Chapter 73
TESSA POV
The more he spoke the more my wolf rose. Listening to him, it feel like may I can get out of this disconnected, lost hole I’ve found myself ins
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He’s stunning. His smooth voice already had my stomach curling, my brain rating into overdrive. Without his shirt I can see the bite he described receiving, apparently from me. His huge, rounded shoulders. The line of his abs and v–line, partially obscured by a thick layer of rapidly staining bandages.
His hands are clenched tightly, fisted either side of his thick thighs. Either in pain or annoyance at what I’m asking him to do.
But I’m listening to my wolf. Reluctantly, with fear in every step. Because the way this man makes me feel is beyond terrifying. To be loved like that? Me? Why?
My heart, my very soul is pointing like a compass arrow, straight at the man in front of me. Battered and bloody, stubbled and exhausted, I stand and admire him.
His name just floated into my mind. I didn’t even have to struggle for it. It just felt right on my tongue. Maxim. He looks like a Maxim too.
Maxim Pagano apparently, what a name.
Perfect straight nose, rugged cheekbones and strong, clenched jaw. His hair falls in effortless chocolate waves. Some of them tumble across his forehead, my fingertips itching to push them back. Not quite a hero, but not a villain either, there’s a curve to his lips, suggesting he’s capable of the most devious smiles. My imagination fills with images of him grabbing me, just taking hold and putting me where he wants. Now I’m blushing.
I’m trying to keep myself composed. Realistically, I have no idea who he really is apart from being able to kill without hesitation. And having the voice of a sexual god.
Because I know now, the mind can be fooled. Look at Luca. He suggested he was my hero. Saved me from an attack. I just nodded naively.
Maxim knows I have nobody else in the world to turn to, nobody who can confirm his version of events.
Surely I am safer on my own?
Until everything changed. Less than a second after sizing up his seated, wounded body, my world stopped. No further thoughts or guesses were possible.
Because, far, far worse than the doubt, mistrust, confusion, wonder and hope… My wolf screamed Mate.
Bellowed it to the point my breath vanished and tears filled my eyes. Maxim had offered his hand to me but I couldn’t take it. Because as thrilling as the primal, electric, tingling magnificence the bond sparked in my soul was, it arrived, awash with a layer of guilt.
Surely Maxim, if he truly loves the version of me he knew back at Ravenbow, he would be better finding another girl like that.
Because that isn’t me, I’m a shadow. I don’t even know what might have happened to me out there.
What if I’m not fit to be his anymore?
But when I try to give him that option he ignores my idea completely. He can’t see the silent tears racing down my face.
To accept we are mates, to ask him to open his eyes, is to punish him with half a heart, missing pieces and confusion.
“Just…stop being afraid and take what’s yours/Me. Take me.” he insists, before rubbing at his face roughly with his hands.
My pulse is threatening to burst from my chest. Because I want him. I do. It’s selfish and greedy but this man has a hold on me that only feels good.
Some things I cannot explain. How the hell I got here, where I’m from. I doubt I could recognise another soul in the world.
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13.14 Sun, 15 Jun
Chapter 73
But I knew his name. I know he makes me feel safe.
Deep down, I also know that if he were to have accepted my offer to walk away, I would be crushed.
I want to be by his side. To walk this earth together. A lamb alongside a tiger,
Only for my wolf to disagree with force. There is no need to be bashful or quiet around Maxiin. Not my mate.
Farewell shyness. It is Maxim’s turn to gasp, face twisting, searching for me as hitch up my skirt and push his knees together. “Tess… but he lifts his hands in the air, surrendering as I slowly sit myself upon his thighs. Goddess he is solid.
My feet don’t quite touch the ground. My hands are on his bare chest to steady myself before pushing his hair back.
It feels right. It feels like playing with fire too because I have a feeling he won’t like being teased.
“You’ve turned very cruel while we’ve been apart you know,” he grumbles, his eyes still shut. I smile, wiping away the last of my tears.“You know that don’t you? This is utterly savage Tess.”
When I admire his sticking to keeping his eyes closed, a thought breaks. A real, original, reckoning from my own head. /Because he knows we’ve had choices stolen before. Maxim isn’t doing that. We can love him. It’s safe./
Maybe getting close to him what will shake off this brain fog?
“What was our first kiss?” I whisper into his ear. When his hands slowly wrap around my back, keeping me close, a shiver of need races down to my pointing toes.
me a little squeeze, my hands beginning to With a wan smile, happy and heartbroken at the same time he says, “Sat exactly like this actually,” giving wrap around the back of his neck. “But on a moving train. On our way to Ravenbow. It was a bit of a rush, we had a lie to sell.”
“Then can we start the same way again?”
“Don’t start thinking the first time wasn’t marvellous by the way, you made all kinds of lovely little noises,” he sniffs, continuing to squeeze me.
