Page 171 of Alpha Mates

When my eyes find his again, I think he does.

Our lips meet in a lazy kiss, and when Aiden’s length slides up against my stomach, my toes curl with anticipation.

This is our last day here, and we’ll have to start the journey back soon. But maybe … maybe there’s still time for the second half of the promise he made me. First, we’d make love, and then—

“What’s wrong?” Aiden asks suddenly. I blink at him, caught off guard, until a haughty smirk twists his mouth. “One perk of us being fully-mated—I can feel what you’re feeling. And youreallywant something, don’t you, Jewels?”

My face flames. I part my lips, but blank on a response that won’t make me sound like such a degenerate.

“Does it have something to do with this?” Aiden’s hand lowers, circling my half-hard cock, and I gasp as he strokes me.

“No,” I hiss, swatting his hand away as I inch my hips back out of reach. And because Iam,in fact, a degenerate in hiding, I make a beeline for the bathroom.

“Julian,” he calls after me, laughing.

“Julian can’t talk right now,” I shout back. “Julian is going to take a shower.”

Maybe then I could think of something besides this new appetite Aiden awoke in me. I can’t even blame the heat anymore because its lingering effects had been smothered out the moment Aiden’s teeth sank into my skin,finallyclaiming me the way I claimed him.

So this—I look pointedly at the erection trying to poke my eye out—isn’t the heat at all.

You wish for what was promised,Alex drawls lazily, almost yawning as I wrap a towel around myself to hide the evidence.Me, personally?I would ask it of Aiden. He is ours now. Soon, I will ask it of Maximus, and he will give it to me with all his might.

I make the choice to sidestep that alarming confession.

It’s not that easy,I grumble in response.

It’s not that hard either,Alex retorts rather uselessly.Hey! I am trying to help.

“This does not look like showering.”

I turn and meet Aiden’s gaze as he steps into the bathroom. Keeping it is harder, given the fact that there’s not a stitch of clothing on his body. He’s naked. He is sogloriouslynaked, and I am weak. My eyes drop, and my cock twitches behind my towel.

I swallow as I force my attention upward. “I was getting to it.”

“Need a hand?” he offers, his dark eyes brightening as he shamelessly looks me over.

“Yes,” I mutter before my brain logs back on. “I mean no!”

Aiden chuckles as he stops right in front of me.

“What’s going on, Jewels?” His voice is kind, not teasing. “I was going to be all romantic and make us breakfast, then you ran out on me.”

I shift, feeling guilty and horribly naked even though I’m not the naked one here.

Words aren’t usually this hard, especially not with Aiden, but how do I explain that, while last night was incredible, I’m slightly disappointed he hadn’t seen his promise through to fuck me afterwards.

And not fuck me as in normal sex. No, he was supposed to fuck me as innot make love to me. Two different things, as he’d explained so nicely. So now that we’ve “made love,” I want the other thing. Need it really, because I’ve been secretly dying for it ever since he said those words to me. When it didn’t happen last night, I thought I’d wake up to it, but he was fussing about breakfast instead of pouncing on me.

Yeah. Is there any possible way of saying that without sounding like a total psychopath?

“I don’t know,” Aiden says, blinking owlishly at me. “Just then, you definitely sounded crazy.”

I freeze, refusing to move, let alone breathe.

Was he just talking nonsense, or had I actually said that all out loud?

“You didn’t say it out loud. I just heard it,” Aiden replies. This time my heart truly threatens to give out as he taps his temple. “Did someone forget to give you the ‘bonded’ talk?”