Chapter 25 #2
I squinted up at him, my heart still continuing its racket.
And Henri decided to finish me off. “And neither of them are as funny as I am.”
Why was he talking to me in that low, raspy voice, all bossy and perfect, and what was happening to me ? Was I sweating? Did I start panting?
Some small pesky part of me wanted to argue with him for the sake of arguing with him, because who was he to tell me how much I’d liked Green Eyes and whoever Dieter was, compared to him?
But I knew the freaking truth.
He was right.
Physically, Henri was a wet dream. Personality-wise, he was a wet dream. He was He-Man, Prince Charming, and a god amongst men all rolled into a bossy, serious package that made my world. And I’d never met anyone I found half as attractive as I did him.
I wasn’t sure what a mate was supposed to feel like, but he checked off the boxes I figured needed the most attention.
He ticked off all of them, all right.
That had been my problem since I’d gotten here.
I’d been attracted to him from the start, and it had gotten worse.
I eyed him, my poor little heart still going at it—in fear, in excitement, a little bit of confusion. Some part of me said, “ This is very soon ,” and, “ This is too good to be true, and he’ll change his mind .”
But it didn’t feel like it. It didn’t feel too fast. And wasn’t this exactly what I’d wanted?
I poked his stomach. “I think….”
“What?”
I poked him again. “You could have said something, you know. Every time you got home late on purpose to avoid me, it hurt my feelings.”
He scowled, busted.
“This has been a kiddie ride at the fair that I didn’t know I was a part of. I told you , to your face, multiple times, how interested I was in you.”
His jaw clenched. “Ask me how many new members I’ve spent more than five minutes with after they got here.”
Playful Henri was back, and I narrowed my eyes at him. We could play if he wanted to. “How many new community members have you spent time with other than meeting them, Fluff?”
“Zero. The elders deal with accepting and dealing with all of them. All I’m here to do is explain what’ll happen if they do something to endanger our community,” he said before his features softened. “I’m sorry I hurt your feelings. I scented them every night and went to bed feeling like an asshole, but I was trying to stick to the rules, dammit.” Henri lowered his head. “I don’t want you to go anywhere. I want you to stay. And if your nose was better, you’d know how I felt when you were talking about your little backup plan that was never going to happen.”
I groaned again. “That’s why I use my words, because I’m used to not being able to tell what people want unless they actually say it out loud, dang it. All you had to do was say, ‘Nina, yes, let’s wait three months.’ Boom. Done.”
“Nina, yes, let’s wait for your three months to be up,” the man holding me repeated.
I growled in my throat, in frustration, and he chuckled.
Henri’s palms clutched my hips. “I know you’re not going to complain about how long it took me to come see you today to my face, but I needed to work some things out first, after I got the kids squared away.” He paused. “Are you going to ask me what things?”
Teasing Henri was going to be the end of me. I blinked. “What things?”
“I had to talk to the elders about how we’re going to be doing things differently from now on. My mate isn’t going to come second to me, and neither is my family. I’m not going to spend the rest of my life doing things that can be delegated.”
That wasn’t the answer I’d been expecting. Something lit up in my chest, and I whispered, “What did they say?”
“Most of them weren’t happy.” That didn’t seem to bother him. “But Franklin was supportive.” He smirked. “Very supportive.”
“Then what happened?”
“Three hours and a few threats later, we came to an agreement. I’m turning my phone off at eight, and we’re getting a cell exclusively for ranch use. We’re all taking turns with it, someone has it for a day, and they pass it on to the next person the following morning,” he explained.
“That’s a good plan.”
He lowered his chin. “We’ll implement more changes as we go along, if we need to.” If he needed to, he meant, and I blinked.
Tipping my head back, I gripped his shirt in my hands and took in his features—his wide brow bones, his broad cheekbones, all those striking features that made him so handsome.
And here he was telling me I was his.
