Chapter 25
twenty-five
KAT
The challenge went just like the others.
Gwen asked me if I could do the family dinner that night, but I'd already exceeded my quota of drama for the day, so I told her we'd have to do it another time. We went to the cafe for dinner again, like usual, and headed home after.
I'd already eaten too much cake at the cafe, but there was an entire one in the fridge when we got back, so I had to have another slice.
I sat on the countertop while I ate it, Callum's sports coat basically engulfing me while he stood in front of me, rerolling the sleeve of the coat that still looked perfect from the first time he'd rolled it after helping me into it.
I'd been eyeing it after shifting back, and he had clearly done his research. He hadn't worn it in days, but he'd left it on the back seat of the car. He never left his clothes anywhere other than where they belonged, so it was obviously planned.
I'd be wearing his clothes and borrowing his stuff a lot over the next few days.
"We have to talk about heat," I said.
"I know everything about it."
"It's different after you have a mate bond." I cut into the cake and lifted the fork to his mouth.
He studied me for a moment before letting me feed it to him.
"The drive to breed will be more intense. Heat hits mated couples a lot harder. That won't affect you, obviously, but it will affect me. Your mouth and hands won't be enough. As gross as it is, my body will need your release inside me to soothe it."
His eyes narrowed. "Are you trying to manipulate me into fucking you?"
I rolled my eyes. "No. If not having sex is a hard boundary, that's fine.
I don't agree with you, but I understand your argument.
I'm just warning you that it's not going to go like it did before we had our bond.
I'm going to be heat-crazed. You'll need to leave if you're not up for actual fucking. "
He stared at me.
I took another bite of cake.
When I filled the fork and lifted it to his mouth, he stole the utensil without looking at it, and fed it to me instead.
Clearly, I was in no condition to turn down chocolate.
"Explain heat for mated pairs like I know nothing about it, Kitten."
"I'll get hotter and hornier as it approaches.
I'll want to be touched more, and I'll crave being surrounded by your scent more.
You know that part. But when a mated werewolf goes fully into heat, the only word that applies is crazed.
Or feral, I guess. Savage, maybe? Crazed just sounds less violent, and it has nothing to do with violence. "
Callum's eyes were still narrowed.
He waited for me to continue as I stole the fork back and took another bite to buy myself time before I continued.
"I'll lose control of myself entirely. It'll be bad until we either have sex, or I make it through a few days without being fucked.
I'll beg. I'll push. I'll manipulate. I'll cry.
I'll demand. You'll need to leave, because I will not be here.
" I tapped my temple with the end of my fork, accidentally smearing chocolate there.
Callum wiped it away with his thumb, lifting it to my lips. I wrapped them around his finger, and his gaze was hot as he watched me suck lightly. When he pulled his thumb free, he rested it on my chin.
"What would be different if I was a male werewolf?"
"You would be mindless too, and you'd have your own urges.
Irrational possessiveness. Overprotectiveness.
Stocking up on the perfect food and drinks to have ready beside the bed.
The urge to make a nest is to ensure that we have a safe, comfortable place to spend heat. Twelve hours of sex is a lot."
"How long does it last if we don't fuck?"
"Around three days. It's a day and a half without a partner before you're mated. I've never done it before, but it's supposed to be manageable before mating. You'll probably just need to lock me in the house and stay with Liv for a few days."
"Do you genuinely believe I'm going to lock you in our house and leave while you're going through hell?"
Something in his voice told me I needed to be very careful how I answered.
"I think if you stay with me, I won't be sane enough to stop myself from trying to relieve heat in any possible way, and the last thing I want to do is hurt you or force you."
"I'm sure between my magic and my touch, I can make it at least a little more bearable for you."
"No. Heat doesn't work that way, even before a mate bond. You either relieve it, or you don't. You can't just ease it. Not when your body is determined to reproduce."
I looked down at my cake, cutting into it again. "I'm not trying to pressure you, Callum. I just want you to understand what's going to happen so you don't end up making a decision you regret. It's a shitty situation, but it is the situation."
"Thank you." The words sounded difficult for him to get out.
"Thanks for the cake. I'm insatiable."
"I can relate." He dragged his thumb over my bottom lip, his attention on my mouth. "Let me taste you."
"Sounds like fun."
He tipped my head back with the hand on my chin, and I lowered my fork. "I bought you a few new toys, too."
"That also sounds fun, but you only bought those to get out of fucking me long-term. So, by the terms of our contract, I can't let you use them on me."
"I hate that contract."
"You signed it, so there's no way out." I lifted a bite of cake to his lips, and he ate it without breaking eye contact.
"You are the most stubborn creature I have ever met."
"No. I'm just the only one you aren't willing to kill for disagreeing with you."
