Chapter 15 #2
Without even turning around, Ash grabs his sweater by the hem, jerking it over his head, and tossing it in the corner of the room. His fingers begin to fly up the buttondown shirt, making quick work of that, too.
“What are you doing?” I ask, even though I sure as fuck should know—and, okay, I do.
“Getting undressed. I’ve been wearing these same clothes for more than a week. I need to get out of them. Now.”
I blink coquettishly at him. “Is that the only reason why you’re stripping?”
There isn’t a lick of humor in Ash’s face as he says, “No.”
On the one hand, I’m glad. On the other, I’m just having way too much fun with the living Ash.
“You literally just rose from the dead,” I tease. “Maybe you should take it easy.”
Ash turns toward me as he shrugs off his shirt, adding it to the sweater on the floor. I’m a little distracted by his irresistible body. He might be a librarian, but he’s also a shifter, and if there’s one thing that every shifter male has, it’s the perfect physique to attract a mate.
And, oh, am I attracted right now…
“This is my second shot at life.” His voice drops into a much lower tone than I’m used to. I like it. “And I don’t just mean this past week. All those years… I lost you once, Roxy. I’m not losing you again.”
Well. Can’t say that that doesn’t do something to ever last part of me.
I swallow hard before trying one last distraction for shits and giggles.
“I’m not going anywhere, Ash, baby. But don’t you want to know how that needle got in your heel?”
Even though he’s an opossum, Ash goes back to purposely stalking toward me in a way that feels incredibly predatory.
“Penelope said I must’ve stepped on it.”
“Your body was in the dumpster,” I point out while continuing to back around the spare bed. “Did you throw yourself in there?”
Ash keeps advancing.
“Does it matter?” His eyes practically glow now. “My gorgeous mate found me.” Another step closer. “She saved me.”
Heat curls low in my belly and I know I’m pushing my luck as I remind him, “I’m not your mate,” but it’s like I can’t help myself.
Ash’s gaze darkens instantly. “Yet. But as soon as I get you, Roxy, you will be.”
He has a point—and I’ve run out of space to avoid him.
And, sure, maybe I did that on purpose. Maybe if I didn’t want him to catch me, I could’ve done a number of things.
I could’ve shifted. I could’ve hopped on the bed and dashed over it, heading for the door.
I could’ve launched myself at Ash, knocked him on his ass, and said, ‘Nah’.
But I didn’t do any of that. Of course not. Because, honestly? All I needed to hear was Ash tell me that he wants to be my mate and I let him catch me, pick me up with a distinctly un-Roxy-like squeal, and lay me flat on my back on the bed.
Ash climbs on top of me wearing only his jeans—and one sock.
Okay.
That shouldn’t be hot.
And yet…
“Wait a second. You want to mate in here? Where your dead body was all week?”
Ash reaches down, grabbing my hand. Without hesitation, he takes it and presses it against the hard length straining beneath his jeans.
My breath catches in my throat. “Ash…”
“I’m alive,” he whispers in a husky voice. “And I’d rather make better memories in this bed if you don’t mind.”
Damn him. I love seeing the predatory side of him, but when there’s a return of my gentlemanly librarian… fuck me, I’m about to cream myself.
I ghost my fingers over his jeans, scratching at the denim, enjoying the way the cords in his neck stick out as he fights to keep from thrusting against my hand.
“No more playing around, Ash. I’m going to make this as clear as I possibly can. No more jokes, yeah? If I fuck you right now… if I mate you… that’s it. I’m keeping you.”
Ash’s entire expression turns into something devastatingly sincere. “Promise?”
Well, there you go. That’s pretty much the end of rational thought for the both of us because, suddenly, he’s kissing me like he’s spent twelve years starving for my taste, and that he can actually taste it now.
His hands drag over my t-shirt while mine clutch his bare chest, yanking him closer as the mate bond burns hotter and hotter between us with every frantic touch.
I think we both realize that he’s half-naked and I’m not at the same time. Ash wrenches away from me, ducking his head so that he can fist my shirt and start pulling it up. I sit up on my elbows to help him, then turn my attention to getting him out of his jeans.
When all that’s left is Ash’s sock, I grab his arm as he reaches for it.
“Keep it,” I tell him throatily.
He doesn’t ask why. He just nods and pushes me back on the bed again.
The first time we mated, it was pure seduction.
I wanted to show Ash that I chose him before he even knew that was an option, and I took my time playing with him.
I have every intention of doing that again, and I’m looking forward to long, lazy mating sessions when I can show him what a female mate expects and how he can make me feel good without ever putting his cock near me.
Right now? That’s all I want.
Just to prove to myself that he is alive, I prop myself up on my elbows again before he can position himself over me. All it takes is my fingers wrapping around his length to have him pausing, his head thrown back as he moans out my name.
I give him a quick stroke, enjoying the way he feels so hard and heavy and hot in my grip.
That’s the main difference between Ghost Ash and Real Ash.
