Page 23 of Wrong Number, Right Lion

KALEN

I didn’t want the night to be over. Spending time with him, just the two of us like that, had me not only sensing he was my mate, not only liking him, but also feeling like I was getting to know him. And I liked him.

I liked him a lot.

Even if he hadn’t been my mate, even if there had been no attraction, I’d have wanted him to be my friend. And I’m not sure why that took me off guard, but it did.

“Did you want coffee?” he asked as I stood near the door, already having said good-bye a few times.

“I think it’s far too late for that. I won’t get any sleep.”

He grabbed the back of his neck. “Yeah, I know. I don’t want coffee either… that’s not why I asked.”

“Why did you?”

“Because I don’t want you to go.” He spoke the exact words I’d wanted to hear.

I reached up and brushed my thumb along his cheekbone. “I don’t have to go. In fact, I don’t want to go.”

He leaned into my touch. “Then please don’t go. Stay here with me… all night.”

He stepped up on the stoop to kiss me, and the feeling from our first kiss flooded through me again—the sense of connection and joy and completeness and need all kind of rolled into one.

It didn’t take long before our kiss deepened. His body was flush with mine, his arms wrapped around me, pulling me close. My arms did the same to him. And when we finally broke apart, it was out of necessity—a need to catch our breath but also to move someplace besides his entryway.

Standing in a foyer is not really the ideal place to join for the first time.

“Is that a yes?” Arlo reached for my hand. “To staying, I mean?”

“That’s a yes.”

“Bedroom. Now.” He was getting no arguments from me.

He pulled me toward his room. The alpha in me wanted to scoop him up and carry him there. I refrained, not wanting to take over… not yet, anyway. Once in the bedroom, it would be a different story.

We were barely in the bedroom when his lips were on mine again. Only this time, our hands weren’t just holding each other close—they were reaching for each other’s clothing, trying to get the cloth separating us gone.

Finally peeling Arlo’s clothes off was like taking a full breath. I’d been waiting for his moment and had to remind myself to goslow. You only had one first time with your mate, and I wanted to savor every single second of it—to appreciate his soft skin and wanting eyes. “You okay?”

Arlo smiled at me without breaking eye contact. “So okay.” His hands pressed to my chest and then slowly lowered until he could grab the hem of my shirt and lift it up. “And so horny for you.”

Hearing him comfortable enough to be so blunt reassured me that we weren’t rushing this for him. That was always something on my radar, the difference between shifter dating and human dating still not something I fully understood.

My lion preened at it too, loving that our omega felt our connection as deeply as we did. “Mmm.”

As a human, Arlo didn’t have all the advantages of advanced sight and sound that I had, but he could sense the shift in the air between us. The tension that pulled us together like we were always meant to be. It was palpable and went both ways.

He climbed on the bed, and what a gorgeous sight he was. I couldn’t wait to be inside him, watching him come undone beneath me.

“Lie back.” I slipped out of my pants, joined him on the bed, and kneeled down so I could kiss his left knee. “I want to taste all of you.”

Arlo’s cock bounced off his hip, and a rush of slick dampened the bed beneath him. “Hurry.” It was a plea, one I was more than happy to answer.

Dragging my teeth along his inner thigh, I slipped a single finger around his thigh and found his opening. “All good things take time, omega.”

In my head, I resorted to thinking about work and the changes in the class lineup, which was basically the least sexy thing ever. If I allowed myself to fully immerse in this moment, I’d be coming long before I wanted, that was for sure.

He whimpered as his hips tilted up to give me better access. “But not too much time.” He reached for his cock but quickly released it, already too close to the edge to risk missing my knot inside him. At least that’s what I could make out of his mumbling.

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