Chapter Three
My entire body was on fire. And Even fully clothed and not looking at him, just the sound of Axel's sexy-ass, gruff voice had my entire body quaking with need. I felt the spasms in my muscles as my need ramped up to a level I couldn't believe without him even touching me.
Swallowing, I opened my eyes, taking in his gorgeous body, clearly visible through the thin cotton of his tank top. It molded to him and I could even make out the brown disks of his nipples and the crisp brown hairs scattered lightly underneath.
Knowing he wouldn't show me his if I didn't show him mine, I reached above my head, gripping the back of my shirt and pulling it up and off, knowing it would show off my body to the best of my ability.
I might not be stacked like Edmond, but I was about to put on a fucking show like I was.
I heard him growl as the shirt came up, revealing my stomach and the tops of my hipbones where the loose sleep pants dipped low. The dark pubic hair always peeked over the top if I wasn't careful and as I leaned back to get the shirt over my shoulders, I knew the muscles of my stomach were doing their best to show through.
"Fuck, Edmond," he whispered. "You are so incredibly sexy."
I smirked, feeling more confident than I'd ever felt in my life. The way this man looked at me made my body ache.
Pre-cum dampened the front of my sleep pants, where my erection pressed out at an angle. I stuck my thumbs in the band at the top, pushing down just enough to show the base of my dick, looking at his shirt pointedly.
He was frozen in place, maybe even holding his breath as he watched me, so it took him a moment to register what it was I was saying.
Whipping the material up and over his head, he refocused his eyes on my body, letting them roam me from head to toe. While I clicked my tongue, pouting.
"You didn't go slow," I said, giving him a fake frown.
He may not have put on a show, but he was definitely giving me a show. The guy was fucking gorgeous. His skin pale and littered with a light dusting of auburn hair. Not a pelt like one might have expected from someone who dressed like a straight-up mountain man, but enough that I could probably spend hours running my fingers over, tugging gently.
There was just so much about him that made my hands itch to touch. His body was a work of art. Chiseled abs, big, strong arms and large, thick pecs. And if the bulge pointing at his left him was any indication, the man was big everywhere.
Easing my pants down my legs, I kept my eyes on him the whole time, like the way his hands clenched at his sides, making his arms flex. When I met his eyes, I gasped, straightening slowly, the tiger was in his eyes.
With his sense of smell being messed up, I knew his tiger was going to be hard to get on my side, but the strong emotion coming from Axel must have been enough to at least rouse him.
And didn't that just make a guy feel good.
When he started prowling toward me, I threw up a hand, waiting until he stopped to point at his jeans. I wanted to see all of him. I wanted to feel all of him. Taste all of him.
"What about your pants?" I asked, my voice husky with need.
"I'll get to them, baby," he said, grabbing my wrist and jerking me toward him. My ribs protested slightly, but short of the motherfuckers popping through the skin on my side, I wasn't going to stop what was happening because of a little pain.
"But right now," he continued on a growl. "I need the barrier."
Shit! That was so damn sexy.
He grabbed my sides, and I could tell by the way he bent slightly, that he was about to pick me up and toss me and I braced for the pain, trying to keep the grimace off of my face, but realization came into his eyes, and he froze, eyes wide.
"Fuck, baby. I'm so sorry," he whispered, straightening and running the backs of his fingers over my side. "I forgot about your ribs. Did I hurt you?"
"No," I said, raising my eyebrows and giving him a serious look. "But I just might hurt you if you don't do something about this." I pointed at my dick, and we both looked down to watch it flex with need as a thick drop of pre-cum slid down the head. "Tell me what I need to do, Axel. I'm ready to prove to your tiger who I belong to, so we can start our lives together."
"He's coming around," Axel said, smiling. "Now, go over there and put your hands on that wall."
He pointed to the wall just next to the window, and I glanced over before looking back into his eyes. I had no idea what he had planned, but the heat in my eyes told me I was going to fucking love it.
Doing as he said, I strutted to the wall, making sure to add a wiggle to my hips, knowing he'd be watching my ass the whole time. When I looked over my shoulder, I was proved right and was gifted with the sight of him reaching down to press his palm against the thick bulge in his pants.
I groaned, as my dick gave an appreciative pulse and more pre-cum drooled from the top.
He'd literally barely touched me, and I felt like I was balancing on the edge of coming for months.
I felt him come up behind me, the heat of him warming the already overheated skin of my back, making me whimper. When he placed his hands gently on my sides and slowly skimmed them down my body, I shuddered, biting my lip.
