Suddenly Fated (Wolves of Riverton #1)

8. Esyn

8. Esyn

We stood in the dark, pressed together as the storm continued outside. I definitely didn’t feel like crying anymore as Ari’s eyes began to glow and our scents swirled around us once again. I looked up at him and bit my lip. He stared down at me with a worshipful expression on his face. “Esyn,” was all he said, my name like a prayer on his lips.

I reached up and did what I’d been wanting to do since this morning, running my hands over the warm skin of his muscular chest and arms. He sucked in a breath. “You’re setting me on fire, Little Mate. If you continue I can’t promise that I’ll be able to stop this time.”

Tilting my head up, I pulled him down to me until our lips were a whisper apart. “Then don’t stop.”

He picked me up abruptly, making me squeal, and kissed me deeply as he headed toward the bed I’d left earlier. He didn’t break the kiss as he set me down, crawling over me and spreading my legs out with his own. His lips left me and I drew my eyebrows together in frustration, but in the next second he put his mouth over my nipple, sucking first lightly and then more forcefully, my other breast filling his hand. I arched upward at the sudden, sharp pleasure coursing through me. He gave my other nipple the same attention and I cried out, my hands touching every part of him that I could reach. My hips thrust upwards involuntarily as he slid his hand down my ribcage and hip, down the side of my thigh and then up again, finally touching me where I needed him.

“You’re so wet for me, Little Mate,” he growled. His fingers were playing me like a violin, but I wanted more.

“Please, Ari,” I moaned. I reached down and ran my fingers over his rock hard cock, realizing that it was as perfect as the rest of him. He uttered a strangled sound as I touched him, grabbed my wrists and raised my arms above my head, trapping them with one hand. “No more of that or this will be over before it starts,” he growled.

“Please, Ari,” I said again in a pleading voice.

“Tell me what you want, Little Mate.”

What did I want? I wanted to forget this day ever happened. I wanted to forget those rogues. Mostly, I wanted to do what I’d felt like doing since the minute I met him.

Putting my lips up to his ear, I whispered. “Fuck me.”

He wasted no time, pushing into me completely. His eyes rolled back in his head and he moaned my name.

He started by gliding in and out of me, long and slow. The way he filled me was like nothing else - I’d experienced pleasure before, but this seemed otherworldly. We fit together as if we were made for one another. In the back of my mind, a small voice said that’s because you actually were made for one another, remember?

“Goddess, please, Ari, more!” I demanded. He quickened his pace, and before long he slammed into me hard enough to send the headboard banging into the wall. Pleasure built like an inferno as I crashed my body into his over and over again, unable to control my movements. Suddenly, he grabbed my hair, wrenching my head to the side and baring my neck. I felt his lengthened canines against my skin for a split second before he bit down, and I exploded, screaming as waves of intense pleasure shot through me over and over again. Seconds later, his mouth still locked to my neck, Ari let out a muffled roar as he came forcefully. We rode the tsunami of pleasure out until the end, both panting and sweating. I ran my now freed hands down his damp back and moaned one last, small moan as his canines retracted and he began gently licking and kissing the spot where he’d marked me. He turned us both so that we were lying side by side, still wrapped up in one another, and buried his face in my neck.

“Esyn, I don’t even have words to describe what just happened. I do know one thing for certain, though. My goddess, I love you.”

I closed my eyes as the words left him. My insides were a riot of feelings stronger than anything I’d thought possible. “I…I love you, Ari.” I whispered and his arms tightened until our hearts beat against one another. I felt incredibly warm and safe. Little by little, my body calmed and exhaustion claimed me.

I woke up some time later in the predawn light with a sudden thought. Wait. He’d marked me! What did this mean? What would people say?

“I don’t give a damn what they’ll say,” Ari murmured aloud and I gasped, pushing him away from my body and looking into his face.

“I didn’t say anything,” I told him.

“What? Yes you did, just now. You said ‘What would people say’?” He yawned and ran his hands over his face, his eyes closing again.

