Page 35 of Dark Auctioned Mate

"I know what I need," she interrupted, her cheeks flushing darker. "But I don't... I can't..."

"Why not?" He stepped closer, unable to help himself. Her scent was driving him crazy, making his cock hard and his wolf howl with the need to claim, to mate, to take care of what was his. "Is it me? Do you not want me?"

"That's not—" She laughed, but it sounded almost hysterical. "God, Rael, that's not the problem at all."

"Then what is?"

She looked at him, her gray eyes stormy with conflict and desire and something else he couldn't place. "I'm scared," she admitted quietly. "Of how much I want this. Of how much I want you. This isn't supposed to be what this is. We're supposed to be... I don't know. Strangers forced together by circumstance. But you're not a stranger anymore, and I'm not sure how to handle that."

Rael's heart clenched. He closed the remaining distance between them, stopping just short of touching her. "I'm not going to push you into anything you're not ready for. I told you that before. The choice is always yours, Alanis. Always."

"And if I choose this?" Her voice was barely a whisper. "If I choose you?"

"Then I'm yours," he said simply. "For as long as you want me."

She searched his face for a long moment, and he let her look. Let her see everything he was feeling—the desire, yes, but also the tenderness. The care. The growing certainty that she was exactly where she was supposed to be.

Then she moved.

Her hands fisted in his shirt, pulling him down, and her mouth crashed into his with desperate hunger.

Rael groaned into the kiss, his hands coming up to cup her face, angling her head for better access. She tasted like berries from the tart and wine and something uniquely her, and he couldn't get enough.

She walked him backward until his back hit the wall, and then she was pressing against him, all soft curves and heat. Her hands were everywhere—his hair, his shoulders, sliding down his chest.

He broke the kiss long enough to gasp, "Are you sure?”

"Shut up," she breathed, and kissed him again.

This time, Rael let himself go. His hands slid down her sides, finding the hem of that fucking dress that had been torturing him all evening, and then he was gripping her ass, kneading the soft flesh through the thin fabric.

She moaned into his mouth, and the sound went straight to his cock.

He spun them, pressing her back against the wall, and she wrapped one leg around his hip, grinding against him. He could feel the heat of her even through their clothes and how wet she was.

"Fuck," he groaned, his hips jerking forward involuntarily. "Alanis, we should slow down.”

"No," she panted, her hands working at the buttons of his shirt. "I need you now."

His control was hanging by a thread. He wanted to take his time with her, wanted to worship every inch of her body, wanted to make this good for her. But the heat combined with his own desperate need was making it hard to think straight.

"Rael." Her voice was pleading now. "Please. I need—"

He kissed her again, hard and claiming, and hooked his hands under her thighs. She wrapped her legs around his waist immediately.

They tumbled onto her bed together, and Rael braced himself above her, looking down at her flushed face, her swollen lips, her dilated eyes.

"Last chance," he said, his voice rough. "Tell me now if you want me to stop."

"Don't you dare stop," she breathed, pulling him down into another searing kiss.

Chapter 12 - Alanis

Their lips pressed together fiercely. Alanis couldn’t think of anything but how she needed this—needed him. Throughout the week, and during the entire dinner, the heat that had been accumulating was now, at last, coming to a climax, and she was sick and tired of fighting it.

Rael’s hands were all over her: sliding up her thighs, holding onto her hips, up her sides.

She curled into him, attempting to get closer, to mitigate the pain that was eating at her.