Chapter 32
I lay panting on the bed, my body a noodle, but as exhausted as I was, the ache in my gut and between my legs was ever present.
Lucian smoothed his hand on my belly in a slow glide. His chest lay across my thighs, and he panted.
I moved my hips, wanting the pressure on my sex.
“One second, love,” he said and pushed up on his hands. His muscles strained, sweat causing a sheen over his skin. I was so far gone, I didn’t know when or how he’d turned the lamp on.
My skin felt feverish and sensitive.
“I want you, Lucian,” I blurted. I wasn’t sure how many times I’d come, but it had to be more than a dozen at this point. My brain felt foggy. During my previous heats, even though I was in pain, it wasn’t this hard to focus.
I didn’t get a warning before Lucian flipped me onto my stomach. He dragged me to the edge of the bed, arranging me to his pleasure. I pushed to my knees and wiggled my ass at him, lowering to my elbows to provide a better view.
He groaned, and his hands settled on my hips. He thrust deep enough that he hit my cervix. I yelped, the odd sensation rippling pleasure through my body.
Lucian settled into a maddening pace. I pressed my cheek to the bed and closed my eyes, feeling every inch of his cock. He shoved inside me, grinding against my cervix while his knot rubbed my clit.
I jerked back, forced to seize from the orgasm squeezing my channel. He didn’t stop to allow me to come; he just kept pounding into me with loud, violent slaps. There was so much slick coating my inner thighs that when I had a moment of not being so turned on, I’d likely be embarrassed.
“You’re so fucking delicious,” he grunted with each thrust. His grip dug into my hips hard. Squeezing and massaging. Every touch and graze of his fingertips drove me crazy. I pushed back against his thrusts instead of staying still. My nerve endings blazed.
“I’m coming,” I screamed into the blanket, muffling myself.
“ Yesssss .”
My sex clamped him so hard . . .
“I can’t—” He pulled out, and heat spread on my ass. Lucian’s shaft ground against the cleft of my ass. He didn’t want to knot me yet.
I flopped onto my back.
“Why did you pull out?” I whined, sitting up. I could already feel the ache in each of my limbs. I grabbed his cock that had softened. He whimpered, but I didn’t stop touching him. It took two strokes for his hips to arch into my hand.
His eyes were focused on me, half-lidded and lips wet. Sexy Lucian. I leaned forward and licked the bead of precum from his cock.
“Fuck, you’re going to be the death of me,” he growled, and the next thing I knew, I was staring at the ceiling, while Lucian crawled over me.
He widened my thighs so much that there was a pinch in my joints. He slammed inside me, my needy sex taking him in with ease.
“You drive me fucking crazy, Josephine.” His guttural words turned me on so much.
“I’ll never live without you.” His words were a vow.
He rose over me, propped on his hands, and his pace picked up, the loud slap of our skin making everything feel more sinful.
“Tell me you love me,” he ordered. My mouth parted on a gasp, and I studied the pleasure on his face.
His thrusts became harder, the noise deafening.
“Say it,” he snarled, catching my mouth in a brief kiss and then rising over me to continue plunging in violently.
My legs wouldn’t stop shaking, and my toes were in a perpetual state of being curled. I couldn’t have spoken if I wanted to.
“I . . .” A whine cut me off, and my eyes squeezed shut. My channel clamped onto him. Oh fuck, fuck, fuck, I might die of pleasure .
Everything faded until I was a floating bundle of bliss. His pumps slowed, drawing out my orgasm.
I wasn’t sure how long it was from the start of the orgasm to me opening my eyes, but when I did, thin lines had opened on his bicep from my nails.
“I’m so sorry,” I croaked, my voice struggling. He said nothing as he drank me in.
“Beautiful,” he said, gliding his tongue across my puckered nipple. I shivered. Even though he said I drove him crazy, he made me just as undone.
I turned my chin to the side. His arm was near my head. I scooted to the side and bit my claiming mark on his forearm. His knot ballooned, stretching me and forcing me into another release.
He roared, cum splashing inside my channel.
LUCIAN
Josephine lay bundled under the blankets, her beautiful lips parted, and a small snore leaving her lips.
I smiled down at her. Blessed Moon, I couldn’t have imagined Heat Season would be like that.
She drained me in a way I’d never felt.
Forced me to reach for pleasure I struggled to comprehend.
It was close to twenty-four hours of fucking and fucking. I’d seen to her being satiated. Made it my mission to wring her dry.
After she’d fallen asleep, I’d taken her into the shower to clean us both, wanting her to wake clean and fresh. As much as I loved having her covered in my cum, she’d likely be sticky.
