Page 18 of Love Bites Hard (Mated to the King #2)
eighteen
IZZY
By the time we made it back to Wolf Manor, the fae were already arriving.
That definitely put a damper on our plans.
“I can ask Evan to keep an eye on the lake,” Porter said, though he didn’t sound convinced. I was on his back, my fingers gripping his fur.
The fae were all walking in a group, and there were at least two or three dozen of them.
“No, you can’t. We’ll stay there until the fae are gone, and go back to our room together afterward,” I said.
“I don’t want you swimming with them.”
“I don’t want to. I don’t even know how their magic works. We’ll sit on the side of the lake.”
He changed directions, heading toward the group, and caught up to them. We got a few curious glances and a handful of waves and nods, but none of them said anything to us.
“Is Kai with them?” I asked.
“No. One of his trusted fae is keeping an eye on them right now. He’s in the fae realm. I guess he’s trying to figure out why the eclipses keep happening.”
“At least we don’t have to deal with that.”
“No kidding.”
The fae all dove into the water as soon as we reached the lake, and none of them bothered staying on the shore. Porter shifted in the forest and pulled on the jeans I’d carried for him, handing me his shirt.
I put it on while he grabbed the chair he’d left when my sisters visited, and he set it up near the place I’d left my chlorinated towel.
The towel was gone, which meant someone had come back for it. Probably either one of Porter’s people, or the person who had chlorinated it.
Porter sat down on the chair and pulled me onto his lap. I wasn’t sure I’d ever feel comfortable with his erection pinned beneath my ass, but it did feel nice.
“If chlorine actually hurt me, today could’ve been bad,” I murmured into Porter’s mind while we watched the fae swim around. They were quiet, and peaceful. I needed to let Clem know that she wouldn’t be missing much if she stayed home.
His arm around me tightened a little. “I know. I have Evan and a few other people trying to figure out who was responsible. We don’t have any cameras set up around the lake, but that will change.”
I didn’t want to put cameras there, but if we couldn’t find the culprit, what was the alternative?
I wouldn’t risk my life for a little more privacy. We could always take them down after we figured out who was behind it.
Pulling my phone from my pocket, I took a quick video of the fae and sent it to Clementine.
Me
You’re not missing much
Not worth risking your life over
Clem
Damn
I thought they’d be a little wilder
Me
If you want wild, run with the wolves
Clem
I’ll think about it
Me
Sorry
I know you were hopeful about the fae
Clem
It’s fine
I should just go on a date with another vampire anyway
I do love the vamps
Me
They’re pretty safe to love
Clem
Yeah
Thanks for the video, I would’ve been disappointed
The kings’ Christmas Eve party is only a few months away. I’m sure I’ll meet some fae then, without the glitter making me a target
Me
I didn’t know that was a thing
Clem
It’s a masquerade ball
Cheesy, but fun
Me and Zora are already planning our outfits
I’ll plan yours too ;)
Me
LOL
Plan one for Porter too
Clem
Yessss
It’ll be glorious
Me
I don’t want him naked
Clem
You’re probably the only mated woman on the planet who feels that way
Porter snorted, and I realized he’d been reading over my shoulder. It probably should’ve annoyed me, but I would’ve done the same if he was texting while I was sitting on his lap.
Me
Probably
Love you
Clem
Love you too
I’m thinking you should do a red riding hood costume, and he can be the big bad wolf ;) I’ll make it happen
Have fun with your man!
I grinned at her idea and liked her message, then put my phone in the camping chair’s cupholder and murmured to Porter, “How long do you think the fae are going to stay here?”
“All night.” His hands slipped beneath the bottom hem of my shirt and slowly stroked my skin. “They seem pretty laid-back.”
“They do, but that could change.”
“It could.” He adjusted the angle of my ass over his erection, and I closed my eyes at the perfect pressure. “If I could touch you without drawing attention, I’d already have you wrapped around my fingers.”
My body throbbed. “You’ve never had me wrapped around your fingers, Porter.”
Not physically, or metaphorically.
He chuckled, his chest rumbling against my back. “Only in my imagination.”
“You don’t want me to follow your commands. If I listened to you, we would never be together like this. You’d still be in the forest.”
“You’re right. I don’t want a good little mate.” He nipped at my throat. “I want you.”
His mind collided with mine, and his memory of the way I’d moved as he went down on me in the gazebo played out in my mind.
My breathing grew shallower.
He stroked my inner thigh lightly, with his thumb. I wanted more—but the fae weren’t far from us. And we’d done the public sex thing, but not that public. Porter was too possessive to be okay with that. And I was too.
The memory grew hotter as he bent me over that chair and thrust into me.
I took his emotions in, just a little, and felt his pleasure with the memories.
I could almost feel his fingers tracing the spot between us, where our bodies had been locked together.
His memory shifted to the day on the beach, when I’d climbed on his lap.
I sucked in a breath at the way he remembered, in great depth, how he’d torn my bathing suit and filled me.
