Chapter 50 – Vale #2
“I don’t mind as long as you let me take it off you.” He nips at my earlobe with his teeth, making tingles dance up my spine.
I lean my head back against his chest. “You can undress me anytime you want. You know that, I’ll always be ready for you.” The evidence is currently soaking through my panties.
His lips tremble against my skin as he breathes in my scent. “You smell so good. It’s hard to keep my hands off you. You don’t understand how hard it’s been.” He squeezes me closer, pulling my ass back against his hard cock.
“Is that why you breathe me in so often? What do you smell?” I’ve seen the way it affects him when he takes my scent in. I’ve always wondered why he does it.
While I wait for an answer, I focus on the night song blanketing us.
It’s louder up here. I hear the crickets sing.
Their quick and bright tempo the current upon which the cicadas drop their drawn-out, echoing beat.
Then the pine woods tree frogs start up with their short and clipped cadence, singing a familiar song. Their music flows, always in tune.
If I was able to see over the stone wall, there would be a light show in the pine forest to go along with the orchestra. The lightening bugs come out to find their own mates just like the insects who sing night songs. They call to one another in the darkness. Does my scent call to him?
The sound, the smell of pine in air, the summer heat wrapping around me is my idea of peace.
I love it here, always have. It’s a magical place.
The thought of it comforts me when I’m away.
But now it’s Oliver who feels like peace and love.
It's his arm around my waist, his expanding chest as he breathes in behind me. I’ll never be able to leave him.
“You always smell like flowers, like late-spring gardenias and sea salt spray from churned up waves after a storm,” he whispers into my ear, snapping me out of my reverie.
“But when you feel desire, your body temperature changes, your skin heats up, flushing with blood.
Your scent changes from a spring storm to warm, honeyed fall.
The heat makes you smell sweet like warm caramel, ripe apples, and cinnamon, with just a touch of smokey midnight bonfires.
I can taste your desire on my tongue, in the air.
I can feel your temperature spike. I can hear your heart race, and each quick pump makes your scent stronger, deeper.
“I don’t have to touch you to feel your essence, it’s like an electrical current teasing me closer, flowing over my skin.
I felt your current, could smell your scent, before I saw you the night we met.
From the moment I stepped out of the car, my senses gathered you to me, taunting me, before I ever saw your face. ”
I pull his hand from my eyes, then turn in his embrace. “How do you sense all those things and have it not be completely overwhelming?”
Oliver eyes swirl, the green and the darkness. “It is overwhelming, Vale. My senses are heightened because of what I am. You feel like a freight train to the gut at times.” The words are passionate and sharp, his jaw tensing.
“Does it hurt being around me?” I whisper as I stare into his eyes, searching for the truth.
He grabs the side of my neck, his thumb under my jaw, over my pulse, and his breathing ratchets up as he leans closer.
“I hurt from the moment I felt you in the world till the moment I was inside you. He knew you were our mate and he wanted you. He’d never wanted anyone like that.
I was fighting a battle, attacked from inside and out.
A beast fighting to escape. One who I thought would kill you immediately if he came out.
I could feel your desire for me. I wanted you, but I didn’t think it was safe.
I was afraid. But I always felt that connection to you, even if I didn’t understand it at first. You have no idea how I’ve hungered for you.
” His voice is low, his head tilted, as he whispers against my lips.
“I’ve never wanted someone like this. I crave you with an unquenchable thirst. Every time I denied you, I denied myself, denied my very nature.
I ached to savor your blood and that in and of itself was a rare thing.
My body was on fire, burning for you. Had you not miraculously fed me every time we touched, I think I may have gone insane, waiting, starving for a single taste.
I felt crazed because I wanted you so much. ” His words make my chest ache.
“I didn’t mean to hurt you, Oliver. I wanted to be with you. I felt crazy too. Every day I needed you more. Every touch just made it worse. I’m so afraid that being with you hasn’t sated this desire at all. I need more. I ache for more. It’s a hunger like no other. It hurts so much.”
He grabs my face in his hands and bends forward, kissing me sweetly. His eyes are so full of understanding. Oliver gets me.
“I watched you like a stalker. I studied you from the shadows while you studied the stars. I heard you curse me every time I had a new visitor. I watched you dance through the house, singing at the top of your lungs the morning after I kissed you for the first time. I heard your misery and your happiness,” he explains, and my cheeks heat with embarrassment.
“I hated seeing you with anyone else. I wanted you so much I cursed you and your visitors for it. I wished one, or both of you, would fall and get impaled on the thorns of your rose bushes. I knew karma would get me for wishing you harm. I may always be afraid of them,” I say.
He laughs, and it lights up his face. He is ethereal, beautiful. Such beauty shouldn’t exist.
“I’ll protect you.”
“What’s more embarrassing is that you saw me dance after we kissed. Had I known you were watching, I never would have.” I don’t think I’ve ever felt so embarrassed in my life.
“You were wearing a pair of tiny shorts and that big T-shirt with a fluffy gray kitten on it. Every time you’d spin, it would flow out around you, and I’d get a glimpse of those tiny shorts. I wanted to rip them off with my teeth,” he growls, pulling me closer and nuzzling into my neck.
“You like my shorts, don’t you?” I smile up at the sky as I lean to the left so he can get closer to my throat. It’s instinctual, offering myself to him with that single move.
“In every instance I’ve seen you wear them, I’ve only wanted to tear them off you.
I watched you frustrated and trying to work out in those damn shorts.
I thought about all the ways I’d punish you for teasing me.
I knew that’s what you were doing, baby,” he says, groaning the words against my neck, then nipping the sensitive skin with his teeth.
“I think you like teasing me, Vale, but I wouldn’t tease a monster if I were you.
Sometimes we bite.” I suck in a shaky breath.
“That’s not a good enough threat, Oliver. I love it when you bite me. You’re basically giving me permission to tease you till you can’t handle it anymore.” He sees my wicked smile and grunts as his cock grows against my hip.
When I reach down, I’m surprised he’s covered. I see those exercise pants he wears to fuck with my head. “Who's the tease now?” I ask. “You wear these to tease me, don’t you. Admit it!” I laugh.
“I like the way you stare at my dick when I wear them. So yeah, I guess you're right,” he admits with a devious smirk. “I liked it when you watched me. I liked it more when you noticed I caught you. You’d looked so guilty when I caught you, but sweetheart, guilty you are not. I loved your eyes on me. I wanted you to see how hard I got for you. Did you know it was for you?”
I bite my bottom lip as I look at him. “I never knew that. I hoped it was, but I didn’t know.” I’d lucked out that he’s my mate. I can’t believe how wonderfully wicked he is.
I run my fingertips over his bare chest, then press one hand over his dragon tattoo.
I feel his slow, methodical heartbeat against my palm.
My hand sinks lower, and I brush my fingertips against his tight abs.
I trace the sexy V of his hips, then step back to see exactly how hard he is in those pants.
I see his bulge, but this is something else.
It looks so big. I stare unabashedly at him and feel strong. He’s mine.
“If you don’t stop staring at my cock, I won’t be able to show you your birthday present,” he says as he pulls me close and covers my eyes again.
“I don’t want anything else, only you,” I whisper.
“We’ll see about that. Keep your eyes closed and let me lead you. Remember, I’m already yours, Vale.” He’s the best gift of all, nothing compares.