Chapter 37 Theo
THIRTY-SEVEN
THEO
They slipped away an hour later, when the party had reached the self-sustaining phase.
Theo guided Avine through the back door, her hand secure in his.
The night air was cool and salt-sweet, the sky scattered with stars.
He’d been watching her all evening—working the room, accepting congratulations, glowing in ways that made his ribs ache with satisfaction and pride. His mark on her neck. His mate. His.
The Sentinel Lighthouse rose from the bluffs, old stone pale in the moonlight. Malcolm had made himself scarce—probably at the party, charming the fae-touched librarian—and Theo had the key.
“Where are we going?” Avine’s voice carried amusement.
“Somewhere private.” He pulled her closer, his arm around her waist. “I’ve been sharing you all night. I’m done sharing.”
“Possessive.”
“Very.” He kissed her temple. “Problem?”
“None, whatsoever.”
The climb up the spiral stairs was slow, their fingers intertwined. The keeper’s room at the top was small but perfect—windows on every side, the light mechanism dormant above them, Haven Shores spread out below like a scattered jewel box.
Avine moved to the window, the moonlight catching the silver in her hair. Theo stayed where he was for a moment, watching her. Memorizing her.
She’d signed a deed and lit up every ward in town, and he’d been utterly, irrevocably lost.
“You’re staring.” She hadn’t turned around, but he could hear the smile in her voice.
“I’m appreciating.” He crossed to her, sliding his arms around her waist from behind. “I used to come here as a kid.”
She leaned back into him. “And now?”
“Now, I want to show you everything. Every place that mattered to me. Every memory I never thought I’d share with anyone.” He pressed his lips to the mark on her neck, felt her shiver. “You changed everything.”
She pivoted to face him, her palms flattening against his heartbeat. “Mutual destruction of emotional walls.”
“That should be on a greeting card.”
Her laugh was quiet, lovely. “Thank you. For tonight. For the presentation. For—” She broke off.
“I know.” His thumb traced her cheekbone. “I was doing the same thing. Pretending duty was enough. Pretending I didn’t need anything else.” He swallowed. “You made me realize how lonely I was. How much I’d been missing.”
“Theo—”
“Let me finish.” He tipped her chin up, holding her gaze.
“I’ve spent my whole life being what everyone needed.
The Alpha. The protector. The one who fixes things.
And you—” His voice roughened. “You’re the first person who ever asked what I needed.
Who saw past the role to the man underneath.
Who made me want to be more than useful. ”
Her eyes were bright with unshed tears. “You’re more. You’ve always been more. I’m glad you’re finally seeing it.”
He kissed her then—slow, deep, pouring everything he couldn’t say into the press of his lips. She melted into him, her fingers threading through his hair, and her taste was honey and champagne and home.
“I love you.” He breathed the words against her mouth. “I’ll never stop telling you.”
“Good.” She nipped at his lower lip. “Because I’ll never stop wanting to hear it.”
He walked her backward toward the narrow keeper’s bed, his hands finding the hem of her dress.
The fabric was soft, flowing material that slid through his fingers like water.
He gathered it up slowly, savoring the reveal—smooth thighs, the curve of her hip, the lace edge of underwear that made his wolf rumble with approval.
“Beautiful.” He traced the line of lace with one finger. “Have I told you that tonight?”
“Several times.” She was working on the buttons of his shirt, her knuckles brushing his abdomen with each one. “But I don’t mind hearing it again.”
“Beautiful.” He pulled the dress over her head, leaving her in nothing but that scrap of lace and a matching bra. The moonlight turned her skin luminous. “Stunning. Mine.”
“Yours.” She pushed his shirt off his shoulders. “And you’re mine.”
“Absolutely.”
He lowered her onto the bed, covering her body with his.
The first press of skin to skin made them both gasp—her softness against his hardness, her heat seeping into his bones.
He kissed down the column of her throat, pausing at the mark.
His mark. The proof that she’d chosen him, accepted him, let him claim her.
“Theo.” Her back arched as he tongued the sensitive skin. “Please.”
“Not yet.” He unclasped her bra, drawing it away to reveal breasts that fit perfectly in his palms. “I want to take my time tonight.”
“We took our time three hours ago.”
