Chapter Eight

Leo was pretty sure he was losing his mind. It had been almost two weeks since he'd seen Della in the flesh and his wolf was howling over the extended absence. He'd given in and shifted to run through the forest outside the city in his wolf form the last two nights, hoping to burn off some energy, but all it had done was make him more aware of his boundless hunger for her, for her touch, her voice, her face, that damned scent. If being more aware of it was even possible.

The meeting about the afterschool programs—which he hadn't mentioned to James he was still planning on attending, since he hadn't quite managed to mention to Della his Alpha's refusal to be involved in the program—was tonight, and energy was humming beneath his skin at the very thought of seeing her again.

To his shame, he was in the middle of delivering one of James' threats, a threat he himself would be the one to carry out if the woman in question didn't stop pushing the limits of the law regarding the sale of witch-spelled objects, when Della texted him.

I'll see you tonight at the meeting? she wrote, as though it was ever in question.

Let me drive you there, Leo texted back, once he was out of the woman's shop, leaving her pale with fear and promising obedience.

Almost immediately, as he was walking down the street to greetings from his pack mates which he acknowledged with short nods, he received a response.

That would involve you driving me home after, would it not? Della asked.

I guess it would, Leo wrote, as though his wolf hadn't considered this already, and sent up a howl of approval in response.

He watched as the marker of Della typing appeared on the screen, disappeared, appeared again. It felt like he was holding his breath, even as he filled his lungs with air. He needed her, needed to at least have that time alone with her, see that she got home safe. Otherwise, he was pretty sure he'd wind up tailing her car when she left the meeting to ensure she made it through her front door without incident.

But if she invited him in… the wolf beneath his skin sent up a howl at the thought. The thought of being alone with her, in private, in her house… the thought of all the things he could do to her in a space where no one might walk in on them, where no one could accidentally hear—he clenched his fists and fought to keep himself in check. He must look a fright, he realized; the other people walking by gave him a wide berth and the acquaintances and shopkeepers who usually greeted him when he was in this part of the pack's territory were taking one look at him and cutting themselves off. He fought down the wolf that was trying to rise to the surface and glanced down at the phone still clutched tightly in his hand.

I have to be there a bit early to make sure everything is set up, she'd written. Was she hedging? He wondered.

I'm really good at arranging chairs, Leo responded.

See you around 5.30 then? she asked.

The wolf snarled in satisfaction. Leo had to stop his hands from shaking with the adrenaline that was suddenly coursing through his body.

What's your address? he asked.

She lived deep in the Avalon coven's territory, but from what he knew, it was a fairly safe area. Something in him, something that had without his knowledge been concerned she wasn't safe while he wasn't there to protect her, relaxed slightly. The rest of him was as keyed up as he'd ever been, the thought of once again being alone with her—truly alone this time, with no other restaurant patrons or potential carpal users to interrupt them—sending pulses of heat through his blood.

He'd be hard pressed to focus on the damn meeting before he could take her home, that was for sure.

***

Leo was parked outside the address Della had given him at 5.30 on the dot. He rolled his shoulders, trying to reduce the sudden burst of—was that nerves—that was fighting to dilute the mixture of arousal and anticipation thrumming through his veins, and knocked on the door.

"Come on in, it's unlocked," Della called.

Heat pulsed through him, and he fought it down. Be civilized, Tyler. Don't leap on her the moment you see her.

Della appeared through one of the doors that opened into the small entrance hallway, carrying a large binder stuffed full of papers. If he'd thought it was the flirty blue dress she'd worn on their date that had had his arousal skyrocketing, his response to her in a simple white business shirt and straight black skirt proved that thought entirely wrong. Lust roared through him like an open flame and before he knew what he was doing, he was stalking towards her, backing her against the wall next to the doorway she'd come through, pinning her with a hand on either side of her head. With a gasp, Della dropped her binder to the table by her side. A low growl rose from his chest as he took in a lungful of her scent. Their eyes met and held. Held.

"You shouldn't do that," he managed after a long moment filled only with their rapid breathing.

"Do what?" Della asked.

"Invite people in without knowing who it is," Leo managed. "It might not have been me."

"I'm a witch, Leo," she replied, her voice breathy. "I have sensor spells set up on every boundary of this property. I knew it was you the moment you turned into the driveway." She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, and when her chest brushed Leo's, they both groaned. He saw her hand clench into a fist at her side. "I was just collecting the last of the papers I need for tonight," Della added.

"Good," Leo forced out. "Do you have everything?"

"I think so."

"Then we can go." Neither of them made a move to shift from their position. He breathed in her scent once more—sex and spices, willing woman. She was wet, he could smell it. She needed him, and he couldn't take her right now.

"Della," Leo growled. "Della, the mood I'm in, if I kiss you right now, we won't leave this house for a week."

Surely, he was imagining the spark in her gaze at his words.

