Chapter 9
Josh
Iground my teeth as Elijah's warm, summery scent instantly surrounded me the second I stepped out of the guest room. A quick glance into the living room as I made my way to the kitchen showed him exactly where he’d been every day for the last week and a half.
It had only taken three days of him trying to engage and me blatantly ignoring him for him to give up.
That fact alone threatened to send acid up my throat.
Then again, it wasn’t like anyone had ever fought for me before.
Why would Elijah be any different? I fought back the acid, determined to actually keep my meal down today, and continued into the main part of the house.
On cue, Elijah’s head popped up from where he’d been lying on the couch.
“If you think camping on the couch like some kind of sentinel is going to garner you leniency, then you would be mistaken.” I delivered the statement as flatly as possible and refused to meet his gaze, even though every fiber of my being was screaming out to touch him.
My hands ached with the effort of keeping the impulse in check.
I ignored that too and stepped into the kitchen.
I already had everything needed for a roast beef sandwich on the counter when I felt Elijah’s presence looming behind me.
My spine stiffened at the same time the bond thrummed rebelliously in my chest, instantly responding to the proximity of my soul’s other half, my mate, and the absolute love of my life.
I violently scooped out a glop of mayonnaise and proceeded to spread it hard enough that the bread in my hand faced imminent destruction.
“Damn it, Josh. Don’t you think you’re overreacting a bit?”
Fury poured through me like molten lava. I rounded on him. “Did you really just say that to me?”
His face blanked, and for the tiniest moment, it looked like he truly regretted the words. Then his jaw tightened and his eyes flashed. “Yes. You’re acting like a child.”
I snarled and put down the butter knife before I could throw it at him. In my current state, I doubt I’d miss even on purpose. “And what would you have me do instead?”
“You could try talking to me for a start.”
“Now you want to talk? After you made it abundantly clear from the beginning that this was never something that you wanted?”
His eyes widened briefly in surprise. “You know it’s not like that.”
“I do now. What was it that you told me? The bond doesn’t ‘necessitate’ love?”
“That’s arguing semantics, and you know it.”
“Bullshit. You lied to me.”
“Are you fucking serious?” Anger scrunched his brows, and I could practically hear his teeth grinding. “You want to talk about lying? I’m not the one who lied about who they really are.”
“I never lied.”
“You never told the truth either.”
Something inside me snapped. I lunged across the island separating us. We went down in a furious heap of limbs. Not even the feel of his hands on me could quell the rage burning inside. “Take. That. Back.”
“No.” He caught my flailing arms, and we grappled for the upper hand.
“I’ve always told you the truth. What good has that done me?”
Suddenly, Elijah gained enough leverage to roll us. We continued to wrestle on the ground, moving out of the kitchen and into the dining and living room until he finally had me pinned beneath him.
“Let me go!”
“No. Not until you tell me what you’re really angry about.”
I bucked to dislodge him. Shock registered on his face right before I slipped free. “Not the only werewolf now, remember?”
He growled and scrambled after me. Several other items became collateral in our violent wake. The side table clattered to the floor as I bumped it. The couch toppled in Elijah’s attempt to cut me off. A lamp bounced onto the lush carpet in the center of the room.
My foot caught on a wrinkled corner of the rug, and the full force of him slammed into me. Once again, we hit the ground. I did practically everything I could think of short of killing him to get free, including clocking him in the face.
He ignored the purpling bruise on his jaw and grabbed my wrist on my next swing. In my effort to liberate one hand, he ended up snagging the other. My chest heaved in a combination of anger and exertion while Elijah used his full weight to keep me down.
“Stop avoiding and tell me the truth. I lied. Fine. But if I can learn to forgive you, then you can learn to forgive me.”
I struggled in his grasp, but with my hands caged by my head and my legs pinned beneath his thighs, I wasn’t going anywhere. As quickly as my rage had come on, it morphed into the all too familiar body-numbing sadness.
“Please, just let me go.” I didn’t even care that I’d been reduced to begging. It just hurt so goddamn much, this all-consuming light inside of me, threatening to burn me up unless it found an outlet. My chest spasmed, and I bit back a sob.
“The truth, Josh,” Elijah demanded.
