by Tl Reeve
Royce had been methodical removing one garment at a time. He savored the seconds before he’d step into the enclosure and fuck his mate. He was near desperate for her. To feel the way she trembled in his hold, even when he made her feel useless. He needed to hear the soft gasps of pleasure. To feel her fingernails dig into the back of his thighs when she climaxed. His balls grew heavy. His dick throbbed and leaked.
He pulled the door open and stepped into the spray of water then watched as the majority of it sloshed down his mate’s form. Rapidly falling drops dripped from her nipples, causing his mouth to water. Without saying a word, he went to his knees in front of her and took the soft point into his mouth. Charisma threaded her fingers through his hair and tried to push away. Royce growled. He palmed her hips, keeping her in place while he took his fill.
“Royce, you don’t have to...” She moaned. Her fingers cinched his hair, tugging the curly strands.
“I want to.” He switched to her other breast, taking his time to tease and suck on the taut point. “You smell good.”
“I washed my hair.”
He shook his head and speared her sex. “This is wet and smells good.”
Pink tinged her cheeks as he began to fuck her with one finger then added a second. Wet heat seared him. She quivered and rippled around his intrusion. As much as she was mad at him, she also wanted him. He’d spent so much time doing what everyone else wanted from him instead of doing what he should’ve. Taking care of his mate was priority number one, and he’d failed.
He removed his fingers then nudged her legs apart. The water from the shower drenched him as he kneeled before her, but it didn’t stop him from burying his face between her thighs. A low groan burst from his chest with the first swipe of her slit with his tongue. The sweet smell of magnolias in spring hit his nostrils, and it was all he could do to keep himself in check. He wrapped his lips around her clit and drew the hard bead into his mouth.
She gasped his name, riding his face. He fucking loved it. He missed her responsive body. The way she took control whenever the mood struck. He sucked and nibbled on her clit, allowing her honey-flavored nectar to coat his tongue. He should have never given this up. Her thighs trembled, and her knees went weak. Royce wrapped his arms around her, holding her up so he could take his fill. It’d been way too long since he’d enjoyed his mate and not just fucking her as a function.
“Come for me, Oasis,” he groaned. “Come on my tongue. Scream my name.”
Instead, she chanted it, squeezing her legs together so his face was stuck right where she wanted him. With each roll of her hips she said his name, until she went bow tight. He pressed his thumb to her rear, giving her the extra push she needed to fly, then greedily lapped up the juices of her release.
Charisma sagged. Her breath came in heaving pants as she held onto him. Royce continued to lick and suck at her pussy, chasing each ripple. Each quiver. When she sighed, he came to his feet and stared down at her. Her eyes were glassy. Her face and chest flushed. Without hesitating, she went to her knees in front of him.
“Charisma...” He hadn’t pushed for this in the three years they’d been together. Charisma had come to their bed a virgin, and he’d done everything in his power to keep her as innocent as possible—something he got off on every time they were together.
He glanced down at her dark head as those lips of hers wrapped around his steely length. Her tongue wiggled along his slit, dipping in and out to lap at the pre-cum gathered there. Royce hissed. He fisted his hand in her hair, guiding her. She worked her mouth up and down, taking a bit more of him with each pass. “Suck it, Charisma. Suck my dick.”
She moaned around him, and the vibrations zipped along his shaft. Her palm grazed his sac before moving behind them to the sensitive patch of skin. She scraped her nails along his taint, adding to the pleasure engulfing him. Royce held his breath. He counted to twenty. Then fifty. Each tentative swipe of her tongue was like the sweetest kiss to his tip. She looked up at him, her gaze filled with trust, love, and fucking need. The emotion so powerful, he almost lost his shit right then. Right there.
“Fuck yeah, like that, Oasis.”
He went to his tiptoes when she took him all the way to the back of her throat and swallowed. Royce fought for control, because all he wanted to do was fuck her.
With his mouth.
With his hand.
