A TASTE OF MY BROTHER'S BEST FRIEND

CHAPTER NINE

Later that night I was brushing my hair, getting ready for an early retirement to bed when I felt that pull I was really starting to hate. Especially the way it made every nerve ending of my body come alive.

I turned slowly, and my heart stopped.

Thorne stood by the window, half-hidden in shadows. His hair was disheveled like he’d run his hands through it a million times. His shirt was unbuttoned at the collar, wrinkled.

He looked so deliciously wrecked and completely undone, and I wouldn’t admit what that did to me.

“How did you get in here?” My voice came out breathless.

“I climbed.” He gestured vaguely at the balcony. “Your brothers doubled the guards at your door, but they forgot about the outside. I will have to discuss that detail with them tomorrow morning.”

“That’s three stories up.”

“I’m a wolf.” He shrugged as if it was nothing. “Climbing isn’t difficult.”

I set down the brush, my hands suddenly unsteady. “I think the question I should be asking is—what are you doing climbing up to my room so late at night, Thorne?”

“I don’t know.” He laughed, but there was no humor in it. He dragged both hands down his face. “I should be in my quarters. Should be sleeping. I should be anywhere but here.”

Here we go again.

“Then why aren’t you?”

“Because I can’t stop thinking about you.” I swallowed at the desperation in those simple words. “I’ve been lying in bed for hours trying to convince myself to stay away. Reminding myself of all the reasons this is impossible. And all I can think about is the taste of your lips. The way you felt pressed against me in that garden.”

My breath caught.

“I’m going insane.” He moved closer, and I could see the war in his eyes. “I told myself I wouldn’t do this. That I’d keep my distance, be professional. That I could handle this bond until we reject it. But Elara, I…” His voice cracked. “I feel like I’m dying. Like if I don’t touch you again, if I don’t taste you again, something inside me is going to break completely.”

“Thorne…”

“Just one kiss.” He was right in front of me now, his hand coming up to cup my face. “Please. Just one, and I’ll leave. I’ll stay away. I swear I’ll…”

I grabbed his shirt and pulled him down.

His lips met mine softly. Tentatively. Like he was afraid I might disappear if he pushed too hard.

I made a sound in the back of my throat—need and frustration and want all tangled together—and everything changed.

He kissed me again, harder this time. Deeper. His hand slid into my hair, tilting my head back so he could take more. His other arm wrapped around my waist, pulling me flush against him.

I opened for him, let him in, tasted the groan that rumbled through his chest. The mate bond flared between us, golden and electric and so intense I couldn’t breathe.

He walked me backward until my legs hit the bed. We tumbled onto it together, a tangle of limbs and desperate touches.

“This isn’t okay.” He broke the kiss, breathing hard against my mouth. “I know this isn’t okay. But I can’t…I’ve never felt like this before. Never wanted someone so badly it hurts to breathe.”

“Then don’t stop.” I pulled at his shirt, needing more skin, more contact. “Please don’t stop.”

“Elara.” My name was a prayer and a curse. “We can’t…”

“I know.” I did know. Knew all the reasons this was wrong, impossible, dangerous. “I don’t care.”

I wanted him, wanted to feel him so badly.

“You’re going to destroy me.”

“Good.” I kissed him again. “Destroy me back.”

I saw the moment the last thread of control he’d been clinging to finally gave way.

His hands found the hem of my nightgown, sliding underneath. His palms were rough against my skin, callused from training and fighting. I arched into his touch, wanting more.

“Tell me to stop.” His mouth moved down my neck, teeth grazing sensitive skin. “Tell me this is a mistake.”

“It probably is.” I gasped when his hand cupped my breast. “I don’t care.”

He groaned, and the sound went straight through me.

We moved together, shedding clothes between kisses. His shirt hit the floor and my nightgown followed shortly after.

Each new expanse of bare skin revealed made the bond burn hotter, made the need more desperate.

“I need to taste you.” His voice was rough, barely human. “Everywhere.”

“Yes.” I didn’t even know what I was agreeing to. Just knew I needed whatever he was offering.

His mouth moved lower. Down my neck, across my collarbone. He paused at my breasts and sailed his tongue around my pointed n****e.

