Will – Challenges
Will
Challenges
Will shoved aside the heavy canvas flap of the private lounge, ushering Malin into the dim interior before letting the thick fabric drop shut behind them.
They were only a gunshot away from the bustling main tent, but the heavy canvas immediately deadened the noise, granting them a fragile slice of privacy.
Staying rooted near the entrance, his knuckles turned white as he gripped the rough wood of the tent pole. Malin dropped her gear onto a low table.
He was entirely torn.
When she had returned his touch earlier, his heart had sung. He craved to touch her, to show her exactly how much he desired her.
A primal part of him demanded this raw thrill of stripping her down to bring her to climax with the very real risk of someone walking in on them.
The twins had seen them enter and would ensure their privacy.
The chances of interruption were low, though she didn’t know that.
The thrill of discovering exactly what she would allow him to do to her under the threat of discovery made him incredibly hard.
The true complication came from his hug earlier. He had inhaled, desperate for her grounding scent, and had not found the familiar mix of vanilla and lavender he craved.
Instead, he had gotten a lungful of dark sandalwood and mint.
Darik’s scent. It was all over her.
A dark, ugly spike of pure, unadulterated jealousy flared hot within him. His primal instincts screamed to fuck her right here and right now. He needed to mark her so thoroughly that every Elven nose in a ten-mile radius would know exactly who she belonged to.
“Jealous much?” Malin asked. A smirk tugged at the corner of her lips, a stark contrast to the ice in her eyes. “I can feel it coming off you like a furnace, but I don’t understand it. There’s no one here but us.”
Gods, her smile was intoxicating. He could drown in it. She had to know he was upset about Darik.
Both of his plans revolved entirely around hearing that little moan he loved so much slip from her lips. Will’s jaw flexed so hard his teeth ground together as his mind pictured all the ways he wanted to mark her body.
Knowing she was marked, knowing that everyone else would know it, would help him feel centered. The fragile state of their soul-bond was the only thing holding him back.
She sank onto a plush, velvet-upholstered couch and tugged his wrist, pulling him down beside her. Her face was a mask of serious contemplation, but she sat close. So close, the furnace heat radiating off her skin almost burned him.
As she pulled him close, all he could think about was the scent radiating off her skin. The smell of another man clinging to her. It was the smell of a powerful, arrogant man who had just publicly declared he had almost married her. It made Will’s blood rapidly boil.
She leaned over to him, brushing her breast against his arm as she moved her lips within inches of his ear.
Pushing down his jealousy and focusing purely on his need to mark her, he gladly accepted her invitation.
Will gripped her hips. Using her own forward momentum, he pulled her across his lap until he had her trapped under him, her thighs wrapped tightly around his waist on the narrow couch. He ground into her, knowing exactly where to press to elicit a reaction.
“I can smell him on you,” Will said through clenched teeth as his hand moved to her breast to tease and taunt.
His voice was a low, defensive gravel. “You were supposed to marry him. And earlier, you must have been with him. It was brief, but I felt your desire through the bond, Malin. Your emotions were lustful. He’s powerful.
His magic can choke a room. He has so much to offer you, and he obviously still wants you. ”
“He may be those things,” Malin cut him off, her icy blue eyes narrowing sharply.
“But he has the personality and trust of a viper.” She firmly pulled his hand to rest on her stomach.
“It is not his baby I carry. He is not the one I want to wrap my legs around, and it will be your bed I sleep in next. You are the man I want, Will. I just need you to actually want to be that man.”
The words felt like a physical blow. “I do want to be that man,” Will said, his voice cracking. “How can you think I don’t?”
“If you wanted to be my partner, you would fight to close this growing gap between us before it’s too late.” Malin’s voice was quiet, heavily caked with emotion.
If they kept talking, the conversation would absolutely not go in the direction he wanted.
With her legs wrapped around him and her chest heaving, he ruthlessly stopped the conversation with a forceful kiss.
His tongue pushed its way in, and his fingers teased the sensitive peaks of her breasts through her shirt.
Right now, the only battle that mattered was erasing Darik Tenb from her body.
Will swallowed the bitter knot of his pride. He let out a slow, ragged breath, shifting his grip from her hips to slide his large, calloused hands up the curve of her waist.