"Look at the shape of you," he whispered, gripping my ass cheeks and squeezing. He leaned forward, licking across the mark just to the right of my left shoulder blade and I keened, pressing my ass out in offering to him as my head hung between my arms where they were braced against the wall.
I saw his knees hit the floor just before he grabbed my hips, tipping them backward. "Beautiful." His deep voice vibrated along my skin, going straight to my balls as him warm breath caused goosebumps to break out across the sensitive skin of my ass.
When he gripped my ass again, he pushed my cheeks apart, revealing my hole and he growled, leaning forward to press his nose in the small cleft at the top of my crack as he tipped his head slightly, using his teeth to nip at the skin of my ass cheek.
"I can already tell you are going to taste amazing, Edmond. Once I get a taste, I'm never going to be able to stop."
"Who asked you to?" I demanded, needing to get my hand on my dick, but knowing he wouldn't allow it.
That thought was confirmed when he gently bit my other cheek, licking over the sting and saying, "Do not take your hands off of that wall, do you understand me, Edmond?"
"Then you better fucking do something fast before I die of arousal," I growled, trying to glare at him under my arm.
Damn. I was kinda mean when I was sexually frustrated.
He chuckled, swiping his tongue from just below my balls and up the center of my crack, making me cry out as my dick jerked. "I don't think you can die of arousal."
I panted, whining at the way my body thrummed with need. I was about to implode, and he wanted to joke about cause of death? "Do you really want to find out?" I growled, pressing my ass back against his face.
I was rewarded with another swipe before he groaned, grabbing my hips and pressing his face between my cheeks, sucking lightly at my hole.
I whimpered and cried out as he pressed hit tongue against my hole and then inside. My spine tingled, and my balls pulled tight.
"Axel, please." My voice was whiny and needy, and I didn't even recognize it. "I'm so close. Oh, fuck."
His mouth left my ass, and there was a disorienting moment as he spun me, pressing me back against the wall and sliding forward to stick his nose right at the base of my dick, breathing my scent in.
I watched in avid fascination as he reached up, circling my cock with his thick hand. I couldn't control my hips when they snapped forward, feeding my dick through the light grip, whining when it wasn't quite enough.
He drew it down, pointing the shiny tip toward his mouth, pausing like he was savoring the moment. He flicked his tongue along the slit, and we both groaned as he lapped the pre-cum up.
His head fell back, and his eyes closed, a tear rolling out of the corner of his eye. Reaching forward, I cupped his face, running my thumb over the wetness, not sure what was happening.
When he finally opened his eyes, I saw it. The recognition. His tiger knew me.
Growling, he opened his mouth and consumed my cock, taking me in completely, and my knees buckled. He gripped my hips to hold me up, bobbing on my dick, humming his approval when I gripped his head, guiding him.
"Axel," I screamed, my body going rigid as my orgasm hit me and I unloaded inside his mouth.
He gargled around my dick and at first, I thought I pushed too hard, but then I saw the shudders wracking his body as he continued to swallow my load.
He pulled off my dick when I couldn't take the sensation any more, pressing my palm against his forehead. He chuckled, letting his head fall to my hip as I continued to use his shoulders to hold myself up.
We panted, both sounding like we smoke a pack a day and just climbed sixty flights of stairs. I even gave a small cough-laugh-whatever and let my head bounce off the wall behind me.
"Taste. Thank God, I still have my taste," he mumbled against my skin.
"Not in clothes as far as Moore is concerned," I said, half stupid.
Chuckling, he used my hips to press himself backward, so he could look up at me. His face was awed and reverent and I my heart swelled happily.
Sighing happily, he rose from the floor looking down at the front of his pants and cringing. "I don't have any clothes in here."
"You don't need clothes in here," I said, smirking.
He unbuttoned his pants and eased the zipper down, and I bit my lip anticipating what my mate was going to look like completely naked. He wasn't wearing underwear, and as he pulled back the flaps of his jeans, first his pubic hair and then the side of his dick was revealed.
I licked my lips as he eased the material down, his semi-erect cock springing free, covered in cum. When he kicked the material aside, standing in front of me in all his delicious glory, I felt my body start to respond again, and I blinked in surprise.
"We are going to have so much sex," I whispered, watching his thick legs as he strode across the floor. His ass flexed beautifully as he walked through the doorway to the bathroom, laughing softly.
"Definitely."
***
As it turned out, lounging around in bed naked with Axel was both arousing as hell and completely comforting. His warm, big body fit against mine perfectly, making me feel safe and content like I'd never felt with another man.
