She wasn’t doing this slowly, drawing it out. She was going to push on through so she could get to the pleasure part quicker.
“Ember—” He didn’t get a chance to say whatever had been balanced on his lips.
It ended in a wicked grunt and a feral snarl as she sank back on him, burying the rest of his cock in her in one go and breaking through the obstruction.
“Fuck,” Ember muttered as fire licked through her. She pressed her hands into his chest and closed her eyes, shut him out as she felt him glare at her, sensed how pissed he was that she had rushed.
She breathed hard and focused through the pain, fixing every ounce of her attention on her body. On the feel of him inside her. Filling her. Stretching her. Heating her.
When she wriggled a little to test the waters, Cobalt groaned and wood creaked. She opened her eyes and looked at him where he lay beneath her, a death grip on the steel bars of the headboard, muscles straining as he pulled on them.
He growled, his fangs long between his lips as they peeled back off his teeth, and she sensed the fight in him. He was trying to keep still for her, didn’t want to hurt her, but his instincts were as demanding as hers.
They pressed her to move and do whatever it took to find a release she knew would leave her altered, changed forever.
Ember flattened her palms against his chest and pressed down as he bowed up, forcing him back against the mattress.
“Cobalt.”
He didn’t seem to hear her as he tugged at his bonds, glared at them and looked close to gnawing his arm off in order to get free and get to her.
He needed her.
That beat inside her, drummed fiercely as she sat astride him, his cock filling her. He needed her and she would satisfy his instincts for him, would bring them both to a shattering release.
He stilled the moment she moved on him, his eyes leaping to her face as he sank against the bed beneath her, giving up his fight. A groan tore from his lips as she rose up his cock and eased back down, one echoing from hers as he filled her again, as she grew accustomed to the delicious feel of him refilling the emptiness that was left inside her whenever she rose off him.
She stared down into his eyes, mesmerised by them and the bliss rolling through her, heat that gathered in her belly as she rode him, gradually gaining momentum as she found her stride. She couldn’t get enough of the way he filled her, stretched her, and when he began to counter her thrusts, plunging up whenever she pushed down onto him, she found a new addiction.
Ember dug her fingers into his chest and moaned with each plunge of his cock and each time her nub brushed his body, a combination of sensation she wasn’t sure she could withstand.
She groaned and rocked on him, losing herself in the feelings sweeping through her, in the urge to keep reaching higher, to find the release she craved. The ache in her belly twisted tighter, her instincts pushing harder, filling her with a need to go faster, to reach that release now and wring one from him too so she could satisfy the need to mate that had been a constant itch inside her for over a month now.
She dropped her hands lower and pressed them against his hips, pinned him to the bed as that need to mate overwhelmed her.
Cobalt growled, his anger over being restrained in another way blasting through her, but she didn’t care.
She growled back at him, flashed fangs and rode him harder, her breaths coming in short sharp bursts that left her whenever their bodies met. His anger quickly dissipated, his breathless groans telling her that he was enjoying this as much as she was, that he was close too, just a short step from the edge now.
She couldn’t stop herself from going faster, riding him harder still, desperation driving her as she reached for release that she could almost touch, one she feared would slip through her fingers if she didn’t seize it now.
Cobalt grunted, snarled an oath, and bucked beneath her as he gripped the steel bars.
His cock plunged deep, so swift and hard it ripped a gasp from her. That gasp became a sharp cry of pleasure that burst from her lips as his length throbbed and jerked as he thrust wildly, releasing hot jets of seed inside her.
Her entire body kicked, her arms buckling and legs quivering as stars detonated inside her, blazed through her and stole her breath. Heat followed it, wave after wave of hazy warmth that followed each flex of her body around his still-throbbing cock.
She wasn’t sure how long she lay with her cheek pressed to his sweat-dampened chest, listening to his heart beating. It was finally slowing, hers finding a restful rhythm with it, when she found the strength to move. Pleasure still rolled through her, gentle waves of it that had her tingling in all the good places and grew in intensity as she shifted on Cobalt.
The heat of pleasure became something else as she looked at him, found him watching her with grey eyes filled with affection, with tenderness that stole her voice and her breath.
Ember pulled herself up him and kissed him, softly, slowly, showing him that he wasn’t alone.
He wasn’t the only one in love.
When she convinced herself to break away from his lips, he was smiling. A real one. One of those smiles that had stolen her heart all those decades ago, an easy one that hid nothing, revealing every drop of his happiness.
Ember smoothed her fingers over his brow, clearing rogue strands of his blond hair from it as she stared down into his striking eyes.
“I think I need a new headboard,” he murmured, sounding a little drowsy, or maybe just as drunk on pleasure as she felt.
She looked up at it. There was a split in the wooden beam above the two bars he gripped.
“You can probably untie me now.” He looked at his wrists.
“No.”
He frowned at her. “No?”
Ember sat back on him, skimmed her hands down his chest and savoured the way his eyes darkened, hunger rising in them again as she circled his nipples with her fingers.
She smiled.
