Chapter Fifteen #4
A joke, of course. There was no possible way the demon lord was one of the fated men Lupin told me about. The thought was just too… well, terrifying, to be honest. I refused to even humor the idea.
“Okay, that’s it.” I went in for the kill, pouncing on top of Lake and straddling his hips. “Time for you to be tickled.”
“Are you sure you wish to play this game, little human?” Lake’s purple eyes faintly glowed in the dimly lit room. “Maddox taught me well. I know all the places to make you squeal and beg for mercy.”
I feigned a gasp and flung a hand to my chest. “Who are you, and what have you done with my sweet Lake? My gentle wolf would never commit such an atrocity against me, his one true love.”
His smile slanted. “You’re right about me loving you.”
“But not about the horrible atrocity known as tickling me until I beg for mercy? Should I bat my eyes at you? That always gets Callum.”
Another rumbling laugh. Each one came a bit easier—lighter. “You threatened me first.”
“True,” I agreed with a sigh. “How terrible of me.”
Lake’s arms circled my waist, and he rose up from the pillow, grazing his teeth along my collarbone through the material of my nightshirt. His scent intensified, hitting me so hard it made me dizzy. Made me tingly too, antsy. Like I’d been struck by an arrow laced with a strong aphrodisiac.
I felt him harden beneath me. Lake wasn’t as sexually charged as my other men. He preferred other forms of intimacy, such as kissing and cuddling. But there was no mistaking his desire in that moment.
“Evan,” he murmured, his breath tickling my neck. “I…”
I cupped him through his trousers. He rewarded me with a soft groan and nip of his teeth, a bit harder than before.
“Tell me what you need.” I took his face in both hands.
“You,” he rasped. “All of you.”
God, so long with him by my side, and his looks still left me dumbfounded. His androgenous features blended feminine and masculine qualities to perfection. A strong jaw and high nose bridge but delicate bone structure in his cheeks, paired with long silver lashes and plump, kissable lips.
Addictive lips.
“I love you so much, Lake.” I traced his jawline with my fingertips, overcome with an intense core-quaking affection for him. “My shooting star.”
A small whine gathered in his throat. “I burn for you and no one else.”
We kissed then, slow and soft. He removed my tunic, and I discarded his in turn. He pulled at the strings on my trousers and pushed them down my thighs. His palm slid over my ass cheek before dipping down and pressing to the back of my balls.
My dick twitched in response. His did the same as I pulled at his pants and tugged them down his legs.
Our mouths crashed back together as we touched and explored each other’s naked bodies.
I kissed down his chest, circled his belly button with my tongue, and nipped at his hip bone before pressing my face into the silver hair around his base and inhaling his musk.
“Evan,” he whimpered, one hand at his mouth and his cheeks flushed. The look of pure innocence. We’d had sex many times before, sometimes twice in one night, but he still held the shyness that came from being so exposed to another person.
“You’re beautiful,” I said before kissing a patch of silver hair. Peaches, hints of the forest, and his masculine musk blended together, like the most intoxicating cologne.
Lake groaned as I took him into my mouth. Precum oozed from his slit, and I lapped it up, loving the salty burst across my taste buds. As I worked him with my mouth, I slid a hand between my legs and played with myself.
A deep growl rumbled in his chest before he flipped me to my back and took over. His earlier shyness had all but vanished.
“My human,” he said in a deep, throaty voice before nibbling at the fleshy part of my inner thigh. Wet heat engulfed my cock as he took me between his lips.
“Shit,” I panted. He eased a finger into me, and I writhed on top of the sheet.
Intimacy with Lake overwhelmed all my senses. Our souls were connected, bound by fate. A connection that heightened the moment he settled between my legs and slowly joined our bodies, using a vial of oil we’d found in the bedside table.
During sex, I felt like I could finally sense his emotions like he did with mine. And what I felt in that moment? A profound wholeness. Pleasure and happiness but also relief that, after everything that’d happened and all the uncertainty because of it, he and I were still together.
“Lake.” His name left my lips like a deep moan. Tingles of pleasure rippled through me as his cock nudged my prostate. I gripped his thrusting hips and arched my back.
“My Evan.” He lowered his face to mine and kissed me softly.
“More,” I whimpered, clinging on to him. “Don’t stop.”
It felt too good. The sex, sure, but also the closeness. Being joined with him, our bodies and souls dancing to a melody only we could hear.
Lake grazed his teeth along my jaw, pumping his hips harder. Each time a growl sounded in his throat, I felt him shy away. I recalled the way he’d torn into the lamb at dinner—how he’d let his inner wolf free. He was trying so hard to keep that part of himself at bay.
“Let me hear them,” I said. “I don’t want you holding anything back.”
“But I don’t…” He hid his face in my hair. “I don’t want to scare you.”
“Why would you scare me?”
He regarded me with the saddest eyes. Something else swam in them too. A deep shame. “I saw your expression in the woods, Evan. When I… when I killed the mercenary.”
When he tore out her throat with his teeth.
“Oh, my sweet wolf.” I took his face in my hands, a crack forming in my chest. “I wasn’t afraid of you. I was just sad that you had to do it. Because I know you never want to hurt any living thing.”
“I acted without hesitation,” he rasped, trying to hide his face again. I wouldn’t let him. “She almost shot Briar and Callum, and… instinct took over. What if I lose control like that again? With you?”
“You did it to protect us.” I placed a featherlight kiss to the edge of his mouth. “I could never be afraid of you. I trust you with my entire heart.”
Then, to prove it, I tipped my head back and guided his mouth to my throat. Right over my jugular vein.
He tensed and tried to pull away. I held him in place. A second passed, then another, before the tension eased and he made a soft, strangled sound. He kissed my throat. Something wet and warm landed on my collarbone.
“I love every part of you, Lake. Even the parts you try to hide.”
He silently cried and held me tighter than he ever had. Maybe it was all that kept him from fully falling apart. I ran my fingers through the hair at his nape and lifted my hips from the bed, starting a slow grind and taking more of him back inside me. He grunted under his breath.
“My heart is yours, Evan.” He drove his hips forward, thrusting deeper. “My life… everything I am… it all belongs to you. Always.”
“I’ll cherish your heart,” I said. “Giving you mine in turn. Always.”
We sealed the vow with a kiss.
Both of our worlds had been turned upside down, leaving us in a different realm with no guarantees we’d ever find our way home. But in that room, on that unfamiliar bed, we found comfort in each other.
We found a little piece of the home we’d lost.