King of the Asheville Coven (Winterset Coven #1)(15)

“It doesn’t matter.”

“It does to me. How long?”

Aric clenched his jaw once before he leaned back in the seat and draped one arm over the steering wheel. “Since you.”

“Aric,” she drawled out in admonishment. “It’s been a week!”

“Well it hasn’t felt right calling one of the girls after bonding with you. Everything has been perfect.” He flashed her a dark-eyed glance, then dragged his gaze back to the road. “I know you don’t like the idea of me drinking the other girls, and I don’t want to rock the boat when you make me this f*cking happy.”

“Wait, is this why you’ve been avoiding intimacy with me?”

“Hell yeah. The first time we slept together, I bit you and bonded us, and I wanted to give you time to wrap your head around a relationship with me.”

“What am I to you?” she asked suddenly.

“What?”

“Don’t think. Just tell me the first word that comes to your head. What am I?”

“My mate. The shifter word for it feels right.”

She blew out a relieved breath and grinned at him. “Okay then, mate. You can talk to me about this stuff. You’re a vampire. And yeah, it weirded me out at first, but it is what it is. You eat what you eat. Hiding that part of yourself from me won’t help us. It’ll keep me at a distance, and I don’t want that.”

“What do you want?”

“All of you. I want it all—the good, the bad, everything.” Crossing her arms over her chest, she admitted, “I like brussels sprouts.”

The tension faded from Aric’s rigid profile as he pulled into her driveway. “Well, liking vegetables and liking blood are different.”

“I also like my steak rare. It’s the leopard in me. Walk my cow past the fire, and I’m good.”

Aric slid his strong hand over her thigh and squeezed her gently, then gave her that sexy crooked grin he’d been sharing more and more lately. Faint dimples bracketed his sensual lips right now. God, he was stunning.

“Thanks for understanding. I’ll call one of the girls tomorrow then.”

“Or…” She waggled her eyebrows. Hint, hint, hint.

“Or what?” he asked in a careful tone. Were his eyes growing even darker now?

Sadey gave him a flirty grin and flounced out of her car, then sashayed up the walkway toward her front door. She could smell him following but couldn’t hear his footsteps, and when she looked over her shoulder, he was practically floating behind her with a drunken look in his hungry eyes. She unlocked the door and stepped into her living room, now unpacked and in order again.

Aric stopped at the door, rested his palms on either side of the door frame. She hadn’t invited him in yet so he was good and stuck.

Slowly, she pulled her sweater over her head and draped it across the back of the couch, her eyes never leaving his. Sadey adored the way he looked at her, as if she was the most beautiful creature he’d ever laid eyes on. He made her feel like a goddess. With a wicked grin, she shimmied out of her shoes and jeans. Then she locked one arm against the couch, poking out her hip so he could enjoy all her curves.

Aric’s hungry eyes raked down her body, pausing on the hot spots. He blinked slowly and lifted that roiling black gaze back to her. That crooked smile was back.

“Do you want to come in?” she asked, teasing him with the almost-invite.

He nodded once, and now she purred under his sexy stare. Anticipation zinged up her spine as she parted her lips and whispered, “Aric, won’t you come in?”

His form dissolved into a cloud of bats and smoke and then, in an instant, he was solid again right in front of her, driving her backward as the door slammed behind him hard enough to rattle the room.

She gasped as her back hit the wall and his long, thick erection pressed against the apex of her thighs. His lips were on her now, moving against hers like water, so hard his elongating teeth were grazing her tender skin with every stroke of his tongue.

“Oooh,” she moaned. He linked their hands, then shoved them up the wall above her head.

Sadey arched her back against the wall, desperate to be closer to him. In a moment, he released her hands and tore his shirt off, undid his pants, and rolled his hips against hers. Her panties mate a soft riiiip, and then they were on the floor with his shirt and, oh Mylanta, she’d never gone from revved up to inferno this fast before.

He made a low, wild sound deep in his throat as he pulled the backs of her knees up around his waist and slid into her. Resting his head against her shoulder, he froze when he hit her clit. “God, you feel so good,” he gritted out. He eased back and then shoved into her again, and again. Faster as the pressure of blinding pleasure expanded in her middle. He was so big, so thick, filling her. Sadey hugged him desperately, sank her nails into his back because he was slamming into her hard now, and she was so close.

“Aric,” she whispered, arching her head back and exposing her neck.

He hugged her waist tight, pulled her against him as he stayed deep, pumping into her. He let off a needy sound as he kissed her neck, dragging his fangs across her skin in a delicious tease.

“Do it!” she cried as the first pulse of orgasm exploded through her.

His teeth were so sharp she didn’t feel them enter her skin. Not as he bucked into her, conjuring every pounding aftershock. She pressed her hand against his throat just to feel him swallowing. He froze, and wet heat throbbed into her. He reared his hips back and then rocked against her again. Over and over, his shaft swelled and pulsed as he emptied himself