Chapter 4
Chapter Four
Ikal
Five Years Ago
“ D o you think he’ll come back?” Mirabel had one eye on the door and one on the drink she was making for one of our regular customers.
“I hope so. He’s come back every day this week so far.”
She shook her head, a lock of purple hair falling into her eyes before she tucked it back behind her ear. “I can’t believe you haven’t told him your name yet.”
To be honest, I couldn’t either. The first day it had been sort of a joke. I’d wanted to see Aitor again, and when he asked for my name, I told him to come back the next day and I’d give it to him, but that had been two days ago. When he’d come in on Tuesday, he’d asked for my name, and instead of giving it to him, I’d given him three guesses. When he didn’t get it, I told him to come back the next day and try again. He did, but still I didn’t tell him.
I hadn’t told him on Thursday either.
And in the time since he’d first strolled into my cafe looking all tall, dark and brooding on Monday, I’d grown obsessed with seeing Aitor walk through the door.
Mirabel had also become obsessed but in a different way.
All I’d had to give her was his first name and she’d done an in-depth search that could rival a federal background check, coming up with his full name, occupation, address, and a bunch of other details I was pretty sure weren’t necessarily part of the public record.
But I didn’t care about any of it.
I already knew everything I needed to know.
Aitor was meant to be mine, and fate had finally brought us together.
The second I’d caught his scent—cedar, fresh rain, wet earth, and the subtle hint of bergamot that indicated he was an alpha—something had unlocked in my soul. My heart had called out for him. I’d wanted to pole vault over the counter and throw myself into his arms, begging him to claim me, but instead I’d decided to test him.
It was ridiculous, but I needed to know in some small way that he felt the same thing I did, so I’d issued the challenge to come back day after day with the promise of giving him my name.
Today, I would finally make good on that promise.
The bell over the door tinkled, and I knew before I even glanced up that it was him. I could smell him, but I could also feel electricity crackling in the air, making every hair on my body stand on end. My heart galloped in my chest like a million wild horses, and my palms started to sweat.
When I finally looked at him, my breath got caught in my lungs.
Aitor was the most beautiful alpha I’d ever laid eyes on. He was tall and lean and walked with a savage grace that made my dick hard and reminded me of the way a predator pursued prey. His dark hair was expertly cut and styled and his dark assessing gaze missed nothing as it roamed over me. I prayed he didn’t see the way my hands trembled a little or smell my arousal as he stalked toward me. But his nostrils flared and his lips twitched into the tiniest smile and I knew he’d noticed both. His jaw was sharp enough to cut glass and completely smooth and I wanted to lick it so badly my mouth watered.
In the five days since Aitor had walked into my coffee shop and my life, I’d jerked off more times than I had in the past month. I’d hoped getting myself off to thoughts of him would make it easier to see him in real life, but I’d learned it just made it so, so much worse. Now when he was in front of me all I could see were the fantasies I’d played out behind my closed eyelids with my hand wrapped around my dick.
There was no one else in the shop today, and he strode right up to the counter.
“Good morning.” His voice was low and slightly accented, and the sound was sweeter than the most beautiful music.
“Good morning, Aitor.” I tried to play it cool, but my voice came out a little rougher than I hoped, my arousal evident as I let his name roll off my tongue. I cleared my throat, but it did nothing to help me. “Your usual today?”
“No. Today I want something different.” The corner of his lips tipped up in a devilish smirk, and I gripped the edge of the counter to stay upright.
“Wh-what would you like?”
I was so focused on his face, that I didn’t see his hand move until I felt it cover mine. A pulse of heat spread through me, and my breath got stuck in my chest.
“I’d like your name. Please.”
My gaze met and held his. “My name is Ikal.”
He sighed, his fingers tightening around mine on the counter. “Ikal. I love it. And I’d love for you to have dinner with me tonight.”
I was nodding before I could form words, my body getting the memo before my brain. “Yes. I’d like that.”
“Excellent. Is seven okay?”
I nodded. “The cafe closes at three. I can meet you somewhere.”
“If it’s okay, I’d like to pick you up. If you’re not comfortable giving me your address, I’m happy to pick you up here.”
“I’ll give you my address.” I reluctantly pulled my gaze away from Aitor and grabbed some receipt paper from the little printer, quickly scrawling my address on it and handing it over.
“I’ll see you tonight at seven, Ikal.” He lifted my hand and kissed my knuckles. The move should have been cheesy and over the top but it made my heart flutter and cock jump. It made me wonder what it would feel like to have his soft full lips on other parts of my body.
He started to pull away, but I squeezed his hand. “Are you sure I can’t get you a drink?”
Aitor shook his head. “No. Today I just came for you.”
