by Sylvia Frost
He didn’t relent. He pressed the back of my neck harder.
Now, I clutched my thighs together, but that didn’t keep the warm wetness from dripping out of my panties. I would’ve been embarrassed, but I felt too good. I dragged my nails down his chest, my hands tensed into claws. Daniel gave a feline hiss but didn’t let me go.
Need built and built inside me chemical reactions clashing against each other, until black dots swam at the corners of my eyes.
And then I shattered. The orgasm washed over me like a tonic for all the pains I’d held in my body without realizing it. My muscles all gave at once, and I reached up toward him blindly, grabbing at his neck too.
I shouldn’t have been surprised when my fingers ran through silky, thick fur just like mine. I should’ve been even less surprised when Daniel’s eyes widened, his whole body tensing as his his eyes blazed to life.
Like lightening let out of the bottle.
Chapter 13
DANIEL
My inner lion roared as Rose’s fingers ran through the fur of my matemark. She had to drape her arms around my neck just to hold herself upright, because her bare knees wobbled from the aftershocks of her orgasm. Her pink lips were plump and shimmering. She was so ready to be mine.
If I dropped to my knees, I could bury myself between her plump thighs. Then I’d rip her panties off with my teeth and have my tongue licking her sex’s folds before she could so much as say my name.
My pulse skyrocketed. Mouth closed, I paced my breathing. It didn’t help. Every breath I took just caused me to taste more of her maddening scent. Lilacs. And sex.
She opened her mouth and my inner lion saw that as a signal to strike.
With a grunt I twisted a hand in her hair, crashing her lips against mine. Her tongue darted out, tasting me greedily. I lapped back and my fist tightened around her braids as I claimed her with my tongue. She had no idea how deeply she belonged to me and the lengths I would go to keep her safe. My lion demanded I show her.
I grabbed her by the waist, hoisting her around a column that separated the entryway and the kitchen and onto the counter. The rest of the take out menus scattered onto the floor.
Her hands roamed my face, stroking my stubble. I palmed her breasts, and she thrashed against me in pleasure. Her bucking head came dangerously close to colliding with the column.
I shielded her skull with the back of my hand. I would not let my mate have a concussion seconds before she was claimed. New plan. Grabbing her by the back of her legs, I swung her bridal style into my arms. She buried her face in my chest.
I scanned the layout of her home and plotted a path to her bedroom. Her apartment was small, and all the walls were covered in shelves overstuffed with books, CDs and any other form of media that might hold a story. Purple-fringed curtains veiled the windows, blocking out that fortress-like building she said was a brewery. The hallway was dark and narrow. I didn’t like dark and narrow spaces.
Screams. Roars. Butting my head against the cage of silver until blood trickled down from the wound on my lion’s temple. My teeth closing around burning silver as I bit bars made of poison. Pain. Pain. So much pain.
“Daniel, what’s wrong?” Rose stroked around the collar of my T-shirt with gentle care then kissed me, right over the stupid logo of the Werehawks on my T-shirt.
“Nothing.” I squeezed her against me, so hard she squeaked. She was here. If Lonan tried to touch her, or if his Humvee showed its face again, I’d go after him. But in the mean time I wouldn’t let myself be distracted.
In two steps I had crossed the hallway, and reached the threshold of her bedroom. In another two, I was angling us both through the narrow space between her bed and her desk, which really was just a table for storing more books.
Her bed was concerning. The bronze frame didn’t look like it would be able to handle our lovemaking, and my doctor’s side was tempted to put the mattress on the floor just to be safe. My lion side didn’t have the patience.
I laid Rose out over her comforter, the duvet giving under her weight. It was ivory and made her mocha skin look delectable. A dimple blossomed on her freckled cheek as she smiled at me.
“Hi,” she whispered. “You know how you told me something?”
“Yes.”
She bit the side of her lip, glancing up at me shyly. “I have to tell you something, too. I hope you don’t think it’s too weird.”
“I won’t.”