His thoughts and memories played through my mind as time passed—until a large wolf shifter plopped down on the dirt next to our chair.
I gasped, but Porter didn’t seem surprised.
He probably heard or smelled Evan coming.
When the blond man didn’t bring up the smell of my desire, or tease us about what we were doing, I looked over at him.
His expression was closed off, his gaze focused on the lake even though I got the impression he wasn’t really seeing anything.
“What happened?” Porter asked him.
“Kim.” Evan ran a hand through his hair.
Porter waited.
I did too.
“There were things we didn’t agree on when Curtis was the alpha. Things we’ve never agreed on. Big things. Kids. Timing. Family stuff. Her brother.” He ran his hand through his hair again. “She sprang this stupid fucking mark on me without warning a few months ago. Made me feel like shit when I wasn’t ready to seal the bond. Since you guys took over, it's gotten worse. I can never do anything right with her. Seems like all we ever do is argue.”
My horniness deflated, replaced with empathy. “I’m sorry.”
Porter set a hand on his shoulder. “If you need to spend less time with the pack, you know I’ll make it work.”
“I know, but that’s the only time I’m ever appreciated. I love working with the pack. She doesn’t understand. She doesn’t fucking care.” He swiped at his eyes. “I can keep an eye on the fae. Go enjoy your night. Someone should.”
I didn’t want to budge, but Porter squeezed his shoulder. “You’re a good guy, Ev. Don’t let anyone make you question that. No one has done as much for this pack as you have in the last few decades.”
He nodded slowly, and I saw the emotions raging across his face.
“Are you sure you’re okay?” I asked.
“I’m sure.” He flashed me a grin that didn’t meet his eyes. “Get out of here.”
Porter chuckled, lifting me with him as he stood up.
Shifting forms, he carried me back toward the Manor.
“Do you think he’s really okay?” I asked Porter.
“I think they’ve been together for so long that if he was ever going to be ready to commit to her, it would’ve happened by now,” Porter said. “And I think they both know they haven’t been happy together for a long time, and they either have to figure out a way to fix that, or split up. I’ve never seen them together when they haven’t had more issues than not.”
“Damn.”
“Yeah. All wolves feel an urge to take a mate from puberty and on, so whatever they decide, it won’t be easy to let go. Their animal sides likely see each other as mates, even without the true commitment. I hope they work it out without too much drama.”
“No kidding. What about her brother?”
“He broke away from the pack a few days ago, finally, so he shouldn’t be a concern anymore. He hasn’t been on the pack’s land. She sided with us against him when everything happened, so I’m not concerned about that,” he explained.
“ At least that’s one less problem to deal with.”
He made a noise of agreement.
We finally reached our room, and I landed smoothly on my feet, typing in the code as Porter stepped up behind me. His hands were on my hips, his thumbs dragging smoothly over my skin.
He turned me so my back hit the door as soon as it was closed behind us, and suddenly, we were alone.
As strange as it was, we’d never had sex in private.
We’d gotten close a few times.
But we had never actually gone all the way in the privacy of our own room.
Porter slowly lifted my hands above my head, pinning my wrists in place as he kissed me. His other hand found my core as I tilted my head back, letting him in deeper. I sucked in a breath as he dragged his fingers over my clit through my swimsuit.
“You’re still soaked for me, baby.”
“You were playing our sex life through my mind like it was a movie. Of course I’m wet after—ohh.”
I couldn’t stop my soft groan when he pushed his hand beneath my swim bottoms, and his rough fingers finally brushed through my hot folds.
All words vanished from my mind.
My body rocked, throbbed, and trembled as he continued to touch me.
Part of me was afraid he’d pull away, like he had the last time. That he’d take revenge on me for when I’d done the same.
But he didn’t.
And I was crying out with pleasure, my body shaking with the intensity of my release, what felt like only seconds later.
He continued stroking my clit through my climax, murmuring when I came down from the high, “You’re so fucking hot.”
“I thought you wanted to screw me,” I panted, my chest rising and falling rapidly.
“I’m going to. I just want to watch you come a few times, first.”
“Why?”
“A man should be able to picture, in vivid detail, the way his female looks when she climaxes. I can’t yet.”
“Who told you that?”
“It’s common sense, baby.” He slid a thick finger inside me as he continued teasing my clit. My lips parted, my head falling back against the door as my eyes shut. “Open your eyes. I want you to see whose fingers you’re riding.”
“I don’t think I could forget if I tried.”
“If you don’t know , I’m doing it wrong.”
My lips curved a little—until they parted again as he found my g-spot.
My hips jerked.
I fought his grip on my wrists, and he let go. My hands found his shoulders, my fingers digging into his skin as he brought me back to the edge.
In minutes, he had me shattering again, with another desperate cry.
“Porter,” I moaned, all of my weight against the door. “I can’t?—”
“You can.” He slid his hand out of me, then wrapped his arm around my backside and hauled me off my feet.
