“We can talk about it.” He sighed and came to sit beside her. “But it’s not as easy as you seem to think.”
“I don’t know anything about it,” Sadie admitted, turning to face him. “I just thought it might be a way for me to walk around town without inciting a riot.”
“It could be.” He nodded thoughtfully. “But you should know what’s involved before you ask me to do it to you.”
Sadie bit her lip. “So . . . it’s something you have to do to me?”
He raised an eyebrow at her.
“Hell yes, sweetheart. I can’t just wave a magic wand and make all that incredible Juvie scent go away.”
“Well then . . . how?” Sadie shook her head. “Do you, uh, have to rub against me or what?” She could feel her cheeks get hot as she asked but she kept her chin up, determined to find a solution to her problem. “I mean, because we already, um, did that—at least some,” she added.
Mathis rubbed the back of his neck.
“Yeah, but we’d have to do a hell of a lot more than that to cover that sweet scent of yours. Let me try to explain—Shifters have scent glands, just like their animals, that they use to mark their territory. Your problem is that right now you don’t have any male’s scent on you, marking you. That makes you smell like fair game to any random male that’s out there.”
“I figured it was something like that,” Sadie said dryly. “So what do you need to do to cover me with your scent? Rub your cheek against my skin, like a cat or something?”
He barked a short laugh.
“Let’s get one thing straight—I am not a Cat. And second, you have to understand where that incredible scent of yours is coming from.” He nodded at the hem of the white T-shirt, which had shifted up to show most of her thighs. “It’s coming from your pussy, Sadie,” he rumbled, his eyes half lidded in the firelight. “That sweet, hot scent that says you need a male inside you, that you need to be bred, is coming straight from between your legs.”
“Oh.” Sadie pressed her thighs together, feeling a surge of desire and embarrassment at the same time. “I didn’t know,” she said in a small voice. “I mean, I guess I should have realized but . . .”
“It’s okay.” Mathis stroked her thigh lightly, making her shiver. “I know you didn’t know. Anyway, male Shifters have scent glands as I said—two sets. Around the groin area . . .” He nodded at his lap where, Sadie could see, he was hard again. “And around the mouth.”
“You do?” She looked at him uncertainly.
Mathis nodded. “Uh-huh. In order to cover your scent with mine, I need to rub against you with one of those two areas.”
“But . . .” Sadie cleared her throat. “Outside, didn’t you already . . .”
“Not nearly enough,” he growled, frowning. “And I don’t think that’s the way to go this time. I came . . .” He cleared his throat. “Came damn close to taking you out there, Sadie—bonding you to me. Or trying to, anyway. I don’t trust myself to rub against you that way again. Not with my rut coming on so strong.”
“I understand,” Sadie said faintly. “So then, I guess that’s it—I’ll just have to try to find a way to work from home or—”
“There is another way.” His eyes were drowning deep in the firelight. “I told you we have scent glands around our mouths too.”
“So you want to . . .” Sadie bit her lip, too embarrassed to continue.
“Want to taste you?” Mathis finished for her, his voice a soft growl. “Want to rub my mouth against you and spread your sweet pussy to get my scent deep inside you? Hell yes, sweetheart.”
“Um . . .” Sadie looked down at her hands. This was another thing her ex had been unwilling to do. Really, his sex game had been embarrassingly lacking. It left Sadie feeling completely unprepared for, well, almost anything. But especially this. “What about . . . your promise to yourself?” she asked at last. “I mean, I don’t want to make you feel guilty.”
“I promised myself not to take another mate,” he said, speaking slowly, as though he was thinking it out himself. “But I also asked you into my home and made myself responsible for protecting you. Which means making sure you’re safe here . . . or when you go into town. Marking you isn’t mating you but it should keep you safe.” He stroked her cheek gently with his fingertips. “That’s important to me, Sadie. Damn important.”
“So . . . protecting me? That’s the only reason you want to . . . to do this?” she asked, frowning.
