Chapter 27
I thought I had experienced the end of the world.
I was pretty confident I knew what it felt like to have everything I believed in shattered.
I was wrong—unequivocally wrong. I collided with his solid, warm body and clutched his shirt, tugging him closer until my lips crashed into his, and I lost my grasp on this world.
For one wild moment, there was only Tristian and his desperate heartbeat, a mate to my own. Sanity slipped out of my reach.
Tristian froze, a startled breath puffing across my lips.
I loosened my hold on his shirt—had I thought wrong?
But he washed away the thought as quickly as it had come.
His arms engulfed me—one weaving into my hair, the other drawing me closer, holding me against him.
There was no gentleness this time. The delicateness of our first kiss gave way to something else entirely.
The desire that had idled restlessly in my bones surged to the surface, matching the need radiating from him.
His heart hammered beneath my hand. I drank in his lack of composure. His tongue darted out and I opened for him instantly. Years of torturous restraint evaporated beneath his touch as my body screamed for more. For once I didn’t try to silence it.
I was greedy.
His tongue caressed mine. I moaned at the feel of him against me, leaving me too aware of the clothes between us. Of what I had been denied touching last time.
His hand tightened in my hair at the sound as he pulled my head back, providing better access as he deepened the kiss, drinking me in like a man dying of thirst. I would regret this. I knew that, but with his mouth against mine, I couldn’t remember why.
He groaned against my lips. The sound danced across my skin as I rolled my hips, desperate for more. Tristian pulled away.
“What do you want?” Tristian rasped again, panting.
He pulled my head to the side, and his mouth found my neck.
He worshipped each inch. Tongue and teeth teased the sensitive flesh.
His other hand gripped one of my hips, steadying it, denying me contact—like he wanted to hear me ask. I couldn’t though.
I buried my hands in his hair, his lips warm against my neck. Cascading goosebumps erupted.
“Tell me.” A plea uttered against my skin.
“I want—” I gasped, horrified by how quickly I fell apart beneath his touch as he kissed along my jaw. I wanted…I couldn’t say it. I couldn’t expose myself. I swallowed the want, settling on what I knew.
“Distract me,” I said breathlessly.
Tristian stilled along my jaw, pulling his lips from me, leaving me too bare, too cold without his touch. His green eyes burned into mine. I didn’t know what he searched for any more than what he might have found.
“I want a distraction,” I told him, almost desperate.
Something flickered in the depths. It disappeared before I could even register it.
One moment, he was staring at me. The next I was in the safety of his arms. I wrapped my legs tightly around his waist. The feel of his need for me sent me tumbling past desperation.
The beast was ravenous. Its prey, for once, something other than my own mind.
I welcomed it, needed it. I let the ghosts, demons, and hell I dwelled in fall away.
There was only him.
“Done.” His lips claimed mine as he carried me from our living quarters.
My hands found their way to the hem of his shirt, frantic for the feel of his bare skin.
He shifted, helping me rip the shirt away, exposing his sculpted chest. I’d never adjust to the sight of him—the raw strength. My hands raked over his pecs, his massive shoulders. I wanted to explore every inch of him.
A door opened behind me. Tristian slammed my back against it, pinning me. His mouth captured mine once more. The rough surface bit into my spine as Tristian ground into me, groaning deeply against my mouth. It sent me careening off as I curved into him.
He pulled away, his gaze caressing my face before he tore my shirt off. My bra followed a second later. He drank in the sight of me topless, then met my gaze. I couldn’t breathe around what reflected back to me. Starvation.
“You’re beautiful,” he told me before he ducked his head. His mouth found my neck, working his way down. I arched into the feel of his tongue against my skin.
A chuckle danced across my skin before he captured my nipple in his mouth.
A moan wrenched through me. My hands dove into his hair, pulling him closer.
Wanting more. He obliged as he circled the tight peak, lightly dragging his teeth, and desire heated my blood.
My head fell back against the door, another moan filling the space.
Lost within a chuckle, he asked, “You like that?”
He knew the answer as he did it again, slightly harder, a sinful tug laced with the sweetest bit of pain that left me undone. I undulated my hips, desperate for friction—for more.
“You do,” he said, his voice so confident that I could fall apart. He explored, finding ways to rip desperate sounds from my mouth. How had I ever thought I could regret this?
