Chapter 8
Chapter Eight
Garrak
Claim taste fuck Mate need now taste Mate claim!
My Kteer howled commands, none of them conflicting. I wanted—needed Stevie, and I was afraid I was going to take her.
“You’ve been holding out on me, my pretty little human?” I growled. “You’re not a shit poker player?”
She might have smirked, had she not been staring up at me, wide-eyed and breathless. Her tongue flicked out to caress my thumb, and I groaned as I squeezed, pulling her closer. Our lips were inches apart when I murmured, “Don’t lie to me.”
“I’m not bad,” she gasped, and I nodded.
“Good girl.”
The sweet, sharp spike of her arousal teased my senses, and I flared my nostrils to catch more. Gods below, I’d become addicted to that scent, that taste. When Stevie showed up at my door, I’d caught hints. But now? Now that I’d been attuned to her for days?
I fucking lived for it.
Mate.
Mate?
Could what Korrad said be true? Was Stevie my Mate?
Yes! My Kteer howled, and my heart suspected it was true.
But if Stevie was mine, how the fuck was I going to get us out of this mess?
One thing at a time.
I pulled her closer, my gaze boring into hers. “You’re a good girl?” Her pulse fluttered against my fingertips, and I grinned wickedly. “Prove it,” I whispered, just before my lips claimed hers.
The kiss was hard and punishing. I poured all my frustration into it, and of course Stevie met me head-on. Her arms wrapped around my neck, pulling herself to me, as she kissed me back enthusiastically.
She tasted of tears and arousal and metal and strawberry lip gloss.
There was nothing soft about my female, and I loved that.
It also frustrated me, because although the world treated her as if she were tough as the piercings she wore in her flesh, she was a gentle flame of light and goodness and needed protecting.
By me.
I was the one to pull away, my earlier challenge ringing through my mind. Prove it, prove it. I stared down at her, breathing heavily, my cock throbbing and my Kteer crowing at the sight of her kiss-bruised lips.
“Prove it?” she whispered, and yes, there was her smirk.
Gods below, this female was remarkable.
Mate.
Mine.
“Poker,” I rasped. Then I swallowed and tried again. “You’ve been letting me teach you all these days, Stevie.”
“Oh, I’ve been learning.” She wriggled against me, against my cock. “About you.”
She was the first human to be able to read me. Could that be because of our bond? “I told you not to lie to me, Stevie. You’ve been a bad girl, letting me think you didn’t know how to play.”
“I’ll make it up to you,” she whispered.
“You will.”
With that. I scooped her up. She didn’t have time to do more than gasp and grab for my shoulders before I’d turned to stalk toward the table in the living room, still set up with her winnings. I more or less dumped her in her chair with the command, “Deal the cards.”
By the time I’d settled myself across from her, my pulse wild and my cock demanding attention, she’d reached for the deck. “Are we going to wager?”
“Fuck yes, we are,” I growled, leaning forward. “Something far more interesting than money.”
Her eyes had gone wide, and I read the excitement there. “What?”
“You’ll see.”
The first round, I pulled a pair of threes and didn’t even bother bluffing. I lost to her three eights, and when she laid out her cards, I think we were both breathless with anticipation.
Holding her gaze, I reached for the bottom of my shirt…and in one movement, ripped it off over my head.
Stevie’s eyes glazed with excitement, and her tongue flicked out over her lower lip as she raked my chest with her gaze. I saw her tightening her grip on the arm of her chair, and my nipples hardened under her inspection.
Nipples and…other things.
Gods below, my cock was rock hard.
“Your deal,” she whispered, sliding the cards across to me.
This round, Stevie barely looked at her cards before she folded. I was leaning forward in anticipation as she made a show of pulling off her t-shirt—that same purple one she’d worn the day she arrived in my life.
Wrapped in that black bra, her tits were magnificent. I felt my mouth water, my claws extending, as I fought down the urge to reach for her. I wanted to tear it off to see—
“My deal.”
This time we played through, but her pair didn’t beat my full house, and Stevie eagerly tossed down her cards to reach for the clasp of her bra.
I think we both groaned as her breasts finally sprang loose. She cupped them both, lifting, massaging, offering them, and I realized I was salivating.
I don’t think I bothered shuffling, and we both had crap. She folded first though and shoved her chair back to unbutton her jeans.
Yes yes yes yes!
I’d already kicked off my shoes, and I saw she had as well. Now she stood across from me, her chin lifted almost defiantly, the pulse in the base of her throat fluttering eagerly, her arousal perfuming the air as she lifted and squeezed her tits.