"If it wasn't for the meeting," she said quietly, "and all the people I've promised I'll be there, I'd take you up on that, Mr Tyler."

Leo dropped his head and took in a deep breath of her scent at the curve where her neck became her shoulder. She shivered, and his wolf rejoiced at the visible evidence of his effect on her. If only she knew, he thought distantly, the effect she had on him.

"I'll be bringing you home after the meeting tonight," Leo said slowly, trying to keep his voice even. "And, Della, if you want to say goodbye at the door and walk through it alone, I'll drive away and I'll take care of this," he pressed his body forward so she could feel the full length of his cock, swollen and aching for her, "On my own, thinking of you the way I have been for the past two weeks." He felt her sharp intake of breath as if it were filling his own lungs, and he took the leap. "But, Della, if you let me come through that door with you, you have to know I'm going to take it as an invitation to show you exactly what I've been dreaming of doing with this perfect body."

There was the briefest of pauses. "I want to know," Della said, swallowing hard. "I want to know what you've been… what you've been dreaming of. I want to know if your dreams have been the same as mine."

He couldn't help himself. With a growl, Leo dragged Della's shirt out of the way and sunk his teeth into the skin of her shoulder. Distantly, he was grateful that he had had the presence of mind to do this somewhere no one else would be able to see, but the forefront of his mind—the conscious, human part—was overwhelmed with the pure instinctual gratification, the primal joy, of tasting and marking his woman. She tasted like everything he'd ever wanted, like joy and sweetness and sex and the future he'd never even let himself imagine. He flicked his tongue over the place his teeth had dug in, soothing her, and reveling in her strangled gasp as her free hand rose to cling to one of his shoulders, dragging upwards and diving into his hair as though she'd drag his mouth to hers.

Gathering every ounce of his self-control, Leo managed to take half a step backwards. Enough that every facet of their bodies was no longer touching. Enough that he could see her face.

Della looked like the incarnation of arousal, cheeks flushed, lips bitten red. Gods, how he wanted to cover those lips with his own, but no. Focus. They had somewhere to be.

"Are you all right?" he managed to ask, though his voice was more of a growl.

"I'm…" Della said and paused. "Did you just leave a mark on me?"

"It's covered by your shirt," Leo said, trying to ignore the rush of primal satisfaction that filled him. "It'll be covered unless you're wearing a shirt with a very low neckline. And Della," he added, "the only person you're wearing that kind of shirt for had better be me."

He didn't expect the way she went stiff before him, all the rampant arousal disappearing from her features in the space of a second.

"Of course," she said, and there was a stiffness in her voice completely at odds with the panting, needy woman who had stood before him mere moments earlier. "We agreed."

He looked at her, brows lowered. "Della—"

"We're going to be late," she murmured and slipped from the cage his arms had formed around her to collect the binder and her bag waiting by the door.

It was mostly Della doing the talking on their drive to the meeting hall, telling him about the situations she was managing at work, her two co-workers who had hooked up and still thought no one else knew despite how obvious they were being, the frivolous issues that had been brought before the Council of Witches for their next meeting. Leo was trapped in a turmoil of extreme arousal, fed by the way her scent filled the car and permeated every breath he took, and concern over the way she'd frozen up on him. What had gone wrong? What had he done that had put that haunted look into her eyes, and what did he have to do to fix it? Della seemed to be relaxing more and more as they drove, her voice losing its stiffness, her posture relaxing to the point that she even put a hand on Leo's thigh to direct him into the correct car park as they arrived at the meeting hall. Lust shot through him at her touch, but he tamped it down. It didn't matter how savagely his wolf longed to make good on the promises he'd made of what would happen when they got back to her house. First, he needed to solve this mystery.

Setup for the meeting was easy even if he had to tamp down on his jealousy when Della embraced another male in greeting—the same one who had dared to touch her during the last meeting if Leo wasn't mistaken—and welcomed him to Mystic City. Apparently, he'd traveled from elsewhere to be present tonight, and Leo had to stop himself from politely requesting that he go back wherever the fuck he came from.

Della even called Leo over from where he'd been helping set out the chairs to introduce him to the man. He sauntered over, sizing up the other male.

"This is Leo Tyler, the Beta of the Blue Crescent pack," she said. No mention of their involvement, he noted, though, of course, that had been one of their ground rules, hadn't it? That they keep their relationship quiet?

"Ian Ashbough," the other male introduced himself, extending a hand. "Tituba coven. I've come from Tirawi City for the meeting tonight—my coven is very interested in Della's ideas about integration. I think the model could be used in a lot of places if we can make a success of it here."

"It must be useful that you have nothing to lose if it fails in a city that's not your own, either," Leo said sharply.

Ian had the gall to look shocked at his words, but quickly collected himself. "On the contrary, I've been working closely with Della to make this venture a success. I've put my name to it in my own coven and Della and I have reached out to other covens to see if they're interested. I daresay I have significantly more to lose than a werewolf who can withdraw his interest in the program whenever it's convenient for him… or his pack."

