The Wolf’s Billionaire by Layla Silver
Chapter 3 – Ainsley
I shouldn’t have had that last glass of champagne.
Returning to the table from the bathroom, I was extremely aware of how light my head was and of the slight unsteadiness in my steps. I thought of how proud Bianca and Teagan would be of me for actually drinking too much for once and felt myself smile tipsily.
Carefully navigating the stairs up into the dining room, I felt butterflies start to flutter in my stomach. Despite the teasing I tended to endure, I wasn’t an innocent. Nor was I so blitzed that I didn’t know what almost certainly came next. I knew the check would already be paid when I got to the table and that there would be an invitation to go back to Bas’s room with him.
During the handful of dates I’d had in the last few years, this was where things tended to deteriorate. Either I politely declined, much to my date’s scorn, or I agreed and proceeded to endure a depressingly lackluster sexual encounter followed by a few weeks of cajoling and then disparaging phone messages when I turned down requests for more of the same.
This time, though… this time I was possessed with an awful sort of hope. My skin tingled as I remembered the way Bas’s fingers had lightly stroked my hand as we talked over our empty dessert plates. He’d touched me like I was beautiful and delicate and his eyes had roamed over me in a way that made my whole body go deliciously warm. There hadn’t been even a hint of falsity in his interest as we discussed literature and architecture and art. I couldn’t help but wonder if that same interest and attentiveness would continue if he got my dress off.
But what if it did? Would we exchange numbers? Feign a go at a long-distance relationship? Or simply shake hands and part ways, our night together nothing more than a memory for the rest of our lives?
Oh gods, do you even hear yourself? My inner critic sounded suspiciously like a vexed but affectionate Bianca. You’re a grown woman and this is your life, not a romance novel. It’s okay to fuck him and enjoy it without a long-term plan.
I imagined my friend giving me a firm nudge and felt resolve coalesce in my chest.
Bas stood as I approached the table, my sketchbook in his left hand. His right hand reached out and slid around my waist. “Let’s go for a walk.”
I leaned into him and let myself be guided out of the dining room. He was warm and solid, and his arm around me felt protective and possessive in just the right amounts. I fit against him like I belonged there and I refused to let myself think about how ephemeral this moment was—the certainty that in a few hours I’d have to walk away knowing I’d never find quite this same perfect fit ever again.
As we neared the lobby that separated the restaurant from the hotel Bas slowed. “We could take a stroll around the atrium…” he started.
Feeling loose and bold from the champagne still fizzing in my blood, I gave him what I hoped was a sultry smile. “Or you could just take me back to your room.”
The smile that slid across his face made my insides melt. “You’re sure?” he asked, already angling us toward the elevator.
“Yes,” I assured him as he hit the button and the elevator to our left slid open.
He escorted me inside and the doors shut, leaving us alone as the elevator began to rise. Turning to face me, he slipped both arms around my waist and drew me close. My breath caught when I felt him already hard against my hip through our clothes. Then his lips brushed my jaw and the air rushed out of me in a whoosh.
The kiss that followed was gentle and exploratory but it made every inch of my body tingle. The air around us felt electrified and the temperature seemed to climb a dozen degrees. He smelled like the outdoors, rich and heady and male in ways that made my heart beat faster. When our lips parted, he dipped his head to nuzzle a kiss beneath my ear, feather-light and intoxicating.
The elevator dinged and my head spun as Bas pulled back. He kept one arm at my back as the doors opened again, quickly tightening his grip when I stumbled over my own feet trying to leave the lift.
“Whoa!” He steadied me, concern in his beautiful blue eyes. “All right?”
Embarrassment flooded through me and I felt myself turn red.
“Yes. Sorry.” I meant to stop there, but the champagne and arousal coursing through me had other ideas. “I’m not used to being kissed like that.”
Oh gods. Part of my brain flared in panic. He was going to think I was an idiot. Inexperienced and—
Bas grinned. The wolf in me picked up something feral in it for the first time and my knees went weak. He clearly noticed, but this time he didn’t tighten his hold around my waist. Instead, he glanced both ways down the empty hallway and then scooped me into his arms. I squeaked in surprise as he literally swept me off my feet and settled me comfortably against his chest as though he rescued damsels in distress and carried them to safety every day.
