by J. D. Light
I might not know what I could possibly bring to the table for someone like West, but I had to have faith in the fact that I would somehow bring him joy.
I stood there staring at the empty spot Williams had just vacated as I thought about all the possibilities of having West as a mate, and the anxious need to get back to the room, so I could apologize my ass off for hurting him earlier, had me spinning and nearly sprinting back toward the room.
Taking a deep breath just outside the door, I prepared myself for the possibility of groveling. If I was him, I wouldn't give me a chance, but I had him being my soulmate… and me being his, on my side. I was going to find a way to make sure he forgave me and never doubted us.
A delicious new scent greeted me though the door making my soul calm and my body ache at the same time. It was him. That was West's scent.
My hand shook as I reached for the knob and eased the door open, my heart sinking at first when I didn't see him, but the slide of a drawer to my right had me turning in that direction, and I met the nervous looking gaze of West Dyer.
"Did you know?" I asked, my voice coming out mostly growl as my throat tried to close with emotion.
He bit his lip, his eyes searching my face, and I hated myself just a little as I realized he was gauging my reaction to him being my mate with no small amount of trepidation. He was actually worried I might be disappointed, and I couldn't blame anyone but myself for that.
"I suspected," he whispered, standing there frozen by the dresser.
I moved first, striding over to him and pulling him into my arms. He wasn't a small man, and it was definitely clear as I tried to wrap my arms around his chest, and I loved the feeling. I loved how he fit in my arms.
"It does explain a lot," I whispered into the side of his head, taking long deep breaths, trying to pull as much of his scent into my lungs as I possibly could. "I should have known. All the signs were there."
The way I wanted him like I'd never wanted anyone before. The way he made me want to laugh in public when I was highly averse to showing any signs of emotion anywhere. The way I was drawn to him no matter where we were or where he was in the room. The way my stomach would sink every single time he walked away or had to leave, and the way I all but had to restrain myself to keep from following.
I didn't know how long I held him, but the peacefulness of the moment exceeded the fact that my body was humming with awareness. I wanted him so fucking much, always had, but I just needed to hold him for a moment and thank the Lord for my gift. A gift that I'd been waiting for a really, really long time.
After several long moments of just holding each other, West pulled back, an eyebrow raised in the air. "Are we still talking about sex?"
Something I hadn't felt in a long time bubbled up inside me, and a weird laugh popped out. It was joy. It was absolute and complete joy. My chest felt like it was being expanded from the inside out.
I cupped the back of his neck, pulling him to me. I loved that our heights were so similar, especially when our chests pressed together, and his hot breath warmed the skin of my lips, face and neck, as the air left him in a whoosh.
"Are you going to let me claim you tonight, West? I won't if you're not ready. This isn't a decision you make lightly."
He pursed his lips, blinking at me dryly for several moments before finally leaning forward and brushing his mouth to mine and speaking against it. "This mating thing is just as important to me as it is to you. I might not have had as long a wait as you did for this moment, but I've been ready for this… and for you, for a long time.
His skin caught on mine when he talked, making happy little thrills of electricity dance along the skin of my lips and then spread outward.
I'm not going to fucking argue.
I slanted my mouth over his giving him one, long, drawn-out peck, before slipping my tongue along the seam of his lips and pressing inside. He parted his lips with zero resistance and my tongue slid into the warm delicious recesses of his mouth, and I moaned as his flavor teased my senses.
He licked at my tongue as it invaded his mouth before pressing forward and licking inside my mouth again and again in long, leisurely strokes that made me grunt as pre-cum leaked continuously from my slit and into my borrowed shorts.
His hands tightened on my hips, pulling me closer and pressing his dick against my hip hard, giving a long, slow grind that had us both whimpering against the other's mouth.
"Wait, wait, wait," he said, pulling back and pressing his forehead to mine.
"What? What's wrong?" I pulled back, looking down into his face, my eyes not completely focused as my body hummed with happy awareness.
He blinked open his eyes, sucking his lips into his mouth as if to get every ounce of my flavor off of them, and I groaned, wishing his mouth back on mine.
His dark-brown eyes looked like molten chocolate when they met mine, clearly just as turned on as me. So, why the fuck had he stopped us.
"I should probably tell you everything before you mate me, right? Isn't that how relationships work?"
How the fuck was I supposed to know? I'd never considered what being in a relationship was going to be like, or how I should even act. I was pretty sure I was going to be absolute shit at it, but I was going to do everything I could to make this one work.
"Nothing else matters," I told him, letting us both know. "This is what I've been waiting for the last three hundred years."
God, my dad would lose his alpha mind if he knew just how sappy I was being, but I couldn't help it. The euphoric feeling washing over me at finally having found him was unbelievable. I knew it was supposed to be something amazing, and maybe the fact that I'd all but given up on finding my soulmate had lowered my expectations of what it would actually feel like, but I was completely blown away. He could honestly tell me he was a serial killer and I'd probably help him go all Dexter by pointing him in the direction of the ones who needed killing.
"What about kids?" he asked seriously, swallowing hard.
