Yes, sir, both the other Panthers answered.
Chapter 24
Riley wasted no time getting Maia to his room, their room. He used his foot to quietly push the door closed, then walked over to the bed, sitting her on the edge of it. He went to the window and pulled on the cord for the blinds, raising them completely to the top of the window allowing moonbeams to flood the room. “I lay awake in this bed night after night, looking up at the moon, thinking of you, wondering where you were, what you were doing. I’m not whole without you, Maia.”
“I missed you, too. So much. And I was looking up at the moon wondering why I wasn’t enough. Why you felt you had to leave me behind to find a more suitable Mate. I’m so sorry I was so stupid. I should have given you the benefit of the doubt.”
Riley watched her as she spoke, the sincerity, the regret. “I was as guilty as you. I should have demanded. I should have fought harder to get to you.” He started walking toward her slowly, “Never again. Anything, anyone, ever tries to get between us, I will destroy it. I will never again be separated from you.”
Maia nodded, “Never again.”
“This is it, Maia. This is the last chance you have to walk.”
Maia shook her head, smiling, “No. This is the last chance you have to walk. I told you once, when I was ready to claim you, I’d claim you. And that’s exactly my plan.”
Riley’s mouth tipped up in a lopsided grin, “Is that so?”
“Yes, it is.” Maia toed off her white sneakers, letting them fall to the floor, then stood and watched Riley watching her as she reached for the bottom edge of her t-shirt. She curled her fingers around it and pulled it slowly up over her head.
Riley’s eyes flared. His breathing sped up. He watched every single inch of flesh she exposed. He licked his lips as his pupils dilated. A deep, soft rumble started up in his chest.
Maia suppressed her smile. She loved that she still had this much effect on this very sexy, very powerful male.
Riley’s eyes roved up and down her body, from her collarbone to her breasts held in her lacy champagne colored bra, to her navel and back again.
Maia lazily ran the fingertips of both hands from her belly up to her neck, pausing to feather her fingers lightly across her cleavage.
His eyes zeroed in on her fingers playing with the small crease he so wanted to dip his tongue into. Then she started moving them down her body again.
Maia stroked her own skin, causing shivers to take over her entire body. Her fingers went to the button on her jeans and she toyed with it for a minute before slipping the button through the button hole and allowing it to pull apart. Slowly she pulled the zipper down, just barely exposing the matching champagne colored panties she wore beneath her jeans.
Riley’s eyes were glued to Maia’s hands roaming about her own body, slowly exposing herself to him. His Panther was completely entranced with her seduction. She owned him, and neither he nor Riley had any problem at all with that.
Maia allowed her fingers to slide across her skin until her fingers were sliding inside the back of her own jeans, pushing them down over her curved ass and hips, to slip down to her calves, where she bent over to push them down to her ankles, so she could easily step out of them and kick them away.
Riley took two steps toward her.
“Unh unh unh” she said, waggling her finger at him. “Not yet.”
Riley let out a soft growl but froze in place, his eyes focused on his target, his prize.
Maia ran the fingers of her right hand up to her lips, gently suckling one, then allowing it to pop free before she ran it down her cleavage again. “I think it’s only fair that I get to see you now, don’t you think, kitty-cat?” she teased.
He smiled at hearing the pet name she used to tease him with, then, without further hesitation he whipped the shirt he was wearing over his head, dropping it to the floor. His eyes never left her body as he used one hand to unsnap his jeans and shove them down his legs. “Now what?” he snarled.
Maia’s heart was pounding. She knew Riley was beautiful, but she’d had no idea just how beautiful he was. He wore nothing beneath his jeans. He stood before her, completely nude, golden tanned skin, erection standing tall and proud against his lower belly, and pulsing with his heartbeat and his muscles straining as he used every ounce of strength he and his Panther possessed to allow her to do as she wished. She was a strong female. She was not likely to just lay down and submit. It was important to them both that she come to him willingly. So he waited, allowing her to control their progression. His nose flared as he scented her arousal. He grinned, inhaling deeply, closing his eyes to savor her scent as he raised his face in the air, “Miiinnne.” He opened his eyes and met Maia’s.
