Chapter Nine

Giving in to instinct, Raul punched his hips in short, sharp jabs, slicing through honeyed muscles with savage intent. This deep and close, he felt every ripple, every flutter, as she clenched and released around him.

“You keep that up and I’m not going to last long,” he warned.

She gave a siren’s smile. “You wouldn’t leave me hanging,” she countered and brought her hands up to play with her nipples, plucking, squeezing, and stroking the large brown nubs until he thought he’d go insane.

“Madre de Dios!” he bit out.

Laughing softly, she told him, “There’s nothing virginal about me.”

Their gazes locked in sensuous battle, Raul retaliated by slowly trailing his hand down the sensitive skin of her inner thigh. When he traced the delicate crease between her leg and mons, her breath hitched. Smiling, he upped the ante, using his knuckles to brush across her clit before dancing lightly away. Her hips jerked, and she cried out.

Another warning tingle. This one skittered down his spine to land in his balls. Raul’s smile faded as lust spiked. More blood rushed to his already engorged penis. He felt his eyes go wolf. Praying his mate wouldn’t notice, he increased the speed of his thrusts.

Angel garbled out something unintelligible. Reaching out, she grabbed him by the hips, nails digging into the flexing muscles. Her body tautened, her tempting neck straining toward him. In response, Raul shifted even closer so with each movement, his pubis bore down on hers.

When that wasn’t sufficient enough, he leaned forward and planted his palms on the floor on either side of her torso. The move gave him the leverage he needed to thrust with the power his body demanded.

The change in angles caused Angel to cry out. “I need to… Let me…Raul!” She punched the thigh of his restraining leg. “Release me so I can…”

He was already lifting so that he no longer straddled her thigh. Angel wrapped both legs high around his waist.

“Oh baby, Angel,” he gritted out between clenched teeth as he hammered his hips into hers. A drop of sweat splashed into the valley between her breasts, and his black hair hung in a wavy curtain around his face.

Their gazes met, clung. As his orgasm approached, his nails sprouted into claws. He dug them into the plush carpet. Feeling his canines lengthen, he pressed his lips together and hung his head, breaking their gaze. Even now, he retained enough possession of his senses to hide what he was.

Angel’s nails scored his back, and the taint of iron scented the air, exciting his beast to epic proportions.

“Please, please… All of you. Give me all of you,” she begged right before her spine bowed and a scream ripped out of her mouth. Her cunt clamped down on his cock like a vise and began to pulse.

Raul’s hair went flying as he jerked back his head to keep from marking her, an orgasm roaring through him. His muscles locked into place for one timeless moment, and then his hips began to shake as pulse after pulse of semen jetted from his cock. He poured into Angel everything he was—heart, mind, and soul.

Raul slumped on top of his mate, panting. When his breathing evened out, he nuzzled his nose in the responsive skin behind her ear and whispered, “I love you, baby. Whatever the problem is, we can work it out. Just don’t leave me again. I can’t take it.”

“This changes nothing,” Angel told him in an extremely even and controlled voice, but underneath, his wolf sensed hurt, anger, and…defeat?

Confused, he pushed to his elbows to see her face. “What…?”

She shoved at his shoulders, and when he refused to budge, said, “Please get off me.” Her voice was ultra-controlled and completely unemotional, but again Raul sensed an underlying pain.

“I think,” he answered slowly, “I’d better stay right where I am. What just happened here?”

Angel let her hands drop to the carpet and turned her face so he viewed her profile. “Sex. That’s what happened here.”

He nudged her chin so she faced him again. “Don’t, Angel. This was more than sex. I love you, and you love me. Don’t you?”

She didn’t answer. Simply stared at his nose like it had somehow become fascinating.

“Angel?” he questioned, but a hint of uncertainty crept in as his father’s warning about the consequences of loving humans rose again to torment him. Silently he cursed. If he’d marked her, she’d be bonded to him, and he’d know exactly what she was feeling. She had to love him. He refused to believe otherwise. He’d felt her love for him. That couldn’t have changed in the few short weeks he’d been gone. “Don’t you love me anymore, baby?”

Her sigh felt like it came up from her toes. Finally she met his gaze. “Yes, I love you.”

The relief he felt left him weak. “Then why did you leave me?”

Intimately connected as they were, Raul felt her stiffen. She seemed to search his eyes for something. Whatever it was she was hunting for, Angel didn’t find, because she turned away again.

“It doesn’t matter,” she stated softly. “I thought if I…” She sighed. “Never mind.”

“You thought what, baby?” he asked, determined to get to the bottom of this. He knew his woman and her varied, mercurial moods, but this was a strange one, even for her. She’d gone from passionate to despondent in a matter of minutes.

“I’d like to get up now,” she said, which wasn’t an answer, or at least, not the one he’d expected.

“And I’d like us to talk this thing through. If I move, you’ll leave, and nothing will get settled,” he countered.

Something, some unrecognizable emotion, flickered across her expression. In slow motion, Angel turned her head until her gaze once more met his. Her eyes held steely determination. “You want to talk?” she asked softly.

Raul felt a prickle of warning slither down his spine. “Yes, I do,” he answered, albeit a bit warily.

“Let’s talk about the secret you’re keeping from me,” she said, gaze drilling into him.