Chapter Twenty-Three
Paige
My head was still spinning from the roller coaster of emotions I’d been on, but I was certain of two things.
Roderic had just confessed he wanted to claim me.
And I wanted him to.
It was insane, but that didn’t matter. Too many alphas would have taken what they wanted whether I was willing or not. The fact that he’d denied himself, that he’d held back to try to earn my trust first…
He had it.
His lips were hot on mine, demanding, even though I’d been the one to initiate the kiss. I may have started it, but he took over, one hand sinking into the hair at the back of my skull as the other took hold of my hip and pulled me to straddle him.
It didn’t matter that we were in a club and the skirt I’d made from my jeans was riding up where I could feel a breeze across the lower curves of my ass.
We could have been in the middle of the dance floor with every set of eyes on us.
The fact that he wanted others to see, wanted that cruel woman to see that he chose me over her, had my panties drenched in slick.
His hands wandered across my back, touching, branding, claiming. His tongue stroked mine as if he would die without the taste of me. His thickness throbbed where it was trapped beneath me, the urge to rub myself on it irresistible.
If I was throwing caution out, might as well throw it all out.
“Claim me, Roderic.”
He froze, hands going still on my ass. Pulling away from the kiss, he studied my face, hope and worry warring across his.
“We don’t have to rush. There’s a lot you don’t know.”
If he felt the same pull I did, the same need, it took him a lot to say that, and it only made me trust him more.
I might not know his favorite color, and there were plenty of details we hadn’t shared, but if he cared enough to put my feelings first, I knew we could find a way to work out everything else.
Trust was something I didn’t give easy, and I couldn’t see any other alpha proving he would care for and protect me the way Roderic had.
Sliding my hand down his chest to pull on his belt, I tipped my head to the side and offered my neck, knowing what it would do to his instincts.
“Bite me, or I’ll find someone else in the club who will.”
I watched him from the corner of my eye. The look of absolute fury and possession that overtook his face should have been something to fear, but it only made my nipples tighter, my panties wetter.
His hands gripped my ass, finger digging in almost painfully, but it only made me shiver in delight.
This was my alpha. I wanted him to leave marks on me. I wanted him to be possessive.
His growl was a vibration under my hands, sending shivers down my spine as I worked his belt loose and opened his slacks. He lifted his hips when I pushed at his underwear, my knees leaving the couch, but I had no fear of falling.
Roderic would keep me safe.
His growl grew when my hand finally connected with his bare shaft, the heat of it searing my palm. It throbbed and twitched in my grip, and the knowledge that I did that to him, that I turned him into a snarling beast, made me smile as I ran my hand up and down his length.
“Get on my cock before I go bend you over the railing and show everyone how an alpha really fucks his mate.”
My core clenched and a whimper slipped free. A sliver of my mind screamed yes, but that part wasn’t large enough to make me wait the extra minute to have him inside me.
There would be time to explore that possibility in the future.
His fingers slipped down further, taking hold of my panties beneath my skirt. He didn’t seem to exert any effort as I felt a tug, and the sound of tearing fabric reached my ears.
Mouth popping open, I forgot what I was doing for a moment.
“Did you just—”
“You have three seconds to sit on my cock, Sweetheart, before it’s the rail.”
It took two heartbeats of me still staring at him in shock before the words registered. The panties no longer mattered.
He took hold of my hips, helping lift me as I angled his shaft towards my center. There was no time for teasing. I aligned his crown with my entrance, meaning to sink down slowly, but a quick tug from him and a thrust of his hips, and he was halfway inside before I could blink.
My breath rushed out as I bowed forward, my forehead hitting his with a dull thunk I barely felt.
All of my focus was centered on the thickness wedged inside, trying to bully its way deeper in my core as I stretched around it.
Every nerve in my channel was compressed, forced to feel each inch he pushed inside.
He was relentless.
I was nothing more than a doll in his lap, barely managing to hang on as he worked me up and down his length until I finally felt the bulge of his knot at my lower lips.
As full as I felt, I craved the feel of having him locked inside me, and the low growl coming from his chest said I wasn’t going to escape taking it, too.
“Relax, Sweetheart. Take a deep breath. Let me make you feel good.”
