“Hi,” she whispered, cradling the side of my face as I carried her across the courtyard.
“You’re so fucking beautiful.” I turned my face into her palm with a kiss.
“You’re not too bad to look at yourself,” she teased, flashing me a smile that hit me harder than one of Lachlan’s punches. Her face fell slightly.
“What’s wrong?”
“I was just thinking that my best friend wasn’t here.” She shook her head and blinked rapidly. “It’s okay. Really.”
“So we can do it again.” Serge had appeared in front of us and opened the front door to the residence so smoothly I didn’t break my stride. Then we started up the stairs. “Something small. At night, of course. You could wear white.”
“Like…a real wedding?” she asked, her brow furrowing slightly.
“Lyric, this one was as real as it gets. You’re married to me. No backing out now.” I gave her a grin, but my heart flipped at the possibility that she didn’t understand the gravity of what we’d just done. “But I don’t mind marrying you again and again if you like.”
We reached the top of the stairs, and my heartbeat accelerated. Maybe it had only been a month, but I felt like I’d been waiting to get my hands on this woman my entire life.
“I’m taking you to our room.” My voice dropped low as I passed Avi’s door and continued down the hall.
“I know.” She ran her fingers through my hair.
“I’m going to strip this dress off your body and replace it with my mouth.” There wasn’t an inch of her body I’d leave untouched tonight—today. The sun was only hours from rising, and we had as much time as we wanted. I was already hard, my stomach clenching with need.
“I like that idea.” Her lips parted, and her breath caught.
I turned slightly so I could open our door, then carried her inside, kicking it shut behind us. Serge had outdone himself. Candles covered every available surface but the floor and bed, and the Lyric’s sweet scent mixed with the scattered bouquets of white hydrangeas.
Her gaze swept over the room before locking with mine. Then her tongue peeked out, swiping over her lower lip, and I was done for.
Our mouths collided in a primal, unbridled kiss, my tongue sweeping inside to claim her with deep strokes that she answered with her own.
Her hands gripped my lapels as I lowered her to her feet, and she quickly arched against me for another kiss, then another.
Lyric was an intoxicating blend of innocence and fire, and I was completely in her thrall—but I had to stay in control if I wanted her to live through this night.
I broke the kiss, my mouth drifting down her neck and over the diamond necklace I’d sent her when the sun set this evening. “So perfect.”
Her grip shifted to my hair as my mouth ghosted over the swells of her breasts, pausing where her pulse pounded. I let myself feel the hunger, embrace and acknowledge it. Then I set it aside.
“I can feel how hungry you are,” she whispered as I rose to my full height, angling her neck for access.
My fangs lengthened, and my cock swelled.
“Later.” I turned her gently so I could examine the back of her dress. Thank God it was a zipper, or I would have shredded the whole damned thing to get her out of it.
“But that’s why the dress is crimson right?” she teased over her shoulder as I tugged the zipper down the first few inches. “Less mess. I mean…imagine white!”
Go slow. She’s never done this before, you idiot.
My fingers paused as I stroked my mouth over hers once. Twice. “Crimson is the color of life, and that’s what you are to me now—my life.” I nipped her bottom lip, careful to keep my fangs off the delicate flesh. “Now, Mrs. Markov, can I help you out of this dress?”
She gifted me with a brilliant smile. “Yes, please.”
I turned my attention to her zipper, then lowered myself so I could kiss each inch of creamy skin as it was exposed. Leaving her white, diaphanous, strapless lace bra in place, I worshiped a trail down her spine until I reached the top of a matching thong.
“Fuck me, Lyric. If I’d known this was all you had on under this dress, we never would have made it to the wedding in the first place.” I caressed the skin of her lower back as the zipper reached the end of its path.
“Then I’m glad you didn’t know.” She took a deep breath, then shrugged out of the dress, letting the fabric flutter to the ground in a puddle around her feet.
