Chapter 21 - Damian #2
I lean in closer until there’s a mere inch between our faces. “I might be a sneaky bastard, but you love me,” I taunt, feeling suddenly giddy inside because my heart has never been fuller.
Drawing my face back just enough to look her in the eyes, my heart squeezes, a warmth blooming out from the center of my chest.
“Ten years ago…” I begin, stroking the apple of her cheek and staring deeply into her eyes.
“…I should have chosen you, Poppy. I was a complete idiot for hesitating. You were an inevitable part of my life. You were the most important person in it, and you still are. I spent the past decade missing you every second of every day. Anger was easier to hold on to than the hurt.”
A stray tear slips from her eye, and I wipe it away with the pad of my thumb as she reaches out and touches my cheek with equal adoration.
“I think it’s time we moved on from everything that’s happened. Anger was also easier for me, but I don’t want to be angry anymore. I want to love you, even when things get difficult.”
I nod slowly as a smile grows on my lips. “Things could never be as difficult for me as they were without you,” I admit. “You are not my weakness, Poppy Barnes. You are my strength.”
“And you are mine,” she admits shyly. “If there’s one thing I realized in that ritual, it’s that you are my strength, and I was just in denial.
I love you, Damian Walker,” she whispers, before claiming my lips with tender reverence.
Though the kiss is passionate and feverish, this doesn’t feel like the last time our lips met.
This kiss is softer, unhurried in a way that promises a lifetime of loyalty, understanding, compassion, and trust. The walls she’d been holding up ever since I found her again come crashing down, and the mate bond doesn’t simply hum.
It thrums as if awakened for the first time, fully now, and spreads through every nerve ending with a prowess that could only belong to an alpha. For years, I believed that I wasn’t worthy enough to be the alpha of the Valley Walker Pack, even though I have the alpha blood in me.
Dorian was the oldest, the rightful heir to Valley Walker, and I spent too long feeling like a fraud. But I was wrong.
Poppy makes me see things clearly, think clearly, and gives me a reason to be who I was always meant to be.
I will spend the rest of my life showing her gratitude, devoting myself to her, and it starts now.
Breaking the kiss gently, I adjust her on my lap, caressing her thigh and making my way inwards.
“What are you doing, Damian?” she whispers shyly, her cheeks becoming rosy as she doesn’t truly protest the way my hand travels to the apex of her thighs.
“I’m being a sneaky bastard, inside the clinic of my brother’s pack,” I smirk as I reach the waistband of her pants, and Poppy’s thighs naturally part.
She bites her bottom lip, eyes turning dark with lust and prompting me to slide my fingers beneath her panties, only to find that her folds are already wet.
“Hm…” I hum against her ear, drawing a circle around her clit as I gather her slick like lube on my fingertip. “You’re so wet for me, Poppy…”
Poppy digs her nails into the tough flesh of my bare shoulder as I dip my finger into her moist entrance, feeling her walls open up for me like a blooming flower. A few shallow thrusts are all it takes for her to throw her head and moan my name.
The sound of her voice is like music to my soul, and beneath her, I’m already painfully hard at the mere thought of being buried deep inside her.
But I don’t stop dishing out pleasure between her folds and her swollen clit, using precise touches to extract the most delicious moan from her lips that borders on a scream.
“Damian! Oh, my Goddess!” she cries out, her voice drawing out into the longest moan she’s made so far.
Smirking as I move in to kiss her on the lips, I drink in her sounds like they’re sustenance, every tiny beat fueling my own desire as her pleasure thrums through the mate bond.
I feel her coming on my finger, her walls flooding with warmth as she drenches the digit with the intensity of her climax. I only remove my finger from between her thighs and my lips from the kiss so I can taste her sweetness on my tongue.
She watches me through hooded, dark eyes as I clean my own finger, savoring each delicious drop of her essence that tastes as sweet and appealing as her mere scent is to me.
“Hm…” I hum. “You taste so good, Poppy.”
Her already flushed cheeks deepen with color, and she remains breathless as she clings to me, leaning toward my ear.
“What if somebody heard us, Damian?” she giggles sheepishly, lifting a trembling hand to her mouth. “We didn’t even lock the door…”
I draw back only enough to stare into her eyes with the same mischievous smirk that has been etched onto my lips ever since the moment I decided not to waste another second to be with her.
“Then, we should lock it, don’t you think?” I drawl as I begin peeling off her bottoms while she sits on my lap.
A frown flits over her face as she watches me, too curious to question why I’m not letting her go to the door, or why I’m not doing it myself.
But I’m not ready to be separated from her—not even for a split second—and when her bottoms are gone, I slide her thighs around me until she’s straddling my waist.
With both hands cupped on her rear, and her arms wound around my neck, I stand up and carry her toward the door.
“You’re crazy,” she mutters and playfully rolls her eyes.
“Crazy for you, yeah,” I concede with a chuckle as we reach the door and I click the latch to lock it before pushing her up against it.
“This is madness,” she giggles, then sighs when my lips find hers again.