Chapter 12
MERAK
I hold Gwen’s gaze, watching her expression for any hint of despair, even though I can easily sense her emotions and thoughts.
It pleases me that she is drawn to me. Part of her even takes comfort in the knowledge that we are mates. But another part of her, a rather large part, is frightened.
Given how we met and that we are on opposite sides of a war my people are winning, I cannot say I blame her for having such fears.
I need time to think about this, she says down the bond. Alone. In private. But… later. Right now, I still want… I am still eager to… She flushes as her voice trails off in my mind.
I will allow you the time to think later, I promise her. Alone.
“Thank you, Merak,” she whispers, then she shifts on my lap again, her bottom grinding down on my hardness.
A growl reverberates from my throat.
Gods, I want her.
I ache to fully claim her.
But I understand that she isn’t ready yet. She needs time to think. Time to process the fact that we are mates.
What will I do if she eventually rejects me?
I try to shove the dark thought to the back of my mind, hoping she doesn’t sense it. I’m relieved when I don’t detect her thoughts brushing against mine at this moment.
Yes, I have thoughts I would like to keep private as well. Secrets, too. I push away a sudden vision of the black frost and the shadow figure.
But I understand her desire for occasional privacy. I think of all the times I’ve flown hard and fast in the opposite direction of the Winter Court army, desperate for solitude.
Though I will never let Gwen go, not fucking ever, I resolve that I will strive to give her the space she needs to maintain her individuality… and her peace.
When she shifts on my lap again, my hands go to her waist. My cock throbs beneath her, and I swear I feel the heat of her core through the material of my trousers. Her nightdress is still pushed up, her bare pussy pressed directly against my crotch.
Her breath catches, and her eyes become heated.
The force of her need nearly makes me growl. Gods, its strength matches my own. Gradually, I allow my mind to touch hers, tentatively at first, as I quietly ask for permission to be let in.
She opens herself to me, and it’s like a sudden blast of sunlight. It warms me all over, even illuminating my soul. Though I am a Winter Court lord, a creature of the cold, I bask in the warmth, unable to get enough.
You are my other half, I tell her through the bond. You are the female destined to belong to me, and I am the male destined to belong to you.
She asked for more time, time alone to think, and I still plan to give it to her, but I also plan to reveal more of myself to her. No more holding back. No more secrets… except perhaps just the one, the one involving black frost that I pray doesn’t matter.
Gwen draws back and studies me quietly, and for a moment, neither of us speaks, not aloud and not through the bond we share. The blizzard still rages outside, snow hitting the windows, the wind howling like a lonely direwolf.
I brush an errant strand of hair away from her face, letting my fingers roam down her neck, and lower still.
As I do, my knuckles graze the delicate silver chain at her throat.
The small, tarnished key pendant shifts against her skin.
My gaze lingers on it briefly. More than once, I have noticed her clutching it when she is frightened.
Before I can dwell on it, she shifts again, and this time, her movement is very deliberate, a purposeful tease.
Her gaze bores into mine, and her lips part on a quick inhale. Uncertainty and boldness war in the depths of her soulful, dark eyes. Heat surges through the bond between us, followed by a pulse of curiosity… and a desperate wave of need.
I believe the deal was that if you wanted to suck my cock, I would only allow you to do so once you climaxed on my tongue a few times, I say into her mind.
She gasps, and her eyes go wide. She pales for a moment, then her cheeks promptly flush.
The sweet, pungent scent of her excitement reaches me in the air, and I eagerly take a deep breath, ravenous to taste her again.
Eager to feel her coming apart beneath my attention, writhing against the bedcovers.
Gods, I liked seeing her like that.
Completely undone.
I sense your desire to pleasure me in the same way I just brought you pleasure, my dearest, I say down the bond, and while I appreciate your giving nature, I must insist that you lie down and spread your legs for me first. I don’t attempt to soften the command in my tone.
She stares at me wordlessly. Though she doesn’t speak into my mind, her thoughts are so loud that she might as well. She believes she ought to feel a little more indignant than she does by my order to lie down and spread her legs.
Aching desire clashes with her sense of pride.
Perhaps it makes me a bastard, but I relish her internal struggle. I like watching the conflict play across her face…. because I know how badly she wants to obey.
I know how wet and swollen she’s growing between her thighs again. Not only can I sense her need, but I can smell it.
No matter how fervently she tries, she will never be able to hide her desires from me, a fact that she is suddenly struggling to accept.
“Gwen, my dearest, I am waiting,” I murmur, arching an eyebrow at her. I release my hold on her, allowing her the freedom to move off my lap and get into position.
She exhales sharply. “You are domineering and… scandalous. Has anyone ever told you that?”
