Chapter 2
Rahel
It takes twenty-three minutes for my knot to release. I count every second. I could stay buried in my mate forever, but she’s shivering, coming down from our high. And the shattered door is letting in the fresh February night air.
“Cold?” I murmur against her hair, pulling her tighter into my chest.
“A little.” She nuzzles into my neck, her soft lips brushing my skin. My shadows curl around her, trying to keep my mate warm and shield her from the cold. She sighs contentedly, as if my touch is the most natural thing in the world. Like being held by shadows is fucking normal. My fucking girl.
“Also, I’m pretty sure my ass is numb.” She lets out a quick laugh. “This counter is not very ergonomic.”
I wink. “Noted. Next time I’ll fuck you somewhere that has padding.”
“Such a gentleman.”
My knot finally starts to deflate. Destiny whimpers when I slip out of her, and I clench my jaw, feeling the urge to thrust right back into her heavenly pussy.
My cum leaks out of her, trailing down her glorious thighs, and something primal in me wants to push it back inside. Keep her full. Fucking marked.
Later. I’ll have her again later. Right now, I need to get her somewhere warm. Somewhere MINE. Where she can rest and recharge.
“Can you stand?” I ask, easing her off the counter.
Her legs buckle, but I catch her before she hits the ground, scooping her up against my chest because she weighs close to fucking nothing.
“Guess that’s a no,” she giggles, hiding her face in my jacket.
I kiss the top of her head. “I got you, little one. Always.”
I look around the shop. Her torn clothes are scattered across the floor. The counter is covered in her slick and my cum. The door is in splinters.
Shit.
“My shop…” her pretty eyes widen when she lifts her head and takes in the damage
“I’ll fix it.” I press a kiss to her forehead. “I’ll fix everything. But first, let me take you home.”
“My apartment’s upstairs…”
“Nope. We’re going to my place.”
Des pulls back to look at me. Her big brown eyes searching my face. “Rahel…”
“Just found you, baby.” My voice cracks, but I don’t even care. Centuries of being strong, cold, alone, and this woman breaks me wide open in one fucking night. “I need you close, in my fucking space, in my bed, where I can touch you, feel you… know you’re fucking real.”
Her expression softens with that sunshine smile that makes my dead heart beat again.
“Okay,” she whispers. “Take me home, Alpha.”
I find a blanket in her back office and wrap her in it, careful to cover every inch of exposed skin. She looks ridiculous. Like a burrito with curves. But she’s warm and mine, and that’s all that fucking matters.
“Wait here,” I tell her, setting her back on the worktop.
“You’re leaving me naked in my shop with a broken door?”
I smile. “For thirty seconds.” I cup her face, running my thumb over the soft skin of her cheek. “Leaving my shadows with you. Anyone who tries to touch you dies.”
Her eyes widen comically as two tendrils of darkness protectively curl around her body before I step outside.
My bike is where I left it … abandoned in the middle of the street from when I caught Destiny’s scent. My brothers, long gone. They probably think I finally lost it. And they’re not wrong.
I grab my helmet and ride back to the shop. When I walk back inside, Destiny’s exactly where I left her, wrapped in the blanket, my shadows hugging her.
“Ready?” I help her stand, keeping the blanket secure around her shoulders. “Hold on tight.”
She’s got nothing on under the blanket. Just soft, warm, thoroughly fucked omega pressed against my back. Her arms wrap around my waist, her thick thighs squeezing my hips, and my cock jumps in my jeans.
Down, boy. First, we need to get our girl home.
“Rahel?” Her voice is muffled against my leather jacket.
“Yeah, baby?”
“Your shadows are touching me.”
I grin wickedly. “I know.”
* * *
Destiny
I should probably be concerned about riding through downtown Carmel butt-naked on the back of a giant biker-incubus’s motorcycle.
Instead, I’m trying not to moan. Because Rahel’s shadows are definitely touching me.
Sliding under the blanket like curious fingers, trailing up my thighs, circling my nipples, teasing the sensitive skin behind my ears.
It’s like being caressed by warm smoke. Everywhere at once.
“You okay back there?” His voice carries over the rumble of the engine.
“Your shadows are… AH!” One of them flicks my clit and I jerk against his back. “Rahel!”
His laugh is pure evil. “Just keeping you warm, baby.”
“That’s not… oh, God…” Another flick, this time, followed by a slow, torturous circle. “That’s not just keeping me warm!” I protest.
“No?” I can hear the smirk in his voice. “You feel pretty warm to me. Hot, even.”
Asshole’s right. My heat had calmed a bit after he knotted me, but now it’s building again. Like a burn down to my core that keeps growing with every second.
“How far is your place?” I groan.
“Ten minutes.”
“I’ll be dead in ten minutes.”
He lets out a booming laugh. “You’re not going to die, baby.” This time, his shadow slips inside me … just an inch, enough to make me clench … and I bite down on his jacket to muffle my scream. “You’re going to be a good girl and hold it until I get you in my bed.”