With the cock shoved deep between her lips.
He wanted it rough. Hard. He wanted to knot her pussy then spill every single drop of his cum—hoping this time he knocked her up. The possessive part of him, the one he buried so he could do his “job,” reared its fucking head. A rush of adrenaline and arousal shot through him, and he swore his dick grew harder.
The scent of her arousal became thicker by the second. He inhaled, savoring her scent. His hips jerked, sinking more of his dick into her warmth. He was playing a dangerous game with her. Charisma struggled for a second before relaxing, allowing him to shove deeper.
Hot pinpricks of pleasure shot down his spine. He was too close. Way too fucking close to knotting her mouth. But, he also couldn’t find the strength to pull out. “Yeah, baby. Like that. Do it again.” Her fingers continued to dance from his balls to his taint. Touching and exploring him while he fucked her mouth. He had to stop though. He didn’t want to finish this way. He pulled out with a long, painful groan. A web of her saliva clung to his length, and his cock jerked. “Fuck me.”
He pulled her to her feet, giving her a second to catch her breath. Her eyes were wild. Her breath came in soft pants. Her cheeks were the sweetest color of pink he’d ever seen, and it was all for him. He bent his head, capturing her lips with his. He could taste himself on her tongue. A primal part of him rejoiced in it. No one would touch what belonged to him. He’d mark her everywhere if he had to just to prove the point.
“Your mouth is like fucking heaven, baby. You love sucking my dick, don't you, my little Oasis?”
She whimpered his name. She trembled in his arms. “Please...”
“You don’t have to beg. I’ll always be here for you. I’ve been a stupid, stupid man. I should have said no. I should have walked away from the department.” He kissed her again. “You’re my priority. Always will be.”
“You say that—”
“Shh. I’ll prove it.” Royce gathered her in his arms and pressed her back to the side wall of the large shower. “Wrap them beautiful legs around my hips.” He caressed the groove of her hips leading to the apex of her plump thighs.
“Royce, I—”
“Don’t say it. You know I’d never let you fall.” He spread her open, pushing himself flush to her. The minute she complied with his request, he thought he won the lottery. He buried his face in her neck, the one place he hadn’t marked her yet. No, he placed the mating bite in a secret spot. To the outside her right nipple, next to her heart. It’d faded now due to his fucking job getting in the way and his guilt eating at him. Never again though.
He braced himself with one hand then guided his tip to her entrance. Charisma did all the work. Her sweet cream allowed him to glide into her, all the way to the hilt. He stood there for a moment, head pressed to her shoulder, dick throbbing. He reveled in it. He soaked up her wet heat while her pussy sucked and kissed the tip of his erection, trying to bring forth his knot and his cum.
Not yet.
With a shift of his hips, he retreated then filled her once more. Charisma’s strangled cry accompanied a wash of her juices, coating him. As much as Royce wanted to hold himself in check, it’d been too long, and he’d been too excited to take his time. Later, he assured himself, he would do what he wanted to her for a while. He’d lay her out on their bed and fuck her into oblivion. He’d make sure his knot caught just right so he’d be joined to her as they rested.
When they woke, he’d start again.
The idea of filling her with his cum multiple times had a tingle of bliss rushing down his spine. It settled in his balls, draw
ing them up close to his body. The knot twitched. With each rub of her sensitive walls, it engorged. He gazed into his mate’s eyes and saw the same rejection he’d glimpsed earlier enter them. Though her body responded, her heart had been fractured and it was all his doing.
“Together, Oasis. Always.” He fit his palm between them and found her clit so hard, he grimaced for her. “Come on me. Take me with you.” He flicked the nub then pushed down on it with each of his shortened strokes.
Charisma went slick around him as she cried out. Her pussy flexed and rippled, milking him with its rhythmic pulses. Royce gave over to it. He let go, burying his face in her neck, and bit down. She cried out again. This time her climax forced his knot into place. As he stood there pumping his orgasm into her, he realized something changed. He could feel it.