How much did the warlock know? How could he know about James' instruction to withdraw Blue Crescent from any involvement in the program? Leo could barely stop himself from baring his teeth and snarling at the challenge. He reined himself in with a considerable effort.

"Either way," Ian said, clearly changing his tone with a grin at Della that made Leo grind his teeth, "I'm sure we all have enough invested that it's in our best interests to see the program succeed. Which I'm positive it will."

"We can only hope," Della said, smiling warmly at the asshole warlock.

"Do you mind if I borrow Della for a moment?" Leo asked, not knowing what he'd do if Ian expressed reluctance.

"By all means," the other male said, spreading his hands wide. "I'll go see if I can dig up that lectern. Pleasure to have you on board, Leo."

He left the room, and in a flash, Leo was a hair's breadth away from Della, crowding her into the shadowed corner to the side of the small, raised stage.

"Leo—" she managed to gasp before he was clasping her face in his hands.

"Tell me you've never let him touch you the way I have," he demanded, hearing the asshole in his voice but unable to conquer it.

"What? Leo, Ian doesn't see me like that," Della protested. "He has a girlfriend back in Tirawi City—"

"I can smell it on him, Della," Leo said. "He wants you, badly."

"Wanting and doing are two very different things," Della said. Her voice had gone soft. "Leo, you can't get this worked up about every male friend I have. I know werewolves tend to be possessive, but this is ridiculous. Not everyone is looking to fuck me."

Hearing her say the words burst some dam inside him. "You promised me no one else, as long as this lasts. Just remember who the male is who'd die to take you home tonight. Who's been dreaming of fucking you for two full weeks now without a break."

"I keep my promises," Della said, but he could scent her arousal at his words. She took a deep breath. "And I promise I won't introduce you to anyone I've been with without warning you first. And I expect the same courtesy from you."

"Of course," Leo said, locking the promise inside himself so he didn't go mad with lust imagining Della getting possessive over him, Della leaving marks on him to assert her claim… Not that she needed to. He shoved down that thought as well and pressed a kiss to her forehead, taking a deep breath of her scent and reveling in the touch of his lips on her skin. More later, he promised his impatient wolf, and stepped back from her.

"Thank you," he said, holding her gaze so she'd see the honesty in his eyes. "And I'm sorry. For… that."

"Let's just try and keep that in check until we get home, shall we?" she asked, a touch of flirtation entering her expression. If it was possible, his dick hardened even further.

"In the meantime," Della continued, looking around the half-set-up room, "I guess we have some chairs to arrange."

Her slightly cautious smile lit Leo up like someone had replaced his veins with strings of fairy lights. Anything, he found himself thinking. Anything you need from me, Delphinia Greenbranch, and I will do it.

So together, they set up the rest of the chairs. And when Ian returned, having successfully located the lectern that he drew along behind him on a floating magical tether, Leo managed to restrict his reaction to a single assessing glance that the warlock returned.

Their eye contact was broken when the door opened and the friendly vampire from the last meeting—what had been her name… Virginia—swirled into the room in a burst of oversized skirts and immaculately curled red hair. "Della!" she cried, apparently overjoyed to see the witch. "Sunset is getting earlier by seconds each day, so I thought I'd see if you needed any help setting up."

"I think we're doing all right, thanks anyway, Valerie," Della replied with equal cheerfulness. "You met Leo from Blue Crescent last time, didn't you? He stopped by to help us out this week."

"I could do all of this with magic in a tenth of the time if you'd let me," Ian said, a teasing complaint.

"A little physical labour is good for you," Della said. She sounded like she was teasing back, but there was something else there. "My grandma always said using magic for all your menial tasks was a cop-out. Not in those words, of course," she added with a laugh.

"Your word is my command," Ian said with a laugh of his own and a shrug, grabbing the last of the chairs and positioning them. "That was much faster than usual, anyway. I guess we have Leo to thank for that?"

"My pleasure," Leo said, his eyes on Della, reveling in the way she went slightly pink at his words.

"I've never known a werewolf pack to be particularly interested in integration," Valerie said, fixing Leo with her endless immortal stare and a blood red smile. "Especially one as dedicated to independence as Blue Crescent. What has changed to bring you into our circle? Are the wolves suddenly looking to integrate with the rest of us for some reason?" Her perfect eyebrows were raised, but her mouth was still in that lovely, inhuman smile.

"I thought Della made some very good points last week," Leo said. "I'm still working on convincing my Alpha, but I'm pretty keen to be involved with what she's been talking about." There, that was all true, no lies in what he'd said.

"Ah, yes, Alpha James Norfolk. I've heard tell of his commitment to… living by his own rules, shall we say." If possible, her blood red smile spread even wider. She knew, then. What James did, the way he ruled, and the things Leo had to do as his second-in-command. The things he hadn't told Della about yet and wasn't sure he ever wanted her to know; the beatings, the threats, the way his role as Beta seemed to emulate a mob enforcer more and more as time went by. What was this, a threat from the vampire? To expose him to the witch he couldn't seem to get enough of as what he truly was?

