Page 59

This was so fucking pitiful. So ridiculous, sitting alone in my office, my heart feeling as if something had been cleaved from it, my body starved for pleasure. The first rub was tentative, laced with frustration and annoyance.

One hand was fisted in my skirts as I begged my body to stop fighting against me. It was the click of the door shutting that forced me to lift my head.

And there was Sylvan, eyes wild, nostrils flaring, hair tousled as if he’d been tugging on it.

“Get out,” I said. A lone tear slipped down my cheek blistered with shame. I couldn’t place my reason for feeling so scandalized. I wasn’t prudish; I gladly partook in trysts with strangers and lovers, singular and multiple. Sometimes it was exactly what I needed to quell the raging desire in me. To stop the pain. To stop the fear.

Pleasure had been the only way I knew how to cope. But the rawness of this—my need, my desire for Sylvan—felt barbaric. Forbidden.

My hand was still between my legs, shaking and desperate, the inside of my thighs soaked as my skin burned with fever and embarrassment.

The empathy on his face only made more tears leak from my eyes.

“You have nothing to be ashamed of,” he said. His voice was steady. No arrogance. No teasing. He meant every word.

My chin trembled.

“Listen, I won’t touch you if you don’t want me to. But I’m here for you. Show me what you need.”

29

SHOW ME WHAT YOU NEED

SYLVAN

Aura’s torrid want raked across my skin. It burned. It branded. She was half sitting on her desk, dress hiked up to her waist, legs splayed, her hand against her pink, glistening core. Her respirations were erratic, heart pounding so hard I became dizzy. But the tears trickling down her face, the struggle against herself, was tortuous.

The need to sweep her into my arms and comfort her was as strong as my need to fuck her senseless. My throat was dry, and my mind was desperate to tumble into a stupor of bliss, but this wasn’t the time. I couldn’t afford to fall into a rut when what Aura needed was support, not some mindless alpha. I took a deep breath and centered myself.

No matter if she begged, I was not crossing any major lines. Not today. My cock would need to wait its damn turn. I turned my thoughts away from the hardness pressing against the seam of my trousers.

“I think,” Aura began, “I may lose my mind.”

Laughter escaped my lips. “You won’t. Not today.”

“But when the Heat takes over?” The hint of fear in her scent made the struggle to stay away even more difficult.

“You don’t have to think about that right this minute. Right now, show me what you need.”

She looked at me as though I wasn’t in my right mind, but the lazy strokes of her fingers against her clit grew more insistent.

“That’s right …” I released a breath as my trousers grew more snug.

She licked her lips, her gaze falling to mine as she circled her clit.

“Gods, you are a sight,” I whispered as two fingers disappeared inside her, the wet sounds making my already-hard cock throb, my balls tighten.

“Yes?” she asked with a tentative grin. She pumped her fingers in and out of herself.

“Fuck yes,” I said with a soft chuckle.

Her hand moved faster, and she squirmed with the motions. I thought I was going to lose it right there.

“Sylvan,” she panted. “It’s not enough. I can’t … I—” Her fingers were moving quickly, her fangs digging into her lower lip. A trickle of black blood dribbled down her chin as the wet sounds punctuated the room. “Sylvan—” The hand gripping her dress in place shifted, and she tugged on the neckline then reached back, yanking on it even more. “This dress,” she whined. “It’s—I—I need the godsdamned thing off!”

I anchored myself, resisting the urge to rip the dress off her. “What do you want me to do about that?” I asked.

“Get this fucking dress off me!”