Huffing a laugh, I shifted back, and he immediately wrapped his arms around my waist and buried his face in my chest, and my arms closed themselves around him before I could make the decision to do it myself. “Please let me help,” he murmured against me, his voice muffled. “I won’t get hurt again, I promise.”
I sighed and buried my nose in his hair, breathing him in. “You can’t make that promise.”
“I can!” he insisted, fisting my shirt and tilting his head back to look at me. “I’m sorry I didn’t fight back like I should’ve, but… I just froze. She was wearing this school sweatshirt, and I couldn’t stop thinking about her kids. Wondering how old they were, if they were safe to be home alone, if they were waiting for their mom to get home… wondering if she even would.” He smiled and gave me a little shrug, then tugged his shirt up so I could see the wounds across his ribs had nearly healed over. “Look, I’m almost all better now. I heal fast. Don’t forget, I’m not exactly human. I can take a little beating.”
“But I can’t…” I admitted, my voice cracking on the words. “Don’t you get it? It nearly killed me to see you lying there, bleeding, not knowing whether you would live or die. Please don’t put me in that position again.”
“Oh,” he gasped. His face softened as he took in my distress. I might’ve been able to change my appearance, but when it came to Uly, there was no hiding how I felt. I was head over heels for this man, for better or worse. At least my intensity hadn’t scared him off yet.
He tipped up onto his toes and gave me a soft peck on the lips. “Let’s go home,” he said, though he didn’t specify whose home he meant, and I realized it didn’t even matter where we went, home was wherever we were together.
Chapter 15
Ulysses
Imust’vedozedoffon the drive back to Rue’s place, because I woke up to him unbuckling my seatbelt and drawing me out of the car and into his steady arms. I didn’t resist, not concerned for a second that he might drop me. I just leaned my head against his shoulder and allowed the brief luxury of being treated like something precious.
He juggled me with one arm while unlocking the front door, then carried me all the way to his bedroom, where he lowered me onto the bed—and suddenly, I wasn’t feeling so sleepy. He covered me with the blanket then tried to sneak out, but I wasn’t having any of that. “Where do you think you’re going?” I asked, and he paused in the doorway.
Looking over his shoulder at me, he regarded me with heavy-lidded eyes. “You’re still recovering, and you need your rest. I’ll go sleep in the spare room tonight.”
“Ah-ah, get back here. You made me a promise, and until you make good, neither one of us is getting any sleep.”
“What promise was that?” he asked, though the way his lips twitched, he knew exactly what I was talking about.
I threw the blanket off me with a flourish and pointed at my crotch, where my erection was already plumping up. “You said I could have a healing blowjob if I was a good boy today.”
He narrowed his eyes at me, though he stepped back into the room, slowly stalking toward me. “I don’t know that walking into a biker bar could be consideredgood behavior.”
“I dunno… I think I could argue that trusting inmy alphato keep me safe is being very good… Wouldn’t you agree?”
I could see the moment my words hit him. Calling him my alpha was probably a low blow, but when a low, possessive growl snuck out from his lips, I knew it had done the trick.
He didn’t stop walking until his knees hit the mattress. “You’re playing a dangerous game, sin-eater.”
I knew it, too. But instead of admitting it, I decided to push him a little further. I shrugged like his rejection was no big deal. “I mean, if you’re not interested, I’m sure I could find someone else willing to—”
That was as far as I got before Rue descended on me, crushing his lips to mine, his growl shuddering through me, going straight to my balls. “Don’t you fucking dare,” he said against my lips. “You’remine.”
And while I might’ve argued that fact yesterday, in this exact moment, I felt it. I was his, in every way that mattered.
I loved the taste of his jealousy as I took tiny sips of sin from his lips. It was such a delightful mix of greed and lust and envy, sweet and fruity on my tongue, filling me with energy and need.
While he owned me with his rough kiss, he still hovered above me, refusing to put any of his weight on me. But I desperately wanted him to pin me down, wanted to feel if his arousal matched my own. I tried to pull him over me, but he was an immovable force. I whined infrustration, and he drew back, his swollen lips making him even damn sexier.
“What will it take then?” he asked. “What doesmy omeganeed to be satisfied right now, instead of looking elsewhere?”
I tried not to smirk, while inside I was gloating at the win, because there was no chance I would ever go elsewhere. Casual sex wasn’t my thing, and while I was hesitant to trust this growing bond between us, I could admit it wasn’t anything close to casual. “I mean, I wouldn’t say no to that blowjob, if you’re still offering.”
The vibration that had started off as a growl had turned into a steady rumble, closer to a purr. I loved that I was the one to coax it out of him, even as I wondered which of his many forms this sound came from. With deft fingers, he reached down and peeled my shirt up my body, and when he gestured for me to lift my arms up, I complied without a word.
I allowed Rue to press me back against the pillows with a hand splayed over my sternum, his power barely restrained though still infinitely tender, and watching him struggle with the urge to overpower me was far too sexy. Without breaking eye contact, he hunched over me and worked his way down the bed, his lips drawing a path down my neck, then chest, grazing his teeth over my pebbled nipples before licking to soothe the sting. He lingered over the freshly healed scars, still the glossy cotton-candy pink of new skin. “Just the blowjob then…?” he drawled, gazing up at me through ginger lashes.
My breath caught, my cock pulsing in my pants. “Anything you’re willing to give, I want it,” I said breathily.I can take it all, I wanted to add, but I knew it would only invite an argument from the overprotective god.
Rue licked his lips, his eyes flaring with hunger, as he nuzzled my cock through my pants, still purring, and I had to bite down on mylip to keep from losing my load before he even got his lips around me. Gods, the way he explored the grooves and valleys of my body as though he had all the time in the world, it was borderline torture.
As though he could sense the urgency, he seemed to decide I needed a little distraction to keep my mind off the way he flicked open the button on my pants and lowered the zipper. “You said you would tell me later… What do I smell like?” he asked as he worked my pants over my hips.
