Ravenwood(73)

There was a beat of time, a moment after she was finished, when Elinore feared Caleb’s brow would crease and he would declare that he could not understand what she was saying. Instead, he surged forward, his lips crushing against hers, painfully so, but she didn’t falter. She wrapped her arms around him - his neck and shoulders, feeling as his muscles shifted under skin and over bones. He bore his weight against her, pressing her down into the mattress and she let him. She could push him away if she wanted to. She could snap her teeth at him or make the low, growling sound she recalled from her dreams. Something in her told her that if she did, he would back away, he would leave her alone.

But she did not want him to.

Underneath him, in his bed, she felt surrounded by him - by his weight, by his scent, by his presence. Her legs were tangled both in her nightgown and in the bedclothes and surge of frustration rushed through her as she tried to kick them free. Caleb’s lips broke away from hers and his body shifted from her. She wanted to pull at him, to claw at him to come back until she realized he was reaching down to yank the bedclothes off their legs. He settled back on top of her and her nightgown hitched up over her hips as she wrapped her legs around his lean thighs. There were too many sensations for her to catalogue and she was trying to catch them all - the slight roughness of the hair on his legs against hers, the press of his hip-bones in the cradle of hers, the heat of his body seeping into her skin, one of his hands in her hair and the other sliding down the side of her torso, wrapping around her flank and then squeezing the meat of her leg hard. Elinore could feel his erection hardening against her, and it would be so simple, so easy for her to pull her nightgown up further and tilt her hips and offer up her body. She wanted to, but she was also afraid. Not of Caleb, but of what it would mean and how she would feel. She didn’t know if she was quite ready for that and she struggled with the words to tell him.

“I don’t… I’m not…” she started, feeling breathless and heady. She wanted to keep on as they were, pressed against one another, kissing, licking and touching, but nothing more. Not yet.

Caleb looked down at her, his face so close to hers that she had to move her eyes back and forth between both of his or go slightly cross-eyed and stare somewhere in the vicinity of his nose.

“I am not yet ready for more,” Elinore blurted, wondering if he would understand what she meant, if he would think her childish, or unsophisticated. She willed him to understand, hoping she wouldn’t have to say more, hoping he wouldn’t press for more, even as she doubted he would.

“Is this all right?” he asked, rocking his hips against her. She shivered at the deliciousness of the feeling.

“Yes,” she breathed out, nodding. “I… like this.” The rhythm of his movement sent a thrill down low into her belly and she tried to match his motion, feeling clumsy, but learning quickly. She dug her fingers into his hair, so soft at the nape of his neck, and then, feeling bold, moved her fingers down, testing the flesh of his shoulders and then the bones of his ribs, then feeling them expand as he breathed.

Caleb leaned in and ran his nose over the soft skin of her throat. She tipped her head back instinctually and then had a sudden thought.

“Does this mean something? To wolves?” she clarified, trying to hold onto the thought as he pressed against her. A gasp escaped her as he canted his hips forward suddenly, rocking into her hard.

His lips moved over the skin of her throat and then his tongue darted out and licked her neck and she curled in a bit, finding it ticklish.

“Yes. Surrender, submission, trust.” Caleb bit at the skin with his teeth and she dug her nails into his back. “It means you trust me.”

Elinore did trust him. She wasn’t sure what was entailed in the words ‘surrender’ and ‘submission,’ but ‘trust’ she could agree with.

“And do you trust me?” she asked, whispering the words against his ear. “Like wolves do. Do you trust me?”

He pulled back from her and then tipped his head back and to the side, baring his throat to her. Seeing the tender, vulnerable flesh in front of her, so easily exposed made her chest tight. She surged upwards, pressing her lips to the skin there, licking at his throat the way he’d done to hers only moments before. His skin was prickly with stubble - sharp against her tongue. She felt his hand come up against the back of her skull, cradling her head, holding her closer to his neck and she pressed her teeth against his skin. Caleb made a low, rumbling sound that pleased her, down to her bones and she smiled against his flesh. She pulled back to kiss his lips again, feeling the hot, wet slide of his tongue against hers. He continued rocking his hips against hers and she wondered if he would slide his fingers into her, like he had before. She wanted that. She felt hot and tender in her sex and wanted to feel him inside again.

Caleb pulled his mouth away from hers and she made a sound of displeasure at the loss.

“I want to mark you, like I did last night.” His voice was husky and strained and he paused his hips, stilling his body against hers. She squirmed a bit against him, wanting the movement back. She wasn’t sure what he meant and something about her lack of knowledge must have shown on her face or in her body language. He slipped his hand up her nightgown and ran his fingers over her belly. “When I… spilled on you. It marks you. Other wolves will know you’re mine.”

Elinore’s face burned hot at his words. “They’ll know we’ve done this? That you’ve…” she raised her eyebrows in what she hoped conveyed her meaning.