“That,” he informed me, carrying me confidently down the hall, “is criminal.”
I laughed, feeling both self-conscious and brazen as I looped my arms around his neck.
Bas brushed a kiss across my temple, sending shivers of heat all the way down to my toes. “I’m going to kiss every inch of you,” he murmured in my ear.
He was too good to be real, I thought, sighing happily and burying my face in his shoulder. My own personal Prince Charming, if only for tonight.
Bas stopped and carefully set me on my feet. He made sure I was steady before producing a keycard from a pocket and letting us into his room. Lights from the city outside filtered through the gauzy curtains drawn over the wide windows that lined the far wall. To my fuzzy brain, they glittered like fireflies hovering outside our private sanctuary.
The rasp of fabric against skin was loud in the hushed quiet and I turned to see Bas tossing his shirt over a nearby chair.
My mouth went dry at the sight of his broad shoulders and the flat, hard planes of his chest and stomach. As I watched, he shucked his pants and boxers, revealing muscular legs and an erection long and thick enough to make a thrill of anticipation shoot through me. The faint light threw dancing shadows across his incredible form as he stepped toward me, adding to the surreal feeling of the night.
For a moment, my imagination threatened to run away with me. He looked like an angel or a god or one of the scores of other magnificent mythical creatures that sought love with human women in literature and film. Certainly, he was far too flawless to be an ordinary human.
Then his arms were around me again, his head bending to mouth soft kisses at my throat, and my fanciful ideas burned away.
“Ainsley,” he murmured against my skin.
I wrapped my arms around him, my head falling back and my eyes flickering shut as all my nerves lit up again.
Strong hands splayed across my back, supporting me as he nudged me back a few steps toward the giant bed that dominated the room. The mattress was cloud-soft when he tipped me back onto it, the sheets much finer than what I’d had on the bed in my room. Or maybe it was only being here like this, with him, that made it feel that way.
Bas trailed kisses down my throat, making me moan. His mouth followed the dip of my dress’s neckline between my breasts, his breath warm on my skin. The faint prickle of the stubble on his cheeks against the swell of my curves made me shiver and arch up into him.
I’d never been touched like this—never wanted a man’s hands and mouth on me so badly. But instead of pushing the fabric of my dress aside and giving me what I craved, he slid down my body, his hands stroking my sides and leaving me moaning for more.
Opening heavy-lidded eyes, I watched him sink to his knees beside the bed. Then his hands were at one ankle, gently slipping my high-heeled pump from my foot. He removed the other shoe next, so reverently that it was impossible for me to feel awkward about it. Then he lifted my foot and pressed a soft kiss to the inside of my ankle.
I dissolved, muscle and bone going limp at the eroticism of it as he proceeded to kiss a leisurely path up my calf, nibbling and tasting as if I were a delicacy he couldn’t get enough of. I squealed and jerked when he flicked his tongue against the sensitive skin behind my knee, then clapped a hand over my mouth, my cheeks flaming as Bas chuckled, his breath warm puffs of air against my thigh.
“Ticklish, Ainsley?”
“No,” I gasped breathlessly as he inched the hem of my dress up to place the next kiss on the inside of my thigh.
“Uh-huh.” His dubious tone told me he knew I was lying, but rather than call me on it he simply dropped down and started over at my other ankle.
I whined, my fingers digging into the sheets and my thighs pressing together as if that would do anything to mitigate the ache balling up in my core. His touch was sweet enough to make me want to cry and maddening at the same time—and he hadn’t even taken my dress off yet.
Torturously slowly, Bas worked his way back up, playfully nipping at the ticklish spot behind my knee and then making me moan again with hot kisses up my thigh. I felt like I was burning up and my breasts ached for attention, my nipples pearled into hard little nubs beneath my dress and bra.
Eventually, Bas eased the hem of my dress up past my hips, his mouth still trailing kisses in the wake of his hands. He hummed approvingly as he revealed my lacy underthings and I breathed a silent prayer of thanks that I’d worn one of my favorite sets today. Both the bra and the panties were lavender, delicate and soft.
