Chapter 40
Even though it was time for dinner, and everybody was heading into the dining room, Byron took Charlotte’s travel bag and led her to the third floor of the mansion, where his own bedroom was located.
With everybody assembled downstairs, nobody would hear them.
Perhaps nobody—apart from Jude—would even realize that they weren’t in the dining room.
He was utterly grateful to Jude for speaking to Charlotte and paving the way for her to take him back.
He dropped the bag on the floor and locked the door. Nobody would disturb them tonight. Without a word, Charlotte walked into his arms. He could sense the trust she had in him now. He would never break it again, no matter what other hurdles lay ahead.
“I love you,” she murmured and tilted her face up to him.
He looked into her face, letting his gaze roam from her beautiful eyes to her full lips that were parted in anticipation.
He didn’t rush it, didn’t fall upon her like a hungry beast. No, the beast would have to wait.
It would come out later. Right now, the man in him was in charge.
He tightened his arms around her body, pulling her closer so he could feel her breasts caressing his chest, reminding him of what it was like when she gave herself to him. When they surrendered to each other.
With one hand, he brushed over her cheek, caressing her soft skin, and felt the heat emanating from it.
“I love you,” he replied. “More than anybody or anything I’ll ever love.”
Slowly, he brought his lips to hers and brushed over them in a featherlight touch.
He could still taste the salt of her tears on them, but he knew there would be no more tears tonight.
They would become one tonight, a bonded pair for the rest of their lives.
If somebody had told him a week ago that he’d give up his bachelor life for a woman he’d only met a few days ago, he would have told them they were crazy.
But he knew he wasn’t crazy. He was in love.
In love with the only woman he would touch for the rest of his life.
He slid his hand on her nape, then deepened the kiss, delving into her mouth to explore her.
She welcomed him, tasting desire and passion.
Their breaths mingled, and he pulled her even closer.
His cock was already hard and heavy. It had been since the moment they’d entered his bedroom.
It was her fault. Charlotte did this to him.
Her scent and her taste drove him insane with lust. But it was different tonight.
It wasn’t just physical. It wasn’t just lust. It was the knowledge that they would mate tonight.
Charlotte slid one hand onto his ass and yanked him to her, reminding him that she was as strong as he. The she-wolf in her gave her that strength, and he knew she would use it to get what she wanted. What they both wanted.
Even though he wanted to slow things down tonight to make it last, to give them a memory that they would look back at for decades to come, he wasn’t able to stop himself from tearing at her clothes.
She did the same, her fingers undoing the button of his pants, while he tugged at her top and shoved it up.
He interrupted the kiss so he could pull her T-shirt over her head and toss it on the floor.
Before he could take her lips again, she yanked on his shirt, and he heard a ripping sound.
Instead of opening the shirt’s buttons, she’d ripped it in two.
He smirked. “Damn, babe. Looks like you’re impatient.”
He freed himself of his shirt.
“Aren’t you?”
“You’ve got me there.”
He captured her lips for another hungry kiss while he helped her undress him. When she shoved his pants down, he realized that he still wore his shoes. He severed the kiss and proceeded to kick them off to free himself from his pants. But before she could undress him completely, he stopped her.
“Your turn.” He pointed to her jeans. “Don’t mind if I watch.”
She shimmied out of the tight garment, and it looked like she made a few seductive wiggles just to seduce him even further. When she stood in front of him, only wearing her bra and her panties, he stopped her once again.
“I’ll do the rest,” he said with a grin.
“How come?”
“It’s my favorite part.”
She cast him a seductive smile and waited.
He took a breath, forcing himself to move slowly.
Gently, he laid his palms on her breasts.
The black fabric of her bra was so thin that he had no trouble feeling her hard nipples.
He squeezed the firm flesh, eliciting a soft moan from its owner.
She closed her eyes, and her pink tongue came out to lick her lower lip, while she dropped her head back, thrusting her luscious breasts in his direction.
He couldn’t resist and dipped his head down, pressing his face into the valley between them.
He inhaled, drinking in her unique scent, the scent of a she-wolf in heat.
It sent even more blood into his cock, making him harder than a rock.
He wouldn’t last long, he knew that. It was the reason why he had to hurry now. He reached for the bra’s clasp on the back and, by some miracle, was able to open it quickly. Charlotte helped him free herself of the garment and let it fall on the floor. Her panties were easier.
“My turn now,” she announced and slid her palm over the thick bulge beneath his boxer briefs.
A spear of lust shot through his body, making him let out a curse.
“Fuck!”