My gaze landed on the wet patch on her underwear.
I wanted them gone. I wanted to bury my face in her cunt, to lick her until she screamed my name.
If you do, you’ll lose the fifty thousand.
In that moment, I realized I didn’t care. Having Stevie would be worth it.
Not if it’s about your pleasure.
My reasoning wasn’t making sense. I wanted to shake my head, to consider that line of reasoning, but she was standing there, all…delicious.
If this is about her pleasure, not yours, then the debt wouldn’t be paid, right?
That…made sense in a convoluted way.
“Aren’t you going to deal?” Stevie all but purred, and in a daze, I reached for the cards.
I honestly don’t remember what I picked up, if I ever even knew. My hands were just going through the motions of playing poker at that point, with my attention fully focused on the female across the table.
My female.
But apparently Stevie lost again. Or perhaps I lost, but she jumped up first to wriggle out of her panties, and the wood of my chair creaked as I gripped the arms to keep from reaching for her.
Was I panting like a desperate beast? Maybe.
She scooped up the cards without sitting down, and when she leaned forward, her tits swung down so fucking tantalizingly, I realized I was growling continuously.
“Oh dear,” she murmured, flipping over the trash hand she had. “I fold.”
I don’t think I’d even looked at my hand.
Smiling naughtily, Stevie lifted one foot and placed it on the chair where she’d been sitting. Her clothing was strewn about the area, but I couldn’t look away from the way she’d presented that sweet, wet cunt for me. Like it was an inspection.
“I lost, Garrak.” Her tone was too innocent to be believable, even as she hefted her tits in both hands, her fingers tugging at her nipples. “What can I give up now?”
“Gods below,” I groaned, the palm of my hand pressing against my erection, which throbbed alongside my thigh. “You lost on purpose.”
Stevie hummed, plucking at her nipples, rocking her hips forward. “That makes me a bad girl?”
“The worst little slut,” I growled, and was rewarded by a fresh flood of her arousal as she inhaled sharply, her blue eyes glazing a bit more.
I would have to remember that. My female liked to be denigrated?
Well, I would oblige.
“Touch yourself.” I tried to make my tone hard to keep from pleading. “Let me see you fuck your fingers.”
Eagerly, she dropped one hand to her cunt, the first two fingers sliding easily through her arousal while her other fingers tugged at her nipple. I dug my palm against my cock, the pressure not enough to satisfy my howling Kteer.
Stevie lifted her dripping fingers, showing them to me, her lips parted, her breaths coming too fast. I could see where her leg muscles trembled as she tried to hold her weight with her legs spread, one on the chair.
“Again,” I growled, and she whimpered as she dropped her hand to her cunt again, caressing herself.
“That’s right,” I crooned, trying to stroke my cock through my jeans. “Such a good slut, following my orders.”
This time, Stevie made a noise like a sob as her eyes rolled back and her movement became more frantic. Her fingers slipped in and out of her cunt, the palm of her hand grinding against her clitoris, her breathing stuttering as she plucked at her nipple…
And I lost my battle with myself.
There was no way in fuck I’d be able to stay on this side of the table and not touch her. She was mine, and I was going to make sure she knew it.
Even if I lost her tomorrow.
Shoving my chair away from the table, I stood and stalked toward her.
Stevie
At this point, it seemed a miracle that I wasn’t a mewling pile of horniness, yeah? Fuck me, I don’t think I’d ever been as turned on as when Garrak growled those commands to me. And when he called me those deliciously dirty words?
Yes please.
So when he finally—finally!—stood, and I got to see that thick cock in his jeans? When he made his way around the table, his green eyes promising satisfaction? I think I more or less fell into his arms.
Garrak caught me, one hand going to the back of my neck while the other landed unerringly on my pussy.
We both groaned as he pushed one finger inside me. No hesitation, no foreplay. Just his thick, callused finger in me, and his mouth on mine.
He slowly stroked me as his tongue played. I caught the ridges between my teeth, tugging, and he growled low in his chest as his hold on me tightened.
“You’re trying to make me lose control?” he murmured against my jaw as he kissed his way toward my ear. “Won’t work. Lift your leg so I can feel your cunt.”
I trembled at his coarse language, but didn’t hesitate to obey, planting my foot on the chair once more. He slid a second finger inside me, and my hips bucked against his touch.
“That’s it,” he rumbled, stroking me. “There’s my cunt.”