“Damn.” She had the most perfect ass I’d ever seen. Round and lush. Made for my hands, my mouth. I gripped her hips and placed an open mouth kiss on her right cheek. The scent of her arousal only served to heighten mine, but that was the way it was supposed to be, wasn’t it? She wanted, I provided. “I’m going to devour you.”
She turned slowly, and I nearly swallowed my tongue. Her high, firm breasts rose with every breath. Her waist narrowed gracefully, then flared to these incredible hips. She was generously curved everywhere a female should be.
“Exquisite,” I said softly, kissing the soft skin of her belly, just above her underwear.
“I’m shorter than other females,” she whispered, her hands tugging at my jacket.
I threw the damned thing across the room, sending the tie right after it, leaving me in just the black dress shirt above the waist. “You’re the only female as far as I’m concerned, and I love the way you fit against me.” I traced the band of her thong with my tongue.
She balanced herself on my shoulders, then kicked out of her shoes.
I hit my knees, the scent of her driving me slowly mad. Go slow.
“I know I’m supposed to be gentle with you,” I growled, unable to moderate my tone as my hands followed the dip of her waist. “So if you need me to slow down or ease up, you have to let me know, Lyric.” My eyes locked with hers.
“I just need you to be you, Alek.” She swallowed and reached behind her back.
I heard every single hook slip free as she removed her bra and dropped it to the ground beside us. “Just when I thought you couldn’t get any more beautiful.”
The hard, rosy tips of her breasts swayed above me as Lyric hooked her thumbs into the white lace strings that held her panties in place. “I don’t want you to hold back.” She drew them down her thighs. “I don’t want you to go slow or easy.”
“Lyric,” I groaned as gravity took that last scrap of fabric the rest of the way to the floor, and she stepped free to stand gloriously naked. She was going to be the death of me.
“I want you to take me exactly how you want to.” The nervousness behind that calm, easy tone was only obvious by her quick breaths. “I want you to be…you, Alek. I need you to be exactly as you are. I can take it. I can take you.”
She stared down at me with a spark of challenge in those gorgeous green eyes, and the need to claim her in every way possible roared through my veins.
Fuck it. I’d go slow as soon as I had this.
“Then take me,” I said just before I grabbed hips and buried my face between her thighs, stabbing my tongue through her folds to taste her. I moaned, long and loud as she gasped, gripping my shoulders.
I nudged her thighs apart for a better angle, then stroked deeper, dragging my tongue over her clit with each slide.
“Alek!” Her nails bit as she clutched me for balance, but I didn’t carry her to a wall or even the bed. I was too hungry for her to move another inch. Spreading her with my fingers, I flicked and rubbed at her clit, and once she began rocking against me, riding my tongue, I thrust inside her with a finger, then two, stretching her tight muscles with each stroke.
She had to be ready for me. I’d rather die than hurt her.
Her knees shook, but still, I drove on, feasting on her cries of pleasure and the sweet nectar of her pussy as I added a third finger.
She was so wet, so slick, I knew I could take her to the floor and claim her, but I needed her drenched, needed her desperate for me.
“Oh, God.” She
swayed, leaning heavily on me as her breath quickened, and the movement of her hips grew frantic.
“You’re right there, aren’t you?” I didn’t wait for her reply before I sucked her clit. Hard.
She screamed, coming around my fingers in pulsating waves, flooding my hand and my mouth. I licked her clean and stroked her through her orgasm. It was only a moment before she went limp, her muscles giving out.
I lifted her into my arms and carried her to our bed as she recovered, looking up at me with a dreamy tilt to her mouth as she caressed mine with her thumb. “You have the most incredible mouth.”
“You have an incredible everything.” I kissed her deep, letting her taste her own desire, then stood back and quickly stripped out of my clothes. She was a vision against the black sheets, her skin flushed and her lips swollen.
“Oh, wow,” she managed on a breathy sigh as I stalked across the bed to hover over her. “You are…wow.” Her eyes followed her fingers as she explored the lines of my chest, my roped stomach. She ran her tongue over her lips when she reached my cock.
