Lucien made a choking sound, and before she knew it, she was being pulled into a tight hug, his huge arms enveloping her so that her face was pressed against his throat. Without thinking, she wrapped her own small arms around his back. His skin was hot, and as she brushed her cheek across it, she inhaled his comforting scent of storm and damp earth. The feel of him was like silk over steel, and for the first time since she’d learned of his deceit, she felt truly safe with him again.
“We’ll get her back,” he whispered into her hair. “We will get her back. I won’t let him hurt you. I won’t let him have you.”
Caia drew back to look up into his face. He wouldn’t release her, though.
“Lucien?” she whispered, drinking in the pain in his eyes, wishing she could soothe it somehow. “I—”
Before she could tell him she forgave him for keeping her heritage a secret, his mouth was on hers. It was as though he were kissing the life out of her, as if he could steal her very essence into himself.
And she wanted him to.
Caia gasped against his mouth as his hand slid up her waist and grazed her breast. She was rewarded with a guttural moan from him that reverberated throughout her entire body. So involved was she in his heated kiss, so desperate to forget the pain of the last few weeks and find that sense of peace she’d felt with the pack before learning the truth, Caia was surprised to find herself on her back and Lucien braced above her. The shock lasted all of two seconds, his lips burning everything from her mind as he trailed tingling kisses down her neck and chest. She shivered as his work-roughened hand slid up her thigh and onto the bare skin of her stomach. Then both his hands were there, pulling her camisole up and over her head.
She panted under him, her eyes wide as he stared back at her with such tenderness and lust, she thought she would shatter. And then his gaze traveled lower and she remembered she wasn’t wearing a bra. She should feel embarrassed, shouldn’t she? She shivered under his hot look, a whimper escaping her lips.
Smiling softly, his lips caught hers again and she clasped onto him, pressing her chest against his. He growled from the back of his throat and Caia erupted into flames. She could barely breathe her skin felt so hot, so tight.
“Caia,” he whispered into her ear before he bit her lobe. “Caia.” He repeated her name like a mantra, and it seemed so full of … love? She questioned it distantly and then forgot the thought and everything else as he cupped her breast. She gasped again and arched into him, and they were both lost as they explored each other, her touch, her kiss greedy for more.
A while later he whispered hoarsely, “Are you sure?”
For a moment she froze at the importance of what was about to happen. Could she be with him? Could she lose her virginity to Lucien? And if they did this, what did it mean for them? For the pack?
“Caia?”
His hand slid down to her hips and pressed her against him.
Oh my.
What had she been thinking again?
Did she care?
He did it again, his breathing heavier.
Insistent flames licked across her skin.
She nodded, incapable of forming actual words.
Lucien shrugged out of his jeans and pulled her PJ bottoms off. And when he returned to her, he held her gently as she wrapped her slim legs around his waist in instinct. He kissed her deeply, intoxicatingly, before pushing inside of her. A moment of pain dissipated into a blaze of heat that built and built, their gasps filling the night as she held on to him for dear life, unaware as she scored her nails across his back.
Marking him.
Eventually, the sweet tension he created inside her shattered into a million brilliant pieces.
He shuddered and collapsed on top of her, a heavy weight pressing her into the bed, his hot breath against her neck. After a moment, when she felt she might have to ask him to get up because she couldn’t breathe, he kissed her throat and rolled off, only to pull her across his chest, his hand grasping hers tightly.
“Caia,” he mumbled, sounding satisfied. She smiled almost smugly, and his eyes cracked open in time to catch the look. He chuckled and his grip on her hand tightened. “I’m sorry. I should’ve taken that a little slower, but …” Lucien laughed softly, as if disbelieving. “But I can honestly say I had no control over it.”
Caia was about to smile in understanding—it was exactly how she felt—but the smile was halted by a strange tingling sensation crawling up the hand he held. They both tensed.