His patience gone now, he shoved his boxer briefs down, revealing his cock. When he looked back at Charlotte, he noticed the hungry look she raked over him.
“On the bed, now!” he ordered, sounding gruff, even though he didn’t want to. He felt he needed to explain to her why he was behaving like a caveman. “I’m sorry, babe, but I—”
She put a finger across his lips. “Shh. I know.”
Relieved, he watched her as she lay down on the bed, her naked body looking like a luscious dessert on a silver platter. He went to the other side of the bed and opened the drawer of his nightstand.
“Please,” she said, reaching her arms toward him. “I need you now.”
“Just getting a condom.”
He already pulled one out of the drawer, when she shook her head.
“No condom,” she said.
He stared at her, confused for a moment. “But you’re in heat, Charlotte. If we make love without it, it’s pretty much a given that you’ll conceive a child tonight.”
“Yes, our child,” she murmured, and reached out again.
He dropped the condom back into the drawer and joined her on the bed, allowing her to pull him into her arms as he rolled over her and braced himself on his knees and elbows.
“But I thought you didn’t want children yet.”
“I realized something when I thought that you only wanted me to take revenge on Jude.”
She paused for a moment, and he didn’t press her.
“I realized that I want more than to be merely one half of a mated couple; I want to start a family with you. There was never any real reason to wait. I think I was just afraid of the commitment because my parents wanted me to be with somebody whom I didn’t want.
The thought of starting a family scared me, because it felt as if I had to give up part of myself. ”
“I don’t want you to give up something of yourself. I love you the way you are.”
She smiled. “That’s why I know that I won’t have to give up anything. I can have it all. With you. We can have it all.”
Her words filled him with even more love than he thought he would ever feel for anybody.
“You’re more than I deserve,” he said and took her lips in a searing kiss.
Beneath him, she undulated her hips, while she used her hands to draw him closer until the tip of his erection touched the entrance to her pussy.
He felt the warmth and wetness she was greeting him with, and there was no chance of resisting this kind of invitation.
He thrust into her without hesitation and felt her interior muscles imprisoning him.
Making love to her without a condom was more intense than he’d expected.
“Fuck!” he cursed and met her eyes.
Like the seductive vixen she was, she cast him a teasing look. “I like this much better than with the condom, don’t you?”
“You know I do,” he gritted from between his clenched jaws, trying to hold on to his control.
Fuck! He would come too fast, before he could make her climax. All he could hope for was that the rumor was true that the bite of the bonding ritual would make the female climax no matter the state of arousal she was in.
He pulled all the way out of her and took a breath.
“Something wrong?” she asked as she gripped his hips.
“Yes. This is too good.”
She chuckled as if she’d planned it this way. “Then why are you stopping?”
“Who says I’m stopping?”
He plunged back into her, and this time, she was the one who gasped.
Her muscles clenched around his cock, fitting him like a glove one size too small.
He began to move inside her, slower this time, and he felt himself relax a little.
With every thrust and every withdrawal, perspiration gathered on his and Charlotte’s skin, and moans and sighs bounced against the walls.
Their breaths synchronized, and their bodies moved in the same rhythm and tempo, just like their hearts beat as one.
He felt her arousal rise with every movement and gained back his control.
Charlotte’s enticing scent became more intense as the she-wolf inside her demanded her surrender.
He was ready for it. As if she knew what he was feeling, she tilted her head to the side, offering her neck.
He could see the vein pulse beneath her skin, calling to him like a siren called to a sailor.
He lowered his head and licked over the tender skin, gathering her sweet perspiration, and swallowed it.
Taking another breath, he allowed his canines to lengthen and pressed them against her neck until they pierced her skin.
His fangs lodged in her neck, and he took her essence into him, while farther below, his cock jerked, and he shot his semen into her.
A fraction of a second later, Charlotte’s interior muscles spasmed around his still hard cock as she climaxed. Relieved that she had reached her orgasm, he released her neck and licked over the wound. It would heal soon; both his saliva as well as her Lycan genes would make sure of it.
Still rocking gently inside her to let her ride out her climax, he lifted his head and looked at her. Her face was flushed, her lips parted, her eyelids heavy, her eyes only half open. She wore the look of a satisfied woman.
“I’m yours now,” he murmured.
She lifted her hand and caressed his cheek. “And I’m yours.”
It wasn’t just words. He could feel their bond. It was intangible, yet strong. And over the years, it would grow stronger, just like their love.
He’d finally found what he’d been yearning for his entire adult life: somewhere to belong. Because now, he belonged to and with Charlotte. And nobody could take that away from him.