“No. Hell no.” She could see the heat reflected in his eyes when he met hers, holding her gaze. “Sadie,” he said in a low voice. “I want to taste you . . . want to put my tongue deep in your sweet little pussy and feel you coming all over my face. I have to be honest—I’ve wanted that from the first minute I saw you.”
“And that’s . . .” She took a deep breath, feeling her heart pound. “That’s the only way to, uh, cover my scent?”
Slowly, he nodded. “The only safe way, anyway. Do you want me to do it?”
Did she? Sadie felt as though her heart was pounding in every part of her body at once. Once more the need in her was growing—the feeling that she was empty inside—that she needed to be filled. Bred. Mathis wouldn’t do that tonight—he’d promised he wouldn’t. But this would be close enough.
“Yes,” she whispered. “If . . . if you really want to.”
“I do.” He was already on his knees before her. His voice was hoarse with longing. “So much, Sadie.”
“All right.” She still felt embarrassed and shy, especially since she’d never done this before, but the need inside her kept growing, kept urging her to do more and dare more. The new Sadie wanted this and she wasn’t about to say no. Biting her lip, Sadie allowed him to spread her thighs.
At first Mathis just stared at her.
“God, you’re beautiful,” he murmured, examining her by the firelight. “Such a soft, sweet little pussy. And already so wet.”
Sadie shifted on the couch, feeling an embarrassed sort of pleasure.
“I . . . I can’t help it,” she whispered. “When you’re near me I feel . . .”
“I feel it too.” He looked up at her. “And I don’t want you to help it. I love how wet you are, sweetheart. It’s fucking gorgeous. And your scent . . .” He leaned forward and pressed his mouth and nose to her pussy mound, inhaling deeply before he pulled back, his eyes filled with need. “God, I could breathe you in all night.”
Sadie wiggled again. “Just so you know, I’ve never, uh . . . I mean my ex never wanted to . . .”
“Never wanted to taste you?” Mathis looked up from between her thighs, an expression of disbelief on his face. “What kind of an idiot was he, anyway?”
Sadie laughed breathlessly.
“The kind I don’t want to talk about right now. I just wanted you to know this is kind of . . . kind of new to me.”
“Then I’ll be gentle . . . and we’ll take things slow.” He looked at her seriously. “Just so you know, I won’t just be rubbing against you—I’ll be using my tongue and fingers to get my scent all over you . . . and deep inside you too.”
Sadie remembered the feeling of his long, strong fingers thrusting into her and shivered.
“Yes,” she whispered. “All right. I . . . I don’t mind. In fact . . . I want you to.”
“Good.” His eyes were hungry in the firelight. “Because I’m going to do a very, very thorough job, Sadie.”
“I understa—” she began but the word ended in a moan when Mathis leaned down and licked a long, slow trail from the bottom of her well up to the very top of her mound.
Sadie’s hips bucked when she felt his hot tongue drag over her sensitive clit. God, that felt amazing. She was glad she’d shaved recently—there was only a little tuft of curls at the top of her mound—which made her extra sensitive to the sensation of his hot, wet tongue against her.
“God, sweetheart, you taste as good as you smell,” Mathis groaned, kneading her inner thighs with his big, war
m hands. “I could come just from fucking tasting you.”
Then he dived back in, lapping in long, slow strokes until Sadie felt she was going to go crazy. Especially since after that first teasing lick, he was mostly lapping along the outside of her sex. He paid extra attention to the places where her thighs met her body—that tender crease that was just on the edge of being too ticklish. Sadie jumped and gasped when he licked her there. Mathis also seemed to enjoy sucking the outer lips of her sex gently into his hot mouth and then slowly letting them go as he nuzzled against her. The indirect stimulation made her clit throb and she could feel herself getting wetter and wetter, her honey leaking from between her legs to coat her thighs and Mathis’s mouth.
Every once in a while when he licked right along her slit she could feel his hot tongue where she needed him most—just barely skimming over the swollen button at her center—but it wasn’t nearly often enough to take her where she needed to go.
