Born By Moonlight by Krista Street

Chapter 20

~ AVERY ~

I didn’t need to ask again. Wyatt slipped his shoes off and lay by my side.

I looked at his pants and raised an eyebrow. “No pants allowed.”

His lips lifted, then he laughed, the sound like music to my ears after so much pain had filled his expression since my parents departed.

He cocked an eyebrow. “What kind of nap is this?”

“The kind I wish we could have had a hundred times over.”

He sobered at the quiet desperation in my voice. “Avery . . .”

But he did as I asked, and within seconds his bare legs stretched out next to mine, the dark hairs on his legs tickling my skin. He turned to face me until we both lay beside one another.

“Maybe we should say no shirts either.”

His gaze darkened but he sat up and removed his shirt.

I couldn’t help but stare at the ridges of muscles running up and down his spine, the beautiful planes that graced his back, his rippled abdomen, and the hard slabs of his pecs. His skin was perfectly golden—smooth and unblemished. He was beautiful. A masterpiece truly. And he was so hard and so alive. Every time I looked at him, an ache crawled up my throat for wishes that could never be and a life we couldn’t share.

I attempted to sit up to remove my shirt, but my muscles quivered, weak and useless, unable to do even that simple task. I was fading that fast.

A band squeezed around my chest, robbing me of words.

“Let me,” Wyatt whispered. His steady, sure fingers slipped around his too-big shirt that I still wore before he lifted it up my spine. When the material, along with my shirt underneath, slipped over the top of my head, I shivered again.

Goosebumps pimpled my skin, and it felt as if a frosty breeze flowed over my limbs. Despite the heated sheets and stoked fire, that deep coldness penetrated my insides again.

Fear flared in Wyatt’s eyes, but the last thing I wanted was him worrying about me again, so I lay back down, letting his attention slip to my breasts, still covered in my lacy bra.

The fear in his eyes was quickly replaced with desire, and it made a deep ache curl in my stomach.

His teeth ground together. Breathing heavily, his gaze drifted from my breasts, my nipples peaked from the cold, to the dip of my stomach and the low-cut panties that stopped just above my most sensitive parts.

“So beautiful,” he whispered, an ache in his tone. He slammed a hand through his hair, his jaw locking. “And I’m such a cad for even looking. You’re weak and dying, yet all I can do is stare at you and salivate.”

And he was, too—well not salivating literally, but his erection pressed stiffly against his boxers. I itched to feel him again, to run my hand up the length of his velvety steel. It had been so long since I’d felt him. Too long.

“Come closer,” I whispered.

He inched to my side until we faced each other, our lips almost touching. His erection brushed against my thigh, and my eyelids fluttered closed as a stifled groan filled his chest.

“I want you to touch me. I need you to.”

“But you’re—”

I brought my finger to his lips, silencing him. “Please.”

His breath shuddered, and a deep glow lit his eyes. Tentatively, he placed a hand on my outer thigh, his warm palm feeling like fire and heating my blood. My toes instantly curled.

“I dreamed for so many years of being in a bed with you like this,” I whispered and trailed a finger up his chest. “I wished for us to be together, for you to love me because I already knew I loved you.” His muscles jumped, and his breath stopped. “And right now, I’m certain of one thing. I don’t want to leave this world never knowing what this would have felt like. I want tonight to be like the nights we’ve never had.”

His chest rose again, his breaths quickening. “Gods, Avery. What if I break you?”

“You won’t break me.”

“What if it hastens the illness or makes it worse?”

“It won’t.”

“But how can you be sure?”

“The SF witches told me repeatedly that my actions would not affect it.”

“But what if you don’t have the strength? You could barely sit up.”

“Then I suppose you’ll have to do all of the work.”

He groaned in pain, then sucked in a breath. “It would never be work.”

“Then I suppose there’s nothing further to worry about.”

Before he could voice more second thoughts, I slipped my hand around his neck. My fingers threaded through the silky soft hair at his nape, his skin so warm. I pulled him to my lips.

His warm mouth slanted over mine.

I kissed him, softly, encouragingly. He tasted like spice and tea, his lips firm, his touch achingly gentle despite the fire that was kindling inside me.

When I didn’t break beneath his hesitant first kiss, he shifted closer until I felt every hard inch of his body.

I moaned, and my tongue darted out, tasting him again.

