A Curse in Darkness by Sherilee Gray

Chapter 17

Warrick

Her thighs clenchedaround my forearm as if she thought I was done with her.

Fuck.

No.

I knew what she was doing. My dove was using pleasure to forget her pain, like she’d tried to last night.

Only now her emotions were less volatile and more focused. She wanted this, needed it from me. I’d finally been able to give her pleasure, to make her come, and if that’s what she needed, I sure as fuck wasn’t finished making her feel good. Soon enough she’d be back to her tasks, the next trial, to worrying about her family and the fox. I wanted to make her feel good, to take her mind off all that shit, even it was just a short time.

Carefully, I pried her thighs apart and slid my fingers free of her tight pussy, gritting my teeth when she whimpered. Fuck. The driving need of the beast thrumming through me had every instinct in me roaring to take her, to finally make her mine. I fought it back and, instead, lifted her off the bed.

“Where are we going?” she asked, sounding almost groggy.

The sound of satisfaction in her voice pleased me, filled me with pride. I’d made her come hard, and I intended to do it again. “Gonna clean the mud off, dove.”

In the bathroom, I removed the rest of her clothing, and possessiveness swelled in my chest that she’d allowed me to do that for her. As if she knew it was my right, as if she’d finally accepted that she was mine.

Turning on the shower, I moved quickly, getting what I needed, not wanting to give her time to change her mind, to run from me again. I felt her eyes on me, watching my every move, and as soon as the water was warm, I closed in on her again, the beast taking the lead for a moment, all but herding her into the stall.

She didn’t protest, no, she sighed as the hot water hit her skin. I quickly stripped out of my clothes and climbed in, and her gaze drifted over my naked body hungrily.

I liked the way she looked at me, especially when I was naked and she wasn’t trying to hide her lust. Not that she ever truly could; the scent of her need filled my senses, drove me wild every time we were together. Backing her up against the shower wall, I grabbed the soap, lathered it between my hands, then ran them over her shoulders, her arms, washing the dirt from her skin.

“You don’t need to do that,” she whispered, looking up at me, eyes wide, fuck, vulnerable like an abandoned baby dear. I wanted to haul her into my arms and hold her to me, to protect her from everything that hurt her, to keep her safe in this room with me for the rest of time. I’d never felt this way in my life and the power of it was a staggering force inside me. “Warrick?”

The husky note to her voice when she said my name made my scalp tingle and my cock throb. “I want to do it.”

I lathered my hands again and slid them over her shoulders a second time, then around her delicate throat, washing away the dirt streaked there, then back down.

Her breath hitched as I slid my hands over her full tits, soaping up her sweet little nipples, so tight and desperate for my mouth. I worked them between my fingers first, and she gripped my biceps to hold herself up, a groan slipping past her lips.

“I haven’t tasted you here yet, dove,” I said as I washed the soap away.

“No, you haven’t,” she said.

No resistance, full surrender.

It would be so easy to take advantage of that, to take what I wanted, but I would never do that, no matter how much the beast in me howled for it—for her. If I did that now, while she was in pain, I would lose her forever. Yes, she was the strongest female I’d ever met, but here, now, she seemed almost fragile, breakable. My dove needed me to take care of her. And I wanted that, too, and surprisingly, it was even stronger than my need to fuck her.

Anything else would end up hurting her, and every part of me abhorred the very idea. Instead, I took her mouth in another kiss. My dove liked the way I kissed her. The scent of her arousal increased every time, but it was more than that. When Lucifer created us, he’d given us heightened senses that went beyond scent, sound, touch, and taste.

The reason hellhounds were so good at fucking was our ability to register pleasure. We knew when a sexual partner enjoyed what we were doing.

It was the same with all emotions, really. Which meant, although I hadn’t experienced a great many myself, I understood them.

Which was how I knew it made her happy when I kissed her, in a way that went beyond the physical. It was something I’d never felt before, not in myself, and not in others, maybe because I’d never once sought anything beyond the physical before. The females I’d bedded in the past hadn’t been interested in anything other than getting off.

But I felt it now, this strange warmth, it settled in my chest, in my lower stomach, and it was a good feeling. It made me want to get closer to her.

So I kissed her throat, something else she liked. I didn’t need to use my senses for that, though, her whimpers and the way she gripped me tighter as if she were afraid I’d leave her wanting, told me just as easily.

Dropping to my knees, I wrapped my arms around her tiny waist and sucked a nipple into my mouth. Her fingers delved into my hair, holding me there, and I sucked greedily, feeding off her pleasure even as my own throbbed deeper, more fiercely.

My cock was impossibly hard now, an ache in my balls, a desperation to rut that had me locking my thighs so I didn’t thrust into thin air. I licked and sucked her nipple until she was writhing, then I shifted to the other and did the same until her scent was so strong it filled the shower stall. Until her need was so intense that I knew she’d come for me almost as soon as I put my mouth on her.