She didn’t know if he was doing it on purpose to drive her crazy or just trying to spread his scent to her outer areas first but Sadie thought she might lose it if he didn’t lick her deeper soon. She was aching for him—so hot and sensitive she felt like she could come from just a touch—if she was touched in the right place, that was.
“Mathis!” she moaned, writhing restlessly on the couch. “God, please! You’re driving me crazy.”
He looked up at her, his mouth wet and shiny with her juices. “You ready for me to go in now, sweetheart? Ready to let me open you wide and spread my scent deep inside you?”
“Yes!” Sadie begged shamelessly. “God, yes, please.”
He gave her a hungry smile. “All right. I was tryin’ to go slow but if you want to speed things up . . .”
“Yes!” To her own surprise, Sadie got bold. Grabbing a handful of his thick, black hair, she urged him forward.
Mathis’s eyes widened and then went half lidded with need again.
“That’s right, sweetheart—guide me. Show me where you need me,” he rumbled.
“Here.” Sadie guided him down and pressed her sex up to meet his hot mouth. “Right here, please.”
With a low growl, Mathis spread her pussy with his thumbs and began to lick and suck in earnest, lapping away her juices eagerly and circling her clit with his tongue until Sadie thought she might die from pleasure.
She’d never felt anything like this before and it was so good she couldn’t believe she’d lived half her life before experiencing it. She leaned back against the leather couch cushions, gripping handfuls of his thick black hair and pressing her hips shamelessly up to meet his mouth. Low, broken sounds were coming from her throat and she couldn’t stop them—didn’t want to stop them. All she wanted to do was keep feeling this pleasure forever.
Mathis made low, rumbling sounds in his throat as he ate her. The sounds of a male in rut marking the female he wants, Sadie thought deliriously. And it’s me—he wants me. There was no denying she wanted him too—wanted him badly. Her whole body ached for his, her back arching up to meet him, her pussy opening like a flower as he bathed her slippery sex with long, hot laps of his tongue.
Grasping his hair, Sadie rubbed against him, guiding him, using him the way she needed to in order to reach the peak. Judging from his reaction, the big Shifter seemed to love it. He growled softly and allowed himself to be used, holding his tongue flat against her spread pussy to allow Sadie to rub against him just the way she needed. Before she knew it, Sadie had her thighs locked around his head and was thrusting her hips in time to her own private rhythm as she rode his tongue in the exact way she needed to.
Suddenly the sound of his pleasure and the heat of his tongue bathing her sensitive clit were too much. Sadie felt herself climbing the peak for the second time that night. Unable to stop herself, she grabbed Mathis’s head in both hands and urged him forward, directing him to that one perfect spot.
“Please!” she begged. “Right there—right there.”
The big Shifter responded by taking back the control he had ceded to her. Wrapping his muscular arms around her thighs, he parted them, spreading her wide to make her open and vulnerable to his seeking tongue. Sadie moaned his name, her hands still buried in his hair as he lapped at her open pussy. There was no more directing him now—he knew exactly what she needed and he was clearly intent on giving it to her. With another low, ruthless growl, he latched on to her pussy and sucked her swollen clit into his mouth, lashing it ruthlessly with his tongue.
Finally her orgasm hit with the shattering force of a tidal wave rushing over her. Sadie cried out, her entire body trembling and shaking, stars and explosions of white light flashing before her eyes.
She cried out his name, bucking helplessly against his mouth. “Right there—please, don’t stop. Please.”
The big Shifter didn’t stop. He continued to lap and suck, teasing and tormenting her throbbing button until Sadie was half out of her mind with pleasure. At the same time, he pressed two fingers inside her pussy, as he had done earlier. As he thrust deep inside her and teased her swollen clit with the tip of his tongue, Sadie felt herself coming for a third time. She couldn’t help it—nor did she want to. It just felt too good, too right.
Perfect, she couldn’t help thinking as her back arched and her body shook. This is perfect—we’re perfect together.
Which was completely irrational but at that moment, she didn’t care. All Sadie knew was that it felt right to be with the big Shifter this way—so right that she never wanted it to end.
