Chapter 30

Chapter 30
Erik’s hands on my back kneaded deep into my muscles. He bent in deep for another kiss, and the taste of his tongue, the aroma of his skin, shot through me, quicksilver through my veins.

As soon as my knees started getting a little wobblier, he smiled and held me tighter, grinding our bodies together.

I leaned my head back, relishing the pleasure and the anticipation that was burning inside me. The instant I closed my eyes, he ran his tongue along my jaw and sucked gently behind my ear. In the four and a half hours since the last time he’d done that, I almost forgot how good it felt.

Almost.

“You feel so good,” I moaned. “You have me right where you want me, huh, big guy?”

“Look at me,” Erik said. “Open those eyes.”

When I did, the last of my tears fell down my cheeks. One of them ran down my neck and soaked into my shirt, but he caught the other one with his lips. The heat of his tongue on my face amplified the tension between my legs that I felt every time he breathed and drove us together.

“How do you do this to me?” I asked. “How do you make me feel so special? Like I’m the only thing in the world that matters to you when I know that can’t possibly be true?”

Erik’s eyes were almost burning they were so intense. “How are you so sure it’s not true?”

“I know it’s not. I mean you have all the town stuff and—”

“Are any of them here?” he asked. “Right now, how many people do you see in this room? How many mates is it that I’ve got?”

“Just the one, I hope,” I said with a grin. “I just... I can’t believe this is happening. It’s all real, right? You’re not going to vanish?” “You’d need a witch for a vanishing trick,” Erik said.

The next second, he kissed my neck, sucking and biting just a little bit. I let out a little shudder and held onto his big, powerful neck to keep my footing.

“You sleepy?” Erik said, laughing softly. “You keep acting like you’re falling over.”

“Oh shut up, you big jackass,” I giggled. “If you don’t take me to bed right this second, I might just find another werewolf who will.”

Hoisting me off my feet so quickly that I squealed, Erik kissed me all the way down the hall, to the left, and the instant my back hit the comforter and I sunk in, my whole body melted.

He fell on top of me, kissed me once and propped himself up on his elbow.

“Izzy?”

“Yeah?”

“I just want to tell you something.”

I waited, not sure what he could possibly say.

“I,” he swallowed hard, like he’d been practicing this speech, but still wasn’t quite sure about it. “I am yours... forever.”

Those four words made every fright, every tension and fear and regret I’d ever held, vanish in an instant.

“So it is real, then?” I asked. I opened my eyes to study him, watching the waning sun bathe Erik in a warm orange tone. “This is all happening? I’m not going to wake up an hour from now and wonder if you were ever real?”

Erik shook his head slowly, his hair cascading down and tickling the sides of my face. “If that happened, then I’d wake up alone too, and I’d be furious.”

“I don’t want to see you furious,” I said with a grin, running my hand along the muscles of his shoulder and down his arm. “But I do want to see you naked.”

“Oh you do, huh?” After every word, Erik paused to kiss me softly. “Remember, I’ll take this as slow as you need me to take it, okay? And I’m not just making this up to get some.”

He looked at me very seriously. I laughed a little in-laugh. “I didn’t even think that until you said it, but now...”

Erik stood up next to the bed. When I turned my head and looked at him, the sun came through his hair at just the perfect angle to see the vague hints of blue that ran through the inky-blackness of his shoulder-length locks. He was just... him. Perfect. Everything I imagined, right there in front of me.

And being gentle?

I squirmed a little on the mattress, pushing the thick comforter around with my feet and found myself in a stretch that popped my shoulders and my elbows, and then I let out a deep, content sigh. “I’ve got you,” I said.

“I’ve really got you.”

Erik’s answer was to turn around, away from me, and unbutton his shirt. Even un-tucked, the tailored blue and white striped dress shirt hugged his exaggerated frame. From the top of his huge neck, sculpted shoulders, all the way down to the delicate lines in the small of his back, I knew his body.

I knew his shape.

Now, it struck me, I was going to know his soul.

When he finally got the neck of his shirt undone and began to shrug out of it, the lines and movement of his incredible muscles almost took my breath away. He dropped his shirt into a heap and turned back to me.

Involuntarily, his chest flexed, making the leaves on that huge tattooed tree appear to shake in some unseen and unfelt wind.

Outside the window, a car went by and someone shouted something.

“Your turn,” Erik said.

“But you’re not all the way naked yet,” I playfully protested. “There’s still pants!”

His eyes were half open, satisfied, but still hungry. “Show me how much you want this to happen,” he said. That gravelly voice could have talked me into a job digging ditches.

“What does it mean?” I asked him as I rolled over and slowly stood up.

“To be your mate, I mean. Are there any... responsibilities?” “Lots,” he said, and then fell silent.

“Such as?”

He smiled. “You’ll be fine.”

I realized that I’d somehow hypnotized him with the slow movements I was making, the exaggerated sway of my hips, the why I ran my hands down either side of my body and then back up.

“I wish I had a gown or something. Taking off khakis and a sensible polo isn’t exactly the sexiest thing in the world.”

“But you are,” he said. “Doesn’t matter what you’re wearing.”

A slow, creeping heat worked its way from my center out. He could melt ice with the gaze he gave me. Hell, an iceberg wouldn’t be much of a stretch. Erik stuck his hand out and tugged the neck of my shirt down a little bit, grinning with a mischievous look to go along with his smoldering eyes.

“What’s taking so long?” he asked. “I thought you were all excited.”

Erik was grinning, sure, but behind the toothy smile was a flame in his eyes that told me he wasn’t interested in this taking any longer than it needed to take. It was all so strange, having him want me like that, even though he always had. I guess it was just starting to sink in that maybe, just maybe, I really was as special as he kept saying over and over.

“And here I thought you wanted me to go slow,” I said. “Are you sure

I’m the excited one?”

Grabbing my hand, Erik pulled me against his muscled body and planted a kiss deep. His tongue swirled and explored every fold of my lips, warming me all the way through. Erik hooked it behind my bottom lip, pulled me close again, and then sucked as we parted.

“I wish there was some way we could live and never have to not be together like that,” I breathed softly. “But it might get a little tricky trying to eat.”

Holding my face in his hands, Erik got a very serious look on his face. “When I’m with you, you are my food. You’re my air, my water, you’re everything to me.”

“You’re sure know how to get a girl to let her guard down,” I said.

His soulful eyes just held me enthralled though, refusing to let go of me. Every breath I took, every word I thought, they just became side-notes to the eyes piercing my reality. I didn’t even feel the last button on my polo shirt’s collar come undone until Erik leaned and warmed me with a slow circle of his tongue.

In one smooth motion, Erik pulled my shirt up, and off, then tossed it to the floor on top of his. “What am I going to do with you, Izzy? How am I going to ever work anymore?”