Total pages in book: 133
Estimated words: 128380 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 642(@200wpm)___ 514(@250wpm)___ 428(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 128380 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 642(@200wpm)___ 514(@250wpm)___ 428(@300wpm)
Spitting out a low curse, he began yanking her back each time he savagely thrust forward. Her now-free pretty breasts bounced with each thrust. If he hadn’t needed to be inside her so damn badly, he’d have earlier lavished some serious attention on them before bending her over the sofa. But his control had been wafer-thin—still was. Hell, it would have been so fragile even if he hadn’t been riddled with touch-hunger, because this was Bailey.
As he caught sight of her slipping a hand beneath her, he gently batted it aside. “No touching your clit.”
“What? Why not?”
“You’re going to come just from my dick pounding into you, that’s why.” He clamped his hands around her shoulders and fucked her harder.
She gasped. “Don’t be such a bossy shit.”
He fisted her hair and snatched back her head. “You knew what you were getting into. No use bitching about it now.” He slammed into her faster and faster, ramming deeper and deeper … until her inner muscles trembled as they became hotter and tighter. “Yeah, come.”
Her back wrenched, arching like a bow, as she hoarsely cried out. Her pussy squeezed and contracted around him, dragging him with her.
Deke’s release thundered through him—strong, violent, blinding. His come erupted out of him in hot bursts, filling her. And when his brain switched back on moments later, he realized that his teeth were buried in the back of her shoulder.
Fuck.
He gently detached his teeth from her flesh. He’d marked her. Marked her. It was deep, too. Not so deep as to scar, but it wasn’t going to fade anytime soon.
Even as he called himself all kinds of stupid, he couldn’t regret it. He liked the look of his brand on her skin. His cat, however, wasn’t pleased; wasn’t in a mental place where he could lay any kind of claim, big or small, to anyone—he wanted only to be alone.
As his cock softened, Deke pulled out and stepped back, still panting.
Breathing a little raggedly herself, Bailey stood upright and yanked up her underwear and leggings. Turning, she didn’t berate him for biting her, as he’d expected. No, she smirked and said, “You seriously underestimated my ability to make your cat crazy. Why is that?”
He narrowed his eyes, tucking his cock back into his jeans. “I wouldn’t be too smug about it, if I were you.”
“Why not?” she asked, gathering the torn pieces of her bra from the floor.
“Because you’re now marked. You know what that means for you? It means you’re fucked. My cat isn’t going to let anyone else touch you while you’re wearing my mark. Neither will I.” No shifter would.
She gave him a flat look, clearly unbothered how he felt. “The only way you and your cat can ensure that is if you keep me sexually occupied. Your animal wouldn’t be down with that.”
His cat did in fact bare a fang at the idea, but it was an act of annoyed resignation rather than a protest. “He’ll allow it.” Begrudgingly.
Her brows arched. “Is that so?”
“Yes, it is.” A good thing, since Deke had lost the will and ability to fight his need for her any longer. “So, we understand each other?”
“Understand what?”
“No other male touches you while that mark is there,” he stated, adamant. “Only me.”
She folded her arms. “Look, I’m fine with us doing the dirty while you work off your touch-hunger—I told you that already. But you’ve been battling it for weeks, so it will probably take just as long to settle. And I’m not seeing how we can stretch it out for that length of time. Because once the bite on my shoulder has faded—which will only take a few days—your cat will be back to ‘no one gets close.’”
“So I’ll mark you again. And again and again. However many times I need to.”
She twisted her mouth. “Something tells me that Dayna wouldn’t like that you’re branding another female.”
Definitely not, but … “She’d like the thought of me in constant pain even less.” He considered telling her that Dayna wouldn’t be in the picture much longer, but he couldn’t yet. Not until Dayna herself was made aware of it.
Bailey stared at him for a long moment. “All right. I take it you want us to keep this to ourselves, since your mom—who’s pretty much wooing me on your behalf—would otherwise pounce on the whole thing.”
“Yes, she’d read too much into it. Then she’d up the courting ante and drive us both crazy. If you want to tell your girls and feel you can trust them to keep it to themselves, fine.”
“They wouldn’t say a word.”
He snared her gaze with his own as he said, “Be warned: I’m going to fuck you often. Hard. Anyway I can get you. And it won’t stop anytime soon—like you pointed out, it could take weeks for the touch-hunger to pass. Once it does, we’ll each go our own way.”