Page 57 of Entering a New World

The scent of petrichor and apples mixing with the scent of my home was an aphrodisiac so powerful it made me a little tipsy—and taking a deep breath did nothing to clear my mind. Quite the contrary.

My cock hardened inside my pants, and anticipation raced through my veins.

This is it, my wolf said. Mate!

It was as forceful a command as he could manage, and if my control wasn’t as ironclad, I might’ve just given in.

Levi shuddered against me, his scent intensifying as he pressed his body up against me. I barely managed to bite back a groan, my cock jerking inside its confines.

“Let’s head inside,” I said, my voice rough and raw, even to my own ears. “I’ll make us popcorn and then we can watch a movie.”

I desperately needed a little distance between us, so I could clear my head. Just because he was here didn’t mean we had to mate right now. That was not what Levi had agreed to when he’d climbed into my truck.

Yes, usually mates would have already been mated at this point. But Levi was human. Matings between a human and a shifter usually took a little longer.

I. Would. Be. Patient.

Even if it was the last thing I did.

My chest ached as I let go of my mate to walk up to the door. Even those couple of steps between us felt like a mile. My heart hammered in my chest, anxiety rising, the feeling of loss threatening to overwhelm me.

Fuck, the patience thing was getting harder and harder with our bond growing stronger and stronger, but I wouldn’t give in.

Not until Levi was ready.

His soft steps sounded behind me, and my whole body relaxed as I felt him coming closer, stopping right behind me.

I fumbled with my keys, my hands shaking so bad it was hard to get the damn thing into the lock, but I managed on the third try, pushed my door open, and walked into a small hallway.

“You can take off your shoes and put them there,” I said, nodding towards the shoe rack standing on a rubber mat. “The living room is right up ahead. Make yourself comfortable while I get the popcorn, okay?”

I wanted to add a sweetheart to the sentence, wanted to reach out and tug that stray strand of hair behind his ear, wanted to caress his cheek as a goodbye, even though I’d only be gone for a minute. But I did none of those things, too afraid my control might slip.

My wolf yowled, almost in pain, as we left our mate behind.

Taking a turn to the right, I entered the small kitchen and firmly shut the door behind me. I’d been wanting to open up the kitchen to the living room for ages now, but right in this moment I was glad I hadn’t gotten to it yet because as much as I loathed it, I needed the space. Grabbing the counter, I let my head fall forwards, closed my eyes, and focused on my breathing, all the while ignoring the furious protests of my wolf. He was angry. Livid. He didn’t want the reprieve; he wanted to bask in Levi’s scent and feel his body pressed against us again.

There was nothing in this world I wanted more, too. My body was yearning for it, my mind screaming at me to just head over to the living room.

Gripping the counter harder, I let out a groan.

My cock was so hard inside my pants it was aching, and my whole body was strumming with need.

“You feel it too, don’t you?” Levi whispered, but he might as well have been shouting from the top of his lungs. His words ripped through the silence, and I whirled around to face him.

He shivered under my gaze, wrapping his arms around himself. I could smell his arousal, could see the erection straining his pants.

“Dumb question,” he mumbled, shaking his hand, his hair whipping through the air, “You probably feel it ten times more intensely than I do, even though I can’t imagine how you can even bear that. I feel like I might literally die if I don’t touch you. I don’t understand it, but this thing between us, this bond, it’s getting so much stronger every time I see you.”

“It’s supposed to,” I said, closing my eyes and taking a deep breath that did nothing but spur on my need as I filled my lungs with the scent of Levi and home. “We don’t know exactly how it works, but most people think the bond is some form of magic. Nothing someone can consciously will into existence, but something that just is. Waiting dormant until we find our other half and it activates. The bond yearns to be completed.”

Levi nodded. “And it’s completed by having sex?”

My cock jerked, precum seeping from the tip into my boxers. Him saying the word sex was enough to almost make me come in my pants; I was that desperate.

I saw it in my mind, him beneath me, writhing, his face lax with pleasure, as I pushed inside him for the last time and buried my teeth in his shoulder.

A shiver wracked through me, and I gripped the counter so hard, I was almost sure my fingers would leave dents in the solid wood.

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