Chapter 7
Gregor
“Whoa, you live here?”
I watched my mate’s eyes trail from the base of the converted lighthouse that I’d turned into my home. We’d decided to come here after supper, wanting time alone with the way our scents had intensified all through dinner. Bonding was going to have to come after mating, not that either of us cared. We just wanted to get our hands on one another.
“Yup.”
“Like, just you?”
“Just me, well, and occasionally Olly when he can’t stand staying at his mother’s house anymore,”
I explained.
“I bet the view is amazing.”
“It is. I’ll show you that first, if you’d like, it’s my studio, it’s where I draw up my ideas and assemble the scrapbooks of photos detailing each project from the day the wood is collected until it’s placed upon the shelf. Sometimes, if people are willing, we take a picture of the item leaving with them, Olly’s in charge of that part. I leave the peopling part to him.”
We stashed his duffel bag on a hook at the top of the stairs leading to the middle atrium and continued up to the third floor. On one side of the room was my drafting materials, on the other side was my massive king-sized bed and bedroom set.
There were bedside tables on each side of the bed, a smart speaker and lamps for when I sketched in bed. Waking up in the middle of the night with images and ideas in my head used to happen several times a night, but in the last few years, I’d just lie there looking at the stars through the skylights. I occasionally stashed a magazine or two on the bottom shelf of the nightstand. A few articles and I’d fall asleep with little effort, sometimes with the magazine on my face.
He gasped and moved away from me, hurrying to the nearest window to look out at the waves rolling beneath the moon. Cozying up behind him, I braced my hands on the windowsill on either side of him and bracketed him in with my body.
“It is a magnificent view, isn’t it?”
I growled as I kissed the top of his head.
Feeling him shiver prompted me to nuzzle and nip at the back of his neck until he was quaking. Each tremor that tore through him made him rub that pert little backside against the front of my jeans.
He even tasted like candy, so sweet I lapped at the spots I nipped before nuzzling my way to the next one.
“I love watching the boats go out in the morning,”
I admitted. “I stand up here, sip my coffee and watch their shadows disappear on the horizon.”
“Have you ever worked on one?”
August asked.
“I grew up working on them,”
I explained. “And I still go out whenever they need me to. It’s what everyone in my family does. You either work on the dock and the shipyards, work in the fish market, or work on one of the boats. It’s how I made the money to buy this place and convert it and later, purchase and set up the shop.”
“Holy crap, how long were you doing it?”
“I started going out after school when I was thirteen, when it wasn’t hockey season, but I was cleaning the boats after they came back and helping to maintain them long before that. My first job was scraping barnacles, and yes, my uncles were rude enough bastards to call me Barnacle Boy.”
He choked at that, gasped and doubled over, wiggling that little backside against me until I had to grab him around the middle and grind against his ass until he threw his head back and hooked an arm around my neck, grinding in earnest.
“August,”
I growled, nipping his earlobe as I started to rut against his backside. “Do you want me to take you to the bed and pin you to the mattress, or take you right here on the floor?”
He let out an adorable little eep as he shivered, breath hitching as he let out a little pant.
“B-bed,”
he moaned.
I didn’t wait for him to finish speaking the words, I just picked him up the minute I heard the B sound, and carried him to the four poster, king-sized canopy bed that sat against the wall. It was draped in blue and black right now, a bit extravagant maybe, but I liked the way the cloth fluttered and flowed when I opened the windows.
The motion reminded me of the waves, so much so that when I did drag myself out of bed in the morning to confront the real waves outside, the transition wasn’t so jarring that I was snarling profanities before I made it out the door.
I dropped him on the center of the bed, chuckling when he bounced, eeped, and giggled before rolling on his back to pull off his socks. I tossed my t-shirt somewhere and left my jeans in a pool around my ankles before stepping out of them.
My lower belly was tight, heat pooling like lava in my groin, cluing me in as to what was happening.
Rut.
Fuck.
Oh, fuck yeah.
I barely brushed a hand over my length and my body clenched as my cock gave a little twitch, precum welling up at the tip as I moaned.
“Aren’t you supposed to be letting me do the touching?”
August asked.