She wasn’t smiling anymore. The gold of her Wolf’s eyes looked back at him. With her left hand she reached behind her own back and unclasped her bra, allowing her breasts to spill free. “Now — you make me yours.”
Riley was on her almost before she finished her sentence. In one motion, he took her off her feet, laid her across their bed and had her hands above her head, held securely in one of his. He used his other hand to sweep the pillows from the bed while a constant rumble poured from his chest. As soon as the pillows were no longer supporting her head, it tilted back on the mattress, giving him unfettered access to her throat and shoulders. “Mine,” he whispered, as his tongue and lips left a blazing trail across her flesh. He nipped that sensitive spot just where her shoulders and her neck met, pulling a moan from deep inside her.
Riley let go of her hands as he kissed his way further down her body, finally dipping his tongue into the crease between her breasts. He loved the deep, sweet scent between her breasts. Riley used both hands to squeeze them together, rubbing his nose up and down them before suckling both nipples into his mouth at the same time.
Maia gasped and arched her back into him, using one newly freed hand to hold his head to her. He allowed her nipples to pop free after a particularly hard suckle and smiled seductively at her, “Unh unh unh! Not yet,” he said, mimicking her own words of only moments before. “Put those hands back up there where I left them.”
Maia’s eyes flickered with excitement as she bit her bottom lip, slowly lifting her hands to allow them to rest above her head where they’d been when he’d held them still.
Riley met her eyes and held them for an intense second, then two, before dropping his own back to his prize. He allowed his Panther to kiss that space between her breasts again before kissing his way down her body, placing nips and soft bites across her ribs and hips. When he reached her navel, he dipped his tongue into it before sitting back on his heels. He reached out with one hand, running one single finger across the top lacy edge of her panties. He slipped that one finger beneath the edge, swirling it around and around to wrap the silky fabric around his finger; then, he pulled it gently into his fist before allowing the claws of his Panther to spring free while exerting just enough pressure to tear the thin material from her body.
Maia gasped again, her eyes going wide, her knee lifting just a bit. “Too late to run now, my little Wolf,” he murmured, while grinning at her.
Maia’s heart was pounding, she was panting, the wetness between her legs no secret or surprise to either of them. She opened her mouth to try to speak, but nothing came out so, she had to try again, “I’m not thinking of running. I’m thinking of sitting up and taking what is mine.”
Riley’s deep, rich chuckle was seductive in itself. “Me first. My Mate, my claim.”
Riley pushed his own legs out behind himself, allowing them to stretch out on the bed behind him, his feet dangling off the edge. At the same time he used his hands to run underneath her thighs, pushing them forward so her knees were pointed at the ceiling, her feet resting just behind his shoulders, as he held himself up on his forearms. Riley looked up her body until he could meet her eyes. She was looking down at him, waiting for him to touch her.
Riley tilted his head firs
t this way, then that. His nostrils widening as he took in the scent of his Mate. The scent he’d waited so long for. He’d never, not once in his life been as aroused as he was at this moment. He’d never wanted any other as he wanted Maia, and never would want any but her. No other would ever be enough to even cause him to glimpse in their direction. He’d thought he’d known what it would be like to take your Mate, to claim her, make her yours and give yourself to her in turn. But he’d been wrong. This was more than anyone could have ever imagined. This was soul-shaking, soul-changing.
Maia whimpered, writhing her hips impatiently. “Is there a problem, Maia?” he teased.
“Hurry,” she begged.
“Hurry? Why would I do that? We have all night, my love.” He held her eyes while he leaned forward just enough to rub his cheek against her, allowing his tongue to dart out and caress the hollow of her thigh.
Maia’s breath caught.
“You like that?” he asked.