My back was on the mattress a moment later, my ass and legs hanging off the ledge as he kneeled between my legs. I propped myself up on my forearms in time to see him peel my swimsuit bottoms down my thighs.
Neither of us watched the fabric hit the floor.
Leaning in, he dragged his tongue over my core so slowly, it made me cry out.
“Take your top off,” he said, the words a clear command.
One I wanted to follow.
Badly.
I sat up long enough to pull the sporty bikini top over my head, and he made a sound of appreciation as my breasts fell free.
Porter released my thigh long enough to grab a pillow, and tucked it behind my back to prop me up higher.
“Play with your nipples for me, baby.”
My hands cupped my tits, and I dragged my thumbs over the sensitive points, making him growl. “Now tell me you’re mine.”
“You know I am.”
“I want you to say it.” He licked my clit again, torturously slow, and I swore as my hips lifted from the bed.
“I’m yours, Porter.”
“You taste like it, too.” He nipped at my clit, and I cursed again, arching harder.
He licked and tasted me until I’d unraveled on his mouth once, and again—and then, he leaned over me on the bed.
He was so big, he made me feel small.
The head of his cock pressed against my entrance, and he held one of my thighs in one hand while he held his weight up over me with the other.
We’d never been in that position before.
It was intimate.
Warm.
Real .
My chest rose and fell quickly. “Are you mine, too?” I asked him, and his lips stretched in a slow, sexy smile.
“Entirely, baby.”
He lifted my hips higher, and thrust into me.
We moved together as he fucked me, slow, smooth, and deep.
His knot swelled inside me as we lost control together, locking us in that process of need and pleasure until we were both so drained that all we could do was collapse on the mattress.
Porter rolled me on top of him, his cock still buried inside me as his knot softened, but neither of us was in a hurry to end the connection.
“You are the best thing that’s ever happened to me, Izzy,” he murmured into my ear, as we caught our breath together.
My eyes widened, my heart still pounding hard from the intensity of our releases.
What was I supposed to say to that?
To him?
After we’d wrestled for power so much, after he’d controlled me, after I basically tortured him with our sex war…
What the hell was the right response?
“You don’t need to feel the same way, and you don’t need to answer.” He kissed the top of my head in a way that made my heart basically burn. “But you deserve to know that you’re the reason I’m not hiding in the forest anymore. You saved my life when you agreed to mate with me. So thank you.”
“I did it for me,” I said. “Don’t thank me for that.”
“You didn’t leave.”
“You wouldn’t have let me go.”
“I assigned you a guard who couldn’t have stopped you from running away if you tried. I wouldn’t have declared war on Hale if you’d hidden with him after you left me. You could’ve gotten away at any time—you just chose not to.”
“It wouldn’t have done any good. You would’ve come after me.”
“I would’ve. But you didn’t want me to let you go.”
The words hit me, hard.
He was right.
I didn’t want him to let me go. I never had.
What that said about me, I didn’t really want to know.
“What does that mean for us?” I asked him, my heart still beating hard.
“The same thing it’s always meant. We’re mates. For better or worse.” He pulled me against his chest a little tighter.
“I don’t know how to be anyone’s mate, Porter. My parents were…” I let out a harsh breath. “They weren’t good people. They weren’t nice. Not to me. Not to each other.”
“You know how to be a good sister. I’ve seen how you are with them. It’s not much different to be a good mate—you just add in a little bit of sex.”
A choked laugh escaped me. “A little bit?”
“A lot. A lot of sex.”
“I don’t think it’s the same. The way Blair is with Hale isn’t the way we all are together. They’re like… best friends.”
“That’s a more accurate way to describe a healthy mated pair. Two people, against the world.”
“It sounds nice, but I don’t know how to make it happen.”
“You don’t have to make it happen. You just have to let it happen.”
“Well I don’t know how to do that, either.”
He chuckled. “I’ll handle it.”
“I don’t like letting you have all the control, remember?”
“I remember. But this isn’t about control. It’s about fun. Talking. Shared experiences.”
That did sound like friendship.
I supposed I did all of those things with my sisters, too.
“You and I have talked a little,” I said.
“We’re getting there with that,” he agreed.
“And we’ve done a few things together. Like… screwing next to the lake. And in front of your pack.”
“Don’t forget the sex war. And snuggling every night, over the past two weeks.”
“Right.”
“We have breakfast every morning, too.”
“And you braid my hair.”
“Mmhm.”
“So we don’t have nothing ,” I decided.
“We have a solid mate bond. We just need to work on it a little harder.”
“And you want to do that?” I checked.
“More than anything.” He kissed my head again. “But first, I want to screw you again.”
I sighed dramatically. “You act like we haven’t had sex in weeks.”
He snorted, and I couldn’t stop myself from laughing as he thrusted into me with a grin.
Maybe we had a lot more than nothing, but we’d both been too stubborn to admit it.