Page 23 of Contested Crown

I put my fingers under his chin, raising it up again. “Are you going to kiss it better, Cade?”

“Miles…” Cade stared at me, as though he was getting lost in my eyes.

I was so used to drowning in him, letting him consume me, that the thought of him unable to speak, being pulled apart by my gaze, was heady. I pressed forward, taking his mouth in a ruthless kiss.

He will kill you.

I shoved the thought away, focusing on the memory of his magic inside me, the echo of it in my chest, as though he was still there, still taking up space that hadn’t been occupied for eleven years.

Cade yielded under me, giving way as though he had been waiting. I dragged my hand down the back of his shirt, tugging at the hem until he lifted his arms and let me pull it off him. His chest looked bare compared to the last time we’d had sex.

Without the thick layers of tattoos covering his skin, I could see the outlines of his muscles, his slender waist and defined abs. I dragged a finger up his chest, watching his nipples perk as I came closer to touching them.

Cade’s breath caught, his chest rising and his eyes fixed on me. The swirls of tattoos shivered across his chest, meeting my fingertip, then bouncing away like ripples in a pond.

What was it that made Cade special to me, that made him different than Declan? It wasn’t even a real question. Declan had never looked at me and seen anything more than an alpha he could pay to do his dirty work.

Cade looked at me and saw me. He had seen who I was before I even knew what there was to see.

Hetrustedme. I buried my hands in his hair and dragged his mouth against mine, pulling him into a bruising kiss that left us both breathless. With a whine, Cade pressed forward, rubbing his chest against mine, his hips rising and falling, a perfect amount of pressure as his ass settled against my trapped cock.

I took the time to explore his mouth, licking inside as though I could taste the magic that had filled me so satisfyingly. He let me, giving way and letting me touch him.

“Miles,” he murmured against my neck as he mouthed kisses that verged just on the edge of ticklish.

Then he continued lower, kissing my chest, drawing delicate lines with his fingertips and then scratching, making every part of me come alive. Trailing further down, he sucked just above the waistband of my pants. He dropped to the floor, crouched between my spread thighs.

Working quickly, he undid the button of my jeans, unzipping them and urging me to lift up my hips so that he could pull down my pants and underwear, freeing my aching cock.

I hissed, the air somehow more sensitizing than the worn cotton of my boxer briefs. Cade licked his lips, looking up at me.

“I trust you,” he said.

His words sent a sizzle of excitement through my body. I knew I had to reciprocate; I had to tell him what he meant to me, what it meant to me that he sawmeand not just someone he could use, but before I could form the words, he swallowed my cock down, the heat and slick of his mouth so inviting I almost thrust up.

But then I remembered the last time we had been together, the intimacy, the hesitance of his words. Instead of placing my fingers in his hair and pushing up into the inviting, warm heat, I fisted one hand on the edge of the couch cushion and traced the line of his jaw with my other. Cade moaned, leaning into my hand and bobbing his head.

I watched him, unable to tear my eyes away from the pornographic stretch of his mouth around my cock, his throat working as he swallowed spit and precome. When he opened his eyes, his blue gaze finding mine, I almost came right then. Everything about him was perfect.

He swallowed, and I felt my cock touch the back of his throat. I moaned, throwing my head back, scrunching my eyes closed, unable to handle the visual. Cade on his knees in front of me, giving me what I wanted, pushing me toward pleasure…

“I’m going to come—” I broke off, grunting, trying to hold on.

Cade redoubled his efforts, all suction and slide. Everything was perfect. I came as easily as stepping over the edge of a cliff, falling into pleasure.

Whatever sound I made wasn’t human or werewolf, just pure feeling. When I came back to myself, Cade was still on the floor, rubbing his face against my thigh. Accidentally, I’d fisted a hand in his hair, and I immediately let go, but he looked up, something in his gaze desperate.

Without thinking, I grabbed hold of him, dragging him up and trying to undo his pants, my fingers not quite working right. Shaking his head, he batted my hands away and undid the top button himself, the zipper almost as loud as my panting breath.

Then his cock was free, and I licked my palm, wrapping it around his length and pumping. He threw his head back, resting his forearms on my shoulders, his hips rising and falling.

He swallowed, eyes screwed shut, and I knew what he wanted. Sucking on two fingers, I got them as wet as I could, then worked one into his ass. The tightness made me shiver, and I couldn’t help but imagine it was my cock spreading him open, taking him with no more prep than my own saliva.

The angle was awkward, one hand still working his cock, the other trapped underneath his hips, but he made a groaning sound and ground down on my hand until my forefinger was buried in his tight, perfect heat. When he lifted his hips slightly, I worked the fingertip of my middle finger in, and his eyes flew open, his mouth opening, his bruised lips parted in pleasure.

I tightened my grip on his cock, remembering to move as he slowly worked his way onto my hand.

“Miles.” He said my name desperately, like he was the one drowning in arctic waters, and I was a lifeline, an orange preserver thrown into choppy waves.