He leaned forward, pressing his nose to my hair and took a deep breath, giving a satisfied sounding rumble that made me smile. I knew tigers didn't purr, but that sound, though short, was pretty freaking close.
"How did it happen?" I asked after a moment, hoping he wasn't too sensitive about it. I didn't want to make the man feel uncomfortable or like his deficiency made him less of a man. He was definitely all man. "Were you born with no sense of smell?"
"No," he said simply, his voice clear and without the bitterness one might expect. "About twenty years ago, I was shot in the head by a deer hunter."
My body jolted, and I gasped, raising up to my elbow and looking down at him in shock. "What?!"
He'd been shot? In the fucking head? Digging my fingers into his hair, I tried to feel for a mark, my eyes prickling. All I felt was smooth, perfect scalp beneath his silky hair, but a tear slipped out of the corner of my eye.
"Shh, baby." Axel said, calmingly, gathering me into his arms. "It's okay. It was twenty years ago."
"But––" My throat tightened, and I had to swallow a couple times to be able to speak. "I almost lost you before I found you."
His smile was soft as he looked up at me. "It's strange," he whispered, using his index finger to swipe my tear away. "I didn't expect a human to get so attached so quick."
My stomach dropped, and I pushed up into a sitting position, near panic. Had I fallen too soon? Was my weird, needy behavior too much for him? I just found my mate. I couldn't start scaring him away already.
His eyes widened, and he sat up too, reaching out to grab my arm. "No!" He gently, but firmly pulled me closer, pushing my head to his chest and lightly rubbing my back with the tips of his fingers. "It's a good thing. I'm really, really happy," he said softly, making me relax slightly, leaning into him. "I just would never have expected it. With shifters it's easy. We know there is a chance we will find our mate from practically birth. But humans usually try to fight anything that takes blind faith."
He pulled looked down and I lifted my head, so I could see his face. His dark eyes bore into mine, letting me see the truth in his words. "You've been through a shitty relationship with what's-his-dick, and you still have faith enough in this to just right jump in. It's beautiful, Edmond. Everything about you is just beautiful."
I wanted him to claim me. Right then. I wanted to be mated to Axel Oakes for the rest of forever starting right then.
I opened my mouth to tell him, but his phone rang, making him groan as he dropped his head on top of mine. "I really don't want to answer that."
I pressed my lips against his chest and smiled into the hard pec. He was kinda adorable when he was whining. "Who is it?"
He sighed, lifting his head and glancing over at the nightstand where his phone was. It was lying on its face, so he couldn't see the actual caller ID. "Most likely my alpha calling to see if I managed to talk Flynn into letting me have a runway show full of chosen for my streak."
I smiled. I knew Axel was against it and in a way, I completely saw his point, but I also saw it as an opportunity for other people to possibly be as happy as I was. "He's dead set on having a chosen as part of his streak, huh?"
Axel cringed, looking at me guiltily. He clearly felt sorry on his alpha's behalf. "Yeah. And I'm sure some of the chosen wouldn't mind especially if we had like a little party or something, but it doesn't change the fact that we'd be treating them like cattle."
Smiling softly, I shook my head. "Not really. They have the choice," I said, reminding him. Needing him to know he wasn't responsible for everything. "In the end, their decision would be the rule. What if they're someone from your streak's mate? They deserve the chance to find happiness."
"Yeah," he said slowly, blinking. "I guess they do."
"Are the members of your streak good people?"
"Mostly. We have a few assholes, but I guess that would be where I'd have to pick which members actually got to come here," he turned his fierce eyes on me, determination in his eyes. "Alpha Vance can take it or leave it. I'm not putting chosen in danger. Not even for him."
"And don't forget," I said, straightening up to run my cheek against his soft beard. "You're already bringing one chosen home."
"Shit!" A laugh bubbled out of his chest. "I am! You're mine, and I'm taking you home with me." Reaching up, he caressed the mark on my back, shaking his head. "I never even though about the fact that you’re chosen. Well, I did. But not like that. I was too busy being happy I found my mate."
"Are you going to call him back?" I glanced at the phone pointedly.
He made the cutest disgruntled face, curling his lip. "I guess."
But he didn’t' make a move toward the phone, and I wondered if it had to do with me. "Do you need me to leave?"
His body jerked, and he cupped my face in his hand, dark eyes serious when he looked down at me. "You're my mate, Edmond. You take a back seat to no one."