Chapter 62 Tethered #2
Not only had he gained an inch or two, but he looked thicker.
I blew out a nervous breath, cupped his cheek, and kissed him once before he trailed kisses down my neck and breasts.
The sound of ripping fabric joined our heavy breathing as he tore through the sleep shorts I’d changed into. He pulled them away and tossed them aside.
My brows drew together as his claws retracted, leaving his natural nails black.
“We can retract our claws if needed.”
“Well, that’s good to know—ahh!”
My eyes rolled back in my head when his thick fingers filled me.
He buried his nose in my neck. “I don’t want to wait.” He kissed beneath my ear, his fingers curling inside me. “And it feels like you don’t need any help getting ready.”
I bucked my hips when the heel of his hand pressed to my clit.
He groaned when I wrapped my hand around his shaft and gave him a firm stroke, using the slickness of his precum as lube.
The bead at the tip made me pause, reality smacking me in the face.
“Ash,” I said in warning.
He lifted his head, stilling his fingers inside me.
“I’m not on birth control… and you have to—”
“Fuck,” he growled, dropping his head.
“It’s okay. I can get a pill again tomorrow.”
I’d need to figure out a long-term solution once in Elyrdin, or at least make sure the infernal plane had condoms.
“Or you can drink my blood too,” he whispered, lifting his head. “But I’d rather…”
“Rather?” I knew the answer, but I wanted to hear what he would say. How he would say it.
“I’d rather mark you both inside and out. Leave a piece of myself everywhere.”
I reached for his horn, wrapping my hand around the warm curve. He groaned, his cock jumping in my other hand.
“Yeah, I’m not coming like this.”
I squealed when he lifted me, spinning us until he lay on his back, head resting on my pillows. I straddled his waist. But before I could line myself up with his cock, his fingers tightened on my waist. I glanced at him in question.
“Sit on my face.”
“What?” I squeaked.
“I want to taste you again.”
“Ash… your horns.” I wasn’t on board with stabbing myself in the thighs.
He cursed. “Sorry. I’ve never… not in my alternate form.”
“Wait. Really? You’ve never had sex looking like this?”
“No.” He sat up and guided me onto my back, kneeling between my legs. “I’ll never let anyone but my mate see me like this while I make love to them. And certainly not for a quick fuck.”
My heart skipped at the declaration.
Lowering his upper body between my legs, he dragged his tongue through my slit. I whimpered at the contact, wiggling my hips to encourage him to do it again.
His lips wrapped around my clit and sucked hard as he buried two fingers in the warmth of my body, causing my back to arch off the bed.
I clawed at the headboard as he took me apart with his fingers and mouth.
His free hand slid over my hip, across my stomach, and up to my breast, toying with my nipple without lifting his mouth from me.
“Ash,” I whined, repeating his name three more times before my breath hitched and the telltale flutters of an impending orgasm rippled through my core.
“That’s it, Little Blackbird. Come for me.”
The growl against my sensitive flesh became my undoing.
I shattered.
His arm curled over the top of one of my shaking thighs while I squirmed and bucked against his continued thrusts as he saw me through my orgasm, never releasing my clit from his mouth.
Only when my muscles stopped contracting did he withdraw his fingers and sit back on his heels. I moaned as he sucked his fingers into his mouth and groaned, eyes rolling back.
He moved over me, bracketing my body with his arms as he held himself above me.
I lifted a shaking hand to one of his horns and petted it, barely finding the energy after he sucked my soul out through my clit.
“Are you okay?” He brushed his thumb across my cheek. “I didn’t hurt you, did I?”
“No.” I laughed. “I’m more than okay.”
He looked at the bite mark on my breast with a grimace.
“Ash, marking me doesn’t mean you hurt me.” I reached for him, pulling him down into a hug, avoiding stabbing myself on his horns. “Love bites aren’t painful. At least that one wasn’t.”
“No?”
“No.”
He sat back with a smile, his chest puffing a little.
“What?”
“When we share a deep bond, things like my bite turn pleasurable. It’s another physical example of our connection beyond the mate bond. Even a mate’s bite hurts if you’re not emotionally connected.”
I sniffed, eyes stinging.
Another example of where magic didn’t control our feelings.
He bent and kissed across my breasts again, running his calloused hands down my waist to my hips, squeezing.
I placed my hand on the side of his face when he looked up at me, fingers sinking into his trimmed beard.
“Are you ready? Because I don’t want to go another minute without making you mine in every way I can.” He kissed the palm of my hand. “Please,” he murmured against my skin.
“I’m ready.”
Nothing short of a hurricane would stop me from binding myself to him right now.