I met his gaze from halfway across the bed. He sat already naked, shooting me smoldering bedroom eyes that screamed hurry up. I nearly tripped over myself trying to pull my socks off, but somehow I managed to not to do a face plant on the bed while still managing to shuck them.
Desperate to regain at least a shred of dignity, I crawled up the bed, stalking his toes, which I proceeded to tickle, while he twisted and thrashed around, finally getting hold of a pillow that he thwacked me with until I quit tickling him.
“Truce?”
he offered, slowly lowering the pillow back onto the bed.
“Truce,”
I confirmed, moving my fingers farther from his feet, allowing him to relax completely.
I flopped down beside him, gathered him close and nuzzled the back of his neck, an act that was rapidly becoming my favorite thing to do whenever he was in my arms. I felt him scoot a little closer, until you couldn’t have slipped a piece of paper between us.
“I can get used to this,”
August said. “Though with both of us being early risers, our best time of day to enjoy it would be after we’d climbed in bed for the night.”
“You have a valid point there,”
I concurred. “Just know that however long you stay up late working, I’ll always be in the next room over, waiting to go to bed with you.”
Another gasp, and another of those sweetly adorable eeps.
Holy fucking what the fuck? When did I start thinking of any sound like that? I guess when you found the one, even the things that you never thought you were capable of burst forth. Who knew? They might even make me a better person.
He hugged my arm to his chest while I cuddled him, as we stared through the skylight at the clouds rolling across the stars.
“Looks like we’re in for a fierce one,”
I murmured. “Just wait until you see the view from this vantage point, when everything begins to light up around us.”
“As long as you promise we can match it with fireworks of our own.”
“Challenge accepted.”
For the first time since we met, I was free to touch him all over, without any clothes or people to get in the way. Skimming my knuckles along his side prompted some squirming and a fair bit of giggling, too.
“I thought we were under a truce?”
August muttered.
“I thought that was specifically related to toes?”
I fired back.
“Ohh, now that’s splitting hairs, you can’t even give me feet to go along with the toes?”
“Nope.”
“I’m going to have to remember to be extremely specific when negotiating terms with you.”
“That might be wise.”
“Uh huh. Very wise, unless I want to spend a great deal of time trying to outsmart a weasel.”
“Ohh, ohh, you went there.”
“You’re damn right I did.”
“And because of that, I am now fully obligated to defend the honor of wolverines everywhere.”
With that, I officially broke the truce, until he was squirming on the bed, begging me to stop tickling him and fuck him.
Snarling, I rolled my hedgehog over and pinned his hands over his head, looming over him as I rubbed our erections together. His eyes were honey brown, and when he flicked out his tongue, I captured it between my teeth and gave a little tug before letting go. Sputtering, he started to say something, so I silenced him with a kiss and started rocking again. Slowly, languid movements meant to tease us both.
I’d never known how much my body and my wolverine longed to find our fated mate, but tonight, they were letting their desires be clearly known as I threw my head back, rutting a little faster.
“Gregor!”
August moaned, “Why are you tormenting me?”
“Told you I was obligated to defend the honor of wolverines everywhere,”
I panted, so close, but not wanting either of us to come for the first time yet.
Sucking in a breath, I went still over him, slowed my rubbing to hardly any movement at all, and breathed out a long breath before kissing my way down the center of his body. He mewed and whined a little, but didn’t complain, or beg me to hurry the hell back up.
I took my time kissing his belly, a prelude to a time when it would be rounded with our babies. He hissed and rocked when I nipped and licked my way along the juncture of his thighs, then back up the center of his body again, deliberately letting my chest and belly slide over his length. I loved the way his eyes widened when he gasped, back bowing a little in a quest to get more friction.
I worked my way to the left this time, over his peck, capturing his nipple, grazing my teeth over the nub just to feel him arch a little more. When he hooked a leg over my thigh and pressed our lower bodies together again, I was the one to groan around his nipple and let my eyes drift closed as my body shuddered. I sucked it to the beat of my heart in my ears while he writhed and did his best to rub against me, even when I pulled my hips away to make it more difficult.
Slowly, as he began to settle down, I eased off the nipple and raised my head so I could see his eyes, pupils blown, as he panted and parted his lips. Desire made me desperate as I crushed our mouths together like I was trying to crawl inside of him.
