Chapter 1 #2
My mouth went dry as the space between my legs became even more inflamed, my adrenaline mixing with a heady awareness of exactly where this was going to go if he accepted my flirtation.
He didn't take his eyes off of me as he scrolled down to the bottom of the contract without reading the rest, and signed it.
A thrill ran through me, the familiar thrill of closing a deal combined with the anticipation of what would come next.
I knew what courtship with a member of his species entailed.
I had read every word of Lamia's contract, heard about her courtship in detail, and taken the time to write my own contract.
I heard Lamia behind me, gathering the upset women and speaking to them in a low voice, doing damage control.
She knew what I intended. She was prepared to be my wingman and make sure no one called the cops.
I wasn't going to make a move on her mate's brother without talking it over with her, especially when that move meant activity that didn't line up with human ideas of courtship.
Voknar pulled the dagger free, wiped it clean on his shirt, flipped it in his hand to hold the blade, and offered the handle back to me, watching me like he thought I would bolt at any moment.
I took the dagger, then reached out and scrolled back up in the contract to one particular clause.
"Read that one," I said.
He read it. Even though I had stabbed him to get him riled up on purpose, I wanted to make sure he read that particular section.
It was the clause that included my safe words and gestures.
"Understood," he said, his voice holding a heated promise.
Now I could run away.
I turned and headed across the room, my high heels making a satisfied tapping sound against the worn wooden floor as I headed away from the main room that held the stage, down the small hallway that wove between cubicles turned into bedrooms, over to the large window that was propped open.
The back of my neck prickled with the awareness of the eyes of the predator on me.
I knew he would come after me. What I didn't realize was how far I would get.
I climbed out the window onto the black metal fire escape, being careful that my heels didn't slip down in between the slats. I put all my weight into the balls of my feet to keep from risking my heels on the spaces in the metal as I climbed up the stairs.
I felt the slight shudder of the metal railing under my hand as he climbed out onto the fire escape after me.
I made it only halfway to the roof when he caught me. I thought I would make it all the way up there, where it was more private, not here, still on the fire escape, with the entire street down below us and the open window to the party just a short distance away.
But I knew what I had signed up for when I gave him that contract, my own signature already on it.
I knew he would come after me if I ran, and what would happen when he caught me.
I'd been wet for two weeks thinking about it.
He spun me around, large hands on my waist as he lifted me off my feet, placing my back against the old brick of the building's exterior.
My skirt slid up my thighs as he pushed them apart, fitting his body in between my legs as he used his hips to pin me there against the wall, sending waves of heat down into my core as he pressed against me down there.
I grabbed his shoulders, my hands bunching the silk as I clung to him.
The moon was up high in the sky behind him, illuminating the top of his head with a silver glow.
I lifted one leg and saw the edge of the moonlight catch the red sole of my black pumps.
The street below us was empty, the street lamps illuminating the filth and trash that collected along the concrete sides.
"You stabbed me," he growled. "You understand what that means."
It wasn't a question. He knew how well-versed I was on the mating requirements of his species.
I knew that he knew that I knew. Up until I shoved the contract in his face and my blade hit his skin, I could have passed off our conversations as interspecies intellectual curiosity, and he wouldn't have pursued me.
Just talking about something wasn't a promise. Discussion wasn't a commitment.
Signing a contract with blood on the other hand...
"I'll do it again," I gasped back, grabbing for my knife.
This time, when I swung the blade, he caught my wrist, stopping me.
His lips crashed into mine, and I was lost in the sensation of it, of the taste of him, salty with the hint of peppermint from the tea he had been sipping on earlier.
I wasn't expecting it, the sudden connection of his lips on mine.
His species didn't kiss; we had a long dinner conversation about it two nights ago, all while he stared at my lips.
Now he kissed me, an action foreign to him, jolting and rough at first as he kissed me like he was trying to bite me with his lips, only for them to soften against mine as the sudden gasp of breath followed the shock that radiated through both of us.
There was a moment there, eternal and electric, of fire meeting dry kindling, of touch and taste and sound and the edge of his fangs as they brushed my lips.
Then his hands were cupping my butt as he pulled up the fabric of my skirt to expose my thighs to the cold night air, his fingers leaving trails of fire in their wake as he massaged and caressed me, each touch stoking the heat that was building deep within me up into an inferno of need.
He was around me, caging me in, holding me up.
I moaned against his lips as he ground into me, shifting my hips to rub me against his hard length even as his tongue invaded my mouth, chasing after mine.
Then one of his fingers cupping up from underneath found the edge of my underwear.
He pushed it aside, sliding the digit into me, the rough skin dragging against my wet folds as another finger teased circles around the outside, the one inside of me pumping into me, his lips stifling my soft cries as he devoured them, giving me everything I had been fantasizing over the last two weeks.
I had hoped the moment that I gave him the contract and the clear signal that I was interested in him that he would do this, that he would chase me down and take me, marking me with his scent and his seed to indicate to other males in the most primal of manners that he was pursuing me, courting me.
I had hoped, but it wasn't guaranteed.
Conversation wasn't a promise, and just because I attacked him didn't mean he would chase me.
But he had, and now we were here, poised on a rickety fire escape as he pinned me against a wall and fingerbanged me until I could hear the slurping noises of my own wetness and feel the soft head of.
.. oh... he had freed himself. His finger slid out and was replaced by the hard, silken head of his.
.. he wasn't waiting... he was pushing it in, raw and unprotected, sliding into me, steel penetrating my channel as I let out another cry that he devoured with his lips, seizing every part of me as he held me in place, at his mercy, until he was all the way in, seated to the hilt.
I felt his heat as he held it there, waiting for me as I shuddered and clutched around the invasion I had dreamed about.
Then there was no more waiting, no more talking, no more hesitation.
The wet sound of flesh slapping into flesh filled the empty air around us, accented by the metallic creak of the fire escape as he took me, jackhammering me against the wall with humiliating glory, unburdened, primitive ecstasy as he took me where anyone could see.
The exposure, the anticipation, the heat that had been building in me for weeks as I talked with the alien, considering what it would mean if I went forward with my plan, imagining what it would be like to have him on me, in me, taking me like this.
.. all of those thoughts and moments crashed together into one glorious explosion of finally, yes, finally, mine.
I climaxed harder than I'd ever done in my life, my entire body on fire with the pulse of the universe, and he came with me, his lips finally releasing mine as he buried his face in my neck, hunching as his hips pounding me like he could sink into me even deeper as he shuddered and heat filled me, matching the stars that ricocheted through my body.
We remained there like that, him clinging to me, deep within me, my hands lightly stroking his back.
"I've wanted you from the moment I met you," he murmured, his lips tracing the edge of my cheekbone.
Delight painted with victory filled my heart.
Of course, he wanted me.
I was a magnificent woman.
"Good," I said. "Now put me down."