In this—our starvation for each other—we were equal.
“Fuck, Lyric,” he hissed. “Baby, I’m going to come.” He tried to pull away.
I gripped his thighs as I continued to devour him, holding nothing back, showing him exactly how much I loved him, wanted him, needed him. And when his hold tightened in my hair, when his entire body went taut—
I moaned as his flavor filled my mouth. As I slowly, sweetly swallowed and pulled back and looked up at my mate.
He clenched the back of my neck, moving so fast I barely registered that I was no longer on my knees. My back to the wall, he hooked my legs around his hips. I locked my ankles and tilted my head to the side, baring my neck to him. Wanting him to plunge those fangs into my neck and drink.
“You are incredible,” he said, teasing the seam of my neck with his lips. He rocked his hips upward, and I gasped as I felt how hard he was already. The hard-as-granite length teasing between my thighs. Rolls of heat danced along my skin, and I trembled against him.
“Alek,” I pled, moving on him. But the way he held me? I was entirely at his mercy.
And I fucking loved it.
He teased my entrance with the tip of his cock, slipping in an inch only to slide back out. Winding me up until I could barely breathe or think from wanting him.
“Alek,” I groaned, digging my nails into his back. “Please,” I begged, my voice to the point of pain from needing him so badly.
The plea broke him.
And he plunged upward, filling every inch of me. I threw my head back and gasped, relishing the feel of him inside me. He gripped my ass, easily controlling my body, moving me up and down the long length of him, causing tremor after tremor of pleasure to rock my body. I held on, rolling my hips with each of his thrusts, matching him move for move until he growled and gripped me harder.
Pumped into me so fast and so hard I saw stars.
Glittering bursts of light that exploded across every inch of my soul as I shattered around him. Waves of pleasure made me tighten and flutter around his cock until he came too. And I swear I could feel the bond between us sizzling, pulsing, panting.
I tangled my fingers in his hair, jerked his lips to my neck, and said, “Feed.”
His fangs dipped into my flesh, sending another orgasm rocking down the length of my spine. His soft sucks and laps had me flooding him again, until he’d sealed the wound and claimed my mouth.
Our combined tastes on his lips sent me into orbit, and the water turned pink as it cleaned the blood off our skin.
I’d never felt more powerful, more wanted, or more cherished in that moment.
“I love you,” I said on a released breath, my forehead pressed to his.
“And I you,” he echoed.
“I’m not giving up,” I said, and he sighed against my mouth.
“Stubborn queen,” he said, smiling.
“Torturous king,” I said.
“You love it.” He grazed his nose over mine.
“Just as you love someone who finally challenges you,” I countered, narrowing my gaze at him. “How dull life must have been when no one questioned you, fought you on anything.”
He cocked a brow at me, swiftly moving us directly beneath the stream of warm water. “The people who challenge me usually end up dead,” he said, and the truth in his words caught up in his eyes. Heavy, worried.
I nipped at his bottom lip. “Not your mate,” I said. “I will win, Alek.” I grinned at him. “In the end.”
He shuddered against me, but instead of arguing, he gently set me on my feet, and dropped to his knees before me.
“You can’t distract me like—”
His tongue plunged between my thighs.
I forgot what we were arguing about.
I made it to my advisor meeting with only seconds to spare. Alek had properly, thoroughly distracted me. Lachlan, my appointed guard for the evening, broke speed barriers to make sure I made it.
Thank God for the Scotsman, because the meeting went as well as I could’ve hoped. My advisor practically glowed as I handed her the paper. Now, all I could do was wait. And with six years of work out of my hands, I stepped into the night air with a new sense of freedom and hope.
“There you are!” Valor threw her arms around my neck outside the campus library. “I was worried you were going to bail on me.”
I released her, shaking my head. “The meeting went a little over, but it went great. And I’m here now. What do you want to do?”
Lachlan surveyed Valor with a predator’s gaze from where he leaned against the sedan parked on the street. Covered in full leather, his hair tied back, exposing the severe angles of his face, he looked all the more intimidating. I’d have to remember to ask him to tamper down the assassin vibe when around my one and only human friend.