Aitor’s sleek black car pulled up in front of my apartment building at exactly seven o’clock. I’d been waiting outside for him, too anxious to spend time with him to stay in my apartment. I’d given him my number with my address, and he’d texted to tell me we were going somewhere upscale but not formal and with his estimated time of arrival when he left his place.
He left the car idling but jumped out, rounding the hood and opening the door for me as I approached. He wrapped his arms around me and kissed my cheek, and it was all I could do to keep myself from saying screw dinner so I could take him upstairs and let him screw me.
And claim me.
But I swallowed down the words, content with the brief moment in his arms and the chaste kiss.
For now.
“You look amazing.” His words were whispered against my ear, and a shudder rolled down my spine, landing in my balls and making my cock twitch.
“Thank you. So do you.” He was wearing dark straight leg jeans that fit him perfectly and rested low on his trim waist. The sleeves of his crisp white dress shirt were rolled up to reveal gorgeous muscular forearms with veins that begged to be explored with my tongue. He’d finished his outfit with camel-colored leather sneakers and a matching belt. His dark hair was neatly styled, and this close, I could see there was the tiniest hint of gray just starting at his temples. He looked like he belonged on the pages of a men’s fashion magazine.
Aitor gestured for me to get into the car. He waited until I was settled then closed the door and got into the driver’s seat.
“I should have asked before but do you eat red meat?”
“I do. I love a good steak.”
“Perfect.” He put the car in gear and drove us out of downtown Cancun and onto the El Rey peninsula. I’d only been out this way a handful of times, mostly for special occasion gatherings held by friends and hosted at one of the upscale restaurants on the water.
Being so close to Aitor, surrounded by his scent and the soft leather seats of his car, I was more comfortable than I had been in a long time. It felt like I was exactly where I belonged. He reached over the center console and covered my hand where it was resting on my thigh, and I turned my palm up so I could link our fingers together.
“Is this okay? I’m sorry if it’s too forward, but I just need to touch you.” He kept his eyes on the road, but I could hear the uncertainty in his voice.
“It’s perfect.” We kept our fingers intertwined until we pulled up in front of the restaurant. Aitor brought my hand to his mouth and placed another heart-stopping kiss on my knuckles. If this was how I reacted to the simplest of touches and kisses, I was going to completely combust when he finally had me naked and under him. Just thinking about it already had my cheeks aflame.
The valet opened the door for me, and I waited for Aitor to pass off his keys and join me. He immediately took my hand again and didn’t let go of it until the host seated us at our table near the water. Even then he only kept us separated until we were both settled and holding our menus, then his hand found mine again.
His touch was spoiling me for anyone else.
But knowing what I knew in my soul—that Aitor was fated to be mine—there would never be anyone else.
When the waiter took our orders and left, I couldn’t hold it in anymore.
“You’re a jaguar shifter, right?”
He nodded. “I am. And you’re a sea turtle shifter, yes?”
“Yes. I am.” I rubbed my lips together between my teeth as I tried to think of how I wanted to say the next part. “Do jaguar shifters believe in fated mates?”
“We do.” His gaze was laser-focused on me, his dark eyes peering into my very soul, and I wondered if he was feeling the connection too, if he already knew what I was about to say. When I opened my mouth, he did too and we both spoke at the same time.
“You’re mine.”
His eyes widened, and I felt mine do the same. “You knew?”
He inclined his head. “From the first moment I saw you. I picked up your scent even through all the others, and it all clicked into place. I could only see you and our future together laid out before me. But when you wouldn’t tell me your name, I thought maybe I’d misinterpreted my reaction or maybe you didn’t feel the connection between us the way I did.”
“No!” I shouted the word, then got myself under control enough to speak at a normal volume. “I did feel our connection. I just didn’t know if you did, so I didn’t want to give away too much only for you to walk away. Refusing to give you my name was my way of ensuring you came back.”
“Ikal.” He stood and pulled me from my seat and into his arms, and I melted into him, my heart screaming, mine, mine, mine as he wrapped me up in him. He cupped my face in his hands and stared deep into my eyes. “You are so beautiful, you take my breath away.”
His lips landed on mine, and the air in my lungs was swallowed up by the all-consuming kiss. I lost myself in the feel of his lips and the press of his body, and I was seconds away from begging him to take me home or toss me down onto the table and fuck me right there in front of the whole restaurant.
Luckily, someone chose that moment to wolf whistle and the words died in my throat. Aitor broke the kiss slowly, then helped me back into my seat, taking my hand again the second he settled into his. The contact kept me grounded when I felt so light I thought I could float away into space.
“We are going to pick that up later.” There was heat in his dark eyes, and my hole clenched in anticipation, slick dripping out. Aitor’s nostrils flared as he picked up the obvious scent of my arousal. “Or maybe we should take our dinner to go.”
Which is exactly what we did.
