CHAPTER EIGHT
Roman
Roman woke to a knee in his balls and the absolute certainty that God had a sense of humor.
Ella was sprawled across him like she’d been doing it for years instead of just one night. One arm flung over his chest, her hair a dark disaster against his shoulder, one leg hooked over his thigh and creeping higher with every breath she took. He lay very still.
It was not a good strategy. His cock had other ideas, lying hard and hot against her thigh. He needed to extract himself without waking her. He’d just begun to make his move when her knee moved another inch higher.
Direct hit.
“Mmf.” Even the wolf felt pain in a situation like this. He grabbed her thigh to keep her from moving again and Ella’s eyes popped open. She looked up at him, then down the length of the bed, taking in her leg flung across his hips. His hand.
Her mouth twitched. “Did I just knee you in the—”
“Yes.”
“I’m so sorry.”
“You’re not sorry. You’re smiling.”
“I’m smiling because you made a noise like a deflating balloon.” She shifted, and whatever mercy she’d been about to show him evaporated when her thigh slid up instead of retreating, dragging against him. His hand tightened around her thigh.
“Careful.”
“Of what?”
“Waking the beast.”
That got her fully awake. She propped herself up on one elbow, hair everywhere, looking entirely too pleased with herself for a woman who’d almost denutted him ninety seconds ago. “Was that a threat, Matthews?”
“That was a public service announcement.”
She laughed, which made the man and the wolf fall just a little bit more in love with her.
In love. Yes. His wolf walked in a circle until he found the perfect spot to lie down inside Roman’s chest.
“Roman.” Her fingers found the healed-over place on his shoulder and traced it, not quite meeting his eyes. He covered it with his own.
“Ella.”
“I’m not nervous.”
“You’re lying to a man with a superior sense of smell.”
“That’s cheating.”
“That’s biology.” He drew her hand up, pressed his mouth to her knuckles. “Tell me what you’re nervous about, or I’ll just keep guessing, and I guarantee you I will guess the bite.”
Her breath caught. “Okay. Fine. The bite.”
“I figured.” His thumb traced slow circles against her palm, grounding, patient—the same patience he’d spent over the years, building a whole life around, and he called on all of it now.
“When we make love, I’ll do my best not to bite you, Ella.
At least not on the neck.” He let that sit a beat, watched her work out what he meant, and felt his mouth curve when the color came up in her face. “Other parts of you aren’t off-limits.”
“That is not reassuring.”
“It wasn’t meant to be reassuring. It was meant to be honest. And hot.
” He rolled, careful, until she was under him instead of sprawled over him, framed by his arms, and made himself hold still there and let her see him—all of him, wolf included, sitting close under his skin and roaring at him to claim their mate.
“The wolf wants the claim. He’s wanted it since the second he caught your scent in those woods, and he is currently telling me, very loudly, that this restraint thing is a mistake.
” He dropped a kiss to her forehead. “But it’s not his call.
It’s not mine. It’s yours. Whenever that is.
If that ever is. I meant what I said last night—I’ll hold on as long as I have to. ”
“And if I ask you not to bite me at all? Ever?”
“Then I don’t.” No hesitation in his answer.
“It’ll cost me something. I told you that.
But you get to decide, not me.” He kissed her then, unhurried, the opposite of everything roaring under his skin.
“Right now, the only thing I want you to decide is whether you’re going to let me finish what your knee started. ”
She laughed, her lips curling into a huge smile. And something in her eased—he felt it, the way her spine relaxed against the mattress, the nerves bleeding out of her under his hands. She hooked a leg back over his hip, deliberate this time.
“Okay, let’s finish it,” she said, and pulled him down.
His mouth claimed hers, tongue sliding deep, devouring the little gasp she gave him. He rolled his hips against her, savoring the way she arched up to meet him—hungry and unashamed.
He drew the sheet away and had to stop and just look at her, all that creamy skin, the full, heavy curves of her breasts, the generous swell of her belly and her hips, everything he knew she’d spent a lifetime trying to hide, to be different, there, just for him.
“Roman—” And there it was, the flinch, her arm moving to cover herself out of an old reflex some other man had told her was what she was supposed to do. He caught her wrist. Moved it. Pinned it gently to the mattress above her head and looked at her until she looked back.
“No,” he said. “You don’t hide from me. Not this absolutely fucking perfect body that makes my dick swell every time I see it.
You have no idea what you look like right now, do you?
I’m going to worship every perfect part of you—and there’s a damn lot of fucking perfect parts— until you believe me.
However long that takes. We’ve got all morning, and I have a lot to prove. ”
And he did.
His big hand cupped the full, heavy weight of one, thumbs brushing over her nipple until it tightened into a hard peak.
He lowered his head and took it into his mouth, sucking slowly and deep, tongue flicking the tip.
Ella arched, a broken sound spilling from her throat.
He didn’t let up. He just changed his moves.
When he sucked it into his mouth again, he scraped the thick nub with his teeth, then bit the very edge hard enough to make her gasp.
He gave the other one the same thorough attention until both nipples were red and wet. He eased his body away slightly. “Now don’t you look pretty, like that?”
