A few minutes later, he found out that Seven could also use her powers to take off his pants and tattered shirt, all while taking off her own shoes, kissing him senseless, and running her hands over every muscle on his chest and abdomen. Telekinesis was a beautiful, beautiful thing, he thought when they were finally skin-to-skin from top to bottom.
Seven slithered down his body, leaving a trail of warmth and hot, wet kisses in her wake. She took his cock in her tiny hand and peered up at him from beneath thick, dark lashes, her eyes silently questioning.
Yeah, like he was going to stop her.
Her lips brushed over him, light, teasing. He slid his fingers into her hair, close to the scalp, and gaped down at her. Lucas was fairly certain he’d never seen anything as intensely erotic and stunning as Seven when she tipped her eyes up to him and sucked his length between her red lips. He choked out a harsh breath as the wet heat of her mouth wrapped around him.
“Jesus Christ, Seven…”
His fingers tightened against her scalp, tangling in her curls. His body was screaming for him to thrust into her mouth, but he resisted. He wanted her to control this, and he didn’t want to finish like this. And he was already too close to the edge, walking a very thin line.
Very. Thin.
“So fucking good,” he rasped.
She moaned around him and he shivered at the sensation. The suction of her mouth, the flicks of her hot tongue…Jesus, if he didn’t make her stop now, he was going to lose it.
Lucas tightened his hold on her hair and eased her head back. She looked up at him, lips swollen and wet.
“Did I do something wrong?” she asked.
“Fuck no,” he said, his voice practically strangled by lust. “I just can’t take much more of that or I’ll lose control.”
Her answering smile went straight to his dick, which jerked toward her with an eagerness that was downright embarrassing.
“What if I want you to lose control?” she asked.
She gasped as he reversed their positions, dumping her on her back on the mattress beneath him.
“You first.”
Chapter Twenty-Six
Seven’s heart was pounding a staccato tattoo on her breastbone. She’d loved being in control for that brief moment, drawing that deep groan out of Lucas when she’d taken the hot, heavy weight of him in her mouth. His ragged breathing and the way his hand tightened reflexively in her hair was thrilling.
She’d almost resisted when he stopped her and forced her to release him. But she was so eager to have him inside her that it had been little more than a fleeting thought.
Lucas crawled up her body slowly, letting his eyes rake over her along the way. He was holding his weight off her so that they were barely touching, but his gaze was so intense and full of something she couldn’t quite name—awe? Adoration? Some mix of both—that she felt it as surely as if his hands had followed the same path. All she knew for sure about that look was that it made her feel cherished and needed in a way she’d never felt before.
And then he smiled down at her—a smile so full of sex and sin that she shivered—and settled himself between her thighs, the width of his shoulders spreading her wide.
Then, without warning, his head dipped down and he slid his tongue through her wet folds, his gaze locked on hers all the while.
Her mind went completely blank and every muscle and sinew in her body tightened. She felt that lick through her entire body, from head to toe.
“Oh my God,” she choked out.
She felt him smile against her inner thigh. “You taste incredible,” he said. “Just like I imagined.”
He’d imagined this? She never could’ve imagined anything this incredible in a million years.
He lowered his head again, licking, kissing, and nipping at her sensitive, over-heated flesh again and again.
Seven’s hands fisted in the sheets beneath her. Her hips bucked of their own volition. Incoherent pleas fell from her lips. He responded to her body’s cue, increasing his pace. Her body, her pleasure, was his to command.
“Will you come for me again?” he asked.
She opened her mouth to tell him yes, God yes, whatever he wanted her to do she would, but she lost her words to a deep moan when he slid his thumb hard over her clit while his tongue dipped into her.
And that’s all it took to break her.
Her entire body clenched and she gasped for breath as she came so hard it bordered on painful. And still he didn’t let up, continuing his assault on her oversensitive skin, making her orgasm last until she wondered if she could actually die from too much pleasure.
Seven couldn’t find the energy to raise up on her elbows, but she managed to turn her head to the side to watch him stand up and pull a condom from the bedside table. He was so beautiful. All taut, lean muscle and golden skin, long lines and predatory grace. If she could move, she’d explore every one of those muscles and every inch of that skin.
He tossed the wrapper aside and rolled the condom down his length. Seven watched, transfixed. There was something so…erotic about the sight of his hands on his own body.
But she didn’t have long to ponder the thought before he crawled over her once again, this time lowering onto her.
He cupped her head in his hands as he stared down at her. “Are you sure?”
She nodded, shifting restlessly beneath him, grabbing his hips with both hands. “Very. I want you.”
It was a gross understatement. In truth, she’d never wanted anything more.
She felt a tremor run through him at her words. His eyes fell to her lips, then lifted again. “You’re it for me, Seven. You’re the one. I don’t just want this moment with you. I want forever. Before we do this, I need to know that you understand what that means to a werewolf.”