I grin as I give her a gentle push. She slips off my lap and sits next to me, though she doesn’t lie down just yet. Her chest rises and falls rapidly as she continues glaring at me.
“No, my dearest, no one has ever told me that before. I daresay if they did, they wouldn’t live to take their next breath.” Though my tone is playful, I’m speaking the truth and she knows it.
She senses my nature, the depths of violence I have reveled in during war and even off the battlefield, yet she isn’t afraid of me. Is she afraid of the bond and all it means? Yes, a little. But she isn’t afraid of me.
She gives a faint huff, then slowly lowers herself to the mattress.
She rests her head on a pillow and parts her thighs slightly.
Her nightdress is covering her center, however, and that just won’t do.
I make a tsking noise deep in my throat as I finger the hem of the garment, once again tempted to rip it from her body.
Instead, I gradually draw it up past her thighs.
She trembles in place, watching as I pull the nightdress up to bunch around her waist, revealing the slick folds between her thighs.
A growl rumbles from deep in my chest, and I allow my hands to trail over her thighs as I move down the bed, eager for another taste of her sweet, feminine essence.
I coax her legs open wider, relishing the sight of her swollen center. Then I drag my teeth along the inside of her right thigh, then the left one.
She gasps and quivers as a thrill rushes through her, a hint of danger because my teeth are so sharp, balanced by the certainty that I would never break the skin.
I would never do anything to cause her pain, though I sense her excitement at the thought that my possessiveness might one day turn rougher, more primal.
Yet when it comes to fully claiming her, I won’t even allow her to feel the brief sting that would likely come as I thrust past the barrier of her innocence, the same barrier I encountered earlier when I slipped a finger inside her.
Reaching for her pussy, I splay her nether lips wide apart, fully revealing her engorged clit, dark pink and gleaming with the arousal that’s spread from her inner core.
My tongue darts out and I bring her to a quick, intense release that leaves her gasping and writhing on the bed.
I lean back for a moment to watch her coming undone, placing a finger on her clit and swirling with increasing pressure.
Her face twists with pleasure and she gasps through the climax.
I don’t allow her more than a few seconds to recover before I begin feasting on her anew.
She cries out and tangles her fingers in my hair, and I growl against her center when her hands brush my horns. Eventually, she takes a firmer hold, gripping the base of each horn in her hands.
My cock lurches in my trousers, thickening almost to the point of pain.
Gods. I cannot restrain another growl.
No one has ever touched me there before, but there is something deeply satisfying about feeling my mate take a firm hold of my horns, particularly while I’m lapping at her clit.
I bring her to another climax, quickly followed by another. She quivers beneath me, gasps for breath, and releases the most enticing whimpers and moans. Fucking fires, I could gladly spend eternity right here in this bedroom, bringing my mate to pleasure again and again.
Please, she sends down the bond. Please, no more. I-I am growing too sensitive.
I like it when you beg, my dearest, I reply, though I withdraw from her center and move into a sitting position.
As I hold her gaze, I make a show of wiping my mouth on the back of my arm.
She flushes and briefly glances away, and I send her a wicked chuckle through the tether.
Gods, I love the intimacy of sharing my mind with her.
I never knew how wondrous it would feel to share my heart and soul with a female.
If I had, and if I’d had even the slightest suspicion that I might actually have a mate, I would have spent every hour of every day searching for her.
But she is here, she is real, and she is finally in my life.
I lift her into my arms again, but this time I carry her to a plush chair in the corner of the room. I sit and cradle her in my lap, holding her close as I nuzzle my nose against hers.
My cock throbs beneath her, but I know she needs a little more time to recover from the multiple climaxes I gave her. The taste of her pussy lingers on my lips, and gods, how it makes me want to carry her back to the bed and lap at her clit again.
To my surprise, she begins shifting on my lap sooner than I expect. It starts with a slow movement, followed by a more purposeful one, a steady grind as she feigns trying to get more comfortable. I growl in her ear and delve a hand into her hair.
She looks at me, a glimmer of mischief in her eyes.
“I think it’s time for you to get on your knees, my dearest.”
Her breath hitches, and the scent of her arousal heightens in the air. She might be too sensitive to endure any further attention to her clit, yet she’s still growing wet and achy again.
I shift forward and assist her as she slides onto the floor. Her gaze becomes heated, her eyes hooded, as she peers intently at my crotch. I rise briefly, and she scoots back on the rug, allowing me room to remove my trousers.
Watching her kneel before me as I prepare to disrobe sends a thrill through me that feels almost like winter magic.
It makes my whole body tingle and vibrate with need, but also… with power.
My mate is kneeling before me, her pussy swollen, arousal leaking onto her thighs, as she waits to take me in her mouth for the very first time.
With slow, deliberate movements, ever aware that she’s watching, I begin to unfasten my trousers.