He groaned as his hand curved around my waist, splaying across my back. He began to knead my lower back muscles, his fingers strong and sure.

Bolts of pleasure shot through me, and I sighed in bliss at the supple way his hands moved and roamed over my back, down my ass, and along my thighs. Such strength vibrated through him, yet he held himself back, only applying enough pressure to soothe and arouse, and then barely touching me every time I sighed or closed my eyes.

It was maddening, the gentleness of his touch. I may have been weak, but molten lava was already flowing through my veins. My need to be with him—the unquenched ache that flared low in my belly and spread throughout my limbs—trumped any perilous state of my health or concern for my well-being.

I wanted him. Wanted him so desperately.

For years I’d dreamed of this, of him taking me, making me his, and me carving out a little piece of his heart to keep snuggled up to my soul.

His head angled, kissing along my jaw before taking little nips of my neck. He moved down, slowly, so incredibly slowly that I thought for certain he was doing it on purpose. That he was intent on taking his time, on driving me mad with lust and want.

But he never chuckled. Never gave me an amused smile. His mouth loved every inch of my skin while his hands continued to caress, roam, and fondle.

And when his mouth traveled to my chest, I was amazed that his gentleness continued. Energy pulsed from him, so heady and filled with desire that even I could feel it in my magicless, weak state.

His erection throbbed against my thigh, its stiff length like rigid steel.

He dipped his head again, kissing along my collarbone, as his hands disappeared behind my back. With a deft flick of his fingers, he released my bra’s clasp, then tossed the flimsy material over his shoulder.

“So beautiful,” Wyatt whispered when my breasts spilled out, aching and heavy, desperate for his touch.

I arched toward him, demanding that he pleasure me.

His hand automatically came up, cupping one of my breasts as his head swooped down. Dark hair that draped across his forehead tickled my chest just as his tongue flicked out to lick one peak.

I moaned so deeply that it vibrated my entire body.

Rumbling his pleasure, he sucked my nipple completely into his mouth, making me cry out. He did the same to the other, then played me like a symphony that he commanded—varying the speed of his kisses and licks, tweaking my nipples when my breaths quickened, then backing off when my body bucked desperately beneath his.

“So beautiful,” he said hoarsely.

I sucked in a breath, then another when his mouth licked and sucked my breasts again, each movement growing more desperate. A deep growl came from him as he gentled, flicking my nipples lightly as if apologizing for his need becoming too great.

But I didn’t want gentle.

As if sensing the effect he was having on me, he massaged and caressed me more, his hands shifting down until his fingers slipped between my legs. They swirled up my slit that was still covered by my damp panties, making me buck off the bed again, as his maddening mouth continued to ravish my breasts.

He hissed, then stilled when his finger dipped through the material, pushing it into my molten heat.

I clenched my core around him, crying out again, as his ragged breaths warmed my skin.

Jolting, his fingers pulled out to tease and rub lazy circles over the tight nub in my core, my panties still shielding me from the full onslaught of his assault.

Tension built inside me, coiling like a bomb that could detonate at any moment.

His fingers dipped again, as he moved up to nip at my neck and tease the sensitive spot behind my ear.

My breasts ached, my nipples taut pebbles, as he rubbed over my panties again before he pulled them to the side and then his thick fingers tapped me lightly, directly on that bundle of nerves.

A scream of pleasure rushed out of me, which he quickly swallowed in another kiss.

“Wyatt,” I whispered into his mouth.

He didn’t break the kiss even though his fingers . . . gods, his fingers were intent on driving me mad.

“I want you,” I said simply. “So much.”

His response was to growl fiercely, possessively. “I don’t want this to end yet.”

He thumbed my nipple then brushed his palm over it. Electric sparks shot along my nerves, and I gripped his hard biceps, holding onto him as if I were drowning.

His other hand pressed between my thighs again, cupping my mound, then his fingers began another maddening onslaught—swirling and sliding along the taut nub that demanded release.

As if sensing the crazed state he was driving me toward, his light touches grew firmer—some of the maddening gentleness finally dissipating—as he stoked the flames hotter inside me.

Fiddling his fingers, he rubbed them in teasing movements along my slit, harder this time, but just when the wave of pressure began to build inside me, he pulled back and began kissing me softly, his hands trailing up and down my sides as the deep pulsing ache low in my belly threatened to combust.

