he’d been drinking with just a hint of sweetness. His mouth moved against mine slowly. I might have asked for the kiss—fine, I demanded it—but Alfred took it over, one arm banding around me until I was pressed right up to him and the other, like me, keeping my coffee mug steady as he devoured my lips.
Consuming me was what it felt like, as though he couldn’t take and I couldn’t surrender enough to satisfy him. The hum in my system redoubled, and when he scraped his teeth over my lower lip, I let out a shudder and tilted my head back. He pressed kisses along my jaw and then down my throat.
A chill stole through the languid heat his kiss left behind, but then he pressed his lips over the spot he’d bitten me. The mark he’d left there. I suppose in some ways, just like Maddox, he’d claimed me. Only…
He traced his tongue over the faintly ridged marks, and a whole body shudder held me hostage. Sensation ping-ponged through my system, and if he hadn’t caught the mug, the coffee might have been sacrificed.
“Fuck,” I exhaled as he blew a breath over the damp mark he’d made, and a whole new set of goosebumps shivered over my flesh. My nipples, that had already been tight, now pinched to the point of painful.
“There is not always pain,” he whispered against my throat. “No need for fear.” Another lap of his tongue, and the zing of it went straight to my pussy. I groaned as I fisted his hair, not sure whether I meant to push him away or drag him closer. “This mark binds us—you to me, but me to you.” Another stroke of his tongue, and need shimmered through me.
If he wanted me to beg, I was getting awfully close. The moment that thought surfaced, I growled, and he chuckled again.
The bastard.
Another kiss and a lick, then we moved. The air whispered around us. He had both hands on me now, gripping my ass and lifting me. I dropped mine to free his cock from his pants, and it jutted out toward me—hard, hot, and ready to impale me.
Oh. Yes, please.
Back against the wall, I hitched my knees to his thighs so I could get the right angle, and then Alfred continued to tongue the mark like he was eating me out. The pulse of conflicting sensations charged through me.
I swore I could feel his tongue on my clit, the hot press of his lips as he nibbled and stroked. At the same time, my pulse hammered a warning. Tendrils of icy fear crept through me, and even the prospect of terror galvanized my adrenaline and pissed me off.
Alfred raised his head, and then his mouth was on mine again, the kiss bruising and brutal. I wanted to slide down and take his cock into me, but he kept my hips still, denying me any freedom as his tongue swept against mine.
Over and over, he kissed me until I was digging my nails into his shoulders and clinging to him, more to stay on my feet than anything else. The whole world narrowed down to the contact where his mouth met mine. The thunderous cadence of my pulse meshed with a second, deeper beat. The caress of his fingers against my throat a moment before he wrapped his hand around it, and his thumb stroking over the bite mark had me floating.
A giddy, drunken sensation I’d never experienced without feeding on lust until I threatened to burst washed over me, and still my heart kept rhythm with…his heart. That was the second, deeper beat.
Alfred.
Again and again, he devoured my mouth, tongue stroking against mine, until I threatened to orgasm from the kiss alone. Still, I ached for more. How long we stood there, locked together just kissing, I had no idea. The gentle squeeze of his hand had me surfacing as little detonations of pleasure erupted in my system.
If this was what he could do with only a kiss, what the hell had we been doing wrong before? Because this was…
“Hellion,” he murmured, the command in his voice inescapable as it rolled over me, but it didn’t sink into my bones so much as break like water rushing over rocks and submerging me in the heat of his need. Eyes open, I found him staring at me, the storm of gray darkening as his pupils expanded.
No words, but I knew what he asked me as he used his