Page 217 of Evil Hearts

Acceleration

Ruven moved withthe speed of a striking serpent, like he was afraid I’d change my mind, kicking the sheets down and yanking them back up with his tail before he even stopped moving. He plastered himself against me with a dark sound of pleasure, one hand shoved under my shirt to haul me closer, his legs tangled with mine.

It put his bare groin against my skin and the heat of his thigh between my legs, grinding my underwear up against me. He panted hard against my throat. His tail wrapped around my lower leg, the forks spreading to grip my calf.

“Fuck, Avalon,” he groaned, starting to shiver. “Don’t smell like that.”

“Don’t smell like what?” I asked, desperately trying not to focus on his naked dick against my thigh. It was a losing battle; with every beat of his heart he was growing harder, and the demanding heat of that length commanded my attention.

He panted out a whine. “Like you want me to fuck you. Like all I have to do is ask.” Ruven’s fingers tightened on me and his hips bucked once. The thick length of his cock curled, more of a tentacle than an erection. Several shorter tentacles slid against my thigh like they were exploring me.

Welp, that’s definitely not standard-issue, I thought, wide-eyed and soaking wet. “Would that be so bad?” I croaked out.

“You don’t know me. I don’t know you,” he said, biting off the words as he held himself still. “Didn’t you hear me? This ends one of two ways. That means itends. Have me like this and I’myours. I won’t even be able to want someone else.” Ruven panted against my throat, holding himself so stiffly that his muscles started trembling. “I don’t imagine you’re ready to bind yourself to me forever, so do me the kindness of loosening your grip on my leash. Send me away, or refuse this stupid fucking mating drive I can’t control, but don’t—” He shuddered violently, burying his face against me. “Don’t claim what you aren’t certain you want.”

Heat throbbed in my belly and groin. Need had me by the throat. I still closed my eyes and put my fingers in the dense waves of his hair, and said, “Ask me tomorrow.”

Ruven stilled, his grip easing. “What?”

“You can sleep next to me tonight,” I said carefully, swallowing back my desire. “That’s all. If you want something else, ask me tomorrow night.”

“Oh,” he said in an exhale, all of the stress dropping out of his powerful body. “That’s perfect. I can do that.”

“Good.” I tilted my head back. “I’m going to get up and go to the bathroom. I’ll be gone for a little while, and when I come back, I want you to be, um.” I licked my lips. “Uh, satisfied? With sleeping?”

I could practically feel Ruven trying not to laugh. “Are you giving me permission to stroke myself off in your bed?” he asked, amusement in his carefully-formal voice.

“Don’t leave a wet spot,” I said, my cheeks going hot.

He gave my neck a quick lick. “Shapeshifter,” he reminded me. “I’m fully capable of orgasming without spilling my seed.”

I had to bite my lip not to laugh. “Hell of a birth control method.”

“Riskier than you might imagine, given that it’s me. You’d have to trust my control, which is demonstrably poor, and which is why I have an infertility spell on me, instead,” Ruven said lightly. He loosened his grip on me and gave me a hard nudge with his nose. “Go swiftly, so you can return all the sooner.”

Part of me wanted to never move again—wanted to spend the rest of my life with Ruven’s skin against mine and his breath mingling with my air. The rest of me, however, was not in agreement with spending literally forever with a man I barely knew, no matter how charismatically arrogant he was or the way I wanted to ride his custom-built dick.Fuck, he probably does custom-build it, I thought, a reminder of the very insistent presence of his aroused body and the slick state of my underwear.

I fled the room, chased by the throaty sound of his laughter. The lady’s bedroom shared an ensuite with the lord’s bedroom, which was both convenient and troubling: convenient, because I could fling myself into the bathroom without having to go into the hall, and troubling, because the likelihood of me walking in on a naked Ruven was so much higher than it would otherwise have been.

Ruven, who was naked in my bed right now, hand on his cock, getting off because the scent of my skin was like a drug for him.

Under no circumstances should I have been thinking about that. So, of course, I sprawled down onto the plush bath mat, shoved my hand down my panties, and thought about exactly that. His strong hand wrapped around his prehensile shaft, his mouth open in need and brows creased in bliss. I imagined the sharp jerks of his arm, the scent of his skin, the low needy sounds I knew he would make—

I came in maybe sixty seconds flat, one hand pressed to my mouth as I shook in pleasure, my pussy spasming and pulse pounding. Bliss flooded my veins, hand-in-hand with shame.Was I seriously doing this? Getting off to a man I barely knew—a man who was barely aman—and aching for more? Even though we were somehow magically suited for each other, that was a pretty damn fast acceleration from getting bought at auction.

From the other side of the door, I heard a panting groan, and then a pleasure-soaked,“oh, fuck.”I bit my lip, the mental imagery redoubling the throb in my groin. I was not going to get myself off twice in five minutes to this man. I wasnot.

Four minutes later, I slunk out of the bathroom like a chastised dog, body temporarily satisfied and underwear in one hand. They were far too wet to wear to bed, especially when Ruven could smell me being turned on. That was asking for trouble.

I chucked my undies in the hamper and made my way over to the dresser in the dark, feeling my way for it.

“I can see in the dark, Avalon,” Ruven said in a low purr, his voice caressing my name. “You’re quite the temptation clad in only a thin shirt. Are those cast-aside underthings my fault?”

My blush hit me like a semi truck. I grabbed another pair of underwear out of the drawer and yanked them on, then added a pair of light linen pajama pants for good measure, earning a disgruntled sound from the man in my bed.

“Wear underwear tomorrow night, and I won’t wear pants,” I informed him, shuffling over to the shadow of the bed.

He grumbled again. “That doesn’t help me tonight.”

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