ChapterEighteen
THORNE
By the time I reached my dorm apartment, my dick throbbed so intensely it was near painful. I was aching for her, my balls so blue I was afraid to find release because it might hurt just as much as it felt good.
After I was safe behind the thick, soundproof door, I gave in to the wave of confusing emotions swirling through my brain. Why was I so bloody drawn to her? She was beautiful, dazzling even, but so were plenty of other women. By all rights, Sunday Fallon shouldn’t be the object of my affection. But here we were.
HereIwas.
Rock hard and edgy.
I’d been so close to fucking her, to marking her flawless skin with my teeth and filling her with my cock. She deserved better than the feral beast I became when my hunger took over, especially for her first time.
“Bloody hell, Sunday, what are you doing to me?” I groaned into the empty flat as I stripped and made my way to the shower.
Once under the cool water, my raging hard-on finally eased, still stiff and thick, but no longer painful. Until a tendril ofherraced through my brain, filling it with the echoes of her soft moans and harsh breaths. And then a whisper of her voice calling my name in pleasure.
Noah, yes, more.
I closed my eyes, letting the rush wash over me. Was this what it was like to be hunting someone and draw it out? I didn’t think so. I’d hunted before, toyed with their hearts before I fed from them and left them none the wiser. This was something else. Something more.
Pleasure ghosted across my senses, making my knees weak and my cock jerk as it intensified.
Yes, inside me. I need you. God, Noah.
Was this her? Was she... touching herself and calling for me? I closed my eyes and let down my guard, allowing her fully into my head. The onslaught of her building climax buckled my knees and had me reaching out to hold myself up on the shower wall. I may have been at half-mast before, but now? I was straining and dripping for her. I fisted my length and gave a slow stroke from base to crown, letting out a pained groan as I did.
Give me your pleasure, Sunday. Let me feel it.
I sensed alarm racing through her, but she was too far gone to hide it. Her orgasm washed through her, and I felt every golden burst of pleasure as I moaned and spilled my release against the tile wall.
The connection between us snapped, a barricade appearing and sealing me from her. Had I done that, or had she?
I’d been able to communicate with my family telepathically from a young age. It was something most of the vampires in my family could do. We talked to each other, annoyed each other, and my sister regularly invaded my thoughts when we were younger just to torture me. We’d been trained to protect ourselves from hearing things we didn’t want to know, a warning from our father that privacy was a gift and we were not to squander it.
He’d taken me aside one night after one of our yearly Blackthorne masked balls, where shifters, witches, and vampires alike gathered to scold me for my clumsy attempt to read the thoughts of a witch I’d been toying with. She’d been easy to read but never had it gone both ways. She hadn’t heard me, been as present in my mind as Sunday had. This was a two-way street, and that was... troubling.
“Fuck. What the bloody hell just happened?”
After cleaning up and wrapping a towel around my waist, I stalked through the flat in search of the pants I’d discarded in my rush to get a handle on my situation. Something was wrong with me. That had to be the answer. I’d never been so focused on a single creature, so conflicted about whether she was prey or meant to amuse me. But the feelings in my chest when I thought of Sunday didn’t add up to either of those categories.
I was loyal to her.
I cared about her.
I wanted her safety, her security, her love.
But she was a wolf.
I fished my cell out of a pocket and scrolled until I found my uncle Lucas’s name. Dialing, I paced the floor as the phone rang.
“Ah, nephew, what have you been up to that warrants a call at this hour?”
I swallowed past the lump in my throat. “Tell me how you knew Briar was your mate.”