Page 36

Finally, during a lull in the socializing, he grabbed my hand and pulled me toward a discreet door at the rear of the private room.

"Where are we going?" I laughed as he practically dragged me through it.

"Away," he growled, leading me down a service corridor. "I've shared you enough for one evening."

"Shared me?" I teased, breathless as we hurried through the restaurant's back areas. "I thought I was being quite the charming companion."

"Too charming," he muttered, pushing open a heavy metal door that led to an alley behind the restaurant. The night air was cool against my flushed skin. "Everyone was looking at you. Wanting you."

"Pretty sure it was just polite interest in the human who snagged their boss," I started, but his expression made the words die in my throat.

His eyes had darkened, pupils blown wide with desire, and the possessive hunger on his face made my knees weak.

"No," he backed me against the brick wall. "They see what I see. How beautiful you are. How perfect." His hands framed my face, thumbs caressing my cheekbones. "Mine," he growled, his voice dropping to that register that made me instantly wet. "My mate."

"Yours," I agreed, my heart pounding as one of his hands slid down to grip my hip.

"I need you," he confessed, his lips finding my neck, teeth scraping over the mark he'd left there. "Right now. Can't wait."

"Here?" I gasped, even as my body arched into his touch. "In an alley? "

"Yes.” It wasn't a question. The raw need in his voice sent liquid heat pooling between my thighs. "Tell me you want this too."

In answer, I grabbed his silk tie and pulled his mouth down to mine. The kiss was savage, all teeth and tongue and desperate hunger. He groaned into my mouth, pressing me harder against the wall, one muscular thigh sliding between my legs.

"The things you do to me," he rasped against my lips. "Centuries of control, and you undo me with a single look."

His hands were everywhere, sliding up my thighs, bunching the fabric of my dress around my waist, fingers finding the lace edge of my panties. I moaned as he stroked me through the damp fabric, my hips bucking against his hand.

"So wet already," he murmured, satisfaction rumbling in his chest. "Is this for me, Rosie? All for me?"

"Yes," I panted, fumbling with his belt. "Always for you."

He growled his approval, capturing my mouth in another bruising kiss as he tore my panties away with an impatient jerk. The cool night air against my exposed heat made me gasp, but his fingers were there immediately, stroking and circling until my legs trembled.

"Aldaine," I moaned, finally freeing him from his trousers, wrapping my hand around his hard length. "Please."

In one swift movement, he hoisted me up, my back pressed against the rough brick, my legs wrapping around his waist. The head of his cock teased at my entrance, and through our bond I could feel his savage satisfaction, his primal need to claim and possess.

"Mine," he growled again, and thrust inside me in one powerful stroke.

I cried out, the sound echoing in the empty alley as he filled me completely.

There was nothing gentle about this sex, it was raw, wild, a claiming as ancient as time itself.

He pounded into me relentlessly, his hands gripping my thighs hard enough to leave marks, his mouth hot and demanding against mine.

"This is what you do to me," he panted against my neck. "Make me forget myself. Make me burn."

Through our bond, I could feel his pleasure mingling with mine, a feedback loop of sensation that heightened every thrust, every touch. My head fell back against the wall, stars exploding behind my eyelids as he angled his hips to hit that perfect spot inside me.

"Everyone in there knows," he rasped, his rhythm never faltering. "Knows you're mine. Knows I would destroy worlds for you."

"Yes," I gasped, my nails digging into his shoulders through his expensive suit jacket. "Yours. Always yours."

I could feel my climax building, a tightening coil of pleasure that wound higher with each thrust. Aldaine sensed it through our bond, his movements becoming more urgent, more demanding.

"Come for me," he commanded, his voice rough with desire. "Let me feel you."

His fingers found where we were joined, circling my clit with perfect pressure, and I shattered around him, crying out his name as waves of pleasure crashed through me.

He followed an instant later, his body tensing against mine as he growled out his release, his power flaring around us in a tangible wave of heat.

For long moments we stayed like that, trembling and breathless, his forehead pressed against mine as our heartbeats gradually slowed. Through our bond, I could feel his satisfaction, his contentment, and beneath it all, a love so profound it made my throat tight with emotion.

"I think," when I could finally speak, "we may have scandalized your family."

He laughed, the sound rumbling through his chest and into mine. "Let them be scandalized. I've waited centuries for you, Rosie. I'm done with patience."

Gently, he lowered me back to my feet, though his arms remained around me, supporting me until my wobbly legs remembered how to function. With tender care that contrasted sharply with our frenzied coupling, he helped straighten my dress, his fingers lingering on my skin.

I reached up to touch his face, tracing the sharp line of his jaw. "I promise you don't have to be patient anymore. I'm yours, Aldaine. Forever."

His eyes, dark with lingering desire, softened at my words. "Forever," he echoed, sealing the promise with a kiss that contained all the passion of before, but gentled now with something deeper. "And that, my beautiful mate, is just the beginning."