With a grunt, Henry sat up.
“She would never forgive me. I don’t know where she is. If I did find her, she wouldn’t accept me,” he said like he was being strangled. He closed his eyes. From my vantage point, I could see the dampness grow on his cheek. I stood, hesitating and oscillating my weight from one foot to the other. This was a conversation I shouldn’t be privy to.
“Don’t give her a choice,” Lucian asserted.
I scoffed, rolling my eyes. With that, he approached me, forcing me to back up.
“Now, wait a minute.”
He crouched and popped me over his shoulder in a fireman’s hold. My breath exploded from my lungs from the press of his shoulder into my stomach.
“Lucian!” My legs swung from side to side.
With my palm, I pressed into his back to push myself upright. Zhao flashed by and then the rest of the hall. The click of a button broke the silence, then the doors swung shut and the carpeted floor became the tile of the elevator.
“Damn it,” I grunted and gave in to my burning biceps until I dangled over his shoulder.
The elevator dinged, and he stepped out. The halls were replicas of each other: elaborate ivory baseboards, beautiful carvings, detailed, but there was one place he would take me—his office.
I settled into his brisk pace, trying to ignore the fire that lit in my gut at his comment to his father.
What an asshole!
I hated the nervous knots in my stomach. Zhao had answered my question about the specialservicesLucian received, and it wouldn’t leave my thoughts.
Finally, he took a quick turn into reception. I grabbed the edge of the wall, digging my nails into the divot where theintricate carvings stretched to the ceiling. My grip forced him to stop.
“You’re going to hurt yourself,” he snapped and backed up until my arms weren’t hyper-extended.
I took the opportunity to wiggle until he let me go. He placed me on my feet with such care. The throbbing in my chest kept slicing, like an open, festering wound. I yanked my fingers through my hair. Lucian studied me, his eyebrows furrowed. He had no clue I knew, and that made me even angrier. He must have thought he was seeing a ghost when I appeared in his hotel room, interrupting his planned fuck session.One visit a month. . . Those wretched thoughts wouldn’t stop. I gritted my teeth, unable to let it go until I told him what I thought about it.
“Are there that many shifter ‘service-providers’?” My question held no derision, remaining bland and to the point.
His lips thinned.
Humans couldn’t know about knots, so there was a service that only we had access to. I held no animosity toward the profession, but that he’d been with others burned. His eyes flicked to the side, and he rubbed the back of his neck as he twisted it to the side in a stretch.
“Or do you have the same five or seven come in rounds, switching between them?”
His eyes narrowed. It was like a sheen fell over his eyes, darkening the gold of his irises. A chill skittered down my spine, forcing my pulse to jump. He stilled to the point of seeming frozen. Pressure built in my chest.
I’m holding my breath. I let out a harsh puff of air.
It must have been that option. I gritted my teeth and lifted my upper lip at him, looking at him with pure derision.
“You disgust me,” I blurted, the words coming from the pure agony poisoning my veins. “Just leave me the fuck alone for a while.”
He jerked like I’d slapped him. I exhaled hard, backing up, which seemed to trigger him to life.
Lucian lunged, pinning me to the wall, and he sank his teeth into my neck, right over the claiming bite. My body was wracked with a sudden, mind-numbing orgasm. I whimpered, my fingers curling into his shirt. There was no strength to even lift my legs; they dangled around his waist while his hips pushed between them.
Lucian pulled back and slid his tongue over the bite, and the slight sting was nothing to the utter deliciousness of the glide.
My toes curled. I couldn’t help my whimper. His hips ground against my slick-covered sex, the fabric abrasive against me. The familiar tingle of an orgasm started up again. Lucian slid his fingers into the waistband, and he yanked, tearing them in two. It was so sudden, I didn’t have time to catch my breath. He opened his jeans, and he slammed his warm cock into me.
I screamed, my head falling back against the wall. Such utter bliss . . .
He didn’t stop, his possession insistent, ravenous, possessive. The slap of his thighs against mine ratcheted up my lust.
