By the time he finally stood before her again, she was trembling with want. And what did he do? Just stared at her breasts. Stared! It felt like an hour had passed before he reached out and trailed the tip of his index finger along her collarbone, pausing briefly to swirl it inside the hollow of her throat. His tongue traced that same path, and her head thumped back onto the tree as she tried arching toward him—and failed. Again, there was nothing seductive about his movements, but she was more turned on than she had ever been in her life.
She didn’t realize he’d dropped to his knees again until she felt his tongue at her navel.
Slowly, he dragged his tongue upward, occasionally nipping her flesh as he went, traveling through the valley of her breasts and only stopping when he reached the hollow of her throat. A tremor rippled through her entire body, causing her eyes to fall shut and a loud moan to escape her.
When she opened her eyes, he still wasn’t looking at her face, but at her breasts. She wanted him to look into her eyes, wanted some form of acknowledgement. “Untie me.” She gasped as he lazily and teasingly circled a nipple with his finger, never quite touching the hard bud itself. He gave the same treatment to the other nipple before replacing his finger with his tongue. Then he sucked her nipple into his mouth, grazing the hard bud with his teeth and biting down. “If you’re not going untie me, then at least make me come!”
The jerk didn’t react in any sense. Needing some kind of relief, Jaime wrapped a leg around his hips and ground her clit against the hard bulge in his jeans. There was no reaction from him whatsoever, as if he didn’t even notice. She was about to yell at him again when a finger suddenly slid between her folds, sending shudders of pleasure and relief through her body. That same finger lightly flicked her clit and circled it over and over, but the movements were too featherlike to make her come.
“Dante, why are you doing this?” she practically sobbed. He said nothing. Just slid his finger between her folds again, letting the tip hover near her entrance. “You want me to beg, is that it?” Still no reaction. Ever so slowly— too freaking slowly—he pushed his finger inside her. A noise that was something between a groan and a sob escaped her. Repeatedly, he slowly and gently thrust his finger inside her, pausing occasionally to swirl it around. God, she was so damn close to coming and so damn close to going insane. Her cries became louder as her climax began closing in on her. It was going to be a big one…But then he stopped and withdrew his finger. Stopped!
She was about to tell him she was going to rip his cock off in his sleep when he was back on his knees and his tongue was teasing her clit. “Oh my God.” Using his thumbs to part her folds, he licked and nipped and growled against her flesh. Then he was sucking her clit between his lips and nibbling on the hood. She cried out as two of those magical fingers pushed inside her. Her muscles automatically tightened around them, trying to keep them. The bastard withdrew them. “Stop teasing me!” It was supposed to be a scream, but it came out as a pathetic wail.
Then Dante proceeded to show her the real meaning of being teased. Again and again, he brought her to her peak with his tongue and fingers, only to stop and wait for her to come down from her high before starting all over again. Sometimes he would return his attention to her breasts instead, leaving her feeling emptier than she had ever felt in her life.
She sagged in relief when he finally lowered his zipper and freed his cock. The feel of the head rubbing at her entrance was so good that she almost cried. Panting with the need to come, she wrapped her other leg around his hip—an invitation. But instead of plunging inside her, he lowered her legs and began fondling her breasts again.
She screamed in frustration and struggled against her bonds, but it was useless. As if she wasn’t writhing, screaming, and insulting him, Dante continued to alternate from teasing her breasts to finger-fucking her to sinuously rubbing his cock between her folds. She moaned. She groaned. She whimpered. She sobbed. She cried. She threatened his livelihood. She even tried kicking the shit out of him again. After what felt like hours of sensual torture, she was practically delirious with the need to come. So delirious that she did what she’d never done before.
“Please!” Nothing. He simply continued to nibble on her shoulder while teasing her clit with the tip of his finger. She curled her legs around his hips again and groaned as she felt the head of his cock against her entrance. “Please fuck me!” Still no reaction. What made the whole thing so much worse was that he wouldn’t meet her eyes, wouldn’t even look at her face, wouldn’t talk to or respond to her. Like she was just any woman, like she was no one at all to him.