“I already told you. Why is it my fault that you don’t know how to listen?” I clung to the brief flash of anger, desperate not to fall apart in front of this man who’d become my entire world.
“This is about more than lying. Out with it.”
I struggled again, and he tightened his grip, offering zero quarter. At last, the words I’d tried so hard to bury burst out of me. “You let me believe I was unlovable!”
Elijah
Josh’s anguished cry seemed to be ripped from his very soul.
His face crumpled with agony and vulnerability.
It damn near destroyed me. More than that, I hated that Priscilla and Kotori had been right.
Even with the certainty of the bond, Josh still didn’t believe I wanted him.
I’d tried so hard not to cause him anymore pain, and I’d done it anyway.
“Josh—”
“Don’t.” He made another half-hearted attempt to pull free, but we both knew it was in vain. He may have werewolf strength now, but I was still bigger. “Please.” He panted with the unmistakable effort of keeping his emotions reined in.
For a selfish second, I was actually grateful for his lack of control. I’d never seen him so raw, so exposed.
“Are you happy now?” he mumbled, turning his head to the side so he didn’t have to look at me.
“No.”
His gaze snapped back to mine, his surprise evident in his wide eyes.
“You insufferable man, how could you not see how absolutely crazy I am about you?” I stared down at him, my heart nearly full to bursting.
Even angry, with his hair a violent shag of black and his face flushed from the fight, he was still the most beautiful creature I’d ever seen, and it didn’t even come close to how beautiful his heart was.
In a death-defying move, I released one of his hands.
The man had a mean right hook, and I didn’t expect the left to be any less.
Rather than take another swing, he reached out with a shaking hand until his fingers brushed my jaw.
I placed my hand over his heart and looked deeply into his confused eyes. “I love you, Josh. I love you so fucking much.”
His eyes widened, and his chest shuddered beneath my touch.
His fingers ghosted along my jaw until they curled delicately behind my neck.
He leaned forward and tentatively met my lips with his.
The tension in my chest finally eased. I glided my hand up to caress the side of his face as I poured all of my love into that tiny contact.
His hand tightened on the back of my neck, and he deepened the kiss, his tongue delving past my lips to steal my breath.
I moaned into him and abruptly found myself on my back staring up at Josh in a complete role-reversal. For a moment, I was terrified he’d used the kiss as a diversion so he could break free, then his mouth mashed down on mine. I instantly wrapped my arms around him to crush his body against me.
No sooner had I tightened my hold, though, than he was squirming in my grasp, his hands pulling relentlessly at my shirt. I immediately began giving his clothing the same treatment, hungry to feel the heated flesh beneath. The sound of tearing fabric joined our harsh breathing.
Josh’s fingers curled into my chest hair, and I growled out something unintelligible about needing him.
Cold air washed over me as he suddenly hopped up.
Then, just as fast, he was perched back on top of me, the heat of his body liquefying my insides, his mouth hot and persistent.
I groaned as he shoved a small bottle into my hand while his own roved mercilessly over my body, his touch igniting me like nothing in this world ever had.
I tangled a hand in his hair, so much longer than it had been when we’d met, and rolled us. We bumped into something, which I absently shoved aside. The noise of something else crashing to the wooden floor barely registered.
I devoured kiss after kiss before finally surrendering his mouth to taste the rest of him.
A chorus of moans and breathy pleas to hurry the fuck up followed me down his body.
By the time I reached his dick, he was a gibbering mess of need and absolutely fucking perfect.
I didn’t waste any time claiming what was mine.
He bucked up hard from the ground when I wrapped my mouth around his length, his fingers instantly tangling in my hair.
After only a few minutes of me sucking him, he pulled sharply, forcing me to look at him.
A moan slipped free at the sight of him.
His eyes were wild, the pupils dark pools that swallowed the green, and his mouth a swollen, delectable red.
“Baby…” It sounded like there was supposed to be more, but that one word was all it took to unravel me.
I crawled back up his body and clamped my mouth back over his.
I flicked open the cap on the lube he’d handed me, not giving a single fuck about the mess I made.
As soon as my fingers were slick enough, I guided them to his hole and watched with reverence as his body embraced the pleasure.
I leaned forward to kiss and suck along the column of his throat.