"We can adopt," I said quickly, hoping he didn't take my earlier statement about having my own child with a chosen to heart and think that I would want him any less for not being chosen. Or hell, I didn't even know if he wanted kids. "Unless you don't want them. I don't care anymore."
Wow, I'd sure done a one-eighty. I went from desperate to have a family of my own after years of being lonely, to not caring if I had more than him in my life, and I honestly didn't think that was just because he was my mate, as before I'd even realized he was mine, I'd already decided he was mine, and I wasn't willing to let him go to someone else due to my own stubbornness.
I was pretty sure the only reason I'd even wanted kids so badly in the first place was because I was so fucking sure I was never going to find him, and I was lonely and wasn't sure how long I was going to be able to connect to a mate, but I could already feel a connection growing with the man in my arms, and it really didn't matter anymore what happened beyond what we had right then, because I wasn't going to be lonely anymore.
He laughed, letting his head fall back, and I couldn't resist the column of his throat as he presented it to me. I leaned forward, letting the prickle of my overnight growth of whiskers rasp against his skin.
He moaned, letting me back him up to the bed as I nibbled and licked at the skin of his neck before rubbing my whiskers up and down the pale skin, reddening it up beautifully.
That was another amazing discovery. We were never going to be able to slip off and have sex without everyone knowing, because there was no way I was going to be able to keep from using whatever necessary to mark him up and let everyone see that he belonged to me.
His legs hit the mattress and he tipped over backward, taking me with him, and we both laughed as we bounced across the surface.
When we finally settled, I pressed my smiling mouth against his, barely even recognizing the man I was as that euphoric, giddy feeling once again bubbled up in my system.
I was about to claim my m
ate. I had a mate. And he was fucking perfect.
Pulling back, I moved up onto my knees, meeting his eyes, giving him a small smirk as I hooked my hands under his armpits and slid him further up the bed so that his legs weren't hanging off the end.
"Do you have lube in this room? I asked, sliding my hands under his shirt, moaning at the planes of endless muscle sculpted to perfection under his pale skin, and I nearly lost my train of thought as I eased the material up, revealing him to me.
He reached out blindly, his hand smacking down on the nightstand hard, before he was patting at the front of the drawer as he looked for a handle. He finally found what he was looking for and pulled the drawer open. A lonely bottle of lube slid toward the back of the drawer noisily, and then forward again when he let the thing go and it nearly fell out of the nightstand, the back of the drawer catching on the top of the opening as it leaned forward, toward the floor.
He fished the bottle out as I continued to raise his shirt, leaning down to kiss along the soft flesh, completely transfixed by how his muscles twitched and spasmed beneath my fingers and lips.
When I finally reached one of his beautifully pebbled nipples, I flattened my tongue over it, giving it one slooow swipe before flicking it with the tip and he cried out, arching his back, just as something made a farting sound, and we both froze, our gazes wide and unfocused as we looked at each other and then over at the bottle of lube in his hand. The bottle that had erupted when he squeezed it just a bit too hard.
The clear, precious gel slid down the sides of the container and all over his hand.
I was the first to laugh, letting my cheek fall to his stomach as I chuckled, gently rubbing the side of my face against him. He let out a small laugh too, his jumping stomach making my head bounce against him.
Still chuckling, I lifted my head up and reached for the offending bottle, taking it from him and clicking the popped top back into place before laying it on the bed, then easing him into a sitting position so I could ease his shirt up over his head.
When it was off, I used the material to clean his hand as he eased back down onto his back and let me look him over, thoroughly enjoying the view of his amazing body, gorgeous, well-shaped muscle under pale skin. He was lovely.
I hooked my fingers in the waist band of his shorts, meeting his gaze and getting wide, direct eyes and a small nod as he lifted his ass off the mattress, biting his lip as I slowly slid the shorts down, revealing inch after inch of him.
I groaned when the band slid down far enough to show off the top of his pubes and the base of his thick dick, the sight he was making so fucking obscene, I almost wished I could stop and take a picture.
He looked like a fucking fantasy like that, his legs spread slightly to accommodate my body, and his hips pressed toward the ceiling while his shoulders were still on the bed, making all the muscles in his torso flex. His eyes were nearly black and shiny with fever, and his lovely pale skin was marred with red where I'd been nibbling and nuzzling.
I slid the shorts further down, and his dick popped free, smacking against the skin of his stomach. He moaned, and pre-cum leaked against the hair there, looking delicious.
When his shorts were gone, he was just lying there completely naked with a needy look on his face, his dick twitching against his stomach.
"I've been waiting for this day since the first time I met you," I admitted on a whisper.
"Me too." He reached down, grippig his dick and moaning, a shudder working its way through his body. "Now, take those shorts off and get me ready.
I moved quickly, sliding my shorts down and maneuvering them off of my body in what I was sure was probably the sexiest way possible while he watched, his eyes moving over me and getting stuck on my dick.
"Nice," he whispered, pulling his knees up toward the ceiling and spreading them, exposing his hole, while nudging the lube in my direction. "I don't need much. I like a little burn."