“I hate you,” I whimper.
“No, you don’t.”
No, I really don’t.
The ten minutes feel like ten hours.
By the time Rahel pulls into an underground parking garage, I’m a trembling, slick-soaked mess clinging to his back. His shadows haven’t stopped their assault the entire ride. Teasing, stroking, thrusting just enough to drive me fucking insane, but never enough to let me come.
When he parks his bike, I’m putty in his hands.
“Easy.” He catches me as I slide off, my legs refusing to cooperate. “I got you.”
“You’re evil,” I hiss at my alpha. “An actual evil demon.”
“Incubus,” he corrects with a wide grin, lifting me into his burly arms again.
I huff. “What’s the difference?”
Still smiling down at me, all sharp fangs and glowing eyes, he replies in his sexy, raspy voice, “Demons just want your soul. I also want your heart and every fucking inch of your gorgeous body.”
We both laugh as I smack his chest.
Rahel holds me against his chest with my head tucked under his chin, his shadows finally giving me a break, while the elevator climbs and climbs and climbs…
“Dude, how high is your apartment?” I finally ask.
He chuckles, pressing his full lips to my temple. “Penthouse.”
I pull back to stare at him with a teasing smirk. “Well, excuse you.”
He shakes his head, his massive shoulders still shaking from laughter. “I’ve been alive for five hundred years, little one. Compound interest.” The bastard winks.
Then the elevator dings. The doors slide open.
And my jaw drops. Because this place is mind-blowing.
With floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the city, the lights of Carmel spread out below us.
Dark tones, hardwood floors, exposed brick, expensive-looking furniture.
In the kitchen, marble countertops and appliances that probably cost more than my entire shop.
Real art on the walls, not prints. And everything is fucking massive, matching his size.
The huge leather sectional, the dining table, the gigantic bed I can see through an open doorway.
“This is where you live?” I ask, looking around wide-eyed.
“This is where we live now, omega.” Rahel sets me down gently, keeping one arm around my waist.
I look up at him. This huge, scarred, tattooed monster who broke down my door, knotted me on my shop’s counter, and drove me across town while his shadows edged me within an inch of my sanity.
And he’s looking at me like I might say no.
Like he’s fucking nervous. Grumpy, growly, scary-ass supernatural biker… and he’s worried I could reject him.
“Rahel.” I cup his face in my hands, feeling the scratch of his stubble against my palms. “I just let you knot me in my chocolate shop. You marked me. I’m yours, baby.”
His exhale is shaky with relief. “Yeah?”
“Yes, Alpha.” I pull him down for a kiss.
Deep, wet, soft. Then he groans into my mouth, and there’s nothing soft between us anymore.
The blanket that was covering me drops to the floor.
His big, strong, burning-hot hands find my hips, my ass, lifting me against his enormous body.
I wrap my legs around his waist, feeling his hard cock strain against his jeans.
“Bed,” I gasp against his lips. “Now.”
He doesn’t need to be told twice. In two giant strides, we’re inside an enormous bedroom. Its size is all I register before Rahel’s laying me down on stark white sheets that feel like fucking heaven against my skin.
He stands at the edge of the bed, staring down at me with fucking feral eyes. His amber irises tracing every curve, every roll, every stretch mark on my big-girl self.
“What?” I resist the urge to cover myself. “Why are you looking at me like that?”
“Because I spent months dreaming of you.” He pulls his jacket off, and my mouth goes dry. Broad shoulders, thick arms covered in tattoos, scars crisscrossing his skin like a road map of a lifetime of violence. “And now you’re in my bed. Real. Mine.”
He yanks his shirt over his head and sweet baby Jesus.
His body is… massive, ripped. Every muscle defined, like he was carved from fucking granite. More tattoos across his chest, his abs, disappearing into the waistband of his jeans. With a trail of short, dark hair traveling down…
“See something you like, little omega?” The arrogant bastard smirks.
“Shut up and take off your pants.”
He lets out a low chuckle that goes straight to my clit, then pops the button on his jeans.
The pants drop, reminding me he’s not wearing anything underneath. And his magnificent cock springs free. Thick and hard, with yummy precum pearling at the tip, and the base already starting to swell.
My pussy clenches, more slick coating my inner thighs and soaking his fancy sheets.
“Rahel…” My voice comes out throaty, fucking needy. “Please.”
He crawls on the bed, prowling over me like a freaking predator stalking his prey. His immense body caging mine, all supernatural heat, hard, bulging muscles, and barely contained power.
“Please, what, baby?” He growls close to my face, then dips his head, dragging his tongue up the sensitive skin of my neck. “Tell me what you need.” Yep, pure pleasure devil.
“You.” I wrap my arms around his neck, pulling him closer. “I need you, Alpha.”
His answering growl vibrates through my entire body.
“Then let me feed, little one.” He slides through my drenched folds, the thick head of his cock nudging my entrance. “Let me feast on your fucking perfect cunt until neither of us can fucking move.”
Then he pushes inside.