“Wyatt,” I whispered. “Please.”

“Please, what?”

“Touch me. More. All of me. Please.”

“Like this?” he asked as he flicked my panties to the side again, exposing my sex to the cool night air.

I arched. “Yes. Yes, like that.”

With deft movements, he hooked his fingers around my panties and shimmied them down until nothing but cool air swirled around my swollen core.

Wyatt lifted his head, staring down at my naked frame. He prowled down my body again, kissing and sucking everything in his path until he kneeled between my thighs.

Any worries I had over my body’s weakening state vanished. My attention focused entirely on the man between my legs and his ragged breaths on my core.

He studied me, a reverent expression on his face.

And as I lay there completely naked before him, with the fire crackling in the hearth, and his eyes glowing like gold, I knew that I loved him. Loved him on such a deep level that I would die knowing I’d experienced one of the greatest gifts in life.

“Avery,” he rasped, pain and desperation in his tone, as if sensing that I knew the end was near.

“I’m still here.”

His breathing slowed, and with exquisite tenderness, he parted my thighs more.

Cradled between my legs, for a moment, he just stared, devouring me with his eyes as I lay molten and soaking beneath him. Ready for him. Wanting him. Desperately seeking a pleasure only he could give me.

“I want to remember you like this always.” And then he shifted, settling on the mattress as his hands cupped around my ass. I opened my mouth to respond, but his tongue darted out and licked my sex.

I came off the bed, arching and moaning, strength suddenly flowing through my veins at the taut nub he’d just inflamed.

“Avery?” he growled, concern in that singular word.

I panted, unable to speak for a moment. “I’m fine. Really, I am.”

“I take it you liked that?”

“Yes,” I breathed. “Oh, yes.”

He waited a heartbeat, then two, as if having to watch me breathe to ensure I was still alive and very much there. And when my rapid breaths continued to fill the room, his attention shifted back to my core, to my engorged sex just waiting for his kiss.

He licked me again, groaning, as that deep sound vibrated against my nub.

My entire body shook. My breathing turned ragged again as he devoured my sex, licking and lapping at me as if he wanted to eat me whole.

I bucked and arched, my fingers tangling in his hair as pleasure built inside me that was so intense, I could barely breathe.

“Fuck,” he whispered. “Your taste is addictive.”

I grasped the bedsheets, my hands balling into fists. Every moment of his mouth on me was the most exquisite torture, yet he seemed to sense every single time he brought me to the edge since he’d then pull back just before the waves crested, teasing me again, those maddening light swirls and touches returning that made me want to scream.

“For the love of the gods, don’t stop. Wyatt, please, don’t stop!”

I settled on my back, heart beating two hundred times a minute, but I forced myself to take a deep breath and loosen my fingers.

He chuckled deeply, the sound entirely too filled with male satisfaction. If I were stronger and not trying so desperately to stay present for all of this, I would have ripped at his hair and forced his mouth on my sex until I came on his face. But my arms felt weak again, that plaguing tiredness again threatening to consume me.

“So beautiful,” he murmured before he settled again between my legs, his eyes shining as he took his pleasure by giving me mine.

I closed my eyes and tilted my head back, letting myself feel all of the tantalizing sensations washing through me.

His tongue and mouth moved expertly, sucking, licking, and nipping until I returned to molten heat in his arms, every nervein my body electrified as a deep throbbing need took root in my core.

But as before, he stopped just as I was about to reach that peak and crash all around.

I snarled, unable to help it. The need he was evoking in me was so strong. It was bordering on pain. I’d never wanted a man so desperately.

As though sensing that I could no longer think or recite my name, he finally shifted on the mattress to crawl back up my body to my lips.

“You’re incredible,” he whispered, then dipped his head to place a soft kiss on my mouth. “So responsive.” He nipped my ear. “I could do this to you all night.”

I moaned. “No, not all night. Now. I don’t think I can take any more.”

He chuckled, the sound so satisfied he practically purred.

Wanting to touch him more, needing him to fill my core or rub me to climax—or do something, anything—I spread my hands across his hard abs, reveling in his skin’s silky feel and the absolute steel that lay beneath my palms.

His breath sucked in.

I bit back a laugh. I was weak, yes, but I wasn’t paralyzed. I could still lift my hands, stroke his length, and kiss his neck.