I’m smiling. Giggling. I’m in Maxim’s arms, beaming, my nose against his neck, lips threatening to brush his skin.
I place one chaste kiss on his neck before sitting back.
His hands feel up my body, before cupping my jaw, gently rubbing at my cheek with his thumb.
“Come on Tess, are you in or out? Because I don’t know if you heard me before, but I’m so fucking in love with you it’s crazy. I even looked after a cat for you!”
“Then, open your ey-” but his eyes open and lips are slammed onto mine before I can even finish my sentence. I saw the slightest flash of pure amber brilliance before he seized me, my heart lurching.
Together we both gasp at the strength of our bond snapping into place. He mentioned a bite feeling like lightning. The mate bond feels just as overwhelming. It’s bright, powerful, shockingly wonderful.
There is no fear, only bliss. Bliss I need more of. His kisses are just as urgent as mine. My feet are already off the ground, his hands roughly swooping around my back and dragging me closer. “Mate, Tess. My love.”
Our wolves dance. There is joy in this dark, bewitching night. I allow myself to run my hands through his hair, to feel the shape of his jaw.
Only it doesn’t feel quite what I imagined. The rough stubble is peculiar. His lips feel right, his strong hands around me right too. When I keep stroking at his cheeks, Maxim breaks away for a second. ” had a beard before. It was short and softer. You haven’t ever seen me without it before.”
I don’t answer but I press myself closer, my chest against his, seeking out his firm lips, his tongue just meeting mine. “More,” I whimper into his mouth.
His hand disappears under the fabric of my orange dresses, making me gasp when he gently traces up the length of my calf and thigh. “More.”
13:14 Sun, 15 Jun G GO
Chapter 73
“Tess,” he murmurs, kissing my neck furiously, his other hand cupping my hair, guiding my copper mayhem out of his face. “Tess there is no rush.”
“No, there is. I want to feel like me. And the me before this, she knew how it felt to be loved by you. So show me. Make me feet everything. Then my head might sort itself out.”
“I don’t know…” he murmurs softly.
I grab his hand over my thick orange skirts, shoving him downwards along my inner thigh. Maxim groans before kissing me with fervour, let out a gasp when his fingers gently brush at my panties.
It’s not enough. Steeling myself, I take charge, grinding my pussy against his open hand.
“Tess are you sure, you have to be sure, ah hellfire,” he groans but I’m already rocking, grinding into his palm. Without a word he slides his hand inside my panties and I let out a loud shriek of pleasure when two of his thick fingers slide inside me.
“Did we do this before?”
“Yes,”
“Maxim. My mate. Please,” closing my eyes and rocking my hips until he is stifling his own groans.
“I love you Tess. In every way, in every form-”
But I swallow his protests with a kiss. He’s not the one lost in foggy oblivion. I have to remember. I can’t live in shadows, clutching at stories and half-
memories.
Even so, I’m not prepared for his thick fingers plunging inside me. I’m ecstatically helpless. Scattering his face with furious kisses and clenching around his pumping fingers deep inside me.
He twists and performs devious little tricks inside my tight, desperate pussy. I make noises I am certain I have never made before.
He suddenly goes softer, gently brushing against my clit with his thumb, soflty kissing me, and it all escalates out of control. I seize up, every muscle tensing against a dam of pleasure. I break down upon him. Useless moans escape, unable to stop myself crashing.
Only to immediately feel foolish. I took the phrase mind–blowing too literally. Like jumping onto Maxim would be enough to regain the missing pieces of my mind. I’ve just used my mate in the worst way.
I stop kissing him, freezing up in his lap, looking down at his wounded ribs. He instantly withdraws his hand from my panties. He guides my head to his chest, where I can feel his heart beating like a racehorse and holds me close.
“I know darling. I know what you were hoping for, I’m sorry if it didn’t work,” kissing the side of my head.
“It didn’t work……I should have listened.”
“Just, come here,” he murmurs, as sad tears fall down my face. In the dark he holds me close, gently kissing my shoulder but nowhere else.
“I ruined things didn’t I?” I whisper.
“How? You are Tessa Darnell, my mate. I love you, exactly as you. That includes right now.”
“How?”
“Because you can’t see it, but you’re the same girl. You’re still clever, brave, thoughtful, the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen, even when you’re blushing like an inferno. Now we need to get some rest because tomorrow, we need to work out how we resurrect you from the dead without getting hurled to our real deaths.”
“Is that what happens to liars?”
Maxim lets out a soft sigh. “It is. But we’re a hell of team. My lovely, fierce mate.”
13:14 Sun, 15 JunGGD
Chapter 73
“I’m not fierce.”
“Think back ten minutes ago when you tortured me with my eyes shut. You’re exceptionally fierce”
Snuggling into his chest, trying to avoid his wounded ribs, “Well, you’re something else.”
“You were always rubbish at compliments,” kissing my hair.
AD
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