by Hettie Ivers
He hummed, his eyes closing. “It’ll … pass,” he said, unconvincingly.
“But it won’t, that’s just it! It’s like nothing I do to myself can satisfy it,” I whined. “And I can’t even sleep to escape it. My God, the wet dreams I had this afternoon alone were sheer torture. There was one in particular, where I was basically at the center of a werelock gangbang in the gardens, Kai. I mean—that’s just sick and demented, right?”
He cleared his throat, his eyes now open and taking on a glazed quality as he stared down at me.
“Do you have any idea what kind of torment it is to feel your clit throbbing for attention continuously?” I stepped forward. He stepped back. I moved again, caging him in against the bathroom counter. “And yet nothing you do to try and allay it will help? It’s maddening is what it is!”
The light brown eyes that observed me were wide. He looked oddly terrified. He probably thought I was mental. Rightfully so. I felt mental.
“I mean …”—I snorted humorlessly, eyes flying to the ceiling—“’course you wouldn’t understand what it’s like, you don’t have a clitoris. But imagine your penis was erect and throbbing continuously,” I challenged, my hands moving of their own volition to press up against his stomach, my fingers canvassing the hard muscles that had been taunting me beneath his clingy white T-shirt.
“Fuck,” he groaned and bit his lip, his chest rising and falling rapidly.
“And all you could think about for days was finding a warm, wet, and very willing pussy to thrust into … again and again,” I tempted, my lips drifting forward to ghost over his pectoral muscles straining beneath his shirt, “until you finally found the orgasm that would make the desperate ache stop?”
I gazed up through my lashes at him to find his face contorted in agony, his eyes squeezed shut, his jaw clenched. I glanced down at the irrefutable evidence tenting his shorts. Oh, yes, that was definitely a “stiffy.”
“I just want it to stop, Kai. Please? Please make it stop?”
“Can’t,” he croaked, his eyes still shut, his hands white-knuckling the edge of the countertop behind him.
“But I like you. And I trust you.” As far as werelocks go, I qualified inside my head. “And I completely, absolutely respect the fact that you could never love anyone but your mate, Maribel. Which is why you’re perfect for this.”
He cocked one eye open. My stomach leapt.
“Because it’ll only be sex,” I proposed excitedly. “Purely physical. And you’re a doctor, so you can just think of it like administering a healing procedure to put me out of my misery,” I suggested. “And … and Maribel would understand, because … because you’re a doctor … and that’s what you do. You put patients out of their misery.”
It all sounded plausible and logical to my oversexed brain. I hoped Kai was buying it. He hadn’t flat-out said no in at least thirty seconds. I took it as a positive sign and pushed on, pleading my case.
“And I know it’s been a while for you and all, which is also perfect for me, since it’s my first time. Because I was also thinking”—I shrugged self-consciously—“since it’s been so long for you, that maybe it could be like both of us were having our first time … you know … together?”
I blushed as both of his eyes fully opened to stare down at me. I couldn’t quite read him, but I was pretty sure he totally thought I was nuts now. A grade A freak. This was so mortifying. I wondered if he was considering sedating me to get me to shut up.
“We … we could go slow?” I rambled on, even as I felt the threat of tears sting my eyes in my embarrassment and disappointment. “Because it’s been a while for you. And I know I seem totally out of my mind sex-crazed and anxious right now and all, but I swear I can calm down,” I promised, swallowing painfully as he continued to gawk at me like I was an alien. “And … I … I’d be careful … and gentle … with—”
I jumped back as he suddenly, and very loudly, growled. The quartz countertop cracked apart beneath his hands. I shuffled back another three steps as he stalked forward, looking like he wanted to throttle me.
“Who said I wanted it gentle?” he snarled.
My mouth must have dropped open in shock, because a moment later, in one graceful movement, his tongue was filling it, his erection grinding between my legs that had wrapped around his waist.
I was wearing a short, strappy sundress with no bra underneath, having determined a dress was more practical than pants if I was going to be changing my undies ten times a day. And the sensation of Kai’s hands groping my bare legs and panty-covered ass now was enough to make me squeal with delight.