There wasn’t an ounce of virginal shyness in this woman’s body. We were well and truly matched.
“Fuck me.” I sucked in a breath when she tried to wrap her fingers around my dick. The pleasure of that single touch ripped down my spine, the intensity of it a warning of just how close I was to losing my control. “Lyric. Love, you can play all you want later.”
“I want to play now.” She gave me a wicked grin as I pinned her wrists above her head with one hand.
“Later,” I warned her. “I want you too much.” My eyes dropped to the beating pulse in her throat.
The little temptress noticed and tilted her head back. I couldn’t decide if she trusted me more than I deserved or had a death wish. Either way, I wasn’t giving in. Not yet.
“I’m ready.” She parted her thighs, and I sank between them, my cock finding her entrance like a fucking magnet.
I laughed low. “You just think you are. You’ll know when you’re ready.” Leaving her exquisite mouth, I kissed my way down her neck, lingering wherever she gasped.
“Oh? And”—she gasped again— “how is that?”
I released her hands, and her fingers immediately stroked over my shoulders, my arms, anywhere she could reach.
“Because you won’t be stating it like a fact, Lyric.” I ran my tongue over her nipple, then sucked it into my mouth.
She groaned, rocking her hips. “I won’t?”
I shook my head, then moved to her other breast, praising the peak with my mouth and tongue before lifting my head. That sharp glitter of need was back in her eyes. “You’ll be begging me for it.”
I worked her breasts until they were heavy and swollen, then put my mouth to every inch of her stomach, learning the curves I’d spend the rest of my life worshipping.
Her body was undulating in waves, her hips rolling rhythmically when I parted her with my fingers. “Fuck yes. God, Lyric, you’re so wet.” I thrust my hips once, sliding through her slick folds and stroking her clit with the head of my cock.
“Alek,” she keened, gripping my back.
“Not yet.” I rubbed her clit with my thumb, and she cried out, her hips lifting, seeking fulfillment. I gave it to her, petting her in small circles, then giving her the exact pressure she needed to come apart again.
Her head thrashed as her body locked, then released, my name a desperate cry on her lips.
My fangs descended fully, throbbing in time with my cock. “Fuck, I love watching you come.” Before she was fully down, I started working her back up again.
“Alek. Please!” She looked at me with wild, hungry eyes, shifting her knees and hooking one ankle over my hip.
The threads of my self-control broke one by one. She was all I could smell, see, feel, taste, hear…all of it. She consumed every sense.
“Now you’re ready.” I notched my cock at her entrance and paused. “We don’t need condoms. I don’t carry human diseases, and you’re not fertile, but I’ll get one if you want me to.” Moving even an inch from her body might cause my predatory nature to fixate, but I’d fight it for her.
“I fully understand, and I’m totally going to pretend you didn’t just say fertile after making me come. I just want you.” She kissed me and rocked forward, taking the head of my cock inside her slick opening. “Please, Alek. I need you.”
I leaned my forehead against hers, studying every shift of her expression, then drove forward in one powerful thrust, pushing past whatever flimsy barrier had marked her virginity and seating myself to the hilt.
She cried out.
I stiffened.
Go slow! My conscience knew I needed to go easy, but my body didn’t care. This was my mate, my one and only, and I was finally inside her. She was hotter than hell, and so tight I felt every flicker of her walls. Bracketing my weight on my forearms, I locked every muscle in my body to keep still, fighting the urge to fill her again and again.
“Are you okay?” I asked, sweat beading on my skin from the effort.
“Yes.” She nodded, and cupped the back of my neck with one hand, skimming her fingers down the side of my face with the other.
“Good. Just—” I groaned when she wiggled her hips. “Fuck, Lyric. Just give yourself a—” Another wiggle, another groan.
“I told you not to hold back, Alek. I’m fine. You feel…” She closed her eyes and swiveled her hips again, moaning softly. “Good. You feel so good.”
That was all the okay I needed.