Next, he dragged his mouth down the valley between them, kissing the underside of each breast, then lower, over the swell of her stomach. When she tensed, he splayed one hand across her side and squeezed gently.
“No, Ella,” he ordered. “You don’t get to flinch from my touch. Not my touch. Understand me? This body is mine. Made for me by fate. I love it. The way it cushions me. How it will when I’m fucking you. Moving, bouncing. You’re not hiding any of it from me.”
He bent his head and gave each side of her stomach a sharp, hard nip.
Then he kept going, kissing his way across the flare of her hips, marking her there as well. With his tongue, his teeth. His hands grew rougher as they grasped the tops of her thighs and pulled them apart.
“So fucking sweet,” he murmured, inhaling deeply, taking the scent of her deep into his lungs.
With hands that were growing less careful by the minute, he pushed her legs up, opening her completely. Her pussy was soaked, the outer lips a little puffy from her arousal, her slit almost blood red. She’d shaved but left a neat patch of hair on her mound. She looked absolutely fucking perfect.
Taste her. Taste her now. His wolf licked his lips and so did the man.
“Are you going to taste good, baby? You’re dripping for me already.”
He settled himself between her thighs. One long hard lick up her slit had her arching into his mouth. He smiled against her wet flesh. “That’s it, ride my mouth.”
She hadn’t done that on purpose, but that’s exactly how he wanted her—taking what she needed.
He flattened his tongue and licked her again, this time without stopping.
From her tight little hole all the way up to her clit, swirling inside her every other pass.
She was whimpering, her hands in his hair, pulling hard.
He stopped for a moment, placing his mouth on her inner thigh. “You like this don’t you, Ella? You like my tongue on your slit, inside you.”
He bit her thigh hard enough to leave teeth marks, then returned to her pussy. This time, he concentrated on her clit. Short, flickering licks. Hard, fast, making the bud pop up. Making her juices flow. Which made him have to lick them up.
But he wanted more from her.
Without warning, he thrust two fingers deep into her pussy, making her whole body jerk. “Fuck, you’re so tight,” he growled. “You’re going to strangle my cock with this cunt.”
She clenched again and he chuckled darkly. He worked her relentlessly. Curling his fingers, sucking her clit, licking every drop of her until her thighs shook. “I’m not stopping until you’re begging me to fuck you.”
“Roman—please—”
“That’s it, baby. Now moan for me while I own this pussy.”
Ella moaned loudly, hips bucking, and came apart on his tongue, his fingers in her pussy, her fingers fisted in his hair as he licked up every drop of her release.
When he finally moved up her body, he was losing the fight with his own skin—cock heavy and leaking against her thigh, eyes gone fully wolf-gold.
“Roman.” Her hands framed his face, and her eyes flared—not with fear. “Your eyes. They’re—”
“Gold. I know.” His voice had dropped, the human register entirely, gone to gravel and wolf.
“This is what you do to me. The wolf’s right at the surface.
He’s not going to hurt you—he wants you safe more than I do, if that’s possible.
But you should know he’s here.” He caught her hand, pressed his mouth to her palm.
“Tell me that’s all right. Tell me and mean it. ”
“I want all of it,” Ella said. “The man and the wolf. Both. Now, Roman, please.”
He settled between her thighs and pushed the head of his cock into her entrance until he had to stop, gathering his control before pushing forward again, stretching her open around his thick length.
The sound she made—raw, keening—mingled with his guttural groan.
She was scorching, tight, fluttering around every inch as he seated himself fully inside her.
“Breathe, baby.” He kissed her forehead, her eyes, the corner of her mouth. She gasped in air through the overwhelming fullness of him.
Then he moved.
The wolf sang it in his blood—mine, mine, finally, and took over. Gone was the careful, almost guarded strength of Roman. Now, the animal was there, guiding the movements. He felt her meet each thrust and knew neither of them wanted slow and neither of them wanted careful.
He fucked her like he’d been waiting lifetimes—harder when she begged, slower when she hovered right on the edge just to draw it out. Praise poured against her throat.
“Fuck, look at you taking me. So tight. This body was made for my cock. Feel how deep I am? That’s where I belong.
These thick thighs wrapped around me, this belly under my hand, these full tits bouncing every time I drive into you—fuck, Ella, you’re the hottest fucking thing I’ve ever seen.
No one else gets this. No one else ever touches what’s mine. You’re mine. Say it.”
“Yours.” The word was breathless.
He was no longer in control as he took her, man and wolf bleeding into each other. “Milk my cock, come on, baby girl.” He slammed in harder. “Come hard for me.”
She shattered around him, the tight, rhythmic squeeze of her climax dragging him over the edge with her.
Roman buried himself deep and came with a roar, filling her in hot, endless pulses while the wolf howled under his skin.
He buried his face in her neck—close enough to feel her pulse against his lips, close enough that his fangs dropped.
He didn’t allow the knot to form. The wolf snarled its frustration when the man yanked it back.
Looking down at her, he realized he would do this for the rest of his life, if she never wanted the bond.
Why?
Because she was his mate.
And he would protect her with his last breath.