The Amber Shift

Forty-Three

Noelle

"We have to do this," Elijah murmurs against my temple, his hand slipping under my shirt and tracing circles on the small of my back.

"I don't want to, though," I whine, rolling off my stomach to face him and snuggling into his chest.

He chuckles and tightens his arms around me, tangling our legs together. "Your uncle loves you. He'll forgive you this one little thing."

"One little thing?" I exclaim, leaning away from him to look at his face. "Little thing?! I made you Alpha! In the bathroom! I'd hardly say that's a little thing!" I dive back into him, inhaling his scent and memorizing the way his body feels against mine.

Elijah and I have been lying in bed all morning, drifting in and out of sleep and sharing little kisses and touches. To be able to share these moments with him whenever we want to has been everything I dreamt it would be.

But after the breakfast from hell the other day, Corbin called a meeting with us to discuss "matters at hand." I am going to have to come clean about the alpha debacle. I don't know how he's going to react, or if I broke some kind of sacred wolfy law or what.

"What if he disowns me or something?" I ask, my voice muffled in his chest.

He lifts my chin and cocks a brow. "When did you become so anxious? Where is the bold girl who saunters around this house in short little shorts like she owns it and demands lycan sentinels on their knees for her?"

My cheeks flush and I sit up, crossing my legs at the ankles and running my fingers through his hair. "She's still here, don't worry. I've just never done anything so...important before. I mean, I changed your life in an instant, and I know it wasn't really my place to do that. And I just don't want Corbin angry at me. He's given me so much, ya know? He was the only father I ever knew, took me in when I had no one, given me a life I only dreamed of..." I push a stubborn piece of hair off his forehead and lean down to brush my lips against his, running my tongue along the seam of his mouth. "Gave me you."

"If I thought for a second that you would destroy your relationship with Corbin by telling him, I wouldn't urge you to do it. But you just described to me a man who loves you unconditionally. This isn't going to change that, princess."

I push him gently back onto the mattress and climb on top of him with one leg on either side of his waist. "All right, all right. I believe you. But before we go..." I lean forward and trail kisses from the sensitive spot behind his ear, down the cords in his neck and across his collarbone before moving back to his lips. "I feel like being that bold girl who demands lycan sentinels on their knees for her. Except I'm okay if you stay in bed," I say with a wink.

"I'm not one for stall tactics, but I like where this is going."

Elijah rolls me onto my back and presses his lips to my neck. Like he promised, he has been cautious with me; never letting things go too far. His hands never travel up the front of my shirt or down my pants, always keeping the firm strokes of his fingers over my clothes. The one time he lifted my shirt and kissed my stomach, I thought his resolve would break. He placed one gentle kiss on the apex of my legs and then returned to my mouth. Everything he does to me feels like heaven, but it is also the sweetest torture.

He slides his palm down my thigh and grabs the back of my knee, hooking my leg around his waist. His hips move against me and the hard length of him rubs my center. I match his movement, adding more friction while his palm cups my breast. He finds my nipple and pinches until I arch from the mattress.

"How does this work for being on my knees?" he asks, grinding against me.

I whimper my approval and press harder against him, reaching up and tangling my fingers in the hair at the nape of his neck. "This is perfect," I groan, my voice rising an octave when he hits me in just the right place. "Don't stop, Elijah, please." I release him with one hand and drop the strap of my tank top, freeing the breast he just had his fingers on, baring it to him. I wonder if he'll touch me again with no material separating our skin.