“That was different.” He closed his mouth over one nipple, felt her writhe beneath him. “That was before everyone knew. Before I announced it to the entire town.” His tongue traced circles, drawing whimpers from her throat. “Now I want to celebrate. Properly.”
“By torturing me?”
“By worshipping you.” He switched to her other breast, his hand sliding down her stomach to the waistband of her underwear. “There’s a difference.”
She laughed—breathless, wanting. “From where I’m lying, not much of one.”
He hooked his fingers in the lace and drew it down her legs, tossing it aside. She was bare before him now, flushed and gorgeous and his. He took a moment to look—the curves and planes of her body, the rapid rise and fall of her breathing, the way her thighs pressed in unconscious anticipation.
“Spread your legs for me.” His voice had dropped, rough with need.
She complied, slowly, her breath catching as he positioned himself between her thighs. He kissed the inside of her knee. Her thigh. The crease where leg met hip. She was trembling by the time he reached her center, her fingers tangled in the sheets.
“Theo—”
He licked into her, and she cried out.
She tasted like the sea on a summer day. He explored her thoroughly, learning what made her gasp, what made her moan, what made her hips buck against his mouth. His tongue circled her clit, flicked against it, pressed flat, and stroked until she was keening.
“I can’t—” She panted, her thighs clenching around his head. “Theo, I’m going to—”
“Then do it.” He slid two fingers inside her, curled them, and sucked her clit into his mouth.
She shattered. Her whole body arched off the bed, his name torn from her throat, her inner walls clenching around his fingers in rhythmic pulses. He worked her through it, gentling his touch as the tremors subsided, pressing soft kisses to her thighs.
“Good?” He looked up at her, mouth wet, smug.
“Come here.” She reached for him, pulling him up her body. “Now. I need you now.”
He shed his remaining clothes in seconds, kicking off pants and boxers with graceless efficiency. Her hand found him immediately, wrapping around his length, stroking in a way that made his vision blur.
“Avine.” His hips jerked into her grip. “If you keep doing that—”
“Then you’d better get inside me.” She guided him to her entrance, slick and ready. “I want to feel you.”
He sank into her in one long stroke.
The noise she made was obscene—half moan, half sob, her nails digging into his shoulders. He held still, buried to the hilt, giving her time to adjust. She was tight and wet and burning, and it took every ounce of control he had not to move.
“You feel—” She couldn’t finish the sentence. “God, Theo. You feel—”
“I know.” He kissed her, slow and deep. “I know. You feel like everything.”
He began to move—long, rolling thrusts that dragged against every sensitive spot inside her. This wasn’t the desperate urgency of their first time, the frantic need to claim and mark. This was slower. A conversation in movement. A promise made with bodies instead of words.
She wrapped her legs around his waist, changing the angle, taking him deeper. Her heels dug into his lower back, urging him on. He increased his pace, driving into her harder, drinking in every sound she made.
“Look at me.” His hand cupped her jaw, turning her face to his. “I want to see you when you come.”
Her eyes locked with his—those brown depths he’d fallen into months ago and never wanted to climb out of. He reached between them, found her clit, circled it in time with his thrusts.
“Theo—” She was close. He could see it in the flush spreading across her skin, feel it in the way her walls fluttered around him. “I love you. I love you so much—”
“I love you.” He drove into her harder, his own release building at the base of his spine. “Come for me. Let me see you.”
She broke with a cry, her body clamping down around him like a fist. The pressure was too much—too good—and he followed her over the edge with a groan, spilling into her in hot pulses. The pleasure whited out his vision, blanked his thoughts, left nothing but sensation and her and yes, yes, yes.
They collapsed in a tangle, breathing hard, still joined. Theo rolled to the side, pulling her with him. His arm wrapped around her waist, even in the aftermath.
“That was…” Avine’s voice was wrecked, satisfied.
“Mm.” He nuzzled into her hair. “Agreed.”
“We should probably go back to the party at some point.”
“Probably.” He made no move to leave. “Or we could stay here. Watch the stars. Pretend the rest of the world doesn’t exist.”
“Tempting.” She traced idle patterns on his skin. “But there are two hundred people who will notice if we disappear all night.”
“Let them notice.” He lifted her hand to his lips. “I’m done hiding what you mean to me. What we are.”
She smiled—that slow, private smile that was only for him. “Good. Because I’m done hiding too.”