Leah awoke to a sensation she had missed for months. A warm arm was draped across her belly. Slow, steady breaths stirred the hair resting on her neck, and a large, solid body pressed against her. She opened her eyes and turned to see Paul. He was deeply asleep. A sheet covered her, but she wore nothing beneath. She should have been alarmed, but she felt calmer than she had in a long time. Unlike her, he wore a pair of shorts, and he rested on top of the sheet rather than underneath it. The thin cotton barrier lay between them. As she looked around his bedroom, the night before began to return to her. She remembered their fight, but nothing after. She peeked under the sheet. Her skin was clean and free of debris, but she had no idea how.
Had she and Paul been intimate? It seemed unlikely at best, but why else would she be naked in his bed? He was certainly holding her the way a lover would. Should she just ask him? It was a ridiculous question. Not wanting to humiliate herself and preferring to wait and see if she recovered any more memories, she tried to slip away. But as she tried to move from under his arm, he sighed, slipped his hand to her hip, and held her tighter. She frowned at him in consternation, but he was still asleep. She dislodged his fingers and carefully lifted up his arm, but he stirred and blinked at her slowly. Then his eyes widened, and he froze as he started to awaken.
She started to scoot out of bed until she realized that doing so would expose her completely, so she clutched the sheet to her chest and opened her mouth to demand an explanation. But no words came forth. His mouth, too, flapped open and shut as he raised himself on his elbows and looked down at her. She huffed in frustration and fell against the pillow when she remembered that Sam had never lifted his Alpha order. They would not be able to speak until he allowed it. She covered her face with her hands, groaning in frustration. The motion exposed one of the claw marks Paul had left on her arm. Without thinking, he reached out to touch it. The skin had closed over, but a red welt was left behind.
She looked at him in surprise. His hand was gentle, and his face was a mask of regret. From between her fingers she saw him mouth the words, "I'm sorry." She lowered her hands and stared at him in shock. He had never apologized to her before, not for anything. She knew he meant it, though it wasn't the first mark he had left on her, far from it. Plus he looked almost as bad as she did. His skin was discolored with purple bruises and bright red scars. She thought about the way they had flung themselves at each other under Sam's direction, and she knew this time was different. They had both been vicious, but it was against their will.
She saw him eyeing the exposed part of her chest, and for once she knew he wasn't ogling her. An ugly bruise bloomed on her skin. He frowned at it and tentatively reached for the sheet. He did not move it until he looked her in the eye, and she nodded her assent. When he uncovered the entire injury, he carefully avoided revealing her breast, and his face fell further. His lips stretched into a thin line, and his brow furrowed. She tried to tell him that she was alright but couldn't. He wished he could speak, but since that wasn't possible, he would have to find another way to communicate with her.
What he decided to do absolutely shocked her. He leaned down and pressed a gentle kiss to the center of the bruise. She stopped breathing. He looked up after a moment, waiting for her to stop him. She stared at him without comprehension, and he watched her solemnly. With his hand on her shoulder, he urged her to turn onto her stomach, and he lowered the sheet to her waist. With a tentative finger he traced every wound across her back. She held still, not understanding. Other than trading blows, no one touched her at all. Sue loved her dearly but rarely displayed her emotions physically, and Seth, who used to easily toss his arm over her shoulders or lay his head in her lap, had closed himself off after he phased.
She felt Paul's heat on her wounds, and he nuzzled at them with his nose. He inhaled her feminine scent, letting his breath send shivers over her skin. She wondered what parallel universe she had fallen into, but she didn't stop him. She just trembled and wondered what was going on. He didn't know exactly what he was doing. He wanted to comfort her. He simply followed his instincts, waiting for her to stop him. She surprised him by holding still, so he did what felt right. When he finally pressed gentle kisses across her skin, she stopped thinking altogether, and sensation ruled. By the time he was done, all she felt was tingling from head to toe. The pain morphed into a pleasant burn.
When he urged her onto her back again, she didn't bother hiding herself though she knew he wasn't just worrying over her injuries. He didn't have to say anything. His thoughts were written across his face. His gaze held equal parts concern, awe, and hunger. It had been so long since she had last been touched in this way, since anyone looked at her with such wonder. She had felt nothing but pain since she phased. This was an entirely different sensation. She had almost forgotten what pleasure felt like, and she ached for more. He, on the other hand, had had plenty of women, but none of them could compare to her. His eyes roamed eagerly over her body, and he thought to himself that she looked like a wounded angel beneath him. Suddenly he was glad they couldn't speak. If he could simply say how sorry he was, he would have no excuse to put his hands on her. With his lips he continued tracing a path between her bruises, and his fingers brushed away any remaining pain.
