Chapter 28
Hannah
We leave the kitchen together, and the nervous excitement I’ve been trying to ignore comes rushing back.
He opens his bedroom door and lets me go in first.
I take in the neatly made bed, which suddenly seems bigger than it did before.
Behind me, the door closes.
My stomach flips.
When I turn around, Torin is standing by the door. He looks at me for a long moment. His irises glow gold. Then he crosses the room and drags me into his arms, kissing me with all the hunger he’s been keeping under control.
I cling to him and kiss him back just as hungrily.
God. I’ve wanted this.
Then his mouth leaves mine and traces burning kisses down my neck, slow enough to make me ache for more. I tilt my head, and he takes advantage immediately, kissing and teasing the sensitive skin until I’m gasping.
“Don’t stop.”
A growl breaks from his throat.
His hands slip beneath my shirt and drag it upward. I lift my arms, letting him pull it over my head, and it lands somewhere behind me.
Torin goes still.
He takes me in, making no attempt to hide how much he likes what he sees.
“You’re so beautiful,” he growls.
Then his mouth is on mine again.
This is the hunger I’ve sensed in him from the beginning, held beneath all that patience. Now he finally has permission to touch me.
His hands move slowly over my breasts, taking his time even though I can feel how badly he wants me. He kisses my throat, then my shoulder, working his way lower.
I close my eyes and let my head fall back, giving myself over to the feel of his mouth and his hands.
His lips follow the edge of my bra, kissing the swell of one breast and then the other. He slips a finger beneath the lace, dragging it slowly over my skin, and I ache for him to move lower.
Instead, he kisses his way back up. I make an impatient sound and tug at his shirt. Torin pulls it over his head and tosses it aside.
For a second I stare at him, at his broad chest, those rippling abs. He kisses me again, backing me toward the bed.
“You have no fucking idea,” he says quietly, “what you do to me.”
He pushes me down, guiding me as I fall back onto the mattress. Then he reaches behind me and unclasps my bra. He pulls it away, and the naked hunger on his face sends another rush of heat through me.
His mouth closes over one nipple. I gasp and grab his hair.
He sucks until I’m squirming beneath him, then moves to the other breast, giving it the same slow, relentless attention.
My hips begin to move beneath him, in quick little jerks.
Torin’s mouth leaves my breast and travels down my stomach.
I suck in a breath as his fingers move to the zipper of my jeans. He pulls them down, taking my panties with them, and suddenly I’m naked beneath him.
My heart beats harder.
Torin looks between my thighs, then puts his hands on my knees and pushes them farther apart.
My legs tremble. I’ve never let anyone see me like this before, but there’s nothing hesitant in the way Torin looks at me. He wants me.
Then he lowers his head and licks me. The first stroke of his tongue tears a gasp from me.
“Oh, god.”
Torin growls against me, and the vibration goes straight through my body.
I grab the sheets with both hands. His tongue moves over me slowly at first, learning me, finding the touches that make my hips lift from the mattress.
Then he focuses on my clit, teasing it with light strokes until I’m gripping his hair and trying to move against his mouth.
He catches my hips and holds me still.
I make a frustrated sound.
Torin answers with another growl and slides a finger inside me. My head falls back against the pillow. God. Nothing has ever been inside me before.
I’m so wet that his finger slides in easily, but the stretch still makes me gasp. He works it deeper while his tongue keeps moving over my clit, and within seconds I can barely keep still beneath him.
This is what all those days of wanting him have done to me.
Every kiss that ended too soon. Every time he touched me and stopped. Every night I went to bed knowing my mate was somewhere else in this lodge.
All of it has left me aching for him.
“Torin—”
The orgasm hits before I can say anything else.
My back arches and my fingers tighten in his hair as pleasure tears through me. I cry out his name, shaking beneath his mouth while he keeps licking me, keeps his finger moving inside me, dragging every last second out of it.
I’m still trembling when he finally lifts his head.
For a moment, all I can do is stare at him. Then Torin rises above me and unbuttons his pants. My attention goes straight to his hands. When he pushes his pants down and his cock springs free, my breath catches.
Jesus.
I knew he was big. Knowing that and seeing what I’m apparently about to fit inside me are two very different things.
My mouth goes dry.
I’ve wanted him for days, but now that I can see exactly what I’m dealing with...
It’s a lot.
Torin is watching me, the hunger in his expression unmistakable.
I sit up and reach for him. The moment my hand closes around his shaft, Torin draws in a sharp breath.
A little thrill runs through me. Now he’s the one struggling to stay still.
Under my control. I stroke him slowly, watching his reaction.
A low sound escapes him. I lean closer and touch my lips to the tip of his cock.
“Fuck, Hannah.”
The way he says my name makes me want to hear it again.
I have no idea what I’m doing, but I part my lips and take him into my mouth.
His hand slides into my hair. I look up at him.
His jaw is tight, his eyes fixed on me, and seeing how hard he’s fighting for control makes me bolder. I take him deeper.
He begins to move, slowly at first, letting me adjust to the size of him. My jaw stretches around his cock as he slides over my tongue, and I love the intimacy of it. The fact that I’m doing this to him.
His fingers tighten in my hair.
“Hannah.”
This time my name sounds almost wrecked.
I take him as deep as I can, but after another few strokes Torin pulls out. I barely have time to draw breath before he lays me back on the bed. He arches over me and pushes my knees apart, positioning himself between my thighs.