A mixture of enraged, hurt, horny, and restless, she completely snapped. “You don’t get to treat me like this! Like I’m just some faceless fuck! I’m not one of your one-night stands! I’m not one of your little sluts! I’m your mate!” He rammed every inch of his cock into her and, that easily, she fragmented. A throaty scream tore from her as flames of ecstasy lanced through her, making violent orgasmic convulsions rack her entire body.
When she opened her eyes, she gasped at the feverish hunger glowing on his face. How he hadn’t come was beyond her understanding. He really was the embodiment of self-control. Although he was meeting her gaze— finally— he still didn’t speak to her. She realized then what he’d been doing. Realized what he wanted. She didn’t want to give it to him, she really didn’t, but she couldn’t fight him, or this, either. She needed him so much in every way someone could need another person.
She had even before she knew he was her mate.
Suddenly feeling drained mentally and physically, Jaime sagged and her head fell forward to rest on his shoulder. She cried and cried, hating how weak and helpless she was. When she felt him kiss her hair, she returned her gaze to his. His expression was patient, expectant, and resolute. He wasn’t going to budge on this.
“I’m your mate.” She cried out as he rewardingly thrust once inside her. “Your mate,” she again admitted, and again he drove into her just once. She knew what he was waiting for. “And you’re mine.”
Triumph, relief, and satisfaction filled Dante. “Goddamn right. And don’t ever forget it.” Then he was gripping her ass and hammering his cock inside her. Taking her. Claiming her. Branding her.
Jaime thought she might black out; his pace was merciless and wild, and it felt so amazing and right that tears stung her eyes. Although the bark of the tree was biting into her skin, it only complemented the other sensations spiraling through her as every bit of the ravenous longing that had been riding her was now, finally, indulged.
“Tell me what you want, Jaime,” he ordered hoarsely. “Tell me.” The urge to claim her as his mate was pushing Dante so hard it was actually painful, but he wouldn’t do it without her consent.
Not just because it wouldn’t be fair to her, but because he needed to hear her say that she wanted it.
His stubborn mate didn’t. Abruptly he stilled, staring deep into her glazed smoky-blue eyes. Ignoring her sounds of irritation, he held her immobile and flexed his cock inside her, making her whimper.
“Do you want me to claim you?” he demanded.
A huge part of her was saying no, but it was drowned out by her need to have every part of him, to lay the ultimate, irrevocable claim on him. “Do it.” He withdrew until only the head of his cock was inside her. “Not good enough. I need to hear you say that you want it.”
A short pause. “I want it.”
Dante thrust up into her tight pussy, wrenching a loud cry from her. Then he was again ramming into her relentlessly, determined to leave no doubt in her mind of who she belonged to and would always belong to. Growling, he brought his mouth down hard on hers. He thrust his tongue inside, meeting hers, exploring every crevice of her mouth. The kiss was greedy, deep, and urgent, and she met every demanding stroke of his tongue with equal intensity.
As he’d expected, she jumped in surprise as he let one of his fingers gently circle the bud of her ass. “Shh. I’m not going to hurt you, baby.
You know that. But I am going to fuck this ass soon.
Fuck you where no one else ever has. Because it’s mine to fuck, to protect, and to blister with my hand if you ever deny I’m your mate again.”
Startling a cry from Jaime, he pushed his finger into her ass. The sting didn’t distract her from the hurt in his voice. She hadn’t meant or wanted to do that by denying him. On the contrary, she’d been trying to protect him from a very uncertain future. But still, she’d caused him pain, and she hated herself for that. “I’m sorry.”
The apology startled Dante so much that he actually stopped. “Then tell me you’re mine. Tell me you’ll never deny me again.”
His pain was still in his voice. Determined to take it away, Jaime did something that she, as a dominant female, would never have envisioned herself doing. She gave him her throat.
As her head fell back in invitation and submission, Dante groaned and almost came right then.
