Chapter 14

Ireached for her face, cupping her cheeks. I gently swiped away the tears with my thumbs as I stared down at her with a sense of wonder filling my chest. This was my mate. I could continue to fight it, or I could accept the gift that had been given to me.

“Valen?” She blinked up at me, her bottom lip trembling, making me want to wipe away the insecurities I could read in her eyes. “Will you kiss me?”

I froze and then groaned. Of course I would kiss her. A part of me felt as if I had been waiting my entire existence for this moment. Slowly, I bent my head down until our mouths were a breath apart. I could feel the heat radiating off her lips, and suddenly, I needed to taste her more than I needed my next heartbeat.

I brushed my lips gently across hers, just a soft pressing of flesh against flesh. I felt the plushness of her, the warmth, and needed more. Shifting to get closer, I tilted the angle of my head, allowing our mouths to slide together like two pieces of a puzzle slotting into place. Her hands went to my chest and gripped the cotton of my shirt tightly in her fists.

“More,” she breathed.

With a slowness I didn’t know I could possess, I pressed closer, sliding first one way and then another, still just a press of lips, but Kallista slid her hands up over my shoulders and onto the back of my neck, tangling her fingers in my hair.

“Kiss me like you mean it, Valen.” Her softly spoken demand was enough to finally break me. With a groan, I slid a hand under her ass and the other across the center of her back and lifted her off the floor. Her thighs went around my waist, and her feet hooked together behind my back.

With our height difference erased, I slid my tongue across her bottom lip, tasting her skin for the first time. Every part of me tightened as all I could do was give her the more she had demanded. With a gasp, she parted her lips for me, and like the beast I was, I took full advantage.

I swept my tongue inside, meeting hers and stroking over it with mine. Her whimpers fueled my desire, turning the burning want into a flaming need. If she wanted more, I would provide her with everything I was capable of giving.

We broke apart, gasping for breath, and stared at each other. Her whole body was trembling as we held onto each other tightly. I suddenly realized how hard I was holding her to me and loosened my grip.

“No! Don’t stop. I’m not ready to stop yet.” Her whimper of denial had me swooping down for another soul shattering kiss. When I pulled away a second time, it was to press kisses to her cheek and neck.

“I will never stop, Mate. I want to kiss every inch of you. I want to taste you everywhere.” Now that I had accepted the inevitable, I was ready to fulfill every desire we both had. “I want you. My body is screaming at me to take you and claim you.” I nudged the strap of her dress to the side so I could taste her skin there with my tongue. “But my instincts tell me if I do, we will complete the bond. We will be mates forever. Are you ready for that?”

Her entire body tightened up, and her breath caught in her throat. I pressed another kiss to her collarbone, wishing that there was no clothing between us until I realized she had yet to answer. At her silence, I loosened my grip on her again, taking her lack of response as her not being ready for that kind of commitment. I couldn’t blame her. As she had pointed out earlier, we barely knew each other. There would be plenty of time for bonding later. I could wait. I’d wait forever.

When I started to slide her down my body, ignoring the throbbing ache in my cock, she suddenly became unfrozen and clawed at my shoulders to get a tighter grip on me and pulled herself back into the position she had just been in. She tightened her legs around me once more, and I groaned at the feel of her heated center pressing firmly against my cock that was being strangled inside my jeans.

“I want that, Valen.” Her breathy whisper was filled with longing and promise. I pulled back as far as she would allow me in order to take in her expression.

“Are you sure, baby? There will never be any going back. Once we are bonded…”

“I know.” She smiled sadly. “I do want that, more than you can know. I just never thought I would find someone who would want me that way.”

My fingers clenched tighter before I caught myself and loosened my grip so I wouldn’t hurt her. “We are going to talk about our pasts very soon. For now, though, I just need to own every inch of you as I give you every inch of me.” I ground my thick erection into her and watched her eyes grow wider as she took in the unfamiliar sensations. I would bet my immortality that she had never been this close to another man before.

I strode over to the bed, and with our gazes locked on each other, I laid her down on the mattress while climbing over her body, caging her in. Our size difference meant there wasn’t a single part of her that I didn’t cover with my body. The thought was so erotic, I groaned at the image I knew we portrayed of dominance and submission.

“I’m going to worship every inch of your gorgeous little body.” Even I could hear the desperate need barely concealed under the rough growl of my voice. “And then I am going to fuck you, claim you, mate you, until neither one of us can move tomorrow.” I punctuated my words with kisses down her neck and to the gentle swell of her chest until I was stopped by the neckline of her dress.

I looked back up at her to see her face flushed with a dazed expression on her face as she took me in.

“Baby, if you want to keep this dress, I need you to help me take it off you. Otherwise, I’m going to leave it in rags on the floor.”