“I am fighting for us,” Will murmured, his voice dropping to a dark, raspy whisper that reverberated in the narrow space. “I’m fighting right now.”
Instead of pushing back with verbal defenses, he pushed back with physical touch.
He slid his thumbs under the hem of her shirt, his fingertips tracing the fever-hot skin of her chest. He felt her breath hitch, a sudden, involuntary spike of desire flaring through their frayed soul-bond when he found her nipple.
“Will,” she started, her brow furrowing as she tried to hold on to the thread of the argument. “You’re avoiding…”
“You want me to be the man who closes the gap?” he growled.
His lips brushed the sensitive skin just below her jaw, right over her rapidly beating pulse.
He inhaled deeply, forcing past the lingering sandalwood to find her true scent of vanilla and lavender.
“Then let me close it. Let me do whatever I want to you to please you. Release yourself to me.”
He pulled her lower lip into his mouth and sucked, then traced his way down her neck, unbuttoning her shirt as he went until he had full access to those beautiful peaks. He sucked and bit until they could cut glass.
He moved her so she was fully lying on the couch.
He did not give her a single chance to formulate a protest. He shifted his hips, pressing the hard ridge of his arousal directly against her center through their clothes.
He felt her hands come up to push him away, triggering dark memories.
He lifted her shirt to her wrists, twisted the fabric so they could not move, and held them securely over her head.
Malin gasped, her spine arching slightly. The ice in her blue eyes began to melt, replaced by the heavy, hooded look of a woman whose body was utterly betraying her mind.
Will watched her face, fueled by a dark, possessive triumph. He knew her body better than he knew his own blades, and he was going to use every piece of that intimate knowledge to make her forget every other man in existence.
“We can’t just brush past this,” Malin managed, though her voice completely lacked its previous iron. She wriggled under him, but his hips held her firmly down. “Will. Anyone could walk in.”
He knew they were safe from prying eyes, but he desperately wanted to know how far she would let him go.
“You’re mine, and they can all go fuck themselves. Let me fuck you. Keep those hands up there, or there will be consequences. Remember the game?” Will murmured in her ear, his lips grazing the sensitive spot just beneath her ear before moving back to claim her lips.
When he finally pulled back, they were both panting heavily. Her lips were swollen, flushed a deep, beautiful red.
“You’re here,” he whispered against her collarbone, inhaling the sweet, rising scent of vanilla and lavender that was finally burning away the sandalwood. “You’re mine. Let me prove it. I don’t want to hear anything other than that moan you know I love,” Will breathed, his voice rough and ragged.
He slid his hands to map the hot, fevered skin of her back, then moved lower.
“I don’t want to talk about problems, or the gaps we need to close, or the fact that I’m terrified every time you leave my sight.
Not right now. Right now, I want you squirming in my arms and letting me do whatever I want to you. ”
“Will,” she protested weakly, her head falling back as his hands traced the curve of her spine, pulling her flush against his chest. “This is not the time.”
“We can’t leave until we have that device, and we won’t get it until the agreement is made. We don’t have anything we need to do right now, except each other,” he countered, his voice low and throaty.
She nodded slowly as his hand moved down to her pants. She did not stop him. With practiced efficiency, he unfastened the heavy buckles of her tactical belt, tossing it blindly onto the floor. His hands gripped her hips as he used his lips to unbutton her pants, sliding them down to her ankles.
He licked his lips, looking down at her body splayed out on the couch as his prize. “You will let me play?”
She eyed the tent flap hesitantly, but then gave a tight nod. Heat and desire surged through their soul-bond, making the surrender infinitely hotter.
A wicked grin crossed his lips. Calloused fingers made contact with her wetness first. He did not ease in, as she was already slick. Malin’s hips jerked upward, and a sharp, fractured gasp escaped her lips.
Will’s own pulse hammered a frantic rhythm in his ears at the feeling of absolute power coursing through him.
His tongue tasted and licked, then sucked.
He refused to give her the heavy, driving friction she was silently begging for.
Instead, he circled, barely grazing her most sensitive nerves, teasing her with a maddeningly slow rhythm.
He did not know how much time they had, so he did not want to take too long, but he demanded that she melt for him.