21. Ben
TWENTY-ONE
BEN
A Wonderful Heaven
I was in heaven.
That was the only explanation for it. After so long living in purgatory, I was finally freed. Pleasure coursed through me, and both me and my inner wolf were wild with it. I felt mad. I felt saved. I felt… so goddamned much.
And it was all because of Giselle.
I looked down at her as she lay panting below me, thoroughly flushed all the way up to her hairline. Her hair was splayed across my pillow, and I swore she looked like a masterpiece, spread out on my dark sheets.
Bruises dappled her pale skin, little badges of her day-to-day life.
Her nipples stood beaded and a deep pink for me, nearly coral, begging for my attention.
She was all sharp angles and soft skin, making my human side want to caress her and my wolf side want to hunt for her until I couldn’t see any more of her bones.
I knew Giselle thought she looked sickly. Like a patient more than a woman to be desired, but to me? To me, she was perfect. Beauty and strength were written into every single part of her, blazing gold to me.
I had to kiss her again. I just had to.
I kissed her with all I had, drinking in those intoxicating little moans. And when I could trust myself not to blow on contact, I pulsed my hips slightly.
“ Ben! ”
God. I loved the way she said my name like a benediction. I didn’t know what I could have possibly done to make an incredible woman like her ever look at me like that, but I was incredibly grateful for it.
I wasn’t stupid enough to think that this moment, this joining, could fix everything wrong with me, but all of that could wait for tomorrow. Right now, there was just the now and what Giselle and I shared together.
“More,” she chanted like her own personal hymn. And who was I to refuse such a chorus? I increased my small, tentative pulses to firmer thrusts. Nothing intense, nothing quite satisfying, but delicious, nonetheless.
She was so hot, so slick for me, frying out every single one of my neurons.
It was the most perfect torture I could ever ask for.
My more primal side was obsessed with it, wanted to drive into her with all that I had, watch her pretty pussy take the entirety of me as it stretched to its limits.
Wanting to see her jiggle with the drive of my hips.
But as much as I was an animal, I was a protector first and foremost, and I had to make sure her body was ready for all of that. Whether that took an hour or years.
Years.
Although I was so locked into the moment, my mind leapt far into the future for a split second, picturing different intimate scenes throughout the years, both our bodies aging—hers more rapidly than mine.
Imagining her hair graying. Those wrinkles barely visible at her eyes and her laugh lines growing deeper with the passage of time.
And it was beautiful.
It was the first time I’d let myself see beyond a week or two into the future with us, and it was like a promised land I didn’t think was possible.
A future full of pleasure and all sorts of experiences.
Losses. Triumphs. Laughter. Disagreements.
Good food. Not so good food. All of it. An entire life experienced in a microcosm of a second.
And it made me want her even more.
“More,” Giselle moaned through kiss-swollen lips. “I can take more.”
There was that flicker of concern that she couldn’t, that I was too big, too strong. A beast devouring a beauty. But I remembered that first night when she’d told me she knew her own limits. If she could trust me, then I could trust her.
I gripped her hips again, loving the juxtaposition between my bronzed skin and her near-translucent pallor. She looked so incredibly fragile underneath the span of my fingers, but I knew she was anything but. She was a warrior. A teacher. A leader.
Mate! Mate! Mate! Mate! my inner wolf chanted in agreement. While I wasn’t quite there yet, it would be foolish to deny that we were beyond casual dating. I’d made my choice and I was no longer letting my fear and guilt deny me a future.
Yes, it terrified me down to my core, but some things were worth being terrified for. Like Giselle. Giselle would always and forever be worth it.
And so was I.
After so long thinking I didn’t even deserve to live, she made me realize I did. That I could love and respect my wife and all the lives lost, but still experience happiness. As impossible as it seemed, we were taking that leap of faith together.
But as long as we were connected, moving as one, breathing as one, I knew it would be all right.
“ Ben ,” she rasped, her fingers raking down my bare chest, and it was like lightning shot down my spine. But instead of immolating me from the inside out, it set me on fire in a much more pleasurable way, and I felt my cock throb.
“I’m close,” I rasped, the words barely getting out past my teeth. I hadn’t realized how much they’d grown, the sharp points of my upper and lower canines beginning to cut into my lips. A glance down told me my claws were growing as well, even darker against her alabaster, silken skin.
“I need more,” Giselle answered, and fuck , she sounded so debauched. The idea that I was the one doing that to her made my body react again, and it took everything in me not to blow. “I’m not there.”
“That’s okay.” I bent down, kissing once, twice. Our breathing quickened, making it sloppy, but I didn’t care. “Don’t worry about it. Relax, and it’ll come, I promise. I’ll make you feel good.”
Was it verbose or particular elegant prose?
No, but a promise was a promise. So, I kissed her until she was well and truly breathless before my hand slid between us, my fingers finding their way to that slick, swollen clit of hers.
I’d already learned so much from the first time I’d made her come, and I’d applied it, circling that sensitive bundle of nerves with increasing pressure, listening to each hitch in her breath until finally I felt her clamp down on my cock the same way she’d done to my fingers.
“ Ben! ” she practically shrieked, digging her nails into my shoulders. Those pinpricks of bliss heightened everything else. Feeling her orgasm around me was the permission I needed, and I allowed myself to finally let go.
“ Giselle! ” I roared, pulling her off the mattress and embracing her, careful not to crush her as I held as tightly as I could. My hips pulsed as I spilled into her, my mind whiting out under the rush. There were no thoughts, just the experience of perfection.
I had no idea how long we stayed like that, clutching each other, our heart rates slowly coming down. Eventually, Giselle started to shiver, so I lowered her down to the mattress and collapsed beside her.
The kiss I pressed to her lips this time was tender, and there was so much I wanted to say, but it felt wrong to interrupt the peaceful quiet between us.
Instead, I pulled Giselle against my chest, then drew my comforter over us. We lay like that for quite a while, kissing softly as drowsiness swept over the both of us.
“Thank you,” Giselle murmured, her eyelids fluttering closed.
“Thank you ,” I said, then gave her one more kiss. Okay, maybe two.
There was a lot we would have to face in the morning, but right now, I wanted to spend every second I could in the haven we’d made together.
Tomorrow could wait.