Page 22 of Monochrome (ORCA #4)

CHAPTER

TWENTY-TWO

ETHAN

“Goodnight, Lily. I love you.” Lily wrapped her arms around my neck, the stuffed orca Julius had bought her at the aquarium bouncing against my back as she pulled me down for a final hug.

“I love you, Unca E.” She kissed my cheek, then let me go and snuggled down under her covers, the orca plushie tucked under her chin.

“Don’t forget a kiss for Buttercup.” She held up the orca, and I dutifully dropped a kiss on its plush head.

Julius was waiting for me at the door, and we silently slipped into the hallway, closing the door behind us.

“Thank you for today. It was exactly what we needed.”

He tugged me into our room and kicked the door closed.

It wasn’t lost on me that in just a few short days, I’d started thinking of Julius’s room that I was sharing with him—probably just temporarily—as our room.

I wanted to be wherever he was.

He made me feel grounded and whole, and it had almost broken my heart when he asked if I didn’t want him in the twins’ lives.

I wanted Julius in all our lives for the long term, and while I knew the timing wasn’t right, I wanted to make our connection permanent.

Final.

Forever.

And I wanted to do it right now.

“Jules, I want you to claim me.”

He stopped halfway through stripping his shirt off, pausing for a heartbeat before ripping the shirt off over his head.

“What did you say?”

“I want to wear your mark, and I want you to wear mine.”

“Are you sure? We don’t have to do this now.” He stopped talking, his jaw going tight.

“Is this because of what I said at the aquarium? Because I wasn’t trying to rush you into anything. I’ll wait as long as you want to. I’m not in a hurry.”

“Wow, Jules. It’s like you don’t even want to do this.” I was joking, but the stricken look on his face told me I’d missed the mark completely.

A second later, Julius had my face cupped between his hands, his eyes staring so deep into mine I thought they could see my soul.

“Ethan, I want you to be mine in all the ways so goddamn bad. I want everyone to know you belong to me as much as I want everyone to know I belong to you.”

“Good, then we’re on the same page.”

He nodded but didn’t move.

He just kept staring at me like I was the most precious thing he’d ever seen.

But I wanted more.

Grabbing his wrists, I pulled his hands away from my face and tugged him into me, our lips crashing together.

The movement opened the floodgates, and the trance that Julius had seemed to be in broke, his mouth suddenly devouring mine with a ferocity that made me burn.

I gave back as good as I was getting, letting our tongues duel as we tried to get as close to each other as possible.

Julius’s hands tangled in my hair, tugging the strands as he angled my mouth against his.

He bit at my lower lip, nipping the skin and making my cock throb, and I pushed him back toward the bed.

Impatient to feel Julius’s warm skin against mine, I yanked my own shirt off, then dove back into the kiss, hungry for Julius in a way that transcended anything else I’d ever known.

He was my safe space.

The man I wanted more than anything else.

My mate.

My forever.

And I wanted our forever to start right now.

Julius’s teeth grazed over my neck, over the place where his claiming mark would soon decorate my skin, and a shudder of bone-deep anticipation rolled through me.

He tongued at the spot, and I let my head fall to the side, giving him better access as my fingers worked his pants open and slid them down his hips.

Julius’s hands fumbled with the button and zipper on my jeans, and I shoved him away, too eager to get naked.

“Naked. On the bed.” My words came out on panted breaths, but Julius complied immediately, putting just enough space between us that he could shove his pants and boxers down and off, leaving them in a heap on the floor.

The rest of my clothes joined his, and for a heartbeat, I just stared at Julius’s beautiful body, grateful I was going to have the rest of my life to map every curve of his muscles and every plane of his body.

My eyes fell on the dark patch of skin on his neck, and the need to make him mine thrummed heavy and hot through my veins, desire making me tremble from head to foot.

Julius pulled me back into his arms, our mouths connecting in another molten-hot kiss, and I shoved him backward until he fell onto the mattress.

I followed him down, blanketing him with my body as I climbed over him to reach into the nightstand drawer where I knew he kept the lube.

“Ethan.” My name on Julius’s lips sounded like a prayer, like a benediction, like worship meant only for me.

His hot mouth kissed across my collarbone and down my chest until his teeth skimmed across my nipple and his mouth closed around the sensitive flesh.

