“Oh right, you didn’t get the text, one sec.” Crossing the miniature pool of a bathtub, I dry my hands on one of the towels and stretch to reach my discarded jacket. With the tip of my fingers, I drag it close enough to unearth my phone and bring up the consent to bang text I sent the others, forwarding it to Raiden. “It’s not sudden, you’ve just been preoccupied.”
Phone chiming with the alert, he chuckles, joining me at the edge of the bath to mirror my actions and unearth his phone. Thumb swiping across to unlock the screen, his amusement falls from his face, making me squirm with unease. I brace myself for another cockblocking round of lecturing, only to be met with his heated gaze.
Not knowing what to say, I give him an awkward smile and a thumbs up, immediately considering drowning myself.
“Have you already...?” he asks, gaze roaming down my body and setting it on fire without so much as a single touch.
“No.” I swallow, covering my chest with one arm, the other gripping the edge of the tub. All of my previous confidence is going up in smoke under his unrelenting gaze, and I’m forced to relive the rejection from a few days ago. “You got in their heads with that trauma response spiel when we arrived. Stone and Kodiak are being stupid and agreeing with you.”
I blow out a weary breath. “I get the concern of latching onto you for security after a scare, don’t get me wrong, but listen. There isn’t a single part of me that thinks you guys will kick me to the curb to fend for myself unless I put out. You three insisted on stalking me even after I broke down in a panic attack over my mark showing up. You have incessantly been trying to convince me to stay with you, and practically begged me to give this mate thing a chance. I stuck my tongue down all three of your throatsbeforeMalcolm showed up. Now that I’m all in, you guys are seriously going to take a step back? Talk about mixed messages.”
Taking a second to rein in my temper, I amend, “I’m not trying to pressure you into anything. If none of you want to cross that line right now, that’s completely fine; seriously. But at least own up to it being your own reservations and don’t blame it on me being a mess, is all I’m asking.”
Closing the distance between us, he bands an arm around my waist and drags me flush against him. Tilting my chin up with his knuckle, he holds me captive in his stormy gaze. “I had a plan. I’d bring you your tormentor’s head, then I’d have earned my place by your side. Gods, Amara, it’s not that I don't want to claim you, it's that I don’t deserve to yet.”
I’m pretty sure I swoon a little.
Trailing my hand down his chest, I tease his hard length with the back of my fingers on my path between my legs. “You’d leave your mate wanting because it doesn’t line up with your plans?”
The rumble in his chest travels straight to my clit. “Not sure my pride can handle having an unsatisfied mate on my hands.” His hand covers mine, curling over my fingers and slipping two of them inside along mine.
My sharp intake of breath leaves my reply breathless and weak. “Definitely not, that’d be so embarrassing for you.”
Pressing the heel of my hand to grind against my clit, he withdraws his fingers only to plunge them back in harder, curling over mine and drawing out agonizingly slowly. “You’re right, I’d never survive the ridicule. We should see if my reputation can still be salvaged before it’s too late.”
Capturing my lips in a brutal kiss, he teases me once more before pulling out completely, leaving me needy and hollow. Without breaking the kiss, he puts a hand under my ass, hauling me up against him, and I wrap my legs around his waist automatically. Tightening my grip, I deepen the kiss as he takes the high step out of the bath, infinitely impressed he didn’t slip and wipe out on the slick tile.
Pretty sure even a concussion wouldn’t have stopped me from riding this man straight into Hell before I keeled over. If that’s not commitment, I don’t know what more they want from me.
Water drips onto the tile as he strides straight out of the bathroom without giving a single shit about the mess. I have to bite his lip and revel in his hiss of pleasure to distract me from the urge to throw a couple of towels over the trail of water he’s leaving behind us. I can see the benefit of drinking now that it’s actually a possibility. To be able to shut my mind off long enough to enjoy a moment without overthinking everything? The thought grows more appealing by the day.
Breaking the kiss, he tosses me onto the mattress. Rising up on my elbows, a breathless laugh slips out. “Let me grab a towel to throw down first, I'm going to get the bed soaking wet.”
He prowls closer, and fuck, I lucked out on the mate front. Raiden’s hot as hell clothed, but naked? Eyes darkened with lust and every muscle rolling with sensual promise? Pretty sure I just came a little.
Crawling over me, he purrs, “That’s the plan,” and captures my lips again in a searing kiss that burns away every thought besideshim.The subtle, woodsmoke taste as his tongue battles mine for dominance, the firm grip he has on my hip, keeping me pinned to the bed. He surrounds me, grounds me in the moment as he tries to burn me alive with only his touch.
A small eternity later he tears his mouth from mine, kissing my jaw, the column of my throat, and my chest as he works his way lower. Fisting his hair, I thump my head back against the mattress with a groan.
“I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I’ve had my pussy eaten so much the last three days without it going any farther, if you don’t hurry up and fuck me, I might scream.”
His dark chuckle against my stomach has me clenching around nothing and shifting my legs together. Fingers digging into my thighs, he shoves them apart and nestles between them. “If youdon’tscream, I’m doing something wrong.” Dragging the head of his cock through my arousal, he tortures us both with every brush against my clit. “Please, feel free to let the others know exactly what they’re missing.”
Without another word, he lines himself up and surges to the hilt. My nails bite into his shoulders as I hiss in a sharp breath, and all the while he stares down at my face, but for once, there’s no careful consideration as he studies my reactions. His expression is all reverence, lust, and a hint of fear, like he’s as afraid as I am that all of this is too good to be true and will be ripped away from him at any moment.
Palming the nape of his neck, I pull him down in another bruising kiss, because it’s all I can do. Words are pretty, but empty promises. The way I cling to him, rolling my hips and urging him faster, my palm on his lower back encouraging him to fuck me harder? That’s something that can’t be faked, a silent truth that encapsulates everything I’m not ready to say.
He hooks his arm under my leg, throwing it over his shoulder and slowly thrusting deeper, pinning my knee against my chest. “Do you know how many nights I’ve spent imagining myself in this bed with you?”
“You had no idea what your mate would look like,” I scoff, the sound swiftly morphing into a moan as he snaps his hips. “Your dreams were probably just a shuffle of pornos you fell asleep jacking off to that you Photoshopped your face into.”
“It was you, Amara. It was always only ever you,” he growls into my mouth, slinging my other leg over his shoulder and practically bending me in half as he fucks every remaining doubt out of my mind. “Do you have any idea how many times I’ve hacked into the DMV database, the nights I’ve spent scrolling through endless pictures of brunettes hoping to miraculously stumble across the one that made me feel like I was being burned alive by the sun?”
I clutch at the sheets, back arching off the bed with a strangled gasp. Leaning in close, I groan as his lips brush against my ear, his thrusts never faltering.
“I’ve been waiting for you my entire life,mo chuisle.Trust me, dreams don’t come anywhere close to how terrifyingly amazing it is to know that you’re finally mine.”
Electricity dances across my skin, and the closer I get to the brink, the harder it is to salvage any semblance of control. As he relentlessly hits that perfect spot that has my toes curling, I stop trying to hold back and bite down hard on his shoulder to muffle my cries. With one last brutal thrust, he rolls his hips, cock jerking as he comes, riding me though the blinding wave of pleasure.