Her teeth kept toying with her lower lip. It was driving my already twitching cock insane. If she wasn’t careful, I’d just claim her pretty little mouth and she wouldn’t get a chance to speak again until morning.
“Rose.”
Her shoulders rose up to her ears as she tensed. “This is my first time.”
A flood of warmth sluiced though my chest, cresting between my ribs, and taming my cock, if only for a few seconds. I adjusted my position so I was sitting next to her.
“That’s not weird.” I grabbed her hand and brushed butterfly kisses between her knuckles. “That’s wonderful.”
Her other cheek dimpled. “Really?”
“Really.”
She nodded and let go of her bottom lip. “Would you take off your shirt?” Heat radiated from her cheeks.
I smirked and gave her little bed a wide berth as I stood and shrugged off that damn T-shirt and the wifebeater underneath. She got still as a mouse hiding in tall grass from a cat as I threw it to the side. It was adorable. But I wanted her hands on my body.
“You can touch me, Rose.”
She raised her eyebrows and kneeled forward on the bed. Her fingers that had once been so eager when kissing me were tentative. Just the pads of them brushed my abdominal muscles. “God, I didn’t think someone could look like this in real life.”
I smirked. Werebeasts truly were the superior species, and it was good that my mate recognized it. It would keep her from ever thinking of a human man.
Emboldened, her hands tip-toed closer and closer to the elastic band of my underwear peeking out from my jeans. My cock twitched.
Her eyes widened and she darted back, but with my reflexes I caught her before she had a chance to fully escape. I felt her heart-rate jump under my thumb, so I rubbed a soothing circle on her skin.
With my other hand, I unlatched my belt buckle and popped open the button. My zipper clicked down a few centimeters under the force of my growing cock. A sliver of air breezed through my underwear offering a second of relief. Then I caught Rose licking her lips, and my cock swelled further, hotter than it was two seconds ago.
I set my belt on the bed instead of dumping it on the floor. The noise would distract Rose. Her full attention was on my cock. I was going to keep it that way.
“You’re going to feel what I’m going to put inside of you, sweetheart,” I promised.
Her breathing caught, but she let me move her hand lower, down past my neatly trimmed pubic hair to the root of my shaft. I opened up her hand, and moved her fingers around my cock. At first the pressure was light, but then it constricted and she stroked up and down.
Her eyes looked at me eagerly. “Am I—”
“Yes,” I groaned.
Her fingers swirled around the head and I braced myself against her arm.
“Rose.” My voice was hoarse. “If you keep doing that I’m going to take you right here.”
She held onto her lip with a dull little canine like it was a security blanket. “I think that’s what I want.”
I captured her in a kiss and didn’t let her free until my lungs were tight from lack of oxygen. When I drew back, Rose’s lip was even more swollen than before. Turnabout was fair play—she had made my cock hard, and now I would give her what she wanted.
“Take off your clothes and get in the bed,” I commanded. “I have a few things I need to prepare. And then I’m going to claim you.”
Chapter 14
ROSE
After Daniel left to go to the bathroom, I slipped out of my
dress and under the covers. My room with its book-cover dresser and poster-papered walls felt foreign to me. I flicked off the lamp hoping lack of light would ease the surreal-ness of this whole experience.
But with my sight gone, my other senses came to life so that a few minutes later when Daniel came back. I smelled him before I saw him. Cloves and a deeper masculine musk that was slightly sweet tickled my tongue
Then I caught two golden eyes, glowing in the dimness like a predator. His footsteps were completely silent as he approached the bed. He didn’t ask me to turn on the light. He didn’t need to. He could see everything. He was my mate. The thought was so unbelievable, if I wasn’t already so hungry for his body, I wouldn’t tried to protest the whole concept.
He stopped at the foot of the bed, one hand wrapped around the bronze frame as if holding himself back from pouncing on me. “Let go of the blanket, Rose.”
