“Oh, but I do,” I would not permit dissent. I was an alpha and I would have what was mine. “You might be too young for me. Eighteen. But it won’t stop me.”
“I shall turn twenty this year, my lord,” she choked out the interruption. “Why would you think I am seventeen!”
“Truly?” I chuckled, amused and distracted by the way Hartwell would interrupt me with such suppressed outrage. This was why she was so much more mine than any other. This challenging, amazing creature belonged to me, body, mind, and soul.
“I would not lie to you about my age when the information is readily available. Ask… You cannot mean what you said. You cannot. That you would know me like… I cannot believe you. You are… There are omegas… You are responding to Viola’s scent—”
I would not let her continue like this. I had spent weeks, days, and nights with her. Everything in my being told me to rut and mate Hartwell. But to force myself on her, in the house of the omega I’d asked her to woo in my name! I was infamous enough for telling her of my passion in such an abrupt manner. To go further would be intolerable. The worst possible insult to her. Still, the things we’d done. The kiss. The way that mouth had licked up my spend. How she’d taken me into her mouth...
“Not your sister. I can count on a single hand the number of times I have been in her presence. Once, once I have been in her company and that two days ago. I am wild for you, Hartwell. Do you understand me? I was wrong to tell Viola I would not see you again. I have been tormented these past days. But it is no struggle to put duty aside when you are by my side.”
A sound caught in her throat.
“Viola smells delicious, but when I see her, I am not seeing her but gazing upon you in my mind. Wishing it was you I was with.”
Dark lashes fluttered closed contrasting to the porcelain skin.
“Please stop, Your Grace… Syon, can you not see what you do to me?” she begged. I saw tears gather and with reckless instinct bent my head so I could kiss them away. A whimper escaped. I rested my forehead on hers and breathed in deep. There it was, beneath the heady scent of violets and vanilla, the thing that made her mine. Mine irrevocably and for all time. “Please.”
This time she spoke “please” as a supplication I could not ignore.
My lips travelled along her brow, across cheeks that were faintly seasoned with salty tears I wished away with all my heart. I hesitated. To kiss? Not to kiss? I did not wish to take more than was freely given. While I felt trapped with heady need and indecision, lips reached up and brushed mine.
The kiss was chaste but did not stay so for long, for once I had tasted, I was a man starved for more. My hands, so carefully held to my side, sprang up to pull my dear beloved into my embrace. The alpha in me rode me hard, urging me to press forward, gain entrance to this temple of temptation. Despite how my body ached from arousal, how my cock pressed hot and hard against my breaches, I held back. This moment, too precious to ruin by rushing us. There would be years of frenzied fucking, but only one first time. I would tease it out as long as possible. It didn’t stop the growl from echoing in my chest to feel her retreat and step away from me until once again we were at a respectable distance.
“I cannot do this.” She sounded physically pained. “Syon… Please. Take the choice from me.”
The plea was all I needed, and I backed us until she was pressed against the wall and I could fit myself firmly against her body, grinding my erection against too many layers of skirts. Hands clutched my arms as we renewed the kiss, more fervent this time. I demanded entry to her hot wet mouth that tasted too right. I did not believe I could taste anything else again but find it lacking. At first tentative, she became bolder. Soon the kiss turned wild as we battled for dominance. She would never back down or show fear even after the briefest of hesitations. Around us, our scents built and heightened, until I knew of nothing but my alpha need and that precious violets and vanilla paired like a fine wine. A scent I desired to lick from every inch of her skin.
I trailed kisses across her neck until I found where her scent was strongest. Her mating gland was normally covered by her poorly tied cravats, but in a gown, it was exposed. A mating gland. Of course, my Hartwell would go beyond the bounds of nature and possess something that should only be found on an omega. I dared to bite, not hard enough to break the skin and bind us forever together, but the desperate moan nearly broke my resolve. My hands wandered to the cinched waist and along the lithe back, down again to cup the perfect orbs of her bottom, so much fuller than I could imagine. I pulled her tight against me, regretting the fabric keeping us apart. And with each caress, the most intoxicating sounds tumbled forth. Half expressed thoughts and mumbled words as we rode this mad passion together.
“I need to be inside you,” I growled into the mating gland. “I shall go mad if I cannot have you.”
“Wait!” small hands pushed at me, forcing me back. Only surprise allowed her to succeed. “We cannot. Not here. What madness has overcome… You will never forgive me. What was I thinking? Your Grace—“
“Syon. You will call me Syon,” I murmured into her mating gland, running my teeth along the thin skin. The sweet toxin within would flare hot when I bit and infect me with her very essence. In return, she’d be left with a scar to proclaim to all that she was mine. So damned perfect that she could be all in one.
“Syon. Please. You are tipping into rut. I can smell it. We cannot. Not here… The consequences.”
“Damn the consequences,” I reached to pull up the skirts I so desperately wanted to burn. My fingers barely touched a thigh covered in a silk stocking when she gripped my wrist. I could have forced it. Broken free of her hold but...
“Stop,” Hartwell begged. “We cannot. Please.”
Then I noticed how bitter and distressed her scent had become. No alpha, however lost in their instincts, could let their mate—my future mate, because as yet there was no mating bite for me to lick and worry with my teeth until we truly were mindless—be in distress like this. Soon, though. Soon, she would be mine.
“Please. I must… I must tell you—“
Whatever she wished to tell me was cut off by the knocking on the door. “My apologies, there is someone here for Miss Hartwell…”
We froze. Some beta servant had come upon us. Broken through the spell of lust that held us both enthralled.
“I shall be out in a moment,” Hartwell’s voice was harsh.
I looked down. Her dark hair was mauled making her look ravished. I wanted her to be ravished. Fucked deep into the duchess’s nest. We could be there in moments. But I must shut up that feral instinct for I should not force my mate when she was so distressed. I could wait a few more moments as the end was a foregone conclusion.
“There is a mirror. Your hair,” I motioned to the coiffure I was certain she would not be able to fix without a maid. I wanted to pull it apart, let it fall against bare skin so that everyone knew what we’d been doing.
“Who helps you with your hair?” I could not help but ask. It was an attempt to fill the pregnant silence and distract me from air heavy with the scent of slick. Slick? I pushed the thought away, my mind must be playing tricks on me. I watched with wonder as deft fingers smoothed the hair.