“You feel like heaven.” I kissed her once, then pulled out before pushing back in. This time we both groaned. I thrust again, my stomach tightening with each curl of my body as I clung to the tiny scraps of reason that reminded me I couldn’t lose myself.
I set the pace with deep, hard, slow strokes that sent mind-blowing pleasure throughout my body. Our breaths grew unsteady as sweat slicked our skin. Every thrust was better. Every time I filled her, she was hotter. I would never get enough of this—of her.
My fangs pulsed with hunger and need as she grew tight beneath me. She was already close again.
Her eyes fluttered shut, and I balanced on one arm, bringing her hand to my chest so both marks met. That shimmering light between us—the bond I felt no matter where she was, strengthened and brightened. Her gaze flew to mine as if she’d felt the same thing.
“I am yours, and you are mine.” My voice sounded like I’d scraped it over a thousand broken bottles.
She lifted her lips to mine. “I am yours, and you are mine.”
My self-control snapped as that bond flared hotter than the sun, and I drove into her again and again. Her walls clamped down on my cock, and she threw her head back, baring her neck. “I need you to feed!”
I struck at her jugular, and her blood flooded my mouth as she came yet again, her body convulsing around mine as I drank her down, taking my fill. She pulled me over that edge with her, pleasure charging down my spine until I exploded, my vision going black only to erupt in blasts of color and light.
She slackened beneath me, her breath steadying, and I released my bite, sealing the tiny cuts before lifting my head. Once I was sure I hadn’t taken too much, I rolled to the side, taking her with me.
Our chamber was silent with the exception of our breaths and the pounding of our hearts, and for just that moment, I reveled in the perfection of it all. I had found my mate and claimed her. I was finally whole, yet no longer belonged to only myself.
She owned me, body and soul.
I palmed her face, and she opened her eyes, smiling at me with feminine satisfaction. “Hi.”
“Hi.” I stroked my thumb over her cheek. “You okay?”
She nodded. “Hell yes. That was…” she searched my eyes like they held the answer.
“Yeah. That was us. Nothing like it in the world.” Shit. I was already hardening again inside her.
“So, when can we do it again?” Even her grin was a turn-on.
“How about right now?” I stroked once, pushing deep.
She gasped, then purred in pleasure. “Yes, please.”
I growled and took her beneath me again.
10
Lyric
“You smell incredible,” I said, squeezing Valor outside our favorite coffee shop. “You trying a new perfume?” I asked, releasing her.
Valor tilted her head, eying me skeptically. “You’re joking, right?” She held her arms out horizontally, showing her outfit—yoga pants, sports bra, and a thin black athletic jacket. “I sprinted out of the gym early so I could meet you. Didn’t even have time to shower, but I didn’t want to miss my one shot at seeing you after it’s been forever.”
I inhaled through my nose, my brow furrowed. She usually smelled like clean linens and flowers, but today she radiated a rainstorm on a sunny day. “It hasn’t been forever,” I said, smiling at her. “But I have missed you like crazy.”
Valor hauled me into the coffee shop, and we ordered our favorite drinks before heading to a table near the floor-to-ceiling windows that outfitted the front of the shop. I clutched the hot mug of coffee, nerves tangling in my gut. I wanted to tell her everything—about Avi, Alek, the new world I’d slid into headfirst. But the idea of her being killed because of it? It kept my tongue firmly locked.
“How did your thesis meeting go?” she asked when I’d sat silent for too long, the weight of all the truths I couldn’t spill heavy on my chest.
“Good,” I said, taking an easy breath. In this, at least, I was telling the truth. “My advisor has been so gracious about my missed meetings. I think all the new research I’ve done has really sweetened the deal.”
“So, you’re almost finished with the thesis?” she asked, her eyes slightly narrowed as she studied me.
I nodded, raising the mug to my lips to finally take a much needed drink. The hot liquid hit my tongue, the flavor closer to spoiled milk than a fresh latte. I scrunched my face, swallowed quickly. “How’s your coffee?” I asked, eying her mug.
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