I had, without realizing it, clutched the blanket up to my neck protectively. As my eyes began to adjust, I realized that while the body language of his shirtless form was that of a hunter’s, his eyes were gentle. In one hand he had a towel.
“Rose,” he coaxed. “If I’m going to take you, I’m going to see you. Towel. Now.”
I pushed the blanket away from me, revealing my bra-clad chest and the edge of my stomach, rounded and pooching slightly outward.
He took in a sharp breath and grabbed the edge of the comforter. Methodically, he pulled the rest of it away revealing my thick thighs and calves.
I tried to cross my legs to hide my center, but he slipped a hand between them, keeping them open.
“Don’t hide yourself from me,” he said. “I like how soft you are.”
To punctuate his point his hand moved upward from my calf to my thigh, all the way to my stomach. Then, never breaking eye contact, he lowered his mouth and kissed my belly-button. A shiver coursed through my whole body. He held the kiss for a good thirty seconds, and every moment that passed the tightness between my legs got worse and worse.
His next kiss dipped lower, right above my sex. The thin fabric of my underwear barely protected me. He hooked his fingers underneath the elastic and rolled that away too. I twisted one leg for him to pluck it off and then the other.
Before my butt made contact with the comforter, his thumb was gliding between my sex’s lips. I was so damp he moved smoothly through me.
“Look at how ready you are for me. You might not know how sexy you are yet, Rose. But your body does.”
His lips replaced his thumb. This kiss was as gentle as the one on my belly had been. Then he started using his tongue. He lapped between my folds, like my juices were milk from a saucer. With each stroke, my legs opened to give him more access.
My butt clenched as I felt another orgasm building at the base of my spine. This one was different, slower, warmer. It had nothing to do with the supernatural force of our bond and everything to do with him just getting to know my body. Getting to know me.
He opened me wider by pushing apart my folds with his finger. Cool air tickled my clit before it was replaced again by the warm lapping of his tongue. I was so damn close.
I grabbed the pillow behind me and as a side effect thrusted my chest out. My lips I kept sealed shut together so I didn’t scream. The walls of my apartment were too thin for that.
Not stopping his ministrations, Daniel looked up at me. There was something so indescribably sexy about the hungry gleam in his golden eyes as he toyed with my clit with the tip of his tongue.
His hands lavished attention on my thighs, enjoying their heft and weight the way I’d seen some men look at breasts.
“You’re about to come, Rose,” he said. And I wasn’t sure if it was a promise, or if his doctor’s mind could just decipher the signs of my body.
With one last stroke, his tongue retreated. I thought for a second that was the end of it, but then he opened his mouth and covered all of me with his mouth and sucked.
Stars burst behind my eyes.
“F-fuck!” I screamed, not caring about the swear, not caring about the neighbors, not caring about how I looked, not caring about anything. My hips bucked, beyond my control. All my muscles unclenched.
I was coming.
And Daniel was lifting up my hips with his hands, and slipping the towel underneath me. The terrycloth fabric felt rough against my tingling skin. Almost as rough as the stubble on Daniel’s rugged jaw. His tawny hair draped down around his face, tickling my nose, like a curtain hiding us from the rest of the world.
With my legs still open and ready for him, I felt the head of Daniel’s hot cock tease my entrance. It was velvety, and so much bigger than I would’ve guessed. Then he was slipping inside of me.
It was like nothing I had ever felt, the pressure unbearable, his hot manhood pushed against my inner walls, stretching me. Making me fit. Making me his.
His golden eyes disappeared as he closed them. “Oh, Gods. Rose.” My name sounded like a prayer.
He thrust forward another inch inside of me. I winced. It did hurt a little, but underneath the pain was a deep pleasure I’d never felt before. When I masturbated with my fingers, the pleasure always fizzled out quickly, but this one last.
Another inch of his cock pushed into me. Around it something much more liquid than my natural juices spilled between my legs. Blood, I realized. The pain eased a little, as the mark on the back of my neck sent out a comforting wave of pleasure.
