Page 26 of Forsaken Desire (Ruthless Wolves #1)

I tucked the comforter under my chin, waiting for Lucian to return to bed. He’d disappeared almost an hour ago. The bright, pale light on the digital clock sitting on his nightstand told me as much.

I was an incredibly light sleeper, so when the bed jostled earlier, I woke in time to watch him roll out of bed. It’d been about survival in prison, but now it was habitual. He’d slid on pajama bottoms, and walked out shirtless, his back muscles moving with his retreat.

With his absence, I’d taken the opportunity to call my parole officer and schedule a meeting for him to come to my duplex in a few weeks.

I didn’t plan on telling Lucian about the meeting, mainly because I didn’t want to suffer the embarrassment.

Once the meeting was scheduled, I waited a while for him to return, but he didn’t.

An hour later, I couldn’t continue to just lie in bed.

I shoved off the comforter and threw my legs over the edge of the bed. Was he avoiding me? Hiding from me because he didn’t want me to see his disappointment?

I released a breath of air and adjusted the button-down he’d let me wear. It was so big it fell to my knees and gaped at the collar, showing the top of my breasts. I didn’t bother sliding the heels on and padded out of the bedroom on bare feet.

When we arrived last night, I hadn’t had the energy to explore, so he’d escorted me past the foyer of the big, quiet house and straight to the second floor.

I stepped onto a slim rug covering the dark wood floors.

To the right stretched a long, dark hallway, but I took the left toward the stairs, passing one other door at the top of the stairs. A peek inside told me it was an office.

The second step before reaching the bottom creaked. I followed the only path down the hall. Five steps later, it opened to a simple entryway with a coat hanger beside the door. The hall continued, and I padded over the matching rug. The first turn was into a dimly lit kitchen.

I continued past and toward the crackle of a fire. The hall opened to the left, the entryway wide and open. The back of the couch faced me. Lucian sat, staring out of the huge window that almost took up the entire wall. Moonlight spilled in.

He raised a glass to his mouth and sipped. The gold liquid caught a shine from the moon. Deep whiskey that looked brighter with the light shining through it. The color reminded me of his eyes.

He was drinking in peace. If I bothered him . . .

I backed up, and a low creak made me freeze. He didn’t react, taking another sip.

“Josephine.” He said my name abruptly, his voice husky. He tipped the rest of the glass back. In a movement so sudden, he threw the empty glass at the window. Upon impact, it shattered, sprinkling glass everywhere.

I gasped, hurrying forward to make sure he was okay.

What was wrong with him?

As soon as I rounded the couch, I could see he wasn’t all there.

I thought he’d heard me earlier but it was clear he hadn’t. I rushed to his side, propping my knees against the edge of the couch and between his spread thighs. He didn’t react other than closing his eyes and releasing a shuddering exhale.

“Lucian,” I whispered, lifting higher on my knees to lean over his face. I scanned the furrowed brow and turned-down lips. “You’re bleeding.” I peered at the nick on his cheek. Blood stained the surface. I swiped my thumb across it and it didn’t continue to bleed. Thank Moon, it was a surface cut.

“Josephine?” His voice was so incredibly vulnerable. His forehead wrinkled from how hard he squeezed his eyes shut. My heart ached.

“Yes.”

“Josephine,” he repeated, and his arms wound around my waist, pulling me close to tuck his head under my boobs, his ear to my belly. “I’m sorry.”

I stiffened.

Why was he sorry? Had he changed his mind about me?

“I’ll get my shoes.” I licked my lips. “If you can give me a ride to my apartment?—”

“No,” he snarled, pulling back to look up at me.

The moonlight caught his eyes, making them reflect like our wolf form.

I licked my lips, half-kneeling on the couch.

He gripped my wrists with one hand, yanking me down until I was bent with my face a few inches from his. “What are you talking about?”

Alcohol wafted from his breath, and his red-rimmed eyes held a glaze I’d never seen.

“You changed your mind, it’s okay. If we reject the bond?—”

He surged toward me, grabbing me abruptly and tossing me on my back. I reeled, landing flat on the couch. Lucian crawled over me, pressing his into my body until his hips nestled between my legs. “You are mine. There are not going to be any rejections.”

I blinked up at his angry growl. He wasn’t in his right mind, and was probably not actually processing what I was saying.

“I don’t think we should be having this conversation while you’re drunk,” I said wryly. I tried to push off the couch, but didn’t even lift my shoulders. I peeked up at Lucian’s crazed eyes. He looked . . . livid. Like he might choke me out.

I stiffened, preparing for anything.

True fear struck my gut.

“You aren’t leaving.”

“Okay, okay,” I replied quietly, reaching up and rubbing my fingertips along his smooth cheek. The change came over him immediately, and my shoulders relaxed. I didn’t think he would hurt me, but my instincts screamed danger . “I was just giving you another out, in case you’d changed your mind.”

I wiggled my leg a little higher, bending my knee.

The adjustment placed him heavier on my sex.

His hips ground down, and his torso pressed between my legs.

My lips parted with a soft moan. Red bloomed across the bridge of his nose.

His eyelids lowered, blocking his eyes as he studied me through his thick eyelashes.

He leaned down until his lips played along my lips. His unique vanilla-based scent mingled with whiskey.

“I need to taste you,” he whispered. He propped himself on his hands and slowly inched lower.

Good thing he had a big couch. The cushion dipped and swayed under his weight.

With his long reach, he slowly popped the buttons of his shirt with quick flicks, all the way to the end.

As soon as he finished, he stretched his arm up and, using his index finger, slipped his fingers along my sternum, parting the fabric.

The pad of his finger raised goose bumps in its path.

