Chapter Four

THREE AND A HALF YEARS AGO

I never made it back home.

He caught my hand just as I was about to open the car door. His grip was warm and when I turned to look at him, the tension between us finally broke. He stepped closer, crowding the air around me, and there was something in his eyes that made my breath stall.

His lips brushed mine without hesitation. His mouth was sure, claiming, and the world ceased to exist in that moment. The deep intensity of the kiss felt like he had waited long enough. It was as if he had decided something hours ago and was only now allowing himself to act on it. One hand stayed at my waist, drawing me closer, while the other tilted my chin so he could kiss me deeper.

My back pressed against the cool side of the car. His hard muscled chest molded against mine, solid and unyielding, and the scent of his cologne pine, winter air, wrapped around me until I couldn’t smell anything else. He breathed me in. His nose skimmed my jawline, then down to the curve of my neck. I felt the exhale before I heard the growl in his throat, and something inside me fluttered uncontrollably.

“Let’s go back inside,” he said, voice low, edged with restraint.

He didn’t wait for me to speak. His hand found mine again, fingers lacing through with a quiet certainty, and we walked toward the elevator in silence, something burning beneath the surface of each step. My heels clicked against the floor but I barely noticed. My pulse was louder than my thoughts.

As soon as the elevator doors closed behind us, the quiet shattered.

His mouth found mine again with a hunger that pulled me under like a tide. He backed me into the mirrored wall, his body hot and heavy against mine, and before I could catch my breath he lifted me into his arms. I wrapped my legs around his waist and clung to him instinctively, my fingers tangling in the thick waves of his dark hair. He kissed me like he needed it to survive. Like this wasn’t a kiss at all, but a marking. A claim.

The pressure of his erection pressed between my legs, bold and thick through the fabric of his pants. I moaned into his mouth, arching against him, and he groaned in return, a deep sound that made my body tremble. His hands roamed my thighs, strong and purposeful, as he held me with the kind of strength that made me feel small and utterly overpowered for the first time in my life.

He broke the kiss only to trail his lips down my neck, pausing to graze his teeth lightly against my skin. His nose brushed the spot just beneath my ear and he inhaled deeply.

“You smell heavenly,” he whispered, voice vibrating against my skin. “I want to make you mine.”

His gaze caught mine again. Pale blue, then deeper. Then blue again, brighter this time, almost unnatural. The shift in his eyes sent a current straight through me. I had heard about it before…how their wolves showed themselves in flashes when desire overtook discipline but nothing prepared me for how raw, how ancient, how focused it made him look.

He pinned my wrists gently above my head with one hand and kept the other on my waist. My dress had bunched around my hips. His touch was possessive, teasing, and when his fingers slid beneath the lace of my panties, I gasped, helpless against the way my body responded to him.

“You’re already wet for me,” he growled and said possessively. “You were mine the moment you stepped into that boardroom.”

The elevator came to a halt. He let go of my wrists and kissed me once more slower now, but with that same unrelenting pressure. I clutched at his shirt, breathless, dazed, and aching. When the doors slid open at the top floor, he carried me out without a word. I barely noticed anything. The door opened, and carried straight to the bedroom.

He didn’t turn on the lights.

He set me down slowly, his hands gliding down the sides of my body like he was still memorizing the shape of me. My heels hit the floor, and for a heartbeat, we stood facing each other in the dark.

Then he undressed me.

I was surprised at how he had the patience to take his time. He focused on what he was doing. He peeled the fabric from my body with the ease of a man who already knew where everything belonged. When he removed his own clothes, I caught my breath. The moonlight from the balcony lit his chest, every ridge and plane of muscle, and the thick length of his cock stood hard and ready, bigger than I had expected. My thighs clenched at the sight of it.

He carried me swiftly, like a man possessed, and tossed me onto the bed with such ease I barely had time to process the motion before he was already above me. His body loomed, thick with heat and purpose, and the room seemed to shrink around the sheer weight of his presence. There was a flash of something primal in his eyes as he lowered his head toward my chest.

“Oh, Niklath,” I gasped, the words leaving me on a breathless moan the moment his tongue swept across my nipple. The sensation sent a violent shiver through me. I trembled beneath him, the pleasure sharp and spreading fast, like something wild had been unleashed inside me. My thighs clenched, my breath caught, and my spine arched off the bed as a wave of heat surged low in my belly, tightening everything within me.