She frowned. Not this again. “Of course I understand. I was with Sentry my entire life, Lucas. I’m not stupid. You want to claim me as your mate. I want to be your mate or else I wouldn’t be naked here underneath you. I’ve already told you that I love you—”
Whatever she’d been about to say was lost forever on a gasping moan as he thrust into her, not stopping until his hips touched hers and they were joined completely.
“You love me?” he growled against her lips.
“God, yes,” she hissed, then groaned in frustration when he pinned her hips to the bed, refusing to let her move. “I already told you that.”
“You never told me that.”
Her brain was a little cloudy at the moment, but now that he mentioned it…
“Oh…well,” she said. “I meant to. I had a whole speech planned earlier.”
A speech she’d totally forgotten when she blurted out that she wanted to have sex with him. Ugh. She really had to get better at this whole communication thing.
“Say it now.”
“I love you, Lucas.”
His answering smile was like the dawn. “I love you too, beautiful.”
His words brought tears to her eyes. He was so much more than she ever expected to have. She still wasn’t sure she deserved him, but damn it, she also wasn’t sure she cared anymore. He was a gift—her gift—and she wasn’t going to give him up. Ever.
And then he began to move.
Lucas grabbed both her hands, pinned them at either side of her head, and threaded their fingers together. Seven wrapped her legs around his waist and held him tight as he drove into her, over and over again, slow but deep, while his mouth latched onto her neck, alternating between stinging bites and soothing swipes of his tongue.
He let go of one of her hands and slid his arm under her hips, pulling her tighter against him. She moaned as his pelvic bone ground against her clitoris. “Harder,” she pleaded. “More.”
He didn’t hesitate to give her exactly what she wanted. Harder. Deeper. Faster. More. Again and again.
“You’re mine,” he whispered in her ear.
“Yes,” she choked out. “And you’re mine.”
&n
bsp; “Always.”
And then his teeth sank into the curve of her shoulder. The claiming bite, she realized. The pain was sharp but fleeting, chased by white-hot pulses of pleasure starting right there—God, yes—where his mouth touched her skin, and surging through her entire body.
She came then, shuddering, driven over the edge by pain and pleasure, this climax a thousand times more powerful than the others he’d so generously given her. He followed her over the edge a moment later, thrusting into her one, two, three more times before going still, his body tensing above her.
Long, peaceful moments of silence passed as they clung to each other, breathing starting to return to normal, their mingled sweat drying, his forehead pressed to her shoulder, her hands stroking over the broad muscles of his back.
“So,” she said when she caught her breath, “can I be claimed more than once? Like…a bunch more?”
His answering laughter shook the bed around them and sounded so purely happy that she couldn’t help but smile in response.
“Darlin’, I’ll claim you ever night for the rest of our lives if that’s what you want.”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Seven woke up with half her body on top of Lucas and her face pressed into his neck. He had one arm thrown up over his face and the other wrapped around her, holding her against him, one large hand cupping her backside possessively.
She lifted her head and blinked in confusion at the shaft of sunlight piercing through the bedroom curtains and shining right in her face.
Something was off.
She never felt like this when she first woke up. Her body still pulsed and tingled in all the places Lucas had been last night, all the places he’d touched and kissed. Muscles she didn’t even know she had ached deliciously.
That wasn’t what was making her feel…different, she decided.
Seven sat up glanced down at Lucas and felt an immediate rush of tenderness. His face looked almost boyish first thing in the morning. All the hard lines of his features softened by sleep.
The illusion of boyishness abruptly evaporated when he shifted and the six-pack abs she’d traced with her tongue the night before rippled. And then there was the stubble covering his jaw that reminded her why she had whisker burn on her inner thighs.
A rush of something that definitely wasn’t tenderness flooded her then.
But it wasn’t lust that was making her feel different this morning, either. She’d felt plenty of that since he first kissed her.
Maybe the fact that she now had a mate was making her feel different.
No, that wasn’t it, either. That was making her feel loved and cherished and safe for the first time in her life, but she’d felt that last night. What she was feeling now was something entirely new. Something she’d never experienced, not even when…
“That’s it!” she blurted.
Lucas bolted upright, reaching instinctively for the gun he wasn’t wearing.
“What’s wrong?” He blinked blearily at her, his hair sticking up all over the place in a way that should’ve looked ridiculous, but definitely didn’t. “What happened?”
“It’s seven o’clock,” she said, bouncing up to her knees on the mattress.
He glanced at the clock on the bedside table, then back at her, brow wrinkling. “Yeah…is that bad?”
“No! It’s great! I slept! Like, all night I slept!”
He still looked confused. “I knew you were probably having a little trouble sleeping, but just how long has it been since you’ve slept all night, beautiful? Like, a full eight hours?”
“Pfffttt. Eight hours? Never. Until last night.”
He thought about it for a moment, then finally seemed to catch up with the conversation. A grin of primitive, pure male satisfaction broke across his face. “So, you’re saying that after one night with me, you’re so worn out you can’t help but sleep through the night for the first time ever?”
