Page 17 of Glass
Felix must sense the unease because he grabs me by the hips and lifts me off his lap and onto the sleeping bag. “What are you doing?” I ask as he turns and falls back next to me with a frustrated groan.
“Pumping the breaks,” he mutters.
“You want to stop?” My voice sounds hollow to my own ears. The last thing I want to do is stop, even if I am doing a little too much thinking.
He rests his cheek against the sleeping bag and looks up at me. Goddess, he has gorgeous long eyelashes that make me instantly envious. “Youdon’twant to stop?” He sounds as confused as I feel.
“No.”
“Me either.” But he still frowns like he’s not sure what to make of me.
I’m not afraid to take a little initiative. “Let’s not stop then,” I tell him, hoping my voice comes out even half as seductive as I’m going for. I throw a leg over his waist and put my palms on his chest for traction. His frown eases as I straddle him.
“You’re killing me,” he mutters, grabbing me by the forearms to drag me down so my body covers his. He kisses the corner of my mouth. “You’re giving off a hell of a lot of mixed signals.”
“I am?” I try to remember everything that’s happened since meeting him, but all my brain can seem to process is how good he feels under me. I would have expected the muscles of his body to make him feel sharp and angular, but instead I feel like we’re fitted together like puzzle pieces.
Felix runs his right hand across my shoulder, stopping when his thumb rests at my collarbone. “There’s no running from a mate bond, Poppy. A bond is forever.”
“I know.” My voice comes out hoarse. I remind myself that he doesn’t know my history. He doesn’t know that when I love someone, I’ll do anything to get to them. I proved it when I showed up here for my siblings, and hopefully tomorrow I can help him understand as I start making plans for all of us.
He releases me to run his thumb over my bottom lip, and my breath catches.
“We only have a couple hours left until dawn. The pack will be up at the first sign of light.” He blows a disappointed breath out through his nose. “There are a million ways I want to touch you, but some of them are going to have to wait.”
I pull away so I can get upright and drag his t-shirt that I’m wearing over my head. “If we don’t have much time left, maybe we should stop talking,” I tell him pointedly. I toss the shirt into the dark corner of the tent.
He grunts his agreement as he wraps his arms around me and flips us, knocking the wind out of me momentarily as he pins me against the ground. “I’m happy to shut the fuck up.” He smiles against my lips as he kisses me three times in rapid succession. I appreciate the renewed sense of hunger within him as he tugs at the side of my shorts.
He pulls away from me, and I can tell he’s staring down at me in the low lighting. I push away the self-consciousness threatening to close in as I wonder how good his night vision is.
Felix slips my shorts and panties the rest of the way down my legs, disappearing for a second after he pulls them off from around my feet. He comes right back to me, his palms running up the insides of my legs and pausing only when he reaches my knees. My skin is prickled with awareness, but I still gasp in surprise when he pushes my legs further apart.
“What are you doing?” I ask breathlessly as he slides in between my legs, his shoulders forcing my legs even further apart. I’ve only ever slept with one man before this, and he certainly wasn’t interested in detouring to oral sex before the main event.
Felix kisses the inside of my thigh. “Tasting you the way I wanted to the moment I found you.”
All sense of coherent thought slips from my brain. It’s obvious that Felix doesn’t consider oral to be a detour. He moves between my legs with the enthusiasm of someone who wasn’t joking when he said he’s been thinking about this since he laid eyes on me. I dig my fingers into the sleeping bag in a desperate attempt to not come undone too quickly, but it’s hard to get a grip of the slick material. When he adds his hand to the mix, teasing me with his index finger as he continues to feast on my body, there’s no hope for me.
I moan his name loudly enough to risk waking up all the nearby tents. I slap my hand over my mouth too late and he chuckles, the sound vibrating against me and prolonging the shivering pleasure that I’m still riding out.
When my orgasm passes—and I can feel my limbs again—I push him away. “No more,” I whimper. As good as he is, I don’t want to feel so sensitive down there that I can’t appreciate the feeling when he slides into me.
The sleeping bag rustles under him as he backs off and then vanishes. I hate that I can’t see every detail, and I make a silent promise to myself to have him in broad daylight next time so I can appreciate this properly.
Felix’ shadowed form reappears, and he slides over top of me. He’s deliciously naked, and I feel every ridge of his abs brush against me as he covers my body, letting his weight bear down on me as his mouth brushes the base of my neck. He smells good, like pine with a hint of leather. The scent comforts me, easing some of the tension as nerves flip low in my belly as anticipation builds in my chest.
Iwantthis, but so much is happening so fast.
I’m well aware that humans wouldn’t understand this—the insatiable need to take the transcendent bond between mates and memorialize it on our flesh. But the second his teeth hit my skin, I feel like I’m home in a way I never have before. The feeling of being perpetually untethered is gone in an instant.
Felix digs his teeth into my skin to mark me. The mate mark fades over time, becoming less obvious to the human eye, but another shifter will always see it.
We’ve gone from strangers to bonded in what feels like record time, but I have to remind myself that this is what the normal mate bond looks like. My brother’s tumultuous first meeting with Tasha was far less traditional.
When Felix pulls away, I’m desperate to see his face properly. “Can you unzip the window?” I ask him softly.
He reaches up and the sound of the zipper gliding to open the mesh window punctuates our panting breaths. Little by little, moonlight trickles in to give me a proper look at my bonded mate. I’m sure it’s only my imagination that makes his eyes look more purple than blue in this light, glowing down at me as a pleased smile spreads across his face.