Chapter 23 - Damian
I sit staring at the table, specifically Sophie’s unfinished meal, listening to the sounds of her movements as she enters her bedroom and shuts the door.
There’s still more movement, some shuffling about the floorboards, until it stops, and I can tell she’s gone to bed.
I let out a drawn-out sigh, as if I’d been holding my breath until I was certain she was safe.
Safe from me?
Maybe.
I guess that’s what this is about. Protecting her from me. She can take care of herself when it comes to the demons—she’s proven that time and again—but when it comes to me, to us, she’s always getting her heart broken.
I’d hate to see it happen again.
But I think I’m doing just that by keeping my distance. I saw the sadness in her eyes just now, saw the pain tearing through her while she tries to fight it. I saw her heart breaking all over again, and I hate myself for it.
I slide the chair back and get to my feet, my ankles feeling like they’re being held by the leaded weights I’ve secured around them with my hesitation. Grunting, I drag myself to the bar cabinet in the kitchen, muttering a string of curses at myself as I pour out a glass of whiskey.
The spicy sweetness of oak travels down my throat, burning my irritation away only mildly before the liquor burns out of my system thanks to my wolf’s quick-working metabolism. I pour myself another glass, then another, staggering back to the table for my fourth. Or the rest of this bottle.
I’m drinking myself to shit. That’s what I’m doing.
Or at least, attempting to do that, so I don’t wallow in self-loathing simply because I’m too much of a coward to take things further with Sophie.
Maybe it’s because I promised myself that I wouldn’t until she was ready.
But then, didn’t she make it sound like she is?
The bottle is empty, and I need another one, my head spinning, but not enough to push the intrusive thoughts away. I’d been so close to kissing her the other night, and now all I can do is think about her lips, imagining what would have happened if we weren’t interrupted.
Groaning, I stand up to get another bottle, pulling open the cabinet door and sulking behind it as I choose my next fighter.
I’m still deliberating between vodka and another whiskey bottle when I hear padding footsteps approaching.
I stick my head out to the side, only to see Sophie eyeing me suspiciously.
“Oh, so now you’re punishing yourself…” Sophie scoffs before she proceeds to the sink, glancing at the empty bottle on the table as she passes it. But it’s like she can read my thoughts and feelings even without telepathy.
“I’m not punishing myself,” I defend, brows furrowing as I step away from the cabinet and turn to face her, bracing my hands on the counter on either side of me, acting calm when inside, I’m losing my mind.
She’s wearing a silk nightdress in a shade of white that softens her features while adding to her ethereal allure. Gazing at her instantly sobers me up, but sends me into a spiral of sinful thoughts.
She turns to me with a glass of water in hand, eyes burning into my soul as if she still reads my mind, and I feel like I’m being accused of a heinous crime.
“I can’t do this anymore…” she says, shaking her head as she takes an angry sip of water. “I can’t.”
“You…do you want to leave?” I ask, voice trembling the way my heart does.
“Leave?!” Sophie exclaims with a bitter, raw chuckle as she flings her glass into the sink and turns to me, stepping closer and narrowing her eyes at me. Heat seems to permeate from her pores, and it feels like anger.
“I am here, Damian! I am right here! I accepted everything that was needed of me, and I chose to stay here, because of you,” Sophie huffs, tucking her hair behind her ears with rigorous force as she narrows her eyes at me.
“Training. The clinic. The demons. All of it. For you! And you have the nerve to tell me that you’re afraid?
You’re a coward, Damian. That’s what you are. ”
She breathes as if a weight has lifted from her shoulders, but she doesn’t stop glaring at me fiercely.
All I can do is stare at her thoughtfully, blinking as I try to find the right response.
I deserve it. Every bitter word of resentment, I deserve it all and so much more.
But when she’s standing right in front of me, challenging me with that look in her eyes, and tempting me with the scent of her pheromones that fill the air, something inside me shifts.
“You’re right, I am a coward,” I say, stepping forward and towering over her until she has to crane her neck to stay locked with my eyes. “But it’s only ‘cause if I kissed you again, I wouldn’t be able to stop.”
Her breath hitches, and the anger in her eyes instantly extinguishes, her lips softening when they part. I take another step forward, shielding her face from the overhead light so that the only thing she sees is the genuine desire in my eyes.
“Damian…” she breathes, flustered as she blinks at me.
“Yes, Sophie?”
“I never said it would be a problem. If you never stopped, I mean.”
She gulps hard as I reach a hand up to cup her cheek, pupils dilating, her lips parting on a sigh as my fingers touch her cheek, sliding back to cradle her face in my palm.
“I know it isn’t a problem for you…” I whisper as I lean forward, our eyes locked, breaths mingling in the air between us. “But it’s a problem for me. You turn me into a madman, Sophie…crazy…I am wild for you, don’t you see?”
Sophie leans into my touch, nuzzling her face into my palm and letting out a breath that sounds and feels more like a sigh of relief.
That’s all it takes—her one breath—that undoes me, and I crush my lips to hers in a fervent, passionate kiss that feels like a reunion between our souls.
Our lips and tongues dance in sync as I push her up against the kitchen counter, the beast unleashing from deep within with a rumbling growl that pushes itself from my chest out and into Sophie’s mouth.
I break the kiss to catch my breath, only because the sensations rushing through me feel like a rush or a high, like my soul is leaving my body and ascending to a plane where everything can be felt in my spirit.
Sophie feels it, too—I can see it in her eyes, the way the chocolate-brown depths glow with flickers of light reminiscent of her scarlet powers.
