Chapter 15
I inched myself higher on the bed, leaning back to watch her sleep. When had she come into my bedroom?
Josephine lay on her side, arms sprawled out. Her chest rose and fell in a soft rhythm. My mate was beautiful.
With a curl of her hair around my finger, I slid it behind her ear. She hummed, rubbing her face into the silk pillow.
She’d worked hard to take care of me. I’d taken advantage of it, but each time she left my sight, I itched for her return. My pretty little mate. I missed her, and she would never understand just how much.
She owned every bit of me.
So slowly as not to wake her, I scooted to the edge of the bed and shoved off, balancing on my good foot. The pain was easy to ignore now. I grabbed my phone and limped to the bathroom, dialing Bruno.
He didn’t answer. He’d get a raise for all the shit I’d had to put him through since Duane and Cierra’s defection.
A betrayal I hadn’t expected from Duane. We’d also grown up together. He’d always been quiet, but I never thought he’d be like this. He was another I needed to be found. What role did he play in harming my mate?
All these questions would be answered.
I had various shifters surrounding the estate, including Toby, the male who took Cierra’s position. They were not to let anyone past and would contact me if Josephine attempted to escape.
I shuffled over to Josephine with an uneven gait, placed the phone on the nightstand, and shifted my weight onto my stronger foot. Hovering next to her, I rubbed the back of my finger along the crest of her cheek. My beautiful mate. Josephine slept peacefully, her lips set in a serene smile.
Shadows darkened beneath her eyes. She was clearly exhausted, but I kept pushing and pushing.
I reached over to pull the blanket over her and tuck her in. She groaned in her sleep and expelled a deep sigh.
My heart throbbed. Guilt continued to live as a thick, painful ball in my throat. Letting her go or giving her space would probably help her calm down, but I didn’t have the strength to be away from her.
I limped over to the other side of the bed, sharp stabs of pain working through my broken ankle.
My knee buckled, and I quickly lifted it, balancing on my good one.
I breathed through the pain and slowed my pace so they were tiny shuffles until I slid in beside her, pulling her into the cradle of my arms. She hummed and nestled against me, releasing a long breath.
She groaned and rolled onto her side, her lips turning down harshly. I gingerly pulled the blanket to her neck.
Just watching her made the bridge of my nose sting. Nothing could have ever caused me to hurt other than her. And that was why I understood her anger with me. It was rightfully directed to me, but I couldn’t let her go.
Slowly, I lowered next to her, keeping the blanket between us. She was too fucking tempting.
My cock throbbed at the sight of her, at her scent. Sweet vanilla. The same scent I’d hungered for while she’d been gone. It had haunted me. Because of it, I’d needed it just to get hard.
She’d made her sly comment about lingerie. The same one after Samantha showed her where Cierra used to live.
The bitch had left her shit behind, and my mate had seen it.
She wouldn’t know I hadn’t fucked her since Josephine disappeared.
Cierra specifically caused my stomach to roil each time she’d come on to me.
It likely had to do with her being the one I’d used to hurt Josephine right after my rejection—and so she repelled me, some instinctual urge to get away from her.
I studied her slack face in her peaceful slumber.
Something I could do forever. I was so fucking in love it was sickening.
The concept had always eluded me. She rolled away from me and onto her back.
I inched down on the mattress until I hovered over her waist to press my cheek against her belly.
Josephine groaned, her head moving from side to side. I froze, waiting for her to be aware and push me away as she had been doing, but she settled back into sleep. I inched the hem of her shirt up.
I couldn’t help nuzzling her belly. She grunted, and her thighs twitched wider, allowing me space to settle against her.
Her effort to get more space only spread her legs, so her warm heat pressed against my torso. She hummed and her hips hiked up, as if asking for more.
I reached down to press my cock into the waistband to keep it out of the way. The needy throb only elevated.
After creeping even lower, I settled between her parted thighs.
Her warm heat radiated, and my fingers played along the top of her shorts.
I tugged the fabric down, bringing her panties with it.
Propped on my hands, I dragged them to her ankles and removed the garment from one of them, so she wasn’t hindered.
She remained sleeping, the moonlight spilling over her peaceful expression. Slowly, I spread her thighs. Her sex glistened with her slick. I leaned to get closer to her warmth and inhaled.
A shiver zipped down my spine. Delicious, earthy, needy flesh.
It mingled with her potent vanilla. As if with a mind of their own, my hips pumped against the bed.
With a slow glide of my tongue, I dragged it up to the bundle of nerves.
A few flicks had her clit stiff and throbbing.
My mate was reactive. I returned to my slow, gliding caresses.
Josephine whimpered, her hips bucking. Fuck. That made my cock leak precum. I ground my hips into the mattress, and pleasure played over my nerve endings. With more pressure, I thrust my tongue into her hot depths. The silk walls of her pussy throbbed around me.
She moaned, lifting her hips against my mouth, grinding against my tongue. I flicked against the bud and dragged it to her entrance, shallowly sliding inside her.
Her whimpers and breathless panting were making my cock unbearably hard. I thrust into the mattress, unable to help the movement.
Her chest jerked up and down in quick pumps.
She moaned, her hand squeezing my hair.
Her eyes sprang open, sleepy and lustful. Her lips stayed parted as she panted.
“Lucian?” she whispered, and I rubbed my mouth harder against her clit.
She stiffened and sucked in a short breath.
In that moment of stillness, so short, yet so long, I reveled in her beauty: her scrunched eyebrows, her parted lips.
