E


    Lightning struck again. And again. It lit up the sky like fireworks, each sh so bright if was as if the wan had risen outside, only to slip away again and cast us intoplete darkness


    And with each strike came another kiss. Another touch. Another whispered word that was lost amongst all the noise from the thunder.


    Alexander hovered gently above me, moving slowly, as if afraid he might break me. Which, I supposed, was a possibility–my ankle was still in pain, excruciatingly so if I tried to move it, but I had insisted on doing this anyway even if it was a bad idea.


    Right now, the pain or the consequences didn’t matter. <b>I </b>just wanted to feel my mate on top of me, savor the sensation of his body gently pressing me against the floorboards before it was taken away.


    I didn’t know for certain if we would get to have a moment like this again. Perhaps that was what made it so sweet–that not knowing, that uncertainty that this bubble could pop in a matter of minutes and we would never be the same again.


    “I’ve been wanting this for so long,” he murmured into my ear as he brushed a strand of rain soaked hair out of my eyes. “I didn’t want to admit it, maybe not even to myself, but I suppose it’s because…


    “Because of the full moon,” I quickly cut him off. After all, that had to be the only logical reason <b>why </b>he was with me now–the pull of the moon on our mate bond. The urge that all mated pairs felt during this phase of the lunar cycle. The desire to mate, or in my case, to ease the pregnancy symptoms.


    At least, that was what I told myself<b>. </b><b>It </b>was simpler that way. More… ptable. Safer.


    Perhaps because I had be so used to whatever dance we’d been doing for five years that it was easier to attribute Alexander’s sudden tenderness to an external force. The mate bond. The full moon. Our


    wolves.


    Not just us. Never just us.


    For some reason, imagining that it was anything else felt dangerous. Probably because I knew, deep down, that he didn’t really love me. And it was safer to pretend that we were on the same page, as if I wouldn’t get hurt anyway in the end.


    Alexander didn’t respond to that, although something flickered through his green eyes that I didn’t have a chance to read before it was gone again.


    Wordlessly, he then dipped his head and peppered more kisses along my cor bone and shoulder, fingers brushing across my waist. When his hand moved upward, thumb flicking over the peaked nipple of my left breast, I couldn’t help but shiver.


    “You’re cold.” Alexander sat up and shrugged off his jacket before I could stop him, and the tenderness of the gesture took my breath away. “Here.” He gently lifted me, thenid the jacket back down on the floorboards and us on top of it. The warmth of his body on the jacket instantly soothed my chilled body, and I found myself letting out a contented sigh of pleasure.


    Slowly, painstakingly so, we moved together in the dim light of that single flickering candle and the asional lightning strike. Alexander pushed my skirt up around my hips, hand slipped up between my thighs where my sensitive bud was already warm and slick with need.


    The feeling of it must have alighted something in him, because his eyes glimmered when they met mine.


    “Goddess, how are you always so wet?” heughed. “Every time, you’re fucking wet for me. Soaked. Like you’re just walking around like this all the time.”


    “Maybe I am.” I grinned and bucked my hips up a little so my pussy settled perfectly into the callused warmth of his palm. “Would that be a problem?”


    Alexander made a low sound of pleasure mixed with something strained. I bit my lip to suppress my own whimper as his palm began to rub slow circles across my folds, just enough pressure to make my nerve endings sing while simultaneously yearning for more.


    “I think so, actually,” he said. His voice was a low timbre now, husky with want. “It would be a huge fucking problem, because if I knew you were walking around all day ready for me like this, I might never get anything done. I’d be incapable of keeping my hands off of you.”


    I almost asked why he needed to keep his hands off of me, but I pushed the thought away–because I knew the answer already. He didn’t trust me. Not fully. Not even now.


    The thought ached through my chest like someone had lit a match in my lungs, but I quickly dispelled it with a deep exhale. No. I would not think about that right now.


    For now… I just wanted to enjoy this. Enjoy him.


    When I was nearly climaxing on just his palm alone, only then did he pull his hand away. I watched with rapt fascination as he reached down and undid his trousers, just enough to slip his member out.


    Then, his eyes never leaving mine, he spat into the very palm he’d just used to pleasure me and rubbed it along the length of his cock.


    I almost shattered right then and there. He didn’t even have to touch me and I was already a mess.


    Alexander didn’t lift his weight from me as he gently slipped into me. Didn’t pull his warmth away. Just caged me against the floor, braced on his forearms, and filled me inch by inch.


    It was glorious, feeling my inner walls stretch like this. I let my eyelids flutter shut for a moment as he let me adjust to the sensations, simply enjoyed the feeling of him slipping into me and his heavy breathing in my ear.


    +15 <b>BONUS </b>


    I wanted this forever. Wanted him forever.


    I could have stayed in this treehouse until the end of my days. Luna’s teeth, I hoped the rain never stopped. I hoped it stormed and stormed until the universe fractured and exploded and faded into dust.


    Alexander, for his part, didn’t seem particrly keen on putting a stop to this soon, either. He moved with excruciating slowness, always ensuring he didn’t hurt my ankle. He took his time. Lavished my neck, my ears, my shoulders. Brushed the wet hairs out of my eyes and held my gaze and…


    Goddess, he fucked me like he loved me.


    I knew he probably didn’t. Not really. If he didn’t trust me, then how could he love me? It felt like a beautiful fantasy, just like all the other ones we’d lost ourselves in. I knew it wouldn’tst beyond


    tomorrow morning but… damn if it didn’t feel like love.


    And for a little while, I let myself believe that it was.


    As Alexander moved above me with breathtaking care and tenderness, I let my foolish heart take the lead


    for once. I let my naive soul believe what it had wanted to believe for nearly six years now.


    That Alexander Sce, my mate, my husband, the father of my child… My Alpha…


    That he truly loved me.