“Wow…” I breathe out in awe, my cock twitching in the tight restraints of my pants as I slide my hands to the voluptuous mounds of her rear, bending just enough to let her feel the pressure of my erection against her pelvis. “You really are the most beautiful creature in the world.”
Sophie blushes as she slides her hands up my chest and over my shoulders, then hooks them over my neck as she breathes against my lips, mewling and moaning as I gently sway my hips, gyrating against her.
I squeeze her mounds firmly, then lift her off her feet and seat her on the kitchen counter, a hand sliding through her hair as I pull her in for another kiss.
Her thighs are draped around me, clutching me between her legs as I rock my hips against her, letting her feel the pressure of my arousal against her clothed core.
The hem of her nightgown rides up her thighs, leaving her exposed with just the thin fabric of her lace panties between us, allowing me to feel the heat between her legs, the arousal pooling at the crotch with sticky warmth.
My body responds instinctively, pulse racing, skin prickling with the heat of a thousand suns, as if Sophie is setting me on fire with her magic.
All she’s doing is igniting my soul with her delicate fingers, working on the buttons of my shirt.
I slide a hand across her jaw, my thumb pressing on her kiss-swollen bottom lip.
I pull it down gently, relishing in the way she looks up at me through the veil of her long, dark lashes, a seductive vixen with the power to set me on fire.
“Wait…” I say through the heady moment, needing to catch myself before I explode with all the arousal coursing through my veins like adrenaline. Even my wolf feels like it’s going to jump out, and I can’t shift in my kitchen with Sophie right here.
Chuckling lightly, I press my forehead against Sophie’s while I scoop her toward me and lift her off the counter, then carry her toward my bedroom.
She stares at me with a certain curiosity, her bottom lip tucked neatly between her teeth as I carry her toward the bed, one hand secured behind her back even as I lay her down.
Whatever is happening right now is the turning point in our relationship, and I can’t rush things with her.
So much has happened in this past month, and Sophie has become a different person, the destroyer of demons and the fated mate I needed to become strong again so that my pack could be strong again.
But she’ll always be my Sophie.
She’ll always be the doe-eyed girl from Hamilton who stole my heart and changed my life. She changed the man I used to be, and turned me into the man I am now—the man who’s about to worship between her thighs.
And Goddess knows that I’m about to worship her…
So, I begin by peeling off the thin straps of her nightgown, removing the flimsy material from her gorgeous curves, exposing her smooth, golden flesh, my eyes raking over her body with appreciation.
She’s biting her bottom lip again, a seductive glint in her eyes as she watches me with anticipation, and I climb between her thighs, settling between them.
One arm braced at the side of her head, I stroke the hair away from her face, gazing deeply into her eyes before I kiss her tenderly.
The kiss is sweet in both taste and motion, and it builds a knot in the pit of my belly, as if I’m feeling what Sophie is feeling. It’s like I can sense it through the mate bond that doesn’t hum now, but screams at me, my inner wolf purring as I take to kissing the other parts of her body.
I begin with her jaw, then her neck, her scent gland oozing the sweetness in copious amounts, driving my imagination wild with the thought of marking my claim with my canines sinking into her flesh. Instead, I pepper open-mouthed kisses there, not wanting to frighten her with marking her yet.
It’s too soon, and tonight should be all about pleasing her. I know that when it comes to the real mating ceremony and marking her as my mate and luna of this pack, she’ll be ready, and she’ll ask to cross that line herself.
Just like she crossed this line on her own, willingly, no need to force her the way I forced her to the valley and into a marriage. I should have known that fate would eventually prevail, and that I’d finally have her where I could love her.
Right under me, where her body becomes pliant beneath mine, and her breaths match every kiss I lay upon her flesh. The sounds are a symphony, and the chorus breaks out when I reach the apex of her thighs when I tug on her panties, drawing them off her legs.
I return my face there, breathing cool air against the warm, moist flesh of her folds, smirking when her body reacts, and she shudders. As her body vibrates, I plant my lips over her bundle of nerves, suckling as she cries out my name.
Every droplet of her slick arousal tastes like my sustenance, the only thing keeping me alive, and I don’t stop feasting with my tongue and my fingers until she cries out my name and her walls burst with the flood of her orgasm.
She grabs my face to pull me up, crushing her lips to mine without giving herself a moment to breathe.
One hand reaches between us to hastily pull at my drawstring, but her trembling fingers can’t get anywhere.
I help her, pulling my pants down while she continues riding out her high against my lips until I’m inside her.
“Oh, Damian!” she moans when she breaks the kiss abruptly, throwing her head back as her walls bloom and open up for me. I sink every last inch inside her, filling her to the brim and pausing to take a moment to stare into her eyes.
I see the whole world in her eyes, and my heart skips a beat, and my soul is reignited with the love I have always felt for her. It’s always been there, even when I tried to fight it, and as I make sweet love to her, I realize that this is exactly what this is.
It's love.
Sophie stares at me with eyes full of fondness, and it feels as if she's reflecting that love, feeling it too, as we both climb to the pinnacle of our lovemaking and reach climax together.
There's a fullness that spreads through my bones, through my very being, as I spill hot ropes of cum deep inside her, and her walls convulse around my length, milking me for every last drop.
I roll onto my side, gathering Sophie with me and pulling her against my chest. When I press a kiss to the top of her head, she sighs, and there's no fear that she might run away like the last time. She'll still be here in the morning, and that quiet reassurance follows me into sleep.