Thirteen
Riley
Each time Gareth had failed to touch me with his magic, a weight had lifted from me. It renewed my faith in the fates little by little, until I could finally thank them for giving me a fated mate. Even if he was a warlock.
No, it was important that he was one. Gareth was going to restore my opinion of mages, sorcerers, and warlocks, like spending time with Oscar had made me feel better about witches.
I found myself drifting toward him, pulled along by our connection, my soul crying out for its other half. Touching him was a lesson in patience. I wanted so much more than the warmth of his skin next to mine.
It ripped the final shred of denial away when Gareth confessed he would come with me when I had to leave.
The relief I felt at no longer being alone was indescribable.
Just offering meant a lot to me, even if I didn’t want to tear him from his home.
Perhaps he could work from Greyhaven and help me figure out how to break this curse.
Maybe he would come with me and together we’d end my stepfather together, hopefully freeing me in the process.
Then we could return to Greyhaven and make it our forever home.
Getting in my head about it, I nearly didn’t ask for the one thing I really wanted: his lips on mine.
Resisting this bond had been painful. Knowing I had a mate, and having seen him, had hurt, especially knowing it was my hangup that was keeping us apart.
My clever, special, gorgeous mate had found the perfect solution.
He’d spent hours finding examples only for me to throw that out and ask for a demonstration instead.
I was sure he was going to find me difficult to get along with, because I was.
After being alone for years, I was too used to doing everything my own way, never having to consider anyone else’s feelings.
All the brief relationships I’d gotten into had floundered for that very reason.
I was too independent. It was going to take me some time to learn how to be with someone else for longer than a month.
The kiss rocked my world on its axis. The feel of his arms surrounding me, the taste of the wine he’d been drinking on his lips, all of it came together to shove all sense out of my mind.
I knew what I was doing when I invited him inside. It wasn’t just to tell him the sad story of my past; it was to get my mate into my bed. Talking would have to wait.
We went through the cabin directly to my bedroom, not even bothering with the pretense that anything else was going to happen.
There was a brief moment of hesitation from Gareth before he brushed his lips against mine again. That small taste was like lighting a match. All I could focus on was getting more. More skin. More of his kisses and touches.
I stripped him of all his clothes and pushed him back onto the bed.
Gods, he was perfect. Long and lean all over with just a thin spread of chest hair and a tantalizing happy trail down to his pretty cock.
“What do you like?” I asked, my voice husky.
I shoved my pants down and threw my T?shirt across the room so I was standing naked in front of him.
“Anything. You. Whatever you want.” His voice was a rasp. His eyes never left my body, drinking me in as greedily as I did him. He clung to the comforter as if he was holding himself back. I didn’t want him to hesitate to touch me. He’d proven he was safe to me. We could have it all.
“Can I top you? I like both.”
“Me too, and yes,” he whispered eagerly.
He moved up the bed as I crawled on. I straddled his lap, groaning as our cocks brushed. There was no way I was going to last long with how divine he felt.
I reached for the lube I’d stashed in the drawer next to the bed, then I pushed him until he was lying on his back. Gareth grasped my hand. “Are we going too fast?” It looked as if it pained him to ask.
Pressing a kiss to his lips, I said, “I might only have a few weeks with you. Why don’t we make the most of it?”
He was right, it was fast, but he didn’t understand all the things I’d learned over the last few years holding this curse within me.
Life was too short to get bogged down with expectations.
“Too fast” only existed for people who had time to spare.
That didn’t apply to us. If we couldn’t break this curse, I’d have to leave, and there was no guarantee he’d want to come with me.
Sure, he’d said it outside, but would that hold true in three weeks once he got to know the real me?
I brushed those thoughts aside and focused my attention on my mate underneath me. Fuck, he was stunning. His skin was heating in the warmth of the bedroom, making his scent rise, drawing me closer to him. I opened the lube and coated my fingers with it.
Gareth frowned up at me. “I don’t think you understand, Riley. Now I’ve had a taste of you, I’m never letting you go. If you leave, I’ll track you down.”
I laughed. “That’s starting to sound a little sinister there, Gar.”
His expression softened. “Until you say you don’t want me and really mean it, then you’re stuck with me.”
“I’m okay with that.” He was too sweet. If he kept saying things like that, I’d end up believing him.
“Also, always call me Gar. I love it.”
“Hmm,” I nuzzled my face against his neck, breathing in his scent: bergamot and lemongrass. “Okay. Now shut up, Gar, and let me fuck you into this mattress.”
He grabbed my head so he could bring our mouths together.
I didn’t have the patience to draw this out, so I reached down for his puckered hole and ran a lubed finger over it, making him gasp against my mouth.
I broke from his lips to trail kisses down his body, loving the rasp of his light body hair against my skin.