“I thought I was doing all of the work,” he said hoarsely when I reached lower and slid my hand into his boxers to run my hand over his silken length.

“I’ve felt a sudden sense of rejuvenation.”

He hissed when I encircled him and squeezed before pumping him once, twice, then three times.

Every muscle in his body tightened, the veins in his neck standing out like thick ropes.

“Two can play at this game,” I whispered before biting his earlobe.

A shudder ran through him, followed by a deep groan.

I ran my tongue down his skin, then bit the sensitive area at the base of his neck. A low rumble vibrated his chest, but then he crushed me to him before his lips found mine.

I gasped in surprise at how quickly he’d unleashed his strength.

As if sensing the rough way he’d just gripped me, his hold suddenly loosened as worried eyes met mine. “Are you okay?”

I nodded quickly, too breathless to speak.

“Did I hurt you?”

“No.”

“Do you want me to stop?”

“Gods no!”

His lips curved in a relieved, seductive smile before he leaned down again, our lips molding as one.

I sucked in a breath when he nestled deeper between my thighs as his calloused hands gripped my ass.

“You’re so wet, you’re dripping,” he whispered. “I can smell the honey that’s between your legs.”

My muscles quivered, and I sank more into the pillow, then met his eyes. “It’s all for you.”

He growled low in his throat, his wolf shining through his eyes.

“No more games,” I whispered. “I need you. Now.”

His jaw locked, his chest rising, and with aching precision, he removed his boxers, his erection stiff, ready, and so large I couldn’t look away.

Naked at last, he lowered himself down until his tip prodded my entrance.

I hissed in pleasure and curled my hips upward, begging him to sink into me.

But he brought his mouth down again, devouring me in a deep kiss that made my toes curl and my pulse feel as though it would leap through my skin.

He rubbed himself against me, groaning when my slippery heat opened, my swollen mound more than ready to accommodate his massive length.

“Avery, fuck, Avery,” he whispered, his voice raw and thick. “I don’t want to hurt you, but the need to fuck you—” His breath sucked in when I raised my hips more. His tip penetrated me a second time, just an inch, and I gasped when he pulled back, breaking that delicious contact. “I don’t want to be gentle. I want to—”

“That’s what I want too,” I whispered. I wrapped my legs around his waist, his cock trapped between my thighs. “Take me hard. Make it rough. Make it whatever you need it to be. You won’t hurt me. I promise.”

“But this is about what you want, not what I want.”

“Trust me, you couldn’t do anything I don’t want.”

The light in his eyes grew as his erection again grazed my entrance.

I shuddered in pleasure, but the fatigue that had been weighing me down since yesterday made my body feel heavy.

Forcing it back, I gritted my teeth and made myself stay alert, not wanting to miss even a second of this. Because I knew this would be my last time with him. My only time with him.

And I wanted to cherish every second of it before I slipped away from this world.

“Avery,” he whispered. He pressed another kiss to my neck. “Stay with me,” he said urgently.

“Yes.” I curved into him. “I’m here.”

He kissed me, holding back once more, so tender despite the vibrating need that strummed from him like chords from a harp. I knew he was holding back. I knew that he wanted to tear into me, devour me, and violently plunge his entire length inside me.

But he was also scared. Despite what I claimed, I knew that fear of hurting me, making my condition worse, ravaged his soul.

He stopped for a brief moment, pulling back and taking a deep breath. His hands trembled, his entire body shaking with desire. The evidence of it prodded my entrance, his shaft like steel and pulsing against my core.

But despite what he wanted, despite the need to ravage my sex in a powerful thrust, his wide hands stayed tame, his kisses soft.

And when his body, so heavy and strong, yet careful and loving, draped over me, I saw the depth of emotion that swam in his eyes.

His eyes glowed, his chest rising fast. Aching desire swirled in his irises, but so did something else, something deeper and more reverent—something that time and death couldn’t destroy. The weight of it pulled at me, tugging at my heart, bathing my body in its warm light, until the love was so potent it consumed me and filled my pores.

“I love you, Avery,” he said on a raspy breath. “Tonight. Tomorrow. Always. You’re the only woman I’ll ever love.”

And then he sank into me, inch by inch, his hard length filling and stretching me as my body sheathed around him.