I clenched his shirt tighter in my fingers. “I want to tell you yes, you know that, don’t you? But I really need to talk to Duncan first, and I think… I think you should sleep on it—what?”
“Talk to Duncan” was the only thing he agreed with. He squeezed my hip, his words low and hoarse. “Can I kiss you now?”
I nodded faster than I’d ever nodded before, knowing dang well our conversation wasn’t over, but….
I had a one-track mind sometimes, especially when that track was shaped like an epic statue in a museum and had the only other face I’d ever thought I’d want to look at every day for the rest of my life.
Henri must have known I didn’t have any plans on letting some things go and decided he was going to distract the hell out of me in that case, because he didn’t waste a second taking my mouth. Warm, soft lips closed over my own. I shivered again, opening my mouth just a little at the same time he did, his tongue meeting mine halfway like they were long lost lovers reuniting after decades instead of minutes.
He tasted just as good as he smelled and felt, that was for freaking sure.
Henri Blackrock kissed me harder, his tongue going a little deeper, and mine didn’t want to be left behind. I reached up, my hands going for those wide shoulders, and I leaned into his frame. The kiss deepened, his tongue stroking against mine without an ounce of hesitation, his hands finding my ribs and waist over my shirt.
He pulled back, exhaling deeply, his gaze burning mine.
“A little more?” I asked him, already breathing harder than normal.
Those light eyes blazed. “You don’t need to ask,” he murmured. “Kiss me any time you want.”
When he put it like that…
I did what I had to, and that was literally press every inch of my front against his, plastering myself to him. I even wrapped my lower leg around his, and Henri didn’t let me down. Those capable hands slid down my sides, grabbing my butt and lifting me. I swung my legs around his hips, locking my ankles behind his back.
Henri wasn’t messing around either.
We started moving.
One step after another led us up to my trailer, and I heard him messing with the latch, opening it before carrying me inside, his mouth never leaving mine, his tongue spearing against my own, kissing me like he was marking the inside of it, claiming it for himself.
The hands on my butt flexed as he groaned and lifted me up higher on him, my groin dragging over his.
My eyes went wide as I clutched him for dear life. Henri was packing as much as I would have imagined, if I ever had. The girth in his pants was unmistakable.
We groaned together, and I couldn’t help but hike up my hips, rubbing them up and down against the part of him that was right there . He said something that sounded like a curse word under his breath as his hands and arms helped me, grinding my center over his through our pants. I pulled back, trying to catch my breath, but he only gave me a second before demanding another deep kiss, with tongue and lips and clingy hands.
“This all right?” he breathed when we broke apart, his hands shifting to my thighs, where he lifted me up, rubbing me flush against his erection some more, up and down twice, like he couldn’t control himself.
I humped him eagerly, because I couldn’t either.
“Please,” I answered, wrapping my arms around his neck and helping him as much as I could as he kept doing it.
A whimpering moan tore from my throat as he grinded against my clit perfectly. His chest was a wall against my breasts, his muscles teasing my nipples through my shirt and bra. I kissed him even harder, grabbing a fistful of the back of his shirt as I moaned into his mouth more.
I worked my hips, pressing tighter against the length of his hard-on. His strength was beyond impressive. I wanted to hang on to him for the rest of my life. I needed to pull his shirt off and get my fill of that body I’d had to force myself not to ogle daily. Touch everything….
He groaned right against my ear. “You smell good when you’re sad, but when you’re wet? Fuck, Nina.” Henri sucked my earlobe between his teeth, and I almost orgasmed right then and there. “Makes me want to rub my face between your legs.”
That did it.
It was the easiest orgasm of my life. Pure ecstasy shot through my center, my thighs flexing and trembling around his waist while I rocked against him through my orgasm. I panted. I shivered. And Henri held me tighter to him throughout it, his forearm holding me up across my butt, his other arm at an angle at my back, our chests smashed together.
“Feel good?” he asked, grazing his lips down my neck.
