Page 67

She peeled it over her head, revealing black panties and a sports bra.

He devoured the long, pale line of her legs, the tautness of her stomach, her gentle curves, and bit back a groan as all the blood in his body flowed to his cock.

Isobel was undoubtedly beautiful, but that wasn’t what he saw when he looked at her.

He could see how hard she worked in the subtle flex of her muscles.

He felt how much she had sacrificed when he watched her long hair fall over her shoulders and tease her sides, her pale arms so smooth, the scars that marred them now healed.

He saw the mark on her neck that tied her soul to his, and the small chain pierced into her sternum that reminded him of all the traumatising side effects she had herded into her own chest, because it was in her nature to spare everyone around her, even if it damaged her.

Everywhere he looked, he saw a reminder of every battle she had fought—some of them so fierce that it was a miracle she was there at all, and she wasn’t simply there, simply existing.

She was flushed with heat, burning, alive, so beautiful and bursting with life in every way.

“Naked,” he rasped. “I want you naked.”

Her eyes widened for a moment, realisation dawning on her face. He had never asked that of her before. Her eyes flicked up to his face before she removed the sports bra and panties, letting them fall to the moss-covered rocks at her feet .

Elijah’s pulse was a relentless, deafening roar in his ears. Blood pounded beneath his skin, the sharp, aching pull of desire twisting in his gut.

“Come here,” he said, his voice barely more than a growl.

She took a single, tentative step toward him, but he reached out and gripped her wrist, pulling her until her bare skin was flush against his, the heat of her body burning through his clothes, despite how she shivered from the cold.

He let his hands drift down her sides, his fingertips tracing the sharp line of her ribs, the soft curve of her waist, her softly rounded hips. She was so smooth, so soft, like silk. She shivered beneath his touch, her head tipping back, lips parting as a breathless sigh slipped free.

“Good girl,” he murmured, leaning in to brush his lips against the curve of her jaw, his hands tightening on her hips as she melted into him. “Get me naked too,” he whispered against the corner of her lips before pulling back.

He liked watching her react to his soft commands.

He thought he wanted control, but now that he had it, he realised Mikel was right.

This game they played with her wasn’t about control; it was about trust, and the easy way she handed over that trust had his pulse hammering and his eyes growing heavy-lidded.

She drew off his hoodie, rising to her toes to tug it over his head, and he hissed in a sharp breath at the feel of her fingers creeping beneath the hem of his shirt, skirting across his muscled torso before lifting the garment.

When her touch fell to the button of his pants, the urge to take over was almost too strong to resist, but he wrestled it down. He wanted to watch her work for this.

“Fuck,” he cursed, as her knuckles brushed the hard length of him through his pants. He pulsed, pushing visibly against the fabric into her touch, and she bit her lip so prettily, he pulsed against her fingers again.

“Take them off before I come in my fucking pants,” he grumbled, causing her lips to tick up at the corners.

Isobel was going to have a heart attack.

She didn’t do crazy things. She worked—that’s what she did.

She worked, and she survived, and she did what needed to be done.

She forced smiles and laughs for the cameras, and stole whatever moments she could with her mates in between pushing her body to the absolute limit for the entertainment of the outside world.

And sometimes she was either Niko’d on the floor or she Niko’d someone else on the floor, but that was as crazy as she got.

She did not go for midnight hikes in the forest, take off her clothes, and tempt her most stoic Alpha naked , into a frozen stream. Although … if she had known this wa s all he needed to break out of his own head, she might have found a way to do it earlier.

She bent down to unlace his boots, her face burning with a blush even as the cold air pebbled her skin painfully.

He caught her chin as soon as he was completely naked, and tugged her head up, forcing her eyes past the erection bobbing close to her cheek and up to meet his cold, pale stare.

Except Elijah wasn’t cold for once. The pale blue of his iris darkened in the spray of moonlight, shifting until it reminded her of a blue flame, burning hotly as his emotions washed over her through the bond.

His contact was gone, she belatedly realised, though she couldn’t figure out when he had removed it.

