Chapter 14 #2
“Why?” she asked. “Why not? Why last night and not now? Am I really…” She breathed out harshly before pushing away from me and jumping to her feet. She’d taken several steps away by the time I’d scrambled up after her.
My body was cold from where she’d left me. She crossed her arms, effectively blocking herself off from me. Her head was turned sharply to the side, her gaze looking anywhere but at me.
My mind raced back through everything I knew about her, everything Aiden had told me, and the thought hit me so hard I was nearly out of breath.
She thought I was rejecting her.
“Skye,” I started as I stood, but she shook her head.
“Just be honest with me. I can’t take this anymore.”
“Honest about what, darling? I’ll answer any question you have.”
Skye’s eyes darted toward mine before dropping to the ground.
“Why didn’t you come meet me when you found out who I was? Why were you just following me and then…why did…y-your dad–”
I growled, because nothing made me angrier than the knowledge that my fucking father had met and spoken to and touched my Key before me.
Skye’s lip wobbled, and I was on her in a blink, moving through the shadows from the trees overhead to get to her quicker. I pulled her against me as she gasped, one of my hands going to the back of her head and the other to her lower back, effectively squishing her against me.
Although, she wasn’t really squished. She actually fit against me quite well, maybe even perfectly. I could already foresee how well she’d fit when we were elsewhere, in a different position, doing–
“Rafe,” Skye whispered, and I snapped out of my dirty thoughts.
Right. Comforting. Not claiming.
“Darling,” I replied. “You think I don’t want you? You think I stayed away from you because I was disappointed in what I’d seen?”
Skye trembled against me. She was horrifically self-conscious over something, something related to this insecurity specifically, and I couldn’t understand why.
Was Wyatt really the reason for this? Had his rejection really done this much damage to her self-esteem?
I mentally doubled the amount of sucker punches I owed him.
“You’re perfect,” I whispered, right near her ear. “Perfect for Aiden, perfect for me. In different ways, of course, but perfect all the same.”
Skye relaxed slightly, though her shoulders were still rigid.
More praise?
“You’re beautiful,” I went on. “Devastatingly so. You’re intelligent. Observant. Kind.” Her shoulders relaxed even more, and I continued, running my hand up and down her spine slowly. “You’re so good to your friends. So loyal. And you’re so good to Aiden–”
“Don’t pretend you care about that,” Skye said, her voice muffled by my chest.
I chuckled. “I do care about that, very much so. Aiden isn’t just one of your Links, he’s one of my Link-mates.
I’ve known the little shit since I was a child and he’s never been so settled, so confident.
You did that, love. I don’t feel jealousy for it at all, only…
anticipation. I can’t wait to see how you change me, in time. ”
Skye shifted, pulling back from me slightly so she could look me in the face. Her silver eyes were wide, her lips parted and her breathing heavy. Her eyes darted everywhere across my face, from each of my eyes and down to my lips, then back again.
Skye’s gaze slid to the side, toward the graves, and then in a blink, we’d moved.
I glanced around quickly, taking in the change of scenery. She’d teleported us away, so that we were still within the tree line, further from the gravesite and closer to the cliffside. It was such a different sensation to moving through shadows in the way that…there was no sensation.
It felt like I’d taken a breath, and suddenly I’d moved.
It was a beautiful demonstration of control.
I looked back to Skye’s face, her attention locked onto mine, and then time seemed to stop.
We moved at the moment.
Skye’s lips crashed into mine, her arms looping around my neck as my hands settled on her hips, pulling her to me so harshly that her feet left the ground for a moment.
She whimpered, and then her feet were completely off the ground as she fucking climbed me like a tree.
I let out a breathless laugh, and I felt her lips curve into a smile as she wrapped her legs around my hips.
I held her thighs firmly before pushing her back up against a tree at the same time I pushed my tongue into her mouth.
Skye groaned against me, snaking her hands through the back of my hair and pulling slightly, the way I’d seen her do to Aiden, and I couldn’t hold in my answering moan.
How long had I waited for her to be on me like this? How many times had I imagined us in this exact position since I’d seen her and Aiden in Wyatt’s little garden?
And after that kiss last night, in the club? And the kiss outside her bedroom door, Zephyr’s interruption aside. I was starving for her and I’d never even had more than a taste.