The second the elevator door closed and started its ascent to the top floor of his apartment building, Aitor was on me, pressing me against the wall and slamming his lips on mine in a hungry and ferocious kiss. He ate at my mouth like he was trying to consume me, and gave back as good as I was getting. The fancy takeout bag holding our meals crashed to the floor as I wrapped my arms around his neck and tunneled my fingers into his hair. His knee nudged between my legs and I spread them for him, letting my hard, leaking cock rub over the hard muscle of his thigh, but it wasn’t enough friction.
The elevator chimed, signaling our arrival, and Aitor reluctantly peeled his body away from mine and tried to set us to rights as the doors slid open on his floor. Luckily there was no one in the hallway and he grabbed my hand, tugging me down the corridor. I had barely enough presence of mind to grab the takeout bag on the way out of the elevator.
He fumbled with his keys at his door, and seeing him as flustered was the most adorable thing. When we were through the door, he took the bag of food from my hands and set it on the kitchen counter, then came for me, stalking toward me like a predator ready to devour his prey. A small whimper slipped from between my lips, and I saw the effect the noise had on Aitor. His eyes widened and his nostrils flared as he went nearly feral with need, coming at me ready to pounce. In the span of a few heartbeats, Aitor had me up against the wall, the button of my pants undone, and my legs wrapped around his hips as our cocks rubbed together through the barrier created by our clothes.
I’d never been so hungry for anyone in my life. I was starving for him, desperate to feel him everywhere all at once and knowing that when it happened I would be irrevocably changed. My life would be marked in time before this moment and after, and I would never, ever want to return to the before.
Aitor’s tongue plundered my mouth, and he sucked on my tongue until I was writhing against him. My cock and hole were leaking so much my underwear was wet with slick and precum. I tried to catch my breath between kisses, gasping in lungfuls of air every chance I got until Aitor finally took pity on me and moved his mouth across my jaw and down my neck.
“Fuck, you smell so good. I’m dying to taste you.” To punctuate his words, his mouth closed over the pulse point where my neck met my shoulder and he sucked hard. Pleasure so intense my vision flickered black arced through me and the need to beg him to bite me, to make me his, welled up inside me. Before the words could tumble out, his hand worked into my pants, driving the zipper down as his long nimble fingers wrapped around my shaft, his thumb flicking into the slit at the head.
“Oh my god.” My head hit the wall with a thunk as I threw it back, pleasure ricocheting through me from where Aitor’s hand worked my cock and his mouth bit at my neck. This was nothing but a prelude to what was yet to come, but I still felt like I was being taken apart only to be reassembled into someone completely different.
His strong arm wrapped under me, and he lifted me away from the wall. “Hold on.” His words were muffled by my skin, but I understood enough to tighten my grip. Aitor moved us through his house in the dark, and I heard a door hit the wall when he kicked it open. He set me on my feet and his hands immediately went to the buttons of my shirt. He fumbled with a few of them, his hands shaking with desire before he took half a step back.
“Fuck this.” Something smooth and warm slid over my chest, slicing through the fabric of my shirt.
“Did you just cut my shirt off?”
“I had to. I need to feel your skin.” His hands parted the ruined fabric and pushed it off my shoulders so it fell to the floor. “I’ll replace it. I promise.” His mouth returned to my body, his lips trailing over my flesh, his fingers finding my nipples and teasing them.
“I want to feel you too.” My fingers found his waistband in the dark, and I unbuckled his belt and popped the button on his jeans, then tugged the ends of his shirt out of his pants. I didn’t have a claw to tear through his clothes, so I settled for fumbling with the buttons until my palms met the smooth skin of his chest.
Aitor growled low and shoved me backward so I sprawled on the bed. He shoved out of his shirt and let it fall to the floor and whipped off his belt tossing both behind him, the belt buckle clattering as it hit the wall. Then his mouth was on me again, his lips teasing over my nipples the way his fingers had as he moved down my body. My pants were tugged down and my shoes were pulled off until I was naked except for my soaked boxer briefs.
He nosed over the wet fabric, breathing me in, and my cock jumped at its proximity to his face. I wanted his lips on my dick so badly my body trembled with it, and when he slid his fingers under the waistband of my shorts, the moan that fell from my lips was obscene.
“Yes, Aitor, please.”
Tossing my underwear behind him, he took me in, my body bathed in moonlight filtering from the window and painting my body in stripes from the blinds. He bent my knees so my feet were resting flat on the bed, my hole exposed, and I could feel his gaze like a physical touch as he looked at the most intimate parts of me. My hole clenched, and I felt more slick leak from it.
“You’re dripping for me, Ikal. So wet and ready for my cock.” His fingers slid into my crease, swirling through the wetness gathered around my hole and pressing against my entrance, the tip of his finger slipping barely inside. Yes, this is exactly what I needed. I wanted him inside me so badly. I pressed my hips down into his touch begging for more with my body, but he placed a warm hand right above my cock and held me still.