“Ari, no, wake up! This is too weird!” I shook him and he opened his eyes again.

“Huh?”

“Please wake up properly, Ari. I was just thinking and you answered my thoughts out loud.”

“No I didn’t, that’s crazy. You said it out loud.”

“I did not, I swear!”

Ari sat up then, looking down, his face mirroring my puzzled expression. “Try it again.”

I closed my eyes, trying to think of something he couldn’t guess. My middle name is Matilda and I hate it.

Ari’s mouth fell open, then snapped shut. “If I hadn’t just heard that loud and clear with your lips unmoving, I wouldn’t believe it. Also, what’s wrong with Matilda? That’s a very nice name.”

I cried out. “What the hell? How the hell?”

“I don’t know, Esyn.”

Can I do it to you? I wondered without speaking.

My middle name is Dominic, and I don’t like mine either, it makes me sound like a gangster.

“Holy shit, Ari. Can we read each other’s minds now? How? Why?”

“I promise you, Esyn, I don’t know. This is just as weird for me as it is for you. The sex was fucking phenomenal, but surely it wasn’t that that did this? Granted, I’ve never had anything this amazing, but I’ve never been able to read anyone else’s minds afterward.” He stretched and winked at me.

I lightly punched him in the arm. “First of all, I don’t want to hear or think about you with anyone else, or I’ll find them and tear them limb from limb.” Ari grinned at this statement. “Secondly, you’re right. If sex was the key then everyone would be able to read everyone else's thoughts and I’ve never heard of this before.” I sat up to face him, the blanket falling from my chest. Ari’s eyes went to my breasts and up again, beginning to shine once more.

I looked down and saw his enormous erection tenting the blanket at his waist. “Oh!”

“Oh is right. We’ll figure this out, I promise you. In the meantime-” He leaned forward and pulled me to him, kissing his way from my ear to my jawline and down my neck. I tried to stay focused but my eyes fell closed as my skin tingled everywhere that his lips touched. I sighed and pushed him down on the bed, kissing him passionately. I moved to straddle him, but the doorknob rattled and the door flew open. I screamed and scrambled to cover myself as Ari put his body between me and whoever barged in.

Jamie stood in the doorway, his hand on the doorknob and his eyebrows on the ceiling. “So, I take it you found her.” He said sarcastically. “Dammit Ari, you could have called someone. We were worried out of our minds.”

“Yeah, I should have. I apologize. I was, ah, a little distracted.”

Jamie snorted and turned his back on us. “Well, you don’t have time now to get ‘distracted’ again. The packlands are crawling with warriors searching for you. Your parents are beside themselves and I think Harris is writing up his last will and testament as we speak.”

Ari rolled his eyes and dropped his head into his hands. “Jamie, I love you man, but get the fuck out. We’ll get dressed and meet you outside.”

“I brought the ATV. It’ll be tight but we can probably all fit.” Jamie moved to close the door but paused and opened it again. “Hey. Congratulations, you two. I mean that.”

Ari searched the tiny closet and came up with a plastic bin full of clothes. They were all men’s gym clothes and they were all huge. He handed me a pair of sweatpants and a T-shirt. I hastily put them on, rolling the waistband of the pants until the bottoms no longer covered my feet. The shirt fell to my knees. “I look absolutely ridiculous,” I complained.

Ari glanced at me and smiled. “You look adorable.”

“Don’t you have any female warriors?”

“We do. They have a different place that they stay in.”

I looked like a little kid playing dress up. How would I earn Jamie’s respect looking like this? “I’d almost rather ride naked,” I joked.

At that, Ari frowned and his eyes narrowed. “Esyn, you will absolutely not even think about it. I love Jamie, and if he sees you naked it would hurt me deeply to have to kill the man.”

I laughed and made my way to the door. The sun was barely up and last night’s rain washed the air clean. I took a deep breath of fresh air and smiled. Ari? I attempted to reach out with my thoughts again.

Yeah?

I think everything really will be ok after all.