He suckled harder. First on one nipple, then the other, switching between them with such precise, hungry attention that I could barely form a thought. His tongue flicked and teased until they turned stiff and achingly swollen, and then his sharp teeth grazed one with just enough pressure to blur the line between pleasure and pain. A cry ripped from my throat, high and raw, as I squirmed under him, unable to control the need building inside me.

The moans that escaped my lips were no longer gentle. They were unrestrained, drawn from some place deeper than instinct~desperation pouring from my mouth with every pass of his tongue, every pull of his lips, every grind of his hips against mine. I was already drenched, already aching for more, already unraveling.

“I can’t hold back any longer,” he growled, his voice thick with need, muffled as he pressed it against the swell of my breast. “I’ll make the next round even better.”

My eyes widened at that. If this wasn’t the best, I couldn’t imagine surviving anything more intense. My body was already a mess, my breath coming in short, ragged bursts, my heart thundering like I had run through fire just to reach him.

My fingers sank into the dark waves of his hair, pulling him closer, not wanting him to stop. His growl vibrated through my skin as he squeezed my breast harder, kneading it like he owned it, while his other hand trailed down the length of my body, over my waist, past the curve of my hips, until his palm gripped my thigh with a force that bordered on pain. The bruise would bloom tomorrow. I hoped it would.

Then he entered me.

Thick. Deep. Impossibly full.

My body arched instantly, my mouth falling open in a wordless cry as his cock filled me with one long, deliberate thrust that left me pulsing around him. I couldn’t move. I could barely breathe. Every inch of him stretched me, claimed me, marked me. He groaned into the crook of my shoulder, holding himself there, buried to the hilt, as my body clung around him like it never wanted to let go.

He began to move. Slow at first. Controlled. But there was no gentleness in the way he held me. His hips rolled forward with perfect precision, hitting that spot again and again until I was gasping with each stroke, my fingers scrabbling for something to hold onto, my voice breaking as I whispered his name again and again.

His mouth found my nipple again, never giving me a second to recover. He sucked, bit, licked, teased, his tongue a wicked rhythm that matched the one he drove into me below. Then he reached up, took both my wrists in one hand, and pinned them above my head, locking them in place with nothing but his strength. My arms burned from the stretch, but I didn’t care. I didn’t want him to stop.

He fucked me harder. Faster. Each thrust a declaration. Each grind a possession.

My moans turned into sobs of pleasure. My legs locked around his waist, and I could feel myself rising toward the edge, teetering between control and oblivion.

He lifted his head, eyes glowing faintly in the dark, flickering between shades of deep blue and silver. That look made my insides tighten again.

“You’re so fucking tight, Schatz,” he rasped, panting now. “You feel like heaven wrapped in hell… and I’m going to make sure you break for me.”

I whimpered at the sound of his voice.

He leaned closer, lips grazing mine, breath hot. “You were made for this. Made for me. I can feel how bad you want it. Your pussy’s dripping, begging for it.”

He let go of my wrists.

Immediately his hands were on my thighs again, forcing them wider, keeping me open for him. He looked down between us, watched himself slide in and out of me with a sound that bordered on worship.

“Look at how you take me,” he growled. “All of it. So deep. So good. No one’s ever fucked you like this. No one ever will.”

His mouth trailed lower, across my stomach, leaving a trail of heat behind every kiss. My breath hitched as he dropped to his knees beside the bed, pulling me closer to the edge.

“I’m going to taste every part of you,” he murmured, voice turning guttural. “And when I’m done, you’ll forget what it felt like to go untouched.”

Then he buried his face between my thighs.

I cried out the moment his tongue met my flesh.

My climax hit fast. Fierce. My body convulsed around his mouth, and I bit into his shoulder when he climbed back up and drove into me again, deeper than before. I could barely process the pleasure. My legs trembled uncontrollably. My hands fisted the sheets.

He didn’t stop. He held me tight and moved even harder, chasing his own release with the same fire he’d lit in me. His growl came low and close, into my ear, and the sound vibrated through my bones like a second orgasm waiting to happen.

He stayed inside me for a long time afterward. His hand cradled the back of my head. His other hand rested over my chest, right where my heart was still pounding.

And the next morning, when our families sat down at the long breakfast table, he looked across to Julian and Polenya and said he had agreed to the marriage and insisted it happen as soon as possible.

There was no hesitation. He said it like a man who had already decided.

I didn’t ask him why because I already knew.