Chapter 17
SEVENTEEN
ELENA
Elena woke feeling wretched.
Nothing was right, from the way she brushed her hair to the new dress she wore. Her skin felt too tight, prickling with unwanted sensations. Every glancing touch of cloth grated her nerves, the restriction of her underwear unbearable.
If she’d been anywhere else, she’d have gone back to bed and wallowed in her misery, but Leon Marchetti was watching her.
The predator stalking his prey, he didn’t let Elena out of his sight for anything more than mere moments.
If she took too long to join him, he’d burst into the room, nostrils flared as he scented the air.
He was waiting for her to go into heat, and she hated him for it.
Now she pretended to eat even though the thought of food made her stomach twist and churn, the water she did drink sitting heavy in the pit of her stomach. She didn’t dare let on that the final stages of her estrous were upon her, that he’d have exactly what he wanted soon enough.
Bad enough he’d sent Mrs. Jacobs and the young maid, Helen, away. The guards were ordered to keep their distance. No one would invade the house as Elena dissolved into madness and begged this monster of a man. Pleaded with him for something she never wanted from the likes of him.
“Not hungry then,” Leon asked from the far side of the table, lazing in his chair though even Elena could see the tension vibrating through him. He played the game well, but he was too eager to keep up the neutral facade for long.
“I’m eating,” Elena snapped, shoving a hunk of fresh fruit between her lips to prove her point. A mistake as her stomach clenched, rejecting the notion at once. Elena had to spit it out or risk being sick.
“Liar.” Leon stabbed a bite of sausage, chewing thoughtfully as he watched Elena come undone before him.
She raked her hands through her hair, fisting the long length against her scalp to tug hard at the roots. Every muscle was tight with her unravelling nerves, her head rocking side to side with a crackling pop to relieve the tension there.
She forgot all about Leon as she rubbed at the stiff muscles of her neck, a quiet sigh slipping over her lips, edging its way into a moan as she worked at them. Her own touch was hollow, empty, but it felt too good to stop as she traced the neckline of her dress with her fingertips.
She lowered her head with a groan, shoving her hair back from her face with impatient hands.
No part of her wanted to enjoy any of this, but her body was betraying her one morsel at a time.
The organs that would not be necessary for the next several days were shutting down, leaving her little more than a vessel of sensation and reaction.
Her skin was on fire, magnifying every touch a thousandfold until even the whisper of her hair over her shoulders was enough to make her shiver in delight.
She knew her pupils were already wide, the thin ring of cool hazel would be swallowed whole by the end of it.
Elena startled as Leon’s chair creaked. She cringed against the wide back of her seat, holding up her hands to ward off his lengthening shadow as it fell over her.
“I’ve been more than patient, Elena,” Leon husked as he came near enough his heat branded along her side. His fingers roamed over her shoulder, twirling a lock of her hair and giving it a hard tug.
It was awful. Incredible. Elena whimpered as he gathered her up from the chair and wrapped her body around his.
Giving a growl, he crushed her against the deep sound emanating from his chest. Forcing her to endure the shuddering pleasure of it as she writhed against him the entire way up the stairs.
He carried her as if she weighed nothing to him, her fitful bursts of frantic energy never troubling him.
Leon didn’t set her down when they made the bedroom.
Clamping his arm around her thighs, he unzipped her dress, letting it slide down her body to catch at her waist. He made short work of her bra, flinging the confection of silk and lace off to the side.
Letting her dress fall, his fingers worked her underwear off her hips as she dangled from his arms.
Elena whined as he laid her on the bed that still wasn’t right.
Thighs rubbing against each other, she couldn’t deny the urgency centered there, the base need to be filled.
Slippery and hot, it wouldn’t be ignored.
She held a trembling hand out to him, refusing to look at him as she invited him onto the bed.
Only he wasn’t there.
Leon disappeared into the closet, returning with a stack of blankets and sheets. He eased his burden onto the bed at her feet, giving her a hard nudge with his brows raised high.
He wanted her to nest. Elena’s lip began to curl in frustration at being denied before the stack slipped, tumbling over her calf and ankle. The divine softness hushed over her skin, and she hummed as she worked her way to hands and knees, dragging the bundle closer.