Her swallow was audible as she released the tight grip she had on my shoulders. I could see the slight trembling in her fingers as she pointed behind her neck.

“The zipper is back here.”

In an attempt to soothe her nerves, I ran my nose over the column of her throat, inhaling her deeply into my lungs. I couldn’t resist adding her flavor to the mix, licking a stripe up her neck and up to the sensitive skin behind her ear, where I nipped gently, causing her to shiver and goosebumps to dance across her flesh. All the while, I found the small tab to the zipper, lowering it until the mattress prevented me from lowering it any further.

I sat up abruptly, taking in the sight of a flushed and trembling Kallista. It was a vision I would carry with me forever. My memories of everything else may fade over time, but I knew this one would last. I’d commission the most talented artist to paint it for me and hang it in every home I owned, just to keep the memory as fresh as this moment.

Her surprised gasp made me grin as I flipped her onto her stomach. I needed that zipper down so I could relieve her of the dress she was wearing. With her on her belly, I quickly found the zipper and tugged it the rest of the way down. The material parted, revealing the bare expanse of her smooth back. I didn’t know why the thought of my woman walking around my place without undergarments was so arousing, but it certainly had my cock jerking in my pants.

Kallista lay with her face partially buried in the blanket as her breaths came fast and shallow. As I ran my large palm up the center of her bare back, I could feel her entire body shudder and could see the pulse in her neck flutter wildly. I leaned forward, kissing the same path my hand had just taken. I ended back at the spot that was quickly becoming my favorite. I nipped the spot behind her ear again, my lips tipping at the corners at her breathy little moan.

“Do you want me to continue, Mate?”

Kallista twisted her head enough to look me in the eye with a look that was part glare, part pleading when she responded. “Valen, if you don’t stop teasing me, I’m going to die, and then I’m going to kill you.”

The chuckle that escaped at her words felt rusty and unfamiliar. “Baby, if you think I can’t see how nervous you are,” I shook my head. “I have a secret for you.” My lips brushed over the rim of her ear as I rasped low and deep.

“What’s that?” she asked on a shiver.

“It’s my first time, too. I’m just as nervous as you are.”

With a shocked gasp, she struggled to flip back over until I leaned up on one elbow to allow her space. “Don’t mess with me, Valen.” Her chest was heaving, the loosened dress pooling halfway around her ribcage and twisting from her struggles. She looked glorious and pissed. I ran a fingertip from her sternum down to where the dress covered her belly. Once I reached the fabric, I hooked my finger and started pulling, my eyes unable to move away from each new inch of pale skin that was revealed.

“Baby, I would never lie to you,” I murmured distractedly as I continued to tug the dress until the top of her bare mound was exposed. “I told you how dangerous I am. I have hurt too many people with my anger.” I frowned and glanced up at her face to see her look of sympathy. “I’ve hurt innocents, too.”

“But, you’d never hurt me.”

The words were said with confidence, not a question, and it made my once dead heart thump wildly inside my chest. “No, Mate. I could never hurt you. Of that, I am more sure than I would ever have thought possible.”

With those words coming from the depths of my being, I tugged the dress down her hips. I paused only briefly to take in the sight of her bared to me, from the tops of her shapely thighs up to her delectable breasts. With an almost feral need, I pulled the fabric down her legs and off completely before dropping it to the floor.

Unable to wait another second, I wrenched her legs apart to see the glistening wetness smeared along her inner thighs. She whimpered and shifted restlessly, begging for more without words. With a snarl on my lips, I dove in, lapping up every drop of her arousal. Once there was no more to be found on her skin, I parted her soft lips with my thumbs and licked a path up from her entrance to the top of her clit, tasting what was now only mine for all of eternity.

With a single-minded focus, I licked, nipped, and sucked every part of her cunt until I was drunk on her flavor and fully obsessed with her reactions to my ministrations. With her every whimper and cry for more, I grew harder until I ached with so much pain and need that I was worried that I would release inside my jeans.

I reached down to tug the button on my fly. My straining cock nearly broke the zipper as it fought to be freed. I fisted my naked cock, glad that I hadn’t stopped to put on my boxer briefs that morning. I squeezed painfully hard until my vision swam in an effort to stop myself from coming as Kallista’s entire body tightened, on the verge of release.

I watched in wonder as my beautiful, unexpected mate writhed and screamed uncontrollably as her pleasure seemed to steal every ounce of her sanity. I licked her gently through her orgasm, waiting until she collapsed back in a boneless heap, panting heavily and staring sightlessly at the ceiling.

I sat up, then slid off the mattress, hurriedly shedding my clothes. Finally, it was time for me to make Kallista mine in all ways.