Page 36 of Hexy Beast

One that I finally have to admit I’ve already made.

“Well, then,” Effie says as she turns her back to me and puts her hands on the cave’s cold, damp wall before looking over her shoulder at me, “what are you waiting for?”

Chapter Thirteen

Effie…

My heart’s going faster than my sister Bea’s magic carpet when she mainlined some Nitro into her speed spell. I cover up how jingly-jangly I’m feeling by pressing my hands against the cave’s wall, glad for the zap of damp chill that eats its way from my fingertips, because I am burning up right now with adrenaline, nerves, and a whole lotta lust.

I turn to face the gray stone and wait, forcing myself not to give in to something as embarrassing as begging for Darius’s dick, even though I’m already starting to justify doing so in my head. I mean, come on, I’ve seen him naked. Even if the man is a shower and not a grower, he has a lot to offer.

I’m on the edge of realizing that I may have taken things too far when Darius walks over to me, shifter fast. On the inhale he’s standing near the cave’s opening, the moonlit waterfall behind him, and on the exhale he’s directly behind me, so close I can feel him even though he’s not touching me. Not yet, anyway.

“How much of this is bravado and how much of it is real, witch?” he asks as he skims his palms over the hairsbreadth of air between us, taunting me by the almost-but-not-quite of his touch.

“Does it matter?” I manage to get out instead of screaming, Just put your hands on me already, you ass.

“You know it does,” he says, dipping his head lower, so his words make my curls drift against the back of my neck, a teasing not-quite brush of him against me. “Are you just talking, or do you really want to see what it’s like to be with an alpha?”

Too impatient to play this out any longer, I take the half step back so my ass is snug against him. He lets out a low growl that travels up my spine like a delicious shiver. Still, there’s just something about this moment when I have ten toes hanging over the cliffside with a million miles of sky underneath them that has me so high on anticipation that I can’t help but get in one last poke at the werewolf.

“Do you really think being with an alpha is all that different than being with any other guy with a massive ego?”

“Funny,” he says, letting his hands drop to my hips long enough to nudge me forward again, barely enough so a single moon ray can fit between us, “but you’re dodging the question, Effie. Do you want this? Do you want me?”

“Would you like me to magick up a neon sign that says yes?”

The low rumble of his chuckle brushes against my skin, warm and teasing. That’s not how this is supposed to work. He’s grumpy and snarly, and I’m the one pushing his buttons, just like I do with everyone. And yet, here I am melting back against him—or at least trying to. Like an asshole, he keeps me in place without any effort on his part.

“I want to hear you say it,” he says, a soft, possessive demand. “Tell me you want me.”

Okay, if clear enthusiastic consent is what helps to get him off, who am I to get in his way? Still, that doesn’t mean I’m willing to give up my power position completely. Mr. Big Bad Wolf is about to find out that with me, control is all about give and take.

“You first,” I say.

“Nice try, but that’s not happening. You first, witch.” He slides his index finger from my hip and slips the tip under the waistband of my drooping sweatpants.

It’s like lightning exploding in the sky on a moonless night. I lose every sense of anything except for where he’s touching me, skin to skin. My nipples pebble to sensitive points, and a needy sigh escapes before I even know it’s coming. I can’t keep my eyes open, my breathing is coming in short pants, and my thighs are already tingling in anticipation as my core clenches around nothing but the thought of Darius inside me. The man isn’t touching my bare skin beyond the slightest bit of his finger, and I’m on the edge of an orgasm.

His free hand goes to my hair, pulling it to the side and exposing the long column of my neck completely. “Say it, Effie Sherwood.”

At this moment, I would agree with a flat-earther if that’s what it takes to move this along, but at least what I’m about to say is the truth.

“I want you.”

I barely get the words out before he’s kissing his way down my neck and sliding the rest of his hand under the waistband of my sweats. He cups my pussy and pulls me back against him. The heat of his hand so close to where I want him, mixed with the electric feel of his lips and the hardness of his cock pressed up against the small of my back, has me trembling.

“Please,” I beg, too caught up in the want wrecking me to have anything even close to pride.

He nips at the sensitive spot at the base of my neck and then gives it a quick kiss. “Please what?”

“Are you going to make me say everything?” Okay, maybe I do have a little sass left in me, but it doesn’t account for much considering I’m pleading for him to fuck me.

“Yes.” He easily locks me in place even as I’m fighting to rub myself against the heel of his palm, desperate for some relief. “I like the sound of your voice when you’re all wound up like this, knowing I’m the only one who can give you what you need.”

“You’re not the only hot guy in the world,” I grumble, my frustration mounting.

“True, but none of them can get you this desperate and you know it. Everyone else just gives you what they think you want, but they don’t understand you.” He rotates his wrist, coming so close to giving me what I want that I want to cry. “But I do.”