She knew he was joking, and she would’ve rolled her eyes at his arrogance if that wasn’t exactly what she’d been thinking had happened. What other explanation was there? “That’s what I’m saying.”
His gaze dropped to her breasts for a moment before lifting to meet hers once again. He raised a brow at her. “Maybe if I wear you out some more, you’ll be able go back to sleep for another few hours.”
“Like a nap?” Was there anything in the world more decadent than a nap? She bounced a little on her knees, unable to contain her excitement. “I’ve never had a nap before! Do you really think that’s possible?”
She squealed as he lunged for her, rolling her under him in one smooth motion like the predator he was.
“Only one way to find out,” he growled.
***
As it turned out, he was able to wear Seven out to the point that a two-hour nap had been possible. It had taken four orgasms, but hey, he’d been more than happy to oblige. He was a giver, after all.
And now he had just one more thing he wanted to try and give her. But she clearly wasn’t ready to take it just yet.
“Just give it a try. I’ll be right there with you,” he cajoled, tugging her gently into the bathroom.
“I don’t like showers,” she insisted for the tenth time, trying to dig her heels into the floor, and getting no help from the glossy marble.
Her words were casual, but the set of her jaw and the tension in her shoulders gave away her true feelings. She was terrified, and it ripped his heart out to see her like that. Seven deserved to be free of the past, and in his experience, the only way to do that was to face and overcome whatever scared you the most.
He knew Violet wouldn’t agree with his methods, but damn it, he knew this woman better than she did. He had to try and help her.
“I know why you’re afraid of the water,” he told her gently.
For a moment, she looked like she might deny it. But eventually, she sighed and said, “And you think getting in that shower is going to help me forget?”
“No. Not forget. Move past.” He cupped her jaw in one hand and lifted her chin so that she was looking him right in the eye. “If you get too scared at any point, we’ll stop. I just want to try and help. Let me give you happy memories to replace the bad ones.”
She swallowed hard. “I’m…afraid,” she admitted.
“I know, beautiful,” he murmured. “But I would never let anything bad happen to you. I mean it: if you get too scared, we’ll stop. You just say the word. You’re always safe with me. Always.”
“Truth,” she whispered.
He took a deep breath and pretended like her answer to what he was about to ask couldn’t make or break him. “Do you trust me?”
She stared up at him so long and hard and with such intense concentration that he almost couldn’t take it. But eventually, very quietly, she said, “Yes.”
And damned if her trust wasn’t the best gift he’d ever been given in his whole miserable life. It was humbling. He rested his forehead on hers and said, “You won’t ever regret it.”
“Just know that when I’m scared, I have a tendency to start hitting,” she grumbled. “Just ask any guard at Midvale.”
“I know,” he said, his voice rumbling to the point that it sounded like a purr. “I remember. It was fucking hot.”
Her snort turned into a moan as his mouth captured hers in a hungry, tongue-tangling kiss.
Not wanting to give her an opportunity to get away or think too much about what they were about to do, he lifted her up off the ground, forcing her to wrap her legs around his waist to keep her balance. Her arms went immediately around his neck as he inched them to the shower, his mouth never leaving hers, and turned on the water.
She trembled when he set her on her feet in the shower in front of him, her back to his chest. His body shielded her from the majority of the spray, but every time a stray drop hit her, she flinched like she’d been struck.
“Try to relax,” he whispered in her ear. “You’re so brave, beautiful. You can
do this.”
She turned her head and looked up at him with wide eyes that said she was only a few seconds away from throwing him to the ground and making a break for it. After what she’d been through, he could hardly blame her.
“Face forward and close your eyes,” he said.
She did, albeit grudgingly, after a long, long stare-down. “I seriously doubt this is a scientifically proven method for curing aquaphobia,” she grumbled.
“Oh, baby, I love it when you talk science to me. So hot,” he teased.
She elbowed him in the gut. “I don’t find you amusing.”
Or so she said. But he could hear the laughter behind her words, even though she was clearly terrified.
God, he loved this woman.
He tipped her head back and shifted slightly so that the water was soaking her hair, but did his best to shield her face. Then he took his time working shampoo through the thick locks, slowly, thoroughly, paying particular attention to her scalp.
The longer he massaged her scalp, the more she started to relax. He could see the tightness start to leave her mouth, her neck, her shoulders, until finally she groaned and let her head fall back to rest on his shoulder.
He chuckled. “Good?”
Lucas decided to take her wordless moan as an affirmative. She didn’t even protest when he sneakily moved them back further into the spray.
He shampooed, rinsed, and repeated twice more, and when he was done, she was almost completely under the spray. Her eyes were still closed, but she was practically limp in his arms.
He gave her hair a gentle tug so that she had to tip her head back a little, just enough that he could dip his own head down and touch his mouth to hers.
“You did it, beautiful,” he whispered.
“Mmm.”
She arched her back and pushed her ass back into his ever-present erection. It seemed he had no control over his body when she was around. Not that he really cared anymore.
Harper Hall Investigations Complete Series Page 74
