The tongue in her mouth was not helping with the vertigo Darcy was already suffering from. But it tasted so good. They became completely, desperately entangled. His arms wound around her and his fingers pressed into her body. Her legs twisted around his. With a startled groan, Luca stumbled backwards until he hit the tree trunk. It did not dissuade his tenacious tongue.

They broke apart gasping. Frustratingly, Darcy’s blazing fury had dissipated. She had enough coherent energy to know she had been angry with him, and that she had intended to still be. His sharp brows, pointed at the ends, pulled his face down into a desperate, pleading look. He tilted his chin back towards her, slim lips reaching. Begging another kiss.

“I need a lie down,” Darcy admitted dazedly.

Luca chuckled, but didn’t argue. His expression slipped back to its chilled neutral setting. “You look like you’ve just finished a marathon,” he teased.

“I like running, remember?” she joked weakly. Her own words echoed in her mind. The blush that had already taken over her face spread to the tips of her ears. Somehow, she had managed to indirectly admit to liking Luca’s kisses. She looked away over his shoulder, feigning sudden interest in the bustling bushes around them.

Luca brushed a kiss along her stretched neck. She felt his smile on her skin when she trembled under his affection. His hands at her waist hoisted her up to sit on his hip. She caught sight of his palms for just a moment, they were littered with cuts and grazes. A smattering of blood had dried to them.

“Let’s go back to base,” he announced. Darcy cuddled in close and nodded.

With her comfortably balanced at his side, he began the trek back to their picnic blanket.

The rumpled blanket was exactly as they had left it, with backpack and containers piled on one corner. Luca squatted on the opposite corner and lowered them to the ground. Darcy peeled herself from his side. He allowed her to scoot away from him and took the opportunity to spread himself into a lounging position across the blanket. Darcy mimicked him, balancing on her elbow.

They laid in silence for a while. Her eyes couldn’t stay off of him, no matter how hard she tried to focus on the beautiful scenery of the blooming forestry. The heat of his own gaze on her was worse than the sun beating down from above.

“I’m sorry for not listening to you,” he said suddenly.“I just… want to make sure you know that I mean it. I never feel like you believe me.”

“I believe you want to be forgiven,” Darcy admitted. She chose each of her words carefully as she continued, “I don’t know if I believe you’ll change and listen to me in future. I feel like… you’re just learning the right things to say or do to still get what you want in the end.”

“I don’t always have an evil ulterior motive,” he argued.

Darcy rolled her eyes. “You usually do.”

His tone suddenly turned far more serious. “My ulterior motive in the tree was for you not to fall and die.”

“We wouldn’t have been in the tree if you had listened to me,” she reminded him.

“You’re not wrong, but-”

“But you don’t like being not right,” Darcy finished.

Luca looked away, scrunching his delicious lips. Darcy wished she could look away, but his face was a magnet and her eyes were oppositely charged.

After a few moments he connected their eyes again. Gold with black. “I was in the wrong,” he conceded. He spoke sincerely. Darcy quirked a brow at him, surprised and somehow even more turned on than she had been making out against the tree that almost killed her. Now that could definitely develop into a very weird kink.

She hurriedly swept away her strange, perverted thoughts to respond, “yep.” She would have liked to berate him eloquently and wittily… but her mind refused to release its grip fully on the replay button showcasing the tree kiss. Over and over and over.

Luca’s silky voice was the required brake switch. “How do I make it right?” he asked.

Darcy considered her answer for a few seconds. She finally suggested, “do better next time.” The finality in her voice silenced him, for now. He seemed deep in thought. A handsome philosopher lounging about amongst nature, thinking of the universe. Darcy rolled slightly and let her chest, shoulders and head dip to the blanket until she was completely flat. Her eyelids slid down.

Darcy dozed, neither fully asleep or awake. The combination of sunny warmth on the bare skin of her arms and face, and the gentle breeze cooling her over her clothes felt incredible. She hummed happily and cracked her eyes open to glance over at her darling dialectician.

Amber eyes were upon her again. She blushed under his heavy gaze.

“Shall we shift?” he asked pleasantly. He didn’t budge from his lounging position on the blanket, though.

“I don’t- I’m not really comfortable in my wolf form,” Darcy mumbled into her forearms.

“Do you mind if I still do? I need a stretch.”

Darcy shrugged awkwardly. It wasn’t her place to tell another wolf they couldn’t switch forms. “Sure.”

He clambered up from the floor and kicked his shoes off next to the backpack. Next he pulled off his socks and t-shirt. His torso was long and bespeckled with light brown freckles. The way his golden skin pulled tightly over his shifting muscles had her underwear sticking to her lips. The power in his oversized frame brought a hazy feeling over her; a desperate need to be pinned down, with his teeth at her throat. Darcy averted her eyes the moment his fingers reached his zipper. Luca caught her with his own, and grinned salaciously before she could get a firm lock on the trees behind him.

“I’ll turn away,” Darcy stammered.

A grin twitched at the corner of his mouth. He was fighting it off poorly. “Why?”

Darcy plucked out the first excuse she could find in her head. “Privacy?” She wanted to slap her own forehead. Wolves didn’t care about their bodies being seen by others. Only an omega would worry about such things.

Luca humoured her, though. “Why would I need privacy with only the two of us here?”

Darcy forced out a barely audible, “I wouldn’t want to make you uncomfortable.” Her lips and throat were suddenly bone dry. She pressed them into her squishy forearms. Nothing about her body was taut or tight like his.

His reply rumbled from his mouth-wateringly bare chest. “I feel very comfortable with you looking at my body, Darcy.”

A squeak escaped her and she buried her head into the small circle created by her arms on the blanket. Luca laughed and she heard the sound of his jeans hit the dirt.

The huff of a wolf informed her that he was finished shifting. Darcy peeked out at him.

Her mate was glorious. Proudly trotting around their small clearing in all of his golden-furred beauty. His huge size was matched in wolf form, with his furry back sitting at what Darcy guessed to be her shoulder height. After a few dawdling laps he leapt forward, startling Darcy into an upright position. His laugh was a borderline bark and she shook her head in faux annoyance. He winked and shot off, disappearing between thick tree trunks. The pad of his paws hitting the earth faded instantly.