“Not tonight,” he growls. I’m about to fight him on it when he tugs me off the bed and spins me around. He grabs a hold of my other wrist, locking them both behind my back before bending me over the bed. “Next time I give you an order, you listen.”
He brings his hand down on my ass, earning a whimper as my skin prickles with the ghost of his touch. I want him to do it again, but it will only sound like a plea, and I’ve already bent to his will too much tonight.
“And if I don’t?” I challenge with a smirk I know he can see.
Thane coils his hand tightly in my hair and pulls me back up from the bed as the Alpha in him radiates across the entire room.
“If you don’t…” He drags his lips closer to my ear, his stubble scraping across my cheek as his masculine scent suffocates me. “Then next time, it’ll beyouon your knees.”
The threat sends carnal heat tumbling down my body, awakening a new set of sordid fantasies. He yanks my head to the side and moves his mouth to my earlobe, nipping it before pulling away. Before I can turn around to face him, he darts off to the bathroom, leaving me with my sinful thoughts.
I close the balcony doors and slip my nightgown back on, but even when I slide beneath the icy sheets, heat continues to linger throughout my body. As I lie there, playing it all back, I hear the shower turn on, and dark satisfaction courses through me as images of Thane pleasuring himself fill my mind instead. When he finally steps out of the bathroom, he’s wearing a towel that I want to rip right off, but I fight my urges, stalking him with my eyes as he grabs a new pair of sweats from the dresser.
“Feel better?” I tease, burrowing myself deeper into the cold bed.
“Barely,” he groans over his shoulder, dropping his towel and slipping into his sweats.
In a breath, he’s lying next to me with his wet hair dripping water down his face.
“What do you think you’re doing?” I demand, sitting up on my side.
“Oh, come on. You’re not really going to make me sleep in that chair now, are you?”
“Yes, I am. Sharing a bed is…” I pause, trying to find the right word. “Intimate.”
He barks a laugh. “Oh, and what I just did to you wasn’t?”
“Yes, but it’s different. If we’re going to give in to the lust, then there needs to be boundaries.”
“Why, Grey? Worried you’ll fall for me?”
I scoff, rolling my eyes. “Not in the slightest.”
“What is it then?” he challenges, dropping the teasing tone. “Why insist on setting boundaries?”
“Because that’s who I am,” I snap. “And if you won’t accept that, then maybe we shouldn’t give in to the lust at all.”
“Fine, you win.” I whip my head around to find him sitting in the chair, wearing a look that says he’s not too pleased about yielding to my conditions.
“Good. Now that that’s settled, goodnight.”
Thane
That girl is going to be my ruin, and yet I have no desire to even try and stop it. I knew giving in to the lust would be a mistake, but I couldn’t resist it any longer. I had to know what she tasted like and fuck…
She tasted like a sweet promise of never-ending torment that I’m now going to spend the rest of my life addicted to. Everything about her makes my cock ache, but it goes beyond that. She’s a flower dressed in thorns, ready to ward off anyone who gets too close. And as I sit here, watching her sleep, I find myself wanting to burrow myself in those thorns if only to be closer to her.
After the events of tonight, I should feel relief, but instead, it feels like there’s a gaping hole forming in my chest.
I’m used to getting what I want, but when it comes to her, it never seems to be enough. It’s like I have this endless pit of hunger for her that I can’t seem to satiate no matter how much I try. And it goes beyond my desires to claim her body. I could have her bent over, taking my cock as her voice grows raw from screaming my name, and I’d still want more.
I’ve been trying to convince myself that these feelings are only because of the mark. Reluctant to consider the possibility that there’s something else at play. But each time I’m around her, the voice inside my head urges me to consider the impossible. To acknowledge that nothing is truly impossible, because if it were, I wouldn’t exist, and yet here I am. A hybrid born from a vampire and werewolf. Made up of two species who should’ve never been able to conceive. But that’s the thing about fate. It plays by its own rules, reminding us that we’re never really the ones in control.And for someone who gets off on being in control, the truth of that is fucking terrifying.
Chapter 37
There’s a wave of relief when I wake and find Thane already gone. It’s not that I regret last night, because I don’t. But in the light of day, it feels a lot more complex than just getting caught up in the heat of the moment. Ever since we signed the contract, we’ve been trying to figure out our new dynamic, and this certainly complicates things. Being his pet made sense. I mean, I hated it and despised him for it, but that dynamic made sense to me. He’s an Alpha hybrid, and I’m just a human girl. But it’s not that simple anymore. We’re bound to each other by a bond that demands our attention, and the longer time goes on, the harder it is to resist.
Besides, now that I’ve had a taste of Thane, there’s no going back. Nothing has ever felt so good and so right. And everything about that scares me. I don’t want to crave him or miss him, but I do. Even now, there’s a sort of emptiness living inside me. Like a part of me is missing, and somehow, I know if I’m not careful, that emptiness will grow until I’m completely hollowed.
