His gaze dips, lowering to my omega-approved, ridiculously sexy bikini, as the moonlight shines down on us like a spotlight.
Those omegas are fucking diabolical, I tell ya. Not to mention creepy good at setting up tricky situations like these with nothing more than a few packed bags. First the toothpaste and now this.
Self…control...
Usually, when he’s naked, things aren’t so…at attention. Or maybe the water just makes certain things look a lot bigger. It already looked uncomfortably large to begin with.
I almost feel like I should be scared of that thing. Not picturing myself testing my limits…
“I’m curious,” he says in a quiet voice as his hands gently slip around my ankles, giving me a subtle tug that floats my body toward him at a slow, gradual pace.
When I start to sink a little, his hands slide up to the backs of my legs, and just rest there, holding me about two feet away from him. All the touch really seems so much more intense with the water. It’s…hurting that self-control I’m striving for.
The beast of a man seems larger too, especially when I’m so surrounded by him, and I’m five-feet-nine. I’m not used to feeling so dainty.
“How do you trick the ear? The smell is as good as the hearing,” he tells me. “And your heart stopping triggers your mon—”
“I faint,” I tell him quietly, covering his mouth with one of my hands.
His beard tickles against my palms, and his eyes heat. Or else I’m imagining things. It seriously looks like he wants to be a bad wolf.
Fuck, that sounds cheesy as hell. I need Anna back so bad right now. I really do.
“It’s my super power,” I tell him, doing all I can to seem unaffected, hoping my poker face is actually on, as I slowly lower my hand.
The shaky breath that slips out of me probably hurts the poker face I’m working damn hard on.
“I can faint and stop my heart, and wake up when the pain is duller and the urge to panic has passed. But I can also slow my heart down to almost stopping. It’s dangerous and I shouldn’t do it unless I’m willing to take that risk. But to date, as long as I’m not panicking, I’ve been able to bring it back up.”
He looks surprised and intrigued by that. So…not normal? Rare? Is it a clue as to what I am? I’d love to know.
“That’s almost like having control,” he says, giving me a clue as to what has that surprised expression on his face.
It’s almost deflating, because that’s…nothing along the lines of what I was hoping he’d say.
“It’s as close as I’ve gotten,” I say in the hushed tone, glancing back, because I’m paranoid Vance is going to overhear.
“He can’t hear. He’s in the shower and blaring music like a sullen teen,” Emit tells me.
When I turn back around, he’s giving me the wolfish smirk. I’m embarrassed by how quickly my mind diverts back to the very thing I was distracting myself from.
Tired of being stiff as a board, I force myself to relax. I feel myself sliding closer, as the water stirs just a little with his adjusting movements.
He lifts his arms, putting them on the edge of the tub, as I start to sink again. The jets aren’t on, so it’s mostly quiet, sans the few sounds from the woods and winds.
My knees bend, bumping either side of his hips, as I float to a gradual stop, keeping myself just off his lap with the use of my knees on the bench.
His head tilts, and he gives me a lazy once over again, those predatory eyes sweeping back up to mine like he has all the confidence in the world.
It’s sort of intoxicating. I can’t help but wonder what that sort of self-assuredness feels like.
“Mom always tried to get me to stop practicing that. I picked safe places, just in case something went wrong. So far, so good. In the end, she worked it into my survival plan. It’s one of the few arguments I won.”
He just continues lazily shifting his gaze over my face, letting it dip on occasion. He keeps his arms leisurely lounged on the edge, so effortlessly relaxed, as if we’re this familiar.
My knees slip just a little, and I lower another inch or two. His pupils dilate, and then his lips tug up at one corner when I don’t lift myself back up, barely keeping myself from being pressed against his lap.
“It feels freeing to just talk about it, doesn’t it?” he asks with just enough understanding to help me feel much too comfortable.
My eyes hold his as my knees slip again, dropping me lightly to his lap. His eyes get more predatory, as his smile darkens, showing me a hint of the wolf beneath the surface. And a hint of canine teeth too.
Or maybe it’s because of the moon’s pull and not the fact I have clearly got some self-control issues these days.