She screamed, her orgasm sending trembles to her toes.
Her soft flesh throbbed, and in her release, she squirted.
I pressed my mouth flush to her sex, taking every bit of her slick, tonguing and swallowing.
Unable to help my moan, I ground against the bed, so fucking needy for her. Her pussy stopped throbbing, and I pulled back to slowly glide my tongue up her sex, cleaning her.
Her feverish eyes stared down at me. She could have reached inside my chest and squeezed my heart and it wouldn’t compare to the utter emotion wrenching through it.
Her hips wiggled, and that sexy look hadn’t left her face. I was going to come just from the look in her eyes.
JOSEPHINE
He licked me with such reverence it took my breath away. He made me feel like all he could see was me, but I knew otherwise.
Even with those thoughts hanging over me, the desire couldn’t be ignored. I loved fucking Lucian. He did it well and his tongue . . . I shivered and licked my lips, my need swelling. The room was dark, with only the moonlight beaming across us. He was gorgeous.
“Fuck me, Lucian,” I whispered, admitting what I truly desired.
The smile that spread across his face took my breath away. He climbed higher up my body, his moves lithe and smooth as if he hadn’t been bedridden in a clinic.
His hips settled between my waist, the pressure making my toes curl. I gasped, arching my back, my hands falling on his sides. The tips of my fingers touched the cloth of the bandage.
A smidgen of reality seeped in.
“You’re going to hurt yourself,” I lectured. “Especially in this position.”
His eyes widened in alarm, the building argument.
I pushed his chest and used my leg, along with my hands, to roll him to the side so he lay on his back. He landed with a huff.
I threw my leg over his waist and rose over him. He watched me, stunned. The corner of my lips ticked up. I wasn’t going to deprive myself of an orgasm.
Once on my knees, I inched his sweats down until the dark blue fabric was to his thighs. His cock bobbed, the tip leaking precum. I dragged my eyes up to his, on the way there, studying the way his hands clenched the comforter.
I gripped the base of his cock, right above his thick knot. He groaned, hiking his hips up. Pleasure rippled over his features, turning me on.
“Fuck me, Josephine,” he whispered, turning my words back on me. My sex throbbed, and I slid down his shaft.
With little wiggles, I went lower until the entirety of his cock was sheathed inside me. My channel clamped down hard on his shaft.
I pushed down on him harder, enjoying the friction of his knot against my clit. My lips parted on an exhale.
“Yes,” he moaned. “Take your pleasure, mate.”
His words flamed my lust. I rolled my hips and shivered.
As much as I wanted to speed up, I kept the same slow rhythm of my hips, taking each and every little ripple.
As high on lust as I was, I couldn’t stop focusing on Lucian’s ragged breathing, or how his eyes had become half-lidded, watching me under his thick, black eyelashes.
“Please,” he breathed.
He was so fine.
“Do you like that?” I rolled my hips again. I was so wet that the squelch of my movement was audible.
He moaned, his neck straining, causing the veins to bulge.
I whined, stopping the movement of my hips from how close I was to erupting, but not yet.
“W-why are you stopping?” he panted, eyes widening. His jaw worked from side to side, making a muscle jump in his cheek. His hips gyrated, and I gasped.
“I need you,” he whispered. Pain and ecstasy flitted over his features.
I couldn’t stay still. With my hands on his chest, I used it as a perch to bounce.
He shut his eyes, panting and breathing hard, the sounds echoing the moans I couldn’t contain.
A tingle began between my legs and expanded to the rest of my body. Lucian’s hands slid under my shirt and up my sides. He cupped my breasts, squeezing the flesh with his large hands.
The orgasm rippled through my veins and forced a cry from my mouth.
His eyes opened into narrow slits.
“You are so beautiful,” he choked out and sucked in a breath.
His knot expanded, and he groaned, head tipping back. I ground down, the thickness no longer allowing me to move. The tingles became too much.
“Josephine!” he whimpered, and cum jutted inside my channel.
I floated on a cloud as I came all over him, my sex squeezing with my release. Shivers wracked every inch of me.
I wasn’t sure how long the limbo of pleasure lasted, but I had to remind myself to breathe.
The climax finally abated, and I slumped forward, falling against his heaving chest. I couldn’t move from the utter bliss that overtook my body.
Aftershocks continued to wrack me. Lucian was so still I would have thought he fell asleep if his body wasn’t shaking.
Each tremble caused me to clench around his cock.
With my head nestled in his neck, I just breathed, taking him in. His knot loosened, and with it, a rush of slick trickled out from around his knot. I moaned, wiggling my hips.
Every inch of my body felt alive with bliss, and I couldn’t move. I dozed against him, fighting the urge to fall asleep. The sandiness of my eyes only got worse.
“I should go back to my room.”
He stiffened, and his arm slid across my back more securely.
“Don’t go,” he whispered, his hand settled on my waist, and he ground his cock up, allowing me to feel the swell of his knot. Electricity ran down my spine.
Taking a short nap wasn’t me telling him I was okay with us . He was a smart man; I was sure he understood that. And so, I let myself relax against him, reveling in how good he felt.
He breathed in a steady rhythm. I tipped my chin up and inched my cheek closer to his shoulder to get a better look at him.
He looked so relaxed.
I lifted my hand toward his head. My hand hovered over his face, hesitating. There should be no harm in touching him . . . after all, he?—
He moved so fast, all I had time for was to gasp. He gripped my wrist and pressed my palm against the side of his face.
I combed my fingers through his hair until exhaustion dragged me under.