"I rarely kill people who disagree."
"Liar."
He took the fork from me and set it on the countertop. His hand cupped my cheek, tipping my head back further as he lowered his mouth to mine and kissed me lightly. "Today was difficult. You deserve a night of pleasure, Kitty Kat. Let me give that to you."
"I deserve a mate who lets me take whatever risks I choose to, Callum. Including a risk of being hurt by their magic." I kissed him again, just as lightly as he had kissed me. "But for now, I'll let you take me to bed and remind me how good you are with your hands and mouth."
"Or I can take these clothes off you and remind you right here."
My lips curved. "I guess that would work."
Callum captured my mouth. The kiss started gentle, but grew rougher and more brutal as he tugged his coat off me, followed by my t-shirt and bra.
His palm skimmed my bare chin and breast before he dragged his thumb slowly over my nipple.
The sound I made into his mouth was nearly feral.
He teased my breasts until I was moaning into his mouth, then dragged my shorts down my thighs, making a sound of pure satisfaction when he realized I hadn't bothered wearing underwear with them.
"Fuck, Kitten." Callum dropped the shorts and sank to his knees behind me. "You have no idea the way you haunted me when we were apart. I woke up with the taste of your pleasure on my tongue. The sounds you made in my ears. The smell of your need in the air."
"Did you jerk off to the thought of me?" I breathed, as he opened my thighs and slowly dragged his tongue over my clit before dipping it into my entrance.
"Every fucking day."
I moaned as he licked me again, putting a little more pressure on my clit and lifting my ass higher. My legs hooked around his back as he sucked on me in a way that had me swearing and arching as I came for the first time, so fucking quickly.
He knew my body too well.
"Stand up," I breathed.
He was still circling my clit, taking me toward another climax.
"Stand up, Callum."
He kissed and sucked his way down the inside of my thigh, rubbing his stubbly chin along the sensitive skin before he finally stood.
I slipped off the countertop, and started to sink to my knees.
He grabbed my waist, eyes narrowing. "You will never kneel for me."
"Then take me to bed already."
He scooped me up and carried me down the hallway.
"Now get on the bed," I ordered, eyeing the nest I'd started.
It was okay, but not great. Still needed a lot of work.
Callum set me down on the edge of the mattress and sprawled out on the pillows beside me. His hand was still on my thigh.
"Any more commands, Kitten? I'm itching to comply."
I nearly rolled my eyes, but the nesting urge hit me hard. I reached behind him to adjust the position just a little. It wasn't quite right.
The other pillow was messed up too.
So was the blanket.
Callum moved when I pushed at him, allowing me to adjust everything with a look of amusement on his face. If I hadn't known I was being irrational, I might've been bothered by his amusement, but I did.
When I was okay enough with how the bed looked. I dragged a hand through his waves, messing his hair up until it was just right too.
"Satisfied?" he asked
"Not yet." I turned as I slid a knee over his chest and unbuttoned his pants, unzipping them too. After I freed his erection, I lowered my mouth to it.
When I wrapped my lips around him, he choked out a curse, gripping handfuls of my ass. The height difference between us was too large for his mouth to easily reach my center, but he could see everything.
I bobbed over his cock, slowly taking his thick length into my mouth. With every motion, I took him a little deeper.
His hands slid down my thighs, opening me wider as he swore and jerked. I could feel his pleasure and need leaking through the bond, could feel the determined hold he had on his magic.
His fingers dug into my thigh and ass when he came. His chest rose and fell rapidly beneath me while his relief crashed through the thin divider between our minds even more than his pleasure had.
He was really, genuinely terrified of what he would do to me.
I was going to have to make sure he wasn't anywhere near me when I went into heat, no matter how he felt about that, or I was going to smash his boundaries.
Callum's grip tightened as he dragged my core to his face, eating me out until I was crying with pleasure and coming on his mouth, repeatedly.
He let me get him off again too. More than once. The iron grip he had on his magic never wavered. The itch I had to feel it on my skin didn't, either.
We changed positions over and over, enjoying each other from new angles and places, but never bringing up how badly we both wanted our bodies to fully connect.
When we finally curled up in bed together, sweaty and sticky and bare and deliciously exhausted, I murmured against his neck, "What if I wanted to feel a little pain, Callum?"
"The answer would still be no, Kitten." He tilted my chin high enough to kiss me slowly. Neither of us gave a damn about the taste of our pleasure on our mouths. "This is enough for me." He pressed his forehead to mine, closing his eyes. "It will be enough for you too."
His breathing evened out, and I couldn't help the twinge in my chest.
It wouldn't be enough for me.
But I would make sure we got through heat without destroying what we'd started building. My feelings for Callum weren't dependent on sex, and they wouldn't be broken by a little suffering.