My breath catches. This is it. I can feel him against me. And he’s huge. Torin braces himself above me and guides himself into position. The first push makes me gasp. There’s pressure, then a stretching sensation so intense that my hands fly to his shoulders.
“Oh my God.”
He’s barely inside me. I can feel that. That’s the terrifying part.
Torin lowers his mouth to mine and kisses me as he pushes deeper.
My body resists him. I’m wet, drenched, but there’s so much of him, and every fraction of an inch stretches me farther.
I cling to his shoulders, trying to relax, trying to take him, but another slow push sends a sharp sting through me.
I suck in a breath.
Torin stops. His mouth moves to my neck, kissing me while he waits for my body to adjust. After a few seconds, I shift experimentally beneath him.
The movement sends another burning ache through me, but underneath it is pleasure. The fullness of him. The knowledge that it’s Torin inside me.
My mate.
I want all of him. I wrap my legs more tightly around him and pull him closer. Torin groans against my throat. Then he pushes deeper.
The pressure builds until I think I can’t possibly stretch any farther. My fingers dig into his back. Then a sharper pain makes me cry out and clutch him hard.
For a second I can’t breathe. Torin goes completely still inside me.
I bury my face against his neck, waiting for the sting to ease.
It does. Slowly. And then I become aware of everything else.
His chest pressed against mine. His breath hot against my skin.
His arms around me. And his cock deep inside me.
I move my hips a little. Torin’s whole body tightens. A thrill goes through me.
“Hannah.” My name comes out rough.
I turn my face and kiss him. Torin draws back slowly, and the drag of him through my sensitive pussy makes me shudder. Then he pushes into me again. I moan into his mouth.
The second time is easier.
The third feels better.
By the fourth, the pain is fading beneath something hotter.
Torin finds a slow rhythm, giving my body time to adjust to him, and every stroke feels better than the last.
I don’t want him to stop. I want more.
I slide my hands over his back, feeling the muscles flex beneath my palms as he moves above me.
“Harder.”
Torin lifts his head. His irises are glowing gold. Then he gives me exactly what I asked for.
The next thrust drives a cry from me. “Yes.”
Something in him lets go. He grips my hip and pulls me into each thrust, harder now, deeper, and the bed begins to move beneath us. I cling to him as the pleasure builds, every stroke sending another pulse through me.
A growl rumbles through his chest. It’s deeper than before. Different. He’s breathing hard, his irises burning gold. For a moment I don’t understand why he’s stopped. Then his attention shifts to my neck. But he doesn’t move. He’s waiting.
I reach up and touch his face. “It’s okay.”
His eyes come back to mine.
“Whatever you need. I trust you.”
Something fierce flashes across his face. Then he lowers his head. His mouth finds the place where my neck meets my shoulder. He kisses me there once, almost tenderly, and my whole body tightens in anticipation.
His teeth graze my skin. I shiver. Then he bites. Pain flashes bright and sharp through me. I cry out and clutch him, but almost immediately something else crashes through the pain—a rush so powerful it seems to tear straight through the center of me.
Torin growls against my skin and pulls me tighter against him. Every instinct in my body seems to recognize what’s happening before my mind can catch up.
Mine.
The word doesn’t come from Torin. It comes from somewhere deep inside me.
My mate.
Torin releases me and licks slowly over the bite. The sting sends another shudder through me. When he lifts his head, there’s a trace of blood on his mouth. I grab him and kiss him.
Torin drives into me harder, his control completely gone now. I cling to him, my legs locked around his hips, every thrust sending a fresh shock of pleasure through my already oversensitive body.
The bite throbs in time with my heartbeat.
Every time his chest brushes against it, another pulse shoots through me.
“Oh God.”
Torin’s mouth comes back to the mark.
He licks over it, and I cry out.
The pleasure is almost unbearable now, building too quickly, my whole body tightening around him as he thrusts into me again and again.
His hand slips between us, finding my clit. He strokes the aching bud as he keeps driving into me, matching the movement of his hand to the rhythm of his hips.
My back arches beneath him and I scream his name as the orgasm tears through me. It’s harder than the first, harder than anything I’ve ever felt, every muscle clenching as wave after wave crashes through me.
Torin growls against my neck. His hips drive into me harder.
Once.
Twice.
Again.
Then his whole body tightens. A roar rips from his chest as he comes deep inside me, pulling me so tightly against him that I can barely move.
I don’t want to move.
I hold on to him as the last shudders run through both of us, my face buried against his shoulder, his breath hot against my neck.
He stays there, his weight warm and heavy over mine, his heart hammering against my chest.
Slowly, my breathing begins to settle. My shoulder stings. My entire body aches. And I feel fucking incredible.
Torin lifts his head and looks at the mark on my shoulder. The feral hunger is still there, but there’s something else in his expression now. He touches the skin beside the bite with extraordinary care.
“My mate.” There’s so much satisfaction in those two words that I smile.
“Your mate.”
His irises flare.
Then he kisses me again, deeply enough to make my toes curl despite the fact that I’m fairly sure he’s just destroyed every functioning muscle in my body.
When he finally pulls away, he gathers me against his chest.
I go willingly, curling into him as he pulls the covers over us. A deep sigh of satisfaction spills out of me.
For days, I’ve been trying to get somewhere safe.
But lying here with Torin’s claiming mark throbbing at my shoulder and his body curved around mine, I finally understand what safe really means: not being hidden. Being free. And choosing exactly where I want to be.
Which is right here in his arms.