Goddess help me, I wouldn’t rush, but I was aching to get to the point when I had my tongue and cock inside of him, swallowing his delicious moans while we fucked. When we broke apart, I pressed our foreheads together and breathed in the scent of him, noting that the candy scent had faded, while that sexy sweet slick of his smelled extra good.
Slowly, so as to not ignite the urge to rapidly rub against him again, I took my time mapping his face with kisses before nibbling beneath his ear.
“Dammit, dammit, dammit, why is it that everything you do tickles?”
August squealed.
“Special talent,”
I murmured, tickling the sensitive skin on his neck and shoulder each time I moved my mouth.
“Special torment,”
he sighed, beginning to roll his hips. I still had his hands pinned, which made the sight of him undulating beneath me even more sexy. For a moment I just held myself poised over him and watched as he rolled his body against me. Never seen nothing that beautiful, ever, and I’d seen some pretty cool shit over the years.
August was just phenomenal, though, hands down, the most amazing man I’d ever laid eyes on. So what if there might be some bias because he was my mate. The way he moved was breathtaking and deserved to be appreciated.
I’d neglected his other nipple, so I turned my attention there, licking over this one before blowing warm pair over the skin I’d just dampened. He really seemed to get off on this new sensation, judging from the way he rocked his head side to side and keened, whining for me to do it again. Happy to oblige him, I swirled the tip of my tongue around the pebbled nub this time, flicking it with my tongue occasionally before I blew air over it.
“Yup,”
I breathed against his skin. “A very special torment indeed. I bet I can dream up a whole collection of them, just for you.”
“That a threat or a promise?”
he gasped, then hissed when I nipped his other nipple.
“Both,”
I cautioned. “It’ll only be a threat if you’ve been particularly naughty.”
“What’s the penalty for being naughty?”
he asked as he sighed and let his head loll against the pillow.
“Oh, there is no penalty for being naughty. Naughty I love. Naughty I wholeheartedly encourage. Particularly naughty, however, has its own definition. It’s not even one of those things that can be accurately described, you’ve just gotta fuck around and find out, or witness someone else finding out after they fucked up, and you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about.”
The scent of the slick he was producing tickled my nose and made drool pool at the corners of my mouth. I needed to taste him, but to do that I’d have to let go of his hands.
“Keep them on the pillow and don’t even think about moving them,”
I growled when he went to move the moment I released his wrists.
Groaning, he did as I said, eyes filled with heat and desire as his abdominal muscles rippled. He sat enough to look down his body, to where I was slowly kissing my way between his legs. His thighs has grown sticky with it, I could see it glistening where the moonlight hit it. I slid down his body and the leg he’d had hooked over my hips slowly drew up over my body before coming to rest over my shoulder.
I deliberately took the time to lap it from his inner thighs, pressing a kiss to his opening before proceeding to the other side. This time, instead of kissing his opening, I licked over it when I reached it again, and he arched up and draped his other leg over my shoulder, his arms never leaving the pillow where I’d told him to put them.
Lowering my head, I lapped, dipping my tongue in his opening as his knees tightened around my head. He raised his hips and my tongue plunged deeper. Slick flowed over my tongue as I breathed in the scent of his arousal while he rode my face, chasing a completion I wouldn’t allow him to have.
We still weren’t ready for that.
Easing up, I slid my hands beneath his ass and tugged him farther down the bed. “Keep those arms over your head,”
I said as I drew my hands up his legs, until I reached his knees and spread them a little farther. With the way my beard had made him clench and giggle when it’d rubbed it over his belly and across his throat, I was hoping for the same reaction when I rubbed it against his inner thighs.
He didn’t disappointment me. His abs flexed as he snorted, body wracked with shudders and shivers as he started giggling again. I chose the moment he was squirming to lick over his opening again and slide my tongue back inside, my hold on his knees keeping him from closing them and wrapping them around me as I tormented him again.
“You really, really don’t play fair, do you?”
he gasped.
“I play fair all the time,”
I informed him. “I just have my own definition for what I consider fair to be and I’m willing to bet it’s vastly different from yours.”
When he sputtered, I knew that I had him there, and dove right back between his legs, licking, kissing and sucking us back toward the edge of oblivion again.