“I’m not done with you yet.”
Yet?
Her smile widened as she leaned down to kiss him.
She would never be done with him.
CHAPTER 13
Ember felt as if she could finally breathe for the first time as she sat on the deck of her family’s cabin, a cold glass of rosé wine in her hand and a smile on her lips. She lay on the recliner she had turned to face the river, her eyes on the mountains and the sky above as they changed colour with the fading day. Warmth lingered in the air, wrapped around her and reminded her of the comforting heat of Cobalt’s arms.
Her smile stretched a little wider.
The last twenty hours had changed so much in her life.
No. They had changed everything.
Her mating heat was broken and fading now thanks to spending almost all of those twenty hours with Cobalt, locked in his cabin and in his arms. The gathering was coming to a close, with everyone due to depart tomorrow and return to their lives.
And Cobalt was finally hers.
Almost.
They still had a few things to work out.
Her heart had been heavy when she had left him a few hours ago, pressed by him to return to her cabin and her mother before she sent another search party out to find her. Ember had only left because she intended to speak with her mother about tomorrow.
When she wouldn’t be returning home with her.
Home.
It wasn’t back in Washington state, at the grand house in the forest of Tiger Mountain.
It was here.
It was wherever Cobalt was, because he was her home.
She just had to stand firm and make her mother see that, had to stick to her guns and do what was right for her for a change.
Once the gathering was over, and everyone was gone, she would take the next step in her plan.
She would convince Cobalt to bond with her.
Ember sipped her wine, itching to forget the plan and go to him now.
She pictured him in the shower, g
etting ready for this evening’s celebration of the end of the gathering. When she had left him, he had teased her with the fact he had brought a shirt with him, and he was going to wear it tonight, and she wouldn’t be able to resist the sight of him.
She couldn’t resist the sight of him as it was. He looked delectable enough in worn t-shirts and jeans. She wasn’t sure she would survive the sight of him all scrubbed up, wearing a button down shirt, especially if he paired it with the pitch-black jeans he had picked out of his wardrobe while she had been trying to convince herself to leave.
He had practically booted her out of the cabin in the end, had seized her arm and tugged her to the door, and told her he would see her again soon enough.
She had been foolish enough to think he would leave it at that, but he had seared her soul with a kiss that had been half-tender half-desperate, filled with love and need that had started a fire inside her.
That fire still burned, images of him and memories of what they had done keeping the flames alive.
Damn, she needed to see him again.
She drank a bigger mouthful of her wine and tried to relax again, but the itch was back, the sunset not holding her focus as thoughts of seeing Cobalt, of sneaking away from the celebration into the shadows of the trees to sit with him, to talk with him as they watched the others around the fire, filled her mind.
She needed to talk to him.
She had left so much unsaid, had meant to tell him things and make her feelings clear to him so he knew where he stood and what was in her heart.
A heart that was his if he wanted it.
Did he know that?
Was it even hers to give now?
She felt as if every time they had made love, they had grown closer, another piece of them merging in the moment, leaving them more and more entwined. Her heart already felt tied to his, sewn together by unbreakable thread.
She stared at the sunset, pondering that. Maybe they had already exchanged hearts after all.
She ignored the commotion behind her, sure it was just more of the pride members gossiping about the fact Storm had returned to Cougar Creek and had brought Gabriella with him.
When the noise grew louder, rising to shatter the peaceful quiet of the valley, Ember looked over her shoulder and frowned.
Her eyes widened.
Almost all the pride members that remained at the creek were milling around in the spot reserved for the fights, chatting animatedly and exchanging confused glances.
What was going on?
Was this because Gabriella had come back to the creek?
She believed the human, and Storm, felt in her heart that Gabriella wasn’t involved with Archangel, a hunter organisation, and was innocent. She had seen genuine fear in the female when her half-brother had landed a helicopter in the clearing and a battle had broken out, and when Storm had taken her captive afterwards.
On top of that, Gabi had done all she could to help Storm and Rath uncover whether her half-brother had been working with Archangel or not, and Storm was satisfied that he had been working alone, and that the pride was safe.
Flint pushed through the crowd, his dark turquoise and black flannel shirt half open and buttoned wrongly. Someone had dressed in a hurry. He worried his black hair with his right hand, looked around at everyone and then back over his left shoulder towards Rath’s cabin.
His brother stepped out onto his deck, a scowl marring his face as he looked across the clearing to the crowd. Ivy stepped out behind him, tugging on a dark blue fleece that was too large for her curvy figure. Clearly Rath’s.
“Calm down.” Flint held his hands up, turning in a circle in the middle of the crowd.
Everyone backed off, settling a little, but still talking, throwing glances around as the air of excitement crept back up in level.
“What’s happening?” The sound of her mother’s sharp voice brought dead silence.
Ember rose onto her feet, set her glass of wine down on the small wooden table, and came to face the crowd as her mother reached the railing around the deck.
Whatever was happening, it was the perfect chance to escape and see Cobalt without anyone noticing she was gone.
