Page 30 of The Alpha's Temptation

“You didn’t care when I was in heat.”

He stepped closer to me and growled. “You know that I did.”

I hummed in annoyance and turned back around to shut my window. “Sure.”

Before I could say another word, he had me pressed up against the window, drawing his nose up the column of my neck. “You know what you mean to me, but we can’t be together. I’m trying to protect you.”

“Protect me from what? You? Maybe you’re just trying to protect yourself.”

Another growl left his mouth, and he drew his canines right up against my neck, right where he would mark me if he truly cared, if he truly wanted me, if I wasn’t just a girl to hook up with like I was to Chase.

“If I didn’t care about you, if I didn’t want to protect you, I would’ve left you in that arena. You know that. You know what you mean to me. And you know I’d do anything to protect you. So me not marking you while you were in heat, there’s a reason for that.”

“And what’s the reason?” I asked. “Afraid that you’ll let your wolf make your decisions like he is right now?”

I didn’t need to see him to know that his wolf was out. To feel his wolf out. His hands were all over my body, his tongue on my neck. His canines on my skin. I didn’t know why he had finallysuccumbed to his wolf and why he couldn’t let him out when I was in heat so he could satisfy me. But it didn’t matter.

If he wanted to use me, then I could use him too.

I’d savor one last night with him and then… I’d be gone. Because I needed answers. And I would do anything to get them. Even if it meant leaving. And if I had to leave, then I’d take all the time that I could to be with my mate for the last time ever.

CHAPTER 21

LIVIA

While the heatsoared inside my body, goosebumps were somehow still rising on my skin. There was something so polarizing in the most delicious way possible about being with someone I could never have.

My nipples hardened underneath my shirt, and I gulped.

Fuck.

Fucking Caelan was all I wanted to do.

Caelan’s gaze dropped down to my chest, and he stepped toward me, a small smirk traveling across his lips. The air between us seemed electric, the tension building quickly. Those dangerous eyes were teasing,tauntingme.

More warmth spread through my body at an overwhelming rate. I stepped back, attempting to have some sanity in this situation, though I had none. I needed to stop this right now, because something deep inside me was about to snap.

Maybe it was finally my wolf. Maybe she had come out to play.

Or maybe… it was that wicked heat.

Every time I had gone into heat, I had locked myself away in my room, and he had buried himself in office work. But today, Ishouldn’t have been in heat. No, it wasn’t a full moon, and I… I had just gone through heat less than two weeks ago.

Before I could stop him, he trapped me between him and the wall, capturing my wrists and pinning them above my head, his firm grip cooling my skin anywhere and everywhere that he touched. I bit back a whimper.

I hated and loved this: my wolf, his wolf, the mate bond that he would never recognize.

“Tell me,” he murmured against my skin, his body now flush against mine. His other hand drew circles around my right hip, cooling me off just slightly, yet my core was burning with pleasure. “Tell me how much you want me.”

I opened and closed my mouth, wanting to say something bratty to him, but my wolf wouldn’t let me. I didn’t want to fuel his ego any more than I already had, butLycos, I wanted him. I wanted him so badly.

“Tell me,” he repeated, his lips traveling up and down the column of my neck, both cooling and searing my skin. The soft spot on my neck ached, and I just wanted him to… to… mark me. “Tell me. Tell me. Tell me.”

When the words left his mouth, a moan left mine. My eyes fluttered closed as his lips hovered over my soft spot—the spot that someone would mark one day. Just… not him. Yet something deep inside me—the heat, my wolf—was burning hotter and hotter.

I wanted this, and I couldn’t deny it anymore.

“Please,” I whispered.

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