Refusing to let his expression change, Leo repeated the line his father had taught him from his own days as Beta. "The pack comes first, Lady Valerie, and James has always done what he thinks is best."

"Is that so?" Valerie replied in a tone that said she didn't believe a word of it. "And none of that 'Lady' nonsense, please. I'm not here as a vampire Master, just an interested party intrigued by Della's coven's ideas. We've been friends since before she was elected to the Council, you know."

"I'm glad to hear it," Leo said. "Your coven's support for her program will mean a lot when it gets approved."

"At this point, all we need is enough groups to commit that we can get some decent funding," Della chimed in. "Everyone's input at these meetings is really valuable for ironing out the details, but we can't really go anywhere without larger-scale support." She smiled at him. "That's part of why we were so excited when your Alpha said he'd be sending a representative last time. The werewolves haven't exactly proven themselves keen to be involved."

"Well, I'm very glad I came," Leo said truthfully. He pushed down on the part of him that panicked at the thought of not having met Della if James had sent someone else to the first meeting.

"Me too," Della said, with one of the smiles that set his heartbeat racing.

At that moment, the door swung open again and a contingent of humans arrived, noisily chattering. With a last heated look at him, Della went to greet them, Ian trailing her.

When Valerie took a seat in one of the middle rows of the chairs they'd arranged and gestured for Leo to take the one next to her, he happily complied.

"My friend Beaufort, whose coven's territory is alongside your pack's, should also be joining us tonight," she said. Leo had a vague memory of there having been another vampire at the last meeting, but he'd been too consumed by Della to pay much attention. "I'd be happy to introduce the two of you," Valerie continued. "You might be happy to have some outside support when you go to convince your Alpha to be involved in this integration project. Or perhaps of making some… other leadership changes."

What was she alluding to? Did she think he was working up to challenging James for leadership of the pack? And if, gods all forbid, he did, was she offering her support?

"I'm sure both of your friendship will be very valuable while I'm trying to get James onboard," Leo said, a touch stiffly. "I'm not sure he has any other changes planned at the moment, though. Not without the full support of the pack."

"The pack comes first," Valerie said sagely, her lips curving in that same close-mouthed smile as she echoed his words from earlier. "Whatever is best for the pack."

"Indeed," Leo said, and then Della was letting them know they'd be starting in a few moments and another vampire was slipping into the seat on Valerie's other side. She barely had the chance to introduce them—Beaufort greeting Leo with an uncomfortably knowing smile that showed off his fangs—before Della was calling the meeting to order and welcoming them all.

He made it through maybe three minutes of watching her command the room before that and her scent—potent to him even with all the other people around them—had need thrumming through his veins. It was as bad as it had been at the last meeting—maybe worse, since now he knew the taste of her skin and the way she stroked her tongue over his own when he kissed her and how her body shook when he made her come. The sex-and-spices scent that was uniquely Della intoxicated him until he was leaning forwards in his seat, eyes fixed on her even once she'd yielded the lectern to another speaker. Every minute he had to wait to get his hands on her felt like it was stretching into an eternity. Leo found himself falling back on the self-control tricks they used for pups trying to manage their first shifts, focusing on his breathing, on the sensations in his body. Clenching and relaxing his muscle groups in turn. It helped, a little, though the breathing just brought more of her scent into his lungs, and every sensation in his body seemed geared towards the lust pounding in his blood.

He could tell she felt the heat of his gaze by the pink in her cheeks and the infinitesimal pause before she took her place at the lectern once more to close out the meeting. Valerie and Beaufort stood with the rest of the crowd once Della had formally thanked them for attending, but Leo stayed seated, pretending to be absorbed in his phone to avoid anyone trying to speak to him. The room slowly emptied until only he, Della and Ian were left.

He looked up when he heard Ian say, "I think that was a great success."

Della shot the warlock a smile. "I think so too. Go us."

"Go you," Ian corrected her. "You had them eating out of the palm of your hand. By the time I spoke, I could have told them our curriculum plan involved bright blue facial tattoos and they would have accepted it without question."

Della's smile turned a little embarrassed. "I really think we're getting somewhere with all the cross-species input," she said. "Anyway, thank you for coming tonight, Ian. Your input is invaluable too."

"Any time you need me here, just give me a call," Ian said, and Leo rose to his feet without consciously deciding to do so. The movement caught the attention of both witch and warlock.

"Anyway," Ian said, "how about we get this place put to rights, and then we can all take off?"

"Why don't you head out?" Della suggested. "You've done so much already. Leo's giving me a lift home, and we can easily manage the pack-down with the two of us. I might cheat and just do it magically," she added with a conspiratorial grin.