My body arched against him, my cock hard and leaking as it rubbed against Julius’s stomach.

“Come back here. I want your mouth.”

Lube in hand, I obeyed, sliding my body down Julius’s, my cock trapped between us.

His strong fingers dug into my hip, and he held me still, lifting his hips off the bed so our dicks rubbed together as our lips met.

But it wasn’t enough.

“I want to be inside you.” The words fell from my lips without conscious thought, and I immediately started to panic.

I was vers, but I didn’t know if Julius was, and as his body went still under me, I wondered if I’d just ruined the moment.

“Fuck yes, Ethan. Please.”

“Really?”

Instead of responding, he grabbed the bottle of lube I’d dropped next to him, popped the top, and poured some onto his fingers.

His hand slid between us, leaving a slick trail, and I scooted back as he lifted his knees and gave his dick a quick stroke before his hand slid lower, his fingers tracing around his hole.

I couldn’t tear my eyes away as I watched Julius prep himself for me, his fingers disappearing into his body, first one, then two, then three.

His other hand grasped the sheets, and he rocked his hips, riding his hand.

It was the hottest thing I’d ever seen, and I grabbed the lube, slicked up my palm, and wrapped my fist around my leaking cock, stroking myself in time to the thrusts of his hand.

“Goddamn, that’s fucking hot.”

Julius smiled up at me, then slowly slid his fingers from his body.

“I need you, Ethan. Make me yours.”

Needing no further invitation, I positioned myself between Julius’s thighs, lined my dick up with his wet and waiting hole, and looking into his eyes, I slid home, the tight heat of Julius’s body making my vision go white around the edges.

“Fuck yes,” Julius breathed, his eyes sparkling with pleasure as I buried myself inside him, and he squeezed around me.

He wrapped his arms around me and pulled me down on top of him, his heart beating against my chest as we reveled in the moment of pure connection.

But soon it wasn’t enough.

I was desperate to see Julius come apart on my dick, and my mouth watered with the need to claim him.

I saw the same desperate need mirrored in Julius’s eyes, and I pushed up off his chest and pulled out, then slid home again.

Julius’s eyes rolled back, and as I set a pace designed to drive both of us to the edge hard and fast, he lifted his hips matching each of my thrusts until all I knew was the squeeze of his body around mine, the feel of his sweat-slick skin under my touch, and the musky sweet scent of his arousal as his cock dragged along my stomach.

“Ethan. Please. Please.”

I knew what he was begging for, and I slowed down enough to cover him with my body, my mouth landing on the dark skin of his saddle patch, my tongue slipping over the skin and licking away the sweat there as he writhed under me.

Pulling my panda side forward, I let the energy that allowed me to take my animal form ripple through me until I felt my teeth elongate and sharpen.

An answering surge of energy coursed through Julius, and when I looked down at him, I saw his teeth had changed too, ready to bite and claim what had belonged to him since the first time we met.

And I was so ready.

Bringing my mouth to Julius’s saddle patch, I pressed my teeth to the skin.

He grabbed my hips, shoving my cock as deep inside him as I could be at the same time his mouth closed over the spot on my neck where my pulse thrummed.

I let my teeth break through his skin at the same time his teeth pierced mine, and the world fell away.

There was only sensation.

Only me and Julius as our souls twined around each other and merged into a single entity that nothing could separate.

I could feel his body wrapped tightly around me, but I also felt so full that I thought I would explode into a million pinpricks of light.

I knew I was coming, filling Julius with my release, but I also felt like he was filling me.

I could no longer distinguish where my pleasure ended and his began, and it felt like our orgasm went on and on and on as wave after wave of ecstasy crashed over us, dragging us under until we could only emerge as a single entity, a whole, no longer two separate pieces.

My tongue laved over the bite on Julius’s neck as we slowly came down from the euphoria of our claiming, both of us breathing hard as our hearts beat in time, set to a new matching rhythm.

“I love you.” Julius murmured the words against the healing bite he’d made on my skin.

“I love you too, Jules.” Our mouths fused in a kiss that spoke of the enormity of what we’d just done, and we fell asleep wrapped up in each other and the moment as our forever spread out in front of us.