“Here?” she asked, and I blinked back into the moment. I hadn’t heard her, my mind having been elsewhere, because I was an idiot. I finally had her here, in my arms, and not in my dreams, and I was spending precious minutes pondering.
Disgusting.
Skye’s hands cupped my jaw.
“Rafe,” she whispered.
I let out a shaky breath at the sound of her whispering my name. “I’m sorry, my mind just blanked out for a second.”
Skye grinned. “Are we doing this here?”
I considered that for a moment.
Obviously, she meant for us to connect officially. Truthfully, I wouldn’t have minded fucking her up against a tree, minus the fact that the bark could scratch her back, I’d just have Wyatt heal it for her if he wasn’t such a loser these days.
But this was my Key. Officially connecting was important. Part of me felt like it should be treated a little differently than a regular hookup.
Then again…maybe this was exactly the right place for us. I wasn’t a gentlemen of a Prince, I knew that. Almost everything I knew of this woman was from months of stalking her and watching her with her other partner. And wow, that actually sounded a little worse than unhinged.
Skye’s silver eyes darted back and forth between mine while I made my decision. We did need to connect, but not here. For the first time, maybe in my life, I wanted to do something…romantic. And meaningful.
Skye understood, because she was a wonderful, clever woman, and she slid down my body with agonizing slowness, rubbing against my cock in a way that had me ready to change my mind.
“I don’t have to get on my knees for you, do I?” she asked, her nails scratching along my zipper seam. My brain scrambled again, not sure what she was asking until she loosened the button on my jeans.
“No,” I said lowly, grabbing her wrist to stop her. No, she wouldn’t be on her knees for me, maybe ever. It should have been the other way around. I should’ve been the one sinking down into the dirt to worship her, while she remained above me like the goddess she was.
The sound of my zipper being lowered cut through the silence, only filled with our heavy breathing.
A shadow caught Skye’s other wrist, stopping her hand from reaching for me. She startled for just a second, then tried to touch the shadow with her free hand. It squirmed around on the palm of her hand before darting up her arm and disappearing.
“We’ll have to play with those more later,” she said with a soft laugh.
I smiled, then blew out a harsh breath as her hand went back to my belt.
“You don’t have to,” I started, but Skye grinned.
“I want to,” she replied. Her hand tickled along my abdomen before her fingers slid beneath my boxer shorts. “I’ve been dreaming about this.”
I breathed a laugh of disbelief.
She’d barely shown much interest in me outside of being pissed off, and she’d been dreaming about my dick?
I now understood Aiden’s complete one-eighty. Skye hadn’t even touched me yet and I knew I would do absolutely anything she asked. She could have told me to bark like a dog for the rest of the day and I would have absolutely done so.
I was losing my mind over her, and I didn’t want it back.
Skye raised her chin, parting her lips in invitation for another kiss, and I pressed against her hard, kissing her like she was my source of oxygen.
I tensed, almost blowing my load right there as her hand closed around my cock.
She slowly slid from my base all the way to the tip, squeezing slightly as I groaned.
“You’re big,” she breathed.
I let out a shocked laugh. “How do I compare to Aiden?”
Skye giggled before licking my cheek, which made my eyes roll back in my head. She pressed her lips right against my ear, squeezing my dick hard, almost to the point of pain as she spoke. “I’ll have to see them side by side.”
I moaned even through my shock as she kissed right below my ear, finally moving her hand to work my shaft.
“You like that idea,” she accused. I couldn’t decide if I was more turned on from her words or her brutal handling of me. My knees were weak, my heart pounding in my ears as I tried to focus on what she was implying.
“You like that idea,” I managed to reply. Her hand tightened around me, her speed changing just barely. I sucked in a ragged breath. “I like what you like.”
“Would you touch him? If he asked?” Skye’s breathing grew heavier, and I finally got over my paralysis and reached out for her.
I slipped my hand into her shorts, bypassing her swimsuit bottom and trailing my fingers down the soft hair on her mound. She already felt divine. The combination of her hand on me while my hand was on her was almost too much.
“If he asked,” I rasped. I could feel Skye’s smile against my neck. “I’d do anything he asked.”
“Really?” she pried. “Anything?”