“We did. We said we loved each other. We’re mates, except for the formality.”
“Noooo…Jai, we can’t. What if I…? This’ll…”
He could have tugged me to him, bent me backwards, and smashed his lips down on mine, and I would’ve liked it just fine. Instead, he stopped just in front of me, cloaking me in that wild scent of his, the heat radiating off his body combining with mine to make me burn.
Burn.
My head jerked up, meeting his eyes, then watching as his hand reached out and came to rest on my stomach, a much more violent flame lighting there. It felt like my body shifted, a thin trickle of slick forming in response to his touch. My nipples felt tight and raw, like he’d been rubbing them for hours with those stubbly lips of his, and my clit throbbed in time with my rapid heart rate.
“Jai?”
“This is the start of your heat, baby. I’ll take care of you through it, do everything I can to sate you and keep you comfortable. I wish we were at home and safe, in a much better place than this, but I’ll protect you. I’ll always protect you. And if you decided to accept me…” His hand went to his cock, toying with the base through the fabric. “I’ll give you my knot, and you’ll be mine forever.”
How could one man make the same thing sound like the most depraved porn and a heartfelt plea for my love at the same time? I didn’t get to think any more about it as he stripped off quickly, then his fingers went for my gown. He paused after he pulled it off, the fabric limp in his fingers as he scanned me.
I should have felt uncomfortable, weird, paranoid that someone as beautiful as him was staring down at my body, with its stretch marks and cellulite, but I didn’t. Instead, a little whimper escaped my throat. My body felt sore and achy, literally craving his touch. Not for the first time, I wondered what the hell he was doing to me. As if to appease me, he trailed the backs of his fingers down my arm, watching me shiver in response before picking me up in his arms. He held me close with no effort, nuzzling the side of my neck, breathing me in.
“I’ve waited my whole fucking life for this, Shannon. I love you so fucking much.”
Part of my brain heard the words and stored them away for later, because the rest couldn’t process it. I wasn’t words or thoughts, I was need.
My nose blindly sought his skin as he walked us over to the bed, my teeth closing on a chunk of it, dragging a groan from him. He laid me down on the bed, laughing when my hands tried to pull him down with me. He moved around the other side of the bed, then crawled over. I’d sat up, ready to meet him, a feeling of rightness rolling through me as soon as my hand landed on his skin. It couldn’t stay still either. I needed to trace those deep lines that delineated his muscles, the hard curves, the swoop of his bones. My fingers settled on the tight little bud of his nipple, circling it and plucking at it before darting forward and sucking.
“Fuck…I feel that right in my cock,” he groaned.
My other hand started doing the same with his free nipple, until he pushed me down onto the bed.
“No, I’m fucking rigid. I don’t need anything more, love. But you?” That same wicked Jai smile he used to give when we were going to raid the fruit orchards or skip school or go skinny dipping was plastered on his face, but the adult body, the clinical setting, and the sinister edge it gave it thrilled me. “You’re gonna need a little more.”
He followed my movement, riding the undulations of my body as he swept his hand across it, stimulating my already sensitive skin, adding fuel to the fire inside me. I was almost sobbing by the time one hand cupped my breast, the tight skin resisting the press of his fingers as he cupped and squeezed, then I shifted, trying to get his fingers closer to where I needed them most.
“Missing something, love?” he asked.
I burned, didn’t he see that? A deep intense ache, my cunt clutching for fuck knows what. No, I knew it was him, and he knew it too. He smiled as his head dipped down to