I arched again and wiggled, giving Bas the room he needed to pull my dress all the way off and fling it aside. Easing back, he slid my panties down my legs, little trails of fire igniting along my skin where his fingertips touched. When only my bra remained, he slung an arm around my waist and hitched me around so that I lay with my head on the pillows, my hair spilling out in a messy halo against the crisp sheets.
He settled on top of me, his body fitting perfectly between my legs. His weight was welcome and grounding and when he kissed along my collarbones I felt beautiful and treasured.
I shivered when he lifted a hand and slid one bra strap down my shoulder, his fingers grazing across my chest to tug the corresponding cup of my bra down. The crunched fabric pushed my breast up, making it look fuller in the shadowy light than I knew it to really be. Bas dipped his head and laved his tongue over the peaked tip. Electricity crackled through me and I bucked my hips with a cry, suddenly desperate to have him inside me—to feel him fill me and satisfy the terrible aching need he’d created.
Bas made a delighted sound in the back of his throat and proceeded to give both my breasts in turn the same agonizingly patient attention he’d given my legs. I writhed under him making ridiculous, helpless mewling noises. When he shifted his weight, the erection that had been pressed against my thigh came to rest heavily against my slit. I moaned, low and sensate, as the next mindless rock of my hips slid his hardness through my drenched folds and over my swollen clit.
Bas grunted and nipped at my nipple lightly. Crying out again, I rolled my hips, shamelessly seeking friction. Pleasure swamped me as I found it and I worked myself against him urgently.
In the far corner of my mind, some sober fragment of my brain was simultaneously horrified and fascinated—I’ve never chased my own pleasure this way with a partner. Never had one that wasn’t already inside me and spent long before I’d even gotten close to this level of arousal and desire.
Unperturbed by either my squirming or the sounds I was making, Bas kissed up my throat.
“That’s it,” he rasped in my ear. “You’re so beautiful like this.”
The compliment—genuine and freely given—pushed me over the edge. Bucking my hips up one more time, I broke. My climax rolled over me like an ocean wave, dragging me under and leaving me gasping, my vision awash with stars.
I was still panting, adrift in aftershocks, when Bas pulled back and rolled me over. One hand scooped through my hair, pulling it aside so he could see my face. Then he closed both hands around my hips, canting them. His thighs were hot against the backs of mine as he knelt behind me, his knees planted on the mattress on the outsides of my own, pressing my legs together. My thighs were slick with the arousal seeping from my soaked slit, but Bas pushed two fingers inside me anyway—carefully, as though it wasn’t beyond obvious that I was ready for him. More than ready—frantic.
Groaning, he pumped his fingers a few times. I turned my face into the pillow to muffle my cries as fresh pleasure consumed me. With my legs pushed together as they were I was even tighter than usual. Just his fingers were enough to send me spiraling toward another orgasm already.
Then his fingers were gone and the velvety head of his erection nudged my entrance. Hips up, shoulders pressed into the bed, my bones molten and my limbs weak from my first release, I couldn’t even push back as he slid inside me. All I could do was wail into the pillow as he stretched and filled me, the feeling so blissfully intense that colored lights danced behind my eyes. The drag of him against my inner walls as he pulled out and pushed back in with a slow, exquisitely controlled thrust was unlike anything I’d ever experienced or even imagined. With every thrust he seemed to sink in all the way down to my ribs. With every pull back he left a gaping need inside me.
The back and forth built impossible pressure under my skin.
“Bas,” I gasped, trembling. “Oh.”
Bas stroked a hand down my spine. “You’re perfect,” he said hoarsely.
I opened my mouth to laugh. I’d never been perfect. I’d barely been wanted. He didn’t have to say sweet things—not when he touched me like this.
Bas tilted my hips up a little higher and I lost the laugh in a wail as he sank home again, pushing me up and over the crest of orgasm a second time. I frissoned apart beneath him, undone.
Distantly, as if from far away and under water, I felt his hands spasm on my hips. I heard him shout, his body bucking hard against mine as he flooded me with the warmth of his release.
I let myself float in the aftermath, sinking back into my skin only when Bas pulled out and dropped beside me. He rolled me over into his arms, cradling me close. There, with both of us on the verge of crumbling into sleep he kissed me again. It was a light kiss, tender and fleeting, but as I fell into sleep I knew for certain that it was the best kiss I’d ever had.