"If you say so," Ian said, glancing between Della and Leo, who was still standing stock-still in the midst of the chairs. "Make sure she gets home safe," he added to Leo.

"Always," Leo said, the word coming out with more growl than he'd intended.

And then the other man was gone, and it was just the two of them in the big, empty room.

"If you move out of the chairs," Della said, her voice a touch unsteady, "I can put them all away."

Leo could feel the predatory nature of his movements as he walked forwards to the stage where Della still stood. She only took her eyes off him long enough to flick her fingers at the room full of chairs, which immediately disappeared.

"You could have set them up that easily too?" Leo asked when he stood below her.

Della smiled down at him, her cheeks still pink and growing pinker under his focused gaze. "I guess so. My grandmother always taught me not to use magic for menial tasks, though, so it makes more sense to me for us to set them up by hand. It feels kind of… wrong to use magic to do it. Like I'm cheating. Wasting it, or something, unless I desperately need to siphon some off that day."

"Why did you just do that, then?" Leo asked.

"You know why," Della said, dropping her eyes to the ground.

"Tell me anyway," Leo said. "I want to hear you say it."

"I didn't want to wait as long as it would take to put them all away by hand," Della said quietly.

"Wait for what?" In an instant, Leo had jumped up on to the stage next to her. She started, gasping, but he already had her in his arms and fuck, but it felt so good to be holding the woman who had been tempting him all night. "Don't want to wait for me to take you home and kiss you goodnight at the door like a gentleman?"

"I don't think you're that kind of gentleman," Della whispered, her eyes flicking up from where they were fixed on his lips to meet his own gaze.

"You're damn right," Leo said, the words coming out in a growl. "I'm the kind of gentleman who'll have his mouth between your legs a minute after you invite me through that door, sweetheart. The kind who'll pleasure you until you're begging before I even think about putting my cock in that pretty pussy. Do you understand me?"

"Yes, Leo," Della gasped, her hands grasping fistfuls of his shirt as though she'd drag his mouth to hers right here.

With a colossal effort, Leo stepped back. "Good," he said. "Grab your things, then. Let's get going."

***

Della's entire body felt like her nerves had been set to 'hyperdrive'. She'd never been more aware of clothing touching her skin, of the temperature in the car, of Leo's hand on her thigh as he drove. If only she'd worn a shorter skirt, she could already be feeling his skin on hers. She cursed the fabric that separated them, but at the same time knew that if he'd actually had his hand on her bare thigh, she probably wouldn't have been able to resist pushing it higher and begging him to give her the same thing he had after their dinner date. And there were two ways that could end—one, he crashed the car and the two of them died a fiery death, or two, he somehow managed to both drive and get her off with the innate competence with which he seemed to do everything and left her even more turned on than she already was. If that was even possible.

Her blood was pounding in her veins, and she could feel how wet and swollen she was between her legs. Everything was hot and cold all at once, and every breath she took sounded loud in her ears, like she was gasping for air.

"I need you to distract me," Leo said suddenly, his voice loud in the heated quiet.

"Wh-why?" Della managed to say.

"I can smell you, Della," he ground out. "I can fucking smell how turned on you are and it's killing me not to pull over and bury my face in that needy little pussy right now, so I need you to talk about something else and distract me."

"Oh," Della murmured, her cheeks flaming at the idea that he could smell her arousal, but knowing his words were only making it worse. "Oh. Um. What would you like me to talk about?"

"Anything," Leo said. "Work, friends, family. Just get my mind off how easy it would be to fuck you in the back seat."

Della latched on to the first thing that popped into her mind. "My grandmother, who I mentioned earlier, about teaching me not to use magic for everyday tasks—she did most of my magical education after my mother passed away. My dad worked long hours, so I would go over to Grandmother Elise's after school and watch her cast spells. She's a-a bit of a difficult person to be around sometimes—well, most of the time, really, with me—but she taught me a huge amount of what I know about magic. She's a big reason I have the kind of control over my power that I do now, because I started building it at such a young age."

"How old were you when your mother passed?" Leo asked. He was still visibly tense, but he seemed to be a little less tightly strung.

"I was ten," Della said quietly. "Brain aneurysm. She was only forty-two."

He reached over and squeezed her hand but didn't say anything, and she appreciated it. Too many people tried to talk her out of the grief that never truly went away.

The car pulled into her driveway, and they sat in silence for a moment.

"Well, that's one way to kill the moment," Della said with half a laugh. "Talk about your dead mother."

In a blink, Leo was out of his seat and rounding the hood of the car. He pulled open her door and undid her seatbelt faster than she could take a breath and pulled her out to press her body back against the car in a mirror of what they'd done the night they'd had dinner. In a flash, she was as hot as she'd been before they'd started talking about her family.

"You think anything you say to me is enough to kill this mood?" he asked, pressing the length of his erection against her.

