Chapter 23 Aurora #4
My head snaps up. Extra-curricular activities? Please. This man has literally been having sex longer than written language has existed.
I cross my arms, glaring at him. “Ezra. Do you honestly think I’m that na?ve?”
He blinks, startled by my anger.
“First of all, look at you,” I deadpan. “You’re like if sin and lust had a love child and set it loose on the world.”
Ezra’s mouth twitches, the ghost of a smile threatening to break through.
“Second, you really think billions of years without sex would’ve made you this smooth? You’d be fucked up. You’d be an incel. Just because I lack experience doesn’t mean I’m not painfully aware of your past conquests.”
I wish I wasn’t blushing, but I am. Furiously.
Ezra’s eyes flicker with amusement, but then … he leans in. His nose trails up my neck, breath warm, his voice dark and liquid, meant for filthy promises and bad decisions.
“Darling … you didn’t fuck my fingers just now like you ‘lack experience.’”
His hands tighten on my waist, guiding my hips against him, pressing me down against the rigid length straining beneath his jeans.
“And you are correct.” His voice is rough, stripped down to something raw. “I apologize if I made you feel like anything other than the goddess you are.”
His shadows wind tighter, coiling around my thighs, sliding up my back in silent agreement.
“The men and women from my past?” Ezra continues, his fingers dragging deliberately along my jaw, tilting my face to his. “They were idle dalliances. A way to pass the time.”
His grey eyes burn hotter as he moves my hand to his stiff cock.
“You, little lupine …” He guides my fingers along the hard ridge through his jeans. “Are something different altogether.”
“Men and women?” I don’t mean for it to sound breathless. But it is.
Ezra goes still, a wicked smirk curling across his face.
Oh, fuck me. He knows exactly what that reaction means.
“Mmm.”
His hips flex into my palm, just enough to watch me react.
I don’t move. I don’t blink. My fingers tighten around him, barely perceptible, but Ezra feels it.
His grin turns razor-sharp. “That intrigues you, doesn’t it?”
I open my mouth. Close it.
Lie, lie, lie, I chant in my head like it might save me.
Ezra leans in. His nose trails along my jaw, his lips brushing my ear as he exhales the next words with a hunger that knows no shame.
“Does the thought of me with another man make you wet, Aurora?”
I squeeze my thighs together, gripping him just a little harder.
His deep, knowing chuckle vibrates against my skin. “It does.”
I swallow hard, my pulse echoing loudly in my ears.
Ezra’s voice is a whisper, every word soaked in filth, slipping slowly over my skin like he wants me to come from the sound of his teasing alone.
“I wonder what you’re picturing right now.”
His fingers tighten on my hips, pressing me down.
“Are you imagining my hands on him?”
His nose ghosts along my cheek, his lips barely grazing mine.
“Or his hands on me?
R.I.P., Aurora Hagan. Died from the sheer filth spewed by an ancient shadow monster.
I whimper. Another pathetic fucking whimper.
“Ahh, there’s my answer. Fucking perfect.”
My eyes squeeze shut. “Why are you like this?”
“I’m like this because you’re mine. And I want to please you … pleasure you … in every way you desire, sweet girl.”
Finally, his lips claim mine, and the sweet, sharp taste of his centuries of longing coats my tongue.
And me? I fucking melt.
But suddenly, Ezra’s shadows lash out, snapping and slamming into walls with enough force to rattle the bookshelves. It feels like a split-second response to danger only they seem to sense.
A tremor hums through the air, too faint to name.
Then—
Ding-dong!
Ezra’s grip tightens, his breath catching sharp in his chest. His shadows pulse once before slowly curling back into him.
Another chime.
A sharp snarl rips from his throat, his teeth bared before he even realizes he’s doing it.
I blink, breathless, still gripping his cock. “Do you need to get that?”
“No,” Ezra growls. “They can wait, or they can fuck off.”
A muffled voice echoes from outside.
“Cú Allaidh! I come seeking the favor you owe me!”
Ezra stops breathing. Every inch of him holds, wound tight in a silence that feels too still.
It’s not the kind of silence that comes before the violence.
It’s the kind that means something is already here.
The voice has a slight Spanish accent, polished and confident with just enough arrogance to make it grating.
“Please open up, or my draughs will break down the door. I would hate for our reunion to begin on such negative terms.”
Ezra’s shadows detonate. They slam into the walls again, knocking books to the floor—hungry to consume the space, or rip it apart.
Others coil around me, winding close and trembling with tension, trying desperately to shield me from whatever comes next.
Ezra mutters a furious string of curses as he lifts me gently off his lap and rises to his feet. His shadows tighten, the last thread of restraint holding him back from tearing through the door.
“Ezra?” My voice is barely a breath.
He exhales through his nose, dragging a hand through his hair.
“It’s nothing,” he says softly, but there’s an edge to it. “Just something from my past.”
You’d think billions of years on Earth would have made him a better liar.
Ezra straightens, and I catch his human mask slip for a split second, revealing the monster underneath.
I should be terrified. Instead I feel safe … okay, and a little turned on.
“You might as well meet him, Aurora.” His tone is smooth and careful. “It’s possible he might have information on the Disciples. Though … should you intend to claim your title, he may not respond kindly. He considers himself a leader in our world.”
I exhale sharply, already exhausted. “Great. But who, or what, is he?”
Ezra’s jaw tightens.
He hesitates, then says evenly, “He’s a vampire.”
Huh.
Vampires.
Well, that’s just fan-fucking-tastic.