“No need for details, not unless there’s any limits you want to discuss.” His voice cut across mine. “No negotiations until you’re in my hotel room. This is the address and room number. You want this? Be there in an hour.”
And with that, the fucker hung up.
The audacity. The sheer fucking audacity. I stared at my phone, unable to believe what had just happened.Get back on Howlr, I told myself.Find someone else, someone fucking sane. You do not need this.
Except I did. What woman didn’t dream of a man who knew exactly what she wanted, who could sense that and then willingly supply every single bit of it? He was being provocative, I knew that. This was a head game to throw me off balance, get me thinking. Thinking about him, about how this might go. Knowing that didn’t seem to make any difference. I let out a big huff of breath, that itch multiplying exponentially under my skin until I was forced to make a choice.
When I flicked through the profiles of a few of my old favourite alphas or packs, I saw that at least some were online and looking for someone. There was that hot alpha from England who’d come over here after the rest of his pack was killed in an accident. He was always hard, demanding, with just an edge of sadness that meshed well with mine. There was that pack of boisterous guys who were the same age as me but seemed so much younger. But they came and kept on coming, often until I was completely exhausted. They’d burn the itch out of me. And then there was…
I had Ben’s number now, so it wasn’t hard to imagine getting him here under the pretext of talking about Evie, then…
“Take my knot, Lils…”I could almost hear him rasping the command in my ears, right as we—
That was beyond fucking stupid, so I did the next dumb thing. I got up, changed out of my clothes, and found something more comfortable to wear before locking up the house and driving. Reed was staying in a swanky arse hotel, which made me feel a lot more secure for some reason. It shouldn’t. People got raped in flash hotels as well as dodgy ones, but I couldn’t think too much about that as I parked on the street across from the place.
Ask for proof of life in an hour,I messaged Sophie.Actually, make that two.
Damn, girl! You take Ben up on his offer?
Not Ben,was all I’d written.
Yesss!she replied, sending me a quick flurry of GIFs in response.
I punched in the floor number once I got inside the lift and then felt my stomach sink as I watched the numbers change. When the door opened a very nice couple stood there, then stepped aside so I could get out. Their clean, well dressed state seemed off somehow, considering what was about to go down in this fine establishment. I walked down the halls, looking for Reed’s room, but when I went to knock on the right door, it creaked open.
“Hello?” I said, peering around the edge of it.
“Come inside, little beta.”
And there he was, sitting on a chair with only the lamp for light, the room feeling smaller, closer as a result. His thighs were spread wide, his hands clasped behind his head. But that was all barely registered. It was those eyes, green as a Granny Smith and twice as bright, that bored into me through the gloom.
“If you want to stay, if you want to see where this goes, shut the door and then step into the room.”
My body obeyed automatically, and that’s when he smiled.
There was something terribly familiar about Reed. It was probably because, like most alphas, his bone structure was all harsh angles and sharp edges, not an inch of softness in him. His eyes glittered as he stared at me, then he raked his mid length hair back from his face and patted his knee.
“You want me to—?” I started to say.
“I want you naked, aching, and dripping,” he said, “but like all good things, we need to work towards that. Let's do that now. Come and straddle my thigh.”
I snorted at that, baulking like a skittish horse, but he just sat there, waiting. Those eyes held mine, a small smile of challenge twisting his full lips. He didn’t explain, cajole, pressure or beg. He just waited me out. Like he knew I had an itch inside me, one I was hoping he’d scratch real good, allowing me some damn peace for a moment. Yeah, that, I thought, as I crossed the room, stopping just short of him, taking in the worn cotton t-shirt and the faded jeans he was wearing, before moving another step closer. His grin widened as he patted his knee in a strangely paternalistic gesture. But he let out a little huff of breath as I spread my legs, placing one each side of his thick, muscular thigh.
“That’s it,” he said, his hands going to my hips.
He slid me up to some preordained place and that’s when a small hiss escaped me. The rough fabric of his jeans against the smooth lycra of my yoga pants, it created a… friction, one that wasn’t entirely pleasant. But it wasn’t unpleasant either. It was just harsh, a kind of insistent feeling I couldn’t deny. And he didn’t want me to. He scanned my face, watching me oh so closely, making small adjustments to my position until he saw my lips fall open. Then he nodded.
“I want the first time you come tonight to be an unsatisfying thing,” he announced.
“What?”
“I need you wet and soft and willing to take me, but we’re going to work our way up to that. The first time you come it’ll be…” His fingers dug into my hips and he moved me slightly, the tight fabric of my pants and the heavy weight of his thigh pressing against my clit, creating a little blossom of pleasure, right as he moved me away again. He grinned at my frown of irritation. “Not enough. I don’t want you satisfied, not yet. We’ll have to work up to that over the night.”
“So why would I…oh!”
He shifted me again, harder against him this time, my clit crushed between us and sending out frantic little distress signals as a result. Except that wasn’t distress I was feeling. He was exactly right. This would make me come, I could feel it in the twist in my spine, a sure knowledge of what was on the horizon, but satisfied? I frowned then, twisting in his grip.
“I didn’t come here to…”