34. Chapter Thirty-Four
~Felix~
I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t tidied up a little more than usual after my shower that morning, hoping there might be a chance of bringing Evalina to my room later. Even so, I didn’t know if I really believed it would happen. Now that we actually stood in front of the door to my suite, my nerves kicked in, as if what lay beyond the threshold might make or break her decision to accept our bond or not, and I found myself frozen to the spot as all the potential outcomes, good and bad, flashed before my eyes.
“Is something wrong?”
Evalina’s sweet voice beside me pulled me out of my temporary trance, and I shot her the most confident smile I could manage. “Not at all. Come on in.”
Throwing the door open wide, I let her go in first before closing the door behind us, all the while keeping my eyes glued to her, hanging on every clue she might give me about how she felt about what she saw.
Like the Alpha’s suite, my rooms consisted primarily of the large bedroom we walked into, with its king-sized bed at one end and a sitting area at the other, two arm chairs and a small table with a wonderful view of the forest and a glimpse of the lake we’d visited earlier that morning. Two doors led off the main room, one to a large walk-in closet and the other to my private bathroom.
Honestly, I didn’t spend a lot of time in the suite other than sleeping. My waking hours were spent downstairs in the public areas of the pack house or outside on pack business. I ate in the communal dining room and hung out with the other guys in the bar or games room, or in my office. Like Vaughan, I didn’t date much within the pack since we both agreed that a bad breakup could cause issues that we didn’t need. I’d never had a serious girlfriend since it didn’t make sense to get involved with anyone who wasn’t my mate. Thanks to my frequent diplomatic trips outside the pack, I’d had sex, but, long story short, I’d never had a woman in this room before.
“It’s very… nice,” Evalina finally said, completing a 360-degree turn in the centre of the room to take it all in. “It looks like the room I stayed in last night.”
She sounded almost disappointed in that fact, and my stomach dropped. “You don’t like it? I don’t have to stay here. As long as I’m close to the pack house, I can live anywhere. There are cottages nearby, or houses in the town, or…”
“I don’t want you to move, Felix.” She nearly giggled, and the sound of my name on her sweet lips sent a wave of desire through me that I didn’t see coming. My hand reached out to grip the edge of my dresser so my knees didn’t buckle. “I only meant that there’s not a lot of your personality in here.”
I blew out a breath, trying to regain my equilibrium. “If that’s what you’re interested in, my office is the place to go. That’s where I have all my books and personal items. This room is where I sleep and not much more.”
Do you want her to leave this room right now? Kai growled in my head. It sure sounds that way to me.
That’s not what I meant, I was just…
I didn’t get to finish that thought before Evalina walked over to my closet. Throwing the door open wide, she walked in and inhaled deeply. My cock swelled instantly at the sound.
“I like this room. It smells like you.”
Swallowing down my lust as best as I could, I took a couple of slow steps towards her. “What do I smell like to you?”
“What?” Her head tilted to the side curiously, making her look like a little bird inspecting something new.
“Mates have a scent that’s particular to their other half. You smell like apples and caramel to me. It’s… delicious.”
The last word came out as almost a growl as I inhaled the same way she did a moment earlier. Evalina’s cheeks instantly flushed with a pink that travelled all the way to the tips of her pointed ears, and a new scent hit my nose: the clear smell of her arousal.
Fucking hell, Kai muttered in my head, mirroring my thoughts almost exactly. I didn’t know anything could smell that good.
You and me both.
The back of my hand swiped across my mouth, just in case I had started to drool. It certainly felt possible.
“Pullaberries,” Evalina blurted out, her eyes wide and her body shifting slightly, as if she’d pressed her legs closer together. “You smell like pullaberries.”
“I… don’t know what those are.” From her expression, I couldn’t tell if she liked the smell or not.
“They’re a small fruit that grows on the edge of our kingdom. We don’t get them very often. People say they’re an acquired taste, but I loved them from the first time I tried them. My mother got some to use in the royal family’s dinner once when I was a child, and they smelled so good, I had to try one. That one was so good, I had another. I stuffed them all in my mouth before she realized it. She had to lie and tell the royal family that one of the bulpas ate them.”
I had no idea what a bulpa was either, but at that moment, I didn’t particularly care. All I heard was that I smelled good to her, and I took another step closer.
“Are you saying that I’m an acquired taste?” My eyebrow lifted in a teasing arch, and as I hoped, she blushed even deeper.
“I liked the taste of our kiss,” she admitted softly, so softly I might not have heard her if not for my werewolf hearing.
“I liked it too. I want to taste you again, Evalina. I want to taste all of you.”
Another deep inhale revealed that her arousal had grown even stronger, and no amount of squeezing her thighs together could hide it from me.
“I don’t… I’m not… I…”
She stumbled over her words before taking a calming breath and trying again.
“I haven’t been intimate with a man before. I don’t know what to do.”
“That’s okay.” Knowing for certain that Tarron hadn’t forced her into anything came as a relief, but aside from that, it didn’t matter to me one way or the other if she had experience with other men. As long as it had been her choice, and as long as she felt comfortable with me now, I would be thrilled no matter what. “Would you like to learn with me?”
Her icy blue eyes gazed up at me, open and vulnerable and so trusting, it stole the breath from my lungs. “I would.”
Kai howled for joy in my head while I clenched my fists, fighting against the urge to take her in my arms immediately. One more thing still needed to be said first.
“If you change your mind at any time, just say so. We can stop and I won’t be upset or angry with you, I promise. I want you, but I want you to be happy far more. Do you understand?”
She nodded slowly, her eyes never leaving mine. “I do, and I believe you, Felix. That’s why I want you too.”
Those words broke any semblance of self-control I had left, and in the next second, she was in my arms. Lifting her from the ground, I cradled her to my chest, bringing her face to mine and letting her make the next move. Her lips pressed against mine, tentative but completely of her own free will, and with that sweet little gesture, I knew I was hers from now on, no matter what happened next.