When I reached his cock, I blew a breath over the mushroom head, eliciting a shiver as I breached him with a single finger. Gareth moaned my name, the sweetest sound I’d ever heard.
I licked around the tip, tasting the precum there and groaning at the bitter, musky taste. “Hmm, so good,” I muttered before I took him into my mouth. Carefully, I eased another finger inside him. I sensed that we were both too close to the edge for more thorough prep.
Opening my throat, I took him deep, loving the weight of him on my tongue, the taste, his smell. He shuddered as I cupped his balls with my free hand and rolled them. “Riley! Please,” he begged so prettily.
His fingers in my hair pulled me off him. “I’m gonna blow if you keep doing that.” His eyes were dark with lust. Eyelids heavy with pleasure, a flush along his pale cheeks. “Fuck me, please. I need you.”
I used more lube. “This okay? I don’t need to use a condom, but I can if you’d prefer.”
“No, I don’t need them either. Magic protects me.” Gareth blushed. “I uh, also like the thought of you still being inside me hours later.”
It was my turn to moan. “Fuck, that’s hot!” My inner animal agreed. They wanted our mate covered in our scent.
With shifter strength, I flipped him over and pulled his hips back to nestle against mine. “You sure?”
Gareth nodded and then dropped his head with a groan as I breached him. Watching my cock sink into him was so amazing. I’d be having flashbacks of how hot, tight, and perfect he felt.
I ran a hand over his back as he took some deep breaths to get through the burn. Once I felt him relax, I pumped my hips experimentally. His murmured, “Fuck! Yes!” encouraged me to thrust harder, push deeper inside him.
Gareth pushed back against my movements, making me see stars as he clenched around my dick. I came down over his back so I could thrust in even harder. He gasped as I bit down on his shoulder, not breaking skin, but gripping him as I fucked into him.
My balls slapped against his thighs, and Gareth panted out nonsense and collapsed against the pillows as I pistoned into him. Nothing, no one, had ever felt this good. He cried out for more and reached down to stroke his cock in time to my pumps.
Within a few strokes, Gareth was shuddering and coming over his hand and the bed.
I pulled him up against me and rested back on my heels.
Holding him close, I rocked into him. I was so close.
With a finger, I scooped up some of his cum and brought it to my mouth.
Gareth gasped and tightened around me as I tasted him.
That was all it took. I laid him back down on the bed and thrust into him once, twice, and then pulled out.
Shuttling my hand over my cock a few times, just imagining my cum all over him, I reached my peak and painted my cum over his crack and balls.
Sweating and panting, I used the head of my dick to spread my cum over him, pushing some back inside him where it belonged. Gareth turned his head to watch me. “Fuck, that’s got to be the hottest thing anyone’s ever done to me.”
“Hmm,” I muttered. “You like being covered with my cum?”
“Yeah.” He reached a hand out for me. “Come cuddle. You cuddle, don’t you?”
“I fucking love cuddling.” I flopped down next to him and pulled him close, breathing in his scent and enjoying the afterglow.
We lay entwined in the sheets for a while, until the frigid air cooled the sweat on our bodies, making Gareth shiver. “I’ll turn up the thermostat. It’s been temperamental.”
“If I were braver, I’d suggest you move in with me while we work on the curse.” Gareth smirked at me from where he rested against the pillows.
If I continued to stare at the long lines of his body, I’d want to go another round, and I didn’t want to hurt him. I’d been rough. Unless he wanted a turn…
“Whatever you’re thinking, don’t. Go and fix the heating before we freeze to death.”
“Ah, you forget I have fur.”
“Even knowing it’s you, I don’t think I can sleep with a bobcat in the bed.”
“I prefer to sleep as a fox.” The minute the words left my lips, I realized my mistake. I wanted to tell him who I truly was, but as part of the story of the curse. It was why we’d been cursed, after all.
“You have more than one form?” He looked so confused. “I thought you were a bobcat shifter?”
My skin was covered in goosebumps, and I shivered. “I’ll explain as soon as I fix this. Back in a sec.”
Dashing out of the room, I grabbed a blanket from the couch and wrapped myself in it.
I locked the door. Even though Greyhaven had next to no crime, it wasn’t good to tempt fate.
Then I padded to the thermostat. In the kitchen, I took a moment to drink a glass of water and calm down.
I got the boiler running and heard the familiar sound of water in the pipes.
It wouldn’t take long for the place to warm up again.
When I returned to the bedroom, Gareth was sitting up, the comforter pulled up to his bare chest. I sighed in relief that he wasn’t leaving. I handed him the glass of water I’d gotten for him.
“I’m a metamorph,” I explained. When he went to interrupt, I carried on. “They’re a type of animal shifter. Very rare. Which is part of the problem. We don’t tend to tell people what we are.”
He stared at me. “I don’t understand.”
“How about I show you?”