I never wanted her to experience any sort of discomfort for the rest of her life. She’d gifted me everything, and that was the least I could do.
Fucking her was life-altering. She’d drained me to the point that I wasn’t sure my balls could produce any more cum.
I couldn’t have comprehended what it was to truly love another in this way.
If anything ever happened between us and she tried to leave me, there wasn’t an atom of my body that would be able to touch another woman.
She’d ruined me from the moment she entered this hotel four years ago, and the gravity of the shift settled in my chest with her return.
The clothes and food I ordered would arrive momentarily. Once they did, I’d set things up and head to my office to handle the paperwork I’d neglected.
My cell phone buzzed, and noting it was Bruno, I answered.
“I think she’s still in town.”
I stilled, anger pulsing forward. I reached for Josephine, my hand settling over her comforter-covered waist like I could protect her from the words.
Cierra had caused her too much damage, and I would deliver the bitch to Josephine’s feet.
“I’m checking a lead. It took some persuading, but I managed to get Sasha to tell me anything she might know, and she mentioned the construction site.”
I scoffed. “The Townsend Land?”
“Yes.”
Was she capable of staying there? Without her luxuries? “Where are you?”
“At Crescent Hotel. I recently left Sasha.”
I gritted my teeth, wracking my thoughts on how to proceed. My mate groaned and rolled onto her side, nestling deeper into the blankets.
“Have you sent the settlement documentation to Drake?”
“No. The last thing needed is your final signatures. I left the documents on your desk.”
“Call him and have him meet us at the location. I’ll hand them to him myself,” I gritted out. It would allow me the opportunity to check the site.
“Yes, Alpha.” I hung up and called Alex.
“Come to Crescent Hotel. I need you to discreetly stay near your Luna. As I’ve said before, don’t let her see you,” I warned.
Alex sighed. “I’m already here. What room is she staying in?”
“Gold Suite. She’ll be resting the rest of the evening.” I hung up, slid my phone into my pocket and strode over to the items I’d had delivered.
I donned the suit jacket and slipped on my cuff links.
Josephine peacefully slept, and I had no doubt she would remain that way for the rest of the evening.
She’d stay safe, in bed, and resting. As capable as she had proven herself, I didn’t want to get her hopes up if there was nothing to come from the information.
She wanted vengeance for her father’s death, and she would receive it.
I turned onto the dirt path that became concrete and slid into an unmarked spot in front of the site.
All construction had halted upon my order, so various machinery sprawled across the lot. Once the car was shut off, I strode inside. The first floor was the only one completed, while the rest of the structure had the skeleton constructed.
Gideon Drake was in over his head with his demand. He didn’t have the money to continue the construction. The place would end up as rubble.
“Alpha,” Bruno greeted, his voice echoing off the empty walls and his shoes thudding over the tile. “She had a setup in the back office.”
“Show me.” I followed him, across the expansive empty lobby, and to the right.
Sawdust and the sharp scent of solvent and asphalt stung my nose. The end of the hall opened to another left where there was an open door. The construction smells almost blocked out the woodsy scent of shifter, and that cloying scent Cierra liked wearing.
The perfume became more intense once I crossed the threshold into the carpeted, medium-sized office space. In the corner, blankets were rolled out and a duffel was on the floor. Other than that, it was bare.
I’d grown up with Cierra, our families being close since I could remember, so I well knew how desperate she was. Poverty was her nightmare.
Bruno turned her bag upside down, and clothes, hair-styling shit, and other feminine items spilled out.
“Have someone on watch nearby in case she shows up after we leave.” I pointedly met his eyes. “Someone discreet.”
Bruno nodded and started making calls. I left him and returned through the lobby.
Now she truly had nowhere to go.
Drake entered the bare lobby before I reached the door.
I slowed. His face was settled into a gloating expression.
He clicked his tongue, eyes sweeping across the expanse behind me.
“Admiring the trash you’ve inherited?” I raised an eyebrow.
He boomed out a laugh.
“Jealous?” he mocked.
He still didn’t know I’d turned all of his investors away from him.
All I offered him was a smile, not looking away from his steady gaze. His grin widened. He could be as smug as he wanted, but the rash male would never reach the social status he hungered for.
“I signed the final title documents,” I drawled, stepping past him. “I’ll leave them on that pile of trash you call a vehicle.”
He growled, every hint of smugness leaving his face.
Garbage was all this reckless Alpha would ever be.
The door slammed shut behind me. It was almost poetic. Drake could remain a poverty-riddled mutt. I would have my fated.