CHAPTER EIGHT
brAN
Her condo is nothing like the cabin. It’s larger, brighter, and packed full of belongings.
At lunch, she worried about where she would end up if she agreed to be mine.
I think she’s concerned about not being able to bring her things.
She can bring anything and have anything, as long as it makes her happy. Her happiness is my happiness.
It truly is as simple as that. I wish I could get that through to her. I’m hopeful.
We’ve already made good progress. I found her, we’ve eaten meals together, danced and kissed, and now she’s invited me to her personal space.
“Don't get any ideas,” she says, setting four white cartons and a stack of napkins on the low table in front of her plush brown couch. “This is just dinner and bad television. That's it.”
My eyes lift from the tempting display of cleavage she’s giving me as she leans over. “I have no ideas.”
Alexandra snorts and rolls her eyes. “You absolutely have ideas.” She drops onto the couch and pats the cushion beside her. “Sit, eat, and behave.”
I sit, but the behaving part I might have problems with.
She points out the different Chinese foods in the cartons, and I suck in a deep breath of appreciation.
The food smells nothing like any I've encountered in this realm so far.
They are sharp and sweet at once, and my mouth waters for a taste.
She hands me a container of lo mein and a pair of thin wooden chopsticks that she demonstrates how to hold.
“I’m impressed, you’re a natural,” she praises as I manage to get some noodles on my first try.
“I may be the Lord of the Woods, but that doesn’t mean I eat with my hands… all the time,” I amend with a wicked grin.
Pink makes Alexandra’s cheeks delightfully rosy, and I catch a hint of the scent of her arousal. I may be currently mortal, but some of my abilities have been slowly returning.
She turns on the TV, and we watch a program featuring a brightly lit kitchen and a panel of judges who all look slightly alarmed.
“Oh, absolutely not.” Alexandra points a chopstick at the screen, fully outraged. “He did not just put pineapple in that.”
I pause in slurping up another noodle, this food is far superior to the subs we’ve eaten. “Is pineapple forbidden?”
“In an Italian dish?” Her nose crinkles. “Yes. Always. Forever.” She shakes her head at the television as if the contestant personally wronged her, then turns to me, clearly expecting agreement. When I don't immediately offer any, she huffs. “He's going home. Watch.”
The contestant does not, in fact, go home, and Alexandra throws both hands up in disgust, nearly upending her carton of Kung Pao Chicken in the process.
“This show is rigged,” she announces, settling back against the cushions, close enough now that her knee rests comfortably against mine. “Either that or those judges have no taste buds whatsoever.”
My lips quirk up as I lean over and steal a piece of chicken out of her carton. “You feel strongly about this.”
“I feel strongly about pineapple, Bran. It's a character flaw.” She doesn’t mention the filched chicken, though she does jab her chopsticks into my carton and twirls up a big mouthful.
By the end of the show, we’ve polished off a fair amount of food, and her shoulder is pressed against my arm, and every cell in my body is on alert as my hard cock protests the tight restraints of my pants.
“This is nice,” she whispers.
“It is.”
Her head slants up to look at me, and I use that moment to press my mouth to hers.
She doesn’t protest. Her arms wind around my neck as she kisses me back, her tongue running along my lips until I part them for her.
Our kisses are full of hunger and desire.
I can’t help but wonder if this means she’s willing to be mine.
Pulling her closer, she comes willingly, her leg sliding over my lap until she’s astride me. Her warm core settles on my aching cock and I can’t stop the growled hiss that escapes me, nor how I grind up into her, rocking my cock against where I want to be so badly.
Alexandra’s lips leave mine. I open my eyes to see her staring at me with her hands resting on my shoulders. “Do you-”
“Shhh…,” she says, “don’t talk. Don’t say a word, not yet.”
At my nod, her mouth claims my lips again, and that is exactly what she’s doing: claiming me. Her thrusting tongue slides over mine, the taste of the tangy Chinese clinging to both our mouths, but underneath it is the taste of Alexandra. A taste I now know as well as my own.
She tangles her fingers in my hair, tugging lightly, just enough that I feel the pull on my scalp.
“Damn, it even feels like silk,” she mutters against my mouth.
Before I can ask what she means, her tongue surges between my lips again, flickering against my teeth and the roof of my mouth, exploring me and making me hers.
I’ve never kissed another before and I don’t want to; only Alexandra will ever do, anyone else would be a poor substitute.
As we kiss, I grip her hips, holding her right where I need her as my pelvis continues to rock up into her. Everything feels out of control; this need building and building as it consumes all rational thought.
When she slides a hand under my shirt, my muscles tighten and I nearly cry out. Yes! Touch me, my mind frantically begs.