Fuck. I opened him quickly, spurred on by his commands, biting my lip when he begged for a third finger when I wasn't quite sure he was ready. I listened anyway, and by the writhing and the way he was throwing his head around on the bed, he was enjoying it completely.
He was so warm and tight, and by the time I was positioning my dick at his opening, it was so hard it was purple, and pre-cum was running down my shaft, leaving trails.
I eased inside him, gasping when his body accepted me easily, his channel hot and tight and almost too much. I barely made it all the way inside him without shooting all over the place, and I had to close my eyes and concentrate on my own breathing to keep from blowing.
He must have gotten impatient with me, because he started rolling his hips, dragging my dick out and then pushing it right back in, the silky, hot slide almost painful with how good it felt.
I gripped his hips, holding him still for a moment, biting down hard on my lip to keep from blowing. He let out a frustrated grunt, and when I looked down at him, he was glaring up at me and before I ever registered what the fuck was going on, he had us flipped, me on my back on the bed and him straddling my hips.
"Fuck," I groaned, hoping I wasn't bruising his hips where I was holding them in my hands, just trying to gain a bit of control. I wasn't going to fucking make it. I could already feel the tingle in my spine and my balls drawing up.
"Yes," West growled, leaning back and bracing his hands on my thighs while balancing on the balls of his feet, bouncing up and down. "Fuck yes."
His head fell back on his shoulders, emphasizing the lines of his gorgeous body. When I thought I was going to have to flip us again, so I could get ahold of myself and not shoot before him, his body tensed, and he shouted, grinding down on my dick hard and shuddering as ribbons of cum shot up out of his dick like a fountain, painting us.
I growled, leaning up and wrapping my arms around him as the pulsing of his ass milked me, sending me careening over the edge, and I filled his ass before biting down on the still-exposed skin and muscle of his neck, making my first release blend almost seamlessly into a second, while more cum spilled between us and he whimpered in my arms.
"Do you feel that?" he asked, sounding in awe as I licked at the wound on his neck moments later.
I didn't even have to ask what he meant as waves of euphoria crashed through my system and I felt the bond grow between us. It was almost like I could feel our souls remembering each other, finding their long-lost other half.
"Yeah," I whispered, blinking back the sudden need to cry, and laughing at the same time. Who the fuck was I? I didn't even recognize this person I'd become in the last thirty hours.
Chapter Five
Gabriel surprised me by pressing a kiss to the mark on the bottom of my foot and meeting my gaze with watery eyes.
Who the fuck was this man? I'd have never guessed he'd be this sweet as a mate, but he was attentive and kind, and had asked me about a hundred times in a thirty-minute period if I needed anything and was right then staring at me reverently.
"I can't believe I was that stupid," he whispered, kissing the inside of first one ankle and then the other. "I almost missed out on this because I'm a judgmental prick."
I nodded, giving him a smirk when he gave an indignant huff. He glared up at me with his eyes, moving his lips up the inside of my calf.
"What?" I asked, shrugging. "Were you expecting me to argue?"
He pursed his lips, groaning. "No."
"It's fine, Gabby. It hurt my feelings for a bit, but I like who I am, so it disappointed me more than anything."
It had disappointed me that he couldn't see the real me, especially since he was the one I wanted more than anything.
"I'm going to work toward expressing my feelings a little better with you. I doubt I'm going to feel comfortable laying it all out on the table when it's not just us, but I don't ever want you to doubt that I really like how you are too, okay?" he asked, watching my face and nuzzling his chin bristles against the sensitive skin behind my knee. " I thought you n
eeded to be a certain way in order to have the same goals as me, and for a while my goals were the only thing I had to look forward to, because I had started to think I wouldn't ever find my mate."
"I told you it was fine," I said, reaching out and pushing my fingers through the thick, black hair on his head, my eyes flicking over to the nightstand when I heard the vibrations. "Is that your phone again?"
He nodded, pressing a kiss to my kneecap and climbing off the bed, still gloriously naked, and sexy as fuck. I was still having a hard time believing the man was actually my mate. Everything about the night seemed almost like a dream.
I watched his face as he glared down at his phone, and I smiled. I loved his scowls, they were ridiculously sexy, but I was glad I was really the only one that got to see the other sides of him. He liked to be completely in control of his emotions around others, but with me––and not just tonight, either––he was able to let some of his emotion shine through.
"Rohypnol?" he said, shaking his head before turning the screen around to me, so I could see what the lab guy had said. Sure enough, he'd read it correctly.
"He was going to roofie us?" I said in disbelief. "Why? I'd rather not be drugged at all, but Rohypnol seems extremely tame in comparison to what I thought he was trying to do."
The situation with Lane was only getting more and more confusing. Even knowing he'd poisoned my food, his innocent eyes and sweet smile had been hard to stay mad at him, and I'd kinda wondered if maybe that had been his game. Maybe he was just really good at looking sweet and innocent, even if he was a big burly, bear of a man who was a few tattoos and a leather vest short of looking like he belonged in a biker gang.