"Leo," Della gasped, and then he was stepping away from her, the loss of his body against hers so shocking in its suddenness that she stumbled. His hands came up to her waist to steady her, and when she met his eyes, the hunger in his gaze was so deep, she felt it in her bones. She had clasped his forearms before she knew what she was doing and felt the muscles clench under her touch.

"Invite me inside, Della," Leo said, and though the words were an instruction, there was a plea in his voice. "I need to make you feel good."

In answer, Della flicked her fingers at the front door, magicking it unlocked and open. She tugged Leo's hands away from her waist but kept a hold on one, pulling him with her up the front stairs and into her home.

The door had hardly closed behind them before he turned her around and pinned her back against it, wrapping her in his arms as he did so. Their lips met at the same moment as the rest of their bodies, and Della felt rather than heard Leo's growl of approval mixing with her own moan. Surely, it was crazy to think she could taste the intensity of his need for her—but wait, there was magic at work here, hadn't her spell proven that? Magic beyond what she could control—the magic of the universe. Magic that had her rolling her smaller, softer body against Leo's larger, harder one as she reached up to wrap her hands around his neck, opening her entire body to his touch.

He took advantage, stroking his hands over every curve of her like he was trying to memorize them. When he gripped her ass and used the leverage to work his rigid cock against the covered juncture of her thighs, she moaned so loudly she was pretty sure her neighbors would have been able to hear.

"If someone comes around to check why I'm making all these loud noises," Della managed between breathless gasps, "you're going to have to stop long enough for me to convince them I'm all right."

"Oh, sweetheart." Leo's grin was nothing short of wolfish. "You think that was loud? Just wait until I'm making you scream."

He pulled the collar of her shirt out of the way and sucked on the place he'd bitten earlier, and it was as if the spot had a direct line to her clit. Della's hips bucked without conscious instruction from her brain, and she found herself dragging Leo's shirt up and over his head, forcing him to lean back from her, just so she'd have access to more of him to touch. He was glorious, all thick slabs of muscle and golden-tanned skin, but he didn't give her long to look. Within barely more than a breath, he had her pressed against the door once more, sucking on her tongue with a growl as she ran her hands, her nails, over the broad expanse of his back. She dug them in and he positively snarled, big hands making quick work of the buttons of her shirt and tearing it off over her shoulders. In the same breath, he was yanking her skirt's zipper down and tugging it off over her hips and down her legs, so he was kneeling at her feet when he looked up and got his first glimpse of her in her underwear.

She'd never been so glad she'd worn nice lingerie as she was seeing Leo's jaw drop when he caught sight of it. The set had been another gift to herself after what had happened with Dane, but she'd rarely had the chance or the inclination to make use of them. The fabric was mostly sheer, with applique roses in crucial places making it borderline decent.

From the look on Leo's face, you'd have thought she'd appeared in nothing but the dust of crushed diamonds.

"You wear this for me?" he asked, still on his knees. His voice was rough, harsh.

"Yes," Della said honestly, and then, because he was still kneeling at her feet and staring at her, added, "You like it?"

As if in answer, Leo lunged forwards and covered her fabric-shielded core with his mouth. She could feel him perfectly, so warm and soft and wet, and gods above, what was he doing with his tongue that could feel so incredible even through the fabric?

Della had to strangle a scream, grabbing at his hair—to pull him away, or drag him closer, she wasn't sure.

Leo pulled back a moment later, and even his breath was coming in uneven pants. "I love them," he said between gasped breaths. "I hate them. You look beautiful. Nothing should ever hide you from me." He laid another long lick over her swollen, covered flesh that ended with such perfect pressure on her clit that she thought she might die. "I'll buy you more of these. A hundred of these," Leo growled against her, and then there was a tearing sound and her panties appeared, shredded, on the floor next to her. She might have been outraged if he hadn't gone right back to what he was doing and the capacity for anything beyond pure desperation for more left her brain entirely. Leo's mouth was impossible, was everything, his lips and tongue teasing and caressing her like he had a direct line into her brain, knowing exactly what she needed almost before she did. When he pressed his fingers inside her, she made a noise the likes of which she'd never even heard before, instinctively rocking against the perfect combination of his fingers in her pussy and his tongue stroking over her clit.

"Leo," she moaned, her voice coming out high and tight.

He pulled back long enough to say, "Della," before returning to flick his tongue over the sensitive bud of nerves in a way that had Della clenching down around his thrusting fingers.

"I could do this all fuckin' night," he growled. "Spend hours making you scream my name, just from my mouth between these legs." He quirked his fingers in a way that made her eyes roll back in her head. "You going to let me do that, my little goddess? Going to let me get on my knees and worship you all night?"

"Anything," Della said, meaning it with her whole heart. "Anything, just don't stop. Please don't stop."

"Never," Leo snarled against her skin, and set his tongue to stroking over her once more; up and back, side to side, in circles—gods, those perfect, teasing circles—until her flesh was clenching spasmodically against his working fingers and Della was working her hips in time with his strokes, moaning and panting and—

"Leo," she managed. "Leo, I'm going to come."

