Chapter Eleven
Ari
Almost Ours
I should have run. After everything he said, after everything I felt ... the smart move would have been to walk away. Slam the door. Pretend I never came to him at all.
But I didn’t. I stayed.
And now I’m sitting in the middle of Malichai Veythronn’s impossibly sleek, stupidly expensive apartment at the top of Veythronn Tower, barefoot, curled into the corner of his absurdly plush sectional, with a dragon shifter watching me like I’m the first sunrise he’s ever seen.
“Tea?” he offers.
I look at him, a little incredulous. “Tea?”
He shrugs, mouth tilting into the barest curve. “I’m trying to be a gentleman.”
“I don’t need a gentleman,” I mutter with an eye roll.
I don’t know what happens next. Who am I supposed to be in his space?
He sits beside me on the sectional and smiles. “Come here, Arinaghwyndrelle.” He holds out a hand to me and for a moment I hesitate before taking it.
Malichai pulls me closer, lifting me until I am sitting on his lap, straddling him. “What are you doing?”
“Something I have dreamed of for three years,” he mumbles, his hands resting on my hips. “I can’t tell you how badly I have wanted to simply hold you.”
“Mal...” I start but he cuts me off.
“This isn’t about sex. I just want you near me,” he explains. “I know you haven’t decided yet, so I won’t push you.”
I already made my choice. The goddess knows, I decided to be his before I stepped foot out of my apartment and came to him. But he doesn’t know.
“I already made my choice, Malichai.”
I lean forward and place my lips against his, kissing him softly. I feel the shock vibrate through him before I pull away. He stares at me with wide eyes.
“Ari.” He says my name like it’s a prayer. “You need to be sure.”
“I thought all the choices were mine.”
He traces my features with his gaze before nodding. “They are.”
“Then I choose you. I choose us.”
He lifts me like I weigh nothing, pulling me closer to his chest and palming my ass. His erection presses against my sex through the yoga pants I am wearing as he nuzzles my neck.
“Goddess... I don’t think I have ever felt relief like this.” He licks my clavicle. “I thought you were going to reject me.”
My head tilts back, exposing more of my neck to him.
“I thought about it,” I say honestly.
He cups my face and stares at me, vulnerability written across his features. “What changed your mind.”
I smile softly, turning my head and kissing his palm. “I fell for you somewhere in the last three years.”
“Fuck.” He curses, pulling my head down and claiming my lips, tangling his hands in my hair. When he pulls back, both of us are breathing deeply. “Hearing you talk like that... It does things to me.”
I push down on his erection. “That much is obvious.”
He chuckles. “I want you, but I’ve never hidden that.”
“You haven’t.” my voice is husky, my hips still moving even though it’s not a conscious decision.
“Little flame,” he groans, his hands stilling my movements. “We need to stop.”
“I don’t want to.”
“Ari...”
“I make the decisions now,” I say. “And I want my mate.”
“Your mate.” The words are little more than a rumble, his dragon dancing just beneath his skin.
I lift my sweater over my head and drop it to the floor. A growl breaks free from Malichai as he stares at my lace covered breasts. A moment ago, lust gave me courage but now I feel shy. I wrap my arms over my chest and look away.
He huffs, pulling my arms down and pinning them against my sides. “Look at me.” He waits patiently for long moments until I comply with his demand. “What just happened, little flame?”
I blush deeply as I try to find the words.
“You’re much older than I am and you’ve probably been with thousands of beautiful women.” The words tumble from my mouth in quick succession. “I’m not sexy with curves or anything. Hell, I don’t even have any experience, and my breasts are small and...”
“Shut up.”
I stare at him in shock. “What?”
“Just, stop talking and listen to me. Yes, when I was younger, I enjoyed women, but I haven’t had sex with anything but my hand in over ten years.
For the last three I haven’t even looked at any other woman besides you.
” He releases my arms as I stare at him in shocked silence. “And your tits are perfect.”
He cups my breasts and softly massages them in his big, calloused hands. A sound I’ve never made before falls from my lips and Malichai growls once more.
“As for the fact that you have no experience...” He stops and swallows, his throat working. “I have to be honest, little flame. That is sexier than anything I ever dreamed up in the past three years.”
“Please,” I beg as he tweaks my left nipple, my hips rolling against his hard length.
He stands from the sectional and walks through his apartment with me in his arms. His lips run along my skin, and I moan loudly. Inside his bedroom, he lowers me to my feet, holding me against his chest. He tilts my chin back as he stares down at me.
“You can stop this at any time.”
I undo the buttons on his dress shirt and push it off his shoulders. I run my fingertips across the dark and intricate tattoos that swirl across his skin. I feel old scars beneath the ink and kiss them reverently as I circle his body.
“I’ve been dreaming of you,” I mutter. “Sinful things that leave me wanting when I wake.”
“Little flame...”
I continue as if he hasn’t spoken. “But nothing compares to the vision I had the night you brought food.”
“What vision?” he asks, his voice low and full of desire.
“I was on my knees, begging you to ruin me. Just like you said I would.”
“Goddess help me,” he mutters, rubbing a hand over his face.
I run my hand down his body and over his enclosed cock as I lower to my knees. “Please ruin me, Malichai,” I beg.