Chapter 29
DRAYA
My breath hitched as Hazel stepped into the room, the click of the door latching echoing in the silence.
An iridescent glow brushed over her skin, and those blueish strands of hair that caught my attention years ago peeked out from her long pale locks.
She was half-shifted, her gills and fins on display, and I noticed two new features sprouting from her shoulders.
My gaze caught on the gold and green flecks in her eyes, and my heartbeat picked up as all thoughts left my mind. Whatever grand speech I’d planned before she entered was lost to the current, replaced with a desire so intense that I thought I might combust.
I wanted to drink her in and burrow my way inside her soul in the same way she had with mine.
“Hazel,” I breathed.
She frowned, and my heart dropped.
“What are you doing here?” She asked.
“You’re beautiful,” I blurted out, desperately hoping she didn’t send me away.
“Thank you,” she said, raising a brow. “But again, Draya, why are you here?”
I’d rehearsed what I wanted to say in my head over and over again, but none of the words felt right. Nothing I said would properly convey the emotions I felt for the woman before me, and I could sense her rising impatience.
“I’m sorry,” I said. “I… I’ve never met anyone like you, Hazel…” I trailed off, the words lost on the tip of my tongue.
“I’m not sure what to think of that, but please, continue,” she replied, staring for a moment. The irritation written all over her face only made me ravenous for more of her angst.
“I ran away from our kiss because I was scared. No one has ever made me feel the way I do for you. I said I didn’t want to hurt you anymore, then I kissed you and left, and I know it hurt you again. For that, I’m sorry.”
“I fear you are grossly underestimating me if you think a broken kiss can hurt my feelings,” she said, her voice laced with amusement. Her antics were starting to frustrate me again, but I sat there in silence, forced into a chokehold by my deafening need to claim her.
She took a single step closer, and I inhaled sharply, hoping to catch even the slightest hint of the intoxicating arousal I picked up on her skin yesterday.
Even in my human form, her essence engulfed me.
I wanted to ravage her, worship her, make her scream my name so loud that anyone in this wing would know she was mine.
My hand reached out of its own accord, and I gently caressed the spike still protruding from her shoulder. I felt it prick the pad of my thumb, and both of us stilled as a bead of my blood dripped over her skin, slowly making its way down her collarbone.
I was hanging on by a fucking thread, and when the corner of her mouth tipped up in a sly grin, the last shred of my control disintegrated.
Standing abruptly, I grabbed her by the waist and threw her onto the bed, pressing my lips to hers in a desperate kiss.
She melted beneath me, her hesitation from earlier dissolving as she wrapped her legs around my torso and met my advance with equal fervor.
She grabbed my shoulders, digging her claws into my skin as she pulled me into her.
I was struggling to remain fully in my human form, and she kissed my spikes and gills as they appeared on my skin, sending me into a frenzy of sorts.
Utterly lost in her body, I trailed my tongue up and down her neck, nipping and biting at her collarbones. She tightened her legs around my waist, grinding her hips against the shaft of my already hard cock, and I nearly whimpered at the sensation.
“Take me,” she panted, dusting her lips along the sensitive skin of the gills on my neck. I shivered, desire flooding my body, and I scented her overpowering arousal in the air once again.
“Have you ever been with a man, Hazel?” I asked, pausing, searching her face.
Her blank stare and lack of response gave me the answer I was looking for.
It would take delicate handling on my end, but I’d stay in my human form this time.
She deserved a tender, soft introduction to things of this nature.
We’d have plenty of time in the future for me to claim her in the way I wanted, leaving her in pieces.
I leaned up on my elbows and cupped her face, letting my forehead fall until it rested against hers. She pressed her hips into mine once again, and the heat of her core made my throbbing cock even harder.
“If we keep going,” I said, thrusting against her, the linen of our clothes in the way. “You must understand I’m never going to let you go.”
She stared up at me with glossy eyes, and my heart felt like it was going to burst through my ribcage. I needed her to say yes. I needed her to want me as desperately as I wanted her.
She nodded a second later, breaking through the tension gripping my body, and I kissed her tenderly, pressing my tongue into her mouth as my hands caressed her hips.
“If it hurts, if you want me to stop, just say so,” I said, leaning my forehead against hers. She nodded again, pulling me into another kiss, and I ripped through our clothing with a single claw before descending on her.