Chapter 10
RAANA
The world became Adrien’s mouth, hands, and body against hers. Nothing else mattered from today, this week, this month, or from any other part of her life. Not as his lips moved against hers.
At first, the kiss was gentle. A soft brush that set her body alight. It deepened from one breath to the next—yet remained unhurried.
“Fuck, I missed you.”
Adrien’s words were guttural against her lips, and they unchained something in her. Something primal, something buried. A hunger, a want, a need.
Months—it had been months since anyone had touched her like this. The last had been him. All she wanted was him. In her thoughts, in those dreams.
Raana clawed herself closer, her touch running over Adrien’s shoulders, his chest, feeling the ridges of that intricate tattoo etched into his skin.
One of his hands swept into her hair, wedging into her curls, loosening them from their tie, and angling her head to take more of her.
His other hand had slid beneath the hem of her shirt, his fingers tracing over the smooth skin of her stomach, trailing a blazing line up, up, up—so close to skimming the underside of her breast. Raana bowed into his touch, into him, her breath becoming heavier.
More.
A demand of her blood.
Raana nipped at his lip, traced her tongue along its softness, and moaned at the taste of him when he opened for her, his tongue meeting hers.
The kiss became ravenous as if they needed each other to breathe. To survive. Adrien echoed her small sound with his own groan as he flexed his hips and dragged her closer, grinding her against him in time with his hand cupping her breast, teasing her hardened nipple.
Spirits, save her.
Or don’t save her; leave her here. With this. With him.
His hardness pressed into her, rocking exquisitely against where she wanted him most.
Her body went taut. Her clothes and her skin became too much.
The last time they’d been together flashed through her mind in delirious waves—his first thrust into her body, the ecstasy, the euphoria as he stretched her, filled her.
The sounds of his pleasure mixed with her own until she could barely remember her own name, wiped away with each pounding stroke.
She ached for that now. For there to be no space. No world but the one in this room. To watch, to feel him come undone, again and again.
More.
For one beat of her warring, thundering heart, Raana leaned back from him, roughly breaking their kiss to grab the hem of her shirt and pull it over her head.
She tossed it back into oblivion before her hands came to rest on the waistband of his pants, dropping further to palm along the hard, considerable length of him.
Her mouth dried out. Adrien cursed, bucking into her touch.
And though the night air was a cool caress against her skin, as were the shadows that she realized now ebbed around them, with the way Adrien stared at her then, taking in her half-bare body with darkened eyes…
Her blood became a scorching river.
“Gorgeous,” he murmured as he dragged his stare up to her face, the corner of his lips lifting. Everywhere he touched her held a current. Her hips, her waist, her breasts. “But I thought I told you, when I finally had you again, I’d take my time.”
Raana bit down on her tongue, whimpering as he pinched her nipple before soothing the hurt with a caress of his thumb.
“And I thought I told you I’m not very patient.
” She wrapped her arms around his neck and tugged herself closer until there was no space left but between their mouths.
Her lips barely brushed his as she whispered, “Fuck me now. Take your time later.”
Adrien chuckled, his hands sliding down her body to grab her backside.
“Here you are, demanding again.” He guided her forward and back, and Raana moaned, tipping her head as pleasure struck through her like lightning.
Her nails dug into his back as he did it again.
Again. Slow and controlled, her body shuddered as she pressed into the movement, embracing the delicious friction as Adrien met her, building a rhythm that had her dizzy. A tight knot coiled in her lower belly.
His voice was gritty with restraint as he teased, “I don’t remember it being this easy to get you off. How long has it been?”
“Too long,” Raana breathed, the ache to have him inside her becoming unbearable. She lifted her head again, meeting his eyes. “I need you.”
Adrien’s nostrils flared as if he could scent her arousal, how wet she was for him.
Then he growled, a guttural, animalistic sound that burrowed deep before he met her mouth in a hard kiss.
Raana’s legs tightened around him as he tucked his hands beneath her thighs and lifted her from the couch. The shadows trailed them on their walk to the bed, bowing over her skin to his, as greedy for him as she was. As if they, too, craved his strength. His stability, his power.
Adrien dropped her onto the mattress, and seconds felt like an eternity before he covered her body with his again. His fingers twined with hers, pinning her arms to the bed as his fervent kisses traveled from her lips to her jaw, to her neck.
“Adrien,” she moaned his name, squeezing him between her thighs and lifting her hips, trying to find that friction again as he began to lick and nip at her skin. He ground against her just as he dragged his tongue over a spot near her collarbone… and scraped his teeth along it.
“Adrien,” Raana gasped again, arching into him.
The sensation traveled straight down to her core.
So… sensitive. He may as well have had his head buried between her legs, then, as he nipped, licked, and sucked along that space, sending her straight to the edge of ecstasy.
Maddening and perfect. She couldn’t remember her body ever responding like this.
Adrien tensed, his lips, his bite hovering over that spot. His breathing was ragged, his grip on her hands constricting. For a moment, she swore he shook his head.
“Raana.” Her name had been spoken softly, desperately.
And then Adrien moved up to kiss her again, and there was something about it that was tentative. Afraid.
And the way he looked at her when he pulled back as if he was seeing something—her, something in her—for the first time…
His eyes shuttered. “I—I have to tell you something.”
Raana blinked, the seriousness of his tone stunning her, taking the edge off her want. Still, she asked, “Can it… wait?”
“No.” Adrien swallowed, adjusting himself to rest on his elbow, taking some of his weight off her. “It can’t. I can’t do this without telling you the truth.”
Raana loosened her legs’ hold on him, a pit forming in her stomach. “About?”
Adrien stared blankly at her body, avoiding her eyes as he went deep in thought, seeming to pick over his words. His stare had hardened when it finally met hers again. “I know why my father wants you. He told me today.”
Raana stiffened, her heart ratcheting up and breath hampering for a whole new reason. “And are you—are you allowed to tell me?”
Another bob of his throat. “He didn’t tell me no.”
Somehow, having him on her, having him this close, felt like too much. “So, what is it, then?”
More hesitation. A slow, deep inhale.
“He needs you to kill the Alpha of Deimos.”