I nodded almost dreamily, my muscles still flexing and spasming. “So good.” I lifted up in his arms a little, his erection long and hard between us. “So good,” I repeated, smiling, palming the back the of his head. “You’re still…. Want to set me down? Let me help you out?”
His lips brushed the length of my neck, and I felt him take a big, shaky breath. Felt him tremble. The huffy laugh he let out was shaky. “I don’t think I’ve ever wanted anything more in my life….” He kissed me under my ear, then found another spot his lips liked right beneath that one, and I arched my neck to give him more space. I’d pay him to keep his mouth on me.
“But?”
His arms tightened as his lips skimmed my neck some more. “But I hear two cars coming. We would have to be really, really quiet.”
I groaned, and he let out a husky, pained laugh.
“I know,” he grumbled. “Trust me, I know, but as much as I’d love to see your little lips spread?—”
“Which ones?” I teased, feeling him tense around me.
His growl skipped my ears and went straight for my clit. “What the fuck, Nina?”
I couldn’t hold it in. I burst out laughing.
The sound of my phone ringing, for once, had us both freezing and looking around. I didn’t even remember carrying it in, or holding it, or anything, but the screen illuminated off the counter right beside the camper door. Instead of setting me down, Henri carried me over and handed it to me. Ema’s name appeared on the screen. I’d given her my number before she’d left with Duncan and Agnes.
“The kids are with her,” I explained before answering and hitting the speaker icon. “Hello, Ema. Everything okay?”
There was a moment of loaded silence that had Henri and me both looking at each other before a young voice said, “Nina, Duncan wants to go home.”
It was Agnes. Henri and I both frowned.
“Hi, Agnes,” I greeted her, still making eye contact with him. “Duncan wants me to come get him?” I asked, trying to figure that one out.
“Uh-huh,” she replied matter-of-factly. “Right now. I think he’s scared.”
I pressed my lips together and squinted at him, and he nodded. I highly doubted Duncan had suddenly learned how to say that much in the matter of a few hours, which only meant one thing: it wasn’t him that wanted to leave. And she called me. Not her nighttime nannies, not Franklin, not Henri. Me.
Probably just because of Duncan, but I was going to take it as a win.
She’d touched my leg, given me a hug, and called me all in the same day. I wasn’t planning on risking my life any more, but I could see the appeal if it helped me win over my favorite salty peanut.
“That’s okay if he is,” I assured her, keeping my tone as neutral as Henri had shown me was possible, by example. “Tell him I’ll be there in—” I almost said five. “—twenty minutes?”
Henri lowered me to my feet and rubbed a hand up and down my back. It made me want to curl against him. Cuddle him .
I almost whistled imagining it.
I’d just dry humped him. People said life could change in a minute, and I now knew from experience that there was more than a kernel of truth to that. Funny how that happened.
“If you want to leave too, you know you can come with us,” I told her as nonchalantly as I could.
“Okay.” There was another moment of silence before she whispered, “Duncan doesn’t want to tell Miss Ema he wants to go home. He said he doesn’t want to hurt her feelings.”
Across from me, Henri grinned, because we both knew what she was trying to do. “I understand. If you want to give her the phone, I’ll tell her that I changed my mind, all right?”
“Okay,” she agreed immediately. “Here’s Miss Ema.”
It only took a minute to vaguely tell Ema I was coming to pick the kids up, but from the sound of it, she was trying to hide her amusement too. I didn’t think Agnes was as slick as she thought she was. The elder didn’t sound surprised at all that I was going to get them. Werewolf hearing, after all.
I’d barely hung up before I looked up at the hunk of a man towering over me, still holding me with his hands on my hips, his chest barely grazing mine. “Want to come with me to get them?”
Those amber eyes swept over my face, and his fingers kneaded me in a way that felt more erotic than it did soothing. “Sure.” Leaning over, he took my top lip between his with a quick suck before pulling back an inch. “Do we get a popsicle and to play tag afterward?”
