8
Larz
Seeing her squirm, panicking to find an answer, was the cutest thing I’d seen in all my life. The slight widening of her eyes. The goosebumps that prickled across her flushed skin. The wrinkles between her brows. I wanted to lean forward and kiss her worries away.
But I also wanted to grab her ankles and pull her towards me.
The scent of her sweet arousal filled my senses.
I could smell it the second I got to the park.
It was calling me to push her skirt over her rounded hips, rip a hole in her tights, and take my fill.
Instead, I leaned back, clutching the sides of my board for dear life.
“Um, probably the part when Ira and Quinn were looking at houses and then she bought it right there on the spot! That part was really sweet.” A lie, but I didn’t mind.
I already knew what her favorite part was; she fucked herself to it the night before, moaning my name as we finished together.
“That part was good,” I loosened my grip, flexing the ache from my palms before opening up the book. “My favorite part was when Quinn spread Ira out over the hood of her car.”
Ilona’s eyes widened even more and I caught the way her knees squeezed together as I continued.
“How she unmasked herself just enough to get a taste of her girl…could you imagine?” I let my voice drop just a bit, “Letting someone devour you without knowing who they truly were?”
I could see the wheels turning in her brain as she straightened her spine just a bit. Her blushing skin slowly receded to its warm brown. She let her eyes roam over me, and suddenly, I was the one who was squirming.
“Actually, yes.” Her gaze burned into mine. The shy, timid girl who sat in front of me just moments before was gone. I could see the desire swirling behind her eyes. She felt it, too.
It was the bond. Having my mate in front of me was making my need spiral, and I knew it was the same for Ilona. Everything in me wanted to pin her down and feast on her until she relinquished all control.
If I really wanted to, I could use the mind connection. I could twine my emotions with hers and make her feel what I was feeling, but I held back. I still wanted her to choose me fully on her own. But that didn’t mean I needed to hold back my desire completely.
“Yes?” I slid off my board and moved closer. Her little gasp made my fists clench so hard they ached again.
“The unknown can be erotic, don’t you think?” She smirked. Her body language was inviting me in, she needed me just as bad as I needed her.
“I don’t just think, I know.” We were so close now that I could feel her breath against my cheek. One move, that’s all I needed from her, and I would make her mine.
She pulled her pouty, red-stained lip between her teeth. The gap in the middle made me smile. She was so uniquely beautiful. Her eyes sparkled with curious hunger that I knew only I could satiate.
“How?” Her voice dropped to a skeptical tone, her thick brows scrunching together. Was that jealousy I heard?
I sighed, leaning back again. “I know a thing or two about being different. Unknown. Feared…” I trailed off. The heat of desire that had been consuming me cooled, a wave of sorrow washing over me.
“Yeah,” she sighed, like the cooling relief had calmed her, too. “Me too. But being different is a good thing, I think. That’s what drew me to you.”
I looked up at her again. She was eyeing me with empathy. If only she really understood, if only I could just spill everything now. Would she be able to handle it or would she fear me, too?
I pushed back the doubt as I crossed my arms over my chest with a smirk, deciding to take a less heavy route with my response, “So you’re drawn to me?”
“You saved me from being decapitated by a rogue skateboard and a pushy barista…of course I am.” She rolled her eyes, “Thank you for that, by the way.”
“I’d never let anything or anyone hav-” I choked down the rest of the word, coughing to cover up the slip, “hurt you, Ilona.”
“I don’t deserve that,” she looked down, picking at her black nail polish and shaking her head, “we just met. You don’t even know me.”
If only she knew how much I knew her already or how much I’d learned about her over the last few weeks just from outside her window.
I knew her whole nightly routine, which books she loved, how she liked her tea and coffee, how she was not a morning person but forced herself to be, and so much more.
If only she knew why I felt like I’d cut down any threat or obstacle in her way.
“Maybe not technically, but I feel like I do,” As I spoke, she looked over at me with curious eyes, “and I know you feel like that, too. That pull in your chest to know me and be around me. Don’t you?”
Saying it was a risk, but I needed to hear her confirm it. I wanted to know how much she could handle and how much would make her shy away. But most of all, I needed to know if I was wasting my time. If this feeling I had was something crazy that I’d made up in my mind.
She rubbed her chest lightly, the exact place we both felt the pull. “How did you know that?”
“I’ve felt it since the moment I saw you. Even before the skateboard incident, I felt you when you got to the park. Then, when I saw you, it just clicked. I had to know you.”