His mate was submitting to him in the ultimate way. “Such.” Thrust. “A.” Thrust. “Good.” Thrust.
“Girl.” With what could only be described as a territorial growl, he resumed pounding into her so hard he was pretty sure it was hurting her, but there was no way he could hold back even one ounce of himself.
Burying his face into the crook of her neck, he licked and scraped his teeth over the spot where he’d visualized his mark would be. “My good girl. My mate.” To punctuate that, he sank his teeth hard and deep into her skin, tasting blood, and plunged a second finger into her ass.
White-hot fire lanced through Jaime, and she screamed his name as the most intense and most moving orgasm she had ever experienced slammed into her. She succumbed to the primal urge to bite down on his neck, sucking hard and branding him as hers.
As her pussy clamped around his cock and her teeth marked him, Dante half growled, half groaned. He punched into her one last time and erupted inside her, fully claiming her as his mate.
“Mine.”
What happened next was as exactly as Jaime’s mother had described; her whole body tightened and a painful pressure thumped her brain, but the pain quickly disappeared and feelings of
“warmth” and “rightness” flowed over and through her. She felt comforted, secure, and safe. Although she could easily feel her connection to Dante, it was only partly developed and not yet solid. Still, she could sense him and what he was feeling. Could feel him on a preternatural level, feel him completely, as though he was blanketed around her. She knew that even when they were apart, she would feel him, would feel joined to him. In that way, the bond was a little like a shadow—something she wouldn’t be able to touch, but a presence that was always right there.
Dante easily sensed that Jaime was going through the same sensations that he was. The metaphysical bond allowed him to simply know what she was feeling. As such, he could sense her happiness and contentedness just as he could also sense her fear that by bonding with him, she would destroy him. “Do you really think I’d want to live without you anyway?” Jaime groaned. “Oh God, I’m going to have to cope with you sensing my feelings all the time, aren’t I?” Panting and shuddering with the aftershocks, they were still locked together. He tucked her hair behind her ear, his gentle touch so at odds to his roughness of a minute ago.
“Yup. That means no more secrets. And it means that whenever I’m messing up, I’ll know and I can fix it before hurting you.”
“And it means I’ll know whenever your mind is on your job instead of me.” She’d expected him to panic a little at that, but he smiled.
“I haven’t done that for a while.” Reluctantly he withdrew from her body, but he held her to him. After slicing through the two ropes securing her to the tree with his claws, he tackled the knot tying her wrists. She groaned in pain as she lowered her arms and rotated her shoulders. “I’m sorry, baby.” Laying her on the grass, he straddled her and gently massaged her arms and shoulders.
“I can’t give you all of me,” she whispered. He froze for only a second. “I can’t let down all the walls.”
“Yes, you can,” he objected gently. “I know you’re afraid to share the burden of subduing your wolf, and I know why. But I want to help.”
“I don’t want you to have to.” The last thing she’d ever wanted was to go to her mate loaded with baggage. She didn’t want Dante to have to heal her.
“I know. But I’m greedy and I want all of you—the good parts and the bad parts. Have you considered that maybe over time the bond will help your wolf heal? It will serve as an anchor, which is something she’s never had before.”
Jaime might have thought he was just kidding himself, but even now she could feel her wolf’s contentment with the bond. “But if she doesn’t, I could make you weak. I could even kill you.”
“Or we could make each other even stronger.” When she went to object, he leaned down and kissed her gently. “No. If you can’t say anything nice, zip it.” She snapped her teeth at him, but smiled.
“I don’t care about what may or may not happen. You’re my mate and that’s it.”
“And you’re mine. And if you ever let another female touch you again, I’ll gut you both.” She rolled her eyes at his crooked grin. God save her from guys who found jealousy hot!
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
The identical looks of shock on each of the faces staring at them were almost comical. Jaime and Dante had made a short pit stop at their room to change clothes—he hadn’t wanted the others seeing her in nothing but his huge T-shirt—before going to the living area, where everyone other than the Alphas and Kye were lounging. Their announcement had received a stunned silence.
