Chapter 21
Chapter Twenty-One
Belle
Rhys accepts my challenge immediately.
Before I can blink, he sweeps me up, my legs wrapping around his waist as though they belong there. His mouth takes mine with a hunger.
As hurried as I feel, wanting him more than anything right now, I try to let myself live in this moment. This perfect moment where kissing seems like the most intimate thing in the world, and his lips against mine create our own secret language.
One of his arms dips under my ass to lift me, pulling my core flush against him. His other arm lifts to snake his fingers into my hair and tug at the roots on the nape of my neck.
The heat humming beneath my skin flares even hotter, more urgent, and it takes everything in me not to beg already. I won’t, but I want to.
I stretch my arms to wrap as tightly around him as I can, wanting to hold onto him for dear life.
I’m not sure how long we spend making out like horny teenagers, but eventually Rhys carries me a few steps away from the sink and sets me down on the edge of the counter. He rests his hands on my thighs as he stands between my legs.
“Snow Bunny, I’m really glad we’re already in the kitchen,” he says with a smile.
“Why’s that?” I ask, still breathless from kissing, heart pounding in my ears.
“Because I’m starving and ready for lunch.” He tugs my shirt over my head as I try to make sense of his words.
“We just had breakfast,” I remind him through my confused laughter.
He makes an odd, scrunched expression before schooling his features. Did he not enjoy breakfast? Knox and Percy swore Rhys wouldn’t mind us beating him to the kitchen, and I thought we did a great job. Though they did warn me that he might still prefer the normal health hazard he cooks up himself, which is why no one dares critique his cooking efforts.
This isn’t a topic I’m willing to broach with Rhys while I’m hovering so close to the promise of an orgasm.
Luckily, he’s happy to move on as well.
“Lie back, Belle,” he tells me. His words are a command, not a request, and that alone makes slick flood between my thighs.
Rhys is sunshine and chaos. He’s the most easygoing alpha of the pack with his bright, bubbly, and goofy demeanor. So to hear him demand something of me is shocking enough to cause slick to pool for him at my center. Hearing him speak like that is enough to convince me he owns the air between us and that he’s prepared to tear the world apart to satisfy me.
I’m still sore from my time with Knox, but my need for Rhys is building. If he doesn’t touch me soon, I might wither away and die.
Following his command, I lie back on the countertop. The marble is cool against my bare back, but the feeling does nothing to ease the warmth of my heat spike. Need prickles beneath the surface of my skin with a tension that builds like a scream waiting to be released.
Rhys tugs his compression shorts off of me, dragging them down my legs. “I’m a starving man, little bunny, and you’re the only thing on the menu.”
“Oh my god,” I groan, covering my face with my hands as laughter bubbles up. “That’s terrible .”
He chuckles warmly and presses a kiss to my bare stomach in between shedding his clothes. “Terribly true .” He places another kiss lower, near the edge of my waistband. “Besides, there should be laws against waking up looking this edible. You’re so tempting that I have no choice but to taste-test every inch of you.”
I try to come up with something clever to say in return, but I can only whimper for him as he presses a kiss just above my knee next.
He moves his mouth north a few inches and kisses me again, continuing to build the agonizing tension between us.
“You smell so fucking good,” he says in a low and teasing voice as he moves his lips to hover just above the apex of my thighs. “All things cinnamon and mine .”
The word sparks something primal in me.
Mine .
The second time today an alpha in this house has claimed me verbally. Both times, the claim has shattered me in the best way.
But attempting to carry on a conversation is taking a lot out of me at this precise moment.
I prop myself up on my elbows and glare at Rhys for continuing to take his sweet time while I’m aching . “I swear if you keep talking–”
He licks a strip of skin along my inner thigh, slow and hot, and grins. “If I keep talking, what...?”
“Rhysssss.” I drop my head back with a groan.
“Yes, love?”
“Either use your mouth for something more useful, or I will climb down there and show you how it’s done.” Taking my turn satiating an oral fixation wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world. Like Knox, I don’t mind doing some dirty work on my knees.
He hums, thoroughly entertained. I think he’s getting too much enjoyment out of teasing me now that he realizes how wild he’s making me. “That is a tempting threat, but considering your present circumstances, I think you’ll prefer option A.”
That’s fair considering the only way for me to ride out a heat spike is with orgasms. Before I can suggest a more mutually beneficial position, he decides he’s done playing with his food before he eats.
His mouth finally descends to my needy core.
I cry out for him, my hands flying down to tangle my fingers in his hair. He moans like he’s the one being devoured, his lips vibrating against me. His first taste of me, and I’m already convinced this is his favorite meal in the whole world, and he’s going to savor every drop.
“Don’t stop,” I beg shamelessly.
“Wasn’t planning on it,” he mumbles between licks, the words muffled to the point of barely being coherent as he smugly continues to pleasure me.
When he can’t seem to get enough, he grabs me behind the thighs and drags me closer. I can’t find the energy to care that I’m so precariously hanging off the kitchen counter. He can’t get enough, and neither can I.
My entire body is trembling. Slick drips freely down my thighs now, heat crackling under my skin. My vision is starting to blur as the spike builds, everything hitting more sharply than before.
Too much.
Not enough.
Rhys switches up his movements, his tongue working maddening circles as his nose brushes with the perfect pressure against my clit from just the right angle.
And I’m lost.
My back arches so hard that I lose my balance on the counter and slip forward, my hands scrambling for something to grab but coming up empty. Rhys manages to grab me around the legs just in time to hold me pinned against the edge of the counter, narrowly avoiding us collapsing into a heap together on the floor.
His mouth doesn’t miss a beat. The moment he places suction on my clit, I know I’m about to see stars. Maybe even planets, the sun, the moon, and whole other galaxies.
“Yes! I’m so close!” I can’t help but shout.
Who cares if Knox or Percy hears us? All I care about is making my way over the edge...
BANG. BANG. BANG.
The startling sound of someone banging on the front door gives us both pause. I hold my breath while Rhys lifts his head a few inches to meet my eyes with a deep frown. His mouth is wet with my slick.
I groan miserably.
Percy is in his office. Knox wouldn’t knock on the door to his own house. Whoever is at the door is going to have to wait, and I don’t fucking care how rude of me that is.
I grip the back of Rhys’s head and drag him back to me.
My hungry alpha is more than happy to comply, feasting even more urgently now that we know we’re imminentlly about to be interrupted. As he fixes his lips to my clit with delicious pressure, he inserts two fingers inside of me, stroking me back to the edge.
I tilt my hips to welcome his touch and let go of any last lingering inhibitions. My orgasm tears through me, slick soaking my alpha’s face as he finishes me off.
As he pulls back to inhale a deep breath with a smug smile, our intruder begins pounding on the door again.
The banging cuts off abruptly this time, quickly replaced by the muffled sound of one very pissed off alpha shouting at our unwelcome visitor. Rhys pulls me away from the counter to set me safely on my feet before scrambling to stand. We maintain worried eye contact as we grab our abandoned clothes.
Whatever is happening on the front porch sounds intense. Knox’s shouting grows louder as a softer, more feminine voice begins shouting in return.
We need to get out there.
Rhys and I both scramble to dress as we rush toward the door. Rhys finishes first, reaching to help make sure my shirt is fully in place just as the door flies open.