"Do it," he growled against her flesh. "Come for me, sweetheart."

It shouldn't have been possible for him to work her even harder, but somehow it was, and then she was tipping over the edge and tumbling down, down, into a whirlpool of pleasure that seemed to have no bottom. Words were spilling from her lips that she barely heard, yes and oh, gods, and endless repetitions of his name, as his lips and tongue and fingers drove her deeper into that whirlpool than she'd ever been.

Finally, flesh throbbing with hypersensitivity, she grabbed at him to stop the endless pleasure waves. Leo drew back, withdrawing his touch from her skin, only to keep her gaze pinned with his as he slowly licked his fingers clean. Pink tried to rise in Della's cheeks, but she banished it. How could she be embarrassed when they'd just done… that?

"You ripped my underwear," she managed eventually, still gasping for breath.

Amusement lit his pure-silver eyes. "I'll buy you more. As many as you like." He rose to his feet until he was towering over her shaking body, then leaned down to lick a path up the side of her neck. "That was one, Della. Enough to take the edge off how goddamn hungry I am for you." He nipped at her earlobe and her whole body shuddered. "But you have to remember, I'm starving here, and you," his tongue flicked out to soothe her flesh from his slight bite, "are fucking delicious."

Another shudder rolled through Della's body, centering on the swollen flesh between her legs. How on earth did she have the audacity to get aroused all over again when she was still recovering from the orgasm to end all orgasms? "Leo," she managed to say, and then words failed her when she beheld the hunger still in his face.

"Good girl," he ground out, hands tracing over her body, soothing and arousing her all at once. "Practice how you're going to say my name when I'm inside you." He gripped Della's hips in his hands and the pressure of his thumbs stroking over her hipbones was astoundingly erotic. "Now you'd better show me where your bedroom is, sweetheart, unless you've got a strong desire to be fucked on your hallway floor."

He must have caught the hint of excitement that rolled through her at his words, because he shook his head with a mirthless laugh. "Next time. I'll take you in every room of this house and the garden under the moon if it makes you happy, but the first time I want to be in the bed where you sleep. I want to leave the smell of us on your pillows, so even on nights you're alone here, you're reminded of who made you scream there."

Wordlessly, Della gestured to the doorway at the end of the hall. Leo gathered her up in his arms without comment, as though she were some fragile, precious thing, and carried her into her bedroom, nudging the door shut behind them. He took a moment to take in the room lit only by the lamp by her bed—her dresser, the window that showed her moonlit garden, her bedside table overflowing with books—before depositing her on the bed. Della sat on the edge, watching as he stripped off his jeans, then his boxers, until he stood before her naked. And… wow. Leo in clothes was a thing of beauty, but a naked Leo could stop traffic. And possibly cause a riot.

"You're beautiful," she managed.

He dismissed the compliment with a small smile, eyes still glowing silver. "Take off that bra for me," he said, his voice still as deep as the ocean. "Show me what I've been dreaming about."

Slowly, Della reached behind herself to undo the clasp, then let the straps slide down her arms until her body was as bare as Leo's own. There was something in the way he devoured her bare breasts with his eyes that was even more intimate than what they'd done out in the hallway now that both of them were naked.

"Stunning," Leo said in a tone barely more than a whisper, and barely looking away from her, he reached for his jeans to grab a condom from his wallet. He moved forwards until he was close enough to reach out and press Della backwards on to the bed.

Instead, she slid off the edge and on to her knees.

For a moment, she wished she had a camera so she could capture the brief look of shock and arousal that slid across his features.

"Della, no," Leo growled.

"You promised," she reminded him. "In the carpark, you said, 'next time when we're somewhere private.' That the first time would be in my mouth. Leo, I want that." Deliberately, she licked her lips, watching as his eyes caught on the movement.

"It's not a good idea," he ground out. "Della, the way I'm feeling right now… I could hurt you."

"Please," she said softly, arousal throbbing in her veins as she spoke. "I'll tell you if it's too much. Even with my mouth full, I have ways of communicating." With a thought, she made the lamp flicker on and off.

"I want to see you with that mouth full of me," Leo growled. Was she imagining it, or had he grown even bigger in the moments they'd been in this room? His shoulders, tensed now with indecision, seemed even broader than when he'd knelt before her.

With a growl, he gave in. "Can't deny you a goddamn thing," he snarled, stepping forward to wrap a hand in her hair. "You have two minutes, sweetheart, until I put you on your back and find out if you feel as good as you taste. And I'm betting the answer is yes."

Without a word, Della wrapped her fist around his huge arousal, opened her mouth, and took him deep.