I savor his warmth, and I crave his scent.
Bergamot and the deepest, darkest woods…
it pours off of his living body, and I can only imagine how strong my scent is to him.
He seems to drink it in, his eyes closed, his body trembling as I touch him. The only open when I release his cock to grab his jaw and bring his mouth to mine so that I can drink him in.
Ash groans into my mouth as I kiss him, but while I’m enjoying the sound of that, he’s using my distraction to push gently on my shoulder until I’m under him again.
By the time I finally break the kiss, I’m sprawled across the mattress again while Ash braces himself above me breathing hard enough to shake.
“You’re real,” he murmurs against my throat like he still can’t quite believe that this… us… could be.
“So are you.” I drag my nails lightly down his chest. “Finally.”
That earns me a low laugh right before he initiates the next kiss.
Okay yeah. The gentlemanly act is gone now. He plunders my mouth, nipping at my lip, stroking my tongue, mimicking the act of mating as he withdraws, then comes back for more.
I follow him, not wanting to lose the connection I have with him.
And then I do something I’ve never done before in my entire life.
I fucking beg.
“Please, Ash. I’m sorry for being such a fucking tease, but if you don’t start mating me right now, I’m gonna lose my Alpha damn mind.”
Ash rubs his thumbs over my collarbone. “I want to. I swear, I want to do that more than anything I’ve ever wanted in my life. But I was thinking…”
I grunt under him, scooting so I can get closer to his cock. “No thinking. Mating. Now.”
“I know, Rox. But you said…”
“I said something? I don’t remember saying shit.”
“No. You did. You said, if you fuck me, you’re going to keep me. And I just… I wasn’t sure the promise would count if I fuck you.”
Semantics? He’s giving me fucking blue balls because of semantics?
Well, that’s easily corrected. He wants me to fuck him?
Gotcha.
Before Ash can even expect what I’m going to do, I grab him by his shoulders.
Using my shifter strength, I switch our position so that he’s on his back and I’m on top.
Hm. I definitely see the benefits of this position.
Grabbing him by the dick, I throw one leg over his groin, straddling him easily.
Then, because he’s given me all control, I hold him right where I want him, slip him inside of me, and sink down on top of my mate until our bodies are flush.
“Ah. That’s much, much better.”
Ash shoots his hands out, resting his palms on my tits. “I couldn’t agree more.”
He can talk. Know what? I think I want to make him moan.
I start out slow before deciding that, this time, fuck slow. I squeeze Ash with my inner walls, enjoying the way the next moan rips out of his throat, and then I begin to move. I ride him, urging him to squeeze my tits because that feels pretty damn amazing, too.
He moans. He grunts. I grin, and when he starts to say something, anything, I squeeze again until the only word he can say is, “Mate.”
Mate.
Mate.
The bond hums between us. What started as a single thread tying us together has become closer to a rope.
There’s only one way to make it unbreakable, though.
The first time we mated, I knew I couldn’t let him come inside me or mark my skin otherwise he might get stuck with me without ever making that conscious choice.
Of course, a little head proved he couldn’t ejaculate, so that wasn’t a problem.
But Ash is alive now. He can give me all of his seed should he choose to. He knows what he’s getting himself into if he finishes inside of me and marks me at the same time.
Just like I know what I’m doing as my climax creeps up my spine.
Usually, it takes a lot more to make me go off. This is different. We have Fate on our side. She picked the two of us for each other, and she wants to make it so that her bond is finalized.
“Ash, baby?” I gasp.
His purple eyes are dazed. “Mm?”
“Never say I don’t keep my promises.”
As my pussy begins to flutter around his cock, and my body seems to explode and implode and fall apart at the same exact time, I grip Ash by his shoulders again, pinning him down to the bed.
Tapping into my raccoon, borrowing her fangs, I bury them into the side of his throat, biting just hard enough that anyone who sees Ash’s mating mark come tomorrow will know that he has a very possessive mate willing to go to war for him.
Like I said, Fate wants us to bond. The moment I sink my teeth into Ash, he groans and he chitters in a way that sounds too much like Gus for me to process while I’m in the middle of orgasming, and he pulls me flat to his chest as he bucks up inside of me.
And, right as he starts to spill his seed, Ash finds my tit. My sweet, calm, kind librarian bites me right on the underside, leaving his mark where only he’ll ever be able to see it.
Because he doesn’t need everyone to witness his mark to know that I belong to him. Ash knows, and that’s enough for him.
Yeah. Not me. Just in case, I bite him again, a little harder, and when I do, it happens. Ash feels it, too. He groans beneath me, hands gripping my hips hard enough to bruise while the bond slams fully into place all at once.
Only then, as he turns on his side, clutching me to him while his still hard cock stays nestled inside of me, does he press a kiss against my temple and murmur, “I’ve always been obsessed with your scent, Rox. But now… now you smell like forever.”
For once in my life, I don’t ruin the moment with a joke.
Because, you know what?
So does he.