Hooked

Chapter Thirty-Four: Shifters

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED, N.L.PETIT 2015.

Chapter Thirty-Four: Shifters

Eventually, we did have to leave that cabin. And when we did, I couldn't say I wouldn't miss it. Strangely, the small house had grown on me in the time we spent there, and I wondered if I would ever see it again. 

"You're welcome to it anytime you want," Adrian told me as he pulled a grey thermal shirt over his head. After locking the house, he led me across the backyard and opened the door to the shed.

I shook my head. "It wouldn't be the same without you."

He looked down at me and tried to contain his smile. "That was corny, and you know it."

Grinning, I pulled his head down and kissed him as chastely as I could. "You liked it."

Leaning down, he wrapped his arm around my waist and hauled me against him, pressing me back against the pick-up truck he'd revealed in the shed. His other hand twined itself in my hair and tilted my head up as his lips descended on mine. My breath caught, and I returned his kiss urgently, running my fingers up his arms to link around his neck. He still supported most of my weight with one arm, and without forethought I used the truck as momentum to wind my legs around his waist and take the pressure off him. Immediately, he groaned and, pulling away to catch his breath, began to move his mouth down my jaw until he reached the sensitive skin of my neck. 

With only a brush of his lips against his mark, I was a goner. My head fell back against the truck door, and a quiet gasp escaped my mouth. Pleasure unlike anything I had ever felt rushed through my veins, and I felt as if every cell in my body was on fire, in a good way. His sharp teeth moved over the mark, imitating the original action, and I was putty in his hands. One of his hands caught my thigh to steady me, and he leaned heavily against me with his forehead resting on my shoulder.

I listened to his labored breathing and struggled to slow my racing heartbeat. He was intoxicating. I leaned forward and wrapped my arms around his shoulders, resting my chin on him. I stared at the wall of the shed behind him for a long minute, before I finally resolved myself to say what had been wrapped around my mind for days. 

"I love you."

The muscles of his back tightened beneath my touch. He pulled back, just enough to meet my eyes, and used his hand to tilt my head up as his other tightened on my thigh. Not moving his gaze from mine, he promised, "I love you, Sophie. So damn much that it doesn't seem possible."

Emotion swelled up inside me until I yanked his head down with renewed fervor, kissing him with everything in me. I wanted nothing more than to be closer to him, to meld into one with him because I could never get close enough. He seemed to feel the same, because a moment later the fabric of my shirt was torn in half and his hands were on my skin. 

Without hesitation, I returned the favor, breaking our kiss only to bring his shirt over his head. His mouth was back on mine in an instant, and I felt us, skin on skin, and could barely breath from the sensation. Breaking from me, he places kisses along my throat, traveling down to my collar bones, and I fought to keep in the ungodly sounds that wanted to escape my mouth. 

He stopped on his mark, placing a gentle kiss upon it. The tender action intensified everything I felt, and I tried to slow my breathing to look at him clearly. His blue eyes stared into mine, as if he had never seen them before.