I panted through parted lips, not able to contain the utter desire firing through my veins, but I couldn’t move.

His touch was an addiction, and I never wanted to be without it.

He slid his fingers lower and lower, passing my hip bone.

Still, I didn’t move.

He spread my legs, and coolness wafted against my needy sex.

“My wet mate,” he praised huskily. With his tongue, he ran it the length of my slit.

I groaned, and when he swirled his tongue around my clit, my body stiffened, arching up off the couch.

His hands under my thighs curved higher so he braced the bottom of my legs and his hands wound up and around my hips, thumbs settling onto my hip bones. The move restricted me.

He ran his tongue along my entrance, stopping midway to thrust his tongue into my channel, wringing a scream from me.

The invasion was delicious and maddening.

He settled into a rhythm, slow and steady with each lick.

He moaned against me. I could feel the vibrations send spikes of pleasure down to my toes.

Gasps and moans fell from my lips, and it felt too good to be embarrassed.

“Lucian,” I whimpered, desperately trying to move.

He stiffened his grip on my hips. I reached for his hair, grabbing him and pushing down with desperation.

He kept the pace of his tongue, gliding in and out, refusing to go any faster.

My legs trembled, an orgasm building. All my senses hyper-focused, pinpointing on the sensation against my sex.

This is too good—how is he real ? —

Fucking shit .

The release slammed into me with the force of a freight train. I screamed so loud my hearing rang. I wasn’t sure how long I twitched under the possession of his mouth.

When I could finally breathe and make sense of things, my head drooped to the side. He continued licking me through the aftershocks until my belly hurt from flexing.

He lifted his head, and my juices glinted on his mouth. My channel flexed, wanting him—now.

“My perfect mate, ” he crooned.

He was so fucking sexy staring up at me with his hair a mess, strands laying across his forehead while his beautiful eyes glinted.

“Lucian,” I breathed.

His tongue swiped across his lower lip.

“Your pussy tastes perfect,” he growled. He climbed up my body until his face hovered over mine. That left his cock prodding against my inner thigh since he was too tall to line up with my sex.

I slid my hands along his shoulders and wrapped them around his neck, bringing him down to my lips. His tongue swiped against mine, offering me my salty taste, and I moaned, sucking on him. He angled his head, deepening the kiss.

“I need you.” His glazed eyes remained unfocused. He pushed up on his elbows, moving his hips so his hardness pressed against my damp core. “Undo my pants, darling.”

The endearment struck me across the chest, rendering me useless. After everything he’d found out about me . . .

My hands fumbled with his belt, but I finally loosened the leather.

I nudged his slacks down, and he popped free.

The warm shaft bobbing against my arm. I grabbed him, ran my hand up to the tip, and rubbed my palm against his head, smearing the precum already gathering at the tip.

He groaned, his eyes shutting and a dent appearing between his eyebrows.

I glided my hand on him in the same motion, and he gasped, suddenly grabbing my wrist.

“You’re going to make me come,” he rasped out.

The soft, yet growled words really fucking did it for me.

But because he was stronger than me, he managed to guide my wrist to his base, and with his hand over mine, gripping his knot, he pushed inside me.

The side of my pinky touched my wet core.

I began to withdraw my hand, but he grabbed my wrist, guiding my fingers against my entrance, where I felt his cock half inside me.

My slick and his need mingled.

“Put your finger inside you, darling,” he murmured. With the blush traveling down my chest, I did as he ordered, moving my hand to face downward, and pushed my pointer finger into my channel next to his cock.

My knuckles grazed against his sex. The pressure took my breath away, and he stilled, too, releasing a harsh huff.

“Just like that, mate,” he exhaled. I pumped my finger in me and used my other fingers to rub against his cock as best I could.

He twitched inside my channel and groaned.

“Naughty girl,” he murmured gruffly, and grabbed my wrist, pulling my fingers out of my pussy. Then he shoved his cock inside me to the hilt.

I gasped at the stretch and my midsection arched off the couch. While I reveled in the ecstasy of his touch, he popped my finger in his mouth, taking every bit of my slick.

My channel clasped him, pulling a groan from him.

“Ffffuck,” he grunted and pumped his hips, popping his knot out and then back in.

Pleasure licked up my spine, and I moved my hips in a circular motion. The familiar sensation of an orgasm began to build at the base of my spine and spread outward.

I could only grab onto his wide shoulders for purchase.

“I love you,” he groaned, grinding against my sex, his thick knot shoving against my clit.

His words wrenched me into a rocking orgasm, and I yanked and clawed at his dress shirt, puling so hard that the third button flew off. He met my eyes with his unfocused ones.

“Please, don’t leave,” he begged, pumping his hips while I ground down, riding my orgasm, feeling every inch of his cock inside me.

He pounded into me with steady ruts, fucking me slow and steady and hard. The wet thwaps of our skin meeting only made me wetter.

“Without you—I can’t,” he growled. “Punish me. Hit me. I accept anything except for you leaving me.” The gravely tone reached into my gut, and emotion bubbled. I blinked quickly to get rid of the sheen making it difficult to see.

I had no words, and I clutched onto him like I could mold him to me. His knot began to bulge, stretching my core.

He shouted, slamming himself in as deep as he could get, his head falling back and a vein popping along his neck. Fuck, he was hot when he came.

“Please.” A final jet of cum warmed my channel as his knot locked us together.

I panted, unable to tear my eyes away. My delicious mate.

“Don’t leave me, please .”

His pleas verged on desperate while his voice was thick with emotion—like he’d done something terrible.

I smoothed my hands against his neck, trying to soothe his agitation. Something seemed to be haunting my mate.