Chapter Twenty
Ripper grunted as she took him deeper, making his cock touch the back of her throat. Fuck. He bunched her hair in his hand, the silky feel of it like cool water against his fingers. ‘Your mouth was made for this.’
Sitting on the edge of his bed, Emberlyn flicked her fuck-drunk gaze up to his. The sight made molten lust punch him right in the gut, basic and fierce.
He was letting her set the pace for now, enjoying the show. She was deliciously naked, every inch of her bared for his view as he sank into the hot wet cavern of her mouth over and over.
Every breath he took felt filled with her. The scent of her need infused the air. It was pure bait, a siren’s call. The taste of her was even better – it sat on his tongue, warm and sweet with magick.
Only minutes ago he’d shoved her onto his bed, dropped to his knees at the foot of it and eaten her out until she’d screamed. He’d then stood upright and snapped open his fly . . . at which point she’d knifed up, fisted his cock and taken it into her mouth.
Who was he to object?
As he stared down at her, a wave of ownership washed over him. He loved watching her blow him. There was no artifice with her. No practiced movements. No script she followed. No technique she consistently used.
Emberlyn just did whatever she felt like doing in that moment – always so tuned in to his reactions, always so easily anticipating what he wanted.
She was dangerously addicting, but he didn’t care. At all. He only ever wanted more.
His hand flexed in her hair as she tongued the sensitive spot beneath the crown. She closed her mouth around him again, sucked even harder than before . . . and, shit, his witch knew her way around a blowjob.
He did that a lot now. Called her ‘his witch’ in his head. Which he partly blamed his clan for.
Since the town meeting a few days ago, many of his wolves often referred to her as ‘Ripper’s witch’. With the exception of the obvious few, they liked Emberlyn. Respected her strength. More, they liked her for him.
Nails dragged down his bare chest and navel, leaving prickly trails of heat. She rubbed the flat of her tongue along the underside of his shaft and swallowed more of him. Fuck. Okay, he was done with letting her set the pace.
Ripper cupped her jaw. ‘Now all you do is suck. Don’t otherwise move.’ He thrust his cock forward, grinding his teeth as her throat contracted around the head.
He kept a tight grip on her jaw to hold her still while he used her mouth as he pleased. And he did use it. With abrupt forward-snaps of his hips, he crammed his cock in her mouth again and again and again. Until it was either stop or blow his load down her throat.
He had other plans for tonight.
Ripper withdrew his dick and swiped his thumb over the outer edge of her swollen lower lip. ‘You on birth control?’
Pale-hazel eyes opaque with need narrowed. ‘Yes.’
Using his hold on her hair, he tipped her head back and lowered his own. ‘I want to come inside you.’ He filled his hand with her breast and squeezed. ‘You good with that?’
She tongued her lower lip and then nodded.
His cock went even harder, throbbing like a motherfucker. A reaction almost vicious in its intensity.
Ripper grasped her hips and tossed her further up the bed. She was lithe. Flexible. Easy to position how he wanted her. He liked that. ‘Lay back.’
She did so, parting her legs in an achingly slow, teasing movement.
He shed the rest of his clothes and joined her, kneeling between her thighs. ‘I told you earlier that I was gonna fuck you slow.’ But as she’d agreed to him coming inside her, ‘slow’ wasn’t going to happen – he was too sexually revved up now. ‘I changed my mind.’
He tossed her legs over his shoulders, notched the head of his dick inside her, splayed a palm on the bed either side of her head, and roughly rolled his hips forward – burying every inch of himself in her pussy.
She sucked in a breath, her hands flying up to grip his forearms, her nails stabbing hard. ‘Fuck, you’re deep.’
‘I’m gonna go even deeper.’ He pounded into her, his pace nothing short of ferocious. He felt her body strain; knew she’d be rising to meet every thrust if she could have moved. In this position, trapped beneath him, she could only take.
Moans eased out of that carnal mouth still swollen from blowing him. Her breasts bounced prettily with each forceful dig of his cock. Her pussy, so hot and tight . . . he didn’t think he could ever get enough of it. Enough of her.
He curled over her a little more, snarling against her temple. ‘I’m gonna fuck you on the next full moon. Knot you.’ Knotting always – and only ever – occurred during full moons. ‘You’ll feel my dick swelling inside you. It’ll lock deep. So deep my come will stay right where I fucking put it.’
She hissed, stabbing her nails harder into his skin – just shy of drawing blood.
‘I’ll do it, Emberlyn. Don’t fucking doubt it.’ He took her harder, sliding his shaft over her clit; feeling her pussy spasm and tighten.
‘Ripper,’ she rasped. Then her release hit her, dazed her, dragged a scream from her throat as her pussy strangled him.
He hammered into her once, twice, and then erupted inside her – his release amplified by the knowledge that he wasn’t filling a condom this time, he was filling her.
Shaking with aftershocks, Ripper lowered her legs and settled his body over hers.
He nuzzled her neck, breathing her in. She still smelled of him.
He wondered if she’d noticed that his scent took longer to fade now – an indication that it had become embedded deeper into her skin. A thought he liked.
Her fingers sifted through his hair. ‘I have to say something,’ she said, her voice languid but also . . . cautious. ‘It may or may not spoil the mood, depending on if your personal views line up with mine.’
He lifted his head to meet her gaze, struggling to read it. ‘Okay.’
‘By scent-marking each other, we silently agreed to exclusivity, right?’
‘Right.’ If she was considering changing that, he wouldn’t be fucking pleased.
‘You mentioned the next full moon, and . . . Look, I know what they do to your kind. I know they make you seriously hypersexual and it isn’t easy to maintain control.