“Yes,” she breathed, nodding her head insistently.
Before she’d finished answering, he’d dipped his head and rubbed his chin across her slit.
Immediately her hips raised up to try to follow his chin.
“This is mine, Maia.”
She nodded.
“You are mine.”
Again, she nodded.
He looked down at her, pink and swollen, waiting for him to take what was his. Suddenly his head was yanked up and he was staring her in the eyes. She’d lifted herself up, leaning on one arm and wrapped her hand in the hair at his temple and yanked him upright to face her. “Now! You will do this now, or I will.”
Slowly Riley’s pouty lips slid into a wide grin. “Really?”
“Do not push me, kitty cat,” she answered on a low growl of her own.
“I thought maybe I could have a quick snack first. Wonder if we have any cookies left downstairs?”
A snarl left her, and she threw herself forward intending to knock him backwards and pin him down, so she could complete their mating while she rode her way to satisfaction. But he was quicker than she expected. He leaned out of her way and allowed her momentum to carry her forward. She landed face first in the blankets bunched at the bottom of the bed, her ass in the air. He immediately covered her, his entire body pressed against her, exerting just enough pressure to keep her from scurrying out from under him. He lowered his chest to her back, keeping her pressed to the mattress while he whispered in her ear, “You will hold this position. You will not move, or I will stop, and we will try this another day.”
“Riley!” she huffed out.
“Maia — did you understand what I said?”
Maia would not have admitted it, but him taking control like this, telling her what she would and wouldn’t do, had her in such a state she’d have denied him nothing. She started to nod, then realized that would be moving, so she whispered instead, “Yes, I understand.”
“Very good. Do not move your hands, do not move your chest, do not move your head. Your ass remains in the air, just like it is, presented to me for my pleasure. I will move you if I want you moved. Clear?”
“Crystal.”
He lifted his weight from her body, gradually at first to see if she’d keep to her bargain. He grinned when she did. And he could smell her increased arousal. She was loving this.
He sat back and took in the sight before him. Perfect, she was fucking perfect. Riley reached out, smoothing a hand down the firm, rounded cheek of her ass. He could see her flesh pebble with chills at his touch. He leaned forward and nipped her lightly while running his other hand down the back of her thigh. When he reached her knee, he slapped his hand back and forth between her knees, indicating she should move them further apart.
“Just a little, not too much,” he instructed.
She obeyed without pause.
“Good girl,” he whispered, not more than two inches from her center.
Maia’s breath caught when she felt the warmth from his mouth blow across her. Then her mind went blank when he wasted no further time in plunging his tongue into her sweetness. He used both hands to hold her open while devouring her. He touched, licked, tasted and lapped at every single fold, hollow and rise of her softest, most sensitive flesh. And when she was trembling with ecstasy, his mouth engulfed her, suckling her until she shattered under his touch, screaming her release into the blankets to muffle the sound. Riley gave her no time to recover. He rose up on his knees, resuming his position covering her body, “Lift up on your arms,” he demanded. He twined his arms with hers, his front to her back, his knees between hers forcing them further apart before lining himself up with her entrance nudging his way in. After only a push or two he could feel that she was opened for him — while tight, she was welcoming him, there would be no resistance, her slippery response to his body touching hers making a path down the insides of her thighs. He leaned over her again, his mouth at her ear and whispered, “You. Are. Mine,” slamming all the way home, still uttering the word ‘Mine’ until he was fully seated so deep inside her she was left gasping for breath.
Riley didn’t move. He wanted her to experience as much pleasure as he did, so he waited, giving her a chance to acclimate if she needed it. Seconds later she was clenching and unclenching around him. He kissed her ear, “Ready?”
“Yes,” she managed to get out.
