Chapter 3 Mated
Chapter three
Mated
Magnur
Her taste still lingered on my tongue, sweet and intoxicating as sin itself.
I watched her tremble against the glass barrier, her eyes half-lidded and glassy with pleasure.
I could have howled with triumph and hunger, I'd claimed her, marked her with my scent, but it wasn't enough.
Every cell in my body screamed to take her, to carry her away and keep her for days, weeks, forever.
The thread between us pulsed with insistent heat, demanding more.
I clenched my jaw so tight my teeth ached, fighting to keep myself in check.
My claws threatened to emerge, itching to tear through that blue dress completely.
My fangs ached to mark her throat where her pulse still hammered wildly. To claim. To possess.
"You're quiet," Jade murmured, her voice husky from crying out my name. She reached up, fingertips brushing my jaw where tension had hardened it to stone. "What are you thinking?"
I caught her hand, pressed a kiss to her palm, buying myself seconds to find words. The simple touch of her skin against my lips sent another wave of hunger crashing through me.
"I'm thinking," I managed, "that if I don't exercise extraordinary restraint right now, I might carry you off like some primitive creature claiming its mate."
Her pupils dilated at my words, the scent of her arousal spiking again.
Fuck, she was going to be the death of me.
I took a step back, putting inches between us that felt like miles.
The cool night air did little to calm the heat racing through my veins.
I needed to do this right. To give her a real choice, not one made in the haze of orgasm and magical connection.
"Jade." I swallowed hard, forced my voice to steady. "Would you like to come home with me?"
"Yes." Her eyes met mine, clear and knowing. "Absolutely yes."
I extended my hand. "First, let me fix your dress," I smoothed it down over her curves, the backs of my knuckles brushing against her warm skin.
She shivered under my touch but held still. When I reached behind her to raise her zipper, my face ended up inches from her neck. I breathed in deeply, letting her scent fill my lungs to help keep me calm.
"Thank you," she whispered, her breath tickling my ear as I straightened her dress.
I offered my arm, and she took it without hesitation, her body was close enough that I could feel her warmth through my suit jacket.
The elevator doors opened upon our approach.
Jade's fingers traced light patterns on my forearm where I'd rolled up my sleeves, brushing against the edges of scars I normally kept hidden.
Her touch didn't shy away from them. If anything, she seemed fascinated, her fingertips exploring the raised texture.
The elevator chimed as we reached the lobby, the doors sliding open to reveal the night beyond. My car waited at the curb. I opened the passenger door for her, watching as she slid into the leather seat, her dress sliding up and showing more of her thighs, the sight made my mouth water.
Once behind the wheel, I took a moment to simply breathe and center myself before starting the engine.
I could get us to my home in minutes if I drove the way I usually did, too fast and reckless.
But that would terrify her, and that was the last thing I wanted.
My knuckles whitened as I gripped the steering wheel, driving at a human pace through streets that blurred at the edges of my vision.
Jade's presence beside me was an exquisite torture, her scent filling the enclosed space, making my head spin.
"Your eyes," she observed, studying my profile as I navigated a turn. "They get brighter when you're...feeling things strongly."
I glanced at her, knowing full well my pupils were glowing like embers. "Does that bother you?"
She shook her head, a small smile playing at her lips. "It's like having my own personal mood ring. Convenient."
I couldn't help but laugh, tension I didn't know I was carrying easing from my shoulders. This woman was extraordinary.
We pulled into the private garage beneath my building, the car's headlights sweeping across concrete pillars before I found my designated space. The engine fell silent, but neither of us moved immediately.
Jade unbuckled her seatbelt and turned toward me, suddenly serious. "Just to be clear," she said, her voice steady despite the quick pace of her heart, "I know exactly what I'm doing. I want this. I want you."
"Then let's go inside."
As we stepped into my private elevator, the thread between us hummed stronger, no longer diluted by the outside world or other people. Here, in the liminal space between public and private, it felt like we were already crossing a threshold that had nothing to do with physical doors.