Leo's strangled shout echoed off the walls of her bedroom. She smiled around the length of him, drawing back before taking him all the way to the back of her throat. She stroked her hand up and down the part of his length that she couldn't take, in time with the movements of her mouth. Shallow and deep, shallow and deep, her tongue flicking over his head, learning every ridge and vein. His hand in her hair was a reminder he could control her movements any time he wanted, but instead, he let her decide what she wanted to do to him. His harsh grunts and curses above her told her when she was hitting the right spots, but she was barely cognizant of them beyond her focus on making him feel even just a fraction of the pleasure she'd found under his ministrations in the hallway. Had it been two minutes yet? She slid deep down his length again, tracing patterns with her tongue, then withdrew and sucked hard on his head, flicking her tongue against the underside.

Leo used his grip on her hair to drag her away and she felt a mew of protest leave her lips.

"Enough," he growled, his voice frantic. "Enough, Della, or I'm going to blow down your pretty throat."

"I thought you wanted the first time to be in my mouth," Della purred, feeling a surge of feminine satisfaction. "Isn't that what you told me?"

"That was before I knew I'd have the option of this perfect pussy," Leo snarled. He reached down to grip her arms and lifted her effortlessly onto the bed, prowling up over her prone body until she was lying back on her pillows, Leo hovering over her. He kissed her as though he truly was starving and she was the only thing that could sate his hunger, their bodies pressing together as he reached down between them to cover himself.

"Spread your legs for me, Della," Leo murmured against her lips. "Show me where you want my cock. Let me give you what you need. Let me give you everything you need."

Heat thrumming through her like her blood had been set aflame, Della let her knees fall open, reclaiming his mouth with her own. For the briefest of moments, she cradled his body with her own, every bare inch of their skin touching, and then he was reaching down to position himself at her entrance.

"Look at me," he said, and Della realized she'd been staring down at their naked bodies. She lifted her gaze to meet his, and Leo pushed inside her.

It was like nothing she'd ever experienced. Like her body has been asleep in every other interaction she'd ever had, and he was bringing it to life. She could feel every inch of him in exquisite detail as he withdrew, then pushed in farther, then farther again. His jaw was clenched so tight, she knew it must be similar for him, knew he must be feeling the same blinding rush of sensation as her hips lifted to welcome him and her feet dug into his backside to urge him deeper, faster.

"You feel," he ground out, then faltered, "I don't even have words, Della. This is everything. You are everything."

"Please don't stop," Della begged, her voice almost a sob. "Please, Leo, don't stop. I need this. I need you."

"I'll never stop," he growled, and then his hips met hers and he was fully seated within her, filling her so full she could barely breathe.

"Leo—" she gasped.

"Della," he said, and then he was rearing back and thrusting into her, pressing against pleasure points she never even knew she had, and time lost all meaning. The world lost all meaning. Surely, this must be the supernatural magic at work, because nothing natural could possibly feel this good; nothing but the power of the universe at work could have her arching and writhing with her approaching orgasm already. Leo's body pressed down on her own, pinning her to the bed, his hands holding her in place to receive his thrusts. She wrapped her legs tighter around him, her back arching with the strength of her approaching climax.

"Let it go, Della," Leo ordered without pausing in his thrusts. "Give it to me. Let me feel it."

"Leo," Della gasped. "Kiss me."

He covered her mouth with his without hesitation so that a moment later when her pleasure hit its crest and her back arched even further, her thighs locked tight around Leo's still-thrusting body, she screamed, releasing the sound into his mouth. Leo took it like she was gifting him with the elixir of life, swallowing down the sound as he ground himself deep into her body. His movements never ceased, sending her shooting straight from one orgasm into a second, and she screamed again. She didn't realize she had her nails dug into the breadth of his back until he growled out, "Yes, Della. Mark me up. Make me bleed. I want to see the marks and remember how fucking perfect you feel. How you get even tighter when you're coming on my dick. I want to be reminded of how good I made you feel."

"So good," Della managed, her voice trembling. "Leo, you feel so good." He angled his hips, hitting a spot that had her back arching all over again, and she dug her nails in deeper, hearing him growl at the sensation. He reached between them to run his thumb over her clit, and Della had to stifle another scream.

"Leo—" she gasped out. "Leo, I can't—"

"You can," he growled. "One more. I need you to come with me, Della. I need to know I earned it."

His cock filled her, over and over. His thumb rubbed mind-blowing circles around her clit. His muscles bunched against her bare skin. All of it combined to rocket Della towards pleasure so fast that all she could do was wrap her arms and legs around him and let the whirlpool engulf her once more as Leo roared his own completion above her. He was a thing of beauty in his pleasure, all clenching muscles and golden skin as he drove into her one final time and held, held, her own pleasure magnified as she felt him pulsing inside her.

One of Leo's arms seemed to give out without warning, but he caught himself before he could crush her, and she held him as the last waves of her orgasm ran through her. She felt his heartbeat thrumming beneath his skin where his chest pressed to hers, and in that moment, Della would not have been anywhere else for all the money in the world.