“Thorne.” My hands fisted in his hair. “Please…”

“I know.” He kissed his way down my stomach, and when I realized where he was heading, my whole body tensed. “Trust me.”

I did. God help me, I did.

When his mouth found me, I stopped breathing. Stopped thinking. Everything narrowed to the sensation of his tongue, his lips, the way he dragged his tongue over my wet p***y and sucked my already oversensitive c**t into his mouth softly.

I was going crazy…I swear he would drive me crazy.

“Oh god.” My back arched off the bed. “Thorne…I can’t…”

“Yes, you can.” He murmured against me and gripped my thighs, holding me steady. “Let go, Elara. Let me have this.”

The pleasure built and built until it was almost painful. Until I was sobbing his name, my hands pulling his hair hard enough to hurt. He didn’t stop…kept licking and sucking desperately as if his life depended on it.

My legs were shaking, vibrating from pleasure…a pleasure that threatened to rip me apart.

I was moaning—probably loud enough for anyone passing by my room to hear but I didn’t care.

All that mattered was Thorne’s fingers twisting my n*****s, his mouth eating me.

Until everything shattered and I came apart completely, crying out into the darkness of my room.

He guided me through it, pressing soft kisses to my inner thighs as I trembled and gasped.

When I could finally breathe again, I pulled him up. Kissed him deep and desperate, tasting myself on his lips.

“My turn.” I pushed at his shoulders, and he let me roll him onto his back.

“You don’t have to—”

“I want to.” I kissed down his chest, feeling the muscles jump under my lips. “I need to.”

His hands fisted in the sheets when I reached my destination. When I wrapped my hand around him, he groaned so loudly I worried someone might hear.

“Elara…”

I took him in my mouth, and his entire body went rigid.

“Fuck.” The word came out strangled. “That’s…you’re…fuck.”

I’d never done this before. Had no idea if I was doing it right. But the sounds he was making, the way his hips were trying not to thrust, the desperate way he kept saying my name…all of it told me I wasn’t doing it wrong.

So that satisfaction fueled me and I cupped his balls in my palm, playing with them softly as I took his d**k into my mouth until the tip touched the back of my throat, and I withdrew only to do it again…again…again.

Until I was sucking him in earnest. My jaw ached because he was so big but I loved it all the same.

His hand found my hair, not pushing, just holding. Anchoring himself.

“I’m close.” His voice was wrecked. “Elara, I’m…”

I didn’t stop. Didn’t pull away. Just took him deeper, wanting to give him the same release he’d given me.

“Elara…”

I took him deep into my mouth, to my throat then hummed slightly knowing he would feel the vibration, and the way he cursed and tightened his hold on my hair gave me every encouragement I needed to do it again.

When he came, my name was a broken prayer on his lips, and I licked it all up…not letting a single drop of his seed go to waste…feeling the pulsing of his veins, his length in my mouth.

When he was done, I crawled up his body and he pulled me against his chest immediately. His heart was thundering, his breathing ragged.

“That was—” He couldn’t seem to finish the sentence.

“Yeah.” I pressed my face into his neck, breathing him in, feeling oddly satisfied that I was the one who did this to him.

We lay there in silence, our bodies cooling.

“I should go,” Thorne said after what felt like forever, but he didn’t move. Just held me tighter.

“Stay.” I tangled my legs with his. “Just for a little while.”

“Elara…”

“Please.” I looked up at him. “I know this is complicated. I know we can’t—whatever. I know all of it. But right now, can we just pretend? Just for tonight?”

His expression softened. “Just for tonight.”

He pulled the blanket over us, and I settled against his chest. His heartbeat was steady under my ear, and for the first time since arriving in this world, I felt completely safe.

“This doesn’t change anything,” he murmured into my hair. “We still can’t…”

“I know.” I closed my eyes. “Tomorrow we go back to being professional. To pretending this bond doesn’t exist.”

“Tomorrow.” He pressed a kiss to my forehead. “But tonight…”

“Tonight you’re mine.”

“Tonight I’m yours.” His arms tightened around me. “And you’re mine.”

I fell asleep like that, wrapped in the arms of a man I couldn’t have. Pretending that the world outside this room didn’t exist.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​