Chapter 21 – BODHI
BODHI
She doesn’t cower. Doesn’t apologize. Instead, her chin lifts, and even caught red-handed, there’s defiance in her expression and a mischievous glint in her eye.
“You left without saying goodbye.”
I cross to the bed in three strides, grab the covers, and rip them back.
She’s bare from the waist down, her robe hanging open, her thighs still pressed together. The evidence of what she was doing glistens on her skin, and I have to close my eyes for a second to keep from losing what’s left of my control.
“Did you come?”
Her breath catches. “No.”
“Good.”
I drop to my knees beside the bed, hook my hands behind her thighs, and drag her to the edge of the mattress. She gasps, her fingers flying to my shoulders, but I’m already there, already spreading her open, already lowering my mouth to taste what’s mine.
The first stroke of my tongue makes her cry out. She’s swollen and slick and so worked up from touching herself that I know this won’t take long. But I’m not rushing. Not this time.
I lick through her folds slowly, deliberately, learning every dip and curve. When I circle her clit, she whimpers. When I suck it between my lips, she screams my name.
“Quiet.” I press my palm flat against her stomach, holding her down. “You wanted to put on a show? Now you get to lie there and take what I give you.”
She makes a sound that’s half protest, half moan, but her hips stop bucking. Good girl.
I work her higher, using my tongue and my fingers, stretching her gently, even as I drive her toward the edge. She’s so tight, so responsive. Every touch draws a gasp or a whimper that goes straight to my cock.
When she comes, it’s with a broken sob, her whole body arching off the mattress. I don’t stop. I ease her through it, then build her up again, adding another finger, preparing her for what’s coming.
“I can’t.” She gasps, her hands fisting in my hair. “It’s too much; I can’t.”
“You can.” I curl my fingers, finding that spot inside her, and watch her eyes roll back. “You will.”
The second orgasm rips through her even harder than the first. I feel her clench around my fingers, feel the flutter of her walls, and my bear howls with satisfaction.
Ready. She’s ready.
I pull back, wiping my mouth with the back of my hand, and look down at her. She’s wrecked, splayed across the mattress, her chest heaving and her eyes glazed. The robe has fallen open completely, baring everything to my hungry gaze.
“More.” The word comes out hoarse. “I need more. I need you.”
I stand, my hands going to my belt. But before I can unbuckle it, I force myself to stop.
“Emma.” Her name scrapes out of my throat. She blinks up at me, drunk on pleasure and struggling to focus. “When I make you mine, it’s going to be forever. There will be no going back. Do you understand?”
That’s got her attention.
“And once I do, I won’t be able to let you go. Ever.” I hold her gaze, needing her to hear this, to understand. “You’ll belong to me.”
“I don’t want you to let me go.” Her eyes are shining with excitement and curiosity, not fear, as she pushes up onto her elbows, her voice steadying despite the flush still staining her chest. “I want to be yours.”
It’s everything my bear wants to hear, yet it’s bittersweet because I know she doesn’t fully understand.
“You don’t know what you’re saying.” I unbuckle my belt, slide it free, and let it drop to the floor. “You don’t know what I am.”
She watches me unbutton my trousers, her eyes tracking every movement. When I pause, fighting a battle between my desire to claim what’s mine, the woman who’s stolen my heart, and doing the right thing, she regards me with mild amusement.
“Are you a vampire?”
The question startles a laugh out of me. Of all the things I expected her to say, that wasn’t it. Why isn’t she afraid?
Emma blushes, and I lean down to press a kiss to her knee, reassuring her that I’m not mocking her.
Her scent blooms and my worries ease. She’s not scared because this is what’s meant to happen.
We’re supposed to be together. Her body recognises me even if there are some details I need to fill in later.
“No, my love. Not a vampire.” I straighten and push my trousers down, kicking them aside. Her eyes go wide as she takes in the full sight of me, and I let her look. “I’m something better.”
“But you’re not... normal.” Her gaze travels up my body slowly, over the thick muscles of my thighs to the heavy length of my cock and the ridged planes of my stomach. “The strength. The growling. Your eyes.” She meets my gaze. “I’ve seen them change.”
“You’re not afraid?” I kneel on the bed, crawling over her, caging her beneath me.
