Shade kissed me instead of answering, his tongue sparring beautifully with mine. My blouse fell apart, his hand ripping it from me in an eagerness to expose my breasts. I followed his unspoken suggestion and tried to tear his own shirt off, but I lacked the finesse required to mimic the movement.
He chuckled against my throat, then went up to his knees and began the tedious task of unbuttoning his dress shirt. I went up onto my elbows to enjoy the show as he displayed his tanned torso one slow inch at a time.
He truly was a work of art, his lithe form lean and strong, his muscles flexing as he removed the fabric from his shoulders and arms. I admired his alluring display and eyed the trail of dark hair that led to the button of his dress pants. He flicked it open and drew down the zipper while I watched, his intentions clear.
You have a choice, he was telling me with his unhurried movements. He wanted me to be sure, to not rush into mydecision, but we both knew I’d end up here with or without today’s events.
“I want you,” I told him earnestly. “I have for a while.”
“I know,” he replied, a wickedness in his gaze that lit my blood on fire. “But I need you to be sure, Aflora.”
“I am.” I meant it. Maybe it was the insanity of the moment or the very real power I felt thriving between us, but I was done fighting the inevitable. He’d bitten me for reasons I still didn’t understand, but one thing was abundantly clear to me.
Everything Shade did, he did for me.
To others, it may seem like he had ulterior motives that were self-serving, and maybe some of them were. But somehow, I knew in my gut that all his decisions revolved around me.
He considered me important.
And it was time for me to show him I felt similarly.
“I should hate you,” I admitted out loud. “And part of me does.”
“Yes,” he agreed.
“But another part of me…” I trailed off, my heart beating rapidly in my chest, my mouth suddenly dry. “Another part of me needs to finish this.” And he’d ignited that part of me when he’d used our bond to draw me back to him, to save me from whatever hellish ride I’d been on through the Death Blood Education Building tour. “I want you, Shade.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
SHADE
Aflora washigh on our bond, her pupils blown wide with lust.
It took every ounce of willpower I possessed not to take advantage of the situation and fuck her the way her body begged me to.
I needed her mind to catch up with the emotions, for her to realizewhatshe demanded of me.
“Will you bite me again?”
Those words were music to my ears when she uttered them, but I couldn’t be sure she actually meant them. Not in her current state.
I leaned down to kiss her again, my muscles tensing with restraint as she rubbed her hot center against my groin.
Shit,I thought, my heart threatening to burst out of my chest from beating so hard. I really shouldn’t have unfastened my pants, but fuck, I needed tobreathe.She was killing me.
“Aflora,” I whispered, fighting for control. She bucked against me in response, her skirt pooling around her hips.
“Take me,” she breathed.
“I want to,” I assured her, my lips trailing down her neck to her breasts. “You have no idea how much I want to.”
It physically hurt not to bite her, to not finish our bond, but everything else had been forced upon her. I wanted this final step to be because she truly desired it, not because she was lost in our connection.
The only way to ground her was to give her an outlet for the power mounting inside her.
And I knew just the way to do that.
Her bra disappeared with a snap of my fingers, revealing her pert tits to my mouth. I took a nipple between my teeth while I palmed the other one.