She shivered again, and on his next breath he inhaled the most tantalizing scent. He took in a ragged breath, and he slid his hand to her thigh. He looked her in the eyes, seeking permission. She couldn't believe herself, but something about the forced silence made her brave. She bit her lip and nodded, and he slid his fingers between her legs. She gasped and he groaned as he found the source of her fragrance. He realized he was trembling just like she was. He was a little embarrassed. He was acting as if he had never touched a girl before. He hadn't been so nervous in years, and he wondered if she would tease him about it when she inevitably saw it the next time they patrolled together.
She involuntarily squirmed, and the movement brought his thumb against her clitoris and the tip of his third finger against her entrance. Slowly, so slowly, he explored her. The entire time he barely blinked, not wanting to miss a second. He memorized her reaction to his touch, enthralled at the way her mouth dropped open on a gasp, the way her back arched, the hitches in her breathing, and her soft whimpers. The intensity of his gaze pulled her in, and she could not look away, could not close her eyes. They stared at each other as he pressed one finger into her, massaging gently until he was able to add a second, moving deliberately as he realized she was as tight as a virgin. His sex pulsed as he imagined how she would feel around him. Her eyelids fluttered for a second, but she didn't close them, much to his delight. Perhaps it was because of being in each other's minds so often, but he could have sworn that he saw the way her thoughts deserted her as he found the secret spot inside her. The exquisite sensations he wrought drove out all other memory. In that moment, she wasn't comparing him to her last lover, wasn't remembering the chaos of the last months, wasn't feeling any pain. She only felt him, and he would give her only bliss.
His confidence returned as he worked her body with his hand. He played her like an instrument. When her eyes finally closed as she was overwhelmed with orgasm, her body writhing under him, her fingernails clawing at his shoulders, her head thrown back to expose her long neck, he barely resisted the urge to sink his teeth over her carotid and make her his. Then she melted into relaxation, and he removed his hand from her core and sucked his fingers into his mouth, moaning at the flavor of her sex. She was uniquely delicious. He wanted to drink endlessly of her. But before he could do that, he spotted her red lips and realized he had never kissed her. It was a grievous oversight, because her mouth was impossibly lush and ripe.
He immediately rectified his mistake, descending on her and devouring her. She was hot, sweet, and surprisingly pliant. She pressed her breasts against his chest as she wrapped her fingers in his hair, holding him close. Her grip on him was as tight as his on her, and he didn't want her to ever let go. He marveled at how well she fit against him, how natural it felt to be with her in this way. He had been with many girls, but they felt nothing like this. His inner wolf knew she was of his kind. No other woman could match his heat or his strength, and she tasted better than the best meal he had ever had.
He had to be inside her. He had nearly come when he felt how tight she was on his fingers, and he couldn't wait any longer. He had to feel her around his cock. He pressed his hips incessantly into her, but he hadn't yet taken off his shorts. He tried to wish them away in futility, not wanting to separate long enough to remove them. All he could do was grind hopelessly into her.
His touched had simultaneously excited and calmed her. She gave herself over to the moment, setting aside all grief, anxiety, sadness, and frustration. Now his desperation centered her. She finally tired of the teasing and took control. She pushed him off. He would have protested if he could. Instead he made a wordless sound of frustration until she shoved him onto his back and straddled him. She took her mouth away, upsetting him until she started pressing searing kisses down his chest and along the scars she had left on him. His skin heated where she passed, and his erection strained toward her. She stopped to lightly circle his nipple with her tongue, and he groaned. She grinned up at him and nipped gently with her teeth, something no one had ever done to him before, and he gasped in pleasured surprise. She chuckled, and it was one of the sexiest things he'd ever heard. He looked down at her, and she lavished attention there until he moaned embarrassingly loudly. He was more turned on than he ever remembered being, and she hadn't even touched his shaft. It was a good thing he couldn't speak; he probably would have begged in a truly humiliating fashion. Instead he pushed at her shoulders until she got the message and pulled off his shorts.
Leah hummed what she hoped sounded like an appreciative noise. Paul's cock was beautiful: long, thick, cut, and weeping clear fluid. She had to taste him. Her wolf craved it. She held him at his base and licked him from bottom to top. He smelled clean, like rainwater, and unmistakably male. He was appetizingly salty. But what she loved the most was the desperation she felt in his grip on her shoulder and in her hair. It had been so long since she felt wanted. She liked the power it gave her, so she teased him a little while longer. She ran her tongue lightly around the corona, refusing to apply the kind of pressure he wanted. She took her time, exploring him as thoroughly as he had explored her. She sought out his most sensitive spots and committed them to memory, drawing a map in her mind. With each pass, she brought him higher. By the time she finally took him into her mouth, he was right on the edge.
