some relief, but it was no good.
With each step, I bounced against him, and my eyes clenched closed as we walked into the water. It splashed around us, and the heat of it sank into my bones the second I was under the surface, but fuck.
Just, fuck.
When he gently pried off my arms, I let him, and when I was laying out in front of him, only then did I open my eyes as the water supported my weight.
His hands moved over me, exploring my curves with a delight that was unfeigned, and when he wished, “I need soap,” I squealed a little when it plopped onto my belly, which made us both laugh.
As he splashed the bar in the water, built up a lather with it, then soaped me up, I wasn’t sure whether he was trying to kill me, calm me down, or turn me on.
Every time he swiped his hands over me, his fingers caressing my sensitive flesh as he did so, my pussy pulsed around his cock, and his cock responded with a little throb that I felt deep in my soul.
That throb was better than a vibrator.
Fuck.
I learned how insecure the wolf was when, an hour later, and a long soak in the pool, plus a dozen conversations, I was released from the knot.
I felt the change in him instantly, the sigh of relief escaped us both, and what else did?
Something gross.
I felt our cum released into the water as well.
My nose crinkled at the thought of staining the place where we drank, but before I could, his arms were around me and he murmured, “Thank you.”
“For what?” I asked in surprise, my mind still focused on sperm and vaginal secretions polluting where we drank. I mean, I guessed I could wish for Evian, but still—
“For accepting me.”
I sighed, then reached up and ran my hand over his head. “You don’t have to thank me for that. It’s my pleasure, my honor. Hell, it’s my purpose in this world, isn’t it? To be yours?”
He smiled against my skin, and I smiled back, loving that he was a little lighter.
“Your wolf was scared, wasn’t he?” I inquired gently, slightly blown away at the thought of that beast being scared when it was so crazy strong.
“There’s only one thing in this world that could terrify him,” he admitted.
“What’s that?”
He sighed, and then broke my heart as he disclosed, “Your rejection.”
And that had me clinging to him wordlessly. I felt mute, unsure what to say, but then I realized that his wolf didn’t speak English, and all he needed from me?
To be there.
Though the man needed the words, and I was going to use them liberally to ease his concerns.
“I love you,” I murmured. “It’s going nowhere, will never go anywhere because I recognize the truth—I was born to be yours. Just like you were born to be mine.
“The Mother would never have put us together if we weren’t meant to be, Eli. You just have to have faith in me and in her. Can you do that?”
His answer was to kiss me. The softest, most tender kiss I’d ever experienced in my life, and I’d never forget it.
Not until the day I died.
Sabina
When I woke up in Eli’s arms after what, I assumed, was the fourth night here, I yawned out my fatigue.
I was exhausted, but in a good way.
My body was sore and loaded with aches and pains that I hadn’t experienced in years, but I felt good as I awoke in his embrace.
The man was insatiable. And I knew why.
If he’d been holding back all this time, I could only imagine how goddamn boring sex had been for him.
Hell, more of an exercise in torture than anything else.
We’d spent the last few days getting to know each other, and more importantly, learning how the other worked.
He was a caregiver, and I didn’t even think he knew it. In his mind, it wasn’t giving care to rule the pack. It was duty and took strength and control. But he was. I knew that from how he cleaned me every day. How he rubbed my legs and body, and how he applied lotion to my skin like he was trying to figure out how to end world hunger.
He was careful.
Every move he made, it was like he consulted some inbuilt monitor that I had no access to.
He watched the world with an eye that even Ethan and Austin, though strong alphas, didn’t.
There was something about his caution