Chapter 314
Ellie’s POV
The kiss should have stopped there. I should have stopped it when I first tasted his lips, the very moment he had pulled me onto his lap and drew me close and made the mate bond alight in my chest.
Hell, it should have never happened at all. I was an idiot for letting it go this far, just as I was an idiot for letting it happen that night in the alley, and all of the other times when I almost let him in in the most intimate way possible.
But my lips were on his, and it tasted so sweet, so fucking right, and I just couldn’t bring myself to make it stop. I didn’t want to make it stop, even though I knew I should. Instead, my hands slid from Dominic’s shirt up to his hair, fingers tangling in the dark strands, and I drew him closer, savoring every taste. The mate bond was roaring now, thundering in my ears, drowning out all logical thought.
And then Dominic’s hands were on my waist, pulling me closer. I shifted, straddling him without thinking, and his grip tightened on my hips, dragging me down against him. I felt the hard length of his member,ready and waiting, pressed between my legs, even through our clothes, and a sound escaped me that I barely recognized just from that brief contact.
He made a low noise in his throat in response, and suddenly, we were moving again. He flipped us this time with one swift motion, pressing me back against the mattress with his body covering mine. The weight of him was heavy and pleasant. One hand came up to brace beside my head while the other slid up my side, pushing my shirt higher. His thumb brushed my nipple, already peaked through the thin fabric of my bra, making my entire body shudder with pleasure.
His mouth left mine then, trailing down my jaw to my neck. When his lips found the mate mark, I gasped. The sensation shot through me like lightning, and for a moment, everything else fell away. The fear, the anger, the constant vigilance. All of it dissolved under the weight of the bond and his body pressing me firmly into the mattress.
It would be so easy to let this happen. To give in. To stop fighting for just one night and let myself have this, just once, just like I’d always wanted.
But then I remembered.
I remembered laying in his bed in my past life, wearing nothing but a sheer nightgown I’d bought specifically for him. I remembered the way he’d looked at me-not with desire, but with something closer to pity. Or worse, annoyance.
I remembered all the times I had desperately tried to seduce him. All the times I’d swallowed my pride and my dignity and begged him to touch me, to want me, to see me as anything other than an obligation.
And I remembered how he never did.
My hands came up to his chest, pushing against the expanse.
“Stop,” I said.
Dominic pulled back just enough to look at me. His eyes were dark, his breath coming out in heavy gasps. “Why?”
“Because this isn’t a good idea.”
“Tell me why, Ellie.”
I pushed harder, and he moved back slightly, but he didn’t get off me. Just hovered there, one hand still planted beside my head, looking down at me like he thought I was being ridiculous.
“Why do you keep doing this?” he asked. His voice was rough. “We clearly have a connection. We desire each other. It’s in our nature, Ellie. We’re mates. Why can’t we just act like it for once?”
I looked away. “Because it’s not that simple.”
“It is that simple. It can be, if you’d just let it be.” His free hand came up to cup my face, turning me back toward him. “You’re making it complicated when you don’t have to be.”
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“Our marriage is a contract,” I said. “It doesn’t involve sex.”
“That contract was a formality.” His thumb brushed across my cheek. “This-” He pressed his hand over my heart, right where the mate bond sat beneath my skin. “This is beyond any contract, and you know it as well as I do.”
The bond flared under his touch, and I had to bite my lip to keep from making another sound of ecstasy. The pleasure was intense. I knew he was manipulating the bond, sending the waves of pleasure radiating toward me. I wished I had more strength to stop it, but I couldn’t, so I had to grit my teeth through the feelings and hope they would go away before I did something utterly stupid.
“I’ve desired you for a long time now,” he said quietly. “And I know you desire me too. It’s unfair to both of us, to both of our wolves, if we keep denying our instincts.”
He wasn’t wrong. I could feel it. The pull. The ache. The need that had been building since the moment we had bonded. It plagued my dreams sometimes, those thoughts of what could be.
But I also knew what would happen if I gave in. He would have what he wanted, and then he would discard me. Just like before, just with a slightly different way of going about it.
“Everything could be fixed if we would just admit it to ourselves,” he went on. “If we would stop fighting this and let ourselves be intimate with each other.”
“No,” I said.
He was quiet for a moment before he said, “What if I made you a proposal?”
I blinked. “What?”
“The next full moon is in a couple of weeks,” he said. “Spend one night with me. One glorious night. Let us join our bodies the way we’re meant to. And if you still hate me after that, if you still want to push me away, then I’ll never bother you about it again.”
I felt my stomach drop. He was asking for…
“I just want to be with you,” he said. “For one night. In the most intimate way possible. That’s all I’m asking.”
For a long moment, I couldn’t speak. I just stared at him, trying to process what he’d just said.
He wanted one night. One night of sex, and then he’d leave me alone.
Like I was some kind of box to check off. Some itch to scratch.
Or worse than that, like I was that simple to persuade.
The anger came fast and hot, burning through the haze of the bond.
I shoved at his chest, hard, and this time, he leaned back just enough to give me space. I scrambled out from under him and stood, my hands shaking.
“You think that’s all it would take?” I asked. “One night of fucking and everything would be fine?”
“That’s not what I meant.”
“That’s exactly what you meant.” I backed toward the door. “You think if you can just get me into bed, I’ll suddenly stop being difficult. I’ll stop questioning you. I’ll be the compliant little wife you’ve always wanted.”
His face fell. “That’s not true. Ellie, I—”
I didn’t stay to hear whatever he said next. I was already out the door, slamming it behind me so hard it reverberated through the house.
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