I stared up at him. Love and tenderness filling my entire chest cavity. He wanted to mate with me . This nearly perfect man wanted to marry me .
I wasn’t sure whether to hug him or cry. Or both. I chose option 1.
And 3.
With my arms wrapped around his thick frame, I said, “They’d love that, and I would too.” I smiled. “But let me change my underwear first, Fluff, and then we need to do something about that log in your pants.”
That snatched the breath right out of him. “What are we doing?” he exhaled.
Hmm. My underwear could wait a few minutes, I guessed. Pulling back, I set my palm on the flat slab of his abs and peered up at his face. “We’re going to do something about your situation. We’ve got a good fifteen minutes.”
His eyes went wider than I’d ever seen before, his throat bobbing wildly….
But he wasn’t saying no.
“We don’t?—”
Dragging my hand down his stomach, I let it rest over the top button of his pants. “If you don’t want to….”
He grabbed my wrist. “That wasn’t what I was going to say,” he let me know, his breathing raspy.
“We’ll just have to be really, really quiet.” I slid my hand a little further down, palming the erection pressing tightly against his zipper, and I shuddered for about the hundredth time that day. Because wow . Wow, wow, wow. Watching his eyes, my fingertips found the tab of his zipper, and I tugged it down as far as it could go, Henri’s fingers still wrapped around my wrist. But he didn’t stop me or move as he swallowed harshly one more time as I slipped my hand through the front opening of the striped boxers barely containing him. I found him immediately. Warm and thick, long and eager as I pulled him out, squeezing him as tight as I did.
I was going to need to erect an altar to worship his penis the way it deserved.
“Fucking hell,” Henri gasped, his hand sliding a little up my forearm but not letting go.
He groaned deep in his chest as I stroked up and down against an erection that was going to need two hands when we had more time, and I didn’t have scrapes. If I had a toothbrush in here, my plans could have been different, but… we would have time for that later.
Maybe.
“Look at you,” I breathed, working my hand over his hard, hot length. “What am I going to do with all this?” I asked him, tipping my head to make eye contact with him.
Henri’s eyes burned as they moved back and forth between meeting my eyes and glancing down at the hand I was holding him with. “Whatever you want, whenever you want,” he groaned.
I smiled so hard my face hurt as I jerked him up and down, his erection getting harder in my hand by the second. “You don’t understand how much I wish we had more time right now, Henri,” I whispered, still working my fist along him. “What I wouldn’t give right now for you to pull my panties to the side a little and sink inside of me.”
“Fuck, Nina,” he moaned under his breath, his breathing going irregular, his chest rising and falling quickly.
“You like that? Because you’re not the only one who wants to rub their face between some thighs. I’m going to want to bite yours, you should know that right now.”
His hips arched at the same time as his hand cupped the back of my head, tilting it up, and he slanted his mouth over mine, as the hand he had on my forearm slipped down to cover mine, and he worked both of our fingers up and down over his erection. Faster, squeezing harder….
“Come all over my fingers,” I told him before going up to the tips of my toes and catching his lips.
I felt him throb under my grip before he grunted and groaned into my mouth, hips thrusting, warm come spilling over my digits and knuckles. There was so much of it, it made me groan right alongside him, sucking on his tongue while I did. It was the dirtiest kiss of my entire life, and I loved it .
Henri pulled back just a little, his breathing heavy, but his eyes were bright and attentive, and I wasn’t ready for him to slant his mouth over mine again, sucking my tongue that time, eating at my mouth like it was his favorite place in the entire universe and his job from then on was to kiss me like that forever.
I gave him one last, soft, wet stroke before I tipped my head back and watched in slow motion as he gave my forehead a soft kiss. And only then did I ask, “So, are you saying I can do whatever I want to you?”
He looked me dead in the eye and confirmed every fantasy I could’ve ever imagined. “Whatever, whenever.”