That sense of perfect shattered when Flint stepped towards her mother. “I’m not too sure myself, but I received word there’s going to be another fight.”
The nineteen males and females stood behind Flint started talking all at once, the noise almost deafening as they speculated who the contenders could be and who the fight was over.
Flint turned on them with a growl. “Shut the fuck up.”
He weathered a few growls aimed at him for that one, but didn’t seem to care as he looked back at her.
The fire that had been burning in her started to flicker and fade, unable to withstand the chill that swept through her as she looked down at Flint.
“Who told you?” She frowned at him, needing to know, because she suspected she knew who it had been and if she was right, it meant one of two things.
“Cobalt.” Flint bared his fangs at a few of the more rowdy males and then glanced back at her. “But then he left, saying it was in my hands… which is weird.”
It was strange, but maybe it was all a big distraction so he could sneak away from the celebration. Maybe he’d had the same idea as her, wanting to be alone with her again, only he had found another way to make it happen.
But as Rath and Ivy joined them, together with Yasmin, and the noise of the crowd grew louder again, a ripple of unease going through the gathered that had nothing to do with the appearance of Gabriella and Storm at the top of the clearing, Ember had the feeling that it meant the other of the two things.
This wasn’t meant as a distraction at all.
Because she could feel Cobalt moving closer.
Awareness of him drummed in her veins, lit up her blood, and had her edging towards the railing around the deck.
The crowd parted before her, all of them turning their backs on her, and her eyes slowly widened.
Cobalt strode towards her, dressed in only a pair of black sweats that rode low on his lean hips. Determination flashed in his eyes as they locked on her, and gods, that look set her aflame, had the fire rising to inferno level inside her as she gripped the railing.
The delicious sight of his honed bare chest shifting in a symphony of power combined with the fierce need shining in his eyes roused an instinct that swept through her like a tornado, ripping her will from her and driving her to do something that would probably startle her mother.
She wanted to growl.
She wanted to bare her fangs and unleash a snarl meant to provoke Cobalt, to challenge his authority and strength, and push him to react.
Ember managed to suppress that wild need as she clutched the wooden bar before her and stared at him.
He tried to strip the control she had gathered from her by stopping in the middle of the circle of people, his eyes never leaving her as he spoke.
“You all came to see a fight.” He raised his voice enough that she could hear him over the clamour of the crowd, and lowered it back to a normal pitch as everyone fell silent. “I’ll give you one. I’ll fight whoever wants to claim Ember.”
“You can’t do that. Your position—”
Ember cut her mother off. “Why?”
She stared down at him, confusion dancing through her as she tried to make sense of what he was doing.
He didn’t take his eyes away from her. They were steady, unwavering, filled with resolve that frightened her a little. She didn’t want him to fight.
“It’s time I proved my worth to you,” he husked, the sincerity of his words touching her together with his expression as it softened, revealing all of his feelings to her. “It’s time I proved I’m strong enough to protect you. All I have now is my strength, and a heart I want to give to you… and if that’s enough for you—”
She cut him off too. “Your heart is all I want. I don’t want you to fight, Cobalt.”
/> Because he might lose control, and she didn’t want that to happen. It killed him whenever he lost control, whenever his past crept up on him to strip it away and push him over the edge. She didn’t want him to go through that again.
“You don’t have to fight,” she whispered, her eyebrows furrowing as she looked down at him, aching with a need to climb over the railing and wrap him in her arms and tell him that he was strong enough for her.
He was everything she wanted and he didn’t have to prove anything to her.
The gathering was ending tonight. Tomorrow, it would be over and they could be together without this ridiculous rite happening.
No, he could be with her without it happening right now.
It was her choice.
She had come to the gathering for him, to win him, and she had. She could see that now. She had won the male she wanted, so he didn’t need to fight for her.
“You don’t have to fight,” she repeated and shook her head when he looked as if he wasn’t going to listen. “I choose you, Cobalt. It’s my right as a female to pick a male. The fight is only necessary when I need convincing or I’m undecided about any of the males at the gathering. Well, I’m more than decided. I’m certain. Couldn’t be more certain that you’re the one for me.”
His grey eyes softened, warmed in a way that tugged at her heart and made her want to kiss him.
But then gold ringed his irises, and cold crept down her spine.
“You don’t have to fight.” She gripped the railing harder and shook her head, desperation starting to fill her as she waited for him to respond, to do something other than just stand there looking at her as if he loved her, and as if he wasn’t going to listen to her.
“You’re right,” he murmured with a hint of a smile, one that set her on edge. “I don’t have to fight… I need to fight. I should have fought for you when I arrived… fuck… I should have fought for you long before then.”
“Cobalt, please?” She leaned towards him, reached with her right hand and silently urged him to take it, to come to her and forget this madness.
“I stood by too long watching males fighting over you… wanting to be the one in that ring… and I’ve made up my mind about this. I’m going to fight for you.”
Craved by her Cougar (Cougar Creek Mates Shifter Romance Series Book 4) Page 14