Jade leaned into my side, her warmth seeping through my clothes.
The elevator began its ascent, carrying us up toward what felt increasingly like fate itself.
The elevator doors slid open, revealing the entryway to my penthouse, dark woods, clean lines, open space.
I held the door with one hand, letting Jade step through first, watching as she took in her surroundings.
The moment we crossed the threshold, something shifted in the air between us.
The thread connecting our bodies pulsed harder, more insistent, as if recognizing we were finally alone, truly alone.
Something inside me fractured.
The restraint I'd been clinging to since the moment I first saw her shattered.
I scooped her into my arms, cradling her against my chest. Her curves fitting perfectly against my body as if she'd been designed specifically for my arms. I couldn't suppress my rumbled of satisfaction, a purr vibrating through my chest at finally having her exactly where she belonged.
"Oh!" she gasped, her surprise quickly transforming into delighted laughter as she wrapped her arms around my neck.
"I have been wanting to do this since I saw you," I admitted as I carried her through the open living area toward the stairs. Each step she clung tighter, her warm breath against my neck feeding the hunger building inside me.
"Tour later," I promised, taking the stairs two at a time. "Right now, I need you."
"I need you too," she murmured against my skin, her lips brushing the sensitive spot just below my ear.
My bedroom was at the end of the hallway, like the rest of my home, it was a space designed for function rather than show, with one exception, the massive bed that dominated the room.
King-sized would have been an understatement it had been custom-made to accommodate me, draped in charcoal sheets of the highest quality silk.
I laid her down in the center of it, watching as her body sank slightly into the mattress.
The blue fabric of her dress was wrinkled now, hiked up slightly over her thighs from our journey upstairs.
Beautiful, but still too much of a barrier between us.
I traced one claw carefully along the neckline of the dress, just hard enough to slice through the fabric without touching the skin beneath.
The material parted like water, revealing her body inch by tantalizing inch.
Her eyes widened slightly at the sight, a shiver running through her that had nothing to do with cold.
When the dress lay in ruins around her, leaving her in nothing but a scrap of lace between her thighs, I took a moment simply to stare.
The warm brown of her skin glowed in the dim light, curves and valleys I wanted to explore with hands and mouth and tongue.
Her full breasts rose and fell with each quick breath, nipples hardened into tight peaks that begged for attention.
"You are..." I shook my head, unable to find words adequate to the vision before me. "Perfect. Absolutely perfect."
Her answering smile was shy yet wicked, a combination that sent heat straight to my groin. "Your turn," she prompted, nodding toward my still-fully-clothed state.
I stripped quickly, desperate to be skin to skin with her.
I felt her eyes tracking the movement, lingering on the network of scars that crossed my chest and arms. My cock stood fully erect, harder than I could remember being in centuries, the head already glistening with pre-cum.
Jade's tongue darted out to wet her lips, her eyes dark with desire.
"Come here," she whispered, opening her arms to me.
I needed no further invitation. In a heartbeat I was on the bed, kneeling between her parted thighs, my weight supported on my forearms as I hovered above her.
The first touch of her bare skin against mine pulled a groan from deep in my chest. I captured her mouth in a kiss that contained all the hunger I'd been restraining since the moment our eyes first met.
She responded with equal fervor, her hands mapping the planes of my back, tracing scars without hesitation.
When her fingernails scraped lightly down my spine, my hips jerked involuntarily, my cock sliding against the wet heat of her through the thin lace barrier.
We both moaned at the contact.
"These need to go," I growled against her mouth, hooking one finger in her panties.
"Yes," she agreed breathlessly. "God, yes."
One quick tug with my claw, and the fabric gave way as easily as her dress had.
I kissed my way down her body, pausing to lavish attention on her breasts, drawing each nipple into my mouth until she was arching beneath me, fingers tangled in my hair.
Lower still, over the soft curve of her stomach, down to where she was already slick and swollen for me.
"So wet," I murmured against her inner thigh, inhaling deeply. "So ready."
"Please," she whimpered, hips lifting in invitation.