“I’m going to fuck you and fill you up, but I need to taste you first.” He knelt beside the bed and grabbed my hips, pulling my ass closer to his face so my legs draped over his shoulders. “I need it.”
His words were little more than a growl, but I felt them against my body right before his hot tongue licked over my hole. My hips thrust off the bed, my cock jerking and looking for attention, but Aitor held me steady as he tortured me with long swipes of his tongue. He was drinking the slick from my body, lapping it up like a cat with cream, and the realization that that was exactly what was happening here made me giggle a little manically as I felt his tongue spear inside me.
“Oh, fuck. Oh, yes. Please. More. Please.” I was babbling. I knew it, but Aitor had reduced me to nothing but sensation, and I needed so much more. His finger joined his tongue, massaging over my prostate and my balls drew up, threatening to spill without any friction on my aching dick.
“No, Aitor, please. I’m too close. Need you inside me. Need it.” He pulled his fingers—at some point he’d added more than one—from my body and kissed over my hole one more time.
“I need it too.” He was panting, and his lips were wet with my slick as he stood and reached for the drawer of his nightstand. “Condom?”
I shook my head violently. “I’m on birth control. Just get inside me please.”
Aitor licked his lips, his eyes closing like he was trying to keep himself under control, but I wrapped my legs around him and pulled him toward me. He stumbled and caught himself on his hands on either side of my head, his chest landing pressed to mine.
“You are so fucking perfect, Ikal. This has to be a dream.”
I reached between us and pinched one of his nipples. He yelped slightly, and I smiled, bringing my mouth up to his. “It’s not a dream. This is real, Aitor.”
His mouth found mine, and I could taste my slick on his lips and tongue, the flavor of us driving my need to feel him inside me higher and higher. Aitor’s hand slid between us, and I felt the head of his cock against my entrance.
It took me a moment, as he pressed inside, to realize something was different.
Aitor stilled, his gaze locked on mine. “What is it, maitea? What’s wrong?”
I shook my head. “Nothing.” I moved my hips and let out a breathy moan.
“Ah, you’ve never had sex with a felid before.” His smile was wicked as he thrust his hips, and my eyes rolled back in my head.
My body clenched around what felt like rows and rows of small ridges along his shaft. As he moved inside me, the ridges ran over the walls of my channel, making slick slide from my body. His sheets were going to be an absolute mess when we were done.
“No. Never had sex with a felid. Was waiting for you.”
“Fuck. You can’t say things like that while I’m inside you.” He dropped down onto his forearm, his tongue tracing over the hickey he’d no doubt left over my pulse point earlier. “Makes me want to bite you. To claim you.” His words were distorted and when his mouth slid over my neck again, I felt the smoothness of his fangs.
Knowing I was making him feral, making him tap into the most primitive parts of himself, made me feel the same way, and I moved my hips, working him inside me, begging for more of him. Aitor read my need and pushed back up so he could pound into me, setting a pace that made me slide along the mattress until his strong hands gripped my hips and held me still while he drove into me deep. It was exactly what I wanted, and there was no denying what this was as he owned my body and drove me higher and higher toward release, his cock pegging my prostate on every forward stroke, my cock leaking between us, desperate for his touch. When his fist wrapped around my shaft, my hips jolted up and the words I’d been feeling since the minute he’d hugged me when he picked me up for our date spilled out.
“Do it. Claim me. I don’t want to wait. I know what this is, and it doesn’t matter if you make me yours today or tomorrow or ten years from now, I will always belong to you.”
Aitor’s answering growl reverberated in my soul, and his fangs flashed in the moonlight. He moved like a man possessed, playing my body like he’d been fucking me for years and driving me to the very edge before he brought his lips to my neck, his teeth grazing my skin.
“I want you, Ikal. I know you are my mate, but this is new. So new. Are you sure? There is no going back.”
“Yes. I’m sure. Please, Aitor. I’m yours. Only ever yours.”
He took me at my word, his fangs sliding over my skin then piercing my flesh. Euphoria flooded my veins, and I knew in that moment what an addict must feel like when they got a hit of the drug they craved. Every cell in my body ignited, lit up like some sort of atomic circuit had been closed. I felt Aitor like he was inside me and around me, like he was part of the new fabric of my being, and the sensation of being whole was so overwhelming that I came, covering our chests in my release while Aitor continued to pump inside me and lick over the permanent claim he’d just pressed into my neck.
A growl tore from his chest as he came inside me, flooding me with his hot cum, and I felt his cock expand, the rows of nubs digging into me and holding us locked together. The feeling set off another mini orgasm and my cock pulsed between us, adding even more cum to the mess.
Aitor carefully rolled us to the side, his arms wrapped around me as he panted against my neck, and I’d never felt more whole or more alive.