I shaped my lips into a wicked smile, arching a brow up at my mate. Warmth flooded my core, a churning desire I knew he could feel down the bond. “Or what?” I teased.
His eyes guttered, that gentle pressure at my throat not budging an inch toward pain. “You are reckless with that precious life of yours,” he said, his voice low, gravely. “Challenging the king of vampires isn’t something many do so lightly.”
Another warm shiver danced along my skin, his hard cock just grazing my thigh he stood so close. Steam wafted around us, kissing our bare skin as my self-control fractured. I reached between us and gripped his hard length. “My king,” I said, pumping him. He hissed, the water from the shower making my hand warm and slick for him. “My mate,” I whispered, adding my other hand and gripping him harder. He thrust his hips, sliding between my hands. “Who better to challenge you?”
He growled again, his eyes flaring wide as they locked with mine. “Lyric,” he said, baring his fangs.
I went wholly liquid at the sound, at the display.
He jerked me upward, that hand at my throat propelling me toward him until his lips crashed onto mine. I didn’t falter, didn’t lose my grip on him, and he groaned as his tongue met mine. Water rolled down our skin, slicking our bodies as we glided together.
I carefully teased my tongue over his fangs, his bottom lip, nipping at him with my own show of power. He hissed against my mouth, moving his hand to cup my face. Such gentleness, such careful calculations when it came to touching me.
Because he was terrified he’d break me.
I jerked my head back, just enough to catch his gaze. Releasing him, I shoved my hands against his rock-hard chest. Surprise lit his eyes, but he moved. Not because I had any real strength, but because I wanted him to.
I narrowed my gaze on him as I shoved him again and again until the backs of his muscular calves hit the slick stone bench across the shower. He sank atop it, eyes locked on mine as finally we were on the same level. Eye to eye, nose to nose, the peaked tips of my breasts brushing against his chest.
“You wouldn’t have to be so gentle with me,” I said, stepping out of his touch. “If you’d turn me.” I dropped to my knees before him, and he growled in response.
“Lyric,” he warned.
I smoothed my hand over his strong thighs, digging my fingers into his flesh with just the right bite of pain to make him hiss. “Alek,” I echoed his tone and let him see the burning need and love in my gaze as I lowered my head between his thighs.
“You—”
I wrapped my lips around his hard cock, cutting off whatever argument he’d been about to make.
“Fuck!” He hissed as I took him deeper into my mouth. God, he tasted amazing, all heat and power in my mouth. I shot a glance up to him as I rocked my mouth back and forth, drawing back enough to have him slip out with a satisfying pop. A tremor rolled through his body as I gripped him, spiraling my hands up and down his hard shaft, teasing his head with soft kisses, quick flicks of my tongue, and light grazes of my teeth. Alek arched his head back, writhing beneath my torturous teasing.
Damn, I could do this all day. Working him up, coiling him into a tight spring ready to pop. Just like he did to me by simply existing.
“Lyric,” he groaned, driving his hips up, trying to claim my mouth. I smiled up at him, teasing him some more, never fully taking him in.
I trailed the tip of my tongue along the length of him, swirling my tongue around his head. “Turn me,” I breathed against him.
“No.”
I sucked on his head, pumping his shaft. “Change me.”
“Fuck,” he hissed, lifting his hips. I drew my mouth back, smirking up at him.
“Let me taste you,” I said, my heart pounding against my chest. I turned my head and bit at his inner thigh, the way he’d done to me so many times, only I didn’t come close to breaking his skin. Just more torture for him, by the tenseness in his muscles.
“I’m not controlled by my dick,” he said, all growly. “You can’t sway me—”
I took him fully into my mouth.
As deep and fast as I could.
I moaned around his considerable length, my blood flaring to life at the way he filled me here. I rocked back and forth, taking him in so much my eyes watered. But I loved it, loved the way he writhed beneath me, loved the way his fingers tightened in the wet strands of my hair. Loved the way he tensed with each stroke, each suck.