His words made me realize I was panting, my head spinning from more than the sensations he created inside me. I forced my lungs to slow and suck in enough air to expand my ribs to capacity, Roderic’s scent filling me and driving my need higher.
He was supposed to bite me.
A whine escaped as I let the air back out, but he reached up along my spine until his fingers encircled my nape. The pressure calmed me more, and when his other hand moved to my clit, it stole all my attention.
“Good girl, Sweetheart. You’re so perfect. You’re going to come for me so I can knot you and mark this pretty neck, aren’t you?”
I whined again, but it wasn’t due to being upset. His praise made my chest warm, comfort tingling through my limbs, because I knew he meant what he said. He was the only one who had ever called me anything other than broken or terrible, and I didn’t need to feel his conviction to know the truth.
It was in his tone.
In his eyes.
In the way the hand on the back of my neck supported and cradled me even as it controlled me.
His hips moved as his fingers circled my clit, rocking me on his shaft. The pressure at my entrance increased, his knot trying to force its way in, as the tension in my core cranked tighter.
“Come for me, Sweetheart.”
I had no choice.
Core clenching, pouring slick down his shaft, I opened my mouth to cry out, but he covered it with his, swallowing my pleasure. Ripples spread outward from my core, bliss making me see white, as his hand switched from my clit back to my hip.
One quick yank, and his knot slammed through my entrance, locking in place behind my pubic bone. The pressure dug into nerves already fried from my orgasm, sending it spiraling higher instead of fading.
I couldn’t scream. Couldn’t breathe. The only sound was the pounding of my heart in my ears, my vision switching from pure light to pitch black.
He released my lips, trailing his along my jaw as I twitched through the extended waves of sensations, the movement of his hips continuing to stimulate me.
Past my ear with a quick flick of his tongue, and down my neck as he tipped my head to the side, his mouth kept moving, leaving goosebumps and anticipation in his wake.
“Mine.”
The word was growled against my throat before he opened wide, taking the muscle at the base of my neck into his mouth. Teeth punching through fragile skin, he bit down, my body going limp at the relief that hit me.
I was his.
Fog of euphoria lifting, I began to tremble as he pulled his teeth from my flesh and licked the wound. There was a wiggle in my chest, a shift as something found its place, and suddenly I wasn’t alone anymore.
I’d never be alone again.
Tears pricking my eyes, I leaned back to stare into his, chest heaving. It wasn’t complete, but already I could feel the way he wanted me. The way he waited to be mine.
Cupping his cheeks in both hands, I pressed my lips to his first. Our other kisses had been hungry, hurried, so I made this one lingering and sweet, putting all my thanks into it.
Pressing little pecks across his cheek, I followed the same trail he’d mapped on me, along his jaw, down his neck, until I reached the juncture with his shoulder.
He let his head fall back on the couch with a groan, chin tipped away to give me space as I loosened the buttons of his shirt and exposed more skin.
More blank skin that needed marked, so all knew he was taken.
That he was mine.
I’d meant it to be gentle, but something possessed me, and I bit into his olive skin with a savagery that shocked me even as I clenched my jaw harder.
He was my alpha.
Mine.
His cock twitched inside me in time with the pulse of his blood into my mouth, the coppery tang tinted with chocolate and currant. Withdrawing my teeth, I licked over the deep crescents, marveling at the immediate end to the bleeding.
We were made for this. To do this. To bite and claim one another in the most animalistic way possible, no matter how civilized we pretended to be.
His green irises were almost lost to pupil when I found his gaze again, and I clenched on his knot, demanding more. The world around us leaked in even as he took up more space in my chest, his feelings coming through as clear as my own.
He wasn’t done with me.
He’d never be done with me.
And that was exactly how I wanted it. In public or private, I wanted every bit of his obsession and desire.
Every moment of his passion and possession.
I couldn’t care less what he did or who he was involved with, I trusted my alpha, and I knew he would keep me happy and safe.
And I’d never be lonely or tired of my life again.
Want to know what happens next? Sign up for my newsletter and get an epilogue!
Did you miss Cadence and Leo’s story? Check out The Claiming of Cadence trilogy.
Do you remember Sharon from Frankie’s diner? You can find out what happens to her in The Seduction of Sharon.