Hunting Ember (Pride of Alphas #1) - Milly Taiden Page 0,54

her body, the neckline dipping low. She didn’t even bother slipping on underwear. She knew where the night’s celebration would end, with her naked and under Kai.

Actually, with Kai, there was never any way of knowing if she’d be under him, over him, or beside him. When he fucked her, he moved their bodies around, and in each new position he pulled an intense orgasm from her willing body. Ember shivered in anticipation.

Winning Bakers Gotta Bake had filled her with pride, but knowing she was going to commemorate it alone with her man was just as good. Cinder had told her to find a man that didn’t make up her entire life, that completed it.

That is what Kai did.

The victory was sweet, but sharing it with Kai? Well, that was everything.

After towel drying her hair as best she could, she made her way to the living room of Kai’s place. Or, as he preferred to call it now, their place. She was all but living with him already, and the second her lease was up on her apartment, she would officially move all of her things into Kai’s house.

She constantly joked that if she married him, it would be for his kitchen.

Really, it was because Kai was a wonderful man. The best, actually. He had stood by her side while she had been a stubborn dummy who went on with the competition even through death threats. Had the roles been reversed, she would have gotten the hell away from someone intent on getting themselves killed.

But not Kai.

He had believed in her and in her dreams. Instead of making her give it all up, he had gone with her to protect her. He didn’t stand in her way; he stood by her.

She would just make sure to get a little better at keeping herself safe to lighten the load on her deliciously grumpy lion.

“There she is.” Kai closed the distance between them, wrapping his arms around her waist. The tops of his long fingers grazed her ass. “You’re not wearing underwear,” he groaned. Heat and appreciation flared in his eyes.

“I figured it would just be a waste of time.” She shrugged at him with a smile curving her lips.

“You’re impossible,” he sighed happily.

“I wonder what happened to Ashleigh,” she mused. “I haven’t seen her since-”

“I thought I mentioned she was put on leave by the network.”

She raised her brows. “So she’s okay?”

“She survived if that’s what you mean. Okay? That’s pushing it a little.”

She grinned and shook her head. “You’re too much.”

“Stop distracting me,” he grumbled. “I wanted to celebrate your win.”

“We are celebrating the win. Our win. I want to have said celebrations naked in our bed.” She cupped his cock through his jeans. Kai hissed out a breath as she squeezed.

“That is not exactly what I had in my mind.”

“Oh?” she kissed his neck, letting her lips trail against his heated skin.

Kai grabbed hold of her wrist, leading her hand away from his straining erection. “Slow down, love.”

“I want to be with you forever, Kai Mason. I think it’s time you mate me. I have known, without understanding, since the first time we kissed. The first time we made love, I wanted to mark you and be marked by you. I didn’t get it, but I do now. I understand that it was always going to be you. I was always going to be yours, and you were always going to be mine.”

“Ember,” he whispered with his lips against hers. “I love you. I always will. Until my last breath. My whole world is you.”

“Then mark me, Kai. Make it official.”

His kiss moved from soft and sweet to deep and passionate. It stole the breath from her lungs, but she didn’t care. He could have her breath, her heart, her body.

She was his.

Kai wrapped his arms around her waist and lifted her clear off the floor. Instinctively, Ember coiled her legs around his trim waist. It lined them up in the best of ways. As he walked them to his bedroom, his lips didn’t leave hers. He didn’t stop kissing her, his embrace becoming more heated with each passing stroke of his tongue in her mouth.

His hands rubbed down her sides until he lowered the top of her nightgown. He immediately dove for her breasts. His tongue went for her nipples. The hardened nubs were sensitive against his wet tongue. He licked and nipped at the tender flesh as he kneaded her ass, grinding her into him. He lowered