“How…?” I whisper disbelievingly, and Dominic comes closer, his natural warmth enveloping me like arms of comfort.
“You’re in heat, Cecelia,” he repeats, as if that explains everything. “There’s only one way to cure it.”
As Dominic stares back at me, his brows lifted as he waits for my response, realization dawns on me and has me peeling my sweaty cheek off the table and backing away slowly, steadily, until my back hits the wall. I feel my eyes widening like a deer caught in the headlights of a truck that’s coming full speed toward me. But the fear is a tangible construct in the pit of my belly, threatening to burst out with more pain again.
There’s only one way a she-wolf’s heat can be cured. It would mean having that T-shirt ripped off again, but it’s already become my hard armor to keep me protected fromhim.
Shaking my head slowly, I raise a trembling hand in front of me.
“No,” I say bluntly. “We’re not doing that.”We’re not sleeping together again.
Chapter 10 - Dominic
I sigh as Cecelia glares at me with fury in her eyes, and I’m unable to escape the mistakes of my past. In hindsight, rejecting Cecelia wasn’t a mistake in the bigger picture of my quest to take the mantle as alpha of the Lunaris Pack.
But my inner wolf seems to deem the rejection a mistake, always keeping me aware of Cecelia’s scent as if it’s trying to tell me something. I haven’t figured out why her scent is so intoxicating that I lose all sense of reality and want nothing more than to rip her clothes off and claim her as mine. I’m haunted, I’m turning into a madman, and it doesn’t help that her pheromones are heightened now because of her heat.
“It’s not like that, Cecelia,” I sigh as I keep my head hung. There’s a dull ache in the pit of my belly as if to reflect only a fraction of what she’s going through now. I have no idea why I can feel it at all, but my inner wolf won’t rest until she’s feeling better. “I won’t sleep with you. I just want to help you soothe the pain.”
“H-how…?” she whispers, prompting me to lift my head and take in the sight of her face contorting as she struggles with the pain of her heat. My inner wolf is clawing at my insides, wanting to strip her down and do exactly what I said I wouldn’t. There’s no point in fighting this intense feeling, either. I’ll be forced to walk away, and she’ll just end up hating me even more when she thinks I’m leaving her during the worst time of her life.
I can’t afford to have her hate me even more than she already does. We still have three more tests to complete in the trials. If logic wasn’t going to win, it’s my inner wolf that keeps me standing in front of her, making this offer simply for her sake.
“I will use another method to pleasure you without even removing my clothes,” I offer as I lift my chin to show her that I’m serious. “It’s only to let your heat subside, nothing else. This has nothing to do with me. But I can’t let you go on like this. You—you’ll be of no help in the trials,” I lie for good measure, only because I know that she still hates me.
There’s a long moment of hesitation from Cecelia before she’s hit with another bout of pain that has her falling to her knees and crying out in torment. Her heat probably emerged when she became angry with me, thinking that I was wrongfully angry with her for losing today’s test.
It couldn’t be further from the truth, but now she’s suffering because of her anger.
My natural response to seeing her writhing in torment is to drop to my knees in front of her, reaching out a tentative hand but not touching her just yet. I’m afraid it’ll only be met with resistance, so I hang back until her pain subsides long enough for her to lift her doe eyes at me, her cheeks flushed as if she just ran a marathon.
“Please…” she whimpers, her full bottom lip quivering inconsolably. “Help me. Just take this pain away.”
She clutches her belly tighter, her eyelids squeezed shut, when more rigorous pain consumes her. My inner wolf spurs me forward, compelled by the consent she just gave me to take her pain away as I reach forward and wrap both arms around her. I help her to her feet effortlessly, then sweep back the hairs that stick to her sweaty face.
Our eyes meet in the vulnerable moment, reminiscent of the way they met in the bar three years ago. While my inner wolf purrs and mentally licks its lips, I have to keep reminding myselfthat this isn’t like the last time. This is purely for Cecelia’s sake, to stop the symptoms of her heat and take the pain away.
But I can’t help myself, leaning in to indulge in the soft cushions of her plump lips, feeling a sigh escape my chest with sweet relief as if I’m doing this for me. Perhaps I’m a greedy man, and it’s something I have to come to terms with, but not right now. I bask in the sweetness of her lips as she parts them on a sigh, permitting me the liberty of entering the warm cavity of her mouth with my tongue.
As soon as I dive in, I curl the tip of my tongue to stroke her palate, to administer sensations that already speak of what I’m going to do to her precious core.
My hand slides along her cheek, resting at the back of her neck to pull her in closer, deepening the kiss that ignites my inner wolf and has it bursting from the restraints I’d set up years ago. As it becomes free to explore her mouth and drink in the sweet moans she makes, a primal need consumes me, and has me sweeping her off her feet as our lips remain locked.
Her arms close around my neck, fueling this innate hunger for her now that there’s no resistance. I carry her into the bedroom, then lay her down gently on the bed before stepping away.
Her eyes are unfocused for a brief moment, but then they turn dark and hungry as she stares at my face like it’s her own inner wolf that’s come out to be satisfied. A guttural groan bubbles in my chest as I climb over her body and settle between her thighs, feeling so primal and feral in the moment. I capture her lips before she can catch her breath again.
Our passionate kisses are intoxicating, blurring the line of the three years that have passed since that fateful night in the woods. I’ve never experienced anything as magnetic as kissingCecelia’s lips, and it’s no wonder I’d lost all sense of logic when I took her outside the bar and showed her to my special place in the woods. Once we were out there, and I told her that my father would often take me there to train me as a child, long before I received my wolf, I’d naturally gravitated toward her lips and kissed them.
That kiss led to much more, along with the discovery that she was a virgin. That didn’t stop me when I’d become so addicted to her sweet essence and the scent of jasmine flowers that filled the air that night.
It takes every ounce of self-control I can muster to break from the kiss, reminding myself that I have a mission to accomplish tonight. What I’m about to do has nothing to do with either of us, but it doesn’t stop me from reaching for her smooth, tanned cheek as I stroke the flesh with the pad of my thumb.
My caresses don’t stop there as I ghost my fingertips across the kiss-swollen bud of her gorgeous, richly pigmented bottom lip. My head is woozy from how seductive she appears, and I can’t take it anymore.
I have to see her body in its full glory. Thanks to the overhead light in the room, it’s easier to trace every inch of her skin as I lift the hem of her T-shirt, rolling it into a bunch over her cupped breasts. Cecelia holds her breath as I draw the T-shirt over her head, letting out a pained breath through my teeth when I catch the way her mounds fill out her bra.
Gulping hard, a surge of awareness settles between my thighs, my cock tight against the confines of my pants with how hard I am. I place both hands on her belly, then slide them up until they’re under her bra. With both my thumbs and index fingers, I gently pinch the nubs that grow erect at my touch, sucking in a breath of absolute wantonness that reflects inCecelia’s heady eyes as she stares at me through her thick, curly lashes.