I gasped, unable to say or do more, because the feel of him—gods, the feel of him—nothing had ever felt so right.

And when he was finally fully settled inside me, stretching my inner walls so tightly that I’d never felt so achingly full, he began to move.

He stared down at me from above, entwining his fingers through mine. I held eye contact, unable to break from the emotional bond that was forming between us.

He groaned, his muscles straining, and I knew he was trying to go slow, to be gentle, yet the heat in me was growing fast, so fast, and so out of control.

“More,” I whispered.

He picked up his pace, sliding in and out, tentatively at first, but then increasing his tempo until he was thrusting into me so deeply that each pump made me want to scream in ecstasy.

“More.”

“Avery,” he growled. His cock rubbed deep inside me, so incessantly, that the waves began to build.

“Yes. More.”

He growled, his eyes shining bright, and my heart tripped when his canines lengthened, a wolfish gleam in his eyes.

With a suck of breath, he shut his eyes, his neck straining as he fought his nature.

“Wyatt, look at me.”

But he kept his eyes closed and released one of my hands to grip my hip, to hold me beneath him as he rammed his length into me again and again.

A quiver shook his body. Then another as tension stretched across his face, an internal war battling within him that was evident for all to see.

With him still pumping relentlessly into me, my body trembled, on the verge of climaxing. “Wyatt, look at me!”

When he finally opened his eyes, those warring emotions hadn’t lessened.

His irises flashed. His wolf was there.

“I’m trying not to,” he said roughly, his voice so gravely, a mixture of man and wolf. “I’m fighting him.”

“But you want to claim me.”

“More than you could know.” He bit on his lip, his canines still lengthened as his cock drove into me, pumping harder and faster with each thrust.

My tits bounced, and I cried out. I was so close to coming. So close.

“Claim me,” I whispered. “Please. I want you to, because I’ll always be yours, and you’ll always be mine. Forever.”

A snarl tore from his throat as his wolf brightened his eyes.

His hips slammed into me again, as he began fucking me in earnest.

I cried out, another wave building. I didn’t know how much more I could take. I thought for sure my orgasm would shatter at any moment, that the peak was there, so close that my body felt strung so tightly that I could uncoil at the slightest touch.

But just when I thought for certain the crash would come, the wave built higher. Then higher.

I arched my neck, giving him full access. He continued thrusting into me, so violently the headboard slapped against the wall, and when he descended toward my neck, his eyes glowed and his canines glistened.

“Avery!” he exclaimed in an agonized voice.

“Yes, claim me!” I grasped his head and wrenched him the rest of the way toward my throat.

A fierce growl tore from him before he bit into me. I moaned at the onslaught of pain and lust that shot through my core.

He released my hands and gripped both of my hips in a bruising embrace as he plundered into me with a frenzy while staying latched onto my neck.

He snarled again, the sound throaty, and that’s when I felt it—his magic seeping inside me, raging through my veins, heating my blood, as his claiming took root.

I closed my eyes, relishing the feel of his cock as his power slid through my veins, connecting with the vacant hole in my chest, where my magic had once resided, as his desperately tried to fill it.

But not even an alpha’s power could penetrate the encapsulated magic of the Safrinite comet.

But his love burned through me, infusing warmth and energy into my limbs that I hadn’t felt in days, and a momentary sense of power filled me.

I raked my hands down his back as he picked up a feverish tempo, slapping even harder and deeper, so savagely that I couldn’t breathe.

Another wave built inside me, the peak like a mountain that grew taller and steeper with every thrust he made.

And all the while, his claiming swam through me, marking me, owning me, sealing me forever as his.

When the final remnants of his magic soaked into my cells, permeating my senses, and altering my scent to always carry a hint of his, his thrusts slowed briefly as the tip of his engorged erection rubbed      that spot deep inside me.

He unlatched from my neck, his eyes once again connecting with mine, and that time when he slammed his cock into me, the peak finally burst.

I screamed his name when an explosive orgasm rocked my soul and crashed through my core in waves so violent that my entire body bucked uncontrollably.

I screamed his name, again and again, as the unrelenting waves of ecstasy claimed my heart and possessed my mind.

Wyatt roared his release, his climax joining mine, and together we spiraled into another world, another dimension, as our love for one another transcended above this realm, through the stars, and entwined our souls in the galaxies of time.