My sexual elation was short-lived though, because one long, deep, drugging tongue kiss later and he was pulling his beautiful mouth away already, mumbling that we had to stop, that we couldn’t do this. When I protested, he pulled us both into the glass shower and blasted on the freezing cold water.
My shrill screams of objection brought Lupe barging into the bathroom to see what was amiss. But by that time we’d begun kissing again beneath the freezing spray, and I only heard her shriek before the door banged shut again.
My back slammed against the tiled wall next. Kai fisted my wet hair and yanked my head to the side, exposing my throat. And then he bit me. Hard enough to draw blood, and with no warning whatsoever! My mouth opened in a soundless scream and I nearly orgasmed on the spot. Oh, dear Lord, I was so not expecting that!
I moaned and writhed against him as he licked and sucked my neck wound better. Somehow I managed by feel to locate the shower lever and shut the water off. Goose bumps had flowered over my skin. I was shivering cold, and burning up inside.
“So fucking hot you can’t be marked.” Kai’s lust-drunk voice was muffled against my neck. “I could just bite you again and again and again—”
“Aw, c’mon, Kai!” Alcaeus’ loud voice complained from the doorway, causing me to jolt in Kai’s arms.
“What the fuck, man? This is the kind of bullshit I’d expect from Remy … or myself … not our pack priest! Damnit, you know self-restraint isn’t my strong suit.”
I turned my head just in time to see a flash go off as Lupe captured the moment with her cell phone camera. “For Alessandra,” she cackled.
“Good idea, get Alessandra,” Alcaeus instructed Lupe. “I’m gonna need backup. But do not send her that photo!”
Lupe scurried off, and Alcaeus flipped the bathroom fan on before crossing the threshold, holding his hand over his nose and mouth.
“Seriously, as often as I’ve hoped over the years that you’d abandon this self-inflicted celibacy bullshit and get your nuts back in the game already, I gotta tell you this is the shittiest timing. And you know damn well Milena is off-limits to your nuts.”
Kai only growled at Alcaeus and squeezed me closer, his fingers clawing into my back.
Fuck, this was hot. I locked my ankles around his waist.
“Milena, honey,” Alcaeus decided to try to talk some sense into me then from behind his palm, “I can understand why you’d be drawn to Kai right now. I’ve seen this reaction to him from women before when they’re feeling vulnerable, and I get it, I do. On the surface, Kai seems like a safe choice, right?”
I didn’t answer; just ground my center against Kai’s groin.
“He’s got that,”—Alcaeus waved his free hand—“nice doctor guy persona happening … and the whole still waters run deep mystique thing going for him. But trust me, Kai’s a little more complicated, and a bit darker than that. Not necessarily the safest choice for a still-half-human, virginal teenage girl her first time in heat.”
“You don’t want to come any closer, Al,” Kai grated.
“Listen, I’ve known Kai for almost four hundred years, Milena.” Alcaeus stepped up to the shower door. “Both before and after he was mated. And back before this current bout of celibacy, Kai was known for having … well … a bit of a kinky rough side.”
“I can restrain it,” Kai’s defensive, guttural assur
ance assailed my ear. “I’ll be gentle the first time, I promise,” he spoke against my earlobe. “You can trust me.”
Hmm. Okay. I believed him.
“And the second time?” Alcaeus drawled, his tone insolent.
“She’ll like it!”
Alcaeus rolled his eyes. “Look, I hate to have to point out the obvious here, but it’s been almost a century since you even diddled a Skittle, Kai. I’m gonna go out on a limb and suggest your self-restraint probably won’t be up to the task at hand. C’mon, this isn’t like you. You’re not thinking straight. I know you don’t really want to do this.”
“Don’t open the shower door, Al.”
“Even if I could somehow hold Alex off from killing you, you know there’s no way I’d be able to stop Alessandra. We both know how crazy that bitch can get. She hoards magic and suppresses emotions and then wham! When she goes all Tasmanian devil on you you’ll be dead before we ever see the attack coming.”