Finally, I worked my way down her taut stomach, to where it was rounder, softer, below her belly button, and hungry female that she was, she opened wider for me.

I growled low at the sight of her glistening and swollen, primed for the taking. “Haven’t tasted you here either, dove.”

She moaned. “Please.”

At her soft plea, I all but fell on her, gripping her thighs and pushing them apart before swiping my tongue through her folds. A snarl escaped when finally…fucking, finally, I knew her taste. I threw her thighs over my shoulders, her body sliding up the wall as I gripped her ass, wanting more, wanting inside her in any way I could.

I couldn’t get enough. I would never get enough.

Savage lust throbbed through me, and my hand dropped to my cock, gripping it tight. She tasted better than I’d ever imagined, and I lapped at her like the hungry dog I was, so desperate for her, for more. Her legs shook and she cried out, tugging on my hair, rubbing against my mouth in her frenzy to come.

I tugged on my dick faster as I ate at her, fucking her with my tongue, then finally giving her what she needed and sucked her slick little clit. She screamed, her cries echoing off the walls as she came against my mouth. I licked her all up as she trembled, wringing every last shudder from her, and kept going, not stopping until she screamed again, coming on my tongue a second time.

When her body went soft and pliant, I lowered her legs and stood. Holding her up, I tilted her head back and devoured her mouth while I stroked my dick hard and fast. It wasn’t going to take long, not after that, not with my tongue in her mouth and her taste passing between us.

I broke the kiss, my breath forced roughly past my lips with every vicious tug of my fist.

She looked down, realizing what I was doing, and immediately reached for me. I grabbed her hand and pulled it away. “No.”

“What? Why? Let me…”

“No,” I said more harshly. “You got a pass last night because you were hurting, but I meant what I said, you touch my dick, I fuck you. I meant it, the beast in me sure as fuck meant it, and we both know you’re not ready for that. Not here,” I said and tapped the side of her head. “And not here,” I growled and cupped her sweet as fuck pussy. She was too fucking tight, I’d need to work her up to my cock with my fingers, and she’d need to come a lot more than she had this morning. “And despite how badly I wanted you in the woods, you were right to turn me down.”

“Yes, you’re really big, but…”

“No,” I said again, then fisted her wild red hair and locked eyes with her as I planted my feet wide and fucked into my fist. “Look, dove, look down at my cock, watch me come.”

I’d held off what was about to happen in the woods, I couldn’t now, not after making her come, not after tasting her…tasting my mate. My animal instincts had kicked in, setting off a response that had lain dormant inside me my entire life, waiting, waiting for her. My mated brothers had explained the feeling or tried to, but I hadn’t been prepared for it.

Fuck. Heat coiled in my gut, pulsing deeply along my shaft, an ache building in my balls and down my thighs.

My body had been fooled by Willow’s scent, so thick around us, and her taste still on my tongue, that it believed I was inside my female, that there was a chance to breed her. “Watch,” I said again, but I didn’t need to.

She already was, and her pink tongue darted out to swipe over her lower lip. I watched her face, her reaction as I got closer. She was panting again and her eyes widened, lips parting.

I glanced down, but I knew what she was seeing, my cock growing bigger. I hissed, watching as the veins bulged thickly along my shaft, the head darkening, widening.

“Warrick?” she whispered.

“It’s so our females are locked in place, dove. It’s so we’re as deep as we can get when we come.” I didn’t tell her it only happened with our mates, she wasn’t ready to hear that yet, even though deep down she knew the truth. I groaned, my balls drawing up. “So you can’t get away when I pump my seed deep inside you.”

I expected fear, or worse, revulsion.

What I got was the opposite, and that look of hunger on her face tipped me over the edge. I slapped my hand against the wall, leaned in, and emptied myself on her stomach, hissing and groaning as my come splashed her smooth skin.

When there was nothing left, I hooked the back of her neck with one hand, holding her in place, and pressed the other to her belly, smearing my seed there, then higher, over her tits, marking her with my scent. Even if she used soap, it would still be there. My brothers would smell it, any shifter around her would sense my claim on her.

The thought pleased me greatly. I stared into her eyes. “That’s why, when we fuck, you need to be ready for me, in every way.”

She didn’t argue, just nodded slowly. She’d tried to deny it so many times, but she knew we were inevitable. She knew it now. And there was no turning away from this, not anymore.

I reached for the shampoo, squirted some in my hand, and turned her around, and she instantly tilted her head back as I worked it through her hair.

If she was worried about having me inside her after witnessing what she just had, she didn’t say. Still, I worried. “You’ll like it, dove, the way I fuck you, I promise you that,” I said, trying to reassure her.

But again, she didn’t deny it, or tell me it wasn’t going to happen—no, a sexy little quiver moved through her, and I had to bite back a snarl of triumph, even as I was filled with contentment, because nothing had ever felt better in my long fucking life than being in this shower with Willow.

I’d made my dove come and now I was tending to her other needs.

It was only a matter of time before I made her mine in every possible way.

Before I claimed my mate.