She peered up at him through her thick lashes, and their eyes locked again. Neither could look away. She thought he was a work of art. His muscles were lean and sculpted, his skin a rich bronze despite the wounds she had inflicted, his face all angles and planes and glittering eyes. Likewise, the sight of her mesmerized him. Her lips were swollen, red, and full, and her breasts brushed against his legs. She had always been the loveliest girl in the world to him, and now she was the most sensual. He would never be able to look at her again without seeing her this way. Her mouth was hot and her tongue was skilled, and she was the only woman he had ever been with who could take all of him down her throat. She broke eye contact as she moaned hungrily around him and slipped her eyes shut, and he was stunned to realize she was enjoying herself almost as much as he was. Most girls performed the act out of obligation or to avoid having sex, but she did it because she loved everything about it. She loved how taut his muscles were under her hand, the taste of his skin, the heat, the helpless sounds she could draw from his throat, and the way she could reduce his universe to her and her alone. She wanted to be the best he had ever had, and she was, by far. He had never been given such pleasure.
He couldn't help himself. He stilled her with his hands on her skull and started snapping his hips forward. He overfilled her, and he worried that he went too far. But she absorbed every one of his thrusts, adding the perfect amount of suction to drive him wild.
It was too much. He had to stop her. If she continued, he would explode and it would all be over. He didn't know if he would ever get another chance to be with her, and he would never forgive himself if he didn't bury himself inside her. He yanked her up and brought her mouth to his. He kissed her fearlessly, because they had nothing to lose and everything to gain. He held her fast, because he couldn't tell her how much he wanted her. And because he wanted to dominate her, he roughly pushed her onto her back.
Normally he would have prepared her further, but the urgency to take her was overwhelming, but it left him with no coordination. All he could manage was to grind his shaft against her slit. She tilted her hips up to meet him, and he slid his broad head inside her. She felt so good that he saw stars in the corners of his eyes, but her gasp and the sudden widening of her eyes halted him. She was insanely tight, so tight he could hardly proceed, and he knew he was hurting her despite the fact that she was urging him forward with her legs wrapped around his thighs and her nails digging into his ass. If he hadn't seen Sam's memories, he would have thought he was her first. Suddenly he wished he was. He was possessed of the sudden need to erase the memory of any other man from her history. Though his spine pulsed with unbearable need, though every cell in his body called for him to take what he wanted, though his cock ached to be as deep as possible, he lifted himself off her far enough that he could slip his hand between them, and he began to gently circle her swollen clitoris with his thumb.
Her eyes slipped shut as she began to coo in response. She looked gorgeous and overwhelmed, making him feel like a god, but he wanted to see her eyes. He needed to see them to know when he could push farther inside her. He growled since he couldn't talk, and somehow, she understood and her eyes popped open. They stared at each other as he stimulated her with deadly precision.
He knew it the moment she crossed the border from pain to pleasure. It simultaneously aroused him immensely and set his mind at ease, because after so brutal a battle, he despised hurting her further. He would repay her for every scratch, bite, bruise, and wound. Inch by inch he pushed forward. Slowly he sheathed himself inside her, and it was nothing like he had ever felt before. She was molten heat, simmering passion, liquid sex trapped inside the most beautiful creature he had ever laid eyes on. Something unnamable passed between them as he held himself still, buried fully within her, staring into her eyes. Their only movement was the pulsing of their interlocked bodies, and even so, it was an unparalleled experience.
And then, with a sensual roll of her hips, she urged him to move, and he immersed himself in her. He wasn't certain he would ever find his way out, and he was perfectly satisfied to be lost. They came together again and again. He saturated all five of her senses, and all he knew was Leah. And he was certain she felt the same. For a little while, there was nothing else but the world these two creatures built of themselves. She swept him up in her tide. He enveloped her in his waves. It could have been minutes or it could have been hours. Neither of them knew, nor cared.
When an expression of sheer devastation crossed her features, her body wracked with powerful convulsions, her core milking him as never before, she drew out not just his seed, not just his climax, but the very essence of him.
The moment broke when he separated himself from her and fell beside her, but the moment he felt her begin to tense, he instinctively gathered her close and kissed her forehead, her eyes, her nose. She looked at him with such large eyes that he couldn't help but smile at her, and then she smiled back and wrapped her arms around his torso and buried her face in his neck. He grinned widely at no one and squeezed her tightly before peppering kisses into her hair. Eventually she settled her head on the pillow next to him, and he scooted forward until he could touch his nose to hers. It was a more intimate gesture than he could recall sharing with anyone, just as sex with Leah was something new to him altogether. They were both exhausted, and she fell asleep inhaling his breath. As she melted against his body, his last thought was the knowledge that he could never find a mate better than her.
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A/N: Thanks again to my lovely beta, Babs81410.