He shifted between my legs, took his thick shaft in his hand, and glided his cock through the slickness of my slit, coating himself before notching his cockhead at my entrance.
“Ash, please,” I begged when he paused to look at my face. I felt dizzy with need.
Instead of speaking, he answered by pressing forward into me.
His groan mirrored mine as he sank deep until his pelvis met mine.
He waited, giving me a moment to adjust to the tight fit. Even with my arousal, his size was a lot to handle. I’d never been with a man his size—in every way.
My muscles clenched and fluttered, eager to have a repeat of earlier.
He braced his hands on either side of my head, fingers curling around the pillow as he withdrew. He set an unhurried pace. The spike in his scent and the ecstasy written on his face told me he savored every thrust.
When I rocked my hips against him, urging him to quicken his pace, he grinned and punched his hips forward, making my body scoot up the bed on a gasp.
“More,” I demanded.
“Who am I to deny the love of my life?”
My back bowed when he lifted himself, grabbing my hips in his big hands, plowing into me again and again like he wanted to imprint himself inside of me.
He’d always acted afraid of hurting me—of being rough—but it didn’t feel like he feared that right now. I knew he wouldn’t hurt me, anyway. Maybe he finally trusted himself.
He leaned over me when I reached for him, allowing me to grab hold of both of his horns to hold on for the ride.
His skin glistened with sweat, and it dripped from his nose onto my chest as he kept up his toe-curling pace. His long hair stuck to his shoulders and chest. He looked magnificent in his alternate form—all hard muscles and sharp edges.
“Fuck.” He groaned. “What are you thinking right now?”
“Huh?” I dragged my eyes away from his body to look into his black eyes.
“Your perfume is stronger, and your insides are choking the life out of my cock.” Another long groan left him when I clenched around him in response, making him pause his thrusts. “Tell me.”
I ran my hands over his tattooed arms and across his sweat-slick chest, stopping on the mark on his ribs that resembled mine. “You’re gorgeous,” I whispered.
He snapped his hips forward and took me again at a slower pace—but still one that made my toes curl. I’d never known pleasure like the kind Ash showed me.
Even in the throes of desire, he checked in with me, touching me with love and reverence.
Never had I felt so beautiful and loved as I did in the arms of a being humans taught me to fear as evil.
He slowed his thrusts, but didn’t stop, looking at me in question.
I shook my head. “I’m fine.” I swiped a tear away. “I’m just thinking about how much I love you.”
He lowered his upper body to mine, tucking his face in my neck, breathing in my scent. “I love you, Rae. I’m so close. Are you ready for this?”
I wrapped my legs around his hips and grasped both horns with my hands. I angled my head to give him room to bite me.
His thrusts grew urgent, my body jolting with every raw snap of his hips. It didn’t take long for my body to respond when his fangs sank into the soft spot between my neck and shoulder.
The sweeping pleasure triggered by his bite sent me hurtling over the edge.
I slapped my hand over my mouth to stifle the scream as my body convulsed with the intensity of my orgasm, spots dancing in my vision.
His rhythm faltered before he stilled, groaning, his cock twitching inside of me as he came.
Though he didn’t drink much, his tongue on the bite triggered another small orgasm. He hissed in response.
We stayed locked together for a while, catching our breath.
As we remained still, with nothing but the sounds of our heavy breaths, something changed.
An overwhelming sense of need, love, and home washed over me and brought tears to my eyes. It only intensified when Ash’s bay rum and cinnamon scent spiked in the room as if he knew what I was experiencing.
“Rae,” he breathed into my neck. “It’s incredible.” He laughed. “It’s everything. More than I could have ever dreamed it’d be.”
I stroked his beard when he lifted his head to peer down at me, no longer in his alternate form. “What is this?”
“Our souls are tethered together now. We can feel each other’s deepest wants and needs.”
“Like read minds?”
“Not telepathy, no. It’s like an idea.”
“Home,” I whispered.
His eyes rounded before softening. “Yeah, Rae. Family. I’ve only had the guys, but… there’s just some holes they can’t fill.” His thumb brushed the tear that slipped down my temple.
To think that something he needed and wanted all this time was something I’d thought I’d never have again after losing my parents and Grandma. Something I thought I could never give someone else because of the things I saw. But it turned out the things I saw brought me what I’d lost in the end.
When his cock softened, he slid out and collapsed beside me, drawing me into his arms.
I didn’t know what the future held, but I knew deep down that the step I’d taken with Ash was the right one. Everything else I’d deal with as it came along.
At least now I knew I wouldn’t face the future alone.