“How did I not see this coming? I should have picked up on it.” Rhett sounded like someone who thought he’d lost his super-power.
Grace looked at her mate oddly from where they were sat on the sofa. “Why? You never picked up on Trey and Taryn.”
“I did, I just hadn’t said anything.”
“Sure you did, honey.” Turning to Jaime and Dante, she smiled. “I had a feeling you guys would imprint, but this is even better.”
Lydia’s smile was ever wider. “A birth and a mating all in one day. How awesome is that?”
“When do you want the mating ceremony to take place?” asked Grace excitedly.
“You have to let me help with it,” insisted Lydia as she leaned forward in Cam’s lap. It was tradition for the other members of the pack to arrange most of the ceremony.
Cam sighed, which earned him a cautioning look from his mate. “I won’t lie and say I don’t still have my worries about Jaime’s wolf,” he said, looking between Jaime and Dante, “but I am happy for you guys.”
Greta huffed. “An insane jezebel as a Beta female? Ludicrous.”
“Yet true, so suck it up, Grandma Grinch,” said Jaime with a sweet smile.
Tao gave Jaime a mock frown. “I guess this means I can’t bitch at you anymore, since you outrank me.”
Ryan nudged Tao with his elbow. “One word: karma.” He then turned to Jaime and Dante.
“Congratulations.”
“Gorgeous, you could do so much better than him,” Marcus told Jaime. Predictably, Dante responded with a low growl. That pleased Marcus so immensely that his clown-wide smile surfaced.
“Congratulations to both of you,” said Trick. “You two getting together was always going to happen, even if you weren’t true mates.”
When Dominic saw that Jaime and Dante’s attention was on him, he shrugged. “What can I say? You’ve shattered my dreams. Jaime, are you really going to ignore this chemistry we have?”
“Dominic,” bit out Dante, giving him a warning shake of the head.
“Come on, you can’t blame me for being attracted to her. Look at that body and those entrancing eyes and that beaming smile.”
“Dominic, seriously, don’t do it.”
Naturally, he ignored Dante. “I swear, when she smiles it lights up the entire room like a candle in the dark.” He w
inked at Jaime. “Let’s go upstairs and prove it.” His eyes widened as Dante suddenly dove at him. Quickly the pervert darted out of the way, laughing, as Dante chased him out of the room and down the tunnels.
“Boys.” Jaime sighed.
“I don’t know what either of them sees in you anyway.” Greta huffed.
Jaime gave her a sweet smile. “If you don’t stop bothering me, I’m going to fart and watch with glee as you pass out from the smell.” She switched her attention to Gabe, Hope, and Shaya, who were now beside her.
Hope gave her a respectful nod. “Congratulations. You make a good couple. Thank you for being happy for Gabe and me.”
Jaime shrugged, smiling. “You make him happy.” That was all that was important to Jaime.
“You’re looking very pleased with yourself,” she said dryly to her brother.
“I told you he adored you.” He kissed her cheek. “He didn’t have to claim you, Jaime, but he did. He could have walked away, but he didn’t.”
That made her think of someone else. Someone who had been very quiet—an usual thing for Shaya. It struck Jaime that hearing about other people mating might be too painful for her.
Shaya must have known what she was thinking, because she dragged her to the side as she told her quietly, “Don’t you dare think I’m not happy for you, okay? I’m so thrilled for you and Dante.
Both of you deserve to be happy.”
Sensing that she was being truthful, Jaime relaxed a little. “I felt what the urge to claim was like. God, Shaya how do you do it?”
“It’s not easy.”
“Are you still thinking of leaving?” It was the last thing Jaime wanted her to do, but she could truly understand why Shaya might feel that she had to.
She shrugged. “Maybe I won’t have to. He hasn’t been here for a while. Maybe he’s planning to stay away now. God, I hope so.”
“Is it easier when he’s away from you?”
“Not easier where the urge to claim is concerned. But it’s easier here.” She placed her hand over her heart.