“Don’t care.”
“Yeah … as I was saying, you are not thinking straight right now, my man. Now I’m coming in there, and you are going to hand Milena over to me, do you understand?”
“It’s a bad idea opening that shower door, Al,” Kai warned.
Alcaeus did it anyway, stepping inside so that his large frame filled the remaining shower space.
“Aw, fuuck.” His hazel eyes widened in horror above the hand still covering his nose and mouth.
“Told ya,” Kai scoffed with a one-shouldered shrug.
“Idiot! You trapped her scent in here,” Alcaeus berated. “And ugh, my God,” he groaned, “she smells like some crazy delicious combination of the best-tasting pussy and chocolate chip banana nut bread in existence.”
Huh? Okay … Weird.
“No, she’s like fresh peaches with heavy cream …” Kai argued, burying his mouth against my neck and inhaling, “and sunshine … and rainbows …”
“Ah, goddamnit,” Alcaeus groused. “Turn her this way. I need a closer whiff.”
Before I knew it, my back was off the wall and against Alcaeus’ front, my body sandwiched between the two of them inside the now steam-filled shower. Kai was palming my breasts and sucking on my neck. Alcaeus tilted my face back to kiss me.
“You make a terrible Alpha,” Kai admonished him as his own teeth scraped over my shoulder. “You have zero restraint and no sense of duty.”
“Not arguing,” Alcaeus grunted as his tongue thrust into my mouth.
Oh, wow … he was a good kisser.
I felt close to orgasm simply from the sensation of Alcaeus pressing rhythmically against me from behind, grinding my center ever harder into Kai’s groin as Kai took his turn kissing me again, his tongue delving so deeply I thought it might make it down my throat.
When Alcaeus began sucking on my neck, his hands traveling underneath my dress to explore along the backs of my thighs until they ultimately found and squeezed the flesh of my ass, I was absolutely certain an internal explosion was imminent.
But it was an external explosion that occurred instead, as the steamy glass shower walls shattered around us on all three sides.
“Fuck,” Alcaeus muttered into my neck. “Incoming.”
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
At first, I thought I was dead. One minute I was staring into the red golden eyes of an infuriated Alessandra, and the next moment I was nowhere. My body had ceased to exist. I was a matterless being floating through a space of nonexistence. But then the next second I was standing in the little clearing in the woods behind Alcaeus’ house where I’d slept cuddled up beside Alex’s wolf two nights ago.
Oh, my God, that mad witch just telefuckingtransported me!
Alex’s black and grey wolf had been nestled atop Alcaeus’ bedding on the ground, but he stood at attention upon my arrival, yipping excitedly.
Grasping for some semblance of dignity, I ran my fingers through my damp hair and squeezed the excess water from the hem of my drenched sundress. I was now more frustrated than ever.
“Don’t get any ideas. I’m not here by choice. Your sister kicked me out.” I stomped over and plopped down next to him on the makeshift bed. “Full-on Star Trek beamed my ass right out of the house.”
He cocked his head, giving me a concerned, questioning look. No doubt he was wondering why I was all wet and what I had done to get myself kicked out of Alcaeus’ house. As far as I was concerned, the whole thing was his fault.
Everything was his fault.
And in my ire I just wanted to hurt him, to piss him off—anything to get his wolf to stop looking at me all adorable-like, as he was doing.
The whole situation between us was bullshit! It would never work out. And I decided to stare squarely into his beautiful wolf eyes and tell him so.
“Look, I don’t care how fantastic you smell or how much my wolf likes you. You can’t be my mate because my brother hates you and because I’m going back to Santa Cruz just as soon as my clitoris stops throbbing and I can get rid of this blood curse. Got it?”
With that, I turned my back to him and curled up on my side on the bedding, closing my eyes and praying for sleep as I diligently took deep breaths through my mouth to avoid his scent as much as possible. Despite my better intentions, I was soon crying. I tried to be quiet about it, but I knew he could tell.