Though powerful, his climax also didn’t feel like before. Contentment and comfort filled him instead of the raging need clawing at his balls to pull his knot free and begin again.
Royce brushed it aside. He chalked it up to all of the frustration and heartache he’d brought to their relationship. Later he’d ask his uncle about it. Until then, he held his mate. “I love you, Oasis. I always have, and I’m going to prove it.”
Chapter One
Charisma wearily watched Royce from the bathroom as he got ready in their bedroom. He clipped on his belt, holstered his gun, and placed his badge which was connected to a cord around his neck before he left the bedroom. Two weeks ago, he came to her, telling her he’d been undercover for the last three years and his ‘supposed’ relationship with Katie was fake. Then he made love to her, not the normal fucking he gave her when he couldn’t stop his urges and the moon cycle was at its worst. No, this time it had been facing each other. She had been spellbound by the expression on his face, and the love she thought she saw in his eyes, the entire time.
Just thinking about how naïve she’d been with him…again…made her eyes fill with tears. Her throat ached to scream at the injustice of it all. More importantly at her own stupidity for falling once again for Royce Raferty. When would she ever learn? She’d believed him. At first. Thinking everything would change.
It didn’t.
Her poor heart, it’d never be the same because the very next day, Royce went right back into his old habits, ignoring her, being secretive and crawling into their bed late at night only after she was asleep. Most mornings, he was gone before she even woke up. Whatever hope she had of them having a relationship like his uncles and their mates, died a slow, painful death.
Yesterday, Charisma made up her mind.
She wouldn’t stand around waiting for him. Waiting on another full moon so she could be even more humiliated as he fucked her out of some misplaced duty he felt. Or, knowing full well he was thinking of someone else the entire time. Her heart twisted as a wave of pain washed over her. How dare he. She was done with his bullshit and empty promises. Once she got out from under him, she’d get back on track, and get back to being someone she could look in the eye when staring at herself in the mirror. With her decision made, a weight had been lifted from her shoulders. From that moment on, she refused to let her mate make her feel foolish anymore.
She needed to leave. Not tomorrow, or next week…but today. She was done living a lie. Waiting like an overeager puppy dog for her mate to love her. Her priority was to get away from Royce Raferty and his smooth-talking, lying ways as soon as possible.
It was bad enough Penelope had already commented on her ‘odd’ sadness on more than one occasion. Charisma had seen the concern in her younger sister’s eyes. Thankfully, Penelope had yet to ask the question she’d seen in her sister’s gaze and she never had to lie to her—especially when she looked in the mirror and saw the shell of her former self.
If she hadn’t felt like she was going to toss her cookies, Charisma would have chased after Royce, beaming his big fat head with the heavy brush she was using at the moment. Maybe releasing the pent-up anger she held for him would help. Hard to believe at one time he was her sun, moon, and stars. Now, she could barely stand to be in the same room with him.
“Bye, babe,” Royce called from the front door, slamming it closed.
The nausea she had been fighting since she crawled, exhausted, from their bed that morning, reared its ugly head. Dropping the brush, she dived for the toilet and proceeded to heave up the small amount of water and crackers she had managed to choke down while Royce was in the shower this morning.
Her entire body got hot and sweat formed on her forehead, under her breasts, and on her back as she heaved, repeatedly, into the bowl. When she was done, she flushed the toilet but remained on the floor. Leaning against the wall, she willed her body to stop shaking.
It didn’t work.
Whatever was going on with her, it had become more frequent and harder to hide, to the point she’d ended up at a health clinic, two towns over, yesterday for a physical. The nurse had taken several vials of blood, as a precaution, after the doctor had performed a thorough exam.
