AllFreeNovel
Share Us
With a nod, she gives me a girly laugh as I scoop her into my arms, bringing her to the bathroom in a bridal carry. Turning on the warm spray and stepping under it, with my mate still in my arms, I shield her from the water until the temperature evens out. Setting her down gently on her feet, I turn her so her back is pressed against my front and I lick over her marking spot.
“I can’t wait to sink my teeth in here and see you wearing my mark every day,” I murmur, reaching around to cup her breasts, taking their weight in my hands as water sluices down her front. “I’m not going to do it now when I can’t be in mindlink range, because that seems cruel to our animals. But soon.”
Humming in agreement, she leans back and widens her stance. She may not be paying attention to what I’m saying, but I’m enough of a coward that I don’t stop to make sure she’s on board with my reasoning. I slip my hand lower, sliding my fingers through her pink, slippery folds.
“For now, I’m going to make you feel so loved that over the next few weeks you’ll never doubt that I’m thinking about you every second of every day.”
“Ethan…” she purrs, going loose and relaxed in my arms as I tease her clit with one hand and massage her breast with the other. Resting her head on my shoulder, she sighs with content and lets me kiss, stroke and wash her entire body. My cock is hard and aching, resting against her ass as I tend to her, pouring my devotion into every touch. I ignore the need to sink into her and satisfy my primal urges. This is about her. For what I’m about to put us through, I deserve to have blue balls if that’s what it takes to make her understand how much I care for her already.
She sneaks her hand back between our bodies and wraps a warm, slick palm around my rock-hard cock. Grunting, I draw my hips back and away from her grasp before my chivalry deserts me, and I take her again.
“This is about you,” I whisper, pressing one finger, then two, deep inside her silky warmth. “Fuck, you feel so good.”
Whimpering, she stretches her arms back and drapes them around my neck.
“Ethan, you’re so amazing at this. What am I going to do for three weeks?” she moans, pouting in a way that makes me feel a hundred feet tall. She’s going to miss me, just like I’ll miss her. Slowly, luxuriously, I ease her into her orgasm, catching her with an arm around her breasts as her legs wobble and give way with the strength of the pleasure washing over her.
Belle blinks up at me, dazed, as I soap a sponge and wash every part of her beautiful body. Her nails scrape against my scalp as she runs her fingers through my hair.
“If you keep doing that, I might forgive you,” she teases as I wrap her in a warm, fluffy towel and lift her out of the shower.
I feel the weight of crushing guilt sitting heavily on my chest.
“I don’t deserve you,” I whisper, because it’s true. She laughs and lets me lead her to the bed, where I carefully dress her in comfy sweats. All the while, I avoid her gaze and concentrate on my task.
I don’t deserve her. Hopefully she doesn’t realise that before I can get back to her.
6
BELLE
Guilt is the overwhelming emotion I feel from Ethan as we lounge on the sofa. Neither of us is strong enough to part ways just yet. He was supposed to leave an hour ago and his phone vibrates on the coffee table, once again, where he’s left it face down. In every other way, he has been completely open with me, but I’m a trained investigator. Experienced in a variety of missions, not just running patrols on the pack borders, I’ve seen it all before.
“Is it serious?” I ask, annoyed that my voice isn’t as strong as I wanted it to be. Ethan tenses beside me; judging by the grief-stricken look on his face, I must be right. My fingers curl into the fleece blanket I’ve thrown over myself, as if it can protect me from this pain.
“No, it’s not.” Somehow disentangling my hands from the fluffy material, he grips them tightly in his as he presses kiss after kiss to my knuckles. “Fuck! We’ve been dating, but nothing compares to this. To you. But she deserves to hear it from me, face-to-face. She was mated once. She’ll understand.”
My heart pounds in my chest as I try to shove down the devastation I feel at hearing he has another woman in his life. Rationally, I know this happens all the time; nobody knows when they’ll meet their fated mate, or if they ever will. Wolves in a relationship usually respect the bond when one meets their mate, and, though she’ll be hurt, more likely than not she’ll understand and step aside.
It still feels like a knife to the gut, though, knowing he cares for her enough not to mark me. While it speaks to his integrity, that he wants to break the news to her first, which I would normally admire, I can’t be rational about it. He’s my mate, and the green-eyed monster is in control.
“You should have told me. Is that where you’re going now?”
He nods, his head hung low and unable to meet my eye; shame radiates from him. “I didn’t want to ruin this when it was going so well. It’s bad enough having to leave for work…”
With gentle fingers, I grip his chin and lift it. “We can work through anything so long as we’re honest.”
He blinks at me and I sigh, leaning back on the couch and pressing my fingers to my eyes. I’m exhausted and emotional, the mate bond is riding me hard, and my wolf is already pining for him when he hasn’t even gone.
“Go. Get it over and done with. The sooner you leave, the sooner we’ll be together again.”
He surges to his feet and smothers my lips with his, pressing my back into the soft cushions as he devours me, showing me with one kiss how much he wants me. With one hand tangled in my hair, he pulls back, those dazzling blue eyes still shocking every time I see them.
“I’ll call you tonight. I promise.”
My throat feels thick and I don’t trust myself to speak without crying, so I close my eyes and nod so hard my head feels like it’s going to fall off. With my bottom lip quivering, I fight to keep my composure. Ethan’s scent surrounds me as he presses a kiss to each delicate eyelid and then my forehead, cupping my face in his hands with such devotion, a sob escapes me. I can’t look, because I can also feel his pain. If I see any hesitation on his face, I’ll beg him to stay, but that’s no good to either of us. He needs to sort out his own shit, and I have some things to do, too, before I can throw myself into being mated.
Ethan doesn’t say a word, just eases back, letting his thumbs brush away the tears on my cheeks. As he walks toward the door, his steps falter, but instead of coming back to me, he forces himself to keep going; his resolve, ironclad. In a way I’m glad, it would just prolong the agony.