He pulled away, the cold air assaulting the sensitive skin his mouth had just tasted. His hand took its place, palming my breast. “How do you want to be distracted, Sasha?”
I sucked in a sharp breath, my eyes fluttering closed as he rolled my nipple between his fingers. I dug my hands into his hair and arched my back, desperate to have him on me once more.
He smiled wickedly. “With my mouth then.”
My back left the door as he placed me on a hard surface.
I glanced around to find we were in the bathroom, not the bunk room.
Tristian’s mouth claimed mine again, leaving me breathless before he began trailing kisses down my neck to my breast. I moaned hopelessly as he captured the other one, his teeth scraping before his tongue lapped at the hurt.
I felt my weapons leave my body. Tristian laid them with care on the ground, then tugged my belt away.
Before I could find a sane thought to ask to find a bed, Tristian wrapped his arm around my waist, hoisting me up.
The raw strength of the action undid me as he pulled my pants off with the other.
I freed myself of the fabric until I was completely bare before him.
He lowered me onto the edge of the sink.
The cold metal bit into my bare skin, a sharp contrast to the blaze that engulfed me.
I grabbed at his belt. Fuck it, he could bend me over the sink for all I cared.
I didn’t need a bed. I just needed him—in me, filling me, stretching me.
Tristian leaned out of my reach, smirking when I protested frantically.
His eyes raked over every bare inch of me. “Fucking beautiful.”
I felt my cheeks warm at the compliment, at something I had never been able to see in myself. His broad hands landed on my knees as he leaned in to brush his lips against mine. A whisper of a kiss. Taunting. Teasing. He pulled away as I chased him, leaving me strung out and needy.
His hand skated across my thigh, closer and closer to my center. Anticipation built to an unbearable pitch. Until, at last, he cupped me, his enormous hand circling, excruciatingly slow. He spread the wetness there until I was coated.
“Tell me, have you been this wet for me since you asked me not to stop, Sasha?”
His eyes were dark, hungry, sending a shiver up my spine. I had never seen Tristian like this—so ravenous, utterly dominant. He commanded the entire exchange. I wouldn’t give him an answer. I clamped my mouth closed. His smirk morphed into a smile, teeth flashing, as he recognized the challenge.
“Has that moment consumed your thoughts, like it has mine?” His finger swiped up the middle of me, stopping just before the bundle of nerves.
A helpless whimper broke free as my hands closed tightly around the lip of the metal sink.
I flexed my hips, pushing forward, offering myself to him. Needing more. “Has it?”
“Yes.”
His mouth found mine, and as he pulled away, he grinned—promise flashing in those green depths. He tugged me to the edge of the sink, spreading me wide, all of me on display for him.
He searched my face, seeking permission he already had. Everything I was I found myself willing to hand over to him, the feeling unnerving as my heart rattled in my chest. I nodded.
He dropped to his knees before me.
The sight of him kneeling between my legs destroyed any remnants of control I had.
Tristian’s mouth found the sensitive skin of my thighs, kissing and nipping his way closer.
His strong hands kept me spread for him.
His breath caressed the most sensitive part of me, only for him to pull away and start his torture on the other leg.
I partially whined, no longer above begging.
I attempted to move closer to him as I began to ache. Desire throbbed painfully. He chuckled. “So impatient.”
“Please,” I begged, too desperate to care how it made me look. Tristian stilled—looking up at me. Victory gleamed devilishly there before he dragged his tongue clean up my center.
I bit back my moan as the sound of a door opened beyond. Tristian kicked his leg out, his boot landing firmly against the door, securing it. Seconds later, footsteps filled the room beyond. My heart hit a fever pitch as I froze.
Tristian didn’t. He plunged his tongue into me. I bit back a moan. I tried to lean forward to stop him, but his hand left my thigh, sprawling across my stomach, sliding up, forcing me back. His tongue slid inside me again. Oh, god. I was unraveling, coming undone. Boots stopped outside the door.
There was a knock. “Hayes,” Patrick called out.
I couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t get a word out as Tristian didn’t relent. Didn’t stop. His lips wrapped around that bundle of nerves and sucked. The very world ceased to exist.
“Hayes—”
“What?” I choked out.
“Oh, it’s you. I need Hayes. I thought—isn’t this Hayes’s shirt? Have you seen him? Rumi said he was here.”