Page 10 of Love Bites Harder (Mated to the King #3)

ten

CLEMENTINE

Kai’s hands moved slowly over my body, his lips brushing the side of my neck, alternating between kissing, sucking, and nipping.

As soon as we’d gotten in the water, he pinned me to the wall of the pool. Underwater plants brushed my calves, twisting around my legs like Kai’s vines had.

I needed to turn my magic up as high as I could. The fae couldn’t control themselves, and the water would help them as soon as I purified it.

But if I turned my magic up, we would probably have sex.

Which I wanted—I wanted it a lot.

But Kai had still ditched me in our room, immediately after sealing the bond. My single rule as far as sexual partners went was that I didn’t screw jerks. Someone who treated me like crap didn’t get to fuck me.

If I was going to break my rule, it would make sense to break it for my mate.

But that would be condoning dickish behavior, wouldn’t it? It would’ve only taken him a minute to tell me why he was leaving or ask me to come with him. He didn’t have to leave the way he did. There were other options, even in a situation as difficult as the current one.

“You’re holding back,” Kai said, his lips catching my earlobe and his tongue toying with my earring there as his hands slid over my breasts. My borrowed shirt was still covering them, barely. His vines were around my thighs, holding me in place but not pushing past the boxers I was wearing like they had earlier.

Maybe he was holding back, too.

His self-control was necessary, though. Unlike mine.

“I don’t want to have sex,” I said, breathing a little fast as he pinched one of my nipples lightly through my top.

“Then we won’t.”

“It’s not that easy, Seven. My magic is?—“

“I have more control here than I do in the fae realm. If you let me touch you, I’ll resist.”

“Alright.”

I probably shouldn’t have trusted him, but…

Well, I did.

Closing my eyes, I tilted my head to the side to give him better access and freed more of my magic.

Kai’s chest rumbled fiercely, his grip on my breast tightening before he released it long enough to peel my borrowed boxer-briefs down to the middle of my thighs.

I gasped when his fingers dragged over my clit, his other hand undoing my buttons until he could open the fabric entirely. His big, warm hand slid over my bare breast, and my back arched as he sucked my nipple into his mouth

He worked me until I was crying out, dragging the pleasure on and on until every ounce of control I had over my magic was gone.

His vines crept higher, tying me to him, the other plants in the pool, and the tile wall.

He didn’t pull away—and he didn’t slow down.

When I could feel the water growing pure around us, I moaned, “We need to move across the pool.”

He growled, gripping me tighter and dragging his teeth over my nipple. My hips rocked, and he pushed two fingers inside me, making me arch more as another climax crashed down on me.

I couldn’t breathe.

Couldn’t see.

Couldn’t do anything but hold on to the king for dear life as I lost control on his fingers, latching on to his emotions and drinking them in as he got me off.

Carnal satisfaction.

All-consuming need.

Thick, heady pleasure.

I felt him pull my boxer-briefs the rest of the way off, then move through the water. I was too lost to the feel of his touch to care.

The pool was much deeper where he carried me, and I clutched his shoulders to keep from slipping beneath the surface. Though I could breathe water, I didn’t want the moment to end.

Not when he was touching me like he was, so completely lost to my magic and the eclipse.

His vines held us to the wall on the deep end of the water, and my magic radiated around us as he brought me release again.

And again.

And again.

The time passed slowly, but quickly, too.

And it was full of pure, undiluted pleasure.

“Stop,” I moaned, when I was too overwhelmed and overstimulated for more.

I didn’t push him away, though. I didn’t want him to move away.

He growled at me, but stopped playing with my clit. His fingers stilled inside me as my body pulsed with the insane pleasure of the moment.

“You’re really good at that. Way too good at that. No one should be this good at that,” I mumbled. I knew I was babbling, but I was so lost to the sensations that I didn’t care. “Most guys aren’t very good. I like sex, but I almost never get off when I—” I gasped when his fingers hooked in my channel, pressing into my g-spot in a way that made me feel like I’d been electrocuted.

“There are no other men for you,” Kai snarled. “Only me.”

“Right. We’re mates. I?—”

My head fell back in a scream of pleasure, my fingernails digging into his biceps as he bit the side of my throat the way a vampire would. His teeth sank into my skin, though he didn’t drink from me.

None of the vampires’ soothing power accompanied his teeth in my skin. Just a fierce hit of nature magic that felt right in ways words couldn’t explain.

“You bit me,” I panted, when the magic finally faded and he released my throat with a slow lick to the wounds. I could feel them knitting together already. Healing immediately. “Fae aren’t supposed to bite.”

I forced my magic back down, reducing the amount I radiated so he could think a little easier.

“All strong males with magic bite their mates to claim them.”

“Who told you that?”

“Instinct, and all of society. Mated women always wear healed bite scars, unless they’re bound to vampires.”

Because vampire bites healed up immediately, without leaving scars.

“No one told me.”

“Who did you ask?” His question was low, and angry.

The question was ridiculous.

I hadn’t asked anyone. Obviously.

But he was still under my magic’s control, and the eclipse’s sway too.

“How much longer until the pool is ready?” His thumb was moving over my clit again, slow and smooth. It felt so good, I could’ve cried.

“We’re like three-quarters of the way there.”

He growled.

I felt the same way, even if I couldn’t say it.

How was I going to survive even more?