That was all he needed to know. Riley pulled back and slammed into her again and again and again. When it became apparent that the rougher he got, the better she liked it, he finally lifted off her back and grasped her ass with both hands, pulling her to him as he slammed into her. It took only a few minutes longer, and she was tightening around him again, letting out a low keening sound. He recognized it. It was the same keening she let out before she came with his mouth on her. He slapped her ass hard enough to leave a rosy red hand-print on it just as she started to lower the top half of her body to the mattress again, obviously trying to muffle her impending scream.
Riley, hips still pumping, wrapped his hand in her hair at the base of her skull, his right hand on her hip, pulling her backward to him so both were up on their knees. He slapped his right hand over her mouth and used his right knee to shove her right leg further out, causing her to sit on his cock hard and deep. Still he pumped his hips. She went over the edge, screaming her release into his hand as he used the grip on her hair to turn her head to just the right angle to give him access to the crook between her neck and shoulder once more. He embedded his teeth, his Panther’s fangs, into the soft flesh there and hung on while emptying himself inside her. Mine! his Panther roared in his mind.
Maia’s Wolf howled her pleasure in her mind, screaming, Claim Mate!, as Riley’s fangs took hold of her from behind. Maia was lost in a flurry of colors, emotions and instinct, but her Wolf had the presence of mind to slide her mouth away from the palm he muffled her screams with to the wrist that lay against her face. Once her lips caressed that wrist, she turned her head just a little further and sank her own fangs into the flesh of the forearm that wrist was attached to.
Riley snarled into her neck, where he still held her in his own mating bite.
As their orgasms died down, leaving both blissfully satisfied, Riley let go of her hair, using that same hand to massage her scalp. He gently pulled his teeth from the crook of her neck, running his tongue over the wound.
Maia pulled her fangs from her Mate’s forearm, using her own tongue to soothe the wound.
“Are you okay?” he asked, “was I too rough?”
“I’m better than okay. You were perfect,” Maia answered. “Did I hurt your arm? It was all I could reach,” she explained.
“No. It’s perfect.” He held up his arm admiring the already healing bite. “You’ve made me so happy, Maia. You are my world. Everything’s complete now.”
Maia dropped a kiss on the mating mark she’d left on his arm. “As it should be. Fate fulfilled.”
“I love you,” Riley said, pressing his lips to
her mating mark.
“I love you, Riley. Thank you for not giving up on me.”
“Never. I’ll always be beside you.”
Maia lifted his arm and kissed her bite again, “I’d still like to put another on your throat.”
Riley snickered, “Absolutely. As long as I put one on this ass. Right here,” he said, smacking the cheek that already wore his handprint.
“Deal,” she said seductively. “But, first, I think I remember you saying something about cookies. Do we have cookies downstairs? I could eat some cookies.”
Chapter 25
It was almost 10:00 a.m. before Riley awoke from a night of passion and cookies. His body was humming with excitement and new found strength. The act of mating with his female had renewed him in ways he’d not realized he was lacking. He was sore from so much exertion, but it was a good sore. What woke Riley was his nose twitching, tickling from whatever was teasing his nose. He inhaled and snorted air from his nose in an effort to dislodge whatever was teasing his nostrils. But it didn’t help. Finally he opened his eyes to see what it was and found himself looking through a cloud of long, dark mahogany hair with deep auburn highlights. Then he realized that he was being used as a mattress. He grinned, sometime during the night Maia had actually climbed on top of him and was sound asleep. The tickling of his nose was her hair across his face. He lifted a hand, smoothing her hair from his face. Then he trailed his hands down her back from her shoulders to the curve of the small of her back. She groaned and arched her back, trying to follow his touch even in her sleep.
“I love you, Maia.”
She murmured and turned her face into his shoulder, snuggling closer before sighing deeply and settling down into sleep again. Riley kept stroking her back until she was deeply asleep, then he gently slid from beneath her and slipped out of bed. He smiled when he saw the second mating mark he’d placed on her right butt cheek. She may not be able to sit on that side for a day or two. He chuckled and covered her before kissing her temple, pulling a change of clothes from his closet and heading to the bathroom for a shower before starting his day.
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