Elena ignored the Alpha preening before her in favor of arranging the multitude of blankets around her.
Humming softly to herself as she made everything just right.
Pillows came under her hands, the male earning a rattling growl and the slap of her hand when he tried to help.
Not until every hill and valley soothed her raw senses did she tumble into the construct, a dreamy smile on her lips.
Licked those same lips as the scent of virile Alpha musk and evergreen stole over her, her eyes caught on the one standing beside the bed.
His chest swelled as he noted her regard.
Arms flexing, he strutted around the bed.
Showing her his body, flaunting his prowess as he peeled off one layer of clothing at a time.
His smile was fierce as she snapped at him, hurrying him along until he leapt into the bed to cover her far smaller frame with his.
Leon swallowed her moan down as he crushed his lips against hers, burning her skin as his palm skated along her curves.
Elena’s spine bowed, pushing her into the glorious sounds he made.
Offering herself up to the gripping fingers that caught her breast. Kneading the malleable flesh, he plucked at its tightened peak.
Rolling it between his fingers before he added a tight pinch that made Elena keen.
Senses overwhelmed, she clung to the Alpha.
Purred her delight when he mouthed the side of her neck.
Basked in the rough nips he littered across her skin.
Her fingers clenched in the dark strands of his hair as Leon caught and held her nipple between his lips, sucking hard with the furious lap of his tongue.
Slick flowed as she spread for him, urging him on with her needy whines and feminine growl.
Insisting he begin as he lavished her body with attention she didn’t need to excite her.
His very scent was enough. As he delved two fingers deep into her mouth, painting her tongue with the taste of evergreens, her head lolled as she moaned.
He worked his way down her body, broad shoulders shoving her legs wide until they trembled with the strain of remaining so open. He rumbled a pleased growl, pressing the sound against the tender skin of her thigh. Making her shiver and gasp before his head dipped down.
Elena cried out at the first gentle swipe of his tongue between pleasure swollen lips. Shuddering as he caught and held that bundle of nerves at its apex. Writhed as he sucked hard upon the tender bud, painting her skin with his vicious calls.
Had she been capable, she would have begged.
As it was, Elena was lost in a confusion of passion.
Fireworks exploded across her vision, searing over her skin as it sparked sensations that shivered down her spine.
Voicing her wanton moans, she wrenched on the dark strands of his hair.
Wordless in her pleas for yet more as heat simmered through her veins, twining through her limbs.
Promising so much as it built within her to a conflagration.
Leon muttered a curse against her skin, and Elena had a breathless moment of despair before he was climbing up her body. Slapping her hands away, he called to her and shoved a hand between them. She felt the first fumbling of his fingers before something thick and swollen probed at her.
Elena’s inhale was shaky, eyes growing wide as he pushed.
Breaching her entrance, she gave a pained whine that spiraled into an airy cry of negation as he continued to grind deeper.
Tears sprung to her eyes as it became far too much.
Splitting her open as she dared to glance down and see he had less than half of it inside her.
Elena’s head thrashed with denial, gripping the sheets as she tore at them for something to hold on to while he ripped her body apart one inch at a time.
“You can take me, little one. Open to me,” Leon husked at her ear, petting at her tear stained cheek to soothe.
His lips came to hers, stealing her pained grunts and airy whines.
Swallowing them down as he laid claim to another part of her body.
Leon fed her his calls and growls, rubbing his chest against her to mark her with his scent.
Getting her high on the very taste of him so that when he snapped his hips and buried the rest of his length inside of her, Elena did little more than groan.
Now that he was inside of her, it wasn’t so awful. He remained still and quiet. Allowing her to adjust as he assaulted her lips with his kisses. Teasing over her tongue, nipping at her to add a bite of delicious pain.
It wasn’t until he moved, shifting his weight away and withdrawing the thick length that things changed.
She snarled at the male many times her size and bit his arm hard.
Brows pinched at his throaty laugh before he snapped his hips forward, burying deep in a single thrust hard enough to make Elena shriek.
Then he began in earnest.