His other eye seemed a dark wash of colour, a shadow compared to the blue fire of his left iris.

With just that gentle touch on her chin, he drew her back to her feet and led her into the stream, drawing a hiss from her throat.

It was so cold, she found her eyes dipping to his hips as he turned in the water, facing her and capturing both of her hands to pull her toward him.

He was still hard and thick, the head of his cock spearing the surface of the water.

Not even the frigid temperature was going to slow him down, apparently.

“You can have that later,” he said, following the line of her sight with a small smirk.

The flush spread from her face to her chest, but the butterflies flittering about her heart dispersed with a lurch. “What do you mean ‘ later’?”

“You need to prove how much you want it first, Isobel.” He circled her, moving behind her, the water tugging at the skin above her waist.

An icy, wet sensation suddenly trickled over her shoulder from behind, water dribbling from his cupped hands over her breast, hardening her already tight nipples. He hummed an approving sound at the shiver that wracked her body.

“I can prove it,” she rasped.

“Good.” He completed his circle, stopping in front of her again, his frozen hand lifting to cup her cheek, wet thumb brushing over her lips as he leaned in close, his breath mingling with hers. “Because I’m going to put that pretty head underwater, and you’re going to swallow my cock.”

He was already pushing against her shoulders, sending her beneath the frigid surface and submerging her completely, but he gripped her hair as soon as she was covered and pulled her head out, like he knew she was going to gasp on instinct, and didn’t want her swallowing water.

He stared down at her as she blinked water from her shocked gaze, his entire body vibrating with need and shock. “Okay?” he asked.

She jerked her head in a quick nod, her hands fluttering against his thighs. Her body was very confused about whether it was on fire, or freezing.

“You can’t use your safe words underwater,” he said, “so tap on my stomach and we’ll stop.”

“Oka—”

He pressed her mouth to the head of his dick, still poking out of the surface of the water. “Better suck nice and tightly,” he warned, before gripping the back of her head and forcing it down, the water rushing over her skin and drifting into her hair as he forced himself to the back of her throat.

Elijah’s cock pulsed against her tongue, her jaw straining as he eased himself deeper, his hips rolling forward, his grip unyielding against the back of her head.

The cold water kissed her cheeks and the backs of her eyelids, the chill seeping into her bones, but the heat of his cock on her tongue, the thick, pulsing weight of him against her lips, felt like an electric current zipping through her nerves, every sense heightened and raw.

He pulled her off him, his shaft slipping free with a wet, obscene sound as she gasped in the cold night air, her breath shuddering, water splashing up into her mouth as she choked a little.

He held her up by the hair, his other hand lowering to grip the back of her neck, his breaths coming in harsh, ragged bursts.

His grip flexed, the cool pads of his thumbs digging into the tender skin just below her jaw.

“You’re okay?” he rasped, examining her face carefully.

She nodded, at a loss for words. He could feel her through the bond, he knew she was more than okay, but he seemed afraid to let her see this side of him. After a moment of searching her expression, that hesitation melted away.

“Again,” he growled, his eyes flashing in the moonlight, the sharp line of his jaw stiffening.

He gave her no time to adjust, just pressed her back down, his cock parting her lips again, his hips bucking forward, the thick head of him nudging the back of her throat.

She choked again, her fingernails digging into his thighs as the cold water submerged her face and wrapped around her body, her breasts tingling at the constant shock of the temperature.

Elijah growled low, the sound vibrating all the way through her shuddering, submerged body as he yanked her back, dragging her head out of the water.

Her teeth began to chatter, her breaths coming in short, frantic gasps, her chest heaving as she fought to pull in enough oxygen.

Tears streaked her cheeks, mixing with the water from the stream.

Not even Kalen and Mikel had been so rough with her or pushed her body so close to that line between suffering and pleasure, but the harsh dominance she was allowing Elijah seemed to be driving him wild.

He dragged her all the way up to his mouth, kissing her deeply as he thrust his arousal between her thighs, slicking himself against the warm mess between her legs.