A minute went by before I felt his body heat stealing up behind me. And as he inched closer, I startled when I felt smooth, warm skin rather than warm fur brush against me.
“S’okay. You’re safe.” Warm fingertips traced the length of my arm, slowly back and forth from shoulder to wrist, in a calming caress. “Wanna talk about it?”
His other hand snuck beneath my neck as he spooned in closer, and I adjusted my positioning so that my cheek lay on his inner forearm. I counted out thirty Mississippis before succumbing to the inevitable.
“I’m so miserable,” I erupted on a hiccupped sob. “I can’t stop thinking about sex. It’s fucking constant! And I hate you so much. Because all of this is your fault. Everything … it’s all your fault.”
His fingers paused. “I know.” He sighed. “I’m sorry.”
I stiffened, my tears halting in their tracks.
“Milena, I can help if you’ll only let me. Please?” His fingertips abandoned my arm to draw circles on the waterlogged fabric clinging to my abdomen. “Please let me help you. I promise I won’t hurt you.”
“What … what’d you just say?” I sniffled, incredulous.
“Swear I won’t hurt you.”
“No, before that?”
“I said I can help. Please? Let me help you feel better.”
“Before that,” I persisted. “You said … you said …”
“I’m sorry.” His hot breath blanketed my ear.
Oh … my … God …
My eyes rolled back and a shudder coursed through me.
“Come again?”
“I said, I’m sorry, Milena.”
My stomach flipped and a whimper escaped my throat. Wow. That felt … good.
“So, so sorry. For this … for everything … anything … for all the things I’ve ever done that have hurt you … even the things I didn’t directly do to you or mean to hurt you.”
I moaned. Oh, heaven help me, but it felt inexplicably, outrageously good just to hear him utter a decent apology at long last!
And it wasn’t just the words, it was the sincerity behind them. I could feel how sorry he was! And it felt really, really fucking good inside. I never wanted him to stop.
“Ah … mm … could you … um … maybe … expand on that apology, just a teensy bit? And perhaps, be more specific?”
“Mm-hmm,” he hummed, his lips burning the shell of my ear. “Absolutely. I will happily apologize to you over and over again, as many times as it takes until you feel better.”
“Oh … ye-ah … ah … okay …” I approved shakily, feeling lightheaded and giddy with anticipation. “And maybe start from the beginning?”
“Terrorized,” I corrected. “Um … you completely terrorized me.”
“Right,” he acceded, “I’m sorry I … terrorized you that first night.”
“And then you were horribly mean and abusive to me,” I prompted helpfully when he didn’t continue. “You threatened, belittled, and insulted me,” I reminded him. “And that was before you started mind-raping my most sacred memories.”
“Right. Ah, fuck, I’m not very good at this.” He sounded defeated.
“No, no, you’re doing great!” I quickly reassured, not wanting him to get discouraged and stop. “And you’ll get better. You just need practice.”
I pressed a quick kiss to his inner forearm trapped beneath my cheek. Damnit, the skin on his arm smelled edible. I kissed him there again, inhaling deep. I might’ve also moaned.
“Mm-hmm … sure,” he said, kissing my temple in return, “I can do that. But I’d also like to show you how sorry I am … while I’m telling you.”
He shifted behind me, and leaning further up and over me, he pressed lingering kisses to my bare shoulder as his hand slid from my belly to my hip bone, spurring my heart to gallop and my clitoris to virtually sing. “Would you please accept my nonverbal apology as well?”
I froze.
“I assure you, I’m far better practiced at nonverbal atonement.” His hand glided from my pelvic bone down my leg to the hem of my sundress.
My pulse raced. My face heated.
“Please, please, please, baby?” he crooned, his knee moving fluidly between my limbs from behind, cleverly wedging my legs open for him as his fingers trailed back up along my outer thigh, inching the hem of my dress up as he went. “Please, please let me make it better?”
Oh, Lord, this was so happening! I couldn’t think. Couldn’t breathe as the cool night air blew straight up the open space his muscled upper thigh created between my legs, hitting me where I was soaking wet.