“No.” She reaches up, her fingers tracing along my jaw and down my neck, across my shoulder. “Whatever you are, I want it. I want you.”
My other half. My destiny. Accepting me, wanting me, without even knowing the full truth.
“No one else will ever touch you.” I lower myself until our bodies are aligned, until I can feel the heat of her against my cock. “No one else will ever have you. Just me.”
“Yes.” She’s nodding, her legs falling open wider, welcoming me. “Just you.”
I reach between us, positioning myself at her entrance, and pause. She’s slick and ready, but she’s also never done this before. I need to be careful. Need to go slowly.
“Tell me if I hurt you.”
“I will.”
“Promise me, Emma.”
“I promise.” Her hands slide up my arms, gripping my biceps. “Please, Bodhi. I need you inside me.”
I push forward. Just the tip, letting her stretch around me, and her breath hisses out between her teeth.
“Okay?”
She nods, her fingers digging into my arms. “More.”
Another inch. Another. I watch her face, cataloguing every flicker, every hitch of breath. When I meet resistance, I pause.
“This might hurt.”
“I know.” She pulls me down, pressing her forehead to mine. “I want it to be you.”
I push through in one slow stroke, seating myself fully inside her. She cries out, her nails biting into my shoulders, and I hold perfectly still, every muscle trembling with the effort of restraint.
“Emma.” Her name comes out strangled. “Are you alright?”
“Don’t stop.” Her voice is fierce despite the tears glittering at the corners of her eyes. “Whatever you do, don’t stop.”
I drop my head to her shoulder, breathing hard, giving her time to adjust. She’s so tight. So hot. Gripping me as if she was made for me and me alone.
Because she was. My mate. Mine.
After a long moment, her body softens beneath me. Her hips shift experimentally, and we both groan.
“Move,” she whispers. “Please move.”
I pull back slowly, then slide home again. She whimpers, but it’s not pain anymore. I can tell by the way her legs wrap around my waist, pulling me deeper.
“More.” Her nails rake down my back. “I won’t break.”
The last thread of my control snaps.
I hitch her hips higher, changing the angle, and thrust harder.
She cries out, her head falling back, and the sight of her throat bared to me triggers something primal. Something that goes beyond desire into pure instinct.
Mine. Mark her. Claim her. MINE.
“Emma.” It comes out as a growl. “Fuck. You’re perfect.” My lips brush the curve of her neck, and she shivers.
Her eyes flutter open, glazed with pleasure, and I almost break when she tilts her head to the side, baring her throat completely.
“Yes. Take me.” Her voice breaks as I thrust deeper, hitting a spot that makes her whole body arch. “I’m yours.”
The word yours shatters whatever was left of my restraint.
I drive into her harder, faster, feeling her tighten around me as her climax builds. My mouth finds her throat, my tongue tracing over the spot where her pulse flutters beneath the skin.
“Come for me.” The words vibrate against her neck. “Come for me, and I’ll make you mine.”
She shatters.
The instant I feel her clench around me, my canines lengthen. The urge to bite is overwhelming, a drumbeat in my blood that drowns out everything else.
Her throat is right there. One bite, and she’ll be mine forever.
I bury my face in her shoulder instead, muffling my roar against her skin, as I spill inside her.
She cries out, not in pain, but in something beyond pleasure, beyond anything either of us has words for. The orgasm goes on and on, waves of it crashing through both of us.
For a moment, she’s there, inside my head, her ecstasy, shock and overwhelming joy flooding through me like sunlight.
When it finally releases us, I collapse beside her, gathering her against my chest. We’re both trembling.
“What...” She swallows, her voice wrecked. “What just happened?”
I press a kiss to her lips, still reeling from whatever has just passed between us.
“Fate.”
She’s quiet for a moment, processing.
“When this is over…” I promise, pressing my lips to her hair, “I’m going to explain everything. What I am. What this means. All of it.”
“I’m going to hold you to that.” She tilts her head back to look at me, and despite everything, the danger, the impossible situation we’re in, she’s smiling.
“Thank you,” I whisper, overwhelmed by her faith in me.
She settles against my chest with a sigh, and I feel her contentment flow from her, warm and bright. My arms tighten around her instinctively.
We should move. Should clean up, get dressed and pretend like none of this happened before someone comes looking. But I can’t bring myself to let her go.
Not yet. Not ever.