-pink fabric remained underneath.

“All of it. I need to take you,” he growled in a hungry command.

As he stripped out of his own clothes, he pulled a very naked and beautiful Eden into the shower with him. The steam cocooned them in a private world, while hot water cascaded over them.

Eden’s soft curves pressed into him, making him near mindless with lust. His pulse was a rapid staccato underneath his skin as he looked into Eden’s eyes, which held a thousand silent questions within them. Thorne’s blood surged as he took her mouth, dominating her lips, showing her that he was in charge.

The pull between them was so strong he could feel it locking them together. He turned her in his arms, facing her away from him. She placed her palms on the shower wall, her bottom thrust toward him. He swept his hands over her wet skin, cupping the swells of her breasts and the curves of her ass. She was gorgeous, and she belonged tohim.

He caged her from behind, pressing his front to her back, his hands on either side of hers on the shower wall as he kissed her neck and nipped her sensitive skin. She gasped and arched against him. He moved his hand down her body between her thighs, parting her slick folds, stroking a fingertip into her wetness.

“Please, Thorne, take me,” Eden whispered. “Take me like you did by the waterfall.”

He didn’t reply with words. Instead, he gripped her hips and pulled them toward him, then guided himself into her body, finding sweet oblivion as he sank into her.

She gasped his name as he withdrew and thrust back in. This position gave him a sense of control that he enjoyed. To take his mate like this brought the animal in him roaring to the surface. He didn’t hurt her, but he knew he could be hard and rough in certain ways that would have Eden lighting up like a star with mind-blowing pleasure.

He took his time riding her, and when her legs began to shake, he increased his pace, taking her harder, faster. Their ragged breaths echoed all around them. He fought his own release until she gasped and went limp first. Only then did his pulsing body race to catch up with her, and he released himself inside her. It left him gasping as he held her back against him.

Thorne cradled her to him, nuzzling her neck as she propped herself up against the shower wall with one hand for support.

“Holy shit ... holy shit ... holy shit ...” Eden’s breath escaped shakily as she turned to face him. “You have wrecked me for all other men.”

He smiled at her. “I’m youronlyman.”

She laughed softly and cuddled close to him beneath the hot spray from the shower. “That you are.”

Thorne held his breath for a long moment, then spoke the words that had grown too strong to stay caged inside him. He’d said it before in the lake, but not quite so openly, so clearly as he wanted to say it now.

“I love you.”

Eden turned in his arms, her lips parted as though to speak, but he kissed her before she could answer him. He spoke without words. He spoke the language of his body and soul, and he hoped that it was a language powerful enough to win her heart.

16

The Haywood family and Eden had been busy the week following Thorne’s return. The DNA results had come back positive, and the official paperwork to reinstate Thorne as a living person had been filed in the courts. Eden and Isabelle had worked carefully on a special news interview with the BBC where Eden told her story of the jungle massacre and the plight of the gorillas, and she’d teased the interviewer and the audience with Thorne’s story, not quite divulging all the details about her miraculous rescuer.

The news about Thorne had traveled fast. Within a day of her interview, camera crews and paparazzi had been buzzing about the Somerset estate gates like bees about a hive. Now a full week later, the print article inNational Parkmagazine and the online edition were launching within the next half hour, and Eden was a nervous wreck. So much was riding on this, and Eden knew it could possibly take months, maybe even longer, for the man they wanted to find to make a move so they could catch him. There was also every chance the man would simply disappear—remove all traces of his connections to Africa and the cave and never look back. But Cameron wasn’t convinced of that. He said a man wouldn’t simply walk away from that kind of wealth.

Eden sat anxiously at the breakfast table with Cameron, even though it was close to noon. Thorne and Isabelle were out riding horses, which they had taken to doing each day right after breakfast. They were usually gone a few hours, since the Somerset estate was large. They had to ride deep into the estate and away from the gates to avoid too many photos from the press outside. Eden’s gaze strayed to the windows that overlooked the pasture beyond, but she saw no sign of Thorne or Isabelle. She tapped her foot and bit her lip as she looked back to Cameron.

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