Page 98 of A Token of Blood and Betrayal
And found myself staring at Blake.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Hewasthekindof beautiful that only existed in fairy tales, in the stories that came with warnings and consequences scribbled into the margins.He was all fallout and heartbreak wrapped up with cutting ribbons of gold, and he was just a man, quiet and powerful, a wild that was close enough to touch.
He shouldn’t have been there.He should have been furious with me for what I’d said, for threatening his alpha and forcing new rules on any paranorm who wanted access to The Rain.But instead of staying away and prioritizing the pack, he was here, standing with me.He wasn’t angry.He wasn’t even guarded.He just looked at me like this moment had always been inevitable.
“I couldn’t stay away.”Simple words that held so much meaning.It was like I held all the power and magic in the world, like my pull was greater than Lehr’s, and he was willing to sacrifice everything for me.If I hadn’t already fallen for him, the confession would have pushed me over the edge.
“You stood up to Lehr,” he continued quietly.“Half the pack had to be ordered to hold position because they wanted to kill you.But my wolf?”He took another small step toward me.“My wolf wanted to roll belly-up so you could scratch his stomach.”
I’d burst out laughing when he’d told me his wolf practically pranced when I was around.He’d been agitated and on edge from being in the vampire compound, and he’d shot me a glare that should have scared me.Now?My laugh made him smile down at me.
“You’re so unbelievably brave and beautiful.I’ve always seen becoming a werewolf as a curse, but for the first time, I’m grateful for it.If I’d never been bitten, I never would have met you.”
He took my left hand, held it loosely, and waited like he half expected me to pull away.Instead, I pulled him close.Our gazes connected.Lightning struck through me, and I kissed him.Or he kissed me.A rush of need erased the atoms between us.It demolished every wall I’d built to keep him away from my heart.
I dropped the flashlight.He lifted me until my legs wrapped around his waist, then he turned and pressed my back to the brick wall.Pressed his cock against me.I moaned and ground against him.All the times I’d seen him naked.All the times I’d tried not to look, not to admire.Now he was mine.Now I could explore.
My fingers pressed into the hard muscles of his chest, drifted down to feel the abs beneath his T-shirt, then tugged on the button of his jeans.
“Kennedy.”He cursed under his breath.“Your staff keeps tabs on you.”
“It’s not that staff I’m interested in.”
He laughed, and it was so easy and real and contagious.I grinned and nipped his lower lip, which made him curse again.
“Where can we…?”
I didn’t want space between us, but he was right.We didn’t need spectators, so I wiggled my hips until he lowered me, then I grabbed his hand and pulled him after me.
We reached the back entrance to the ballroom.He kissed the curve of my neck as I pushed the door open.Before I stepped inside, he looped his arm around my waist and pulled me back against him.
“I’ve never needed someone like I need you.”
I rocked back against him, my body saying it was perfectly reasonable to strip naked on the threshold.But no.I needed a locked door and all the time in the world to be with him.
“Almost there.”I turned and kissed him, backing up until he was inside.I kept walking backward, kept kissing him, kept shaking when he gently nipped my shoulder and touched my breast.
He unbuttoned my pants, unzipped his before we reached the next door.I pulled his shirt off, held it tight in one hand while I searched behind me with the other.I found the doorknob.We almost tripped over each other entering The Rain’s small and blessedly empty library.
I barely got the door locked before Blake picked me up again, taking me to the couch in the room’s center.With desperate kisses, he lowered me down.My balance was slightly off, and my elbow hit the stack of books I’d left on a side table the last time I was there.Stories and speculation on fey and vampires and a hundred other paranorms, djinn not being one of them, tumbled across the ground.
Blake knelt, shucked my pants and underwear off, then pulled my hips to the edge of the couch and spread my legs apart.
“Fucking beautiful,” he said.Then he lowered his head and licked.My body lurched.It had been so long, and he was…
My hips involuntarily thrust forward.
…skilled.
“Blake.”The sound came out more as a moan than his name.My body was already burning, almost liquefying, as he worked me.And I shouldn’t be so close… This shouldn’t be so perfect…
He had no magic in the Null, but he must have broken through its spell because I was on the edge, so close to going over.
“Blake.”This time his name had a desperate note, a note that saiddon’t stop,keep going,almost there…
His fingers squeezed my ass, his tongue thrust and licked, and I exploded apart, sweet pleasure burning through every remnant of me until he took me in his arms, holding me close, kissing and stroking until I was whole again.