Almost as if she can hear my thoughts, her lips leave mine and her hand untangles from my hair. She grips the shirt as her palm smooths over the taut muscles of my abdomen. “Off. You’re wearing entirely too many clothes,” she grunts, tugging at my shirt.
I couldn’t agree more. I release her hips and quickly pull the shirt over my head.
Alexandra’s blue eyes go wide as she stares at my chest, and I worry that she won’t find me pleasing. This form is similar to my true one, just limited.
She stumbles off my lap, the backs of her legs hitting the coffee table and shoving it across the floor.
Everything in me freezes, the fear of rejection paralyzing me.
“Damn, Bran.”
“I’m sorry,” I force out with a tongue that feels too thick and slow to form the words properly.
Canting her head, Alexandra walks between my thighs and places a palm on each of them. “Sorry? What are you sorry for?” She laughs and her fingers crawl up my tense legs. “For being too hot?”
“Hot?”
Her right hand slowly trails along the hard length of my cock that’s trapped and angled down in the pant leg. “Attractive, good-looking, hot. That’s you, Bran.”
I let out a slow whine of need as she continues to run her fingers along my cock. “Alexandra, I… I need…”
Her hand stops moving, and I moan and arch my hips, pushing my cock into her palm. “What do you need, Bran?”
My dazed eyes lock onto her beautiful face as she leans over me. “You, I need you.”
She makes quick work of undoing the snap and zipper on my pants. The first touch of her fingers on the bare skin of my stomach has me groaning. When those fingers wrap around my cock, I throw my head back and howl.
With my eyes closed, I don’t see Alexandra dropping to her knees, though I hear the soft thud of her making contact with the floor. When she sucks the head of my cock into her mouth, hot suction surrounds me and, gasping, my eyes fly open.
Our gazes connect as she slowly feeds the hard length of my cock between her pretty pink lips. When the tip touches the back of her throat, she wraps a fist around what remains outside her mouth and strokes me as she sucks and licks.
This pleasure is beyond anything I’ve experienced before. I want it never to end, and yet the building aching pressure makes me wish for it to ease.
When she works a hand into my opened pants and cups my sac, lightning flares through me. There is no more waiting or wanting. My body seizes and my release shoots out of me in hard, hot jets as my cock spasms and I’m helpless to all but the blinding ecstasy that has taken over me.
I moan and thrust as Alexandra continues to suck on me, gulping down my seed. Only when I collapse against the back of the couch does she pull off my glistening cock with a pleased smile.
“That was…” I pause and shake my head, my heart thudding hard. “I have no words.”
“Thanks for the compliment,” she says, getting to her feet and holding out her hand.
I take it and rise to my feet as she makes it obvious she wants me to stand. “I would like to do that to you,” I say, as my spent cock twitches as I think about my tongue in her pussy.
She laughs and tugs my hand, pulling me out of the living room. “I’d like that too. And more. Let’s go to my bedroom.”
Every instinct in this mortal body is screaming at me to agree. But I plant my feet and tug her back to me.
She searches my face. “What's wrong?”
“Nothing is wrong.” I hold her gaze, wanting her to understand the weight and importance of what I'm about to say. “I need you to be certain. Because once you let me into your bed, Alexandra, I will not let you go again. Not easily and not without a fight.”
Something flickers across her face and then she laughs. “That's a hell of a thing to say to a woman who just sucked your cock.”
Lust stirs my cock at the mention of her mouth around it, but I fight it before my mind is clouded by desire again. “I mean it, Alexandra.”
“I know you do.” She lifts her chin. “What if I don’t want to let you go either?”
My breath stutters in my chest. “Then we can go to my realm now and mate properly.”
She shakes her head. “I don’t know if I will ever get used to the way you talk and toss in those little gems.” She laughs. “Mate. Do you mean have sex or make love? What’s wrong with my bed?”
“I mean mate, as in you are mine and I am yours, a forever bond as mates.”
Her smile dies. “Bran, I like you and I want to have sex with you. Mating? I don’t think I’m ready for that yet.
” Her upper teeth bite down on her lower lip briefly as her eyes move over my face.
“You need to give me some time, okay? To see where this goes between us. I can’t make promises I might not be able to keep. ”
I want Alexandra. More than I’ve ever wanted anything in my long existence. I’m immortal. She is mortal. Her life is a brief flash of light compared to the endless eternity I’ve been alive. Having her means compromise. If I push, I will lose her entirely.
“I can give you time,” I say softly, stepping up next to her and erasing the space between us.
“Do you still want to go upstairs?”
My smile is quick and genuine. “More than anything.”