“Yes,” she gasped, his powerful pulsations inside of her almost enough to make her orgasm. Almost. Almost. “I won’t.”
“Listen good, baby. You’re going to walk out of here with me shining up the insides of your thighs.” His fist pounded the wall. “You’re going to wear me all fucking night.”
She had to grit her teeth through a spasm of pleasure. “You too.”
His laughter was more like a growl. “Better come then, baby.” He bent his knees and thrust upward, forcefully, covering her mouth with his own to muffle her scream. “Better come hard and put your claim on me. I’m damn well going to put mine inside you. Deep as I can. Every time I get between these gorgeous fucking thighs.”
A shudder wracked her, jolting her back into an arch. “Oh my God.”
Elias was an animal from that point on, and she became one, too, digging her claws into his neck, grinding her sex into his merciless thrusts, biting his grunting mouth and pulling his hair. She couldn’t even remember why they’d ended up in the dressing room or why she’d been angry in the first place—and that was his obvious goal. There was only him and the impatient, relentless filling of her body. There was only his tongue and lips sucking at the slopes of her breasts and his biting grip on her ass. They reached the point of no return and Elias looked into her eyes, his own glowing like lit coals, his fangs visibly throbbing in his mouth.
He tilted his hips, sliding his shaft roughly against her clit. The muscles of her stomach wrenched, melted, wrenched and she started to struggle between her vampire and the wall. Oh no, no, no. The release was going to be too intense, too great. She couldn’t shatter so thoroughly with him looking her in the eye like this, could she? She couldn’t avoid it, either. Her thighs were starting to shake wildly, her core clenching around him and he wouldn’t let up on that illicit stroking of her pleasure source. “Elias!”
“This is your punishment for being jealous. For doubting me.” He rubbed her clit faster with the thick trunk of his erection, pressing tighter, grinding his hips until she was screaming through her teeth, batting at his shoulders with the heels of her hands. “Bad, bad girl. Questioning your mate’s loyalty when he would kill and steal and die for you. Never do it again. Come hard so I know you’ve learned your lesson.”
It was already upon her, the glorious pain. She clenched involuntarily until he made a sound of discomfort, sensual excitement slackening his features, then the storm barreled through her, ripping through her head to toe, flexing her muscles until they were unnaturally taut, her throat burning with the need to scream. But she couldn’t. Couldn’t do anything but accept the blow of the all-encompassing climax. It rode roughshod through her, biting her with razor-sharp teeth and leaving marks that would never fade.
And when Elias buried his fangs in her neck, his hunger propelled her higher. She threw herself into the eye of the storm and let it batter her.
Elias followed, undergoing his own perfect torment, his desire forming a hot pool inside her body, his hips moving in a broken pattern, his gratified male moans filling her ears. When she became aware of their surroundings again, she was boneless between Elias and the wall, her lungs struggling to fill themselves while he kissed her temple.
“My love is solid. It doesn’t bend,” he said fervently. “Don’t forget again.”
Roksana could only manage a nod, her heart doing flips in her chest.
Dazedly, she let Elias fix her dress with three efficient moves and thread their fingers together, leading her from the dressing room. When they walked past the gaping clerk, she couldn’t even summon an ounce of smugness.
Jealousy 0.
Elias 1.
And in just one round, the competition was forever over.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Elias walked a few paces behind Roksana, satisfaction burning deep in his gut.
If she didn’t know he was all about her before, she goddamn well knew it now.
She swaggered down the alleyway like princess of the world, the pleated flap of her skirt swinging with every sway of her hips to slap the tight underside of her ass, her long hair in sexy disarray down the center of her back. Her outward strength had always filled him with an odd sense of pride, but after being witness to so many of her vulnerable moments, he recognized her signature swagger as something more. It was bravery in the face of the unknown. A dare to test her. And the fact that she knew uncertainty and pain only made her confidence more impressive.
Putting one foot in front of the other was becoming more of a challenge because each moment that passed, his mate, this phenom, introduced him to a new emotion that he had to put on his back and carry. The anguish, regret, jealousy and lust he’d always felt for Roksana had been joined by admiration, understanding, love so thick he couldn’t cut to the middle.