My fangs ached, my cock throbbed, and I felt delirious from the need to be closer to her.
“Oh my gods,” she whispered and licked her lips.
I could hear how fast her heart was beating, and could see how blown her pupils were.
“Destiny gave me a pervert for a mate.”
I blinked rapidly, laughing as I shook my head. “My female is fucking fiery.”
This push and pull with her turned me on even more, and the fucking steel pipe between my legs was an incessant reminder that Ada wasn’t going to give in to being mated easily.
And goddamn it, did that make my cock hard.
To envision knowing how much she wanted me yet fought me tooth and nail because Ada wanted to keep the upper hand was such an aphrodisiac that I took a step closer, crowding her.
“Wow, you don’t know much about personal space, do you?”
She backed away from me and turned, but I kept advancing until she had nowhere else to go because the rocky mountainside stopped her from escaping.
I let a smile spread across my face, feeling like the hunter to my prey.
“You’re giving off little dick energy.”
I felt my eyes flash red before I narrowed them on her. “It’s called big dick energy, and I’ve got that shit in spades.”
The dainty little snort that came from her had me grinning.
“Man, you’re arrogant as hell, aren’t you?” She tipped her chin up, but I could see how her pupils were dilating.
She didn’t want to be affected by my close proximity, but I smelled the air become saturated with her curiosity and desire.
“Any male who says that is for sure packing light down below, if you get my drift.”
Oh. A fucking challenge.
I made a primitive sound and really crowded her then, but my spiky mate held her ground, trying to feign that I didn’t turn her on by intimidating her.
I gripped her waist and jerked her forward. An outraged gasp left her. I grabbed her wrist and shoved her hand between our bodies to press her palm right against my hard-on.
I leaned in, teeth bared, feeling my eyes really flash red now. “This feel like I’m packing small, sweetheart?”
Her hand was small against my throbbing dick, and fucking hell, did it feel incredible.
The way her eyes widened, the sound of her breath hitching, and the feeling of her fingers curling—no doubt involuntarily—against the girth told me she knew I spoke the truth.
“Oh I’m a big male… in all aspects.” I leaned in close and let my gaze lower to her mouth, her lips plump and pink, slightly parted.
Her chest was heaving, and I could see her tight nipples bead beneath the too-thin material of her shirt.
“Fight me all you want, but in this I will not bend. Your safety and well-being comes first.”
“You sure have a lot to say,” she said breathlessly.
I had my other hand on the rocky outcrop beside her head, my entire body caging her in. Fuck, she was so tiny compared to me, this little doll that brought me back to life when I’d assumed I was dead inside.
“I’ve never needed to say anything until you came into my life.”
She opened her mouth, and I knew it was probably to give me a smart-ass retort. But the sound of a creature in the distance roaring, followed by a screech of an animal clearly in pain, ricocheted all around us, and she snapped her mouth shut.
She blinked back into focus and looked around, as much as she could given my big body.
I heard her swallow before she blew out a slow breath. “Maybe a little break isn’t such a bad idea.”
I kept my smirk of amusement to myself, making sure my expression was the stoic, apathetic demeanor I always wore.
“But just so we’re clear, I’m taking this break because my feet hurt and I’m sweating in places I didn’t even know I could sweat.”
She placed her hands on my chest and shoved, but it was half-hearted, and I sure as fuck felt the way her fingertips gently pricked against my pectorals.
But I gave her space and took a step back.
Although my focus was trained on my mate, I had my senses attuned to everything around us. I inhaled deeply, sifting through the scents and pinpointing any threats. Whatever creature or creatures had made that noise were a good distance away, so I didn’t feel any immediate threat toward Ada.
I took one more step back and looked to my left, where I knew the outcropping was. Then stared at the right. I could see the way we’d been walking curved up ahead and moved back toward her. I heard her suck in another sharp breath when I placed my hand in the center of her back and gestured her forward.
“I want to see if there’s something up here,” I murmured.