Mathis lost track of how many times she came. Her sweet scent overwhelmed him and he let it—welcomed it. The taste of her pussy—wet and hot and spread just for him . . . the feeling of her small, strong hands buried in his hair, tugging him forward, urging him onward, and the sound of her moans as she cried his name all blended together making him need her so badly he could barely think straight.
Claim her, his Buck was urging him. Claim her—make her yours.
No—his promise. He’d made himself a promise and he couldn’t break it.
But it wasn’t just the promise that held him back. His kind of Shifter mated for life and if an Irish Elk lost his mate, he was unable to take another. He wouldn’t be able to form a proper life-bond with Sadie. And if he tried to tie her to him and was unsuccessful, the failed attempt at bonding might turn her into one of the Unformed—a fate considered worse than death by many of his own kind. If he cared for her at all, he couldn’t take that risk.
He clung tightly to that knowledge—it and his Alpha strength were all that kept him from replacing his tongue with his cock and breeding the little Juvie long and hard and deep, which was clearly what she desperately needed.
The pressure built and built until he might have given in to his animal urges except that somewhere around Sadie’s third or fourth orgasm, Mathis came too. The sound of her moaning his name was what did it—that and the sweet, salty taste of her sex as her clit throbbed against his tongue. It was all too much and he felt himself release—an explosive easing of the building tension that left him both relieved and somehow still unsatisfied. Mathis knew why—it wasn’t the way he wanted to come, which was buried inside her to the hilt and making her his. Still, it eased the relentless pressure. Afterward, he began to feel more in control of himself, less worried that he might snap and breed her after all, giving in to the endless demands of the rut.
At last, when Sadie stopped pulling him forward and started to shy away from even the gentlest touch of his tongue, he knew she’d had enough. Pulling back, he looked up at her, studying her face in the firelight.
Her brown eyes were huge and starry and her long, silky hair was wild around her face. Her cheeks were flushed and she shifted on the couch and made a soft little sound of contentment as though she’d finally gotten what she needed.
“Oh, Mathis . . .” she whispered, her voice slightly hoarse from all the begging and crying she’d been doing. “That was . . . I’ve never felt anything like that befo
re. Ever.”
“I’m glad you liked it.” His own voice was hoarse too, the animal side of him bleeding through because his Buck wanted her so badly. “I liked it too—fucking loved it. Thank you for letting me taste you, sweetheart.”
“You’re thanking me?” She gave an incredulous little laugh. “After all that? God, it was incredible.”
“You’re incredible,” Mathis murmured, really meaning it. He hadn’t known Sadie Becker long but that didn’t matter—a part of him seemed to have known her forever. In that moment he felt connected to her in a way he never had to any other woman.
Except Kathleen, whispered a little voice in his brain. Mathis shifted uneasily. Well, yes, except to his mate. The only mate he had ever been able to bond. And it was time to remember that and go get himself cleaned up and ready for bed.
“I’d better let you get some sleep,” he told Sadie, standing reluctantly, though he would have happily spent the rest of the night between her thighs. “You can have the bed—I’ll take the couch.”
“Wait . . .” He’d been turning to go get some sheets and pillows for the couch but she stopped him with one small, soft hand on his arm.
“Yeah?” Mathis turned back to look at her once more and saw a vast ocean of longing in her dark brown eyes.
“Please, can’t we . . . couldn’t we sleep together?” she asked pleadingly. “We don’t have to do anything, you know, sexual. But I’d really like to be close to you tonight.” She bit her lip and looked away. “God, that sounds needy. It didn’t sound that bad in my head.”
“It’s not needy, or if it is, it’s all right.” Mathis sighed. “I’d like to sleep with you in my arms, too. And, well . . .” He frowned, thinking about it. “It would help with your scent. I mean, having that much contact with me would cover it even more.”
“It would? Then we should do it—shouldn’t we?” Her eyes were bright with longing and he couldn’t deny her any longer.
“Yes, we fucking should,” he growled. Leaning down, he swooped her up off the couch.