Some werewolves have the attitude that what happens on full moons doesn’t count; that if they sleep with someone other than their partners or mates, it should be understood and forgiven.
I disagree. If that’s an issue for you, if you want the freedom to go with the flow on full moons, okay. But if that’s the case—’
‘It isn’t. There are wolves who use full moons as an excuse to fuck around.’ And it was an excuse. ‘I’m not one of them.’
She drew in a subtle breath. ‘Okay.’
As a thought entered his mind, he felt his eyes narrow. ‘Did Michael consider it an excuse?’
Emberlyn tensed, surprised his mind had gone there. Everybody liked Michael; considered him a ‘good man’. One so good he’d never do anything as awful as cheat on his mate. The prospect wouldn’t even occur to them. It hadn’t occurred to her, either.
So she’d gotten the shock of her life when it happened.
He’d come home one morning with his tail tucked between his legs, struggling to meet her eyes and – after a lot of prodding and pushing from her – finally admitted he’d slept with another woman the previous night. But that wasn’t something Emberlyn talked about.
‘No,’ she replied, her voice coming out unintentionally flat.
Every line in Ripper’s trademark stony expression smoothed out as his face softened. ‘He did, didn’t he?’ Not a question, a sure statement.
She looked away, swallowing hard.
‘At some point, he had sex with another werewolf and pled that the full moon made him do it,’ Ripper surmised.
She snapped her gaze back to his. ‘Do you really want to talk about my ex-mate while your cock is still inside me?’
Ignoring that, Ripper stared at her, pensive. ‘You’re not the kind of woman who’d overlook your mate betraying you, no matter what excuse he came up with. You broke it off. The mating.’ It was a guess. And it was correct.
She cursed low and harsh, rubbing at her scalp.
He touched his forehead to hers in a gesture that, for a werewolf, was as intimate as any kiss. ‘Talk to me, baby.’
Baby. The soft, possessive endearment wriggled its way past her defenses, and she heard herself admit, ‘I broke it off. I’m not forgiving enough to look past something like that.
It’s just not in me. It’s not like he asked for forgiveness.
He didn’t even apologize. He got defensive and played the whole thing down; made out like I was being dramatic. ’
Anger flickered in the depths of Ripper’s eyes. ‘So you two argued?’
‘Big time. It got ugly. When he realized there’d be no changing my mind, that I was seriously done, he lost it.’ She licked her lips. ‘He was still riding the high of the full moon, so I guess that contributed to why he morphed into his In-between form.’
Ripper’s gaze went slitted. ‘He attack you?’
‘Yes. I scared him off with magick.’
‘You said you were hurt by a Rabid before,’ he remembered. ‘You meant Michael.’
She swallowed. ‘Yes. He didn’t simply morph, he turned Rabid.’
Ripper slowly shook his head, incredulous. ‘Secrets aren’t easily kept at Chilgrave. How did I not hear about this?’
‘I only told Paisley. Michael said zip about the cheating to others. He wouldn’t have even told me if I hadn’t pressed him so hard. He was clear that no one else knew and no one else would . . . as if that made the situation better. He also told me he’d sworn Opal to secrecy.’
‘That’s who he cheated on you with?’
‘Yes.’ Part of Carver’s clan, Opal was now mated and pregnant. And she pointedly avoided Emberlyn to this very day.
‘Did you confront her?’
‘Yup. She cried and apologized profusely. Which, to be fair, is more than Michael did. And her tears and remorse were genuine.’ Still, Emberlyn hadn’t felt all too forgiving; she’d wanted to skin the bitch alive. Instead . . . ‘I made her a deal.’
‘Deal?’
‘I wouldn’t make her pay if she kept what happened to herself. She was ashamed and didn’t want to suffer any consequences, so she was quick to agree.’
Ripper frowned. ‘You were protecting his reputation. Why?’
‘A lot of werewolves consider betraying mates taboo. I knew there’d be some who’d judge him enough that they wouldn’t put their safety on the line to search for him in Bloodhill. I didn’t consider him my mate anymore, but I didn’t want him stuck in that form. I wouldn’t wish that fate on anyone.’
Ripper’s frown deepened. ‘If you didn’t see him as your mate, why did you hold off longer than most would have in your shoes to publicly declare that the mating tie was broken? Why not . . .’ He trailed off as realization played out over his face. ‘You blame yourself for him turning Rabid.’
Damn him for reading her so well. It made her feel far too exposed. ‘I knew better than to argue with a werewolf still riding the high of a full moon.’
Ripper’s gaze snagged hers, serious. ‘It isn’t your fault, Emberlyn. There wouldn’t have been an argument if the prick hadn’t cheated on you.’
‘You’re pissed,’ she noted, hearing the emotion roughen his gravelly voice.
His expression was all Well, obviously. ‘Yeah, I’m pissed,’ he bit off.
‘You were his mate. His loyalty to you should have been absolute. It’s bad enough that he cheated on you.
That weak motherfucker blamed the full moon, expected you to give him a free pass and didn’t even apologize.
’ He touched the tip of his nose to hers.
‘You deserved better. If the prick was still around, I’d punch the piss out of him. ’
That angry little rant touched her on a level she wouldn’t have expected. Very few people had been protective of Emberlyn; few had cared how she felt or what she needed. Somehow, Ripper had become one of them.
Swallowing, she wound her fingers in his hair. ‘Kiss me.’
He didn’t hesitate. He took her mouth in a sensual, hungry, explicit kiss. And the dick that had earlier slipped out of her began to harden against her clit.
He pulled his lips free, his eyes flaring with heat. ‘This time, you get slow.’