“I’m not going to make it much longer like this. I need to taste you,” he gritted out. “Can you cleanse the water without being fully beneath it?”

“I’d need to be touching it, but I could probably channel my magic through my hand or—” I made a noise of surprise as he lifted me out of the water and sat my bare ass on the edge of the pool. My button-up shirt hung open, revealing my entire body.

When he pulled his fingers out of me, I couldn’t help but watch. I ached immediately without him.

His vines were still wrapped around my bare legs, gripping me tightly and holding me open for him.

Kai tugged his shirt over his head and tossed it aside.

My gaze moved over his gorgeous, chiseled chest. I wanted my hands all over him.

But I was supposed to be mad. I had to cling to that, or else he would walk all over me. And I was a lot of things, but a doormat wasn’t one of them.

Kai grabbed my hips. “Hands in my hair,” he said, as one of his vines wrapped around my wrist and tugged it up to the messy, blond strands. It held me in place, and when I pulled lightly, it didn’t move.

We hadn’t talked about kinks or anything else sexual, but he’d made it pretty clear before I mated with a fae that vines would be involved.

A lot.

And considering the way I woke up that morning, I was definitely on board. It was a pretty big deviation from my usual vanilla-plus-blood sex life, but I wasn’t going to complain. It felt too good.

I focused my magic on my calves and feet, making sure it was channeling through them before I refocused on Kai.

He was watching me.

“Ready, Five?”

The nickname didn’t sound like an insult anymore.

“Yeah.”

“Turn your magic up.”

I focused on sending the power through my toes. Some of my sisters wouldn’t have been able to use it that way—none of them liked to touch their magic anywhere near as much as I did. But for me, my power was survival. It was safety and security. It was life .

Kai’s vines opened my legs wider as he lowered his face between my thighs and dragged the tip of his nose over my clit slowly. He inhaled deeply, rumbling as he smelled me.

“I bet you usually wear delicate, matching underwear,” he rumbled.

“Of course I do,” I breathed back, as he continued teasing my clit slowly with his nose. “And if you’re judging me for it, you can screw off.”

“Why would I judge you for it?”

“I don’t even know why you mated with me, so—ohh, shit,” I hissed, as he finally dragged his tongue over my clit.

My hips bucked.

My fingers tangled in his hair, my second hand joining the first. He needed a haircut, but the length did have a benefit in giving me something to grip.

His chest rumbled fiercely. “You’re fucking delicious.”

“You’re my mate, you have to say— fuck .” My eyes nearly rolled back as something thick, hard, and smooth entered me.

Vine.

It was definitely a vine.

Definitely.

More of them held me down as he ate me out slowly, letting the plants fuck me.

It was insane.

Bizarre, too.

But so, incredibly good.

I lost count of how many times I got off.

When I could finally feel that the pool was full of my magic, I tugged on Kai’s hair, trying to pull him away from my core.

He didn’t budge.

I was so well-pleasured, I could barely think, let alone speak. Forcing my magic to settle back in my veins, I tugged again, harder, and choked out, “Kai.”

It took a few minutes of repeating the same thing, but he finally lifted his face, meeting my eyes with his burning, red orbs.

“Take me deeper into the water,” I managed.

He growled, his entire body vibrating.

“Please?”

Kai snarled, but the vines holding me down finally relaxed.

He tore through them, lifting me into his arms. His pants were way too rough against my sensitive core, but when I flinched, he lifted me higher so my bare skin was against his abs instead of the fabric.

I wrapped my arms around his neck, holding myself against him. His body was hot against mine, the hard silk of his muscles feeling luxurious.

The water felt amazing. Nothing had ever compared to water for me before—but Kai’s body rivaled it.

Hell, if I was being honest, he beat it. By a long way.

A really, really long way.

He let out a slow breath into my hair, his arms remaining around me in an iron grip that made me feel ridiculously safe.

“My magic packs a punch, right?” I mumbled against his shoulder.

“Understatement.”

“Your balls are going to hurt, huh?”

“I’ll be fine.”

“You deserve it, for leaving me in your room.”

His hand slid over my back slowly, moving over the soaked fabric of my shirt and relaxing me further. “I wasn’t going to carry you into a fight, Five.”

“Maybe not, but ditching me without an explanation wasn’t the answer.”

He made a noncommittal noise.

I was too worn out to feel annoyed, though.

“We need to let everyone in,” I said.

“I need a few more minutes.”

I knew him well enough to be fairly certain he wasn’t saying that just to be selfish. Kai was always controlled enough that if he was on the verge of losing it, he would probably recognize it.

“Why did you start the bond with me?” I asked, since I had him all but trapped.

His body tensed slightly. “I wasn’t planning to.”

My stomach clenched. “So it was the eclipse.”

“I don’t know. I just couldn’t let anyone else have you.”

“Lovely.” I squeezed my eyes shut. Thankfully, I was exhausted enough that I didn’t have to fight tears or anything. Those would come later, though.

I wanted a mate who would love me.

Appreciate me.

Make me feel amazing—not just in bed, but for who I was.

Kai clearly wasn’t going to be that person. He wasn’t Prince Charming. He was King Grumpy.

I would never find the perfect mate.

I would just have Kai. Who didn’t want me.

Letting out a shaky breath, I felt my eyes stinging and cursed silently.

Apparently I was going to have to fight tears after all.