The farther he entered me, the better I felt. Somehow, I knew that if he was all the way inside of me, f-fucking me it wouldn’t hurt so much. I grabbed his biceps. His skin was rough beneath my fingers, and strangely raised, like scar-tissue, but I was too drunk on him to think much about it.
But Daniel did. He grabbed my hands with a growl, pinning them above my body. His cock continued its steady advance inside of me, and he bent down, biting through the front clasp of my bra. It popped open.
Eased of the weight of my swollen breasts, the cups flopped to the side. He pressed forward another inch and sucked on my nipple. Now I was fully naked and spread out before him.
I moaned something even I didn’t understand.
But Daniel did, although he had to confirm to be sure. “What?”
“Harder,” I said louder. “Go faster.”
“Done,” he purred.
His eyes weren’t just glowing, they were on fire, burning me up with no apologies. He slammed into me. My matemark sent an echoing wash of pleasure at the ravaging. I didn’t care about anything now. I spread my legs all the way open, so he could take all of me.
His cock pistoned inside of me, each stroke deeper than the last, so big I could do nothing but just take him.
I was a virgin. This shouldn’t have felt so good. I shouldn’t have liked it so rough.
He thrust again, banishing that thought. I screamed.
“You’re mine, Rose Briar” he growled. His hips stilled mid push.
“Yes,” I pleaded.
“Say it.”
“Yours,” I said. “I’m yours. Forever.”
He bowed his head and kissed my forehead, like a blessing. Then he was lost to me now, his arms two columns on either side of me as he took what was his. Me.
In all my fantasies I couldn’t have imagined the terror, or the joy feeling him burying himself inside of me.
The hairs on the back of my neck flared, my hands balled into fists, and I didn’t know why I was, but I was resisting his onslaught, the pure male-ness of it, just for the joy of giving in seconds later. My whole body smelled of his sex and that savannah-before-a-storm scent. My mouth tasted like his sweet lips.
He grunted, slamming his hands against the wall behind us, so hard the bed scooted a couple inches backward. Again, he had shattered my soul into a million pieces. And not a single shard was afraid.
Chapter 15
DANIEL
I hadn’t slept all night.
Dawn snuck around Rose’s purple curtains and cast shy shadows
across her floors all the way to her night-stand where a red alarm clock stood. Rose was curled up where she belonged, as the small spoon to my protective scalpel. I refused to think of myself as a big spoon. I was a much sharper tool. The scent of her and her even, calm breathing was enough to keep my cock half-hard.
Every so often she’d try to roll over, but my arms would encircle her, making sure she couldn’t go far. My inner lion should’ve been at peace, but I couldn’t stop thinking about that damn Humvee last night. Was I going crazy? Or had someone really followed us? Was it Lonan? Was GR Scientific the people who had captured me?
I nuzzled into her hair, trying use her scent to push away my inner lion’s suspicions and human fears. I’d been living with nothing to lose for so long I’d forgotten what fear even felt like. Oh, I had rules. Be polite. Lie. Hide. But those weren’t feelings, they were habits.
With Rose everything was raw. Being around her made time move in fits and starts. One moment I was burying my face into her hair, so wrapped in her scent that an hour ticked by on her retro alarm clock, the next it was squawking an un-charming wake-up call.
I swiped at it on instinct, sending it crashing to the ground. The carpeted floor didn’t muffle the collision enough to keep Rose from finally stirring.
“Twenty more minutes,” she moaned, throwing one arm over her head.
“It’s Saturday. Go back to bed.” I folded her arm into my embrace hoping to lull her to sleep.
“What time is it?” Rose brushed her thumbs over the corner of her eyes to dislodge the crusted sleep there.
“7:30.” I stole the time from the now probably broken clock on the floor. I’d buy her a new one that my inner lion didn’t think was an annoying bird.
“AM?” she squeaked.
I tucked the clock under her bed with a strategic kick.
Rose yawned, as if to prove my point. My lion couldn’t help but notice how adorable her un-sharp teeth were.