“It feels freeing just to have someone know and mostly understand,” I agree, trying to clear the nervousness from my throat.
His arms slowly move into the water, gently circling me, before his hands land on my hips.
He abruptly, and without warning, jerks me forward, and my hands fly to his shoulders to steady myself. My body slides over him in a firm, body-awakening glide that shreds every single reservation I had left.
Thinking is hard stuff right now, since I’m pressed right up against me is his very hard, very noticeable, very erect cock.
I’m not really sure there’s a more eloquent way to put it, because thinking truly is insanely impossible.
I work damn hard to pretend I’m not some novice to casual intimacy.
His gaze runs over my face again, almost as though he’s studying me. “As much as I’d love to make the move that seems enticingly welcome, the moon makes me a far too aggressive man right now,” he tells me.
Am…I supposed to feel rejected? Again?
The perfect line pops into my head.
“You said fuck or fight. I messed up your fight,” I decide to point out, feeling stupid and regretting the words that would have sounded better from someone like Shera, or Anna, or the omegas even.
Practically anyone but me could have sounded sexy saying that line. Awesome. I hope I’m not cringing as much on the outside as I am on the inside.
A deep, somewhat alarming, feral growl vibrates his chest, jarring me from my own inner tangent. He abruptly pulls me closer, one of his hands sliding down to my ass.
I know my body is already boiling in hot water and all, but it feels like fire burns through my veins with that touch. Emit doesn’t just touch a girl. He apparently possesses them when they’re in his arms.
I…had no idea I was so into that.
“Wolves are resilient. I’m not sure about you,” he says as though he’s explaining the rejection.
I do not try to come up with anymore sexy talk. I’m not just bad at being a gypsy. I’m bad at being a woman too, it seems.
“Probably for the best,” I say on a somewhat shaky breath. “I seem to lose friends when we have sex. As a personal rule, I’m not supposed to attempt it anymore.”
His gaze lingers on my lips, and I know who kisses who first.
It’s me who kisses him, because I’m apparently a very weak person.
AJR’s Weak starts playing in my head like my mind is reasoning that it’s perfectly okay to be doing this.
His lips don’t move, which makes me feel really stupid, so I quickly pull back and just sort of awkwardly stare at him.
His expressionless gaze unchanging, he roughly pushes one hand into my wet hair, his thumb stroking my cheek as he stares directly into my eyes.
The warm water laps at my waist, making me painfully aware of the chill above the waist. But nowhere nearly as painfully aware as I am of how very hard he definitely is…under me.
His other hand smooths up my back, dragging warmth over my chilled skin. It just adds one more layer of seriously unsated—
“You’re entirely too tempting,” he murmurs just before his lips are on mine.
Gone is the hesitation in his movements, and when he kisses me, it feels like I’m being enveloped and encompassed. His arms go around me, and he invades every ounce of space I have left, as he pulls me right up against him.
“Did Damien lose control?” he asks against my lips.
As certainly as I feel my heartbeat hammering against my chest, I can feel him holding back and desperately wanting to let go.
“Yes,” I whisper quietly, unsure why he’s bringing Damien up right this second.
“Then I won’t fucking hurt you if he didn’t,” he says before the kiss turns consuming.
I’ve never felt like I was under someone’s complete control before in a physical manner.
But Emit moves me, holds me, and surrounds me in a way that makes me realize just how powerful he really is. A shudder sneaks through me, as my fingers tangle in his hair, and I kiss him harder.
He tears away the strings of my top, and I feel it tugged away before my bare breasts press against his chest. It’s a heady rush, feeling his impatience matching my own—a stark contrast to Damien.
He tears the bottoms away with the same impatience, and I feel him lifting me out of the water. My arms tighten around his neck as gravity sinks in, making me certain I’m twice as heavy as normal by the time I emerge, but he doesn’t falter.
My back lands against a towel, and he comes down on top of me, his lips never leaving mine. With controlled strength that only makes me want him more, he grabs my legs and shoves them farther apart, before working his way farther between them.