“My mate,” I murmur, and Quinn gasps. When my eyes meet his, his are almost entirely silver.
“Mate,” he repeats—him and his wolf both. I shiver at the thought of the beast’s gaze on me. I can’t wait to see him shift again. He’s magnificent, and I feel a sliver of grief at the fact that I’ll never run with him that way, but it’s there and gone in an instant.
If I hadn’t given up my wolf, I’d never have met our mate at all. I think he wouldn’t begrudge me that. In the end, I don’t think he did begrudge the choice I made.
Quinn kisses me, shoving at my T-shirt, and our mouths part only so he can tug it over my head and toss it aside. Something falls off the chest of drawers, but when he turns to look, I grab his face and kiss him again. We laugh between kisses, between dragging off my trousers and then his borrowed joggingbottoms, and eventually I have him spread out before me, panting and needy and so perfect it almost hurts to look at him.
His eyes flutter shut when I close my fingers around his cock. He’s thick, if not as long as I am, and I make my strokes slow and deliberate.
“A-Asher.”
“Let me play, darling.”
“Fuck.” He groans and tips his head back. I slide my free hand up the inside of one pale thigh and Quin shivers, letting his legs fall further apart. “More, please.”
“Can’t you wait?” I murmur. I kiss him, teasing his lower lip until he pants and groans again. “Wait to come until you’re inside me?”
His eyes flare wide, the iris almost swallowed whole as his pupil expands. “Yes.”
“Then be patient. Please?”
Quinn groans, this time with a hint of amusement. “You’re gonna kill me.”
“Not yet.”
He huffs and I kiss my way down his throat, then his shoulder. Quinn’s breath hitches when I speed up my strokes, but they’re still fairly even, and he knows he won’t get relief yet.
I meant what I said. I want him to come inside of me. That can be our first time together.
“Reach over for me,” I murmur. “Lube’s in the bedside table.”
Quinn realises I’m not about to stop touching his cock, so he twists and awkwardly drags the drawer almost all the way out. He swears as he fumbles about inside, then makes a triumphant sound in the back of his throat, tossing it onto the duvet.
“Thank you, darling.”
Quinn flushes. Colour sweeps through his cheeks and down his chest, and I kiss over his heart, then the spot where I know he can feel our mating bond. It’s growing stronger with everytouch, though it won’t be truly unbreakable until we perform the mating rites themselves.
We’ll do that. I have every intention of doing that. Just not tonight. I need his pack to be used to the idea of me, first. I need Quinn to be used to the idea.
As it is, I reach for the lube, but Quinn snatches it up again before I can. “I want to…”
“You do?”
He gives me a determined nod, then gasps when I let go of his cock. I kiss the corner of his mouth in apology. “Where do you want me?”
“Here,” he says, pushing up onto his elbows. “On your back.”
I haul him up, which makes him laugh again, and we switch places with a kind of earnest clumsiness neither of us usually possesses. Quinn kisses me once I have my back against the pillows. His fingers toy with the hair at my nape and I slide my hands down his muscled back, making him groan when I grab his arse.
“Could still switch things up,” he says.
I stick out my lower lip, teasing. “You don’t want to give me what I want?”
Quinn snorts. He kisses me again, then grabs my hips and pulls me a little way down the bed. I haven’t been celibate since joining the Hunt—I wouldn’t say any of us have—but it’s been a while since I indulged, and my heart skips a beat as anticipation curls in my stomach.
My eyes track Quinn’s every movement as he flips the cap on the lube and drizzles it over his fingers. He growls low in his chest when I spread my legs wider. Oh yes, we’ll try this the other way around, and soon. But this is perfect, too. I relax as soon as Quinn circles my hole, rubbing over it teasingly before he pushes the first finger inside. One turns to two quickly—he’scareful, and I’m so keyed up that the burn is almost instantly overtaken by pleasure.
Quinn teases his own cock with his other hand, thumb flicking over the head after every lazy stroke. I push my hips back impatiently. He smirks and adds a third finger, though I’m sure that’s overkill.
