Wheeler (Seattle Sharks 8)

She was just as frantic, and I heard the sound of rending stitches as buttons flew from my shirt.

The key hit the floor. My shirt landed on top of it. Her shorts and panties were next. My pants and boxers joined them.

I’d never been so desperate to join my body with another’s.

I needed her more than oxygen, more than sustenance. She was the very blood in my veins, the beat of my fucking heart. There was no me without her.

Palming her ass, I lifted her easily, laying her down on the table. Then I feasted on her, using my lips, my tongue, my hands to work her body to a fever pitch. I sucked at her nipples then tested them with my teeth until she writhed under me.

“You’re so fucking beautiful.” My voice was rough with lust and need as I ran my hands down the curve of her waist to the swell of her hips. “So perfectly made.”

“Made for you,” she groaned as I kissed her belly.

“Made for me,” I agreed.

She was mine. Maybe I had to fight for every inch, every declaration, every admission that she was falling, but eventually, she’d trust me enough—trust herself enough—to just let go.

“Lukas!” she cried out as my fingers found her soaked and ready for me.

Her hips arched and bucked as I stroked her, keeping her balanced on the edge, but not giving her enough to send her toppling over the edge. I wanted her there, desperate and hungry for me, knowing that I was the only man who could give her this, who knew exactly how to play her body until she forgot what was proper and simply felt.

“Stop teasing me!” she ordered.

And there it was.

“What do you want?” I asked, rubbing my finger along her seam without slipping inside.

“You!” Her hips bucked as she chased my caress. “Lukas, I want you. Please, I need you.”

She reached for me, and I captured her wrists before she could make contact.

The thing about driving her to the edge was that I took myself there, too.

“Hard or soft, Faith? Fast or slow?”

“Lukas,” she pled.

“Tell me, baby. I’m yours to command, but you have to tell me.” I groaned at the sight of her stretched out before me, her thighs spread, her breasts heaving, her little whimpers of frustration filling my ears.

“Hard,” she finally admitted. “Deep. I want to feel you everywhere.”

Her request snapped my control like a twig. I leaned over and kissed her deeply, showing her exactly what her declaration did to me.

She bit down on my lower lip just enough to catch my attention. “Hard, Lukas,” she repeated.

I gripped her hips and flipped her onto her belly, then yanked her back so her hips rested at the edge of the table.

Her thighs quivered as I spread her wide and guided my cock to her entrance. She was slippery with need, and just the sight of her arching back for me had me counting to three to keep myself from coming.

I brought my chest over her back and whispered, “I love you.” Then I drove into her in one smooth thrust, until she sheathed me to the base.

She cried out and rocked back to take more.

“Faith,” I moaned as she squeezed me tight.

Then I fucked her hard, just like she’d asked. My fingers dug into her thighs, both holding her still and absorbing any of the impact as I slammed home again and again.

Home. That’s what she was. That’s what we were together.

Harder. Longer. Deeper. I pumped into her at the angle I knew would send her spiraling, and let out a grunt of male satisfaction when she came under me with a loud cry, her pussy clamping down on me like a vise.

I held on, pumping her through her orgasm. Once she was limp and sated, I withdrew and flipped her again, lifting her to sit at the edge of the table.

Her arms linked around my neck as her ankles locked around my back.

I pushed inside her again, letting the feel of her consume me, holding her hips so hard I worried I might leave marks.

Then I took her back up with me, stroking her clit with my thumb as I surged inside her, deep and hard, our eyes locked the entire time. Over and over I took her until the pleasure knotted my muscles and tightened my balls.

Faith’s legs became a steel embrace, and I pressed down on her clit, rocketing her into another orgasm. Her nails bit into my neck.

“I love you!” she gasped as she came down.

I came instantly, releasing into her with no barriers. There was nothing between us, and never would be again.

She held me when my knees nearly buckled from the intensity of my orgasm, and I stood there, my face pressed against her neck until my breathing calmed.

“Say it again.”

She stroked my hair. “I love you, Lukas. I really, honestly do.”

I lifted my head so I could look at her, so my eyes could verify what my ears heard.

“I love you,” she repeated, happiness and satisfaction evident in every line of her body. No fear. No questions. She’d accepted this, accepted us.

“I love you,” I told her with a soft kiss.

“Lukas?” she asked.

“Faith?”

“This means I can label you as my live-in boyfriend.” Her grin was fucking contagious.

“For now,” I agreed. Because one day, we’d have it all.

Chapter 18

Faith

LV: You’re taking a long time on purpose

LV: I know you don’t have that much stuff

I bit my lip to keep my goofy grin in check. I glanced around my room, half the boxes already loaded downstairs in my car.

ME: Are you worried I’m going to back out?

I teased, knowing—after we’d admitted we loved each other—that there was nothing secret between us anymore. I was his and he was mine, and I couldn’t believe I was moving in with him. Couldn’t believe I was allowed to be this happy.

LV: I’d be a fool not to

LV: I’m but a peasant, groveling at the feet of my queen

My toes curled in my shoes, heat flushing over my skin. The game we played, the way we teased each other about being royalty, it had turned into me actually feeling like a goddess. That was all Lukas though. He had this way of shaping the world in a fantastical, almost supernatural way.

Or was that just what real love does to a person?

ME: I do enjoy it when you bend the knee

LV: Get over here and I’ll be glad to do just that

I could see it, almost feel him between my thighs, that wolfish grin shaping his lips as he worked me into a frenzy—

“This the last one?” Sawyer’s voice yanked me out of the fantasy so hard I jolted and dropped my phone. His eyebrows rose as he chuckled. “Dude, I don’t even want to know what you two were just texting about.” He shook his head, grabbed the final box in my room, and carried it downstairs.

I scooped up my cell, grabbed my laptop bag, and hurried after him.

“You seriously are the best,” I said, totally ignoring how he’d been able to see the lust on my face. “I appreciate the help.”

He closed the backseat door, opening his arms. “I’d do anything for you,” he said. “I owe you about a lifetime worth of favors after what you did for me.”

I shook my head, hugging his middle. “You owe me nothing,” I said. “We’re friends. I wanted to help you.”

“You did. I won’t ever be able to thank you enough.” He patted my back then let me go. “You sure you don’t want me to ride with you? I can help you unload.”

I smiled. “Thanks, but Lukas will be there.”

Sawyer scrunched up his face, shaking his head.

“Omigod, stop,” I laughed.

“What’s he doing now?” Harper asked, rushing out the door with a wooden spoon in her hand.

“She’s the one,” Sawyer said, pointing at me. “Implying all the stuff she’s going to do with Lukas.”

“I did not!” I gaped at him.

Harper’s eyes brightened. ?

??I’m starved for details. I have to live vicariously through you since the love of my life is currently my research. Eons and eons of research.”

Sawyer’s hands flew to his ears, and he started humming.

I rolled my eyes at the pair. “You two are impossible.”

“What?” he yelled. “You’re like my sister! It’s gross.”

Harper laughed, and I eyed her, knowing that she hung out with Noble almost the entire the time we were in Sweden, but she’d never mentioned anything about it. Not one single detail. Did she even notice how attractive he was? How considerate? Or was her research and genius-level aspirations too overpowering for her to see any of that stuff?

She eyed me right back, then shoved the spoon toward me. “Don’t forget this!”

I glanced from the spoon to her and back again.

Then I threw my arms around her, my throat closing to hold back the tears.

“Oh, this is ridiculous,” she said, her tone pinched as she squeezed me. “We’ll still hang out. Have classes. Dinners.”