The doctor’s prognosis was stress combined with exhaustion. Duh…she could have told him that and saved herself the aggravation of hiding where and what she was doing yesterday. If Danielle ever found out she went to another doctor, there’d be hell to pay. The doctor at the clinic told her to cut out caffeine, alcohol, get more rest, along with taking a daily dose of B-12. She could do all of them easily, except cutting out the caffeine. Some people had to have coffee, but not Charisma; she was addicted to iced tea.
It was bad. So bad, the servers at YoJo, the small coffee house in town, usually had a large iced tea waiting for her when she stepped inside the establishment. It was no secret she went multiple times a day, every day. Even on the weekends.
All of her friends and family joked and teased her, knowing she always had a cup filled with either a light green or a reddish-brown drink.
In the beginning, whenever Royce knew he was going to see her, he always came prepared. Often times he’d show up with a large plastic cup with tiny drops of moisture covering it. The last time he had done it was well over two years ago.
Charisma brushed the stupid tears from her cheeks. It didn’t matter anymore. That life…their life was a lie, held together by spit and deceit.
After brushing her teeth, Charisma made her way back into their bedroom. Unable to help herself, she snagged his pillow, and knowing it would be the last time, she brought it up to her face. She inhaled his scent. The spicy musk of wilderness mixed with the outdoors and his soap. It calmed her, easing the earlier anxiousness. A sense of peace washed over her, and the knot in her belly dissipated.
Sitting there, wasting time, wasn’t going to get the long list of things she needed to get done before Royce returned later that night. She knew he’d be on time, because it was family dinner night over at his Uncle Kalkin’s homestead. One thing she’d learned early in their relationship, Royce was okay with pissing off or upsetting her, but never his uncles or their families. And, on some level, she did resent the Raferty pack and their family closeness.
In the beginning, she had loved it. Basking in the large family that spent huge chunks of time together. Now it drained her, both physically and mentally, having to play the part of the happy, in love mate.
Her stomach rolled in disgust.
Unlike Royce, she had no plans on being vague or hiding what she was about to do. When he walked through the door, Charisma planned to lay it all on the table, then walk out the door.
Leaving would break her heart, but she’d make it through and each day apart she’d get busy growing stronger. She’d survived the death of her beloved mother to breast cancer, she’d survive the loss of her mate.
Her only problem, she had no place to go, which was what she planned to take care of today. Well, that, and pack her clothes, but Charisma was sure she could do that task in about an hour.
Penelope currently lived in their old home with her mate, Saber Dryer. Having already spent the last three years
feeling unloved and unwanted, Charisma refused to become the third wheel in her baby sister’s loving relationship. Plus, with Lynx beginning to get into everything, having another person for her sister to worry about wouldn’t be fair to her.
Charisma knew she could easily find a room or an apartment to lease. The problem was, everyone knew her as Royce’s mate. The second she contacted anyone, they’d either call him or his nosey ass uncles.
Going outside of pack lands was an option. One she knew would guarantee the wrath of the pack Alpha and Royce’s favorite uncle, Kalkin Raferty. If she hadn’t learned anything since entwining her life with the pack’s, she knew Kalkin protected his family with every breath in his body.
After cleaning up the bathroom, she poured herself a glass of tea and sat down on the couch to start looking for a place to live. The fourth call was successful, two towns over, far enough away so she didn’t have to see Royce, but not too far from Penelope or her work.
No sooner did she hang up her cell than it rang again. Charisma swiped her finger across the screen then brought the phone to her ear. “Hello.”
“Charisma Winters, please,” an older and firm female asked, but didn’t identify herself. “This is her. Who is this?” she inquired.
“Oh…I’m sorry. I’m a nurse at Doctor Oliver’s practice. You saw him yesterday,” the woman said.
“Yes. Is there a problem?”
“No, dear, some of your blood work came back and I wanted to let you know, your hCG levels are good and strong.”
“My hCG levels?” Charisma parroted back. The cursed knot in her stomach was back, and bile filled her throat.
“Yes. The doctor has requested you follow up with him next week. They’ll take more blood to make sure your levels continue to double and it’s a viable pregnancy.”